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.

Groan. During a special visit to the Al Noor mosque in Christchurch (wearing her hijab, of course) today, Dear Leader once again said she wants to attack one of the fundamental freedoms in a democracy.

Although some of her supporters read our site, it doesn’t seem that she does or she will have seen the repeated message from all of our editors — Geoffrey, Eva and Roger — that it’s a very bad idea.

Her crony Justice Minister, Andrew Little, stated this intention last year, and it seems that limiting one of the specific provisions in the Bill of Rights Act further than how it is limited with existing laws and take the country further towards not just Authoritarianism (which we are already along the road to anyway), but Totalitarianism is fine by her.

According to this report on the Newshub website:

Labour had promised change this term but failed, but on Thursday renewed its pledge to make it happen.

“We haven’t been able to deliver that last term but my intention would be, if we’re able to form Government, that we would… Religion hasn’t been included in that, my view is that does need to change and that would be our plan if we were privileged enough to form Government again”

Labour is hoping to govern alone and knock out the New Zealand First hurdle.

It’s good that Winston of NZ First opposes this, as do National and Act.

To repeat what has been stated on here before, there are several dodgy religions in the world, and dodgy extreme sects within Islam, such as Wahabists and Salifists which have been responsible for most of the terrorism. If their frankly unacceptable beliefs were given legal protection they would be certain to make full use of it against their critics.

But Dear Leader’s grasp of how things work in the real world is clearly deficient.

And as for her beloved virtue signaling in her hijab, there is a good criticism of that by a Muslim on the Stuff website here.

The runway is orientated north–south, the taxiways are at different orientations, although the one in the foreground of the view has obviously been truncated from a runway in the intervening years.

An account of Tuesday evening’s ‘Save the Airport’ meeting organised by National Party candidate Tim Costley is here.

by Geoffrey Churchman

When I saw Richard Mansell’s nomination for one of the two vacant seats on the Waikanae Community Board I was delighted: Richard will make an ideal member with his love for the Waikanae ambiance, his involvement in community causes and, naturally, his business acumen.

We met to discuss the role and his ambitions as a board member over coffee in Relish, one of the particularly nice cafés Waikanae is endowed with, in what can be considered the most historic part of the town.

He quickly made clear that he is not running for the WCB to push his business interests (which are not in the Waikanae Ward anyway) and is genuine about wanting to help achieve the best for Waikanae residents, the town he has lived in for over 50 years since he was 5 years old.  Needless to say, he has a very good knowledge of the town’s history and is aware of what potential scenarios exist with housing development northwards which NZ’s relentless population growth will ensure happens.

Helping Waikanae folks where possible with new economic opportunities in predominately home-based businesses, as well as preserving what’s good about their lifestyle, is his ambition.

One of the immediate development issues that the WCB will be dealing with is the controversial Summerset plans for a large retirement village just east of the Expressway, nestled between Park Ave and Ferndale. (We’ll be posting more on that).

He is in accord with all the things that I wanted to see happen before quitting the board, including solid progress towards a proper new library, a new community hall for Waikanae beach, and better facilities for Waikanae Park including proper ancillary buildings – at present there aren’t even toilets there so what do people do when caught short?

Like me he is keen to see extended the river bank walking and cycling tracks east of the railway bridge towards Reikorangi – at present once past where the water treatment plant is, there is little alternative to the road which has insufficient pedestrian space for sharing with road vehicles.

When it comes to dealing with KCDC bureaucracy he obviously has plenty of experience and we have common views about the way the whole set-up functions.  He readily agrees that the organisation seems somewhat unwieldy, but from his business point of view it’s good for him as he is involved in building overflow accommodation for the staff who have no workspace in the HQ building.

Understandably, he was interested in what led to my and Jill Griggs quitting: the way I put it, in the battle of the people versus the council bureaucracy I made a tactical retreat from fighting powerful forces (the Chief Executive and Mayor plus 4 sycophantic councillors) on the fields to fighting in the mountains.  He knows that among elected members he’ll have allies as well as those who are unhelpful.

But he needs your support first — so when your voting papers arrive mark “1” next to his name!

Dear Councillors, 

Re: information concerning the Gateway and the “Consultation“

The Mayor, in various newspaper columns and Councillor Buswell in press releases have told everyone in Kapiti that there was resounding public support for the Gateway. The evidence they have relied on is the Maclean Park Management Plan Refresh in 2017 (“MPMP”).

The KCDC website repeats the same story.

“Improving the Kāpiti Island departure point and providing an iconic visitor experience has been a discussion point for our community for many years. It was consulted on during the 2017 Maclean Park Te Ūruhi Development Plan and funding for a Gateway is signalled in the Council’s 2018–38 Long term plan, and set aside in both 2019/20 and 2020/21 Annual Plans.web site

The KCDC Application to the PGF states:

“Extensive public consultation has been undertaken on the proposal to build a Kāpiti Gateway. This has taken place in four phases: 

1) As part of the Maclean Park Management Plan refresh in 2017, many submissions called for a Kāpiti Island Visitor Centre to be established on the south side of the Tikotu Stream.  (pages 18/34)

However, when one reads the Maclean Park Management Plan refresh  2017 one finds there were virtually no submissions made in favour of the Gateway. The MPMP says 1500 people were consulted. The number who made comment on the gateway  was only 46. The Consultation is clearly set out in the PGF Application:

Lumin have been working closely with the Kāpiti Coast District Council since September 2016 providing professional services in stakeholder engagement,…. Work to date has involved extensive consultation, with more than 1,500 people engaged (page 6)

The actual number of those who commented on the Gateway as biosecurity and supported the idea was 3,  those wanting an information centre was 17. This is the extract from the councils documents. 

“Table 2 (page 10)

Comments regarding Area A – Northern Entrance 

Kāpiti Island Gateway (46 responses) 

• Make any development a Kāpiti Coast visitor centre (17) 
• Collaborate with boat club (4) Improved access to the northern end (3) 
• Small biosecurity centre (3) 
• Too expensive (7) and needs to be paid for by business (2)”

Only 3 wanted a bio centre, 17 a visitor centre: = 20

Anyone interested in the truth would say 3 out of 1500, or at best 17 out of 1,500 shows enormous opposition, not support. To so mislead the PGF and all Ratepayers needs an apology, a retraction.

President Trump wants to use Kapiti as a superb precedent when he claims to have won the election in November, if he gets only 40% of the vote.  In fact one of his campaign advisors has already gotten hold of me and asked, “Give us folks the evidence of how the KCDC mayor and Council were able to get the NZ government to accept that 20 people out of 1,500 as being the majority. And to get $2.3 million. And having the majority councillors supporting this bullshit. Gee, this is brilliant, NZ a great little democracy knows how to sell the story and get everyone to believe it!”

Christopher Ruthe

By Tony Orman

There’s an election coming later this year and in today’s increasingly bizarre world, I am in a real quandary who to vote for. I must vote.  I have a duty and responsibility to do so. 

I’m a swinging voter. That is I vary my vote from election to election to whichever party I feel has the best policies.

Apathy can be a problem with elections i.e. the danger of “I couldn’t give a stuff and won’t vote”. As the Greek philosopher Plato once said about 400 BC, “the price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men.”  Take “evil” in the broader sense. You might use “corrupt”, “arrogant” or some other adjective. You might even use the word “undemocratic”.

Getting a fair hearing

Now democracy is the very foundation of our society and that’s why we have democratic elections where every three years political parties and MPs are held to account.

I was brought up to believe that Parliament was the place of democracy – where you could get a fair hearing from elected representatives based on a history and moral constitution of honour, truth and justice. Note the phrase “fair hearing.”

Part of parliament’s system is select committees where the public can comment on a bill proposing new law. In other words you expect a fair hearing.

I recall going before a parliamentary select committee about 1971 over a National government plan to bring in trout farming. I spoke for over an hour from my 44 page submission and I fielded questions from MPs probably for half an hour. In all I was allowed one and a half hours.

Then I remembered a 1986 Conservation Reform Bill setting up Fish and Game Councils. John Henderson and I delivered our joint submission for half an hour with probably 15 minutes of questions and discussion following. Then in 1991 I made verbal submissions on the Maori Fisheries Bill where I argued that the saltwater fishery was a public resource and should not be allocated on ethnic grounds. That took over an hour.

But that’s in the past and sadly so is the expectation of a “fair hearing.”

Abrupt Dismissal

Recently the Council of Outdoor Recreation Associations of New Zealand (CORANZ) made a verbal submission on a bill amending the Resource Management Act (RMA). Despite being initially assured of 15 minutes to present the CORANZ viewpoint, chairman Andi Cockroft was interrupted by the chairman MP and abruptly dismissed after five minutes. 

A week later Andi was scheduled to give another verbal submission on behalf of Public Access NZ (PANZ). Initially given 15 minutes he was told – for no valid reason – five minutes would be his lot. Angry, he refused to attend.

His refusal reminded me of the 2007 Environmental Risk Management Authority (ERMA), review into 1080 poison.  Given just five minutes to present a submission, I refused since travelling across Cook Strait at $250 for five minutes speaking time was pointless. Instead John Henderson who lived in Wellington delivered my views, as best he could, under the handicap of five minutes. The RMA 1080 review was a farce – a blatant “kangaroo court” by public servants who had no intention of listening to the public.

The firearm law “reforms” following the Christchurch March 15 mosque tragedy, were rushed through with a total disregard for democracy. Forget the subject, focus on the claim of the select committee reading 13,000 submissions in just two days. It defies credibility and shows a total lack of integrity by MPs.

Dereliction of public duty

MPs are public servants. The Prime Minister is not our leader. Currently Jacinda Ardern is undeniably the public’s most senior public servant.

All three government parties — Labour, Greens and NZ First — are guilty of dereliction of duty to democracy. But then National isn’t blameless. Remember the shameful act of the Key government sacking Canterbury’s democratically elected Environmental Canterbury Regional Council (ECAN) to take over with their own State puppet commissioners? Or National’s Nick Smith giving himself sole power to approve 1080 aerial drops? And earlier there was the shonky 2007 ERMA review into 1080 which I referred to above.

The arrogance of power

The warning signs of politicians ignoring their role as elected representatives and public servants, have been happening for some time.  

No wonder the public rate politicians, political parties and governments as among the most despised people and institutions.  

There is an urgent crisis about the accelerating and alarming erosion of democracy and the strangling of the people’s voice. It needs strong reaction from an outraged public which is timely, as this is an election year. There’s an arrogance of an increasingly powerful, dominant bureaucracy with apparently most politicians now afflicted with the same amnesia about their democratic duty. Democracy is a big issue.

This election make sure you vote and give them the message.

(This was written at the end of June, but it seems Tony is still undecided. —Eds)

More arrests including a 69-Y-O. Some of these kinds of events are actually acted. It’s difficult to tell, but the clue is they openly advertise for crisis actors and employ them to create false flags. Ole Dammegard is an expert in that field having researched them globally for 3 decades. Check out his work. Either way, if they are crisis actors or the real deal they are sending the same fear message to you. Also, at the end of the day the more you react, the greater ‘license’ they have to crack down. […]

Police State Victoria is ramping it up, arresting elderly persons & raiding fruit & veggie markets — Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch