General Debate 13 April 2018

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peterwn

So many Aucklanders still have no power. In the 1920’s Wellington had to be completely ‘rewired’ to take advantage of the then new Mangahao Power Station. The Municipial Electricity Department engineers recognised that high winds experienced in ‘Windy Wellington’ and made two fundamental decisions. The 11,000 volt high voltage network would be underground (apart from outer suburbs like Karori and Miramar) and power poles would have two crossarms and sets of insulators to better support the 230/400 volt reticulation. And as the population grew the underground high voltage network was extended to include the whole urban area. Hence Wellington people have enjoyed a robust and reliable power supply over the years. A major storm like the Auckland one would cause issues but restoration would be much faster as the backbone network would be intact.
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April 13, 2018 8:01am
- alex Masterley
  
  well said.
  Our council should be focussing on protecting and securing infrastructure rather than chasing the pipe dream (or should i say dragon) of mass transit.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:14am
  - kowtow
    
    Protecting infrastructure should also mean that those trees that do so much damage to power lines be dropped , instead of protected.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:17am
    - jcuk
      
      Every time I hear about a tree breaking power supply I wonder at the common sense of property owners. I had a tree which was growing wildly up towards power and control cables outside my house and I removed it simply for that reason.
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:39am
      - Holly Roggerz
        
        The council should launch a class action lawsuit to send the bill for the communities power outage to those respective property owners… User pays and all that.
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:21pm
      - jcuk
        
        A bit of background … I bought an old house which previous owners had planted this nice native tree next to it … while the old house stood it shaded the tree for most of the day even in summer. But having built my new house beside the old I demolished the old and the tree thought ‘How nice’ and started to grow …. I mention this to illustrate the lack of thoughtfulness of humans in considering the long term effects of what they do.+
        Of course perhaps I shouldn’t have redevloped the property and not encouraged the tree to grow in full sunshine … my bad 🙂
        
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        April 14, 2018 10:44am
    - BananaLlama
      
      Fine the property owner and you will see those offending trees getting dropped at record speeds.
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:25am
      - thedavincimode
        
        You refer, of course, to the councils who own the berms and view every leaf as sacred.
        
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        April 13, 2018 6:21pm
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Quick question, now going in to 48 hours without power in some Auckland suburbs. If you are one of those people without power, and you happen to own an electric vehicle, how’s that going for you?
  
  Just wondering….
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:15am
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    It’s great I just jump on the light rail outside my door. Means I can have a few beers before I head into work. Damn the light rail not working and the bus drivers on strike
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:31am
  - oldgolfer
    
    It’ll be tough. You won’t even be able to nip out (soon) to buy a bottle of gas.
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:43am
    - RF
      
      I’m picking the flow on effect is going to be enormous. It will finish up costing a fortune importing anything with an oil / gas component.
      
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      April 13, 2018 8:57am
      - septic skeptic
        
        Not really, NZ production of oil and gas is a negligible part of world supply. We buy and sell at global prices.
        
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        April 13, 2018 9:32am
      - Right of way is Way of Right
        
        Buying and selling is one thing, but what about security of supply? Reducing the supply of product to a market is inflationary, Economics 101. If there is demand to be met, and it is met from elsewhere, then New Zealand misses out on literally billions of dollars of revenue, which could be used to develop the infrastructure that we will require to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels. That is a progressive step. This approach from the Labour Government is a regressive step. The difference is HUGE!
        
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        April 13, 2018 11:42am
    - stigie
      
      “For the longer term, this decision may raise doubts among investors as to the viability of investing in New Zealand business. If a multibillion-dollar energy industry can be banned, what other industries might face the same fate?”
      
      http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12031392
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:26am
      - freethinker
        
        Listening to Red Radio this morning and the interview with Shane Jones who said we should thank Winston for the preservation of existing licenses which rather indicates that both Labour and Greens would have canceled them. Of course Jones may be lying just like Twatford did on AM programme this morning – he is an absolute disgrace and in fact was the prime liar. The oil announcement made headline on Bloom berg yesterday which is bad publicity for NZ
        
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        April 13, 2018 11:04am
  - Rich Prick
    
    I bet a coal fired bath would be appealing to those people right about now.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:00am
    - kowtow
      
      Yep and this summer when the hydro lakes ran low , what did we fire up as back up ?
      
      King Coal !
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:15am
    - Chris R
      
      Looking at a few Greenies where I live I suspect bathing is a rare event…perhaps twice a year?
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:47am
      - RF
        
        Bloody soap dodgers.
        
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        April 13, 2018 9:50am
- lastmanstanding
  
  This proves how fragile the infrastructure is. We have had a bach just out of Matakana for 25 years. For all of that time when the wind blows more than a zephyr breeze the power goes out.
  The reason is the infrastructure is very old and poorly maintained. I have been told this in response to my complaints.
  This is one of the downsides to the current ownership model although even with 100% as we have seen with the DHBs this doesnt guarantee infrastructure will be maintained.
  As a result I own shares in all the power companies on the basis of the cash dividends they pay and the steady share price.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:00am
- MCos
  
  I may be wrong here, but my understanding is that the power lines are not the responsibility of the Auckland Council, but the lines company.
  Most of the problems the other day was caused by falling trees and tree branches. Wouldn’t it be grand if all the lines were underground. Let’s raise another tax for the purpose.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:26am
  - peterwn
    
    That is right. The old Auckland City Council (then covering CBD and inner suburbs) ran the power system and the tram system which extended beyond their patch. The Council recognised that this infrastructure needed to be put on a sound footing for the future and promoted a bill to Parliament to create the Auckland Electric Power Board (which morphed into Mercury the old AEPB logo and then Vector) and the Auckland Transport Board (which morphed into the Regional Authority and ultimately AT).
    The old Auckland Electric Power Board along with some other NZ power utilities had undergrounding programmes with aesthetic and resilience objectives. Unfortunately when the electricity distribution industry was placed on a more commercial footing, these programmes died out as they were not ‘economic’. Also government regulatory agencies would not allow lines companies to make any return on undergrounding existing overhead lines. Hence lines companies will generally build new works underground where required to meet District Plan requirements, but will retain existing overhead networks indefinitely (they can be maintained indefinitely like Captain Cook’s axe – three new handles and two new heads over the years).
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:59am
- Southern Raider
  
  10 or so years ago Vector was racing through suburbs undergrounding all the lines, then it all come to a grinding halt and nothing has happened since
  
  Any thoughts on why this is?
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:14am
  - peterwn
    
    See my posting. We must have hit ‘send’ at about the same time.
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:57am
- Viking2
  
  Got to tell you that when I lived in Lower Hutt many years ago we were subject to many blackouts.
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:26am
  - waikatogirl
    
    We have underground power. No blackouts.
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:40am
  - peterwn
    
    Yes, and the old Hutt Valley Energy Board had an aggressive undergrounding programme starting 1990 or so (which I was deeply involved with). Industry changes put a stop to it. If the Board had been allowed to continue existing, all urban areas in its patch would have been undergrounded by now.
    
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    April 13, 2018 11:02am
  - Right of way is Way of Right
    
    Oh the memories. When I was growing up in Alicetown our home phone number differed by one digit from the Hutt Valley Power Board. Whenever we had a blackout, and with the added challenge of manipulating a rotary dial telephone in the dark, our home phone would start to ring incessantly!
    
    That is why I resolved to never, ever take a job in a call centre!!
    
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    April 13, 2018 11:50am
    - peterwn
      
      I was in a flat where the phone number was one digit from the automated weather forecast. Callers got a shock when one of the flatmates would give an ad-lib forecast. Post Office kindly allocated us a new number.
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:40pm
    - peterwn
      
      There were engineering branch offices in Porirua and Upper Hutt. There was an old geezer who would answer the phone with ‘Porirua Power Board here’. He answered that way when a senior manager from the Castle (the main office in Lower Hutt) phoned up and all hell broke loose.
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:53pm
      - RF
        
        One of my mates in student days used to answer the phone with “Hong Kong Fire Station”.
        
        He could write book concerning the responses.
        
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        April 13, 2018 4:38pm
      - KiWombat
        
        If the phone rings between 5:30 and 7:30pm I generally answer “Soft Touch Massage Parlour.”
        
        Its saves me having to spend 10 minutes with telemarketers why I dont want to sell my house, why I don’t need insulation in the roof or why I don’t need HRV or any of the myriad of other things they call about at dinner time !
        
        I did have fun with them once though. They came to quote on painting my brick & tile home, which they had “noticed” was in need of a spruce up !
        
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        April 13, 2018 8:21pm
Inandout

Duncan, who really cares about the car under the tree, it is not urgent?
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April 13, 2018 8:02am
- peterwn
  
  It is urgent when pigeons are about to poop all over it.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:05am
- alex Masterley
  
  If it is the car still under the tree opposite the PMs electorate office it should be urgent.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:13am
  - hullkiwi
    
    What, her electric Tesla is a “basket case” like Auckland?
    
    What leader goes and says the leading commercial city of their country is a “basket case.”?
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:44am
- Paulus
  
  Of course when there is no electricity Electric cars cannot work.
  One man complained the other day that he could not get to work for that reason.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:16am
  - artemisia
    
    Then there are those who had to stay home from work because their various electric exits didn’t work.
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:22am
  - MCos
    
    Perfect storm round at our house.
    Woke up. Daughter crook could I look after granddaughter? OK.
    Phone battery on 3%. Couldn’t open roller door. Son in law picked me up. Used daughter’s car to take child to daycare later on. Almost no petrol, but local bowser closed. Carried on regardless. Bought camping gas cooker. Retrieved child & caught bus home. Started cooking tea in cold & gloomy house.
    Next minute we have power.
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:35am
    - MCos
      
      BTW
      If it wasn’t for our PI & Maori brothers Auckland would never get connected back to the grid again from what I could see.
      However there would be a lot of people available back in the office to tell the media how many people haven’t got electricity.
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:44am
    - peterwn
      
      Did you mislay the emergency key the installers provide when installing a door in a ‘coffin’ garage. This enables the manual release to be operated so the door can be lifted manually.
      
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      April 13, 2018 11:05am
      - MCos
        
        Ah Ha!
        I thought there must be a get out of jail free card!
        I’ll have a look through the pile of old manuals and stuff left to me by the previous owners.
        The house is a funny old place without electricity. My wife, whose childhood was spent in what we would consider deprived circumstances, would survive long after those of us who didn’t if the power outage was permanent.
        
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        April 13, 2018 12:34pm
      - rangitoto
        
        The auto garage doors at places were I have lived (and live now) have a simple lever release mechanism to free the door from the chain drive. I haven’t come across one that needed a key but maybe the newer ones do?
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:26pm
      - peterwn
        
        Rangitito – there is an inside release. However with a ‘coffin’ garage with no internal access or side door, the installers fit a lock thing on or beside the door with a wire cable fastened to the release. You turn the key, pull the lock out and pull on the cable while opening the door. Since this is rarely used, Murphy’s Law dictates that you cannot find the key when you most need it.
        A locksmith would soon pick the lock open and make a key for $100 or so (there may be key number stamped on the inside of the thing which would save a bit of time).
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:47pm
    - dave_c_
      
      ‘Failing to plan, is planning to fail’
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:36pm
  - Holly Roggerz
    
    Wait till the government transitions to electric vehicles, next emergency, flood or whatever there wont be any assistance because when the power goes out, so do their cars…
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:24pm
holysheet

The police knocked on my door. An officer said, “We’d just like to inform you Sir, that whilst you were at work, a black male was apprehended trying to break into your property.”
“Golly!” I exclaimed.
The officer cautioned, “We understand your anger Sir, but lets just stick to referring to him as a black male.”
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April 13, 2018 8:04am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  In order to lose your job in the UK for repeating such a joke, what classification of person would you need to be?
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:12am
- VicParking
  
  We have arrested him but have allowed him to sell the items he stole from your yard to pay for his bail
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:13am
- fernglas
  
  If you are going to tell racist jokes, could they at least be local rather than pinched from the Brits?
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:21am
  - VicParking
    
    The police knocked on my door. An officer said, “We’d just like to inform you Sir, that whilst you were at work, a brown male was apprehended trying to break into your property.”
    “Horrible” I exclaimed.
    The officer cautioned, “We understand your anger Sir, and we know his name was Bill and he is a Maori but you should not call him a “Hori”
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:26am
    - fernglas
      
      Now I see why we we pinch jokes from other countries. Thanks VP.
      
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      April 13, 2018 8:36am
      - RF
        
        Classy…..
        
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        April 13, 2018 8:59am
    - Ed Snack
      
      The latest version is:
      
      The police called me at work. An officer said to me that a person of unknown appearance had broken into my home while I was at work. Unfortunately while he was inside my elderly little terrier had barked at him and he panicked and tried to jump back outside the window in a hurry, and injured himself on the glass still in the frame.
      
      As a result they had to shoot my dog, and I owe them $2K for the expense of cleaning up, plus a further $10K payable to the intruder for carelessly having a dangerous animal around and having a broken window that he could injure himself on. And the intruder gets to keep my property in part compensation, and the house is a crime scene and I can’t go back in for a week.
      
      When I expressed my displeasure particularly at the shooting of the small dog, I was arrested for a hate crime and for being white and male. But on the good side I should be out again in under 10 years.
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:14am
  - Longknives
    
    I have to say- I have seen a shitload of Maori etc jokes flying around Facebook/Social Media of late.
    Many are in response to discussion threads on Julie Ann Genter and Jacinda Ardern’s (who openly supported her remember) revolting attack on White Males.
    
    Have The Left (Looking at you ‘Dame’ Devoy) ever thought that by ranting on about White Men all the time they may be sparking a backlash? And may in fact be promoting more ‘Racism’ in New Zealand??
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:21am
  - kowtow
    
    If you’re going to write posts could you at least do them in the local lingo rather than pinch it from the Brits.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:21am
- kowtow
  
  Yep , cops these days seem to think scum rate higher than honest citizens.
  
  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5606801/Scotland-Yard-Commissioner-says-laying-flowers-not-crime-death-burglar-tragedy.html
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:19am
Swifty

Political quiz question of the day!

Which NZ government politician does this description best fit? (No Googling please)

“As well as his gluttony, he is also obtuse, lazy, racist, inquisitive, deceitful, slothful, self-important and conceited. These defects, however, are not recognised by him. In his own mind, he is an exemplary character: handsome, talented and aristocratic; and dismisses most of those around him as “beasts”. ”

Answers on the back of an envelope please.
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April 13, 2018 8:09am
- KiWombat
  
  Sounds like Shane Jones to me
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:14am
- VicParking
  
  The COL front bench
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:15am
- Paulus
  
  Grant Robertson.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:17am
- Shaun the Sheep
  
  Norman Kirk
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:25pm
- Shaun the Sheep
  
  David Lange
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:25pm
Monique Watson

Jacinda gets in bed with Taika.

Hope she enjoys her last junket before Bubs comes along and ruins her sleep-ins for the foreseeable.
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April 13, 2018 8:09am
- waikatogirl
  
  Cindy and Taika-whatever. Half a brain between them.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:15am
  - sooty
    
    Commie Cindy likes Tika Mesala. Who cares if she likes Indian.
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:25am
oldpark

NZ guy wins a gold medal for mountain biking. That is almost completely ignored listening to the news coming out of the Newstalk newsroom that the winner had caused hurty feeling to some our so called broadcasters.
Perhaps the real reason was the “Coalition of Corruption and Chaos” sycophants in Newstalk ZBs Newsroom were running true to form hiding the massive backlash that the decision to destroy the oil industry in NZ and Taranaki is causing for the well being of NZs well being and way of life.
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April 13, 2018 8:13am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  We should be lauding his efforts, and taking note, because the Labour Party would like to see all of us on bikes!!
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:16am
- Paulus
  
  Sad that we will have to wait until the 2020 election – but the irreparably damage that is being wrought is
  unable to be calculated as it will be so great,
  But we are told by the media that we voted for a change, so suck it and see, as it will only get far worse quickly.
  Even Winston was right in his forecast – he is a major part of it.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:21am
- VicParking
  
  Red Radio is still telling us we are fourth on the medal Table when we are actually sixth
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:30am
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    Now now let’s not measure things by numbers
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:05am
    - sooty
      
      Yeh, they don’t do that with NCEA exams!
      
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      April 13, 2018 2:08pm
- Harkman
  
  They say the road to hell is paved in good intentions. Yesterday’s act was pure treason, nothing else. Look at Norway, they get the oil out of the ground, they then use the money to go “carbon neutral” NZers simply have no money for greeny schemes. We all have cars that run on oil and will in future. By not using our oil we have to use that of foreigners: Venezuela’s, Middle Eastern and Putins, that is causing violence by giving them money.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:13am
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    Can I uptick that a few thousand times?
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:30am
    - Shaun the Sheep
      
      #metoo
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:27pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Andy’s Turangawaewae.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:48am
Steve (North Shore)

Larry La Prise, the man who wrote “The Hokey Pokey”, died peacefully at age 93.
The most traumatic part for his family was getting

him into the coffin.

They put his left leg in – then the trouble started!!!
Shut up! You know it’s funny
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April 13, 2018 8:14am
- waikatogirl
  
  Oldy but a goody.
  Did you mean he was doing the Hokey Tokey while eating Hokey Pokey perhaps? ?
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:18am
  - fernglas
    
    Hokey Cokey, wasn’t it?
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:31am
    - waikatogirl
      
      That’s what I had originally fernglas, but was informed by an older gentleman it was not Cokey, but Tokey, as opposed to Pokey. Each to their own, or I should have googled it!
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:38am
    - VicParking
      
      Hokey Cokey was the last supply I got from my dealer
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:42am
      - fernglas
        
        I had a hokey tokey off mine. A class C controlled dance step, rather than your class A.
        
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        April 13, 2018 9:54am
      - Ed Snack
        
        And just a couple of weeks back I had a Tokay that wasn’t hokey at all. A good 5 puttonyos drop.
        
        No hokey tokay around here !
        
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        April 13, 2018 10:20am
  - Steve (North Shore)
    
    Many spellings depending on the source
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:43am
    - Ed Snack
      
      And the sauce sometimes.
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:21am
      - waikatogirl
        
        Back in the day, a great hooley to be had with the Hokey Cokey being played.
        
        Ladies bring a plate! ?
        
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        April 13, 2018 10:46am
Andrei

So the OPCW have released their findings on what poisoned the Skripals

We only get to see the executive summary

It tells us SFA, it uses the term “toxic chemical” not “nerve agent” and certainly not word “Novichok”

It gives the formally Great Britain a fig leaf of cover in the final three conclusions

10. The results of analysis by the OPCW designated laboratories of environmental and
biomedical samples collected by the OPCW team confirm the findings of the United
Kingdom relating to the identity of the toxic chemical that was used in Salisbury and
severely injured three people.
11. The TAV team notes that the toxic chemical was of high purity. The latter is
concluded from the almost complete absence of impurities.
12. The name and structure of the identified toxic chemical are contained in the full
classified report of the Secretariat, available to States Parties.

Meanwhile according to GB Yulia Skripal doesn’t want any contact with her family or the Russian Government – yeah right she is a fucking hostage IMHO.

She’s supposed to be dead but embarrasingly somehow survived being poisoned with an extremly pure nerve agent 10 times more deadly than VX
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April 13, 2018 8:15am
- EAD_TWO
  
  https://www.globalresearch.ca/yulia-skripal-is-plainly-under-duress/5635804
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:29am
- Ed Snack
  
  No, Julia Skripal wasn’t necessarily supposed to be dead, her father was the target.
  
  That report may be a “figleaf” but if correct that OPCW confirms the identification that is significant; as is the fact that it is a high purity sample and probably not a one-off preparation.
  
  And all poisons have the same feature, the dose makes the poison. Even the most deadly nerve agents are survivable at some level of exposure. As understand it these specific agents are primarily deadly when inhaled but also act through skin contact at higher concentrations. So if administered via contact what would be a lethal inhaled dose may not be necessarily lethal.
  
  Still not complete proof that the Russians did it, but significant backing for the British.
  
  Funnily enough, I am inclined to believe that the Russians did poison Skripal based on MO and motive. But I’m also reasonably convinced that the latest Syrian attack is a “False Flag” by jihadists wanting US assistance against Assad. Latest snippet, despite a claimed 40 deaths locally, no funerals observed, and the jihadists exposed staging already dead bodies into photo ops at different sites. Let’s hope that the US has the sense to reconsider before launching any attacks.
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:31am
  - rangitoto
    
    A Russian ex military guy claims the attack on the Skripals was most likely carried out by Russian “deep state” and was unlikely to have been authorised by Putin.
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:29pm
    - Andrei
      
      And an English professor told me the moon is made of green cheese
      
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      April 13, 2018 2:43pm
- chiz
  
  Not sure what relevance any of your points have Andrei.
  
  Despite what many inept media reports would have you believe there is no single compound called Novichok. The term actually refers to a number of fluorinated organophosphates developed in the same place. In essence its an informal name for a group of related compounds. The Brits have said its a Novichok agent, but not which one, and the OPCW have confirmed that the brits identified it correctly. The fact the the report doesn’t use what amounts to a nickname means nothing.
  
  Oh, and the TAV team notes the chemical was of high purity because of the almost complete absence of impurities? Personally I would have thought that was a tautology but according to you it means something … nefarious?
  
  Evidence that Julia Skripal is a hostage? None. She doesn’t want to talk to the Russians because she believes that they are responsible for trying to kill her and her father.
  
  The fact that she survived isn’t that strange. Organophosphates break down rapidly in the right conditions. Someone probably misjudged the weather that day, and how long it would take the Skripals to return home. There are any number of other straightforward reasons why the Skripals may not have received the dose intended. Julia Skripal’s statement is ambiguous but appears to hint that she may be suffering from health problems as a result of the poisoning.
  
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  April 13, 2018 2:01pm
  - Andrei
    
    Oh FFS Chiz – nobody has seen Yulia Skripal for 6 weeks
    
    She did manage to phone her cousin and have a brief conversation lasting 90 seconds…
    
    But it is the British Government that is talking for her now
    
    If she was a Kiwi girl secreted away by the Chinese Governement would you buy any of it?
    
    I strongly doubt it
    
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    April 13, 2018 2:47pm
    - chiz
      
      Nobody has seen her for 6 weeks because she has been unconscious in hospital for most of that time. She has only just got out, and wants her privacy.
      
      Its unclear what health effects she has suffered as a result of the poisoning but it might include impacts on her motor control and ability to speak. If so, that would make her understandably less keen to talk to the media.
      
      Any other Kremlin talking points you want to regurgitate?
      
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      April 13, 2018 5:00pm
Monique Watson

I’d like to say I’d snorted coffee or tea over that one, Holy, but I’m on the taper-down after Spring Break, so I snorted Beer. Morning Beer. Liver is fine. Thanks for asking.
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April 13, 2018 8:18am
Humble Capitalist

If this Peters was on the opposition benches to this lot of decisions and behaviour can you imagine how many enquiries he would have called for so far.
Secret documents, dodgy meetings, dodgy voice messages, attempted blackmail, threatening board members, dodgy use of NZDF resources, seemingly random regional spend and going against cost benefit advice, dodgy Mt Albert housing development that just doesn’t stack up.
I could keep going but what a two faced bitter old beast Peters is.
He wouldn’t have been behind the oil/gas decision so it makes you wonder how much he got in return for that concession.
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April 13, 2018 8:18am
- Paulus
  
  I am still trying to find an Epitaph for Peters but cannot get low enough yet.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:22am
  - sooty
    
    Hopefully you will find it, because he may need it soon.
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:28am
  - VicParking
    
    Maybe his payoff is a State Funeral?
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:32am
    - RF
      
      Maybe he will get the same offer Hitler gave Rommel. Rommel chose a state funeral.
      
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      April 13, 2018 8:48am
    - kaykaybee
      
      It’ll have to be horse drawn hearse……
      
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      April 13, 2018 2:46pm
      - Humble Capitalist
        
        And horse shit everywhere
        
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        April 13, 2018 5:06pm
  - simo
    
    The Epitaph would be prefixed with the word pond and suffixed with the word scum. Remember the Guinness ad:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUeI0bzigEY
    W”C”P is in the final stages of devolution.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:49am
  - Komata
    
    Paulus
    
    Re: ‘I am still trying to find an Epitaph for Peters but cannot get low enough yet’
    
    There’s an easy solution: If / when you find one just put it on the BOTTOM of his tombstone; you can’t get any ‘lower’ than that (and if its terrible / honest enough, he’ll have no choice but to look at it forever…)
    
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    April 13, 2018 11:10am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    how about:
    Clever
    Uncompromising
    Never Cowed
    Tenacious
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:17pm
    - simo
      
      The magic “C” word fits with the champs in the COL – Michael “C” Cullen MCC – Chris “C” Cahill CCC Winston “C” Peters WCP…. you get the drift here….
      
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      April 13, 2018 4:42pm
- pdm
  
  PM for longer than the rest of us hope or expect.
  
  That has to be the deal.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:31am
- redeye
  
  You need to add Eugenie Sage’s interference in EPA staffing to this list. We cant have scientists disagreeing with the socialist agenda can we? Disgusting creep.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:35am
- Justitia
  
  One imagines he received the Greens’ pledge to support for his waka jumping bill in return for agreeing to the Greens’ plan to destroy New Zealand’s energy sector. It’s all a matter of priorities.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:09am
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    No waka jumping bill is going to save NZF having their arse handed to them in the next GE.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:28am
    - sooty
      
      Will they even stand a candidate in the by election. If they don’t, what does it say?
      
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      April 13, 2018 12:57pm
    - Paulus
      
      But sadly we cannot wait that long until 2020 – the current damage will be increased and be irreparable.
      Perhaps they will change the political term and extend it a few more years after 2020.
      Yes – they can do whatever they like.
      Cindy’s daughter will be a Labour List MP by then.
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:37pm
- marcw
  
  His pay off is the Green’s support for his anti-democratic waka jumping bill. They will have drawn a line and demanded this at least – otherwise they would have scuppered the CoL passing the bill by abstaining or voting against it.
  
  Interesting to see how much the Greens would sell their soul for a treasonous piece of legislation – all it took was the guarantee of an act of economic
  vandalism, supported by a petition signed by 1% of the population.
  
  God save us.
  
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  April 13, 2018 6:37pm
EAD_TWO

On one hand we have the people who own our MSM kvetching about Russian interference in American elections, while at the same time our MSM – Michael (((Rubin))) to be specific – today in said MSM calling for the America Government to assassinate Assad:

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/its-time-to-assassinate-assad

Hypocrisy much?!?!?
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April 13, 2018 8:18am
- Andrei
  
  We all know the elites of the “Anglosphere” are superior beings appointed by God to act as judge, jury and executioner over lesser mortals such as uppity A-rabs who wont abey the dictates of Washington, London and Paris
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:26am
  - EAD_TWO
    
    “We are doing God’s work” as Lloyd Blankfein famously said…
    
    One thing that especially gets to me with Syria (and with most of the global issues a few of us talk about here – i.e. those not distracted by our own bread & circuses) is the total inversion of truth and morality by governments and the people who control the MSM. Calling truth lies and lies truth.
    
    It really is a crime against humanity what’s gone on in Syria and it’s been wholly initiated, supported and maintained by “Western”, Israeli and Middle Eastern governments. All of whom have been accusing the good guys – the Syrian and Russian governments of doing exactly that which they themselves are guilty of. Bastards.
    
    It’s an easy path into wondering about the metaphyical realms of dark forces and evil when observing what we’re seeing there and what’s being done to and in Europe.
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:35am
oldgolfer

The photograph of Jones with his hand over his face as Cindy thrusts a blade into Taranaki – and NZ – should be used on all future NZ First election advertising.
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April 13, 2018 8:21am
- VicParking
  
  There is a better one from another angle that has Jimmy ‘Two Mothers’ Shaw with a smug smile on his face while the Jones boy rips his face off.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:36am
  - oldgolfer
    
    Not the one I first saw, but tells the story nevertheless.
    
    https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/p/c/k/5/1/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620×349.1pcbrt.png/1523504402691.jpg
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:47am
- Dave Mann
  
  Which photograph? Have you got a link please, or a description of where to see it?
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:37am
  - lifesgood
    
    Go to Geoff@News of New Zealand on twitter. He’s well worth following
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:04am
    - Dave Mann
      
      Many thanks – but I’ll pass as I don’t use Twitter, but thanks anyway. Cheers
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:25am
      - redeye
        
        This one Dave
        https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/1/p/c/m/8/2/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.620×349.1pcny6.png/1523513863975.jpg
        
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        April 13, 2018 12:05pm
  - waikatogirl
    
    The photo of Shane during Cindy’s oil ban announcement with his hand on his face like he has the biggest headache in the world. That photo!
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:42am
- Swifty
  
  Or by National for that matter….just think of the billboards:
  
  “Just look at what their own team think of this policy…”
  
  “NZF’s true feelings revealed….”
  
  “Shane Jones knows what everyone else is thinking….”
  
  “Jacinda announces economic sabotage…..Facepalm!”
  
  Edit – added one more.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:42am
- tf78
  
  Was the picture meaning to depict the three unwise monkeys – Cindy will hear no evil, James doesn’t mean to do evil and Shane can’t bear to see the evil.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:43am
  - pdm
    
    Not sure about this one tf78.
    
    If there is evil on offer Jones will be in the thick of it.
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:55am
- Humble Capitalist
  
  Had enough?
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:07am
- Rachael Membery
  
  Looked like, see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil.
  
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  April 14, 2018 10:14am
sooty

Liam Dann in the herald. “Is Winstons predicted downturn coming.” Of course its coming you idiot. He bloody caused it! Just take the oil industry as an example!
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April 13, 2018 8:22am
- Harkman
  
  When will this guy teach his little brother Dopey how to ask hard questions of the left.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:17am
kevn

Just watched Garner with Judith Collins and twyford.
twyford is such an arrogant know all prick. Can’t wait for him fu*k off with a big shove out the door.
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April 13, 2018 8:34am
- waikatogirl
  
  “Be quiet Phil, this is serious” – Judith Collins
  
  Go Judith. ?
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:36am
- lifesgood
  
  How do I get to see that?
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:02am
  - waikatogirl
    
    TV3 on Demand I guess
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:43am
- Humble Capitalist
  
  Now I’m not a violent man Mr Fawlty but I’d love to see that smugness wiped from Twyford’s face
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:10am
  - Harkman
    
    Twyford, Winston, Robo and Shaw. There’s a growing list of who I’d love to punch. Gotta rule out Shaw though, can’t hit girls.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:21am
- Tricati
  
  It was a very revealing interview with Garner pointing out that the Labour pre -election manifesto did not refer to Oil & Gas exploration closure and that the government consultation with the industry was a phone call the night before to say it’s happening.
  This is consultation is at odds with what Megan Woods has said so needs further scrutiny as I think Ms Woods is being very scarce with the truth.
  Judith was very accurate when she called Twyford a bully, as that is the only way he can debate an issue he knows is bullshit.
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:01am
- Scott
  
  I thought Twyford didn’t come across well at all. He repeats the far left claim that anyone who disputes climate change is a climate change denier. This of course is to link them in people’s minds to holocaust deniers, which is a totally unrelated thing.
  No wonder Labour MPs come in on the list. They seem so dislikeable that no electorate would ever actually vote them in.
  
  Lastly I think Garner is overly aggressive to the MPs and talks to them in a belittling way. Democracy is not possible unless we show proper respect and at least politeness to our elected officials.
  
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  April 13, 2018 11:52am
  - Kimbo
    
    So when these guys wrote this:
    
    Creation denial, or creation denialism, is willful ignorance of the evidence for creation and against evolutionism. One who engages in creation denial is called a creation denier or a creation denialist.
    
    Open-minded people, when presented with the evidence, recognize the correctness of creationism. However, creation deniers persist in their delusion, most likely to support the atheist agenda and the homosexual agenda.
    
    http://www.conservapedia.com/Creation_denial
    
    …it was a nasty rhetorical trick by (to quote you) “dislikeable” people to link Darwinists with the Nazis? 😉
    
    Also, Twyford is not a list MP, but the MP for Te Atatu.
    
    Also, I’d suggest our democracy is much more robust than you imply. Indeed, sometimes, to get their job done right, and in the face of mendacity and obfuscation, some impoliteness is necessary. But then it’s like Kiwiblog isn’t it? Everyone’s in favour of “respect” for politicians…when they are ones they respect and/or agree with.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:03pm
    - Scott
      
      Nothing to do with creationism. I must say you are starting to stalk me again? Linking with a totally unrelated issue. But look Kimbo you seem to be an angry Christian who wants to pick fights with other Christians, especially me. And you are in a denomination of your own. All the Reformed people I know are the most fervent supporters of 6 day, young earth creation.
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:44pm
      - Kimbo
        
        So calling someone a “climate-denier” links them (to quote you) “of course” in people’s minds to Holocaust denial…but to call someone a “creation denier” presumably does not, indeed it is (to quote you again) “totally* unrelated” to the topic. Ok…but then so too is…the Holocaust. ?
        
        And you need to get out and meet more Reformed people. The essence of the Reformed faith is studying the Scriptures diligently, not just conducting an opinion poll among a couple of Dutch dairy farmers or flower growers who struggle with English, let alone Biblical Hebrew or Greek. ?
        
        But no, you don’t make me angry. It’s just that, like that Reformed Minister I mentioned, it seems everything you say is wrong** and self-serving. And as you choose to deem it a Christian opinion/viewpoint, and no one appointed you the spokesperson for my faith, then I’ll exercise my prerogative to point out why I disagree.
        
        Don’t like it? Don’t post in a public place called “General Debate”. ?
        
        * that looks like a breach of Kimbo’s law: “in blogworld the validity of an argument is in inverse proportion to the use of emphatic adverbs”.
        
        **with the exception of your prediction that Donald Trump would win the presidency in 2016. Yet again, I congratulate you for your prescience.
        
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        April 13, 2018 4:42pm
      - Scott
        
        Kimbo – thanks for your comments. On reflection I think I was off base in my comments and wish to apologise.
        
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        April 13, 2018 5:27pm
      - Kimbo
        
        That’s ok, and thank you. And no matter what I think of your comments, as I have said on a number of occasions, they are always stimulating and interesting.
        
        And yes, there is an element of truth in your “stalking” observation, but have no fear, I’m no bunny boiler. ?
        
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        April 13, 2018 5:34pm
    - KiWombat
      
      Twitford DID come in on the list, in 2008.
      
      Then he sat and waited for a winnable electorate to contest !
      
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      April 13, 2018 4:37pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Yes. And seeing as he replaced the loathesome Chris Carter, Scott may have a point about Labour MPs being “dislikeable”. ?
        
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        April 13, 2018 4:49pm
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    Respect should always be earned, not just given.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:04pm
    - Scott
      
      Well I am disturbed generally the way our media people talk to our politicians. The general sense of disdain is palpable. That can’t be good for thoughtful dialogue that gives the viewer or Listener a better sense of what is actually going on?
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:46pm
RF

Ardern is at it again.

Surrounding herself with faithful green followers at the Victoria Uni. She craves public adoration as it combats her inferiority complex.

She does not have the guts to front up to those in the provinces who will be disadvanataged by her decision to pull the plug on future oil / gas exploration.

Instead Angry has gone cap in hand to grovel.

She is a high maintenance flake and the type requiring constant reassurance.

Combine that with a mongrel that will not stay on the porch and keeps chasing neighbourhood bitches and you have a disaster in the making.

What an environment for a baby.
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April 13, 2018 8:40am
- pdm
  
  `Instead Angry has gone cap in hand to grovel.’
  
  As I understand it Angry did not volunteer to go – he was sent.
  
  Fancy sending the man who couldn’t even win the usually safe Labour New Plymouth seat not once but twice he failed.
  
  How dumb is Taxcinda.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:00am
  - Harlequin
    
    With a bit of luck he’ll be sent back by the locals; tarred, feathered and riding a [light] rail.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:11am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    PM in waiting?
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:53am
  - Chris R
    
    pdm: You’re right. Little Angry was never top of the pops in New Plymouth. Since he’s grown his beard he has come to look like an old soak on a 5 day bender and his voice is inflected with more slurring than ever before. The Angry Andy jaunt into “enemy territory” proves what a gutless ill-equipped clown we have as a PM for not fronting! Shane Jones will get a hiding in Taranaki if he ever shows there.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:56am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Cindy is truly gutless. She portrayed the choice to front at Vic Uni rather than New Plymouth as fronting u to the people most affected by the ban. Some bull about cos they were younger. It must really grate with the workers and business owners from the industry.
    Also said she takes nothing for granted when talking to students, apparently it can go either way. Guess that justifies the expense to bus in some sycophants.
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:06am
  - KevOB
    
    Return to sender.
    
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    April 13, 2018 11:23am
- Humble Capitalist
  
  You could see how egotistical she is with her reaction to the applause from her rent a sycophant crowd when she announced it.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:17am
- septic skeptic
  
  They even bussed in sycophants to ensure a rousing reception for Cindy. I guess she was always going to be fairly safe a Vic Uni – no engineering faculty!
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:57am
- KevOB
  
  Hints. We need certainty. The PM is exposed too by implication. If Gayford snorts does she?
  
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  April 13, 2018 11:24am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    If it was true, The PM would share with us all, wouldn’t she?
    She seems to like telling us every little, itty bitty bit about her fab life.
    
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    April 13, 2018 11:41am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Hiding from the people she is hurting again, Like Michael Jackson is only comfortable hanging out with children who won’t call her out for her bullshit. Witless protection.
  
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  April 13, 2018 12:22pm
  - kaykaybee
    
    When is she going to do something about child poverty and homelessness?
    With the money she’s splashed around for rich kids university and other stuff she could have single handedly bought them all three bedders in Sandringham.
    
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    April 13, 2018 2:51pm
  - RF
    
    Heck Urban you struck gold.
    
    The commie chick is a dead ringer for Michael Jackson.
    
    Not physically as he is deceased but she has picked up his “I like little children and feel safe with them around me ” syndrome.
    
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    April 13, 2018 4:47pm
Maggy Wassilieff

NZ makes it to the World’s most viewed site on global warming

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/04/12/new-zealand-bans-offshore-gas-and-oil-exploration/
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April 13, 2018 8:42am
- tf78
  
  Thanks Maggy, that’s funny.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:48am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Oh, some of the comments are even funnier….
    New Zealand is full of sheep.
    And they’re getting fleeced.
    
    Those blokes are full of the “new zeal” for sure, Aptly named little theme park.
    
    Who cares? They are in the middle of nowhere so irrelevant to the global economy, or anything much.
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:56am
    - stephieboy
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      MW,
      
      Conservatives probably can’t be persuaded on climate change. So now what?
      
      One more round of “messaging” won’t do it.
      
      “When it comes to climate change, US conservatives inhabit a unique position, as part of the only major political party in the democratic world to reject the legitimacy of climate science and any domestic policy or international agreement meant to address it. Instead, the GOP is working actively to increase production and consumption of fossil fuels and to slow the transition to renewable energy.
      
      How can conservatives be moved on climate change?
      
      I recently heard a podcast that helped me order my thoughts on this perennial debate. It was Political Research Digest, a weekly 15-minute research round-up hosted by Michigan State University political scientist Matt Grossman for the Niskanen Center. (Grossman is the author of Asymmetric Politics, a crucial text for understanding American political parties. The podcast is nerdy and good.)
      In the third episode, Grossman takes a look at some recent literature on climate change opinion and how, if at all, it can be shifted among conservatives…”.
      
      https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/11/10/16627256/conservatives-climate-change-persuasion
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:02am
      - axeman
        
        Vox FFS. Fuck off Walphy
        
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        April 13, 2018 8:45pm
    - Chris R
      
      My wife works for an energy company in its Perth WA office. There were rumblings about this stupid idea of the CoL all last week but they were generally met with disbelief that any country like NZ with a wealth of resources could do such a thing as banning exploration. NZ is a joke in Australia now that this lot clearly wishes to bury what was up until recently a genuine “rockstar economy.” Taxinda is a grave embarrassment to us all.
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:04am
  - RF
    
    Yep. The world is laughing at our NZ PM Trixie Twinkle Tooth. That’s a new one !!!
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:18am
- Luke Piewalker
  
  Yep about sums up Cindy
  
  …. ‘perhaps the New Zealand government has a secret power unicorn breeding farm they will shortly announce to the world’
  
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  April 13, 2018 11:17am
niggly

So Andrew Little went to Taranaki last night to face the locals. Seems the locals weren’t too happy but had the good grace to hear him out and not chuck rotten eggs (or dildos) at him.

Perhaps they were still in shock and the anger will start to build. Fancy having Little and Jones telling NZ’ers the claim that “even people from Taranaki realise they need to transition away from energy” (BS they would).

Now considering Taranaki provides $$ hundreds of millions $$ to Govt in the way of royalties etc, exports $$ hundreds of millions/billions more $$, how insulting and deceitful it is for the COL to claim that Taranaki need to transition …. to what exactly?

Media commentary and energy insiders have said the same thing – the COL has not produced a plan for their futures!

Industry stated they were expecting to have a “conversation” as per Labour signalling that earlier – looks like Labour can’t even commit to having a so-called fucking “conversation” – the one thing Labour are good at, apparently! //

Then the COL talk about giving some money back to help them plan the transition (to what exactly??) and point to last week’s Regional Funding initiatives. Without re-looking that up, IIRC it was a few million dollars to restore a historic church and $20 to upgrade a walking track!

That’s insulting, considering how much billions $$ the energy industry is worth to that region (and Govt receiving $300-500m back in royalties) ….. the COL are promising absolute peanuts in return!

It’s like the COL are living in the early 1800’s trading blankets and muskets for land – pure tokenism! The COL are screwing Taranaki (and NZ) big time! Just like Labour/Greens have screwed over the West Coast (no logging etc) and made that region relatively poor!

Shame on senior Labour MP’s who should have known better (than follow Jacinda’s and Green’s climate change feelz and unicorns stuff)! Shame on NZF – the so called champions of the regions! They both have collectively lost the next election!

People of Taranaki need to show their contempt and anger towards this virtue signalling Govt – because for all the damage they will cause it won’t help international “climate change” one little bit, as NZ will need to continue to import (heavier grade) oil and gas to power its transport networks, industry and for everyday consumer use!
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April 13, 2018 8:43am
- Inandout
  
  Taranaki people are used to being laid off, but not merely because of government stupidity. All the oil industry suppliers may as well close or move offshore.
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:55am
  - niggly
    
    National have to clearly articulate they will overturn this Labour’s stupid” decision to give confidence to the people of Taranaki and the industry.
    
    Yes I know National have slammed Labour and NZF first hard over this (and will continue to do so, after all this issue isn’t going away – it’ll be an albatross on NZF’s and Labours necks), but I haven’t seen enough news to be sure they have taken this to the next level of declaring they will over turn this and restore confidence in the industry and marketplace.
    
    After all it’s not like the COL will be returned to Govt in 2020 (and like a few people here I expect the COL to fragment a lot sooner than 2020)!
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:02am
    - waikatogirl
      
      Simon described Liebour cancelling off-shore drilling as “using a wrecking ball on the regions” and has said this policy will be overturned by National.
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:11am
      - niggly
        
        Thanks WG, that’s good to hear!
        
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        April 13, 2018 9:13am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        That’s good, but sadly he can’t restore business confidence. Business now knows that New Zealand is capable of electing a Government that is stupid enough to take ruinous decisions such as this, and the shadow of that will rest over business investment decisions for a long while
        
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        April 13, 2018 9:19am
      - Keeping Stock
        
        And therein lies the problem. Getting oil and gas out of the ground is expensive, and requires significant capital investment. But what investor is going to direct his dollars to a country that has declared its hostility to the oil and gas industry?
        
        The flow of cash into Taranaki will dry up way before existing permits expire, and that’s where the problems will start.
        
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        April 13, 2018 9:51am
      - Ross12
        
        As I’ve said on another blog the damage from an investor point of view, has been done and it is huge damage. It is just like in the US where President Trump “reopened” the coal industry but no company is in a hurry to build a modern new coal fired power station because they worry about the risk of the Democrats getting back in and reversing the policy.
        Similarly now in NZ.
        So Bridges and his legal guys need to start work NOW constructing contracts that cannot be broken and probably look at lengthening the “lease” time on the blocks. The other aspect is there has to be some certainty around getting the mining licence if the exploration is successful. NZOG with their Canterbury drilling operation is fine to still go ahead with the drilling but if they find gas they have to get a mining licence to extract it. So as it stands their drilling permit is worthless unless they can get the mining licence.
        
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        April 13, 2018 10:49am
- Ross12
  
  Agree niggly except this is not a regional issue –it affects us all.
  I think the Greens played the politics well on this(unfortunately) –I think they raised this issue much earlier and got rebuked. To remind the PM that she was dependent on their support they gave the question time allocation to National. The PM got worried and caved into their demands like a spineless lapdog.
  The agriculture industry better be prepared because Green Peace will have already issued instructions.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:01am
  - niggly
    
    Fully agree Ross, just used Taranaki as the obvious example but yes it does affect other regions and the nation, all of us.
    
    Even including the virtue-signalling lefties (along with everyone else) who will resent paying $5/L for petrol at the pump, the return of car-less days if overseas oil shipment imports from SE Asia are disrupted due to regional conflicts, not being able to enjoy exquisite meals prepared by quality chefs using gas to cook with! 😉
    
    Yes I think you’ve hit the nail on the head, the Greens have outflanked NZF on this and Labour have conceded an almighty concession to keep the Greens (and the COL) stable. As Industry says, they were told prior by Labour there would be ongoing dialogue and “conversations”, but suddenly at 5am yesterday (I heard on radio reporting) Labour announces this policy. Very weird (and hasty) timing – what’s up with that?
    
    The COL starting to crack perhaps (Greens forcing the issue? NZF swallowing Green rats)?
    
    Where’s Winston, the DPM & NZF leader, on such a crucial issue, who has left Jones to carry the can? Very, very fishy and it smells bad!
    
    Winston knows he is dead-meat if he fronts this – MSM should try and find him to comment – will be “hilarious” as he tries to evade and spin the issue! I bet he’ll just get angry and attack the media to deflect the issue!
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:12am
    - tf78
      
      Why do governments always kowtow to the Greens on major issues which have a detrimental affect on the whole country.
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:23am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yep,
    I expect there will be massive hits coming to folks farming or growing crops in a manner deemed “non-organic” by some statutory body.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:18am
- godruelf
  
  Now he is no longer leader Andrew Little will be now be able to work tirelessly to win the New Plymouth electorate in 2020. His campaign has started already
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:05am
  - KKKKatee
    
    He will never win New Plymouth. He’s far too despised there. And the idiot they put up last time around – Corey someone – who had a badass background won’t cut it again either.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:19am
    - Humble Capitalist
      
      Little couldn’t win a raffle even if he had the only ticket
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:25am
  - oldgolfer
    
    Little will be lucky if he gets out of there alive.
    Pleased to see (TV1) he arrived in a big, thirsty car.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:52am
- Humble Capitalist
  
  Where’s the plan guys. Where’s the f*cking plan???
  If gas is gone in 10 years whats the f*cking plan???
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:23am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    The plan is to shit all over everything they can in the next 2.5years in the name of ideological purity, and leave it to the grown-ups to repair their damage after they have been voted out.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:35pm
- Harkman
  
  So Taranaki is the richest part of NZ, it votes for National, so what did they do? Destroy it.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:23am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Yeah, I guess not all regions are equally important to NZF. They only need to buy one electorate seat with the slush fund.
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:14am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Farmers next! Let’s destroy the filthy Kulaks!
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:36pm
- Chris R
  
  Maybe Shane Jones is looking forward to being abused in Taranaki? Fort all we know it’ll satisfy him more than a hotel room S&M film???
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:07am
- KevOB
  
  …Taranaki need to transition …. to what exactly?
  
  Meat production without high methane efflusion.
  A new rabbit industry free from Southern calicivirus. Pasture aplenty.
  
  Rabbit meat is great in stews. Rabbits don’t need housing either.
  
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  April 13, 2018 11:33am
sooty

So did the Commie Cindy jump on a plane as soon as she shafted the oil industry to high fly it on her junket to europe?
Did she place herself in the witless protection program?
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April 13, 2018 8:47am
- niggly
  
  Jacinda really needs to stop traveling to these events like CHOGM. I mean fancy wanting to remind other world leaders she is clueless and talks in virtue-signalling slogans! How embarrassing for NZ!
  
  Let alone she being a hypocrite using a fossil-fueled aircraft belching out thousands of tons of carbon emissions!
  
  And what’s wrong with “beaming in” via video-conference as a demonstration to the world of how seriously she takes this whole issue of “climate change”? Think of the world-wide attention (and positive reviews) she would have gained! She would have been on the front cover of Time magazine etc!
  
  But no, in true Orwellian expose of double-standards she takes the form of transport she doesn’t want the rest of the plebs to carry on using!
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:55am
  - KKKKatee
    
    Indeed. May as well make the most of fossil-fuel until it runs out! Carbon emissions? What carbon emissions? Pffft! UK, here I come. Wahoo!
    Now, if the Consort doesn’t go with her, then we will be asking questions, won’t we? BTW – has she banned farting not only in her own house, but has she banned all MP’s from farting? Gotta walk the talk PM and lead by example. That’s a good start in reducing carbon emissions.
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:21am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      First class return trip to Europe consumes about 15 tonnes of fuel. Economy about 3 tonnes. #Letsbehypocriticalaboutthis
      
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      April 13, 2018 12:44pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Niggly: Points very well made.
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:29am
  - KevOB
    
    It’s a long trip and thrombosis is a risk. She seems to risk all for publicity.
    
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    April 13, 2018 11:36am
  - Shaun the Sheep
    
    While she’s here in London Adern (and Trudeau) will meet with school children to find out the issues that concern them.
    All organised by the LMoL.
    
    Good grief.
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:41pm
David Garrett

At last count, we had 13 second time killers – defined as someone who has been convicted of murder or manslaughter, served a sentence, and then on release killed again.

I am advised that we now have 14 such persons – the killer of a young woman in Christchurch has also killed before, and done time for the murder of a young woman. He was released by the Parole Board because his behaviour in prison was “exemplary”… thus illustrating yet again that behaviour in prison is no indication of how prisoners will behave in the real world…particularly where their killings have a sexual element, as both of this man’s have.
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April 13, 2018 8:59am
- Harkman
  
  Just don’t tell me he’s in Chch and I’ll be fine.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:25am
- Scott
  
  So have you changed your mind on capital punishment? We can be 100% certain there is no recidivism.
  Otherwise locking them up at taxpayers expense for their whole natural life. Which is very expensive and means you have killers in jail who are very high risk to others because they have nothing to lose.
  
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  April 13, 2018 12:00pm
  - Kimbo
    
    I think you will find David Garrett supports capital punishment in principle, but acknowledges it is almost impossible to implement in NZ, so would rather agitate for more productive and achievable law and order measures.
    
    Also, it costs more in the USA to execute someone compared to life imprisonment, although admittedly that is due to their long and complex system of appeals. But similar tactics would be used by anti-capital punishment activists and lawyers if we ever brought it back.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:14pm
    - Harkman
      
      Yes the death penalty is just a cash cow for lawyers. Economically the smartest move is slave/hard labour. Get the crooks to make better motorways for free I say.
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:45pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    For those jailed for life (no hope of rehabilitation) We should just outsource their incarceration to somewhere a lot cheaper – put it out to tender to the 3rd world, which would probably only cost a few percent of current costs. If they escape then contractor have to pay a massive penalty (millions), if they die they have to pay a small multiple of whatever they would earn in over the next period of incarceration.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:49pm
twofish

Help ‘Anti-corruption whistle-blower’ Penny Bright save her home!
https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/help-anti-corruption-whistle-blower-penny-bright
Appealing for $21,000
This cause page was created on 10 Apr 2018 and closes at 23:59 on 20 Apr 2018.
$2,440.00 donated 31 generous donors, already
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April 13, 2018 9:01am
- fernglas
  
  $21,000 won’t save her home. She needs at least $34,000, which is what the judgment was for, and she needs to pay it, not put it in some “escrow” account, to be paid out when the Council does what she wants. She is getting desperate, and it is her own silly fault.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:06am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Is her partner helping?
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:45am
    - RF
      
      Partner as in woman who wears comfortable shoes or does she play a straight bat.
      
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      April 13, 2018 12:15pm
  - KevOB
    
    She takes her own counsel.
    
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    April 13, 2018 11:39am
    - stigie
      
      She’s fucked i believe !~
      
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      April 13, 2018 12:12pm
- Yvette
  
  Penny, have you made a mistake in your Give-a-little page? …
  
  “Funds raised will go towards the $20,000 in outstanding Auckland Council rates to be paid once ‘the books are open’. In any event monies collected for outstanding Auckland Council Rates, will be paid by the 20th April 2019 – it will be held in escrow till this time.”
  
  If this is a mistake it could be confusing as well as costly.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:10am
- Thought Criminal
  
  She’s a nut bag who should pay her rates but these don’t seem like unreasonable things for councils to be doing:
  
  * The unique contract number.
  
  * The name of the consultant /contractor.
  
  * A brief description of the scope of the contract.
  
  * Contract start and finish dates.
  
  * The exact dollar value of each and every contract, including those sub-contracted.
  
  * How the contract was awarded, by direct appointment or public tender
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:48am
  - graham
    
    Not forgetting the petition that is also under way:
    
    https://www.toko.org.nz/petitions/halt-the-forced-sale-of-penny-bright-s-house
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:57am
    - sooty
      
      Had to laugh at the people signing, Micky Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy Dog, Phill Goff.
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:10pm
- septic skeptic
  
  The very worst outcome for the rest of us would be for enough idiots to help Penny pay the arrears. If that happens, the whole performance will probably be repeated.
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:19am
starboard

Legitimate question.. How many of those repeat offenders were brown?
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April 13, 2018 9:03am
- David Garrett
  
  starboard: Seven of the fourteen repeat killers were Maori or PI
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:10am
  - lifesgood
    
    That’s 50%…And what percentage are they of the total population?
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:17am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Maori = 15% population
      P.I. = 7.5% population
      (2013 census)
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:22am
      - Harkman
        
        Actually if you add up the ethnicities counted it comes to like 104-107% or something, which is idiotic but many are only part Maori ticking two boxes. The true Maori/PI pop is lower.
        
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        April 13, 2018 9:29am
    - fernglas
      
      50% of the prison population
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:59am
  - Longknives
    
    “Seven of the fourteen repeat killers were Maori or PI”
    
    Undisputed proof that our Police are Racist!!
    As they make up less than half of our Population…
    
    *Can I have my Masters in Criminology now?
    
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    April 13, 2018 9:29am
    - David Garrett
      
      Knives: Yes, absolutely! In fact just nick up and see John Pratt at Victoria and he’ll make you a junior lecturer…no need to wait for the degree to be conferred.
      
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      April 13, 2018 9:48am
BeaB

Anyone who thinks there’s something fishy about the whole Middlemore saga should read Matthew Hooton’s article in this morning’s Herald.
I suspect we are going to be in for many more stories from this inept crowd who don’t know how to govern but do know how to confect scare stories.
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April 13, 2018 9:04am
- tf78
  
  If any of it were true you can be dam sure that Annette King would have been all over it – not a dicky bird.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:32am
Dave Mann

Good morning readers. The team at Calendar Corp wishes you a very happy Friday 13th….!

A special greeting goes put to members of our agriculture and tourism industries who look set to follow the energy exploration sector down the big yawning toilet of environmentalism and unsustainablility.
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April 13, 2018 9:08am
- David Garrett
  
  Dave M: Oh, it is too! Black Friday is on superstition I observe…won’t be going anywhere tonight!
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:11am
  - Harkman
    
    Hey David, I’ll tell you a funny one. Back in January 2012 or 2013 I noticed a mole I hadn’t seen previously between two toes. I worried for like a day and then called up a dermatologist down here that claimed to be ‘affordable.’ This was like Wednesday 11th and the secretary replied, “We have plenty of vacancies Friday afternoon.” I replied not realising the date, “Sure 1PM.” It wasn’t until later that I clicked, everyone was too scared to get a mole check on Friday the 13th. Ha.
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:56pm
Huevon

Geeezzzus…has anyone watched one of Jacinda’s recent Facebook videos? The only way I can describe her is….childish. These people are teenagers playing Government Ministers. We are so fucked.

And someone needs to tell her to not hold the phone on an angle below her face. Those teeth! Yikes!
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April 13, 2018 9:11am
- Longknives
  
  I fucking guarantee she is going to do some ‘Trudeau-like’ fake photobombs in the near future.
  
  ‘OMG OMG Jacinda just randomly appeared behind us’
  ‘She’s just sooo cool’
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:27am
  - axeman
    
    Can she be, like, our Prime Minister FOREVER!!!
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:56pm
Manolo

The crook’s defense:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5608765/James-Comey-claims-book-John-Kelly-said-Trump-dishonorable-firing-him.html
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April 13, 2018 9:15am
Fletch

The government’s “tax working group” wants to know if they are “taxing the right things” and wants you to have your say –

https://taxworkinggroup.govt.nz/have-your-say-future-of-tax/taxing-the-right-things

Have at it!
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April 13, 2018 9:18am
- Harkman
  
  So National had experts acting in the nation’s interest. Labour is getting activists to submit proposals on ideological grounds. This will only turn out badly.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:34am
- stigie
  
  They are going to tax the fuck out of us all….
  It won’t worry the “rich prick” but more concerning for the lower paid !~
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:40am
Rodney Randall

https://twitter.com/kelly_but/status/984323503762673664

“French patriots interrupting Islamic street prayer
It brought a lump to my throat…and I’m not even French .Europe is in a serious mess ….ultimately, there will be war”

You will be arrested if you protest Mass Islamic prayer in London parks contrary to the fact mass prayer in public parks is illegal.

Sharia Law alive and well in Europe.
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April 13, 2018 9:45am
Humble Capitalist

He will stop all those bloody immigrants coming in they cried.
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April 13, 2018 9:49am
- Jack5
  
  At least stop Muslim immigrants.
  
  NZ relies on UN-type foreign agencies to select its migrants.
  
  While Middle East Christians are largely shut out of this stream, we have Muslims foisted on us.
  
  https://www.nzcatholic.org.nz/2017/03/20/iraqs-christian-refugees-face-double-discrimination/
  
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  April 13, 2018 11:20am
  - stephieboy
    
    Jack 5 ,
    
    ” NZ relies on UN-type foreign agencies to select its migrants.”
    
    NZ agrees to a quota and makes decisions as to which refugees it will accept and subject to security clearances.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:41pm
  - Rodney Randall
    
    Great article that one!
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:12pm
Rodney Randall

Muslims have also taken to mass praying in the grounds of Westminster Abbey i.e. taking the piss.

No doubt they have an abundance of mosques within walking distance.

This sort of political posturing should be met head on.
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April 13, 2018 9:55am
- Longknives
  
  The footage I saw of Muslims chanting and praying in the grounds of Westminster Abbey made my skin crawl.
  Especially as (rather than moving them along) London Police were surrounding them and protecting them from horrified, disgusted and angry onlookers..
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:14am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    That can’t have been easy on the police.
    
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    April 13, 2018 10:56am
    - Inandout
      
      Or easy on the sheep-like Londoners.
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:59am
  - rangitoto
    
    Same thing with the old pensioner who killed the crim invading his house. The police are allowing the crims family to intimidate the old pensioner.
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:44pm
- RF
  
  Any bets on how long before we are seeing this mob on our streets.
  
  Our current temporary Govt would welcome them with open arms although I am confused as pre election Ardern was trumpeting a reduction in their numbers.
  
  That’s gone very quiet…. another lie perchance.
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:18am
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    They don’t do numbers this ‘government’. As long as it FEELS like immigration has dropped and FEELS like refugees intake has doubled.
    
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    April 13, 2018 4:55pm
- Rich Prick
  
  It’s a practice that should only be encouraged in the deeper parts of Venice.
  
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  April 13, 2018 10:37am
- stephieboy
  
  Rodney Randall,
  “.. mass praying in the grounds of Westminster Abbey ”
  
  Evidence?
  
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  April 13, 2018 12:42pm
  - Rodney Randall
    
    Steady on Stephanie. I imagine it must be very exciting to hear this.
    
    May I politely suggest you have a word in Rev. Dr. Fr. Michael John’s ear, and suggest that the congregation entertain some interfaith Islamic prayer worship on grounds of St Albans the Martyr?
    
    I appreciate that this is a big ask, and seeing as you have failed to tee up the Stormy Daniels Blue Ray evening, perhaps it would be easier to arrange some ‘interfaith’ worship downstairs at the Yoga Pantry? Incorporation of the ‘Downward Dog’ before assuming the prayer mat stance seems like an interfaith dialogue winner!
    
    Be haunting those malls lately?
    
    Anyway, looking forward to the 6th May
    http://www.saintalbans.org.nz/rosters.html
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:27pm
    - Kimbo
      
      Can’t understand the hand-wringing about churches being used by those of an alternative faith. A case of use it or lose it. So, just out of interest, when was the last time you went to church, Rodney Randall? ?
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:31pm
      - Rodney Randall
        
        Thankyou for your enquiry Kimbo.
        
        April 8th to record Evensong. Stereo omnis.
        
        A wonderful albeit dying tradition full of glorious ancient music.
        
        Merbecke is my favourite!
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:39pm
    - Kimbo
      
      But if and when you do, I recommend you steer clear of the Anglo-Catholicism of stephieboy’s St Albans, or even the Arminians of Scott’s Baptists. Calvinism is best.
      
      And as your prior research has revealed, at least when the Muslims take over you will have the doctrine of predestination in common with them. ?
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:39pm
      - Rodney Randall
        
        Thankyou for the advice Kimbo.
        
        I only attend small stone country churches on the odd ocassion for Evensong here and there.
        
        Rangiora put on a beautiful service last Sunday. The local organist is incredible.
        
        There really is some musical talent tucked away in the backblocks
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:47pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Yes, I can imagine if anyone does rural small parish Anglicanism well in this country, it will be the People’s Republic of North Canterbury. ?
        
        Joking aside, what’s your take on the rebuilding of the Cathedral in your diocese?
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:49pm
      - Rodney Randall
        
        “Yes, I can imagine if anyone does rural small parish Anglicanism well in this country, it will be the People’s Republic of North Canterbury”
        
        I prefer to hear ancient English church music in a live setting from time to time. It’s not everybodies cup of tea, but a good choir ( if intonation is on point) and a stirring organ can be wonderful to listen to. Cathartic!
        
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        April 13, 2018 2:18pm
      - Rodney Randall
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLHfbGoChy4
        
        The Nicene Creed: John Merbecke
        
        John Merbecke (c. 1510-c. 1585) is most remembered today for his plainsong setting of the Anglican liturgy in 1550. By 1531, his name headed the list of choristers at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. He was arrested in 1543, charged with heresy and condemned to death for owning and writing a nearly completed English concordance of the Bible and Calvinist papers. The Bishop of Winchester won a reprieve for him, while the Windsor martyrs burned at the stake are considered the first English protestant martyrs.
        
        Released from imprisonment, Merbecke returned to St. George’s until his death. In 1550, Archbishop Thomas Cranmer asked him to provide service music “containing so much of the Order of Common Prayer as is to be sung in Churches.” Reformers considered that Plainsong had been used from time immemorial but had given way to an “operose” and intricate style of music in which the people could neither take part nor perceive the meaning of the words, even if they understood Latin. The intent was to return to a simpler style that could be understood and sung by the entire congregation, based on the principle “for every syllable a note.”
        
        In the same year that Merbecke wrote “The booke of Common Praier Noted”, he expressed regret for his Catholic compositions and association with the Chapel Royal and affirmed his Calvinist leanings, writing that “. . . in the study of music and playing on organs, I consumed vainly the greatest part of My life.” His book and the 1549 edition of the Book of Common Prayer became obsolete with the release of the 1552 edition of the Book of Common Prayer.
        
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        April 13, 2018 2:24pm
      - Kimbo
        
        So Merbecke as a faithful servant of the reforms initiated by Cranmer during the reign of “our young Josiah”, King Edward VI (1547-1553). Am assuming without googling that he ended up, like Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer et al, as one of the 300 Protestant martyrs during the subsequent reign of Edward’s mad, bad, sad Catholic half-sister, Mary I.
        
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        April 13, 2018 2:41pm
      - RF
        
        Kimbo.
        
        Can I jump in here. A relation of mine was involved in the building of the Cathedral way back.
        
        I have been in it pre earthquake and during a visit to Christchurch post earthquake managed to get up close. It’s now a time capsule with the floor ankle deep in pigeon shit.
        
        I believe it should be demolished and rebuilt with a combination of original and new design.
        
        I believe the good citizens are divided about its future that now been taken out of their hands.
        
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        April 13, 2018 6:25pm
Awww C-mon

Troll School day 3, I hope you are enjoying a daily chat Stephie-learner

Point #3, know your subject matter.

Trolling is fun, but only if you know what your talking about. I’m all for dropping a smart arse one-liner, but when called out to back up your quips it is important you can with clarity. Inability to do so lets to you becoming discredited and the mocking changes from you giving out, to you receiving ( a little bit like that time you asked the Mrs for anal and she put on a strap on and bend you over)

Knowing your subject matter also means articulating the point in your own words, not just being a C&P warrior from your favourite websites (or doing a Hugh).

This public service announcement was funded the ACM advisory board, because if Labour can have one every 4 days, I want one too!
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April 13, 2018 10:37am
- stephieboy
  
  AwwwC-mon, I think the key point is to post an item that you simply might dislike .
  
  Examples ,
  
  1 It challenges and may disagree with your fundamental assumptions e.g silly conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, Clinton body count, false flags etc
  
  2 An uncritical and silly adulation of Donald Trump and the media like Fox News, Alex Jones and Breitbart that support him.
  
  3 A paranoid and hysterical fear of Islam and Syrian refugees.
  
  If you support me on the any of the above then great. Copy and paste of not
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:25pm
  - Awww C-mon
    
    The question is Stephie-repeat, is can you build your own argument first and then use supporting evidence.
    
    There is a habit of ‘citation please’ comments, which is a valid question. Conversely a link or citation with no comments from the poster to give context should be questioned
    
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    April 13, 2018 2:36pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Awww C-mon,
      
      If posters make what I consider to be a dubious or unverified claim then I every right to ask for verification via citation to access its authenticity and credibility.
      
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      April 13, 2018 3:27pm
      - Salacious Crumb
        
        Which you will then rebuke because it does not meet your criteria of being of a post-modernist neo-Marxist leaning?
        
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        April 13, 2018 5:42pm
oldgolfer

Anyone else notice the item buried deep in One News last night about welfare providing tents – yes, tents – for the homeless in Auckland?
They had Twyford on saying it has to stop.
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April 13, 2018 10:40am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  So if Twyford can’t give them houses and won’t give them tents is he going to invite them to stay at his place?
  
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  April 13, 2018 4:05pm
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    Sleepover at Phil’s. Labour youth party theme. Don’t bring your pyjamas.
    
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    April 13, 2018 5:01pm
Jack5

The University of Auckland closes its engineering library and throws out 10,000 books to save costs, while the other main traditional engineering university – Canterbury – offers a degree in “Maori and Indigenous Leadership.”

The country’s tertiary education sector is being weighed down by the PC movement to embrace Maori indigenous learning, which is essentially oral and myth-based, and technologically Stone Age – Neolithic.

There was little wrong with the universities’ old Western-style linguistic studies of the Maori language, of studies of Maori history, and of the humanities “sciences” studies of the many aspects of Maori life.

But now not only do we have several tertiary institutions run by Maori and partly based on Maori traditions and culture, but our traditional universities are moving to ever greater content and spending on Maori subjects.

It’s not only Maori studies, of course. You can now do a Ph. D. in social work, and at our old agriculture universities, once internationally leading in their fields, you can get degrees in swathes of odd topics, many of them Green.

How long before there will be BA’s or Bscs in carpentry and plumbing? This while Germany, a country with truly high technology standards, focuses its training on apprenticeships in hundreds of jobs (including white collar work), bolstered by part-time training in institutions similar to our old technical colleges.

If I had teenage kids now, I would encourage them to go to Germany for vocational training, but if they wanted some more traditional tertiary education, somewhere-else abroad.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/354932/no-book-burning-but-some-may-face-shredder-auckland-uni
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April 13, 2018 11:12am
- Jack5
  
  Who has allowed this drift?
  
  In Canterbury’s case have a look at the council (link below), and the latest vice-chancellor, Rod Carr, a former economist with the Reserve Bank.
  
  Note that one of the councillors has been appointed ” after consultation with Ngai Tahu”. That is the council has accepted designated Maori membership from the country’s richest tribe, and whose members comprise a very tiny proportion of the South Island population. Given Maori migration south in the last few decades, Ngai Tahu are now almost certainly a minority in South Island Maori.
  
  http://www.canterbury.ac.nz/about/leadership/university-council/council-members/
  
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  April 13, 2018 11:26am
- itstricky
  
  I don’t see why anyone should deny you the “satisfaction” of having a good old belly whine about Maori courses but -:
  
  (a) You’ve offered no evidence that engineering courses have been decreased;
  (b) You’ve subsequently quoted an article about cost saving by destroying outdated, damaged books, or those that are easily available online. This has nothing to do with a decline in engineering courses and you’re trying to draw a parallel that just doesn’t exist; and
  (c) Perhaps you should be happy that the University of Auckland are invoking such cost savings?
  
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  April 13, 2018 12:01pm
  - stephieboy
    
    istrtricky , well said. We are fortunate that there aren’t ignoramuses around like Jack5 having any input into Tertiary education policies and development.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:34pm
    - Jack5
      
      Same Stephie X troll on roster today. Stephiestani punctuation capitalisation.
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:21pm
  - Jack5
    
    So the kapahaka degrees are being paid for out of Treaty settlements, are they Itstricky?
    
    Oh, that’s right …. deadhead Leftists think kiwi dollars grow on radiata pine.
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:20pm
    - itstricky
      
      I think you may have missed the bit where I said you were perfectly entitled to your whine about Maori courses.
      
      Other than that, this reply has absolutely nothing to do with the points that I raised about your original post.
      
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      April 13, 2018 2:29pm
      - Jack5
        
        (a) Itstricky, the king of socialist whine, tries to license out his franchise … but no thanks.
        
        (b) Auckland University has shut down its engineering library to shut costs.
        
        (c) It is considering shutting down other libraries.
        Get a non-illiterate acquaintance (if you can find one) to read this to you from the link, Itstricky:
        
        “The Architecture and Planning, Music and Dance, and Fine Arts Libraries were all slated for closure in favour of being merged with the general library.
        
        “Staff and students fear that thousands of books could be destroyed because there’s nowhere to store them, among them books from Elam’s fine arts library – the largest fine arts collection in the southern hemisphere.”
        
        Meanwhile, there are funds for new Maori degrees around the country.
        
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        April 13, 2018 5:12pm
      - itstricky
        
        Your personal insults belie your true thoughts, Jack. Wow! That was a big word for an illiterate person. Wherever did that come from? Must have got it from my literate friend. (notice how I used the positive and not a double negative? That was sophisticated. Oh, golly, there’s another one!)
        
        You’ve not producing an evidence whatsoever that there has been a decrease in engineering courses and you’re making, shall I say, weird excuses as to why you can’t.
        
        Universities are free to cost save in whatever way they want. Closing an old library or three to merge them and get rid of old stock isn’t an example of ditching an engineering course.
        
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        April 13, 2018 8:36pm
Stars And Stripes

Well as a resident of much talked about Taranaki(not an oil and gas worker though)here is my two cents worth on the latest machinations surrounding the new exploration ban.
Make no mistake the people in Taranaki will adapt and survive this ban because they are used to being shit on by central government so it’s nothing new to them.
We have endured a large portion of the fishing industry being put out of business thanks to the mythical Maui’s dolphin crap and the dairy industry has been a sustained target of haters and bedwetters for years but still it has kept it’s head above water
So yeah it’s a kick in the balls from a bunch of arm chair environmentalists and do gooders but not a fatal blow by any means.
As for National reversing it and being the saviour, well easy to blow all that hot air out their arses but did they reverse Working For Families and all the other “communism by stealth” legislation that they decried last time?.
NO so talk is cheap Simon and Co.
Funnily enough though some of the biggest losers out of this will be iwi in Taranaki.
While they virtue signal a lot about the evils of oil and gas and big business in general make no mistake they are all in bed with the exploration companies taking cash handouts for all sorts of programs for Maori in the region and making money hand over fist offering cultural assessments and blessings etc.
Now their income is going to be slashed it will probably just mean more historical grievances will be wheeled out on another front to try and suck cash out of someone else to make up the shortfall.
Fun times ahead.
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April 13, 2018 11:23am
- David Garrett
  
  Stars; I agree.
  
  As for oil and gas exploration being seen as a negative by Maori – according to some earnest woman on Nat Rad yesterday – I recall when it was positively and publicly welcomed. I recall working on a semi-submersible off the Taranaki coast in in 1985…it was a brand new rig drilling its first well.
  
  Early on in the piece we had a visit from three kaumatua who earnestly walked around the deck blessing the thing. At the end of their incantations they presented a Maori carving for the mess hall, and then sat down to a hearty lunch, before flying back to New Plymouth.
  
  What you say about the modern industry is 100% correct. Friends still in the business in Taranaki tell me that Maori objections on spiritual or other grounds mysteriously disappear as soon as the iwi in question is offered what is known as a “free carry”..i.e. a small interest in the well being drilled for which said iwi pay nothing.
  
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  April 13, 2018 11:51am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    Some researcher should study these cases of “Maori objections on spiritual or other grounds mysteriously disappear…”
    
    It could provide evidence of practices of organized criminal extortion.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:49pm
    - waikatogirl
      
      “It could provide evidence of practices of organized criminal extortion.”
      
      Extortion in maori is pronounced “koha”
      
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      April 13, 2018 2:28pm
Gravelroad

Here’s an idea for all the transport zealots:
Bring back carless days.
We had carless days back in the late 1970’s as a way of dealing with the “oil shock”.
Other measures brought in at the time to combat petrol shortages were to cut back the open road speed limit from 100km to 80km and to limit hours that service stations could sell fuel.
Sound OK?
We are half way there anyway with road speed restrictions predicted and if we had carless days, it would force all those people in Auckland to use the public transport on the days they aren’t allowed to drive their cars, wouldn’t it?
And with no more petrol produced here in NZ, any fuel shortages due to the cost of importing it, wouldn’t matter so much, either.
Yes, I really think carless days is the answer.
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April 13, 2018 11:47am
- VicParking
  
  Carless days were a pain for my family. Mum and Dad had to buy a second car each.
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:05pm
- Prince
  
  Unfortunately Carless Days were an insight into a Socialist infrastructure.
  Anyone with any ‘contacts’ around the Government could cadge an exemption sticker. I got one from a policeman friend. All my mates seemed to have one.
  It was a matter of who you knew in the bureaucracy.
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:12pm
- waikatogirl
  
  1979 carless days were introduced. Horrible time. What a way to annoy the majority of car owners.
  
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  April 13, 2018 2:31pm
stephieboy

Something positive for a change after the usual litany of Cindy etc whingeing and sulking from many KB posters,

Our PM Jacinda has announced the thrill of being invited to have a private audience with HM Queen Elizabeth II on her forthcoming visit to the UK,
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April 13, 2018 12:26pm
- rightoverlabour
  
  Yup, first item on the agenda will be how soon we are becoming a republic…
  
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  April 13, 2018 12:31pm
  - stephieboy
    
    rightoverlabour, I would say no differently to the former PMs Sir John Keys and Bill English etc.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:37pm
  - Piniwi
    
    Right rol her first time for meeting the Qheen and the last time NZ will be at CHOGM not necessarily for any dumb outbursts from the Commie Chick.
    
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    April 13, 2018 4:46pm
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    The Socialist Republic of Aotearoa
    
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    April 13, 2018 5:18pm
- Kimbo
  
  Why would she be thrilled? She’s wanting NZ to become a Republic.
  
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  April 13, 2018 12:37pm
  - cmm
    
    “She’s wanting…”
    
    Perhaps this is just what she’s saying because it sounds good in front of the luvvies.
    
    She (and her boyfriend) keep on yacking about carbon and climate change while they are both in the top 1% of carbon footprint generators. Clearly their actions do not agree with their SJW talk.
    
    Why should anyone take her word for her stance on republicanism? Let’s rather judge her by what she actually DOES.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:48pm
    - itstricky
      
      ADS
      
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      April 13, 2018 12:50pm
    - Komata
      
      Cmm
      
      Re: ‘By what she actually DOES’.
      
      But (aside from sprinkling magic sparkle dust and unicorn poo) what exactly does she actually DO?
      
      (Just asking).
      
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      April 13, 2018 1:02pm
      - cmm
        
        Reindeer poo more like: http://www.drugdiscoverytoday.com/view/14778/why-reindeer-love-magic-mushrooms/
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:48pm
  - itstricky
    
    I don’t particularly care for mountaineering. Can’t see quite what the fuss is about. Couldn’t care less if it didn’t exist. But I respect that some people get an adrenaline rush out of it, I can imagine the beautiful views, and I would be absolutely honoured (perhaps some would say thrilled) if I’d ever been able to meet Sir Edmund Hillary.
    
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    April 13, 2018 12:49pm
    - Kimbo
      
      Yeah, but you aren’t wanting to level Mt Cook/Aoraki, much less Mt Everest. Which is the equivalent if you had chosen the appropriate analogy. ?
      
      And tell me you only used that emphatic adverb, “absolutely honoured” to get my attention. ?
      
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      April 13, 2018 12:52pm
      - itstricky
        
        Eww – came back at me with not one, but two upper cuts! Well done.
        
        Now.. I don’t care that much for boxing but I would have been … … … thrilled to have been able to meet Muhammad Ali…
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:02pm
      - Jack5
        
        Would you have tried to rub noses with him, Itstricky?
        
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        April 13, 2018 1:26pm
      - itstricky
        
        I think you may have a bit of a bee in your bonnet.
        
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        April 13, 2018 2:38pm
  - Paulus
    
    Her Majesty’s standard reply will be “Well it is up to New Zealand to do what they want”.
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:51pm
    - thedavincimode
      
      And while she’s saying that Paulus, she’ll be thinking: “Good grief, how on earth did this unfortunate creature get elected? Whatever is going on down there?”
      
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      April 13, 2018 4:21pm
- thedavincimode
  
  Tell us budgie brain, why were porcelain chops and her baggage man hopping off airforce 0.01? Why didn’t they fly commercial and save the planet?
  
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  April 13, 2018 4:19pm
  - Komata
    
    TDM|
    
    Why is she using the RNZAF? becaue she is THE PRIME MINISTER (Mr Peters says so), so she just HAS to live up to the role (It’s expected y’ know).
    
    I’m sure the aircrew will be having an interesting time (especially the Cabin Staff).
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:33pm
    - RF
      
      Jethro will be setting a mile high club record. I hope Cindy does not catch him.
      
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      April 13, 2018 10:03pm
cmm

Anyone else getting tired of the people bleating about not having electricity and water?

When I got to NZ 25 years ago, it was a land of, generally, capable people who could survive a minor inconvenience and there was still the smell of No. 8 wire in the air. Even in Jaffaland.

During the EQ in 2010, people in wider Canterbury mostly had no real immediate problems. They had water stored, torches and gas cookers etc. Those in town were less prepared.

Now even people in the wop wops don’t have torches and water stored in their houses. They need emergency services to bring them these things. Pathetic!
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April 13, 2018 12:44pm
- stephieboy
  
  cmm, oh to turn the clock back to the magic times of kerosene lamps, wood or coal ranges and fired outhouse copper laundry manual washing.
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:01pm
  - Jack5
    
    Stephie X, re your “… fired outhouse copper laundry manual washing.”
    
    Do they pile on the adjectives in Stephiestani?
    
    9 1
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    April 13, 2018 1:27pm
  - cmm
    
    No, leccy is good stuff.
    
    But anyone that doesn’t keep a few days of water & food, a few torches, a first aid kit and a backup means of cooking/heating is irresponsible.
    
    One of the problems with some modern technology is that it is too reliable so people don’t have back up resources in place.
    
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    April 13, 2018 1:46pm
- fernglas
  
  Bloody millenials!!
  
  4 0
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  April 13, 2018 3:12pm
Rodney Randall

TAX PAYERS UNION

“Government proposed law change lets councils off financial leash

The Government has introduced a new bill to remove the last remaining fiscal restraint on local councils.

The Local Government (Community Well-being) Amendment Bill changes the ‘purpose’ of local government, removing reference to the core functions of councils and, incredibly, removes the requirement that councils deliver services “in a way that is most cost effective for households and businesses”.

Law changeIn short, the clear requirement for councils to be ‘cost effective’ is being replaced with a wishy-washy provision that councils promote the ‘well-being of communities’.

This change is very significant. In reviewing councils’ decisions, courts look to the purpose provisions. We are aware of many examples of local government spending proposals that did not happen because councillors were given legal advice that a judicial review may invalidate the decision because it is not ‘cost effective’. Removing the provision lets councils off the leash.

Local Government New Zealand – the ratepayer-funded lobby for councils – is “delighted” about the change. Little wonder: it will allow councils to, for example, hike salaries without increasing output, or spend ratepayer money on ‘cultural investment’ without budget constraints or cost-benefit analysis.

So far, the media has been AWOL on this issue, and the Bill passed its first reading this week without a hitch.”

https://ccc.govt.nz/news-and-events/newsline/show/2544

“I am delighted that moves are underway to reinstate the well-beings, recognising the vital work we do at a city level to deliver social, economic, environmental and cultural outcomes for communities,” LIANNE DALZIEL

Another delighted hack.
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April 13, 2018 1:08pm
- Jack5
  
  Great post, Rodney Randall.
  
  Lianne Dalziel and her Labour regime in Christchurch have been disastrous: $100 million library, big new town hall, blow out in council staff, sister city junket trips, bike tracks squeezing out parking and subduing return of inner-city business …
  
  Meanwhile potholes everywhere, parts of eastern suburbs still forlorn, sister city junkets …
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:33pm
  - Rodney Randall
    
    1 million lost on city care sale
    1 mil lost on failed lap
    
    750k to rebatch failed citycare
    
    and on and on and on the wastage goes
    
    She is walking disaster and more dangerously a UN acolyte
    
    5 1
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    April 13, 2018 2:46pm
  - RF
    
    Just wait until the final figure of the town hall repair is known…. it will blow up in their faces….
    
    Should have been pulled down…
    
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    April 13, 2018 5:24pm
- wiseowl
  
  Terrible change.
  The well-beings are straight out of the UN of course.
  
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  April 13, 2018 5:27pm
Hugh Pavletich

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Posted at … https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/04/sydney-home-values-fall-seven-straight-months/#comment-3086530 (behind paywall) … and … https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/04/links-13-april-2018/#comment-3086538 … and …

Brave New World? 64 Million Americans Live In Multi-Generational Households | Zero Hedge

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-12/brave-new-world-64-million-americans-live-multi-generational-households

The old America we knew, where living standards more than doubled each generation, has ceased to exist as new evidence suggests the percentage of Americans living in multigenerational households is at its highest since the post–World War II economic expansion.

Heavily indebted Americans are readjusting to a deterioration in living standards. Many of society’s lower-income consumers have already reshaped their lifestyles — towards living in a home with at least two adult generations. In other words, more Americans than ever in the last half-century are returning to their parents’ basement.

According to a new Pew Research Center report of census data, a record 64 million Americans, accounting for some 20 percent of the total U.S. population, lived in multigenerational family households in 2016, representing a three-decade continuous progression in this type of household formation — despite government propaganda that indicates economic improvements since the Great Recession. … read more via hyperlink above…

Record 64 million Americans live in multigenerational households | Pew Research Center

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/05/a-record-64-million-americans-live-in-multigenerational-households/

… It is a pity ‘costs out of contro’l governments at the local / state level, where they have lost the capacity to meet their infrastructure responsibilities, persist in BANNING the construction of affordable housing …

2018 14th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey

http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf

http://www.demographia.com/db-dhi-index.htm
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April 13, 2018 1:12pm
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  … and they have chosen to ignore the lessons of the great construction industry entrepreneurs William and Alfred Levitt following World War 11… who supplied new housing for young Americans for about 2.2 times (the norm then … single earner) household incomes … when products generally were in short supply and expensive …
  
  This Man Is the Father of Modern American Suburbia | Smithsonian
  
  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/smithsonian-channel/this-man-is-the-father-of-modern-american-su/
  
  … then … soon after … Malcom McLean created the modern container industry … dropping shipping costs dramatically … for example with what cost $6 with break – bulk cargo handling to just 16 cents with containerization ! …
  
  The Power of Outsiders – Video – NYTimes.com
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/video/business/100000004807604/the-power-of-outsiders.html
  
  … note here the extremely small costs of shipping selected items around the planet … so that transportation costs are pretty much irrelevant today in the whole scheme of things (thank you Malcom McLean ! ) …
  
  Malcom McLean and Containerisation | Maersk Line – YouTube
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iq8UU9kafJ0
  
  … so that today …
  
  1. Standard detached housing should not cost any more than 3.0 times annual household incomes of specific metros ( refer Annual Demographia Surveys ; recent Glaeser & Gyourko paper ; Recent Reserve Bank of Australia paper ).
  
  2. New fringe starter house and land packages should cost around 2.5 times … at development ratios of 20% serviced lot and the balance construction ( Definition of an affordable housing market http://www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning ).
  
  3. Apartment / townhouses should be around 2.0 times ( to illustrate refer Houston Association of Realtors Monthly Report ).
  
  4. Fringe manufactured house and land packages should be around 1.5 times ( refer Leaky Homes And An Architect’s Musing’s | Scoop News March 2010 published Interest Co NZ as ‘Houston: We have a housing affordability problem’
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:14pm
  - Rodney Randall
    
    Check out Phil Twyford Chris Lynch interview on ZB this morning Hugh.
    
    Twyford says the government has a term to sort out looking at boundaries.
    
    He also made some snide remarks about this not being the 1950’s Coincidentally weren’t nz’s building rates the highest they have ever been back then?
    
    Twyford is a lying parasite that is only interested in slums and rail.
    
    Keep em poor keep em voting left
    
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    April 13, 2018 2:51pm
    - Hugh Pavletich
      
      Rodney Randall … Many thanks indeed for your comments and drawing to our attention Housing Minister Phil Twyfords interview by Chris Lynch on Christchurch Newstalk ZB today.
      
      I do hope Newstalk ZBs Mr Lynch posts the interview.
      
      Since Christmas, Phil Twyford has been constantly talking dimwitted and unworkable density drivel.
      
      Kiwibuild is a laughing stock … that has been quite rightly slammed … left, right and centre.
      
      Labour Party housing policies are excruciatingly clear ! …
      
      Housing – New Zealand Labour Party
      
      http://www.labour.org.nz/housing
      
      … extract …
      
      Remove barriers that are stopping Auckland growing up and out
      
      Labour will remove the Auckland urban growth boundary and free up density controls. This will give Auckland more options to grow, as well as stopping landbankers profiteering and holding up development. New developments, both in Auckland and the rest of New Zealand, will be funded through innovative infrastructure bonds. … read more via hyperlink above …
      .
      INTEREST CO REPORT LAST NOVEMBER …
      .
      Speech from the throne pledges that Auckland’s urban limit will be removed and density controls will be freed up in this term of Government | interest.co.nz
      
      https://www.interest.co.nz/property/90780/speech-throne-pledges-aucklands-urban-limit-will-be-removed-and-density-controls-will
      
      It’s official: The Government is promising to remove Auckland’s urban growth boundary as part of the legislative programme for this term.
      
      In addition the Government’s pledging to free-up density controls in Auckland. … read more via hyperlink above …
      
      … AND HERE IS A SAMPLE OF THE HISTORY PHIL TWYFORD ! …
      
      Labours Support On City Limits (Abolition) Welcomed … Nick Smith (May 2016) … (then) New Zealand Government
      
      https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/labour-support-city-limits-welcomed
      
      The new position by the Labour opposition calling for an abolition of city limits has been welcomed by Building and Housing Minister Dr Nick Smith.
      
      “This is a welcome repositioning by Labour. Tight city limits and not allowing intensification is at the core of Auckland’s housing problems. It is limiting new housing developments, driving up section and house prices and encouraging land banking. … read more via hyperlink above …
      
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      April 13, 2018 3:31pm
      - Rodney Randall
        
        “Since Christmas, Phil Twyford has been constantly talking dimwitted and unworkable density drivel.”
        
        Exactly.
        
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        April 13, 2018 3:51pm
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        WHY IS PHIL TWYFORD REPEATING ‘THE GREAT BRITISH HOUSING DISASTER’ ? … WATCH & WEEP …
        
        Inquiry. The Great British Housing Disaster (Adam Curtis, 1984) – YouTube
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch5VorymiL4
        .
        .
        KIWIBUILD IS JUST ‘PISSING TAXPAYERS MONEY UP THE WALL …UNNECESSARILY’ …
        .
        .
        MBIE says Kiwibuild may be unaffordable for buyers | Kiwiblog
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2018/02/mbie_says_kiwibuild_may_be_unaffordable_for_buyers.html
        .
        .
        KiwiBuild – otherwise known as “pulling numbers out of your arse” | Infometrics
        
        http://www.infometrics.co.nz/kiwibuild-otherwise-known-pulling-numbers-arse/
        .
        .
        Rodney Dickens says section prices are the key to solving the housing affordability problem, not higher density around transport hubs. He warns against force-feeding in areas that won’t deliver the intended outcome … Interest Co NZ
        
        https://www.interest.co.nz/opinion/92556/rodney-dickens-says-section-prices-are-key-solving-housing-affordability-problem-not
        .
        .
        Minister fumbles over KiwiBuild details | Judith Collins | Scoop News
        
        http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1804/S00014/minister-fumbles-over-kiwibuild-details.htm
        
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        April 13, 2018 4:14pm
      - Humble Capitalist
        
        I like it that we are agreeing here that Twyford is totally out of his depth
        
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        April 13, 2018 5:23pm
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        Watch this appalling performances about the Unitec fiasco by Housing Minister Phil Twyford (two videos)…
        
        National’s Judith Collins says the likely small size of the dwellings in the new Unitec development housing area will put pressure on borrowers, as it means banks will require a larger deposit | interest.co.nz
        
        https://www.interest.co.nz/property/93052/national%E2%80%99s-judith-collins-says-likely-small-size-dwellings-new-unitec-development
        
        Bank lending restrictions on smaller dwellings may prove to be a roadblock for the Government’s KiwiBuild programme.
        
        But Housing Minister Phil Twyford insists he’s hammering out details with mortgage providers to overcome this issue and will have something concrete “within the next few months.”
        
        On Tuesday, National’s Housing and Urban Development Spokeswoman Judith Collins said the planned dwellings on the new Unitec development site will be too small and, as such, will force banks to impose lending restrictions. … VIEW (TWO VIDEOS) & READ more via hyperlink above …
        
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        April 14, 2018 4:09am
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        Mortgage standards panic seeps into MSM – MacroBusiness Australia
        
        https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/04/mortgage-standards-panic-seeps-into-msm/
        
        Via a panicky Domainfax and following this week’s WBC tightening:
        
        Tom Crowley, National Australia Bank’s acting general manager of home lending, said the bank was collecting “granular” details of a customer’s expenses, and it was keen to work with regulators and other lenders to improve their assessments of borrowers’ finances…. Read more via hyperlink above …
        
        … EARLIER REPORTS …
        
        ABC 7.30 Report does ‘liar loans’ and the interest-only time bomb – MacroBusiness
        
        https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/03/abc-7-30-report-liar-loans-interest-time-bomb/
        
        ABC’s 7.30 Report last night tackled irresponsible lending by the banks, which is expected to be under the spotlight of the Banking Royal Commission today. … VIEW & READ more via hyperlink above …
        .
        .
        AUSTRALIA: ABC’s The Business does liar loans – MacroBusiness Australia
        
        https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/03/abcs-business-irresponsible-mortgage-lending/
        .
        .
        … Pavletich comment on thread … the Irish experience …
        
        https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2018/03/abcs-business-irresponsible-mortgage-lending/#comment-3060351
        
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        April 14, 2018 4:53am
stigie

Fucking delightful as always Hugh !~
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April 13, 2018 1:18pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Stigie:
  
  We can rely on Hugh to provide lots of reading material (and hyperlinks) for us to read… and the same reading material tomorrow… and the day after!
  
  *Yawn*
  
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  April 13, 2018 2:02pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Woo hoo – at least 2 people love Hugh’s hyperlinks! 🙂
    
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    April 13, 2018 2:35pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      For my 3 downticker fans (I’m flattered):
      
      Google search results for “Hugh Pavletich” (about 27,600 results)
      Hugh’s blog (lots of hyperlinks there!)
      Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey (2005-2018 editions – so 14 reports in total).
      
      You’re welcome 🙂
      
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      April 13, 2018 3:03pm
Manolo

Looking to invest somewhere else:
https://www.nbr.co.nz/article/new-zealand-oil-gas-look-offshore-oil-da-p-214629
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April 13, 2018 1:27pm
- Jack5
  
  Greens – and Labour – will be in hiding when petrol and power prices soar.
  
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  April 13, 2018 1:42pm
Jack5

BBC will re-broadcast Enoch Powell’s “rivers of blood” speech to mark its 50th anniversary.

Will TVNZ or Radio NZ rebroadcast it?

Well, perhaps, at 2am on a Monday morning. Or, they might slash it to focus on the colourful bits.

If you want to hear it in full (read by an actor):

https://youtu.be/3MtIF6tw-Io

The BBC’s rebroadcast:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5609325/BBC-urges-viewers-wait-hear-Enoch-Powell-programme-judging-it.html
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April 13, 2018 1:51pm
- Jack5
  
  And David Frost interview with Powell:
  
  https://youtu.be/XGmNHMbxjfk
  
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  April 13, 2018 2:02pm
  - EAD_TWO
    
    I’m quite enjoying the hysterical reaction to Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood Speech.
    
    If he hadn’t been proven right, there would be no need to censor the reading.
    
    The truth will always out & the awakening of our people cannot be stopped.
    
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    April 13, 2018 4:51pm
- stephieboy
  
  Jack5 , glued to the speech with how many replays ?
  
  West Indians stilll the menace that Enoch thought they were?
  
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  April 13, 2018 3:20pm
johnny78

The hide of this so called govt is something to behold, after their big virtue signalling announcement on Taranaki they have the gall to say consultation was made with the industry (like talking to Greenpeace on parliaments steps?!) then they “front up” to students at Victoria Uni??!! So this is clearly a vote buying exercise for young, left leaning voters who like these ridiculous politicians clearly have no skin in the game, there is an obvious pattern here, either spraying taxpayer money around students to buy votes, spraying taxpayer money around the pacific to buy votes, or deliberately crippling industry and weakening the economy to buy votes….we actually pay these people to weaken our country for political gain???!!!!
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April 13, 2018 2:11pm
- Poppa
  
  Ardern does not front up to anyone important. She spends her whole existence going to schools & kindergartens so the kids can fawn all over her.
  
  I doubt she would know what a trading account or balance sheet looks like & yet she is quite happy to smash a whole industry including others who rely on it.
  
  Ardern has proven to me what a total fraud she is, making out she knows stuff but in reality has no idea. This decision will have ramifications for this country for years possibly decades & not in a good way
  
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  April 13, 2018 2:49pm
  - johnny78
    
    Well that’s right but people in NZ need to wake up fast and smell the roses…it’s like paying someone to vandalise your house so they can get street cred with their tagger mates…the msm as usual is largely pushing their line so many NZers are oblivious to the damage being caused…
    
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    April 13, 2018 3:18pm
sooty

How do you find out what cars each member of parliament have been allacated as their self drive transport?
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April 13, 2018 2:15pm
Jack5

ah, oh …

China is about to hold live-fire exercises in Taiwan Strait, and military observers say this is a sign of “geopolitical” support for Russia, as well as a message to Taiwan.

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2141505/surprise-move-china-mount-live-fire-navy-drills-taiwan
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April 13, 2018 2:38pm
- stephieboy
  
  Jack 5 , you just love the tinkle of sabre s rattling?
  
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  April 13, 2018 3:18pm
  - Jack5
    
    Tinkle, tinkle little ~~tarts~~ star
    Stephie’s the thickest twat by far.
    
    Tinkle is a sound you may dream about when you dream of your 72 permanently virgin houris in Paradise, Stephie X. Tinkles, titters, and cries of: “Yes, Great Master.”
    
    Perhaps even your very own Stephie mall to perve at the parades of houris.
    
    Stephie X, you've fallen for perhaps the biggest con of all time.
    
    However, sabres don't tinkle. Rattle when they're carried by cavalry, perhaps. But tinkling? I don't think so.
    
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    April 13, 2018 5:26pm
- fernglas
  
  Don’t worry, the US will sort it out. It could be very soon or not so soon at all. Taiwan will say “Thanks America” and will join China and the US in the TPP.
  
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  April 13, 2018 3:28pm
Nostradamus

An interesting day for Australian cricket broadcasting:

Cricket coverage faces major shakeup with Seven and Foxtel winning TV rights battle

Seven West Media has confirmed it has won the bidding war for Cricket Australia’s television rights. In a statement to the ASX, Seven said it had been informed its bid with pay-TV partner Foxtel to broadcast Australian international cricket games from the summer of 2018-2019 as well as the Big Bash League had been successful.
…
It is the first time that the Nine Network has lost the cricket rights in 40 years.

Australian cricket and Channel 9 have been synonymous for as long as I can remember. I grew up with Richie Benaud and Tony Grieg as commentators. I wonder who the new commentators will be? Will the likes of Mark Taylor, Ian Healy, Bill Lawry and Ian Chappell move across?
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April 13, 2018 3:20pm
- thedavincimode
  
  Hopefully if not an end, we will at least see some moderation of the oleaginous and obsequious commentary that we’ve previously suffered from the channel nine commentary fanbois.
  
  Edit: and above all else, not hire the slimey pom mark nichols.
  
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  April 13, 2018 3:55pm
Stars And Stripes

Questions about sexual orientation and gender identity are closer to being included in the census
http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/questions-about-sexual-and-gender-identity-are-closer-to-being-included-in-the-census
“Statistics Minister James Shaw said this lack of diversity had to change. He said being able to collect better data on people’s identities could help influence Government decisions, such as the community potentially requiring gender reassignment surgery”.

So the best reason he can come up with on why the government needs to know or even cares about your gender is so they can potentially identify people requiring gender reassignment surgery.
Well in my book that is one of the most lame reasons I have heard for a long time.
If we are going to set the need to know threshold at this tragically low level then maybe we need to ask census questions about whether people have sore arses in case they have undiagnosed haemorrhoids or maybe if they have itchy nuts because they might have a yeast infection that needs looking at by a medical professional.
The possibilities are endless.
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April 13, 2018 3:22pm
- Rich Prick
  
  I heard that being covered on RNZ this morning. I was asking myself the “why” question as well, but then a self-confessed genderqueer non-binary muxe (it had a youngish female voice … am I allowed to say that?) revealed the answer. It was excited at the prospect of filling out such a form. Freak-show affirmation appears the answer.
  
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  April 13, 2018 3:58pm
RW Capitalist

Question:
Will Auckland’s light rail, have overhead electric cables and therefore be subject to storms like this recent one.
or
Will it have an electrified rail, like British Rail or the London Underground? Leaving it open to the electrocution of the many idiots out there?
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April 13, 2018 3:23pm
- Brigitte
  
  Or perhaps more like the Swedish model (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/12/worlds-first-electrified-road-for-charging-vehicles-opens-in-sweden?CMP=twt_a-environment_b-gdneco), where:
  
  Säll said: “There is no electricity on the surface. There are two tracks, just like an outlet in the wall. Five or six centimetres down is where the electricity is. But if you flood the road with salt water then we have found that the electricity level at the surface is just one volt. You could walk on it barefoot.”
  
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  April 13, 2018 3:42pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    I wish we could just use a cheaper, lighter and more efficient solution like battery swapping. It reduces overall capital requirements and it’s not hard to do, just requires so common standards for electric car makers to stick to.
    
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    April 13, 2018 3:57pm
Nostradamus

Hopefully the New Zealand government and Transport Auckland will learn from this Australian light rail project: Sydney light rail sub-contractor Acciona claims NSW Government misled, deceived

Key points:

– The Spanish company building Sydney’s light rail is locked in a legal battle with the NSW Government
– The $1.1 billion lawsuit relates to power and water infrastructure which was affected by the project
– The project is overbudget and behind schedule

The legal claim:

Acciona said it was “induced” by TfNSW to enter a contract to build the CBD light rail from Circular Quay to Randwick and Kingsford on a “false premise”.

In documents tendered to the court, the company alleged it was made to believe electricity provider Ausgrid had reviewed and accepted the treatments of its utilities, but it had not. “Acciona … were prevented from communicating with Ausgrid in relation to how changes to utilities owned by Ausgrid were to be dealt with as part of the project,” the documents state. “Acciona were reliant upon TfNSW to ensure that utility services treatment in relation to Ausgrid was appropriately dealt with.”

The sub-contractor said a “critical part and key delivery risk” of the project was the treatment required to utilities services, including those owned by Ausgrid and other water and gas companies.

The company said if it had known that Ausgrid did not agree to the guidelines as set out in their contract with TfNSW, it would have not signed on for the project. “Acciona would not have executed the D&C [design and construct] contract because to do so in those circumstances was to expose Acciona to significant risk,” the documents stated.

With my commercial lawyer hat on, this claim looks flimsy. If power and water infrastructure issues were a “critical part and key delivery risk”, as Acciona claims, then they could have negotiated a condition precedent (requiring TfNSW to obtain written undertakings from the infrastructure owners) or a contractual representation and warranty linked to a termination right and damages claim.

It seems to me that one of two scenarios applies. One scenario is that TfNSW had significant leverage in the contract negotiations, and managed to screw down the other parties who were keen to get a slice of a big infrastructure project. The other scenario is that Acciona (and its legal advisers) missed a significant contractual risk.

Peterwn, are you out there? If so, given your expertise in relation to these sorts of matters, I’d be interested in your thoughts.
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April 13, 2018 3:34pm
- thedavincimode
  
  Nostra, I’d expect that being a liebour initiative they’ll use the same team that worked on the Novopay contract.
  
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  April 13, 2018 3:58pm
RW Capitalist

So Phylis Twyford is unwilling to resign if someone loses their job over this discontinuing of oil exploration. So Phil, did you notice that one group of people are CERTAIN to lose their jobs.

Those that tender for or forward claims for any new exploration zones.

Now that YOU and Jacinda have cancelled the next round of tenders.
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April 13, 2018 4:28pm
Monique Watson

My name is Jerlnack of the Trevlikfrah Nebula. That’s so you know what to scream.

Yes I have descended into the realm of alien jokes.
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April 13, 2018 4:43pm
lifesgood

If anyone wants to see an absolutely classic photo of Shane Jones at Cindy’s anti oil exploration announcement go to the WO post titled Shane Jones Caption Competition. It’s an absolute doozy and should be trotted out on a regular basis.
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April 13, 2018 4:50pm
- Salacious Crumb
  
  But Slater was a Winston First man. Surely he wouldn’t dare to be critical of the government his man put into power. That would be….hypocritical.
  
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  April 13, 2018 5:54pm
  - Kimbo
    
    Maybe Winston doesn’t pay him anymore. Makes you wonder if Whale Oil will start supporting the Palestinians if the ~~Israeli~~ Likud-funded trips dry up. ?
    
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    April 13, 2018 6:14pm
RF

I have a non political contact who in turn has contacts in the parliamentary buildings …

He has heard second hand that Labour may have pissed off the American Ambassador and in turn Trump. He believes it could be the commie chicks recent comments about Trump and his administration.

As a result it appears hell will freeze over before we get a deal similar to Aussie with trade deals etc. I know Parker is waiting by the phone but……………

May be BS but makes sense.

We all know Labour is anti USA.
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April 13, 2018 5:13pm
- MCos
  
  ‘I’ve danced with a girl, who’s danced with a man, who’s danced with a girl, who’s danced with the Prince of Wales‘
  
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  April 13, 2018 5:41pm
  - RF
    
    Yep I know it’s drawing a long bow but who cares.
    
    If the cap fits etc..
    
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    April 13, 2018 6:30pm
- Longknives
  
  Has any other Prime Minister or Head of State anywhere in the World been stupid enough to spout very personal insults about the US President??
  
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  April 13, 2018 5:50pm
  - thedavincimode
    
    That would be rob the goblin; our pioneer socialist and control freak who made klerkula look like a shrinking violet, in referring to Jimmy Carter as ‘just peanut farmer from Georgia’. To be fair to muldoon, he was no doubt too pissed at the time to exercise any discretion. (Whereas porcelain chops was just too stupid.)
    
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    April 13, 2018 6:15pm
    - Kimbo
      
      Here’s the thing: it says more about the pettiness of the supposedly great humanitarian Jimmy Carter that he took it as an insult. FFS, the mention of him being from Georgia was in accord with Carter’s own campaign selling-point that he was a Washington-outsider. And since when is being described as “a farmer” an insult in NZ? Muldoon’s political mentor, Keith Holyoke was a farmer…from Eketahuna!
      
      Says more of Carter’s pettiness, especially toward one of the USA’s staunchest allies. Shit, unlike the UK and Australia, Muldoon even passed on Carter’s idiot request to the NZ Olympic Committee to boycott the 1980 Moscow Games.
      
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      April 13, 2018 6:40pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Kimbo:
        
        Keith Holyoke was a farmer…from Eketahuna!
        
        Poor Nasska. He was happy living in the rural heartland, relatively unnoticed, until you shone the spotlight on his turf! 🙂
        
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        April 13, 2018 6:47pm
      - Kimbo
        
        I’d better get the correction in early as I posted from memory and googled later: Holyoake’s family originally grew tobacco in Riwaka near Motueka, and then, after he lost the Motueka seat in 1938, he moved north and became a sheep and beef farmer in Waitahora (not Eketahuna – but close!) in Pahiatua, from whence he was elected as the MP in 1943.
        
        https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5h33/holyoake-keith-jacka
        
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        April 13, 2018 6:53pm
      - nasska
        
        …..”Keith Holyoke was a farmer…from Eketahuna”….
        
        Although it is true that many of Eketahuna’s sons & daughters have served NZ well Keith Holyoake was not one of the number.
        
        He was originally from Mangamutu, a small settlement a few kilometres west of Pahiatua where his family owned a general store.
        
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        April 13, 2018 7:04pm
Nostradamus

Little faces Taranaki public over oil and gas decision

Andrew Little says the Labour Government still wants to hear feedback from those affected by its decision to end oil and gas exploration in New Zealand.
…
But he said the announcement was a consultation, and the Government was keen to hear feedback on what was needed in the transition. “It is not a waste of your time … to come back and and say this is how it will affect us. This is about working with you and the rest of the community on a sustainable future.”

How bizarre.
Step 1: Announce that “we’re ending oil and gas exploration in New Zealand”.
Step 2: Tell those affected that “we’re consulting with you”.
Step 3: Ask for feedback.

But hold on. Will this be a meaningful consultation process?

Let’s ask Jacinda Ardern:

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has delayed attending a state visit to personally receive a Greenpeace petition calling for the end of oil exploration.

Perhaps Andrew should have checked with Jacinda before declaring “[i]t is not a waste of your time … to come back and and say this is how it will affect us”.
17 0
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April 13, 2018 5:15pm
- Swifty
  
  Labout think NZers are stupid.
  
  12 0
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  April 13, 2018 5:34pm
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    Well given the numbers that votes Greens, Labour and Winston First they may have a point.
    
    12 0
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    April 13, 2018 5:56pm
    - Longknives
      
      I have never voted for Winston but I had a few older relatives who have.
      They utterly detest the man now- ‘He said he would keep the Greens out of Parliament’ .. ‘That bastard sold us out’ etc etc
      I would hazard a guess that 95% of NZ First voters would be utterly fucking horrified by Ardern’s batshit insane announcement about Oil and Gas this week..
      
      16 1
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      April 13, 2018 6:13pm
      - lifesgood
        
        Well one would hope so.
        
        10 0
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        April 13, 2018 6:17pm
      - Kimbo
        
        So how come they didn’t learn from the last three times Peters held a position of executive power? No reason for buyer’s remorse if they did their homework. Each time, 1990-92, 1996-98, and 2005-07 he failed to make it through the full term of office.
        
        Winston in opposition? Convincing (for the gullible, anyway). Winston in government? A fuck up everyone, even the cult members can see. The guy just can’t help himself. But voters can! ?
        
        15 1
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        April 13, 2018 6:21pm
      - stigie
        
        Most of the blue rinses thinks Winston is just lovely LK..?
        
        7 0
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        April 13, 2018 6:26pm
      - Longknives
        
        “Winston in opposition? Convincing (for the gullible, anyway)”
        
        Yep- But old folk from another (some would say better) era are sadly a bit gullible.
        I liken Winston a bit to those ‘Nigerian Princes’ who phone lonely old women offering them a life of adventure and romance…
        
        10 1
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        April 13, 2018 6:53pm
      - stigie
        
        Somewhat like Johnboy and DG offering Penny a life of adventure and romance but more genuine..?
        
        8 0
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        April 13, 2018 7:04pm
      - marcw
        
        But the 1% who signed the petition will be ecstatic.
        
        7 0
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        April 13, 2018 7:18pm
      - nasska
        
        Johnboy even offered to turn his sheepdip into a jacuzzi stigie but Penny walked away. Then she refused to knit him a dowry of three kilometres of barbed wire.
        
        Near broke the poor old bugger’s heart she did. 🙂
        
        8 1
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        April 13, 2018 7:18pm
      - stigie
        
        The old sod was well portioned so we got to believe nasska and Penny could have been made young again if only she took up the offer..?
        Well, the silly bitch has made her bed etc.!~
        
        9 1
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        April 13, 2018 7:37pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Stigie:
        
        the silly bitch has made her bed
        
        Well, if the shambolic state of Penny’s front yard is a guide, I suspect her bed hasn’t seen the inside of a laundry machine (an appliance that needs a decent water supply) in years!
        
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        April 13, 2018 8:27pm
      - nasska
        
        Nostra.
        
        Watercare restrict the supply to deadbeats rather than shutting off the tap. Not less than 1 litre a minute so for the sake of argument we’ll go for 1.5 litres/m. To fill:
        
        The electric jug: a minute
        
        Toilet cistern: 6 minutes
        
        Run enough water for a standard machine wash: over an hour
        
        A bath: An hour & a half sounds reasonable.
        
        To get wet you would have to run around under the shower faucet.
        
        The stench inside would be enough to stop Hannibal from crossing the Alps! 🙂
        
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        April 13, 2018 8:42pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Nasska:
        
        The electric jug: a minute
        Run enough water for a standard machine wash: over an hour
        
        Perhaps Penny could try filling the electric jug multiple times, and transferring the water into the washing machine? I know it’d take the same length of time, ultimately, but at least the measurable progress would help to keep her spirits up!
        
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        April 13, 2018 8:49pm
- Komata
  
  Umm, the ‘Definitive’ and absolute announcement was a ‘Consultation’?
  
  I like to believe that I have a reasonable command of the English language, but a ‘Consultation’? really?
  
  It would appear that, in the world of the CoL, Day can become Night and Night day simulataneously; what an enigmatic (and confusing?) world they must live in..
  
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  April 13, 2018 8:43pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Komata:
    
    I think the Ardern Government likes having “conversations”. I can only assume that “consultations” (as you and I would understand that word) are for when “conversations” either haven’t started or aren’t required!
    
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    April 13, 2018 8:56pm
sooty

Maybe Parker should stick the phone where the sun don’t shine.
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April 13, 2018 5:16pm
Longknives

I wish the NZ Media would give the Mountain Biking thing a rest.
Nobody I know (and my circle of friends are big-time sports fans) is even remotely interested in this supposed ‘controversy’.
Probably because it’s one of these invented new ‘sports’…
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April 13, 2018 6:56pm
- graham
  
  At least Sam Gaze apologised – still waiting for Jenny May Clarkson to apologise.
  
  Note to NZ Media – asking the captain of the Silver Ferns when they lose why they keep losing and what they are going to do to turn around the losing streak is a tough question. Asking her if they lost because they don’t have pride in the national uniform is not a tough question, it’s just being bitchy.
  
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  April 13, 2018 9:31pm
Viking2

Shrieking harridan (oops) Margaret Wilson has been named as the chair of the independent panel set up to resolve the impasse over nurses’ pay.

Professor Wilson is a former Labour government minister and a New Zealand Law Commissioner.

The other members of the three-person panel will be Geoff Annals and Julie Patterson.

Mr Annals, head of Accuro Health Insurance and a former chief executive of the Nurses Organisation, has been nominated for the panel by the nurses’ union.

Julie Patterson is the former chief executive of Whanganui District Health Board and is DHBs’ nominee on the panel.

https://newsie.co.nz/news/90533-margaret-wilson-to-chair-panel-on-nurses-pay.html
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April 13, 2018 7:06pm
Viking2

‘I’m bloody proud’: Clarke Gayford lauds Jacinda Ardern for ban on oil drilling

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is facing some backlash to her ban on oil and gas exploration, but she’s got support where it counts.

Clarke Gayford, fishing show host and unofficial ‘First Man’ of New Zealand, took a break from his typical aquatic tweets to share a heartfelt message of support for his partner.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/04/i-m-bloody-proud-clarke-gayford-lauds-jacinda-ardern-for-ban-on-oil-drilling.html

“Today NZ made a decision that paid more than hollow platitudes to being ‘for the environment’,” he wrote on Thursday afternoon.

“As much as I love being underwater, it’s not somewhere I want to be permanently, so if not now…. when?

“This is what leadership looks like and I’m bloody proud of her,” he finished.

While the likes of Greenpeace, WWF and even Shane Jones have sided with Ms Ardern, she has certainly had her fair share of critics after the announcement.

ACT Party leader David Seymour described the decision as “lose-lose”, saying it will cost jobs and simply drive oil and gas exploration overseas, while New Plymouth Mayor Neil Holdom called it a “kick in the guts” for the Taranaki economy.
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April 13, 2018 7:23pm
- nasska
  
  Let’s hope that he shows solidarity by rowing out to sea on his next fishing trip.
  
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  April 13, 2018 7:26pm
  - Longknives
    
    Ha Ha Clark Gayford ‘showed plenty of support’ for a girl I worked with a couple of years ago as well.
    Until he got bored with her, and she- doing some heartbroken research- found out about all of his other ditzy bimbos on the go…
    
    15 1
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    April 13, 2018 7:32pm
    - nasska
      
      And they wonder why chlamydia spreads so easily!
      
      12 1
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      April 13, 2018 7:38pm
      - Longknives
        
        I actually expect to be banned for that last one Nasska! If so- It’s been fun mate, and stay away from those funny cigarettes…they’ll rot your brain son!
        
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        April 13, 2018 7:51pm
      - holysheet
        
        Why would you expect to be banned for telling the truth?
        
        8 0
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        April 13, 2018 8:10pm
    - axeman
      
      His ‘Talent’ Agency manager is close to the bone on that issue as well Longknives.
      Today’s Sesame Street is brought to you by the letters J&L ?
      
      2 0
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      April 13, 2018 9:30pm
    - Colville
      
      knives..
      there arent many that breathe a lot of canned air that arent serial rooters… sea air and being seriously fit does it…
      what happens off shore mostly stays off shore…
      except herpes…that shit will follow you home.
      
      Or so I heard 🙂
      
      Disclaimer: I no longer breath canned air…but did spend a very happy 30 years looking up from under.
      
      4 0
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      April 13, 2018 9:51pm
Viking2

You could not make this sort of shit up if you tried.

A Bill which would make it illegal to use the title ‘teacher’ without a formal qualification is before a select committee.

But the Opposition fears it will “undermine and devalue” those tutors and educators who fall outside the criteria.

Submissions for The Education (Protecting Teacher Title) Amendment Bill, fronted by New Zealand First MP Jenny Marcroft, closed on Friday.

It aims to “lift the status of teachers” by removing the ability of those without the qualification to represent themselves with that title.

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/04/proposed-bill-to-restrict-use-of-word-teacher.html

Qualifications which could use the title are a three-year Bachelor of Education, a Bachelor’s degree with a one-year Diploma of Teaching, or a conjoint degree that combines study in teaching subjects with teacher training.

Those who aren’t qualified can still use the titles of lecturer, tutor or educator.

“The impact of the Bill is not even isolated to the education sector. Are we going to fine every music teacher, dance teacher, and swimming teacher?

my god these people are mad. need locking up forever.
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April 14, 2018 10:31pm

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