General Debate 11 May 2018

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Right of way is Way of Right

The currency in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft is now worth more than Venezuela’s bolivar.

File this one under: “Things that happen when socialists take over.”

Because of anti-capitalist ideals, the fake gold of Azeroth is now worth seven times what the bolivar is worth.

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/08/world/world-of-warcraft-token-worth-more-than-venezuelas-currency-trnd/index.html
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May 11, 2018 9:22am
- Fletch
  
  I read recently that any business in Venezuela wanting to do any serious trading is using Bitcoin.
  
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2017/02/03/why-venezuelas-currency-crisis-is-a-case-study-for-bitcoin/
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:36am
- alloytoo
  
  Reminds me of when a major retailer in South Africa valued their entire Zimbabwe holdings as worthless and instituted a barter system. They would only supply goods to Zim in exchange for other goods.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:43am
  - Harkman
    
    Reminds of the story from the Weimar Republic where the mountains of paper banknotes were used to protect the “gloss” on their new wheelbarrows.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:21am
- VicParking
  
  I should of kept that crate of beer bottles I sold to buy $1,000,000 bolivar’s last week.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:48am
  - pdm
    
    Empties VP?
    
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    May 11, 2018 12:46pm
- Philview
  
  Notice the steep dive in the NZ$ on the day of the Oil & Gas announcement and downward direction since.
  
  https://www.anz.co.nz/personal/migrants-travel-foreign-exchange/fx/exchange-rate-graphs/nzd-usd/
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:05am
  - Piniwi
    
    True Philview also as commented on another tread the rate of slide when mirrored as a graph equals the steep rise in oil prices. The difference is the oil prices a US$ and it is likely to rise much further yet. Last time the dollar was this weak apart from the drop after the COL was established was back in 2015 when oil had slumped to US$40 a barrel. Now passing through the US$70 bracket.
    
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    May 11, 2018 7:48pm
Nigel Kearney

If anyone wants to ~~take a survey~~ have a conversation about the education system, you can do that here:

https://conversation.education.govt.nz/
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May 11, 2018 9:24am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Why bother, Hipkins refuses to consider anything that doesn’t match with his ideological world view, which is one of the most intellectually dishonest things you can do when in a position of such responsibility!
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:26am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    Saw twyford v Collins on TV3 this morning.
    He was let off real light, when saying “Charter schools are an expensive failed model
    1. Operating costs of charter schools are less than 80% of state schools (they have been adding the setup costs (which are also cheaper than state schools) to the operating costs and then comparing.
    NOT apples with apples phillis.
    2. There is a report, an INDEPENDENT report, started at the opening of charter schools, that says EXACTLY the opposite Phillis!!!
    To sum up….LIAR and LIAR
    
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    May 11, 2018 9:32am
    - mandk
      
      Did anyone point out that most kids at charter schools are escapees from the mainstream system that failed them?
      
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      May 11, 2018 9:40am
      - cmm
        
        That is a point that is so seldom raised.
        
        Many (if not most) of the kids in charter schools were failing to perform at state schools.
        
        Therefore, if the charter schools were able to achieve anything with any of them, it should be seen as a demagogic miracle.
        
        But no, the charter schools are doing much better than that and are achieving great things with most of these kids.
        
        Of course that shows up our unionists, which is why charter schools are being stomped on.
        
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        May 11, 2018 9:56am
      - RW Capitalist
        
        Labour initially accused National of “cherry picking” the students, taking the best, to claim success.
        Unfortunately for Labour, the opposite was true, the “lesser lights” were taken and PROVED that for them, this model of education worked startlingly well. Showing that the Teacher union dominated, registration empowered system, for these pupils…
        ……….FAILED.
        
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        May 11, 2018 9:58am
      - Piniwi
        
        True cmm and the majority are content that it helps natives and PI children the most while we commend them for adapting to this fantastic option. IMO most would agree if it works well for them it also works well for NZ while prospective employers will surely see them as achievers.
        
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        May 11, 2018 7:55pm
    - Harkman
      
      Reminds me of when Ken Langone was on Squawk Box and said the worst thing in his life is having to turn families away from him his charter schools in NY on enrolment day because there are no more spaces. He said families (mainly black) line up for days and when they are told that there are no more spaces, parents burst into tears saying their children have no future in the state system.
      
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      May 11, 2018 10:35am
      - cmm
        
        Please think of the unions. They have feelings too you know!
        
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        May 11, 2018 10:37am
  - waikatogirl
    
    And not a peep of complaint from the education unions about the current minister and his proposed changes. Funny that!
    
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    May 11, 2018 9:36am
- mandk
  
  I took part. Only took 4-5 minutes.
  
  It might have been a waste of my time, but there’s no chance of my voice being heard if I don’t speak up.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:45am
  - CHFR1
    
    Agreed so I have had my say, they won’t like it but unless I say something they won’t know how I feel.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:57am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Yes, so did I. Gave it both barrels. Futile? Probably.
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:17pm
- Jack5
  
  This is a very bicultural site: Maori and English.
  That gives you a hint it will be Leftist and PC.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:17am
  - Right of way is Way of Right
    
    I chucked my 2 cents in, even referred to the children as ‘taonga’, that should get their attention!
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:58am
- Holly Roggerz
  
  FFS first question ‘if you were the boss of education’ implying they think they are ‘the boss of education’, that they have a monopoly on ‘providing education’ and what they do in thos schools when they sing Maori in primary, and all that bs is ‘education’….
  
  What a joke, the first thing I would do is fire them, they do not control education, education in a process wherebye something is taught to someone, the government can never have a monopoly on that, ever… They could try, but to enforce it, to stop someone teaching someone something, a parent, a comedian, yes you can hear a joke and learn something, it’s not going to happened…
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:18am
- rightoverlabour
  
  Yup, done it. Support Charter Schools and nail the unions!
  
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  May 11, 2018 2:00pm
Captain Mainwaring

So a train flops off the track in a dead-end station in Auckland and two days later it’s still there.
Imagine if that happened in Tokyo. Of course it wouldn’t because they don’t have dead-end stations but if it did it would be back on the rails and out of there within half an hour otherwise the whole city would shut down.
How can Auckland be serious about having a proper commuter rail network if they can’t cope with a minor incident like this?
I can’t wait until the stupid tram squashes a car on Dominion Road.
I also can’t wait to hear why the train fell off the track in the first place.
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May 11, 2018 9:25am
- Lance
  
  One issue was the govt bureaucrats ‘accident investigation’ waited for nearly a day before they came from Wellington, so nearly a days delay there alone ( maybe they wanted cheap flights?)
  You can’t make this shit up
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:30am
  - mandk
    
    No, they’re railway people, so they needed to wait for a seat on the Northern Explorer.
    
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    May 11, 2018 9:47am
    - VicParking
      
      Woops thick fingers, a down tick, Stephie up tick for me to compensate please
      
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      May 11, 2018 10:00am
  - lilman
    
    YOU TUBE The front fell off.
    
    John Clarke at his best,sums up the situation .
    
    Sorry cant do link thing,only went to state school.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:19am
    - stuarts-burgers
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM
      There you go the link to ” The Front Fell Off”
      
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      May 12, 2018 3:11pm
- Komata
  
  Captain
  
  It’s all so that people can be made to feel ‘safe’!! (Seriously!)
  
  It’s actually a whole lot of bollocks as railway professionals would have had the problem sorted within hours, with the train back on the rails, the track repaired and everything operating as it should be. ‘Repair and worry about the cause later’ was the mantra.
  
  Unfortunately, with OSH et al n0w being in charge, nothing must be disturbed, everything must be ‘dicussed’ and consultants ‘consulted’.
  
  The fact that those involved are invariably ‘non-railway’ and unfamiliar with that specialist environment doesn’t help in the least; familiarity with road accidents DOESN’T give you railway knowledge.
  
  This is very unlikely to change in the foreseeable future, so expect more of the same…
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:47am
- calendar girl
  
  “I also can’t wait to hear why the train fell off the track in the first place.”
  
  Even that would be welcome, as nobody will let us know:
  a) who had final, direct responsibility for the occurrence of such a dangerous and disruptive “accident”; and / or
  b) whether or not that person’s employment (in that responsible role) will be discontinued.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:48am
  - VicParking
    
    Are you talking about the Britamart accident or the one currently happening in the Behive.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:02am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    I worked for British Rail.
    Why this happened
    Poor maintenance
    Poor design
    Poor operation
    Inexperienced staff
    all of the above.
    It looks like all their experience comes from “Harsco”
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:02am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Refer my piece below. I can assure you it is the truth & comes from sources that are actively involved.
    
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    May 11, 2018 2:00pm
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  It fell of because the round steel things did not stay on the straight steel things properly. An expert from Wellington will confirm this in about 10 weeks.
  Also they have to shut off the power to get it out. Why not just tow the fucking thing?
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:52am
  - starboard
    
    Because that wouldn’t be ‘safe’ and it’s all about keeping ‘safe’, cotton wool and all that. NZ is soo anal.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:11am
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  Trams on Dominion Rd will see smashed up cars and bicycles, with bodies lying all over the road. Reason? Idiots with cellphones, wearing of earphones, and floating in their little bubble in space
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:57am
  - sooty
    
    Heard on the radio that there is a train across an intersection. The driver stopped and walked away.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:41am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Add to that people trying to catch or disembark from trams with the platforms in the middle of Dominion Road when it is throwing it down with rain.
    
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    May 11, 2018 1:57pm
- hullkiwi
  
  The truth in this saga, is/has been a carefully choreographed exercise in not pinning the blame on the parties responsible for crass stupidity & irresponsible behaviour.
  
  Some of you in your musings are only half right about what happen.
  
  The train did come of the track (not just the track, but at a set of points).
  
  Those of you from Auckland may be familiar with AT Metro trains having problems with points failure at Britomart in the past? Well guess what, the same set of points failed on Wednesday, only a train was coming and couldn’t stop, oooppps!
  
  AT have been reporting problems with the defective det of points to KiwiRail for some time, but KiwiRail’s she’ll be right Kiwi approach meant nothing got done about it.
  
  But this derailment caused a problem for AT, as their train was off the track. When AT bought the trains from CAF, they elected not to buy the equipment required to lift CAF trains back on to the rails. So, AT & KiwiRail were forced to improvise to get the train back on stable tracks. Hence the exercise took 2 nights.
  
  It was comical knowing the story & then listening to KiwiRail try & explain last night’s effort without accepting blame for the points breaking.
  
  Shows what happens when you economize & don’t think about the consequences.
  
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  May 11, 2018 1:17pm
  - Komata
    
    HK
    
    Thank you. In the old days it was always ‘Blame the Signalman’, now its ‘Blame ‘Nobody’.
    
    How times have changed…
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:13pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      In this case it should be shared.
      KiwiRail, for not fixing what they had been told was faulty; and
      AT for bad procurement & penny pinching.
      
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      May 11, 2018 4:54pm
- Paulus
  
  Who is going to pick up the Horses poo when pulling the trams ?
  
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  May 11, 2018 1:27pm
  - Komata
    
    Paulus
    
    Who else but the gweens (them wot live in Remmers or Freemans bay), cos ‘organic’, fresh, horse poo is just soooo ‘environmentally friendly’ and ‘with it’. (‘Besides which Cynthia down the road will be just so jealous, Darling’)
    
    That it has such lovely bugs as ‘Tetanus’ within it, is, of course, just part of the ‘adventure’.
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:16pm
Captain Mainwaring

The gene pool wins again.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12049359
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May 11, 2018 9:27am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Yay Darwin, the man had a point!
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:28am
- Random T Person
  
  That’s in my area. Glad my policeman mate is on his days off so he doesn’t have to deal with the fallout.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:42am
- waikatogirl
  
  “In the past 12 months 384 people have died on New Zealand roads.”
  
  Genters’ insistence that roads are the cause of all road deaths fails to take into account the human factor. It would be interesting to separate those who contribute to their own demise through ineptitude or stupidity from true accidents causing death.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:45am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Question, have others noticed that since Genter banged on road safety, that the number of police/road safety camera vehicles parked up in speed trap areas have decreased?
    
    Certainly, on SH1 from Albany to Warkworth there has been a noticeable decline in the sightings of police at roadside speed traps.
    
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    May 11, 2018 2:27pm
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  Police harassment. He was a good boy
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:00am
- JibberJabber
  
  Hope the cop car had a wof or they are gonna have to resurrect this guy to give him his cash compensation for the inconvenience of stuffing up his night.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:19am
- rightoverlabour
  
  God, that’s terrible. You people are so uncaring. With the shortage of trees and the inability to plant the required 1 Billion, we must have look after the tree. I really hope its OK.
  
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  May 11, 2018 2:08pm
Lance

Twitford clothed himself in utter stupidity this morning on the AM show.
He stated that the Charter Schools saw the error of their ways and now wanted to join the state system.

Oy Vey
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May 11, 2018 9:32am
- Cunningham
  
  Very unpleasant individual. He just goes on and on about the last government whenever he is called out over something. It really is pathetic!
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:48am
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  The man is not right in the head.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:01am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Which makes him an ideal candidate to be a Labour Cabinet Minister.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:06am
Inandout

The liberal and progressive world has simply gone mad.
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/permission-nappy-change-consent-sexuality-expert-deanne-carson-a8345581.html

This is the loony California type crap Trump wants to get rid of.
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May 11, 2018 9:32am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Inandout , the looney alt left playing catch up time with looney alt right.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:36am
  - Random T Person
    
    Yes those conservatives and their weird outdated views on gender (two of), marriage (one of), kids (two of, same parents), personal responsibility, etc. Crazy stuff, eh.
    
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    May 11, 2018 9:44am
    - Inandout
      
      stephie spouts Islam which outlaws gays and same sex marriage. He secretly follows all of which you name.
      
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      May 11, 2018 9:55am
      - G152
        
        And six year old wives as well as those damned goats
        
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        May 11, 2018 10:14am
      - Jack5
        
        In the afternoons the perving member or members of the Stephiestani Trolls Ltd team go down to the mall to leer.
        
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        May 11, 2018 10:20am
  - Steve (North Shore)
    
    Does your mummy ask for your permission?
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:04am
- mandk
  
  No, I think she’s right.
  
  But to ensure that the consent is informed, it should be in writing with the baby’s signature witnessed by two disinterested parties.
  
  Every time.
  
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  May 11, 2018 1:54pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    So, when your son is lying on his back, you’ve unfastened the nappy, his boyhood is pointed in your direction, he aims a fountain in your direction & then smiles – I think you can take it as a “Yes”.
    
    Why do outfits like ABC give people like this a platform to spout this tosh. She has clearly never dealt with changing baby’s nappies.
    
    Also whathas changing a nappy got to do with matters of sexuality other than the obvious gender differences of the babies?
    
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    May 11, 2018 2:41pm
- Piniwi
  
  But Inandout they have now decided that all new buildings will have to have solar panels on the roof. The problem become complex when the house is on sold when original owner may have only leased the panels. The new owner is not interested in inheriting the lease arrangement and since it not a “new” is not compelled to have solar panels. The original owner is stuck with the lease and displaced panels. What could go wrong?
  
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  May 11, 2018 8:09pm
Thought Criminal

Report Suggests Stalin Was Just One Great Purge Away From Creating Communist Utopia.

https://www.theonion.com/report-suggests-stalin-was-just-one-great-purge-away-fr-1825691925?
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May 11, 2018 9:34am
- Inandout
  
  If he had lived another 5 years most of the Soviet Union population would be dead.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:56am
VicParking

First of all Trump was all wrong because he called Kim “Rocketman” and risked a world war. Now that Kim has caved and is willing to talk Trump is wrong because he is giving “legitimacy” to his regime.
Three cheers for Red Radio.
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May 11, 2018 9:35am
- Inandout
  
  CNN-speak.
  The swamp is slowly but surely being drained.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:57am
Im Right

Tell me please that I’m not the only one who shakes his head in bewilderment when Amanda Gillies on TV3 breakfast show laments about not being able to afford to buy a house?? FFS she has been earning 6 figures for over a decade (at least), any bank manager would write her a blank check to go out and buy a house!!, why does Duncan or Mark not ask her why after earning all that money each year she can’t afford a house. She must also have a lovely nest egg in Kiwisaver which can be used against a first home purchase. What is she doing with her money??
1: She has some secret vice and blowing it all?.
2: Is she looking to buy in cash and be mortgage free?
3: Why do they use her as the programs ‘renter’ and get her opinion on home buying when she is in a totally different league from ‘normal’ first home buyers?
4: She lives in Hawkes Bay, Gisborne?, and she can’t afford a house there earning in excess of $150K for last 3-7yrs!
Sorry for the rant…She just annoys the hell outta me looking for sympathy because she is renting 🙁
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May 11, 2018 9:35am
- VicParking
  
  Maybe this article in the failing newspaper has something to do with it:
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12049157
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:44am
- waikatogirl
  
  I’m right, were you listening to my conversation with hubby this morning about Amanda complaining about not being able to afford a house. Word for word. Amazing!
  
  Guessing she wants the perfect house in the perfect suburb with the perfect view… She does love diamonds. Perhaps she could sell some of those!
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:51am
  - Inandout
    
    Ol’ ruby lips speaks meaningless crap. Give me Mark any day for sane comment.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:00am
  - lifesgood
    
    Brunches every Saturday and Sunday? Thats about $100 a week. Take away coffees every day x 2, that’s $70 a week. Couple of dinners out a week, that’s another $100 a week. Shops at Farros for all groceries that’s astronomical a week. Has hair done every week, pedicure every week…and on and on and on. I bet I’m not wrong. What a bloody cheek complaining. Get your priorities right, woman.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:52am
    - GoVege
      
      A lot of women are like this.
      They doll themselves up to attract Prince Charming…who is supposed to have spent his own money saving for a home for them.
      
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      May 11, 2018 11:48am
    - Komata
      
      lifesgood
      
      But what about the IMAGE? she simply COULDN’T live in Papatoetoe or anywhere south of Remuera- too ‘Feral’ and lower class…
      
      A girl DOES have ‘standards’ after all, especially in HER position as a ‘Person of Importance’ and ‘Media Celebrity’
      
      (Methinks the ‘lady’ doeth protestith much to muchly).
      
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      May 11, 2018 3:22pm
- dime
  
  but but jacinda!
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:58am
  - lilman
    
    Hey jacinda is lovely………dont go there………just dont go there.
    
    She is so lovely.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:23am
- oldgolfer
  
  She annoys the hell out of me even when she is not on about renting.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:00am
  - waikatogirl
    
    Yesterday when Alwyn was interviewed on TV3 and was slamming the COL over their handling of closing charter schools Amanda had a face like a squeezed lemon. She was not impressed with Alwyn accusing Cindy of lying. She soon found something far more interesting on the internet than listen to anything Alwyn had to say.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:15am
    - RF
      
      Ruby lips has a mouth like a fishes rear end. Puckered and water tight.
      
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      May 11, 2018 6:28pm
- Humble Capitalist
  
  It blows me away that anyone like this shouldn’t have purchased a house already. Must have no discipline with money and picky about where she wants to live.
  You just need to get your foot on the ladder somewhere and build up some equity to make the next move. There’s no excuse for this cry for sympathy from somebody like this.
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:39am
Chuck Bird

Hamilton was packed like Cambridge. The article tells of some of the Q + A.

Cambridge people swamp venue to hear National leader Simon Bridges

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103792114/cambridge-people-swamp-venue-to-hear-national-leader-simon-bridgeshttps:
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May 11, 2018 9:36am
- Komata
  
  CB
  
  I did however notice this:
  
  ‘His message to National supporters and New Zealanders was simple.
  
  “Keep the faith, National will be back in Government in 2020,” he said.
  
  Why 2020? Why not NOW?
  
  The CoL is unlikley to last until 2020, so why on earth isn’t Mr Bridges putting out the message that the Nats can take over tomorrow if necessary; showing their supporters that they are PREPARED and WILLING to become the Government IMMEDIATELY, when Winnie et al have finally imploded?
  
  Instead we get the equivalent of ‘Hello I’m Simon Bridges, you might have heard of me on …’, and more of the platitudes, complacency and inefectiveness which lost them the last election.
  
  There is really no current difference between the Nats and labour; and both are pushing essentially the same socialist / one world agenda; it’s jsut that labour are doing it more openly and aggressivly.
  
  FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, NATIONAL, GET YOUR FINGER OUT AND TELL ME WHY I SHOULD VOTE FOR YOU!!
  (Apologies for the ‘shouting BTW; ‘exasperation’ can have that effect)
  
  At the moment, with all Mr Bridges ‘platitudes, I might just as well not bother!
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:03am
  - marcw
    
    Unless there is some unforeseen crisis, then I’m sorry Komata but we are stuck with the CoL until 2020. There is no constitutional way to remove them without an election, and turkeys are unlikely to vote for an early one.
    
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    May 11, 2018 12:11pm
    - Komata
      
      marcw
      
      Yes, and its very, vey frustrating, especially as the Nats are being handed oportunity after opportunity to create absolute havoc with the CoL but they just sit on their hands and do nothing at all.
      
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      May 11, 2018 3:26pm
- Poppa
  
  Was it worthwhile going Chuck?
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:06am
- MCos
  
  Three hundred old people ‘swamped’ the venue.
  I suppose if you pick somewhere small enough they’ll swamp it.
  Having said that three hundred is a pretty good crowd really, considering the guy doesn’t exactly have the appeal of Judith Collins
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:44am
- big bruv
  
  Chuck
  
  Cambridge is one big retirement village. Have a gander at the pics of those who attended, they would have a combined age of over a million and an average in the mid 60’s. There is very little else for these people to do.
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:21am
  - lifesgood
    
    Don’t be ridiculous Big bruv. National party voters of working age work. They work to pay taxes to support labour party voters who don’t. They can’t get to middle of the day meetings because, you know, work!
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:52am
RalphT

The world is getting stranger and stranger and it looks like the loonies have completed their take-over. A woman in Australia says that parents should ask their baby for consent before changing their nappy:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5712589/ABC-fire-lefty-lunacy-segment-nappy-consent.html
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May 11, 2018 9:36am
- Flash
  
  And then she’d want to prosecute them for neglect when the kid gets a nappy rash, because the parents thought its crying meant NO.
  
  But – why are these stupid people even getting a mention.Are the journalists just as brainless?
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:44am
  - RalphT
    
    Flash, I take it that was a rhetorical question?
    
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    May 11, 2018 9:53am
  - Garbageman
    
    The fuckwits that would normally be in a padded cell now have the net to compare notes with like minded tards the media pick up on it for clickbait and sensationalism, but sadly yes stranger by the day Edit to add now having seen the article why do all these lefty loons look the same (inbreeding springs to mind) and what the hell is up with the pink toupee
    
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    May 11, 2018 1:05pm
VicParking

In Red Radio ten o’clock news last night they reported that the volcano in Hawaii was raining huge rocks all over the island. By this morning the headlines was “Hawaii volcano could start shooting big rocks”. Looks like overnight they caught up with the truth. It seems that at 5pm the real reporters go home and leave the monkeys to start interviewing their typewriters.
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May 11, 2018 9:41am
- alex Masterley
  
  GVP-USGS Volcano reports is what you need to look at for that sort of stuff. Then to the observatory reports for detail.
  There is a lot of stuff on the Hawaian volcano.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:06am
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  One report I read said there were 12 volcanoes in Leilani. I have been to the volcanoes – they are not in Leilani, they are 25 to 35km away
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:16am
  - Jack5
    
    Is it correct that the Leilani volcanic field is a tiddler compared with Auckland’s?
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:24am
    - rightoverlabour
      
      No probably the other way around. Auckland has a lava blob about 80Kms down, Hawaii is fed by a very active hotspot plume. The Leilani filed is probably a feeder pipe or exit flow that has decided to surface. I am not an expert on the details of the Hawaiian field plumbing. However, Auckland has said to be in its teenage years as far as volcanoes go, but I doubt we’ll ever see an eruption.
      
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      May 11, 2018 2:15pm
      - Steve (North Shore)
        
        From what I was told all of the Islands have been over that ‘Plume’ The plate moves sort of north west west about 3 inches per year. After Leilani there will be more Islands created. I saw none of this in 2015 – then the lava started flowing 3 weeks after we got home
        
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        May 11, 2018 4:35pm
Simon

Israel taking apart Iranian “assets” in Syria while great power and Iran ally Russia watches on.

If your ally is Russia and you are up against Trump you are fucked.

Goodbye mullahs.
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May 11, 2018 9:47am
Humble Capitalist

Let’s facilitate this!
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May 11, 2018 9:49am
- mandk
  
  No, no! Way too hasty, HC.
  
  First, we need to practice mindfulness, so our feelz can come to the fore.
  
  Then, we need to participate in some workshops to collectively articulate our aspirations.
  
  And then we can facilitate this.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:55am
  - sooty
    
    Praise the lord and pass the ammunition!
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:59am
Anne Glen Eden

Kate Hawkesby is congratulating the government on, basically, doing nothing but perpetuating a bad situation. Some of what she says is correct.

“Family violence is our nation’s shame, we have the highest level of it in the OECD, it is something we must attempt to turn around, and cannot bury our head in the sand about. Police attend 120,000 family harm incidents each year – and those are only the ones they actually get to, they estimate there’s probably more like 500,000 incidents a year…How frustrating it is that we see the same incidents over and over again, how there’s fatigue around it and a feeling of hopelessness.”

I agree – and I know there are many others who agree, particularly those who have worked with it. That’s the problem. We all know it’s being perpetuated by lack of any effective action. And why?

An overriding truth about human beings, especially children:

1. “Childhood emotional and sexual abuse mark … brains in distinct patterns… To cope with overwhelming experiences of distress, the brain can alter patterns of signaling from the pathways involved, which can ultimately leave those regions underdeveloped from reduced input.”

2. “Trauma has lasting effects on mental and physical health that may stem from changes to DNA which undermine a person’s ability to rebound from stress…”.

Victims of abuse are physically changed – not just socially, psychologically, and emotionally. Their boundaries have been pushed far past normal limits until what others call ‘normal’ seem utterly abnormal and strange to them.

Hawkesby says, “Half the money will apparently go to Women’s Refuge – I doubt anyone can argue with that.”

I don’t disagree with Women’s Refuge being funded. However, it isn’t even slightly viable to combat child abuse. It’s an organisation for supporting women, including women who have no appropriate parenting skills, let alone are inclined to abuse their children themselves and/or to put their children into abusive situations. Those mothers do not leave violent/abusive situations and suddenly become ‘warm, caring, appropriate’ parents.

The children are expected to tolerate what they live with, which continues to set the patterns for the present and next generation, expanding geometrically with each one. Women’s Refuge may help women get out of one such situation – it doesn’t protect the children from the mother who put them in it to begin with, or stop her from doing it again, much less alter her own patterns of abuse of her children. It doesn’t stop the children growing up to repeat the pattern.

The victims of abuse (and the perpetrators, come to that) are not only suffering from their experiences, they no longer necessarily have the ability to recognise or change it – in themselves or others. To them, however horrific, it is ‘normal’ existence and/or something they ‘deserve’. They have physically altered to be able to tolerate it, not just emotionally and socially. More to the point, what is the ‘norm’ for them in human behaviour comes nowhere near that of the wider society.

The resources and skills required to completely ‘reform’ their entire identity into what is considered ‘normal’ are simply not available. No-one can ‘unlive’ the life they’ve lived, ‘unlearn’ what they’ve been taught. How does any human being remove their entire history from their psyche? You can’t – or not and remain sane. But it’s impossible anyway – they have immediate and extended family, friends, and social contacts who have maintained them for years in that lifestyle and will continue to do so – a lot of them very anti- any group who advises otherwise. Genuine progress is uncertain and slow at best.

There’s only one way to combat child abuse or, come to that, adult abuse. It’s to have a zero tolerance for abuse of children and stop watering it down with allegiance to ‘adult rights’ to manipulate, use, and abuse them at will and/or allow that to be some sort of ongoing solace to distressed adults. Children have a right to safety from birth and the chance for a normal life.

To the extent that something can be done for child abuse, it is far more likely to be achieved by Bill English’s scheme to put one to one counsellors to work with families deemed at risk. It needs to start with newborn babies in a new generation – and guarantee their safety.
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May 11, 2018 9:51am
- Jack5
  
  If Hawkesby said NZ had the highest level of family violence in the OECD she should substantiate this claim.
  
  People are chiming frequently, NZ has the worst X in the developed world, the worst Y in the OECD, and the worst Z in the world.
  
  You delve into the possible sources and you find the claim is either an exaggeration or utter bullshit.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:27am
  - backster
    
    Yep first ‘Abuse’ needs to be clearly defined. and next abusers need to be profiled by race and culture to enable actions to be targeted rather than avoided.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:00am
    - GoVege
      
      You RACIST, backster!
      Don’t you know all cultures are EQUAL when it comes to violence and the treatment of women and children.
      
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      May 11, 2018 11:23am
      - sooty
        
        Some are more equal than others!
        
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        May 11, 2018 12:00pm
    - Piniwi
      
      Sorry backster don’t hold your breath after the Commie Chick has just filled all the NGO troughs not to mention the scope for more to “get some”. We had a snap shot of the effectiveness of at least one NGO who gave Labour “advise” about their camp sex scandal.
      
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      May 11, 2018 8:21pm
  - alloytoo
    
    Whenever someone claims that NZ has the worst……..
    
    There’s a few things you can assume:
    
    1. They’ve probably never left NZ (or if they have ventured beyond the confines of the conference centre where they SJW conference was being held)
    
    2. New Zealand has a broader definition of the attribute than the country/group it is being compared against.
    
    3. New Zealand has a far better reporting regime than the country/group it is being compared against.
    
    4. It is as Jack5 suggests utter bullshit.
    
    Finally, if someone feels New Zealand is “The worst”, why don’t they just leave, I could suggest some lovely spots.
    
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    May 11, 2018 12:56pm
  - cha
    
    she should substantiate this claim.
    
    Amy Adams –
    
    There are plenty of successes to celebrate in this country.
    
    There’s much in our economy, our society and in schools, on our fields and at home to be proud of. We regularly top the world in the best indicators. Just this year we were named one of the least corrupt countries in the world. The list goes on.
    
    Less well-known, however, is that we also top the world at the rate in which we beat our partners and kids. We have the highest rates of family violence in the developed world.
    
    This is a shameful record.
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/90657034/nzs-highest-rate-of-family-violence-in-the-developed-world–amy-adams-has-had-enough
    
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    May 11, 2018 1:48pm
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      When will someone have the balls to provide two separate sets of statistics on this?
      One for Maori, and one for the rest.
      Then compare each with other countries.
      
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      May 11, 2018 4:07pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        Never. And you’re a waaaaaaaaaaaacist for even suggesting it 🙂
        
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        May 11, 2018 4:11pm
- Scott
  
  Anne – sorry but the best way to combat child abuse is to have an intact family with mum and dad who are married and are raising their own biological children. The greatest risk factor to a child is the presence of an unrelated male in the household and the absence of the child’s father in the household.
  
  So the best thing we could do about child abuse is to promote marriage and raising children within marriage, which is like what we used to do.
  
  It may be very politically incorrect to say so but it is still true that the best thing to do for your children is to get married, stay married, behave reasonably responsibly, and look after your children.
  
  If every New Zealander did that then the child abuse statistics would plummet.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:49am
  - GoVege
    
    100% correct, Scott…”PC” or otherwise.
    The most damaged kids are those from broken homes, when mum keeps searching for the “perfect man”, and eventually realises he does not exist.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:06am
    - stephieboy
      
      GoVege, or the man looking for the perfect woman!.
      
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      May 11, 2018 12:11pm
      - GoVege
        
        Unfortunately that is true too, SB.
        I recall Nia Glassie’s mum saying that Nia’s dad ditched her and the kids for “a skinnier woman”.
        
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        May 11, 2018 1:08pm
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    promote marriage and raising children within marriage
    
    I don’t know how the government can effectively do that. But I do know how they can stop paying people to do the opposite.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:13am
    - GoVege
      
      Maybe they could try restricting the DPB to people who have actually given marriage or a relationship a go.
      Of course that won’t pay for all the 13 to 17 year old Maori girls Dame Turia says are “their fertility “.
      (Probably they are also the source of a large number of those DV stats.)
      
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      May 11, 2018 11:28am
    - GoVege
      
      Nigel: What about our government offering families on lower incomes incentives for sticking together?
      Say a thousand bucks at Christmas if you stuck it out for another year?
      Would work out way cheaper than handing out the DPB willy-nilly.
      
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      May 11, 2018 1:12pm
      - calendar girl
        
        How would ‘sticking together’ be measured or evaluated, in practice?
        
        It sounds like a system that would be rorted, routinely, by two people prepared to share easy money.
        
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        May 11, 2018 1:43pm
      - GoVege
        
        CG: if the purpose of the incentive is to encourage a couple with kids to stay together, you couldn’t also have them claiming the DPB/whatever they call it now.
        
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        May 11, 2018 3:35pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Not difficult. Allow income splitting when the two biological parents of a child/children live at the same address. Why not incentivise the optimum family structure?
      
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      May 11, 2018 4:04pm
      - hullkiwi
        
        Then KK you’ll get all those who have been rorting the DPB previously, switching to the dole to support their lifestyle. It was the Hon Bert Walker (Min of Social Welfare 1975 to 78) who said “we have created craddle to the grave welfare for women”.
        
        So, they knew 40 years ago that they had created a welfare rort & they have allowed it to continue to get out of control rather than address the problems it causes.
        
        That right MeTu, paid the money back yet?
        
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        May 11, 2018 5:48pm
    - Piniwi
      
      True NK they created the bulk of this problem by making baby making an industry and have now even created their Baby Bonus then soon no sanctions for breeders. A bloated version of Labour MO to rinse repeat.
      
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      May 11, 2018 9:10pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    the best way to combat child abuse is to have an intact family with mum and dad who are married and are raising their own biological children. The greatest risk factor to a child is the presence of an unrelated male in the household and the absence of the child’s father in the household
    
    Exactly. Death or injury to children skyrockets as fewer biological are involved with the provision of day to day care. It’s called the Cinderella Effect.
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:30pm
- GoVege
  
  Anne: apart from a few masochists, nobody “asks” to be beaten up.
  Women don’t necessarily “put” their kids into violent situations.
  What they need is to learn from an early age how to deal with bullies, in the home and elsewhere.
  And most kids want to remain with their biological father, even if he is a bit of a bully.
  Even if the numbers of police call-outs are daunting, each time they attend, they are teaching the family a valuable lesson…that violence is a crime and against the law.
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:38am
  - Anne Glen Eden
    
    GoVege, first I had to stop laughing. Then I had to stop being angry.
    
    Are you seriously calling Ike Mokohoria Te Awa ‘a bit of a bully’?
    
    Women certainly do put their kids into violent situations – and keep them there. You could say it’s an ‘accident’ the first time. Not afterwards.
    
    I don’t think they know or expect any better but that doesn’t mean they don’t do it.
    
    Are you also seriously suggesting that the children could ‘learn how to deal with’ Ike Mokohoria Te Awa – as ‘a bit of a bully’? Are you sane?
    
    Or that the children should ‘remain with him’ whether they want to or not?
    
    If the Police have been to situations like these and done nothing, the personnel concerned should be fired.
    
    Yep. This sort of idiotic theoretical, conceptual discussion is why children remain abused/killed.
    
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    May 11, 2018 5:04pm
    - GoVege
      
      When did I ever mention this Te Awa person, Anne?
      I was referring to men in general, not sadists and sex offenders.
      I have now read your other post (about Te Awa) and I reckon 10 years for torturing and sexually abusing young children is an insult.
      He should have got preventive detention.
      The problem of course is that it is difficult to ascertain what is actually happening to vulnerable children behind locked doors.
      There need to be compulsory checks of children by medical professionals to ensure their safety.
      This is an entirely different subject to normal garden variety bullying in the home.
      
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      May 12, 2018 12:17am
holysheet

Oh dear, TVNZ is cutting 18 months of Coronation Street to bring us up to date with the UK.
To see the missing parts, they are having a condensed showing of 2 hours. This will have all the important stuff all at once. For them to be able to get 18 months into 2 hours, shows how much shit you Coro fans actually sit through.
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May 11, 2018 9:56am
- simpleton1
  
  Do not adjust your set!
  Normal programming will resume as soon as possible!
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:30am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  40 minutes of ads, some going to get all that adultery, murdering and drinking into.
  
  Take 18 months out and I defy anyone to be able to tel the difference.
  
  There have been at least one murder in every room of all the houses in that street plus double for the sweat shop, the garage and the pub.
  
  Never the same since Ena and crew shuffled off the mortal coil.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:52am
  - Swifty
    
    I haven’t watched it since Elsie Tanner left….
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:18am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      I haven’t watched it full stop.
      
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      May 11, 2018 11:43am
      - sooty
        
        I stopped when Enna Sharples died.
        
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        May 11, 2018 12:02pm
    - lilman
      
      Elsie Left !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
      
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      May 11, 2018 4:49pm
- Im Right
  
  Bit like this COL, you could be fooled into thinking that the last 6mth have been a ‘highlight package’, 3 years condensed into 6mths….unfortunately for NZ it’s real life and real time 🙁
  
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  May 11, 2018 1:33pm
holysheet

At the barbers today, I asked to have my hair cut like Winston Peters.
So he gave me a cushion to sit on.
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May 11, 2018 9:56am
- lilman
  
  Woof Woof.
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:29am
Humble Capitalist

The Council of Trade Unions proposal to the Tax Working Group is to increase income tax by another 5% if earning $106k-$160k. If earning over $160k the proposed increase would be an additional 12c to the dollar.
So as an example a family with 1 income on $110k would pay an extra $5.5k in tax. So this would be $110 that would need to be cut out of the weekly budget. With other taxes on top this is going to penalise families that are just battling away to get their kids educated, pay the mortgage and the bills paid already on tight budgets. Not to mention the inflationary policies being put in place putting even more pressure on. And what for? To pay someone’s power bill who doesn’t need it, to pay someone’s education that doesn’t need it and to tip money into the Pacific Islands which will become another expected entitlement with little or no accountability.
If for example you earn $180k then the new top tax rate will see you paying an extra $21.6k in tax. That’s only $415 extra per week that has to come out of the budget and/or mortgage payment. Just so we can add to entitlements and encourage more mediocrity. Overseas will start looking more appealing to a lot of people.
The CTU as we know has a massive say so this is a glimpse at what Cullen is going to throw at us.
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May 11, 2018 10:06am
- Ed Snack
  
  Isn’t the 5% a new marginal rate, so it would be 5% on the $4K over the $106K, so $200 a year if you are on $110,000 ?
  
  Basically it is back to the “Rich Prick” rate of the last Labour government with a 38% instead of 39% that kicks in at $106K, and a further 44% marginal rate for incomes over $160K.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:16am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Stupidity when the company tax rate is so much lower. Just grows the accounting profession.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:40am
  - Paulus
    
    Public Servants of the higher paid variety will want compensation for paying more tax.
    Something like 25% of employees in our Council are paid in excess of $100,000, and I believe that Auckland Council knocks that into a small hole – it is more like the minimum paid there.
    
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    May 11, 2018 1:40pm
- Humble Capitalist
  
  Either way it’s a shitload more tax eg. $150k would be an extra $2.2k tax which is an extra $40 to pinch from the budget in a highly inflationary environment. Plus the submission includes financial transaction tax, wealth transfer tax, wealth tax, land tax, increased company tax, taxes on excess profits and resource taxes.
  There is also the suggested 2.5% reduction to gst. This will have little benefit when mixed in with all of the other inflationary policy.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:46am
  - OTGO
    
    All these extra and increased taxes should make it much easier to elect a National led government in 2020. All they have to say is we will give you all a tax cut and here is how much more you’ll have to take home each month and Simon’s your uncle.
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:06pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    So no chance of encouraging NZ to be more productive or to invest in a manner that leads to balanced investments to grow incomes through productivity.
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:46pm
- Harkman
  
  Or a 38% tax on income over US$74,000. Wow those mega rich. Jeff Bezos is worth over US$110b. Trade union members are lazy and jealous.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:46am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  The problem with these taxes is not that people can’t afford it. Generally they can afford it. If all that happened was that someone on $150k had to spend $40 less per week and a low income person got to spend $40 more, I think most of us would support that.
  
  But that is not what happens. The ‘high’ income person does not spend less. They spend the same but they save and invest less. The low income person spends more, but the country as a whole does not produce more. A spending increase with no corresponding production increase, just gets eaten up by inflation.
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:24am
  - Humble Capitalist
    
    It goes to pet projects with no cost analysis, Pacific Islands, more bureaucracy, universal benefits which are a wasted opportunity eg. Power and tertiary education.
    In this environment I resent paying a single cent more tax.
    
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    May 11, 2018 12:17pm
Komata

HS

So you didn’t get a ‘permanent wave’ then?

(Just asking)
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May 11, 2018 10:08am
Yvette

Can anyone remember what the decision was in the Colin Craig v Cameron Slater defamation case, sometime last year?
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May 11, 2018 10:13am
- MCos
  
  Don’t know, but Slater lost the decision to Ryder in the Fight for Life.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:49am
Tauhei Notts

Winston Peters giving so much of New Zealander taxpayers’ funds to the Pacific Islanders has been concerning me for several days. It just seems to me to be ludicrous.
Then I read Sharon Weinberger’s comment on the Foreign Policy web site. She wrote about how the Chinese have developed Unmanned Aerial Vehicles that sell for a quarter of the price of the American ones, and once you have bought them the buyer does not have to kowtow to the Pentagon. It is a straight out transaction. The Chinese will do business with anybody and do not care. I am concerned that NZ’s aid to the Pacific will be used to boost Chinese exporters.
My point, and it might be considered to be a weak point, is that NZ competing with China in the Pacific is like me, on my 29 handicap, competing with Rory McIlroy off the stick.
NZ is not in the same league as China. Those who think we are, are delusional.
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May 11, 2018 10:14am
- Jack5
  
  TN, perhaps it’s more about NZ politicians playing big shots in the islands.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:29am
- Keeping Stock
  
  Those who think we are, are delusional.
  
  Delusional like Winston Peters, you mean?
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:52am
- kowtow
  
  Chickens , or more apt , Peking Duck , coming home to roost.
  
  Our whole political establishment elite were united in getting China recognised as a free trade economy, it must have actually been a very high priority in our foreign policy .
  
  And what have we got to really show for it ?
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:35am
- KevOB
  
  Winston has no right to give away vast quantities of our taxpayers’ money. Taxpayers are scarce. Most Kiwis don’t pay: they take and want more so why should Vanaatu get a large share specially when Australia regards it as in their sphere of influence.
  
  Has senility finally overtaken Peters? If so he should be sectioned. Was his mind adequately sound when he was selecting the COL?
  
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  May 11, 2018 12:25pm
  - calendar girl
    
    But it’s not just Peters. Ardern and Finance Minister Robertson are part of this altruistic folly.
    
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    May 11, 2018 2:58pm
- alloytoo
  
  You are correct, we cannot hope to outbid China.
  
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  May 11, 2018 1:01pm
Sideoiler

Coming to a primary school near you.
https://downtrend.com/71superb/art-teacher-sues-district-for-her-right-to-teach-elementary-kids-about-homosexuality/
We are doomed I tell you, doomed.
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May 11, 2018 10:15am
- RalphT
  
  Soon art will be offered as a sideline in the course on lesbianism for six-year-olds.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:34am
Maggy Wassilieff

David Goodall has died in Switzerland.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-10/david-goodall-ends-life-in-a-powerful-statement-on-euthanasia/9742528
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May 11, 2018 10:20am
- Jack5
  
  A long, fruitful, productive life, then a dignified exit.
  
  What sort of person would want to stop a highly intelligent 104-year-old man from gently exiting life?
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:41am
  - lilman
    
    Good for him.
    
    Why go there,I saw he had motor skills,why not do it in Aussie?
    Wasting time, plus air travel with green house gasses.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:32am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    What sort of person supports the law we actually have before Parliament right now – that would allow a mentally ill 25 year old to have assisted suicide, but would not allow David Goodall to legally do so?
    
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    May 11, 2018 12:51pm
  - nasska
    
    …..”What sort of person would want to stop a highly intelligent 104-year-old man from gently exiting life”…..
    
    Probably a religious nut aiming to build up a few brownie points with his/her non-existent God.
    
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    May 11, 2018 1:31pm
    - lilman
      
      No one was stopping him,Good for him ,I hope hes resting in peace.
      
      What I never understand is why the big song and dance.
      Just do it, if thats what you want.
      
      Why tell me.
      
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      May 11, 2018 4:51pm
Anne Glen Eden

Those raised in abusive homes KNOW that they are not safe, that society does not care about them or their safety and does not and will not protect them. The children who go through Refuges also know this – things may alter slightly, improve for a time, the actors change – but ultimately they remain unsafe pawns amongst people who say they ‘care’ but really don’t, beyond the hand-wringing. You want proof of that? As Hawkesby said:

“…Families in physical and sexual violence situations don’t have the luxury of time.
But they’re also often scared and mistrusting. I know personally of cases where women have said, ‘what’s the point in seeking help? There won’t be any, no one cares’.”

But notwithstanding that reality, the safety of children and the primary means of ‘preventing child abuse’ is deemed and championed to be self-referring mothers to Women’s Refuge. These are not usually middle-class mothers who’ve had a ‘bad time’. They are often drunken, drugged, abused and brain-damaged women who have few or no ‘scruples’ because they wouldn’t have survived if they did. No, I’m not ‘judging’ them. That’s the way it is. On their best day, the wider society condemns their behaviour – without the abuser.

Just look at the case of Ike Mokohoria Te Awa and his ‘family’.

“A man, whose baby daughter was murdered after months of systematic torture at the hands of a babysitter (a woman, a relative, and a close friend), has himself been sent to prison for 10 years for the long-term physical and sexual abuse of two young children.

After her death it emerged that the baby had endured countless acts of cruelty for most of her life. Jyniah was left in a closed freezer, hung on the back of a wardrobe door, held against a gas heater, swung around by her short hair and hung on a clothesline. Her fatal head injury was the result of being kicked, thrown against a wall, shaken and smothered.

Judge Winter outlined the impact [on] the [young] girl. “The events are said to have had major impacts on her life. It has affected her both mentally and physically. She described the physical injuries as being like dying inside. She felt sick every day and would lock herself away because of the physical, sexual and violent abuse she suffered. Mentally, she blames herself for letting all of this happen. She would lose sleep and describes being very paranoid and in a scared state. She was at such a young age she thought at first it was normal for [Te Awa] to do that [to her] and truly believed he was sorry.”

For all of that, the judge said, “The woman seemed to take the brunt of the violence.” Well, that’s descriptive – how horrific was that – what she not only tolerated to herself but to her children?

None of these people found themselves in this situation out of any ‘normal’ family. It derived from years of systemic family abuse, is clearly ingrained in the wider network, and will continue to be. It isn’t a question of blaming the mother. It is a reality that she is incapable of making a judgement about what is even remotely appropriate treatment of herself or her children.

Does anyone really think that the mother of these children is a ‘normal’ parent, who on the absence of her violent partner is suddenly going to become a ‘good parent’ with ‘normal’ boundaries? Trusting of society, her environment, social contacts, and relatives? Suddenly acquiring positive skills to positively and safely parent her children and, of course, provide for them? It means re-learning every element in her ‘being’. And for the children. That’s simply not possible – and to the extent that any improvement is going to occur, it will take a very long and very stressful time.

Does anyone really think that the children are suddenly going to turn into happy, relaxed, school-going, achieving members of society? Trusting of their mother and all their relatives – or the wider community that left them in that nightmare? That’s simply not possible either. In addition to their inherent problems, they’re also going to be confused at the mixed messages – lost between despair and hope, their real experience and what’s preached to them, what they know and what they’re supposed to ‘know’.

There’s a whole lot of other adults and children who have watched all this happening – many of whom are probably experiencing similar conditions. Does anyone really think that these people believe in the ‘caring’ society ‘protecting the children’, or that they have the wherewithal to get themselves out of it? Not a chance. They’re also confused and angry at the disparity between what’s said and what ‘is’.

The world watched Princess Diana struggle, and fail, to cope with a switch from ‘commoner’ to ‘royal’. It isn’t easy to move from one sphere to another, even when you have all the advantages of intelligence, education, and ‘civilised’ social skills. Just how easy do you think it is when you don’t have those things and your own brain and DNA is wired to prevent it?

To the extent that something can be done for child abuse, it is far more likely to be achieved by Bill English’s scheme to put one to one counsellors to work with families deemed at risk with zero tolerance of child abuse. It needs to start with newborn babies in a new generation – and guarantee their safety.
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May 11, 2018 10:23am
- Jack5
  
  Anne, what do you mean: “The world watched Princess Diana struggle, and fail, to cope with a switch from ‘commoner’ to ‘royal’. ”
  
  Commoner? Diana was an aristocrat as well as an air-head. Diana’s father was John Spencer, the 8th Earl Spencer. Her mother’s mother was Ruth Roche, Baroness Fermoy, a confidante and lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth before she became Queen Mother.
  
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  May 11, 2018 10:35am
  - lifesgood
    
    She certainly wasn’t a commoner but she was the damaged product of a broken marriage.
    
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    May 11, 2018 10:57am
  - Anne Glen Eden
    
    Technically, that may be true. But the ‘royals’ largely considered and treated her as a ‘commoner’ – one who was not ‘their own’ – and rejected her.
    
    Just as, technically, ‘the new prince, Prince George and Princess Charlotte will remain commoners until they inevitably become a Duke or Duchess like their parents. ‘
    
    I have no doubt that all the children are considered and will be treated as ‘royals’ by that echelon, irrespective of the technicalities.
    
    But you’re just splitting hairs anyway. Those who respond to child torture and death by saying, “Prove how many there are” or treating it as some theoretical construct whose merits are open to debate, either live in an insulated personal or ideological bubble with no access to real humanity or are incapable of making contact with it for some other reason.
    
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    May 11, 2018 11:42am
Poppa

Hey Phil

You seem to be a bit behind on the housing scoreboard….Just saying

Blaming the last Government does work with this one Phil, best get on with it then
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May 11, 2018 11:02am
RF

According to my Labour spies we will be hearing more about Comrade Ardern and how bad National were in the last 9 years.

The troops have been told to pull together to show a united front.
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May 11, 2018 11:28am
- niggly
  
  An ever so “slight flaw” in Labour’s “cunning plan” …. it was only 6 months ago (not 6 years ago) that National were still in power so people’s memories haven’t faded or forgotten the hard times that National pulled the country through and after prudent management how they managed to turn around deficits into surpluses – the very surpluses that Labour are spending like children in a candy store.
  
  How desperate of Labour – I wonder who the geniuses were who thought this tactic will be a “winner”? Let me guess how about the LP Exec, H2, H3 Robbo etc? 😉
  
  All National have to do is reply the countless times during the election (and post-election negotiations) that Jacinda acknowledged how well National managed the economy, which Labour were fortunate to inherit! 🙂
  
  Silly Robbo needs to spend more time cutting and pasting from articles from the Economist (in order to say something profound) rather than wasting all his precious (and taxpayer) funded time working on devising excuses!
  
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  May 11, 2018 12:33pm
  - Paulus
    
    As a reader of the Economist (which is given to me) I do not think that there is anything there from which Robertson can learn.
    He cannot understand anything he reads – too hard with long words.
    
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    May 11, 2018 1:46pm
    - mandk
      
      I stopped reading The Economist when it went from being classical Liberal to being progressive liberal.
      
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      May 11, 2018 2:02pm
- Ross12
  
  Labour internal polls must be bad, RF.
  
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  May 11, 2018 3:03pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Listening to the news this morning, that is clearly their plan. Even O’Connor’s lack of a plan to deal with Mycoplasma Bovis is National’s fault.
  
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  May 11, 2018 6:06pm
- Piniwi
  
  Ready RF though we have been bombarded already with the worn add-ons which are especially when the Minister is a fool to start with and then struggles with the pre-prepared jibe.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:23pm
JibberJabber

If you think the education system in this country `aint fucked beyond repair, have a read of this,
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/103803883/relief-teacher-censured-for-calling-students-dickheads

Generation Sook have got a bright future.
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May 11, 2018 11:42am
- RalphT
  
  Indeed, how can we expect the young to be truthful when a teacher is told off for making an honest statement.
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:46am
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  Can we fix it?
  No it’s fucked.
  Bob the builder
  
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  May 11, 2018 5:50pm
- ex-golfer
  
  “Generation Sook”
  
  JibberJabber – you win the internet today with that. Gold!
  
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  May 11, 2018 6:42pm
rangitoto

Driver abandons train. The joys of public transport.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12049564
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May 11, 2018 12:01pm
- simpleton1
  
  Stress. such a “health and safety” issue
  Thank goodness he was not allowed to smoke while driving the train.
  Needs more rest breaks. 🙂
  Will also have to be more inclusive to allow “prayer breaks”
  
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  May 11, 2018 12:11pm
- cmm
  
  Pretty bloody worrying that someone this disturbed is allowed to drive a train or a bus.
  
  But, hey, unions… can’t fire them!
  
  I’m sure train driving can be a stressful job at times and it must be hard putting up with the gansta yoof that hang around train stations and buses.
  
  If trains are to succeed they need to work end-to-end.
  
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  May 11, 2018 12:23pm
- Steve (North Shore)
  
  Maybe he lost his radio, and not allowed a cellphone – so he went looking for a public phonebox.
  Good luck finding one of them.
  On another note, if you can fuck something up and take no responsibility, then you can have the day off. Rostered on for the weekend? have a month off as long as you pass the drug test
  
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  May 11, 2018 5:56pm
cmm

Burton stabbed…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12049573

“Violence is never acceptable and all prisoners who resort to this behaviour will be held to account.”

Crims care what is acceptable do they? Riiight.

I know, let’s make it illegal to break the law. That will stop all crime immediately!
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May 11, 2018 12:16pm
- rightoverlabour
  
  Staff should never have intervened…
  
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  May 11, 2018 2:26pm
  - RalphT
    
    Would have saved us all a lot of money. There’s no way he’ll ever be released and the costs of another 30 or so years inside make the eyes water.
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:19pm
    - Jack5
      
      More than three-quarters of Auckland Prison’s inmates have convictions for violence. Are these among prisoners Andrew Little plans to unleash on the public?
      
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      May 11, 2018 9:04pm
stigie

Would you trust a poll done by the Trade Unions..?

“A majority of New Zealanders say they would support higher or new taxes to maintain funding for schools, hospitals and transport systems, according to polling by trade unions.”

https://thestandard.org.nz/most-kiwis-support-more-tax/
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May 11, 2018 12:19pm
- BrasellBrush
  
  When look at the two questions it was loaded….lol
  All BS!
  a) the government should increase tax to at least maintain public services at their current levels into the future, or,
  
  b) tax collected should stay the same while reducing public services.
  
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  May 11, 2018 12:34pm
- Paulus
  
  There are only 360,000 members of the Unions in New Zealand and many of them like say Teachers and Nurses are forced to be members otherwise their promotions are slowed down.
  
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  May 11, 2018 1:48pm
Manolo

stephieboy and even our own DPF are starting to change their minds about President Trump. 😀
https://apnews.com/22f986def6eb42c0b8c035ca4b0d7f95

Trump’s upcoming summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is only the latest example of the president’s go-big strategy.

From tax reform to international trade to foreign policy, Trump has pursued a high-risk, high-reward approach that advisers say can help produce results on longstanding problems — and that critics warn could trigger dangerous repercussions all the way from a trade war to global conflict.
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May 11, 2018 12:36pm
RF

I can remember when goofy was the Labour leader under siege and his caucus had banded together to support him. One of the group was Mallard who had busted his shoulder falling off his bike. There was a shot on TV with the motley crew standing around goofy with smirky grins telling us that they supported him as their leader.

Obviously they did not as he was shafted soon after.

Now we have the current labour lot chanting their support for Comrade Ardern. Christ it reminded me of that clown in charge of North Korea with his minions grovelling their support. All staged and phoney.

What a clusterfuk.
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May 11, 2018 1:55pm
Nostradamus

An intellectual giant comments at The Standard:

Stuart Munro: Privatisation has never produced the promised benefits. Since that was the premise under which they were privatized, they should revert to the previous model. All of them.

Gosman: What were the promised benefits?

Stuart Munro: Lower costs and improved services.

Gosman: Why do you think no mainstream political party in NZ is making that a major platform Stuart?

Stuart Munro: Corruption. They don’t strain themselves to represent their citizens. And a few are indeed still dumb enough to buy neo-liberal lies.

Stuart appears to think that nationalisation is the way to economic nirvana, and that “corruption” prevents political parties from promoting nationalisation. Perhaps he should visit Venezuela and North Korea to see what life’s like there.
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May 11, 2018 1:57pm
- Poppa
  
  Obviously a deep thinker….not
  
  No doubt I am supporting him whilst he sits there spouting that crap
  
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  May 11, 2018 2:03pm
  - Swifty
    
    He’s a teacher – mostly overseas from memory.
    
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    May 11, 2018 2:57pm
- slightlyrighty
  
  In 1984, When Telecom was privatised, you would wait months for a phone, and pay $30 per month (About $100 per month when adjusted for today) for free local calling, and pay for all other calls.
  
  I now pay $59 and was connected to the mobile network the same hour. I get free, unlimited calls and texts to any number in Australiasia as well at 6GB of mobile data per month.
  
  Lower Costs? Check.
  
  Improved Services? Check.
  
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  May 11, 2018 2:07pm
  - stephieboy
    
    slightlyrighty ,
    
    vastly improved technologies Check
    
    Thirty-four years later. Check
    
    Removal of Telecoms monopoly on the local loop. Check.
    
    More choices re Telephone and Internet provides Check
    
    Fixed
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:18pm
- Swifty
  
  I’ve come across Munro from time to time online for many years.
  
  He’s a socialist screaming howler monkey of the deepest red hue. Facts and evidence are foreign to him and meek and mild National supporters are akin to the SS on his wilderness of a planet.
  
  He can be safely ignored.
  
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  May 11, 2018 2:20pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Swiftly, safely ignored rather like you, eh?
    
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    May 11, 2018 3:22pm
    - Swifty
      
      I really wish YOU would, you filthy little creep.
      
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      May 11, 2018 4:24pm
    - softail 1450
      
      septicboy,still a fucking idiot.
      
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      May 11, 2018 6:26pm
artemisia

So it is all change with Mr Twyford and Kiwibuild pricing. Hours after insisting on the telly top price for 1 bedroom homes is going up by $50k, turns out it was all wrong and it is 3 bedroom places going up by up to that amount.

Ms Collins must feel she is living in an alternative universe on Friday mornings. Just as well it is an amusing one. Maybe hilarious would be a better word.
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May 11, 2018 2:18pm
RF

Just watched the new co leader of the Greens being interviewed on the Nation.

FFS she was telling everyone that raw sewerage was still running down the walls in our hospitals and the woolly haired interviewer just sat there nodding his head.

Jesus H Christ.
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May 11, 2018 2:23pm
Jack5

The Maori takeover of Radio New Zealand is almost complete, at a time that the Labour-Green Government’s crazy Clare Curran plans to expand it into TV.

Jim Mather, the current head of the Maori tertiary education institution, Te Wananga o Aotearoa, who also led Maori Television for nine years, will replace Richard Griffin as chairman of Radio New Zealand.

This seals the great coup by Wily Willie Jackson, that saw the network of 21 Maori tribal radio stations (supported by taxpayers) that he chaired, sign a partnership deal with Radio NZ.

Wily Willie, now a Labour-Green minister, said the partnership deal, signed while National was in Government, went some way to meeting the obligations that RNZ had to Maori.

Mather’s appointment was announced by crazy Clare Curran, the Labour-Greens’ (take a big breath) Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister. Curran said Mather was joining the board when the evolution of RNZ into RNZ+ was beginning.

RNZ+ is Labour’s plan for a new free-to-air TV channel to leech on the taxpayer.

John Drinnan, the media reporter for the Hooerald wrote last September that Labour’s new media policy crowns Radio NZ as the king of public interest content.

According to an entry in Wikipedia, whare wananga were dedicated to perpetuating Maori knowledge.

The Radio NZ deal with the Maori radio network:

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/te-manu-korihi/312240/rnz-signs-partnership-with-te-whakaruruhau

Will National challenge this move? Cup your hand over your ear if you want to hear any.
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May 11, 2018 2:32pm
- KevOB
  
  What Maori knowledge on TV? Real knowledge stays with the tribal elders.
  Are we going to get the truth about the former need for Crown protection against genocide?
  
  It’s all driven by money and handouts.
  
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  May 11, 2018 6:02pm
sooty

Ferald writes some female jogger was dragged into the bushes and asalted as well as strangled. I thought you had to be dead after the strangling, so maybe their just making shit up again.
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May 11, 2018 2:55pm
MCos

Cricket Australia has pulled the plug on a scheduled tour by Bangladesh that was due to take place in a few months because there was no money in it for the TV broadcasters, or some such.
Maybe they should scrap the Sheffield Shield competition and just run a never ending 20/20 competition.
The Cricket World Cup has already been trimmed such that there was the absurd situation of the Windies having to play in a qualifying tournament.
If our boys have a form slump it could be us next time having to beat the likes of Holland or someone for a spot.
There’s about three or four big associations in cricket who would be quite happy if they could just play amongst themselves.
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May 11, 2018 3:15pm
- noskire
  
  On a more positive note, it’s looking like the Blackcaps will play three Tests in Australia during the 2019/2020 summer – including tests at the MCG and SCG.
  
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  May 11, 2018 7:59pm
Gravelroad

Just received invoice from insurance company for our private vehicle policy:
“Important update to your policy
Your policy has been updated to include
methamphetamine contamination for your vehicle if it happens while it was stolen”.

Don’t see any extra monetary value attached.
Is this standard practice?
If so, what a sad state of affairs we now have in NZ.
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May 11, 2018 3:44pm
- Inandout
  
  This is the P epidemic in full swing and eventually it will be added to all premiums. I was told today that in Palmerston North there have been 40 reported burglaries, and we are not even half way through the month. The addicts are desperate and it won’t be long before a death occurs on some innocent person’s property. All governments are to blame for this lethargy, and none more so than National’s last reign. No authority is prepared to introduce much needed draconian laws to stem the tide of meth, they just paper over the cracks. Burglars are more and more targeting the very wealthy, because therein lie the choice goods, and ironically the law makers.
  
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  May 11, 2018 4:54pm
  - Steve (North Shore)
    
    Why am I reading that fast, like super fast? Then have to read it 5 times to understand?
    
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    May 11, 2018 6:01pm
Ross12

Looks like Mueller just got legged tripped with one of his stupid moves. He indicts 13 people and Russian companies, to get a few headlines thinking he is showing he is making progress but also thinking they will not show up in court, so it will just fade away.
But one of those companies did turn up, pleads not guilty and now wants to go ahead with discovery. Mueller had his bluff called. Well done Concord Management

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2018/05/joe-digenova-breaks-down-why-junk-russian-bot-case-is-bad-news-for-mueller-video/
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May 11, 2018 4:01pm
lilman

The ONLY Russian collusion is with the DNC and Hillary.

That is the only proven fact.
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May 11, 2018 4:54pm
UpandComer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSo1tJZCMkc&t=319s

Anyone else read Marion Zimmer Bradley?

Watch this video – very moving.

Also, Peterson is a fraud who will see hundreds of years of English liberty crucified, because he thinks it’s more sinful for people to act as ‘identities’ then it is to lose free speech.
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May 11, 2018 5:10pm
Nostradamus

Yvette Coppersmith’s Jacinda Ardern-inspired portrait wins prestigious Archibald Art Prize

“I would like to start by saying I want to channel the original inspiration for this portrait, which was the Right Honourable New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. I think she would have worn this colour,” Coppersmith said at a ceremony at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney today.

The entry that won AUD100,000 is here.
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May 11, 2018 5:33pm
- nasska
  
  It’s a work of hyperbole. The model has taken too many hits from the ugly stick for someone to portray her as worse than she is!
  
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  May 11, 2018 5:52pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Nasska:
    
    Just imagine how much (or little) money this portrait would’ve fetched in an art exhibition!
    
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    May 11, 2018 5:55pm
    - nasska
      
      The rug maker placed too much reliance on her seeing eye dog’s artistic tastes. 🙂
      
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      May 11, 2018 6:00pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      One downticker doesn’t like looking at Andrew Little’s penis depicted on a rug (understandable) 🙂
      
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      May 11, 2018 9:58pm
Longknives

Please,Please DPF have a discussion thread tomorrow on this person-

http://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/abc-commentator-says-parents-should-ask-babies-for-consent-to-nappy-change/news-story/8fc2e67a11e24c8abb7819c114bc5168

I’m dying to hear the Left try and justify this fucking fruitcake!
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May 11, 2018 5:34pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Deanne Carson responds to her critics in a Facebook post:
  
  I gave an interview the other day about teaching consent to young children. … Sadly, some people have chosen to ridicule me (oh no! Pink hair! Must be a lesbian!) and the notion of giving infants bodily autonomy (poo in nappies har har amiright?!).
  
  For those people I’m posting this.
  
  One in three girls, one in seven boys will be sexually assaulted by the time they are eighteen years old. One in twelve girls will be sexually abused before their sixth birthday.
  
  The work we do with children, teachers and parents is international best practice in abuse prevention. It teaches children their rights AND their responsibilities and connects them with people who care and can help. It invites their parents into the discussion and is sensitive to cultural and family values.
  
  Troll me all you want, add to your blog inches, but remember that when you do, you are negating the voices of these brave survivors of sexual abuse.
  
  So, apparently, non-consensual nappy changes promotes child sexual abuse. Nut nut nutter!
  
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  May 11, 2018 5:44pm
  - nasska
    
    If only the mad bitch had her brain fart when our lot were growing up.
    
    “Sorry dear. I can’t change the baby’s nappy. She hasn’t signed the consent form.” 🙂
    
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    May 11, 2018 5:50pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      So how do you ask for consent anyway?
      
      “Oh Bubba! Have you done a poo poo? Is it alright if I change your dirty doo-doo to a clean one? Nod your head for yes. Shake your head for no.”
      
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      May 11, 2018 5:53pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I assume this woman has never been in charge of an infant for a day or more…
    If I remember correctly, my new babes went through 8-12 nappies/day… and perhaps by the time they were 18months were down to 4-5 changes/day.
    
    Seems this lady is rather confused about egestion, excretion and abuse.
    Most folks don’t indulge in the sexual abuse of infants while cleaning up their dirty messes.
    At some appropriate age young children do need to be told about inappropriate touching, but I don’t think its when they are still wearing nappies.
    
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    May 11, 2018 8:55pm
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      Maggy,
      A true story from nearly 40 years ago. When our eldest child has his first dump on the potty I was so thrilled that I went down town to buy a bottle of Moet to celebrate. The grog shop didn’t have any so my wife and I put up with Veuve Cliquot.
      We have given our son-in-law a bottle of Moet, to be kept until that momentous day arrives for our adorable grand daughter. He has had it chilled now for nine months as our daughter and him await that day.
      
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      May 11, 2018 9:34pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Eldest child was potty-trained at her creche in one day.
        When 2nd child reached similar age I tried to potty-train her at home. After a couple of days with no result, I rang up the young woman who had potty trained my eldest. As she just lived down the road, she offered to drop around next day and see what she could do.
        She told me to go shopping and not come back for a couple of hours.
        I have no idea what she did with my daughter in the toilet room that morning, but my daughter never needed nappies again.
        
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        May 11, 2018 10:22pm
- ex-golfer
  
  April called – it wants its Fool back.
  
  Meanwhile, will all the parents where the child does not give them consent get prosecuted for child abuse when the child suffers ill-health as a result of unchanged nappies?
  
  SJW’s – nutters the lot of them. She deserves all the derision that is thrown her way.
  
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  May 11, 2018 6:32pm
Brigitte

NZ MUSIC MONTH

Tonight Ladyhawke with My Delirium off her self titled album: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_bFO1SNRZg
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May 11, 2018 5:50pm
- Longknives
  
  NZ Music Month can sod off.
  
  I play a couple of instruments myself and I love music- But all this ‘The Taxpayer must fund us’ shit from South Auckland Gangsta Rappers and talentless Left Wing sycophants makes me want to puke.
  
  Rant over- Enjoy some classic Kiwi rock from the days when you actually had to know how to play an instrument-
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHFFuukk9Y8
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Tz11688v5Y
  
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  May 11, 2018 6:04pm
  - cha
    
    Oh yeah, the good old days, when the smack was plentiful, NZ’s most famous junkie warbled and expat junkies sang paeans to underage sex.
    
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    May 11, 2018 6:27pm
    - Longknives
      
      Brazier and Hunter may have had their substance ‘problems’- But they still had more talent in their little fingers than your Left-Wing heroes Lorde ‘I’m so sorry for being white’ and Tom ‘I want to rape Max Key’ Scott could ever dream of…
      
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      May 11, 2018 6:42pm
      - Brigitte
        
        Perhaps next year I’ll go for a Dunedin Sound theme (LBGP has been played this year) which might be more in your liking?
        
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        May 11, 2018 7:17pm
      - Longknives
        
        Ha Ha- You think Hello Sailor and Dragon are ‘Dunedin Sound’??Just keep bombarding us with Left Wing teeny pop/wannabe rap shit Brigitte-Leave real music discussions to the grown-ups!
        Although I went to Otago University- I always hated the ‘Dunedin Sound’ but shit they kick the hell out of the bollocks that NZ on Air spews out these days..
        And even though I don’t like them, People are still listening to the Chills thirty years down the track- You reckon anyone will remember your beloved ‘Ladyhawke’ in thirty years??
        
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        May 11, 2018 7:25pm
      - Brigitte
        
        Of course they’re not Dunedin Sound; I was thinking more along the lines of Bats, Verlaines, Chills, Enemy, Bailter Space.
        
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        May 11, 2018 8:23pm
renderer

Jesus wept. Is the world going mad

A sexuality expert says parents should ask their child’s permission before changing their nappies – so they can set up a “culture of consent.”
Deanne Carson made the suggestion on ABC News during a segment about teaching consent to young children, and many viewers have since expressed their confusion over the idea.
According to Carson, who describes herself as a “sexuality educator, speaker, and author” on Twitter, a culture of consent needs to start at birth.
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May 11, 2018 6:46pm
MrTips

Greenpeace are arrogant, bullying, deceitful wankers. Who knew?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/103828624/voicemail-exposes-tactics-used-by-greenpeace-nz-to-solicit-donations

Russell Norman very silent on this. No comment Russell?
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May 11, 2018 6:57pm
- cha
  
  I guess chuggers have changed tack.
  
  chugger
  ˈtʃʌɡə/
  nounBritishinformalderogatory
  plural noun: chuggers
  
  a person who approaches passers-by in the street asking for subscriptions or donations to a particular charity.
  “when you have chuggers outside your shop, people just cross the road”
  
  https://www.google.com/search?q=chuggers&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/04/secret-life-chugger-charity-fundraiser
  
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  May 11, 2018 7:12pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  So surprising that folks believe Greenpeace do anything that helps the Environment.
  They are a money-grubbing organisation that rides on the coat-tails of genuine environmental workers.
  
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  May 11, 2018 7:26pm
  - nasska
    
    How right you are Maggy. It’s all hype, gloss & photos of cute, big-eyed seal pups.
    
    They’re dog shit on the shoes of humanity.
    
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    May 11, 2018 7:45pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Greenpeace is a cult preying on the young and idealistic -like Oxfam and other discredited charities.
  
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  May 11, 2018 7:45pm
Monique Watson

The Green Party is panning frying. Goodbye Fish and Chips, you wonderful New Zealand staple, you.
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May 11, 2018 7:16pm
- sooty
  
  There goes Taxindas claim to fame!
  
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  May 11, 2018 8:41pm
Jack5

I was thinking of giving the newly tabloidized Christchurch Press a second look tomorrow, but came across one today, and …

Evidence of its Leftist-Liberal stance is an article in today’s Press by Kate Frykberg, a philanthropy consultant, propagandising for race-based local body councils.

Samples:

… It is through the Treaty of Waitanig that we non-Maori have the right to live here.

If that’s the case, Mrs Frykberg, on what treaty do Auckland’s new Chinese inhabitants live in NZ? China wasn’t a signatory to the treaty. What about refugees sent here by the UN? How are they related to the Treaty of Waitangi?

AND …

… it is unfair for tangata whenua to be excluded from local councils.

Excluded? Excluded by whom? Does Mrs Frykberg think that non-Maori New Zealanders are so racist they wouldn’t vote for a Maori because that person is a Maori?

Is the Press is playing a dangerous marketing game, rarking up potential customers in the hope of creating interest?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/103750284/harmony-and-the-case-for-mori-wards
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May 11, 2018 7:50pm
nasska

If Jacinda was in a normal job… Jacinda did u fix the leak in the roof? Well I think… Did u fix the leak? I believe…. Did you fix the leak? It’s my opinion that… Drop the van back to the yard & pick up your severance pay in the morning.

Life in the real world.
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May 11, 2018 7:54pm
DigNap15

Based on Labours first 6 months here’s my wish list for Nationals for 6 months
Outlaw all unions
Turn all schools in Charter Schools
Make it 2 strikes and your out.
No parole at all ever.
All sentences to be cumulative
Maori to be removed as an official language and renamed a ceremonial language
The DPB to be stopeed for any new people, and gradually phased out for current recipents
Life bans from Public housing for all feral tennants.
All bus lanes to be removed
No cycle way sin our cities
Dual carriage highway from Auckland to Wellington.
Reintroduce the 90 day trial
A night time curfew for all Maori and PI youth in our cities.
Any random violent attacks to be life inprisonment – no ifs no buts
All burglars to be given life imprisonment – a house should be sacrosant.

No dole if you if refuse to take a job.
Bail laws tightened.
Judges that give bail to a person that re-offends to be sacked.
No heating in jails – bring your own blanket
Etc
Etc
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May 11, 2018 8:54pm
- Nostradamus
  
  DigNap15:
  
  Based on Labours first 6 months here’s my wish list for Nationals for 6 months
  …
  A night time curfew for all Maori and PI youth in our cities.
  …
  
  Would you consider imposing the nighttime curfew on social welfare recipients too (noting, with your proposed DPB reform, social welfare to assist with living expenses would be primarily limited to the dole and the sickness benefit)? 🙂
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:19pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Could the downticker with no sense of humour (and a twitchy finger) please report to reception immediately 🙂
    
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    May 11, 2018 9:54pm
Jack5

It’s frequently said that cruelty to animals is a warning sign of a psychopath who would do the same to humans.

So be careful in case this scumbag crosses your path. The Nelson Mail reports he “kicked a cow in the stomach until it bellowed in pain, broke cows’ tails.”

In five years the ratbag will be allowed to own or manage animals again. Surely the court had power to ban him for life?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/103781604/angry-golden-bay-farmer-sentenced-for-violently-abusing-his-herd
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May 11, 2018 8:57pm
- Nostradamus
  
  From the article:
  
  Defence lawyer Tony Bamford said a farming disqualification wasn’t necessary as Wells was leaving farming to work in forestry. He was willing to do an anger management course before taking control of animals again, accepting he could appear to be an “angry man”.
  
  I don’t think he’ll enjoy kicking trees very much, so he’ll return to the farming scene at some stage.
  
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  May 11, 2018 9:28pm
  - nasska
    
    Thing is that people who mistreat livestock are piss poor farmers. You can’t get emotional about farm animals but if you abuse them they’ll never thrive.
    
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    May 11, 2018 9:39pm
    - GoVege
      
      True nasska, but “livestock”?
      We’re talking about moocows here!
      
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      May 12, 2018 12:36am
  - GoVege
    
    Don’t think he’ll scare any trees by “screaming profanities” at them….though Prince Charles may disagree..
    
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    May 12, 2018 12:34am
Harriet

You don’t need to ask this kid if it would like it’s nappy changed: 😎

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/mother-guilty-as-children-found-living-in-squalor-in-illawarra-house/ar-AAx5yH1?ocid=spartanntp
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May 11, 2018 10:39pm
GazzaW

While the Herald attend the Media Awards and is patting itself on the back I have just heard second hand that Hawkins Construction has gone into receivership today.

If that is the case it means that our two largest construction companies are facing financial challenges and does not bode well for either home or commercial construction.
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May 11, 2018 11:08pm
- rangitoto
  
  It’s the part that Downer didn’t aquire:
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12049758
  
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  May 11, 2018 11:49pm
Jack5

Refugees from Myanmar have raped a woman in Melbourne.

Myanmar refugees are Muslims driven out of predominantly Buddhist Myanmar/Burma.

Doubtless, Jacinderella will be inviting oodles of them to NZ, with second and third echelons to follow as they bring in their big families.

In the UN propaganda pictures, they’re nearly always women and kids. But heaps of able young men seem to be crashing into the West as refugees. Why don’t they stay home and fight for their rights?

https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/i-feel-so-violated-says-homeless-woman-raped-by-refugees-under-bridge-20180511-p4zes2.html
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May 12, 2018 1:26am
Viking2

Te Uru Rākau will build a strong and dedicated forestry presence in Rotorua, recognising that Rotorua is at the heart of the forestry sector in New Zealand. Forestry is our third largest export earner – with an annual gross income of about $5 billion – and has the potential to grow.

“I’m pleased to be able to announce today that Budget 2018 will set aside $15 million of operating funds to boost the capability of the new service, enabling it to work with land owners, provide forestry expertise and deliver on the Government’s forestry objectives.

“Today, we’re also launching an online tree counter to keep track of the One Billion Trees goal. This will be updated weekly throughout the winter planting season and will show how many trees have been planted, the number of tree seedlings sold and the percentage of native versus exotic species.

“Since coming into Government, we have given Crown Forestry the mandate to enter into commercial arrangements with landowners, provided $5.8 million of operating funding to scale up production of native seedlings and announced a nationwide planting programme over Matariki to recognise the men and women of our New Zealand Defence Force.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/103817852/5bn-and-potential-to-grow–shane-jones-opens-new-forestry-hub

Another counter.
Have to say that the NZ first bit of this Govt. seems to be doing the right thing.
The Labour and Green bit are lacking but winny seems to exerting some contriol over some good outcomes. Like he is picking the battles to win.
Agree with this becuase currenty wood is our 3rd biggest export, much of it as logs and unprocessed in any form. We can change at least part of that with research and investment. Same with milk. Van der hayden skittles fonterra’s R & D to leave farmers poor.
Kiwifruit is a good example of long term R & D. Going gangbusters with new varieties in the pipeline. Apples the same.

Even agree to some extent with the diplomat stuff.

Looking forward to DPF linking to Shanes counter.
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May 12, 2018 7:28am
Viking2

Hope for a Kermadec Sanctuary is back on the table and NZ First leader Winston Peters is confident he can do a deal with the Green Party by the end of the year.

The deal would involve a compromise from the Greens though – accepting that the sanctuary won’t be a 100 per cent no-fishing zone.

The 620,000-square-kilometre sanctuary was considered dead in the water when Labour and NZ First joined forces to form a Government after the election.

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2018/05/general_debate_11_may_2018.html/comment-page-1#comment-2208540
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May 12, 2018 7:32am

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