Satire by Geoffrey Churchman

“The beach at Paraparaumu is accreting, but not fast enough,” said Gurunathan, the Prophet of the Kapiti Coast to a gathering of his Sahabah on Thursday. “We cannot wait many years for the seawater to be replaced with sand, we must all go to the Island now.”

“There must be a grand temple to reflect the spiritual importance of the Island,” said Gurunathan. “Its fame has spread around the world.  Once we have our temple, people will make the pilgrimage from many countries to see it.  It may even eclipse the Palais de Versailles and the Taj Mahal as the place to visit in one’s lifetime.” He added, “There is a story about someone once swimming three miles between the mainland and the Island, but pilgrims no longer need to swim, we have waka now.”

By majority vote the Sahabah approved the building of a temple to be a place of embarkation for the sacred journey to the Island.

A member of the Sahabah, Hollowborrow, said the many disciples of Gurunathan on the Kapiti Coast will gladly pay the costs of building and then operating the temple.  “The people love their Prophet; their contribution of 86 Dinars each is a small sacrifice for them to make. And when the tens of thousands, if not millions, of pilgrims arrive every year who will each pay 22 Dinars to enter the temple, we should be in annual surplus.”

“Even if they are not spiritual people, there are tourists who will want to see the manu that are rarely seen on the mainland,” said Bushel, another member of the Sahabah. But she rejected the widely held belief that there are arewhana to be seen, whether white or any other colour.

New Zealand has been in lockdown for far too long and needs to be at level 1 now with a trans-Tasman bubble already operating. —Winston Peters

Cracks in the Coalition 

By Roger Childs

After a solid front during Lockdown so far, chinks are now appearing in the coalition government’s unity. The Greens are not happy that people who have lost their jobs during the Covid-19 crisis will soon get a benefit considerably higher than other job seekers. New Zealand First’s Winston Peters wants the government to move quickly to Level 1. There is a compelling case for doing so and it is hard to understand Jacinda’s reluctance.

Put the economy first!

There is now only one active case in the entire country, so why delay going to Level 1? The country has successfully negotiated its way through Levels 3 and 2 with bars now open and in some big colleges over a thousand schoolkids have been inter-mingling for nine days. The danger of further cases occurring is minimal. Level 1 would mean that there would be no limits on the size of gatherings and social distancing would not be required. 

Crucially, it would allow the economy to fully open, with the exception of overseas travel.

• Crowds would be able to see sports fixtures and concerts live and put money in the stadium tills.
• Cafés and restaurants would be able to function as normal and pack the customers in as they did before the crisis.
• Bars could have patrons being able to stand as well as dance.
• Planes could have normal seating. 

Jacinda suggests that cabinet will decide in 10 days’ time with 22 June the likely date for the change, but why wait for three weeks? The longer the government delays the more businesses will go down the tubes and the more jobs will be lost. How about deciding next Tuesday? It seems that the decision hangs on the advice of Lord High Protector, Ashley Bloomfield. 

We have to get to Level 1 quickly to allow the economy any chance of full recovery. Furthermore we need to look at letting in foreigners who will spend big bucks, on the basis of compulsory testing and a 14 day quarantine. Also how about the foreign students who are itching to return and are worth millions of dollars to the country? They could have mandatory health checks in their home countries and then self-isolate on arrival. 

The link up with Australia is being investigated and it seems logical that with safeguards, this could be done on a state by state basis if necessary. Aussie snow sports enthusiasts and other visitors would be very welcome in the tourist spots around the country.

Losing the plot?

The government has succeeded in the key objective of eliminating the Covid-19 virus and in a day or two there will be no active cases. Jacinda’s popularity at present is remarkably high and the Labour Party’s massive lead in the latest polls has recently forced National to make a change of leadership. But political advantage can quickly evaporate and the public, which overwhelmingly approved of the handling of the lockdown, is getting tired of restrictions. They want to go back to the way things were in bars, cafés and restaurants, and go and watch sport and entertainment in large numbers. 

The Covid-19 health danger has passed so it’s time to focus fully on the health of the economy. 

We should go to Level 1 without delay to remove petty restrictions on all businesses and get the country on the path to recovery!

An architect-designed house will likely be one of distinction, this example dates from 2012.  From Architecture Now:

“Richard Middleton of Architects: Novak+Middleton was commissioned by his clients to design a house for an historic site south of Waikanae. The site, which is called Te Rama, is in a rural setting and drops down to the Waikanae river valley and on to the Kapiti Coast beyond.

“Te Rama translates as torchlight, and refers to when local Maori used to light fires there to guide canoes in safely from Kapiti Island. The site has strong characteristics, with established gardens, a swimming pool, a grass tennis court and a protected native reserve running along the northern side. There were also a number of sheds and a cottage that the clients had been living in on the site, a large protected tree, and an old dairy building (where butter would once have been made).”

Full article with more pictures

You can’t help wondering how long websites like The BFD will last when Andrew Little gets his “Hate Speech” laws…  Of course, it’s the reaction and counter to the daily hagiographies from TV1/TV3/NZME/Stuff so they’ll get their share of Government handouts.  The reality is somewhere between the two.

George Lucas is not exactly renowned as the greatest writer of dialogue in modern cinema, but his Revenge of the Sith contains at least one sharply observant line: So this is how liberty dies – with thunderous applause. It is referring, of course, to the rapturous reception given to newly-appointed dictator Senator Palpatine – behind whose benevolent mask lurks the sinister Emperor.

There are few leaders garnering more thunderous applause – at least from the global media elite – than Jacinda Ardern. But, behind Ardern’s unctuous mask of “kindness” lurks a Sith lord whose incipient malevolence is exceeded only by her economic incompetence.

Just as Senator Palpatine manipulates the threat of the Trade Federation to enact sweeping “emergency powers”, Jacinda Ardern has used the Wuhan pandemic crisis to grant her government extraordinary new power. Power so sinister that even the normally supinely left-wing Human Rights Commission is alarmed.

Full article

Winston isn’t happy — News item   The people react..

Another $84 per family to visit Kapiti Island!

By Christopher Ruthe

The Mayor is selling the Kapiti Island $4.6 million Gateway project as a splendid idea. He convinced the previous Council to spend $1.4 million on land he said would be great for the Gateway project. That money is already gone. That white elephant is not being used for the Gateway. So how does the Mayor’s latest investment project rank among all his splendid ideas?

It will cost ratepayers

The $4.6 million is a guestimate. Remember the Aquatic Centre that went from costing $9 million for a 50 metre pool to approximately $22 million for a 25 metre pool, and the estimated income was double what was actually achieved? Going on past performance, expect the same again.

He wants to give it get priority ahead of restoring the Waikanae Library for instance. Why?

The Mayor claims $5.4 million per annum benefit to Kapiti economy. There is nothing I can find in a report KCDC has received that supports that figure. However, it clearly states that it will cost ratepayers a minimum of $300,000 in the next 3 years.

The projected income for KCDC starts at $256,000 per annum, increasing to $350,000 in the next 4 years. The report on the project does not say where the money comes from, but presumably from visitors to the Gateway. If 14,000 visit the Gateway that is $18.28 per person, add GST $2.72, and everyone will be paying $21 — on top of the existing ticket price. If customers baulk at paying this, undoubtedly the ratepayer will have to pick up the tab, just as it is subsidizing each swimmer $13 at the Aquatic Centre.

Projections based on false figures

The projections for use of the gateway are based on up to 58,000 visits to the Island according to In a feasibility study was completed by Tourism Research Consultants Limited (TRC) for Council.

I have spoken to DOC and they say there is no ability to have such an increase in numbers. The Conservator said there had to be a significant restriction on numbers for conservation reasons.

DOC is not paying

The Department of Conservation should be paying for what is a bio security facility. It is paying nothing. The boat companies are paying nothing. The accommodation owners are paying nothing. None of these parties who have a direct interest want to pay. Why, because they now adding $84.00 for a building for ticket sales and bio-security is a fundamentally flawed idea.

I referred DOC to not only the number projections, but also a Council Report saying DOC will double the width of the existing track, and will build a series of alternative tracks so visitor numbers can increase to 58,000.

The Conservator said he had no knowledge of such plans and would be surprised if DOC would agree to such large scale works on a conservation estate.

The Covid-19 economic reality ignored

No consideration has been given to the economic impact of the lockdown, with tens of thousands facing unemployment, and discretionary income likely to be hit. KCDC has sought no expert advice on reduced foreign tourists and the detrimental effect of each visitor paying an extra $21 for an island visit.

Refusal to meet current obligations

The Council is already highly indebted. It refused to bring its library book budget up to the NZ standard because it pleads poverty. It has put off the Waikanae Library for up to 10 years. That library is shut due entirely to the negligence of Council staff and previous councilors failing in their governance duties.

Rather than sort that out, this new Council seems hell bent on forking out subsidies for out-of-town visitors to have a nice departure lounge, Their interest far outweighs that of Ratepayers who are basically library-less in Waikanae. Perhaps the intention is to close it forever? A number of anti-library councilors got dumped in the last election. Do the few remaining ones continue to hold sway?

There are plenty of women’s rights campaigners out there — what makes Yasmine different is given away by her surname.  She is the author of Unveiled : How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam which she had to self-publish as no mainstream publisher would touch it (they know what happened with Jyllands-Posten of Denmark and Charlie Hebdo of France, for example).

Her twitter handle is #HijabIsRapeCulture which came to the fore last year with Jacinda wearing one in public at least three times in her misguided, ignorant virtue signalling.

Listen to the interview here

In the interview she mentions the Muslim Brotherhood which began in Egypt — there has been conflict between it and the country’s rulers since the 1950s, and there is this clip below of President Nasser laughing at the Muslim Brotherhood in 1958 for suggesting that women should be required to wear the hijab and that Islamic law should be enforced across the country.

The Muslim Brotherhood has now been designated as a terrorist organisation by the Egyptian government; President El Sisi has tried to persuade President Trump to do the same in the U.S.