New Zealand political discussion thread

[Libertas Vel Mors]

This is very bad news.
New Zealand mental health crisis has worsened under Labour
The government has legitimately tried here, with a big focus on 'wellbeing' and more funding for the mental health system, but it just hasn't been enough. At least suicide rates didn't go up last year, though 2019 was the worst year.

Labour also campaigned heavily in 2017 on reducing child poverty, and fortunately the recent news is better there.
All measures of child poverty trending downwards
The previous data didn't show this, so when I saw it a while ago I was pleasantly surprised. This is pre-Covid data, unfortunately the situation is likely worse now (though our economy has held up very well given the global circumstances). Labour's early Families Package and changes to welfare benefits are the likely cause of this change. However even now, most of the government's working group's own recommendations to increase welfare benefits have not been enacted, so that is disappointing.

In the absence of any changes in governmental policy that would be responsible, why make the assumption that mental health has anything to do with politics in the first place? And why make the assumption that government has either the ability or responsibility to interfere in that field in the first place?

[Pericles]

All of NZ will be in the level 4 lockdown for another 4 days, Auckland for a full week at least. 35 new cases, 107 total. This decision is not a surprise, the incubation cycle needs to be followed and Jacinda says she thinks the peak will be in 2-4 days. Of course it could take longer, the government is doing what will keep us safe and has to be cautious.

[Pericles]

By the way, here's a funny thing from a Covid update https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2021/aug/23/go-out-and-spread-their-legs-nz-covid-minister-delivers-saucy-advice-video

[Pericles]

NZ reported 70 more Covid cases today, but it does look like these cases are being isolated and we are reaching the peak of the outbreak. Below Auckland is moving to a softer level 3 lockdown from midnight Tuesday, but it's really not much different. Jacinda said Auckland (and Northland) will likely (did not confirm) be in a hard level 4 lockdown for a further two weeks, so best-case they are in lockdown for a month. It's too early to say when the rest of NZ will move down the levels.

[Pericles]

Jacinda has confirmed that Auckland and Northland will remain in level 4, while the rest of New Zealand will move to a level 3 lockdown, from midnight Tuesday. The level 3 lockdown will be reviewed in a week's time, so hopefully that is when most New Zealanders get their freedom back. The Northland region will likely go to level 3 from midnight Thursday, the government was nervous about some cases in a town between the two regions. Today saw 53 new cases, so there are 567 total cases in this outbreak, and yesterday's number of 83 appears to have been the peak. Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said that the R number is now likely below 1, and that only 4 essential workers were infectious in the workplace and only 7 were infected there (some of these may have been infected pre-lockdown). Jacinda presented a graph suggesting that daily cases could have already reached 550 if New Zealand had delayed just a few days before locking down.

[NewYorkExpress]

Minister for Social Development Carmel Sepuloni had a Zoom interview with Radio Samoa interrupted by her son flashing a carrot shaped like a penis.

Working from home might offer advantages for parents who can't commute and want more flexibility. The downside? Your kid might fly a phallic-shaped carrot around in the back of your Zoom meeting.

That's exactly what happened to New Zealand’s minister for social development, Carmel Sepuloni. While doing a live Zoom interview with Radio Samoa in Manukau, New Zealand, her child rushed through the door waving around a carrot.

Sepuloni was in the middle of answering a question, and before she could make it clear that waving a carrot around on camera wasn’t a good idea, her son had already flashed the unusually shaped vegetable.

https://twitter.com/CarmelSepuloni/status/1432178595112251401

[Pericles]

Jacinda Ardern has announced that the lockdown for all of New Zealand except Auckland (which was always going to be reviewed a week later) will come to an end at midnight tomorrow, and that New Zealand is "within sight of elimination." This is very promising given the extraordinary contagiousness of the Delta variant and that two Australian states, Victoria and New South Wales, have given up on elimination. While there are a few cases that were infectious in the community, the number of these cases is decreasing.

New Zealand has recorded 3 days of 20 cases in a row, all in Auckland, after peaking at 83 cases 8 days ago. Unfortunately 1 person in their 90s (I don't know if they were vaccinated) did die of Covid yesterday, the Delta outbreak now has 821 cases (remember we locked down after the first case), and it has had 40 hospitalisations. We will be going to level 2, which will be stricter-limits of 50 people to many indoor events, an indoor mask mandate, and strict social distancing and contact tracing requirements. Fortunately, our vaccine rollout is surging massively (our daily doses are way above the US or European peaks). On the 1st, all New Zealanders 12 years and over became eligible for the vaccine, and I personally got my Pfizer dose last week actually.

[Pericles]

This is a good overview of what's going on with the National Party. The inevitable leadership change is almost here by the looks of it, though Simon Bridges won't change much since he failed last time to connect with the public.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/political-roundup-whats-going-on-in-the-national-party/SGNZKZZZYLI3AHE4YHFYMIP7IU/

[CumbrianLefty]

If he is really the best they can do.....

[Pericles]

If he is really the best they can do.....

This was his wordcloud at the end of his leadership after all*


*Not sure if they really should have published this.

[CumbrianLefty]

Said "word cloud" might be more impressive if we could actually see it

[Pericles]

Said "word cloud" might be more impressive if we could actually see it

What happened?

[NewYorkExpress]

The Maori Party has a petition out that calls for New Zealand's name to be changed to Aotearoa.

New Zealand's Māori Party has launched a petition to change the official name of the country to Aotearoa, its name in the te reo Māori language.

The campaign also calls on the House of Representatives to restore the Māori names for all towns, cities and place names, according to a statement announcing the petition on Tuesday.
"It's well past time that Te Reo Māori was restored to its rightful place as the first and official language of this country. We are a Polynesian country -- we are Aotearoa," reads the statement, which calls for the renaming process to be completed by 2026.

"Tangata whenua are sick to death of our ancestral names being mangled, bastardised, and ignored. It's the 21st Century, this must change," it reads. Tangata whenua means "people of the land," but is used to refer to the Māori people in general.

Fluency in the Māori language fell from 90% in 1910 to 26% in 1950, according to the statement.

"In only 40 years, the Crown managed to successfully strip us of our language and we are still feeling the impacts of this today," said the party.

https://twitter.com/Maori_Party/status/1437662632958304267?s=20

https://twitter.com/dbseymour/status/1437558204980817922?s=20

[SnowLabrador]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

[Pericles]

I don't think the name change is an issue that's worth a lot of discussion. If people want to call New Zealand 'Aotearoa' that's fine, National and ACT shouldn't get so wound up about it, but most people don't want to change it, and I don't see any reason for a change. At the very least, saying 'Aotearoa New Zealand' is ok but if the official name were to become just 'Aotearoa' wouldn't be right but fortunately isn't happening.

[Pericles]

After a week's delay, the lockdown easing has progressed. This makes me nervous, since there are still a few unlinked cases in Auckland and cases are around the 20s, but the Director-General of Health gave the advice so it should be under control. Auckland is moving to a softer level 3 lockdown, while gathering sizes were increased to 100 for the rest of NZ which is at level 2. The Auckland border has been leaky, a few towns just outside it had to go into lockdown and some lawyers who fled to their holiday house in the South Island has been a big media story. Still, I'm hopeful we can beat this outbreak. Our first dose rate is now pretty close to the US and still surging (60% ish/70-75%), I'm not sure if it's slightly over or under. So this should be the last lockdown and things will get a lot better for us in the next year.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

[H.E. VOLODYMYR ZELENKSYY]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

I don’t think France was founded by a treaty between Arabs who already lived there and settlers from away.

[Pericles]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

I don’t think France was founded by a treaty between Arabs who already lived there and settlers from away.

Yeah, the Treaty is a key part of New Zealand's history and constitutional structure, the government does try to provide 'active protection' to the Maori population. While our race relations are better than say France, we do still have quite significant inequalities between the different racial groups and while of course there are other things that are correlated to race some of it unfortunately is systemic racism. Aotearoa is already a common term and might actually be a better name than New Zealand but I don't think it would be a good idea to make it the sole name-people can use it if they want and if we want to add it to the current official name that should be fine.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

I don’t think France was founded by a treaty between Arabs who already lived there and settlers from away.

It was founded by Romans making a treaty with Franks. Should we rename France France-Francia then, for a better analogy?

[Pericles]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

I don’t think France was founded by a treaty between Arabs who already lived there and settlers from away.

It was founded by Romans making a treaty with Franks. Should we rename France France-Francia then, for a better analogy?

Do I even have to explain why this comparison is wrong?

[Libertas Vel Mors]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

I don’t think France was founded by a treaty between Arabs who already lived there and settlers from away.

It was founded by Romans making a treaty with Franks. Should we rename France France-Francia then, for a better analogy?

Do I even have to explain why this comparison is wrong?

If you're going to say that Franks are described by France, but Maori not by New Zealand, then I resoundingly reject that comparison.

[MaxQue]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

I don’t think France was founded by a treaty between Arabs who already lived there and settlers from away.

It was founded by Romans making a treaty with Franks. Should we rename France France-Francia then, for a better analogy?

Do I even have to explain why this comparison is wrong?

If you're going to say that Franks are described by France, but Maori not by New Zealand, then I resoundingly reject that comparison.

Franks are extinct since centuries, Maoris are not.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

I admittedly don't know too much about New Zealand politics, but this David Seymour guy doesn't sound like he should be taken seriously.

Lol, he's right. New Zealand is 17% Maori and 72% White. It's not a Polynesian country any more than Australia is, or Canada or the US are Native American countries. Should we rename France France-Faransa (Arabic name for France) because 13% of the population is Muslim? Hell, almost as many (15%) New Zealanders are Asian as Maori -- should we make Xīnxīlán (Mandarin) another official name for the country, for the purpose of representation? And even if it was a Polynesian country, why would that make a renaming the right thing to do?

I don’t think France was founded by a treaty between Arabs who already lived there and settlers from away.

It was founded by Romans making a treaty with Franks. Should we rename France France-Francia then, for a better analogy?

Do I even have to explain why this comparison is wrong?

If you're going to say that Franks are described by France, but Maori not by New Zealand, then I resoundingly reject that comparison.

Franks are extinct since centuries, Maoris are not.

Okay. Brazil still has many extant indigenous minorities. Should we rename Brazil after one of those indigenous groups, or give it multiple names, one to represent every group, to represent that?

[Libertas Vel Mors]

If you set a criterion of Treaty + Significant Minority, half the world would have to change their names. Counting the 14th Amendment/Reconstruction legislation as a treaty, should we rename the United States to be the United States/New Africa? Should we rename Morocco to better represent the Berbers? Algeria? Mauritania?