About
Contact
Advertise

Facebook
Twitter

December 1, 2017 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 1 December 2017

Email
Facebook
Twitter
Comment351

Uncategorized
General Debate

Comments (351)

Login to comment or vote

Inandout

Penny Pulse brought out all her Maoriness on Garner and spoke softly about the koddie trees. Duncan spoke softly too, and was so cultural in his outlook. We can do this.
43 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:06am
- igm
  
  Is koddie tree in the hoodakki gulf?
  
  39 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:09am
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    Somewhere near Toopo?
    
    30 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:13am
    - Inandout
      
      Or Ohomahroo?
      
      25 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 8:15am
      - kowtow
        
        Or Tea Mah Ru?
        
        19 1
        Report
        December 1, 2017 9:20am
      - GazzaW
        
        No, it was on the Whyteemartar Harbour near Motooeehay Island.
        
        16 1
        Report
        December 1, 2017 9:56am
      - RF
        
        How about waioo instead of Waiau in North Canterbury.
        
        14 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 10:28am
  - Inandout
    
    Is there a rahui on the Gulf, like stopping all boaties from venturing out?
    
    16 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:13am
  - MH
    
    i hate it when you pronounce golf wrong..
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:58pm
- Padriv Ustoev
  
  I think you are very incorrect my friend.
  It is spelled Cody Tree. This tree is very important to Maori culture, especially South Auckland.
  The tree is the the only known sorce of Cody juice, which is used to make 7% Codies.
  
  50 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:13am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Not to be confused with Crusader and All Black hooker Kauri Taylor, who is a person not a tree.
    
    22 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:56am
    - kowtow
      
      Crusaders next on the offensive list.
      
      Posing the question: “Is it wrong to dress as a crusader for an England match?” the answer appears to be a resounding “yes”.
      
      “Crusaders were the perpetrators of violent attacks across Europe and the Middle East on Muslims, Jews and pagans,” the website intones, suggesting that fans may simply want to don the English flag instead, as “this has nothing to do with crusaders or what they stood for”.
      
      http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/06/04/bbc-warns-football-fans-dressing-crusaders-offensive-muslims/
      
      16 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 9:25am
- softail 1450
  
  Inandout , are garner and hulse going to stop the insects ,birds ,possums ,pigs etc etc from moving around the park?
  parts of the park that havnt seen a human for years are just as badly infected as those that are continually exposed to human contact .
  it’s a virus and can be spread by fricking anything that moves.
  put money on the fact that certain people won’t be covered by this bullshit rahui….
  
  27 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:27am
  - holysheet
    
    Do you mean there is no chance that any Koha, (money from your white MOFOS), will make this cody problem go away?
    
    29 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:38am
  - Inandout
    
    I do wonder though if Maori marijuana plants growing in the affected area are exempt from this tapu?
    
    21 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:23am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Some up-to-date info on Kauri dieback
  
  https://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/newsletters/biological-control-of-weeds/issue-67/kauri-dieback
  
  9 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:23am
  - RalphT
    
    And I thought dai bach was Welsh for toilet, thus proving that the Celts did settle here 2000 years ago…*
    
    * for the avoidance of doubt, no I don’t believe that.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:59am
- lifesgood
  
  She always talks as if everyone else is a half wit. Sooooo condescending and “I know best”. Ex school teacher explains it.
  
  20 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:31am
  - MH
    
    She was all “what I’m saying” just saying
    A Moori and a Kooree = a rahooree.
    pass me a macron, I seem to run out.
    
    14 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 11:01am
- Fletch
  
  Is this the tree that ratepayers are going to have to fork over extra money for to save from tree rust or something?
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 3:36pm
Brito

Just out of curiosity, with all of this GG rubbish going on, what is the CoL trying to sneak by us in the House?
34 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:06am
- Keeping Stock
  
  Nothing. No new Bills have been introduced in the last week, and next week, Parliament will debate carry-over legislation from the previous Parliament.
  
  As Simon Bridges notes in the video below, the Labour-led government has already run out of things to do.
  
  https://www.facebook.com/NZNATS/videos/1750559801642848/
  
  34 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:16am
  - VicParking
    
    Very hard to do anything while undertaking repeated backflips, blaming the previous government for not being able to undertake their election promises and hiding behind the speakers robes during question time.
    
    32 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:46am
  - KevOB
    
    When are we going to have a mini budget setting out precisely what payments we are to receive next year and what the tax rates are to be?
    Are WFF rates to be changed?
    What will be the super rates?
    What is to happen to the accomodation supplement?
    
    10 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:33am
    - treadingthemill
      
      A mini budget will be presented on Dec 14.
      
      8 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:43am
      - KevOB
        
        I hope Grant is not going to present it.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 12:48pm
- softail 1450
  
  Brito, they are going to sneak kelvin back into the house.
  
  28 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:29am
  - Brito
    
    Ok! Popcorn at the ready. That’ll be a delight!
    
    16 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:35am
    - Keeping Stock
      
      Kelvin was hidden from view yesterday, and Andrew Little “answered” the questions addressed to Davis.
      
      But he wasn’t the only one; Clare Curran was buried somewhere, so as not to be embarrassed again by Brett Hudson. Instead Hudson made Chris Hipkins look like a fool:
      
      Question No. 9—Minister of State Services (Open Government)
      
      9. BRETT HUDSON (National) to the Associate Minister of State Services: Does she stand by her statement in Parliament yesterday that this will be “the most open, most transparent Government that New Zealand has ever had”; if so, how?
      
      Hon CHRIS HIPKINS (Minister of State Services) on behalf of the Associate Minister of State Services: Yes, quite easily.
      
      Brett Hudson: Does she stand by her 29 November refusal to answer an Official Information Act (OIA) request made on 20 November, which sought a list of all reports, briefings, memos, or aide-mémoire that she had received since being sworn in as Associate Minister of State Services, on the basis that the request did not meet the requirement to be “specified with due particularity” as per section 12(2) of the Official Information Act?
      
      Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: Yes.
      
      Brett Hudson: Was she aware of the Chief Ombudsman’s opinion of 17 February 2012 with respect to an OIA request to the then Minister of Finance for a list of all reports and briefings by title and date received from any Government department since 9 November 2008 in relation to his roles as Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, and Minister for Infrastructure that it met the requirement of due particularity, as per section 12(2) of the Official Information Act?
      
      Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: I haven’t seen that particular advice from the Ombudsman. I have seen a range of advice from the Ombudsman—
      
      Mr SPEAKER: Order! The member has answered the question.
      
      Brett Hudson: How can she be the ministerial standard-bearer for the most open, most transparent Government that New Zealand has ever had if this is how she responds to Official Information Act requests, ignoring the precedent guidance from the Chief Ombudsman?
      
      https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20171130_20171130_24
      
      36 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 8:45am
      - oldpark
        
        Between Mallard and Peters. Both sick jokes and a disgrace to our now farcial Parliamentary Debating Chamber. Our once famous world democracy and fair play has become tainted and toxic by both mentioned ratbags.A complete waste of money and the facade which is called Question time in Parliaments now snake pit.
        
        23 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 9:05am
      - cmm
        
        I’m pegging that one of the paragraphs on the secret pages is:
        
        “The Speaker shall never eject The Right Honourable Most Fabulous Winston Peters from the chamber.”
        
        25 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 9:11am
      - flipper
        
        Yep, absolutely.
        Brett had both smart arse Hipkins and Curran (in absentia) for dinner. He even took down Speaker Duck who is slowly emerging as the nit-picking protector of the incompetent Peters-Ardern Regime.
        And Peters was exposed, yet again, as a liar over the nature of advice given yesterday by the Senior MFAT Legal Officer to a Select Committee.
        Time for all of them all to go…..
        
        18 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 9:31am
      - Paulus
        
        Angry is practicing for when shortly Davis descends and Angry comes back as Deputy to Cinderella.
        The Unions do not like not being in charge.
        
        10 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 11:15am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Oldpark, question for you, do you know who would have statistics on MPs? Because in his address & reply speech Peters took exception to the National opposition & their 6000+ questions. He went on to boast he doubted whether he had ever asked 6000 questions in his life.
        As this is Peters we are talking about, & given he has been an MP for 32 years over the last 38 years, he is bound to have asked a few questions in the chamber in that time. So, if my thinking is correct he will be close to 6000 & if more, he has misled the House in his address & reply speech. Anyone up for some sport?
        
        7 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 11:20am
      - ztev
        
        The Ombudsman had to drag English kicking and screaming to answer that OIA request. !
        
        I didnt know that the OIA covered Ministerial answers in parliament?
        
        1 7
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:37pm
  - VicParking
    
    Not only Kelvin, it seems that all the dipstick ministers will be absent from question time with their questions being answered by ThighKiss and Robbo. The moment the days questions come out there is a made rush to the airport to ship ministers to Patea, Gisborne or some other wide flung outpost.
    No disrespect to Patea or Gisborne.
    
    24 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:52am
Left Right and Centre

Mirror mirror on the van, who’s the most pissed off chick cyclist ever ?

This will only take a minute. Promise. Or less. 1’00” in is the sweetspot.
21 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:09am
- CHFR1
  
  Was this the one that was proved to be “performance art” aka a set up??
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:08am
- DifferentPerspective
  
  Two wrongs don’t make a right.
  
  Destruction of private property isn’t the answer to hurt feelings.
  
  Without question the guys in the van were unevolved simian losers, but the answer isn’t vandalism. If at the next traffic light the van owner hopped out and broke a spoke or two on the bike be OK too? The tit for tat approach could lead to bad outcomes.
  
  This has the sniff of “they were male, she was female therefore everything she does is OK all other facts or laws are irrelevant”.
  
  8 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:14am
  - Left Right and Centre
    
    They were obnoxious abusive shithead arsehole fuckwits. They got exactly what they deserved.
    
    Good. For. Her.
    She didn’t ask them to start giving her a hard time. She didn’t start it.
    
    There’s certainly a limit to how much retaliation most would consider reasonable. I think she got it about right.
    
    What was she meant to do then mate ? Turn the other fucking cheek ?
    
    I think destroying a bit of their private property was very much the answer. That might put them off abusing women on the street. You never know your luck.
    
    They were just insulting and provoking her. Clearly she wasn’t interested and yet he just kept on and on and on at her. Fuck him. I’m with her all the way. Fuck them.
    
    Two wrongs don’t make a right ? Well, there was only one wrong. And an understandable response. Van bloke has done that to himself. She didn’t do anything.
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:24pm
  - Left Right and Centre
    
    I love the way you put that ‘hurt feelings’.
    
    It’s a little bit more than a few wittle hurty wurty feewings.
    They fucked with her big time. What they did would make anyone see RED. She was fucked off – that’s quite incredible that she ripped off a van mirror in three pulls. You’ve got to be angry as hell to summon that strength and rip the thing off.
    
    Don’t try to give it some bullshit political flavour about women getting away with shit that men don’t. In this case ? Forget it. As I said above – there sure is a limit to the response. Let’s say she carried acid around with her and threw acid in the passenger lout’s face. That would be way too far obviously most would agree.
    
    Let’s face it – it’s not the first woman that moron has shouted at from a van. And not the first time that woman has had to suffer abuse from idiots. It was just nasty and abusive. Fuck thme and good for her.
    
    Yeah – they’re lucky that’s all she did. In that video – they’d parked, so they’re not going to the next set of lights anyway. But if they did ? Oh yeah – they could take it further. How is that going to look in court ? And it’s all on camera.
    
    If it’s not a real video – it’s damned good acting. I’d be very impressed. It seems a little too set-up but then there’s a lot of cameras now and a lot of idiots in vans.
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:36pm
    - Left Right and Centre
      
      It’s funny because I know a friend who was walking in town once some years ago dressed normally minding his own business – and was called a faggot from a moving van full of young idiots. My friend chased them but they got away. Then later my friend found them stuck in traffic in Courtenay Place. Guess what my friend got away with next *wink*.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 8:40pm
- realityczech
  
  The uppity strumpet needs be bought before a Sharia court for justice to be done.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:41pm
tom hunter

An amusing anecdote that emerged from the recent gay marriage vote in Australia. In the electorate of Blaxland – which I think was the one that Paul Keating represented decades ago – 73.9 per cent voted against “marriage equality”. Since it’s still a Labor stronghold, the mystery needed to be investigated. Mark Steyn takes up the story:

In The Sydney Morning Herald, Western Sydney University professor Andy Marks decided to examine the question:

What makes their attitude so different to that of the rest of the nation? Census data goes some way to addressing that question. Marriage rates in Blaxland are higher but so is the proportion of couples separated.

Okay. So a lot of marriage in the area. Anything else?

The proportion of the electorate’s residents enrolled in university or tertiary education is higher than the NSW and national average but the level of qualification attained lags, slightly.

Gotcha. Slightly reduced rate of university degrees. Fascinating. What else?

Religion is a point of significant divergence. Only 13.4 per cent of Blaxland residents describe themselves as having “no religion” compared to 25.1 and 29.1 per cent at the state and national levels.

Ah. Religion. Care to explore that point? Whoops, sorry, time to move on:

Linguistically, the difference is similarly pointed with 25.5 per cent of the electorate’s households speaking “English only” at home contrasting with NSW and Australian averages of over 68 per cent.

Interesting. Do all these married, moderately under-qualified non-anglophones have any other distinguishing characteristics? Say, the number of cars parked in the driveway?

Household income levels are low as are rates of home and motor vehicle ownership. Unemployment is well above state and national levels.

At which point Professor Marks gives up and says something about “an incredibly complex debate” before signing off and going back to his day job.

Can you spot the missing word, boys and girls?

Heh, heh, heh,…..
35 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:11am
- RalphT
  
  Mormonism? Methodism No? I’m stumped. Can I have a clue? Does it also start with M?
  
  25 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:19am
- Brito
  
  Let me see now…mmmm, on the tip of my tongue…
  
  11 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:20am
- VicParking
  
  All men are introduced as a believers but the one who had to “hide his faith” is not a believer. 40:20.
  
  5 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:56am
- kowtow
  
  If the word had been “Catholic” the outrage would be fast and furious and very explicit.
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:30am
oldpark

Another flip flop by the “Coalition of the Damned”. Led by the pest for all reasons and seasons a guy called Peters.
Would have thought that someone who has spent circa 40 years in Parliament,attacking all sorts of people with his lies rumours and innuendos.
There they were him and his running mate wee Miss Ardern peddling the idea that there would be an export tax on bottled water.
They got the meme yesterday that that type of lies put out by both culprits during the election campaign was in fact just that .
Not so easy now to carry out the bogus election propaganda to win votes.
Even now Peters and Ardern are in denial that to put on the export tax,would help destroy much good will with NZs trading Partners.
Run a country they have been exposed swimming in a sea of misguided ideology. Maybe with their flip flop on the water tax,maybe just maybe they could run a water tap. Peters and Ardern two clowns lost in a wonderland of its only make believe.
45 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:13am
- Poppa
  
  It really is pathetic that they did not do the basic checking on this even though they were told by the Nats that this could be the outcome.
  
  It is just another back down folks, it happens on a daily basis. They are unfit for office
  
  46 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:17am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Speaking of the clown Peters, it seems that he is treating his Deputy Prime Ministership as a joke. All he seems to do in QT is try and be the funny man and continually laugh at his own gags.
  How long are we going to put up with this?
  
  42 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:25am
  - softail 1450
    
    captain,,, isn’t it retch inducing,no bastard is laughing anymore only the garden gnome himself.
    f—k he’s looking haggard, he looks like a combination mix of a great barrier cave weta and Maxine waters,seriously.
    
    30 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:35am
    - starboard
      
      Peters looks as though he sleeps in a tomb. Ive seen a bettet looking week old corpse.
      
      13 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 9:49am
      - Brito
        
        So tell me about you and this week old corpse. Photos, details, and a note from your mum about why you had one under the bed.
        
        7 4
        Report
        December 1, 2017 10:48am
      - starboard
        
        Peters breaths formaldehyde..the breath of death. Would make an onion cry.
        
        6 1
        Report
        December 1, 2017 1:34pm
      - Brito
        
        Like Party at Bernie’s. Who’s he tied to who is moving his hands??
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:25pm
  - flipper
    
    Until it is futile for him to deny the onset of dementia ….
    
    6 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:10am
  - KevOB
    
    Its one face of dementia.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:37am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Captain, we need some statistics. In his address & reply speech Peters took exception to the opposition’s 6000+ questions. He boasted that he had probably never asked 6000 questions in his life. So, recognising this Peters & he has been an MP for 32 years out of the last 39 years, he is bound to have asked close to 6000 questions (or supplementary questions). If, the numbers exceed 6000, is this not a case of misleading the house? We need some statistics here.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 11:40am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  As stupid as they look, it is positive in that it highlights they have a streak of pragmatism – which they will need to weather the coming economic storm.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:05am
Paulus

I see that Brian Fallow in the Harold suggests the hope that the Tax Working Committee led by “call me Sir” Michael Cullen gets it right.
Righht – get it.
Cannot see the person who left the Country bankrupt, including telling Treasury to leave out the $2 Billion shortfall in ACC, and buying a Railway for at least four times its value can possible get anything right.
He recently Chaired the Edgecumbe Flood enquiry which was quickly shut down as a load of cobblers in his results.
This man is an incompetent idiot which is why I assume that Cinderella and Fatty Robertson put him there.
Heather (H2) will do the report and tell him what to say anyway.
42 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:17am
- Harkman
  
  You also forget to mention that Cullen oversaw the collapse of the non-back financial sector, costing the country billions in savings and lost GDP. Not to forget that the housing shortage in Auckland is a side affect of this.
  
  Or the fact know-it-all Cullen was the King of high interest rates. His welfare policies were so inflationary, interest rates had to be extremely high to stop hyper-inflation setting in.
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 2:21pm
Digmen1

As Ive said the tax workign group needs to be made of of a broad group of New Zealanders.

A banker
An accountant at
A plumber/electrician
A housewife
A laywer – to find any loopholes
an economist
A small businsses owner
A bus driver
A landlord.

Ie a broad mix and all get.
29 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:23am
- Colville
  
  You average “plumber” (or any real tradie, not something quasi tradie like a scaffolder or concreter FFS) is both a small business owner and a landlord.
  Tradies love buying houses.
  
  14 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:34am
  - cmm
    
    And they know all the loop holes – cashies, fake invoices, …
    
    12 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 8:53am
    - Colville
      
      Why bother with any of that?
      Buy a shitter, do it up in your spare time, all the materials get written off within the business, rent it out long term or flick it after a few years.
      The gain is 100% tax free.
      Even better if the shitter is sub dividable. Cut off the section and build a house that you honestly mean to move into but it accidentally got sold before you could move in… oooppppss… there is another big chunk of tax free gain and once again all the materials went thru the company and a labour swap with a mate took care of any pesky skills shortage.
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:45am
      - KevOB
        
        The bright line test could be extended even further. You have described a properly taxable gain–IRD has been dealing with that scenario at least 60 years.
        
        5 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 12:54pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Right Kev, doing up and trading houses is already taxable without any changes, without needing CGT or annual Land Tax on long term landlords and home businesses. But they will be easier to ‘catch’.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 1:45pm
  - Paulus
    
    Clare Curren is trying to outdo Helen Clark – she has only got four properties, whereas Clark has six, I understand, one of which is for all her books and papers. Her own Museum like the US Presidents.
    
    6 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:21pm
- Left Right and Centre
  
  A transgender pre-op NZ ‘women’s’ weightlifter.
  That’s one broad definition of broad . . .
  
  Call that a woman ? That takes some bollocks.
  
  24 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:35am
- KevOB
  
  Try some people with actual experience in tax administration.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:39am
Sofia

I apologise for the length of this. The guts of it is …
New Zealand’s UNSC Resolution 2334 seems to be a directly plagiarised copy of the Islamic state of Egypt draft which was rejected and withdrawn.

Experts condemn NZ sponsored anti-Israel resolution
Thursday, 30 November 2017
Press Release: Israel Institute –

A recent UN resolution [2334] which condemned Israel and which was sponsored by New Zealand, along with Senegal, Malaysia and Venezuela, has been denounced by two dozen legal experts at a meeting at The Hague.

The experts reviewed the process which led to the resolution and concluded that it “fell short of an open, balanced, and thorough consideration of all the relevant factual and legal issues (which) resulted in legal findings that did not adequately take into account the legal, historical, political and military complexities of these territories and peoples.”

“The report makes clear that UNSC Resolution 2334 was a politicisation of United Nations processes in order to attack the Jewish State. International law experts have given their considered opinion that clearly shows how biased and improper the resolution really was. It confirms and compounds the disappointment many Kiwis feel over McCully’s actions last year”.

This item does not mention a point raised more than once by someone commenting on another blog at the time: that New Zealand diplomatic staff in fact took the Egyptian draft resolution circulated just days earlier (but already rejected and withdrawn after a strongly negative reaction from Israel’s Netanyahu and In-Coming President Trump) and tabled it verbatim (excepting for the addition of numbering to 13 paragraphs) with the direction of Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully, and the sponsorship of Senegal, Malaysia and Venezuela.

New Zealand’s UNSC Resolution 2334 seems to be a directly plagiarised copy of that of the Islamic state of Egypt, who prepared their document with UK input on the wording and Palestinian approval.
Both documents are online and can easily be compared [links below]

“I went to bed feeling deflated. It was nice to have a resolution … It would have been nicer if it had been our one.” – Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, New Zealand’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations

In condemning New Zealand, the two dozen legal experts meeting at The Hague should have also harshly criticised Egypt, the UK and of course the Palestinians for originating resolution 2334.

I am unaware if McCully’s comments justifying the resolution included any statements in Parliament, so whether they mislead the House in any way (by inferring the resolution is New Zealand’s, when if is Egypt’s), or if indeed then-Prime Minister Bill English did the same in justifying McCully.

As well as many New Zealanders feeling very disappointed over McCully’s actions last year, others not only felt those actions were wrong, but knew them to be wrong and making a mockery of McCully’s claim that the resolution accurately reflected New Zealand’s long held position on the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Meanwhile …
Corin Dann: Was Murray McCully, when he was the foreign minister, out of line to co-sponsor the measure condemning Israeli settlements? He did that without cabinet approval.
Jacinda Ardern: Indeed, and putting aside the issue, the only question we’ve raised is whether there could’ve been a bit more of a process around it.
– TVNZ’s Q&A, 20 November

So Ardern seems to only think Cabinet should have had more involvement perhaps.
She likely does not agree that …
Israel Institute of New Zealand Director David Cumin describes the condemnation as a major rebuke of the flawed process which led to the passing of the resolution and a blemish on New Zealand’s proud reputation as an ‘honest broker’ in international matters.

Gerry Brownlee recognised this mess, but could only describe it as “premature” and was reprimanded by PM Bill English, who backed McCully for some reason beyond reason.

The one other person of course who has rightly been outspoken in this matter is Ardern’s now new Foreign Minister, Winston Peters, who hopefully will do what is possible to right this utterly shameful position of taking Egypt’s rejected draft resolution and re-presenting it verbatim to the UNSC as our own.
____________
• Text of Egyptian-drafted resolution on settlements scheduled for vote at the UN Security Council on December 22, 2016 link
https://www.timesofisrael.com/full-text-of-draft-un-security-council-resolution-demanding-israel-cease-all-settlement-activities/
• Resolution 2334 (2016) – New Zealand
Adopted by the Security Council at its 7853rd meeting, on 23 December 2016
http://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/SRES2334-2016.pdf
21 4
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:23am
- twofish
  
  Copying each document to Pages (Mac) for word count
  Egyptian draft … 933 words
  New Zealand resolution … 946 words
  difference: 13 paragraph numbers
  
  Unbelievable!
  
  16 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:43am
  - Yvette
    
    Unbelievable!
    
    What is unbelievable is that no one seems to have picked this up before, except perhaps Bill English who may have realised, if he allowed criticism of what McCully had done, it would all unravel.
    But what about the two dozen legal experts at a meeting at The Hague, or of course the Prime Minister of Israel and his Government?
    
    Is it like the Golriz Ghahraman debacle? Tell the populace what they should see, and that is all they can see. Except for a few.
    
    15 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:01am
- Brito
  
  Just another day at the office! McCully was way out his depth. Just say, ‘Saudi farm deal’.
  
  Obviously the Saudi oil pressure was greater than the ‘right-thing-to-do’ pressure.
  
  15 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:51am
  - suzieq
    
    McCully has history, of course. Ask Shipley, Bill English … A nasty piece of work.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 5:41pm
- Ashley Schaeffer
  
  McCully disgraced himself and New Zealand. I wonder if McCully would have gone so far off the reservation if Key had still been in charge.
  
  13 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:36am
- twofish
  
  Chris Trotter yesterday commenting on Golriz Ghahraman, said she “this week found herself in the cross-hairs of David Farrar and Phil Quin, two of New Zealand’s most deadly political snipers.”
  
  Giving David Farrar and his blog this standing, and the obvious scrutiny it gets from commentators and politicians, one can assume that shortly newly appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters will become aware, if he isn’t already, of the duplicity McCully indulged in, duplicating the rejected Egyptian resolution as New Zealand’s.
  
  As this duplicity becomes common knowledge it will be interesting to see what Winston does, because to do nothing (when others know) may further detract from “New Zealand’s reputation as an honest broker in international politics”.
  Can Winston or Jacinda Ardern claim any change unless change is seen?
  
  12 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:55am
- MH
  
  Murry McCully a bit of a worry. Can anyone have him up as a war crim, anybody to defend him?
  
  3 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 11:13am
Digmen1

Now Jacinda is saying their water tax “promise” has always been an aspiration or goal.

She really is out of her depth.

Why not have the courage to say that we got it wrong and that we got elected on false pretences.
49 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:25am
- Victor Omega
  
  Because they were selected, not elected. Surprise, bish! Now you have to back up all that sheit you spouted as you sprinkled stardust on the sheeple.
  
  28 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:34am
  - Paulus
    
    Cinderella never though she would be in the position she is so she could promise the World, which she did, to make life for National difficult
    – Winston f….d that, and now is paying for the lies she made.
    
    7 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:25pm
- Brito
  
  2.30min approx. is when she starts laying out the rates. Never heard ‘aspiration’ in any talk-ever.
  
  Liar!!!
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cARcvsvGflk
  
  20 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:57am
- Anne Glen Eden
  
  Why give Labour that much credit? The modern version of Labour simply lie – over and over and over again. They spout marketing spin – the equivalent of a beauty pageant contestant wanting ‘world peace’ – and just as uselessly.
  
  It’s an embarassment that so many NZers were so sucked in by it. In a world where Christians are constantly attacked for believing in ‘fairy stories’, masses of NZers bought into the fairy stories that Ardern, in particular, and Labour generally, were spouting. How much repeated experience of it does it take for people to get their feet on the ground and accept that modern Labour simply tells lies that people want to hear and then backtracks/fails on all of them.
  
  I agree that this is a particularly inept version of a Labour government. That just makes it worse. They not only lied continuously but knew they were particularly inept.
  
  Having refused to join those picking on Winston Peters for decades, even I now have to admit that he, also in particular, betrayed the whole country in putting Labour into power – not just because they’re inept and the majority of the country didn’t want them (because he also knew that) but because he did it for simple, personal payback.
  
  Of course, the stupidity of National to play into his hands (and also betray the country) by deliberately trying to set him up, also defies belief.
  
  I live in hope we may one day get back to genuine democracy, where ‘representatives’ actually represent the will of the majority of the people – and they’re held to account for telling outright lies.
  
  22 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:32am
  - treadingthemill
    
    I live in hope we may one day get back to genuine democracy, where ‘representatives’ actually represent the will of the majority of the people
    
    Arguably the current government does, given that a majority voted for Labour, the Greens and New Zealand First. FPP gave us two terms with a Muldoon government that had easily lost the popular vote. Democracy is an imperfect system, though still the best option available, and election outcomes can only roughly approximate the will of the majority. Even then, that will has to be constrained somewhat by constitutional limits. Simple majoritarianism can become another form of tyranny. MMP has it’s faults, but I have never seen anyone suggest a better alternative.
    
    2 19
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:07am
    - starboard
      
      Mornin mm. ?
      
      10 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:31am
    - marcw
      
      STV, or a modification of MMP where list candidates have to contest an electorate seat, and obtain at least 5% of the electorate vote to be eligible to get into Parliament on a list. Two exceptions – party leaders and Speaker.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:46am
      - KevOB
        
        Too small a percentage–make it 20%.
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 12:57pm
  - KevOB
    
    Agree Anne.
    I’m suggesting going forward that list members not be able to vote in the House on confidence and supply Bills. We are now otherwise exposed to the tyranny of the selected.
    
    10 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:46am
- MH
  
  someone put a message in a bottle for her.
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 11:11am
Manolo

Is the NYT right?
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/30/trump-has-a-plan-to-replace-secretary-of-state-tillerson-with-cia-director-pompeo-reports.html
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:27am
- backster
  
  New York Times…NBC……fake news.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:43am
- All_on_Red
  
  New York Times!
  Nah. I reckon it’s fake news planted by State Dept stooges worried about their jobs.
  Tillerson has got rid of over 100 so far. He’s cleaning them out. Good job.
  
  14 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:50am
Odakyu-sen

From the Herald.
“Govt crackdown on ‘young, desperate, on drugs’ dairy robbers” http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11950615

I asked an Indian friend why so many dairy store owners, taxi drivers, and call center personnel are Indian. He told that that was all the work they could find in this country. He also added that this was their lot in this life, for sins committed in their previous life, or something like that. (I didn’t quite follow what he meant, but it could explain the passivity of the Indian workers.)
18 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:29am
- GoVege
  
  Sounds like a believer in reincarnation.
  The reason most Indians are vegetarian.
  
  2 4
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:38am
  - treadingthemill
    
    Yes, karma and reincarnation. Though I can’t see any logical reason why either would lead to vegetarianism.
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:42am
    - KevOB
      
      Don’t eat what you, family or friends might be reincarnated as.
      I don’t believe in reincarnation but for those who do going vegan is sensible.
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 1:01pm
      - Nigel Kearney
        
        If I am ever reincarnated as a chicken, I’d prefer to be killed and eaten ASAP so I get a shot at something better the next time.
        
        5 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:30pm
      - waikatogirl
        
        From what I remember, it depends if you are a “worthy” chicken and deserve to be reborn up the food chain. You may go the other way and end up further down the food chain, ie as a bug.
        
        0 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 8:18pm
- GoVege
  
  Surely the safety measures for dairy owners are a tax deductible business expense?
  Or aren’t they making enough to pay tax?
  
  3 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:41am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Seeing the tiny profits they make on very limited sales, family members staffing the dairies day and night, I’d guess that they don’t make much.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:53pm
    - GoVege
      
      Hi CL.
      I recall yonks ago reading about a dairy owner in the sticks who said his business couldn’t pay wages.
      I know that many immigrant cultures have a very strong work ethic.
      Maybe they just do their best to make ends meet while they put their kids through uni.
      A bit like the immigrants to the US around 1900, working in sweat shops so their kids would have a decent life.
      
      3 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 3:05pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        I see it all the time: the work ethic of Asian and Indian immigrants, and the resulting education and hard work of the next generation. Apart from infrastructure issues and not wanting to overcrowd NZ, these are the people we need.
        
        7 1
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:11pm
      - Jack5
        
        Classic Liberal says of dairy owners “…these are the people we need…”
        
        Ya reckon? A remote, mountainous island group living off primary exports and unable to balance external payments for about 40 years, needs people who run uneconomic corner dairies, drive taxis, and staff pizza joints?
        
        No wonder economic growth, as measured by GDP per capita has pretty much stalled.
        
        5 1
        Report
        December 1, 2017 4:56pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        We need people who have a great work ethic and huge educational momentum for their kids. Yes, the first generation might take pretty limited jobs, but the next generation is full of high achievers. I see them all the time on Auckland’s North Shore, work with some and they are really great people.
        
        But sure, we shouldn’t take in more people than we need and can employ. I totally agree.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:23pm
      - GoVege
        
        Pity that they are continually in danger of being bashed and robbed by the kids of indolent, chauvinist cultures that tend to have several times as many kids as the hard workers, ditch the kids and their mums early in the piece, and seldom encourage or support their education.
        
        1 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:39pm
      - Jack5
        
        Classic Liberal posted at 5.23: ” … the next generation is full of high achievers.”
        
        That’s where the home terrorists and ISIL recruits are largely coming from in Britain, France, Germany, and other Western countries. First and second local-born generations.
        
        But where are the new export industries people from Asia were supposed to generate? They’re not pioneer types.
        
        0 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 9:57pm
- Colville
  
  Odakyu-sen
  I need a bit of advice on a piece of old Japanese art I own.
  I have been told that somewhere like Idemitsu Museum wont respond to blind emails as its a cultural thing.
  Any idea who I could ask?
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakai_Hōitsu
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:56am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    NZ universities fine art departments? Posh galleries and auction houses, eg in Parnell?
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 2:03pm
- suzieq
  
  When Kiwi employers won’t employ you, you have to set up in business to feed the family. I can understand that some feel cheated by expectations that were ever unrealistic.
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 5:45pm
- Jack5
  
  It’s surprising the thugs aren’t hitting jewellery shops, TABs and the like where the real gold and cash are.
  
  Is it because the dairies are in vulnerable, dangerous areas? Or are these mainly early-teenage thugs whose first priority is tobacco?
  
  What will it be like if these shops were to legally sell cannabis?
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:02pm
  - realityczech
    
    Jacksie, It will be fine if the govt does not make it unaffordable with taxes, as they have with tobacco.
    
    Plus it is very easy to grow some weed compared with tobacco.
    
    Low information types just assume people will buy it.
    
    0 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:06pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The Indian and Chinese dairies have always been easy targets and have been so for ages before the tobacco taxes hit hard.
    
    The folks are seen as easy targets…. often female, small in stature, limited knowledge of who is who in the neighbourhoods.
    
    1 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:18pm
    - realityczech
      
      It may be that so many dairies are owned by Indians, rather than Indians being targeted.
      
      It does not make such good headlines, but is probably the case.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:21pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Never heard of violent assaults on a dairy owned/ staffed by Maori folk .
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 10:30pm
      - realityczech
        
        Wiggles you are making my point. How many Maori own diaries compared with Indians ?
        
        “often female, small in stature”
        
        How many dairies owned by female pygmy’s get robbed ?
        
        0 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 10:34pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I live in Gizzy… so quite a few hereabouts (well at least with Maori staff).
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 10:51pm
      - realityczech
        
        Lot of Maori folk there. Lovely place too 🙂
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 11:08pm
Victor Omega

Watch Milo take this vacuous attention seeking millenial “muslim” to school. Get rekt.

https://youtu.be/O7FtjtF4gM0
19 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:30am
- ross411
  
  She said a lot without saying much of substance. It’s a pity Milo posts these with titles like “left her sobbing”, it doesn’t represent him well, as she is too deluded to realise how shallow she is.
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:47am
- Inandout
  
  He really destroyed this part time Muslim with his expert Koran knowledge. His audiences are full to brimming, so lefties (their problem) must be pissed off at his popularity.
  
  14 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:01am
oldpark

Even worse than the “Coalition of the Damned” flip flop on the fake news that it was all okay to tax exported bottled water, Comes a wake up call that should make all NZs to be afraid very afraid.
Just yesterday it was reported that with the decision by the Meglamaniac Peters to select the present defacto Government,business confidence in the nation ,has taken an eight year tumble.
It took Bill English and his National Government 8/9 years to turn our world famous Rockstar economy into the envy of the whole world.
With that type of billing NZs businesses and well being of its people thrived.
Not any more seems Peters actions and decision has, and is turning NZs well being and economy and confidence into a disaster. That decision by Peter the pest for all seasons and reasons ,took a month to shatter the illusion that he had made the right call. Maybe for him,sadly not for the good ship NZ.
31 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:31am
- Maxx
  
  And it’s not hard to understand why confidence has plummeted.
  
  Businesses like to know and plan for the future. From a Government point of view, by and large, they’re not too worried about who is in power as long as they know what the long-term direction is so that they can adjust accordingly.
  
  With all of this talk of “we’ve got things we’re working on, but don’t want to say yet” and trying to rush things through with seemingly little consultation with anyone outside of their own echo chamber, it does not give confidence in a stable environment to operate within.
  
  26 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:59am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    And now Michael ‘call me Sir’ Cullen is describing Robertson as ‘talented’.
    Doesn’t this tell us all we need to know about both these idiots?
    
    34 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:05am
    - Komata
      
      Capt.
      
      ‘Talented’ but at what? It certainly isn’t economics…
      
      10 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 11:22am
      - softail 1450
        
        komata, I bet he can do the” exorcist” head turn.
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 6:01pm
Left Right and Centre

AA are certainly celebrating diversity with their call centre staff. Received call from a young Asian woman who would only know that Crowded House is her tiny flat reeking of noodles with ten overseas students in there like a clown car.

When it’s a man’s voice and you’re asking them if they are a woman’s name in front of you.
3 11
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:44am
- Digmen1
  
  I wonder if they can write better English than you?
  
  15 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 8:57am
  - Left Right and Centre
    
    Yes mate – with her rudimentary level of spoken English ?
    I’m sure she’s farking Chaucer with the written word.
    What kind of stupid farking comment is that shit honestly.
    I suppose it really doesn’t matter – most NZders don’t value their own language enough to bother improving themselves. She’ll be right mate – that’s what auto-correct’s for.
    
    Mate – getting people like her is like the All Blacks picking their first five straight from a club competition. Would you want them instead of a player like Beaurepaires Barrett ?
    
    Oh yeah – and NZ tertiary providers wouldn’t even bother trying to correct all the basic writing errors of international students. You’re kidding, right ?
    It’s all about the dollars mate. They got the forking over cash bit right – nothing else matters. Cash = A+
    
    2 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:18pm
    - Left Right and Centre
      
      Want something to downtick ?
      At least let me make it worth the effort . . .
      
      Personality and charm of a used condom.
      Ah hello – I looking for such and such. Where are they ? They home ? Fuck sake.
      
      2 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 9:39pm
backster

Canadian elementary Teachers are being required to attend training centres in order to educate children on LGGBDTTTIQQAA&PP Genders.Was this what Trudeau was discussing so animatedly with Taxinda over yonder,I wonder.
22 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:54am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Tureau’s hypocrisy: LGGBDTTTIQQAA&PP in schools, but officials must no longer dare to ask asylum seekers if they think men and women should have equal rights, ‘cos asking that would be ‘offensive’:
  
  https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/11/27/rcmp-will-redact-more-than-5000-records-collected-using-questionnaire-targeting-muslim-asylum-seekers.html
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 2:13pm
Manolo

What a performance! Don’t Canadians feel embarrassed by this bugger?
http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2017/11/29/trudeau-cries-apology-lgbtq2-people-behalf-canada/

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cried during a formal apology to “LGBTQ2” people on behalf of Canada on Tuesday.
23 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:02am
- Digmen1
  
  What a weak pathetic guy.
  
  Yes the number one prioridy of a goverment is to protects its borders and citizens from enemies.
  
  Ie army, police, customs etc.
  Nothing to do with homosexuals etc
  
  16 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:08am
- Inandout
  
  Justin reminds me of a close version of our First Lady, Clarke Gayford; as shallow as an ant’s piss puddle.
  
  15 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:08am
Digmen1

I don’t know why so many people think that the water tax is such a good idea.
They get it for free
Punish the rich bastards etc etc

I heard on the radio the other day they are hoping to go a head with a new bottling plant near Whakatane that will employ upto 2oo people!

First I am amazed that a modern plant would need 200 people.

But secondly, imagine the good that would do for that area 200 jobs and people working, not on the dole, paying tax, feeling good about themselves, plus the export dollars it will bring in.

Far outweighs any small levy the government would get (have got.)
18 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:02am
- VicParking
  
  Remember we are run by the unions now. The bottles will be filled via funnels, one to hold, one to poor and one to screw on the cap.
  
  10 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:33am
  - treadingthemill
    
    If we were run by the unions the government would not have said “no” to the teachers demand for a 5% pay rise.
    
    1 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:45am
    - KevOB
      
      That was only so they could re-submit it as a 10% demand.
      
      7 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:49am
      - treadingthemill
        
        That sounds as nutty as Muttonbird and Morrisseys claims about National’s dirty politics conspiracy.
        
        5 3
        Report
        December 1, 2017 10:53am
  - sooty
    
    Don’t forget the one with the clipboard.
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 12:57pm
marcw

I wonder how Mr Little is getting on spending our $23million on his vanity and butt covering but futile exercise to make manned re-entry into Pike mine? That is ~$7million each year, or enough to employ 70 people on $100,000 pa for three years. What the f*#k are these people going to be doing for three years? Reading the 7 – 8,000 page Royal Commission report that has already been published very slowly, then translating it into multiple languages to make sure it is PC? Making sure it fits in with the TOW and determining if sufficient Koha has been paid?

Little should be ashamed that he is proposing to waste so much taxpayer money on a project which we already know will have an outcome already decided – no further action is possible.
24 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:04am
- waikatogirl
  
  “Reading the 7 – 8,000 page Royal Commission report that has already been published very slowly, ”
  
  Don’t forget the Commission could reduce the number of pages to the report by changing the font size. Then they could decide that font size wasn’t suitable and repeat….several times, until satisfied.
  7-8,000 pages could become an even more substantial report of many more pages just by increasing the font size. ? ?
  
  15 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:27am
- KevOB
  
  Where is the budgeted appropriation for any of the $23m?
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:50am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Little has been a waste of taxpayer money since…. forever. I wonder when the families of the dead will hold the EPMU to account for not “returning their loved ones home safely each night”. I would have thought there was an implied contract when you are taking Union Fees from people and in return you make promises. Offer, consideration and all that.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 11:28am
- Paulus
  
  When Angry replaces Davis next week he will pass this Pike River job to somebody else as he will not have the time to do all these things.
  Sorted see !
  
  7 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 1:30pm
Huevon

In the history of NZ politics has there ever been a soft touch like James Shaw?
28 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:04am
- Morrissey
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Bill English was bullied by the Australians, which shows he’s a pretty soft touch. And Key was bullied by Warner Bros. executives to take away New Zealand workers’ rights in the film industry.
  
  Compared to those spineless scoundrels, James Shaw is John Wayne at his toughest.
  
  1 43
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:34am
  - Nookin
    
    Bill English was bullied by the Australians, which shows he’s a pretty soft touch.
    
    Could there possibly be a bigger capitulation and sellout of New Zealanders going to Australia than that perpetrated by the last Labour government?
    
    31 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:46am
    - Morrissey
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Labour was hopeless—but they weren’t as craven and pathetic as English was in his behaviour. He’s still at it, chuntering on about how Jacinda Ardern and Kelvin Davis daring to speak out about human rights is “endangering our relationship with Australia”.
      
      1 35
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 9:52am
      - treadingthemill
        
        daring to speak out about human rights
        
        Human rights are a bit like art. Subjective. Nobody has the right to enter a country, even legally, let alone illegally. Immigration is a privilege.
        
        23 3
        Report
        December 1, 2017 9:59am
  - treadingthemill
    
    Neither English nor Key were bullied, that would imply they were opposed to begin with and had to have their arms twisted, which is obviously not true. And James Shaw tough? Rod Donald had balls, but Shaw, I’m not seeing them.
    
    17 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:52am
    - Morrissey
      
      Neither English nor Key were bullied…
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blpe_sGnnP4
      
      1 18
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 9:57am
    - VicParking
      
      His mommy’s keep one each in a jar, on a chain round their necks
      
      7 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:36am
  - big bruv
    
    “was bullied by Warner Bros. executives to take away New Zealand workers’ rights in the film industry.”
    
    That was so good, I really enjoyed watching Helen Kelly get all bent out of shape about that brilliant move by the Nat’s. Of course, it would have helped had Kelly not insisted on telling so many bare faced lies, but then I suppose it was hard for her to break the habit of a lifetime.
    
    17 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:08am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      This was the actual choice: workers’ rights to not get work in NZ at all because US filmmakers could film somewhere more convenient, or the deal Key made.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 2:23pm
- Inandout
  
  Has there ever been a NZ party leader with two mummies?
  
  9 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:11am
Maggy Wassilieff

Beware of Green spin…

It can kill.

http://joannenova.com.au/2017/12/green-rules-profit-legal-bullying-drove-the-grenfell-disaster/
14 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:14am
- KevOB
  
  JoNova’s always good value.
  
  6 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:52am
Tauhei Notts

Morning coffee with my cow cocky mate.
Two questions came up, neither of which were answered.
1. How much will Fonterra have to pay for the WPC80 stuff up with Danone?
2. Will Gerry Brownlee and Nanaia Mahuta both resign before the FEI comes in on 1st September 2018?
5 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:16am
Morrissey

GROPERS
No. 14: Judge Roy Moore

Some republicans have been leaping through incredibly convoluted hoops in their attempts to justify supporting Judge Roy Moore in the special Senate election in Alabama, in light of the revelations from at least five women claiming that Moore groped or sexually assaulted them when they were teenagers and he was in his thirties.
https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/8053790/roy-moore-twitter-breitbart-editor-defends-ringo-starr-youre-sixteen

“….the idea that Roy Moore, someone who is so clearly a repeated child molester and pedophile, could be endorsed meaningfully by the White House—it makes your skin crawl. And I think the Republican Party has a reckoning that they have to do about their morality as they take away children’s healthcare, as they bankrupt our future and endorse a pedophile.”—HEATHER McGHEE, head of Demos.
https://www.democracynow.org/2017/11/29/abuses_of_power_heather_mcghee_on

What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the Union
To help you along
What’s going wrong?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD3bGEFxGC0

“GROPERS” is presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.
No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; No. 7 Joe Biden; No. 8 Rolf Harris; No. 9 Harold Bloom; No. 10 Sir Jimmy Savile; No. 11 Dr Morgan Fahey; No.12 Prince Harry; No. 13 Bill (“I feel your pain”) Clinton
1 30
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:19am
- Morrissey
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  As I suspected would happen, within five minutes two supporters of Judge Roy Moore had registered with us.
  
  Whoever they are, I trust they will burn in Hell with that old abuser.
  
  https://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/kunst/noartist/j/js_after_bosch___hell__detail-3.jpg
  
  1 33
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:27am
- Dave Mann
  
  Unfortunately I could only give one downtick. Can anybody else lend me some downticks please? Quickly….?
  
  23 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:28am
  - Morrissey
    
    Thanks for showing us why we should never trust online polls, Mr Mann.
    
    2 23
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:35am
  - Brito
    
    Me!!!
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:37am
- Brito
  
  Morry, it’s in the US. Focus on NZ and Asia Pacific and be relevant. Find gropers from the left leaning side and I’ll back you up.
  
  12 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:39am
  - Morrissey
    
    Here are the fourteen we’ve selected so far. I’ve highlighted in bold type those who would, by the understanding of most people on this blog, be regarded as “left”. (In fact, of course, Biden and Clinton are right wing—they both support the dismantling of welfare and decent schools, and they have been loud and bloodthirsty advocates of democracy suppression and aggression in Central America, the Middle East and Africa.)
    
    Keep your eyes peeled, though, Brito, there ARE more “liberals” and “leftists” on the way.
    
    No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; No. 7 Joe Biden; No. 8 Rolf Harris; No. 9 Harold Bloom; No. 10 Sir Jimmy Savile; No. 11 Dr Morgan Fahey; No.12 Prince Harry; No. 13 Bill Clinton; No. 14 Roy Moore
    
    1 20
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:49am
    - starboard
      
      Still sleeping in your Bedford van morris? Why do you have bags of lollies in there
      .and whats with the long black trenchcoat. Does your probation officer know any of this?
      
      18 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:08am
    - Brito
      
      I won’t have it, I just won’t. Prince Harry is beyond reproach. He was just a young man doing what young men do.
      
      But how about some left leaning kiwi’s. Show the world that you can be unbiased. I can’t be so you do it.
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:53am
      - Morrissey
        
        No young men I know have snorted coke, abused women or killed shepherds from a helicopter gunship.
        
        And, yes, there are indeed some “left leaning kiwis” on the list.
        
        0 12
        Report
        December 1, 2017 12:25pm
Hugh Pavletich

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Listings of homes for sale are surging as sales remain sluggish, which could create an overhang of unsold properties next year | interest.co.nz

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/91175/listings-homes-sale-are-surging-sales-remain-sluggish-which-could-create-overhang

The residential property market could start the New Year with a doozy of a hangover thanks to a flood of new listings hitting the market.

Property website Realestate.co.nz received 13,447 new listings of properties for sale in November, the highest number in any month since November 2014.

That pushed the total number of properties available for sale on the website to 27,488 at the end of November, the highest number since March 2016. … read more xia hyperlink above …
4 39
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:21am
- Dave Mann
  
  Unfortunately I could only give one downtick. Can anybody else lend me some downticks please? Quickly….?
  
  12 6
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:29am
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    The number of new dwelling consents issued in October was below where it was 12 months ago | interest.co.nz
    
    https://www.interest.co.nz/property/91161/number-new-dwelling-consents-issued-october-was-below-where-it-was-12-months-ago
    
    3 27
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:36am
    - Jack5
      
      Hugh are you moonlighting for Australia’s ABC?
      
      This is just in:
      
      http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-01/mum-and-dad-investors-could-lead-to-housing-crash:-report/9215448
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 4:58pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  With nearly 14000 properties listed in Auckland, and only 1632 sales in October that implies more than 6 months to sell on average in Auckland. Prices are going to collapse.
  
  P.S reasonable post from Hugh, not too long, and lacking his usual invective.
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:23am
  - Colville
    
    There were no sales because there were no listings.
    Time on the market remains stable at 30-35 days all around NZ.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:48am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      https://www.realestate.co.nz/residential/sale?q=&qai=&lct=r35&qo=0&ql=20
      
      13583 listed properties in Auckland. 1632 sales in Auckland in October (REINZ data). How can it possibly be only 35 days to sell on average (REINZ claim 35 days in Auckland for October sales), unless they have Grant Robertson doing their calculations.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:59am
      - Colville
        
        https://www.reinz.co.nz/Media/Default/Statistic%20Documents/2017/Residential/October/REINZ%20Monthly%20Property%20Report%20-%20October%202017.pdf
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 11:23am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Yes, I read it every month Colville, and had seen it. It doesn’t explain the massive discrepancy in time to sell given the listings and sales numbers – which imply at least 5 months average time-to-sell rather than 35 days that REINZ claim.
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 12:01pm
      - Colville
        
        Urban.
        I would suggest that your numbers are out of whack. 13,000 listings in auckland is just way too high.
        
        The number of properties available for sale nationally increased by 4% (from 23,385 to 24,307) compared to 12 months ago,
        whereas the number of properties for sale in the Auckland region increased by 17% year-on-year (from 7,214 to 8,465). Excluding
        Auckland, the number of properties for sale fell by 2% (from 16,172 to 15,843) highlighting the impact Auckland has on the overall
        picture
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 12:53pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        13592 for sale in Auckland region:
        https://www.realestate.co.nz/residential/sale?q=&qai=&lct=r35&qo=0&ql=20
        
        And as corroboration trademe has 12105 currently listed in Auckland.
        
        REINZ 35 days average with 1632 sales in october implies they only have about 2-3000 listings, but Barfoot and Thompson alone have something like 4300 listings in Auckland. So how do REINZ justify this, because it looks to me like their methodology is bollocks.
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 4:06pm
      - Colville
        
        I think you are talking total listings and REINZ are talking house listings.
        TM doesnt have 10,000 houses for sale in Auckland.
        Just because it comes up under residential doesnt make it a house.
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 4:38pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Not so sure about collapse Urban. The urban boundary artificially strangling land supply will see to it that land prices don’t fall through the floor. Not all the people listing absolutely need to sell and even if they are listed, they can wait.
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 11:23am
    - Colville
      
      asking price in Auckland is up 2% from last month.
      Prices arent going down.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 12:55pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Council Rates Valuations have gone up like crazy. I asked a local real estate agent if ours was realistic, and he said no, $100,000 less than the Rates Valuation in reality.
        
        Council recently admitted that rates include a ‘Property Tax’, so it’s a wealth tax for the Council coffers, exploiting even pensioners and other low earners.
        
        6 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 2:29pm
tom hunter

Yesterday I put in a small quote from avuncular scumbag Leftie, Garrison Keillor in the USA, which was filled with vivid imagery describing what complete rotters, Republicans are – which naturally included their voters. There were a couple of responses to the effect that this was simply an accurate description!

Rather than drawing attention to the fact that this is right in line with Hillary’s description of the same people as Deplorables – and how successful that ploy was in 2016 – or pointing out that if the Left wants More Trump this is how they’ll get it, I thought I’d instead point out another recent example of how these superior creatures conduct themselves:

In 2001, the woman said, Mr. Lauer, who is married, asked her to his office to discuss a story during a workday. When she sat down, she said, he locked the door, which he could do by pressing a button while sitting at his desk. (People who worked at NBC said the button was a regular security measure installed for high-profile employees.)

The woman said Mr. Lauer asked her to unbutton her blouse, which she did. She said the anchor then stepped out from behind his desk, pulled down her pants, bent her over a chair and had intercourse with her. At some point, she said, she passed out with her pants pulled halfway down. She woke up on the floor of his office, and Mr. Lauer had his assistant take her to a nurse.

The woman told The Times that Mr. Lauer never made an advance toward her again and never mentioned what occurred in his office.

I hope someone is reviewing years of video in which Mr Lauer greased up to his fellow Progressives and Democrats by snarking and/or condemning Republicans for moral and ethical lapses. It’s also no surprise now that his network, NBC, was the one that rejected Rownan Farrow’s report on Weinstein.

Oh – and with a button under the desk it’s just not believable that NBC management did not know about all this, whatever their denials. What pieces of shit they are. Won’t stop RNZ or other NZ media breathlessly repeating them when slamming Trump and the GOP though. Kiwi’s lap that shit up.
11 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:26am
- Dave Mann
  
  Yes Tom, but my point in response to this is that sexual behaviour like this isn’t the sole prerogative of one side of the political spectrum. It happens with Republicans, Democrats, National party, Labour party, Conservative party, Liberal party, etc etc.
  
  Also (and I’m being starkly un-PC here) its not really a terribly big deal. For thousands of years powerful men have fucked women. Women know this and they dress and behave accordingly.
  
  Sometimes they unbutton their blouses. What the hell did she think he wanted to do….. to inspect her for bloody moles????
  
  Get over it and stop trying to use this against men. Its called having a sex drive, mate.
  
  8 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:51am
  - Digmen1
    
    Yes I am really annoyed at all of these.
    
    Why don’t these women just tell the guy to f-off or go away!
    Surely they are string enough to do that!
    At the time – not ten years later when they are famous.
    Its not as if they were 16 year old girls!
    
    11 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 9:57am
    - Anne Glen Eden
      
      That’s naive – given the consequences of them refusing to comply. But I do understand the point of view. It’s undoubtedly why Trump said, ‘They just let you do it’.
      
      I might accept that point of view, and Dave Mann’s, if it was an equal playing field – men can pursue sex; women can rip their genitals off – or shoot them – if they don’t want to comply, with impunity.
      
      Unfortunately, the victim is either not allowed/able to fight back or is punished for doing so. That is what has made it all so difficult. You have to decide – is society going to behave like cave men and women, or is it going to apply civility. Whatever choice is made, it has to apply to both.
      
      11 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:18am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        The issue of consent can get blurred when there is such a power difference. If violence is involved it almost ‘helps’ clarify things: that’s clearly rape.
        
        About blurred consent: a decent guy would not just ‘grab and take’, but let’s face it: even if he wined and dined an employee and then approached her sexually, would she feel able to say ‘no’?
        
        And vice versa? I’ve known plenty of powerful women, what if a male employee felt he couldn’t say ‘no’?
        
        But just grabbing and bonking because men ‘have a sex drive’ and because of how women dress? Dave, I’m reminded of ISIS. Civilised people don’t behave like that.
        
        6 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 2:41pm
    - Paulus
      
      They complain only years later after they have been physically assaulted, and have made lots of money from their jobs within the Industry
      By now they may have run out of money so need more.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 1:35pm
  - tom hunter
    
    Dave – I’m only too well aware of the McCarthyist nature of what’s happening here. Not to mention the conflation of stolen kisses, “lookism” and the like with actual sexual assault and rape. I’m also well aware of the power factor: as one commentator said today:
    
    My prediction: Not much change for powerful figures, but ordinary men will have to sit through HR presentations on why you can’t compliment someone’s sweater. Yes, I’m cynical about this stuff.
    
    Me too. But it’s been happening for some time – and mainly in attacks on the Right by the Left as yet another lever to gain power, whether explicit and political or implicit in the seemingly endless cultural attacks on the Right via the media, often at the direction of Hollywood shits like Weinstein. You could be a complete piece of shit in private as long as you waged war on “bigots”.
    
    So fuck ’em. The Left unleashed this Frankenstein in 2016 – almost certainly hoping to hit Trump – but now this weaponized version of female anger has targeted Left wing men. Diddums. Maybe they’ll learn something from this little piece of Robespierrean horror, although I doubt it.
    
    In the meantime, to paraphrase Taylor Swift: We’re all witches now, so light me up.
    
    11 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:18am
    - Dave Mann
      
      Well answered. Although we disagree I do understand that you’re aiming to redress the imbalance.
      
      4 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:31am
      - tom hunter
        
        For what it’s worth – I agree with much of what you say.
        
        But for me there’s been too many incidents like the infamous Duke University Lacrosse team rape trial (innocent and the prosecuter is the one in jail) or the The Rolling Stone’s attack on fraternities (retracted, sued, lost huge because they never bothered checking a blatantly lying woman – because she was a woman).
        
        The MSM and Hollywood fucking ate all that up at the time – and I saw few if any apologies for the coverage after the truth emerged. All part of the Culture War you see. Regrettable collateral damage.
        
        Burn? Let it all burn.
        
        9 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 10:41am
    - Brito
      
      Nicely put.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:55am
  - GoVege
    
    Loosen up my buttons baby….. 🙂
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:58am
  - Dave Mann
    
    I think my technique needs a bit of fine tuning. There was a sweet young thing just now at Britomart and I thought that her walking around half naked was a bit of a clue, so, in my most seductive voice I asked her to come with me somewhere quiet and unbutton her blouse.
    
    Reception is a bit limited here at A&E but I’ll hope to get some pointers from any helpful lotharios here as to how to improve my success rate….
    
    13 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 11:10am
    - Brito
      
      Order a soy latte, cry a little, hug a dolphin, wear a rainbow T shirt, get her pissed (have friends with you), sleep with her, leave before she wakes up, wipe room of all fingerprints, have an alibi, make a movie, back Hilary for President, 20 years will go by and then she’ll have a memory ‘relapse’, take it on the chin, say you’re sorry, order a soy latte, cry a little…away we go again.
      
      14 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 11:44am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Don’t we all walk around half naked in summer? Only sensible way to dress!
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 2:46pm
      - Morrissey
        
        These people certainly do….
        
        https://i.pinimg.com/originals/f8/ac/5c/f8ac5cdff7bffac7595aa7760c17015e.jpg
        
        1 1
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:08pm
- SGA
  
  tom, where is that from? It’s an odd story – she unbuttoned her blouse, let him pull down her pants, but “passed out” during sex and awoke on the floor???
  Not defending Lauer, all just sounds a little weird.
  
  11 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:51am
  - tom hunter
    
    Chuckle. I always enjoy it when I get to use this line, though without the Russian accent:
    
    Our source was the New York Times
    
    But the Variety article is probably the ultimate source, the biggy of these, and it just dropped a few hours ago after months of investigation. They would have contacted NBC a few days ago for a “response” – hence the firing and the shitstorm.
    
    I haven’t watched Washington Week in some time, but perhaps I should catch up on what the elevated representatives of D.C.’s MSM think of all this – especially considering that some of the journo baddies have been guests on the show over the years.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:26am
    - SGA
      
      I thought it probably was the NYT given the mention of “The Times” in your quote, but thought I’d check.
      
      Is there something about that particular case that doesn’t feel quite right to you? I can’t see why a woman who would comply with a request to unbutton her blouse and allow her pants to be taken down would pass out during sex? There is nothing in the story to suggest drugs or alcohol were involved. Never come across it myself. Does this happen regularly to people? Just curious as much as anything.
      
      6 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 10:48am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        ‘Bent over a chair’ might be a clue. Even if it was consensual sex, imagine being bent over a chair with someone pushing into you. The back of the chair could cut into your stomach and disrupt your circulation.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 2:48pm
      - SGA
        
        You are kidding me, right? I’ve never seen or heard of anyone passing out having sex bent over a chair, table, or bench. In terms of circulation, it would seem unlikely unless their brain was below the waist (ok, there is the odd male that might apply to 🙂 ). “Pins and needles” in the legs would seem more possible.
        But, hey, I’m no expert – it just sounds unlikely.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 2:54pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        But, hey, I’m no expert
        
        It’s good that you added that.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:01pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Well SGA, you asked for an explanation, said no alcohol or drugs, violence wasn’t mentioned and there seemed to be a kind of non-veto consent.
        
        So if bending over a chair is comfortable, that’s not the answer either.
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:15pm
      - SGA
        
        I have no idea if it is comfortable (being a heterosexual male). I imagine it depends on the height and padding of the chair? I would ask female acquaintances, but sexual harassment and all that 🙂
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:23pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        OK, try the scientific approach, sex not needed: grab a chair and bend over for while, see what happens and report back.
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:53pm
- Anne Glen Eden
  
  Of course NBC management knew – and probably most of the staff. As they do in a lot of companies.
  
  Whistleblowers, however, lose their jobs and/or careers and few are prepared to do that. What’s required in law changes is not just human rights or crime legislation to protect individual victims; it’s legislation that deems wherever such an incident has taken place, a full inquiry into the entire organisation is conducted to see how many other people have been victims of the same or other perpetrators, with confidentiality extended to the victims.
  
  It’s a culture of the abuse of power, where those of apparently superior economic benefit to an organisation are allowed to act like feudal lords with rights of abuse of those of less economic benefit. If it’s found in one instance, there’s guaranteed to be a whole lot more gone undetected. Penalties also need to be such that allowing it to happen removes the economic benefit of allowing them to operate in the first place, levied according to the duration of the problem.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:58am
  - Dave Mann
    
    Well argued.
    
    But… but… but… don’t women enjoy sex too? Why do they have all the fun and the perks too, then get all the money and compo 25 years later?
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 12:53pm
    - KevOB
      
      I know one female music teacher who won’t take high school classes as she can’t trust herself with the male pupils. She’s nearly succumbed in the past.
      
      Interest between the sexes is bi-directional not just celebrity or more wealthy males. Even I’ve been propositioned in the past by a female MP. Recently in a Santa suit there was inappropriate touching from a woman.
      
      There are boundaries but do we have to get out the guillotine? The current LGBT emphasis has me personally concerned–I was preyed on as child. We need tolerance. Not everybody is attempting control or damage.
      
      9 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 1:21pm
      - GoVege
        
        Funny that in the country that invented the guillotine, they’re far more tolerant of this particular human foible.
        It seems to happen an awful lot in the school and workplace.
        I put it down to propinquity.
        
        3 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 3:19pm
    - holysheet
      
      Because they are older, wiser and not as attractive as they once were?
      Money trounces everything else in their lives.
      
      5 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 1:47pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        no such thing as an ugly rich or powerful man.
        
        3 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 4:17pm
DifferentPerspective

Trudeau cries (again)

Seriously, this guy is in charge of an OECD country?

I fear for the species more and more everyday.
22 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:36am
- big bruv
  
  Soy boy.
  
  12 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:59am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  herbivore
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:24am
Manolo

His progressive boss claims total innocence:
http://variety.com/2017/tv/news/jeff-zucker-matt-lauer-today-1202626959/

Jeff Zucker said he was shocked by sexual assault and harassment allegations against “Today” co-anchor Matt Lauer, labeling the charges “incredibly disturbing.”

“I’ve known Matt for 25 years and I didn’t know this Matt,” Zucker said at Business Insider’s Ignition conference on Thursday, adding, “It’s incredibly, incredibly heartbreaking.”
9 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:41am
Catons

They have brought the highly secretive Heather Simpson right into the heart of the government. You can see her dead hand over all of this. It is as if they have picked up where the highly defensive secretive Clark Government left off.
21 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:43am
- sooty
  
  She’s been practising the dark arts at the UN.
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 12:52pm
Manolo

If the crook cannot run, one of her minions would do:
http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/362460-mcauliffe-seriously-considering-2020-run

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) is “seriously” considering the 2020 presidential race, according to confidants.

McAuliffe, who served as co-chairman of Bill Clinton’s 1996 reelection campaign and chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2008 campaign, would be labeled by rivals as a major part of the Clinton inner circle.
8 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:45am
Jack5

Sounds like the Chinese think new foreign-housing rules aren’t going to stop them pouring into NZ.

The Hooerald’s capable property reporter reports of a Chinese property site, Juwai:

Juwai predicted Chinese people would rush to buy properties here before the ban and afterwards, continue to enter the New Zealand property market by developing properties.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11950949
7 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:45am
- Albert_Ross
  
  If they want to “enter the NZ market by developing properties” they will need to bear in mind that they’re not going to be able to sell those properties to other foreigners, only to New Zealanders, and this may affect their profitability.
  
  If they are still willing to spend their money on building new houses here, that New Zealanders (and only New Zealanders) will then be able to buy and live in – that’s good, isn’t it?
  
  5 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:12am
  - GoVege
    
    Sure is, Albert! 🙂
    
    3 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:55am
  - softail 1450
    
    AR that is excellent ,not just good .
    
    3 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 3:31pm
- realityczech
  
  “Sounds like the Chinese…”
  
  Jacksie, you are probably at synagogue about now, but what would you do about these filthy goy undermining our racial purity ?
  
  0 3
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 5:30pm
big bruv

The left wing media in the UK (and here) have taught me something new.
I now know that it is perfectly fine to throw gay dudes off tall buildings, it’s also perfectly acceptable for Muslims to destroy religious art that is not of their faith (but look out if you draw a picture of the pedophile prophet Muhammad)
I know this is fine because it seems that a video reportedly showing one little Muslim piece of shit beating up another kid on crutches has been shown to be between two non Muslim kids.

Phew, I’m so glad that it’s all OK to resume throwing gay dudes off tall buildings, I mean we would not want to offend the stone age savages by objecting to their behavior would we?
13 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 9:54am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Yes, weird: RNZ made it sound like the videos were fake, implied they had nothing to do with poor, innocent, maligned muslims at all. Turns out that’s not true: plenty of factual information in the videos, but – shoot the messenger.
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 2:55pm
Monique Watson

I’m on down-ticking duty. Happy to oblige. And if I was still living in NZ I’d be thinking about frigging off to Australia. Fortunately I live in a part of the world where booze, bottled water and cigs are cheap.
Leafly delivers door to door if I was so inclined and the biggest threat to humanity today, Little Rocket Man is about to get the carpet pulled out from under him by Trump but whether it’s before or after he lofts one in Hawaii’s direction is anyone’s guess.
15 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 10:06am
- Dave Mann
  
  Little Rocket Man unfortunately isn’t a simple problem to fix, for three main reasons:
  
  1. China
  2. Nukes and/or airstrikes won’t work because Seoul is so close to the border and they have shitloads of artillery there loaded cocked and aimed.
  3. China
  
  There are another seventeen obstacles that I haven’t listed here, but for brevity just call them something to do with their ally and sponsor, which is…. ummm…
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:42am
In Vino Veritas

There is currently some talk of Peters suffering from the early signs of dementia. Does the NZ public have the right to know whether this is true or not?
If this is true, who will decide whether he is fit to continue in his role(s) in Parliament?
18 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 11:04am
- Inandout
  
  It is all secretly embedded in the coalition agreement, so you have no right to know.
  
  13 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 11:15am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Winston has been a naughty boy and told Susan Devoy to lose weight!!!
  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11951124
  
  17 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 11:22am
  - Lance
    
    Winston an insensitive pig?…………………I’m shocked
    
    8 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 12:09pm
- MH
  
  Rugby has a concussion test that may be available…
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 11:34am
  - Morrissey
    
    Those concussion tests are bogus.
    
    1 14
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 11:36am
    - holysheet
      
      Jesus morrissey, is there anything you are not an expert on?
      
      8 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 1:52pm
      - Morrissey
        
        There are many things, my friend, that I know little or nothing about. But this is one topic that I’ve spent a lot of time researching. I’ve commented on it for some time now….
        
        https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.sport.rugby.union/s7HjFOfNypI/R6jCAIMZP08J;context-place=forum/rec.sport.rugby.union
        
        https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/rec.sport.rugby.union/siPCM1He6RI/JtrplyT05KkJ;context-place=forum/rec.sport.rugby.union
        
        1 5
        Report
        December 1, 2017 4:27pm
- sam green
  
  “Some talk” …
  
  Now – where do you think rumours like that start? With the likes of kkkaty et al feeding scurrilous titbits of nonsense into blogs like this in order to set up a narrative that the average Joe starts to believe as fact. Makes you wonder who pays doesn’t it.
  
  1 14
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 11:59am
  - Brito
    
    Ah Green Eggs and Sam! Have they let you out of Play Centre for the afternoon?
    
    You leave Katy alone or you’ll have to spend some time reflecting on your bullying.
    
    What other wonderful contributions are you going to make today?
    
    11 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:24pm
    - sam green
      
      Awww look – he’s made up a name.
      
      1 9
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 2:52pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Or alternatively sam, someone asks Peters the question. I would say that Peters, like everyone, is not immune to having close friends who struggle to keep a secret.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 2:55pm
    - sam green
      
      Like Paula Bennett?
      
      1 4
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 5:49pm
      - sam green
        
        Oh sorry – she does keep some very big secrets.
        
        1 3
        Report
        December 1, 2017 7:24pm
    - GoVege
      
      Nah..she’s come clean about eating her pets….
      
      1 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 8:49pm
      - GoVege
        
        Explains how she got so chubby anyway….
        
        0 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 8:50pm
- doggone7
  
  John Key showed advanced stages of being a lying bastard. That wasn’t “some talk” that was something which he made obvious himself.
  
  Was he fit to continue in his role(s) in Parliament?
  Who decided that? The good people who took it as a positive characteristic.
  
  Peters’ future being decided on grounds of mental impairment being raised and decided by the mad has an element of comedy about it.
  
  3 10
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 1:20pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Lol doggone, Peters is long beyond the “advanced” stage of being a lying bastard. That was the main reason he got booted from National all those years ago and truth has been a foreigner to him since then.
    And well done for making the answer to the question about John Key. Maybe we should make the Veritas Law “As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Key approaches 1” that is, if an online discussion (regardless of topic or scope) goes on long enough, sooner or later someone will compare someone or something to John Key or his deeds.
    Of course, your response couldn’t even be considered a discussion, since you went directly to John Key. Who’s mad again?
    
    9 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 3:07pm
    - doggone7
      
      Of course it’s mad to get into a discussion when people come on here moaning about some politician lying, especially a long discussion where the probability of some odious comparison involving Key.
      
      Let’s accept it as implicit right at the beginning before the discussion gets long: John Key lied regularly about a range of things so there is no need to complain about members of the government lying if you thought lying from the previous government was okay.
      
      0 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 5:39pm
- KevOB
  
  This is a real concern. Dementia is not just lack of memory but changes to brain functioning have many causes and outcomes. Tumours cause the most bizarre symptoms as does other random damage to brain tissue. Mood and reason can be affected also behaviour, attitudes–lots of things can be out of place, borderline tolerable but not quite right.
  
  I don’t know the state of Winston’s health but I was surprised that he stood this election. I did see him in the House earlier this year when he was distinctly shaky and Mr Speaker came to his assistance.
  
  8 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 1:42pm
  - sam green
    
    KevOB being one of the et al.
    
    2 8
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 2:51pm
Morrissey

Malcolm Turnbull and his gang could intimidate the previous N.Z. government, but Jimmy Barnes is having none of their nonsense….

Rock legend Jimmy Barnes has again taken aim at the Liberal government, demanding they stop using his name and songs to spruik their “shitty policies”.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and energy minister Josh Frydenberg went to the Bluescope steelworks in Port Kembla, south of Wollongong, on Monday to talk about energy policy, industry and jobs.

“More than 30 years ago Jimmy Barnes came to Port Kembla to make the film clip for Working Class Man. Today the Prime Minister has come to Port Kembla to create jobs for Australia’s working class men and women,” Frydenberg said proudly.

He was referencing Barnes’ famous hit and iconic video clip, which was filmed at the NSW steelmaking facility.

Early on Tuesday morning, Barnes fired back on Twitter.

Barnes is outspoken and unabashedly political on Twitter, sharing lots of support for progressive causes. He was a loud supporter of marriage equality during the recent postal survey, as well as criticising Australia’s current asylum seeker policy as it relates to offshore detention.

Read more…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/11/27/jimmy-barnes-tells-shitty-liberals-not-to-use-his-music_a_23289666/
2 18
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 11:29am
Stars And Stripes

Went to a community fundraiser the other day where one of the main drawcards was a hangi cooked by the local iwi and associated bro’s.
Most of the chefs were fat and slovenly looking which I decided was a good sign as it probably indicated they could cook up a decent feed.
Wrong!!!!.
The meat was half cooked and so full of gristle I’m sure it must have been sourced from the unclaimed section of the local morgue.
The vegetables were the only edible bit but only a fag would be satisfied with this.
Maybe some of the koha being splurged on Māori Language should instead be used to teach the bro’s traditional cooking techniques because Mr Chan down at the Lucky Feline Takeaway could have run rings around them.
17 5
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 11:58am
- Morrissey
  
  I don’t believe a word of that racist rant. No hangi I’ve ever been to has been anything like your lurid and disgusting fantasy. It sounds more like a National Party barbecue, with the fat and slovenly Gerry Brownlee handling the sausages.
  
  3 29
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 12:21pm
  - Stars And Stripes
    
    Come on Morrissey we all know the Labour Party is stacked full of people who are much more experienced “sausage handlers” than Brownlee.
    
    16 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 12:41pm
    - Morrissey
      
      The article exposing Key’s dishonesty was published in the New Zealand Herald, an organ notoriously pro-National and sympathetic to Key’s regime. But go ahead and call the Herald staff “whacko conspiracy theorists” if you like; it’s your credibility that’s at stake.
      
      1 11
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 4:13pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        an organ notoriously pro-National
        
        Left wing extremists claim it’s pro-National, right wing extremists on Kiwiblog claim it’s pro-Labour. Extremists have no credibility.
        
        3 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 4:18pm
      - sam green
        
        Who owns it? Follow the money.
        
        2 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:57pm
    - Morrissey
      
      Ho ho ho ho ho! Nice one, my friend. Was that aimed at THIS bloke?…..
      
      https://static2.stuff.co.nz/1398153221/535/9967535.jpg
      
      0 3
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 9:31pm
  - treadingthemill
    
    No hangi I’ve ever been to has been anything like your lurid and disgusting fantasy.
    
    Iv’e been to one that bad. Iv’e also been to a lot of good ones. Other people’s cooking is always a bit of a hit and miss.
    
    with the fat and slovenly Gerry Brownlee
    
    Fat shaming Morrissey? That’s not very PC.
    
    15 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 12:48pm
  - Swifty
    
    So unless you’ve personally experienced something, then it must be a total lie?
    
    What a dick.
    
    S&S – I’ve been to plenty of hangi for over 45 years now. Often it’s like eating smoked dirt.
    
    Pass.
    
    12 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:15pm
    - starboard
      
      Hangis are disgusting. I wouldnt even take my dog to one. No wonder the brown skins frequent KFC.
      
      7 9
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 1:46pm
  - Albert_Ross
    
    You’re as bad as each other.
    
    I went to a hangi where the food was bad, therefore all hangi food is bad.
    
    I haven’t been to a hangi where the food was bad, therefore no hangi food is bad.
    
    Neither of your arguments would stand up for ten seconds in a rational discussion.
    
    6 6
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 3:20pm
    - treadingthemill
      
      Great reply, and once again the horse shoe theory gets a win. Extremists on the right and left mirror each other in the way they “think” about things.
      
      5 2
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 3:22pm
    - Swifty
      
      Who are you referring to?
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 3:40pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        Stars and Stripes, and Morrissey. Birds of a feather.
        
        5 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 4:23pm
    - Morrissey
      
      Your pseudo-scholarly attempt at proving equivalence between a racist message and someone who objects to that racist message is about as rigorous and convincing as poor old Dr. treadingthemill’s invocation of his beloved “horse shoe theory.”
      
      You seem to have missed my point, but anyone who’s serious will have noted that I was objecting to the vile and racist fantasies purveyed by our troubled friend Stars and Stripes, not by his complaining about a hangi per se.
      
      1 8
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 4:18pm
- realityczech
  
  “The vegetables were the only edible bit but only a fag would be satisfied with this.”
  
  /SS/ Fags, Maoris , vegetables… what is the world coming too ❗
  
  0 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:37pm
Monique Watson

@Dave Mann. The German GSG 9 and British SAS are going to lead the assassination effort. Have you seen how the DAX has tumbled in the past weeks? Markets quite often predict wars.
Germany has just today pulled diplomats from North Korea, the Brits are in the Sea of Okhotsk and Putin looks are other way as the troops are airlifted over to take out Little Rocket Man
6 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 12:03pm
- Dave Mann
  
  That would be a fun time for all and much more interesting than lots of what’s in the current news. But what about China?
  
  4 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 12:16pm
  - Paulus
    
    One of the main entries between China and North Korea has/is closed for serious maintenance.
    It is this bridge through which serious local contraband is taken.
    Trucks move back and forth all day.
    Will hurt little fat man’s people – not the elite though.
    
    8 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:41pm
    - Digmen1
      
      That is good news, but it shows just how China has not being following the sanctions.
      
      I am convinced that if full sanctions were implement and enforced that the regime would collapse within a few months.
      
      1 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 6:44pm
Surely Knott

Rahui starts this weekend followed by a vote to close the Waitakere Ranges. The usual political activist scientists involved advising the iwi. Waitakere declared itself the first agenda 21 city, follow the un planning format of a regional park, surrrounded by a heritage buffer, connected by wildlinks from Waitakere to Greatbarrier. As surely as cycleways and trains go in urban areas, the core zone, bufferzone wildlinks are part of the un plan. In the US ,the Un biodiversity group produced a map to the Senate showing plans to return 50% of the country to wilderness with little to no human use in the corridors and core zones to protect biodiversity. While it seems environmental it is about taking back private property and changing land ownership. It will grow. It will start with the Waitakere Ranges. Then who next. Private property in the buffer zone, Great Barrier , the Hunuas. In the US they used the example that Yellowstone park would be a core no go zone surrounded by a buffer. This is rolling out exactly as per the planning models. . http://www.wakeupkiwi.com/agenda-21-new-zealand.shtml, http://www.wakeupkiwi.com/agenda-21-new-zealand.shtml
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 12:07pm
- treadingthemill
  
  Sounds like good news to me. Bio-regional re-wilding is an essential process in returning to ecological health and balance.
  
  4 7
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 12:19pm
  - starboard
    
    Yes, yes you are sòo right mm. ?
    
    5 3
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 1:49pm
  - Brito
    
    Have you ever heard of the Swarzchild Radius mm? It measures the creation of black holes. You add enough mass and it becomes more dense. Keep adding it and you reach the tipping point or the SR.
    
    I’m just issuing a warning here, but you’re about a gnats tit away from tipping point. Step back or vanish forever…actually care to hold this bag of mass?
    
    3 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 4:57pm
    - treadingthemill
      
      Have you ever heard of the Swarzchild Radius mm?
      
      No, and I’m not mm, but fantasies are free and that one is amusing to me.
      
      I’m just issuing a warning here, but you’re about a gnats tit away from tipping point. Step back or vanish forever…actually care to hold this bag of mass?
      
      Would you care to translate that into normal English?
      
      4 1
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 5:03pm
      - Brito
        
        It’s quite clearly explained above. Mass and density go hand in hand. When the mass, a cats arse for example, reaches the SR because of the increase in density it can become a black hole-literally.
        
        Thus, ‘care to hold this bag of mass?’ You’ll vanish and bother us no more.
        
        Get it? No? Sigh!!!
        
        4 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:09pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        No, I get it. I like a good toke myself now and then. But it may be unwise to toke and then comment on a blog.
        
        4 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:13pm
      - Brito
        
        No, no, toke away. I’m sure that truth is best found in dope.
        
        2 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:16pm
      - GoVege
        
        If TTM was MM, he would have called moi a “racist arsehole” by now….
        
        1 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:16pm
      - Brito
        
        I’m just following the thread Veg.
        
        2 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:18pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        @ Govege
        
        No, I don’t think you’re racist.
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:22pm
      - Brito
        
        Of course you would say that.
        
        1 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 5:25pm
Morrissey

One of Key’s most outrageous lies has now come back to bite him

So here you have it:

They [Greenwald and Snowden] challenged Key over his promise to resign if mass surveillance was taking place and disclosed details about Speargun’s ability to suck data out of our only internet connection to the world. But Key said they were wrong and that Speargun had been cancelled in March 2013 because he believed it was “too intrusive”.

The Herald investigation found Key approved the use of a Speargun test probe by signing a warrant which would have allowed the GCSB to spike it into the Southern Cross Cable and access New Zealanders’ data. Rather than stopping the project in March 2013, work continued on Speargun for months, then Key was briefed in June 2013 that Snowden could have stolen details about it and funding was eventually pulled by Cabinet in September 2013.

So much for Key’s claim he acted on the principle of being “too intrusive”. The programme was cancelled because they suspected Snowden had the details.

What we can deduce is: had Snowden not done what he did… the GCSB and it’s off-shore mates would be conducting mass surveillance of NZ citizens and we would not know it.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=11950968

(Hat tip to the indefatigable Standardista Anne for this post.)
3 29
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 12:19pm
- rangitoto
  
  Don’t worry Morrissey, we are using a much better system than the out of date speargun for monitoring you. Thanks to our cpu manufacturer friends it’s embedded right in your cpu. hahahahha.
  
  11 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 12:33pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  So Key says Speargun was cancelled and it was. And the Herald have insinuated it was cancelled because Snowden may have had the details. Yeah, right. And you claim that we can “deduce”. Except we can’t, because you do not have the facts. Classic argument fallacy.
  However, you can make things up Morrissey, for instance “The programme was cancelled because they suspected Snowden had the details” or “what we can deduce is”.
  (Hat tip to whacko conspiracy theorists at the Standard and Morrissey, all of whom are wearing some nice pointy tin foil hats)
  
  10 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 3:23pm
  - Swifty
    
    Nicely done.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 3:48pm
  - Brito
    
    I’ll drink to that.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 4:53pm
Monique Watson

China will devalue it’s currency and pull back exports. The growing Chinese middle class will consume all the country’s production and more than make up for the loss of trade with DPRK. It’s going to fuck over the U.S. and NZ will feel the effect of a lack of cheap imports but the powers that be are betting that neutralizing DPRK is going to be more beneficial economically in the long run. And Jong-un is a fucking madman. Putin is wittering about Trump inflaming the situation but he’s well appraised of the risks of DPRK continuing along it’s current path. South Korea has teeth and plenty of contingency:
http://www.news.com.au/technology/south-korea-launched-a-counter-attack-within-six-minutes-of-kim-jonguns-icbm-launch/news-story/27b05325771a0d648828068d20195828
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 1:44pm
- SPC
  
  Other nations are looking to replace China as the source of cheap products and China is looking to go upmarket with its own exports.
  
  4 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 2:49pm
  - Jack5
    
    Don’t you use Ali Express, SPC.
    
    The range of cheap products from China is vast.
    
    I’m not ready yet to buy a computer motherboard from Bangladesh or Mali.
    
    5 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 3:49pm
    - Digmen1
      
      I think the only thing Mali could export would be hour glasses.
      
      0 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 6:46pm
  - Digmen1
    
    That is because their hourly rate at $4 an hour is too high.
    Note our hourly rate in Jacindaland will soon be 5 times higher than theirs just for flipping burgers or cleaning floors.
    They actually make things people want like phones, computers, clothes, shoes, electrical stuff etc etc.
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 6:53pm
Manolo

Will they pass the tax bill?
https://www.politico.com/story/2017/11/30/mccain-to-vote-for-gop-tax-bill-270511
2 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 1:45pm
Manolo

Is this news? Idiocy rules:
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/winston-peters-denies-telling-dame-susan-devoy-to-lose-weight/ar-BBFYNgR?li=BBqdg4K&ocid=mailsignout
7 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 1:48pm
- Ashley Schaeffer
  
  Has the same whiff about it as “Trump thinks I’m Trudeau’s wife”.
  
  This is the state of news in 2017.
  
  8 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 2:19pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Oh crikey dick…. it was 30 years ago!
  
  Hell, who can remember anything from 30 minutes ago?
  
  7 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 2:42pm
- sam green
  
  Who the fuck appointed her anyway? Oh that’s right.
  
  2 13
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 2:54pm
  - Brito
    
    Sammy, the adults are having a discussion. Stop interrupting.
    
    5 4
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 4:50pm
    - sam green
      
      #gofuckyourself
      
      2 8
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 5:46pm
    - sam green
      
      Actually #gofuckyouself Brito/Kea.
      
      2 6
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 7:02pm
- Johnboy
  
  She is a tad chubby these days. Obviously doesn’t smoke and drink enough Scotch really. 🙂
  
  6 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 6:21pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Gor, if this is chubby,
    https://www.newsie.co.nz/news/67236-antiracism-campaign-wins-top-award.html
    
    I’m Bessie Bunter.
    
    4 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 7:10pm
    - realityczech
      
      “The campaign took out the supreme award for the best communications campaign by an NGO, association or institution. ”
      
      Yet I have never ever heard of it. Or their catch line.
      
      2 0
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 7:18pm
    - sam green
      
      Bessie Wassilieff – nice ring to it.
      
      1 8
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 7:22pm
      - realityczech
        
        Is it just me or is spam extra angry and frustrated tonight ?
        
        Me thinks he has been stood up by his Grindr hookup again and is home alone desperate and dateless on a Friday night 🙂
        
        5 4
        Report
        December 1, 2017 7:23pm
      - sam green
        
        It’s just you.
        
        4 8
        Report
        December 1, 2017 7:28pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Religious wierdo

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/dec/01/christians-should-pray-from-prince-george-to-be-gay-says-c-of-e-minister
7 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 3:23pm
- Jack5
  
  The LGBTQ mob, other liberals, and lefties have taken over many mainstream Protestant sects.
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 3:47pm
- Inandout
  
  And Muzzies are praying (5 times daily) that he is going to be straight.
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 5:40pm
Fletch

The New York Times abandoned any pretense of objectivity the other day and sent out tweets directly advocating for the Left, re: the upcoming tax bill, and asking people to ring the senators listed in their tweets.

https://twitchy.com/sarahd-313035/2017/11/29/what-the-actual-hell-new-york-times-busted-for-straight-up-political-activism/
5 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 3:48pm
Jack5

Oh dear, this marriage stuff wasn’t all it was cracked up to be …

The Telegraph reports:

An architect who was the first Britain to have a same-sex marriage legally recognised died after overdosing on a gay sex drug when they broke up, an inquest has heard.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/30/architect-first-britain-have-sex-marriage-legally-recognised/
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 4:43pm
- Inandout
  
  Gay sex drug, is that Viagra with a slight twist?
  
  1 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 5:38pm
- EAD_TWO
  
  Backdoor bandits have never been known for long stable functioning relationships.
  
  3 6
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 6:26pm
  - Johnboy
    
    Apart from Grant and Alf of course! 🙂
    
    7 1
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 6:27pm
  - realityczech
    
    EAD, judging by the statistics on marriage neither have the rest of us.
    
    4 2
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 6:28pm
    - EAD_TWO
      
      We can blame the (((Frankfurt School))) and it’s lovely spawn, (((Cultural Marxism))) for that:
      
      The creation of racism offences.
      Continual change to create confusion
      The teaching of sex and homosexuality to children
      The undermining of schools’ and teachers’ authority
      Huge immigration to destroy identity.
      The promotion of excessive drinking
      Emptying of churches
      An unreliable legal system with bias against victims of crime
      Dependency on the state or state benefits
      Control and dumbing down of media
      Encouraging the breakdown of the family
      
      2 5
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 6:40pm
      - realityczech
        
        EAD dam those eskimos dam them all to hell 🙂
        
        3 3
        Report
        December 1, 2017 6:43pm
      - EAD_TWO
        
        “White people are overrepresented in xyz” – Charming & progressive social/political analysis
        
        “Jews are overrepresented in xyz” – Unhinged neo-nazi conspiracy theory (even if it’s demonstrably and objectively true)
        
        1 5
        Report
        December 1, 2017 6:46pm
      - sam green
        
        Even Wikipedia has a better analysis than you EAD7
        
        5 5
        Report
        December 1, 2017 7:20pm
Jack5

South Australia today switched on Elon Musk’s huge battery:

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/dec/01/south-australia-turns-on-teslas-100mw-battery-history-in-the-making
3 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 4:50pm
- Johnboy
  
  But will it fit in Blossoms vibrator? 🙂
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 6:18pm
- realityczech
  
  Jacksie, give me a few billion of other peoples money and I too will build an uneconomic pipe dream.
  
  A few informed people have switched on to this corporate fraudster, but their are still enough corrupt politicians and low information virtue signallers to keep him going.
  
  5 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 6:20pm
Nostradamus

‘Big gay rainbow’ speech makes New Zealand MP a star on Japanese Twitter

When New Zealand MP Maurice Williamson made his “big gay rainbow” speech to the country’s parliament in 2013, he hoped it would influence the debate on same-sex marriage laws. What he could not have predicted was that the same speech would see him become a gay icon in Japan four years later.

Maurice finds the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow in the Twittersphere. Maybe this is how Redbaiter can grow his Twitter fan base!
5 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 6:14pm
Johnboy

Dreadful news!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/well-good/teach-me/99428932/some-of-our-sunscreens-fail-basic-reason-for-being
Even the Cancer Society one is crap!
However once we all wear the serwal and thobe with the keffiyeh and the ladies are suitably attired in abaya and niqab we should all be able to save a bit on these useless products. 🙂
6 1
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 6:16pm
- realityczech
  
  In reality they offer more than enough protection to prevent burning. The issue is they do not offer as much protection as stated.
  
  You do not need SPF 70 + in order to be protected. SPF 69 will do just fine.
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 6:24pm
  - Johnboy
    
    I agree. 69 has always stopped me getting an STD! 🙂
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 6:26pm
    - sam green
      
      In your penis. How’s your throat?
      
      3 9
      Log in to Reply
      Report
      December 1, 2017 6:39pm
      - realityczech
        
        LOL 🙂 spam cracked a funny.
        
        4 2
        Report
        December 1, 2017 6:42pm
      - Steve (North Shore)
        
        soy boy
        
        5 0
        Report
        December 1, 2017 6:55pm
Inandout

Sell up you twat, NZ does not allow overseas property owners of bad character, especially photographed speaking with Trump.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/dec/01/new-zealand-could-force-disgraced-nbc-host-matt-lauer-to-sell-13m-farm

Every foreign NZ property owner is above reproach.
0 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 6:45pm
Digmen1

China killed manufacturing even in lower wage countries like the Philipino shoe industry and Chilean clothing factories.
It was their huge economies of scale and industrial clusters and their undervalued currency.
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 6:55pm
Digmen1

Also many western companies moved their production to China to benefit from lower wages to be able to sell their stuff at lower prices.
Eg Briggs and Stratton, Philips, GE,
7 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 6:57pm
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  At my work there is a sheet metal guillotine, cuts 4mm x 2500mm. One company in . Same with China makes 30 per week.
  Same with vehicle windscreens. There are ships full of containers (conexes) just loaded with windscreens leaving China every day. (ship in port is losing money)
  
  3 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 7:10pm
- MCos
  
  You only just realized?
  
  0 1
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 2, 2017 1:07am
Nostradamus

Introducing Barry Urban:

An investigation into embattled West Australian MP Barry Urban has kicked off, with a powerful parliamentary committee yesterday convening a snap meeting just hours after it was called in to probe the Labor MP.
…
Mr Urban made false claims about a medal he wore to formal functions — saying it was an official British award, when he had actually bought it online. He also admitted to falsely claiming to have completed a diploma of local government, saying he had done most of it. But further evidence has cast significant doubt even over that. Two British universities he claimed to have attended said they had no record of him, while doubts have also emerged about whether he actually did serve as a war crimes investigator in Bosnia.

It appears that Golriz Ghahraman’s maiden speech, to the extent that she may have made misleading statements, could be referred to the Privileges Committee:

Sometimes people use the term ‘breach of privilege’ when they actually mean ‘contempt of the House’. The link between contempt and parliamentary privilege is that one of the privileges of the House is the power to punish for contempt. An example of contempt might be the failure of a person to attend, having received a summons (see above). Others might be the deliberate misleading of the House or a committee, or obstructing a witness appearing before a committee. These are not breaches of privilege because they do not breach any particular privilege established in law. Nevertheless, they impede and obstruct the House in carrying out its functions and can be punished accordingly, in much the same way as contempt of court.
…
A matter of privilege, including an alleged contempt, is raised by a member of Parliament making a complaint to the Speaker at the earliest opportunity.
7 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 7:20pm
Steve (North Shore)

grovelling.
https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2017/12/how-to-upgrade-your-subscription/
https://www.whaleoil.co.nz/2017/12/useful-whaleoil-information-page-ever/
Shit, the loss of monkey man is taking the toll.
Get a haircut and get a real job – a blog does not mean an income – Kiwiblog survives without donations. DPF travels, WO wants donations so the owners can live. I used to donate and be banned, fuck you WO
9 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 7:24pm
- realityczech
  
  I can not believe that awful tacky blog – with hardly any comments – gets more hits than this one. I wonder what the latest stats are ?
  
  The content is trash and the only comments allowed are ones the fat maggot agrees with.
  
  6 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 7:28pm
  - Digmen1
    
    I’ll post them again tomorrow
    In General 2nd Dec
    
    2 0
    Log in to Reply
    Report
    December 1, 2017 10:05pm
nasska

Hillary Clinton has said she was sexually assaulted by a list American celebrity.

Stevie Wonder has denied any knowledge of the incident.
7 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:21pm
- sooty
  
  Bill?
  
  2 0
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 10:19pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Facebook & Google – threats to Civil Society?
or
Mass Media whining?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-01/facebook-and-google-clear-and-present-threat-to-civil-society/9215928
3 2
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:27pm
realityczech

The World Is Yours

Rise into the light and fade to the night
Sick of being told how to run your life
Their rules
They’re fools
Empty words they promise so much
The present status quo remains untouched

If you want the world
Use your mind
Take control
Feel the strength
Rise from within
If you really want it the world is yours

Every empire was raised by the slain
Built through the age and you can destroy it in a day
Turn the page
Unleash your rage
Burn your golden cage and walk away
On your path toward ultimate power

If you want the world
Use your mind
Take control
Feel the strength
Rise from within
If you really want it the world is yours

Striking at the leash
Foaming at the mouth
No more subservience
Justice will be done

There was only so much
You could take
There was…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk2-bgwA0Ro
1 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:33pm
- starboard
  
  Agree. Go your own way.
  Fuck Government.
  Its all in YOUR hands.
  
  2 5
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 1, 2017 9:17pm
rightoverlabour

Good on the cop. After taking one in the face, I’d also be up to taunting the POS that pulled the trigger. Looks like he’ll die in Jail. Good. ( if it was here he’d be out in 10….)

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2017/12/30/cop-taunts-would-be-killer-with-lube-on-way-to-prison-are-going-to-need-lot-this.html
4 3
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 8:59pm
Digmen1

I like the cops style. (He is a hero!)
That guy got life for that.
And I think that in the USA life means life.
That’s what we need to dish out a few times here. That will make our crims think twice before they shoot at our police or dairy owners.
4 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 10:11pm
Monique Watson

Oh Great. This will bring stability to Germany:

https://www.thelocal.de/20171201/muslims-set-to-make-up-bigger-proportion-of-german-population
5 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 1, 2017 10:38pm
- MCos
  
  Germany has had to put up with far worse over the last hundred years without help from anyone else . . .
  
  0 2
  Log in to Reply
  Report
  December 2, 2017 1:16am
Manolo

Fake news CNN cannot hide its joy:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/01/politics/michael-flynn-charged/index.html
1 0
Log in to Reply
Report
December 2, 2017 6:32am

Add a Comment Cancel reply

Login to comment or vote

« It’s all about the brand

Business confidence plummets »

Donations

You can now donate to Kiwiblog

Exclusive content from DPF on Patreon

Become a Patron!

Never miss a post

Email Address

Join 37.4K other subscribers

Highlights

Health Target 5 – elective treatments
Health Target 4 – Specialist appointments
Health Target 3 – Emergency Dept Waiting Times
Health Target 2 – Immunisations

Links

Injustice for torture
No Right Turn
"I can’t predict what a Trump administration will do. Neither can Donald Trump."
Not PC
How an Archbishop of Canterbury is appointed
Utopia
Six Months May Not Be Enough Time?
No Minister
Daily review 13/11/2024
The Standard
Word of the day
Hompaddock
A sorry state of affairs: offence was given – or was it taken? – thanks to PM’s failure to foresee the effect of his choice of words
Point of Order
“Trans & Pregnant” – Biology trumps gender ideology
Bob McCoskrie's McBlog
A MIRACLE
No Punches Pulled (Bob Jones)
AUKUS under Trump is a political problem for National, not Labour
The Daily Blog
Media Link: “A View from Afar” on the US elections.
Kiwipolitico
How Trump crushed Obama’s legacy
NZCPR
This will not end well
Offsetting Behaviour
Top 14 Predictions for Round 10
Stats Chat
Pretty (il)legal
Croaking Cassandra
Tory Whanau may have to sell Wellington mayoralty to make ends meet
The Civilian
The Accidental Engagement
Imperator Fish
Legal Beagle: Election '23: The Special Votes
Public Address
Making this movie might have been a mistake
Liam Hehir
Why I am retiring from political blogging
Kiwi FireWalker
Angie Warren-Clark: Meet the Newbies
Dan Moskovitz

editor@kiwiblog.co.nz

PO Box 12270, Thorndon, Wellington 6144

Facebook
Twitter
FourSquare
Instagram
LinkedIn
Google+

Archives
Disclosure Statement
Editorial Policy
Privacy Policy
Complaints Policy
Comments Policy

Design by cre8d