New Zealand

[Karearea]

Police have admitted an officer made a mistake after a TikTok clip went viral showing them breath-testing a passenger in a left-hand drive car, thinking it was the driver.

The vehicle owner, TJ of Dunedin, said the passenger in the 1964 Chevrolet Impala (which is for sale) was on his way to the speedway at Cromwell on Saturday night when they were stopped at a check point.

The TikTok shows the car driving up to a checkpoint, where the female officer asks the person in the passenger seat how they are, and then to count to five into the breathalyser.

The passenger counts to five and the officer asks ‘’you guys had a good day?’’ before showing that the passenger has passed the test.

She says ‘’sweet, see ya’’ before the camera pans around to show TJ driving away on the left hand side of the car, as they all burst into laughter.

TJ said he was the designated sober driver and would have passed the test with flying colours.

“It happened three times at the weekend. The first time another cop told the officer it was a left-hand drive, and the second time they noticed themselves,’’ he said.

“The third one didn’t notice at all.’’

A police spokesperson said: “while we can’t be sure exactly where this incident took place, police acknowledge that it appears a mistake has been made by one of our officers dealing with a vehicle at a checkpoint.

“In this instance it would be helpful if the driver, on becoming aware that a mistake had been made, let the officer know so that they could breath-test the driver,’’ the spokesperson said.

“Checkpoints are in place to help ensure the safety of all road users, and a big part of the responsibility for road safety lies with the road-users themselves.’’

The group in the car had been at the Alexandra Blossom Festival, which always had a heavy police presence as people travelled to Central Otago.

Stuff: Police breath test 'driver' - who was the passenger in a left-hand drive car

Video at link.

[talmacapt]

A similar thing happened to me in Stockholm Harbour, getting off the overnight ferry from Helsinki.

I was driving UK side MG TF, with the roof up, to be fair.

Police breathalysing everyone and he comes up to wife (passenger) and offers her the breathalyser.

Realising his mistake he then comes round to me and presents me with the machine.

By this time we were laughing so much it took me several goes before I could manage a (negative) sample.

Policeman was not amused, possibly because his colleagues were also somewhat amused.

[Karearea]

Opinion:

[Te Reo = the Maori language; Te Ao Maori = traditional lore and world-view.]

Without so much as batting an eyelid, Chris Hipkins told an audience on Saturday that there had been “more racism” in this election campaign than ever before. And he blamed it on the opposition parties, National, Act and New Zealand First. In those statements he indicated his unworthiness to be the Prime Minister of New Zealand. It doesn’t seem to have occurred to him that whatever racism has been apparent during this 2023 campaign stems directly from the racist crusade the Labour ministry embarked on immediately after the 2020 election. Without mentioning their intentions, ministers set out deliberately to give Maori greater rights in New Zealand than all other ethnicities, using the full resources of the state to do it. To hell with Article Three of the Treaty guaranteeing equal rights and duties for all. Within minutes of Labour’s election victory, a campaign by the Maori members of the Labour caucus pushed the government into a full-throated promotion of Te Reo, and authorised state agencies to give pre-eminence to Maori names for government departments; they changed road signs, and insisted on untranslated Maori flooding the airwaves. Calls for co-governance stepped up. Maori alone were allowed to fish in exclusive high protection areas like the Hauraki Gulf; they are the “priority population” for Pharmac; and they must be pushed up the priority lists when it comes to public hospital surgery. The Three Waters scheme that is designed ultimately to give total control of water to Maori was advanced by Nanaia Mahuta, and despite promises from Hipkins, it still hasn’t been fundamentally changed. A phoney history syllabus that ignores all the shocking events in Maori history and accentuates all past wrongs done to Maori has been inflicted upon our school children; while at exam time ethnicity, not merit, now determines whether a student passes. We are being constantly told that Te Ao Maori and superstition are superior to modern science. Moreover, we are expected to accept that Maori are indigenous to New Zealand when, by their own traditions, they aren’t. The Maori Party, whose support will be indispensable if Hipkins is to put together a coalition after the election, has told us that Maori possess superior intelligence to everyone else. Those who question such nonsense “are deliberately trying to persecute minorities”, says the Prime Minister.

Alongside all of this is the phoney narrative, which the Prime Minister obviously believes, that our current system of government is uniquely disadvantageous to Maori. No other ethnicity, including the 150 different ones that have come to New Zealand over the years, is so put upon as Maori when it comes to accessing state resources. Daily we are spun balderdash that it’s colonisation and an unfair system that means that Maori die younger than Pakeha. We must overlook the fact that Maori make choices in life like smoking, eating junk food and doing drugs that take years off their lives. We must also ignore the fact that more Maori than Pakeha parents fail their children by allowing them to truant from school, become over-represented amongst young ram-raiders, join gangs, get involved in drive-by shootings and engage in shop-lifting. Last year Maori formed 17% of the population, but were 53% of the men in prison and 67% of the women. Hapless Hipkins would have you believe we must overlook all this and give even more special privileges to Maori because his government’s crazy interpretation of our Treaty of Waitangi demands it. And every one who campaigns against his racial policies is a racist.

When I was growing up, New Zealand was a fair society. The first Labour government introduced public health nurses who travelled the countryside ensuring that as many young as they could reach could be vaccinated. Babies were weighed and Maori schools visited so that children could be taught how to take care of their health. In several rural areas which happened to be ones where Maori were plentiful, some general practitioners were put on to state salaries so that poverty was no barrier to accessing their services. When I was Health minister in the 1980s I bumped up their number. Hospital boards and then district health boards spent countless hours trying to ensure that Maori heard about the specialist services available at public hospitals. Board members pored over the “Did Not Attend” statistics trying to work out better ways of reducing them. Those were the days when the welfare state was a “hand-up”, not a “hand-out”. When offered assistance, the recipient was expected to put his or her best foot forward and make the most of what was provided.

Things have changed in the modern era of “hand-outs”. After the introduction of the Domestic Purpose Benefit in 1974 expectations that the state would provide people with a living that required little individual effort began to grow. Significant numbers of Maori in particular warmed to the idea that incomes, housing, school lunches and medical care would be delivered to them with little energy required from them. Today, we are dealing with the results of a couple of generations of the hand-out mentality. Low achievers, and especially their advocates, many of whom are on the public payroll and are part of the huge industry that now farms disadvantaged people, assert loudly that closing the inevitable gaps that have opened up requires even more special privileges. And Hapless Hipkins and his political colleagues have naively bought into this fundamentally flawed narrative.

On Saturday, when he concluded his complaints about racism, the Prime Minister said that he himself intended to “lead by example”. If that means another three years of policies based on race, ordinary Kiwis will shudder and realise that the Labour Party that once led the way in shaping a fair society, has lost its mojo.

Michael Bassett: Hapless Hipkins and his racism

- the comments below the article are interesting.

Wikipedia: Michael Bassett, former Labour Cabinet Minister

[FD2]

Labour fall lower and lower in the ratings and have now resorted to name calling and primary school insults because they think Chippy might have 'won' the last head to head but can't attend another until his Covid bout is over. Luxon refuses to cancel some of his pre-election functions to re-schedule the head to head. Boo hoo.

[FD2]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/election- ... U6NSTDVUM/

Maybe some sections of the electorate are feeling a chill wind and, thick as mince, think they can change the election result like this!

[Karearea]

National Certificate of Educational Achievement:

More than 41,000 students participated in the June 2023 assessment event. More than 70% of students were in Year 10. [i.e. age about 15 years]

Results from June 2023 assessment event:

Standard Achieved %
Reading 64.4%
Writing 56.3%
Numeracy 55.9%
Te Reo Matatini 45.9%
Pāngarau 12.1%

Students have multiple opportunities throughout their NCEA years to achieve the new standards.

The sample size of ākonga who completed te reo matatini and pāngarau assessments in June is very small. Inferences on overall Māori-medium achievement should not be made.

https://ncea.education.govt.nz/NCEA-cor ... assessment

[FD2]

And yet the Department for Education think that sticking plasters can sort out what is basically a failed system. One that produces many functionally illiterate and innumerate pupils at the end of their secondary education years, when many of them should be ready for university.

On a news segment a couple of weeks ago an education 'expert' - a politician of course - was berating someone who was advocating taking teaching methods back to those that were being used 20 or more years ago. She was accused of wanting to take schools back to those old 'discredited' ways. I think I remember those discredited ways quite well because I can still recite tables up to 12x, do pure and applied maths, usually spell correctly and also write reasonably understandable sentences, even read books and 'clever' things like that without talking and pointing at the pages. I'm no good with Plasticine/modelling clay or sandcastles though.

I guess it shows politicians will defend any failed system right up to the point that they are voted out of power. Our local high school has been partitioning off their classrooms again after it became obvious that the much vaunted idea of teaching up to 90 or more kids in one room was seen to be a complete failure. No doubt the primary and intermediate schools will follow suit. Why meddle with a system that didn't need fixing because its results used to be so good in the World rankings, like Scotland used to be too? Bloody politicians and educationalists!

[Karearea]

From Stuff, results as known:

2023 New Zealand election results by overall party vote and at each local electorate level.

... Voter turnout for the 2023 General Election is estimated to be 78.4% of those enrolled as at 5pm Saturday 14 October. This compares with a final 82.2% turnout of those enrolled in 2020. ...

https://elections.nz/media-and-news/202 ... -election/

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Is this a genuine swing to the Right, or simply a vote against the idiots in power during Covid?
This is not intended to get a Yes/No answer. Where on the spectrum between the two would it lie, or do you think there are other major factors, perhaps not including the two I have mentioned?
I'm trying to get a read-across to elsewhere in the World, if such is possible.

Why meddle with a system that didn't need fixing

Ah, but it did! They always do.
Otherwise politicians don't get their petty prejudices actioned, and bureaucrats don't get promoted for making changes.
And the measurement system gets changed to show it's working.

p.s. If there are 90 students, it is not, by definition, teaching.

[Karearea]

Is this a genuine swing to the Right, or simply a vote against the idiots in power during Covid?
This is not intended to get a Yes/No answer. Where on the spectrum between the two would it lie, or do you think there are other major factors, perhaps not including the two I have mentioned?
I'm trying to get a read-across to elsewhere in the World, if such is possible.
...

Much more to it than Covid policies in my opinion.

I have seen the departing government's policies in general described as "woke, divisive and damaging".
I see the election result as a return to traditional NZ thinking, rather than perceived liberal agendas imposed from overseas.
Something I realised is that the two main parties have each moved further away from the 'centre' than they were decades ago.
Some of the minor parties may counter-balance that.

Glad to see voter turnout increasing, percentage used to be in the 90s or high 80s:

Wikipedia: Voter turnout in NZ

[FD2]

I think that every time a new party gets voted into power they want to introduce new policies, sometimes without it being in their published manifesto before the election. Of course they also have to respond to unexpected events like Covid with sensible precautions and be seen to be taking care of their citizens. There appears to have been 'off the cuff' responses from departments which should have seen the possibility of future events like Covid and worked out what was the best course of action they should have taken, before the event.

There is, for instance, a very real possibility that something worse than Covid could sweep the world and it would be reassuring to think that the politicians and medical experts had thought out a plan, just in case, but they don't do that sort of thing in our system. Enough on that toot.

The Covid over-reactions are easy to criticise with hindsight but the very real mangling with agriculture and the bullying over the water system has really grated with people. On top of that is what is seen as a racist manoeuvre to give one section of the population unfair advantage over another. That certainly was not voted for three or six years ago. Coupled with a government that has been caught off guard time and again by reducing us to lengthy waits for medical treatment when the writing was on the wall several years ago. No action was taken until the election was imminent when action was finally 'promised'. There have been many promises over the last few months which should have been dealt with years ago in Labour's 'reign'

So the politicians have governed badly for 6 years and it has taken a lot for the scales to be finally lifted from voters' eyes and to see through the sweet talking 'be kind' stuff! I haven't even mentioned the engendered 'panic' over climate change - I think we should do what we sensibly can - but the contribution that little New Zealand can make to world emissions is negligible.

Now we wait to see what the next lot of politicians will do! Will it better Labour's failed reduction in child poverty etc etc?

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Thank you, that's very helpful.
We are big on agriculture where I am too.

The Covid over-reactions are easy to criticise with hindsight

They were easy to criticise before they made them, and predictable that they would make them.
We are now exactly where I thought we were going to be in Jan 2020, before they'd even called it Covid.

[EA01]

So the politicians have governed badly for 6 years and it has taken a lot for the scales to be finally lifted from voters' eyes and to see through the sweet talking 'be kind' stuff! I haven't even mentioned the engendered 'panic' over climate change - I think we should do what we sensibly can - but the contribution that little New Zealand can make to world emissions is negligible.

So similar to here then, It's not so much that Governments 'win' elections, so much as the incumbents lose them.

The colour may change but the flavour varies little....

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Quite.
I think quite a lot of the incumbents during Covid will lose, big time.
And that the other lots who get in will be little better at best, and quite possibly worse.

[Karearea]

So the politicians have governed badly for 6 years and it has taken a lot for the scales to be finally lifted from voters' eyes and to see through the sweet talking 'be kind' stuff! I haven't even mentioned the engendered 'panic' over climate change - I think we should do what we sensibly can - but the contribution that little New Zealand can make to world emissions is negligible.

So similar to here then, It's not so much that Governments 'win' elections, so much as the incumbents lose them.

The colour may change but the flavour varies little....

In NZ's case the two main parties and their policies appear quite different.
I think Ms Ardern's image and persona took the Labour government a long way towards their second win in 2020.

[EA01]

Yes indeed Ms Arderns image & persona took her a long way I think, back then.

Plenty of voters regret here (Aust)...It could well be a one term Government. Then we'll go the other way for a term or two until a sufficient number of people are suitably pi$$ed off to vote this bunch in again .... and so it goes.

No side ever winning as such, but people just choosing what appears to be the least bad on the day.

The opposition here probably deserved at least two terms in opposition after their appalling government. These current @rse clowns will probably make it only one term.

[Karearea]

Something I have noticed lately is that overseas media are not accurately reflecting the thoughts of New Zealanders, e.g. this report in the Guardian:

In the voters’ minds, there was little difference between the National and Labour parties, so they opted for a change in personnel instead of a change in direction. In the televised debates, both leaders answered their rapid questions in almost exactly the same way. If you didn’t think there was any difference between the two parties, why wouldn’t you vote for someone new?

- I've never known anyone who thinks like that about their vote; there is a difference between the parties; and not everyone is so fascinated that they watch the leaders' debates.

Guardian: New Zealand didn’t want to lurch to the right; it just wanted change. It doesn’t know what it’s in for


- the writer, Lamia Imam, is a political commentator and a former Labour party staffer.

[Dushan]

It didn’t take long to run out of other people’s money and then the people realize who robed them and throw them out.
Taxation is theft.

Good on Kiwis to realize that socialism is evil.

[Karearea]

The term "whānau" which may not be understanded of the people means family, or people regarded as family, or what-you-will:

https://teara.govt.nz/en/whanau-maori-and-family/page-1

Despite being known by whānau as Ruthless-Empire Souljah-Reign Rhind Shepherd Wall, Stuff understands the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) rejected the name and was working with the family to find a suitable alternative when he was killed. ...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/133192 ... pp-android

As police hunt who was responsible for the violent death of Wellington toddler Ruthless-Empire, it has emerged family never registered his birth.

The young boy known by his family as Ruthless-Empire was born almost two years ago.

But in a crime that has shocked the nation, the wee boy was killed last weekend in a level of violence the head of the police investigation has said was “difficult to fathom”. ...

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ruthless- ... ADLDCJP4I/

Disgraceful statistics in NZ in recent years for baby/child murders by family members: Lillybing, Nia Glassie, James Whakaruru, the Kahui twins, Delcelia Witika - those names are etched in NZ's consciousness and I've written them from memory. There are others.

Now this precious child.

[FD2]

Thanks goodness Oranga Tamariki knows how to handle this appalling violence...after all the misunderstandings when it was run by pakeha.

https://www.orangatamariki.govt.nz/