30 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
It’s now LGBTQQIP2SAA = lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, pansexual, two-spirit (2S), androgynous, and asexual — or Alphabet People for short.
30 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
by Graham Adams
A year ago the mainstream media was busily reassuring its audiences that the revolutionary document He Puapua being waved about in Parliament by David Seymour was merely blue-sky thinking by a working group that could be safely disregarded because it was not government policy.
Things have changed dramatically since then. Last week, the New Zealand Herald published a column by former Labour Cabinet minister and Act leader Richard Prebble that described the push for co-governance with Maori — particularly in Three Waters — as a “coup”.
What was remarkable was not only the Herald’s willingness to publish such an inflammatory article but it used the C-word in its heading online: “Richard Prebble: Three Waters is a coup — an attack on democracy.”
The C-word obviously has the power to shock. Corrin Dann repeated it on RNZ the morning the column appeared when interviewing the Barry Crump of New Zealand politics, Kieran McAnulty. (“Morning, mate, how are ya?” said the farmer from the Wairarapa when Dann introduced him.)
As you’d expect of the newly appointed Associate Minister of Local Government tasked with selling the scheme to often hostile audiences, McAnulty busied himself trying to dismiss news of the widespread opposition to Three Waters as overblown.
Dann — his voice suddenly urgent — interrupted him: “This [opposition] is deeper than that. You’ve got a former politician, Richard Prebble, writing in the New Zealand Herald this morning that the government’s Three Waters legislation is a COUP!”
McAnulty chuckled nervously, but didn’t attempt to deny it.
Dann said calling the plans to confiscate the assets of 67 councils a coup might be an “extreme position” but warned: “That will be the view of some people.”
However, while Prebble’s assessment correctly names the elephant in the room, the extent of the coup in Three Waters is far wider than co-governance.
His claim that “The government’s Three Waters legislation is a coup. It is replacing liberal democracy with co-government with iwi” tells only half the story.
The “co-government” he refers to applies only to the overarching, strategic level of Three Waters where the four Regional Representation Groups — made up of equal numbers of council and mana whenua representatives — choose the boards that will rule the Water Services Entities.
These entities are at the base of the Three Waters pyramid and will handle the day-to-day operations for water supply and delivery.
On April 29, to ward off criticisms that many councils and iwi will not get a seat at the Regional Representation Group table, Mahuta announced the creation of sub-regional groups that will allow smaller voices within a water entity’s territory to have their say in what the regional groups decide.
These sub-regional groups will also be co-governed.
Mahuta was at pains to make it clear, however, that co-governance will not be a feature of Three Waters below this strategic level.
”Joint strategic oversight with local government and iwi / Māori will only happen at the regional representative group level, which exists to hold the [Water Services Entities] boards to account for delivering better outcomes for communities,” she said.
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson — wearing his hat as Infrastructure Minister — echoed her. “I think when people have applied the term ‘co-governance’ in this particular situation, some people have chosen to make that sound like it’s at the operational level of these entities. It’s not.”
As it happens, both ministers were telling the truth about where co-governance will feature under the Water Services Entities Bill currently before Parliament.
What they didn’t tell journalists and the public was that below the strategic level iwi will have the whip hand all the way down. It’s not co-governance; it’s iwi governance.
That this is not understood clearly by the public is due to the complexity of the byzantine bureaucratic structure of Three Waters on one hand, and the media’s failure to examine it closely on the other.
Mahuta and Robertson’s framing of the issue of co-governance being limited to the strategic level is, in fact, a masterstroke of deflection. It’s a plan so cunning you could pin tails on both ministers and call them weasels.
Focusing attention on co-governance at the higher levels of the Three Waters structure has served as a lightning rod to draw heat and light away from the clear requirements for everyone who exercises functions, duties and powers under the bill to not only give effect to the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi but also to Te Mana o te Wai.
Regional councils already have to give effect to Te Mana o te Wai by developing “a long-term vision through discussion with communities and tangata whenua” but, under the Water Services Entities Bill, Te Mana o te Wai statements can be issued at will by iwi and hapu for any specific body of water within their territory. This will give them wide-ranging powers that lack strict definitions and limits — or democratic protections.
The Water Services Entities are obliged to give effect to them. However, non-Māori — which is to say 85 per cent of the population — will have no right to make such statements.
The Six Principles of Te Mana o te Wai include:
These three principles alone give iwi and hapu extensive opportunity to formulate Te Mana o te Wai statements as broadly as they wish.
It is worth noting in this regard that Nanaia Mahuta’s sister, Tipa, co-chair of the Waikato River Authority, opposed Watercare’s resource application to take more water from the Waikato for Auckland’s needs last year on the grounds of “respect”.
As Thomas Cranmer — the pseudonymous analyst carefully dissecting the Three Waters legislation and tweeting his findings — noted: “In her statement to the Board of Inquiry last year, Tipa described how central the Waikato River was to Tainui and to her family — the roles that her father and mother have had and how she continues their work.
“The essence of her objection to Watercare’s application was a ‘lack of respect’.”
The common belief that Te Mana o te Wai statements will be reserved for dealing with the purity and environmental sustainability of waterways is to completely misunderstand their potential scope.
As the Department of Internal Affairs has described it: “Te Mana o Te Wai [statements] will enable development of mauri frameworks, application of mātauranga Māori measurement or any other expression that iwi decide is relevant to them.”
In fact, iwi and hapu will wield immense — perhaps capricious — power over how the supposedly independent Water Services Entities operate.
Section 140 of the Water Services Entities Bill makes it clear that iwi and hapu can make such statements as often as they like, with their latest statement annulling the previous one.
Kaipara mayor Dr Jason Smith is one of the few local body politicians who appears to understand just how much power is being granted to iwi. Certainly he’s one of the very few willing to say so in public.
In mid-June he tweeted: “Whoever gets to write Te Mana O Te Wai statements gets control of water, land, planning rules and regulations, land use… TMoTW statements will cover every pipe, river, creek, farm pond or fresh water body.”
Cranmer has said there was “fierce internal debate” among members of the working group that Mahuta set up late last year (in the hope of assuaging hostility to Three Waters) over who has the right to issue such statements.
The group itself was co-governed, with equal numbers of iwi representatives and council members. Some of the council representatives, he says, fought for the right to have input but it was made clear that only iwi would be able to determine the substance of the statements.
In short, Mahuta has made sure that non-Māori will be denied a voice in determining what happens to water assets at a local level.
As Dr Smith puts it: “Actively excluding around 85 per cent of New Zealand’s people from engaging in a process which affects everyone/every square inch of the land and the salt water many miles out to sea deserves closer examination.
“If Te Mana o Te Wai is such an important principle then surely everyone (Nga tangata katoa) should be able to be involved. So many parts of society actively excluded from participating is unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
And issuing Te Mana o Te Wai statements is not the only way iwi will be granted power denied to non-Māori.
The boards governing the Water Services Entities will need to not only have competence in the delivery of infrastructure in their role as an “independent., skills-based board”. They will also need to, “collectively, have knowledge of, and experience and expertise in relation to… mana whenua, mātauranga, tikanga, and te ao Māori”.
This prescription may seem unremarkable enough at first glance but if anyone thinks such priestly knowledge will be available to all prospective non-Māori board members who are willing to learn about it, they are sorely mistaken.
As has been made clear in various forums, only Māori have the right to possess the mysteries of mātauranga and tikanga Māori.
Once again, iwi members will hold the whip hand — to the exclusion of non-Māori, who make up 85 per cent of New Zealand’s population.
In short, Nanaia Mahuta has given iwi and hapu, representing 15 per cent of the nation, a chokehold on Three Waters — from top to bottom.
And that’s without including the powerful role that her sister, Tipa, holds as chair of Te Puna–the Maori Advisory Group that controls the water regulator Taumata Arowai — including an explicit instruction from Nanaia as minister for it to follow Tipa’s advice on “supporting Te Mana o te Wai”.
Three Waters is a giant stitch-up in which assets that have been paid for by generations of taxpayers and ratepayers — Māori and non-Māori — will be effectively placed under iwi control.
As Jason Smith puts it: “Having worked in the engine room for the Three Waters reforms, it’s clear to me they are a Trojan Horse for ending democratic rights. Major constitutional reform wrapped up in a set of busted pipes.”
A coup, in fact, hiding in plain sight.
30 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
By Rita Angus (NZ, 1908-1970). Although stated to be Waikanae, we can’t place this in Waikanae — is it Reikorangi?
30 Saturday Jul 2022
30 Saturday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
29 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
(media release)
Kāpiti Mayoral Candidate Rob McCann wants answers from Kainga Ora.
On the 9th June a tornado ripped through our community and severely damaged a number of properties including the roof of Te Ringa Mangu Mihaka’s Paraparaumu Kāinga Ora property. While he was put up in emergency housing, he has now been told he has to move, but there’s nowhere for him to go that is suitable.
“We have a housing crisis on the Kāpiti Coast,” says Kāpiti Mayoral Candidate Rob McCann, “so to hear that Kāinga Ora have allowed a mildly damaged property to be drastically damaged along with all the belongings inside it, is a kick in the guts for everyone working to reduce the impact of the housing crisis.”
“The Kapiti Coast has one of the lowest rates of social housing, with only 1% compared to the national average which is closer to 4% of total households. To have even one of those houses out of commission is unacceptable, let alone leave a property to soak for nearly two months.
“As part of our Housing Strategy council undertook research to find out the real pressures in our region through a Housing and Needs Assessment, and the results were truly awful. They demonstrated that the housing stress in our district is extensive and is having what we’ve called a domino effect. Where one issue affects another and another leaving people vulnerable, stressed, ill and disconnected.
“There are 190 people on the public housing waiting list, 50 adults and 40 children living in emergency housing and over 200 in boarding houses. One in four private renters are paying more than 50% of their household income in rent and only 5% of renters could affordably service a mortgage down from 21% in 2001.
“While our population is around 56,000, there are only 240 Kāinga Ora social housing units across the district managed by central government and community housing providers. Of those 66 are in Otaki. Only eleven families began a tenancy with Kāinga Ora in Kāpiti in 2020 and it takes around 231 days to get a house (if you can make it onto the waiting list).
“This simply isn’t good enough, which is why we now have a Housing Strategy so that we can focus our efforts on changing this dynamic, advocating for government to invest more in housing, and encouraging the private sector to step up and build accommodation for social housing providers.
“We’re making significant progress, so to hear that Te Ringa Mangu Mihaka still doesn’t have accommodation two months on from the tornado, and that Kāinga Ora didn’t get on and fix the property immediately is incredibly disappointing.
“Someone needs to step up and take responsibility,” says Kāpiti Mayoral Candidate Rob McCann.
The views expressed are that of Mayoral Candidate Rob McCann and do not necessarily represent those of the Kāpiti Coast District Council. Mr McCann held the Housing and Social Wellbeing Portfolios this past triennium.
29 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
The link to this page on the Scottish Water website. In 2020, Scottish Water was touted as the model the Internal Affairs Dept was using for Mahuta’s ‘3 waters’ Council assets grab.
The fluoridation question is a regular one for Council candidates, but this is something else that will now be controlled by the Mahuta whanau when her local assets confiscation is complete. Those who want to know what will happen in regard to this — and water meters — thus need to address those questions to Te Minita at Te Beehive — but don’t hold your breath about getting a response.
29 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
from Defend Democracy
Even worse than the doomed Rotorua Bill, which made the votes of those on the Māori Roll worth more than those on the General Roll, this Bill will cut out elections altogether by giving seats on the Council to the local iwi, without any democratic mandate or control.
New Zealand’s proud democratic principles demand that all politicians must be accountable to the people, as they hold power on our behalf. With this Bill, the anti-democratic separatists are attempting to remove that accountability in this next step of the He Puapua agenda.
The disdain for democracy is clear. Labour and the Greens blocked an amendment that would have limited the iwi-appointed councillors to a non-voting, advisory role and then also blocked another amendment that would have given voters a democratic right to recall the appointed councillors in a referendum.
Ngāi Tahu already commands immense political influence in Canterbury and already have ample opportunity to make their voices heard. This Bill would put unelected iwi-controlled councillors directly onto the gatekeeper of the various commercial interests of Ngāi Tahu – a clear conflict of interest.
This Bill will open the floodgates to the kinds of corruption, cronyism, and nepotism we’re sadly starting to see in New Zealand.
This assault on democracy must not be allowed to stand. You must remind our politicians that they are accountable to us.
Time is quickly running out, tell MPs to vote against this atrocious Bill.
29 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
by Cam Slater on the BFD
Ashley Bloomfield tells everyone to keep on jabbing on his last day at work
While everyone was busily patting Ashley Bloomfield on the back for a job well done, the latest statistics were released showing that yesterday was our biggest daily death toll from Covid, despite all the jabbing, mandates and mask wearing. The. Single. Biggest. Day. For. Deaths. Jab, jab, jab…then you die.
I bet you didn’t know that, since all the mainstream news outlets quietly ran anything but that.
Instead of patting him on the back for a job well done, he should be getting booted in the arse for being a fool.
The previous worst day was 10 deaths lower at 34, back in March this year.
So much for the advice of Ashley Bloomfield as he exits his job:
Research shows getting boostered is one of the most critical things someone can do to reduce the risk of dying from covid-19,” Dr Bloomfield says. People not fully vaccinated against covid-19 (meaning less than two doses) is six times more likely to die if they catch covid-19 compared to someone with at least one booster dose.
Newshub
The statistics say otherwise. Just remember that Jacinda Ardern told everyone that if you got vaccinated you wouldn’t get sick and you wouldn’t die.
Joe Biden even said that if you got vaccinated then you wouldn’t even catch it:
Bloomfield’s claims are a lie. The statistics show otherwise. The vast majority of deaths now are among the boosted.
It’s so bad that the Ministry of Health has deep sixed the statistics so you can no longer see the huge disparity.
More vaxxed and boosted people are filling up the hospitals and more vaxxed and boosted people are dying.
Covid-19 is no longer a disease of the unvaccinated, it is now a disease of the vaccinated.
Most of the deaths are over 70s, and those are among the most highly vaccinated and boosted in the country.
Do these fools not understand that continuing to push a vaccine produced to defeat alpha, which only exists in a lab now, onto a population to try and mitigate Omicron and its variants is an exercise in not only futility but is also mind-bogglingly stupid?
Alex Berenson puts it succinctly:
The failure of the mRNA shots, after the hype that surrounded them when they were introduced in 2020, is deeply disappointing.
The development of new medicines cannot be rushed, as much as we might hope they might. Regulators and ethical scientists must insist on properly designed and run clinical trials before approving any new drug or vaccine.
But the failure of the vaccines is actually less corrosive at this point than the grim refusal by public health authorities, politicians, and the media to admit that failure.
Practically everyone knows the truth. How can I be so sure? In the most basic way. No one gets mRNA shots anymore – not for themselves, and not for their kids. More than a month after regulators broke every guideline they have to approve the shots for children under 5, more than 97 percent of kids that age remain unjabbed.
Overall uptake has also cratered. Even with 19 million small children now eligible, the media and health authorities endlessly pushing boosters and reboosters (maintain, granny, maintain!), and some colleges insanely demanding boosters of their students, Americans are getting fewer than a quarter-million Covid jabs a day.
–Alex Berenson
And yet there was Bloomfield continuing to push the narrative and the poison with his last words as he walked out the door. He’s more evil than Jacinda Ardern because he actually has the qualifications to know better.
He has plenty of acts of evil pencilled in beside his name, plus the countless times that he lied.
It was him who banned cheap therapeutics, like ivermectin, which has now been proven in large studies to be effective as a prophylaxis treatment for Covid-19.
Instead, he pushed the poison of Pfizer’s so-called vaccine and now we are reaping the whirlwind of vaccine resistant variants and vaccine injuries.
He ignored the country’s pandemic plan and pushed hard lockdowns and inane restrictions on our personal liberties. He also banned the importation of alternative testing kits, literally stole private supplies of RAT tests when the Government was caught short, and broke the law with draconian health orders and quarantine procedures.
On the day he left office, New Zealand had its biggest ever day for deaths and most of them were vaccinated. That is not something he should be proud of; he should be ashamed. But none of these clowns is. That’s the problem.
Again it is Alex Berenson who explains that problem:
The problem is this: the relentless denial of an obvious truth from the highest levels of media and government is gasoline for the fire of conspiracy theorists. If they’ll lie about the vaccines when everyone can see the vaccines don’t work, what else will they lie about? And why did they lie in the first place? Deeeeepopulation, it’s a thing.
Well, they lied because they wanted Covid to end so badly that they ignored all the obvious problems in the clinical trials. As for what else they’ll lie about? I don’t know. But – and I can’t believe I have to say this – I don’t think Bill Gates wants to depopulate the world. He can just buy Montana if he wants privacy. My conspiracy theory: Really rich people don’t care enough about you to want you dead!
Anyway, it would be really nice if the people in charge would admit the truth, the vaccines didn’t work as promised and now we have to hope no more virulent Sars-Cov-2 variant comes around to do massive damage.
Okay, I guess I can see the problem with the truth. Still, they aren’t doing themselves – or the rest of us – any favors. But we do get unintentional comedy from the likes of Jacinda Arcern, the prime minister of New Zealand and hero of the left, who has truly lost the plot and now appears to be auditioning for a role as Cersei Lannister’s less personable cousin.
–Alex Berenson
Ashley Bloomfield should not be lauded, he should be on trial for causing huge harm to the population. He literally is our Dr Evil.
29 Friday Jul 2022
Posted in Uncategorized
from the L.A. Times:
Retired carpenter Joe Braus of Burbank spends about $200 a week on groceries, an amount he notices is rising fast.
But that hasn’t stopped him from shopping at Whole Foods Market in Burbank with his partner or making extra trips to specialty stores such as Sprouts Farmers Market and Trader Joe’s to find healthy alternatives, including grass-fed beef and free-range chicken.
“This is the way we eat,” said Braus, 72. “We eat natural. We eat organic and if it costs more we pay it.”
We are all paying for it, whether we eat healthy or not. Across the country, grocery prices have shot up 11.9% over the last 12 months — 10.9% in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim region — with the biggest jumps in meats, poultry, fish, eggs and vegetables, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
