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April 14, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 14 April 2025

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General Debate

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Cassandra

Ian Duncan Smith is a former leader of the UK Conservative Party. He states “This is a critical moment for our nation. We need to get energy costs down. We need to stop importing cheap Chinese steel. And we need to move away from our fixation with net zero. Only then can we restore ourselves to the strength necessary to confront this new and dangerous world.”

British energy costs are among the highest in the world. Its main steel plant is owned by China and the UK Government has effectively renationalised it. IDS makes sense and what he says applies to much of the world, particularly NZ because we are very vulnerable to any disruption in our supply chain.

NZ needs spare capacity and adequate reserves; we have neither at present. She’ll be right is not going to work. We’ll never recover from the Captain’s Call although perhaps Labour might concede that it was a terrible error and agree to a bipartisan policy? Given that they’re competing with the Greens for the lunatic vote probably not. Put it to a referendum? Costs will be a factor of course. As energy prices increase voters will come to see the stupidity of Ardern’s action, a terrible error based on emotion and totally lacking intellectual rigour. But any corrective action is years away, if at all. For now, NZ must look at other options. The end of Paris will be a start. Plus the defence plan and we’ll be turning the corner.
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April 14, 2025 8:00am
- RoboRob
  
  I think National are simply waiting to the Paris accord to fail.
  
  The closer we get, the more the reality will bite and the remaining big players like England, Germany and France will start to pull out. At that point, since USA and China are already out, the Paris accord will be dead. NZ will be able to walk away saying we supported it and did our bit. It’s probably the sensible move.
  
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  April 14, 2025 8:58am
  - Ghost
    
    Climate change is part of the trade deal Ardern signed us up to with the EU. So to pull out of it isn’t that easy
    
    https://www.berl.co.nz/economic-insights/climate-and-gender-equality-pledges-binding-eu-fta
    
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    April 14, 2025 10:50am
    - Philview
      
      Yes, I recall Australia pulling out of signing a Trade Deal with the EU for the reason it compromised their sovereignty on such matters.
      
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      April 14, 2025 11:10am
    - RoboRob
      
      ‘Both parties must support trade and climate policies, remove obstacles to trade and investment associated with climate change mitigation and adaptation, and promote emissions trading.’
      
      When EU member states pulls out of the Paris accord they will be in breach of the agreement and it will likely need to be updated. If we pull out now, as some suggest, we would be the ones breaking the agreement and the EU would take advantage of that.
      
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      April 14, 2025 11:54am
    - rangitoto
      
      Null and void if Europe pulls out
      
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      April 14, 2025 11:54am
  - wsk12345
    
    Except for the uncertainly it creates in the meantime!
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:11am
  - PurplePen
    
    Yes. I think what you say is correctly National’s tactic, well it makes sense. It enables them to keep the climate change concerned voters they have and in the end not have to bother with Paris when it’s fallen over.
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:21am
    - Burtland
      
      the climate nutters will continue with the paris flagellation even when null and void
      – the ETS wont be abandoned, its already expanded to shipping and soon jet fuel
      
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      April 14, 2025 12:58pm
  - gravedodger
    
    Any one leader or nation that continues to believe that the Paris accords are alive needs to seek mental health assistance. An international binding compliance that excludes Mainland China and India along with the US withdrawal is in la la land.
    A binding agreement that excludes almost half the world population is just nuts.
    Might as well pee into a norwester on Porters pass?
    Then again isn’t that the reason and logic behind thinking the world temperatures and weather can be influenced by what the ants do around their anthill?
    
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    April 14, 2025 12:29pm
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Except the IMO has just signed up to decarbonise shipping! The lunatics are hard at it! They will destroy civilisation to ” save the planet”
      
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      April 14, 2025 12:46pm
  - Interested Party
    
    Agree – that’s why I don’t get too excited about impatient calls to dump net zero immediately
    
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    April 14, 2025 1:06pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    RoboRob: “I think National are simply waiting to the Paris accord to fail.”
    
    If they are doing that then they know the whole thing is a hiding to nowhere. And if they know that they should just say it and act accordingly instead of wasting further precious resources on this colossal farce.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:38pm
- kowtow
  
  Expensive energy destroys industry .
  
  Politicians have committed to destroying productivity , jobs and literally societal stabilty.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:05am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    But for the hardcore nuts it’s the golden trojan horse to get to ecological and social nirvana.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:40pm
- Stu2
  
  Talking capacity, our sea imports and exports are all in someone elses ships. Ditto oil. I’m not advocating a NZ line, just something to be aware of.
  
  Some of the container traffic is triangular with Oz (NZ-OZ-Europe-NZ …) or (NZ-OZ-USA-NZ …) which improves certainty of service
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:25am
- Bloody Dago
  
  “It” is a Marxist hater and wrecker and by God’s grace, never to set foot in this country again. “It” caused so much damage to our families, our friends, our work partners and their families etc. I’m sure it’s the equivalent damage in comparison to WW1 and WW2 deaths and injury by the vax and all its related ailments yet to come from the turbo illness’s that are besetting the over 40’s in this country. The buck stops with “it”, period. The judiciary in this country should grow some brass ones and allow the passage of a bill or commission of inquiry to bring all the perpetrators to court.
  
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  April 14, 2025 4:12pm
cmm

The honest thing to do would be for Labour to re-brand itself as the Benefit Party. They have not operated for the benefit of workers for at least 25 years.

With the rate we’re losing productive people in NZ, maybe those that are left just don’t care about restoring productivity in NZ.
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April 14, 2025 8:08am
- JackRabbit
  
  The honest thing to do would be for Labour to re-brand itself as the ~~Benefit~~ Communist Party.
  
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  April 14, 2025 8:37am
  - Cassandra
    
    Nah, they’re far from communist. The WishyWashy Party would be more accurate.
    
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    April 14, 2025 8:54am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Disagree. If they were only wishywashy, on the balance of probabilities they would get some things right some of the time. They would support freedom of speech some of the time, private enterprise some of the time.
      
      I cannot find one thing Labour did that was positive.
      
      Ardern was a quintessential master of the Labour/Left wing art: “Appearing to be wishywashy and incompetent, while purposefully stealing the family silver.”
      
      Part of being wishywashy is being risk averse, and procrastinating.
      
      If Labour was incompetent it would have taken 4 years to approved the toxic vaccines, and would not have banned Ivermectin, or given Marsden point concrete socks and shut down the oil and gas industry. The fact that these and other things happen quickly, decisively, and with precision, means they had a specific “non-wishywashy” agenda.
      
      The “stealing of the family silver” is borne out by he $100Billion of borrowed / printed money that evaporated, and a further $100Billion in future debt racked up.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:06am
      - Don Beckett
        
        ” The fact that these and other things happen quickly, decisively, and with precision, means they had a specific “non-wishywashy” agenda.”
        
        Correct – and the proper way to reverse the effects of those decisions is to act quickly, decisively & with precision with opposite measures. But with Luxon in charge it is a slow, careful and hesitant approach, appeasing the naysayers & backing off the tough decisions. He is the polar opposite of Trump, and the country will continue to be the poorer for it.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:03am
      - imalwaysright
        
        The $100 billion was to pay for the fuel to start the fire that’s still burning in what’s left of the country.
        If we ever recover the true cost may nudge a trillion dollars.
        That’s not incompetence, that is deliberate.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:03am
      - Quail
        
        Not only the family silver , the resultant inflation has destroyed the value of all peoples savings , including the Government driven KiwiSaver,
        And no ,those savings and their value will never ever return no matter who is the Government.
        
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        April 14, 2025 4:18pm
    - Jethrod
      
      The way some talk on here, I would have thought that name was already taken.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:14am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Agreed, “communist” is wide of the mark. They’re one of the three parties in our parliament whose core ideology is “straight white man bad”.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:16am
      - JackRabbit
        
        Disagree. The common core premise, conscious, unconscious, or subconscious, behind communism, socialism, fascism or marxism, is THEFT, brought about by tyranny and control. Theft of money, land, developed land, assets, control….
        
        The apparent differences in labels / profiles is the amount of self justification and/or marketing. e.g. socialism is marketed on the idea of equality. Some people are drawn into it (marketing) by believing they won’t have to work as hard because whitey/rich/fat cats/[insert here] will give up there share of the loot.
        
        And I have yet to see a socialist leader / govt that does not want a bigger piece of the pie while dishing out ‘equity’ for everyone else.
        
        “straight white man bad” is not about “white man bad”, it is about what “white man” has that they can steal.
        
        TPM, Willie Jackson, being prime examples. Jackson wants white man to “pay” for the past, but Jackson does not want Maori to pay the Morori for what the Maori did to the Moriori in the past.
        
        Let us not enshrine radical Maori hate of Whitey in fancy labels or stories of inequality or co-governance. It’s all about theft.
        
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        April 14, 2025 1:53pm
    - pdm
      
      Twenty years ago there were suggestions Labour were the nasty party.
      
      Has that changed in any way?
      
      I don’t think so.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:26am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I thought 20 or so years ago NZ had the “nasty Nats”.
        
        Labour were sort of seen as the more kind party.
        
        Things are completely different now of course. Labour went nuts and National went woke.
        
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        April 14, 2025 9:43pm
  - cmm
    
    There are two sides to Communism:
    “From each according to his means, to each according to his needs”
    
    The implication of the first part is that people are expected to work and provide value to society. It isn’t just an implication on rich pricks. It is an implication on everyone.
    
    Labour (the party) focuses on the hand outs part because that is what gets them the votes.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:20am
    - gravedodger
      
      National do not roll them back to impede the supply chain either?
      
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      April 14, 2025 12:33pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      A rose is a rose by any other name.
      
      “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs” is just a marketing slogan designed to lure in the lazy and gullible.
      
      It would be more honest and accurate to call it “theft by tyranny”.
      
      “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” neither works, nor is it en-forcible with resorting to violence and tyranny.
      
      Those at the top of tyranny, always need to appropriate works of art, gold, silver, food, drink, lavish surroundings, houses, etc etc. And it does not matter so much what the tyranny is called. The outcomes are always the same. Theft.
      
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      April 14, 2025 2:11pm
  - Taieri
    
    Labour to re-brand itself as the Benefit Communist Party
    ————
    
    You have no idea what a communist party is. Even the Greens in all their lunacy are nowhere close to the monsters like the CPSU, the CPR and others of their ilk.
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:00am
    - Sacha
      
      – which is not to excuse the Greens in any way!
      
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      April 14, 2025 11:44am
    - JackRabbit
      
      The core premise un-acknowledged or otherwise is theft by tyranny.
      
      The Labour party and Greens are much closer than you think. Overseas, critical political analysts saw Labour / Ardern as communists. Sometimes it pays to see your own country from the outside.
      
      The Greens and Labour are literally following a “paint by numbers” plan to overthrow democracy and replace it with tyranny.
      
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      April 14, 2025 2:04pm
  - Mod88
    
    That’s the Green Party, they have not one environmentalist sitting in Parliament and the last two were sacked on the advent of Comrade Chloe to head of the Politburo.
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:36am
- Bobba Fret
  
  But the Benefit Party name should already be taken by the Greens.
  
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  April 14, 2025 1:37pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    No, no, no – the Green Party is the Party of Thieves, Exploiters and Bullies
    
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    April 14, 2025 5:32pm
cmm

The media slimeballs wonder why trust continues to drop. Even big names like the WSJ are not a shadow of what they once were.

“Tesla Supplier STMicroelectronics to Shed Nearly 3,000 Jobs Amid Sluggish Chip Sales”

So yes, STMicro do supply chips to Tesla. I would be very surprised if they did not. Just about everyone uses their stuff. Heck, ST are even a “cmm supplier”.

Each Tesla maybe has around $100 of ST components in it. I would doubt it is much more than that. However some washing machines probably have $10 to $15 of their components so Tesla is far from being the major user of their products.

So why put Tesla in the title? Pure clickbait.

https://www.wsj.com/business/tesla-supplier-stmicroelectronics-backs-ceo-after-italy-criticizes-management-amid-board-feud-15506ed3
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April 14, 2025 8:19am
- JackRabbit
  
  200,000 customers including Apple, Bosch, Continental, Delta Electronics, HP, Huawei, Intel-Mobileye, Samsung, Seagate and Tesla.
  
  Several of those companies would use far far more than Tesla. HP, Apple, Samsung, for starters.
  
  And it lists Tariffs as one of its major threats along with competition.
  
  The institution of trade tariffs globally, as well as the threat thereof, could negatively impact economic conditions, which could have negative repercussions for the business. In particular, trade protection and national security policies of the U.S. and Chinese governments, including tariffs, trade restrictions, export restrictions and the placing of companies on restricted entity lists, have and may continue to limit or prevent the company from transacting business with certain of its Chinese customers or suppliers; limit, prevent or discourage certain of its Chinese customers or suppliers from transacting business with it; or make it more expensive to do so.
  
  https://tinyurl.com/5dy6mxc4 (PDF)
  
  In a global interdependence economy, tariffs have unintended consequences for everyone, not just the target country.
  
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  April 14, 2025 8:47am
- RoboRob
  
  It’s not just clickbait. It’s a subtile attack on Elon via Tesla. The implication is that Tesla sales are down, which I believe may be true but isn’t related to the core of the article as you mention
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:01am
- NothingLeft
  
  STM have around 50k employees, so this is about 6% of staff. Clearly no biggy, quite likely in large part a result of productivity gains and just wanting to eject dead wood.
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:46am
NeverMindTheBollocks

First day of the school holidays. Traffic is incredibly light. Illustrates how many of the little darlings are driven to school.
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April 14, 2025 8:23am
- Blog-aholic
  
  They are either driven to or they drive themselves, either way traffic more than doubles.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:21am
- John Loveridge
  
  Any time it rains here I need to leave about 15 minutes earlier than usual to get to work on time. The cause? Yes, little Tarquin being dropped at school by Mummy in a enormous, warm, dry SUV. Of course the very next day Tarquin goes on strike for climate change and waves a banner and condemns the private motor vehicle.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:35am
  - kowtow
    
    It’s not so much Tarquin strinking as his sistah , Tamabathaqua .
    
    The same white middle class wimmin who go on to support left wing pahties across the west , be it Canada , here , Oz as a block .
    
    Meanwhile , Tarquin is being stigmatised for watching toxic masculine podcasts and admiring sensible politicians like Trump ………
    
    You see, he’s the random murderer next door . Netflix says so.
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:19am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “You see, he’s the random murderer next door . Netflix says so.”
      
      Yes Triggernometry has quite a good interview about that movie. The UK is in very bad shape.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:46pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Thank god half of them are still in bed then on a school day.
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:30am
  - Inandout
    
    G, and probably starving from lack of free school lunches.
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:48am
- Jimbo666
  
  What about the school lunches? Will they go to waste?
  
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  April 14, 2025 12:17pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Labour would say give them to the so called needy
    
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    April 14, 2025 12:33pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    What will the teachers eat? Will nobody think of the teachers ??
    
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    April 14, 2025 5:34pm
Yvette

Aborted conversations
In considering a Capital Gains Tax, Ardern’s nation-wide “conversation” kind of lapsed into a void then filled by media mis- and dis-information, because she never stated a government position for the conversation, while with the UNDRIP / He Puapua debacle, Willie Jackson didn’t report back his filtered Maori Elite position even for his Cabinet colleagues perusal – but shelved his draft copy until they could pick it up with an Election victory, but that never happened because voters wanted change, and the Treaty Principles Bill. And Luxon has ad nauseam parroted his position on that, but not really explained why he holds it, which again aborts any sane conversation.

Māori-Crown Relations Minister Tama Potaka called Thursday “cremation day and nehu [burial] day,” but was he a little premature in telling reporters, “It’s dead, it’s gone and today it will be buried” – a bill in the name of his own Government, and his Leader: Christopher Luxon?

May be next time there will be a “conversation” that will actually be a dialogue.
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April 14, 2025 8:41am
- pdm
  
  Yvette I am beginning to think that Tama Potaka may be a more subtle version of Willie Jackson.
  
  The comments you refer to were most unbecoming of a Cabinet Minister.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:00am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    “may be” you say?
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:18am
    - pdm
      
      I was being tactful.
      
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      April 14, 2025 11:23am
  - igm
    
    Was Potaka not hand picked by Luxon in favour of a more popular local contender who had already held the seat, but was not maori.
    
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    April 14, 2025 10:15am
    - Ghost
      
      No. The local national party members had three candidates to select from, Rachel Afeaki-Taumoepeau, Frances Hughes and Tama Potaka.
      
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      April 14, 2025 10:40am
  - Quail
    
    Dead , buried spiked!!
    It will take much more than that to defeat the just democratic concepts of the ACT bill.
    One country one people and one law for all is our human right.
    Reform will happen!
    
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    April 14, 2025 10:22am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      I just hope the sheeple don’t sleep walk into quietly accepting tribal takeover. They can vote ACT/NZF to unf*ck NZ. But will they?
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:49pm
  - Mod88
    
    Of course he is, the Pan-Maori movement transcends political parties.
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:38am
- G152
  
  Come an extremely close election and the much despised bill may well be the decider of who is in power
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:11am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Aborted conversations…..Arderns discussion with all New Zealanders regarding He Pua Pua…..poof, gone like she was but also like she the stink still lingers.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:23am
  - Yvette
    
    He Puapua
    All of Willie Jackson’s work up until Labour decided an up-coming Election was to take pre-eminance, was done under the authority and funding of the Government, and I did think that the shelved report, although draft, would have been prepared for public release by now, since it is a Government document recording Maori Elite aspirations, many of which could be outside the Treaty boundaries [1], and would probably have informed the recent “conversation” on Treaty governance and several other aspects which were deceitful to not disclose.
    
    ___________
    [1] 20 April 2010 National Govt to support UN rights declaration
    John Key, Prime Minister
    The decision to support the declaration was conveyed in a speech today by the Minister of Maori Affairs, Dr Pita Sharples, to the United Nations in New York.
    • reaffirms the legal and constitutional frameworks that underpin New Zealand’s legal system, noting that those existing frameworks define the bounds of New Zealand’s engagement with the declaration.
    
    ☂︎ Maori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples has flown secretly to New York for a speech to the United Nations signing New Zealand up to a declaration on indigenous rights.
    
    Why secretly?
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:29am
- R
  
  Yvette, such a Bill will be to educate the Judges about the meaning of the three clauses that comprise the Treaty document
  
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  April 14, 2025 1:19pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

For sale: Toyota Prius, 3 years old, one careful owner, 450,000 km. Good runner.

Uber have axed the green tick denoting climate friendly for hybrids. Since 95% of Uber kms in NZ are via hybrids, expect a long wait for your next net zero ride.

I confidently predict a rapid walk back by Uber, most likely with the introduction of a pale green tick, or similar. Uber will spin it as “listening to our customers”, but blind Freddy can see that this is another New Coke in the making.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/558095/why-the-uber-green-option-might-not-be-working-in-your-app-today
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April 14, 2025 8:42am
- cmm
  
  I doubt most people riding Uber care about the colour of the tick. They just want to get from A to B.
  
  It is far more likely that this is an internal “Bud Lite” thing.
  
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  April 14, 2025 8:48am
- pdm
  
  Am I unique?
  
  I have never ridden in an Uber.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:05am
  - cmm
    
    You and me both.
    I do on occasion take a normal taxi.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:06am
    - Taieri
      
      After a taxi failed to turn up and I missed a couple of flights, it’s a bus or a shuttle for me, if I can’t use the car. Anyway, taxis are far too expensive these days; last time I used one it was $26.50 one way and $29 back, all for a 5 km trip.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:12am
    - Jethrod
      
      Always take the big White ones when I’m in a city that has them.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:17am
    - pdm
      
      Ditto.
      
      Albeit not very often but I expect that will increase as age takes control.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:28am
      - john1234
        
        Use them all the time when either out of town or out on the town.
        
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        April 14, 2025 10:28am
    - RoboRob
      
      Do you live somewhere that there isn’t Uber? If not, why would you take a Taxi when you could take an Uber? Uber is much cheaper, easy to use and pretty much exactly the same (unless you chose ride sharing).
      
      I use Uber occasionally, usually after a few drinks, haven’t used a NZ Taxi in years.
      
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      April 14, 2025 10:08am
      - pdm
        
        Hastings – family members use them occasionally and grandson who lives with us utilises Uber eats – more than he should given his family nickname of jellyroll.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:26am
      - greybeard
        
        Do you need a smartphone to be able to use Uber ?
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:26am
      - PurplePen
        
        I’ll use an Uber from the airport but not from home to the airport. There’s no guarantee that the Uber will arrive in time to pick you up from home.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:28am
      - RoboRob
        
        @greybeard
        
        Yes, AFAIK.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:55am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        And less bent than taxi drivers who twicenon wellington ” forgot” to turn their meters on. Uber all the way!
        
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        April 14, 2025 12:59pm
  - MCōs
    
    I got an uber from Auckland airport the other day to Mangere Bridge. About a 15min ride
    Because it was such a short distance the taxis weren’t interested. Apart from that it would have been double the cost.
    The shuttle was expensive too.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:45am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Same
    
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    April 14, 2025 10:36am
  - Interested Party
    
    Yes you are unique, especially if you live in a bigger city. They are cheaper, more available, you book it from your phone, you know exactly when they are turning up (handy if finishing that last beer ), no need to pay on arrival
    
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    April 14, 2025 1:14pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  A Prius is very lean on fuel (about 5L per 100km on the older models and I believe about 3.8L per 100km on the Gen3 and later models). They also have quite a lot of room for such a fuel efficient car. For Uber ants that means better cash flow.
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:01pm
Ipanema69

The significant other was watching the Polkinghorne “documentary” last night.

To me it seemed more of an advertorial for madison ashton and her “enhancements”. It did not seem to offer anything that is not already in the public domain.
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April 14, 2025 8:46am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Did the taxpayer fund it too?
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:24am
- Bridgenag
  
  Wonder whether he paid the Sister in Law to shaft her sister….
  
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  April 14, 2025 12:41pm
- grumpy
  
  Looks like Polkinghorne was in the wrong business. Botox seems all the rage in Auckland snd Sydney. I don’t think anyone would put their name to the work on the hooker but even Julia H-M seems to have had a but if work done.
  
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  April 14, 2025 4:13pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 8.48am, null bikes today.

A cool, calm, dry morning in the Capital, ideal for cycling.

School holidays, eh. But the bank still needs to be repaid.
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April 14, 2025 8:48am
Yvette

Does the Government just govern by way of Customary Right

It seems we’ve have three consecutive Prime Ministers – Ardern, Hipkins, and Luxon – who, in turn, either couldn’t even roughly recall (Ardern) what the Treaty of Waitangi actually says, or contradicted each other (and sometimes themselves) over whether Māori actually ceded sovereignty (Hipkins and Luxon) a factor somewhat rather crucial to any “conversation” about the Treaty and Government legality.

So, it is clear that even at the highest levels of government, there is confusion over the meaning and authority of the Treaty. This raises a fundamental question: Does the New Zealand Government govern by clear mandate, or are we relying on conflicting interpretations of a historical document tied to a past (185 years ago) that no longer exists, or (again dependent on ‘history’) does the Government just govern by way of Customary Right?

And among the most interesting commentary arising from the debate was former Labour Cabinet Minister and ACT Leader, Richard Prebble, in response to Salmond’s claim that “anyone who does not speak te reo who opines on the Treaty of Waitangi should be regarded as a ‘lunatic or fool’ …
(And, lest we forget, Governor William Hobson signed Te Tiriti on behalf of the Crown despite it being written in a language he could neither read nor speak – Graham Adams).
And indeed a Treaty in English and Te Tiriti o Waitangi written in Maori as translated by the English.

But Richard Prebble wrote: “Anne Salmond is not a lawyer. I am. If the Waitangi Tribunal is right and the chiefs and the governor misunderstood each other so there are two completely different treaties, then there was no agreement at Waitangi. There is a legal principle of ‘misunderstanding’. If two parties completely misunderstand each other, then there is no ‘meeting of the minds’ (consensus ad idem), which is essential for a valid contract.
This concept applies in treaties. The principle is found in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties 1969, “‘Article 48 – Error: A treaty may be invalidated if a party entered into it based on an essential mistake concerning a fact or situation …’ Either the chiefs and the governor reached an agreement, and we have one Treaty, or there was no consensus ad idem and there is no Treaty.”

That is the document which is the foundation of the nation.
David Seymour, with a populace backing that is beyond Salmond’s insistence that it only those who voted for ACT, tried to update its understanding.

But – They’ve decided to hold their own, independent hearing, with co-leader Rawiri Waititi deeming the committee “a silly little committee” with “silly little rules”.
The committee is giving the MPs “one final chance” to turn up later this month, with the potential consequences “very serious”, Collins said this week.

Maybe the Treaty still needs updating, but now a new bill restating the ACT Three Principles without mentioning the Treaty – just that te Pati Maori present behaviour and its organised membership drive Hikoi and divisive appeal that more voters switch to the Maori Roll, occasions a new bill.
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April 14, 2025 8:55am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Give evidence that Luxon does not know what the treaty says? he has been asked about the parts of the treaty on tv in a gotcha attempt which made Ardern look the loser she was, I have seen Luxon on TV be able to say what the points of the treaty are, and actually do a more in depth analysis, I know there is Luxon/Nat haters on here, but at least try to be a bit level headed about the hatred
  
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  April 14, 2025 12:37pm
  - pdm
    
    G – he especially likes the so called Treaty is a partnership mantra these days.
    
    Which contradicts his stance that Maori did cede sovereignty.
    
    Those are contradictions. He cannot have it both ways but, unfortunately that is the man Luxon has turned out to be.
    
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    April 14, 2025 1:00pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      G unfortunately is showing the end result of being like the Woozle bird – you know, the one that flies around in ever diminishing circle – anyone who criticizes what Luxon does or does not do is a “Luxon Hater”.
      Sounds a bit like the Greens. “Hater !!”.
      
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      April 14, 2025 4:51pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        All I ever hear on here is hatred from Act supporters, I can’t help that fact
        
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        April 14, 2025 10:26pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      2 races coming together as one is a partnership
      
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      April 14, 2025 10:25pm
  - Yvette
    
    I am sorry, G the Giant, for any misunderstanding, but I thought naming Prime Ministers in order “– Ardern, Hipkins, and Luxon – ” then saying “who, in turn”, indicated further that not all were the same, then writing “either couldn’t even roughly recall (Ardern)” with her in brackets showed the first remark to related to her, and the other comments referred to the others.
    
    I acknowledge your criticism, and hereby would correct it for you and any others – Ardern couldn’t say what was in the First Article, Hipkins contradicted himself apparently but said Maori did not cede sovereignty, while Christopher Luxon said “our position is the Crown is sovereign” and “But as I said to you [Green Co-Leader Chloe Swarbrick], the position is very clear, the Crown, Māori ceded sovereignty to the Crown.”
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/525689/the-crown-is-sovereign-prime-minister-christopher-luxon-says
    
    – I didn’t say of the latter two who appeared correct, as it seems no one can (or they would be prominently hailed for proof of that), so I feel I do not fall among those who may need to “actually do a more in depth analysis” nor among “Luxon/Nat haters on here,” who should “at least try to be a bit level headed about the hatred”
    Thank you
    
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    April 14, 2025 1:23pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Explicit Maths teaching is having good results in low
decile Australian schools.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-14/maths-results-teacher-training-grattan-report/105159460

https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/unproven-teaching-methods-have-failed-primary-students-and-teachers-20250403-p5lote.html

https://grattan.edu.au/report/maths-guarantee/
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April 14, 2025 8:58am
- cmm
  
  It seems to be that one of the major hurdles to maths in primary school is that teachers do not like maths and do not feel confident teaching it.
  
  Maths is one of the “three Rs”. It is a fundamental part of teaching. If you don’t like it or can’t hack it then don’t become a teacher.
  
  It is as stupid as becoming a nurse if you can’t handle the sight of blood or becoming a mechanic with a fear of screwdrivers.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:14am
  - Master Mariner
    
    “It seems to be that one of the major hurdles to maths in primary school is that teachers do not like maths and do not feel confident teaching it.”
    Yes indeed.
    And hence the roll out of Chromebooks and the like to complete puzzles ( Maths).
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:41am
  - Cassandra
    
    When your main interest is Te Tiriti and learning Te Reo with a side of Palestine it’s a bit difficult to concentrate on algebra.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:45am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Well put, Cassandra.
      
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      April 14, 2025 5:58pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Cassandra you forgot also teaching kids that they are garbage for having the wrong heritage/gender/sexuality and telling them they are doomed as the planet is going to roast soon. Probably also not going to help with focusing on the 3 Rs.
      
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      April 14, 2025 9:14pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    A friend works at a local college as a teacher aide.
    Most temporary teachers won’t try to teach even remedial maths.
    She has 14 year olds struggling with 3X tables and simple addition.
    These 14 year olds have had eight years of schooling- eight different teachers have failed them, and this year another one will.
    The kids know that most of the teachers don’t give a shit about them and they know their future is bleak.
    The ministry, 4200 of them, should be investigating who are the previous teachers of these children and sack them.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:50am
    - cmm
      
      They really should fail kids and keep them back a year.
      
      Sure, they will miss their mates, cry for a bit and maybe even feel some humiliation – but at least it gives them a second chance to get the basics down right and then proceed on a solid footing.
      
      If you have a14 years old being pushed through year after year then you have someone who is building their learning on increasingly shaky grounds. They are really being set up to fail.
      
      It might feel kind in the moment but it really is not kind at all.
      
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      April 14, 2025 12:04pm
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        Yes, Ardern-style kindness is ultimately not kind at all.
        
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        April 14, 2025 1:12pm
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    To become a primary teacher, you are more likely to be required to demonstrate a conversational level of te reo, than to demonstrate you can solve (let alone teach) maths problems from the curriculum.
    
    But even with a full cleanout of the Teaching Council, the problem would still exists. People who cannot do maths and science are the population that primary teachers are drawn from. Other graduates have better options.
    
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    April 14, 2025 10:03am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “People who cannot do maths and science are the population that primary teachers are drawn from. ”
      
      Correct.
      NZ teachers generally come from the bottom 25% of graduates.
      The irony is that they are trying to teach children to be the top 25% of graduates.
      That’s not a good idea…
      
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      April 14, 2025 10:21am
      - Ian Boag
        
        The standard “free market” approach would be to pay more and attract “better” people. Not likely to be a winning notion on KB
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:06am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Agree Ian.
        A very good teacher is worth twice what we pay now.
        They are the gift that keeps on giving.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:21am
      - pdm
        
        Ian Boag.
        
        You mean performance pay is a bad idea?
        
        It would be a huge benefit for the school children.
        
        Getting it past the Teacher Unions has been a bigger problem than getting approval from commenters at KB I would think. Time after time the Unions kick the idea in the guts.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:30am
      - Local Miller
        
        I’d like to see the research behind this assertion: “NZ teachers generally come from the bottom 25% of graduates.”
        My daughter is a teacher, and she definitely wasn’t from the bottom 25%, more like the top 25% in fact.
        Having said that she still believes in the new useless curriculum being used in NZ, but that’s because if indoctrination in the teaching clique.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:38am
      - cmm
        
        Ian, the “free market” is working – more or less – it is the non-free market teachers’ unions etc that are failing.
        They do not allow performance based remuneration and employment.
        
        We really do not need the best mathematicians teaching primary school maths. FFS – all you need is to be able to do is add, subtract, multiply and know the difference between a square and a triangle.
        
        The free market suggest that those best mathematicians etc are better utilised in teaching at universities or as engineers etc and those should pay more. I think they do.
        
        That said, we still need less shitness in primary teachers. That probably won’t happen while the unions prevent any performance oriented pay etc.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:45am
      - cmm
        
        Local: Do you understand what the word “generally” means?
        
        Of course not all primary school teachers come from the bottom 25% of graduates. Some, a few, will be from higher up the pecking order.
        
        If your daughter really is one of the few from the top 25% then she’s wasted on teaching. Why isn’t she in engineering, medicine or such where her talents can be used properly?
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:49am
      - Ra Henare
        
        NZ teachers generally come from the bottom 25% of graduates.
        
        This is provably mis information IMA.
        There is no proof behind your statement.
        
        Even 10 minutes of research will show this is not the case.
        
        Blame the Ministry for poor Student standards. Its not the teachers.
        
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        April 14, 2025 1:51pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        IB the other side of the coin is in order to get paid more the said teachers would actually need to show superior measurable results in non-BS subjects.
        
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        April 14, 2025 9:18pm
    - Phronesis
      
      NZIER did the research. You can find the report here:
      https://www.nzier.org.nz/hubfs/Public%20Publications/Insights/NZIER%20Insight%20112%20Fit%20for%20purpose%20Final.pdf
      
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      April 14, 2025 10:33am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      People who cannot do maths and science are the population that primary teachers are drawn from.
      
      I fear you are correct..
      
      However, as the Grattan report shows (for Australia), pupils who have English as a 2nd language, seem to have better maths achievement….
      so if we can tempt some of our new immigrant graduates into primary teaching, maths teaching might improve.
      
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      April 14, 2025 10:47am
      - Taieri
        
        pupils who have English as a 2nd language, seem to have better maths achievement
        ———-
        
        That is because, I suspect, for the immigrants, education is of utmost importance as a vehicle to the social advancement. Children of dairy or takeways owners seldom take over businesses of their parents. They aspire to become doctors, scientists, lawyers or engineers instead.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:06am
      - cmm
        
        Maggy, I think this is possibly another case of Cargo Cult thinking.
        
        We look overseas: Oh look Singaporeans do much better at maths. Let’s teach the way they do and adopt their teaching practices into NZ schools.
        
        Will that work? Maybe, but I doubt it.
        
        The most important part of succeeding at school, and maths in particular, is discipline. A kid with the absolute worst teachers will still succeed with just the text books if they do an hour of maths homework a day.
        
        Our kids are, generally, ill disciplined school waggers. With those attitudes they are doomed to fail no matter what techniques are brought into the classroom.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:58am
      - Jack5
        
        Other guesses about why Chinese kids seem better at maths:
        
        Maybe Chinese language is more efficient for arithmetic:
        
        https://blog.tutorabcchinese.com/chinese-culture/are-chinese-kids-really-better-at-math
        
        AND:
        
        It’s the Chinese arithmetic method itself:
        
        https://youtube.com/shorts/wfK6X-Q2YTA?si=9tarleGl9p_9_CJU
        
        BUT:
        
        Taieri’s point (11.06 post) seems closest.
        
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        April 14, 2025 11:59am
      - cmm
        
        Jack 5: There certainly are language factors in numeracy, but I doubt English is really that much worse than Chinese (not sufficiently worse to make a difference).
        
        It is far more likely to be other factors such as discipline and motivation – both children and parents.
        
        Ask a modern Western parent what they want their child to do and they will say something like “anything, so long as they are happy and have fun”. Seldom will you hear anything aspirational involving hard work and effort.
        
        And those are Westerners. Maori etc are even worse – especially at attending school at all!
        
        But language does certainly play a part. A while ago, I realised that although I can speak Zulu fairly well, I cannot count to 5 – let alone 10. I know the words for 1, 2, 3, then 10. Then I realised that all the Zulu people I spoke with when I was growing up used Zulu words for 1, 2, 3 and 10, but English for everything else.
        
        Well if you have a look at the Zulu numbers it is apparent why – The number system is reasonably straight forward for 1 to 5, then it switches over to a weird system based on fingers:
        * 6 is the word for “thumb”
        * 7 is the word for “point” (7th finger is your pointing finger).
        * 8 is the word-phrase “two more to go” (because there are two fingers left)
        * 9 is the word-phrase for “one more to go”,
        * 10 is the word for ten.
        
        So a number like 89 becomes the rather laborious phrase “two more to go tens and one more to go”.
        
        You can get away with laborious number systems where you don’t have a written language and no systems of accounting etc. After all, the largest number you ever really need to count is how many cows you have and only an insanely wealthy man has more than 20 cows.
        
        Mind bending stuff – so almost all Zulus just flip over to English – even for counting cows.
        
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        April 14, 2025 2:00pm
  - Sacha
    
    As a matter of interest: when MOST kids go to school can they count, say to 10, using their fingers?
    I can remember playing counting games with marbles, and learning to recognise the alphabet by choosing blocks with the letters of my name. Spelling!
    It was the ‘New Entrants’ class and the teacher was an elderly woman who taught others how to do up their shoes, and turn the pages of books without tearing them if they hadn’t learnt at home already. She taught the unsocialised how to behave and was probably the most important teacher in the school –
    
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    April 14, 2025 12:02pm
- Dave
  
  That was really interesting, but since explicit teaching and evidence-based learning aren’t in Te Tiriti, no need for them here.
  
  Yes, boost primary teachers’ confidence and competence. Pupils arrived at my secondary school, well below national standards, and parents were surprised when we failed their children – ‘But Johnny was near the top of his class in his previous school; you secondary teachers can’t be teaching him properly…’
  
  Once again, time for BY’s sorely-missed thoughts – license another country’s curriculum and teach that.
  
  And make learning of internationally-valued knowledge the priority.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:44am
  - cmm
    
    “license another country’s curriculum and teach that.”
    
    Sorry, no that is just Cargo Cult/ silver bullet thinking.
    
    Just copy what Singapore teach in school and everything will turn out like Singapore.
    
    Nope, not at all.
    
    I’ll place my standard bet that if you transplanted the Signaporean system into NZ and the NZ system into Singapore, then the Singaporeans would continue to do well and the NZers would continue to do poorly.
    
    Why? Because other factors are far more important – such as discipline, parental attitude etc. In Singapore the attendance is far higher than in NZ and homework levels are higher too.
    
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    April 14, 2025 2:14pm
imalwaysright

Saw Ashley Bloomfield on tv1 this morning.

He has become an “ambassador” for child charity Barnardos NZ.
His duties are a 10 day walk on the Great Wall of China and a similar walk through villages in Switzerland.

This man just doesn’t stop giving, he’s an example to us all…
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April 14, 2025 9:06am
artemisia

Government considers axing education scheme involving nearly 2000 schools

This $118-million-a-year scheme, set up by a National government, is for schools to talk to each other for hopefully mutual benefit.

Mixed reactions about whether it works or not.

So maybe this final sentence in the report is the crux of the matter –

However, education insiders told RNZ the scheme would have achieved more if the ministry had more actively supported the groups of schools and given them more direction.

The ‘education insiders’ don’t seem to realise that teachers and principal are tertiary educated, supposedly moderately smart, but still need bureaucrats to tell them how to talk to each other. Plus as usual, more money please, carefully coded as ‘support’.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/558082/government-considers-axing-education-scheme-involving-nearly-2000-schools
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April 14, 2025 9:17am
- cmm
  
  So… basically a chat group/facebook page for teachers to discuss things?
  
  Why does that need $120M per year? That is an astounding $60k PER SCHOOL! PER YEAR!
  
  How the hell do they manage to blow through that?
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:57am
- Yvette
  
  A senior teacher acquaintance seems to be expecting this to happen anyway.
  
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  April 14, 2025 9:58am
- imalwaysright
  
  From the article:
  “The scheme grouped schools together to work on common problems with extra pay for one principal to oversee each group and for select teachers to share good practice between and within schools”
  
  Isn’t that the job of the 4200 people who work at the ministry?
  They should be doing this as a matter of course and publishing a weekly update to every school.
  
  Each principal should be filing these reports as part of their job.
  Instead, we have disparate groups of schools chasing their own tails and trying to reinvent the wheel, and being very well paid to do so.
  
  Meanwhile the ministry can put their feet up, having successfully farmed out their job to someone else.
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:05am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Again, another leaked report from cabinet, time to lance the unionist scum who are leaking information
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:34am
  - artemisia
    
    Good point G. There has to be a fairly small group with access to these documents. Assume Parliamentary Services will be investigating. Maybe PS could mention that new box in the corner is a lie detector?
    
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    April 14, 2025 12:24pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I seem to remember something leaked about the budget last week, it’s not coming from ministers, its coming from staffers. as soon as education is mentioned, then it’s clear as mud in the eye they are unionists scum leaking
      
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      April 14, 2025 12:40pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Just extra pay for the favoured few…
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:49am
  - cmm
    
    I expect so,
    But let’s say that each of the 2000 schools were to send 5 of their staff to a resort in Fiji for a week long meeting and that they all flew business class.
    That could be:
    * 7 days at $700/day = $5000
    * Business class return ticket = $3000
    * Conference facilities = $500
    * Scuba lessons and other “team building” costs = $1000
    
    Total $9500 per person.
    
    Even being completely stupid I still can’t get anywhere near the $60k per school.
    
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    April 14, 2025 11:04am
I remember when

Treaty Principles:
We find a reason and the Government provides some recompense.
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April 14, 2025 9:30am
- kowtow
  
  “We” the tax payer , eternally milked.
  
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  April 14, 2025 12:00pm
cmm

Auckland ratepayer was charged $25k for 70 hours of “work” on a building consent. Building consents cost $357 per hour of “work”!

That was an over charge.

When reevaluated it came down to “only” $9k for 13 hours – $692 per hour.

That’s just plain ridiculous. It is eye-watering levels of price gouging caused by inefficient government monopolies.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360651519/ratepayer-charged-25k-building-consent-bungle-sparking-council-investigation
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April 14, 2025 10:07am
- artemisia
  
  And the refund was due to the distress caused to the applicant. So not related to the actual time spent by the ‘pragmatic’ staffer.
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:29am
- Mike
  
  The building industry ‘reforms’ of the 1990s (which brought the leaky homes) envisaged privatized building consent authorities. None lasted, as insurance proved impossible to obtain.
  
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  April 14, 2025 10:31am
  - cmm
    
    Fair enough, but there is really no need for the gouging.
    
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    April 14, 2025 10:39am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes, we can thank that great slasher of red tape Maurice Williamson for that debacle. Returning to NZ in 2011, on my first night in my first rental, I learned first-hand about the leaky homes of NZ.
    
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    April 14, 2025 6:04pm
  - Graeme Hall
    
    After the Christchurch earthquakes in 2010 repair consents were processed by private firms to speed up the restoration.
    
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    April 14, 2025 9:27pm
- imalwaysright
  
  From the article:
  “…the ratepayer’s complaint was elevated through Auckland Council’s managerial ranks, eventually making its way to Resilience and Infrastructure Director….”
  
  There’s the problem.
  
  To be elevated through “ranks” of management levels and eventually reach someone with that title must be soul destroying for ratepayers…
  
  15 2
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  April 14, 2025 10:50am
- Swifty
  
  I know Ian McCormick well.
  
  He’s a very good bloke, he’ll be aghast at this.
  
  2 1
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  April 14, 2025 11:04am
- Taieri
  
  Time was a council inspector came around to check a retaining wall. He signed it off on the spot and charged me $70. But that was then…
  
  11 1
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  April 14, 2025 11:11am
  - Paulus
    
    A few years ago we did an outside upgrade as thought to be leaky, but when stripped not so, no matter. New proper boards fitted over three weeks.
    Final Inspaction by Council for sign off, we were told that we did not have a smoke detector in a particular place, although we had others, so I had to dash out to Bunnings and get one and fit it, before he signed building work off.
    
    6 0
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    April 14, 2025 2:38pm
    - Ghost
      
      We had a bathroom done last year. Council inspector went right through the house looking for where all the smoke alarms were. He refused to sign it off until there was one right outside the bathroom. Despite there being one 2 metres away.
      
      7 0
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      April 14, 2025 2:49pm
      - MCōs
        
        I don’t know, but those people are probably covering their arse as much as anything
        If there’s a fire in your house and they said there were adequate alarms when the rules said strictly speaking there wasn’t they could be in the shit
        
        4 0
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        April 14, 2025 3:15pm
BeaB

It was a good idea in principle. There’s always so much to be learned from more experienced and more competent colleagues. But as usual the unions poked their noses in and primary schools whined no one was holding their hands and spoon-feeding them.
And is there anybody at all in the Ministry who has even been in a classroom since they left school?
10 2
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April 14, 2025 10:11am
- Mike
  
  The ministry is full of ex-teachers who enjoy the higher pay and lesser workload.
  
  11 1
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  April 14, 2025 11:02am
- cmm
  
  Those that can do.
  Those that can’t teach.
  Those that can’t even teach join the ministry.
  
  14 3
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  April 14, 2025 11:09am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Indeed it would be interesting to see the breakdown by management structure how many are indeed qualified classroom teachers versus that ‘academic’ kind?
    
    4 2
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    April 14, 2025 12:31pm
Jack5

The high-price prostitute in the Polkinghorne feature on TV3 last night describing her customers — big-salary professionals, business rich …

” …. and every accountant.”
7 1
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April 14, 2025 10:33am
- Bobba Fret
  
  That is a lot of accountants
  
  7 0
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  April 14, 2025 1:44pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  The accountants were only trying to work out that if one invested in a prostitute should that asset be depreciated on a straight line basis or diminishing value basis or, as is done with the likes of quarries, on a usage basis.
  
  8 0
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  April 14, 2025 4:35pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Looks like Labour is learning to take action …

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360650402/labour-removes-head-disability-branch-after-alleged-threats-woman

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360643172/shes-narcissistic-autistic-bitter-feud-between-disabled-woman-and-advocate

I wonder how many other folks are being ripped off by unqualified “navigators”.
13 0
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April 14, 2025 11:01am
- cmm
  
  Bah! Worse than “Immigration Consultants”.
  
  Surely there is no need for a Benefit Navigator.
  Just turn up at WINZ, burst into tears and they hand over dosh.
  
  8 2
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  April 14, 2025 11:08am
  - peterwn
    
    I am not sure to what extent things have improved, but there was a serious divergence between WINZ ‘policies’, manuals and staff training on the one side and the legislation governing benefits on the other. It is fundamental that the law enacted by Parliament must prevail and WINZ cannot cook up its own rules. Some beneficiaries and their advocates took on WINZ and the Government over this matter some years ago causing WINZ to get its act together. Things would be far better now, but there could still be some issues.
    Advocates in this and other areas have traditionally been volunteers working with non profit organisations.
    Seems Mr Stoneham is trying to make this into a business implying he can achieve results where volunteers cannot. Interesting that he was not only removed as group chair but has also left the party presumably to avoid being formally booted out John A Lee style.
    Reminds me of the ‘Green Card’ racket. Outfits would offer to guide people through ‘Green Card’ applications lotteries for a fee of course. Yet any person of reasonable intelligence can so to the State Department web site and make an application at no cost. Admittedly the process is cumbersome and awkward and seems to have strict timeframes, but then Uncle Sam is only interested in Green Cards going to people of reasonable intelligence.
    
    10 1
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    April 14, 2025 11:50am
    - Taieri
      
      Yet any person of reasonable intelligence can so to the State Department web site and make an application at no cost.
      ———-
      
      Just as any person of average intelligence can complete and submit NZ Immigration forms for residency. Yet, people pay thousands of dollars to immigration agents thinking that it will somehow increase their chances for positive outcomes.
      
      6 1
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      April 14, 2025 1:05pm
rouppe

I hope the all female blue origin “space” flight is uneventful, because if it fails it’s going to be a monumental disaster for Jeff Bezos.

It’s such an important event, putting the “ass” back into “astronaut”…
8 3
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April 14, 2025 11:10am
- Keith White
  
  Does an earthly pre-nup still apply in orbit?
  
  0 0
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  April 14, 2025 5:02pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Naughty rouppe!
  
  0 0
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  April 14, 2025 6:06pm
Ghost

Popcorn, get your popcorn

The Labour Party has removed the chair of its disability branch following a complaint alleging he mistreated a disabled woman.

Stuff understands Labour has terminated the membership of its Kirk Disability Sector chairperson, Nick Stoneman, and he is no longer a party member or a Kirk sector member.

Article
8 1
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April 14, 2025 11:57am
- cmm
  
  Clearly he has that Green Energy.
  
  6 1
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  April 14, 2025 12:19pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Green energy? sounds like something being used from rotting eggs.
    
    3 0
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    April 14, 2025 12:48pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Oh, I just wonder how much exposure this gets on One Con tonight. more than likely they will have a large section to rubbish a back bench Nat mp because one of his family member goes to the weirdo church group
  
  4 0
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  April 14, 2025 12:48pm
  - PurplePen
    
    It will be everyone else’s fault somehow.
    
    2 0
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    April 14, 2025 3:49pm
- AitchW
  
  No one turns on its own like the left…
  
  0 0
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  April 14, 2025 9:54pm
Fisiani2

Rory McIlroy deserves his Masters success
8 0
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April 14, 2025 12:09pm
- pdm
  
  He made hard work of it though.
  
  4 0
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  April 14, 2025 1:03pm
- MCōs
  
  I watched today’s round on tv. One would have to say it was pretty gripping stuff, mainly because a lot of the golf was so poor
  
  3 0
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  April 14, 2025 3:01pm
artemisia

How does Tamatha Paul like her new billboard image? Green Party own goal.
10 1
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April 14, 2025 12:32pm
- Gravelroad
  
  What’s not to like?
  It is not insulting.
  Tam and her friend Chloe look great.
  It profiles the Green Party brand.
  It promotes a policy that a lot of people in their sphere of influence would agree with.
  It signals the Greens know about cool rap music.
  And it is free big billboard of publicity for them.
  
  12 1
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  April 14, 2025 12:48pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not the article that was also on here yesterday said she works for a group fund raising that wants the abolishment of the police, but a well-known English expert on here told me there is no such word as abolishment
    
    0 4
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    April 14, 2025 12:51pm
    - Mike
      
      Abolishment is a word, just not a frequent usage.
      Think of other -tion words that could also be -ment:
      absorption/absorbment
      usurption/usurpment
      admonition/admonishment
      etc
      
      4 2
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      April 14, 2025 4:06pm
      - Jethrod
        
        You are sounding like D Garrett for correction of spelling and grammar.
        
        0 0
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        April 14, 2025 4:20pm
      - cmm
        
        DG does the grammar Nazi thing so much better than you do.
        
        7 2
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        April 14, 2025 4:30pm
  - artemisia
    
    Are you looking at the new image? The one from the House vid after the Green Party complained about copyright.
    
    4 1
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    April 14, 2025 1:16pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

As part of the update to driver licencing, I’d like to see a mandatory licence requirement for all pilots of wheeled vehicles on the road. By which I mean all users of e-scooters and bikes whether powered or no.

If you use the road, you need to prove that you know the rules of the road. Otherwise, you’re a danger to others as well as yourself.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/558063/driving-licence-changes-one-practical-test-instead-of-two
6 3
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April 14, 2025 1:00pm
- cmm
  
  No, we don’t need more laws. Just enforce existing laws. Properly.
  
  I propose a far better approach: no more rules to be make in parliament until we prove that existing laws are not working. More laws without enforcement are pointless.
  
  7 1
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  April 14, 2025 1:29pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    As far as I know, you don’t need any form of licence to ride a bike on a public road.
    
    But, I agree that the rules of the road need to be enforced.
    
    4 0
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    April 14, 2025 3:37pm
    - cmm
      
      You don’t need a license to ride a bike, but you can still be fined for traffic violations: speeding, failing to stop at a stop sign, dangerous driving, crossing solid white lines, riding while intoxicated, …
      
      In practice that is very rare.
      
      6 0
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      April 14, 2025 4:29pm
- kowtow
  
  nmtb
  
  Never mind the road , I see loons tearing along the efffing pedestrian footpaths on the damned things ( e scooters) .
  
  major hazard and effing rude to boot!
  
  11 2
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  April 14, 2025 1:38pm
goNZ1

from the ‘erald today – Wellington restaurant Wilson Barbecue in liquidation, massive debt to IRD revealed.
The company owes $644,192 to Inland Revenue but that is expected to increase.’

How on EARTH does a small biz run up a bill like that !?? Is IRD asleep on the job or what
14 4
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April 14, 2025 1:53pm
- cmm
  
  They don’t pay PAYE and GST for 4 years and ….
  
  Just like that Libelle school lunch outfit run by the “Maori businesswoman of the year”.
  
  15 1
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  April 14, 2025 2:56pm
- greybeard
  
  I would like to know who are your 3 downtickers !
  Come on DPF, publish names of all Up- and Down- tickers !
  
  1 3
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  April 14, 2025 5:15pm
  - Keith White
    
    That would be a good development.
    
    0 0
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    April 14, 2025 6:37pm
cmm

“Under Labour, Libelle had supplied lunches for $9 per head to 17,000 school children. It scaled up under the Coalition Government’s revamp to supply 125,000 lunches for $3 per head.”

A contract for $85M to provide millions of lunches for $9 per head and they still went broke owing $14M!

OK, does anyone else see a huge problem here? I sure do.

Aotearoans seem incapable of feeding their children without state support, but I’ll bet even those families would be annoyed by $45 a week per child going on school lunches.

I can think of so many easier ways to have done this at a fraction of the cost:
1) Give each family $30 per child per week so long as their kid turns up at school with a reasonable lunch. Just a couple of sandwiches and an apple would do. $30 would mean mum could spend $10 on food and put $20 into pokies or booze or whatever. I don’t care.

2) Each school spends $3 per day per kid on buying loaves of bread, peanut butter, cheese, apples,… Teach kids to assemble their own sandwiches. Make it into a bit of a lesson. Maybe even fire up a bbq on special occasions and serve sausages or burgers.

But no, we have to make it into a “free” program that costs the taxpayer $9 per meal and probably made the owner millions before dropping creditors in the shit for $14M.

Good job Maori Businesswoman of the Year! Excellent role model.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/libelles-school-lunch-woes-predate-government-changes-ex-worker-claims/4YTWN4J5IJFSTNXSFQRT7UVWF4/
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April 14, 2025 3:09pm
Ian Boag

The old “performance pay” thing.

Measurement by exam achievement would be a bit hard. If someone could explain why an average teacher at Auckland Grammar should be paid more than a good one at Hillary College that would be a start.

So we get to “we all know a good teacher when we see one”. Who is this “we” ….. ? Just out of curiosity can someone point at a foreign jurisdiction where teacher pay is performance based and how does it work?
1 4
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April 14, 2025 4:46pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Many years ago at a Private School I went to, we used to see the Deans sit in on classroom sessions from time to time. They would observe and take notes.
  Sometimes our work/assignments would be handed back late because the Dean was checking the marking.
  Maybe thats a start Ian?
  Perhaps Alwyn Poole could share with us how he would see it working.
  
  4 1
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  April 14, 2025 5:30pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    Sure All_ – it’s a start.
    
    You are talking about how to share out the pot in a single socio-economically filtered school. It sounds reasonably doable. There wouldn’t have been a lot of teachers anyway and possibly the experienced ones were “better” than the newbies.
    
    However it would be an interesting exercise to scale this across a few thousand schools with widely varying levels of pupil interest and aptitude …..
    
    1 0
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    April 14, 2025 5:56pm
- Cassandra
  
  The senior teachers – principal and his/her deputies – will know.
  
  0 0
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  April 14, 2025 7:49pm
- NothingLeft
  
  External assessments to look at deltas in the kids overall rank over a full year of any given teacher.
  
  But really we should be focusing on rolling out AI tutors for all kids. That will have vastly greater impact than any fiddling around with low quality teacher.
  
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  April 14, 2025 8:26pm
surfing

It’s now compulsory to speak Maori to get some government jobs where english is perfectly adequate to do the job. . .

https://jobs.govt.nz/jobs/Bay-of-Plenty/005004709
District Chief Nurse – Bay of Plenty
Competency with te ao Māori, tikanga, and te reo Māori

This is racist beyond belief. Actively discriminating against non-maori or those with no interest in Maori culture.

It is why young non-maori should be fleeing NZ.
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April 14, 2025 5:03pm
Keith White

The topic is in the link title

https://blogs.worldbank.org/en/education/teacher-pay-performance-does-it-really-work

“A few months ago, a team of education specialists from the World Bank met with the dynamic Education Minister of a large country. Since taking office, the Minister has wanted to transform teacher performance in schools. We were asked: were teacher pay for performance (PFP) schemes, where teachers are rewarded for better performance, the way to go? To the Minister, this seemed to be an important option for injecting energy into the country’s teaching profession and motivating better performance. Our team’s conditional “perhaps, but possibly not” answer was not very inspiring.

“Many of us have, in some shape or form, been asked by education clients about PFP. And so, we embarked on a comprehensive review of the literature on teacher PFP in low and middle-income countries to help answer the big question – does it really work?
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April 14, 2025 5:05pm
Jack5

The Woke tide’s going out fast, but kumbaya, kumbaya …

Several New Zealand business chiefs, many or most of them women, in a group called “Champions for Change” are pushing a diversity wagon up hill as Trump blocks, dismantles, and scraps such political vehicles.

The “Herald” says the group, Champions for Change, comprises 80 chief executives and company-board chairwomen and chairmen.

They’ve just held a “summit” at the Waitangi treaty grounds. They issued a “stern warning” to New Zealand on “diversity and inclusion,” saying that Whites will fall to less than half the total population by 2030.

What do these big shots want? Heavy immigration to keep wages down? The number of top business women to keep rising? More power?

What do Maori, who continue to intermarry with Whites, think of DEI for Asian New Zealanders? How is DEI doing in China, Japan, India, Tonga, Samoa?

The co-chair of Champions for Change is Antonia Watson, chief executive of the NZ branch of the ANZ Bank. Catherine McGrath, chief executive of the NZ branch of Westpac Bank, is another prominent member.

Antonia Watson’s co-chairwoman is Theresa Gattung, protege-successor of initial Telecom chief Rod Deane. She’s known recently as co-founder of the company My Food Bag, which had an interesting float and listing on the NZX.

These commerce chiefs might appeal to the Labour Lite thread in the National Party as typified by former Minister Chris Finlayson. They might also increase the Centre-Right voter drift to ACT and NZ First.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/champions-for-change-summit-in-northland-inclusive-workforces-vital-for-nzs-future/Z3GN5IYM5JFUTFDNFZNNV5CMDA/
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April 14, 2025 5:22pm
Swifty

Have a listen to taxpayer-funded Waatea News’ Dale Husband and the language he uses in his interview with John Tamihere:

https://waateanews.com/2025/04/14/john-tamihere-president-of-te-pati-maori-36/

Tamihere is his usual racist self, full of hate and abuse but its Husband that interests me here. Clearly partisan, clearly biased, full of emotional and extreme language and all on the taxpayer.

When will we wake up and defund this taxpayer funded voice for Maori separatism and Labour and Maori Party interests?

Why doesn’t the HRC step in and object to taxpayers being forced to fund their political opponents?
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April 14, 2025 5:32pm
Swifty

More truth bombs from Lindsay Mitchell.

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/lindsay-mitchell-maori-must-take-control
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April 14, 2025 6:14pm
Ra Henare

For those with TDS, this is a report from a leftie meeting Trump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxlopbcfXpQ
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April 14, 2025 7:16pm

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