In Herr Merz’s 4th Reich, a.k.a. Germany, they are 40% up on NZ, and in the Netherlands even more at 52% higher.

But in Russia it’s less than half. The Trump administration has lifted sanctions on Russian oil, so why doesn’t NZ start buying from Russia? We know the Globalist Cabal which NZ’s government (all major parties) support doesn’t like Russia, but it would be much welcomed by ordinary people and it may soon become essential.

https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/gasoline_prices

from Australian History plus

The Chiko Roll, an Australian savoury snack, was invented by Frank McEncroe in 1951 and inspired by the Chinese spring roll.

Frank McEncroe, a boilermaker from Bendigo, Victoria, turned to catering at football matches and other outdoor events.

The Chiko Roll made its official debut at the Wagga Wagga Agricultural Show in 1951.

It was first sold as the “Chicken Roll” despite not containing chicken.

The snack was designed to be easily eaten on the move without a plate or cutlery.

Since 1995, Chiko Rolls have been made by Simplot Australia.

The filling is primarily cabbage and barley, as well as carrot, green beans, beef, beef tallow, wheat cereal, celery, and onion.

At the peak of its popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, 40 million Chiko Rolls were sold annually in Australia. The product has been described as an Australian cultural icon

Except of course, the beneficiaries are system elites and not ordinary people.

by David Farrar

ACT Deputy Leader Brooke van Velden has announced she will retire at the election, after two terms as an MP. She is only 33 years old and many (including me) thought she would succeed David Seymour as ACT leader.

This is a big loss for ACT. I worked with Brooke on the End of Life bill when she was a staffer, and it was clear back then how talented she was. She worked with MPs from Greens, Labour, NZ First etc to get the bill through (as did David Seymour, whose bill it was). Her Holidays Act reform is a masterclass in good policy and politics.

I am sure she will do amazing things in her next career, and it will probably be one that will give her a better work life balance.

ACT hope to still retain Tamaki, but without Brooke standing it will be challenging. National’s Mahesh Muralidhar should go buy a lotto ticket as it is a very lucky week for him!

by Geoffrey Churchman

The announcement was a big surprise for me when the Leftist Legacy Media reported it yesterday (something that clearly delighted them), but on reflection it’s understandable.

Parliament is a brutalising arena and you need to be made of tough material to withstand it, particularly if you’re a minister. The opposition will constantly throw barbs at you and if it’s a Leftist opposition, it’s much worse. Not all Leftists are bad people — I have a small number of them as friends — but plenty of them are horrible, and the way some of them behave just leave you shaking your head, wondering what’s wrong with them.

Last year, Brooke van Velden took the time in Parliament to call out the Stuffer Andrea Vance for her disgusting tirade in the Sunday Times: “I do not agree with the clearly gendered and patronising language that Andrea Vance used to reduce senior cabinet ministers to ‘girlbosses”, ‘hype-squads’, references to ‘girl math’, and ‘cunts’.” Then she turned her fire back to Labour’s Jan Tinetti, criticising the former minister for women for repeating parts of “a clearly misogynistic article” in the house.

When the Treaty Principles Bill episode was concluded last year I said that all of ACT’s MPs deserved a medal for bravery because of the vitriol that had been thrown at them by Iwi radicals and Leftists. Even though the Bill itself was fatally flawed (the Treaty of Waitangi did not mention any principles), it was a good attempt to stimulate discussion about eliminating the Leftist systemic rascism that was massively increased under the Jacinda regime.

At present a Minister in Cabinet gets about $NZ 320K a year, which for a probable 80-100-hour work week isn’t a lot. In Brooke’s case, at her age it no doubt means she misses out on a lot of the social life that her contemporaries enjoy. Although a senior position in a big company in the private sector won’t reduce the work time requirement a lot, it will pay better and take her out of the Leftist Legacy Media spotlight.

by Matua Kahurangi

The official Courts of New Zealand account just nuked its presence on X with this whimper of a farewell tweet:

“You will now find Courts of New Zealand updates on our other social media channels. Visit the Courts of New Zealand website to find out more: sen.nz/5vtq73”

Translation: “We’re out. Don’t @ us anymore. Go subscribe to our e-mail list like good little sheep.”

Let’s talk numbers, because reality doesn’t lie even if our courts do. Their X account had built a respectable following of around 6,300 Kiwis who actually cared enough to hit follow for judgments, lists, and the occasional judicial word salad.

Now? They’ve pivoted to their shiny new Bluesky account. How many followers there? A pathetic 260, depending on the hour you check. That’s not a migration. That’s a funeral procession for relevance. Congrats, courts. You’ve traded an audience that actually engages for a ghost town run by people who think “engagement” means circle-jerking in safe spaces.

But here’s the part that’s not surprising at all: Bluesky has become a notorious haven for accounts that openly brag about being “MAPs” – Minor Attracted Persons, the cutesy rebrand pedophiles use to launder their sickness into something that sounds like a support group for lactose intolerance. These aren’t fringe weirdos hiding in the dark web. They’re out in the open, posting flags, demanding “destigmatisation,” and pushing the same normalisation playbook that’s been tried (and rightly rejected) everywhere else. Whole threads, whole communities. Heaps of them. Treating attraction to kids like it’s just another quirky identity to celebrate with parades and pronouns.

Bluesky and the revolting push to normalise paedophilia

I don’t care how many syllables you add or how clinical you try to sound. If you are an adult who is sexually attracted to children, you are not a misunderstood victim of stigma. You are a threat that society has every right to reject. You’re a pedophile.

Read full story

Make it make sense.

Actually, it does make sense when you look at the track record. New Zealand courts have form for treating sex offenders and their enablers with all the steel of a wet noodle. Light sentences, early releases, endless “rehabilitation” programs that somehow never quite rehabilitate. Slaps on the wrist for crimes that destroy lives. While the public screams for actual justice, the judiciary keeps handing out community service and therapy vouchers like it’s a participation trophy ceremony.

No wonder they feel more at home on Bluesky. X under Elon Musk is messy, unfiltered, and lets the public call bullshit in real time. Bluesky? It’s the polite, curated garden where uncomfortable truths get moderated into oblivion and the freaks get to flourish in the undergrowth. Perfect for an institution that’s been soft on predators for years.

This isn’t about “other social media channels” as the tweet sheepishly claims. It’s a deliberate retreat to a platform with a documented tolerance for the very ideology that turns children into targets. While real New Zealanders are stuck dealing with the consequences of weak sentencing. Victims ignored, communities betrayed. The courts are over on Bluesky, high-fiving their tiny echo chamber and pretending they’re above it all.

Well, here’s the message from the real world: Your 6,300+ followers on X didn’t follow you for polished press releases. They followed for accountability. Running away to a pedo-adjacent playground with 43 followers isn’t “modernising communication.” It’s cowardice wrapped in a blue check.

The public isn’t going to follow you there. And the ones who do? Let’s just say their “minor attraction” might explain the enthusiasm.

Bluesky was set up as the alternative to Twitter for Leftists after Elon Musk bought Twitter to protect free speech. Tellingly, Bluesky was exempted from the social media ban for under 16s by Australia’s Albo government. There are now two obvious reasons why. —Eds