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6:00 am, November 27th, 2025 - 42 comments
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Step up to the mike …
https://www.waikatotimes.co.nz/nz-news/360899613/governments-pricing-push-it-signs-whanganui-ruapehu-water-plan
Nationals water done well looks like an absolute disaster from the start, pitting city versus rural, big versus small, wealthy versus poor, the Ruapehu will come off second best and be forgotten,
It'll be the same with their scrapping of district councils as well btw
I agree but it's Regional not District Councils they are proposing to scrap.
On the face of it Regional Councils are being scrapped. In reality the district, city and regional councils are being consolidated to include the current regional council responsibilities for catchment management
So in current terms, we'll most likely see something like unitary authorities based around catchment boundaries.
In some places this will be easy, like Southland where they are well on the way. Might not be so easy up north.
Going to be fun where the voluntary WDW agreements cut across regional re-organisation boundaries and one region has several water entities, and vice-versa.
National seem to have two contradictory reforma in the same sphere. The WDW reform produced (predictably) such a perverse, and really unsustainable, outcome they've had to come in with a comprehensive Local Government re-arrangement that looks even less thought out than WDW.
Can see the Farmer's Union having a quiet word about the population based voting on these transition boards. That's a solid kick in the guts to rural / RW interests putting power firmly in the cities.
More I think about this announcement, the more it starts to look like a hurriedly put together dead cat to take focus away from something else. It seems designed to wind up the most people possible, especially in their own side.
And the NAct1 CoC is giving Kiwis such a wealth of 'something elses' to choose from.
But that's all about to change, says heartless Nicola 'No BS' Willis, the GDP disaster.
With this announcement I'm more struck about how, if it is a dead cat, it attacks (if that's the word here) National's deepest base.
They're trying to shut up something internal.
Could be – hope Kiwi journalists are up to doing an full internal investigation!
Meanwhile, there's plenty to pick and choose from in full view 🙁
Strong and stable…
Hmm, now it's only 172 comments – still closed though.
I have been listening to this years Reith lectures by Rutger Bregman (interesting listening – his solutions are a bit silly though), and you can infer from his lectures that the conclusions for Ukraine are bleak.
The extraordinary buffoonery, arrogance, corruption and incompetence of the collapsed Witkoff peace "proposal" is, above all, a signal moment in the decline of American state capacity. A chaotic Trump administration made up of goons, traitors, grifters and sycophants seems simply incapable of conducting negotiations in good faith.
But the chaos of Trump's tinpot regime should not hide the reckless policy bankruptcy of the Western Europeans, who have no realistic plan of their own to end the war. They continue to display a craven desire for US backing they are never going to get and a complete inaction on doing anything of substance to help Ukraine. They issue strong statements and bold funding announcements, yet four years into the war – and eleven years after Putin seized Crimea – their armies are seemingly no bigger or powerful or more determined to fight the Russians. They refuse to use properly fund and scale up Ukrainian military production. They refuse to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine.
Russia and Ukraine are both losing the war, but Russia is losing more slowly than Ukraine. The western Europeans appear content with being pro-Ukraine, acknowledging Putin's imperialism and hybrid war against them as an existential threat to their deomocracies, and then doing nothing serious about it beyond bickering amongst themselves over what to do and how to pay for it.
Never has the pessimism, moral decay and deep unseriousness of our modern technocratic elites as described by Bregman ever been better put on display!
There is a cynical perspective which suggests that Europe is using Ukraine to bleed Russia white (in terms of manpower), which would prevent Russia conducting further military operations against other Eastern European targets (Poland, Baltics, Finland).
[NB: Russia has always massively understated the casualties in the Ukraine war. And the population statistics are highly dodgy (routinely manipulated to give the figures the Kremlin wants) But external estimates are at least 1 million deaths.]
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/jun/22/one-million-and-counting-russian-casualties-hit-milestone-in-ukraine-war
From this perspective, the longer the war lasts, and the more Russian soldiers (or conscripts) die – the better. That this comes at the cost of the Ukrainian soldiers and people, is regrettable, but not material.
Another perspective is that Europe (and the US) is using Ukraine to field test weapons (especially drone technology) – the most recent being the Octopus drone.
Again, this live war test environment should be prolonged, regardless of consequences.
Of course, it may be that all sides are morally bankrupt, and are just unable to come to a resolution.
I’m inclined to be more charitable, and to see the European allies’ reluctance to intervene more directly as a product of their own political and economic constraints.
Even if a country like Poland wanted to drive its tanks over the border tomorrow, it’s doubtful its industrial base could sustain a long, high-intensity war.
At best you might get a glorious, one-off set-piece: a modern echo of the Winged Hussars outside Vienna. But not a campaign you could keep feeding. But 2025 isn't 1683. And Moscow is a lot closer to Kyiv than Istanbul is to Vienna.
In that uncertainty, governments default to caution. Even when the moral case for doing more is obvious.
I agree that a more charitable perspective is also valid. However, I'm sure that some elements of the above do carry weight in the decision-making.
It does seem that many/most of the eastern European countries are scaling up their military – both in terms of soldiers, defence spending and weaponry.
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-armed-forces-bundeswehr-eu-defense-spending-nato-trump/a-72570394
Yeah but who could have foreseen that having negotiations done by a real estate developer who took no diplomats with him and was completely dependent on interpreters provided by the Russians wasn't a good idea? Oh, wait…
Australian Millennials who have seen, suffered under, and for many years (a lifetime?) been shat on by smug n sorted conservative boomers are moving Left.
Insert NZ for Australian….and !
That old slur line( many variations of, but still the same BS) beloved by the afore mentioned smug n sorted conservative boomers and their ilk…might finally be given its due. For the sake of a Future worth living !
No coal mining at Denniston !
Protest works. Support the Denniston Scientific Reserve.If you cant support in other ways, please sign.
Because the New Zealand Green Party's voter base is largely associated with middle-class, well-educated, and urban demographics, particularly professionals and younger women. They have historically had less support among the blue-collar working class. "
https://www.google.com/search?q=is+the+NZ+Green+Party+largely+supported+by+middle+class+voters&rlz=1C5CHFA_enNZ880NZ880&oq=is+the+NZ+Green+Party+largely+supported+by+middle+class+voters&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCjU1ODkxajFqMTWoAgiwAgHxBUOd4eKYvRKM8QVDneHimL0SjA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
Labour may well get the votes that would have gone to the Maori Party if the Maori Party continues to disintegrate. But Winston is not confined by the need for coherent policy like Labour. He can craft new policy specifically targeted at attracting those votes. He has done it before and swept the Maori seats.
[TheStandard: A moderator moved this comment to Open Mike as being off topic or irrelevant in the post it was made in. Be more careful in future.]
[I’ve moved this to OM mike because I want to make an extended mod note, and hopefully others will read it too.
What some people fail to understand about TS is that we are here for the political debate.
Authors can pretty much write whatever they want, and other Authors and commentators then take them to task if the post doesn’t hold up.
Commenters can make almost any argument you like, but you have to make an actual argument. And that includes providing evidence.
Without evidence there is no debate. Assertions without an argument backed by evidence derail conversations, mislead readers and commenters, and generally degrade NZ politics. We are one of the few places that has active moderation to maintain debate standards. Without that
The corollary of that is that we value the commentariat highly. We could turn commenting off, or allow it to be a free for all of badly informed reckons, confirmation bias, astroturfing, trolling and flaming. We want people’s ideas and political challenges because it creates better politics and democracy, so we put the time and effort in to curating a particular debate culture here.
I don’t know if you are intentionally trolling or not, but your commenting history here looks like trolling. Either way, you are taking up moderator time, the first rule of commenting is don’t piss off the mods.
I expect moderators to review your mod history over the next week and make a decision about future moderations. A quick look tells me you already have increasing ban length times. In addition, as Incognito pointed out to you yesterday, for the same issue, we are issuing long term bans now to clear the way for election year.
From now on, every time you make a claim of fact, you need to pre-emptively provide evidence. Evidence = your own explanation, backed up by short quotes and a link (and time stamps for audio/video). That’s every time.
Google searches aren’t evidence, any more than posting a stand alone link to a long article. The onus is on you to make the argument and provide the evidence, not leave bread crumb trails for other people to spend time following to try and parse what you mean. I will write a separate note about AI references.
1 week ban – weka]
Winston First could attempt this, but it would be a fine policy line to craft / walk – appealing to Māori voters without alienating others in his base.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_First#Relations_with_M%C4%81ori
mod note
needless to say, that's your last warning.
re AI as evidence. Personally, as a mod, I'm ok with this provided:
Where appropriate, copying the links that the AI references is good too eg when on a complex, controversial or rare topic.
The reason for that is that AI still makes a lot of mistakes, sometimes outright bullshit ones. If the question and AI are named, it's easier for people to fact check or look up what is being referred to.
Weka, the issue that I have over copy/pasta AI comments is directly relevant to your earlier mod comments.
AI is not infrequently wrong (putting it mildly), and may simply be regurgitating factually incorrect (but popular) viewpoints.
Surely it is on the person who has generated the query to further follow up and verify the information. Why should the readers of the comment be responsible for fact-checking AI?
In addition, we've seen instances of 'only' AI generated data in a comment – no further debate or commentary from the poster. If you're going to get AI to think for you, what are you contributing to the debate?
[NB: all instances of 'you' are generic, rather than specific]
appreciate the feedback. I'd be tempted to just ban it, but that would require all the mods to have a general agreement, and that's like herding cats.
Thing is, there are good AI models and uses. Without people saying what they are using, it's hard to know. I look at twitter's AI Grok a bit, because it makes some stupendous mistakes and as it's conversational, people talk with it until it corrects itself. That's learning tool in itself, but for the purpose of TS that would be at the useless end of the spectrum. I see google's AI most times I do a search, and it at least provides references. Sometimes useful, sometimes not. No way to know without looking. I'm not subscribed to any AI ask question tools, but from people I know who are there are useful and not useful ones and ways of using.
In the absence of a ban, I'd like to see how the commentariat makes intermittent use that fits with the robust debate ethic. Hence the guidelines above.
same reason we are responsible for fact checking any quote or link. That's how the debate here works. The problem is where people treat google AI as reliable, and/or as reliable as say MSM. The solution is to learn the skills to assess just like have with other sources of information.
Still quite rare though right? If that started being common I'd treat it the same as if someone was simply quoting without any input from themselves. Context matters, but generally we want people bringing their own thinking.
A shout-out to our comrades in the nursing workforce who have on going industrial action in the form of work to rule.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/580121/nurses-sick-of-being-used-as-chess-pieces-by-health-nz-in-second-week-of-work-to-rule-strike
Health NZ raising rare examples making out they are the norm.
No mention of things like senior midwives instructing nurses to perform roles that would effectively make them scabs. Which has occured at our local hospital.
I am thoroughly ashamed that until this morning I was completely unaware of the work to rule. Good on them.
Part of me is justifiably concerned as I've been on a surgery waiting list for a year already, and if it does go ahead, could be cancelled due to lack of nursing staff and/or beds. It would be devastating for me as an individual, but at the same time, if it means even a remote possibility of a better functioning public health system (I have to live in hope…) then short term pain for long term gain might be worth it.
as an aside, have you watched The New Peasants, the doco about Artist as Family? Some of it is really moving. The expected focus on resiliency tech, but also some beautiful integration of fathering and the challenges Patrick and his first son faced. I wasn't expecting that and I am very heartened to see this being central to the film.
https://www.happenfilms.com/films/the-new-peasants
That looks a good watch.
I have friends that have gone down a similar path but not thoroughly rejected the 'modern world'. For a period of time he was building playscapes for early childhood centres and she was/is doing flower essence workshops.
The feral kid who eats roadkill raised a smile.
I could imagine the film and the attitudes spoken about being very challenging for folk.
@Kay @6.1
Yep, I hear you. We are facing a similar thing with my father in law, a long awaited hernia operation that has been postponed twice so far, complicated by him having broken his larynx in a ute prang years ago.
It is a telling fact that because nurses are working to rule, there are gaping holes in staffing. This is usually covered over because of the professional, compassionate workforce.
It is cold comfort that the sacrifice you may have to make will help others down the line.
Oh dear, I just now got an email from surgical bookings with a questionaire to see if I still want to be on their waiting list
The only way to deal with elective surgery- that should be non-acute but still necessary- is to think it's never going to happen. That way, when/if it does, it's a pleasant surprise. But never believe it's going to happen until it has. Good luck to your FIL.
Thanks Kay, ironically (he said very quietly) he is a conservative voter, so there is a wee bit of schadenfreude in the air.
Cynically, I think the questionnaire is another stall/delay tactic on behalf of TWO/HNZ.
@ weka @6.2
Haven't heard of it, I will give it a look tonight, thanks.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/580173/secondary-school-teachers-to-vote-on-potential-settlement-of-troubled-pay-talks
”Information obtained by RNZ showed it included similar pay rises to previous offers, but provided at the start of next year rather than this year and with the removal of some clawbacks.
It would provide a 2.5 percent pay increase in January next year with a further two to 2.1 percent in January 2027 depending on salary scale step.
The offer dropped an attempt to increase the number of "call-back days" when teachers could be required to work outside of term time.”
Early days, but the feedback on the PPTA Facebook page is not promising for a settlement.
National Party supports the changes in KiwiSaver leading to lower wage increases.
This going from 3 to 6% contribution and with lower wage increases (lower than inflation presumably).
More will go to Oz, even if there are jobs.
In Oz, the employer pays 12% into their Fund, the workers own contributions are entirely voluntary.
https://www.thepost.co.nz/politics/360899788/national-admits-kiwisaver-changes-may-affect-public-sector-pay
Labour and Greens have reached an agreement, in Australia.
It must be good, because the Liberals have chosen to smear it with the word "dirty".
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg4nzv6v2keo
Here's hoping the environmental regulator has real power rather than being restricted to writing reports.
Aussie green groups have scored victories in the past, a notable one concerning Tasmania's proposal to dam the Franklin river. There is a great podcast series on this: https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/dig/introducing-saving-the-franklin-river-v2/102214812
The podcast shows how easily politicians are influenced by big business, but also gives hope by showing what a determined protest can achieve.
Bouquet from Audrey Young for Erica Stanford.
https://archive.li/SWccx
”Goes to Education Minister Erica Stanford for overseeing a maths acceleration trial being run for intermediate kids who have fallen behind. Great results, and skilled political management of major curriculum changes.”
Fuck me days, if that is “skilled political management” I’d hate to see a shambles, which is what it is!
ah but remember it has been the evil unions who have organised the 1000 schools to complain about the crap process. (irony)
The Labour budget in the UK has imposed a high-value council tax surcharge in today's budget. It has been described as a "mansion tax" (MT). [Council tax is the equivalent of rates in NZ.]
"From April 2028 there will be a high-value council tax surcharge – AKA the “mansion tax” – for properties worth more than £2m, of £2,500 a year, rising to £7,500 for properties worth more than £5m."
"A pair who own a £2m home in a leafy London suburb face paying the new “mansion tax” – AKA the high value council tax surcharge – of £2,500 from 2028."
Hipkins take note. A MT of $5000 on the 7000 properties worth more than $5 million in NZ would bring in roughly $35 million. My preference would be to bring in the MT on houses worth $3 million or more which would bring in considerably more revenue.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/26/budget-2025-key-points-rachel-reeves
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/nov/26/budget-2025-what-it-means-for-people-incomes-tax-benefits
https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3323874/new-zealand-opens-doors-property-market-only-rich-foreign-buyers
On a related note RNZs Nine to Noon had a 'BBC Political correspondent'
protecting the interests of the 1%commenting on the budget release.It was, in my opinion, disgraceful journalism. After reading from what seemed to be a tory press release he went on reference that popular right wing trope 'if you can't afford to feed them, don't breed them'.
In a nutshell, a good example of why confidence/trust in MSM/BBC is through the floor.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/audio/2019014492/uk-chancellor-delivers-her-budget-what-s-in-it
I heard that-what a wanker with his public school voice.
I would prefer a 5% stamp duty on houses worth over $2M.
That would bring in a hundreds of millions each year.
(The UK already has stamp duty, as does Oz).
Good point. I think stamp duty is only when the house is sold?
We could have both MT and SD.
Yup.
States have top rates from 4.5 to 7%.
Some have a foreign buyer surcharge on top of that.
They could look at it as a way to help finance councils.