Lesley Hamilton‏ @Lesleycubawelly 

What was Ardern thinking letting Curran resign? When sacking her would have made her look like she had a backbone? Just weird

Idiot/Savant‏ @norightturnnz 

Curran's resignation means information in her head or personal gmail is no longer held by the government and can no longer be requested under the #OIA

>Idiot/Savant‏ @norightturnnz 

She has no ongoing obligation to provide information received as a Minister, and all requests for that information basicly get dumped on the floor.

>Idiot/Savant‏ @norightturnnz

Which seems to be a significant flaw in our transparency regime.

Luke Easton‏ @3ku1 

Claire Curran resigning now. This is no different to when The media bullied Metiria Turei. Right move tho. It was s distraction for the Labour led govt. And good on Ardern for sticking by her. Loyalty is rare in today’s climate #nzpol

Hamish Price‏ @hamishpricenz 

The PM is struggling with the idea that PMs can’t always be nice. Sometimes they have to make tough decisions. She failed, and ended up stringing Curran’s misery along further. Tough day for Curran, awful month for the PM. #nzpol

Jacinda 'DJ' Ardern‏ @JacindaArdernNZ 

It is with much personal sadness & public jubilation I advise that Clare Curran has resigned as a minister. Please direct any messages of condolences to her personal Gmail account. #nzpol

Ben Thomas‏ @BenThomasNZ 

The ongoing pressure on Clare Curran has been an unacceptable distraction from the performance of Kelvin Davis

Hamish Price‏ @hamishpricenz 

Did the PM plan to dump this story at 5pm today, only to realise she’d lied to ⁦@lynchinnz⁩ that Curran’s job was safe and then swiftly decide to announce Curran’s quitting to cover up the lie? #nzpol

Ben Thomas‏ @BenThomasNZ 

PM just said Curran’s gmail can still be OIAed now she’s resigned - which is untrue, unless she has already had them archived by the public service

Morgan Godfery‏ @MorganGodfery 

The Prime Minister wasn't dishonest in her morning interview with Newstalk ZB - she said she wouldn't fire Clare Curran, and she didn't - but it was bad faith to stop there instead of adding the obvious: I accepted her resignation last night.

> Idiot/Savant‏ @norightturnnz 

Lies of omission are still dishonest, and every time we excuse them in politicians we encourage them to keep on doing it.

Matthew Hooton‏ @MatthewHootonNZ 

What does the Prime Minister know about what was in the gmails, and when did she know it? #CurranCoverUp

Ben Thomas‏ @BenThomasNZ 

PM just said Curran’s gmail can still be OIAed now she’s resigned - which is untrue, unless she has already had them archived by the public service

Lawrence Hakiwai‏ @Omahuson 

Why would you publicly pretend Clare Curran's job was safe when you'd received her resignation the night before? And then after saying she just had a bad day and didn't deserve to be fired, accept that resignation.#nzpol

Max Tweedie‏ @MaxBTweedie 

The Prime Minister managed to get round this morning's questions because Lynch asked her if she would fire Curran, and didn't ask a line of questioning about her resignation. Slightly misleading, but factually correct

Arlene‏ @ArleneGoss 

If New Zealand's Twitter right start shouting "But her emails" over Clare Curran I'm logging out to hit my head against a wall.

Matthew Hooton‏ @MatthewHootonNZ

The only thing for it is for the PM to require Curran to give her gmail password to the Cabinet Office and then independent officials can decide what is official and what is not.

David Farrar‏ @dpfdpf

So does the Curran resignation make @melissaleemp the new @JudithCollinsMP :-)

Maria Sherwood‏ @MariaSherwood2 

Hey guys, how quickly we forget. Someone's mental health is not a football for you to kick. Leave Curran alone.

Martyn Bradbury‏ @CitizenBomber

Clare Curran has done the right thing for the Government by removing herself from being used as a way to undermine its credibility - she has shown grace and should be congratulated for thinking of the movement and not her ego - many respects to you @clarecurranmp #nzpol

Bronwyn Hayward‏ @BMHayward 

South Dunedin is a very large electorate- both urban and rural-ironically there are no purely rural electorates left in the Otago region & having the voice of a Minister added status. So the emphasis will now need to be on Curran's renewed focus on wider electorate needs. #nzpol

Jane Patterson‏ @janepatterson 

Wow - former Labour Party Minister Marian "boo-boo" Hobbs makes comeback at the Curran presser as the muscle, keeping the media at bay

> Clare Curran‏ @clarecurranmp 

Replying to @janepatterson

That's an incredibly nasty comment Jane. Just show a damn example to other journalists will you

Twitter’s not the smartest platform to frequent if you’re prone to high blood pressure, but I’m trusting my kicking the bottle (I’m now 6 months sober) means, at the very least, I’m exposing myself to no more danger than what my $12.99 a day habit had become. Our young comedians constantly boasting about how inoffensive their sets are is sure to get a rise, but this is a generation who think you can base an entire act around wearing a ‘onesie’. The costume choice would matter a whole lot less to me if the youngster opened with something like…

“Early today I masturbated with a couch cushion. I guess that makes me more of a dog person”

In the comedy club of my mind for now…

Another source of constant frustration is the all but ubiquitous opposition to ‘free speech’ coming from so-called progressives. Responding to Auckland Mayor Phil Goff’s decision to disallow far-Right culture warriors Lauren Southern and Stephan Molyneux from using Auckland council venues we got a lot of cheerleading for Phil, who was clearly on holiday when pro-Hezbollah protesters spewed their bile in Aotea Square a few weeks earlier.

A motif of many of the tweets was that free speech advocates must support, or at the very least see some merit, in the ideas of Southern and Molyneux. This is cynical stuff (cynicism, Dane? On Twitter??) and a wild misrepresentation of what the free speech advocate is in fact defending, which is not ideas. As a free speech supporter, I would’ve preferred the couple had been able to come in and given their talk, but the notion that I, a Jew, active in my community, would support anything that sniffs of white nationalism is clearly ludicrous. As a free speech advocate what I’m defending and defending alone is the ‘right for individuals to express their opinions’, opinions I may very well despise, and even consider personally detrimental to me. Yet still the petulant innuendo persists, because, well, it’s mud that could stick and branding an opponent with a searing ‘F’ for fascist is much easier than making a sound and thoughtful argument against a concept that has been central to the actualization of minority rights in the West.

Another popular position even expressed by an MP (Golriz Gharahman) during a recent talk she gave on ‘online-hate’ sponsored by InternetNZ (a talk in which she labelled her being called ‘Sweetheart’ during an online debate as ‘low-level hate’. Sweetheart, p-lease!) is that free speech ends at the point your speech has offended someone. FREE SPEECH EXISTS PRECEISELY TO DEFEND OFFENSIVE SPEECH. I mean, think about it for a minute… Why the Hell would ‘harmonious speech’ need protecting? And by this act of defending offensive speech, the concept is ENCOURAGING OFFENSIVE SPEECH; it’s actively seeking to draw out of shadows the most controversial opinions, the most audacious and unsettling presuppositions and it doesn’t give a damn whether they’re right or wrong. It just wants them heard, discussed and either spat or shat out, or absorbed into the bloodstream of society.

This was KEY to challenging the power of organized religion in Western societies. Which really does makes the (so-called) progressive opposition to free speech completely baffling, seeing that the church was the seat of the true (not the imagined) patriarchy, which couldn’t finally withstand the advances free expression afforded the West.

There was also the commentary that Southern and Molyneux’s event would likely lead to violence against minority groups. I’m not talking about claims of direct incitement; the twitter twits seemed to suggest the general tone of such an event would be enough (the constant lack of specificity in the anti-free speech mob is super concerning and not only from the twitter twats; our own Human Rights Commission, currently seeking the power to restrict our speech, is equally as vague). If this was in fact the case, wouldn’t the easily accessed YouTube, where Southern, Molyneux and far more reactionary voices are archived, have already lead to this spike in violence? In truth, despite this being the greatest era for mass communication, we’ve seen NO such DRAMATIC SPIKE. If thousands of hours of online content where the couple’s same views are repeated ad-nauseum hasn’t opened the gates of Hell, why would a single two-hour live event provide the tipping point?

A man I frequently disagree with (but I’m happy now I never blocked) Martyn Bradbury said it best when he said, “Of course far Right polemicists have the right to speak in NZ… but nothing is solved by banning this toxicity – if the Left can’t argue the far Right and win, we’ve lost, not them”.

I would agree and would add that the far-Right, as with any movement driven by a culture of victimhood, only has its narratives affirmed when it’s suppressed. But I’ve discovered the control Left aren’t interested in long term strategies to deal with threats like the far Right; I don’t believe they’re interested in politics at all. This is about emotion and the short, sharp thrill they feel when they know they’ve taken something from someone. The control-Left thread symbolic, ultimately empty victories onto a trophy-necklace the way Ed Gein did the teeth of his victims, oblivious that their narcissistic, white saviour act has a far greater risk of creating resentment against the groups they seek to protect by privileging them, than it does of creating harmony. And that dangerous ideas never go away.

They grow in the dark.

Download 20180612 - Press statement Hager

The official preliminary election results of the Northcote by-election show that the National candidate Dan Bidois easily won in the weekend, with 10,147 votes. Out of all those who voted, he won about 51% of the vote. And the runner up, Labour’s Shanan Halbert, got 8,785 votes, or about 44% of the vote.

But what about the fact that there was a low voter turnout. According to the Electoral Commission, voter turnout is estimated to be 43.7%. This figure is based on the numbers that have voted, as a percentage of those enrolled. However, the Electoral Commission and Statistics New Zealand previously estimated that in Northcote there is an eligible voter population of 54,790 (of which about nine per cent are not enrolled). So, when you take that into account, the 19,900 who voted, make up an even smaller “real” voter turnout – which is well under 40%.

It also means that the vote for each candidate as a proportion of all eligible voters in Northcote is somewhat smaller than it might initially appear, since about 35,000 eligible voters choose not to vote – which somewhat overshadows the 10,147 who voted for the winning candidate.

So, if the percentages won by the candidates are roughly re-adjusted to take into account those not voting, then they look somewhat less impressive:

Cartoons about healthcare in New Zealand over the last year:

Murdoch - The Press 4 April 2018

Hubbard - 20 December 2017

Body - NZ Herald 18 December 2017

Moreu - Timaru Herald 12 December 2017

Tremain - ODT 12 December 2017

Murdoch - The Press 22 November 2017

Tremain - ODT 22 November 2017

Murdoch - The Press 28 October 2017

Hubbard - 10 October 2017

Murdoch - The Press 30 September 2017

Tremain - ODT 29 September 2017

Hubbard - 11 September 2017

Tremain - ODT 11 September 2017

Hubbard - 15 August 2017

Moreu - Timaru Herald 4 August 2017

Hubbard - ODT 11 July 2017

Craig - ODT 20 June 2017

Chicane - Southland Times 17 June 2017

Chicane - Southland Times 9 May 2017

Scott - Dominion Post 13 May 2017

Moreu - Timaru Herald 11 March 2017

Moreu - Timaru Herald 6 February 2017

Emmerson - NZ Herald 28 March 2018

Moreu - Timaru Herald 28 March 2018

Emmerson - NZ Herald 29 March 2018

Hubbard - 30 March 2018

Newspaper frontpages:

Scott - Dominion Post 23 March 2018

Hubbard 24 March 2018

Body - NZ Herald 24 March 2018

Emmerson - NZ Herald 22 March 2018

Chicane - Southland Times 22 March 2018

Moreu - Timaru Herald 22 March 2018

Yeo - Sunday News 25 March 2018

Nisbet - The Press 22 March 2018

Bonus cartoons: Air NZ's Obama visit

Hodgson - Sunday Star Times 25 March 2018

Hubbard 21 March 2018

Emmerson - NZ Herald 22 March 2018

This is a selection of some of the more interesting tweets about Simon Bridges becoming the first Maori leader of a major party in New Zealand. The most recent tweets are first.

Christian @CrikaRika 

People who diminish someone for identifying as Māori because they don't fit a construct of what Māori should be - STOP. Whakapapa Māori? Then ya Māori!

Chris‏ @enchantedprune 

I'm no fan at all of National or Bridges, but you don't get to determine how Māori he is. That's little different to going back to the ignorance of "people "only" being quarter or half Māori, so not really "properly" Māori".

Conan McKegg‏ @ConanMcKegg 

Dear fellow white political commentators. Can we not have hot takes on what percentage Māori blood Bennett & Bridges are and whether that means they’re really Māori or not. That’s not our call to make. Focus on their work, not their ancestral legitimacy.

Workers' Commonwealth‏ @commonweal_nz 

Denying that national party leaders are Maori is the purest ideological form of identity politics that relates a bunch of ethical and political traits to racial, gender, ethnic markers. Its extraordinarily reactionary

wabisabi‏ @wabisabist

Beyond disgusting racism/bigotry from @barrysoper to @simonjbridges @paulabennettmp discussing their Maori-ness. Never ever seen him measure a Labour MP’s blood. I saw @WillieJLabour on DNA Detectives. No comment there Barry !

jacindamaniac

Mike (Smiley) Low  🙂‏ @RVolutionaryAct 

I'm sorry, but we've only found out recently that Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett are of "Maori Descent", now they're running with it to get voters, but remember, their party has never really represented Maori. #WakeUp people! #nzpol

Giovanni Tiso‏ @gtiso

The increasing thinkability of Māori and women leaders for our political parties is simply a good thing. Even if it says little about what PM Bridges or Bennet would be. We can hold both thoughts in our heads.

> Scott Hamilton RTM‏ @SikotiHamiltonR

I see what you mean. But it is striking how easily the NZ elite has been able to incorporate Maori individuals into its institutions, over many decades. I just don't think Bridges' elevation necessarily represents much of a change.

m ø n a  💫‏ @monatiresa 

Ahh, and Simon Bridges is embracing his Maori heritage lmao. You've ignored your people's calls for years, particularly concerning the environment, and now you're all about them. Maori aren't stupid. They'll see right through you.

Boyd Broughton‏ @boydparatene 

Bridges is Māori He is also annoying. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Scott Hamilton RTM‏ @SikotiHamiltonR 

Pundits claim Bridges' elevation to leaders of the Nats is some sort of progressive leap for NZ. Do these folks know that, nearly 90 years ago, NZ had a Maori as acting PM? Was Apirana Ngata's role proof NZ was a bicultural paradise in 1930? Or is identity politics a bit silly?

Marxist-Leninist-Māoriist‏ @oriwa_

Nobody loves representational politics nearly as much as shady conservatives. Credulous rubes thinking Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett will do a single damn thing for Māori or the working class in this country are the types of people who would buy their stolen watch back twice.

Stephen Berry‏ @sjberrynz 

Huge numbers on the left, Maori and Pakeha denegrating Bridges because either a) not pure enough Maori blood or b) he is plastic c) he betrays his own people. I thought we were passed the days of racial purity and I know we have stopped owning people.

Compassionative‏ @CompNativeBlog 

Instead of talking about how Māori Simon Bridges is, let's judge him for what he does, or more importantly doesn't do, for Māori.

𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭 𝐉𝐨𝐡𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐧‏ @deltablues_king 

Simon Bridges: Don’t like his politics but I’m proud there’s a Māori leader of a major political party for 1st time. For those questioning his “legitimacy” as a Māori: Please don’t. I’ve struggled w/ belonging as a Māori and it sux. There are many ways to be Māori. #nzpol

paul le comte‏ @five15design 

This all came about from a conversation with a Māori academic leader I respect a lot today. She called Bridges a 'Clayton's Māori', happy to use the badge, but display NONE of the leadership responsibilities that come with it. Her words not mine.

Rod Mullin @RodMullin 

Not surprised. Look, I don’t have much time for either Bennett or Bridges, but to suggest they are not Maori enough is pretty offensive. Like there’s one way to be a proper Maori?

Bon‏ @galgonemild

My face when people shame Simon Bridges and Paula Bennett for not speaking Te Reo, all the while ignoring the whole urban Māori disengagement from Te Aō Māori thing

Scott Hamilton RTM‏ @SikotiHamiltonR 

I think it'd be different if, say, Bridges had won a Maori seat, or had a substantial Maori base within the Nats, & then b/c leader. That really would represent something new & interesting. But he's become MP of p'haps the most prejudiced electorate in NZ, by pandering to it.

Moana Maniapoto‏ @moanatribe 

I hear that so much on FB...more galling when it’s Māori on the attack. I find myself defending Bridges, Bennett & Seymour - even though I don’t like their policies.

Thom‏ @ThomedySci 

Under 50 *and* Māori. It's great to see how far we've come, but is it... A Bridges Twofer?

Ngati Pakeha Kuia @carol_stirling 

It's becoming apparent that the election of Bridges to National Party Leadership is more a PR exercise than anything else. Hoping to appeal to Working Class and Maori electorate. I think voters will see through this tactic.

Stephen Berry‏ @sjberrynz 

Personally couldn’t care less about your race. Not interested in your category. Don’t think you’re oppressed because you tick lots of the appropriate boxes. Horrified if you want to dissect somebody’s heritage by their percentage of blood. In NZ u should be better than that.

Emma Espiner‏ @emmawehipeihana 

Remember the "How Māori are you?" interview with Hekia Parata? Let's not do that again eh.

Sᴀᴍ Aᴘᴘᴌᴇᴛᴏɴ‏ @_nzaf 

Today is the day Simon Bridges finally became Māori.

Maddy‏ @Madicattt 

I'm cynical about how long it has taken for Bridges and Bennett to talk about being Māori MPs, but to be fair, there are many Māori around the country who hide their identity. Especially at work.

Kiri Allan‏ @KiriAllan 

From this Māori, under 50, proud Westie (Swanson, Te Atatu, Waitakere), to you two Māori, u 50, Westies, congrats to the new leadership team for the @NZNationalParty. While our politics may differ significantly, kudos from this Westie (and Bay of Plenty) kid to my fellow kin.

paul le comte‏ @five15design 

Yes, we get it Simon Bridges is Māori... but has anyone ever heard him kōrero or mihi? If this is a moniker he's proud to wear, walk the walk & talk the talk young man

Carrie Stoddart-Smith‏ @Ellipsister 

Here’s what I won’t put up with: “Bridges isn’t a ‘real’ Māori” or variations of that. That kōrero is so belittling and reinforces the whole quantum bullshit argument.

> Carrie Stoddart-Smith‏ @Ellipsister 

Similarly, the assumption that as Māori he will represent “all Māori”. Yeah, nah. That’s no one. No one person will ever have a mandate to do that.

Laura OC Rapira‏ @laura_oc_rapira

I think it's really great the National Party have two Māori leaders who come from relatively working class backgrounds with roots in West Auckland. Parliament should look like all of us. I also think Simon Bridges' track record on LGBT rights, abortion & climate is terrible.

Geoffrey Miller‏ @GeoffMillerNZ 

Amazing to realise that the National Party not only gave New Zealand its first woman Prime Minister, but by 2020 could give the country its first Maori PM too #nzpol

Ria Hall‏ @RiaHallNZ 

I detest white left wing media subscribing to talking about ‘how much Māori’ (percentage) someone is. You’re perpetuating an argument that is highly draconian and irrelevant. We don’t base our culture on blood quantum. That’s backwards. If you’re Māori then you’re Māori.

Jarrod Gilbert‏ @JarrodGilbertNZ 

Two Maori being elected to lead the National Party makes for an historic day.

> Moana Maniapoto‏ @moanatribe 

It does. Māori who are committed & experienced kaupapa-driven advocates for Māori...not so much.

Lizzie Marvelly‏ @LizzieMarvelly 

He has to earn that privilege. Time to walk the walk and do the mahi.

Amy Hodgkinson‏ @aehodgkinson 

This is seriously cool, looking at the four largest parliamentary parties (National, Labour, NZF + Greens) with their leader + deputy, five out of seven are Māori. Ka rawe!

Morgan Godfery‏ @MorganGodfery 

Will their policies benefit Māori? No. But let's leave that debate for tomorrow. For now, let's acknowledge that this is momentous.

Morgan Godfery‏ @MorganGodfery 

It should be to Labour's eternal shame that National beat them to it. You would hope the Greens don't make the same mistake too. Right now, New Zealand's classical liberal and conservative parties are led by Māori. And yet its left parties...

Lew‏ @LewSOS 

The New Zealand National Party is now led by two working-class west Auckland Māori people under 50