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notices and features - Date published:
6:00 am, August 13th, 2025 - 45 comments
Categories: open mike -
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Open mike is your post.
For announcements, general discussion, whatever you choose.
The usual rules of good behaviour apply (see the Policy).
Step up to the mike …
Today's Posts (updated through the day):
What does this Government have against Te Reo Māori?
New Post up:
What does this Government have against Te Reo Māori?
https://www.thepress.co.nz/business/360784095/pay-cheques-soar-miners-flood-coast-biggest-opportunity-generation
Just something for the greens to keep in mind when they ate in government next year, goid paying jobs that help the west coast diversify away from coal!
This has to be the most militantly racist settler government since probably the 60s, and I'd suggest that could be the 1860s.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360789352/education-minister-cut-maori-words-future-junior-books-documents-reveal
The well spring of the extraordinary and systemic racism of this government should demand more examination by the MSM, but as usual they are MIA on this.
I mean, the racist revanchism is incredible and obvious. Luxon and more importantly the imported American ideas of prosperity doctrine and white Christian nationalism that informs so many of his bigoted cabinet needs to be challenged.
You are not wrong. From changing Ministry letterheads, insisting on English first names of Ministries and public agencies through to the pay equity negation and the blatant subtle greetings these pollies use.
Constant erasure and diminishing of our unique culture.
More disturbing is that it is resonating within the public. Far easier to blame the Maori if times are tough, money and opportunity low.
….and changing NZ passports demoting Maori script (Te Reo) to second place….which come to think of demoting Maori to second place is what this government is doing with all of its policies.
Note to COC: Maori were here first.
They borderline could wear white pillow cases and hold burning crosses.
The worry is it has a constituency, all these actions and tanking the economy aaand… they are neck and neck with the opposition.
It beggars belief.
By a speed-wrecking gang we are led.
Paul Campbell has an X/Twitter thread with several egs of MPs in the House calling other MPs 'spineless' in the past.
The first tweet in the thread:
2nd tweet:
So, maybe Chloe Swarbrick should refuse to apologise today, let it be referred to the Privileges Committee, and see if saying MPs lack spine re Palestine stands up to scrutiny?
She most definitely should not apologize, fuck brownlee the weak spineless fool.
As a slight tangent to yr comment;
Swarbrick could open up the korero around MPs religious beliefs stopping them from doing what is right.
I understood there are a couple of verses (not sure where) in the bible that state if you condemn Israel then you will be condemned.
There appear to be a higher proportion of religious MPs than in the general population.
More like the early 1930s. Plenty of people got rich during the depression. The rest more or less starved. Even here in NZ, there were work camps and subsequent riots.
Māori knew their place, and so did women.
Reads exactly what ACT and NZ1 want. National are an irrelevance in this government.
Mt initial reaction was the same as yours then i read this para, and thought maybe it's not so bad?
It's just a softening up. Quite frankly there is no reason that words in Te Reo Maori should not be used from day one at school. There are many things that might cause confusion in the english lanaguage it is pure racism that sees this one picked out..
I started school at Huntly West Primary in the late 70s there certainly was Te Reo on my first day of school, this country has gone backwards for sure.
Yep. As an ex-teacher of young children, and a post grad qualification in education language and literacy, I totally agree.
Stanford seems to have a poor understanding of the place of phonics in literacy, which is in keeping with a reactionary focus on phonics over the need for it to be in the context of reading for meaning and engagement.
English is a complex language phonically. eg, consider the 'oo' letters in poor and food: 1 is an aw sound and the other is an 'ooooo' sound; likewise, 'love' and 'lose'; 'one' and 'fun'. And even more complex with 'silent' consonants are in play: 'night' and 'knight' etc.
Furthermore, in speech, the words before and after another word can influence spoken language: eg 'boys and girls', usually pronounced something like 'boyz n girlz'; 'night and day', usually pronounced 'naid n dei'.
Let's not forget that what we call English contains many foreign-derived words. What's wrong with the trend towards incorporating Maori into the English used here?
Incorporating foreign words into English, it happens all the time & there is nothing the stupid govt can do about that thankfully. Language is a trend, a fashion, it isn't a science.
Even other English speaking countries use different words, for instance I've been renovating my kitchen & I was telling an American friend about my rimu splashback & over there they're called backsplash, how strange is that.
Bill Brysons fantastic book on English is really fascinating.
Yes it should, but then the wellsprings of virtually nothing are examined, either because MSM lack any interest in it, or don't believe it sells while horserace commentary does. The wellsprings are interesting and there are some obvious components to it:
Hey all!
I'm trying to find a story a few months (?) ago, detailing Nicola Willis seeking policy advice from RW thinkttank, NZ Inititiative.
Can anyone recall specifics of it? fmacskasy@gmail.com
Hey all!
I'm trying to find a story a few months (?) ago, detailing Nicola Willis seeking policy advice from RW thinkttank, NZ Inititiative.
Can anyone recall specifics of it?
Did you try the Nicola Willis tag?
https://thestandard.org.nz/category/government-and-politics/politicans/nicola-willis/
Hi, Weka, yup. Tried it, plus variations. I got a really helpful email (thanks, Harry) and they couldn't find anything.
I may've read a social media post somewhere and conflated it with a media story?
This NZ Herald article mentions Adrian Orr, Willis seeking advice, and the NZ Initiative, but you'd have to join the dots – there's no mention of Willis directly seeking advice from the NZ Initiative.
Prof. MacCulloch joins a few dots in this 10th of May opinion – on the 12th of May he posted “DownToEarth.Kiwi Closing Due to Threats from National & Labour Parties & Big Business NZ Incorporated”:
Bryce Edwards writes that "in a country that used to pride itself on transparency and egalitarianism, his [Prof. MacCulloch's] decision to retreat from public commentary reveals an uncomfortable truth: that challenging elites in New Zealand has real personal costs, and that the incentives are stacked against dissent."
Thanks, Kram.
Whilst not quite what I recalled, the links you've shared are invaluable in their own right and have been bookmarked for future reference.
Thank you for taking the time to research and share.
Thanks Frank, all the best.
An encouraging political message from a leader of the Australian Liberal Party to New Zealand's energy ministers: addressing climate change in the energy sector really can deliver political benefits:
Australia could be about to leapfrog NZ on climate targets | RNZ News
Looking forward to some of our gas-reliant mid-scale businesses actually holding energy companies to account for their ursary.
It really is a great pity the contributions from Nick Rockel, Mountain Tui and Frank Macskasy no longer appear on The Standard in the right hand column. They are excellent, so topical and relevant to these turbulent times in NZ. They should be read as widely as possible to keep us informed about what is happening daily. They are missed greatly.
https://thestandard.org.nz/daily-review-01-08-2025/#comment-2040315
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-06-08-25/#comment-2040666
https://thestandard.org.nz/contact-us/donate/
Bookmark the sites you’re interested in so that you can visit them as often as you like. For example:
https://nickrockel.substack.com/
https://mountaintui.substack.com/
https://substack.com/@frankmacskasy
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/
Thank you, Reality, for including me with Nick and MT. They're both outstanding writers, along with Emily Writes. If I'm included in such fine company, well, I'm chuffed!
This is a government where Lux’s deal with Seymour overrides Victoria’s deal with Maori.
And it seems that it’s more important that doctors take an oath to the National Party, than that they observe their hippocratic one.
http://norightturn.blogspot.com/2025/08/gagging-medical-professions.html
Careful now RNZ.
It appeared to be get out or get gagged back then with the flood of senior departures.
Carmel Sepuloni did well against Goldsmith on the RNZ panel this morning (listen below), but when attacked by Goldsmith on the previous government's so-called overspending, while correctly saying that much of this spending was on propping up business through Covid (which as she said National wanted them to spend even more on) she should also have mentioned the massive costs of the East Cape and Auckland cyclones that Labour had to deal with.
AI tells me the cost of these cyclones was between $9.5 billion and $14 billion.
When all this is taken into account it is clear Robertson did a great job.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018999707/political-panel-with-national-and-labour
The left should have that total response ready every time the right bring it up. A repetitive sound bite, couple of sentences would cover it. That's what the right have been doing for the best part of three years, and it's the only way to combat it.
Totally.
Sepuloni is a terrible media performer IMO and it ain't getting any better.
Drove through her electorate a few weeks back and yeah everyones doing just fine Carmel.
Her free hits on bFM she gets along with national show the difference in media performance levels.
Its a worry.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/569863/green-party-co-leader-chloe-swarbrick-named-for-refusing-to-leave-parliament
Brownlee doubles down on his making-decisions-on-the-fly approach despite the complete lack of proportionality and precedence.
For example:
https://www.parliament.nz/mi/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20240723_053880000/mcanulty-kieran
Brownlee’s claims are increasingly hard to take seriously. He brings the speakership into disrepute.
Brownlee is not a good speaker. He is only a slight improvement on Mallard.
Except Mallard never tried to throw an old man down a set of stairs.
According to RNZ Winston Peters said she should not have been ejected from the house.
Trust the Bushop on faith:
ignore academics, construction industry leaders, economists from banks, economists not from banks, opposition figures, polite local business associations, housing advocates, and according to uncle Simon (corrected for Anglo-Saxon first doctrine) E Brown doctors too are not to be trusted. Oh and Maori of course. Constitutional experts. Human rights experts. Environmental and climate change researchers, experts and activists. Women.
The UN. The credit rating agencies.
These are the people who are wrong.
And Chris Bishop is right.
and let the farmers do what they like, ffs. They’re noisy, tiresome, entitled and have guns.
Thank you Incognito for giving the links for Nick Rockel (I am a subscriber to his columns but used to enjoy the comments from other readers when his columns were in The Standard). Also thanks for the links for Mountain Tui and Frank Macskasy. I appreciate your gesture.
For your convenience:
https://emilywrites.substack.com/