Jacinda Ardern says it is possible to exist in politics without lying and says she has never told a lie.

Has she now been caught in a lie over Manus Island ratbags?

The Prime Minister has repeated her stance that New Zealand is willing to take 150 refugees from Manus Island, but that it would need to be approved by Australia.

Jacinda Ardern fielded questions at Auckland’s Grey Lynn festival around midday on Saturday, where Labour had a stall among the bouncy castle and go-karts.

The offer for New Zealand to take 150 refugees after Australian approval remained unchanged – despite revelations on Friday that Papua New Guinea police were using physical force to evacuate refugees and asylum-seekers.

When asked if she would consider by-passing Australian authorities and approaching PNG authorities directly, Ardern said no. 

“The advice that we’ve had from a range of different sources is that we’d need to go via Australia.

“Whether or not Australia takes up our offer to take 150 refugees continues to be a matter for Australia.

“We’ve made it very clear that we’re more than happy to assist but that ultimately is a matter for them.”

Interesting. Then why is MSD leaking like a sieve contradicting everything you’ve just said?

I have several sources in MSD. They advise me that; The PM’s office asked the Housing department to ‘make ready’ housing for at least 150 refugees and their families over the next 6 weeks. MSD replied saying that there’s a general shortage of houses for Kiwi homeless. The plan now is to find motels that will house refugees and their families. There is also a request for Punjabi, Bengali, and Farsi translation services.

There is apparently an email trail to the PM’s office. The email was sent from the PM’s office on Monday last week. These emails will be subject to the OIA.

My sources feel that the PM’s office is bypassing the proper internal process whilst the plan entails direct negotiations with PNG.

The basics of this have been leaked on Twitter.

Further another source tells me that last week there was a huge MSD IT planning meeting at Westpac, it’s called a programme increment…essentially, going through the IT requirements of the ministry for the next 3 months or so…in the process of the meeting, they were informed that they needed to implement one of the software systems used by the department responsible for resettlement, because MSD will be helping resettle some refugees…and part of the project initiation documentation displayed was an email from the PM’s office, sent Monday last week, making the request.

The email trail may well prove that our PM can lie just as well as other politicians.

Refugees and asylum seekers protesting inside the Manus Island immigration detention centre

Muriel Newman writes in her email newsletter:

Over recent weeks the plight of Manus Island refugees and the Prime Minister’s offer to take 150 of them has been dominating the news. The media’s obsession with the refugee issue is reminiscent of their incessant promotion of Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party in the run up to the election.

It has only been since the Australian media released details from the Papua New Guinea authorities outlining how the Manus Island detainees regularly travel into town to allegedly have sex with underage girls – some as young as 10 – and buy and sell drugs, that some balance has finally entered the news coverage.

Given the interest of the New Zealand media in this issue, quite why they didn’t find and publish this information – which was reported to the Australian Government in mid-October – is not clear. The 161 offences the detainees are alleged to have committed include sexual assault, assault and aggressive behaviour.  

If our media had been doing their job, they would have provided New Zealanders with balanced reporting from the outset. That would have indicated there are serious problems in taking these men.

If our media were doing their jobs they’d be reporting on the MSD leaks that Jacinda Ardern has gone around Australia and is negotiating directly with Papua New Guinea. Not only that she has demanded houses and other accommodation be made available, along with fast tracking welfare and arranging translators. She has denied this to media, but the email trail will reveal that lie in due course.

What was also not reported by our media was the fact that under normal circumstances, every asylum seeker has access to accommodation, utilities, food, and a fortnightly allowance. They are free to visit nearby villages to shop, to go to the beach and to mix with locals. In addition, they are able to apply for permanent resettlement in PNG at any time.

Australia’s position on this matter in understandable. The Australian Government has always refused New Zealand’s offers to take boat refugees for the very good reason that we could be used as a backdoor route into that country – unless visas are re-introduced for Trans-Tasman travel. The concern is that if any of the refugees did end up in Australia, it could trigger a resumption of the disastrous people smuggling trade that led to the deaths of over 1,200 asylum seekers before the hard-line approach was adopted.

Australia now has a strict policy of turning back asylum seekers’ boats in order to discourage them from even trying to reach Australia. Not only that, but any asylum seekers, who do manage to arrive by boat, are banned from ever being settled in Australia. Instead they are held in detention camps on Nauru and Papua New Guinea, from where any genuine refugees are given the option of being resettled, but not in Australia. Alternatively, they can opt to be returned to their home country.

Our Prime Minister should stop meddling in Australian affairs. An offer has been made and that’s where it should lie. And the media should provide balanced reporting, not try to exert influence through PR campaigns masquerading as news.

If Jacinda Ardern really has gone behind Australia’s back then expect Australia to reinstate visas for travel to Australia.

Word from inside Labour and the government is that Ardern is hell bent on bringing these 150 ratbags here, genuine refugees or not. That includes their families. It is all about her PR and not at all about the fact Kiwi voters don’t want a bar of them.

Labour appears to be in full “reverse ferret” mode over immigration.

Stacey Kirk from Fairfax explains:

They stood on an immigration crackdown, but reality hit first. 

If voters were lulled into thinking their new Government would make ardent strides to turn around Johnny Foreigner en masse at the border, the rhetoric of the past week might be a sharp wake-up call.

Annual migration fell to a 10-month low of 70,694 in the year to October, down from a peak of 72,402 in the year to July, according to the latest Statistics NZ update.

Economists have forecast the drop to accelerate to varying levels, while the Government’s synchronised backdown from a key election policy to reduce migration by 20,000 to 30,000 has been swift.   

Immigration is a tightrope, stretched over a churning lagoon of gnashing jaws with big teeth. Walking it can be an art form: let your weight fall too far either side and you’re in trouble.

It’s no surprise to see Labour winding down its messaging on immigration. It may even be a relief to the regions and business, as well as to the party itself.

On one hand, it’s an assurance the Government is prepared to forgo populism for pragmatism, while the positioning also sits more naturally with Labour’s core principles.

Importantly, if immigration numbers began to fall for reasons outside the Government’s control, then a Government espousing a tightening of the tap would be taking that trend and making it worse.

And it’s clearly aware of the stakes. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters were all singing from the same song sheet the past week, saying there will be a reduction in immigration, “but we’re not fixating on the numbers”. 

Because if it appears to be tightening the screws, while they’re tightening anyway, the Government risks choking the supply of workers businesses say they need and regional New Zealand will fare worst. 

In Timaru, factory expansions are crying out for more workers – two major fisheries and a Fonterra mozzarella plant have faced months-long staff shortages, unable to fill hundreds of positions. 

Labour originally promised a huge reduction, down to about 20,000 immigrants. They’ve been walking that back ever since.

Laobur’s policies never got much scrutiny during the election with a tame Media party basking in the glow of the Jacinda Effect.

Those chickens are now coming home to roost.

Left-wing journalism Anthony Hubbard, has a piece about the governments current klutz, Kelvin Davis

Kelvin Davis was a killer in opposition. His relentless campaign of prison leaks and revelations helped end the career of National’s hapless minister of corrections (the since-retired and forgotten Sam Lotu-Iiga).

Now Davis is the minister of corrections himself and it’s all sunshine and good cheer. “Exciting” is a recurring word.

The friendly MP for Tai Tokerau is excited, for instance, about the revolutionary policy of slashing the prison population.   

Yeah, because slashing the prison population and spilling more than 3000 violent ratbags onto the streets is a real vote winner.

The first one that kills someone is going to be on his head.

No Kiwi politician or party has seriously proposed this before. New Zealand remains one of the keenest jailers in the West, and governments of both sorts have outbid each other on law and order.

And he will be the last who does when it goes pear shaped.

“Governments for a long, long time have tried to outdo each other as being tough on crime. We actually need to be smart on crime.”

Labour promises to cut the prison muster by 30 per cent in 15 years, but how? If you ask Davis, you get a wash of generalities – “multifaceted solutions” – and pledges to examine the research.

If we are going to be smart on crime then why is the dumbest hammer in the bag doing the job?

Instead of concentrating on the prisons – they are just marshalling yards – you need to consider the wider problems that produce an ever-expanding horde of prisoners. These “drivers” are what matter most.

“We actually have to look at things like the mental health situation, we have to look at the housing situation, we have to look at poverty, we have to look at how our people are being treated now – because one of the biggest drivers of the prison population is violence.

“How do we address that? What are the drivers of violence? Is it having a lack of money, is it having no hope, and despair? …

“What are the drivers? And we have to work that out and then base our solutions on that.”

The Government has “to look at all the options”.

What a load of horse dung. While he is having “conversations” and working out what can be done then these bastards need to be locked up. It is what voters want. We want the bad bastards off the streets and we really don’t care what happens to them in prison either. Crim-hugging womble politicians like Kelvin Davis think they have all the answers but I bet he won’t offer up his place as a halfway house for them.

Don’t we need something a little more specific? Will cutting the prison population, for instance, involve cutting prison sentences?

“Possibly, yeah. We need to look at all the options. We need to make decisions based on decent evidence, based on what’s worked.”

What about letting people out earlier on bail? This, too, seems one of the options, though “we’ve got to keep the country safe. This is a balancing act, this isn’t a quick fix. We keep the country safe but also address the types of crime, also the drivers of crime.”

Davis’s vagueness raises questions about how much research he and Labour did before deciding on the policy. Or is he just keeping his powder dry for the upcoming political battle?

Certainly he understands that prison reform faces huge political problems, including the resistance of many voters.

Davis is just like his leader, a lightweight long on sloganeering, short on specifics. Labour already has a soft on crime reputation and with attitudes like that it deserves it. The voters will tear them apart. As I said, the first ex-prisoner released by Davis and Labour will be the poster child for a law and order backlash with Ardern and Davis being sent out on a tumbril.

I hope they do release 30% of the prison population back on the streets. They are all likely to come from Labour electorates so the uproar and backlash will be from their own voters. The only fear I have of such an action is that someone is going to get killed because of the a stupid crim-hugging decisions of an insulated and out of touch womble politician. Holding that politician to account is the easy part, bringing that victim back to life is impossible.

Davis made this rod for his back, with all his grandstanding. I can’t wait for the next stabbing, or bashing, or murder in one of Davis’ prison to occur. He will get his grandstanding right back at him.

He still has some rather impertinent questions to answer about how he got elected in 2014 while his party was campaigning against #dirtypolitics.

Phil Twyford has ordered a stocktake of housing to find out the status of the crisis he, Labour and the Media party have all told us about for years.

Housing and Urban Development Minister Phil Twyford has commissioned three of New Zealand’s leading experts to provide an independent stocktake of the housing crisis.

“For too long, the previous Government refused to accept the housing crisis and establish the scale of the problem we face,” says Minister Twyford.

“For instance, it was only once the Labour-led Government came to office that we learned MBIE’s official figures show a nationwide shortfall of 71,000 houses and that projections show house building would fall if not for KiwiBuild.

“The previous government never acknowledged or accepted the official numbers, and also refused to accept its own official definition of homelessness.

“Shamubeel Eaqub, Philippa Howden-Chapman, and Alan Johnson are among New Zealand’s foremost experts on housing. Their insight will be invaluable.

Nice bunch of left-wing focused individuals.

The question has to asked: Why didn’t Phil Twyford do this research before he launched into declaring a housing crisis and before the election?

“This report will provide an authoritative picture of the state of housing in New Zealand today, drawing on the best data available. It will put firm figures on homelessness, the state of the rental market, the decline of homeownership, and other factors in the housing crisis.

“The Labour-led Government is already pushing ahead quickly with initiatives to make housing more affordable and healthy, including banning overseas speculators, passing the Healthy Homes Guarantee Bill, cancelling the state house selloff, and setting up KiwiBuild. This report will help the Government refine and focus that work where it is most needed.

“I have instructed officials to provide the experts with any and all information they request. The years of spin and denial are over,” says Phil Twyford.

The report will be due before Christmas.

With a supposed 71,000 houses needed I wonder what Phil Twyford is going to say about the emails from his boss to Housing NZ to provide 150 houses for incoming ratbags from Manus Island and their families?

Won’t that make the housing crisis worse? What about the emails going back that say Kiwis first for houses which then got another one in reply asking for options on hotels for the ratbags?

Didn’t Labour criticise the government for putting people up in motels? Oh that’s right they did.

More importantly does Twyford, as Housing Minister know his boss is dealing direct with Housing NZ?

-Labour party

poverty

Fairfax columnist John Sergeant makes a valid point about all these claims about child poverty:

Summertime and the livin’ might be easy but some of our kids still endure tough times through no fault of their own.

Even so, I still cannot get my head around what “child poverty” is exactly.  

It is a rubbish title and the way of measuring it is even worse.

But hey, Jacinda is going to eliminate it, she’s promised.

I understand it’s bandied around as a measure of social failure but those using the term seem to say nothing of explanation as though it’s enough to say it and let others figure out the rest for themselves, but quite frankly it’s beyond me.

I understand that some children live in poverty, conditions which by first world standards are less than acceptable but by other standards aren’t too bad at all.

Especially when you see kids literally starving in countries where social welfare doesn’t exist.

Back in Godzone, cold and damp housing is a genuine issue for holding kids back from enjoying a decent childhood.

Living in substandard conditions is tragically a part of the poverty trap with rents exorbitantly high and there’s often no choice for families to accept it.

But sending children to school hungry isn’t acceptable and I remain convinced that the term “child poverty” is becoming more of an excuse for poor parenting and in actual fact the term that should be used is ‘child neglect’. 

It’s a parent’s inherent responsibility to care for their children full stop, not to pass the buck onto the government or anybody else.

If you can’t feed them, don’t smoke, drink and all the rest of it.

Spot on. Too may people want to pass the buck to the government. If government is the answer then it was clearly a stupid question.

Kids come first so to have no shoes or rain jackets in the winter and empty bellies is in many cases neglect.

To some degree it’s actually encouraged as various organisations, for instance, feed kids at school unconditionally.

So oddly enough there’s no incentive for parents to feed them at home. Then guess what?

More and more kids turn up hungry and the stats climb so the end of year reports say that “child poverty” is increasing when in actual fact it’s no more than a self-fulfilling prophecy based on the children becoming victims of learned helplessness by parents.

I have seen many parents with very little indeed go hungry themselves to make sure their kids turn up at school proud to be dressed smart, looking smart and acting smart.

That’s how it works but when more and more charities with the best of intentions, inadvertently support a flawed system, I really wonder where our priorities are.

The priorities of the socialists and globalists like Jacinda Ardern, is to have as many people reliant on the state as possible.

We are losing our can do attitude…and replacing it with an entitlement and bludger attitude.

They live amongst us…terrorists that is.

A 19-year-old Dannevirke man appeared in the Palmerston North District Court yesterday after being charged with possessing terrorism propaganda.

Jordayne Evan Thomas Madams faces 10 charges of possessing objectionable material consisting of child sex abuse videos and images, and terrorism material.

He made no plea when he appeared in court and a police spokesperson said he was due to appear in court on December 7 – where he would be required to enter a plea.

According to court documents, that included a text file of The Terrorist’s Handbook, which gives instructions on how to assemble bombs and explosives, as well as Isis beheading videos.  

 

It was also alleged Madams had videos showing Isis, a jihadist militant group predominantly operating in Syria, executing a captured soldier with a machinegun and carrying out a beheading.

The child sex abuse material involved photos and videos of preteen and teenage boys and girls in suggestive poses or taking part in sex acts, according to court documents.

If found guilty of the terrorism material charges, Madams will join a small group sentenced already.

In 2016, Imran Patel was the first person in New Zealand convicted possessing, making and distributing the objectionable material and was sentenced to three years and nine months’ jail.

Police found 62 objectionable videos showing extreme violence or cruelty, as well as copies of an Isis-endorsed online magazine, when they searched Patel’s home in 2015.

Activity supporting terrorist activities, including fundraising, is an offence under the Terrorism Suppression Act.

This is a locally grown terrorist and bad bastard.

Word on the street is that Jacinda Ardern is directly negotiating with Papua New Guinea to bring 150 more ratbags in from Manus Island…and their families.

We have more than enough of our own ratbags thanks.

Note also he is a sufferer of Silly First name Syndrome. No good was ever going to come of him.

-NZ Herald

No one does sanctimony, hypocrisy and double standards like a feminist. Add in the fact that she is a journalist and you really start to wonder about the motivations.

Ms Cuming is clearly out to ‘get’ Mr Bunting and claim a scalp in the name of 4th wave feminism.

This story is yet another example of ‘do as I say, and not as I do’.

It appears that Ms Cuming is guilty of some shocking double standards.

Only earlier this month, she was guilty of stalking a man in local park, taking photos of him and then broadcasting them to the world on Twitter (on 4th Nov) for the purpose of sexual objectification.

She’s been widely called out on social media for her apparent double standards, but she is strangely silent on the issue.

Note that one of the commenters on her Twitter account is Mary Ann Gill, an elected Waikato DHB member. You can bet your bottom dollar that if this had been a male councillor (or any male for that matter) taking photos of women in parks for a similar purpose, all hell would break loose, the police would be called, they’d be sacked etc etc.

Why does Ms Cuming, who is also in the public eye and in a position of influence and responsibility, manage to get away with this?

Why the double standards, complaining about a lewd joke but at the same time objectifying a bloke exercising at a playground?

Will anyone in the media, or indeed TVNZ follow up Ms Cuming for her double standards?