People need to understand the difference between having an aim to reduce (insert negative social stat here) generally, versus the aim to redress a specific historical grievance. With the later of course it wouldn't include everyone at not everyone shares that grievance.

Relevant Trevor Noah clip https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fVa-HAsB-xQ

Sure thing, it's still just plain ol' ethnic nationalism whichever way you want to cut it.

I don't think there are that many people who would be interested in understanding this that don't have some grasp of it.

Calling redress racism is just one more cynical ploy of those who leverage injustice for power. Parroted by poor buggers compelled to shill against their own interests, strings pulled by systems of influence that power affords.

It's one thing to feel sympathy for hypothetical/historic people who have been hard done by.

It's another thing to hand out money unfairly to a specific small group of people who a) didn't suffer anything in the past, and b) have managed to get enough power to manipulate those with money to give to them. (ie, the Maori party)

I'm part Maori. Simon is part Maori. I'm sure others on here have Maori in their family. I can guarantee that the "solution" demanded is money (not specific social assistance with specific problems), and as with all resources, distribution is the problem, not necessarily the existence of said resources.

I don't have a problem with saying out loud "Maori were treated unfairly in the past", and believing it. But I do have a problem with giving millions/billions to a bunch of modern day cunts who use their Maori-ness to get things that others don't, and then keeping it for themselves, solving no problems at all.

I admire your empathy, but I don't believe that historic wrongs/injustice can be corrected simply by giving money [or land revoked from people who paid for it legitimately] to people who didn't suffer any of it.

Do they want an apology? Fine. Sorry guys. People I am not related to treated people we are both related to badly. But your problems today cannot be solved by money, or special treatment. Your issues are your own, and if you need to speak to someone to work through your issues, then good luck, because they're all trying to convince people that being born in the wrong body is hyper important, or quitting because the world has gone mad.

National would scrap Reserve Bank's sustainable house price requirements

You better hope you own a home before National is back in power, because they're pulling the ladder up as far as they can.

Stats NZ still haven't recovered. Very convenient.

Stats NZ scurries to rescue census

.

National would 'absolutely' take money from China to pay for roads

I just want $500m a year for mental health reform, maybe another $100m for more general social services.

But we don't got money for that.

When it comes to roads tho, $24b is all goods, and borrowing is suddenly on the cards.

Bald faced neoliberalism. 🤦

National decides they don't need the youth vote.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon this morning revealed his policy to ban cellphones at schools, to help children focus on their lessons.

Total support. It's been a school policy of my kids' place for a while and recently became government policy in this entire state.

School policy I'm fine with. Each to their own. Both my kids go to two different schools where that's the policy.

To make it an outright ban with no autonomy left to individual schools is heavy handed, but also not needed IMO.

It's not like there needs to be a political policy of creating a national ban on school bullying. Each school obviously deals with it today and enforces it in their own way.
If students are going against the school policies today, having it be a political policy isn't going to change any individual's behavior, and does nothing to set a standard for enforcement.
At the very most it'll set an expectation for parents that the school will create a policy if one doesn't exist today, but I'd expect most schools to already have one, and if they don't by now, they'll be very unlikely to enforce a policy despite any national ban.


Making it a political policy adds no value. It comes across as a self-righteous moral talking point.

Nobody will notice, because anything National does that looks like it's about trying to fix New Zealand's disastrous third-world education results simply draws attention to Labour's utter failure in that sector. I'm sure National is quite happy for this phone issue to put education policy on the front page of Stuff for as long as possible.

Yeah, that's NZ politics. Setting up failure that can be leveraged for future sound bites.

All the agonising over spending in public health and education, yet boom-boom billions for roads without a blink.

I'm not sure how much Labour could really do. You have to imagine the ministry is fairly frozen, given the whole debacle with that Shakespeare event. Imagine being the PM trying to get shit done, but having to put that aside because the public is having a wobbly about the education ministry trying to shuffle around the little money it has?

But billions for roads.

I guess we haven't suffered enough yet.

Has anyone said "nanny state" yet?

Its only nanny state when the left does it. When the right does it, its something about cleaning up the mess from the left.

Nanny State is when the government takes away the ability of families to decide how their own households will operate. Like, when and how parents juggle maternity and paternity leave.

National’s diplomatic fossil fuel problem

Cheeky darkies.