General Debate 6 December 2017

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Captain Mainwaring

There was the People’s Princess on TV last night preaching to the students who are about to take advantage of her largesse.
“Next year is on us”, she chortled. “It’s free”.
Who is ‘us’? The bloody long-suffering taxpayers, that’s who ‘us’ is.
This vacuous woman is the Prime Minister and she doesn’t even know who owns the money she’s dishing out.
The money doesn’t belong to her, or the bloody Government.
It belongs to you and me.
And she’s spraying it about like there’s no tomorrow.
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December 6, 2017 8:00am
- Maxx
  
  Don’t forget to encourage every senior that you know who is entitled to their free year to enrol. There’s plenty of interesting topics available and it doesn’t matter if they don’t pass. In fact, don’t even turn up to the exams or hand anything in!
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:03am
  - waikatogirl
    
    The head of the Student Union says free fees for new students is wonderful because it makes everyone smile.
    
    Couldn’t possibly be that belonging to the Student Union is compulsory.
    
    Doesn’t make the taxpayer smile.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:09am
    - Paulus
      
      And the new entries will incur Unions Fees.
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:59am
    - GazzaW
      
      They have an extra $50 a week student allowance from you and me to pay their union fees.
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:20am
    - Liberty
      
      Will the compulsory union fees be included in the freebee?
      Is the Student union affiliated with the Labour party?
      
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      December 6, 2017 11:59am
  - GazzaW
    
    I had dinner with a couple at the weekend who have just returned from working extremely highly paid contracts in Europe. Their daughter has enrolled at Auckland Uni as a first year student and they now find that they have nothing to pay for her fees. Labour, in their haste to buy votes have left some massive discrepancies in the ‘system’. How can a wealthy couple who have been earning a combined income of over half a million dollars a year be subsidised by OAPs losing their tax cuts.
    
    Shame on you Labour.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:13am
    - jcuk
      
      And espiner talks about Barclay ….. urrgh!
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:23am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Hipkins was asked by Kim Hill this morning about the ‘middle class’ benefiting from this. He said that it was fair and across the board and should stop the complaints from people who’ve been saying ‘I’ve paid my taxes’ – presumably he means middle class parents of students.
      
      His other point was that many of the students won’t be middle class or at uni but at Polytechs and vocational courses.
      
      But he didn’t have any specific numbers in this regard, nor did Hill press for any.
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:25am
      - Ed Snack
        
        What about those of us who’s children are passed the first year and have a burgeoning student debt to show for it ? We pay twice.
        
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        December 6, 2017 9:45am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Yes, indeed. Of course Kim Hill wouldn’t ask such a question.
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:02am
      - oldgolfer
        
        No, all very cosy.
        
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        December 6, 2017 11:23am
    - hmmokrightitis
      
      Frankly Id like to say thank you to the long suffering taxpayers of UnZud.
      
      Between my partner and I we earn just short of $800K per annum. My number 1 son starts Uni next year, Economics and Law at Vic. He cant wait, following in Dads footsteps also makes me very proud too.
      
      And the fact that I now dont have to pay a cent towards that is so very wrong. But Im sure ztev will tell me why its right.
      
      Its OK though, fellow taxpayers, the Blond and I will use it for holidays next year 😀
      
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      December 6, 2017 10:02am
      - MickMac
        
        good for you.
        I’m a bit of a socialist on this.
        I think they should have it paid based on reciepts of B’s and above after they pass each year.
        
        We don’t earn as much as you and our no 1 gets nothing too.
        he’s 1 yr to go.
        
        Always have thought it should be paid for and probably will do in the future.
        It’s an investment in our people.
        
        I just have a hesitation on ALL the courses being included.
        Vocational I don’t have a problem with lawyers doctors accountants teachers engineers architects nurses etc
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:50am
      - Ross12
        
        I’m of the view that if you are going to give a year free it should be the last year of the degree or training.
        
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        December 6, 2017 11:11am
      - hmmokrightitis
        
        Its the old problem of picking winners I guess, when in reality, they have just created a lolly scramble that the tertiary providers will be rubbing their hands in glee at.
        
        Why should a truck driver subsidise my son going to university? Hell, they do now to a large extent, which I still have an issue with, but it also means that the savings Ive been putting aside since they (my 3 kids) were born can now go to something else. Frankly it will be a new boat, the modifications to the bach and other such things.
        
        Maybe thats the labour plan. Rich old fuckers like me will stimulate the economy because we have excess cash 😛
        
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        December 6, 2017 11:26am
    - Piniwi
      
      Thanks GazzaW it is the Fool Factor dominating this policy as they look at it from the point that “nobody can afford to pay”.
      
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      December 6, 2017 6:47pm
- holysheet
  
  Almost like a bitch on heat?
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:04am
- Lance
  
  There was some stupid bint on the AM show this morning spouting forth that …. shock horror…..
  students live in poverty !!!!
  
  Oh the humanity
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:07am
  - dime
    
    lmao and its not even a choice! they are forced to be students.. oh, wait..
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:30am
  - Flash
    
    It used to be part and parcel of the higher education experience – being poor, living in grotty flats on 2 weetbix a day. That way you learnt about the value of earning money, and that some necessities of life were actually luxuries.
    
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    December 6, 2017 11:21am
    - jcuk
      
      Or as my wife and I were shocked to learn later … son and flat mate bought a bag of rice to live on for a couple weeks.
      
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      December 6, 2017 5:05pm
- KevOB
  
  Youth vote bribery–another installment is planned next election.
  The bribery shows in the inequity. What about those who have already repaid?
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:18am
  - Paulus
    
    Assume they will reduce the voting age in the first phase to 16 and then 14 so they can be inculcated.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:01am
- Huevon
  
  A petulant teenage girl in a woman’s body…her list of smartarse remarks grows by the day
  
  “next year is on us…”
  
  “but we are talking openly about the secret document…”
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:29am
  - VicParking
    
    Thats why schools are the only places she feels safe to announce policy.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:33am
    - MickMac
      
      its also their voting target in the future and makes her look good to parents….
      and rewards the union who back her.
      
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      December 6, 2017 10:52am
  - Paulus
    
    Look there are very many women who she she is the bees knees and voted for her and will not hear a word against her.
    To her it is the feminists vote and influence that will keep her in power, not Peters.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:03am
  - oldgolfer
    
    In the same way there are life-proof cases for phones, I now need one for the radio and TV as both are in danger every time generous Cindy comes on.
    
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    December 6, 2017 11:25am
- dime
  
  how does one qualify for their “free” uni?
  
  would Dime qualify? having a degree?
  
  do people who have done a bit of study but not finished qualify?
  
  or is it just outright first timers?
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:33am
  - dime
    
    “All New Zealanders who have done less than half a fulltime year of post-school education or training will be eligible to study fees-free next year.”
    
    found my own answer
    
    so basically its –
    
    “hey dime, we know that you paid for uni, we know that you borrowed to do uni, we know that we charged you interest from the day you took a cent from us for uni, we know you borrowed 23k and paid back 50k (partly dime fault it got so high)…. but now we just need a bit more. keep payingg your taxes and fund these kids.. oh, you would like to do more study? LMAO go fuck yourself dime. you pay”
    
    Dime doesnt want to do any more studying via traditional means, but thats not the point!
    
    assholes is what they are.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:36am
    - Huevon
      
      Dime, you were a victim of the neoliberal paradigm which Jacinda will wash away. Your sacrifice (and mine and many others) means future generations get more free shit. If it wasn’t for our suffering, we wouldn’t have arrived at this glorious day.
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:54am
      - dime
        
        im gonna throw up lol
        
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        December 6, 2017 9:09am
      - Maxx
        
        There weren’t enough Maori words in this for it to be true.
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:42am
      - Longknives
        
        I too was part of the ‘Student Loan with Interest’ Generation- Took me donkey’s years to get rid of the bloody thing.
        Part of me wishes that like so many of my era I had just forgot about it, defaulted and buggered off overseas on a glorious neverending ‘OE’..
        You certainly don’t get rewarded for paying them off- Our Generation got right royally bent over..
        
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        December 6, 2017 11:05am
  - RalphT
    
    Sorry dime, while there is no age limit, if you have enrolled in the equivalent of half a year of study then you will be ruled out. Bang goes your dream of a degree in Lesbian basket weaving.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:36am
- Jack5
  
  No way will the Labour coalition find within New Zealand a fraction of the building workers needed for the great housing project.
  
  Too many folk will be having a taxpayer-funded holiday year at university either, before they start their apprenticeships or other work; or, second, taking a break from normal work.
  
  What a lark: a piss-up student fun year on the taxpayer, then back to reality.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:47am
- Paulus
  
  95% of the children in this Porirua college are not old enough to consider secondary education, let alone cannot vote.
  But she get no hard questions from them.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:59am
- Rich Prick
  
  She’s giving away up to 12,000 beer tokens each. That’s $960m of our hard graft just given to the kids.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:01am
- Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
  
  The mule toothed communist is true to form…..
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:28am
- flipper
  
  But like all bullshit politicians (or fish and chip wrappers) the itch-with-a-b -in-front clearly believes that what is hers is hers, and what is ours is also “hers”.
  An equal partner in crime is the MSM. Where was the question: Whose money have you spent? Yours or the long suffering tax payer ?
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:38am
Komata

Election bribes take many forms. This is but one of them.
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December 6, 2017 8:03am
- Maxx
  
  And it’s locked in for the next 6 years of electioneering with 2021 promising the second year free, 2024 getting the 3rd year.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:05am
- Lance
  
  And pretty much anyone can get the free tuition.
  Like 75 year olds bored with the retirement home, can get free basket weaving degrees on the tax payer.
  
  Madness
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:09am
  - KevOB
    
    I think that’s a smokescreen. The real promise is only to those newly entering into tertiary studies. If you have already had ½ year it may not apply.
    
    I have a son who did a 6mth introductory course last year and who signed on for a 9mth joinery course subsequently. There will be nothing for him.
    
    Does the increased allowance of $50/week only apply to those who qualify for the free study?
    I suspect all others do not. There has to be some rationing of bribes.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:26am
    - Lance
      
      Still applies so long as have not studied in the past
      Also foreign students get it
      
      The excuse being it would be too hard to administer
      
      Any sane solution would be useful skills courses only and a suitable age limit.
      And no foreigners sucking off the NZ tax payer tit.
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:33am
      - Jack5
        
        Do foreign students really get this handout from taxpayers, Lance?
        
        “Come to New Zealand: we’ll give you citizenship plus as a bonus free university fees for the first year.”
        
        Surely this can’t be true. What would the pizza parlours and petrol stations do for cheap labour? What would the dairies do for slaves?
        
        But if you are right, Lance, perhaps you can get: a citizenship ticket with the student visa; plus a pizza job; and you can spend the NZ taxpayer handout on a course at a rort corner language school (whose owners, in turn will get you the student visa in the first place).
        
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        December 6, 2017 9:44am
      - Lance
        
        That’s what they were reporting this morning.
        
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        December 6, 2017 12:03pm
  - Komata
    
    But ONLY if they have done no more than six months ‘post High-school’ study.
    
    If not’ ‘fraid not.
    
    And you can be very, very sure that it will be checked – and carefully.
    
    Of course, it DOES mean that any OAP who has never been to uni but wants, to can at least START a degree. That they may not finish it will, of course, be a distinct possibility… (Just saying).
    
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    December 6, 2017 1:13pm
holysheet

Driving south out of Hamilton, there is a new subdivision about to be developed. It is called Peacocke. Situated to the south of Glenview, it takes in all the land west of the Waikato river to the Ohaupo Road and south to the Airport.
I cannot imagine too many luvvies wanting to live in a place named Peacocke. I have heard the council is thinking about naming the next development Peahen. Hopefully this will make up for the anguish and heartrending the luvvies will be going through.
Lets do this and be absoludely possadiff.
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December 6, 2017 8:05am
- RalphT
  
  And then the council will see the error of their sexist naming and feel obliged to set up a third subdivision and give it a gender neutral name.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:08am
- Left Right and Centre
  
  It’s a non-Maori name !!
  That’s the real crime – holysheet !!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:10am
  - starboard
    
    Speaking of..wtf is a cody tree? Can somebody take Jack Lame out the back and beat him please.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:16am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I covered this for you yesterday
      https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/12/general_debate_5_december_2017.html#comment-2092695
      
      Your spelling – cody – falls under the etc .
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:24am
    - G152
      
      Well whatever it is its going to be extinct..
      Evidently it hides in scenic reserves and after hundreds of years dies when a tourist walks past
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:45am
    - Jack5
      
      Lame Jack has passed the exam and now qualifies for a certificate in NZ Pidgin.
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:53am
    - Jack5
      
      There’s an important issue here. “Cody” and other words for kauri more than a century ago (as highlighted by Maggy yesterday) were obviously how various early settlers interpreted Maori pronunciation.
      
      However, “kauri” became the accepted, commonly used name of the tree in English.
      
      We don’t have to let Maori and snowflakes like Lame Jack revise the English term for the tree. They don’t run the orthography of the English language. Let them decide what is best practice for Maori language orthography, and do whatever they like in NZ Pidgin.
      
      But we definitely don’t cede to them control of the English language.
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:07am
      - Left Right and Centre
        
        Sure. What’s being taught in schools ?
        Snowflake shit.
        
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        December 6, 2017 9:22am
      - Jack5
        
        NZ is a remote corner in the homelands of English language, the current world lingua franca.
        
        The power of international pop culture, predominantly in English, and the language’s importance in science and academia, on the internet, in world business and trade, and in diplomacy, mean it’s the dominant world language this century. Maori and NZ Pidgin are but specks in its shadow.
        
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        December 6, 2017 9:35am
  - holysheet
    
    Sorry I should have said “pīkake”, but given the minute numbers of maori speakers visiting here on KB, I took the majority view.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:18am
- Rachael Membery
  
  It is called that because Peacock Road runs through it, it has been mooted for development for a long time but the HCC preferred to put infrastructure to the north or anywhere else really.
  
  Lovely farm land, I grew up looking out on it from the other side of the river.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:53am
Maxx

It was quite incredible yesterday that a clear question by Bennett to Ardern of what is the title of the document, that the answer was “I have referred to it as a range of documents” was acceptable. It does not matter what she calls it, the question was, what is the title. And Mallard accepting that is appalling (although, not surprising).
The question is what is going to be more damning for the CoL? The obfuscation or the actual material itself?
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December 6, 2017 8:06am
- SteveRemmington
  
  Its a signal that National has a copy of the document 🙂
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:26am
  - dime
    
    oh please let that be true
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:40am
  - RalphT
    
    If so I hope that they will let the juicy bits out very, very slowly. The longer the agony for Jacinda and Winston the more enjoyable the fun.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:07am
- Piniwi
  
  Funny Maxx it got a lot worse today and Mr Speaker almost lost it completely even before Question No1 got heard. He was challenged about his handling of Points Of Order as well as his attempts to define questions. He is losing control of the House but is content to allow Ministers to use a political point to be offered as an answer.
  As pointed out by Gerry Browlee Standing Orders and the Speakers Rulings have been gathered for 4 decades but are being trifled with. Also that some issues raised today relate as far back as no’s 17 & 20 being foundation rulings.
  
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  December 6, 2017 7:10pm
Sofia

Pike River
On Tuesday, Little said there were many people who could potentially be held liable if anything went wrong, including employees, contractors, sub-contractors and managers.

When “The Pike River families will be involved throughout the process and will have weekly meetings with agency officials” and “as well as making sure officials engaged with families and everyone involved complied with health and safety laws”, can Little explain the legal position of the families, and will all their input be documented, and that of any other person they refer to the Agency?

“In putting together this project, I was acutely aware the previous government had handled the families involved in this matter in a completely shabby and poor way.”
– Little

It would seem Little is handling this so differently, giving the families integral involvement, that he needs to define the families’ input legally as he has just defined that position for all others involved.
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December 6, 2017 8:08am
- Left Right and Centre
  
  Labour – they’re just so bloody caring and nicey-nicey.
  They had their turn – three terms to change mining laws and did nothing.
  Labour are as much to blame as anyone else.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:17am
  - Komata
    
    LRC
    
    Re: ‘They had their turn – three terms to change mining laws and did nothing’.
    
    Sadly, actually no; they DID do something-got rid of the position of Inspectors of Mines and, after removing their long-held legal authority, downgraded that skill-set to little more than OSH clones without specific mine-related functions.
    
    The presence of such an individual could well have improved the mine’s safety, and no doubt a lot of other things as well.
    
    We’ll never know of course…
    
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    December 6, 2017 1:22pm
- VicParking
  
  ‘Little said there were many people who could potentially be held liable if anything went wrong, including employees, contractors, sub-contractors and managers.’ union leaders?? I think not.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:36am
  - calendar girl
    
    What about the present Government’s “Minister Responsible for Pike River Re-entry”? That’s Andrew Little, former national secretary of NZ’s largest trade union, the EPMU.
    
    How can such a “Minister Responsible” ever escape direct legal responsibility for this venture ending in disaster? (But, if that time comes, we know now that he will get off scot-free. The magic of socialism.)
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:07am
  - Jack5
    
    So many Pikers.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:28am
- Sofia
  
  Little v WorkSafe NZ?
  Also needing transparency and clarity for public consumption is the relationship of WorkSafe NZ to all the functions of Pike River Re-entry Agency.
  Still being an Extractive Operation one assumes Re-entry Agency compliance with …
  
  High risk activities required to be notified under Regulation 229 are specified in Schedule 7 of the Regulations. The high risk activities notification requirement allows us to assess whether the operator will be able to effectively manage the activity prior to the activity commencing.
  
  And if the Re-entry Agency CEO advises Minister Little that his or her best proposed re-entry plan is disallowed by WorkSafe, can Minister Little over-rule WorkSafe NZ, or is the matter of Little having final say, legally wrong, and it is still WorkSafe’s say?
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:05am
- KevOB
  
  If something does go seriously wrong those families now to be entangled in the the decision making processes could find themselves being chased around by lawyers. Rounded up as possibly being partly responsible.
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:14pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  And if they are being paid as consultants for example, being available for weekly meetings can’t be cheap.
  
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  December 6, 2017 5:40pm
Jack5

A Dunedin social worker who raped young girls has lost an appeal in which one ground was that he was Fijian Indian and the jury was all white and mainly men.

Stuff reports:

The Court of Appeal rejected a ground of appeal based on the ethnic composition of the jury. Anand is a Fijian Indian and said he was disadvantaged that the jury was European and nine of the twelve members were men.

The court said there was no reason to think the jury was prejudiced against him because of racial bias.

The question now will can this man be deported to Fiji after he completes his sentence? A good test for the liberal-left refugee review tribunal.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/99570745/former-girls-home-social-worker-loses-appeal-on-sex-charges
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December 6, 2017 8:09am
- Swifty
  
  Why would it be prejudiced that the majority of the jury was male?
  
  Would he have rather have faced a majority female jury? I doubt I would have.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:16am
- fernglas
  
  If he’s been here for thirty years or so there’s every likelihood that he’s a citizen, so deportation will be unavailable.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:35am
  - Jack5
    
    In Australia, do they kick out foreign-born criminals who have obtained citizenship?
    
    You should be able to revoke citizenship after serious crimes, such as in this multiple-rape case.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:42am
  - insider
    
    If he’s only a permanent resident he could be liable as the current act says you can be deported if crimes were within 10 years of gaining visa and sentence was more than five years. Note that is committing crimes not conviction.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:07am
- Stars And Stripes
  
  Well it was nice of him to let us all know what he really believes anyway.
  Non white people are more sympathetic to rapists of children.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:32am
tom hunter

Since I don’t watch or read the NZ MSM I’ll be interested to hear from others about this latest piece of news from the Great Russia-Trump Collusion Investigation, summed up in this Tweet about FBI agent Peter Strzok:

The FBI agent Mueller fired for bashing Trump is the guy who
a) softened James Comey’s statement on HRC from “gross negligence” — a term with legal implications — to “extremely careless” and
b) is the FBI who signed the docs officially opening the Russia investigation.

Oh – and this…:

He interviewed Hillary Clinton on July 2, 2016, and found she did nothing wrong.

Same guy interviewed Michael Flynn six months later and came away with a perjury charge.

Funny how that works in D.C.

Is there anything left there that is not rotten and corrupt?
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December 6, 2017 8:10am
- dime
  
  that mueller is a real piece of shit
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:41am
  - tom hunter
    
    And on that note, it needs to be made clear that Mueller kept this a secret for months. For all this crap about him and his team needing to be cleaner than “Ceaser’s Wife” and the firing being part of that – the secrecy speaks to its mirror image.
    
    Also, the fact that the story appeared in both the NYT and WaPo at the same time means a leak rather than their own journalistic investigations. So who on Mueller’s team leaked it? The boss?
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:00am
- Sideoiler
  
  Funny how that works in D.C.
  
  Is there anything left there that is not rotten and corrupt?
  
  Big guy with orange hair.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:55am
- Ed Snack
  
  Tom, worth noting too that unlike Flynn, HRC was interviewed and: No notes or recording were made; she was not put under oath; she was allowed (through pre-notification of the interview, which Flynn did not get) to have 3 lawyers present; potential co-conspirators were somehow allowed to act as her legal advisors so any communications with them were covered by privilege.
  
  Does anyone think that maybe there was a different approach based on some form of bias ?
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:52am
  - tom hunter
    
    Yeah – and then there’s this catch, Top Clinton Aides Face No Charges After Making False Statements To FBI
    
    [A] review of those documents conducted by The Daily Caller shows that Mills and Abedin told Strzok and Laufman that they were not aware of Clinton’s server until after she left the State Department…
    
    But undercutting those denials are email exchanges in which both Mills and Abedin either directly discussed or were involved in discussing Clinton’s server.
    
    “hrc email coming back — is server okay?” Mills asked in a Feb. 27, 2010 email to Abedin and Justin Cooper, a longtime aide to Bill Clinton who helped set up the Clinton server.
    
    And another article made some key points:
    
    Comey was asked about Abedin’s and Mills’s lies during congressional testimony last year and spun his decision not to recommend charges by claiming that, hey, sometimes people misremember things and sometimes those things aren’t essential to a case. You don’t want to charge everyone who says something factually incorrect in an FBI interview with lying to a federal official. But the server wasn’t a peripheral matter and the Clinton cronies’ knowledge of it wasn’t immaterial.
    …
    Putting some pressure on them by threatening to lock them up for false statements might have led to some interesting admissions about what Hillary Clinton imagined the purpose of her email server to be. The same charge helped convince Mike Flynn to play ball with Mueller. Why wasn’t similar pressure put on Abedin and Mills?
    …
    And even if Abedin and Mills didn’t roll over on Clinton, why not charge them anyway? They lied, there’s hard evidence of the lie in the form of archived emails, and charging them would have showed that the FBI wasn’t giving Team Clinton a total pass even if Hillary herself ended up skating. I wonder if Strzok had a role in them not being charged or if this was a Comey decision?
    
    They almost got away with the lie – until Abedin’s other half continued his sleazy actions and yielded up a laptop to the local NY cops – with emails on them.
    
    I know what a good defence lawyer could do with all this. I’m sure Mueller knows too.
    
    And where the fuck is Jeff Sessions? Or is he not in charge of the DOJ and FBI?
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:02am
- Inandout
  
  One hopes Mueller is not a groper because his accuser/s would have a risky life to tend with.
  
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  December 6, 2017 11:13am
Maggy Wassilieff

Pete George is doing a great service putting up text and a commentary on 3 of the Questions asked in Parliament yesterday.
https://yournz.org/

Oh… (for Kimbo).. there’s even a cribbed article on the use of Absolutely by the PM.
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December 6, 2017 8:10am
stephieboy

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Surely a must read for all Trumpists and alt righters and sit on Santa’s knee and ask him to put it in their Stockings or under the Christmas tree,

Twilight of American Sanity: A Psychiatrist Analyzes the Age of Trump by Allen Frances (Author)

“Unravel[s] the national psyche that brought our politics to this moment.” — Evan Osnos, The New Yorker

A landmark book, from “one of the world’s most prominent psychiatrists” (The Atlantic): Allen Frances analyzes the nation, viewing the rise of Donald J. Trump as darkly symptomatic of a deeper societal distress that must be understood if we are to move forward. Equally challenging and profound, Twilight of American Sanity “joins a small shelf of essential titles—Arlie Hochschild’s Strangers in Their Own Land is another—that help explain why and how the Trump presidency happened” (Kirkus).

It is comforting to see President Donald Trump as a crazy man, a one-off, an exception—not a reflection on us or our democracy. But in ways I never anticipated, his rise was absolutely predictable and a mirror on our soul. … What does it say about us, that we elected someone so manifestly unfit and unprepared to determine mankind’s future? Trump is a symptom of a world in distress, not its sole cause. Blaming him for all our troubles misses the deeper, underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent. Calling Trump crazy allows us to avoid confronting the craziness in our society—if we want to get sane, we must first gain insight about ourselves. Simply put: Trump isn’t crazy, but our society is. —from TWILIGHT OF AMERICAN SANITY

……… “

LOL !

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0062394509/ref=s9u_simh_gw_i1?ie=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pd_rd_i=0062394509&pd_rd_r=387d4559-d959-11e7-bd6b-0356965b604e&pd_rd_w=WY1lA&pd_rd_wg=4xrDK&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=CYR7MP6RBVJVKE0FCZKM&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=e6624b56-7cc1-411f-9d12-9cc8feb6c214&pf_rd_i=desktop
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December 6, 2017 8:11am
- rangitoto
  
  How was jail?
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:13am
  - Stars And Stripes
    
    Indeed and more importantly how many times was Stephieboy made to pick up the soap in the showers.
    He needs to be careful publicly admitting to that though as Abdul from the Mt Roskill Halal Butchery might decide to throw him off the roof of the nearest tall building.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:59am
- holysheet
  
  Stooopid boy you’re back. How was your Hajj? Back to beat up the missus are you? What dirty deeds did you get up to in Mecca. See any nubile young girls in your travels?
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:22am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    It’s not my fault that the likes of you suffer from an identifiable mental illness according to that said Psychiatrist !
    
    LOL
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:25am
    - Jack5
      
      ☪ ???The Stephiestanis are back!??????
      
      How was Guantanamo, guys?
      
      Did you leer at the air hostesses’ boobs on the journey home, or were you blindfolded?
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:49am
      - Jack5
        
        ? Just one early downtick. So just one Stephiestani working this shift.
        
        When do the rest of you fly in? Presumably they let all of you out.
        
        14 1
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        December 6, 2017 10:18am
    - realityczech
      
      Allah most merciful !
      
      Stupidboy survived the drone strike 🙂
      
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      December 6, 2017 12:34pm
      - stephieboy
        
        The vast majority of the said down-tickers
        occupy the irrelevant lunatic margins of our society.
        
        Fact !
        
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        December 6, 2017 12:40pm
    - Manolo
      
      Where have you been, dear stephieboy? Seriously.
      
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      December 6, 2017 12:42pm
      - realityczech
        
        The young Muslimas of Mt Roskill better be careful when trying to have a quiet coffee now that stupidboy has returned from Jihad.
        
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        December 6, 2017 12:46pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  So the phantom downticker arrived and gave a downtick to everything that was posted before 8.11, exactly the time his own post arrived.
  So now we know who he is.
  Stephieboy the idiot.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:24am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    How does it feel to be on the irrelevant margins of our society and body politic ?
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:29am
    - Lance
      
      Is this the title of your latest book?
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:35am
    - chuk
      
      Perhaps the best person to answer that question is you Stephieboy.
      
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      December 6, 2017 10:46am
- Brito
  
  Wow, this little cherub is a delight. Can’t wait to read some more of his fascinating posts zzzzzzzzzz!!!
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:53am
  - realityczech
    
    “Wow, this little cherub is a delight. Can’t wait to read some more of his fascinating posts zzzzzzzzzz!!!”
    
    Oh you are in for a treat Brittle.
    
    He is also a KB “nazi” hunter … when not promoting Jihad. No one really knows what he is, least of all him 🙂
    
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    December 6, 2017 12:51pm
    - Brito
      
      Lovely! I’ll warm up my valve radio and snuggle in closer so I don’t miss a word.
      
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      December 6, 2017 3:03pm
- Manolo
  
  The Allahu akbar was missing, dear stephieboy.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:20am
- flipper
  
  Stupid ???????????
  A boy ????????????
  No. A squalid lump of guano.
  Unlike real guano, the ersatz stupid version is absolutely useless …. unless… or until…
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:50am
Simon

The people’s petrol levy is simply glorious.

It promises to end traffic congestion, create affordable housing, build a train connection for Grey Lynn Labo wankers directly to the airport and get the shit off of the beaches.

There is a certain magic in the air with this new government. Next house prices will rise but at the same time become more affordable.

Some say Labo are just another bunch of socialist fuck ups. But no this time it’s different because magic.
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December 6, 2017 8:12am
- Inandout
  
  The Greens are all smiles.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:19am
- Politburo of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Aotearoa
  
  My work here is done…
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:37am
- Komata
  
  LRC
  
  Re: ‘They had their turn – three terms to change mining laws and did nothing’.
  
  Sadly, actually no; they DID do something-got rid of the position of Inspectors of Mines and, after removing their long-held legal authority, downgraded that skill-set to little more than OSH clones without specific mine-related functions.
  
  The presence of such an individual could well have improved the mine’s safety, and no doubt a lot of other things as well.
  
  We’ll never know of course…
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:28pm
- Komata
  
  Simon
  No, no, not ‘magic’; it’s ‘Relentless Positivity’ don’t ‘cha know?’
  
  El Toothe told us so…
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:31pm
- Piniwi
  
  But Simon it looks like being in perpetuity to become part of their normal income stream.
  
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  December 6, 2017 7:16pm
Happychappy

Can anyone tell us where the homeless and our housing crisis has gone since the election and why the media have not said or printed a single story of this miracle that has taken place. You would have thought that there would be many happy stories about families obtaining a house to live especially now that we are only 19 days away from xmas and having a house instead of a car to live in.
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December 6, 2017 8:13am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Plastic bags are the REAL problem.
  Do you see poor people clogging up Turtles’ intestines? – No!
  Are we drowning in a sea of micro-people-beads? – No!
  Can we get lots of taxes from poor people? No!
  
  Let’s keep our focus on REAL problems
  https://www.reuters.com/article/us-kenya-plastic/kenya-imposes-worlds-toughest-law-against-plastic-bags-idUSKCN1B80NW
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:34am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Will you be lobbying Gisborne supermarkets with” real problems ” to do same .
    
    I very much doubt it .
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:51am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I very much doubt it .
      
      Spot on, stephieboy.
      
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      December 6, 2017 8:54am
      - Left Right and Centre
        
        *gasp* no NW in Gizzy. Might as well be the Pitcairn Islands. Nearest one is Wairoa – wow.
        
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        December 6, 2017 9:45am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @LRC
        The local 4-square runs the NW specials, so I’m just managing to cope on hubby’s pension.
        
        (Don’t tell stephieboy, but the 4-square has given us one of their reusable bags FREE…. and the local countdown lady has been telling us to bring our own bags…. but at my age is difficult to remember such )
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:02am
      - Left Right and Centre
        
        Just for a laugh Mags . . .
        Go into Countdown in clothing entirely made out of recycled plastic shopping bags.
        
        And then say ‘well – now I’m allowed to use some for carrying my shopping, eh’ ?
        
        We will all require pictures. That could go global viral.
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:15am
  - Maxx
    
    I saw a poor homeless person coughing up a plastic bag the other day – on second thoughts he might have been drinking something out of it.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:34am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Interesting then that report that the great majority of plastic in the oceans arrived via one of 10-11 rivers. Two of these rivers are in Africa (Nile and Niger), the rest in various parts of Asia from the Indus to the Amur.
    
    So we may be able to do a little (correction, a minuscule) amount of good by cutting back on bags (and they can be an eyesore), but practically it will have zero impact.
    
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    December 6, 2017 12:27pm
- Keeping Stock
  
  Interestingly, on One News on Sunday night, Peter Williams referred to Auckland’s “housing shortage”, rather than the election campaign title of “crisis”.
  
  TVNZ framing the story in a positive light for the new coalition government? Surely not…
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:54am
- Komata
  
  HC
  
  Why no mention? Because everything is going oh so wonderfully well that there is absolutely NO need to bring it to the attention of the proles; it is so self-evident that they can see it everywhere…
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:33pm
Brito

Day 3 of the week following the revelation that the Persian Princess lied in her CV.

Any mention of said wee fibber in the news? Gone to ground perhaps and hiding amongst the clouds of smoke and reflection from the mirrors.
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December 6, 2017 8:14am
Chris R

The fervor about building a rail link to AKL Airport seems to have abated a bit in the past week or so. Has the new coalition given-up? I would hope so. As a rough estimation based on the consents/financing issues I suspect it would take the thick end of 15-20 years to achieve anyway. Wouldn’t it be smarter to build a second airport for domestic users on the North Shore? Wouldn’t this lessen the traffic congestion to the existing airport?
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December 6, 2017 8:16am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  It would be just as smart to forget about the light rail up Dominion Road and just build a short spur line from Puhinui to the Airport.
  Much cheaper, much faster and much more convenient for riders who want to go North or South.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:29am
- Gerrit
  
  There is massive housing developments around Whenuapai and it’s use as an airport will be marginal for a few air force flights. Same for the drome at Dairy Flats (the flight path would be directly over the North Shore beaches – NIMBY would prevent that.)
  
  Next you would need to find airlines to fly out of the new North Shore airport. Think Air New Zealand will fly two flights to Wellington say, from Mangere and North Shore? Not likely.
  
  With the Waterview Tunnel and Kirkbride Road interchange upgrade, the travel time to Mangere from the western parts of the North Shore are down to 30 minutes, Whilst the eastern parts can look to 40 minutes travel (not helped by 80 km speed limit from the Harbour Bridge, through Waterview and all the way to Dominion Road.)
  
  I would expect to see the Airforce relocate to Ohakea and the airbase footprint converted to a housing estate.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:36am
  - Lance
    
    That happened at Paraparaumu.
    A whole lot of half witted old fogies built houses on the approach paths to the airport.
    Then squealed like stuck pigs at aircraft movements.
    I used to fly there and had to taxi to end of the runway even though I was in a light aircraft that only needed 1/2 (or less) of the length to takeoff.
    Same on approach. The old bastards would be on the phone moaning before you bloody landed if you didn’t land on this ridiculous OTT approach.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:48am
  - Chris R
    
    The move to Ohakea has been mooted for quite some time which leads to the locals in Bulls and Marton etc getting all excited about an expected rise in house values. I think that would be a great idea but would Whenuapai necessarily be lost to aviation?
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:49am
    - Right of way is Way of Right
      
      Not much chance of that happening. NZ’s area of responsibility for search and rescue, plus the sovereignty patrols carried out for our areas of interest around the Cook Islands are predominantly northern, so to move the first responders south is a bit strange!
      
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      December 6, 2017 12:50pm
      - Paulus
        
        Why keep Whenuapai for RNZA Aircraft – under Cinderella along with the little bald ex SAS man there will be no aircraft or renewal/updates to fly from there.
        Money needed for bribes elsewhere.
        They will finish Clark’s wish to do away with a Defence Force.
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:50pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        Given New Zealand First’s commitment to the defense forces, that seems unlikely.
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:52pm
  - MCos
    
    I live not too far from the airport and consequently I regularly go out there to pick people up because I’m a lot quicker than public transport & cheaper than a taxi.
    For all the interminable roadworks out there there is still a major bottleneck at the roundabout where the motorway finishes.
    From there on the airport, including terminals, is a bit like Eden Park. Bits & pieces seem to have been tagged on & it’s all a bit of a mess.
    So let’s chuck in a train terminal, why not?
    I doubt if many people will use it, but I think the real value for the line itself will be for commuters.
    
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    December 6, 2017 2:41pm
VicParking

Watched to Auckland Council meeting yesterday on Kauri die back. A presentation by a firm who take 7 to 8 thousand for guided walks each year said that they would need to lay of at least 14 staff if the parks were closed and it it would ruin their business. In response one of the unelected maori representatives took his head out of the trough to state ‘why dont you just diversify your business and do something different’. I’m sure that if it was a maori business in the gun and someone suggested they do something different the proposed policy would have been called against the treaty and racist.
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December 6, 2017 8:16am
- Albert_Ross
  
  I am sure it would, but that would have been wrong.
  
  This is not the first business, and it will not be the last, to have to adapt to a change in circumstances.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:37am
- Huevon
  
  The willingness of Auckland Council to indulge in this stone age mumbo jumbo of a “rahui” is a complete disgrace….but sadly unsurprising.
  
  Ironically, if whitey tried something like this he would need to follow a legal process, exercise statutory powers, consult with affect parties (including iwi) and prove the actions were justified by science. But I guess that is all colonialist and racist oppression. Such are the days we live in.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:06am
  - treadingthemill
    
    The willingness of Auckland Council to indulge in this stone age mumbo jumbo of a “rahui” is a complete disgrace
    
    No, it’s a welcome progress.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:27am
  - KevOB
    
    Surely a Maori rahui has no force in law in respect of public land.
    
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    December 6, 2017 1:20pm
    - treadingthemill
      
      I don’t know, I suspect not. But the council is within it’s rights to choose to act in accordance with a rahui.
      
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      December 6, 2017 1:26pm
      - KevOB
        
        Under what law can a council enforce a rahui on public land without a bylaw?
        
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        December 6, 2017 5:30pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  Expert this morning in Kim Hill interview pointed out that pigs spread the disease especially effectively, because they dig around the roots. And possums spread it, too. Unless those animals can be killed off, it seems quite hopeless.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:16am
  - Surely Knott
    
    Kauri dieback disease is caused by a soil and water borne primary pathogen. So it can spread by water also.
    
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    December 6, 2017 11:58am
  - Paulus
    
    Koori diebach
    Kill off people first though, before pigs and possums.
    
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    December 6, 2017 1:51pm
  - RF
    
    What about Maori elders rubbing their hands over the trunks of the trees.
    
    Will this cause harm ?
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:32pm
- sam green
  
  He wont have any business if there are dead and dying trees about.
  
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  December 6, 2017 2:51pm
oldpark

Thats the money that was legislated for by National and voted for by two other parties who have since joined the “Coalition of Confusion and Corruption”
One of the parties called the Peters Party in fact wanted their over 65s Gold Card loyal voters to enjoy a few extra dollars with a small increase in their Superannuation Payments.
Now the same meglamaniac called Peters will veto the small increase for the Superannuands when Legislation gets the chop early next year by the “Coalition of Confusion and Corruption”
Heard him ranting on yesterday about a song called” Freedom is just another name for nothing left to do”.
How appropiate since almost Circa 40 years in Parliament,he has, to reiterate someone elses comments,he has upset many many people.
This time he has taken away the” Freedom” of his Loyal supporters,maybe because that in his mind was the ultimate betrayal of his supporters. His loyal over 65s were conned to give up some of their “Financial Freedom”to satisfy the self centred ideology and power to a person not so long ago referred to as an unemployed pensioner from St Mary Bay Auckland.
Hope his hand shakes when he commits the ultimate betrayal when he votes against the poor old pensioners,Which allows their small increase to prop up 80,000 students ,to also to help complete an election bribe for his “selected’ PM .
What an indictment and a pathetic Legacy.Yes they walk amongst us .All smoke and mirrors.
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December 6, 2017 8:22am
- Paulus
  
  As Peters will not be around by the next election as he will either be dead or in a drunken comatose he will not care what people think of him or his legacy as he finally stuffed the National Party and that is all that matters.
  To watch his face when Cindy speaks is a picture of arrogance as he grins at her.
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:59pm
VicParking

Peter Boshier is in fairy land. His report on prisions has come out with some doozie findings based mainly on confidentional surveys of prisioners.
Not enough TV channels to watch.
Dinner not served at the correct time.
Too many locked doors
To many mad people in prision.
(Mad and bad or bad and mad)
Not enough reabilitation programs, to many people on remand. Reabilitation before sentencing??
When violent people are put in prision they continue to be violent.
Two many gang members in prision.
This report has been written to justify Labours catch and release program.
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December 6, 2017 8:30am
- VicParking
  
  stephieboy – Welcome back I missed your downtick.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:43am
- flipper
  
  Putting aside visceral issues, prison supposedly has three purposes:
  1. Temporary removal from society ( Incarceration) as prime punishment
  3. Keeping the community “safe”, and
  3. Rehabilitation.
  Think about that.
  The sentence of imprisonment is not a sentence to a motel. But it is not a sentence to a dungeon circa whatever.
  
  W S Churchill several times told the House of Commons that a nation is known for the way in which it treats those sent to prison.
  
  Former IBM head honcho in NZ, Basil Logan, delivered a detailed and uncomplimentary report on this following incidents at Hawkes Bay prison. Worth study.
  
  And as for Boshier, the Ombudsman has a reputation for keeping a dishonest work force (prison officers) honest. The issues under-pinning his report will be remand inmates (held, not tried or sentenced), and whether an individual is sent to prison “as punishment” or sent “to be punished.”
  
  Anyway, though it pains me to say so, his report has nothing to do with the ideas of that idiot Davis and his dickhead colleagues.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:16am
Andrei

So if the Anglo Saxon world can’t compete with Russians in winter sports the answer is simple

Ban Russians from competing on bogus charges

Anglo Saxons particularly Americans are a cowardly lot – full of bullshit
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December 6, 2017 8:38am
- stephieboy
  
  Russia banned from Winter Olympics over state-sponsored doping
  
  Vitaly Mutko, former sports minister and 2018 World Cup chief, banned for life
  
  • Some athletes will be able to compete at Pyeongchang 2018 under neutral flag
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/dec/05/russian-olympic-committee-banned-winter-games-doping
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:57am
  - Andrei
    
    If you want to see how despicable the Western ruling classes are just look at what is happening in Washington DC as the most repulsive people on the fucking planet lie cheat and deceive to gain political advantage
    
    Funny how with all these people being dragged down with sexual abuse allegations do not number among them the abuser in chief William Jefferson Clinton
    
    And it is funny how his harridan wife is not in the cross hairs for obliterating sensitive Government data held on an illegal server
    
    What a fucking joke American democracy is
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:18am
    - Keeping Stock
      
      No squirrels were harmed in the publication of Andrei’s 9.18am comment 😉
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:57am
      - Andrei
        
        So you will be cheering ~~Gavin~~ Laurel Hubbards’s woman’s weightlifting medal at the world championships KS
        
        What a hoot
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:07pm
    - softail 1450
      
      Andrei, I can’t figure out why anybody would down tick that statement ?????
      
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      December 6, 2017 1:05pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        I think perhaps because it was an attempt to distract from the IOC ruling. Am I right in assuming that Andrei is Russian? His Anglo-Saxon conspiracy theory about the ruling was very good, if his goal was to make people laugh hysterically.
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:12pm
    - KevOB
      
      Was the server coloured?
      
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      December 6, 2017 1:22pm
  - Jack5
    
    The drugs and athletes rows are about to be overtaken by a surge in ex-male transexuals cleaning up the medals in women’s Olympic sport.
    
    The Olympics ideal is over. Won’t work in a world of chemical enhancers and trans-sexualism.
    
    I assume the original, Greek Olympic Games were male only, and the old Greeks were right into bisexuality, but physically they would have been on even ground.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:15am
  - realityczech
    
    stupidboy, why do you hate white infidels yet choose to live among them ?
    
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    December 6, 2017 5:29pm
  - realityczech
    
    Russia banned from Winter Olympics over state-sponsored ~~doping~~ support for Iran.
    
    stupidboy, what should we do about the Slavic Question ? Hitler killed around 25 million, do you think that was not enough ?
    
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    December 6, 2017 5:37pm
Notsofast

“Massey University literacy expert Professor Tom Nicholson noted that England’s reading performance had increased in every year since 2006, when it started teaching phonics – teaching how letters sound so that children can “decode” new words.

He said most NZ teachers still used a “whole language” approach, encouraging children to work out a new word from its context.”

Around 2000 an 8 member group of parliamentarians including Donna Awatere toured the world and came back with an urgent call to use phonics as the teaching method for reading.
Trevor Mallard was education minister and refused to enact this. He is responsible for a crisis in New Zealand literacy and for prisons to be jammed with illiterates that Mike Williams is vainly trying to remedy.

Check my facts, they are well remembered.

There is no such thing as dyslexia, just a (Dame?) Wendy Pye driven catastrophe in this country.
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December 6, 2017 8:42am
- fernglas
  
  No such thing as dyslexia? YMBFJ. That’s the mentality that saw kids with a recognised disability punished for getting spelling wrong in generations past.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:50am
  - Notsofast
    
    Wrong.
    Children must be taught the phonetic method at age four. Dyslexia is a manufactured condition by schools teaching the whole word method, there is no 4 year old that cannot be taught to decode words. It is simply following a sequence of pictures/symbols from left to right and naming them. Think dog, horse, cow. All four year olds can do this, and they can be taught to read fluently.
    Any parents of 4 year olds reading this should trust me and get on with it, and save the heartache of thinking your kid is slow.
    
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    December 6, 2017 8:58am
    - Kleva Kiwi
      
      When I went to primary school in the 80’s, we where taught phonetically, yet there was still kids with dyslexia in my class that struggled.
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:35am
- Brito
  
  Maaaate!!! fernglas summed it up. Your assessment is so far off the mark.
  
  I’ve seen reading and writing skills plummet, here and in the UK, when the phonetic teaching style was introduced. It was the same with new maths. My grand kids were doing really well until this new method was introduced. It is, apparently, acceptable to be near enough in both written work and maths. However I found this not to be the case in the real world, as many graduates of today’s schools are now finding out.
  
  So, they teach their systems at school and we corrected them at home. Now, my grandkids are all doing really well, can write clearly and passed their University exams. Their tutors and lecturers didn’t have to call in an interpreter to decipher their papers or assignments.
  
  Bring back the old teachers who made you understand the word and the maths method. Move up the reading skill chart as you learn and those who do have dyslexia can be helped to develop processes to allow them to self-manage.
  
  Dyslexia and dyscalculia are actual challenges faced by people.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:06am
  - MrLovebucket
    
    They gave up teaching Maths in NZ when they kicked all the men out of teaching.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:55am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Perhaps the phonetic method works in very logical languages such as German, French and Italian (ie where certain letters or syllables are almost always pronounced the same way).
    
    English, unfortunately, isn’t like that.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:23am
    - Flash
      
      I remember learning to read – first big A, little a, Bouncing B, the Cat’s in the Cupboard and he Can’t see me.
      I think that was phonetics wasn’t it?
      At the country school I attended, the big kids were sent out to the play shed to teach the new entrants the alphabet, and how to join letters together. We used cards and sounds (e.g. A – T, C – A – T), to make words. By the end of the first week most kids would be reading simple stories.
      When I first started school in a big town, the teacher would start at the back desk and every child down the row to the front would read a sentence. You had to be able to ‘read silently’ and follow the ‘out loud’ readers, because if you didn’t pick up your sentence you’d be in disgrace and have to read two! And of course you had to be able to speak out loudly so that everyone could hear –
      Talk about paying attention. Mrs Gunn was a DRAGON LADY!
      Those were the days!
      
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      December 6, 2017 11:56am
      - KevOB
        
        That worked. As recently as 2005 the new entrants teacher adopted the same approach.
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:26pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  Is Trevor Mallard being accused of actively preventing teachers from using this method – or of failing to force them to use it?
  
  A lot of public debate conflates “X made me do it” with “X failed to prevent me from doing it”, as if X’s culpability, and my innocence, were the same in the two cases. No, they’re not. X is not responsible for what I did in the second case.
  
  Thus, if phonics is really a better method (and Kiwiblog hasn’t often taken one Massey University expert’s word as unchallengeable truth in the past) – do teachers really need to be told by the Education Minister to use it? Do they really not have the ability to decide that for themselves?
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:31am
- SGA
  
  @Notsofast
  
  Trevor Mallard was education minister and refused to enact this. He is responsible for a crisis in New Zealand literacy
  
  This hasn’t got something to do with the international report just out that says that literacy standards for Year 5s have dropped from 2011 to 2016, does it?
  If it was because of a bad policy in 2000, it should have kicked in quicker than that?
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:09am
- Ed Snack
  
  Not the whole “Phonics versus Whole Word” argument all over again !
  
  Although there are extreme partisans of both approaches, most schools teach a blend of the two approaches which is the official position. And that usually works because some children do best with phonics and some with the whole word approach. They are complimentary approaches, not exclusionary.
  
  What is wrong is insisting that any one method works for everyone and must be taught to the exclusion of the other.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:17am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I’m just off to our end-of-year lunch for the literacy ladies who take struggling year 9 & 10 readers (Form 3 & 4) in a 1:1 session for half-an-hour/week .
  
  This is my 2nd year as a volunteer… there seem to be a number of reasons why 13-15 year olds are presenting with reading levels of 6 -10 year olds.
  
  One thing I am noticing is these kids haven’t done much in the way of writing stories (limited spelling practice, limited exposure to making up their own sentences in print)..
  One 14 year-old boy couldn’t do “joined-up” writing….. I decided I’d better teach him to write his signature… He wasn’t going to be very cool applying for jobs if he could only print his name in big letters.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:47pm
Kleva Kiwi

An unbelievable article on the NZ Hoorald today
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11952912
Since when is stating it ok to belong to a particular race been racist? With all this hate speech coming from the left and there SJW brigade, its helpful to be reminded that yes, it is actually ok to be white. Just like its ok to be black, or brown or of any other race on this planet.
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December 6, 2017 8:42am
- tf78
  
  How about this for an idea
  “All Lives Matter”!
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:07am
  - Digmen1
    
    I prefer white men matter.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:17am
- Harkman
  
  The writer is a Moron, it says so in his name.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:18pm
dime

stuff really are a bunch of losers.

todays trump “story”

“Trump may face a reckoning”

“Court ruling on defamation suit against US President could change everything.”

nutters
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December 6, 2017 8:49am
- fernglas
  
  Even though it comes via the Washington Post, the legal strategy behind the story is worth thinking about. By suing Trump for defamation, they are putting the onus on him to prove that his statements are true. It opens up his veracity to scrutiny and would also admit evidence about his previous sexual conduct. Because the comments were made while he was a candidate, there is no immunity from suit. As the article points out, Trump is likely to have to give evidence on oath, if the proceeding is allowed to go ahead during his Presidency. Had Trump done what he said, and sued these women for lying, the shoe would have been on the other foot; he would have been in the box seat. But he didn’t. However, I would be surprised if it got near a court while he is President. He is likely to do what he did with the Trump University claim and ask that it be deferred because he is too busy running the country.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:01am
  - dime
    
    this time they will get him HAHAHAHA
    
    7 and a bit more glorious years to go!
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:11am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Trump certainly needs to face a reckoning here with an urgent psychiatric consultation ,
  
  “Trump has started suggesting the Access Hollywood tape is fake. It’s not.”
  
  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/28/16710130/trump-says-access-hollywood-tape-fake
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:01am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Creepy boy is back! Got your bracelet and your restraining order in place as part of your Parole huh?
    
    ‘“Trump has started suggesting the Access Hollywood tape is fake. It’s not.”
    
    Hahah, that’s FAKE NEWS, Trump hasn’t denied it.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/sanders-trump-hasnt-changed-his-position-on-authenticity-of-access-hollywood-tape/2017/11/27/f67190de-d3b1-11e7-9ad9-ca0619edfa05_video.html?utm_term=.038b6b9d62aa
    ‘White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Nov. 27 said President Trump “hasn’t changed his position” on the authenticity of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape’
    
    Gosh, Stooopidboy hasn’t been back a day and is already being proved wrong!
    DOH!
    LOL!
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:01am
    - stephieboy
      
      All on Red , unless Trump himself gives a disclaimer ( Not Sanders ) then we can safely assume that it is fact true and there it stands till he personally states to the contrary ( with evidence and facts ).
      
      http://ww2.hdnux.com/photos/57/57/03/12513493/3/1024×1024.jpg
      
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      December 6, 2017 12:49pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Name the source who claimed Trump said that.
        By that I mean the actual persons name.
        The Whitehouse and Trump have said he hasn’t denied it.
        Wrong on your first day back!
        And now trying to wriggle.
        Welcome back
        Lol
        StephieBoy- KiwiBlogs Dumbest Commentator
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:04pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        To be clear I mean who has said Trump has denied making his comment to Billy Bush
        Which Trump has apologised for actually .
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:10pm
      - realityczech
        
        Obama is a violent ignorant warlord who’s actions have destablised the world and killed hundreds of thousands and his supporters are immoral virtue signallers
        
        stupidboy, unless Obama himself gives a disclaimer ( Not Sanders ) then we can safely assume that it is fact true and there it stands till he personally states to the contrary ( with evidence and facts ).
        
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        December 6, 2017 5:34pm
  - rangitoto
    
    Public service message to all mothers in the suburbs near St Lukes Mall. Don’t let your young daughters go to the shopping center alone until further notice.
    
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    December 6, 2017 12:32pm
- tom hunter
  
  Was it 24 or 48 hours ago that the last MSM meltdown about Trump happened?
  
  ABC News President: Brian Ross Will No Longer Cover Stories Related To Trump:
  
  “If it isn’t obvious to everyone in this news division, we have taken a huge hit and we have made the job of every single person in this news division harder as a result. It’s much, much harder. We have people in Washington who are going to bear the brunt of this today and in the days forward. Very, very, very, very unfortunate. Really, really angry about it.”
  
  “250,000 tweets,” Goldston noted. “One percent positive, 99 percent negative about this news division.” Who the hell were the one percent?
  
  Again I will leave it to others to tell me whether this juicy piece of news – that a long-time, major MSM journalist is now so discredited because of his shit reporting on Trump the other day that he’s permanently banned from covering Trump.
  
  Because I would have thought that is big news for the MSM, even Radio NZ here, who probably repeated the story gleefully when it first broke. Any retractions from them? Any reporting of this?
  
  Delenda est MSM.
  
  Die MSM. Die!
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:22am
  - flipper
    
    Remember the ex Southland Times lad, Peter Arnett, who went ape shit in Baghdad and destroyed his career? And there have been others.
    More things change the more they stay ….
    
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    December 6, 2017 12:02pm
sooty

Angry Little. All mouth and no trousers!
You are dancing on the head of a pin.
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December 6, 2017 9:00am
Morrissey

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Deadbeat Dads
No. 6: KINGSLEY AMIS

This old fool was once a passable minor novelist. He wrote the very good Lucky Jim in 1957, and then coasted for the rest of his cantankerous, “contrarian” life. Unlike normal people, this anti-Semitic, women-hating old goat did not mellow with age, but grew crankier and more extreme in his views. But his worst—by far his worst—legacy to the world is his disgusting son, the novelist and fourth-rate essayist Martin Amis…..

In a highly critical article for his own Daisycutter Sports Digest, reprinted in Media Lens, Breen, author of BERNADINE, or “Hell Hath No Fury” said Amis was the “fluky beneficiary of a famous name”, and that his carefully cultivated Oxbridge stammer and air of studied insouciance fails to cover up the “painfully obvious” fact that he “reads little, and knows virtually nothing about anything.”

Breen’s intervention comes as Amis faces continued reaction from people disgusted with his crude race-baiting, which has proved to be a disturbing re-run of the notorious outbursts against “coons”, “wops”, “darkies” and Jews by his father, the late author Kingsley Amis.

Breen, who said he has spent “much too much” of his time struggling through really third-rate British fiction, also called Mr Amis “humorless”, “talentless”, and a “pathetic creep”, who had traded on his father’s fame and assiduously “sucked up” to the likes of the late Christopher Hitchens, who always poured scorn on Amis’s academic pretensions and treated his attempts to foot it with him intellectually with amused disdain. Breen noted how the notoriously lazy and ill-read Amis had boasted often about his “Congratulatory” Oxford First in English — “the sort where you are called in for a viva and the examiners tell you how much they enjoyed reading your papers.”
Mr Amis was a man “without the slightest semblance of character, leave alone discernible talent”, he added, and cited the academic Terry Eagleton’s opinion of some newspaper opinion pieces Amis had written as akin to the “ramblings of a British National Party thug.”

https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-29102015/#comment-1088122

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1565696/Family-defends-racist-Sir-Kingsley-Amis.html

Keep up with ALL the Deadbat Dads…
1 Sir John Key, 2 Bill “Double Dipper” English; 3 Sir Douglas Graham; 4 John Banks; 5 David Cameron
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December 6, 2017 9:06am
- Swifty
  
  Deviod of facts. What a joke.
  
  Hitchens and Amis were best friends for over 40 years.
  
  You really are embarrasing yourself with this stuff yank.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:36am
  - Morrissey
    
    Hitchens’ attitude towards Amis was complex: in his last, lamentably bad, book he spends several pages pathetically paying tribute to the smoothness of Amis in navigating his way around New York brothels. So that’s something he admires, I guess.
    
    But in many comments he made, and you can look them up on the internet if you want, Hitchens made it quite clear that he thought Amis had no intellectual chops. He was particularly scathing about Amis’ ridiculous Koba the Dread, which is mostly plagiarized from his deadbeat dad’s friend Robert Conquest.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:44am
    - softail 1450
      
      moronissey ,,,oh god another YAWN,YAWN ,YAWN day from moronissey ,,,,,
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:47am
    - Swifty
      
      Mate you haven’t a clue.
      
      You make lots of assertions and judgements but not one shred of evidence.
      
      Why do you crave attention? What is going wrong in your life? Did your mummy not cuddle you enough? Were the boys mean to you at school?
      
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      December 6, 2017 9:52am
      - Morrissey
        
        You make lots of assertions and judgements but not one shred of evidence.
        
        Everything I’ve written I have supported with evidence. If you for some unaccountable reason like that sixth-rate intellect Amis, then say so. Otherwise, you need to present countervailing evidence to mine. The facts are: he does repeat and amplify the vicious racist theories of his old man, and Hitchens did regard his pretensions at scholarship with contempt.
        
        Why do you crave attention? What is going wrong in your life? Did your mummy not cuddle you enough? Were the boys mean to you at school?
        
        I think the best way to deal with these questions is to DRAMATIZE them. Keep your eyes peeled, Swifty….
        
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        December 6, 2017 9:58am
      - Swifty
        
        Who the fuck cares?
        
        Haven’t you got anything better to do than post all this spam?
        
        What a dick.
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:07am
      - Morrissey
        
        Who the fuck cares?
        
        Well, I do. And so do you, clearly.
        
        Haven’t you got anything better to do than post all this spam?
        
        This is “spam”? Really? Like it or not, my posts are always relevant, and even my my most trenchant opponents recognize that they’re always well crafted. Are literary and political topics verboten now? Have they been reclassified as “spam”? When did that happen?
        
        What a dick.
        
        Who? Amis père or Amis fils? (Personally, I think both.)
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:17am
      - Swifty
        
        “Like it or not, my posts are always relevant, and even my my most trenchant opponents recognize that they’re always well crafted.”
        
        Lol.
        
        Then why are most of your posts downticked to oblivion?
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:36am
      - Morrissey
        
        Our good friend “Swifty” asks, in apparent high seriousness, why “most” of my posts are “downticked to oblivion?”
        
        BREEN REPLIES:
        
        This is a forum where Māori are routinely vilified and foully abused—those posts often garner 30, 40 or more upticks. This is a forum where the election of that alien life form Trump was greeted in a mood akin to carnival. This is a forum where a beautiful young prime minister is repeatedly called a horse—and those witty comments are upticked like billy-oh. This is a forum where Garth the Knife McVicar and his band of psychopaths are regarded as heroes rather than as the cheer squad for lynching that they are. This is a forum which affords one of the most reviled, notorious and outré politicians in our history the privilege of writing “Guest Posts” with titles like Pasifika is bollocks” and What exactly is “Maoridom”?
        
        Do you think it bothers me that the people who uptick racist and violent messages are viscerally opposed to me?
        
        Why would I be upset by that?
        
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        December 6, 2017 4:22pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        This is a forum where a beautiful young prime minister is repeatedly called a horse—
        
        True, and it’s childish and stupid, but…
        
        This is a forum where the election of that alien life form Trump….This is a forum where Garth the Knife McVicar and his band of psychopaths
        
        Which is also childish and stupid. So, they abuse Jacinda, and you abuse Trump and Gareth. Horse shoe theory wins again.
        
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        December 6, 2017 4:36pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        It is in the nature of political extremism, both far left and far right, to dehumanise political opponents.
        
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        December 6, 2017 4:43pm
      - nasska
        
        …..”a beautiful young prime minister”…..
        
        Can anyone pass on Specsavers contact details in Braille to Morrissey.
        
        He’s either blind or he’s spent the last twenty years alone up a burnt gully. 🙂
        
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        December 6, 2017 6:13pm
- Lance
  
  What an asshole
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:37am
- Keeping Stock
  
  Nasty is as nasty does.
  
  If Bill English is your definition of a “deadbeat dad”, then that is something I aspire to be. His children, including one with a disability, all seem to be exceptionally well adjusted, and that is a credit to the stability their parents have provided in an upbringing that has been anything but normal.
  
  I regard English as an outstanding father, but you clearly need to drag him down via smears and innuendo. That says infinitely more about you than it does about Rt Hon Bill English.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:06am
  - Swifty
    
    Well said KS.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:08am
  - Morrissey
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    …exceptionally well adjusted…
    
    What about the one who spent months posting invective against gay people on Bebo with his mates at St. Pat’s?
    
    Is this “outstanding father” the same person who did his best to cover up for the disgraced Todd Barclay?
    
    And this is not “smears and innuendo”, it’s an incontrovertible fact….
    
    http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2910957/Bill-English-buckles-over-housing-allowance
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:24am
    - Keeping Stock
      
      As you well know Morrissey, English was cleared of any wrong-doing, but still paid the money back. As for the Barclay case, when you have to rely on Winston Peters as your source, then it’s definitely smears and innuendo because that is Peters’ stock-in-trade.
      
      By the way, do you have Peters on your list of Deadbeat Dads, or is it limited to National Party fathers?
      
      PS: I did stupid things when I was a teenager too. That was no reflection on the unconditional love my parents showed towards me.
      
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      December 6, 2017 10:52am
  - flipper
    
    Absolutely Keeping.
    Bill is a good guy. It takes someone with a severe D S… or more likely guano for a brain to …. argue or imply otherwise. And that includes people who engage in that disgusting habit because their daddy was once a part time / play time politician,
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:36am
- Ed Snack
  
  Unfortunately your quoted person, Breen, is a fuckwit of the first order. I have no particular time for Amis, either father or son (though my wife is a great fan of Lucky Jim), but this politically motivated hit job is one for the sewer.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:20am
  - Morrissey
    
    Of the FIRST ORDER! Thanks, Ed—I’ll take that honour.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:35am
    - Ed Snack
      
      You’re welcome.
      
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      December 6, 2017 12:19pm
- Harkman
  
  Why are you calling David Cameron a dead beat dad? He lost his disabled son you heartless f_cker. What about Shane Jones or Trevor Mallard? They ran off on their wives and kids.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:01pm
  - Morrissey
    
    Why are you calling David Cameron a dead beat dad?
    
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/jun/11/david-cameron-daughter-behind-pub
    
    He lost his disabled son you heartless f_cker.
    
    He left his eight-year-old daughter behind in a pub, and didn’t even NOTICE until he got home. And apart from that, there’s the question of what he got up to with a dead pig….
    
    What about Shane Jones or Trevor Mallard? They ran off on their wives and kids.
    
    That’s not the same as neglect. Jones is a possibility for our “Gropers” series, but as far as we can ascertain, while he’s a blowhard and a right pain in the arse, he’s not a deadbeat dad.
    
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    December 7, 2017 8:41am
Maggy Wassilieff

Goodness, stephieboy has gone 1 hour without making a spelling mistake.
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December 6, 2017 9:10am
- Morrissey
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Another of your baffling comments. You’re trying to smear me as “stephieboy” now, are you?
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:16am
  - JibberJabber
    
    Quite right, every comment anywhere is all about YOU.
    
    18 1
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    December 6, 2017 9:31am
    - Swifty
      
      Heh.
      
      The guy’s an idiot.
      
      11 2
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      December 6, 2017 9:45am
      - Morrissey
        
        Who? Stephieboy?
        
        Oh no! YOU DON’T MEAN MEEEE, DO YOU??!!??
        
        ??!!!???!?
        
        http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aQ5mmM8WJCE/Vibu-dE103I/AAAAAAAAMDM/xVnXNLNDcg4/s1600/man_despair.jpg
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:00am
    - Morrissey
      
      Yes, it looks like my solipsism has led to another foolish confrontation with the esteemed Maggy.
      
      (I’ll get me coat.)
      
      1 25
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      December 6, 2017 9:53am
      - Brito
        
        Does that mean you’re leaving????
        
        11 0
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        December 6, 2017 10:16am
      - softail 1450
        
        moronissey ,careful with that coat, from what I can gather it’s got some nasty stains inside it,,,,,,
        
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        December 6, 2017 10:22am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  @ Morrissey
  Do you understand nested comments?
  
  My comment about stephieboy was at the start of a new comment thread.
  It did not relate to your entry on deadbeat dads.
  
  I do not think stephieboy is you.
  I hold stephieboy in special regard after coming across his crushing reply to one of your postings on Noam Chomsky:
  https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2016/10/general_debate_8_october_2016.html#comment-1796343
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:19am
  - Morrissey
    
    I remember that lame comment from last year. Stephieboy has obviously not read anything by Chomsky.
    
    From your patently untrue statements about Chomsky, I have always inferred that you had not read his work. If, as you insist you have, you have read Chomsky, that makes your comments nothing more than deliberate and malicious lies.
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:28am
    - treadingthemill
      
      Stephieboy has obviously not read anything by Chomsky.
      
      Lame.
      
      If, as you insist you have, you have read Chomsky, that makes your comments nothing more than deliberate and malicious lies.
      
      Another variation of “nobody is allowed to disgaree with my Messiah!”
      
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      December 6, 2017 10:37am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      For me to write: I have found Chomsky’s papers on linguistics difficult to comprehend and written in an obscurant style
      is a true and accurate statement.
      
      I don’t do malice.
      
      Much of what I posted a few days back on Chomsky were commentaries by other researchers…. if you think they were lying, take your concern up with them.
      
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      December 6, 2017 10:39am
      - Morrissey
        
        I don’t do malice.
        
        Repeating the malicious lies you told about Chomsky is the very quintessence of malice. You also called him an “old fraud”.
        
        Much of what I posted a few days back on Chomsky were commentaries by other researchers…. if you think they were lying, take your concern up with them.
        
        Could you remind us once again which of the “commentaries” you posted was by a scholar?
        
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        December 6, 2017 4:06pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @morrissey
        
        The question I have posed to you is: how do you reconcile Chomsky’s 50years of employment at MIT, funded by Military USA, with his anti-war stances?
        
        You have failed to respond and have used various techniques to paint me as a vicious, slanderous person.
        
        And why do the commentaries I post have to be by a “scholar”?
        But you will note that Chris Knight is a senior research fellow at University College, London.
        His book is published by Yale Uni Press.
        https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300221466/decoding-chomsky
        
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        December 6, 2017 5:00pm
- sooty
  
  One of the other stephieboys!
  
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  December 6, 2017 5:41pm
stephen2d

By some random accident, on my way home from the airport, I heard a certain Mitch Harris on Live, around 9.15pm talk how those “Hutsies and Tutus” were at each other’s throat, bad things happened, but the others aren’t that squeaky clean and how Phil Quin is a paid spin doctor for an oppresive regime – hence even worse that what he has accused Golriz for? The amount of ignorance on the subject and some basic facts that even a child knows, yet he spoke with such authority that it was painful to listen.

What an imbecile!

Even dpf wasn’t spared, Of course, it was all “Dirty Politics”.
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December 6, 2017 9:15am
- milkmaid
  
  This comes from a post on Reddit – the full text is here: https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/7hmhgt/dirty_politics_the_disturbing_context_behind_phil/
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:40am
- Harkman
  
  Mitch Harris is a fa-king fake. He pretends not to be a leftist but it is the only thing he is. When Laws was a way he filled in and the topic would always twist towards anti-capitalist, pro socialist perspectives.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:13pm
- sam green
  
  “Even dpf wasn’t spared, Of course, it was all “Dirty Politics””
  
  Because maybe it was.
  
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  December 6, 2017 3:13pm
Morrissey

I agree with you: Mitch Harris is an imbecile. But on this occasion, for once at least, he seems to have gotten everything right.
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December 6, 2017 9:17am
- stephen2d
  
  Which bit did he get right? That both “Hutsies and Tutus” were as bad as the other?
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:28am
  - Morrissey
    
    Yes they were. As you would know if you had any knowledge of Rwandan history. And, no, I don’t think that idiot Harris has any knowledge whatsoever of Rwanda or anything much else for that matter.
    
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    December 6, 2017 9:40am
    - stephen2d
      
      Edit: never mind.
      
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      December 6, 2017 11:39am
Manolo

A pious pervert, maybe?
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2017/12/05/fourth-conyers-accuser-sex-harassment-claim/108324412/

Grubbs described a time that Conyers slid his hand up her skirt while she was sitting next to him in the front row of a church.
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December 6, 2017 9:17am
Morrissey

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Cleaning up after Ann Tolley and Hekia Parata

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/99534189/international-report-shows-childrens-literacy-suffered-under-national-standards
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December 6, 2017 9:38am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Their only failure was failing to run the teachers’ unions out of town.
  There is the real problem.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:14am
  - Morrissey
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Yeah, those darned teachers. What would THEY know about education, huh?
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:33am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Suprisingly, fuck all Morrissey. After all, they have led the way in designing and implementing various curriculum’s and education systems since the 1960’s and have been a miserable failure at it since then.
      
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      December 6, 2017 11:29am
    - MH
      
      Most are women with their own de-agender and very few know the Laws Of Rugby. How can they relate to boys esp white and brown? We all know men teachers are reqd in schools. Just look up your local primary and I’d be surprised if you found three men teachers or even assistant aids -some even have women caretakers !!!
      It depends on the enthusiasm of a particular teacher to get results whether it be phonetics over te Reo or blocks of wood versus the times table by rote.
      
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      December 6, 2017 1:36pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Cleaning up after Tolley and Parata? Labour will never be able to clean up as it is the unionised teachers that are failing our kids, not a reporting system.
  
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  December 6, 2017 11:27am
Left Right and Centre

Gloriavale:
I’d love to see all their grocery shopping, what they buy, how they buy it etc
What they eat, when, how much ?
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December 6, 2017 10:05am
In Vino Veritas

The lighter than lightweight Hipkins announces “National Standards have failed to improve literacy and numeracy in New Zealand”.
This man is a retard. National Standards are a reporting system, it is teachers who have failed to improve literacy and numeracy in New Zealand. Yes Chris, its the UNIONISED teachers who are failing our children, not a reporting system.
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December 6, 2017 10:12am
- Brito
  
  Spot on Vino!!!
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:18am
- Keeping Stock
  
  My wife is meeting with Hipkins today as part of a group she belongs to. I told her not to mention Barnaby Joyce 😀
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:21am
  - flipper
    
    If she did, would the child understand ????
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:42am
  - Brito
    
    Ooohhh, nasty…cutting…nice one!!!
    
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    December 6, 2017 10:44am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    I’m sure if she keeps the conversation relatively asinine Hipkins will make a good showing.
    
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    December 6, 2017 11:26am
- SGA
  
  National Standards are a reporting system, it is teachers who have failed to improve literacy and numeracy in New Zealand. Yes Chris, its the UNIONISED teachers who are failing our children, not a reporting system.
  
  Teachers have been unionised for decades. Why would the sudden drop in literacy standards between 2011 to 2016 be a result of that? Can’t see the connection.
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:40pm
- Piniwi
  
  True IVV and the NCEA maths test complaints are evidence that it is them that are letting the students failing to reach a reasonable level and standard.
  
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  December 6, 2017 7:29pm
Digmen1

Yes teachers should have be performance pay based.
Every child that cannot read properly they get deducted $1,000 per year.

They need to make their lessons interesting and valid.
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December 6, 2017 10:20am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  How about carrot instead: parents of poorly performing kids get up to $1-2k bonus per year based on their kid’s (examined) performance improvement, could partly dispense it as high-tax items like cigarettes, petrol, registrations, and alcohol to save cost. Kid gets say 20-30% into a credit fund for purchases at school (treats or bigger approved goods).
  
  That would motivate low decile parents and kids to do better. Spending it on the teachers would be far less effective.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:17pm
Keeping Stock

Can England pull off a remarkable victory in Adelaide in the second Ashes test? I know where I’ll be from 4pm this afternoon; on the couch, in front of the telly.

The final session last night was compelling viewing. Steve Smith dropped his bundle, losing both Australia’s DRS reviews in the space of four balls, then dropping a catch at slip.

The Barmy Army sang incessantly, and whenever an Australian appeal was turned down, sledged Smith in spectacular style with mass renditions of the “time out” signal no longer available to Smith. Guest commentator Kevin Pietersen grasped the opportunity to sledge the sycophantic Channel Nine commentators at the same time. It was magnificent sporting entertainment.

Bat long today Joe Root, and go big. If England can get up and win, it will be one of the great Ashes victories.
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December 6, 2017 10:20am
- Ed Snack
  
  Have to say that given the Australian attitude to excessive sledging, that trolling Smith as the BA has is great entertainment.
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:24am
- Poppa
  
  Bang on KS. Pure sporting theatre.
  
  I have a bet on England so I am hoping they can but it is certainly a huge ask. Lyon is probably the key for Aussie & Root is the man England need to bat to the end if he can
  
  Go the poms
  
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  December 6, 2017 10:52am
- Longknives
  
  Love to see it but it’s a big ask for England to chase on the final day.
  My money’s on the Aussies..
  
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  December 6, 2017 11:23am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Whatever you say about Smith, he can certainly bat. In fact, whilst not as aesthetically pleasing as Root, he’s probably the better bat.
  On the result, odds are heavily stacked in Australia’s favour. England lost one wicket too many on day 4, Lyon is bowling out of his skin at the moment, though I reckon Hazelwood’s accuracy at speed will count for something in the end.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:03pm
- MCos
  
  There’s only one thing worse than England winning & that’s Australia winning.
  Both of them are insufferable winners in a crowd, but an Englishman on his own is usually a good winner or loser.
  
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  December 6, 2017 3:15pm
Fletch

Milo addresses Parliament in Australia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OWlVKKhrxfE
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December 6, 2017 11:14am
- Fletch
  
  “I understand why Huma Abedin and Hillary Clinton have low opinions of men. They think men are like their husbands”. BURN.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:04pm
Ross12

If this turns out to be another flip flop, I will not criticise. I will applaud it !

http://www.voxy.co.nz/politics/5/299342

( I wonder if Chippy has been sent onto the naughty chair for a while)
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December 6, 2017 11:19am
All_on_Red

Will the charges against Flynn end up being voided?
From Instapundit
‘A READER WHO IS A FORMER PROSECUTOR AND JUDGE EMAILS:
Did the prosecution tell Flynn’s lawyer that their main witness against him was removed for bias? Since Strzok led the interview and his testimony would be needed to establish untruthfulness, he is a critical witness not just a prosecutor. If not disclosed, would this not be a Giglio violation? This is the kind of misconduct that can get a case dismissed and a lawyer disbarred. It is a Constitutional violation. This has bothered me since I heard about it.’
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December 6, 2017 12:21pm
- stephieboy
  
  All on Red , another one who suggests the Hollywood tape is fake ?
  
  Trump the father of all lies ,
  
  https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/11/28/16710130/trump-says-access-hollywood-tape-fake
  
  and ,
  
  https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trumps-despicable-gold-star-lies_us_59e7f117e4b0e60c4aa367e2
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:33pm
  - realityczech
    
    Stupidboy how do you feel about Hillary dealing uranium and taking bribes from the Russians ?
    
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    December 6, 2017 12:40pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Gosh Steph, I’d forgotten how dumb you are. Did you miss my reply above?
    ‘All_on_Red
    Creepy boy is back! Got your bracelet and your restraining order in place as part of your Parole huh?
    
    ‘“Trump has started suggesting the Access Hollywood tape is fake. It’s not.”
    Hahah, that’s FAKE NEWS, Trump hasn’t denied it.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/sanders-trump-hasnt-changed-his-position-on-authenticity-of-access-hollywood-tape/2017/11/27/f67190de-d3b1-11e7-9ad9-ca0619edfa05_video.html?utm_term=.038b6b9d62aa
    ‘White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Nov. 27 said President Trump “hasn’t changed his position” on the authenticity of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape’
    
    Gosh, Stooopidboy hasn’t been back a day and is already being proved wrong!
    DOH!
    LOL!
    Thumb up 6 Thumb down 1REPLY REPORTDECEMBER 6, 2017 10:01AM
    
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    December 6, 2017 12:45pm
    - stephieboy
      
      I’ve responded to your meltdown lunacy posted as at 12. 49 pm
      
      2 15
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      December 6, 2017 12:57pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Name the source who said Trump denied it. And by that I mean the actual persons name. Not Vox, Huff Po etc.
        Wrong on your first day back!
        Funny
        
        Stephie boy- KiwiBlogs Dumbest Commentator
        
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        December 6, 2017 1:05pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Naaah, Kiwiblog’s Dumbest Commentator is the Kea troll team, who can only cope in this environment by having multiple aliases.
        
        So, if one gets banned they just use another.
        
        And they team up. As on this thread.
        
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        December 6, 2017 6:26pm
      - realityczech
        
        Loopy is there someone you can speak to about your alarming thoughts and conspiracy theories ?
        
        a. Multiple people are one.
        b. They are sent here by Russia [of course]
        c. They are doing it because NZ is part of five eyes.
        d. And Kiwiblog is popular.
        
        You are a very sick woman with deeply diseased thinking.
        
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        December 6, 2017 6:35pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Funny, realityczech, how you and All_on_Red teamed up today to try and defend Winston Peters.
        
        You know the guy who wants NZ to enter an FTA with Russia? Despite there being sanctions and it would threaten our massive trade with the EU?
        
        It’s a very odd position for Peters to take, don’t you think?
        
        You can add the above to your list, btw. Good to remind people.
        
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        December 6, 2017 6:53pm
      - realityczech
        
        Loopy okay lets play.
        
        Hitler was a Catholic just like you and hated Russians just like you …. so it follows you are a Nazi sent here from the secret Nazi base inside the hollow [and flat] earth.
        
        And even that is less absurd than your claims.
        
        LOL 🙂
        
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        December 6, 2017 7:02pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        You really are a stupid person.
        When I said ‘can’t really disagree with that’, I was referring to the comment I tagged mine on below by soft tail
        This one
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/12/peters_vs_the_media.html#comment-2093332
        Read what it says about Winston Peters…
        And I’ve never been banned and I’ve been on here for over a decade.
        
        You really should get some help.
        What.a.nutter
        
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        December 6, 2017 7:11pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        You are both grasping at straws.
        
        The smart thing would have been to stay away from anything controversial that only a Russian troll type would support.
        
        But that’s not you guys, is it?
        
        Like a bee to honey, you continue with your mission.
        
        The only thing that might convince me is some full on mockery of Putin. Can you bring yourself to do it?? Even for the cause?
        
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        December 6, 2017 7:17pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        If anyone is grasping at straws it’s you. You read into things stuff which just isn’t so.
        You’re truly out of your mind. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such paranoia.
        Lucia- KiwiBlogs Loopiest Commentator.
        
        Edit, in the past I have criticised Putin on here. Even used the words murdering tyrant. Do a search.
        But the thing is, you just criticise and tell lies about Trump. Not Putin.
        And I luurve calling out liars like you.
        
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        December 6, 2017 7:25pm
      - realityczech
        
        “The smart thing would have been to stay away from anything controversial that only a Russian troll type would support.”
        
        This from someone who constantly posts absurd conspiracy theories to incite hatred and violence against Russians.
        
        She is mentally ill.
        
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        December 6, 2017 7:42pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        All_on_Red,
        
        You mean this comment:
        
        Sure Putin is a murdering tyrant but he’s probably what they have to have right now. Otherwise the oligarchs would just pillage Russia blind – even more than they have. I think Putin stops a lot of that – even if he takes some himself!
        
        More like Putin worship than Putin mockery. Murdering tyrant just looks synonymous with “badass” in that comment.
        
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        December 6, 2017 7:59pm
      - realityczech
        
        Loony you need to go and get some help. Its getting a bit sad seeing your public meltdown and humiliation .
        
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        December 6, 2017 8:12pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Loopy
        Looks like an objective assessment to me.
        Is it wrong?
        Paranoid delusions much?
        
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        December 6, 2017 8:24pm
- MCos
  
  There seems to be thousands of “READER WHO IS A FORMER ”
  All with different opinions.
  
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  December 6, 2017 3:21pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Is the commentator right or wrong?
    Feel free to use Citations
    
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    December 6, 2017 3:37pm
Stars And Stripes

Kiwi transgender weightlifter Laurel Hubbard claims silver at world championships
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/99579324/kiwi-transgender-weightlifter-laurel-hubbard-leads-at-world-championships
“New Zealand transgender athlete Laurel Hubbard has won New Zealand’s first medal at a weightlifting world championships.
Hubbard, 39, claimed silver in the snatch with a lift of 124kg in the +90kg class at the worlds in Ananheim, California, on Wednesday (NZT).
Hubbard’s effort comes on top of three gold medals in the women’s +90kg at the 2017 Oceania Championships”.

Well I hope this cheat is feeling satisfied with himself after his latest success.
Not good enough to cut it with blokes so just go and compete with women and fill your trophy cabinet up that way instead.
This guy is an embarrassment to this country as far as I’m concerned and goes down in the history books with the likes of Trevor Chappell.
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December 6, 2017 12:23pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Chappell was a man competing against men, and played within the rules upon instruction from his Skipper.
  Hubbard is a man competing against women.
  No comparison can be made with Trevor Chappell.
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:33pm
Harkman

So I don’t think this has been discussed, but how can female managers suddenly make firms more profitable? (No offense to females on here, it is more a methodological issue).
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December 6, 2017 12:24pm
- Stars And Stripes
  
  Same way diversity does.
  Magic.
  
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  December 6, 2017 12:29pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Harkman, on any day, a female manager could make a firm more profitable. Exactly the same as on any day a male could do the same.
  I haven’t read the report, but when I do, I expect to see a set of situation specific assumptions, and many “ifs”, “ands”, “possibly’s” and “could be’s”.
  With depressing frequency, we are shoveled fact free dross by so called “academics”, who wonder why their numbers are being reduced.
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:37pm
- MrLovebucket
  
  Because of the lower wage bill?? 😀
  
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  December 6, 2017 3:40pm
  - Harkman
    
    This is the only logical answer anyone I discussed this with could muster.
    
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    December 6, 2017 5:39pm
Nosmo King

The shit hole daily displays the headline: “‘Racist’ posters in downtown Napier anger and upset locals”
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11952912

So it is not racist to say “It is OK to be {whatever you want to call yourself}” but it is offensive and racist if someone says “It is OK to be a White”?

FFS. Get a grip.
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December 6, 2017 12:25pm
Fletch

Our kiwi transgender weightlifter has come second, winning a silver medal.

Not sure what to feel about this now.

1. He shouldn’t have been competing anyway. It wasn’t fair to the other genuine women.

2. He got beaten by an actual woman. That’s what strikes me as more funny 😆 It’s like he wouldn’t have come anywhere in the men’s competition, then he couldn’t even beat all the women.

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/sport/other/transgender-kiwi-athlete-laurel-hubbard-makes-history-claims-silver-weightlifting-world-championships
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December 6, 2017 12:49pm
- MH
  
  well at least that’s a weight taken off his breasts. Bras medal more appropriate for transgenderites.
  
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  December 6, 2017 1:44pm
- MrLovebucket
  
  He will be competing in the over 60 years division next.
  
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  December 6, 2017 3:38pm
Manolo

Lone wolves?
Police believe that the plan was to launch some sort of improvised explosive device at the Prime Minister’s residence at Downing Street and in the ensuing chaos to attack and kill Theresa May, Sky News reported.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-may-plot/plot-to-kill-pm-theresa-may-foiled-sky-news-idUKKBN1DZ3B3
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December 6, 2017 1:06pm
Hugh Pavletich

In mortgage fraud frenzy, China’s banks face a hidden danger … Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/china-risk-mortgages/

Gravity-defying property prices in China have spawned widespread home-loan fraud as buyers fear missing out on what seems like a sure bet. Real estate agents, valuation companies and banks themselves are party to the scam. … read more via hyperlink above …
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December 6, 2017 1:10pm
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  (Australian) Apartment giveaways escalate – MacroBusiness Australia
  
  https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2017/12/apartment-giveaways-escalate/
  
  Via the AFR:
  
  Real estate agents and developers are offering rental guarantees, even advertising on personal ad website Gumtree, in a bid to push sales in a slowing housing market.
  
  Last month, Melbourne developer Growland offered a 6 per cent yield guarantee for two years on new apartments purchases at their Victoria Square project in Footscray.
  
  Brisbane, suffering from a glut of units, is rife with 5 to 6 per cent guarantees over three to five years for properties in areas such as Wulkuraka, Logan Central and Bowen … read more via hyperlink above …
  
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  December 6, 2017 4:39pm
Manolo

Even stephieboy would agree: Islam, the lovely religion of peace:
https://news.sky.com/story/terror-plot-to-assassinate-pm-may-foiled-11158388

Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman, 20, from north London and Mohammed Aqib Imran, 21, from south-east Birmingham are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday morning.
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December 6, 2017 1:16pm
- GoVege
  
  Looks like chivalry is dead.
  Oh hang on….their lot never had it.
  
  6 0
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  December 6, 2017 1:39pm
Brito

Recently a friend of mine was left stranded in Taupo after the bus driver said, ‘you have 10 minutes for a wee and then we’re off to Turangi for lunch’.

He was directed to the loo across the street and returned to see the bus leaving. No head count, no horn blast, nothing. My friend is 85. He caught a taxi to Turangi but missed the bus (again).

Anyway, when I read this headline (follows) I had some sympathy. When I listened to their story I had no sympathy.

Am I wrong?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/99571691/wellington-couple-left-stranded-in-turangi-after-bus-driver-drove-off-without-them
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December 6, 2017 1:45pm
- Lance
  
  Going on a tour in Germany… they state in no uncertain terms, the duration of time the bus will stop for at each landmark.. and by thunder… it pulled away at that time. And yes, 2 airheads were left behind on our trip.
  Didn’t make the news media in Germany for some reason?
  
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  December 6, 2017 2:53pm
- Longknives
  
  “It sort of feels like some sort of breach of my human rights.”
  
  Heavens Above! Won’t somebody pay this poor woman some $$$ compensation??
  
  3 0
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  December 6, 2017 3:23pm
- mandk
  
  I blame Harry Styles.
  
  2 0
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  December 6, 2017 4:26pm
- realityczech
  
  “It sort of feels like some sort of breach of my human rights.”
  
  The right to have a bus load of people sitting there waiting for you ?
  
  Chronic entitle-itis.
  
  3 0
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  December 6, 2017 5:43pm
- jcuk
  
  What disturbs me about this story in the excuse of ‘it would make me 13 minutes over the time I am allowed to drive” or something that the driver gave for his action …. stupid mentality on his and the politicians who framed and passed the rules for commercial drivers. Not to mention the ten minute for food-break which ignores local trading situation of food outfits.
  Why do these bus companies not organise with certain places arrangements that maintain their shedules … I thought this was already done.
  Seems a very basic part of running a long distance bus service.
  
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  December 6, 2017 6:44pm
Sam A

Trevor Mallard as Speaker is engine driver running a drawn-out train wreck
8 1
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December 6, 2017 2:29pm
publicwatchdog

Auckland Transport’s secret further 150 km, $635 million Auckland cycleway plan was EXPOSED at Auckland Council Audit and Risk Ctte meeting 6/12/2017

Subject matter included:

1) The risk to Auckland Council following the alleged failure of Auckland Transport as a Council Controlled Organisation, to comply with its statutory duties arising from the Local Government Act 2002 (s.59), and the Local Government (Auckland Council) Amendment Act 2010, sections 38,39 and 40, regarding the effective imposition of ‘cycleways’ upon local communtities, without full and proper consultation; the cost of these ‘cycleway’ projects, and the cost of remediation of these ‘cycleway’ projects, such as West Lynn.

2) The ‘risk’ regarding the complete lack of public consultation regarding an effectively ‘secret’ AT plan for a further 150 kms of Auckland cycleways, costing $635 million.

https://at.govt.nz/media/1974191/item114-auckland-cycling-programme-for-investmentfinal.pdf

“CONFIDENTIAL Cycling Programme Business Case Recommendation

That the Board: i. Endorse the recommended strategic direction for future investment in cycling in Auckland, the funding of which will be subject to prioritisation through the Integrated Transport Programme (ITP).

Executive summary

1 There is a significant opportunity for cycling to play a more substantial role in contributing to a more effective transport system for Auckland.

During the programme period, transport demands will continue to grow strongly alongside population and employment across the region, placing increasing pressure on congested networks and, in particular, on access to the city centre.

2 We analysed a range of options to identify which package would most effectively deliver the benefits and objectives of the programme, carried out economic modelling and conducted extensive engagement to arrive at a preferred programme of investment.

3 This programme business case recommends an investment of $635m in cycling over the period 2018-2028 to most effectively meet the objectives of the programme.

This would provide benefits of $1.9 to $4.6 for every $1 invested, and would deliver 150km of new cycleways linking to key activity centres and maximising access to public transport.

The investment would see an increase in modal share of trips to work for cycling from 1 per cent to 4 per cent across the Auckland region. ..”

Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner
…..
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December 6, 2017 4:32pm
- sooty
  
  Pissoff you stupid old crow. Thats your opinion only. The public donot support you going by the votes you get at every election you have stood in. My opinion is different than yours. So shut up.
  
  8 2
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  December 6, 2017 5:35pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Penny:
  
  Why are you interested in cycleways when you travel everywhere by broomstick?
  
  PLEASE send me a Personal Message on Facebook, and I will send you my bank account details. (Hate asking for help – but this is URGENT and my broomstick is buggered
  
  9 1
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  December 6, 2017 6:21pm
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  See?
  I Spray and Walk away
  oh fuck it you know the rest
  
  5 0
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  December 6, 2017 7:08pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Oh fuck off you crazy woman. But pay your rates on the way.
  
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  December 6, 2017 8:33pm
Inandout

Now that stephie/s have returned the outdoors seem much more inviting.
6 0
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December 6, 2017 4:33pm
Happychappy

If petrol prices were at the stage they are now under National you would have heard Labour jumping up and down about how are the poor going to get to work with these high prices and they will be using money from the food and other budgets to get to work. So the coalition have already been told that we are paying to much at the pumps and have decided to do nothing about. This is the same Labour that were not happy with National when fuel was increasing, hypocrites.
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December 6, 2017 5:36pm
Jack5

Auckland Super City (and comrades) commissioned a report (it ran to 350 pages) on the effect of climate change from the Global Warming Super Believers, NIWA.

They can see a hundred years into the future!

Super City, Super Council, Super Fuckwits.

Griff could have whipped up such a super bullshit report for a fiftieth of the price. He can see into the future, too.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11954402
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December 6, 2017 5:41pm
- realityczech
  
  NIWA will believe in the tooth fairy if it means more funding for real science. I’d lie about the weather too for that sort of money Jacksie.
  
  You can get a well paid laid back job with no accountability simply by claiming the weather is .013 of a degree warmer.
  
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  December 6, 2017 5:47pm
sbk

huh…nearly a hundred years ago the FBI was formed to tackle organised crime syndicates…today it is an organised crime syndicate.
7 2
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December 6, 2017 5:49pm
- Manolo
  
  The reputation of the FBI has taken a big hit over the past few years.
  
  It has gone down the drain under Director Mueller first and then the benighted Colmey.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:10pm
realityczech

The fake news media are furious as Trump fulfills another campaign promise.

They have occupied the region since 1967 but the news is Trump is moving an office there.

Trump to recognize Jerusalem as capital, plan embassy move, White House confirms

Officials say transferring mission from Tel Aviv could take years, so president will sign waiver to avoid penalty; may back 2-state solution if both sides agree

https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-to-recognize-jerusalem-as-capital-plan-embassy-move-white-house-confirms/
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December 6, 2017 5:50pm
Nostradamus

Labor politician Brian Mitchell calls ABC journalist quizzing MP Justine Keay a ‘maggot’

A Federal Labor politician has called an ABC reporter a “maggot” while trying to shield embattled MP Justine Keay from reporters. Ms Keay was a British dual-citizen at the last election but is refusing to refer herself to the High Court.

At a barbeque at Parliament House on Wednesday, fellow Tasmanian Labor member Brian Mitchell tried to physically block an ABC cameraman before sniping at reporter Matt Wordsworth.

“Go and do your research, maggot!” Mr Mitchell said to the Lateline reporter. “Ask the right question, don’t be prejudicial, don’t use prejudicial language.”

Refusal to answer questions. Sounds like Australian Labor like Jacinda’s brand of transparency!
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December 6, 2017 6:17pm
Surely Knott

More humilation for the Greens as they throw another one of their core values into the bing, the abolition of benefit sanctions, and swallow another NZ1 policy rat. . The genius that is James Shaw says, “Our policy is what the Government’s policy is. So now we’re in Government, we need to do what Government policy says,” . . If you were really in Government you would be setting, or at least have influence on the policy, and other people would do what you say! . If you had negotiated with National you would have had strong negotiating power to demand some of your own policies. You probably would have had more power in oppostion at least then you could oppose policy you didn’t agree with. Never mind. I’m quite enjoying opposition.
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December 6, 2017 6:44pm
- Manolo
  
  Shaw appears to be the flimsiest politician of recent times. The Green leader is pissweak beyond belief.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:08pm
  - sooty
    
    No balls!
    
    3 1
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    December 6, 2017 9:27pm
- Piniwi
  
  True SK not like what the fat lady sang but it is now the Greens turn to match other members of the COL with a flip flop. Hard to hold a policy of no benefit sanctions while Jones is threatening new ones for his work for the dole plan.
  It really has gone way past the point where the real COL agreement details are revealed and especially the 38 page addendum. The true agreement as set down by MR7%.
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:43pm
nasska

In response to President Trump moving the US embassy back to Jerusalem, Muslims around the world in protest have called for a “Day of Rage.”

So just like every other fucking day then.
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December 6, 2017 7:01pm
- Manolo
  
  Why are Muslims so peaceful?
  
  8 0
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  December 6, 2017 8:56pm
Jack5

Britain may lower SAS selection standard so women can qualify.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/12/03/sas-could-change-selection-make-easier-female-recruits/
1 0
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December 6, 2017 7:55pm
- Brito
  
  Let them have an all women unit. They can create their own standards and then there is no competition or comparison between the male SAS and the female SAS. Why lower a bar which has been created to make the best of the best better?
  
  You go girl. Girls can do anything. Equal rights for equal work…yada yada yada….
  
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  December 6, 2017 9:32pm
GazzaW

Here we go. Labour’s back. Just received a text from Auckland Transport advising of an Auckland wide rail strike on Friday.

Nothing in the media. Auckland Transport’s helpful suggestion is to carpool.

36 hours notice! What’s the story Twitford?
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December 6, 2017 8:17pm
Viking2

Well fuck me.

Child poverty has dropped for the first time in nearly a decade, and experts are cautiously attributing the turnaround to a lift in welfare payments under the previous Government.

But the Children’s Commissioner Andrew Becroft has emphasised an 18-month lag in the data, so the full effect of a 2016 increase to the incomes of beneficiaries with children had not yet been measured.

But it was a “major positive step”, though work had to remain intensely focused to ensure improvement on New Zealand’s shocking child poverty rates.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99579040/why-we-shouldnt-celebrate-child-poverty-falling-for-first-time-in-years-just-yet

so poor kids are no longer and have we noticed how the homeless have gone from the front pages now we have this inspiring fast to action wonderfiul Col Govt.

Wow the Fairy dust really does work.
Still Grant the Robber is about to tell us all about how bad the fiscal situation is. How far behind we are with the necessary infrastructure and then twat Twyford will be telling us next he doesn’t need to build 100,000 houses because the homeless has now gone.
On and on it goes.

Otago University NZ Child and Youth Epidemiology Service Dr Mavis Duncanson said all children needed the same things to support physical, mental and emotional well-being.

“Such as a warm, dry home, a sustaining meal with vegetables and protein regularly, clothes and shoes that fit properly, a place to study quietly, and the use of a computer and internet at home. They gain enormous benefit from going on school trips, and joining in activities such as sports or kapa haka,” she said.

“Children in households with the lowest material living standards are much more likely to lack these basic needs as well as miss out on the experiences and life chances that we would want for all children.”

So apparently we are different in NZ. Unless we have all those things we can’t succeed , never mind that most of the world lives and succeeds without them. Elitist fucking idiots.
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December 7, 2017 6:49am

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