I'm up in the Hokianga and this time of year is THE best!

Sweet!

Wait?!? Luxon is a decade older than Hipkins? He comes across as having been in the year above Simeon Brown.

Hope the weather is awesome for you. My pals kayaked with dolphins there a couple of months back. Have fun!

I'm also smitten with the huge planter in my garden literally stuffed full of mint. I just need my lime trees to hurry up and catch up!

Couldn't agree more. It feels more like a result of the people they hang out with and whose views they absorb. Pretty repellent morally but politically almost certainly inept.

The idea they can win the election by trashing Jacinda's leadership appears to be a misstep of significant proportions.

Going with a US-style scaremonger campaign is going to be their tactic - it seems like apeing their American counterparts is how these 'Christian' leaders roll.

Brownlee only turned up for the sausage rolls.

Fair.

FFS! I just watched it and if there's nothing I hate more than a politician telling us what we aren't interested in (whether our shit PM is about to be ousted) and the ONLY thing we are interested in (the cost of living which is through the roof because of..... see above for clue). Dipstick.

I thought he'd walked that bit back and said there weren't any moaners. Anyway - we're now in "You can't talk about my Lexus because it's in my wife's name" territory and apparently this whole thing was a media invention.

I think, if you have a choice between a repeat of what we've had or a Labour/Green coalition while moving the port to Whangarei and naming it the Sir Winston Peters port or something, then I'd take it. We'd get the racist shit either way.

All things considered, I'm delighted he's staying around to steer this poorly maintained ferry onto the rocks come November (or earlier if that crafty old bugger Winston drills another hole in the hull)

Those are not inspiring numbers considering

They need to change that 'invisible piano' thing when they get a single to goose wings now.

They really take that American Exceptionalism thing seriously don't they.

Don't even! I can't remember who it was when NZ was given the 'guest' seat at the UN Security Council for a term during John Key's PMship. One National MP said "We're sitting up at the Big Boys table now" and it told me everything I ever needed to know about their moral compass.

Forgive me! I went on a bit of a typing frenzy - forgive me! I heartily agree with you but I think ‘sucking up’ to anyone committing war crimes will damage our standing in the world. We should aim to be a leader in the Pacific realm. Anything else is a distraction.

…I believe we should spend as much time and effort as possible on being great diplomats and ambassadors for what is moral and decent in this world (while speeding up the fixing of everything in our backyard so we’re not TOTAL hypocrites).

…it actually gave us standing in the international world. Now, we have huge issues of inequality, racism, you name it, which we have to deal with internally but, at least until recently,our opinion on international law meant something. It meant something decent. We are leaking it away but….

…we’re not only neighbours but we’re pretty much whānau. We do have something substantial to offer the wider world (including our trading partners) and that’s our Moral Compass. AoNZ began to be an independent ‘voice of reason and morality’ when we took our anti-nuclear stance…

I agree with you in principle. We do have things to defend which are threatened right now - principally our fisheries and ocean territory. We also, I believe, have duty to our Pacific neighbours to help them do the same. Being friends with Aus is also important…1/3?

Plus I’d like us to consider our defence spending - it should focus on the defence needs of NZ rather than creating a ‘Kiwi’ unit which can fit seamlessly into a wider conflict as a US ally.

I know enough about them being given $150,000 by a big Nat/ACT donor to make me feel pretty wary of them

What a gorgeous shot.

I guess he could pass out wearing a ballgown next time?

You cannot persuade me that anyone in that current National Caucus is fit for the PMs job. Especially not the clearly under-age Simeon Brown.

That was her husband who said "I'm a sovereign citizen babe, I got you"

I NEED one of these! My wife has tissue boxes all over the house