If we look at every single problem facing us as a country, the root cause is National underfunding the system to begin with!
Why are we allowing National to sell us lies to fix the problems they caused to begin with?
Take Potholes for example.
What amazes me when the political Right scream about potholes are all the things they ignore when attempting to blame Labour.
They ignore that extreme weather events caused by climate change that create vast wet events followed by extreme heat are impacting our roads, that’s not too surprising I suppose because most Right wingers believe climate change is a communist hoax.
The second thing is far more difficult for them to pretend isn’t true because they did it! Back in 2010, it was Steven Joyce who increased the weight of trucks in a capitulation to the trucking industry…
Change lifts truck load limit to 53 tonnes
Up to 5000 trucks will be eligible to carry heavier loads on public highways from next month.
The change has raised concerns about motorists’ safety from the Automobile Association and the Green Party, which are also worried about damage to roads from the juggernauts.
Transport Minister Steven Joyce has announced that trucks carrying up to 53 tonnes will be allowed on specific routes from May 1, subject to the new permit system.
Even heavier rigs would be allowed “in very specific instances”.
The nine-tonne increase on the standard limit of 44 tonnes is the equivalent to the weight of nine small cars.
Green Party transport spokesman Gareth Hughes said trucks were already involved in 16 per cent of all road fatalities despite comprising only 4 per cent of the vehicle fleet.
“Bigger trucks have got more mass, more weight – that means worse accidents.”
…it was National who lifted the weights of Trucks which do so much damage to the roading network but the Right always like to pretend they didn’t do that!
The third thing the Right always love to ignore in regards to Potholes is that National froze upgrades when they were in power!
Wood went further, accusing Bennett himself of freezing funding for road maintenance when in Government.
“His assertions are baffling given when he was associate transport minister they froze road maintenance investment and ran our roads down,” he said.
“We’re boosting road maintenance after years of neglect, and stepped in to provide $2 billion of financing to keep our roads up to scratch.
This has been warmly welcomed by councils across the country, business groups, and Federated Farmers.”
So the Right deny global warming is even happening, they ignore the fact they put heavier trucks on the road and they hide the truth they froze roading maintenance.
Isn’t incredible how many lies the Political Right can spin to hide their involvement in creating the problem we see now?
How many lies must the political Right spin to pretend they weren’t the reason for the pothole problems we have and why do the voting public of NZ believe these fucking liars?
Take the get tough on crime stance that has seen ACT and National fight to put ankle bracelets on kids!
The number of serious repeat ram raiders is about 100, 80% of whom are already known to welfare agencies who are the kids from John Key’s draconian welfare reforms that saw kids in cars, state house tenants thrown onto the street for wrongful meth testing and whose parents were incarcerated in our private prison industry.
We know statistically that many of these youth are being abused at home, a home National and ACT want to ankle bracelet them to!
The Right establish draconian social policy, and when that causes more damaged individuals, the Right’s solutions are even more draconian policies?
If you look at Henry Cookes analysis of the swing voter, she is white, educated and in her early 50s, I just don’t think they are stupid enough to be played by the Right.
National have popped all the champagne because they seem to think they’ve already won the bloody election! All National seem to be doing is riding the post Covid bitterness and animosity towards Jacinda, an animosity that hate algorithms one Social media feed with a toxic misogyny.
I’m not sure spite and malice is enough to win an election in New Zealand.
I just don’t think there are enough stupid Kiwis to vote for National’s ‘solutions’, when it was National who caused most of the bloody long term structural problems!
Labour may lose this election, but National and ACT sure as Christ won’t win it because it was their knee-jerk policy that exacerbated these problems via underfunding in the first place!
The 30 year neoliberal experiment in NZ cut the State back to the bone and the political project of the Right ever since is to tax-cut starve off revenue for the State so it can’t redistribute it in the first place.
What we saw with Covid is that you desperately need a State with capacity. So many of the problems we encountered was the shear slowness of an underfunded, under capacity public service.
With the economic recession, the geopolitical shockwaves and catastrophic climate change upon us, we must have a debate about the capacity of the State!
That is how the Left have to re frame 2023 – vote for the Right and get an amputation of the State, vote for the Left and build new capacity for the challenges ahead.
We need more Drs, more nurses, more teachers, more Police, more State houses, more infrastructure NOT LESS!
We need to debate for a bigger capacity State using the example Covid just gave us.
We need more Scientists, Drs, nurses, teachers, Police, more State houses and more infrastructure alongside policy that directly subsidises the cost of living like removing gst off food, free dental, free public transport, free food in schools and we will fund that extra increase through targeted new taxes to rebuild the capacity of the State.
The obviousness of our need for a Ministry of Works that actually builds shit is painfully clear to everyone by now.
Take Police in NZ, we have a pathetic 203 police per 100 000 NZers!
Compare that with 212 in England, 264 in Australia, 318 in Scotland, 349 in Germany, 422 in France, hell even Fiji at 227 has more Police per 100 000 than we do!
We don’t have the capacity to create a functioning State that lives up to our expectations in a liberal progressive democracy because we won’t tax the rich to find that infrastructure!
We need to actually sell the 2023 election in those explicit terms – vote Right and amputate the State, vote Left and rebuild the capacity to actually face the challenges ahead.
These new taxes will be a sugar tax for free dental, a financial transaction tax to lower GST on everything, a bank windfall profit tax to build more State houses, a social media journalism tax.
Taxes aimed at speculators and the wealthy to fund services for the egalitarian country we want NZ to be.
Let’s have the courage to actually argue and win over our fellow citizens for solution based policy that actually builds the capacity to have the extra drs, nurses, firemen, police, and teachers.
Let’s champion policies that subsidise people’s cost of living by redistributing from the few to the many.
The voters of NZ are still waiting for the Transformative change we promised them in 2017.
If the Political Left have all finished squabbling over who the biggest victim is and cancelling people for crimes against middle class dogma, could we get back to winning the election and being actually transformative?
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Sooo let me get this straight, National/Act can’t/won’t win the election this year because of things that took place 10yrs ago?
You believe the NZ voters will correlate any problem with NZ today and tomorrow with National from 10 years ago?
When Labour have been in power for 5yrs (and last 2-3yrs with total majority) do you really think voters will think….ahhh it’s actually Nationals fault I can’t afford so much groceries today or that my rent has almost doubled in 5yrs or that ram raiding is because of John Key?
If so, you are most assuredly clutching at straws and indeed scraping the bottom of the barrell so much you have spilnters lol
Look, to be honest I believe the election will be close, not a landslide for any side but I do believe that the next set of polls published this and next month will determine the path Labour will take, and if Ardern steps down (which in my humble opinion is 60/40 she walks away if Labours poll numbers do not improve from 32-34% )
I’m Right
Are you implying that the ordinary Joe and Josie haven’t the extensive brain power to understand the long lie-in of the problems that now face us, or even understand them and their short and long-term effects? We are being taught Maori words for everyday speech. Perhaps we also need to learn more words for convoluted, complicated ideas with multiple outcomes! Ask which, what, how, etc. And then we might have better understanding for making good decisions about which fruity or fruitless politicians to vote for and which new, improved method to vote for them and the effect of the changing voting systems.
How many words are in a basic vocabulary?
Some linguists believe that 800 words are enough to hold a basic conversation. However, your vocabulary should be over 8,000 words if you want to speak a language as well as a native speaker.3/12/2021
How many words do you need to know to speak a language …
1to1progress.com ·
https://1to1progress.com › blog
********************************
How many words are in the basic English core vocabulary?
This is a list of the 850 words in the Basic English core vocabulary. These words all denote simple concepts commonly used in everyday life.
Appendix:Basic English word list – Wiktionary
wiktionary.org ·
https://en.wiktionary.org › wiki › Appe
Martyn, there are numerous amounts of people on this site dumb enough to vote National and ACT.
It’s because of there tribal beliefs and never look beyond attacking Labour for being Labour, even though, as you say, most of today’s issues were created by the neglect of the last Nact government.
It’s not rocket science.
Utter drivel.
The social housing waiting list has climbed by 22000 since 2017.
Inequality
Poverty
Gang numbers
Emissions
Coal imports
Hospital waiting times
Elective surgery numbers
Emergency response times
Ram raids
Hardship
Food grants/parcel numbers
Truancy
Kiwibuild
Lightrail
Mental health
Housing affordability
All far worse now than under the last National government and most were worsening pre-pandemic. Defend that record!
I would be the first to vote for a NAT/ACT coalition if I thought their policies would improve any of these problems.
We can only look at the Key government as what to expect. That is sale of state housing, under funding of the hospital system with an ambition to privatise and more truck roads.
Labour has let us through the pandemic with minimal disruption, our real GDP has outperformed most countries and our crumbling hospital system has kept us alive.
Ickeyboyle you are a dropkick your defense of National is vomit inducing. Everything you highlighted was born by National so fuck off.
With idiots like MickeyBoyle, National stand no chance. If National had done even a half decent job none of his issues listed would be an issue today. MickeyBoyle, just another right wing ambulance voter at the bottom of the cliff.
So National voters are dumb and so obviously Labour voters are not .To my mind not only are Labour voters dumb they must be blind and deaf to not hear or see the distress from all walks of life . Businesses no staff and fear of robber,The poor facing inflation through the roof, wage earns fear losing their job ,farmers fear regulation that will break them, medical people fear each day as things get worse in every area. Collectively they fear 3 more years of poor management and policy driven by trying to divide the country by race
Trevor. I read Josie Pagani’s simplistic drivel in today’s Dim-Post advising King Charles how to stop the Harry horror show, recoiling in despair at the trite intellectual level at which the left functions. The Nats may be no better, but this lot are not even student cafe level, and should be banished, anywhere but Bowen Street.
National voters aren’t dumb. Far from it. Even rats and possums can develop enough cunning to avoid the traps. What National party and their advocates are is greedy. They’re greedy and they’re cunning. They’re selfish, crafty and needy too. National Party people are weak basically. They’re lazy, weak willed and because of that they must be manipulative and exploitative and they must always win while whining and complaining that, that which they have far too much of is still far less than what they demand as if too much was a God given right and that’s because most Natzo’s I’ve ever had the misfortune to be saddled with believe they have God on their side to tell them how to fuck the rest of us on the deal. If there was one psychiatric term that could be used to explain national party people it’d surely be narcissistic sociopaths with just a dash of sadism. I was sitting with a friend outside that fantastic little restaurant called ‘Gusto’ on Ponsonby Road when I happened to look up to see a homeless person trudging along just as a brand new Range Rover cruised by. I noticed that Mummy, Daddy and the two kids on the back seat were sneering at the poor fucker off to sleep in the decorative shrubbery. I bet they were Labour people. The reason why there’s voting, a democracy, taxation, public spending on hospitals etc is directly because there are people like national party people from which we need to be shielded from. National Party people enjoy seeing a nice spot of poverty. Pedophiles like ron brierly can buy kids, sadists can invest in private prisons, sociopathic narcissists can create vast debt out of thin air by manipulating the RBNZ to capture then exploit young families into unpayable debts because “ Fuck yeah! Greed is good.” Aye Boys?
The national party and its adherents are psychopathic nuts. The Labour party are human beings. ( But not without it’s pro natzo deep state parasites it unfortunately has to be written lest we forget The Grand Traitor itself. The stunted moustache, the slit eyed, sneering, pig flesh farmer, the roger ‘two terms as labour minister of finance’ douglas-gnome )
Speaking of which. I wonder… if Exxon knew that their actions were to cause global climate change back in the late 70’s and early 80’s did Exxon CEO’s and exec’s future-plan by buying here? Are they behind the abomination that is the natzo’s neoliberalism? ( Yes, that’s correct. Neoliberalism’s got national party fingerprints all over it. I mean ACT? Right. There’s roger still to be found slithering around seymour the twerker. )
WARNING! May cause serious psychiatric and emotional harm and explosive vomiting.
“David Seymour and Max Key twerk together in bizarre Dancing With The Stars Instagram video”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/entertainment/2018/06/david-seymour-and-max-key-twerk-together-in-bizarre-dancing-with-the-stars-instagram-video.html
The Guardian
Exxon.
“Revealed: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s”
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jan/12/exxon-climate-change-global-warming-research
Royal commission of Inquiry urgently please.
You never acknowledge that today’s failures were born by National, why is that Trevor?
Todays failure are born by National. It’s the govt of the day’s job to fix them. That would be your incompentent LABOUR govt. Now piss off.
I preferred to be called ‘Deplorable’ rather than dumb thank you.
Yeah yeah yeah Squeaky…look I have heard/read/listened to the left moaning and handwring for years and years about ‘Rogernomics’ (like it or not, most don’t like to be reminded…a Labour minister) and how terrible it was!
Well 9yrs of Clark and now almost 6yrs of Ardern and not a fucking change to undo anything he implemented, no ‘reverse rogernomics’ policies from Labour.
So please save your faux tears about National are to blame for today’s ills when you happily forget Roger Douglas the Labour Ministers policies/actions.
History lesson over, go find your safe space now.
Same shit different day from I’m never Right.
Squeaker
Its their not there! Own goal. See how dumb you are? Talk about tribal, based on her performance, you should then definitely not vote for Jacinda.
“it’s because of there tribalist beliefs”
Tribalist? There are few tribal rightists on this site – Frank the Tank and Andrew are the only ones who come to mind. Most of the tribalists on this site are diehard lefties who think even the worst nominally leftist government is be definition better than any centre-right government. The comments of most other people on this site (myself included) show them to be former LINO voters who are dismayed by the current government’s priorities, which seem to revolve mostly around identity politics. I celebrated the end of the Key government, as I didn’t think things could get much worse. It didn’t take long to see how wrong I was. If Ardern’s priorities included things like funding legal aid properly, funding ambulances properly (they’re run by a friggin’ charity in this country), and funding universities properly (the user-pays model is wrecking tertiary education), I would still be voting for her. But instead of trying to restore equality of opportunity (surely a bottom line for the left, yes?), her government is intent on forcing false equalities of outcome, and gagging dissent. When a government embodies only the vices of the left (rather than its virtues), what point is there in voting it back in?
When the evidence changes, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?
Pope Punctilious 11. “ Gagging dissent” is the biggie here, and combined with a bought MSM, it is chilling. I now doubt the origins of Ardern’s anti-free speech stance being the terrible Muslim massacre. Add the shocking self-serving abolition of the Commissioner for Children, plus the secret agendas of a government which lied when declaring itself transparent, and there’s no way that Labour can be regarded as democratic. The Nats are as bad in their own puerile way and both have to be jettisoned. If TOP can get a footing, and Peters back in, there may be some sort of chance of new beginnings.
You lost me at only Frank the Tank and Andrew are right wing on this site, Your argument fell over right there. If you wish me to list them I will.
The voters will forgive Labour for screwing up the tar seal (wet tar seal doesn’t stick to tyres Martyn), the egg shortage due to precipitate legislation, or the CO2 shortage caused by the government failing to manage strategic logistical supply. However, they might blame the government in years to come when they run out of natural gas to heat their homes and we cannot make products such as glass bottles in NZ anymore.
But what the government will DEFINITELY blame this government for is their highly divisive race-based policies and their profligate spending on ill-considered pet projects
Profligate spending ?….You’ve got the wrong party….Pet projects like the soon to be white elephant pet project of the National Party i.e the massive multi billion dollar concrete network of irrigation channels, culverts and tunnels crisscrossing the South Island, running the river’s dry and killing off the Benthic macroinvertebrates was National’s wet dream (soon to be nightmare).
Labour didn’t screw up the tar seal. The Transmission gully fuckup amongst others was all National’s doing.. going for the cheapest lowest price with unrealistic time frames instead of factoring in quality and longevity.
Then there was the importing of cheap uncertified reinforcing steel from China they used to make our motorway flyovers that had to be redone at significant more cost and time than if they had done it properly from the out set… Penny wise …pound foolish …every time. That’s National!!
National are small- minded pea- brained short term thinkers that believe everything that is cheap and quick equals good economics. Nothing could be further from the truth. They are predominantly non practical silverspooner’s …clueless…and….they never learn…they never learn because they have never had to learn and so don’t know how to. Look at the nonsense they were talking during the Covid lockdowns and vaccination process.
Complete nonsensical ignorant and impractical gibberish. Trying to stir up trouble with childish fake stories. That was the best they could do. They had no idea.
They are fundamentally flawed as a species and you just can’t have people like that running a country.
Sco mo was a classic example of that in Australia.
eggs 12year lead in ‘precipitate’ do grow up andrew the farmers thought an incoming nat govt would recind it so hung on….now we all pay the price literally.
look at the recent floods forestry spoil you can call it slash or any other cutesy name it’s fuckin spoil from the under regulated timber industry(worker fatalities anyone?) no NZ business ever wants to pay, the actual costs of doing business.
Andrew what is laughable about the CO2 situation is all these bleating true right wingers that say the government should stay out everything the market will take care of it wank, wank. Then as soon as it goes wrong it’s the governments fault. Todd Energy have known they have a monopoly on local production for ages and they can’t even get that right. Their local competition at Marsden Point disappeared because “the market” decided local refining wasn’t giving them the margin on their money. It wasn’t the government that shut the refinery ( sure you can argue they should have bought it, but oh that’s big government it’s it?).
Andrew is right.
Labour want to give away water rights to Maori.
NZ First will support National and ACT to privatise water, rather than give it Maori.
National, ACT and NZ First in 2023.
PM Luxon; Finance Seymour; Foreign Minister Peters.
Luxon and Seymour are political lightweights compared with Mr Peters.
Neither of them deserve to have leadership roles in the 2023 Right-Wing Bloc of power. They will be there to advise and bow to the magnificent warrior, Winston Peters. Winston Raymond Peters was born before the end of the war, but he encapsulates the warrior spirit that setup modern democracies as the go to form of government.
I am a pensioner and Winston is a Gold-Card leader. He understands my demographic and he is able to span the political divides and he stands up for the downtrodden, much like his mentor, Rob Muldoon
Well obviously glorious socialism is the answer. Because we’ll do it right this time….
‘Make it so’ – Picard.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xteKObnaA2c
If any one person is responsible for “every bloody long term structural problem”, it would be one Sir R. Douglas of the Labour Party!
The “root cause of every single problem” is that the Uniparty is controlled by Wall Street (and the Martin Place banks, and some large local firms).
In other words, monopoly capital dictates policy. Those policies barely change, regardless of who is elected.
The press barons will not report on the issues Martyn is discussing. The labour movement press has entirely collapsed.
Not even the trade unions can escape the Uniparty. Like the Democrats, Labour have presided over the total collapse of the entire labour movement — in all three countries where they operate.
Until both parties are smashed to pieces by the voters, nothing will change.
This has already begun in Italy, Greece and France.
Otherwise you end up rehashing the arguments about why working class people should vote for Hillary Clinton — someone who nobody likes, and who was to the right of Donald Trump on most of the issues!
If it wasn’t Douglas it would have been Richardson and or every single finance minister we’ve ever had from any party you care to name.
@ Kristoff R.
Hang on a minute… Where have you been? Somewhere where roger douglas was never heard of I assume.
Roger douglas is many things, but specifically and in this instance, a Machiavellian confederate. He worked his way into old labour and did the bidding that was demanded of him as a two term finance minister at, no doubt, the behest of the same nine multi billionaires of his eventual making. Think short parasite with a nasty moustache? In so doing, he destroyed Old Labour’s reputation and left The Left with nowhere to turn and in so doing he paved the way for neoliberalism to get into every crack and crevice of our politics and neoliberalism’s still there to this very moment.
National, labour, act, the Maori party, the green party and NZ first are all neoliberal. Further more, I believe MMP was a mechanism used to leverage neoliberal politics into our government under the various guises of toothless political parties who we now know are nothing more than merely annoying at best. MMP’s used to sell the notion that we have options when, in reality, we don’t. It’s rogers neoliberalism or nothing at all.
And of course, neoliberalism’s all about the money no matter what it takes, and in our instance our money is agrarian so that means the natzo’s have a mandate to beguile farmers while fucking them without the kissing.
And all the while, running through our politics and our economics is the secretive, nouveau riche Urban elite who have all the money and have terrible secrets too which must now be kept under wraps no matter what because, for example, the bastards never saw the Internet coming. Aye boys?
What most people don’t yet fully comprehend is that we have no political representation. We have a complex matrix of neoliberal liars who are now far less about sequestering money and more about keeping a lid on their historic crimes, cons and swindles. That’s why we need a royal commission of inquiry with investigators brought in to act as entirely independent individuals to the matrix of lies and liars that carpet our paradise.
History will confirm this country’s current situation is caused by both Labour and National.
Jack. Agree. Both must go.
They don’t have to ‘win’. They have to cobble together a coalition to send Labour packing.
@ Reactionary Bratwurst. You’re not a thinker are you? Lucky you, you must enjoy a simple life.
If they win, we all lose.
True National are useless. But Labour are even more use less. National the lesser of two evils. That’s why you need ACT to prop up National and Labour are a dysfunction Al mess with out NZ First as a collation partner. MMP solves all those issues.
I was staggered Dr Shane Reti wasn’t in the New Year Honours list. I mean his service in the use of hypocritical bullshit is unsurpassed.
He mightn’t be National’s chief spokesperson on selling us lies to fix problems they caused, but he is the Master at carpeting bullshit over history.
His regular columns in the Northern Advocate lay out how dire things are with everything in Northland, particularly health and roading. No mention of his part in shitting in the nest to make it like it is. His blind, narrow-minded, short-sighted, sycophantic fellow party members sat on their arses for years happy to see the North ‘progress’ to where it is. Including the state of the Northland Base Hospital.
The Government says it’s going to do something about that so of course Reti and his noddies are out out their trees spluttering about the plans to re-develop the Whangarei hospital. They didn’t do anything about the state of the hospital but they’re aggrieved that the Government has only allocated $759 million for Stage one of the project.
No doubt when the project is underway the present MP Emily Henderson will have been despatched to history as a one term MP and Reti will be the Minister of Health. Hopefully he gets a big team of proctologists for the new hospital – there are a lot of arseholes up here.
https://www.northlanddhb.org.nz/news-and-publications/news-2/bigger-ed-more-theatres-and-more-beds-in-new-whangarei-hospital/
Your right Martyn and you seem to have upset the same old wayne kerrs who espouse the same old bullshit excuses for how we got in the mess we are in, in the first place.
And our mates in the UK and Aus have the same problems as us and I wonder why, now who has been in power over there.
Covid is pa — really??? Is that your thinking?? Must be nice living in the Matrix
UK – Conservatives
Aussie – was Liberals now Labour since late last year
NZ – Labour for 5+ yrs
Your point?….
How are we going to get more scientists, when Labour is busy fucking over the science system by forcing Matauranga Maori spiritualism as having primacy over science at all levels, from secondary school to tertiary.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=matauranga+maori&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post
Wow! Even back in the Dunedin band days, the lead guitarist and bass player were aware of the issues surrounding at least one of the “three waters”
They were crap Wheel
And?
Your point is?
Would the Dunedin band days have allowed Maori/Iwi total control of the councils waterworks….the whole countries?
Hey….look I’m all for Labour pushing ahead with it wheel as it will drive the polling down to under 30%
But I’m pretty sure they will be NO mention of 3(5) waters when parliament resumes from Labour up till after the election.
And when Labour lose it will all be dismantled, Mahuta and Jackson lose!
My point is I found the shirts oddly appropriate, and all your bullshit scaremongering won’t change the fact that present and future water infrastructure is not being served by the status quo (even possibly self interested councillors admit that). Are you suggesting there is no problem or is it just the co governance piece? Explain how iwi have total control?
Kristoff R is correct.
‘Until both parties are smashed to pieces by the voters, nothing will change.’
Both parties have gone far past their ‘use by’ date and are stuffed with political hacks and third raters.
If there is a candidate in my electorate I’ll vote Social Credit.
I do think National can win but I think it will be a closer race than anyone predicts. And the truth is neither big party deserves to win. They both have much to answer for but I have to say it, if you believe in democracy, its impossible to vote Labour or Greens.
There’ll be more than a few on this site whose votes will go to Winnie or TOP. For all that’s made of it, I dont actually think many of the posters on here are Tribal at all. Most see the miasma for what it is.
PS;; I should say National could win, I think its equally possible Labour may cobble it together as well but my instinct says Nats could have the edge.
with that 70s soft rock backing band they’ve got no chance
After six years of Labour, the political party which I have traditionally supported the most, I am thinking that there isn’t actually much they they can do that National cannot do also, and I am thinking that a change of government could potentially be refreshing. In addition to this, I am concerned how the Prime Minister would cope with a third term in power because the last three years of the pandemic, plus inflationary pressures, plus the probability of a recession this year, have been tough, and it is a situation, in particular on a global scale, that is likely to continue to be tough.
I would like to add that I’m proud of Jacinda Ardern so far as the way in which she has represented New Zealand. I support many Labour party policies too.
I’m not proud of a woman who went to the UNO earnestly declaring herself to be a supporter of freedom of speech and then promptly advocated global censorship of speech, describing the words which set us free as weapons of mass destruction. Trevor Mallard’s illegal attempt to have Winston Peters trespassed from Parliament for the years ahead suggests that Peters is a force to be reckoned with, and we’ve few of them on the political landscape.
David Seymour: ACT will propose a new Treaty Principles Act which would end a focus on partnership between Māori and the Crown, and which interprets tino rangatiratanga as a right to authority over property.
And we’re off!
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/130817978/david-seymour-a-vote-for-act-will-keep-national-on-the-right
There is sufficient ignorance and greed in NZ right now to facilitate a rightwing coalition win. Tragically. You are correct, all the issues Labour has faced have been caused by National – especially the John Key version. From Luxon down, the quality of National and Act members is woeful. Mediocre, unprofessional journalists (although that is far too good a name for most of them) are stoking the flames of a rightwing fire by persistently undermining the government. Layer that with the supreme idiocy of self serving specimans* who fail to understand that the society they choose to live in and which has delivered them many benefits from the time they were born, is interdependent. We each have a certain responsibility in times of crises. Certainly, Jacinda Ardern has made mistakes along the way and (I believe) has not always been served well by her team – however, she has worked tirelessly for the good of the country. But a mere slip of a girl who lives ‘in sin’ with her partner and their child, has been ripe for reprehensible derision by a sector who probably have never been referred to as ‘stallions’. *speciman – used derogatorily.
Again, my comment didn’t make it through moderation. What’s going on here? Hope you have the guts to publish this Mr Bradbury.
Yes, we need scientists, but the Labeen government is busy trying to destroy science by making Matauranga Maori ‘equal’ to science – despite the fact that it is based on Maori religion and spirituality. WTF? We’re supposed to be a secular nation, and the Education Act enshrines a secular education.
We live in a post-Covid age where science is more important than ever, but being challenged at every turn by denialists of all stripes from environmental to vaccines. So what does Labeen do? Poison the new science curriculum with spiritual nonsense.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=matauranga+maori&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post
This must stop.
Again, my comment didn’t make it through moderation. What’s going on here? Hope you have the guts to publish this Mr Bradbury.
Yes, we need scientists, but the Labeen government is busy trying to destroy science by making Matauranga Maori ‘equal’ to science – despite the fact that it is based on Maori religion and spirituality. WTF? We’re supposed to be a secular nation, and the Education Act enshrines a secular education.
We live in a post-Covid age where science is more important than ever, but being challenged at every turn by denialists of all stripes from environmental to vaccines. So what does Labeen do? Poison the new science curriculum with spiritual nonsense.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=matauranga+maori&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post
This must stop.
As a farmer can I just say ” …federated farmers…” . They’re just a small group of pro natzo tea sippers and biscuit nibblers. They’re done nothing for farming unless you could call financially and politically hobbling actual farmers something.
Out went the farmers union and in came a federation of old dull farts. Funny that. Then along came roger the rat and deregulated all unions. Double funny that.
(P.S.? Where’s my previous comment? )
every time I post it disappears. What gives?
TDB has more censorship than the CCP at this point. That said, it’s a private website and Martyn can do what he wants (and clearly does).
Labour is our only hope. Vote Jacinda. Vote Green. Chloe for PM. There, see if that gets cancelled…
Here’s the thing though – I agree with almost everything Martyn posts, but I’m opposed to some aspects of co-governance, and especially deeply concerned with what Labeen are doing to the science curriculum under the guise of so-called treaty obligations.
Already NZ has very poor teaching in maths, reading and science, and now they are in the process of dumbing the curriculum down and adding spiritualism into science!
Martyn, can I respectfully suggest you do a post, or even better allow me to write a post, about what Labour is doing to our science education and how appalling it will be for the future of our children.
Here’s hoping my exceptionally mild, uncontroversial views will make it through the censor.
Martyn is presently away, though censorship is an issue too.
Wish you would.
But, you won’t.
Right-whinge cockroach
Again, my comment didn’t make it through moderation. What’s going on here? Hope you have the guts to publish this Mr Bradbury.
Yes, we need scientists, but the Labeen government is busy trying to destroy science by making Matauranga Maori ‘equal’ to science – despite the fact that it is based on Maori religion and spirituality. WTF? We’re supposed to be a secular nation, and the Education Act enshrines a secular education.
We live in a post-Covid age where science is more important than ever, but being challenged at every turn by denialists of all stripes from environmental to vaccines. So what does Labeen do? Poison the new science curriculum with spiritual nonsense.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=matauranga+maori&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post
This must stop.
Again, my comment didn’t make it through moderation – now using ID#2. What’s going on here? Hope you have the guts to publish this Mr Bradbury.
Yes, we need scientists, but the Labeen government is busy trying to destroy science by making Matauranga Maori ‘equal’ to science – despite the fact that it is based on Maori religion and spirituality. WTF? We’re supposed to be a secular nation, and the Education Act enshrines a secular education.
We live in a post-Covid age where science is more important than ever, but being challenged at every turn by denialists of all stripes from environmental to vaccines. So what does Labeen do? Poison the new science curriculum with spiritual nonsense.
https://whyevolutionistrue.com/?s=matauranga+maori&orderby=relevance&order=DESC&post_type=post
This must stop.
How come we are reading your comments when they didn’t make it through the filter??? There must be a modern scientific explanation for this….?
Because they were all blocked and only now made it through in a batch.
I guess also the Mauri of my posts was so high they just flowed down hill onto this site. Or some other ridiculous unscientific crap explanation.
The only way National/ACT lose the coming election is some sort of epic scandal or maybe a new global catastrophe where the current government can capitalise on their “leadership”. Outside of that, I’d say <20% chance Labour/Greens form the next government.
Based on donations, the elections are Nacts to lose. Based on policy, Nact have no chance.
And to @ Nitrium.
a) As you acknowledege, TDB is His blog and He can do what he wants
b) I think He might have a life outside TDB, and comments may appear when He gets around to moderating and posting them. He could be liable for the shit, or words of wisdom people post, especially as lil ole NuZull that punches above its weight moves toward a more litigious, and look-at-me-look-at-me- I’m-the-most-important-commenter-on-Earth.
c) Dropping everything else that might be going on in His life in order to process comments says more about the commenter than the moderator
I’m still waiting for a couple of comments to appear, and its possible they won’t ever. OR they may when things that are today’s issues become yesterday’s fish and chip wrapper.
There are a few things I don’t like about TDB. Martyn appears to be playing the media at its own game (and is probably winning). Media stardom and self promoters, big egos and bullshit artists. The difference seems to be that most of the posters (as opposed to commenters) have a bit of substance.
and d), As @ R Smith notes: Martyn is probably away dealing with other aspects of His life. (Must be a conspiracy eh? – to avoid posting comments he doesn’t like!!!)