Two separate pics by Peter Knight that we’ve stitched together into one panorama.

(a message from the council)

After a week of hard mahi [work] by Council staff, contractors and our friends at Greater Wellington, we reopened the Waikanae River Trail in time for the long weekend.

We closed the trail for safety reasons following the massive storm we experienced earlier this month. We’ve removed most of the fallen and damaged trees, but it is still very muddy on the north bank, and the short diversion between Weggery Drive and the Otaihanga footbridge is still in place.
 
Work to restore the track surface over the next few weeks will require partial track closures – thank you for following the instructions of our work crews.

by Dr. Hylton Le Grice CNZM, OBE 

The position in New Zealand is really quite simple.

‘Māori’ are said to be 16% of the population, but this is entirely incorrect because, most of those people who say they are ‘Māori’ have less than 50% Māori genetic background. However, let’s be generous here and say that perhaps one eighth of these people have more 50% or more Māori genes in their makeup. 

That means that only 2% of our population, about 100,000, have the technical right to call themselves Māori. The other 14% illogically deny the majority of their genetic background. This is simply irrational and could not stand up in a balanced debate.

Why do these people then deny the majority of their genes?  I am 1/4 Scottish, 1/4  English, and say 1/16th French — but I do not call myself French, Scottish or English. I am simply a New Zealand citizen who has one vote, in what until very recently was one of the great democracies in the world — and a country where females were first given the vote.

There can be only one reason for that 14% of the population who dishonestly call themselves Māori in having less than a preponderance of Māori genes — and that is that they wish to part of a society that for some dishonest reason gives them advantages that the vast majority of New Zealanders do not have:

• Their group get special seats in Parliament — where the Royal Commission on Electoral Reform which introduced MMP voting, said should be abolished 

• Their so called ‘Māori’ businesses and property get privileged Tax and Rates reductions — often they pay Nothing! 

• They get privileged entry to University where in a competitive situation, the % marks gained in entrance examinations are set at an unjust lower level. For instance a set number of people with much less than 50% Māori generic background (as low as 1% if established) can gain entry to Medical School with 70% marks! Compare this where recently a third generation non-Māori who wanted to follow his Father & Grandfather as a surgeon, was denied entry to the Medical School with marks of not 70% — but in excess of 94%! 

• In a disgraceful situation where English is often the Official International Language (to pilot an aircraft landing in Croatia you can’t talk Croatian, you must speak fluent English) we have unbelievably in NZ 50% (perhaps more) of school leavers who have inadequate abilities in spoken or written English — and yet this present Government intends laughably to make the teaching of Te Reo Māori, a compulsory subject, and are spending many millions of Ttaxpayer money on this project. This is so irresponsible and irrational, but the presently ‘woke’ National Party as the Government’s official ‘opposition’ seemingly does not to ever want to dispute this situation. The only way for people to progress in the world and to benefit NZ is to be able to speak, write, and read English — to a high standard. 

• At the present time this corrupt Government is creating a Health Service where ‘so called’ Māori will get preferential treatment ahead of all other New Zealand citizens. This is immoral, irrational, ‘racist’, and against all the principles of Hippocrates.

And so the list goes on — where supposedly disadvantaged ‘Māori’ with as little as as 1% of Māori genetic background become one of the most privileged group of people in the world.

How could any average, honest, hard working, New Zealander possibly tolerate a situation, that has neo-Marxist connotations to it. Perhaps this is understandable with our Prime Minister previously having been the President of the Marxist Socialist Youth International. 

What we have is unacceptable racist outrage — where it must be understood that no racist society in the world has ever survived. 

Apart from the obvious questions about how they are going to deal with the huge staffing problems KCDC has and deal with the toxic attitudes of the existing senior management towards the Ratepayers who pay their massive salaries:

1. Will you advance the needed projects in Waikanae — a new library, a new hall for the Beach Zone and a reopened recycling centre?
2. What will you do with redundant staff when Mahuta’s 3 Waters assets grab is complete (and the Jacinda regime is determined to ram that through)?
3. Ditto with planning staff when Resource Consent is taken off Councils?
4. How will you deal with excessive bureaucracy and poor performance in KCDC?

by Lushington D. Brady on the BFD

Jacinda Ardern is used to coverage from the Australian media. What she isn’t used to is anything other than fawning adulation from the luvvy-left. I’ve recently been reporting, for the delectation of BFD readers, the growing instances of Australian media sitting up and actually taking notice of just how venal, incompetent and just plain vile the Ardern government really is.

In the latest installment, a stench is getting so overpowering, we can smell it clear across the Tasman – and it’s not Mahuta’s armpits.

A mysterious Twitter user who goes by the name “Thomas Cranmer” has been tweeting since early May about apparent conflicts of interest in the appointments of relatives of New Zealand’s Minister of Local Government, Nanaia Mahuta, to taxpayer-funded positions.

Of course, Cranmer or the Australian aren’t alleging anything actually illegal, but there’s often [not] a huge gap between illegal and improper. As even the government’s own ‘standards’ emphasise:

The cabinet manual suggests various ways ministers should handle such conflicts but warns: “Public perception is a very important factor” and: “Appearances and propriety can be as important as actual conflicts of interest.”

When it comes to the Mahuta family, there’s a whole lotta “appearances” going on.

Cranmer’s primary focus has been on the appointment of the minister’s younger sister, Tipa Mahuta, to the chair of Te Puna – the Maori advisory group, which advises the new water regulator Taumata Arowai.

There’s no need to cover the nuts and bolts of Three Waters for BFD readers, of course. All you need to know – which you probably already do – is what it all adds up to.

In short, according to Cranmer, Tipa Mahuta will have an enormous amount of power in the complete remaking of the nation’s water management being driven by her sibling.

But it doesn’t end there, not by a long shot.

Tipa Mahuta’s appointment is not the only family connection, however, that has raised eyebrows. Nanaia Mahuta’s husband and members of her extended family also received public funding for roles in waste management and suicide prevention when Mahuta held related associate ministerial roles. Some commentators have queried their qualifications and experience and the process by which they were appointed.

The cabinet manual recommends that in the instance of a possible conflict of interest, the minister – with the PM’s permission – should hand responsibility for that issue to another minister. In this case, the ‘hand off’ was done with almost ludicrous brevity.

Tipa Mahuta was made chair of the Maori Advisory Group in May 2021 after her sister had handed the power of appointment to Kelvin Davis, Minister for Maori Crown Relations, in February. That power was handed back to Nanaia Mahuta in June 2021.

The Australian

Even if that were enough to inspire confidence, as Cranmer points out, the fact is that the conflict of interest is ongoing: the minister and her sister will continue to have a close working relationship over Three Waters for the foreseeable future.

Imagine if any other minister had no less than four of their close family getting handed plum, taxpayer-funded jobs?

Gladys Berejiklian was forced to resign simply for concealing her relationship with a dodgy fellow politician. Barry O’Farrell was booted for accepting a bottle of wine, for which the ICAC investigation concluded, “there was no intention on Mr O’Farrell’s part to mislead”. Current NSW premier Dominic Perrottet is embroiled in scandal over the appointment of former minister John Barilaro to a lucrative New York-based role.

But they’re conservatives: they have to play by the rules that the Left blithely ignore.

Original article

“E l’era del terzo mondo” (Italian) = It’s the Age of The Third World