Latest news with #Seymour
Scoop
9 hours ago
- Business
- Scoop
REVEALED: IKEA Consent Shows Why We Can't Have Nice Things
'IKEA's consent conditions show the absurd demands that councils are able to make that slow development, drive up cost, and make New Zealand a less attractive place to do business,' says ACT Leader David Seymour. ACT has obtained a copy of the 2023 resource consent for IKEA's Sylvia Park development. IKEA's consent requirements include: Inviting representatives of seven different mana whenua groups 'to undertake cultural monitoring, karakia and other such cultural ceremonies on the site' at the pre-start meeting, commencement of earthworks and immediately prior to completion of bulk earthworks across the site, with 10 days' notice before each of those events. Consulting with mana whenua on design aspects including erosion and sediment control measures, stormwater treatment, planting, the 'Culvert-edge walkway', and fencing. Mana whenua must be afforded the opportunity to provide Cultural Monitoring as deemed required by the respective mana whenua representatives. Mana whenua must be afforded access to the site at their discretion. 'What message do conditions like these send to other businesses looking to invest in New Zealand?" says Seymour. 'This is especially relevant for supermarkets, where we urgently need more competition. Companies like Aldi or Coles will think twice about entering the market if they realise they'll face this cultural rigmarole at hundreds of separate sites, each with potentially different requirements. 'We should be rolling out the welcome mat for anyone wanting to bring much-needed competition to New Zealand. Instead, we're forcing them to navigate demands based on metaphysical concepts not required anywhere else in the world. The result is Kiwis see higher prices at the checkout, less jobs, and lower incomes. 'That's why Cabinet has agreed there will be no general Treaty principles clause in the new resource management system. We will continue to uphold Treaty settlements, but we cannot continue to have planners bogging down everyone's consents by demanding this sort of absurdity."
NZ Herald
2 days ago
- Health
- NZ Herald
Greg Dixon's Another Kind of Politics: Calls for nationwide lockdown as 'Seymour derangement syndrome' spreads
Following Act leader David Seymour becoming the deputy prime minister last month, we're seeing and hearing a lot more from him. Photo / Getty Images Greg Dixon is an award-winning news reporter, TV reviewer, feature writer and former magazine editor who has written for the NZ Listener since 2017. Online only Greg Dixon's Another Kind of Politics is a weekly satirical column on politics that appears on Public health officials are warning New Zealanders to brace for a national lockdown as cases of the highly infectious 'David Seymour Derangement Syndrome' grow rapidly. Infectious diseases experts said an up-to-18-month lockdown might be the only way to save the country, and called for the government to act quickly. In the meantime, people were advised to socially distance themselves from Seymour, the maddening sound of his voice, his haunting image and his triggering name. 'The only way to prevent a lockdown for all New Zealanders is for Seymour to self-isolate at a remote silent retreat until the next election,' one official said. 'However, we don't believe Seymour is capable of making such a sacrifice for his country due to his own illnesses, which include the often fatal 'I'm the Only One Who's Right Disorder' and the incurable 'I Don't Care What You Have to Say Disease'. We also believe that Seymour, like US President Donald Trump, suffers from a chronic addiction to his own publicity.' The health official warned that if Seymour refused to self-isolate, the sanity of millions of New Zealanders could be at risk. 'If he won't self-quarantine, a lockdown for the rest of us is the only way to avoid a mental health catastrophe. It's us or him.' David Seymour Derangement Syndrome was first isolated and identified 42 years ago in Palmerston North. The only other recorded mass outbreak of the highly virulent disorder was during his appearance on season seven of Dancing with the Stars. Tens of thousands of people were infected then, many fatally. The disease is thought to be similar to 'Trump Derangement Syndrome', only less orange. The latest outbreak is linked to Seymour being included in Prime Minister Christopher Luxon's so-called 'Send in the Clowns, There Ought To Be Clowns Coalition' following the 2023 election. However the speed of spread had increased more quickly since Seymour introduced the Treaty Principles Bill last year. Following the Act leader becoming deputy prime minister last month, and the introduction of his Regulatory Standards Bill, the disease's virulence has increased 10-fold. It is now 'spreading like wildfire' and has become a national pandemic, the health official said. 'This last week and a half have been the worst of all for the spread of this disease. With Luxon in China and Europe, many more New Zealanders were exposed to Seymour as he attempted a series of prime minister impersonations, including holding his first post-cabinet press conference,' the expert said. 'That was like throwing petrol on a dumpster fire. If Seymour is allowed to do further prime minister impressions, the country is likely doomed unless there is a nationwide lockdown.' In related news, new research out this week shows that David Seymour Derangement Syndrome is now a leading cause of people moving to Australia. 'I'm not surprised,' the health official said. 'Getting the hell out of the country is the only guaranteed way to escape this pandemic.' Luxon 'completely relaxed' about possible end of world Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told a NATO leaders meeting this week that they should be 'completely relaxed' about the possible end of the world this year. 'I know I am,' Luxon said. 'I've found that being completely relaxed about things like rising homelessness, rising poverty and the destruction of the environment for profit is a great, effective way to prepare yourself to be completely relaxed about the end of the world,' he told leaders. 'A spoonful of chillaxing really does help the medicine go down.' With Russia's bloody war with Ukraine now in its fourth year, the horrifying 20-month Israel-Gaza conflict ongoing and fears that the Israeli and US attacks on Iran could lead, despite this week's ceasefire, to a broader Middle East conflict, many observers believe the world could be on the precipice of a world-ending war. However, Luxon said he was 'laser-focused' on pretending it wasn't happening. 'In my first 18 months as Prime Minister of New Zealand, I have learnt the best thing to do with bad news is to see it as an opportunity – an opportunity to change the subject,' Luxon told NATO leaders. 'So in the face of oblivion, the most important thing is to focus on what really matters to New Zealanders, and that's growth, growth, growth!' Jesus calls for Brian Tamaki to 'go back to Sunday School' Jesus of Nazareth has launched a scathing but holy attack on Destiny Church leader Brian Tamaki about his knowledge of world religions. During a political march by Destiny members in Auckland involving anti-immigrant smears and flag burnings, Tamaki claimed New Zealand was a 'Christian country'. He went on to denounce the practising of 'foreign religions' here, statements implying that Christianity, like lacking a sense of irony, is native to New Zealand. In a strongly worded but Holy statement, Jesus said Tamaki seemed to have only a slim grasp of the history of Christianity. 'Clearly Brian doesn't realise that I am Jewish and that I practiced the Jewish faith in a place called Israel about 2000 years ago. It was my followers who founded Christianity. They also did that in Israel, which is a place that was, and remains, situated many thousands of kilometres away from New Zealand, not to mention Brian's peculiar church. Christianity is in fact a 'foreign' religion in New Zealand just like Islam, Sikhism and all the rest. I really think Brian needs to go back to Sunday School to learn a bit more about his own faith.' Jesus said that as far as he was aware the only non-foreign religion in New Zealand was the All Blacks. Political quiz of the week Photo / Facebook What self-driving-but-stationary metaphor is Prime Minister Christopher Luxon standing in? A/ His poor poll numbers. B/ Economy growth. C/ The high cost of living. D/ The country's sense of hope for the future.
The Spinoff
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Spinoff
Echo Chamber: ‘Mr Peters wants to call me a dickhead'
'Dickhead', 'bollocks', 'arrogant wokester loser' – who knows what will come out of Winston Peters next. Echo Chamber is The Spinoff's dispatch from the press gallery, recapping sessions in the House. Columns are written by politics reporter Lyric Waiwiri-Smith and Wellington editor Joel MacManus. It only took a minute for Gerry Brownlee to rise to his feet during Wednesday's question time and threaten to kick someone out of the House. The speaker usually has a short fuse anyway, and the House has been sitting under urgency as the government gets through a slew of bill readings (among them draft legislation that would allow employers to make pay deductions over partial strikes, and another that expands the eligibility for an immigration levy), but perhaps it's the acting prime minister who has made Brownlee feel the need to stay on high alert this week. After all, David Seymour was the one who wanted to bring up the 'flagrant, reckless' whoever whoever when Labour leader Chris Hipkins asked him if he stood by the government actions and whatever whatever. Seymour was lauding the government's recent repeal of the ban on oil and gas exploration, and couldn't help but try to rib those wokesters across the way when Brownlee put his foot down. And it only took another minute for Brownlee to scold Seymour again, after the Act Party leader questioned whether Hipkins' caucus supported him. 'I think the acting prime minister can do better than that,' Brownlee said. 'The member's a very articulate man, I'm sure he can do better than he has.' And Seymour – being Seymour – only needed another minute to make another blunder by calling the opposition 'turkeys', for which the speaker made him withdraw and apologise. Another day in paradise. Afterwards, National MP Dana Kirkpatrick attempted to hand patsies to finance minister Nicola Willis to celebrate the beginning of the Depositor Compensation Scheme next week, but jeers from the opposition kept cutting over her. It was the Labour Party, trying to summon a former finance minister to claim his victory for actually coming up with the scheme in the first place. So, Chris Hipkins offered Willis a supplementary – who was the finance minister when this was passed into law? Well, Willis scoffed, how funny that those calling me 'desperate' for taking credit for this now want to take credit for it themselves. 'Well, that is flip-flop Hipkins for ya.' But after a small tug-of-war, Willis finally conceded that it was Grant Robertson (whose name received a roaring 'hooray!' from Labour) who was the finance minister at the time, and thus the scheme 'has the rare attribute that it was actually one thing he did that was helpful'. And then Winston Peters decided he wanted to butt in, too. 'Could I ask the minister,' Peters began, 'is she telling us that it's taken 19 long months for Mr Hipkins to find something commendable about Grant Robertson's time?' No, no, no, Brownlee ordered – now we're moving on. 'Urgency just turns the place upside down.' Greens co-leader Marama Davidson was up next with questions on bottom trawling, which Peters took in lieu of oceans and fisheries minister Shane Jones, who was away from the House. He did his best to dodge her questions, so when Davidson had the gall to use 'Aotearoa' instead of 'New Zealand', Peters told her there was no such country by that name that had pledged $16m to a global fund for coral reefs as she alleged – but some rumblings to Peters' right seemed to put him off. 'Are you sure?' Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris asked him. 'Yes, I am positive,' Peters replied. 'Unlike you, you dickhead.' The remark was lost under the sound of Davidson's next supplementary, but after Ferris had a good laugh over it, he rose for a point of order. 'I've witnessed many times in this House disparaging comments being made between sides,' Ferris told the speaker, 'and I'm quite sure that being called a 'dickhead' would fall in line with that …' – he seemed to struggle to find the right word, and then it came to him: ' tikanga of the House, we might say, Mr Speaker.' 'So if Mr Peters wants to call me a dickhead across the alleyway here, I think that we should consider something for him,' Ferris offered. Well, I had no idea this even happened, Brownlee replied, but if Ferris found it offensive, the minister should withdraw and apologise – except it took another supplementary from Hipkins, and for Ferris to outright say 'I take personal offence to the comments made by Mr Peters over here calling me a dickhead', before the NZ First leader backed down, but only slightly. 'I apologise for calling him what I said he was,' Peters told the House. To get the ball back in the government's court, Seymour decided to rise for a point of order, to dob Ferris into the school principal for wearing the wrong uniform. Referencing Ferris and his Toitū te Tiriti shirt, Seymour asked the speaker, would he reflect on earlier rulings in relation to political motifs on shirts and badges, 'in relation to anything you may have seen in the last few minutes?' 'Yes, I certainly will,' Brownlee replied. There's only one thing Ferris could have been thinking: it really be your own people.
1News
3 days ago
- Politics
- 1News
David Seymour's posts raise questions about what's OK to say online
Deputy Prime Minister and ACT Party leader David Seymour says he is being "playful" and having "fun" with his "Victim of the Day" social media posts, targeting opponents of his Regulatory Standards Bill. Massey University lecturer Kevin Veale takes a look at when a joke isn't a joke. But the posts – which have singled out academics and MPs who have criticised or made select committee submissions against the bill, accusing them of suffering from "Regulatory Standards Derangement Syndrome" – have now led to at least two official complaints to Cabinet. Wellington City mayor Tory Whanau has alleged they amounted to "online harassment and intimidation" against academics and were in breach of the Cabinet Manual rules for ministers. According to the manual, ministers should behave in a way that upholds, and is seen to uphold, the highest ethical and behavioural standards. This includes exercising a professional approach and good judgement in their interactions with the public, staff, and officials, and in all their communications, personal and professional. Academic Anne Salmond, one of those targeted by the posts, has also alleged Seymour breached the behaviour standards set out by the manual. According to Salmond: ADVERTISEMENT This "Victim of the Day" campaign does not match this description. It is unethical, unprofessional and potentially dangerous to those targeted. Debate is fine, online incitements are not. When is a joke not a joke? Seymour's claim he was being "playful" while using his platform to criticise individuals follows a pattern of targeting critics while deflecting criticism of his own behaviour. For example, in 2022 Seymour demanded an apology from Māori Party co-leader Rawiri Waititi, after Waititi earlier joked about poisoning Seymour with karaka berries. At the time, Seymour said: "I'm genuinely concerned that the next step is that some slightly more radical person doesn't think it's a joke." Te Pāti Māori co-leaders Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. (Source: 1News) But the same year, Seymour defended Tauranga by-election candidate Cameron Luxton's joke that the city's commission chair Anne Tolley was like Marie Antoinette and should be beheaded. ADVERTISEMENT In 2023, Seymour joked about abolishing the Ministry of Pacific Peoples: In my fantasy, we'd send a guy called Guy Fawkes in there and it'd be all over, but we'll probably have to have a more formal approach than that. Māori researcher and advocate Tina Ngata criticised Seymour's argument that he was joking: Calling it a joke does not make it any less white-supremacist. What it does is point to the fact that in David Seymour's mind, violence against Pacific peoples is so normalised, that he can make a joke out of it […] but he's not any person is he? He is a politician, a leader of a political party, with a significant platform and the means and opportunities to advance that normalised violence into policy and legislation. Designed to silence An analysis of Seymour's recent social media posts by researcher Sanjana Hattotuwa at the Disinformation Project has argued they have the potential to lead to online harassment, saying they are: "Designed to silence opposition to the controversial Regulatory Standards Bill whilst maintaining plausible deniability about the resulting harassment, harms and hate." The "Victims of the Day" posts about Anne Salmond and former Green leader Metiria Turei were textbook examples of "technology-facilitated gender-based violence and online misogyny", Hattotuwa argued. And the use of the term "derangement" framed academic criticism as a mental disorder – undermining expertise. As my own research shows, online harassment and violent rhetoric can raise the chances of real-world violence. ADVERTISEMENT Since the early 2000s, researchers have used the term "stochastic terrorism" to describe a way of indirectly threatening people. Nobody is specifically told "harm these people", so the person putting them at risk has plausible deniability. Seymour is already aware of these dynamics, as shown by his demand for an apology from Waititi over the karaka berry poisoning "joke". Free speech for who? Seymour and ACT have long presented themselves as champions of free speech: Freedom of expression is one of the most important values our society has. We can only solve our most pressing problems in an open society in which free thought and open enquiry are encouraged. By going after critics of the Regulatory Standards Bill, Seymour may only be ridiculing speech he does not like. But he has taken things further in the past. In 2023, he criticised poet Tusiata Avia for her poem "Savage Coloniser Pantoum", which Seymour said was racist and would incite racially motivated violence. He made demands that the government withdraw NZ$107,280 in taxpayer money from the 2023 Auckland Arts Festival in response. ADVERTISEMENT ACT list MP Todd Stephenson also threatened to remove Creative NZ funding after Avia received a Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement. Avia said she received death threats after ACT's criticism of her work. ACT MP Todd Stephenson. (Source: Q and A) The more serious purpose of saying something contentious is "just a joke" is to portray those who disagree as humourless and not deserving to be taken seriously. ACT's "Victim of the Day" campaign does something similar in attempting to discredit serious critics of the Regulatory Standards Bill by mocking them. But in the end, we have to be alert to the potential political double standard: harmless jokes for me, but not for you. Dangerous threats from you, but not from me. Author: Kevin Veale is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies, part of the Digital Cultures Laboratory in the School of Humanities, Media, and Creative Communication at Massey University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. ADVERTISEMENT
Otago Daily Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Behaviour ‘unbecoming' of govt role
David Seymour. Photo: Gregor Richardson A former Green party leader is accusing David Seymour of behaviour "unbecoming" of the role of deputy prime minister after she was targeted for her criticism of a controversial Bill. In the past week, Mr Seymour has made a series of social media posts singling out several prominent opponents of his Regulatory Standards Bill and accusing them of suffering from "Regulatory Standards Derangement Syndrome." One of those targeted was University of Otago senior law lecturer and former Green party co-leader Metiria Stanton Turei who wrote an opinion piece, published in the Otago Daily Times on June 13, with the headline "The Regulatory Standards Bill is an attack on all of us". Her piece was critical of the Bill, which proposes a set of regulatory principles required for lawmakers, agencies and ministries to consider in regulation design. Mrs Stanton Turei said the legislation would exclude Māori language, culture and legal perspectives, constrain future governments and impact the environment. In a social media post on June 19, Mr Seymour labelled Mrs Stanton Turei "victim of the day" and laid out why he believed her arguments against the Bill were wrong — saying she was "spinning conspiracies". Mrs Stanton Turei said Mr Seymour's behaviour was "unbecoming" of a deputy prime minister. "It's arguably in breach of the cabinet manual and contrary to his advocacy of the right of academic freedom," she said. Metiria Stanton Turei. Photo: file She declined to make any further comment. Mr Seymour's office said he had addressed the matter at Monday's post cabinet stand-up, where he rubbished claims his posts breached the cabinet manual. "There's no such breach. If people want to go out and make completely incorrect statements, then I'm going to get a bit playful and have some fun with them." He said pointing out there was a "curious syndrome that is causing people to say untrue things" was different from outright calling them deranged. Another critic singled out by Mr Seymour, Dame Anne Salmond said his campaign was "lame, even laughable" but also an abuse of high office, and said she would formally lodge a complaint with the Cabinet Office. Wellington Mayor Tory Whanau accused Mr Seymour of setting a "dangerous precedent" for how dissenting voices were treated, and laid a formal complaint with the Prime Minister over the posts. The Regulatory Standards Bill passed its first reading last month and submissions on the Bill closed on Monday. The Finance and Expenditure Committee will consider the submissions, with its final report due by November 22. — additional reporting RNZ
