Norm Riddell
@norm519.bsky.social
A lifetime creating forests then harvesting them- then replanting them! (Forest Management industry) Advocate and support the principle of equality for all.
Reposted by Norm Riddell
Huffing their own bullshit spraying out of their arses
How the f**k is business confidence at its highest in 12 years? In 17 years of business it has never been worse for me. Antidotally this is what I am hearing from so many other owners that are shutting down etc. Wtf?
January 13, 2026 at 6:59 AM
Huffing their own bullshit spraying out of their arses
Reposted by Norm Riddell
IMHO, this whole Ruth Richardson vs Willis debate is a beat-up designed to make Willis look more moderate and to give her an excuse to make even bigger cuts to public servants and social services. They are not to be trusted, and this is manufactured meddling.
December 10, 2025 at 6:24 PM
IMHO, this whole Ruth Richardson vs Willis debate is a beat-up designed to make Willis look more moderate and to give her an excuse to make even bigger cuts to public servants and social services. They are not to be trusted, and this is manufactured meddling.
Reposted by Norm Riddell
Going out on a limb here to suggest that the PM doesn’t understand what it is that regional councils do
November 25, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Going out on a limb here to suggest that the PM doesn’t understand what it is that regional councils do
Reposted by Norm Riddell
I am looking forward to Edmonds becoming our next Finance Minister
Barbara Edmonds is going to be an excellent MP for the new Kenepuru electorate. She's fiercely intelligent, kind, considerate and hard working. I'm looking forward to getting her further acquainted in the southern end.
November 23, 2025 at 6:44 AM
I am looking forward to Edmonds becoming our next Finance Minister
Totally agree, so good to see.
man hana rawhiti is such a credit to her people - dignified, and the wisest member of that caucus despite being the youngest
November 20, 2025 at 7:29 AM
Totally agree, so good to see.
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/lu...
PM Luxon: Uphold Codes of Conduct - Call David Seymour into line
Responsible leaders welcome advice from experts when they are creating laws and policies. They know good decision making means planning for the long term, considering diverse points of view and making...
our.actionstation.org.nz
November 10, 2025 at 3:05 AM
This cause is close to my heart - please sign: our.actionstation.org.nz/petitions/lu...
Tom Cruises is the wrong person to play Jack Reacher in my book.
That ‘Jack Reacher: Never go back’ clips along. Fast and furious.
November 9, 2025 at 10:12 AM
Tom Cruises is the wrong person to play Jack Reacher in my book.
Reposted by Norm Riddell
+1
Provide free banking and mortgage lending at OCR+1 as a public banking service, and nationalise fossil fuel electricity generation (and incentivise generators to reduce it's use). Split wholesale / retail grocery and force sale of half of supermarkets to several new entrants. No more half measures.
October 8, 2025 at 10:27 PM
+1
Reposted by Norm Riddell
Fonterror
Fonterra caused the nitrate emergency in Canterbury by pushing too many cows. And now @Fonterra’s Govt is weakening freshwater rules to force even more cows, forcing Cantabrians to drink more of their sh$t. www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/3608...
The Press
www.thepress.co.nz
October 4, 2025 at 4:30 AM
Fonterror
Reposted by Norm Riddell
Nicola Willis has backed off breaking up the Foodstuffs-Woolworths grocery duopoly. She hopes Costco will instead use 'fast-track' powers to grow, even though it already has a Christchurch consent, but has held back from launching. #nzpol thekaka.substack.com/p/still-capt...
Still captured, after all these years
Picks n' Mixes & Daily Chorus: Willis backs off breaking up grocery duopoly. She hopes Costco will instead use 'fast-track' powers to grow, even though it has Christchurch consent, but has held back.
thekaka.substack.com
August 27, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Nicola Willis has backed off breaking up the Foodstuffs-Woolworths grocery duopoly. She hopes Costco will instead use 'fast-track' powers to grow, even though it already has a Christchurch consent, but has held back from launching. #nzpol thekaka.substack.com/p/still-capt...
Reposted by Norm Riddell
On our 1st sabbatical to Vancouver with the kids, Jamie was 4 years old & we got him into one of the many UBC kindergartens. He made friends with an Icelandic girl (4) she spoke 5 languages & at the end of our sabbatical had a basic knowledge of te reo.
We are an international embarrassment.
We are an international embarrassment.
Just asked a colleague how they were.
Kei te pehea koe?
Their reply:
Up and not crying. Norwegian in origin.
Kei te pehea koe?
Their reply:
Up and not crying. Norwegian in origin.
August 14, 2025 at 8:34 AM
On our 1st sabbatical to Vancouver with the kids, Jamie was 4 years old & we got him into one of the many UBC kindergartens. He made friends with an Icelandic girl (4) she spoke 5 languages & at the end of our sabbatical had a basic knowledge of te reo.
We are an international embarrassment.
We are an international embarrassment.
Reposted by Norm Riddell
*Stanford is a very average performer in a govt that doesn’t understand or more likely doesn’t care about the self inflicted damage their policies are causing the country
August 10, 2025 at 12:58 AM
*Stanford is a very average performer in a govt that doesn’t understand or more likely doesn’t care about the self inflicted damage their policies are causing the country
This one by some measure.
It's a close run thing if this current New Zealand Government or Muldoon's is the worst of my lifetime.
August 1, 2025 at 6:43 AM
This one by some measure.
Reposted by Norm Riddell
Are we finally starting to see the true Chris Luxon? A Lex Luther clone?
He is cracking, this man has ZERO leadership skills, takes no responsibility for HIS govts actions failing us and continues to blame someone else, esp when he's called out.
How could he possibly be wrong? He was a CEO!
He is cracking, this man has ZERO leadership skills, takes no responsibility for HIS govts actions failing us and continues to blame someone else, esp when he's called out.
How could he possibly be wrong? He was a CEO!
July 22, 2025 at 7:37 AM
Are we finally starting to see the true Chris Luxon? A Lex Luther clone?
He is cracking, this man has ZERO leadership skills, takes no responsibility for HIS govts actions failing us and continues to blame someone else, esp when he's called out.
How could he possibly be wrong? He was a CEO!
He is cracking, this man has ZERO leadership skills, takes no responsibility for HIS govts actions failing us and continues to blame someone else, esp when he's called out.
How could he possibly be wrong? He was a CEO!
Reposted by Norm Riddell
Hot off the virtual presses. My Dawn Chorus email and podcast. #nzpol Performative politics in high viz. Again. thekaka.substack.com/p/performati...
Performative politics in high viz. Again.
Bishop, Willis & Luxon trumpet $6 billion in infrastructure projects to boost jobs & construction, but the projects are not new or yet-to-be signed off; Budget figures show falling capital spending
thekaka.substack.com
July 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Hot off the virtual presses. My Dawn Chorus email and podcast. #nzpol Performative politics in high viz. Again. thekaka.substack.com/p/performati...
Same!
This is the fourth big NZ recession of my adult life and it's shaping up to be the worst.We subscribe to Bernard Hickey because quality counts but it's getting hard to read the daily doom roundup.
July 19, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Same!
Reposted by Norm Riddell
It’s raining today. We should all read this. #nzpol Potaka delaying homelessness data release thekaka.substack.com/p/potaka-del...
Potaka delaying homelessness data release
Minister holding on to HUD homelessness report, saying he wants further advice; Rotorua Council tries to charge charity for consents for pods for homeless; Bishop blocking new Council plans
thekaka.substack.com
July 16, 2025 at 8:09 PM
It’s raining today. We should all read this. #nzpol Potaka delaying homelessness data release thekaka.substack.com/p/potaka-del...
Reposted by Norm Riddell
The far right pay people to smear the internet with their ideology, the left wing just let their community message flow…the NZ media needs to work out which is more important to Democracy, maniacal profit or ordinary prophets? 🤷♀️ #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #Aotearoa #NZ
June 27, 2025 at 9:34 AM
The far right pay people to smear the internet with their ideology, the left wing just let their community message flow…the NZ media needs to work out which is more important to Democracy, maniacal profit or ordinary prophets? 🤷♀️ #nzpol #OneTermGovernment #Aotearoa #NZ
Pandering to a small group of voters as usual!
June 15, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Pandering to a small group of voters as usual!
I am a Boomer and to me Aotearoa is a more appropriate name than New Zealand.
Sometimes I make the mistake of wandering into a comments section of a news article on Facebook and am continually surprised by the tidal wave of (mostly) boomers triggered by the word "Aotearoa".
June 12, 2025 at 11:04 AM
I am a Boomer and to me Aotearoa is a more appropriate name than New Zealand.
Reposted by Norm Riddell
The 2025 Rich List is more than a wealth scoreboard, it’s a power map of NZ oligarchy, 119 families control wealth equivalent to 40% of GDP
We’re looking at a country inching toward plutocracy, where political decisions cater to the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else
#nzpol
We’re looking at a country inching toward plutocracy, where political decisions cater to the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else
#nzpol
Integrity Briefing: The 2025 NBR Rich List once again shows who runs this country
The annual National Business Review Rich List dropped this morning like a glossy brochure for extreme wealth concentration.
theintegrityinstitute.substack.com
June 9, 2025 at 4:55 AM
The 2025 Rich List is more than a wealth scoreboard, it’s a power map of NZ oligarchy, 119 families control wealth equivalent to 40% of GDP
We’re looking at a country inching toward plutocracy, where political decisions cater to the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else
#nzpol
We’re looking at a country inching toward plutocracy, where political decisions cater to the rich and powerful at the expense of everyone else
#nzpol
Reposted by Norm Riddell
"The tax giveaway to landlords is est to cost the country $2.9 billion... more than the amount paid in Treaty settlements since 1985, which is about $2.7b. ... in one year this Government awarded landlords more money than has been paid out to Māori in 40 years as compensation for historical wrongs."
Let's call 'taxing the rich' what it really is
Opinion from the University of Auckland: As society groans under the weight of wealth inequality, Dr Neal Curtis calls for a different slogan to ‘tax the rich’.
newsroom.co.nz
June 8, 2025 at 12:27 AM
"The tax giveaway to landlords is est to cost the country $2.9 billion... more than the amount paid in Treaty settlements since 1985, which is about $2.7b. ... in one year this Government awarded landlords more money than has been paid out to Māori in 40 years as compensation for historical wrongs."
Reposted by Norm Riddell
June 7, 2025 at 8:26 AM