Paaka Davis rejects $50k gambling deal on ethics because mana is more important than money
Māori social media personality Paaka Davis turned down a $50,000 offer to promote online gambling stating his mana is more important than money.
With almost 500,000 followers on social media, Davis told the Herald his principles are worth more than cash.
'There have been a lot of opportunities that I
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NZ Herald
18 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Kiwis moving to Australia: Incomes, house prices and interest rates compared
It means houses in major Aussie cities cost about 6.5 times the typical salary compared with eight times in New Zealand. Even Sydney comes out ahead of Auckland, with its houses at 8.5 times the price of typical city salaries compared to 9.2 times in the City of Sails. And there are other pain points for New Zealanders. The Herald estimates Kiwis pay around $839 or 42% more at the pump each year for every 14,000km driven. Yet it isn't all good news in Oz. Sydney resident and former Aucklander Keitah Tuleitu's family were hit hard by a curveball last year. Having lived in Australia for seven years, they earlier told the Herald they had been feeling comfortable and planning to buy a house in 2024. Instead, they spent much of the year raiding their savings. 'I would say 2024's been a struggle because my husband did lose work for a period of time,' Tuleitu said when the Herald checked back in this week. It's a reality check that backs warnings from property commentator Nick Goodall of analysts Cotality for Kiwis to look beyond headlines about salaries. Goodall cautions that the big salary advantages from industries like mining can create the impression that every job is better paid in Australia and advises people to look closely at opportunities and hidden costs when pursuing their chosen professions. The exodus has worried many New Zealand commentators. The Herald's business editor at large, Liam Dann, has been warning of a brain drain as New Zealand's young, trained and educated people move to Australia. While new migrants from other countries are replacing many of the Kiwis who go to Australia, experts believe this creates a churn in jobs as people come and go and the most experienced are lost. Winners and losers: City-by-city comparisons Looking deeper into Australia's affordability advantage, some cities stand out as potentially better opportunities for Kiwis than others. Mining hotspot Darwin emerges as the ultimate financial sweet spot, boasting the highest salaries at $173,000 (NZD) yet the cheapest house prices at just $588,000, according to Australian National University income data and Cotality house prices. At the other extreme, Dunedin residents earn barely half what their Darwin counterparts make – resulting in a staggering $93,000 income gap between the highest and lowest-paid cities. Tauranga delivers another shock. Its $690 weekly rents now exceed Melbourne's $670 – a regional New Zealand city outpricing one of Australia's largest metropolises. The city salary pecking order tells a harsh story for New Zealand. All five top-earning cities sit across the Ditch, while New Zealand's best, Wellington, manages only sixth place, according to ANU and Infometrics' NZ income data. Comparing public servant hotspots, Canberra's residents typically earn $154,000 compared with Wellington's $134,500 – a $20,000 gap between the two capital cities. Adelaide leads the property growth with 7.8% in annual house price gains, while Wellington has suffered the steepest decline at minus 6.2%. New Zealand's Christchurch and Dunedin offer the cheapest rents in either country at $550 weekly – but Infometrics income data shows residents earn just $90,000 and $80,500 respectively. Keitah Tuleitu with her extended family. She's made Sydney home despite tough times last year. Pros and cons of life over the Ditch Cotality's Goodall said Kiwis are being drawn not only by better wages but also by a more optimistic feeling in Australia about the economy. Australia has weathered the downturn better than New Zealand, where unemployment has risen faster as house prices have stayed flat, he said. Kiwis have repeatedly listed higher salaries and strong economic prospects as the top attractions when talking to the Herald. Maths teacher Liam McMahon told in 2023 how he scored an instant $31,000 pay rise just by moving to Melbourne from Hamilton. Architect Kyle Anaru started 'accumulating savings straight away' after moving to the Sunshine Coast in 2023, while beauty therapist Bridget Jane told last year how she and her fiance left Queenstown on the hunt for salaries that better matched house prices. But Goodall's 'not all rosy' warning has also shone through in Herald conversations. Anaru was among Kiwis saying how hard it could be to find rentals, while Jane had to live far from Melbourne's centre for affordable rent and talked about a more high-pressure working environment in Australia. Teacher McMahon was also among many missing 'family, friends and Hamilton day trips', while others miss New Zealand's culture. Tuleitu, meanwhile, highlighted how the highs and lows can come in both countries. In 2023, she told the Herald how higher Sydney salaries had meant her family were living 'comfortably' while still donating to their church. It was in contrast to the struggle her parents had gone through in New Zealand, she said at the time. However, their recent struggles had forced them to 'pick' at their savings and reset their goals. Nevertheless, with most of her family having joined her in Australia, she has become an Aussie citizen and says she isn't coming home any time soon.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Letters: You can't exempt GST from food; Ardern should stand at the podium of accountability
We don't have to borrow more money. The rich have plenty of opportunity to avoid GST and need to pay their fair share of income tax. There is no 'trickle down' of wealth. There is only a 'trickle up'. The problem when the wealth doesn't get shared around is the economy stagnates, which is what we are seeing now. Only a change in mindset can fix this – kind of like climate change. Bill Gates made billions from Microsoft, then created a foundation to find ways to give it all away. I wonder what the world would look like today if he and others like him had charged a little less for their product and paid the people who worked for them a little more. Paul Cheshire, Maraetai. Don't forget October 7 In view of all the fiery rhetoric surrounding this conflict we seem to have lost sight of some facts. Let us remember that it was Hamas who sent armed men to kill and kidnap participants in a family day out music festival. It is Hamas who is still holding 50 hostages in underground tunnels and subjecting them to mental and physical deprivation. It is Hamas who announced that they do not care how many of their people die so long as Israel is made to look guilty of genocide. It is Hamas who has continually refused to come to any agreement with Israel. I am neither Jewish nor Islamic but I do read the Herald and watch the news. Jill Kouremetis, Waitākere. Covid-19 inquiry Thomas Coughlan does us a favour in astutely weighing the pros and cons of requiring Ardern and members of her cabinet to attend an open session of the second stage of the Covid-19 inquiry. But he ends his piece on a pessimistic note – namely, that both parties are guilty of setting up inquiries to find fault with their political opponents' time in office. If this is so, then this practice can only undermine the integrity and trust for one of the few ways we have of looking seriously at issues of governance and how to improve performance in public policy. The UK's Institute of Government issued a report on public inquiries and found that the most respected are headed by a non-partisan chair and often have terms of reference set by a select committee. In recent times, a supposedly 'independent' inquiry was quickly conducted on the performance of Kainga Ora (state housing) and, predictably, found fault, with the disbandment of much of the public housing programme, and quite possibly consequences for our current levels of homelessness. There were undoubtedly issues of performance, but it would have been publicly more palatable and informative for such findings to be more nuanced and established by a truly independent source. If we fail to retain the integrity and public trust for public inquiries, then we will have lost one of the best options we have for ensuring good government. Emeritus Professor Peter Davis, Auckland. Politicising Royal Commissions A timely warning by Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan about the dangers of politicising Royal Commissions. The terms of reference of the current Covid-19 inquiry, keeping the timeline from February 2021 to October 2022 to spare Winston Peters being called, is a case in point. So is all the controversy over Jacinda Ardern and her fellow ex-ministers for not appearing in person and answering questions privately instead. If one government can use such an inquiry as a way of effectively putting former government ministers on public trial, then so can another. Labour administrations have not been shy about this either in the past. With each new government becoming more strident in blaming their predecessors for the country's woes, Royal Commissions are in danger of being weaponised. As Coughlan ponders, perhaps we should leave the judgement of a government's performance to voters and the ballot box. Jeff Hayward, Central Auckland. Road user charges 'Fairness' talk justifying RUCs is utter crap and farmers make and talk a lot of it. The new so-called independent science adviser emits so much methane vapour on his breath you can smell him before he even talks. Users are asked to pay forward for road maintenance with RUCs but 'agricultural' carbon emitters are excused their costs. The shift to RUCs disincentivises buying a light fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle and incentivises heavy gas guzzlers. Is this an Act voting base – 'big bold beautiful gas guzzler libertarians'? Simon Watts removing farmers from the ETS isn't fair and Chris Bishop's RUCs aren't that fair on low-damage-causing low-emitting vehicles. It's a flat tax, virtually indiscriminate by weight, an obvious example of ignoring the axle-weight damage evidence, let alone exonerating big carbon emitters. A Blue-Green party is not viable at present. Blue-Green voters have little viable alternative in this climate-change denial dominant coalition. Green policies: wealth taxes, a cleaner a more equitable society put them off. Why? Wealthy people need to exercise their spinal tendons. We only need one in 10 to stiffen their resolve. A sustainable future is actually worth paying forward. I'm thinking this will be given the 'gumboot kick' as provocative and offensive but at least could make a few think. Steve Russell, Hillcrest. Wildfires The NZ Herald does a great job placing photos of blazing countries on fire for all the world to see. It's within the World section noting many of those countries, America, Spain, Portugal, France, Greece, Italy and now Canada as they try to dampen down extraordinary fires raging uncontrolled from temperatures way above normal. Other countries suffer from the loss of fertile land, too dry for anything to grow, causing starvation. A few of these articles mention climate change and some even stress our need to stop burning fossil fuels. In winter, the news covers storms, floods and sea rises threatening life as we know it. The biggest threat of all to our world are the oil-producing companies. They are in control, refusing to face up to this horrendous disaster they are subjecting our planet to. Along with plastic, made also from oil, they dig on down, heads in the sand, ignoring statistics, ignoring the disasters, so their flow of money into already overloaded bank accounts can continue. But what do they gain on a planet that is dying? Emma Mackintosh, Birkenhead. A quick word The same degree of compulsion that locked down the team of five million from the 'podium of truth' should be applied to the squad of four – Ardern, Robertson, Hipkins and Verrall – to front up at the podium of accountability in person. Mike Wagg, Freemans Bay. Talk about third world, how absurd to read that a prison is to be air conditioned while a hospital nearby is not. Surely one would think that the likes of schools and hospitals would be at the top of the list for that? Prisons are getting better by the day it seems and soon won't be too far below a hotel standard if that continues. Paul Beck, West Harbour. All those that have not responded to an invitation to submit to Royal Commission on Covid. Why have a commission? You and I survived and we can thank the government for our closure. It is always good to look back in hindsight but at the time we were in the dark as was the rest of the world. How many invitations have you responded, 'sorry but no'? Dennis Manson, Unsworth Heights. Given the reputation many police forces across the globe for violence and corruption, I was rather hoping that, following the tragic death of an alleged offender in Christchurch, Mark Mitchell would rate our own as being somewhat above 'world class'. The phrase 'world class' itself in today's ever-changing world doesn't really fill one with a great deal of confidence. Our country should strive to be better than 'world class', because we can be when we want to be. Jeremy Coleman, Hillpark. This week there was another media report of angry adults making their way onto the grounds of a high school, causing a lockdown. Such incursions seem to be increasing, often sparked by feuding comments on social media. These actions are frightening for students and staff who are the focus of these people, and those who witness them. Schools are supposed to be safe places for children, and classrooms are the domain of teachers. Trespass notices can be meaningless if the person does not normally have any association with the school issuing it. As a deterrent, surely it is time such unlawful entry to a school is categorised as a crime with more serious consequences for the perpetrators. Matt Elliott, Birkdale.
NZ Herald
a day ago
- NZ Herald
Toi Tū Toi Ora reframed: Doco reveals Auckland Art Gallery politics of landmark Māori exhibition
The artists are all here tonight. The always-too-small foyer of SkyCity Theatre is bursting with a sold-out crowd for the premiere of Toi Tū: Visual Sovereignty, Chelsea Winstanley's documentary about what happened five years ago and a kilometre away at Auckland City Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. There had been a crowd back in 2020, too, with many of the same people in it, for the opening of Toi Tū Toi Ora, which was not only the largest show in the gallery's history, but also the largest exhibition of contemporary Māori art there had ever been. Yet, amid the celebration, there was a whisper that something had gone wrong, that even as Toi Tū opened its doors, its curator, Nigel Borell, had resigned. A cover story in the NZ Herald's Canvas magazine a few weeks later finally told the public what the artists knew – that Borell and the gallery's director, Kirsten Lacy, had fallen out over what he described as 'different ways of viewing aspirations for Māori'. Winstanley had been on the inside of it all, filming what she had imagined would be a celebratory film that would accompany Toi Tū as it toured internationally. The show never toured, and she wound up with a different story to tell. Curator Nigel Borell: 'You have a moment to make some change.' Photo / Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki This is an audience that knows the story. It's also an extraordinarily engaged crowd. The next 100 minutes are dotted with swirls of applause, knowing laughter and even cheers as one artist or another comes up in the tale. What had originally seemed like an obstacle to the production – the pandemic – turned out to be something of a gift. The lockdown Zoom meetings with Borell, the gallery's longstanding artists' advisory board Haerewa, and Lacy and the gallery's senior management, all tiled across the screen, are rich documents in retrospect. There are murmurs and an audible gasp when Lacy, an Australian appointed to run the gallery in 2019, just as Borell's five-year dream for the exhibition was becoming a reality, is shown announcing her intention to go off on her own to conduct 'informal meet and greets' with iwi about how they would like to engage with the exhibition – effectively over the heads of Borell and Haerewa. Borell, sitting at home on Zoom, simply gets up and leaves the frame, to laughter from the audience. 'She's got to go with someone,' says painter and Haerewa's chair and founding member Elizabeth Ellis at a follow-up hui without Lacy. 'She's going to be discussing Māori stuff. We can't send her off, this young Australian woman, to carry our message.' Ellis and five other Haerewa members would eventually follow Borell in resigning. The film turns on an understanding of mana – translated on screen as 'authority to lead' – that will be familiar to many New Zealanders, but was not evident to Lacy. The gallery director arrived with an admirable record of working with indigenous artists in Australia but, it seems, an incomplete sense of the moment she was entering here. 'You have a moment to make some change,' says Borell at one point in the film. 'And if you don't use it in that way, then you're just taking up space.' Winstanley has gone out of her way not to be inflammatory, to the extent that some viewers could even wonder what all the fuss was about. She's after a teachable moment rather than a pile-on. Former Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki director Kirsten Lacy. Photo / Auckland City Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki 'I don't think she's a villain,' Winstanley says of Lacy the following morning. 'I think she is someone who … She's not Māori, she doesn't have the experience of having lived in this country, she doesn't understand or know that, and I think that's what comes across. And there's an opportunity, I think, for people in these positions. You can do what the beautiful Dr Maya Angelou says: 'Do the best you can until you know better – and when you know better, do better.'' Winstanley's original, more celebratory film survives through the twists of the story. We're taken straight from a troubled Zoom meeting to Reuben Paterson working out the lighting for Guide Kaiārahi, the crystalline waka taua that was Toi Tū Toi Ora's most prominent commissioned work, by virtue of its position at the gallery entrance. As commissions from Shane Cotton and Mataaho Collective take shape, we get a glimpse of the artists as purposeful engineers. The film, also commissioned by the gallery, provides an enriching context for the exhibition that will make viewers wish for a chance to see the art again with it all in mind. Indeed, that was the role it would have played had the exhibition toured as planned. Those plans were let go after Borell's departure – but the artists travelled even if the show did not. Eight New Zealand artists were invited to present at the Venice Biennale last year; all were Māori and all had been part of Toi Tū Toi Ora. An investment from the barrister Kahungunu Barron-Afeaki allowed Winstanley to fly there to capture the event, where Mataaho Collective claimed the Biennale's Golden Lion prize. Mataaho Collective won the Golden Lion award at the 60th Venice Biennale for their installation Takapau. Photo / Creative NZ Although Toi Tū Toi Ora had made its case by breaking gallery attendance records – at least since the return of the landmark Te Māori exhibition from New York in 1987, to which it is consciously connected in the film – following the story to Venice meant, says Winstanley, that 'we were able to truly celebrate what having that kind of sovereignty meant and that's what I'd envisioned in the beginning. Because if the whole point of Toi Tū Toi Ora was to enable our art to live and thrive through a Māori lens, it didn't feel like it was able to do that fully, opening the way it did and with what happened.' Lacy, who resigned in April and left in June, saw a rough cut of the film before she departed. By that time, she had received the recommendations of an independent review of the gallery's relationship with Māori and appointed Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei chief executive Tom Irvine as her deputy director. The move had the effect of further stirring debate about Lacy's personal cultivation of mana whenua at the expense of the mana of Haerewa. Ngāti Whātua seems like a missing voice in the film. Irvine is currently acting director. Whoever is permanently appointed to the role will find plenty to think about and much to respond to in Toi Tū: Visual Sovereignty. A day after the premiere, the friends I went with were still exchanging messages about what it meant. Perhaps that's what teachable moments are meant to do. After selling out its screenings at the Auckland leg of the NZ International Film Festival, Toi Tū: Visual Sovereignty has screenings in Wellington (Aug 17, 23), Dunedin (Aug 24) and Christchurch (Aug 17, 21), see for more. Plans are underway for screenings beyond the festival. To request a screening go to Director Chelsea Winstanley: 'I'm not putting words in people's mouths.' Photo / Supplied Things Fall Apart Chelsea Winstanley on filming in a crisis. For film-maker Chelsea Winstanley, Toi Tū: Visual Sovereignty represents her most serious film in years. Her recent producer duties have been on former husband Taika Waititi's Oscar-winning Jojo Rabbit and before that What We Do in the Shadows and giving Disney's animated hits te reo makeovers. But TT:VS is also her debut feature as a director. Her career began with directing Whakangahau, a documentary short about cousins from her Paparoa marae running a tourism venture. It was her 2003 graduating film from the Auckland University of Technology and won a Media Peace Award. Her feature directing debut also focuses on another relation with Ngāti Ranginui iwi roots – Nigel Borell. Toi Tū: Visual Sovereignty started out of conversations she had with Borell in the years running up to the exhibition about what it took to stage an event of its size and ambition. When you spoke at the premiere, you seemed quite nervous about how the film would be received. For a few reasons, I suppose. This is my directorial debut – I've done enough producing in my life – and you're putting your film out into the world, it's all on you this time. But not only that, it's the community that I love the most. You love them so dearly that you just want to do right by them. Was there a distinct point where you knew that the story was going to be different from what you had thought it would be? Obviously, when Nigel had to make that decision, it really did change then. I was going to follow the whole exhibition and the background to it, because I don't think we ever really understand what goes into putting on something like that. I thought it was going to travel overseas, because that's what I was told. I was like, 'Wow, this is going to be amazing, a celebration from beginning to end.' And then when he made that decision, for himself, I had to go, 'Oh, all right, I have to now rethink how it's going to happen.' Other things were happening, too – everyone went through Covid. Even at that point, I was like, 'Oh, my god, is this show even going to come to fruition?' That was actually a moment, too. A small selection of the art shown as part of Toi Tū Toi Ora (clockwise, from left): Lisa Reihana, Ihi, 2020; Israel Tangaroa Birch Ara-i-te-Uru, 2011; Aimee Ratana, Potiki Series, 2005; and Shane Cotton, Te Puawai, 2020. Photos / Supplied What was the response after the screening for Kirsten Lacy and the gallery staff? Was there a response? It's challenging for anybody to have to observe themselves. But remember, when they watched that edit, it's not like it was a big surprise what happened there, the story was already out. It's about how you have to reflect on your position, so that was up to them. And they knew that I had final cut anyway, and I'm not putting words in people's mouths or anything like that. While I watched the film, I did find myself thinking I'd like to go and see the exhibition again, having absorbed all this context. Yeah, of course, and that's the wonderful thing for people who were fortunate enough to see the show. A lot of people said to me afterwards that it brought back so many memories, both people who were working there and those who had gone to the show and wanted to see it again. And I think, for us as a country, we need to have spaces where we can just see that beautiful, contemporary art all the time, not just these once in 20-year timeframes.
