General Debate 12 March 2011

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grumpyoldhori

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March 12, 2011 9:29am
Manolo

According to O’Sullivan the writing could be on the wall for the invisible Rodeny Hide:

Hide’s antics leave spot in Epsom wide open

Rodney Hide – dubbed ‘the little corporal’ by his growing number of opponents within right wing politics – would definitely meet his political Waterloo if a credible candidate stood against him for the Epsom seat at the November elections.

That’s the clear takeout from secret polling done by the potential backers of a new “alternative support party”.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10711763
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March 12, 2011 9:36am
TripeWryter

Having had our ‘Christchurch experience’ one looks at these Japanese quakes with new eyes. More interest, I guess.

Those pictures of the Japanese tsunamis are terrifying.
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March 12, 2011 9:39am
Manolo

The thug Harawira slammed by the Huruld:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10711805

Can anyone have been surprised by the behaviour of Hone Harawira over the past week? Further evidence to confirm the now-independent MP’s unsuitability for Parliament was not actually needed. No matter, he delivered it in spades.

First, he was not present to cast a vote when the new foreshore and seabed legislation had its second reading. This should have been an absolutely crucial matter for him.

….

Both he and the country will be better off if the electorate delivers the appropriate judgment.
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March 12, 2011 9:41am
Whafe

Feels like the world is shaking a big stick at us in terms of Eathquakes…

The reports from Japan are horrific, as above the footage of the tsunamis is scary… Scary what the death toll will be…

A good friend living in Tokyo replied over night that all was well with his family, wrote a pretty wordy email about what happened, scary as, similar to Christchurch for sure, more grunty but deeper etc etc….

Positive vibes out again to all those effected by these quakes…
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March 12, 2011 9:46am
Pete George

Food price rise statistics have been bandied about both here and on The Standard lately with various claims – increases for the past ten years. These are from the Reserve Bank Inflation Calculator.

2000 – 3.6%
2001 – 6.7%
2002 – 0.9%
2003 – 0.2%
2004 – 1.2%
2005 – 1.5%
2006 – 3.9%
2007 – 4.4%
2008 – 9.4%
2009 – 1.4%
2010 – 4.6%

Government policies are only one factor that will affect these, there are seasonal effects and in particular world commodity prices and world recessions.
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March 12, 2011 10:09am
Whafe

Being a large scale commercial vegetable grower, the price increases are due more so to input costs (fuel, fertiliser, Chemicals etc etc)

This past growing season the very wet winter, then straight into dry dry weather in early October has hammered yields, this has a part to play also..
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March 12, 2011 10:31am
hj

This demonstrates the difference between the left-greens and the majority.

From Greenflies blog:
“Either way, the howling about looters points to something ugly in our natures and it’s something that individuals should attend to, if they detect it in their own make-up, in my opinion.”
http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=2047364082320718555&postID=4320809997225675175

Keith Locke, Delahunty, Greenfly Guyton etc see the general population as the bad guys and are blind to any positive way forward as they see the bulk of the population needing to sit at the back.
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March 12, 2011 11:17am
hj

The way to make a dunny is get a plastic container and a supply of dry saw dust. Pee into a container and dump in the container then cover with saw dust. Put it in a plastic compost bin (add lime) ;spread the compost sow oats in the compost and dig in the oats: grow strawberries. Water the diluted pee on the lawn.
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March 12, 2011 11:25am
Manolo

When will it end? ACC levies to continue to climb for many years to come, if not reined in.
Do we qualify it, because we were distressed by watching it on TV?

Workers’ mental injuries may be covered – ACC

Workers caught up in last month’s Christchurch earthquake may be eligible for emotional trauma compensation from ACC even if they weren’t physically hurt.

Cover may be provided if someone had developed a mental injury after experiencing or witnessing the earthquake while they were at work in paid employment, ACC spokeswoman Fiona Robinson said.

“So say they were at work and witnessed someone trapped in a building as they were running outside during the earthquake, and they suffered a mental illness as a result, then yes [they may be covered].”

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10711428
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March 12, 2011 11:27am
hj

whafe I had a rhododenron that has sat and sat. Last winter fixed it and it is taking off.
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March 12, 2011 11:31am
s.russell

Manolo,
I am deeply distressed by your post. Maybe I can get an ACC payment to conpensate for the mental disturbance that results from reading about excessive ACC payments?
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March 12, 2011 11:33am
Manolo

Manolo,
I am deeply distressed by your post. Maybe I can get an ACC payment to conpensate for the mental disturbance that results from reading about excessive ACC payments?

How could it be any different in today’s New Zealand? Yes, of course, you’re fully entitled to any claim you may lodge.
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March 12, 2011 11:37am
Manolo

Hide at crossroads. John Armstrong opines:

‘You need us’ pitch falling on deaf ears.

For the several hundred thousand voters of conservative mind, Rodney Hide has a message. If they think they can afford to watch Act go down the gurgler, they should think again.

Hide argues the interests of the centre-right are best served by ensuring Act remains a parliamentary force – and not just to get National across the line in November’s election.

Act’s leader is urging centre-right voters to lift their sights beyond election day and ask themselves what kind of re-elected National-led Government they want. Hide’s assumption is most of them do not want one dependent solely on the Maori Party for survival.

Voters have switched off Act. The party’s poll ratings remain moribund. Its performance in the Botany by-election was disappointing.

Act’s annual conference this weekend provides a further opportunity to penetrate the cone of silence that voters have donned to shut out what Act might be saying. As it is, Hide has not come up with good examples to back his argument. National would have likely redrafted the foreshore and ETS to secure Labour’s backing, thereby passing law which was even less to Act’s taste.
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March 12, 2011 11:50am
grumpyoldhori

Manolo both you and the herald are bloody dreaming if you believe Hone will be hammered by some Southern carpet bagger of an opponent.
Hone is a thug ? what does that make an ex ACT type ?

But the Nats could stand Tau ( my uncle was 28th commander ) against him having a Uncle Tom standing would be a laugh a minute.
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March 12, 2011 12:01pm
Pete George

Fran also gets into Hide, basically seems to telling him to bugger off.

Hide is in no position to claim that Act’s future depends on him. While he holds Epsom, it is his leadership that has reduced the party’s status at national and local level,.

He has reinvented himself before. He’s been an oil rigger and university lecturer. He lost weight on Dancing with the Stars and discovered sex. He now has a new wife and family.

Time to move on and let someone else write Act’s new chapter. Or ultimately see it taken out by the launch of a new party.
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March 12, 2011 12:14pm
backster

I don’t really trust some of these special interest polling companies. They invariably produce a result that satisfies he who pays the piper. If Brash or Banks were to become leader they would immediately be vilified by the media to the same degree that Hide has. The only squeaky clean alternative may be Boscowan who invariably throws his weight behind what most people regard as commonsense.
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March 12, 2011 12:17pm
Pete George

Especially when polls have questions like this:

Respondents who identified themselves as centre-right or swing voters were asked if they were in favour of a new partner for John Key in place of Act, “given Act’s decline in popularity and internal problems”. The upshot was that just over 50 per cent either agreed or strongly agreed with the need for a new partner.
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March 12, 2011 12:26pm
Manolo

Stark figures from Roger Douglas’ speech to the House on the Budget Policy Statement 2011:

Let us draw comparisons between the two countries. First, New Zealand GDP growth in 2010 was under 1%. Singapore grew at a whopping 14%.

In 1960, our GDP value was almost 3 times that of Singapore. In the last 20 years, Singapore has raced ahead. In 2015, Singapore will have a GDP value that is 3 times that of New Zealand. If we are to look at labour productivity per capita in New Zealand dollars – Singapore labour productivity in 2010 was $182,546 per person, that is almost twice New Zealand’s $93,365.

Why have they been able to achieve such prosperity with no minerals, no land and a relatively small population? They certainly did not do it by giving $43 million loans to private televisions channels. It is because they were willing to make tough decisions.

Hat Tip: Lindsay Mitchell
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March 12, 2011 1:50pm
jaba

I see the link to Redablurt says Advice to ACT – please keep Rodney .. haha, sounds familiar .. advice to Labour .. please keep Philin
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March 12, 2011 2:10pm
Yvette

‘ [ACC] Cover may be provided if someone had developed a mental injury after experiencing or witnessing the earthquake while they were at work in paid employment, ACC spokeswoman Fiona Robinson said.
“So say they were at work and witnessed someone trapped in a building as they were running outside during the earthquake, and they suffered a mental illness as a result, then yes [they may be covered].” ‘

A person, unable to adjust within a reasonable amount of time as to be called a “mental injury”, would surely have a disqualifying existing condition?
Can I get ACC for having seen the horror of Japanese tsunami footage which could easily happen here, causing me fear to the point I am ‘mentally injured’?
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March 12, 2011 2:32pm
nickb

Off to see the Warriors skin the Eels at eden park today.

Finally some of the real oval ball code, not the prima donna wankers in the super 15.

/troll mode
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March 12, 2011 2:50pm
Johnboy

G’day Grumpy. What stone have you been hiding under?

Has your crooked mate, the disgraced cop from Funganewi, come up with that evidence on my wife beating activities yet?

Costing me a bloody fortune to keep the legal team on standby. 🙂
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March 12, 2011 4:19pm
reid

“So say they were at work and witnessed someone trapped in a building as they were running outside during the earthquake, and they suffered a mental illness as a result, then yes [they may be covered].” ‘

At first I thought that’s fair enough but after reading some of the above comments I’ve re-thought. I’m afraid if someone’s constitution is so delicate they experience actual (not pretend) mental illness as a result of the seeing earthquake victims, payment is not justifiable unless they were a dear friend or relative.

I’d like for the ACC to publish stats over time on numbers of people who don’t fall into that narrow category but who (a) apply and (b) get that payment.

I bet they don’t.
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March 12, 2011 4:40pm
Johnboy

I thought I’d got a good hit on a redhead once but found that I’d shot it up the arse.

I chased it round the scrub for five minutes and gut shot it a couple of times before dispatching the poor bastard.

I was deeply affected by my callous activities.

Do you think I should apply to ACC for trauma therapy?

ps: It still tasted OK. 🙂
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March 12, 2011 4:50pm
paws

grumpyoldhori (1,745) Says:

March 12th, 2011 at 9:29 am
First
WOW you have achieved something in life enjoy
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March 12, 2011 5:05pm
paws

Has anyone looked into the background pictures from Japans quake? On one building with people running around above the waves i looked at rows of solar cells.In another shot an industrial site had a large windmill turning,
Those Japanese have got it all worked out.Here in NZ we are still trying to find our arses, and if we do find our butts there would be a law from Hone key to ban it, due to H&S issures.
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March 12, 2011 5:14pm
Lance

@paws
From someone that works in the renewable energy field.
The govt and it’s minions primary contribution in NZ to this sector has to be fuck up the entire industry. Micro manage to death.

Shit-heads all
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March 12, 2011 5:19pm
Johnboy

Hey paws. Don’t forget if Hone gets his way his mob of racist arseholes will be liable for any damage caused by the ocean.

Maybe Chrissy Finlayson isn’t as dumb as we all think. 🙂
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March 12, 2011 5:42pm
Shunda barunda

but found that I’d shot it up the arse.

Do you shoot in arse’s often johnboy?
Because seriously dude, you had better stop it or you’re going to cause an earthquake!! 🙂
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March 12, 2011 5:48pm
paws

You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake.”
-Jeannette Rankin
US pacifist & politician (1880 – 1973)
says it all ,folks
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March 12, 2011 5:48pm
Johnboy

“Do you shoot in arse’s often johnboy?”

Not much these days it tends to bugger the meat. 🙂
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March 12, 2011 5:53pm
reid

Not much these days it tends to bugger the meat.

Yes I imagine it would.

It’s probably a good thing we don’t do that.
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March 12, 2011 7:46pm
reid

“You can no more win a war than you can win an earthquake”. …says it all ,folks

Of course you can win a war. Duh. It happens all the time.

The real question is, can you win the occupation?

And the proven answer from history is, it depends. Japan for example worked, Korea hasn’t. It depends.
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March 12, 2011 7:52pm
adze

I see USGS is saying that the main island of Japan has MOVED 8 feet. 8-|

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/?hpt=T2

Meanwhile Japanese workers have detection caesium around their Fukushima No 1 nuclear plant, worrying as that is one of the elements indicative of core damage.
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March 12, 2011 8:53pm
Hurf Durf

First

Most intelligent contribution you’ve ever made here. Congratulations!
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March 12, 2011 9:23pm
hj

Censored Frogblog
Coastal Coalition vindicated by Maori opposition

Thursday, 10 March 2011, 2:26 pm
Press Release: Coastal Coalition

Coastal Coalition vindicated by Maori opposition to foreshore and seabed bill

The Coastal Coalition’s opposition to the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill has been vindicated by the recent Horizon Research opinion poll showing only 11% Maori support for the proposed legislation.

“The Coastal Coalition has consistently and correctly maintained that widespread public support simply isn’t there for the Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) Bill and indeed most people oppose this racist bill once they’ve read it,” said Dr Muriel Newman of the New Zealand Centre for Political Research.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1103/S00085/coastal-coalition-vindicated-by-maori-opposition.htm
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March 12, 2011 9:36pm
Hurf Durf

After 26 years of just starting to overcome Greenpeace scaremongering over nuclear power, it looks like Fukushima is going to cause 26 more years of hysteria while people starve in the dark.
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March 12, 2011 10:43pm
Shunda barunda

You do realise it is melting down Hurf.
Hardly a minor issue.
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March 13, 2011 12:50am
Manolo

He is 100% right on this one. Enough of this primitive practice.

Don Brash has attacked the practice of public functions opening with a Maori prayer and claimed most people who call themselves Maori are actually a blend of races.

He has also unleashed a scathing criticism of his former colleagues in the National Party for their handling of Maori matters. “Sometimes I think the Government cannot see other races but Maori,” he told Act’s annual conference today.

Dr Brash questioned why prayers – he was referring to karakia – were said in Maori at public events even when no Maori were present. “It’s beyond me.”
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March 13, 2011 7:43am
Pete George

The Brash bash again. Pandering to a minor populist demographic at an Act conference, great way to grab all the attention. Does Act want to stand for anything positive any more?
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March 13, 2011 7:57am
Manolo

Forget about Act, which could be history in a few months, but what about the message?
Do we need the pandering to Maori to continue? What are we gaining from it, other than sowing the seeds of institutionalised racism?
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March 13, 2011 8:07am
MT_Tinman

Shunda barunda (1,663) Says:
March 13th, 2011 at 12:50 am
You do realise it is melting down Hurf.

No, it’s not.
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March 13, 2011 9:05am
Pete George

Do we need the pandering to Maori to continue?

Sometimes it’s overdone but more often it’s overblown by hissy fitters – mostly I don’t see what harm it does. It can add a Kiwi uniqueness to some things, but I don’t have any trouble ignoring it when it doesn’t interest me.
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March 13, 2011 9:52am
kaya

Nick Smith re Ken Ring:

“But the minister, who has a doctorate in geotechnical engineering, said he took a very dim view of people causing alarm with no scientific underpinning.”

I choked on my breakfast reading that in the Herald. At least Ken Ring didn’t impose a tax and a competitive anchor on a whole country with his hypothesis, unlke Smith. Duh.
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March 13, 2011 10:10am
Manolo

The father of the ETS tax and recent AGW convert has the audacity to accuse others.

Christchurch earthquake: Sceptics take aim at Ken Ring

Nick Smith is the Minister responsible for ACC – but some might say he’s just asking to come a cropper.

Smith and the Skeptics Society are planning a lunch in one of Christchurch’s highest, oldest, stone buildings – on the day that “moon man” Ken Ring says the city will be hit by another devastating earthquake. Ring’s prediction of another earthquake on March 20 – a week today – has caused alarm among some Cantabrians, who have said they will flee the city.

But the minister, who has a doctorate in geotechnical engineering, said he took a very dim view of people causing alarm with no scientific underpinning.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10712024
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March 13, 2011 10:24am
Inky_the_Red

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I am not sure what kaya and Manoloare claiming this morning. They seem to think that human pollution is not a badthing. At minimum they seem to be claiming that businesses and people who dopollute should not be responsible for paying for their consequences. Now they think that Clown Ring’s predictionsare more valid than scientists.
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March 13, 2011 10:37am
Manolo

Now they think that Clown Ring’s prediction are more valid than scientists. Or sometthing like that..

Not at all. Just highlighting the fact that a merchant of doom (the incompetent warmist Nick Smith) is accusing another charlatan (Ken Ring). Highly ironic, isn’t it?

These two dubious characters are making claims for which there is no definitive scientific proof.
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March 13, 2011 10:40am
Viking2

Now they think that Clown Ring’s predictions are more valid than scientists.

Go read this and ponder some more on wether gravitational pull from the moon could affect land movement. After all it affects the tides and water is the greatest area on earth as well as the earths body fluid. If something increased your blood pressure do you think its possible something inside of you could rupture???

Quake moved Japan coast 8 feet; shifted Earth’s axis
By Kevin Voigt, CNN
March 12, 2011 — Updated 1557 GMT (2357 HKT)

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/12/japan.earthquake.tsunami.earth/?hpt=T2
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March 13, 2011 10:43am
Inky_the_Red

The moon was about as far as way from Earth when the Japanese Earthquake struck. The earth and sun have far more strongers force on this planet than our moon

The moon has a minor influence on the Earth. The Earth has a much larger influence on the moon (as the Earth is so much larger)
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March 13, 2011 10:53am