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February 11, 2019 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 11 February 2019

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General Debate

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holysheet

Jethro and Cindy were in a horrible car wreck, Cindy passed right away and Jethro passed an hour later.
Cindy walked up to the Pearly Gates, “What is this?”
“It’s heaven” replied St Peter, “Would you like to stay?”
“Yes” Cindy said.
“There’s just one test, you must correctly spell a word.”
“Okay, what word” asked Cindy.
“Any word you wish” St Peter informed her, “We don’t make it hard, just think of any word that describes you and spell it.”
“Okay”, Cindy thought, “Liar, L-I-A-R”.
“Great, welcome to Heaven Cindy……………. Would you mind doing me a favour?”, St Peter asked. “I really need to go to the restroom, can you watch the gates for me?”
“Sure, of course” Cindy replied.
So then while Cindy’s watching the gate, here comes Jethro, “Cindy, what are you doing?”
“Jethro, this is the Pearly Gates, there’s a test before you get into heaven and St Peter left me in charge of it while he’s in the bathroom” Cindy informed him.
“Good thing you’re here, I don’t need to take the test.” Jethro replied.
“No Jethro, you do have to take the test, if I let you cheat like I always have in the past, they’d surely find out about it. But you are a smart man, I know you’ll pass”.
“Fine Cindy, what’s the test?” Jethro asked.
Cindy smirked and said, “Spell Czechoslovakia.”
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February 11, 2019 8:01am
- sooty
  
  Very good!
  Post of the day, maybe with the first one!
  Edit
  Maybe not as there is a poll release tonight and there will be some doozeys.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:04am
- MT_Tinman
  
  A wonderful story slightly tainted by the old saw that Cindy should only ask questions Cindy knows the answer to.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:10am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    That, and the fact she can’t pronounce words much simpler than Czechoslovakia.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:25am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Czechoslovadia
      You’re welcome ?
      
      26 0
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      February 11, 2019 8:38am
      - Nigel Kearney
        
        It would be more like CheddarsLoveHaka probably.
        
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        February 11, 2019 2:13pm
    - septic skeptic
      
      At least there is no “t” in Czechoslovakia!
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:06am
      - G152
        
        Must be coffee then 🙂
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:09am
- Tall Man
  
  Coz ardern is a liar…..
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:20am
- marquess
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  You’re disgusting
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:37am
  - pentwig
    
    marment
    you aint too nice yourself!
    sigh!
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:42am
  - lifesgood
    
    I thought school was back, marquess. Are you using a cell phone under your desk?
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:07am
- RW Capitalist
  
  ooo ooo….that’s easy, I know this one
  is it spelt
  K a r e l S r o u b e k,?
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:17am
  - holysheet
    
    I couldn’t possibly comment, but there is a lot of “reading between the lines” in that story.
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:54pm
peterwn

Should Simon Bridges invoke the ‘Waka Hopper’ legislation to remove Jami-Lee Ross from Parliament? Because Simon opposed this legislation he would obviously be very reluctant to use it. However can he afford to continue to have the distracting presence of Jami in the House?
As an unscientific poll – Please up-tick this if you think Simon Bridges should move to have Jami removed from Parliament. Otherwise please down-tick this.
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February 11, 2019 8:01am
- brett68
  
  After listening to Ross on talkback yesterday they’re going to have to waka jump him.
  
  He made it pretty clear he’s there to cause shit and campaign against National.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:08am
  - peterwn
    
    His mentors must be like the mentors of Kamikaze pilots. If Jami keeps his head below the parapet he could probably keep collecting his Parliamentary pay until three months after the next election. If he pushes Simon too hard he risks being out on his ear and AFAIK would not be entitled to three months pay after leacing.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:14am
    - septic skeptic
      
      So, either he is going all out to harm National, so potentially a well intentioned whistle blower who would be ill served by being waka jumped? Or he is simply sucking at the public tit for as long as he can. In which case he certainly should be waka jumped.
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:25am
      - peterwn
        
        If he was public tit sucking, he would keep his head down. However he is challenging Simon to ‘Make my Day – chuck me out’.
        
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        February 11, 2019 8:30am
      - brett68
        
        Better it get it over with it sooner than later.
        
        It’s going to have to happen.
        
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        February 11, 2019 8:41am
      - Salacious Crumb
        
        Word is Mr Ross has a new and quite sizeable mortgage now which he is servicing on his own. As he will not be re-elected by the electorate one can only assume a man of his considerable experience has something lucrative lined up post parliamentary career?
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:37am
      - Jack5
        
        While we’re on Jami-Lee Ross ..
        
        Southland mayor Gary Tong is in the spotlight over visits to China and links with Yikun Zhang, the chairman of the Chao Shan Association of New Zealand.
        
        Jami-Lee Ross has made statements about alleged splitting up of a $100,000 donation to the National Party from Yikun Zhang – also in media reports called Zhang Yikun. Ross is reported to have alleged that Simon Bridges had the donations split up among members of the Chao Shan Association.
        
        Stuff reports that Mayor Tong has been involved in a number of formal and informal meetings with Yikun Zhang. Tong has made two visits to China, both funded by the Chao Shan Association of NZ. Stuff says Tong met local and central government officials and members of the Chao Shan Association of NZ.
        
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110487170/mayor-gary-tong-reports-to-councillors-on-china-dealings
        
        https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/10/17/281302/questions-remain-over-zhang-donation
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:40am
      - lifesgood
        
        I happened to be at Botany on the weekend. JLR was there, strutting around like cock of the walk. Heaps of people sucking up to him and having photos taken. Sigh.
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:10am
      - Jack5
        
        Wait till next year, Lifesgood, when you see Jami in pilot’s hat, climbing the steps into the plane you’re booked to fly on. ?
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:17am
    - srylands
      
      You have to wonder what kind of employment he could ever get in New Zealand. He is a young man with a young family. Even leaving New Zealand won’t help much. A simple Google search would reveal the horror story.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:29am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Move to Australia and change name. Conmen and other scammers do it all the time.
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:38am
      - peterwn
        
        Some Parramatta Road car yards would hire him – ideal for the job.
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:15am
      - septic skeptic
        
        I reckon he is a shoo in for a role with the MSM providing the right wing “balance” for their propaganda.
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:07pm
    - KevOB
      
      Does JLR hope to get paid by the media?
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:04am
      - 3-coil
        
        KevOB – well he was getting “laid” by one of the local MSM chicks, but I hadn’t heard about any money changing hands..?
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:37pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    If they waka-jump him could he cause even more shit from outside the tent with the assistance of the anti-National media?
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:56am
    - brett68
      
      How?, he’d just be some unemployed guy from Botany.
      No money, no parliamentary resources.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:09am
    - KH
      
      Simon has decided JLR is invisible and that includes no waka jumping. Good decision to stick to. Simon has gone up in my estimation with his clear handling of JLR.
      Meanwhile JLR will jump about like a firecracker creating as much shit as he can. But no surprise, the shit will stick to him.
      And – he needs to stop giving mentally ill people a bad name.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:39pm
  - Inandout
    
    Yes brett68, but Chris Trotter was at his wisest, perhaps too wise for the Lambie.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:44am
  - Maxx
    
    Conspiracy theory time – from when JLR met with NZF and his proxy vote was offered, it was on the condition that he stay in parliment as long as he could and force Nats to use the Waka Jumping legislation to get him out. The payoff will be switching to NZF at a high rank.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:02am
    - septic skeptic
      
      I reckon he would need to take the Botany electorate with him to NZF to keep in parliament. My pick is that NZF will be shown to be in deep trouble when the poll comes out later today.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:10pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Someone somewhere in this awful parliament has to stand by their principles.
  National under the leadership of Bridges voted against the waka jumping legislation on principle – so let’s see them take a stand on that basis.
  J. L. Ross is a has been of no consequence. Why continue to feed his need for attention by making him a martyr to Peters?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:13am
  - pdm
    
    `Why continue to feed his need for attention by making him a martyr to Peters?’
    
    I agree.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:22am
  - brett68
    
    Ross is working with Peters.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:30am
    - Durden
      
      And Slater and Lusk as well according to information in public domain.
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:32am
      - brett68
        
        Yep, which is why you waka jump him, take out one of Peters attack weapons with his own legislation.
        
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        February 11, 2019 8:39am
    - Souvlaki
      
      and the WO site.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:37am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Peters had his proxy after National refused it, How about the slogan ‘National, the party of principle’ or National the principle party.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:55am
  - peterwn
    
    There is a point at which pragmatism has to prevail over principles. The collective view of National members in Botany would be an extremely important consideration. If they want Jami out and a replacement MP elected and are prepared to campaign hard, then I consider Simon should move against Jami.
    Unfortunately he is going to continue to try and damage National whether is is a MP or not. He cannot do much extra damage as a MP since he would have very limited speaking slots and only the occasional question (which he cannot aim at National MP’s).
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:37am
    - brett68
      
      He can’t do any damage unemployed sitting on his couch at home.
      
      He can do a shit ton of damage at parliament talking to the media, doing interviews, being the voice of the “right”, what else has he got to do in Wellington?
      
      He can also do a shit ton of damage when he’s not in parliament walking around Botany bad mouthing National, he will have a big impact in Botany if he’s allowed to.
      
      Might even split the vote enough to allow some other party candidate it win.
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:54am
      - pentwig
        
        Between his wife and Tova do you think he would have time?
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:01am
      - tf78
        
        I think JLR’s credibility has been shot to pieces and no one apart from the media are really interested. He is just a lame-ass has been.
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:09am
      - brett68
        
        Ross is a very smooth talker, he’d have made a great salesman if he’d gone that way.
        
        Given the chance and with the help of the media he will end up as the good guy and National as the villian.
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:12am
      - Jack5
        
        A great salesman? You’d buy a used car from Ross?
        
        He’d probably trick you then whip out a recorder, and wave it saying – “I’ve got it here, you said you would buy it, it’s a deal … no backing out, now.”
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:25am
      - brett68
        
        He believes his own bullshit, sociopaths make the best sales people.
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:28am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yep ignore his attacks on National, but challenge the MSM for why they are aiding and abetting a mentally fragile man with his descent into self-destructive behaviours.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:39am
  - Simon
    
    “Someone somewhere in this awful parliament has to stand by their principles.”
    
    lol
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:49am
    - Tall Man
      
      So far Simon Bridges has been doing just that.
      
      If you don’r agree, please list those episodes where he has not shown integrity.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:27am
  - Fletch
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nx2FvEROSo
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:30am
  - dime
    
    Dime doesn’t like a bunch of taxpayer funded programs.
    
    I’d be an idiot not to use them if they are there though.
    
    Already paying for em..
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:36am
- waikatogirl
  
  If Simon invokes the ‘Waka Hopper’ legislation all the MSM will remember is that National voted against it and portrait Simon as 2-faced. If JLR is Waka jumped he will have brought it on himself as he doesn’t have the personal insight to shut up and sit quietly until the next election.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:18am
  - fernglas
    
    The man is such a pariah that he should simply be ignored.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:21am
    - alex Masterley
      
      Which means the media wont ignore him.
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:23am
      - artemisia
        
        No the media won’t ignore him but the drama has already started to be dialed down. If Mr Bridges continues to deny oxygen, Mr Ross will either shut up or go OTT.
        
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        February 11, 2019 8:45am
    - srylands
      
      I think the public are over it. But the media will sensationalise his every statement.
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:32am
  - alloytoo
    
    Ross said he would resign and seek a new independent mandate from the Botany Electorate.
    
    Until he does so we can safely disregard him as a lying tosser.
    
    When he does so we can regard him as unemployed.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:40am
    - peterwn
      
      He was going to until his minders reminded him that it was a daft idea as he had no show of re-election as an independent.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:47am
  - MickMac
    
    MSM will be looking for something to hang on Simon anyway.
    Cut the cancer out.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:50am
    - Tall Man
      
      Leave him alone long enough and the lack of attention will drive him bonkers. Eventually he will fade away as the media decide to let it go.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:31am
      - Paulus
        
        There are still a number of females in the media who would not like him going feral.
        Eh Tova !
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:40pm
  - slightlyrighty
    
    I think that the Nats should have a list MP open an office in Botany.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:43am
    - rangitoto
      
      Judith Collins is looking after Botany in the mean time.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:55am
    - peterwn
      
      Nats would open one if they thought it was worthwhile. However they would have to close another one down to stay in budget.
      Botany Nats will soon be holding their electorate AGM (proceeded by Branch AGM’s if not a ‘unitary’ electorate). This would help clarify hom many support National compared with how many support Jami (there are claims he has significant support which he could currently have since he has the gift of the gab). This will give Simon some idea on how to proceed.
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:24am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Whether or not they opposed the legislation is irrelevant. A cricket team might prefer not to have the DRS, but it would be silly to suggest therefore they shouldn’t use it but their opponents can.
  
  Opinions about what the rules ought to be, are a completely separate matter from the reasonableness of using the existing rules to best advantage.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:32am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Fair point.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:39am
  - Simon
    
    “Whether or not they opposed the legislation is irrelevant”
    
    lol, this is a great laugh.
    
    Ross eh? He is only bonkers mental when standing next to normal people. In parliament he fits right in.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:53am
    - septic skeptic
      
      If a rugby team think lifting in the line out should be illegal, they should not lift in their line out then?
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:57am
    - Tall Man
      
      You do seem a little bitter.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:32am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Nothing personal peterwn, that is the only downtick I have put against one of your comments
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:40am
- Yvette
  
  Peterwn – has Standing Orders not already pre-empted use of the Electoral (“Integrity”) Amendment Bill?
  
  Since there appears to be a strong link between Jami-Lee Ross, Simon Lusk, Cameron Slater and New Zealand First, it is quite ironic that the waka-jumping law does not take Ross out.
  
  Winston’s law says –
  (3) For the purposes of subsection (2), a member of Parliament ceases to be a parliamentary member of the political party for which the member of Parliament was elected only if—
  (a) the member of Parliament delivers to the Speaker a written notice that complies with section 55B; or
  (b) the parliamentary leader of the political party for which the member of Parliament was elected delivers to the Speaker a written notice that complies with section 55C.
  … so, in theory, that “only if” means, because neither (a) or (b) have been fulfilled, Ross is still a Member of National.
  
  Apart from all other considerations – Ross, Bridges et al – I would be interested to see how Winston’s law, which cost the nation the gas exploration industry’s future to buy the Greens, would stand up.
  
  Ross’s position is currently secured by the use of Standing Orders.
  Speaker Trevor Mallard (named after a famous late duck on Nuie) announced it, 16 October 2018, as recorded in Hansard –
  “Under Standing Order 35(1)(c), I have been advised by the senior Opposition whip that the National Party’s parliamentary membership has changed and that Jami-Lee Ross is no longer a member of the National Party for parliamentary purposes.
  Accordingly, under Standing Order 34(5), Jami-Lee Ross is, from 16 October 2018, regarded as an Independent member for parliamentary purposes.
  
  So, can Simon Bridges still use the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill to inform Mallard of something he is already well aware of and in fact has dealt with, and would any correspondence from Bridges raise anything “new” to cause Mallard to change a matter he has already ruled on?
  
  In a past life I lived for a while in Wellington in an era when Big Reds (buses) were king on the roads and smashed anything in their way, including one afternoon wrecking portions of Carmen’s Balcony veranda (the only real veranda Carmen had), Victoria Street, which felt a bit like another earthquake. But it was always my wish to witness a crash between one Big Red bus and another Big Red, but that was a phenomena denied me.
  In the meantime, and admittedly much an anti-climax, should the Electoral (Integrity) Amendment Bill actually trump or smash Mallard’s Standing Orders, which Winston in his paranoid eagerness has omitted to have changed?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:58am
  - peterwn
    
    Interesting points. Standing orders cannot pre-empt legislation. The Speaker (it is inappropriate to refer to the Speaker by name in this context) had to respond to the National Whip’s message concerning Jami’s change of statue. Arguing this would ‘sideline’ the Electoral Act ‘Waka hopper’ provision which would defeat the purpose of the legislation. I doubt a Court would accept that argument. The High Court had no difficulty in upholding the previous incarnation of the provision in Donna’s case.
    Possibly the longer the National leader waits the more likely invoking this provision could possibly be challenged but there has been good reason not to invoke it so far, but this reason probably runs out fairly soon.
    I am sure Simon Bridges would have considered all these matters at the time Caucus expelled Jami to ensure nothing done would compromise the use of the legislation if need be.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:06am
- peterwn
  
  At about 10.30am, 34 upticks that he should be removed and 46 downticks that he should remain. There is no groundswell one way or the other. A straw poll in National’s caucus would probably give a similar result.
  Simon would probably want a reasonable mandate from Caucus, party members etc to push him and I suspect if these figures are indicative of wider feeling, there is no strong mandate to push him. He would need such a mandate to help counter claims of being a hypocrite. However this ‘poll’ is unscientific and may not be indicative of wider feeling.
  Thanks to those who responded, it was an interesting exercise.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:38am
  - Tall Man
    
    Leave him there. He’s making Simon Bridges look pretty good.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:58am
mikenmildagain

Wishing you all a very happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
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February 11, 2019 8:03am
- Inandout
  
  Wishing you a Gay Week.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:05am
  - sooty
    
    He’s gay and weak!
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:06am
- mark15
  
  Warning-International Day of Women and Girls in Science not available in all countries.Check local laws before purchasing
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:30am
  - secondcumming
    
    JUST SAYING……
    
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dy_UtWDU8AEewBH.jpg
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:19am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Easier just to teach girls not to choose their role models based on gender, or race or nationality for that matter.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:38am
- Richard
  
  And I wish you a happy Iranian Victory of the Islamic Revolution Day!
  Now..please tell those girls and women in Science to cover their heads ASAP and ask what they think their doing being outside the family home without the permission of their father/brother/husband
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:05am
- Padriv Ustoev
  
  Women in science? What will they think of next? Why would woman want to get education and do science?
  In my country how they say: ” woman with education is like horse with wings.”
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:27am
  - KH
    
    A horse with wings would be a wonderous thing.
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:45pm
Inandout

Aotearoa is to be smoke free by 2025. What about New Zealand?
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February 11, 2019 8:04am
- graham
  
  Does that include “cannabis smoke”?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:06am
  - oldgolfer
    
    No, that is actively encouraged.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:10am
    - Durden
      
      Helps putting kids to sleep on long drives. Equivalent of gin laced gripe water of old ?
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:34am
    - Tall Man
      
      Voter creation scheme by the greens.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:37am
- Paulus
  
  That of course includes Cannabis!
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:06am
  - Tall Man
    
    I don’t think so…..
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:37am
- Longknives
  
  I though they were legalising Cannabis?
  
  12 0
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  February 11, 2019 8:06am
  - Colinxy
    
    So long as you smoke but don’t inhale will be the mantra.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:12am
  - Tall Man
    
    So do they but you’re both wrong. Hopefully common sense will prevail.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:38am
    - Komata
      
      TallMan
      
      ‘Comon sense’; ‘Greens’?
      
      Surely an oxymoron?
      
      (Especially as they consider themselves ‘superior’ to us mere mortals).
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:40am
      - Tall Man
        
        That is true but I am hoping the referendum also gets out those against and so we end up with the status quo but you never know.
        
        There are plenty on this site who openly despise ardern the liar yet also take evry opportunity to slagg off Simon Bridges.
        
        Who will they vote for and will they even vote?
        
        2 1
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        February 11, 2019 1:16pm
  - G152
    
    Driving under the influence
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:15am
- DigNap15
  
  yes where is Aotearoa?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:22am
  - Richard
    
    Somewhere in Wellington I think.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:07am
  - Tall Man
    
    Benefit land.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:38am
- dave_c_
  
  Yer – that ayoteaarower is really getting to me. I see the cricketers were forced to wear it on their shirts for every game since waitangi day – poor buggers
  Looks to me like a well co-ordinated ‘soften the peasants up’ for a name change – coming to a place like ours soon.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:25am
- kowtow
  
  New Zealand is largely smoke free , the problem , if indeed it is a problem is that Aotearoa is the issue.
  
  ps If you want to smoke that’s your business , not the gubmints’.
  
  A better goal would be a crime free New Zealand.
  
  Think about it , what kind of a country has to guard against looters in a civil defence emergency .
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:37am
  - Tall Man
    
    Not New Zealand but aotearoa does.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:40am
- srylands
  
  I have noticed that in the state sector that “New Zealand” is being displaced in internal and external communications.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:45am
- hullkiwi
  
  They have to aim it at the highest per capita smoking groups being Maori & Pacific Islanders. Else they’ll continue to fail.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:49am
- tf78
  
  As of yesterday there were only 5,997 votes for the name change.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:17am
  - Paulus
    
    Then that 5,997 is enough people wanting the name so as per usual in New Zealand that will change.
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:43pm
- mustlovedogs
  
  Yes… I saw those words of wisdom being spouted from the lady with the flower behind her ear and the “Please God make me look Clever” glasses on The AM Show this morning.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:49am
- Komata
  
  Inandout
  
  If NZ is to be ‘Smoke free’, do you think that the fire in Nelson that is currently generating huge amounts of said smoke should be advised?
  
  Perhaps Golly G should be sent in with the message?
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:38am
Biscuit

Interesting day ahead: at 6pm, Newshub releases the first political poll results of the year…

Here’s hoping…
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February 11, 2019 8:04am
- Paulus
  
  Who would believe Newshub ? – assume Tova and Cinderella have tampered with the figures first.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:07am
- Longknives
  
  Polls are always heavily slanted to the Left.
  Look how wrong they were at the last Election- Most of them had Labour miles ahead of National while the Media excitedly gushed about ‘Jacindamania’…
  Ever been phoned to do a poll? I have- They terminated when I told them my income and my Political persuasion..
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:08am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I was phoned a couple of days ago and have been phoned in the past.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:12am
    - holysheet
      
      I bet you didn’t mention your very personal relationship with several MPs. That includes the drunken dwarf…..
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:21am
      - stigie
        
        Sarcasm at its best. Bwahahahahaha !~
        
        9 0
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        February 11, 2019 8:37am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        HS, If National MPs were as stupid as you National would definitely lose. On Friday I was speaking to two MPs I had not meant before. They were wondering why people who voted for NZF and now regretted it voted for NZF in the first place.
        
        I volunteered that I did and gave my reasons. At the end of our conversation one said she would look forward to seeing me again at the AGM in Christchurch.
        
        National would be stupid if they did not welcome members from other parties when they join National.
        
        What are you doing to help National get elected? Have you even made a donation in the last year?
        
        24 8
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        February 11, 2019 8:38am
      - kowtow
        
        chuck
        
        There’s a large constituncy of people in NZ concerned about immigration and house prices ( that’s just for starters)
        
        But the powers that be , political , media , academia are happy to dismiss that as xenophobia , racism, dinosaurs etc
        
        Well the result is the COL with Peters calling the shots.
        
        National needs to wake up to that fact .
        
        It is a growing concern across the west and is to be ignored by the Permanent Political Class at their peril.
        
        Is Paris burning ?
        
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        February 11, 2019 8:57am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        kowtow, National like the GOP in the USA believe that legal immigrants with the right skills benefit the country. The problem with Labour and National to some extent do not realise how that good immigrants be of the same culture.
        
        12 1
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        February 11, 2019 9:13am
  - dime
    
    Ive had a few over the years. back when i rolled with a landline.
    
    i always told them i voted labour last time but now vote national or act.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:38am
  - lifesgood
    
    Same here longknives. But in my case it was income and post code – a true blue electorate.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:19am
- sooty
  
  Interesting! Very, very, interesting!
  Has the glitter come of the turd and left the gloss
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:09am
- howitis
  
  Will Tova O’Brien take this opportunidy to categorically deny that she has Not had sexual relations with that man, Jami Lee Ross?
  Will she make it clear her definition ‘sexual relations with that person’ and is it based on Arkansas folklore?
  
  At present it is fair to assume she has been, and may still be, shagging this damaged person.
  Reasoning: She is in close contact and has the inside running information on JLR and it has been stated on many occasions through her media buddies that one of the many sexual ‘conquests’ that Ross has had in Wellington was with a media person.
  I hesitate to use the term ‘journalist’ as that would narrow it down to 3 suspects in the whole of NZ.
  
  This brings into question not only her ethics (OK, I’m being facetious! ) as a media person but that she has possibly had sexual relations with a person of diminished capacity and therefore the ability to freely consent to sexual activity. Allegedly.
  
  Perhaps if she does not ‘come out’ and deny directly then we can continue to assume O’Brien shagged Ross.
  Perhaps Police Commissioner, Mike Bush, will intervene and state that Tova O’Brien was not shagging Jami Lee Ross; after all Bush has a precedent where he denied that Jethro is involved in lawn mowing activities.
  
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  February 11, 2019 2:02pm
  - pentwig
    
    butt-
    maybe jethro was bonking jamie!
    
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    February 11, 2019 6:33pm
Chuck Bird

I am pleased to see Don Brash has endorsed this petition. Certain senior police still cannot accept that the police got it wrong in the case of Thomas. Without the planted evidence there is no way Thomas would have been convicted. It appears Bush is part of this lot.

This Thomas case has meant that the police have been suspected of planting evidence it numerous cases where the person is definitely guilty.

I hope many on KB will sign this petition.

A formal apology for Arthur Allan Thomas from the NZ POLICE

https://www.change.org/p/jacinda-ardern-a-formal-apology-for-arthur-allan-thomas-from-the-nz-police?fbclid=IwAR2phZn_0lT1cjLqQnPCTlI0QveOsNAXEv8IIBSQgQXCp5xFnJ0rfaMVvHg
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February 11, 2019 8:09am
- fernglas
  
  There has always been a wide-spread institutional belief that Thomas was the killer, and I have heard from several different sources that he confessed to others. So nice idea to have a petition, but don’t hold your breath.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:24am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    fernglas, are you referring for jailhouse confessions? That is more police corruptions.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:42am
    - fernglas
      
      Whether he did or not, that is the belief I heard expressed.
      
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      February 11, 2019 8:45am
    - Tall Man
      
      No always.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:45am
    - Ed Snack
      
      It is widespread at certain levels in the Police who find it very, very, hard to admit to themselves that they not only massively stuffed it up but partially alienated near a generation of people against the police.
      
      Before the Thomas case most people had an implicit faith in the honesty of the police, but the evidence planting and the police refusal to deal with that quickly and honestly (ie – send Hughes to Jail for an extended stretch) drastically undermined that faith. There were other drivers, but in NZ and rural NZ especially where I was, the change in attitudes that the case caused was remarkable.
      
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      February 11, 2019 3:17pm
  - Swifty
    
    I know half a dozen who were banged up with him and all maintain that he is completely innocent. They believed it then and still maintain that to this day.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:57am
    - Longknives
      
      Every Prisoner I have ever met (And I’ve met quite a few!) has maintained their or their friend’s innocence!
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:42am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Longknives, the point is that there is no evidence other than proven planted evidence that Thomas is guilty. We have a dodgy top cop who appears to for some reason believes this judging by his eulogy of Hutton.
        
        The murderer is likely still alive and the same it the case for the woman who fed the baby. The case should have been reviewed independently not by the police.
        
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        February 11, 2019 11:10am
      - Swifty
        
        Longknives, I should have put this in context to help illustrate my point.
        
        With these guys, if you raise any particular case or name with them 99% of the time they’ll say ‘guilty as sin’ and talk about personal conversations they’ve had with the individual where details have been spilled – and often in a gleeful manner.
        
        But with Thomas? No.
        
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        February 11, 2019 2:20pm
- oob
  
  I saw Thomas at the airport a few years ago and was quite surprised.
  
  I’d had the impression from only ever seeing him on television of a round-faced, unassuming sort of a bloke.
  
  In person he’s a big, physically imposing brute, even in old age.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:31am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    What has his size got to do with his guilt or innocence?
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:04am
    - Tall Man
      
      I think it was merely an observation.
      
      You do seem a little wired today.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:46am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Tall Man, I think the police fitting someone up like Thomas or Pora not only means an innocent person is imprisoned but that the guilty one gets away with murder. I see the jury is now be selected for the trial of Malcolm Rewa.
        
        Do you not believe the police should accept that Thomas is innocent and look for the real murderer?
        
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        February 11, 2019 11:23am
      - Tall Man
        
        Chuck I was commenting on your comment about his size being irrelevant and just pointed out that it was an observation.
        
        Most of the players in the Crewe murders are well gone and I doubt any investigation could be considered but there may be wiser heads on here that know more about it.
        
        I have no really strong opinion about Arthur Thomas’s guilt or otherwise.
        
        I did read the book but like the trial, there were many details left out but on balance, even disregarding the cartridge, I thought he was more guilty than innocent so I guess he was lucky I wasn’t on his jury panel.
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:22pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Tall Man, Des Thomas showed me evidence that there is a suspect who should be investigated.
        
        What evidence that was not planted is there that Thomas is guilty. There was no credible motive. Demler had a very strong motive.
        
        You would not be a cop or ex-cop by any chance would you?
        
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        February 11, 2019 3:17pm
    - Longknives
      
      I remember when Thomas got involved in the Bain retrial.
      Sitting smirking behind Karam and yelling “I’m New Zealand’s most innocent man” over and over again to any attending Media!
      This bizarre behaviour certainly didn’t convince me of his innocence….
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:40am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Longknives, you raise a good point. I visited his brother Des Thomas just before Christmas. He and his siblings are pursuing this. A lot of people think Arthur was not too bright and that is why he got convicted. There may be some truth in that. However, Des is certainly not dumb and is prepared to listen. I raised your point with him and he took it on board.
        
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        February 11, 2019 11:46am
  - Inandout
    
    oob, I saw Thomas in Onehunga in the early 1980s (after his payout) and he was following his missus down the street like a well trained person. He was big of frame, but at that time he walked with a stoop and had a sheepish look on his face.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:56am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  The people responsible are dead. This makes as much sense as Britain demanding an apology from Italy for the Roman invasion. Just move on.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:43am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Nigel, why do you believe the murderer is dead? How about the woman who feed the baby?
    
    4 8
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    February 11, 2019 9:06am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      If the murderer or any accomplices are alive, I agree they should definitely apologise. I thought we were talking about what the police should do.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:46am
  - Jack5
    
    Didn’t Arthur T. get a million dollars in compensation? It would be worth a lot more in today’s money.
    
    The country is awash with apologies for old wrongs – for colonialism, for not being nice to gays, for this for that. So many, the act of State apology has been devalued.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:46am
    - Inandout
      
      Jack5, about $5 million in today’s money or $930,000 back in Muldoon’s time.
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:04am
- RF
  
  Chuck…. two words.
  
  Bull Shit.
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:54am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    RF, what is bull shit?
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:59am
- Shaun the Sheep
  
  I’d be happy to be guided by AAT on this.
  If he has asked for an apology he should get it.
  If he hasn’t asked for an apology then SLG should quit the virtue-signalling and get on with her work.
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:01pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Shaun, the SLG did not initiate this. AAT’s brother did and Don Brash has supported this like he has supported the call for Peter Ellis to get justice.
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:28pm
secondcumming

In what some have been calling a ‘serious diplomatic incident’, an Air NZ plane bound for China was turned back *mid-flight* yesterday, with passengers being told the aircraft didn’t have permission to land in China!

The NZH reports, Prime Minister Jacinda Adhern said, “she had not been briefed about the situation”, when asked about it at *Auckland’s Big Gay Out*

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DyrSsVbV4AAsvuV.jpg
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February 11, 2019 8:09am
- Monique Watson
  
  The Jacinda Barbie doll seems to miss out on some important briefings. Faaark.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:13am
  - sooty
    
    She only gets her news from the telly.
    So it must be true!
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:52am
  - Longknives
    
    What would possibly be the point in ‘briefing’ Jacinda Ardern about anything?
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPtYZxgMkzg
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:37am
  - RF
    
    Clark, Key & English would have been on top of this.
    
    SLAG is still trying to work out if China relates to the country or what’s in her kitchen cupboard.
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:02pm
- waikatogirl
  
  Was it a new ANZ scheduled flight? Seems odd if it was a long-standing schedule.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:24am
  - dave_c_
    
    Probably a new re-calibration – by the Chinese – perhaps we are no longer deemed ‘friendly’
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:28am
  - secondcumming
    
    Apologies WG, attached wrong link in above comment.
    Should be this……
    
    https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1094483632113225728
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:42am
    - Shaun the Sheep
      
      Dear God, with no details at all on what happened or why, some demented soul has made it John Key’s fault. Is there no medication strong enough?
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:24am
      - Ruahine
        
        Must be John Keys fault. He works for Air New Zealand now don’t he.
        
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        February 11, 2019 3:39pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Interesting. Let’s see if this starts to become a frequent occurrence.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:47am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Goodness, and what about the safety of the poor paasengers? Apparently the flight was already 5 hours into its journey to China and was made to turn back to Auckland! Imagine if they didn’t have enough fuel. My partner says we could easily have had another MH370 on our hands 🙁
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:40am
    - Paulus
      
      If it did not have enough fuel, but it would have, then it would divert to say Cairns or Brisbane.
      Airlines take all these things into Risk Management.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:47pm
- Tall Man
  
  She obviously needs a “news feed” app. That way she can look at a small telly….
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:47am
- stephieboy
  
  Hurricane in a teacup situation. Air NZ landing rights for the particular flight were not in order. A replacement Air NZ flight to Shanghai for passengers left at 11.00pm the same evening.
  
  A Company cockup!
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:51am
  - secondcumming
    
    Your naive comment shows you know *nothing at all* about the Communist Chinese, stepieboy……or how they operate.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:19am
    - Aliog
      
      I think you’re the naive one, s’cumming…it was an AirNZ cock up. Dumber than Stephie…wow,
      
      1 5
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      February 11, 2019 3:15pm
      - secondcumming
        
        You’re obviously in the same paddock as *Stephie*……have you never heard of ‘Chinese water torture’ or ‘Death by a thousand cuts’?
        
        [Suggest you google before making such asinine comments, wog]
        
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        February 11, 2019 5:57pm
Colinxy

I see the media are trying to do a hit job on Bridges for not being super duper pro-gay 25 years ago (he said something neutral over a teacher who had come out gay):

“How do I feel about him being gay? To be honest I’m not really into homosexuality, but I suppose if he’s going to come out and say it, I suppose it takes a bit of guts.”

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/02/i-m-not-really-into-homosexuality-simon-bridge-s-former-gay-views-revealed.html

The world has ended because he didn’t come out as a cheerleader champion for homosexuality.
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February 11, 2019 8:10am
- Lance
  
  So is there anybody remaining that doesn’t think the MSM have Labours arm shoved up their arse and moving their lips?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:20am
  - Colinxy
    
    There will be plenty of people like that unfortunately.
    
    To whit, I saw a reply on FaceBook this morning complaining that communism has never been applied correctly.
    
    “I think the saddest thing is that communism has only failed because so far it hasn’t been followed. America has done an excellent job of demonizing it too.”
    
    These deluded people exist.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:26am
    - Komata
      
      Colinxy
      
      That is the position that the SLG takes; rest assured that it is a widely-held view within such circles.
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:50am
      - Ed Snack
        
        That’s right, THEY weren’t involved ! Because if they were, it would work, of course !
        
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        February 11, 2019 3:25pm
- mark15
  
  That’s all it takes to jump on the outrage bus
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:32am
- Scott
  
  Yes I think the saddest thing is you are not allowed to have an opinion anymore. On homosexuality it is now compulsory for every politician to come out enthusiastically for it. You have to gush about the fine rainbow community. You can’t have any objections to homosexuality, moral or religious or anything else.
  
  It’s a shame that NZ has become so pc. Just state the wrong opinion on homosexuality or climate change and you are immediately labelled by the left as having a phobia or being a denier.
  
  What we need are people of courage to speak out about these and many other issues. Simon bridges in his capitulation to the rainbow community is obviously not going to be that guy ?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:47am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Scott,
    
    “.. it is now compulsory for every politician to come out enthusiastically for it. ..”
    
    Compulsory??
    
    Introducing Gays for Trump,
    
    https://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018681749/gays-for-trump-we-will-re-elect-him
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:06am
    - Colinxy
      
      You are fairly useless at diversions, aren’t you?
      
      Apart from being irrelevant to the topic, it is well known that Milo Yiannopoulos was very vocal pro-Trump advocate before the USA 2016 election. He probably is still pro-Trump.
      
      No doubt you (and I use the term loosely) think that a homosexual man of Jewish descent and married to a black man is alt right and therefore doesn’t have a relevant opinion. Why you’d reference a movement largely founded by him is just another point in favour of you being useless at diversion.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:31am
      - stephieboy
        
        Try Telling Peter Boykin and LGB / Gays for Trump that,
        
        https://www.facebook.com/LGBTrump/
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:54am
      - Colinxy
        
        Again, you’re useless at diversions. This time shifting the goal posts.
        
        18 0
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        February 11, 2019 10:01am
    - Inandout
      
      stephie, Virginia Dems going down the (blackfaced) hole. Trump is at 50% approval. YES.
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:40am
  - Dave Mann
    
    What we need are people of courage to speak out about these and many other issues. Simon bridges in his capitulation to the rainbow community is obviously not going to be that guy
    
    Exactly. This is not a dig at Simon Bridges, though, when I say that no politician seems capable of saying that whilst homosexuality should be tolerated because it is an aberration that people can’t help and is generally harmless, it should not be actively promoted – especially by our political leaders.
    
    Seeing these politicians prancing around brown nosing a bunch of perverts and sodomists doesn’t do anything for my faith in their leadership, frankly.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:55am
    - secondcumming
      
      Spot on there Dave. The definition of *political correctness’* is giving up your own opinion to please arseholes.
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:25am
  - greybeard
    
    Here is an email I sent Hosking this morning on that very topic:
    “Good morning.
    Simon Bridges should NEVER have apologised for his views on homosexuality, whatever age he may be / have been.
    His views are as valid as anyone else’s. And equally worthy of respect.
    As a National supporter I just wish he had stayed away from that particular event.
    He doesn’t have to kowtow to every persuasion to gain or retain support.
    Regards,”
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:50pm
    - septic skeptic
      
      Yes, it is sickening that politicians feel obligated to suck up to certain special groups. Waitangi, gay pride, Ratana etc. It seems the sole reason National go to some of these is to provide a target for those that want to sling mud.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:22pm
- Jules99
  
  It’s such a non story that it makes me wonder if it’s meant to deflect from something else on the horizon.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:00am
- Richard
  
  Yes its outragous. Bridges wasn’t “into homosexuality”. Shock/horror/outrage. That’s hate speech these days. He clearly needs to resign, dissolve the National party and lock himself in a small room until he is ‘into homosexuality’.
  
  Shit newshub a sad joke these days.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:11am
  - Inandout
    
    Richard, Newshub is aligned to CNN..funny that.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:41am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    It would seem that Simon can’t have an opinion on it unless he has experienced it first hand. How ridiculous.
    
    What a bugger if all life was like that.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:02am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Well, he’d be buggered if he did !
      
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      February 11, 2019 3:26pm
- lifesgood
  
  I saw that and was absolutely disgusted at the level the msm are prepared to stoop to. Most of us said things in our teens we wouldn’t say now. I simply cannot believe they trawled through hours and hours of old footage to try and discredit Bridges. What he said was, and still is, accurate. I’m not into homosexuality either but I’m not against it. Each to his own. I am absolutely against their need to have parades which are base and obscene, though. From all accounts yesterdays parade was a step up from the past but I have to ask, why do they need to parade?
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:24am
Keeping Stock

A dirty hit-job from Newshub, digging up a comment made by Simon Bridges when he was 17 to attack his credibility.

Towards the end of the story, journalist Isobel Ewing said this:

“It’s a reminder that many of us as teenagers had views we’d rather leave in the past.”

Interestingly, that comment from Ms Ewing has been deleted from the Newshub story overnight. But it raises a very relevant question; if “many of us as teenagers had views we’d rather leave in the past”, then why bring this up at all?

Newshub, and Tova O’Brien in particular have made no secret of their desire to see Bridges unseated as National Party leader. Some of O’Brien’s stories have been so vitriolic that they have lacked any semblance of objectivity. Surely the top brass at Newshub must be concerned that their overall integrity is being compromised by a very personal agenda.

Lastly, if a member of the Press Gallery was in an extra-marital relationship with a married MP, would that be newsworthy, and would it be in the public interest to report it?
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February 11, 2019 8:11am
- MickMac
  
  name the MP!
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:55am
  - Keeping Stock
    
    Well, the media, and Newshub in particular (which, by the way seems to be acting as a proxy for Ross; make of that what you will) seemed to think it was both newsworthy and in the public interest to “out” Sarah Dowie as one of Ross’ “Wellington wives”. So surely, applying that logic, the name of someone who has the potential to influence public opinion through their journalistic endeavours is newsworthy and in the public interest too? Which makes one wonder why the journalistic community has closed ranks.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:48am
  - backster
    
    Quack quack.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:51am
    - kowtow
      
      A fuck for a duck ?
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:34am
- tf78
  
  All I can make of this non-story is that the COL find Simon Bridges a real threat to their future. He should take all this bs as a compliment and just laugh.
  
  P.S. Does anyone know why and in what capacity Helen Clark is attending the World Government Summit in Dubai at the moment.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:28am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Goodness, how come Jacinda isn’t there?
    
    Is she missing out on this talk on the ‘Transformative force of Positivity“?
    https://twitter.com/WorldGovSummit/status/1094692371957190658/video/1
    
    And she has missed out on the Launch of the Global Happiness and Well-being Policy report.
    https://www.thenational.ae/uae/greedy-companies-profit-from-digital-addiction-despite-health-impact-summit-hears-1.823983
    
    How will she cope?
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:33am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      How will we?
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:10am
    - calendar girl
      
      Maggy: you know that the word is Posidividy!
      
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      February 11, 2019 4:35pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  I hear he used to believe in Santa too. #HitlerReincarnated.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:49am
- oldgolfer
  
  You are right, Keeping Stock.
  Deliberate smear and Ewing could barely hide her delight.
  My new telly was lucky to survive.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:58am
- Inandout
  
  KS, should the media delve into Jacinda’s past they would find more skeletons than a Stalinist labour camp. Then Clarke could be next.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:44am
- freethinker
  
  Are you implying that JLR was shagging Tova – asking for a friend?
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:51am
  - Keeping Stock
    
    I’m not implying anything. However there have been numerous references to Ross having a relationship with a Press Gallery journalist. Bryce Edwards made this comment in November 2018:
    
    This raises the question of whether political journalists choose not to report on certain issues in order to protect their own privacy, or that of their colleagues. Ross, himself, has hinted at this in some of his statements.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12161398
    
    The media gleefully outed Sarah Dowie last month, although I doubt that publication of her name came as a surprise to a number of people. But don’t we, as voters, have a right to know if a journalist and an MP are having an extra-marital relationship, especially when that MP seems to have a direct line to the media? How are we supposed to determine whether what has been written about him is accurate, or whether it has been or is being influenced by the relationship?
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:50pm
- david
  
  “Newshub must be concerned that their overall integrity is being compromised ….”
  What integrity, I ask?
  Concerned about integrity? WTF
  
  Really !!!
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:23am
CharlieBrown

The british thought police arrested a lady for “misgendering” a trans person on twitter: It is illegal to use the wrong pronoun in the UK. How freaking asinine is that.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6687123/Mother-arrested-children-calling-transgender-woman-man.html

This was done under the equivalent of their cyberbullying law. You idiot national supporters allowed such a law to come to NZ. Thats what happens when you don’t hold your party to account and support them regardless of how fucking leftwing looney they go. Blogs like this will be targeted one day and to be honest it will kind of be karma if a few national supporters got done in by the stupid law they allowed to happen.
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February 11, 2019 8:11am
- Jack5
  
  Agreed, Charlie. The cyber speech laws are a travesty against our tradition of free speech.
  
  How ridiculous Sarah Dowie is being pursued over an email message.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:28am
  - CharlieBrown
    
    Its scary how out of touch and humourless the political class are becoming. DPF’s comment on how dressing up as the KKK the other day is hateful regardless of the context is an example of this.
    
    Look up count dankula and how he was successfully prosecuted in the uk for training his girlfriend’s pug into doing the Nazi salute on YouTube – the judge had the same view as dpf. Despite the fact that he didn’t like that dog and wanted to make it as revolting and repugnant as possible, and as he said in the video, nothing is more revolting than a Nazi. If you combine a lack of humour and hate speech laws (which the cyber bullying law kind of is) together you get the UK.
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:35pm
- Tall Man
  
  What a sad world that article portrays.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:51am
  - Jack5
    
    It’s a pity the British provincial police who seem intent on using cyber law to persecute the non-PC didn’t protect thousands of British children from being raped by rogue-Pakistani sex gangs.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:24am
Woz

It’s being reported that infrastructure companies are all nervous about the future as Labour faffs around over future roading projects. Phil Twyford says:

“There’s no question that there’s been, after the change of government, a little bit of a hiatus as we developed the Government Policy Statement which sets out the policy direction for our transport system.”

And there we have the COL in a nutshell. 9 years to develop policy, and instead they did fuck all, and now they’re making shit up as they go along, with entire industries nervously chewing their nails awaiting their fates.
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February 11, 2019 8:11am
- DigNap15
  
  Business Confidence survey?
  The arrogance of the COL.
  Business cant just wait around whilst the COL has a hiatus.
  They have bills to pay and people to employ!
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:43am
- septic skeptic
  
  Winston must have or should have known Labour were not prepared for government. It was pretty clear in election year. I commented many times that most of their policies looked like they had been written out on a napkin at the restaurant the night before.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:04am
  - Colinxy
    
    I suspect that fact was a huge plus for Winston Peters.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:38am
- hullkiwi
  
  Yes, I heard the story this morning.
  
  There are two parts to the story.
  
  1. Twitford’s comments as reported were bul***t, as usual. Talking about the govt having even more work in the pipeline than planned by the previous govt. How can that be, when they have either pulled major projects or wound them back in favour of spending less on major roads & building 2 tram lines in Auckland instead? How can a company that builds highways then switch tack to build a tram line or a tunnel?
  
  The new roads currently being built, were planned under the last government eg work on SH12 between Mungatoroto and Ruawai and the new roads yet to start eg Penlink & Mill Road have been scaled back. Given they have cut motorways on SH1 like the highways that Jones says the Northland Regional Chairman is out of step on, or the expressway to by pass Levin and Otaki & expressways on SH2, how can Twitford be talking about a bigger programme? The man is talking rubbish!
  
  Then there is a second issue here. it is the case of having a private sector industry that now exists out of the now dismantled and privatised Ministry of Works. The size and scale of the old MoW was such to build the infrastructure that NZ needed built in the period 1950s to 1980s. The reality is that NZ doesn’t need a construction industry of that scale today, and in order to support these companies they need a pipeline of significant government business. If there is a whiff of the pipeline drying up, then there are problems for the businesses & NZ if they need the businesses cranked back up. However, instead we have Twitford, JAG & Indiana playing politics with a whole industry sector that they do not understand.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:08am
Paulus

Now what I wanted to say
Coal loverly (imported) Coal.
Some 10 approx years ago the Port of Tauranga built a huge Coal receiving station whereby coal is ex Vessel via secure system to Coal trains.
Been shut down for some years.
But But what do we see now in the yards but hundreds of Coal train trucks awaiting a vessel shortly.
Is this part of the cold winter of our discontent to come made known by this COLL ?
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February 11, 2019 8:13am
- alex Masterley
  
  The rail-line to the Huntly power station crosses SH1 at the south end of the town.
  I forsee road rage as coal trains stop people in their tracks.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:18am
- DigNap15
  
  Yes, as a resident of that area, I was amazed at the size of that facility, and the fact that it is just sitting there now idle.
  Looks like you have found that its going to be used again.
  I cant wait to see the reaction from the Greens.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:26am
- Ross12
  
  On the issue of coal, I would like to congratulate the Indian Government getting electricity to the most of the rest of it’s population, in a relatively short time.
  
  https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/government-opened-52-coal-mines-to-fuel-pm-narendra-modis-electrification-drive/articleshow/67646776.cms
  
  This is how you start to actually attack poverty –doing something fundamental, instead of just talking about it.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:14am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Roos12, the reverse is happening in China,
    
    From collapsed coal mines to floating solar farms, why China’s new power stations matter
    
    https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518306153
    
    What’s going on?
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:23am
    - Colinxy
      
      What’s going on? According to Wikipedia reliability, not a lot for your diversionary tactic:
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_power_stations_in_China
      
      One Solar power plant. Maybe you should try again.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:54am
      - stephieboy
        
        Not according to this BBC report,
        
        http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180822-why-china-is-transforming-the-worlds-solar-energy
        
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        February 11, 2019 9:59am
      - Colinxy
        
        Even with Wikipedia’s leftist bias, I doubt anyone who edits the page can actually independently verify these solar farms.
        
        Your BBC article is dated 4 September 2018. According (as I type this) to the history page of Wikipedia, it dates to 9 November 2018. Since you’re so slow, 9 November 2018 is later than 4 September 2018, i.e. Wikipedia’s page was updated almost two months after the BBC article.
        
        And if you think Wikipedia wouldn’t jump at the chance to highlight China’s green credentials, I have a bridge I could sell you. (Plus, they’re desperate for someone to update it by their own webpage).
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:11am
    - Inandout
      
      stephie China is facing a huge financial crisis that some believe will make the 1929 crash look ike a Labour picnic. Fifty million rentable apartments lie idle because renting is not what Chinese like. On the plus side, the US will benefit.
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:37am
    - Ross12
      
      You are always good for a laugh stephieboy.
      According to Wikipedia solar generation in China is 117 GWH out of a total of 6,417,109 GWH total production.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China
      Like NZ hydro is it’s big renewables contributor.
      
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      February 11, 2019 12:42pm
holysheet

Simon and Cindy are in a bar at the airport yet again. Simon leans over, and with a smile on his face, says, “I must say it’s most unusual, but the media are really tearing you apart for that scandal.”
Cindy: “You mean when asked, did I know the principles of the Treaty, I had to admit I did not know in spite of previously telling Maori that I learnt them at school.
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean when Suzie asked me how many Maori Children our policies had lifted out of poverty. I had to say I didn’t know because no one is collecting any information?
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean the Government’s Provincial Growth Fund (PGF), designed to create jobs and boost the regions, has only created 54 jobs in Wellington and spent just $26.6 million of its $3 billion?
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean my saying unemployment had gone down, when it had actually gone up 10,000?
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean when I set a goal during the election that we would reduce suicides, and since then have silently let it slip under the radar?
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean the mental health hui with no doi?
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean the mental heath hui to doi the first hui with no doi?
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean the final mental health hui to doi what the first hui should doi but didn’t doi?
Simon: “No, the other one.”
Cindy: “You mean getting the IRD to run a survey on new Zealanders political leanings just before the release of crucial tax reform report?
Simon: “No, the other one”
Cindy: “I give up! … Oh wait, I think I’ve got it! Making the announcement that we will be smoke free from 2025, but forgetting about cannabis smoke?
Simon: “THAT’S IT! I almost forgot about that one”.

I will post the whole list tomorrow to give the Nats something to ask Cindy in question time, not that they will need any prompting
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February 11, 2019 8:14am
- Colinxy
  
  I suspect, before too long, you’ll be incapable of containing everything in one post.
  
  This perhaps needs to be its own page that you regular update and in GD you create a post with a header of all abundant new problems from the COL and have a link to the page for the rest?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:20am
- tf78
  
  Holy – why don’t you email it to Simon, I do such things and always get a reply and thanks. (He does have quite a sense of humour).
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:16am
Keeping Stock

Sorry holysheet, but I don’t think there’s a Question Time on the Order Paper for tomorrow. Others may correct me, but I think the parliamentary year traditionally begins with the PM making a statement, the Leader of the Opposition moving a vote of no confidence in the government, and a wide-ranging debate afterwards. However in the context of that debate, opposition MP’s will be free to use your material 😀
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February 11, 2019 8:20am
mandk

Let’s just get this one out the way: Tamati Coffey is NOT having a baby.

(This message was brought to you by the Campaign for Objective Fact)
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February 11, 2019 8:22am
- sooty
  
  Neither is his lover!
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:56am
  - stigie
    
    But they are getting a baby from somewhere !~//
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:32am
    - alex Masterley
      
      Apparently there is a surrogate, which begs the questions whose genetic material is being used and was conception achieved in the um, normal manner?
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:42am
      - sam green
        
        Not your business.
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:30pm
    - Inandout
      
      stigie, mail order through Ebay.
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:38am
      - sooty
        
        What handouts in parliament does he get.
        Six months off.
        Nanny.
        
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        February 11, 2019 12:48pm
- G152
  
  Where’s the mind bleach ?
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:22am
- lifesgood
  
  But Anika Moa is…whose, I wonder cos it sure ain’t her girlfriend’s. I think she managed a couple of kids with her last girlfriend too. Years down the track there will be umpteen compensation claims from kids brought into the world this way. It’s laughable that adoption, by good loving families, is almost non existent because of the “harm it causes children” and yet this sort of lunacy goes on unabated and seemingly totally unregulated.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:30am
  - pentwig
    
    Does that mean we are going to have lots more “Jimmy two mums”?
    The future doesn’t look great.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:41am
    - sooty
      
      Tammy Two Dads?
      
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      February 11, 2019 12:49pm
mandk

This one fell off the front page pretty quickly: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/shows/2019/02/poll.html

I guess it didn’t yield the result they were hoping for. 88% against the government funding gender reassignment surgery.
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February 11, 2019 8:26am
- Bill felt
  
  Cindy takes the wellness budget to Davos
  Cindy takes $100M to Waitangi
  Cindy takes a box of chocolates to Nelson
  Cindy takes Gender reassignment surgery to Big Gay out
  
  Can we have a PM that has their priorities right?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:31am
  - Colinxy
    
    “Can we have a PM that has their priorities right?”
    
    She is for her priorities. She is padding her CV for a gig at the UN.
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:35am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      She’s not going to get a job at the UN. She is not savvy enough to be a top political operator. She’s lazy, unsophisticated, a bit thick and generally ignorant and as an unmarried mother would be anathema to the shitholeistanis and other religious conservatives – preventing her from getting most UN roles. She also doesn’t speak any other languages.
      
      Sorry to say but she will be a blot on the NZ landscape for the next 25 years.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:57am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        She’s also not rich enough to buy herself a slot at the UN.
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:12am
      - Colinxy
        
        I don’t recall listing intelligence as one of her strengths. That doesn’t mean she isn’t going to try and get a plum job at the UN at our expense.
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:15am
      - waikatogirl
        
        “She’s also not rich enough to buy herself a slot at the UN.”
        
        Don’t be silly Maggy, Cindy wouldn’t use her own money, it will be the dear old taxpayer that bankrolls any bid for the UN, just like when Helen launched herself to a cushy number in NY.
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:34pm
    - Paulus
      
      She has not the brains to get to the UN except perhaps Somalia.
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:46am
  - DigNap15
    
    Can we have a new PM?
    One that wants to get New Zealand moving and growing.
    Where everyone has an equal chance and is not weighed down by Nanny State.
    
    29 1
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    February 11, 2019 8:41am
  - tf78
    
    No money for new cancer drugs though.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:19am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Quite, Gender reassignment should be via a Givealittle page, not the Nelson fires.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:29am
- graham
  
  Thanks mandk, I have just added my vote to the 88%
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:33am
  - RalphT
    
    Likewise
    
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    February 11, 2019 8:53am
  - MickMac
    
    Me 2!
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:05am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Just added my vote to the 80+%.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:47am
- Harkman
  
  A bloody disgrace, when we’ve got people dying in our oncology wards and she’s wanting to fund nut jobs. Completely unsuitable to lead our country.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:18am
  - mandk
    
    Quite so.
    
    Providing surgery for people with psychological disorders is like changing the tyres on your car, or adding spoilers, when the engine management system is malfunctioning.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:45am
    - Harkman
      
      Excellent analogy
      
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      February 11, 2019 12:40pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Silly impertinent question.
  
  WTF, when did gender reassignment surgery become the major issue confronting government that it needs the Minister of Finance to comment on it at such an event. F***, if this is the standard of intelligence at the cabinet table, NZ is stuffed!
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:19am
greybeard

I heard Vernon Tava discussing his new party on the Hosking show this morning.
Have looked in vain for any mention of it on Stuff: deliberate news blackout ?
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February 11, 2019 8:28am
- Tall Man
  
  Fear!
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:35am
DigNap15

I read the other day that the wife of the poor asian guy killed at the traffic lights after being rear-ended said that the money she gets from the Give a Little page she will put to rasing her two daughters to be fine upstanding members of New Zealand society.

Her attitude is to be commended, as against all the ferals I see walking round my area.
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February 11, 2019 8:29am
- Longknives
  
  She’s not doing a ‘Burnout’ in honour of him then?
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:27am
Maggie Pie

I caught up with a friend for lunch yesterday that lives out Botany way. We got talking about the Jamie-Lee Ross thing and she asked me if I’d seen the actual sext that the girl from Invers had sent him? As I’d only read parts of it on the news, she emailed the whole thing to me. WHAT A HOOT!

Because I don’t know how to attach a pdf here, thought I’d just post the content for anyone who hasn’t already seen it:
‘sent +64 21 12 xxxxx
sat 11 Aug 1:19 am
Before you interpret this as your
usual narc self – don’t. Interpret it
as me. You are a fucking ugly MF pig.
Shave that fucking tuft of hair off
your fucking front skull and own
your baldness – you sweaty, fat,
toe inturned mutant. You deserve
to die and leave your children in peace
and your wife out of torment –
fucker!’

Oh my God, I can hardly wait till my partner does something to really piss me off, then I’ll pinch a few lines from that and send him a text 🙂
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February 11, 2019 8:35am
- holysheet
  
  Ye gods. What did he do to deserve that?
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:42am
  - Dave Mann
    
    He behaved like Jami-Lee Ross.
    
    Certainly though, she sounds a little bit disappointed in the way things turned out….
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:09am
  - hullkiwi
    
    According to Slater, nothing. He claims it was unprovoked.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:22am
    - Tall Man
      
      “according to slater”, that much maligned paragon of virtue….
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:34am
      - Rachael Membery
        
        Who is speaking for Cameron, can he speak for himself?
        
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        February 11, 2019 11:50am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Rachael, I was paraphrasing Slater’s version of events that he published last Octoner.
        
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        February 11, 2019 3:42pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Classy.
  Aren’t our MP’s a wonderful, inspiring bunch with standards and integrity.
  People we can really look up to and be lead by…….
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:56am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Isn’t it fab! I really wish we had someone like Sarah standing in our eletorate – she would sooo get my vote!!
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:09am
- GoVege
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Omg….what a spiteful b****.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:03am
  - Tall Man
    
    Perhaps you need to take another look at jlr. Seems bang on the money to me, it’s just a shame that she took so long to figure him out.
    
    Remember, this was sent well after they had ceased their affair so I very much doubt he did nothing immediately prior to this being sent.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:33am
- MickMac
  
  Clearly something he did or maybe did multiple times…..
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:06am
- Tall Man
  
  Awesome. She’d get my vote. Look out ardern the liar, she’s coming for you next.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:31am
artemisia

Speaking of IRD, the ”department has now revealed that the total number of rental property owners who declared a loss on rental property earnings in the 2016/17 tax year was 116,000, according to Inland Revenue.

The average loss declared by each owner was $7138, and that includes both individual and non-individual (trusts, partnerships and companies) taxpayers.’

Mike Butler – Stop the War on Tenancies – once again reports where the government and MSM won’t.

From 1 April 2019 the ring fencing legislation will be in force, and these owners will be paying the shortfall from their tax-paid income.

Say half of these owners decide to sell up because of this and other costs coming down the pike. And other investors who might have followed the common path of buying new apartments, don’t.

How will that work out for tenants?

tenancieswar.nz/other/loss-ring-fencing/
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February 11, 2019 8:36am
- mikenmildagain
  
  That might be a good thing. Stop property owners from deliberately making a loss and tax their capital gains. Result could assist a much needed downward correction in residential property prices and help redirect investment towards less specualtive activities.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:06am
  - artemisia
    
    Most rental property investors, especially the 80% with only one or two rentals, accept they will make a loss for a few years. Over time it is usual for interest to reduce as principal is paid down, and for rents to rise. Break even point is reached, tax is paid. These owners are investors, not speculators.
    
    From the IRD numbers some 80% are paying tax on profit. But the private rental market is massive, and even a small change creates far reaching ripples.
    
    We are already seeing record high rents in most of New Zealand. Wellington is now reported to be more expensive overall than Auckland.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:18am
    - Jack5
      
      Milky, you’re out of line there.
      
      You should know that investment in businesses such as property development and property ownership deserves to have a lower total tax take than cash-heavy, asset light businesses such as software developers and online retailers.
      
      What do you think keeps this country afloat – exporters?
      
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      February 11, 2019 3:27pm
  - Colinxy
    
    Or they charge rent at a price that recovers their expenses and losses, i.e. up.
    
    Next you’ll be telling us that supermarkets (and so forth) shouldn’t do ‘loss leaders’ either.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:42am
  - Tall Man
    
    “deliberately making a loss”
    
    Are you really that stupid?
    
    Sorry, silly me, of course you are.
    
    No one deliberately “makes” a loss as that is just stupid which is why you think it happens. Some accept that a loss is neccessary for the long term benefit, others offset that loss, partially, against other income. I say partially because a loss that is offset is still a loss, just a smaller one reduced by any tax write off.
    
    You are as fiscally dumb as our current leader and I guess you do not and never will own an investment property.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:28am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Rentals speculative? I thought the problem was that they were gold plated.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:54am
  - artemisia
    
    Speculators already caught by the bright-line and intention tests.
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:26pm
secondcumming

I remember before I got married, I’d often sit at red lights for fucking hours
because I had no one to tell me it had changed to green.
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February 11, 2019 8:49am
- waikatogirl
  
  LOL sc.
  Exact same experience when I’m driving with hubby in the passenger seat. That’s ok though because he always knows best! ?
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:00am
  - Tall Man
    
    At least you have the wisdom to acknowledge that 😉
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:23am
- kowtow
  
  Excellent ! ( I’m not inviting Mrs Kowtow to read that one over my shoulder)
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:39am
Maggy Wassilieff

Vested interests, lousy science and the push to vegetarianism/veganism…

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/lancet-obesity-report-slammed-as-one-sided-not-backed-by-rigorous-science/

Secondly, she says, we should all be vegetarians and restaurants should treat meat eaters like smokers, by making them eat outside, because meat is “bad for the planet and our health”.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/02/10/christina-figueres-anti-meat-agenda/
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February 11, 2019 8:51am
- MickMac
  
  good for her, it’s a democracy she’s entilted to an opinion.
  Just don’t tell me the science is settled!
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:08am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    She now heads the Lancet‘s high advisory board..
    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/06/24/christina-figueres-joins-the-lancet/
    Could be why the Lancet is pushing the Obesity – Climate Change message and neglecting to tell its readers of the vested interests of their advisors and authors.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:16am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  MW, Paul Homeward and links to Anthony “What’s up with that” Watts,
  
  https://wattsupwiththat.com/author/notalotofpeopleknowthat/
  
  Interesting!
  
  I would say there are parallel extremist views on both sides of the vegan debate!
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:17am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Don’t you know how websites work, stephieboy?
    
    Oh look, here’s Pete George linking to something Keeping Stock and peterwn posted here on Kiwiblog yesterday.
    
    https://yournz.org/2019/02/11/jlr-the-media-and-a-difficult-mental-health-question/
    
    Are you suggesting there is some nefarious relationship between these chaps?
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:30am
    - Manolo
      
      Will he know the meaning of “nefarious”? 😀
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:31am
    - Keeping Stock
      
      Actually, and to his credit, Pete George gets right to the heart of the issue:
      
      Journalists are still helping Ross with his attacks.
      
      It’s not just Ross’ mental health that they are not questioning. It is also the complicity in Ross’ affairs of at least one person in their own ranks that they are sweeping under the carpet.
      
      I suspect that whoever in the media Pete George is referring to is going to be unable to remain anonymous for much longer. There is a much more serious story brewing, and it goes to the heart of journalistic ethics.
      
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      February 11, 2019 9:56am
      - lifesgood
        
        Sounds like you know something we don’t KS. I can’t wait!
        
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        February 11, 2019 10:46am
      - Keeping Stock
        
        I’ve just read between the lines lifesgood 😀
        
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        February 11, 2019 12:55pm
    - peterwn
      
      I think we just happen to be on the same wavelength on this one.
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:11am
Hugh Pavletich

… The New Zealand Listener … latest Editorial …

The KiwiBuild failure should galvanise urgent action on NZ’s housing disaster – EDITORIAL – The Listener

https://www.noted.co.nz/currently/politics/kiwibuild-failure-galvanise-action-nz-housing-disaster/

When a nation’s flagship housing policy is such a spectacular failure that it makes the New York Times, the minister in charge cannot avoid the international embarrassment. …

… Many of the obstacles New Zealanders have faced in trying to build their own homes – in particular, the cost of land, labour and materials – are largely outside the control of developers, regardless of ownership, and even of scale….

… concluding …

… The recent Demographia International Report, which compares median house prices in seven wealthy countries plus Hong Kong, reports that in Australia housing has become more affordable over the past year as prices fell due to tightening credit. Yet, alarmingly, New Zealand housing has simply become more unaffordable since this Government took office. Property here is now further out of reach than in the US, Australia and the UK. This is beyond embarrassment. This is a national disaster.
.
.
New Zealand Vowed 100,000 New Homes to Ease Crunch. So Far It Has Built 47. – The New York Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/31/world/asia/new-zealand-housing-prices.html
.
.
… Why is the New Zealand government repeating the mistakes of history ? … essential viewing …

Inquiry. The Great British Housing Disaster (Adam Curtis, 1984) BBC – YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ch5VorymiL4

… Just ALLOW affordable new housing to be built … with land supply and proper debt financing of infrastructure … and spare us the infantile bureaucratic rubbish …
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February 11, 2019 8:56am
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  Six affordable Wanaka KiwiBuild homes waiting for buyers since October – NZ Herald
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12202581
  
  Six Wanaka KiwiBuild houses on open market | Stuff.co.nz
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/110468062/six-wanaka-kiwibuild-houses-on-open-market
  
  Stacey Kirk: KiwiBuild noose tightens; Labour’s flagship policy is a dead duck | Stuff.co.nz
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110100092/stacey-kirk-kiwibuild-noose-tightens-labours-flagship-policy-is-a-dead-duck
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:19am
  - Toko
    
    No analysis of why the Wanaka kiwibuilds have not been snapped up. Here’s what I think: The market peaked 6 months ago in Wanaka and people are now not so keen on overpriced crap. The KBs are virtually tiny houses with no garages, and in a subdivision that has got issues. (See the ODT in July last year where residents complained about the developer removing previously agreed amenities.) Why would anyone pay $7,566 per square metre for a hut with one bathroom in the kitchen jammed in with your neighbours, to live the dream in Central? Since there are 211 of these KB monstrosities planned in that subdivision, can we assume that the taxpayer subsidy of the poor developer’s massive margins is going to be eye wateringly huge, once they eventually sell for a much reduced price? I’m thinking 20 – 30 m? Thoughts?
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:09pm
    - artemisia
      
      It was reported that the usual Kiwibuild criteria will apply in Wanaka, just that buyers don’t go through the ballot process.
      
      Those criteria are broadly – first home buyers or ‘second chancers’; within the max income band; bank pre approval; restrictions on sale or renting out in the first 3 years.
      
      However, I see elsewhere that the titles for these Wanaka properties do not have these restrictions, whereas other Kiwibuild properties do. (I have not checked personally, but interesting if the case.)
      
      AFAIK details of contracts with the developers are not public, but we can assume there is some sort of price guarantee included. With a couple of hundred hard to sell places in Wanaka under contract, not to mention many more elsewhere, I hope Ms Collins is finding out what we taxpayers are in for.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:34pm
    - waikatogirl
      
      No garages. What’s public transport like in Wanaka? If you are going to pay for a pricy new house don’t normal people want the ‘nice’ car to go with the house? Perhaps Phail will throw in an electric bike to sweeten the pot.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:57pm
      - Toko
        
        No garage in Wanaka is completely impractical in
        a frozen Central Otago winter. And quite good for keeping your car cool in summer too. And storing all the gear for the outdoor lifestyle there – skiing, biking, boating etc.
        
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        February 11, 2019 3:58pm
Happychappy

Has our PM upset China and is this the reason Air NZ was not allowed to land in Shanghai yesterday and had to return to NewZealand, Simon bridges has said he thinks there is a relationship problem with China. http://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/government-has-relationship-problem-china-simon-bridges–suggests-after-air-nz-shanghai-bound-flight-turned around.
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February 11, 2019 9:02am
- MickMac
  
  I hope so, now maybe we can get real about the thieving Chinese Govt.
  Thugs and Thieves, should be thrown out of the UN, WTO etc
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:09am
- MickMac
  
  Happy your link didn’t work.
  https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/government-has-relationship-problem-china-simon-bridges-suggests-after-air-nz-shanghai-bound-flight-turned-around?variant=tb_v_1
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:10am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    MickMac, very thin and tenuous association. The flight did not have the correct landing papers in order.
    
    Another Air NZ flight was organised that evening for the same passengers to Shanghai without any problems.
    
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    February 11, 2019 9:36am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Blame the ANZ CEO and the Government, you know Labour would have.
      Perhaps the CEO is too busy with his other sinecures?
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:59am
- Dave Mann
  
  Nah… it was a simple administrative error. Air New Zealand must have used a different plane to that which was originally scheduled to be used and the Chinese got all stitchy about the ‘regulations’.
  
  After all, if they needed to shoot it down for some reason , they’d need to know from its callsign that it was the right one. Wouldn’t want to shoot down a kiwi plane that was carrying one of their own members of New Zealand’s parliament would they? 😀 😀 😀
  
  EDIT: Oops, I’m wrong. Of course they would know which plane had one of their guys on it by the flight number, not the ID of the aircraft itself. Silly me, Sorry.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:15am
Happychappy

I hope our North Waikato Mayor does not want ratepayers to pay more rates to help this get off the ground and I bet they will already have sized up the Government for some of Shane Jones slush funds. http://business/better business/110358484/bed-maker-eyes-north-waikato-for-possible-factory-affordable-housing
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February 11, 2019 9:15am
Manolo

Stormy Helsinki:
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/576902/Miss-Helsinki-winner-racism-ugly-beauty-queen-video

Sephora Iklaba, 19, was crowned Miss. Helsinki on Friday and wrote a long post on Instagram thanking friends, family and followers for their support in the competition.

Fans of the competition felt that Sephora should not have been able to enter as she was not born in Finland while others felt she was not beautiful enough.
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February 11, 2019 9:17am
- Jules99
  
  Is it some sort of psychological trick on Fins? She’s not even pretty but if say so you are a racist.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:06am
  - Tall Man
    
    She ain’t pretty.
    
    Still, that’s sexist. Imagine, wanting an attractive woman to win a beauty contect.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:19am
    - Longknives
      
      Ha Ha Have you seen that Disabled, Transgender ‘Supermodel’ that the Left rave about?
      
      *Will dig out a link..
      
      The World has gone bonkers!
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:00am
- Kleva Kiwi
  
  2 years ago…
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:06am
  - Tall Man
    
    Fair point.
    
    I guess reviewing Finnish beauty pageants isn’t a high priority here.
    
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    February 11, 2019 2:24pm
The only red for me is that of Manchester United

I should know these things. Could someone please remind me was it budget figures that Jacinda said that she worked out on the back on envelope while sitting on the floor at a friend’s flat in Hawkes Bay?

That’s probably after she played a game round of golf in the morning and got 18 holes in one and before she went out and advised the orchardists that what they were doing was all wrong and that they should be planting rice and tea.
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February 11, 2019 9:19am
Manolo

Mr Trump is wrong, capitalism has failed!, shouts comrade Mrs Ardern.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/429207-trump-divides-democrats-with-warning-of-creeping-socialism

Trump’s warning of creeping socialism in the United States, deftly mentioned after a section of the speech on the unfolding political crisis in Venezuela, created an immediate public split among Democrats that was caught on live television.
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February 11, 2019 9:25am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Manolo, would you describe our Public Health and Hospital system as an example of Trump’s and Republicans so-called ” creeping Socialism” ??
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:30am
  - Tall Man
    
    Back to stupidity. Thought it couldn’t last.
    
    ardern is a liar
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:16am
EAD_THREE

Shock horror – when will the evilness of white people end? Just look at this one – a waitress referred to Asian people as well………”Asian”:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/110487760/woman-slams-racist-service-after-group-referred-to-as-asians-on-auckland-cafe-receipt

An Auckland woman was stunned after she discovered a restaurant had referred to her and her group of friends as “Asians” on their customer receipt.

I am just so sick & tired of the MSM with their blatant agenda – huge headlines over even the most trivial of issues if it can paint Whites in a negative light.

Their persistent, negative associations of white people with so called “racism”, “privilege”, and “supremacism” and intentional silence on their merits creates an unbalanced, negative stigma around white people.

This constant demoralisation is one of the key strategies of how the Globalists are taking white peoples countries from them along with not allowing them not to have any collective identity (except if used in negative sense).

But any other race – it’s identity, identity – Maori solutions to Maori Issues:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110402408/never-mind-don-brashs-views-on-maoridom-here-are-5-maori-thinkers-to-listen-to-this-waitangi-day

Just imagine the faux outrage if someone proposed “European Solutions to European Issues”
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February 11, 2019 9:26am
- Jack5
  
  Like Finland faced with the might of the neighburing Soviet Union and aligning with Hitler, I feel the need for a short alliance with EAD on this post ….
  
  When did the word “Asians” become a racist term?
  
  The pilloried restaurant has backed into apologising because the printed receipt contained the words “Asians” in the line for table number.
  
  The manager, himself an Indian, says staff were busy and customers had spilled over from numbered tables, and a staff member had typed in Asians to identify the customers.
  The report continues:
  
  “”Our restaurant was busy [and] the waiter didn’t want to disturb the group so she put that down. I agree it was wrong that she did that and after pointing it out, she was really apologetic.”
  
  The disgruntled customer disputes that the restaurant was busy, and adds:
  
  “We received no apology from them when we were there. They didn’t even acknowledge it. This is a huge issue.”
  
  Huge issue? Say you are a white New Zealander and you dine, say in Hong Kong, in an off-the-tourist-track restaurant whose receipts are printed in English because of its computer system. Would you be insulted if you and your party were described as Europeans? That’s an equivalent word for “Asians”.
  
  In some out-of-the-way cafe there white Kiwis might even quite lightly be labelled as a party as “gwai los” – the derogatory term for whites meaning ghost people. If that was you, would that matter? Would you give a rat’s arse?
  
  How can it be discriminatory in a busy cafe to identify for service a group of customers by their ethnicity? Was the busy waiter supposed to take their names?
  
  This is a load of rubbish, Stuff, and hopefully such crap reports won’t be missed after the imminent reorganisation of the Stuff organisation.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/110487760/woman-slams-racist-service-after-group-referred-to-as-asians-on-auckland-cafe-receipt
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:00am
  - Jules99
    
    This was a minor staff training issue blown out of all proportion. Not only is she never going back there again, but she wants to spread the news so that others don’t either. She wants to destroy his business? Makes me wonder if there is more behind this. If I lived locally I would be popping down there for a meal to help the guy out.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:03am
  - EAD_THREE
    
    But Jacksy,
    
    is there any issue I am wrong on?
    
    You are as well aware as I of the phrase – “to learn who rules over you, first learn who you’re not allowed to to criticise“
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:41am
  - lifesgood
    
    Would I be upset at having European on my receipt? No, I’d be proud and that stupid woman should be proud to be Asian. What’s wrong with her?
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:48am
  - waikatogirl
    
    Goodness, hubby and I ate at the ‘Prawn Park’ in Taupo last week. Most of the tables had Asian’s seated at them and I mentioned to hubby that they were good for Taupo tourism. How racist am I!
    
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    February 11, 2019 2:06pm
  - Niz
    
    Trouble is, the manager apologised. He shouldn’t have, because the worker did nothing wrong. He’s left these customers thinking they were justified to cry racism.
    We need to learn to resist this bullshittery.
    People need to understand what racism is, and isn’t.
    
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    February 11, 2019 5:30pm
- Tall Man
  
  At least they weren’t labelled “chinky” so obviously the wautress was not a labour lassie.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:14am
- marcw
  
  Should have just called them ‘chinkys’ – all good bro. Approved label by Twitford.
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:07am
secondcumming

NZH Content Warning.

This guy sounds like a *real sick puppy*……
even his choice in women leaves a bit to be desired I would have thought 😎

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1094015368002191360
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February 11, 2019 9:30am
- Longknives
  
  Yes a very ‘Retro’ look on those women…
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:24am
  - secondcumming
    
    Certainly more suited to K’Rd than *Ipanema*….
    
    Just saying.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:10am
Tauhei Notts

Many on here, including me, have been very critical of the Fairfax newspapers.
So it came as a big surprise to see the Nelson Mail bring the awful fires in that area into perspective by comparing them to the Raetihi holocaust in March 1918. Nobody was wailing about global warming and other left wing codswallop in reports about that Raetihi fire.
And by spelling holocaust with a lower case “h” I did not breach the Tel Aviv trademark.
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February 11, 2019 9:36am
- GazzaW
  
  …….I heard that there was a massive forest fire in Canterbury in 1935 as well. No aerial firefighting hardware or retardants either in 1918 and 1935 to help quell the flames. I guess they just burnt themselves out and everyone put it down to Mother Nature.
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:49am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Anyone interested in historical fires should read Rollo Arnold’s excellent book, New Zealand’s Burning about the 1880s.
    PS. The mere existence of large fires at times in the past does not, in itself, say anythnig about anthropogenic global warming.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:08am
    - rangitoto
      
      Nor do large fires in the present.
      
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      February 11, 2019 10:27am
    - freethinker
      
      See a sensible factual comment achieves upticks.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:42pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I posted this a couple of days ago… some information on history of Fires in our managed landscapes
    A history of fire in the forest and rural landscape in New Zealand – Part 2, post 1830
    influences,
    http://nzjf.org.nz/free_issues/NZJF54_4_2010/7A80D07C-CDED-4260-AD7A-11151FCCF7D0.pdf
    
    The 1918 Raetihi fire: (native podocarp forest)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raetihi_Forest_Fire
    http://freepages.rootsweb.com/~sooty/genealogy/raetihi1918.html
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:54am
  - Inandout
    
    Gazza, the early Maori people in Southland used to drive Moa birds into the swamps by way of fire, then the birds got stuck. Easy pickings from then on, well until they wiped out all of the birds.
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:11pm
- Jack5
  
  Tauhei … good post, but the PC mob will be after you for borrowing the “h” word, regardless of using a lower-case letter. ?
  
  The PC mob are frigging about with the language, just as in the case of the horror word “A—-” appearing for the table number on the receipt at the Auckland cafe.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:15am
  - MCos
    
    I presume you are referring to the Kiwis who went to a restaurant and were annoyed at being identified as Asians on the the bill?
    Reminds me of a mate of my son who was fifth generation NZer. People constantly complimented him on his English.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:30am
    - Jack5
      
      Americans, Aussies, Brits, Kiwis, etc, of Asian descent can get an abrupt reception from some staff if they don’t reply in Chinese in some China restaurants.
      
      One tip for them, as non-Chinese speakers, is not to use chopsticks. Then they will automatically be identified as Westerners. Of if they do use chopsticks, at least feign awkwardness.
      
      But otherwise they in some cases might be regarded as just plain rude when they don’t respond to a waiter’s question in Chinese.
      
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      February 11, 2019 11:32am
      - Inandout
        
        Jack5, it is so funny watching non Asians eating with chopsticks. We had a Chinese student for a few months and he ate noodles for breakfast with chopsticks, until we despaired at the slurping noise and advised him to use a spoon. The Japanese one by contrast was civilised and ate quietly with our utensils; in fact she found chopsticks quite useless when eating NZ food.
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:17pm
sooty

Why do the All Blacks wear training bras?
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February 11, 2019 9:52am
- MCos
  
  I wondered that too so I looked it up.
  “The vest holds a small player tracking unit that’s worn really tight under the jersey to quantify the demands of the game, and that data is used as a benchmark for training and to dictate recovery protocols,” Damien Hawes, international sales manager for GPSports, which makes the device, told news.com.au, an Australian news site.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:18am
  - MCos
    
    Boring, huh?
    
    1 7
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    February 11, 2019 10:30am
marquess

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
It was good to see the nats at the Big Gay Out yesterday. soimon was there to conveniently forget about his past, judy colly eyeing up a few drag queens for makeup inspiration, and the honourable member for Wainuiomata adding to his snapchat collection! The nats certainly had the most virtuous signals of all ?️‍?
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February 11, 2019 9:52am
- Salacious Crumb
  
  Is it true that Jacinda has skin in that particular game Marquess? Is our PM a switch hitter?
  
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  February 11, 2019 9:57am
  - freethinker
    
    slight letter misplacement – did you mean witch shitter?
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:48pm
- Tall Man
  
  So a wnaker like yourself has always had the same opinions? If so, then you are living in the past.
  
  Did you read his total response to the question 25 years ago? Nope, you are just a typical lefty turd who can only retain a headline or a soundbite.
  
  That’s why ardern the liar gained traction, soundbite not substance.
  
  In the future, when she is exposed as a corrupt liar, will you still adore her? Probably because you don’t have the capacity to have an independent thought.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:05am
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    Isn’t it funny that Jacinda, when asked about her Marxist past, stated “No I’m more of a progressive”. It’s almost as if she wasnt the president of the International Socialist Youth.
    
    Didn’t want to be outed for subscribing to an ideology responsible for 100 million deaths? I’d suggest that has a bit more weight than teenage boys having the usual hang up about homosexuality.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:10am
    - stephieboy
      
      Jacinda’s Communist party membership Number?
      
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      February 11, 2019 12:33pm
      - holysheet
        
        CCCP # 23,415,678.9876
        There ya go stooopidboy
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:13pm
      - Tall Man
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rsxFaq6Ig
        
        Knock yourself out steffy girl.
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:29pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Holy you’re a silly man…that the number of lies she’s told so far and it’s growing daily.
        
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        February 11, 2019 1:30pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Toyboy,
    
    The PM is not a liar!
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:32pm
    - sooty
      
      Stephieboy does not shag goats either!
      
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      February 11, 2019 12:56pm
    - Inandout
      
      stephie, the PM is a socialist liar, well being a socialist it is a given anyway.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:22pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Who is this toyboy?
      
      If that’s me you are giving me far too much credit.
      
      Oh yes she is…..
      
      ardern is a liar
      
      https://memegenerator.net/instance/63445927/mr-bean-oh-yes-she-did
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:33pm
- pentwig
  
  marment
  you haven’t been banned from the stranded again have you?
  is there no stopping that man with a girls name and self acclaimed IT “specialist” or that unemployable lawyer
  LOL
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:33am
- Rachael Membery
  
  You are a sad individual?
  
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  February 11, 2019 12:15pm
Tall Man

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12167868

Just keeping this current.

All the facts were in the file presented to the liar galloway and were not new.

This is a typical lie from the government of ardern the liar.
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February 11, 2019 10:02am
Lee C

Don’t give up the day job marquess.
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February 11, 2019 10:06am
- Tall Man
  
  Job..marquess…now you’re just being silly aren’t you?
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:07am
DigNap15

I think I read above that there is a poll coming out tonight.
Any predictions?
And I mean predictions, not wish lists.
I think Ardern may drop a few percentage points, .
And I think there will be a big drop for NZF, which must go to National.
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February 11, 2019 10:28am
- Dave Mann
  
  I think Simon Bridges will probably rocket up the rankings as preferred Prime Minister…. perhaps even getting as high as 8%! He’s almost unstoppable.
  
  😀 😀 😀
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:35am
  - Tall Man
    
    Thankfully your thoughts are about as much use as ardern the liar’s.
    
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    February 11, 2019 10:59am
  - marquess
    
    ??
    
    I’m predicting maybe 6% for him? The vultures will be swirling soon
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:20am
    - starboard
      
      “marquess
      Hidden due to low comment rating”
      
      LOL !
      
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      February 11, 2019 12:58pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Sarky wee thing.
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:17pm
  - Happychappy
    
    You do realize Dave sarcasm is the lowest form of wit.
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:45pm
    - Dave Mann
      
      Who says I was being sarcastic? Since being firmly pulled into line by some of our fine commenters for having an opinion, I’ve become a firm fan. Honest 😀
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:48pm
  - Dave Mann
    
    I’m absolutely correct in my criticism of this pathetic Bridges character.
    
    His ‘preferred PM’ rating has slipped 3.5% to a new low of just 5% support!
    
    National has slipped by the same amount and now sits at only 41.6% whilst Labour has gained 4.9% to 37.5% poll support.
    
    As a previous National voter, I say that this is catastrophic, given the scandals, fuckups, corruption and sheer stupidity that this government has subjected our country to.
    
    BRIDGES SIMPLY HAS TO GO – AND THE SOONER THE BETTER!
    
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    February 11, 2019 6:12pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  I’m gonna guess;
  Nat 47 (minor bump from NZF)
  Lab 40 (too much embarrassment/stupid to stay high)
  Green 7 (collecting a few disaffected Lab votes)
  NZF 3 (former supporters have had enough)
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:46am
  - MCos
    
    I think Kiwibuild might knock a couple a percent off that, but NZF followers will hang around.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:50am
Fletch

This is what it’s come to in the UK. A mother is arrested by the police in front of her young child for referring to a “trans woman” as a man on Twitter – called, “deadnaming” – referring to a trans persons old name or gender.

British police arrested a mother in front of her children for calling a trans activist a man in a Twitter argument, with a judge subsequently issuing an injunction banning her from referring to the person’s “former male identity”.
38-year-old Kate Scottow, of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, said she was “arrested in my home by three officers, with my autistic ten-year-old daughter and breastfed 20-month-old son present” in comments posted to the Mumsnet online forum, according to the Mail on Sunday.

“I was then detained for seven hours in a cell with no sanitary products (which I said I needed) before being interviewed then later released under investigation… I was arrested for harassment and malicious communications because I called someone out and misgendered them on Twitter.”

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/10/uk-mother-arrested-in-front-of-children-for-calling-trans-person-a-man-on-twitter/

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6687123/amp/Mother-arrested-children-calling-transgender-woman-man.html

This is just ABSURD. I can’t believe the Police are wasting time prosecuting this shit. The PC, leftist, gays really do have their their hands squeezing the balls of the establishment…
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February 11, 2019 10:32am
- lifesgood
  
  That’s it, the UK is stuffed.
  
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  February 11, 2019 10:53am
- Inandout
  
  And with Theresa May in charge, even more disturbing. I can just imagine what other ‘penalties’ are waiting with EU laws.
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:25pm
- srylands
  
  Just extraordinary.
  
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  February 11, 2019 3:31pm
- Niz
  
  I wonder what the punishment is for using a person’s actual gender pronoun.
  Btw, the misgendering is done when people start using the preferred (ie wrong) pronoun.
  
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  February 11, 2019 4:49pm
Lance

And the BBC ‘jumps the shark’

What a bunch of twats.
“Prince Philips victim feels safer now he is off the road”.
A combination of lemon sucking snowflake milking her 15mins of fame and an anti royalist left wing outfit pushing an agenda.
Puke making drivel

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=12202571

Perhaps if I stamp my feet and scream hysterically the various people who have crashed into me in times past will come forth with a grovelling apology?
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February 11, 2019 10:52am
- Fletch
  
  I had to give props to a comment on Facebook that referred to Philip as the ‘Duke of Hazard’. I wish I’d thought of that one 😆
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:02am
- MCos
  
  Prince Philip is an angry old man still trying to find a purpose in life.
  He wrecks his car and instead of anyone telling him the obvious they give him a new one the next day.
  Good on that woman for pointing out the Emperor has got no clothes while those around him pretend not to notice.
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:46am
  - Tall Man
    
    Bitter. Why?
    
    2 0
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    February 11, 2019 2:19pm
  - Lance
    
    As she spat forth again, and again, and again etc
    Once would have been enough
    OTT crap
    
    One might think there was an agenda.
    
    But hey, if the BBC wants to campaign for all oldies to be banned from driving, I await the howls of outrage, or is it only PC when it’s anti royal?
    
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    February 11, 2019 2:41pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    Emperor, that’s pre-1947. He’s only a Duke these days…
    
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    February 11, 2019 5:49pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  And cash?
  
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  February 11, 2019 12:19pm
Longknives

So the Media are making a big song and dance about a throwaway comment Simon Bridges made about Homosexuality 25 year ago!
I wish the Media would pay a bit more attention to the dodgy history of Jacinda Ardern.
For Example-I’d like an intrepid journalist to query why Labour Spin have changed the version of events of where Ardern and Gayford met? (I read again somewhere recently that they met at an awards show- what happened to the original story about them meeting to discuss his concerns about surveillance and privacy?)
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February 11, 2019 10:58am
- Fletch
  
  It’s a wonder people aren’t criticized these days for wetting their bed when they were four. That seems to be the thing now – go back in history to find something damaging or stupid you did when you were younger.
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:05am
- Inandout
  
  Longknives, the fact you are aware of the real story means many others are too. Jacinda can’t control the whole internet.
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:28pm
- Psycho Milt
  
  The media are interested that Bridges is bullshitting about celebrating the “fabulous” gay voters – sorry, community – when they know full well what he really thinks of gays.
  
  That’s newsworthy. Where did Ardern and Gayford meet, on the other hand? Strictly women’s magazines fodder.
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:45pm
  - Longknives
    
    “Where did Ardern and Gayford meet, on the other hand? Strictly women’s magazines fodder.”
    
    I agree Milt.
    But I do find it rather curious that the Labour Spin Team has created a completely new version of events! Why would they want to hide Gayford’s obvious concerns about Surveillance and Privacy etc?
    Perplexing..
    
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    February 11, 2019 2:03pm
    - Salacious Crumb
      
      Funny thing Knives; a gay mate of mine was asking last week why Gayford still has an active Tinder account. Couldn’t possibly think why.
      
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      February 11, 2019 3:26pm
  - srylands
    
    People change. Society changes.
    
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    February 11, 2019 2:57pm
lifesgood

I went to the rally for the Shchetkova family ( the Ukrainians facing deportation) at St Heliers yesterday. There was a huge turnout of several hundred people. David Seymour spoke well on behalf of the family and so did Nataliya, the owner of La Vista restaurant. There was a massive feeling of goodwill and support from the community. It was quite moving. How on earth can Lees-Galloway support residency for a convicted drug smuggler and turn turn this wonderful, much loved, integrated and hard working family away? It was on 3 News last night but I note the camera made sure only a small section of the crowd was shown. It is heart warming to note that since the deportation order was made her restaurant is packed to the gunwales, standing room only most of the time.
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February 11, 2019 10:58am
- Jack5
  
  Lifesgood, did anyone bring up the name of Ahmed Zaoui, the on-the-run Islamicist politician who gatecrashed into the country and was allowed to stay and bring in his family?The Security Intelligence Service had linked him to a terrorist group and declared him a security threat.
  
  Did anyone mention the name of Kailesh Thanabalasingham, the Refugee Council secretary who died in an unexplained house fire in Auckland? He shared the name, age, and ethnicity of the leader of a violent ethnic gang leader deported from Canada?
  
  Did anyone mention the South African family in Otago kicked out of the country because of the medical condition of a son, while at the same time a Malaysian family in Otago with an ill family member was allowed to stay in the country?
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:09am
  - kiwiracer
    
    Or the Muslim with two wives that hit one of them in the head with a hammer
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:49am
    - Jack5
      
      Welfare in Western countries is supporting polygamous Muslims’ harems of wives. This is subsidised Islamicisation of Western countries.
      
      https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/3234/muslim-polygamists-welfare-benefits
      
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      February 11, 2019 3:38pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Jack5, you have on hand a coroner’s inquest regarding the death or Police report on the Refugee Council Secretary?
    
    Has Ahmed Zaoui plotted subsequent terrorist attacks in NZ?
    
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    February 11, 2019 12:31pm
    - Inandout
      
      stephie, only you would know what Zowie is up to now.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:32pm
    - Tall Man
      
      I suppose we could ask ardern the liar but then we still wouldn’t really know as ardern is a liar.
      
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      February 11, 2019 2:17pm
  - Psycho Milt
    
    …did anyone bring up the name of Ahmed Zaoui…
    
    You do know immigrants aren’t asylum seekers, right? If you don’t, clue yourself up quick or it could result in embarrassing conversations with migrants.
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:37pm
    - lifesgood
      
      There are asylum seekers and then there are straight out liars.
      
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      February 11, 2019 1:54pm
      - kowtow
        
        Then there are ‘asylum seekers’ who go to great lengths to ensure they wash up on the shores of western countries with generous social welfare provisions and who have made their final run from some other Muslim shithole where they’d culturally be more at home ie Malaya or the former Dutch East Indies.
        
        But said shit holes aren’t good enough .
        
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        February 11, 2019 2:03pm
      - Psycho Milt
        
        I haven’t seen anything to suggest that the Ukrainians in question are liars.
        
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        February 11, 2019 3:40pm
    - Paulus
      
      Did not Zaoui not bring in 18 relatives to our country once he was admitted.
      
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      February 11, 2019 2:05pm
      - srylands
        
        Yes
        
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        February 11, 2019 2:54pm
      - Psycho Milt
        
        I heard he doesn’t mow his berm and leaves his recycling bin out after recycling day, too.
        
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        February 11, 2019 3:41pm
- kowtow
  
  Camera angle . Very interesting. I’ve noticed when they cover their pet subjects ( fill in favourite luvvie issue) the angles are such to ensure the impression of larger numbers than actual.
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:59pm
Jack5

An interesting column by Joe Bennett on euphemisms for “to die”.

The words for this must are popular with even those who never see themselves as superstitious or over-sensitive.

“Die” is shunned as though this inevitable end for us all must never be mentioned. This is as curious than the habit of the the Elizabethans and later Puritans. They went to the other extreme with everywhere reminders of death – momento mori.

You find now, notably on the American TV network clips rebroadcast on our State TV, commentators using the word “pass” for dying.

If we’re gonna have euphemisms I prefer “kick the bucket”, but those who say “pass” would regard that as worse than “die”.

I always thought “go bung” applied to firms or solo business people going broke, but the Oxford Dictionaries blog says:

go bung

Bung comes from Yagara, an extinct Aboriginal language, and can mean ‘broken down or ruined‘ and ‘bankrupt’, as well as ‘dead’. In parts of Australia and New Zealand, go bung is an informal expression for ‘to die’ which can also be used in the senses ‘to fail’ and ‘to go bankrupt’.

Here’s what the blog says of the old common term, “kick the bucket”:

To kick the bucket has been around as a colloquial expression for to die since at least 1785. Bucket here is not, as most people imagine, the vessel to carry things, but rather a different word defined by the OED as ‘a beam or yoke on which anything may be hung or carried’. The phrase probably refers to the beam on which a slaughtered pig was suspended by its heels, as David Crystal notes in Words in Time and Place.

Joe’s an entertaining Lefty, though I wonder whether sees himself as being on the Left.

I hope the new owners of Stuff keep Joe aboard.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz//northern-advocate/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503447&objectid=12201931&ref=clavis
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February 11, 2019 11:02am
- Inandout
  
  “Remember, Honey, don’t forget what I told you. Put in my coffin a deck of cards, a mashie niblick, and a pretty blonde.”
  
  — Chico Marx
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:37pm
Maggy Wassilieff

57 seconds of Helen Clark being interviewed as to why she is at the 2019 World Government Summit in Dubai

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yWXMc52xt4
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February 11, 2019 11:05am
- Keeping Stock
  
  That’s about 58 seconds too much for me Maggy 😀
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:00pm
  - sooty
    
    Pay her own way did she?
    
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    February 11, 2019 1:51pm
  - stigie
    
    Reminded me of Dame Edna but with better teeth !~
    
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    February 11, 2019 5:29pm
- simpleton1
  
  https://www.worldgovernmentsummit.org/
  “Global dialogue for happiness and well-being” hmmm, just one such topic.
  
  A sublime run for the Organisation of Islamic Co-operation with their money and influence.
  Internet blasphemy control?
  
  SDG sustainable development goals is what HC is very interested in.
  
  Checking jobs? and for whom?
  
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  February 11, 2019 1:49pm
Fletch

New Zealand is in the news – for discovering and being the first to carry out “poo transplants”. I am not even kidding…. 😆

A recent study by the University of Auckland has found that certain people’s poo contains bacteria that could help cure other people suffering from illnesses such as Clostridium difficile.

These so-called ‘super poopers’ have fabulous faeces that contain the necessary bacteria to rejuvenate the guts of people with a range of illnesses, giving much higher cure rates.

In a faecal transplant, poo from a healthy donor is transplanted into a patient in order to fill their gut with friendly bacteria and help fight illness.

https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/are-you-a-super-pooper/

Forceps…
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February 11, 2019 11:09am
- Jack5
  
  In Chinese medicine this has been practised for well over a thousand years.
  
  https://ckriegeracupuncture.com/fecal-stool-transplants-were-ancient-chinese-medicine-really/
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:13am
  - Fletch
    
    Hmm, wow.
    
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    February 11, 2019 11:14am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Cultural appropriation? How does that gel with Tikanga?
    
    7 0
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    February 11, 2019 12:24pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  It’s been a regulated medical procedure for a number of years now.
  
  NZ is not first to work in this field
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fecal_microbiota_transplant
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:18am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Many people are already full of **it. It just remains to determine whether it is good **it or bad **it.
  
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  February 11, 2019 11:59am
- Happychappy
  
  You would hope that it hasn’t come from sweet cheeks.
  
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  February 11, 2019 12:49pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Goodness, until I read the full article, I thought it might be referring to some form of gay surrogacy 🙁
  
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  February 11, 2019 2:50pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  No, they’re not taking the piss, they’re giving a shit.
  
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  February 11, 2019 4:04pm
Hugh Pavletich

Melbourne property losses smash through 9% – MacroBusiness Australia (behind paywall)

https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/02/melbourne-property-losses-smash-9/

By Leith van Onselen

According to CoreLogic’s daily house price index, Melbourne dwelling value losses smashed through 9% over the weekend:

The below chart shows how Melbourne’s price decline compares against prior price corrections: … read more via hyperlink above …
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February 11, 2019 12:05pm
Maggy Wassilieff

3 years to investigate Wintec
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/110502299/audit-nz-report-damns-wintec-spending-practices

The Auditor General report found that Wintec was unable to provide an account on how they spent public money.

Time to clean up the entire Tertiary industry.
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February 11, 2019 1:45pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  I’d like to read the audit report. Unfortunately, it is not clear from the article if this was from the office of the Auditor-General or from Audt NZ., and neither appears to have published the rpoert online.
  Apart from that, it is high time that polytechs stopped behaving like competing business enterprises, or turning themselves into faux universities, and returned to delivering vocationally focused tertiary education for New Zealanders.
  
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  February 11, 2019 2:59pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    It’s possibly a confidential report.
    
    Wintec commissioned Audit New Zealand to look into travel expenses made by past and present management, redundancy and severance payments.
    
    Wintec chief executive off the hook, urgent action being taken over how it spends public money
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12202721
    We will only get the spin version
    
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    February 11, 2019 3:35pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      And I see that Audit NZ was Wintec’s auditor for all those years, so I wonder if their report covered any deificience in their auditing of sensitive expenditure.
      
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      February 11, 2019 4:12pm
KH

Question. Apparently to join in the discussions at Davos the conference fee is $700,000.00. A lot of money.
Ardern was there. Did she pay, and if so how much ? Does anybody know ??
(correction. Did we pay ?)
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February 11, 2019 1:57pm
- KH
  
  Found this. $700 K could be an exaggeration.
  https://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/a-hefty-price-for-entry-to-davos/
  Link is a bit old, but clearly Davos is still costly. Is New Zealand a member ? What is the arrangement our government has there ? And what did it cost us for Ardern to polish her C.V.
  
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  February 11, 2019 2:45pm
  - KevOB
    
    It’s a private club for the international moneyed set and power brokers. Ardern would have had novelty value only.
    
    5 0
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    February 11, 2019 5:15pm
- cmm
  
  I’m sure lots of people paid. Or to be more accurate, their sax slaves did.
  
  Apparently Switzerland’s private jet parking was completely full and people had to park their jets a few countries over.
  
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  February 11, 2019 2:55pm
srylands

Just booking some Air New Zealand flights. I was wondering how many people tick the box to pay an extra 2 dollars to offset their carbon emissions. I am guessing less than 5 percent. And what happens to the money?
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February 11, 2019 2:17pm
- Fletch
  
  Probably goes to the shareholders…
  
  8 0
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  February 11, 2019 2:20pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Is there a box which lets them off the hook if they fail to have the landing documents in order? And another one that gives you the option of telling the pilot to go and land from the other direction if there happens to be a tailwind?
  
  8 0
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  February 11, 2019 2:38pm
  - srylands
    
    Yes I wondered about the tailwind. So they diverted from Queenstown to Christchurch. Sat on the apron for hours and then returned to Auckland. Something is definitely amiss.
    
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    February 11, 2019 2:49pm
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      All joking aside, the tailwind thing was probably a mistake by a useless reporter who doesn’t know the difference between a tailwind and a crosswind.
      However there was no excuse for the charade of sitting on the ground in Christchurch for hours then going back to Auckland. When Queenstown doesn’t work standard practice used to be divert to Invercargill then send the passengers on a two and a half hour bus ride. Much better than what the poor buggers had to put up with.
      
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      February 11, 2019 3:15pm
- godruelf
  
  Probably only Green and Labour MPs would tick the box when they are travelling on our dime.
  
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  February 11, 2019 3:29pm
cas

My 5 Fairtrade bananas ( which were on special today) had a 1 ft 9 inch by 1 inch plastic strip wrapped around them. I haven’t heard any comments from the Govt about this dreadful and excessive use of plastic
10 0
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February 11, 2019 3:40pm
- srylands
  
  I just bought a lettuce wrapped in plastic. Tomatoes wrapped in hard shell plastic, and lettuce seedlings in a hard plastic tray. Then I realised I had forgotten my shopping bag. So I bought bag number 117.
  
  It is total bullshit.
  
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  February 11, 2019 5:13pm
  - stigie
    
    “It is total bullshit.”
    
    So was the fucking ban of oil and gas without doing a cost benefit analysis which was impossible said the minister for cheese rolls and fine dining Wood.
    
    Total fucking bullshit !~
    
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    February 11, 2019 5:41pm
- kowtow
  
  Do “fair trade” narnas taste better than unfair traded ones , they cost a good deal more , so should.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:43pm
Nostradamus

Global drug trafficking operation run out of Villawood detention centre, phone taps reveal

Key points:
– Patrick Nweke directed an international drug smuggling operation while incarcerated at Villawood detention centre
– His mule, Peter Strand, lost $US400,000 in romance scams before being tricked into trafficking drugs
– Those running the operations target the elderly and vulnerable to become couriers

Amazing – a person is locked up in a detention centre but still able to direct an international drug smuggling operation.

The article notes that Nigerian scams have become more sophisticated and achieved a global critical mass:

According to the FBI, crime organisations that started in Nigeria have spread to more than 80 countries and are among the most “aggressive and expansionist” in the world. American cyber intelligence firm Crowdstrike has found the crime organisations have adapted low-tech con artistry from the so-called “Nigerian prince scams” of the 1990s into a global enterprise, making billions of dollars a year and conning individuals and businesses on an industrial scale. “West African cybercrime is the biggest threat that we see on the internet today,” Crowdstrike’s vice-president of intelligence Adam Meyers said.

I’ve heard of some pretty scary stories first-hand.
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February 11, 2019 4:11pm
- Ed Snack
  
  If it comes from Crowdstrike it is almost certainly bullshit, just BTW.
  
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  February 11, 2019 5:54pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Thanks Ed – good to know. I’ve never heard of this Crowdstrike outfit, but the FBI seems to be monitoring the Nigerian crime organisation situation closely.
    
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    February 11, 2019 6:11pm
MH

WELL maybe the Queenstown pilots were thinking of going to China, once the permit was sorted?
3 0
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February 11, 2019 4:15pm
DigNap15

I see that Ardern has just put the Neslon fires out.
13 0
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February 11, 2019 4:17pm
- Longknives
  
  OMG Jacinda and her little wee Baybeeee are just soooo Amazeballs!
  Can’t we just make her President for Life???
  
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  February 11, 2019 4:41pm
  - sooty
    
    Then get the baybee to take the reins of power just like the Queen. They can be our royal family.
    We just need a new name and flag.
    
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    February 11, 2019 5:53pm
MH

Labour Party’s new song.

“Brother, Can You Spare a Dime,” lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)

They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it’s done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say, don’t you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time.
Why don’t you remember, I’m your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?
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February 11, 2019 4:17pm
Chuck Bird

Just hear Tobo O on Radio Magic. Reading between the lines NZF will not be happy.

It sounds like National may be.
8 2
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February 11, 2019 4:25pm
- Inandout
  
  ‘Tova as a girl’s name is of Old Norse and Hebrew origin meaning “beautiful Thor or good”. As a Swedish name, this is a feminine form of Thor, the thunder god’.
  
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  February 11, 2019 4:37pm
Nostradamus

Annabel Crabb: Welcome to the 45th Parliament’s leaving do, and it’s going to be a belter

It’s been a ropey old Parliament, this one. It’s had two prime ministers, which 15 years ago would have sounded distinctly on the high side, but is in fact now firming as our national average per parliamentary term.

The most arresting element of the 45th, though, is the full-body transformation it’s undergone over its two-and-a-half years of life. The House of Representatives started out in 2016 under the reasonably confident control of Malcolm Turnbull (Coalition 76 seats, Labor 69) and has wound up as a Mexican standoff with such an hysterical hair-trigger that the Government has taken the expedient, if — for a registered democracy — rather bold decision to hardly have it convene at all for the first three months of the year.

The 30th Prime Minister, since taking office, has embraced the national madness for Marie Kondo and decluttered his parliamentary ranks, thanking and bidding farewell to a number of ministers and backbenchers who no longer spark joy and who at any rate are keen to spend more time with their families/spear guns/panickedly overthumbed Rolodexes before everything officially goes to custard in May.

The Senate, meanwhile, is so arrestingly changed from what it was in 2016 that it would qualify for a before-and-after photo spread in a supermarket checkout magazine. (“I shed SEVENTEEN senators in three years! Including TEN from my crossbench! Stunning Pix!”)

I’d love to see Annabel write about Jacinda and her team!
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February 11, 2019 4:49pm
Nostradamus

Where’s Morrissey?

Paedo Rolf Harris ‘under house arrest’ after wandering into school while on licence from prison

DISGRACED entertainer Rolf Harris has reportedly been placed under house arrest by his own family after wandering into a school while on licence following his prison release. The paedo has been spoken to by police and probation officials after walking into Oldfield Primary School in Maidenhead, Berks, and waving at children.
…
Neighbours leapt to the former entertainer’s defence, arguing he had not trespassed on the Oldfield Primary School grounds. One elderly male neighbour said: “It’s horrendous. You know his only interest was looking at some wooden sculptures.
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February 11, 2019 5:22pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  “his only interest was looking at some wooden sculptures”
  Poor old Rolf, just trying to get some wood.
  
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  February 11, 2019 6:44pm
Longknives

Well how about that?
Turns out the controversial banner taken to the Cricket on the weekend was in fact planted by the Left-Wing ‘Spinoff’ Media themselves!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/110499174/martin-devlin-i-have-missed-the-mark

Sorry if this old old news (or has been discussed before) but to me this pretty much confirms every reason I detest the mainstream media in New Zealand!
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February 11, 2019 5:22pm
Monique Watson

Wonder what’s happening with Pike River? I believe it was to take two weeks to pump out the full tunnel with Nitrogen. At the end of the week it will have been a month.
14 1
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February 11, 2019 5:28pm
- stigie
  
  Another 36 million is needed to make Bernie Monk happy !~
  
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  February 11, 2019 5:46pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Stigie:
    
    Bernie negotiated a “true-up” clause, so each year he receives an amount that’s proportionate to his sense of outrage. Unfortunately, Bernie’s seriously pissed off at the moment, so taxpayers will have to give a little bit more!
    
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    February 11, 2019 6:06pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Entry has been delayed until the end of February 2019
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2018/12/government-delays-pike-river-re-entry.html
  
  (Well, that was last year’s story)
  
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  February 11, 2019 5:57pm
  - Manolo
    
    Taking bets on the venal Mr Peters to lead the expedition? I thought it was an election promise…
    
    5 1
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    February 11, 2019 6:06pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Manolo:
      
      Don’t forget about Chuck Bird:
      
      Winston has the balls to make the offer [to be the first to re-enter the Pike River mine]. Does Bill English have the balls to call his bluff? If is not bluff. I would happily join him.
      
      December 13, 2016 3:08pm
      
      Chuck may have changed his mind, though, because he now attends National Party AGMs!
      
      8 1
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      February 11, 2019 6:28pm
Captain Mainwaring

Ouch! That poll hurt.
Unfortunately Simon has to go.
7 4
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February 11, 2019 6:10pm
- Dave Mann
  
  I’ve been given a lot of shit here for my criticisms of this ineffectual little squirt…. especially from Tall Man, but also from others and every time I have voiced this I’ve received a blizzard of downticks.
  
  I really want to get rid of this government and it gives me no pleasure to see what has happened to National, believe me. But who seriously thinks that National has a shit show if this performance is continued?
  
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  February 11, 2019 6:25pm
  - nasska
    
    …..”who seriously thinks that National has a shit show if this performance is continued”…..
    
    Those who write National’s policies I would presume!
    
    7 1
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    February 11, 2019 6:57pm
  - secondcumming
    
    “As I’ve said time and time again, I’m just happy being the MP for Papakura!”
    
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DzGshnuVYAAsAkt.jpg
    
    3 1
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    February 11, 2019 7:58pm
- Longknives
  
  It’s ‘Newshub’ mate! (They are known to make up most of their stories- and they openly detest Natonal)
  I expected them to have Labour Governing alone to be honest!
  
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  February 11, 2019 6:34pm
  - Happychappy
    
    Key should have sent them to wall when they were in financial difficulties instead of lending them the money to keep there head above water.
    
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    February 11, 2019 7:20pm
JibberJabber

This is why we can`t have nice things,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rsxFaq6Ig
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February 11, 2019 6:14pm
nasska

Poverdy in NZ 2019 (Continued…..)

“Don’t panic Tracey, we have a non-judgemental, no accountability emergency fund for such occasions. We can have $500 in your account tomorrow.”

“Oh well that’s alright then I suppose. Anyway, where does this money actually come from….like I care?”

“Well you know that chap who lives opposite you, the one who gets up at 05.30 every day, leaves his house at 06.00, doesn’t get home until 19.00 & hardly ever gets a chance to see his two children? Well he kindly donates a third of his wages for needy people like yourself.”

“Really. That miserable bastard. We keep complaining to the Housing Corp about him. He wakes us up every morning starting that noisy car up when it’s still dark outside.”
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February 11, 2019 8:08pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Poverdy in NZ 2019 (Continued…..)
  
  Sam: “I can’t afford KFC”.
  Jacinda: “We’ll set up a working group to find out why KFC is so expensive”.
  Grant (Treasurer): “Alf tells me that people were complaining on the bus this afternoon. Apparently KFC has bumped up their prices”.
  Jacinda: “Right. So let’s have a working group. Oh hold on – I need to ask Winston”.
  Winston: “No”.
  Jacinda: “Sorry Sam. But don’t worry. We’ll increase your unemployment benefit when Grant hands down the next budget in May”.
  
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  February 11, 2019 8:27pm
Rachael Membery

How facile.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/comment/columnists/110495105/take-our-quiz-and-test-how-bluegreen-you-are
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February 12, 2019 8:07pm

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