from theBFD —

“Jump aboard this waka” is the party line among supporters for what has become New Zealand’s fastest-growing political party.

Advance New Zealand Co-Leader Billy Te Kahika, who is contesting Labour Party Deputy Leader Kelvin Davis’s seat in the Te Tai Tokerau electorate, has already been polled by Colmar Brunton coming in third equal with Winston Peters and Christopher Luxon on 1% in New Zealand’s most preferred Prime Minister poll – an astonishing feat for a movement that is only a few months old.

Indeed, ever since the announcement of the New Zealand Public Party’s alliance under the Advance New Zealand banner at their campaign launch at the Logan Campbell Centre in July, the media menagerie have been trying to make sense of it all.

At a time when cancel culture and social unrest began simmering overseas, everyday New Zealanders began devising their own unique solution to voice their concerns over the blatant mishandling of the health crisis and the erosion of political freedoms.

In typical Kiwi fashion, they did something legendary – they built themselves a waka.

This proverbial waka is a movement which first took wind on the sails of social media, and which gathered support from all corners of the nation – regardless of race, religion, gender or income bracket. Te Kahika, who describes himself as a reluctant politician, soon found himself at the helm of a people’s movement that continued to grow beyond all expectations.

Electoral conditions stipulate that in order to stand for election, a party must secure at least five hundred and fifty registered members. Speaking of the party’s record-shattering momentum, Te Kahika has remarked “Normally, I’m told it can take weeks, it could take months, it could take a year for you to get your five hundred and fifty registered members. We did it in two days.” and that “We average a thousand new members a week since the day that we started. We average one to two hundred new members a day.”

Full article

(Needless to say, the Establishment and its Mainstream Media have been quick to pour scorn on Billy TK, labelling him a ‘Maori white supremacist’ among other things. —Eds)

by Bruce Moon

Nelson is generally considered to be one of the more congenial cities in New Zealand and perhaps in the world – the climate mild and the people relaxed.  As is to be expected, there are rather less residents of part-Maori descent than in most North Island towns.  They are well integrated into the community, at least as noted by this observer, and follow a variety of trades and other occupations.  Nelson also has a good record in welcoming refugees and settlers from other parts of the world, Bhutanese of Nepalese descent being just one example.  The children of both newly settled and old play together happily at kindergarten, all well on the way to becoming good citizens of their town and country.

People being what they are, some years ago a move was initiated to confer more political power on those of part-Maori descent, giving them a special Maori ward on the Nelson City Council.  In a ratepayer-initiated poll in May 2012, 79% of voters rejected this move.  The result was abundantly clear – Nelson did not want such racist privilege.

And so councillors elected in 2019 were surely well aware of the wishes of those they were to represent.

But in New Zealand, racism never sleeps.  At its meeting on 22 September, the Nelson City Council “voted not to pursue a Maori ward”, citing “discriminatory laws” as a reason.

Well now, just by what twisted line of reasoning does our worthy Council consider that legislation is “discriminatory” — in the reported words of Mayor Rachel Reese — when it protects us against flagrant racism which would give more power to one section of the community?  Moreover, she is to write to the Local Government Minister, asking for a change to the 2001 Local Electoral Act to remove this protection of what she calls, inexplicably a “discriminatory piece of legislation” which is there to thwart racist discrimination!

To all this, Ngati Rarua spokesman Shane Graham comments “All we want is a voice at the table, … to partner with our partners”.  Well, what other special interest group would not likewise want “a voice at the table”?  Nice work if you can get it.  And of course he trots out the fake “partnership”, now a basic article of faith to Governor-General Patsy Reddy and through all ranks of government.

Labour Party member Brian McGurk is quoted as saying ”the racists and bigots will be in full cry” if another poll were to be conducted.  Racists and bigots, Brian?  Surely not those people who oppose the special privilege of racist representation?  Perhaps you could look in the mirror to see what a real racist looks like!

And to teenage councillor Rohan O’Neill-Stevens, the recommendation did not go far enough to condemn the “disgraceful and racist law regarding Maori wards”.  Well no, Rohan, the present law is there precisely to protect us against any disgraceful and racist provision for special Maori wards.

Chiming in to support him, councillor Pete Rainey calls the absence of an elected Maori voice a “dark scar on local government”.

Well, no, worthy councillors.  You appear to have forgotten the people you are there to represent and 79% of them do not want any section of the community to have any council members chosen by a racist process.

In concluding Mayor Rachel Reese claims that “the legislation is poor” and that “to say nothing … is not representative of the partnership we have with iwi”.  Such a “partnership” may be her delusion.  It is not shared by 79% of those Nelson people who expressed their views.   As she received less than 30%  of the valid votes for mayor cast at the 2019 Council election, she may care to reflect on how limited is her support among the people of the city of Nelson and to temper her actions accordingly.

(Kapiti readers well know who the CEO at Nelson City Council has been since the end of 2017. —Eds)

Our attention has been drawn to the fact that the present Kapiti mayor is a director of a company registered as Jackbord Works Ltd and has been since August 2019.

Our understanding is that John Penman is the KCDC’s quasi-official photographer (he took the photos last October of elected members on the council website as an example).

The present Kapiti mayor should publicly declare his interest in this company — he does not.

We have submitted an Official Information request to the council about it.

https://www.guncity.com/blank-shotgun-walnut-stock-334348?fbclid=IwAR1NltHq_Q9J2g4t-NAusgfLJXMtZOyeusLBnfNxBSdB38ZQXnHu1r3dHlE

You need a license to buy a block of wood…

The following lump sums of cash were paid out by Ardern’s government from the Arts Continuity Grant, a COVID-19 response fund which has already paid out $16 million in grants to a variety of short-term arts projects.

637 projects have already received taxpayer funding from this Grant. A selection of the most bizarre and frankly ridiculous Art projects found by the Taxpayer’s Union are listed below.

Eamonn Marra
To research and write the first draft of a novel about male affection in hypermasculine spaces.
AWARDED: $13,000

Fireplace Arts & Media
Towards the composition, recording and production of music inspired by the psychogeography of the West Coast.
AWARDED: $34,900

Julia Gray
To support the personnel costs and post-production editing for an art documentary based on Papua New Guinea tattoo practice and revival.
AWARDED: $27,500

Donovan Bixley
Towards one phase of illustrating a biography of Leonardo da Vinci.
AWARDED: $21,080

Alison Foster, Catherine Cooper
Towards writing a children’s picture book (text only) about sustainable community activist Helen Dew.
AWARDED: $3,200

Glitter Garden
To create and develop an online publication, arts learning resources and musical content based on children’s drag theatre show, The Glitter Garden.
AWARDED: $18,000

Jess Johnson
To create a new series of collaborative quilts with my mother, textile artist Cynthia Johnson.
AWARDED: $17,850

Kate Newby
Towards intensive artistic research and development.
AWARDED: $49,368

Kath Bee
Towards the composition and instrumental arrangement of 10 songs for children, from ideas given by children.
AWARDED: $24,600

Tamara Neilson-Tetzlaf
Towards a live event watch party and livechat with fans online.
AWARDED: $24,153

Tayi Tibble
Towards writing poetry that explores indigeneity and love in the time of climate change.
AWARDED: $17,798

Duncan Sarkies
Towards writing a novel about the collapse of democracy in an association of alpaca breeders.
AWARDED: $26,000

Kimberley Young
Towards a dance concept video showcasing the impact Coronavirus has had on the New Zealand Chinese community.
AWARDED: $24,500

Rosemarie Kirkup
Towards the development of a first draft of a play that explores the menstrual cycle.
AWARDED: $16,766

Nicole Duckworth
To record and livestream a performance from Fat Freddy’s Drop.
AWARDED: $44,007

Khali Philip-Barbara, Te Kahureremoa Taumata
Towards an Indigenised Hypno-soundscape to take you to the imagined worlds of our Korero Purakau.
AWARDED: $49,999

Connor Masseurs
Towards development of a movement technique that guides and empowers the participants in becoming specialists in their own body.
AWARDED: $4,530

Iain Gordon
Towards 3 x hour-long live-streamed electronic music performances with live visual animations, from a kitchen in Paekakariki.
AWARDED: $47,703

Mad Ave
Towards a wananga for Maori healing theatre practitioners.
AWARDED: $50,000

New Zealand Comedy Trust
To examine what changes need to be made to better support a more diverse and sustainable comedy industry in Aotearoa.
AWARDED: $49,780

Benedict Fernandez
Towards composing and recording ten original compositions inspired by emotions felt during the Covid-19 lockdown.
AWARDED: $8,885

Imogen Taylor
Towards development of a new body of work exploring modernism, feminism & queerness, with specific reference to the Otago region.
AWARDED: $30,089

Claire O’Loughlin
Towards revision and editing of a sailing memoir.
AWARDED: $7,200

Jared Kane
Towards a Maori, queer, young adult novel adaptation of Hamlet based on my innovative unproduced screenplay ‘Hamarete’.
AWARDED: $21,000

Full article

Dear reader, 

Yes, it is me Tomasina Wolfe, the satirist whose writing caused the mayor and five councillors to start a revolution at the Waikanae Community Board. The WCB revised English literature by throwing satire into the fires of feminist wrath and Kapiti is the first Council in NZ to declare a satire-free zone! 

So back to my writing straight. And this piece was inspired by a letter to the editor in a 1977 Salient, Victoria university’s famous student newspaper. It said:– 

Behold, Gurunathan Krisnasamy … is in a state of great confusion. Teetering on a shaky platform, he is stumbling after every passing bandwagon. His political stand sways like dirty linen in Wellington winds. During his pangs of activism, I urge students to tolerate his ravings and hullaballos on campus.

Guru is clearly much divorced from the social problems and the true life of the working masses. I suggest he do his homework. 

The Guru we all know and love proudly wears his evangelical Christian cape, so I thought it was fitting to reference the Bible for guidance. Low and behold, I found in Jeremiah, Chapter 13 verse 23: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?” 

So, dear reader, you are invited to make your own assessment of the Guru of today. This is a brief recent history. He was a strenuous opponent of the Expressway. Now he extols its virtues. Is this akin to stumbling after every passing bandwagon? He was against local bodies funding private enterprise. Today he is the fiercest supporter of the Gateway that will cost Kapiti ratepayers up to $500,000 a year. He had been all for libraries, then he supported cutting the book budget of libraries.

He was a believer in facts. Today he would have ratepayers believe that boats can sail to Kapiti Island 365 days a year — and the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund accepted this as proven fact! Apparently the Gateway building will guarantee this. It has the miraculous powers of calming the storms; to perpetually guarantee good sailing weather. In Salient the writer said “I suggest he do his homework.” Is it not better to believe in miracles? An atheist should be shamed.

You have your thoughts, I could not possibly comment. 

All my love,

Tomasina Wolfe — now vice president of Satirists Anonymous, based on the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, for the curing of satirist addiction as AA is for alcoholism.

(Tomasina reports that she is taking it a day at a time but she has not drunk from satire’s intoxicating well for 19 days. Waikanae Watch wishes her well as she fights her addiction. —Eds)

Pastel by Isabel Fernades Day — more examples of her artworks on her website.