Mr 8%
2026 school lunches are just as bad, but they are also emblematic of Seymour's spin and facade
A new school year has started for some, and tamiriki who can do with a love filled, nourishing meal are met with the food standards that David Seymour told us reflects ‘free market success’ and ‘private-public partnership effectiveness’.
Seymour’s incompetence can only be matched by his will for civil division and civil war in Aotearoa New Zealand - just as we saw similar movements in the US - which has now been broken by years of misinformation and lies, and citizens succumbing to entirely different paradigms.
It was not that long ago that Americans proudly stood by the terms “my fellow American” and where country and brotherhood / kinship were held as significant societal morals that most abided by.
No longer.
It wasn’t that long ago that Kiwis stood up for partnership and reconciliation with Māori, pride in the country’s shared culture - a globally admired culture that was the hallmark of Kiwi patriotism only a decade ago - and a willingness to admit history.
That’s fading.
Yesterday, first time Hastings District Councillor Steve Gibson made headlines for declaring that he refused to attend a council meeting at the local marae, citing it as a “non neutral” site, and protesting any “religious or spiritual practices” that might take place.
He was of course referring to the karakia, which has been a favourite topic on the alt-right of late.
Gibson, a regular on Sean Plunket’s show, and who rallies with slogans marked by ACT Party and Taxpayers Union favourites such as “Keep rates to inflation” and disallowing 16 years old from voting, is an ex police officer who appears heavily vested in issues like “protecting our flag” - perhaps not recognising that people and community are what all flags ultimately stand for.
Gibson isn’t the only one to protest Māori tikanga (customs) in New Zealand.
Last year, Whangamatā Community Board members Mark Drury and Neil Evans abruptly walked out of a pre-meeting karakia.
And right wing agitators such as Ani O’Brien have been stirring up acrimony, using optional, voluntary, pre-work karakia in Health NZ as an example of “public service waste” and claiming it costs NZ taxpayers $1 million, which is frankly an absurd allegation.
In response, ACT’s Todd Stephenson took it upon himself to help “Ani” by writing to Health NZ Chair Lester Levy, and upon Lester “Chainsaw” Levy confirming karakia has always been entirely voluntary, posted a note posturing that he had had something to do with this fact.
This is the ploy of the alt-right these days.
Not to be outdone, ACT’s Brooke Van Velden is on record as refusing to support a Labour bill that, wait for it, targeted the “worst type of worker exploitation” – including servitude, slavery, sexual exploitation, child labour – “really worst types of treatment that human beings can do one another.”1
ACT also cancelled Labour’s leadership advisory group on modern slavery after forming government.
Credit to the National Party’s Greg Fleming for displaying a rare moment of bipartisanship in helping Camilla Belich’s bill to progress this important issue.
Belich: We estimate there are 8000 in New Zealand now
These attempts to tackle extreme worker and child exploitation was a bridge too far for the ACT Party - perhaps not so surprising when previous leaders claimed that slavery is better than modern government.
David Seymour also re-directed sexual abuse youth victims to ACT lawyers, reportedly Seymour’s God mother, versus police, when Tim Jago was still ACT Party President.
And Brooke Van Velden seems to keep asking, ‘Won’t something think of the businesses?’ , while ignoring a silicosis crisis that kills Kiwi workers2, and diverting already underfunded Worksafe staff to man her multi hundred thousand dollar, $750 per roadcone removal hotline - even as NZ suffers double the workplace deaths of similar countries.
Flags and money are ultimately only symbols and customs that people agree to - but it’s in the kinship and willingness to come together that we can all find a greater wealth possible - for everyone.
It’s not something I expect the 8% party to get.
Over 73,000 Kiwis permanently left NZ in one year - ACT deleted their 2023 claim that they would fix the “record” 28,000
Van Velden explains what she meant by “we blew out value of human life during Covid”
School Lunches Satire
Labour MP Camilla Belich
Silicosis is already banned in Australia. In April 2024, Van Velden told Jack Tame she needed a little more time as she hadn’t yet read the file.
ACT's whole purpose appears to be predicated on money and financial calculation. No room for empathy, human connection, nature, humour or the arts - all the things that make life worth living. Soulless zombies.
Her response to the slavery bill was gobsmacking “it’s not my priority.” Right, her priority is enabling workers to be treated a bit more like slaves. Of course she can’t allow corporations to be held accountable in any way that might impact their “certainty” and “flexibility.”