General Debate 18 February 2019

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peterwn

I mentioned the other day that if Wellington City and Greater Wellington Regional Councils were really keen on promoting ‘light rail’, they would be anxious that the present Airport bus service had as much patronage as possible. But, alas, the bus stop at the airport has been relocated at quite a long distance from the terminal entrance.
Now, the service will stop taking ‘Snapper’ cards in a weeks time. Actually this is not too bad since a contactless credit or debit card can be used instead. In London contactless cards can be used instead of dedicated ‘Oyster’ cards which means that the writing is on the wall for Oyster, Snapper, Hop etc. This is because the Airport bus operator apparently does not think the cost of updating and maintaining Snapper is worthwhile.
However if there is no Snapper then apparently there is no system to drive the real time indicators (or on Metlink web site or app), so these will go ‘dark’ in a weeks time for Airport buses (but the indicators for the trains seem to work despite the trains not having Snapper). In Auckland the privately run Airport buses are shown on the indicator boards despite not having Hop. This is where one or more of WCC, WRC or NZ Bus (the operator) are shooting themselves in the foot. In other words they could not care less about the ‘other people’ expected to use public transport (MP’s councillors, etc are too busy and important to take the bother of using public transport).
I heard somewhere there has been ongoing tension between GWRC and NZ Bus for some time so I wonder if they are playing ‘silly’ with each other over the Airport service. Perhaps next thing the Airport buses will be banned from the Hataitai bus tunnel so journey times will be longer because of Basin congestion.
If they cannot maximise use of the Airport bus, then what is the show of making a genuine business case for ‘light rail’. As far as I am concerned – forget it.
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February 18, 2019 8:01am
- artemisia
  
  Well NZBus is under a conditional sale contract to a private equity firm. Perfect opportunity for unions to put the acid on NZBus to pay more, do more or risk losing the contract. Unions won’t like a private equity firm taking NZBus over.
  
  Lots of union activity in Auckland (walk off the job with no notice), Wellington (stop work meetings, strike threats), BOP (not enough drivers). Next?
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:14am
  - peterwn
    
    In fairness to the union, AFAIK the stopwork meetings are provided for in the employment agreement so are not ‘industrial action’. They are held in the middle of the day so commuters and school pupils are not affected. It is not ideal but is a reasonably compromise between the employer meeting legal obligations and minimising inconvenience to travellers.
    The unions have a problem since there is little public support or sympathy for industrial action, so industial action has to be designed to inconvenience the employer while having as little impact on travellers as possible such as refusal to collect faire.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:26am
- hullkiwi
  
  Peter the problems with the transport passenger payment systems are numerous.
  
  1. Snapper is the product of NZ Bus & is only used in Wellington. With no other user the GWRC does not want to pay for further development etc.
  2. There is a project being led by NZTA & supported by all 11 transport authorities to introduce an electronic payment system. Because Auckland introduced HOP 5 years ago this procurement will take 5 to 10 years to complete.
  3. Antipathy to NZ Bus is historic; and
  4. LR/ tram and payment by passengers in congested parts of a network are mutually exclusive events. This is because of how tram systems work.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:35am
  - peterwn
    
    Agreed that payment systems and light rail are separate issues.
    Also the lack of Snapper on the Airport bus will not be much of an inconvenience since the alternative system will accept mainstream credit/ debit cards and in particular will be usable by out of town users. In my opinion dedicated public transport payment systems are starting to be obsolete (eg in London there is now no need for an Oyster card, your credit/debit card is just as good).
    Snapper as such is a secondary issue. The primary issue in my mind is that the service is being made less convenient to use because of the new location of the Airport bus stop and because the the service is being withdrawn from the real time indication system.
    This is my argument – if the Councils are keen for a light rail system to the Airport, they should be doing what they can to encourage as many people as possible to use existing public transport to get to the Airport as possible. This means ensuring maximum convenience to customers. This strengthens the case for light rail. Instead the Councils seem to be diverted by secondary considerations.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:05am
    - Ruawai
      
      The Government should make use of the existing train system and add a line from Manukau to the Airport.
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:27am
      - hullkiwi
        
        The long term plan is from the airport to Puhunui. As per the current RLTP there are plans for an enhanced bus service.
        
        However, there is no real justification for either the enhanced bus service or the train. Two years ago at enhanced services on the AT Airporter service by 73% and farebox revenue rose by less than $100k.
        
        There is much mythology about people wanting public transport, but the reality is that fewer than 10% of all journeys are taken using public transport.
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:18am
  - insider
    
    National Integrated ticketing is a massive waste of money IMO. Its biggest benefit seems to be delivering govt mandated discounts, eg super gold card rather than giving most customers something useful. The major beneficiary will be Wellington where there are multiple transport modes. Goodness knows what BoP or manawatu will get, except a bill when the costs overrun.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:27am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Insider try Poverty Bay, Taranaki, Northland & West Coast.
      
      Auckland is 51% of all PT in NZ and within that you do not want to know the breakdown of ferry!
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:24am
      - KiWombat
        
        Public Transport – what’s that ?
        
        Here on the West Coast, even with three local government bodies, Public Transport is simply a pipe dream !
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:42pm
      - sooty
        
        You mean it’s something for other people that you people pay for!
        
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        February 18, 2019 4:46pm
- marcw
  
  About 8 years ago I had trouble finding the InterCity bus stop at the airport. Once the bus arrived, I asked why there was no sign, and the driver said they had tried to put one in place but the Wellington Airport Company had denied permission. So their prejudice against buses is long standing.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:00am
  - peterwn
    
    And that is part of my point. The City Council owns one-third of the Airport so should be using this ownership stake to pressure the Company into providing a decent location for the bus stop and facilitating signage etc.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:08am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    I wouldn’t call it prejudice. They want to maximise revenue from bus and taxi providers that connect to the airport. The way to do that is to give favoured treatment to one or two of those providers and make them pay for the privilege, and ensure it is less convenient for travellers to use other providers.
    
    If the council is going to part own a private company, they should not use that ownership to achieve a political objective at the expense of company profits. That’s not fair to other shareholders and it would arguably be illegal for directors to implement such a request. The council should buy a 100% stake if they want to do that.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:15am
    - peterwn
      
      This also implies that the Airport should only accept a light rail incursion in the Airport precinct if it is commercially advantageous to the Airport shareholders. Otherwise the light rail terminal would need to be outside the precinct (eg near the Z service station).
      The proposed ‘light rail’ project to the Airport would be a turkey if that was the case. Also would there be reasonable luggage capacity on the trams?
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:59am
- Durden
  
  Snapper has nothing to do with real time indicators. A bank issued contactless card will incur a transaction fees everytime. Hop Oyster etc you pay only when you load money. Any transport card is optimised to speed up people through gates. No paywave can do it that fast – for now anyway. Local bodies like AT like to own transportation card systems because the “float” is lucrative, there is no transaction fee, they can more easily do concessions, special discounts (monthly payment) etc all running off the one card
  
  Yes there has always been NZTA+GWRC versus Infratil (owner of NZ Bus+ Snapper) tensions.
  
  Whole of NZ transport operations are smaller than a large overseas city. A single central transport card system and a schedule/arrival indicator system should be able to handle the whole country. NZTA and the regional council’s play silly buggers and replicate systems in each region wasting taxpayer ratepayer money.
  
  The Taxpayer’s Union should get on to this multi-million dollar farce.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:17am
  - peterwn
    
    The withdrawal of location information has been linked with the withdrawal of Snapper. Presumably the GWRC wants the Airport bus (which is not a subsidised service) to meet the costs of providing location service which the operator does not want to pay. While this could be an appropriate policy on GWRC’s part, it overlooks that helping to maximise the use of the Airport bus service is in the interests of GWRC and WCC especially increased patronage would help reinforce the case for light rail to the Airport.
    Transport for London has made ‘paywave’ work for its network (as well as for rail services provided by others) and obviously finds it economic despite bank charges. TfL is apparently holding millions of pounds loaded into dormant Oyster cards because people are using contactless bank cards instead. As far as I can ascertain the cards contain information on the last few ‘taps’ only (for the information of inspectors) and the TfL system washes up everything at the end of the day (including all the non cash and regular use discounts) and puts through the actual charges. So you would find a (say) 10 quid or so debit covering your previous days public transport use. It is just so easy and convenient unlike Paris where you have to decide between single tickets, 10 ticket carnets or all-day ‘Mobilis’ tickets (these do work on buses, RATP metro, RER and SNCF ‘Transilien’ services).
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:25am
- insider
  
  The airport bus is 100% owned operated and managed by NZ Bus. Its owner is infratil, one of the main owners of Wellington airport.
  
  Ratepayers contribute nothing to the service so have no say in where it stops, it’s fares or its operation like use of snapper (also owned by an infratil company). Most of its profits come from taking people in from the Hutt. Very few people use it as an airport service.
  
  It appears to me that infratil have been minimising investment in its bus services for some time. They lost significant numbers of contracts when they went out to tender across the North Island. This another symptom.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:17am
- KevOB
  
  Light rail in Wellington? We used to call those trams. When cars began chokng the city the trams caused even more nuisance because of their fixed tracks. Trolley buses likewise.
  Fix the density issue before more fiddling. The reclamation which forms the heart of the city has become clogged up.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:23am
- Liberty
  
  Auckland and Wellington airports don’t need trains.
  Buses provide a excellent service and low cost. Keeping in mind
  I haven’t used the Wellington bus since the upgrade/downgrade
  They just need to look after their customers and stop treating them like lepers.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:45am
Happychappy

I hope the Government listen to the advice given by those that know.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/110627461/strong-dose-of-regulation-needed-with-medicinal-cannabis-esr-warns
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February 18, 2019 8:02am
- RRM
  
  Some kind of purpose-built retail store maybe?
  
  https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/beautiful-marijuana-dispensary-designs-and-layouts
  
  Edit: dammit, was meant as a response to the “where will people buy it” question below
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:44am
  - Ruawai
    
    And Chloe says it will not be marketed…
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:30am
DigNap15

These idiots that talk about legalising canabis.
Where are people going to buy it?
A chemist? Countdown?
And who is going to regulate the gangs?
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February 18, 2019 8:05am
- PaulDunmore
  
  My preferred end point is that cannabis is sold at Countdown, next to the wine and tobacco. That way the product quality can be assured, and there will be effective checks on age. (You think the tinny houses avoid selling to minors?)
  The gangs won’t need extra regulation, because competition will largely drive them out of business, just as the US bootleggers largely disappeared once Prohibition was repealed. Like the bootleggers, some will go legit but many will shift to other sorts of criminal activity. And the “gateway drug” issue will go away because the legal sellers of cannabis won’t have any product to upsell their customers to.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:39am
  - lilman
    
    Paul do you really think gangs will lose a market which they control,by and large exclusively.
    
    I know a dealer who laced his dope with P,he said it made him exclusive to the market.
    These are peoples kids they are talking about ,as if they are commodities.
    So any relaxation or access to this drug will have major effect on OUR children and community.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:47am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Whether the gangs go away will depend on how much Tax being applied will affect the price.
      The California experience is that the Tax is so high that the illegal market is still huge.
      It’s affecting and limiting the roll out of legal stores.
      Who would have thought-drug dealers don’t like paying Tax!
      Am the public doesn’t like paying high prices.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:02am
      - freethinker
        
        Noticed that Chloe Thickasabrick on am this morning mentioned tax a number of times, with socialists tax fixes everything!!
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:18am
    - PaulDunmore
      
      Lilman, I can quite believe your story – that is how criminals view their customers. What I do not believe for a moment is that a supermarket chain would do that. They would distribute cannabis the same way they distribute baked beans – product from a reputable manufacturer with a brand name to protect, with a traceable supply chain, and packed in tins where the contents are correctly described on the label. Our children and community would be much safer than they are now.
      And yes, the gangs would lose (much of) the market because their customers would go to the better source – the point about competition is that suppliers cannot control the market.
      All on Red, your point is a good one. The tax on tobacco is already so high that we are starting to pass the market over to the gangs, so that tobacco will soon become a much more dangerous product than it is now.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:52am
      - Tall Man
        
        La La land is where you belong.
        
        We have no way of restricting access of cannabis to young people now and increasing the availability will increase that access.
        
        No ifs or buts.
        
        The reduction is the age of access to alcohol has had a major increase of youths drinking alcohol. That is an undeniable fact.
        
        If you want youngsters to have access to dope from extended sources then you vote for decriminalisation.
        
        I do not and will not vote in favour.
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:14am
      - Batman
        
        Tall Man: young people are drinking LESS than they used to before the age change.
        
        The trend is downwards and is continuing to go that way.
        
        Sadly this puts paid to that angle of your argument. There was an article on KB just a few weeks ago on this topic
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:19am
      - tf78
        
        One of the problems with legalizing dope is that, I believe, it is a gate-way drug and people might start off buying it from legal sources, but as their tolerance grows with it they will want something stronger and just revert back to the gangs. Totally ill conceived tax grabbing idea that will end in tears, with more suicides and depression.
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:29am
      - Tall Man
        
        Sorry batman but Robin says you’re wrong…
        
        https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/348066/young-drinkers-consuming-more-alcohol-than-ever
        
        “Dr Jackson said in fact, hazardous binge-drinking had been getting worse, and the government needed to raise the price of alcohol.”
        
        And you believe that these same youngsters will not access and abuse dope?
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:20pm
      - Tall Man
        
        https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/373067/doctors-say-raise-drinking-age
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:28pm
  - Richard
    
    Polar bears will snow board down the hillsides of hell before supermarkets agree to sell cannabis and cannabis products down their aisles in this country. I can report foodstuffs South Island is quietly exploring options to stop selling tobacco. They sure won’t be interested in replacing that with cannabis and the whole raft of laws , compliance, legal liability issues and extra staffing to ensure compliance that would come with.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:25am
    - All_on_Red
      
      I agree. There will be specialty stores.
      All the ones currently selling Vapes and pipes will be lining up.
      After all, they already have the target market coming to their shops.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:30am
    - Viking2
      
      They will as soon as the product is market ready and packed and the money is there to be had.
      They didn’t sell booze once and bread was their no.1 product line with coke in second place. Not like that know.
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:48am
  - backster
    
    Paul the Dreamer.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:03am
    - Tall Man
      
      “Dope smoker” more like….
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:17am
      - PaulDunmore
        
        Never have, never will – even when it becomes legal. Never smoked tobacco either.
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:34am
      - Tall Man
        
        Then seriously Paul, you have little direct knowledge then do you?
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:30pm
- Jules99
  
  The utopian view is that we will grow it in our vege patch and set up little cottage industries. Not sure it will happen that way.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:41am
  - Tall Man
    
    I did build a 20 foot “green” house for my wife…..
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:17am
    - MH
      
      maybe this could be the answer to Trump and his wall – make it outa dope and the mexican gangs just stay put, leaning on the wall.
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:38am
- RRM
  
  Some kind of purpose-built retail store maybe?
  
  https://www.leafly.com/news/lifestyle/beautiful-marijuana-dispensary-designs-and-layouts
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:46am
  - waikatogirl
    
    How come we have come from discussing the need for medical marijuana with the mind-altering substance extracted before use, to now wanting legalisation of marijuana for general use?
    ?
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:33am
    - Tall Man
      
      That was always the plan, the bulk of the lefties are keen and think we are as dumb as them and won’t notice.
      
      It’s just another “cool” bandwagon to jump on be part of the “in” crowd dancing our way to utopia…
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:51am
      - Viking2
        
        Its not a lefty thing at all. Its a righty thing aka freedom to do your own thing.
        Something the National Party and people like yourself simply are so dumb you don’t recognize it as such.
        Like many other things around this socialist country.
        
        You rant about Arden but frankly you would be an even worse control freak.
        Fuck off out of our lives.
        Like Paul, never smoked either, never will but refuse to impose my shit on others because of some uneducated morality.
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:03pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Well ragnar, you can spit as much abuse as you like but as a society we control things, many things, for the welfare and safety of others and often themselves.
        
        I am quite certain that you would be extremely happy have a stoned youth using a motor vehicle to destroy a family member’s life but I am not. I mean hey, they have a right to whatever they want because you’re into freedom.
        
        Conversely, you are happy for dope to be freely available but being illegally handed to a dopehead’s kids because that’s his/her right and who really cares if the kid deveopes psychosis as it is their parents right.
        
        You take freedom of rights a step too far in my opinion but what would I know, I’m just a control freak.
        
        By the way, I suppose it’s time to abandon all laws if they stop someone from doing whatever they want..and you call me dumb?
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:39pm
    - PaulDunmore
      
      I think about it from a fairly liberal point of view – if people want to buy alcohol, Brylcreem, GM foods, or cannabis, the State should not prevent them unless there is a very high standard of harm. I am willing to be persuaded that I am wrong about cannabis, but I have not yet seen a persuasive argument (including any offered here today).
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:19am
      - waikatogirl
        
        I don’t care if they smoke, just don’t expect to sit around on the bene paid for by hardworking taxpayers. (I know someone where that has been the result, 40 years old and no use for anything). I also don’t want stoners driving on the roads where they can injure others or themselves.
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:41am
      - Tall Man
        
        https://www.verywellmind.com/why-do-teens-use-marijuana-63543
        
        You either accept or not but I have experience here and can tell you that in my experience dope is not good thing for those under 25 or at least until they have a fully developed brain.
        
        We have high youth suicide and high youth consumption of cannabis. I do not know if there is a link but it certainly something to consider is it not or like our viking, do you not give a fuck about your fellow man at all.
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:45pm
    - Shaun the Sheep
      
      Its a slippery slope thing.
      Its medical marijuana to general use today.
      
      Tomorrow we’ll discuss euthanasia which goes rapidly from ‘my life my choice’ to ‘granny’s gone batty lets off her”.
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:17am
    - tf78
      
      waikatogirl – Exactly!!!!
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:31am
    - Viking2
      
      Because Kiwi’s have been asking for this forever and ever and ever.
      Poll after poll.
      
      Or had you not noticed?
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:59am
      - Tall Man
        
        Many moslems want sex with children so that’s ok with you?
        
        Many moslems here in NZ have asked for and gained female cicumcision and that’s ok with you?
        
        You make some really stupid statements at times. This is one of those times.
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:48pm
howzit

I heard a rumour that when a young Winston Peters first arrived in Auckland from his Northland birthplace he wasn’t too keen on saying he was from Māori decent and so convinced all he associated with that he was Italian and his fathers name was Luigi…

Anyone else heard of this?
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February 18, 2019 8:05am
- holysheet
  
  Ask Jim Mclay. He and Winston were drinking buddies from way back.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:11am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Ask Trevor Mallard
    
    Mr Mallard sarcastically thanked Mr Peters for his support, adding “and I’ll forget why we used to call him Luigi” – an old jibe directed at Mr Peters for allegedly posing as Italian during his university days to hide his Maori background.
    
    John Armstrong: Who’s indigenous? The only certainty is Luigi
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3582082
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:25am
- sooty
  
  I think it come about when he could afford a snappy three piece suit, the italian shoes and a jar of Brilycream on the head. All to create the spik look! He allready had the short stature and took a empty Tanawhia soap box to stand on at the races!
  for the younger people. Tanawhia soap came in a wooden box like a nail box, held maybe 100 bars.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:21am
  - mark15
    
    And he’s still got 100 left…
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:46am
  - SGA
    
    For the younger people. Tanawhia soap came in a wooden box like a nail box
    
    Do nail boxes still exist? Do the younger people know what they are? 🙂 🙂 🙂
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:55am
    - sooty
      
      You are probably right. Nails would come in strips for the gun! Loose nails, what are they?
      Looked at a manual staple maker yesterday, slow going, cut wire to length and then bend it, individual functions.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:48am
    - MH
      
      kahikatea
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:40am
      - sooty
        
        MH. Kihikatea was for the cheese/butter as it did not taint the food.
        
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        February 18, 2019 4:50pm
    - Viking2
      
      Oh shit, there’s more plastic for the greens to ban.. Plastic nail boxes eh.
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:05pm
- secondcumming
  
  John Banks used to flat with Winnie in their early parliamentary days. According to Banksie, it was him that coined the nickname ‘LUIGI’, due to Winston’s penchant for double-breasted pin stripe suits and copious amounts Three Flowers Brilliantine.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:23am
- doggone7
  
  And look at the long term impact of the claims. That was in the mid-60s and here we are in 2019 and he’s still pissing off the National Mafia.
  
  Well done that man!
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:24am
  - Tall Man
    
    Have mouth, will suck at teat…
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:52am
- alex Masterley
  
  An old employer of mine knew WP at University.
  His nickname then was Luigi.
  The story about WP being detained by full length mirrors started way back then as well. David Lange only borrowed the line.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:55am
  - Shaun the Sheep
    
    He may look smart, but he bumbles and flusters like a man who ate a dictionary and got the definition part all chewed up in the process
    All coat and no hat.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:21am
artemisia

Looks like Kiwibuild will continue to be under fire in coming days, judging by the number of written questions in the last few days from the on-fire Ms Collins plus some from Ms Adams and Mr Seymour. The cost of the Kiwibuild bureaucracy is figuring large in the questions.

The government is finally on notice to answer written questions promptly and properly so we all live in hope.

Q4646 is definitely of interest – have to wonder why the location of contracted developments is such a secret.

What are the locations of the 10,355 KiwiBuild homes that have been contracted the committed to build, listed by development name?
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February 18, 2019 8:06am
- redeye
  
  Useless pricks are all hui and no doey. And finally, like the Queen Mary, the media are slowly turning.
  
  Year of delivery my arse.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12204603
  Six months after 12 priorities launched, Government still working on indicators for progress
  In September last year, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern used a TEDx-style talk in Auckland, alongside Coalition partners New Zealand First and the Green Party, to launch and talk up the Government’s 12 priorities, a blueprint for the country.
  
  She also reiterated the importance of the blueprint in her statement to Parliament last week.
  
  Ardern promised to report back to the public regularly on how they were progressing, with the first update due this month.
  
  But a spokesman for Ardern has told the Herald that the first update had been delayed because at the time the work was begun on delivering the 12 priorities, it was realised there was a range of things that weren’t measured.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:35am
  - Tarquin North
    
    The problem they have is, they haven’t developed a measurement formula that will make the current accomplishment look palatable. As an aside, I’m expecting the financial explosion from hell to pop out of the Pike River mine very soon.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:57am
    - sooty
      
      Yep. That’s our JacinDUH, it don’t work, so change the rules, so it don’t work even more! By the time she finished, you could poke it with a stick and call it a lemon! Just like kiwi flop, kiwi mulch.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:53am
      - Tarquin North
        
        The only good news is the unicorn and fairy dust well is starting to run dry, and there is no plan B.
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:19am
    - Sacha
      
      @ Tarquin North: Not yet – first we have the ‘missing objects’ diversion to get past. Vital clues as to the cause of the explosion may have been lost, so the Grieving Mother is asking us all to report anyone we know who might be a suspect for their removal . . .
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:54am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Listening to the radio this morning. The cabinet door was brought down from the site and people remember it in the “office”. What is the chance that at the time, it was not labelled as required evidence, & after the Royal Commision was wound down it was turfed out because it was not labelled?
        
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        February 18, 2019 1:16pm
holysheet

I was putting a settlement on the record, a worker’s compensation case against the Warehouse. My client was an elderly man, over 80. The Judge, noted neither for his social graces or his legal acumen, turned to the client and saw how old he was. He said, “Sir, how are you enjoying your retirement?”
The client responded: “Judge, I’m not retired! I still work for the Warehouse 40 hours a week.” Judge turned to him and said, “ How do you put up with all those idiots and their stupid questions all day?
My client looked intently at the Judge and replied, “You know, I thought I recognized you from somewhere when I walked in here, Your Honour!”
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February 18, 2019 8:07am
hullkiwi

Twitford is going to be in the proverbial again. As reported last night by NewsHub, Twitford is not going to waive Road User Charges for truckers taking donated hay from Canterbury to Tasman to provide feed for livestock in the devastated areas.

Twitfords argument being, the government has already provided a $100k in aid (a drop in the bucket) and doesn’t see why it should forgo circa $20k in RUC from those donating time and trucking services. The real reason is more PriNZess and co got photo opportunities announcing aid to the devastated communities, there are no photo opportunities to be had with singlet wearing truckers with their trucks loaded with hay. That is the problem with modern politics, unless their is a chance of their face being on the screen with a soundbite, the chance of true political leadership is nil.
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February 18, 2019 8:11am
- artemisia
  
  But there was chocolate, so all good.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:16am
  - sooty
    
    One bloody small box!!! That probably never got past the shiny bums in the front!
    CHEAP! Is what she is and a liar!
    Trailer park trash.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:26am
- waikatogirl
  
  – Govt won’t forgo $20k in RUC for NZ truckies doing hay charity run to provide feed for livestock in the devastated areas
  
  – Govt gives $100m to Maori for joint land use.
  
  Yep, that’s why we get pissed off. ?
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:25am
  - Lance
    
    That’s because the entire CoL hate farmers.
    They cortle at any hardships falling upon them and any associated industries.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:50am
  - Inandout
    
    These truckers don’t carry white powder do they…..nah, didn’t think so. They can just wear the costs then.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:52am
- Woz
  
  I saw that too and thought “what a miserable arsehole.” Considering that farmers have donated the feed, trucking firms the trucks, and drivers their time, Twatford might have seen his way clear… but no. And what an arrogant piece of excrement he came across as. Strikes me he’s thick, else he’d understand that a minister with his credibility shot completely to hell can’t afford arrogance.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:49am
  - sooty
    
    Yep, that’s the Labour party!
    Dollar short anda week late!
    We’re looking at you Whinney. It’s all your fault!
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:56am
- Chris R
  
  Trucking in NZ is a private enterprise industry. Therefore the truckies must all be “rich pricks” hence they can damn well pay up and shut up. At least the road user charges are tax deductible…hell have I spoken too soon? Twyford is your classic mean spirited leftie and a hate-filled clown and he’ll never change!
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:54am
  - freethinker
    
    And so Farmers, Truckies and Transport owners can repay this shower of arseholes by voting against them and advertising the fact on their moving displays so as many other voters understand just what an unkind heartless incompetent bunch pretends to be a Government.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:32am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  There is one sentence there that is so important that it deserves repeating.
  Unless there is a chance of their face being on screen with a soundbite, the chance of true political leadership is nil.”
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:09am
- backster
  
  $7 million for some baths in Methven $19 extra million from Shame to kill possums and rats. $100,000 to Nelson to help repair $20 million damage from the fire, Nothing for the volunteer truckies to help met their expenses…..Seems to be a skewed kind caring government to me.
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:21am
  - tf78
    
    I reckon that fiscal hole is getting deeper and deeper by the week. Granty must be beside himself trying to balance the books of his inherent wife and her cohorts.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:45am
  - Viking2
    
    I think that it’s a fair cal,l for the reason that lots of others either privately or in business volunteer their time and machinery to help out in times of disasters. Almost none will get recompensed.
    Charity or volunteering is just that. The reward is in the deed.
    
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    February 18, 2019 12:11pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      The issue is the govt are profiting (by charging tax) out of people donating their services (transport) to aid the farmers.
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:48pm
      - Woz
        
        ^^
        Damn straight.
        
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        February 18, 2019 5:52pm
      - Viking2
        
        No that’s not the issue that is the result of people complaining about the rules. All manner of businesses donate their staff time, their expertise and their equipment to stricken farmers, businesses, councils and so on. Its voluntary on their part and they do the work without the expectation of being paid either for time or expenses.
        
        If we make an exemption for this then that will open the floodgates to claims. Imagine what some of the tribes and hapu’s and Marae’s etc would open their mouths for. That’s already bad enough.
        
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        February 18, 2019 8:25pm
- Sacha
  
  The Australian Government is just as charitable. The Burrumbuttock Hay Runners took 190-odd trucks/road trains to the drought stricken areas around Quilpie (Queensland), arriving on Australia Day. This week, they made another run to deliver hay to flooded areas.
  Drivers gave their time and money, and the hay was either donated, or bought with donations given by businesses and private people.
  Not a $ from the government.
  So, our government is following precedent: it doesn’t stretch its kindness towards the agricultural sector either.
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:05am
  - Komata
    
    Sacha@1105
    
    Unsurprising as the CoL see the farmers (by reason of their support for National, originally a ‘farmer’s’ party) as their ‘capitalist class enemy’ and will do as much as they can get away with to destroy them.
    
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    February 18, 2019 4:23pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Appalling, but good on NZer’s rallying to help. Shame on the government.
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:33am
lilman

So Two Scoops Cindy is informed of every Suicide that happens in the country.
We actually have a silly,stupid little girl thinking families give a rats arse what she thinks of their situation.
Funny how as people battle depression and suicidal thoughts Cindy,in her great wisdom, thinks making Dope a election issue,with all the medical evidence that the damage illicit drugs do to families is a NUCLEAR moment for this country.
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February 18, 2019 8:12am
- hullkiwi
  
  Yes, a read the article about the family receiving a handwritten note from the SLG/Bint. The family of the deceased lady were bemused and puzzled to have received a note from the PM.
  
  When did a family’s private grief become something the PM should intrude upon?
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:21am
  - sooty
    
    Because she wanted the headlines!
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:27am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Sooty, yes, and there are words for that type of behavior and none of them are polite.
      
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      February 18, 2019 8:37am
    - Woz
      
      Exactly. Because if it really was a private matter concerning Cindy, it would never have come to public attention.
      
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      February 18, 2019 8:50am
      - Tarquin North
        
        Her headlines are coming very soon – I just don’t think they’ll be the ones she wants.
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:19am
      - sooty
        
        Cindy likes lawnmowering!
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:58am
  - Keeping Stock
    
    She’s merely following her predecessor and mentor’s example…
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10443256
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:33am
  - Ruawai
    
    Why is PM called SLG?
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:40am
    - 3-coil
      
      Trevor Mallard (Labour Party appointed Speaker of the House) came up with that one, he thought she was a “silly little girl” – since abbreviated to SLG.
      
      Even Trev speaks sense occasionally!
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:50am
      - stigie
        
        But been upgraded to “silly little ardern girl”…SLAG
        
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        February 18, 2019 1:46pm
- Inandout
  
  lilman, I can picture Cindy being phoned at 3am with the message, ‘another one madam’. Yeah right…
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:54am
  - lilman
    
    But you know its real,because she cares.
    
    How in the hell did we end up with,
    
    Cindy-PM
    K Davis
    S Wood
    T Coffee
    A Little
    S Nash
    N Mahuta
    C Sepuloni
    I lees-Galloway
    C Curran
    M Whaitiri
    
    And thats who pisses me off from Labour without going to NZF or the Greens.
    
    Look at that list would you let them run a school raffle?
    That shit is in charge of this Country.
    
    FFS.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:31am
    - hullkiwi
      
      You left out
      G. Robertson; and
      P. Twyford.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:45am
      - lilman
        
        Typing their names was giving me cramp,I couldnt carry on ,appreciate the help.
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:59am
      - hullkiwi
        
        And one more…D. Parker
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:10am
      - freethinker
        
        And Health Minister Clark who refuses to settle the Anesthetists assistants pay claim in Rotorua for a total of $25,000 and instead has the DHB refer surgery to a private hospital at greater cost – obviously taking lessons from Twatford.
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:37am
      - Crisplion
        
        …and how could we forget Hipkins, the wannabe Stalin of NZ education.
        
        It truly is a depressing roll call.
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:39pm
    - lifesgood
      
      I spent some time with Aussie friends recently and they asked me what I thought of our PM. I said I thought she was absolutely dreadful, an abomination and they replied that that was what they had heard in Oz. Seems stardust isn’t blinding them across the ditch.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:54am
      - sooty
        
        It’s all Whinneys fault!
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:59am
secondcumming

Spent a bit of time last week thumbing through the findings of the *Royal Commission into Banking Misconduct* in Oz. One of the things that really stood out to me, was that the BIG4 had managed to gouge something like $240 million in overdraft fees alone during the last financial year.

Sounds to me that’s just another way of saying these banks took $240,000,000 from people who had no money?

Just saying.
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February 18, 2019 8:15am
- artemisia
  
  Overdraft fees? Then there’s the old saw about cutting your coat according to your cloth.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:19am
- peterwn
  
  The validity of the fees depend on circumstances. If you arrange an overdraft, you should consider the cost against the cost of other forms of borrowing. The cost of an overdraft would be less if it is secured by a mortgage etc. Costs may be higher because the borrower has control the amounts borrowed and paid back, while the bank has to budget for overdraft limits which customers may or may not used.
  Similarly un-arranged overdrafts but these are more burdensome on the bank. The bank does not need to allow these to occur but would do so for customers in otherwise good standing, this being preferable to blocking direct debits, dishonouring cheques, etc. Mishaps do happen resulting in unarranged overdrafts, but deliberately going into overdraft without arranging it is an act of discourtesy towards the bank and you would be expected to pay, like paying for a parking ticket.
  Bank shareholders have their financial heads on the block the whole time. In return they expect a reasonable return to compensate for the investment risk. Conversely you should not own shares in a bank if you cannot afford to lose the lot.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:46am
  - Disillusioned_Voter
    
    I’d rather have my card declined TBH.
    
    Now that you can bank on your smart phone, it is a small inconvenience to step aside and transfer money from one account to another.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:49am
  - freethinker
    
    Not sure re Bank shareholders as can’t recall any major Bank in trouble giving the shareholders a haircut but the taxpayer has certainly paid up.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:40am
    - peterwn
      
      BNZ shareholders took a significant haircut when it was bailed out in the early 1990’s (it was insufficiently serious as to render the shares worthless). British bank shareholders too took big haircuts when their banks were in trouble. Also Lloyds Insurance ‘Names’ (similar type of investment to banks but with AFAIK unlimited liability) got ‘Yul Brynner’ haircuts and worse when Lloyds Insurance got into trouble. In the last financial meltdown, the big four Australian banks came through pretty well unscathed because of good management of lending and NZ in general benefited from this.
      In essence if a bank runs into trouble it is the shareholders who cop the fallout first.
      
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      February 18, 2019 2:23pm
  - tf78
    
    Funny how the bank can only afford to give depositors 3.33% on THEIR money, which the bank makes large profits on. I can see in the not too distant future people putting their money back into solicitors trust accounts for a better return.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:53am
    - peterwn
      
      It is all about risk. If the bank turns to custard, the depositors are paid out first while the shareholders would be paid out last (if anything is left). That is why the returns on shareholding are greater (6% dividend yield for ANZ) than the interest on term deposits.
      
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      February 18, 2019 2:29pm
      - tf78
        
        perterwn, I hope you’re right because it’s not far away now.
        
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        February 18, 2019 6:52pm
  - Viking2
    
    Perhaps you should listen to this then.
    
    Banks’ financial rewards have been greater than the risks they’ve taken, and the Reserve Bank’s proposals for banks to hold more capital would bring the reward down to something that better justifies their risk, Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr says.
    
    https://www.interest.co.nz/banking/98174/governor-adrian-orr-says-rbnzs-proposals-increase-banks-capital-come-perspective
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:29pm
- MCos
  
  I took out an overdraft about five years ago for about three weeks because it was overall a lot cheaper than the alternative.
  There was a monthly fee of X dollars that I should have paid once only. However because a new month ticked over half way through the three weeks they charged me twice.
  I had to explain their own fine print to one of the flunkies for half an hour and wait a month before I received a refund.
  That wasn’t the only thing I argued the toss over with them at that time, resulting in several hundred dollars of reimbursements.
  A lot of people wouldn’t notice these things or take the bank’s word or not have the time of day to sort it out.
  I’ve never come across an instance of a bank making a mistake in my favour. A few hundred bucks multipled by six a day up and down the country is a half a million a year.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:23am
  - peterwn
    
    A young guy had $8M deposited to his account instead of $8k. He scurried off to the Porche dealer but alas the bank picked up the mistake.
    
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    February 18, 2019 2:32pm
Chuck Bird

An excellent article by Leighton this mornng.

Leighton Smith: Climate change alarmists push their barrow over fires

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/opinion/news/article.cfm?c_id=466&objectid=12203688
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February 18, 2019 8:19am
- Scott
  
  The green new deal in America is getting big headlines. Apparently to battle climate change every building in America will need to be retrofitted to make them green compliant. They also want to cull the cows to stop methane emissions. Also basically get rid of fossil fuels within 10 years. Add to this abolishing private health insurance in favour of government health care.
  This will cost an ocean of money – $30-40 trillion has been estimated.
  
  Republican senate leader Mitch McConnell has said ok we will vote on it. This will force Democrats to support it, which will make them look silly, or vote against it, which will make them look to be against the environment.
  
  But this is where the green movement including NZ is at. Utopian schemes involving massive government intervention which will drive any country broke.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:23am
  - Tall Man
    
    Government by social media.
    
    Decisions are made based on the number of possible “likes”.
    
    Too many morons are rising to the top but what does that say about their supporters?
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:57am
  - tf78
    
    I saw an interviewer at a US University asking the students what they thought about the “New Green Deal” they all said how marvelous it was – he then went on to explain what it meant for them; there wasn’t one thing when they knew the details that they agreed with. Shows how bloody ignorant and lazy these young ones can be when they agree with something without knowing the details. That is where the problem lies. Bloody sheep.
    
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    February 18, 2019 12:35pm
RW Capitalist

re Pike river and this missing cabinet.
I put this on General Debate for yesterday (this morning, I think it deserves repeating.
The more relevant question (I have some experience dealing with “intrinsically safe ” equipment.)
What was a standard (Non intrinsically safe) cabinet doing anywhere near the mine?
In a Zone 1 Hazardous environment, where explosive gases are usually present and/or a Zone 11 Hazardous environment, where explosive dust is usually present appropriately certified equipment for use in that environment MUST be used.
Question:
Who designed, built and certified this mine as safe to operate?
Who signed off the plans?
When were they signed off?
How many safety inspectors saw the cabinet…and said NOTHING?
Who was the local health and safety officer and why didn’t he say anything?
All of these questions, should have been asked and answered BEFORE it’s opening in 2008.
On 12 March 2004, Minister of Conservation Chris Carter approved the access arrangement for Pike River Coal Ltd.
In October 2008, coal production started and in November 2008, Gerry Brownlee, the Minister of Energy and Resources and Minister for Economic Development, formally opened the mine.
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February 18, 2019 8:26am
- lilman
  
  Sorry but there is one person to ask all these questions of,Andrew Little,he was head of an organisation that took miners money who had an expectation that the union would act in their best interests and safety.
  
  So Andrew why did you allow members to die ?
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:42am
  - peterwn
    
    The unions had the same problem as many of their members. If the project collapsed, their members would be out of a job possibly with no redundancy etc. If the unions did properly follow up the various health and safety issues the project would have been shown to be unsustainable and would have collapsed. The company and managers would have blamed the unions for the collapse and this view would have gained public and political traction. So I suspect Andrew and other union leaders recognised this and had to form a view whether the project would succeed despite H&S concerns as they would not want to be responsible for the project’s failure unless absolutely necessary.
    An interesting comparison can be made with the Ansett collapse in Australia. The unions wanted to teach Air NZ (who had recently purchased the remaining part of Ansett) a lesson so applied pressure through government agencies. They did not want Ansett to collapse, but it did because the union leaders were too thick to properly think through the issues and consequences (although Ansett was most probably on a hiding to nowhere anyway – Air NZ had not done even the limited due diligence it was able to do).
    With respect to Pike River, Andrew did have considerably more brains than his Australian counterparts, but unfortunately he and other union leaders made the wrong call. Given the circumstances it is difficult to condemn Andrew and other union leaders for their lack of action at the time. It was a lose-lose situation for them.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:48am
    - lilman
      
      No,its easy to condem Little, his union,he was in charge,he took their money, they had an expectation the union would safe guard their conditions of work.
      The union was empolyed by the workers to do just that.
      
      Little is criminally and morally negligent.
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:19am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      I thought that the left liked whistle blowers? Andrew could have been a hero.
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:41am
      - peterwn
        
        He would not have been a hero either way. If he ‘collapsed’ Pike River he would have been accused of sabotaging an otherwise good project. If Pike River succeeded no one would ever know there was a potential disaster that he should have averted.
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:37pm
  - Tall Man
    
    And the “left” had the cheek to call Sir John Key “teflon John”.
    
    Scumbags the lot of them.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:02am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Another question. Who was the union official who deemed the mine to be safe?
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:48am
  - peterwn
    
    More like no union official wanted to deem the mine to be unsafe thus throwing members out of work.
    
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    February 18, 2019 2:38pm
- Tall Man
  
  I wish you wouldn’t.
  
  Thhe whole saga is an offensive vote grab by the lowest of the low and it pisses me off mightily.
  
  The drivers of this have no compassion and their stupid supporters throughout the country haven’t actually got a clue about what they are actually contemplating.
  
  There are “graves” all over the world that are treated with respect. This is just a campaign to get votes by a bunch of scumbag “graverobbers”.
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:01am
DigNap15

The COL were going to release their progress results against 12 metrics.
But they have had to delay it, because everything is F.. up.
Their results
The Stats department
What a Cluster F..K
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February 18, 2019 8:29am
DigNap15

I am used to seeing empty buses drive around all day here in Tauranga
But last week I went to Auckland and Takapuna and saw lots of empty buses there too.
Sometimes four or five of them together.

The sad thing is that they are taking up space on our roads.
And that we are subsidising them.
And that some people in the COl actually think buses are the way of the future, and that everyone wil travel on them.
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February 18, 2019 8:32am
- Lance
  
  So are you actually implying Auckland buses are empty all the time?
  Because from 6:00 to 10:00am, 11:30 – 12:00 and 3:00pm to 7:00pm they are fucking packed, the double deckers are fucking packed, the trains are packed with thousands of people, 6 carriage units arriving every 10 minutes along the Western Line alone, all packed.
  Or are your eyes just painted on?
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:59am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    I was surprised at just how many people those Auckland trains are moving. I got a train at New market for Papakura at 4 p.m. one day. It was Homai before I could get a seat.
    When visiting the city I drive to Papakura and get “the rattler” so that I can avoid New Zealand’s longest carpark, i.e. the southern motorway.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:19am
    - DigNap15
      
      Gee I hope Genter does not read this blog!
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:23am
    - peterwn
      
      It will need to be Pukekohe soon (especially when the extend the wire to there).
      
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      February 18, 2019 2:41pm
  - DigNap15
    
    I must admit that I was there on Saturday and Sunday.
    So why do they run the buses if they are empty?
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:22am
    - Lance
      
      I agree the buses are relatively quite on the weekend, not so the trains.
      Now as to why there are some services, at certain times, that are under utilized is a fair question to ask.
      
      It’s just that I have come across people that say nobody uses public transport in Auckland so it should be scrapped, this is of course utter drivel.
      
      BTW I am all for the CRL, it is needed, but the Tram is idiotic. My personal favourite is a Oban type bus service to the Airport, far more versatile and practical without utterly ruining Dominion Rd etc.
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:10am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Lance, sorry to say this but there was never a comprehensive business case for CRL, because there never was and never has been a need or a justification for it. There has been a lot of unsubstantiated reasons put forward, but none ever demonstrated a transport need for it.
        
        CRL is a vanity project to give Auckland a length of underground railway like other leading centres around the world only. Which is not a justification for it.
        
        Justifications I’ve seen:
        1. Congestion at Britomart
        No, they are not making Britomart bigger or widening the Eastern approach tunnel. The capacity problems are the tunnel (it is not being altered) and the fact all trims go to and terminate at Britomart (why?). Further, no additional platforms are planned for Britomart;
        
        2. It’s the solution to providing a West/South/East link.
        No, that link already existed and to enhance it would not have cost the amounts of money CRL is draining into its black hole. The connections at the Strand are still in place between Newmarket and the Eastern line and Southern Line services go through Newmarket and could have been sent west;
        
        3. It’ll save traffic congestion on Symonds Street
        No, generally buses on Symonds Street and other traffic do not come from the same direction as the trains;
        
        4. It’ll solve traffic congestion problems in the Eden Terrace area.
        
        No, refer 3. above.
        
        5. It’ll open up New Lynn yo the city.
        This is on the basis, that it’ll be quicker to travel from New Lynn to the city. This is true, but it’ll also be the case for Avondale. However, in the middle of the day, it is faster on the motorway by private vehicle;
        
        6. 75% of Aucklanders will be within 10 minutes of a train service.
        This statistic has been shown to be spurious, i.e. patently false and incorrect.
        It is also a case of so, what? Because who says 75% of Auclanders want to be within 10 minutes of a train service let alone need a train service.
        
        Given the above, why do you believe it is valid to spend $5bn plus on a tunnel and train set to carry 6mill more pax per annum by train (remembering you will remove the equivalent bus capacity from the existing timetables. Recognizing bus is cheaper to run)?
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:57am
      - peterwn
        
        Pity there cannot be a bus/train interchange at Papatoetoe without having to go up and down a long ramp.
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:43pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    Lance, your observations are based on what you see personally. I can assure you right now there are operators fearing some of their services will get the chop in value for money studies because all they ate carrying is fresh air. The concern for operators is that over the past two years they have bought and are funding buses that are excess to requirements in any other part of the country.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:35am
    - insider
      
      It’s driven by the desire to get more people on board. So you have to offer the service and accept they will have low utilisation until people realise the service exists and runs regularly. Build it and they will come.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:58am
      - Tall Man
        
        Well, common sense has been around a while and none of the coalition seem keen to use it 😉
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:05am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Insider, that line is trotted out regularly, and reality is something very different. Usually, such services never see a pick up in pax, this is because the service (or level of services were never needed in the first place (e.g. the bus services provided by AT around Warkworth and Mahurangi district).
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:16am
      - insider
        
        Agreed Hull kiwi. Same in my suburb. Councillors reacting to a tiny minority of green tinted people has given us a Saturday bus that is empty every hour for ten hours.
        
        And they are redesigning the network around Wellington based on the loudest whiniest voices. So any efficiency that might have been gained in their original already watered down design is going to be lost. So millions and millions of dollars will have been spent on a project to deliver the same bus network as last year.
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:54am
      - Viking2
        
        that’s the current theory in Tauranga.
        The issue is to get the paymasters to think a lot more rationally about timetables and where people travel.
        They all think everyone works in a downtown office.
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:19pm
- hullkiwi
  
  DigNap15,
  
  The best was out of the mouth of the CEO of Auckland Transport (a man who is own $500k plus pa) at the last quarterly CEO tell the troops how we’re doing meeting.
  
  Ellison gave us this gem:
  “We’re about reducing traffic congestion in Auckland”.
  
  Which when reconciled with reality is bulls**t.
  
  1. The next week he took to the AT Board a proposal to make speed limits in the CBD 30km per hour – slower speeds means even more buses will be required on the roads to meet current timetables;
  2. Because of road construction work and CRL, on some days it can take buses 30 minutes to travel the length of Customs Street (as reported by operators);
  3. The vanity project that is the Ferry Basin that includes the reduction of Quay Street to one lane each way will cause even greater congestion;
  4. LRT if it ever happens in Auckland will cause congestion from the city to Hillsborough;
  5. The Devonport Ride Share scheme – a contract that costs a shed load of money to carry on average 40 passengers per day, but bus services carry the same number of lax also are still running;
  6. You only have to stand in the AT office and look at Fanshawe Street or go to the bus stop at Victoria Park between 2pm and 3.30pm to see that there are more AT contracted buses on the road than any other vehicle carrying very few passengers;
  7. I could give you a tiki tour around Auckland to show you that it is the positioning of bus stops on some roads that are causing the only congestion on those roads; and
  8. Auckland Transport has the statistics that confirms it is an expert of providing bus services that carry nothing but fresh air and as you said, we pay for it as the New Zealand taxpayer pays circa 50% of the cost of providing PT services after allowing for fares.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:21am
- Ruawai
  
  Buses are always empty in Pukekohe, and they block round a bouts and belch diesel. They would be better swapping the buses for Lime scooters.
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:46am
- Rachael Membery
  
  Yet there is a shortage of bus,drivers on busy routes, apparently.
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:44am
- tf78
  
  DigNap15 – we didn’t have such bad traffic congestion in Auckland before all the bus lanes.
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:40pm
- Lizziep
  
  Same in Hamilton
  
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  February 18, 2019 1:09pm
Yvette

Pike River –
In the TV-1 video of Tony Forster showing John Campbell photographs of the now missing fan control-box door, on a laptop computer, the header above the photo says 28 November 2010 12 57.55 13 of 9,445

If that date and time (assuming 24 clock) refers to when the photo was taken, it was just about an hour before the 4th and last significant Pike River Mine explosion – around 2 pm on 28 November 2010

If that is correct, the control-box cover was therefore likely ejected up the ventilation shaft by any of the three earlier explosions, but not the fourth.

Was power to all parts of the mine cut after the first explosion? So, could subsequent explosions be ignited electrically – the second explosion occurred 4 days 22 hours 53 minutes after the first – or by that time, from burning coal, or oxidation, or other source? If there was no power after the initial explosion. could the cabinet cover still be ejected in explosion two or three?

“All I can say is it’s a good thing we fought so hard for re-entry and re-investigation, because with each day it’s clear there’s more that New Zealand needs to know.” – Anna Osborne

However the roof-fall at 2.34 km up the drift, does not allow access to the mine workings where the rest of the actual control box may still be.

Any consideration of drilling a hole through to its supposed location, for a video remote, would involve an evaluation as to whether evidence obtained would confirm it as a prime ignition point, but leave the reason for gas accumulation would remain an unanswered liability, as it now is.

For example, after the dust, ashes or detritus in 3014 days, could an examination of the coal seam workings detect a goaf fall – an accepted cause that can free accumulated methane and also force it into the roadway passages – from a similar fall, a likely result of an explosion reaching that region after ignition elsewhere?

A question that remains, in terms of liability for legal action (and beyond reasonable doubt), is the cause of an explosion –
• an ignition point, or
• working conditions that allowed an insufficiently controlled mix of gases to be present to explode
• or both?
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February 18, 2019 8:34am
- Yvette
  
  Sorry – edit fault
  The Anna Osborne quote was intended to be in italics, but not everything after it.
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:42am
- KevOB
  
  The cause of the explosion was building a closed mine over a methane gas producing fault seam. Safety could never be assured. Profits won over sense.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:46am
  - Tall Man
    
    The “Green” influence played a major part in the stupidity of the design I believe.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:21am
    - Keeping Stock
      
      Indeed; it was originally intended that Pike River be an open-cast mine, but “environmentalists” but the kibbosh on that, and the mine had to go underground.
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:29am
  - Local Miller
    
    That’s my understanding of the history of this as well. The original design was for an open cast mine. The Greens didn’t want to disturb the native bush, etc. on the surface, so it was forced to be a closed mine to get Resource Consent.
    
    So no one can blame the “dirty capitalist and their greedy drive for profits”. What’s interesting is an open cast mine would probably have been cheaper in the long run, and a hell of a lot safer all round.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:35am
    - KevOB
      
      The whole venture was private from the outset. Granting resource consent for such a mine was a fatal flaw.
      It’s not unreasonable to be critical of $$ driving decisions when engineers world wide regard such mines as time bombs.
      Regulators should have been more circumspect.
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:04pm
    - Lizziep
      
      I thought it was some sort of snail they wanted to protect, and I think they all died anyway I could be wrong please let me know if I am. Thanks
      
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      February 18, 2019 1:12pm
    - Komata
      
      LM@1035
      
      Have you noticed the very conpicuous silence by the self-same greens over what resulted from their insistance?
      
      To date I have not heard one admission of ‘guilt by association’ or acceptance of any sort of responsibility from any of the ‘activists’ who were involved.
      
      ‘The bush is saved, gaia has ben preserved, who cares about the dead humans’ seems to be their attitude.
      
      Says a lot really…
      
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      February 18, 2019 4:40pm
- freethinker
  
  Thanks for that insightful post, will be interested to see any official response.
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:41pm
Right of way is Way of Right

I see that elements of the media are realising that the goals that the Labour government insisted that is should be judged on are unable to be actually measured!
The 12 priorities are as follows:

• Grow and share more fairly New Zealand’s prosperity.
• Deliver responsible governance with a broader measure of success.
• Support thriving and sustainable regions.
• Transition to a clean, green and carbon-neutral New Zealand.
• Ensure everyone is earning, learning, caring or volunteering.
• Support healthier, safer, and more connected communities.
• Ensure everyone has a warm, dry home.
• Make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child.
• Deliver transparent, transformative and compassionate government.
• Build closer partnerships with Māori.
• Value who we are as a country.
• Create an international reputation we can be proud of.

How the hell do you measure any of that? I’ve been taught for years that you should set your priorities as SMART goals. SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Trackable.

There is nothing SMART about how this government has chosen to govern.
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February 18, 2019 8:35am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The Govt is going to attach 3 indicators to each of the priorities… these are presumably the metrics (i.e. variables that can be quantified).
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12204603
  
  Extraordinary that Labour had 9 years in opposition and couldn’t have worked with a statistician, economist and a couple of policy wonks and come up with these metrics.
  
  It would take me less than an hour to come up with 36 measurables for this lot.
  
  Here’s an example to go on with:
  Make NZ the best place in the world to be a child:
  1. All pregnant mothers provided with free, full ante and post natal care
  2. All children fully vaccinated at time of entry to school
  3. Rate of Infant and Child murder reduced to zero
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:10am
  - DigNap15
    
    Sadly I would add a 4th one to that list if you or Labour is serious.
    Don’t let any feral have a baby.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:26am
    - Twinkletoes
      
      No child should be fatherless even if only in name and the less of those the better.
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:49pm
  - Yvette
    
    And, Maggi Wassilieff, if another measure was –
    4. No child suffer in a family defined as “in poverty”?
    – would it not be back to an ordinary Budget, measured in money terms as now?
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:46am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      They could try and cover that variable in their #1 priority….
      
      Grow NZ’s prosperity and share it more fairly
      (note my rearrangement of words)
      
      1. NZ’s GDP increases and GDP/capita is evened out
      (& magic dust = no poverty)
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:05am
- DigNap15
  
  So is Labour going to provide me with 3 heat pumps and pay to run them so that my house can be warm.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:28am
  - Lance
    
    I can say that from personal experience (very long story about real solutions actually being available), the govt is all Hui and no Do-ey
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:16am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Lance that is very good. The other day I was reading about the governments plans for Taranaki post the oil/gas exploration. First, the Jones’ Slush Fund shells out to MBIE initiative to help develop a blue print to 2050. Next the said group run a series of huis, inviting all and sundry to give their view of the world. Eventually, someone will try and distill the discussions into a “blueprint”. After that, it all got a bit hazy as to what will happen.
      
      But, they they do believe Taranaki has the requisite skills and experience to see their way forward. Oh, to be so blessed, perhaps Taranaki should share the secret of their capability with other regional councils.
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:21pm
    - sooty
      
      200 hui and no doey yet!
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:23pm
- noskire
  
  They have achieved one of the 12 priorities: Make New Zealand the best place in the world to be a child – Cindy is the prime example.
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:11am
  - sooty
    
    Not so good if you are an adult!
    
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    February 18, 2019 12:23pm
- tf78
  
  There is nothing SMART about this government.
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:48pm
Maggie Pie

My partner was saying it’s always nice to wake up to some good news for a change.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DznLpHMX4AEsEsx.jpg
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February 18, 2019 8:35am
waikatogirl

Word of the day: conflating

Cindy used “conflating” to question concerns over China, and Zoe Swarbrick used “conflating” to argue her point over decriminalising cannabis.
?
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February 18, 2019 8:59am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  conflate
  
  Dictionary result for conflate
  /kənˈfleɪt/Submit
  verb
  gerund or present participle: conflating
  combine (two or more sets of information, texts, ideas, etc.) into one.
  “the urban crisis conflates a number of different economic, political, and social issues”
  
  Or, if I may quote Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:02am
  - marcw
    
    That doesn’t explain whether conflating is a good or bad thing. I thought it was combining two or more ideas etc in a way that was inappropriate, and intended to deceive or misinform.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:19am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      It just means to combine/join together…
      neither good nor bad.
      
      There’s no doubt that a number of folk are confused as to the meaning of conflate and often use conflate as a synonym for confuse.
      
      Perhaps they’ve confluxed the 2 meanings.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:37am
      - Tall Man
        
        Aren’t you a clever girl this early in the day……
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:08am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @tall man
        
        It’s an acquired skill
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo2cSioY6wI
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:35am
    - waikatogirl
      
      “That doesn’t explain whether conflating is a good or bad thing.”
      
      I believe that is the point. By suggesting any criticism directed at the CoL is conflating the issue it muddies the water and puts the criticism to one side.
      Before conflate the word of choice by Cindy was obfuscate:
      
      make obscure, unclear, or unintelligible: the spelling changes will deform some familiar words and obfuscate their etymological origins.
      • bewilder (someone): the new rule is more likely to obfuscate people than enlighten them.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:46am
      - alloytoo
        
        It’s absolutely clear that the use of the word “Conflate” is a open and transparent attempt to obfuscate.
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:31am
      - hullkiwi
        
        wg, as it is out of the mouth of the SLG, you just need to apply Tall Man’s rule. That is Ardern is a liar, therefore everything she says is bullshi*. Therefore, there is no obfuscation of the truth, as there is no truth or meaning to her conflating of her communication. I hope that is clear enough?
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:28pm
- kevn
  
  @WG… ‘Conflating’, another word for bullsh*t.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:11am
  - waikatogirl
    
    Exactly! ? ? ?
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:48am
- tf78
  
  Maybe they meant inflating.
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:49pm
lastmanstanding

Some random questions.
1. If the COL as expected introduce legislation to enact a CGT on investment property do the Chinese owners decide to cash up and take their capital elsewhere and does that quantum of selling especially in the Auckland market cause the market to crash. Remember the early Chinese buyers aren’t caught by the Bright Line test and have considerable profit in their properties. Even those caught by the Bright Line test can afford to take a 33% hit on their profits and not be any worse off.

2. QV say there are around 250K baches in NZ. Many are family owned in Trusts and used by an extended whanau. So if the COL enact a CGT on baches how many taxpayers will be impacted. Lets say 5 or 6 being the direct owners Mum and Dad plus 2 adult or near adult children plus the rellies who enjoy the bach during the year.

By gosh that’s up to 1.5 million taxpayers who will be impacted. Wonder if the TWG and COL have considered that.
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February 18, 2019 9:13am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Prices may drop even if no capital is pulled out. People will not pay as much for an asset if it produces lower returns. It’s quite likely there will be an immediate drop in all residential property values if Labour wins the next election.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:42am
  - Ruawai
    
    If you sell a property for say $1,300,000 and there is a capital gain of say $300,000 the CGT is around $100,000, you then only have $1,200,000 to buy a replacement property. So why would people sell and if they do sell the market will surely drop as people will have less money as they have had to pay CGT. Is my logic correct??
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:51am
    - tf78
      
      Ruawai, what if you spend $700k improving a property which therefore increases it’s value, is that $700k taken off the capital gain when the property is sold.
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:51pm
secondcumming

i before e …..

except when your foreign neighbor keith received eight counterfeit beige sleighs
from feisty caffeinated weightlifters

WEIRD!
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February 18, 2019 9:20am
- Swifty
  
  That rule has been disproved by science.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:48am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Eye halve a spelling checker
  It came with my pea sea
  It plainly marques for my revue
  Miss steaks eye kin knot sea.
  Eye strike a key and type a word
  And weight four it to say
  Weather eye am wrong oar write
  It shows me strait a weigh.
  As soon as a mist ache is maid
  It nose bee fore two long
  And eye can put the error rite
  It’s rare lea ever wrong.
  Eye have run this poem threw it
  Eye am shore your pleased two no
  It’s letter perfect awl the weigh
  My checker tolled me sew.
  
  -Margo Roark.
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:13am
  - Kiwi Dave
    
    One duh fool. Know, eye mean one duffle.
    
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    February 18, 2019 3:34pm
MCos

Should we suck up to one of the most oppressive regimes in the world for the sake of Fonterra and others?
Do we stand our ground with regards Huawei or find some excuse to cave in?
If we cave in on this issue will there be further problems?

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/02/17/448674/nationals-craven-deference-to-china?preview=1
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February 18, 2019 9:36am
- Tall Man
  
  I think you have been reading too many spy novels.
  
  Intelligence gathering is way more sophisticated and pervasive that you or many others think.
  
  The bulk of communications are private and therefore of little interest to anyone including the “master spies” at Huawei.
  
  If we think we are the “soft underbelly” of the “5 eyes” then we are also naive.
  
  I for one have no communications that I give a flying fuck about others reading and I am well aware that said communications are monitored by organisations throughout the world.
  
  Our status in 5 eyes is well diminished and i would think we are no longer privy to the “big” decisions and that situation will continue as long as we have an idiot at the helm of our country.
  
  The whole Huawei saga is just a diversion to take our focus on the fact that we are already isolated as a nation from our historic partners.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:44am
  - gump
    
    Oh fuck off.
    
    Your constant apologism for China is as laughable as it is pathetic and predictable.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:10am
    - Tall Man
      
      And your reaction and comments are just as predictably moronic.
      
      You aren’t a labour supporter are you moron because we all know labour just hates people with money and I thiink a few Chinese here have quite a lot of it
      
      Or are you just a racist? So, is it envy or pure hatred you feel for the Chinese?
      
      Did you know that
      
      ardern is a liar
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:24am
  - Justitia
    
    The Chinese have quite a record on intellectual property theft. They use their intelligence services to gain information of commercial value as well as for the more usual purposes of stealing foreign military and diplomatic secrets and subversion. GCSB has reported on a number of occasions on cybersecurity events directed at New Zealand companies, without naming the source. The US however has revealed it has traced a large number of such attacks on their companies to a specialist military unit operating from Shanghai. Spark have been asked to come up with solutions to the problems GCSB have identified with Huawei technology. Instead of answers all we seem to be getting from Huawei is a PR campaign while China makes threatening gestures. I cannot comprehend how the National Party is appearing to take China’s side. Unbelievable.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:56am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Appearing? Are the opposition privy to the level of information available to the Government?
      
      2 0
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      February 18, 2019 12:04pm
  - Salacious Crumb
    
    A lot of assumptions there Tall Man.
    The GCSB (as is the DSD and GCHQ) are not politically motivated entities. They gather information, assess risk and make recommendations to their governments of the day. It is up to those governments to do with what they will with those recommendations.
    As far as NZ being a small player in 5 Eyes that may be so in a capacity context but certainly not in contribution or committment.
    I do agree that this government has handled the whole Huawei issue terribly. The British have deemed some, but not all of Huawei’s tech to be safe in the security context. We on the other hand have gone full throttle on it and in the most ham fisted way where skillful diplomacy could have avoided the current and impending diplomatic issues.
    Whether we should be bending over backwards to a regime like China’s is an important question and unfortunately the National Party have some serious questions to answer to also in this regard. But then pragmatism often trumps ethical stands in foreign policy.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:07am
    - Tall Man
      
      The only comments that I would dispute is that our agencies are not politically motivated.
      
      The current regine we have has made their intentions clear to their departments and I can assure you that the world for those department heads would soon crumble if they were perceived to be “offside” with ardern the liar and wynston the thief.
      
      Secondly, we are a small player and sidelined on many issues and have been since that days of helen the Yank hater. I have personal knowledge of this and while the efforts of Sir John Key had made some inroads, certainly on a personal level, the current coalition has few real friends at the highest diplomatic and intelligence levels.
      
      Sure, our guys (non gender specific and I know they have tea ladies) do put in a great effort and the work they do at our installations and head offices is well regarded but apart from our geographic location we hold little real interest to the powers that be.
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:13am
    - MH
      
      soon to become 4 eyes and one no’s
      
      3 0
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      February 18, 2019 11:27am
  - tf78
    
    The other day I was doing a voice recording of a video blog discussion on my iphone – when I tried to turn it off the phone showed a voice pattern and then said to me – “I can see it was not your words said on that recording” (or some such thing) – I just about dropped my phone. I kid you not – and my son says I should take my tinfoil hat off. WTF does that mean regarding Apple technology?
    
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    February 18, 2019 1:00pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Given that we can’t and won’t do anything to actually make their regime less oppressive, we may as well try to maximise the value of the trading relationship.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:48am
  - MCos
    
    That’s pretty much what Imran Khan said the other day when asked why he didn’t condemn China’s treatment of the Uighar.
    Why upset China by questioning their outrageous behaviour when trade and investment is at stake?
    
    8 3
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    February 18, 2019 10:31am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      Why engage in pointless virtue signalling when jobs, livelihoods and affordable goods are at stake?
      
      7 0
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      February 18, 2019 10:53am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Given how Pakistan treats Christians I would cynically observe that Khan possibly admires China’s ‘solution’ to the Uyghur ‘problem’
      
      9 1
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      February 18, 2019 11:00am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    How to fix china:
    Offer all 200million chinese women under 30 citizenship in the west. Would greatly boost the west with addition of smart and hard working chinese women, and would add a lot of pressure to China to fix their shitty governance.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:40am
    - MCos
      
      You’d probably be surprised at how few people would take up the offer.
      Why go somewhere where you don’t speak the language, the food is terrible, no family . . . . . .
      We all think NZ is a marvelous country. I, for one, don’t want to live elsewhere.
      Most people around the world, I would suspect think the same about their homeland, from my experience.
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:54am
      - Tall Man
        
        And yet we have them in waiting at refugee centers around the globe….
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:01am
      - MCos
        
        Interesting you should say that.
        I’ve met a few refugees over the years, most recently a Syrian bloke delivering windows to a building site. He told me he’d had a business back home and everything was tickity boo until the war destroyed everything and he’d had to get out of the country.
        He spent some time in a refugee camp and now he’s here. He was grateful to NZ etc etc, but he loved Syria . . . . . . but there’s nothing for him to go back to.
        Sure there’s economic refugees, who think that somewhere else is going to be better, but I tend to think most of the 65 mil displaced people have moved because their former situation was untenable.
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:53am
    - kowtow
      
      Why solve a Chinese problem (overpopulation) by making it a western problem ?
      
      1 0
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      February 18, 2019 11:36am
    - Shaun the Sheep
      
      UN – is there a reason you’d target chinese women for citizenship?
      There are one or two smart, hard-working chinese men that would be an asset to the west as well.
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:43am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        single women integrate far better than single men who as immigrants tend to only hang out with peers of their own culture. Certainly there are a lot of great chinese men – but idea is to put pressure on Chinese govt to improve by letting their young women vote with their feet for a better life. And for most it would be better – 10’s of millions currently have to live away from families (and even kids) in far off cities doing shit jobs to earn a living.
        
        And it would add a lot of pressure to chinese govt- there are about 10-15% less young women than men in china (selective abortion), and only about 60% as many 10yr olds as 50 yr olds. They are facing immense demographic and economic pressures from that as working age population is already falling.
        
        If the west took even 20million of their young women then it would life very difficult for Chinese govt – and would boost western fertility and long term smarts (both needed by failing west).
        
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        February 18, 2019 1:19pm
Captain Mainwaring

Just turned the radio off. Helen the harridan has just arrived on the air.
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February 18, 2019 9:40am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Why her opinion on anything is relevant any more I cannot possibly imagine.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:49am
  - Tall Man
    
    Perhaps she’s there to “conflate” opposition to ardern the liar’s new taxes…….
    
    19 2
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    February 18, 2019 10:10am
  - sooty
    
    Back from the one world government is she?
    No help from the taxpayer to attend was it?
    All came out off her pocket, did it?
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:14am
    - Tall Man
      
      Apologies Tui…
      
      Yeah Right.
      
      15 0
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      February 18, 2019 10:27am
    - tf78
      
      Forgive me for thinking that lot were voted out in 2008 – most of them seem to have wormed their way back in, in one way or another.
      
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      February 18, 2019 1:04pm
EAD_THREE

The red-pilling caused by Jewish Actor’s Jussie Smollet hoax of being allegedly being beaten up to 2 white men has been a boon for those of us who pointing out Jewish malfeasance with their history of creating hoaxes in order to smear white people.

This is the fifth such hoax by Jews in America alone (that have been caught and named at least ) in just the last 2 years that I can recall. The arrest in these cases is often downplayed but the initial headline after the hoax is what is amplified and what sticks: “White people are racist and Jews are always the victims”. This is especially so on a public who have suffered through years of mental conditioning.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/new-york-man-admits-painting-swastikas-on-his-own-home/

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/jun/28/michael-kadar-jcc-hoax-bomber-convicted-in-israel-/

https://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-suspects-arrested-over-swastika-graffiti-on-synagogues/

https://edition.cnn.com/2018/11/03/us/new-york-temple-antisemitic-messages/index.html

https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-condemns-alleged-homophobic-racist-assault-on-actor-jussie-smollett-calls

But it does make you wonder – if a race can keep on attacking white people with hoax after hoax after hoax after hoax after hoax with no shame, what makes you think that the item of history that many people think is the biggest hoax in history, might have some holes in the approved history?

https://www.newsweek.com/one-third-americans-dont-believe-6-million-jews-were-murdered-during-holocaust-883513

NB: please be careful if you’re replying to this and you’re in one of the 22 European countries where questioning the Holocaust in any manner is illegal as you may get arrested – the only historical subject where this heinous law in the “lands of free speech” is in place.
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February 18, 2019 10:10am
- EAD_THREE
  
  Sorry Lance – just because the Western MSM haven’t noted the fact Smollet is Jewish, it hasn’t stopped every single Jewish Media org (at least those intended for a semetic audience) claiming Smollet as one of their own.
  
  https://www.timesofisrael.com/suspects-in-assault-on-gay-black-jewish-actor-released-without-charge/
  
  https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/black-jewish-actor-jussie-smollett-violently-assaulted-in-chicago
  
  https://forward.com/schmooze/418372/black-gay-jewish-actor-jessie-smollet-hospitalized-after-possible-hate/
  
  https://jewishjournal.com/online/293225/empire-actor-jussie-smollett-says-hes-ok-following-attack/
  
  Why don’t you like these anti-white folks and their satanic lies getting exposed?
  
  EDIT: I see Lance has now removed his post after my truth bombs.
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:25am
- stephieboy
  
  EAD THREE, are you a ” deep state” ( presumably Jewish) Qanon follower?
  
  3 23
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  February 18, 2019 10:26am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Oh look , Stephie is here.
    Did someone say ‘pervert’ three times?
    
    21 1
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    February 18, 2019 10:28am
    - stephieboy
      
      Oh look another Qanon dupe,
      
      https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/966141001621495808.html
      
      LOL
      
      3 23
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      February 18, 2019 10:32am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Meh, if you were any dumber, you would need watering.
        
        18 0
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        February 18, 2019 10:34am
      - sooty
        
        Well he does stand with his feet in goat shit.
        Chuck in a few seeds and water.
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:31pm
    - Rev Marc Pastoral care for St Albans project Ralph
      
      God does work in mysterious ways – please assist our pastoral care for stephie by reporting her comments whenever they become incoherent (ie most of them). She just revels in the attention she gets here.
      
      14 2
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      February 18, 2019 10:45am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Rev whoever
        May I ask you a question?
        It’s cute that you have gone to the trouble of getting, or changing, a Kiwiblog login just for harassing the hapless stephieboy.
        Do you have any comment on what he was responding to; EAdolf’s latest Nazi rant?
        
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        February 18, 2019 11:37am
      - JamesC
        
        Mikenmild,
        
        What’s the difference between “rant” and “fact”?
        
        Is there anything EAD has said above that is false?
        
        I find his focus on Jews distasteful but, relative to the constant attack on Whites worldwide from all levels, it is pretty mild and low level stuff. If anything, it is thought provoking and has made me go away and do my own independent research.
        
        The reality is thay the real “rants” we see are from the likes of you and your fellow travellers.
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:16pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        James
        He’s a self-professed actual Nazi, or ‘modern National Socialist’, to use his own description. Just because you also think the ‘White race’ is under attack, just shows that you share some of his sick ideology, but lack EAdolf’s forthright admission of his beliefs.
        
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        February 18, 2019 1:02pm
MrTips

The level of discourse the Greens excel at. They are pathetic, malicious and mad in the head.
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February 18, 2019 10:18am
- Tall Man
  
  They obviously assume that others see “ardern the liar” as a masturbatory trigger because they do…and steffy…and gump and I can’t be bothered listing the rest.
  
  Newsflash lefties…she’s a huckery media whore and
  
  ardern is a liar
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:30am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  They seem to have a childish interest in using naughty c words.
  
  17 0
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  February 18, 2019 10:44am
  - Tall Man
    
    And why shouldn’t they, they “own” them and they are a very accurate description of them 😉
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:57am
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Well I ‘own’ mine!!!
      
      9 0
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      February 18, 2019 12:20pm
      - sooty
        
        Don’t you go and give it out willy, nilly!
        
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        February 18, 2019 12:34pm
      - stigie
        
        Im flexible !~
        
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        February 18, 2019 1:30pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Not if marama davidson has anything to do with it…she’s taking them back…where to I wonder?
        
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        February 18, 2019 2:14pm
- graham
  
  I tend not to take things like this at face value until I have the context, so that I can judge whether the comment is appropriate or not. So I had a look to see what Hamish Price had tweeted to get Toad so riled up:
  
  The PM and Clarke each wore three different costumes at the Napier Art Deco festival. What a wonderful dress-up time for them. Sadly the PM could find no outfit to wear to condemn the terrorist attack in India. #nzpol
  
  Hardly shocking or especially provocative stuff …
  
  Good old Green Party, doing nasty since forever.
  
  And just because I always enjoy this … who could forget Julie Anne Genter having a MASSIVE tizzy fit.
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:40am
slightlyrighty

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/early-edition/audio/jacinda-arderns-scorecard-no-way-to-measure-governments-progress/

So it appears that while we have a government that knows what it wants to do, it has no idea how to do it, or measure the results.

Government by Feelz is not going to work.
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February 18, 2019 10:23am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  And how often can Jacinda rehash her speeches on the Government priorities?
  
  Her opening speech in parliament was just a rehash of her September one
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2018/09/jacinda-ardern-unveils-the-coalition-s-top-12-priorities-they-ve-agreed-on.html
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:48am
  - alloytoo
    
    I remember doing the same English oral for 4 years from primary school through to high school.
    
    Admittedly I had a different teacher every year and wasn’t getting paid $500k pa to do it.
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:53am
    - sooty
      
      Well she did chuck her speech writers, so she had to make do with the old one!
      Change a word here and there. Just like her wardrobe!
      
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      February 18, 2019 12:37pm
- Tall Man
  
  Working fine if taking the money is all you are trying to do.
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:52am
Manolo

An animal wants to return:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6714069/British-ISIS-bride-Shamima-Begum-gives-birth-baby-refugee-camp.html

Jihadi bride Shamima Begum has said she was ‘okay’ with ISIS beheadings and admitted it would be ‘really hard’ to rehabilitate her in Britain, hours after giving birth to a baby boy in a refugee camp.

The 19-year-old said people should ‘have sympathy for her’, saying she did not regret travelling to Syria to join ISIS in 2015 because ‘it changed me as a person, it’s made me stronger, tougher’.
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February 18, 2019 10:49am
- alloytoo
  
  Why doesn’t she stay stronger and tougher in Syria?
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:54am
- Jack5
  
  It’s shameful that Britain is “rehabilating” these terrorists at the same time it is persecuting its former soldiers on allegations by former enemies.
  
  It’s as if the West’s group brain had been rooted by marijuana addiction.
  
  https://newspunch.com/isis-fighters-uk-luxury/
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:02am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Before considering whether the UK should spend taxpayer money on rehabilitating terrorists, giving them money, houses, jobs, education etc, I would like to know if the same offers have been made to the families of these bombers’ victims in the UK.
    There must be many children left with no parent as a result of terrorism and many men and women shocked and bereft through no fault of there own.
    Do they get rehabilitation, a free house and money?
    Glad I don’t live in the UK. Values there have been turned upside down.
    
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    February 18, 2019 12:48pm
Im Right

Jessie Smollett ‘attack’ unravelling day by day…. He is now not being called a victim by Chicago police department, if this proves to be a staged attack watch the left in America go into meltdown and STILL defend Smollett and trying to shift the narrative not to WHY he did it, but because Trump presidency had to be highlighted as being racist etc etc. Get the popcorn out its going to be a great spectacle watching the black senators,3 who were more than happy to comment on this terrible racist ‘lynching’ that was intended to frame Trump supporters, defending Smollett in the same breath as condemning his fake attack!
Delicious.
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February 18, 2019 10:49am
- Manolo
  
  What does our own stephieboy think of this “attack”?
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:50am
  - Tall Man
    
    Waiting for it to happen as we speak…..
    
    10 0
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    February 18, 2019 10:53am
  - Shaun the Sheep
    
    Manolo:
    Who the hell cares?
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:50am
slightlyrighty

Can someone find out why our open and transparent government is not uploading speeches and parliamentary questions to the “in the house” YouTube channel. Last year, they were uploaded within minutes. Now it’s been 5 days since the last upload, and no question time uploads at all.

Is our government trying to hide its poor performance?
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February 18, 2019 10:53am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I usually go to Hansard for the video clips…..
  Here’s last Thursday’s oral Questions
  https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20190214_20190214_08/tab/video?page=3&mode=form
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:00am
- DigNap15
  
  Its Venezuelan style censorship coming our way!
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:23am
- Shaun the Sheep
  
  SlightlyR:
  Like MW, I usually go to https://www.parliament.nz to watch. Heard they’ve stopped using youtube and gone to another platform (but can’t remember what, sorry).
  I can fully understand why you might suspect underhanded activity from this shower of incompetents, but undeserved on this occasion.
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:53am
Jack5

Great rugby dust-up in France, with Toulon dumping the former All Black Julia Savea and the French calling for a DNA test, suggesting Savea might have been switched for his younger brother, Ardea.

The French seem to be calling them twins, in which case, if they were identical, they would have the same DNA.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/international/110660826/struggling-julian-savea-told-to-leave-toulon-by-angry-boss-report
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February 18, 2019 10:53am
- Jack5
  
  Whoops! It looks like it’s an urban myth – or a TV crime series myth – that identical twins have the same DNA.
  
  https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/health/11real.html
  
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  February 18, 2019 10:58am
  - Tall Man
    
    Yeah but why let the facts fuck up a good story?
    
    Works for the coalition on a daily basis.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:03am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    Bugger
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:05am
    - Jack5
      
      Are you a twin, Slightlyrighty?
      
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      February 18, 2019 2:07pm
- PhilP
  
  I bet he’s over weight like he was with the Hurricanes and the All Blacks, hence the “canning”.
  
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  February 18, 2019 1:03pm
Swifty

Stiffy says Jordan Peterson is evil:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khCVuM_ckEU
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February 18, 2019 11:02am
- Tall Man
  
  No offense but I think Homer has more brains than steffy.
  
  And Homer’s not real….is he?
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:05am
- stephieboy
  
  This poster nails it ,
  
  Toby Comins
  
  “He’s a fraud anyway, Owen Benjamin or Vox Day rip him apart. Sold out to CAA, just look at his absolutely hypocritical tweet regards Blasy-Ford.”
  
  The myth of Jordan Petersens’ integrity
  
  http://voxday.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-myth-of-jordan-petersons-integrity.html
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:31am
  - pentwig
    
    stoopidthing
    using the vox as an educational instrument is as good as putting strawberries and cream with your goat nuggets to make them edible
    sigh!
    
    16 2
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    February 18, 2019 11:42am
    - stephieboy
      
      Thus saith an Alex Jones and Joseph Watson true believer!
      
      Sad!
      
      1 19
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      February 18, 2019 12:46pm
  - Swifty
    
    Hey, aren’t you the guy who reckons our wood exports to China are nil?
    
    14 1
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    February 18, 2019 11:53am
    - Shaun the Sheep
      
      Don’t be hard on poor Stephieboy, he was just re-calibrating his brian architecture.
      
      11 0
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      February 18, 2019 1:59pm
  - Inandout
    
    stephie, the guy is spot on with his comments, a lefties nightmare admittedly.
    
    11 3
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    February 18, 2019 12:34pm
  - lifesgood
    
    Steffy, steffy, steffy, get help. Honestly why would anyone try and bring down someone who does only good for people. What is wrong with you? Call yourself a christian, eh…pffft!
    
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    February 18, 2019 1:45pm
- waikatogirl
  
  Dr.JP has loaded on his UTube video the interview of ‘Iris’ by Shaun Plunket and the interview of Dr.JP by Shaun Plunket for his worldwide audience. Link through Swifty’s post above.
  
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  February 18, 2019 4:17pm
rangitoto

Newshub report: “Former mines inspector Tony Forster, who is now advising the families of those killed in the tragedy, said after it was photographed it was flown to the Pike River Mine office.

Mr Forster told The AM Show he provided a photograph and a formal statement to police on Monday last week.”

So why did Forster not provide this info years ago? Seems odd.
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February 18, 2019 11:08am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Yep,
  
  There was quite a bit of cross-examination of the electrical set-up at Pike River Mine.
  https://www.noted.co.nz/archive/listener-nz-2012/pike-river-inquiry-phase-3-electrical-set-up-an-extreme-risk/
  
  Seems odd that this info about the missing lid is now surfacing.
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:12am
  - KevOB
    
    Any electricity, including static, is dangerous in the presence of a combustible gas mixture.
    Even a hidden minute spark caused by a metal protective footware could have been a trigger.
    
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    February 18, 2019 12:27pm
- Jack5
  
  If they get into the mine and find nothing, this will be the core of the ongoing conspiracy theory.
  
  Doesn’t a bit of debris blown out of a mine ventilation shaft just show there was an explosion? How could it show that it was electrical system that triggered the blast in the gassy mine?
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:14am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    It may help identify where the explosion first occurred…. within the cabinet … or elsewhere in the mine.
    
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    February 18, 2019 11:20am
    - Jack5
      
      Surely the problem was the gas, not what ignited it.
      
      There were two blasts. Which blew out the cabinet? If the explosion began in the cabinet, which explosion began there?
      
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      February 18, 2019 11:45am
      - sooty
        
        Was there not equipment on the surface on top the vent shaft?
        Did this equipment require to be intrinsacily safe?
        Could this equipment have been damaged by the explosions and not have been blown up out of the mine, how many feet below?
        Was there access to the vent shaft by helicopter, road or footpath?
        
        4 0
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        February 18, 2019 12:48pm
      - RF
        
        The remains of the electrical cabinet that was in the centre of the mine workings away from the drift has been blown up the ventilation escape hatch and finished up in the bush..
        
        Does not look hopeful for bringing out bodies or what’s left of them.
        
        If you think about it, if the cabinet had been the source of the explosion it would have been vaporised.
        
        36 mil down the drain.
        
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        February 18, 2019 4:49pm
DigNap15

Its great being able to listen to talkback in the morning other than Kerre Woodham.
Magic Talk
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February 18, 2019 11:24am
- rangitoto
  
  Yeah. Peter Williams is a bit boring though.
  
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  February 18, 2019 11:30am
  - Tall Man
    
    It’s a compromise bewteen using your ears and listening or cutting them off so you can’t.
    
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    February 18, 2019 1:50pm
MH

have given Winston and labour a fair go, now they need a fairwell.
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February 18, 2019 11:29am
- Tall Man
  
  Just a well will be fine for me. A really deep one.
  
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  February 18, 2019 2:01pm
MH

the similarities between Pike River Mine and Huawai ? Do you do what is right or expedient ? Do you stand by your allies or value your major trade partner. Do you have values or come back from Beijing waving a trade deal above your head for pieces of silver. How many of those miners said and close friends heard them say that the mine was inherently unsafe and yet continued to work knowing that disaster could happen. When did they convene a safety meeting if the Union wasn’t acting on their behalf? The mine is closed but trade deals will continue to replace fair weather friends. We have been dumped before.
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February 18, 2019 12:09pm
- Tall Man
  
  I am not privy to all the reasons at this point for the Huawei decision but it seems that everyone is up in arms because they “might” install a back door into the system and they “might” use that to feed the really secret spy stuff that rolls down the internet and phone lines here in NZ. Regardless of the financial implications and the fact that any supplier is in the same position and if we do have secrets then are others less likely to steal them?
  
  Pike River case is open and shut for me.
  
  The men are dead, many want the bodies out but many do not. Some want to prove a political point, which I understand will be unlikely and some want to bleed the “cash cow” for all it’s worth. On balance, the bodies will not be reached and there is a chance that others could be injured.
  
  Stop the farce now, use the government funds for safety through the mining industry or any other West Coast industry and use it to boost the economy and infrastructure of the West Coast so that some good can come from this disaster. It’s time to move on in my opinion and stop the politicking.
  
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  February 18, 2019 1:59pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Well we are so open about our security stuff, what secrets are there left?
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:37pm
Maggie Pie

My partner just texted from his tow truck –
‘listening to zb & soper licking helen clarles arse.
both think that isis sheila should be allowed back in to uk.
SPEW!!
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February 18, 2019 12:26pm
- Inandout
  
  Yes that bloody Williams guy is also rooting for the ISIS woman.
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:33pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    honestly, some guys make up any excuse they can.
    
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    February 18, 2019 12:41pm
- Longknives
  
  Does this mean if the UK reject her a virtue signalling Ardern (Always so desperate to impress the UN) may offer her ‘sanctuary’ here??
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:46pm
  - rangitoto
    
    The UK should take her back. I don’t see why the SDF, who put their lives on the line cleaning up the mess caused by these foreign fighters and their hangers on should be responsible. The UK should be more cautious about who they grant citizenship to. In any case she should be tried under UK law for joining a terrorist organisation.
    
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    February 18, 2019 12:53pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      take her kid away and give it to a nice family. She should rot in jail.
      
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      February 18, 2019 1:10pm
- DigNap15
  
  So does Robert Patman (a security expert FFS) and Peter Williams.
  She made and choice and should take the consequences.
  Funny ISIS don’t have a social welfare system!
  
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  February 18, 2019 1:29pm
stephieboy

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
For those eagerly anticipating Jordan Peterson in NZ,

Why Jordan Peterson Is A Charlatan In His Own Words.

An introductory video that explains why Jordan Peterson is just a modern-day televangelist

georgekostaras
2 months ago

Here in Canada we call him Kermit the Fraud

georgekostaras
2 months ago

Hitchens would have DESTROYED him

Steven Yourke
3 months ago (edited)

Thank God somebody said it. Peterson is a total fraud, a pseudo-intellectual know-it-all who panders to the prejudices of insecure men. It’s sad that so many actually think he’s an expert on moral and social issues. It’s ok for men to hit other men in an argument but not to hit other women? OMG! So men can’t control crazy women! And if a woman defends Muslims, they must be motivated by masochistic sexual needs! He’s pathetic! He’s got serious psychological problems. I’m not a big fan of Sam Harris but he does a good job exposing Peterson as a damned idiot. But what else would you expect from a right wing Christian who thinks that “faith in God is necessary to prove anything.”
Read more

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kktI8-lZw8
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February 18, 2019 12:42pm
- Swifty
  
  Hey Stiffy – would you claim to know more about JP than NZ log exports to China, less, or about the same?
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:45pm
  - stigie
    
    Don’t expect any pragmatic answers from Stiffy, its just not in his DNA !~
    
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    February 18, 2019 1:42pm
- mandk
  
  stephieboy, funny thing is that, when they hear about Jordan Peterson, lefties get all enraged and pointy teethed and snowflakes threaten to “thcream and thcream until they are thick”, but never do they put up a reasoned response to his arguments.
  
  Truth is they are incapable of doing so, which is why they want to ban him.
  
  I think you are probably in the Violet Elizabeth Bott category.
  
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  February 18, 2019 12:52pm
  - stephieboy
    
    The Truth will make you free!
    
    1 29
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    February 18, 2019 12:58pm
    - lilman
      
      Yes free to kick your ass to Mecca where you can assume the position.
      
      13 1
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      February 18, 2019 1:21pm
- lifesgood
  
  Steffy girl, you are hilarious. Jordan Peterson is a highly qualified clinical psychologist, he is a professor of psychology, he is highly esteemed within his profession and you have the temerity to call him a pseudo intellectual. All you achieve by that is showing what an utter moron you are. I doubt you even got school c, you half wit.
  
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  February 18, 2019 1:49pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Obligate Carnivore
    2 months ago
    
    Jordan is what you get when you have a highly educated person whose education was tunnelvisioned into spaces that cannot be falsified. Every time he takes a stance that can be proven wrong it has so he uses vague language to avoid taking a stance. The one time he actually held a moral standpoint was regarding the kavanah confirmation and he backed down because his supporters disagree. Weakness personified
    
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    February 18, 2019 2:33pm
    - mandk
      
      Stephie, your authorities are more than a little obscure.
      
      As far as I can tell, George Kostaras from Canada is an optometrist in Winnipeg, or something likely that.
      
      And an example of an obligate carnivore is an aloxotl.
      
      As for Hitchens, I don’t think either the dead brother or the live one would fundamentally disagree with Peterson. Even ff they did, they would at least be able to put together an argument instead of needing to denigrate him.
      
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      February 18, 2019 3:20pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    No one is going to see Peterson speak because of his expertise in social psychology or personality theory. They go to see him to hear an affirmation of their conservative ideas on religion, gender, feminism and ‘political correctness’.
    
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    February 18, 2019 4:40pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      What is wrong with being Conservative? I think I will go hear him speak, as I think all of those things have gone mad!!
      
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      February 18, 2019 4:58pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        There’s nothing wrong with being conservative, Rachael, or going to listen to the self-help guru of your choice.
        
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        February 18, 2019 6:50pm
    - mandk
      
      You’ve got it wrong mma.
      
      People are going to see Peterson because they find identity politics, political correctness, snowflakery and new-speak abhorrent and inimical to cherished values; in particular, the principle of free-speech.
      
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      February 18, 2019 5:13pm
    - Swifty
      
      Just what is it like going through life being an expert on everything Mike?
      
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      February 18, 2019 5:18pm
      - Rachael Membery
        
        He wouldn’t know.
        
        2 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:30pm
    - pentwig
      
      milkmaid
      if that is the case Peterson will have you completely confused.
      ask for a private meeting wearing your blue stilettos,
      he may be able to help you – hopefully
      no need to thank me
      
      5 1
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      February 18, 2019 7:49pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        For the last time, pen is twig, stop sneaking into my home and trying on my clothes.
        
        2 2
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        February 18, 2019 8:48pm
      - Tall Man
        
        My wife would feel the same, women’s clothes just don’t fit other blokes do they milky?
        
        1 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:49pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      What shit, how can you speak to other peoples motives, I like observing people and their reactions, especially when they are visceral.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:34pm
- Rich Prick
  
  A braindead leftie citing online emotional outbursts by other braindead lefties isn’t exactly the height of intellectual rigor.
  
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  February 18, 2019 3:10pm
  - Tall Man
    
    And yet they selected the current government..
    
    We’re fucked…
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:40pm
Manolo

Islam is wonderful, isn’t it?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/news/article.cfm

Children as young as six years old are being forced into child marriage in Australia, and more than 100 cases of forced child marriage are currently being investigated by the Australian Federal Police, new figures reveal.

The data, obtained under Freedom of Information laws by Seven News, shows that since January 2017, 171 cases of forced child marriage have been investigated by the AFP.
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February 18, 2019 1:15pm
- Swifty
  
  Scientific proof why women can’t use their brains like men:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzWnUprS46E
  
  After all, if an esteemed Saudi cleric says it then it must be true! 😉
  
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  February 18, 2019 2:21pm
  - Tall Man
    
    And ardern the liar wants more here…
    
    12 1
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    February 18, 2019 2:51pm
DigNap15

Betta ask Golriz if she thinks allowing muslims into our beautiful country is a good idea!
(If there are 100 in Australia, that they know of, there will be some here)
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February 18, 2019 1:27pm
- lifesgood
  
  Apparently the lefties in Oz have pushed through a bill to allow 300 Manus Islanders i.e. 1/3rd, to go to Oz for urgent medical treatment. Bolt was absolutely ropeable about this. He says that if they get to Oz they will never be able to get rid of them. He also said that there is one Doctor for every 7 illegals on Manus Island so why should they need to go to Oz. His great fear is this will open up a pathway for more boats heading to Australia. Lefties are half witted, virtue signaling morons.
  
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  February 18, 2019 2:08pm
  - MCos
    
    Andrew Boult isn’t ‘ropeable’. None of those TV commentators ever risk losing their composure, but they sure know how to wind up a crowd.
    According to what I can determine there are about 400-500 refugees on Manus Island. So that means, according to him, about 60 doctors.
    Seems an awful lot. It’s roughly the same number of doctors for 63,000 people in the Whanganui region.
    
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    February 18, 2019 4:12pm
    - lifesgood
      
      You’ve clearly never watched him. I suggest you do. He is a voice of good common sense.
      
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      February 18, 2019 7:59pm
- burt
  
  She probably wants them here so she can get work defending them for rapes and murders.
  
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  February 18, 2019 3:42pm
lifesgood

Does anyone know where things are at re: the petition to allow the Ukrainian family to stay in NZ?
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February 18, 2019 2:05pm
Komata

Captain

But, but, she was at the UNITED NATIONS so in NZ MSM terms she is ‘IMPORTANT’.

That’s the only reason ( although being a ‘Leftie’ also helps), the MSM even want to have anything to do with her…
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February 18, 2019 2:27pm
Inandout

Colmar-Iris-Brunton at 6pm tonight.
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February 18, 2019 4:56pm
- artemisia
  
  I see Iris is now immortalised on Dr Peterson’s website.
  
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  February 18, 2019 5:02pm
  - Swifty
    
    Iris has become the big bright star she has always wanted to be.
    
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    February 18, 2019 5:17pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Black hole….
      
      4 0
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      February 18, 2019 8:43pm
- sooty
  
  Has Whinney disappeared from the polls like the last one?
  He was that low that they would not report his rating.
  NZF was not much better!
  
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  February 18, 2019 5:05pm
- Swifty
  
  Heh.
  
  Very good, Inandout
  
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  February 18, 2019 5:38pm
starboard

Courtesy of those fine people from Hobsons Pledge
http://www.hobsonspledge.nz

Brash to explain how ‘partnership’ hijacked the Treaty.

“Maori and the Crown are not partners in any sense of the word yet an ideology of Treaty partnership has hijacked the Treaty of Waitangi, Don Brash will explain at a public lecture on Saturday.

What the Treaty actually said was this: Through Article 1, the chiefs ceded sovereignty to Queen Victoria. Article 2 confirmed that chiefs, tribes and the people of New Zealand owned what they owned although chiefs could sell what they wanted to an agent of the Queen if they so wished. Article 3 promised the Maori people of New Zealand protection and the rights of British subjects.

It is constitutionally impossible for the Crown to enter into a partnership with any of its subjects. The true position is that the Crown is sovereign but owes duties of justice and good faith to the Maori descendants of those who signed the Treaty, and indeed to all New Zealanders.

Don will speak at Sturges West Community House in Henderson at 7pm on Saturday, February 23. Space is limited to the first 200 people. Book via email to j.bachelor@barfoot.co.nz

Cook’s legacy recalled
When the Gisborne District Council caved into complaints from a local tribe and moved a statue of the British explorer, navigator, and cartographer James Cook from its position overlooking the ocean, Wellington researcher Peter Bacos was outraged so compiled a detailed account of Cook’s legacy.

“A stand needs to be made now against Maori attacks on Captain Cook in the year of the 250th anniversary,” Mr Bacos said.

“Accusations are a tissue of lies and it is appalling the Gisborne District Council has agreed to remove the statue. I fear this is only the beginning of the removal of memorials to colonial heroes with no justification whatsoever,” he said.

A detailed account of the incident near present-day Gisborne in which two were killed as the result of Maori aggression, as well as a summary of his achievements in the three Pacific voyages he led, may be read at https://www.hobsonspledge.nz/a_statue_lies_and_the_legacy_of_james_cook

The statue of Cook that was removed is one of two, while the other, allegedly a more accurate depiction of the explorer, remains standing.

6532 have signed against tribal appointees
A total of 6532 people have signed our Change.org petition to Environment Canterbury to block the Canterbury Regional Council (Ngai Tahu Representation) Bill, which would allow Ngai Tahu to appoint two representatives with voting rights onto the council in perpetuity.

Soon, our MPs will vote on the first reading of the Bill.

The two appointees will sit and vote alongside the 14 elected councillors. As such, members of Ngai Tahu would be represented by the councillors they voted for as well as the Ngai Tahu appointees.

Please click here to sign, or Google “change.org Ngai Tahu” and click on the link to “In a democracy, why should Ngai Tahu have more say than you?”
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February 18, 2019 5:00pm
- stephieboy
  
  Anything about pre-Maori Celtic NZ to also sign up to?
  
  1 16
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  February 18, 2019 5:49pm
  - Tall Man
    
    It’s late, you’re a moron
    
    ardern is a liar
    
    fuck off.
    
    6 2
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    February 18, 2019 8:44pm
sooty

It was bought up earlier but needs the publicity.

Phool Twitford, will not refund the RUC for the truckies bringing hay in for the Nelson farmers.
Canterbury farmers donate the hay.
Truckies cart 236 tons.
Phail Twitford charges RUC on charity work.
Labour a dollar short and a week late!
JacinDUH even short changed the firemen!
A small box of chocalates for the shinny bums!
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February 18, 2019 5:02pm
- tf78
  
  I wonder if the truckies could claim it as a donation.
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:58pm
Jack5

The new “internet” tax proposed by the Government is strange.

It’s not a GST. It seems to be an attempt to impose the equivalent of company tax on sales to NZ by overseas companies.

Look out NZ, if overseas countries slam a company tax on New Zealand-based exporters.

The goal may be to protect NZ retailers from overseas competition. NZ’s remoteness, it’s light population over a mountainous archipelago means local retailing is expensive.

But is the answer to penalise overseas internet retailers to compensate? This will push up retail prices in many lines of goods. Up will go margins. We’ll be back to the tier of importer-wholesale-retailer perhaps with sub-distributor popped into the chain.

Labour is the party of the academic elite, not the party of the working people.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12204898
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February 18, 2019 5:06pm
- Awww C-mon
  
  Facebook and google get their income from advertising, so once again small and medium sized business will carry the can.
  
  Just keep squeezing the middle NZ!
  
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  February 18, 2019 5:13pm
- Swifty
  
  Good points.
  
  I wonder how NZers will react if countries placed arbitrary taxes on NZ exporters?
  
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  February 18, 2019 5:15pm
- stephieboy
  
  And Kate Hawkesby chips in with,
  
  “Exactly what is it about Simon Bridges that voters don’t like?”
  
  “Another poll, another bad day at the office for Simon Bridges. I feel sorry for him now.
  Newshub’s poll last night came out with the worst result in over a decade for National: a nose dive, with Bridges at the helm. According to one political reporter, National would’ve been in crisis talks last night off the back of this.
  Labour surged six points ahead of National, but more crucially for Bridges, Judith Collins overtook him in the preferred PM stakes. Bridges plummeted down 3.9 to 5 per cent, while Collins ramped up 2.5 to 6.2 per cent….”
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12202916
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:00pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  2-3% though?
  
  1 0
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  February 18, 2019 9:23pm
Rachael Membery

I wonder if there has been a large increase in Comms. studies at Waikato, since Jacinda’s ascendancy.
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February 18, 2019 5:35pm
- Universal Smith
  
  I don’t think she got where she is through education, or even ability. It’s all about image and (faked) emotions.
  
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  February 18, 2019 5:40pm
  - tf78
    
    Universal Smith – google “Jacinda Exposed” and you will get a bit of insight into her background.
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:02pm
    - Tall Man
      
      I did…
      
      ardern is a liar
      
      ardern is a media whore.
      
      Sad for our country really, isn’t it?
      
      1 0
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      February 18, 2019 9:43pm
- Swifty
  
  Like when all those youngsters took up running after John Walker won the gold?
  
  Yeah nah.
  
  I guess she’s not that much of an inspiration after all.
  
  To be fair though, I have heard that fish and chippie job applications are up, just a shake.
  
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  February 18, 2019 5:53pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I turned down a job offer (unsolicited) at Castlecliff Fish & Chips when I turned 15.
    
    Hell, I might have been a PM if I hadn’t stayed on at school.
    
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    February 18, 2019 6:44pm
    - Swifty
      
      Quite likely.
      
      9 0
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      February 18, 2019 6:46pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Maggy:
      
      a job offer (unsolicited) at Castlecliff Fish & Chips
      
      Not in the same league as the Golden Kiwi in Morrisonville, I’m afraid, Maggy!
      
      The journalists had their chance at the Golden Kiwi fish-and-chip shop, where as a fresh faced 14-year-old, Ardern got her first after-school job. It was an emotional homecoming for shop owners Grant and Carol Covich, who taught Ardern the art of chip wrapping by getting her to practise on a cabbage.
      
      How many cabbages were destroyed before Jacinda was allowed to serve customers?
      
      8 1
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      February 18, 2019 6:53pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I thought the place was pretty styly
        https://www.ritadibert.com/new-zealand?lightbox=imageak5
        
        3 0
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        February 18, 2019 7:16pm
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        Thank you bringing up that Stuff bit about the Golden Kiwi Takeaways in Morrinsville.
        In her speech Jacinda says that Te Aroha is my mountain. It is the highest peak within view of her home town. Then she says that Waihou is my river.
        She has such a distaste for detail that she still does not know that the Piako River is on the outskirts of Morrinsville. The Waihou runs through Te Aroha.
        A bit like a Palmerston North MP saying that the Rangitikei is my river.
        
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        February 18, 2019 8:13pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Probably a bit high in the “honesty” stakes.
      
      You needed to be an unrepentant liar and media whore.
      
      Somehow I don’t think you quite cut the mustard.
      
      2 1
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      February 18, 2019 9:46pm
stephieboy

The witching hours approach where nasska, johnboy and Nostradamus pop out of their coak roach nests giving their utmost in typically bland, boring, humourless and dimwitted exchanges
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February 18, 2019 6:15pm
- Swifty
  
  Just what is it like reaching your age and realising you’re socially incompetent, dim, friendless and unattractive to women?
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:17pm
  - stephieboy
    
    I apologise for omitting you too!
    
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    February 18, 2019 6:21pm
  - Tall Man
    
    steffy’s greatest shame is that she is unattractive to all but a “piss beared billy goat”.
    
    ardern is a liar
    
    ardern is a sick media whore
    
    3 1
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    February 18, 2019 9:41pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      You will make people feel sorry for her with the relentless negativity and blatant sexism.
      
      1 0
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      February 18, 2019 11:45pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Stephieboy:
  
  The witching hours approach where nasska, johnboy and Nostradamus pop out of their coak roach [sic] nests
  
  Hey – there’s this interesting blog post by Nostalgia-NZ. Why did he describe you as a “fiddler” with “skeletons in the closet”? And what did he mean when he said you decided to “tidy up” your “sick life”?
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:26pm
  - Swifty
    
    Yeah, good question. Just what did he mean by that?
    
    Stiffy is constantly asking questions of others – just why is he unwilling to answer questions put to him?
    
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    February 18, 2019 6:27pm
    - lifesgood
      
      I have seen this unfortunate specimen who goes by the name of Stephieboy and now I know why he stays inside and spends the whole day being nasty. He certainly wouldn’t want to go out in public, that’s for sure. He would have to be the biggest “Christian” hypocrite on the face of the earth. He doesn’t have a Christian bone in his body. His parish should be ashamed of him.
      
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      February 18, 2019 6:38pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Describe me as a fiddler? Because I supported Robin Bain whom he described as” child fiddler ” as his name was besmirched by the Defence during the 2009 David Bain retrial trial!
    
    Did you support David Bain?
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:49pm
    - Tall Man
      
      WTF? Take your meds.
      
      ardern is a liar
      
      ardern is a media whore.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:38pm
- Awww C-mon
  
  Also the hours where you normally fuck off and fap in the corner till dawn.
  
  Way ya go
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:28pm
- Longknives
  
  Nasska, Johnboy and Nostradamus are three of my favourite contributors to Kiwiblog Stephieboy!
  Isn’t there a late night at St Luke’s Mall or something you could run along to?
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:38pm
Longknives

These Left Wing orchestrated ‘Polls’ to me only serve to confirm that National are on the right track.
Let’s not forget last Election they were consistently 5 to 10 points wrong! And as someone who was phoned about one of these ‘Polls’ recently I can tell you that they do not wish to speak to you if you tell them you vote National and earn a decent living!
There is a very good reason the Labour-controlled NZ Media have been ordered to try and get rid of Bridges…
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February 18, 2019 6:30pm
- brett68
  
  I disagree, that poll is probably a fair representation of how people will vote at this point in time.
  
  Now we have got that out of the way, the pressing issue is how do we lift Nationals vote?
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:43pm
  - Longknives
    
    Just like the Polls that had Labour ten points clear of National a few days before the last Election mate?
    The Media have an agenda….
    
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    February 18, 2019 6:53pm
    - brett68
      
      Ask yourself, for the average punter what has changed in their lives between when National was in power and now with Labour in power?
      And the answer is pretty much nothing.
      
      7 4
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      February 18, 2019 7:06pm
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        The changes are coming, but the stupid voters are like the frog in the cookpot.
        
        7 0
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        February 18, 2019 8:08pm
    - Tall Man
      
      “Iris” the looney works for Comar Brunton….
      
      5 0
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      February 18, 2019 9:33pm
  - Tall Man
    
    16% undecided?
    
    Seriously, that is a massive amount.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:37pm
- lifesgood
  
  They phoned me and when they knew my age and electorate(true blue) by postcode they weren’t interested. These polls are rubbish, totally manipulated. So many people don’t have land lines now any way so it is more likely to be Labour voters who still do.
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:50pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    The landlines one was the ACToids’ excuse for years of low polling numbers. Also, “ACT supporters are too busy to answer the phone for pollsters”.
    
    1 12
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    February 18, 2019 7:03pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Why is that? I have a landline. More like older people, isn’t it the young that are more likely to want a change of the old guard?
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:52pm
- stephieboy
  
  “Left Wing orchestrated ‘Polls’”
  
  Including 2017 one?
  
  Deluded fool!
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:50pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    It does seem an odd time to be polling just after the summer break and when Parliament is yet to resume. it has to be cynical timing
    
    It isn’t going to sway me one jot and I have my views on the media bias.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:54pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Re latest Colmar Brunton for a reality check!
      
      Pete George
      
      1 News/Colmar Brunton poll:
      
      Labour 45% (up from 43)
      National 42% (down from 46)
      Greens 6% (up from 5)
      NZ First 3% (down from 4)
      ACT 1% (no change)
      Maori Party 1% (no change)
      TOP 1%
      
      Refuse to answer 6% (up from 3) undecided 10%. Fieldwork conducted 9-13 February.
      
      Preferred Prime Minister:
      
      Jacinda Ardern 44% (up from 39)
      Simon Bridges 6% (down from 7)
      Judith Collins 6% (no change)
      Winston Peters 3% (down from 4)
      
      A very similar result to the recent Newshub/Reid Research poll.
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:06pm
      - Tall Man
        
        however, one thing is unchanged
        
        ardern is a liar
        
        ardern is a sick media whore
        
        steffy is even worse….
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:30pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Whereas you are merely a fool.
    
    What an embarrassment you must be for your family….
    
    ardern is a liar
    
    ardern is a sick media whore
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:35pm
Swifty

Waikatogirl – if of interest, capsicums started colouring on Sat here in Auckland, jalapenos and wildfire chillies yesterday, thai spur chillies have been colouring for the past two weeks – while thai mouse dropping chillies (prik kee noo) and ghost peppers (bhut jolokia) yet to start.
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February 18, 2019 6:35pm
- waikatogirl
  
  Wow Swifty, what a selection! Hope the sales have been good for you this year. We are eating large green peppers here. A few of them have a tinge of red so far. My jalapino chillies are huge this year and seem to taste hotter than previously? Good crop of tomatoes too. Nothing like eating straight out of the garden. ?
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:39pm
  - Swifty
    
    Thanks Waikatogirl, not selling this year, just purely for fun, our own consumption and giving away to friends and family.
    
    Really enjoyed this season actually, dry as a bone and plenty of water required but great results so far.
    
    Our corn I’m eating straight off the plant raw – sweet, like lollies. Gorgeous.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:21pm
- Tall Man
  
  Address please, just for geographical reference only….. truly… I wouldn’t lie.
  
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  February 18, 2019 9:28pm
Universal Smith

I see Stuff ran a fluff piece on Paula Bennett today. Clearly they are trying to build up contenders for the role of National Party leader.

They have to find someone fast. The political necrophilia of Simon’s supporters is disturbing.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/110684815/labour-ahead-of-national-in-another-poll

https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life/110665947/paula-bennett-my-new-look-and-life-12-months-after-gastric-bypass-surgery
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February 18, 2019 6:42pm
- brett68
  
  Ugh Paula Bennett, for some reason she makes me think of Michelle Boag.
  
  I actually would prefer Simon Bridges to Paula Bennett and I’m not exactly Simons biggest fan.
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:44pm
  - Universal Smith
    
    She is more marketable than either Simon, or Judith. However none of that group are suitable if they expect to become the government.
    
    I don’t care either way. I won’t be voting for the least-worst party any longer.
    
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    February 18, 2019 6:49pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Luckily, few give a fuck what you think..or don’t think.
    
    5 1
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    February 18, 2019 9:26pm
Nostradamus

ShoppingMallWatch: University pervert makes bizarre confession on why he steals women’s panties

A university student who was arrested for stealing female colleagues’ panties has made a startling confession of why he steals the undergarments. Prince Danda, a fourth year student of Media and Society Studies at the Midlands State University in Zimbabwe, who was arrested on Monday said he gets orgasm from theft of panties.

Stephieboy on 31 March 2018:

MW, what sized undergarments do you wear?

Get your hands off Maggy’s underwear, Stephieboy, you perverted creep!
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February 18, 2019 6:43pm
- Swifty
  
  My younger brother was in the force for just under ten years in Wellington.
  
  During his time there was a phantom panty nicker operating in Johnsonville and the bro and his mates figured who it was.
  
  They had this dye that turns green on contact with skin which a serial victim agreed to have applied to her garments before hanging on the line.
  
  Sure enough they went and the bro hot footed it round to the suspect’s place, knocked on the door very early in the morning – he opened the door, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and loudly complaining about the early hour at which point the bro and his mate just cracked up – his face was completely green!
  
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  February 18, 2019 6:56pm
  - RF
    
    Yep. There are 2 dye traps – malicite green & fusion red. Sorry about spelling. When in contact with water leaves a stain that takes weeks to remove.
    
    The sneaky one is the invisible powder that reacts
    to UV light. Looks like an Xmas tree when exposed to UV (black light)
    
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    February 18, 2019 10:14pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Crikey Nostradamus,
  I’ve barely digested my dinner and now my guts is wambled.
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:04pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Now there’s a new word.
    
    7 0
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    February 18, 2019 8:12pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Perhaps it was in 1603.
      
      7 0
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      February 18, 2019 8:35pm
      - Rachael Membery
        
        Well, new to me then.
        
        2 0
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        February 18, 2019 11:36pm
- nasska
  
  Apparently stephie can’t believe that in this day & age wearing underwear in the garden would offend so many people.
  
  Admittedly it wasn’t his garden… or his underwear.
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:05pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Remember I checked the literature on the pathology of men with an underwear fetish….
    
    seems these poor souls are suffering from decreased blood flow in the brain…(specifically bilaterally decreased cerebral blood flow in the temperoccipital lobe.)
    https://www.medicaldaily.com/underwear-fetishes-are-caused-decreased-blood-flow-brain-or-least-thats-conclusion-306362
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:25pm
- stephieboy
  
  I thought it was Victorian Undergarments?
  
  When was the last time you changed yours?
  
  [DPF: And that is Strike 6]
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:52pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Fuck’s sake.. take your sick mind elsewhere, stephieboy
    
    It was not victorian undergarments.. you specifically asked me about the size of my underwear..as referenced here by Nostradamus.
    Some days later you asked me how I washed my underwear.
    
    Is this your idea of a joke? Trying to creep-out an old lady?
    
    No-one in their right mind asks a 65 yr-old married woman what size undies she wears.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:16pm
    - Swifty
      
      He’s a sick little fucker, that much is clear.
      
      15 0
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      February 18, 2019 9:23pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I’ve reported the matter to DPF.
        
        16 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:27pm
    - stephieboy
      
      I was responding to Nostradamus, not you!
      
      Otherwise, learn not to take yourself so seriously!
      
      You’re obsessed!
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:33pm
      - Swifty
        
        You dirty little man.
        
        Have you no shame?
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:35pm
      - stephieboy
        
        No shame?
        
        With you, of course not!
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:38pm
    - RF
      
      Suggest you contact a firm that makes tents….
      
      0 1
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      February 18, 2019 10:16pm
  - Cobolt24
    
    Stephie, you’re unblocked now! Come back.
    
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    April 21, 2019 7:43pm
Pete George

1 News/Colmar Brunton poll:

Labour 45% (up from 43)
National 42% (down from 46)
Greens 6% (up from 5)
NZ First 3% (down from 4)
ACT 1% (no change)
Maori Party 1% (no change)
TOP 1%

Refuse to answer 6% (up from 3) undecided 10%. Fieldwork conducted 9-13 February.

Preferred Prime Minister:

Jacinda Ardern 44% (up from 39)
Simon Bridges 6% (down from 7)
Judith Collins 6% (no change)
Winston Peters 3% (down from 4)

A very similar result to the recent Newshub/Reid Research poll.
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February 18, 2019 6:57pm
- Universal Smith
  
  “Simon Bridges 6% (down from 7)”
  
  You mean up from 5% 🙂
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:00pm
  - Pete George
    
    “National leader Simon Bridges’ position as leader remains under strain, dropping one point since November to just 6 per cent. That puts him equal with Judith Collins”
    
    https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/exclusive-labour-jumps-ahead-national-ardern-support-surges-in-1-news-poll
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:05pm
    - MrsAnnie
      
      Its a caucus vote – Simon is safe because caucus do not like the alternatives.
      
      10 0
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      February 18, 2019 7:14pm
      - Universal Smith
        
        As long as “Simon is safe” National has no chance.
        
        3 13
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        February 18, 2019 7:32pm
      - Rachael Membery
        
        As Simon has done nothing wrong in my eyes, he should be safe.
        
        Why anyone would want the job however mystifies me!!!
        
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        February 18, 2019 8:09pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    “You mean up from 5%’
    
    Fuck off idiot, they’re comparing to the last TV1 poll, not the TV3 one. What planet are you on?
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:13pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Two in a row. Wow. Reid wasn’t a rogue.
  
  Lab+Greens 52 in Reid and 51 in this poll. There has been a ton of bad shit coming out of the coalition, a lot of it in the media and the electorate either don’t care, or are unaware.
  Are Nats just unable to reach the audience through conventional channels – the world is changing after all.
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:03pm
  - MrsAnnie
    
    There have been a tone of fluff pieces on Jacinda. Most people know nothing about politics. Simon has been given very little coverage other than the negative. Photos selected of him are not flattering. National need to work out how to cut out the middle man. Online advertising like the “All sizzle no sausage” is a good start. I wonder also if the average person wants to see JLR finished off.
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:10pm
  - brett68
    
    It’s a bit of a kick in the guts because the COL has been absolute shite, but the facts are your average Kiwi is a bit of a low brow dunce.
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:17pm
    - sooty
      
      I saw a big spread on Paula Bennett, somewhere.
      Lost 50kg and fills out her lepord spots.
      
      7 0
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      February 18, 2019 7:21pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        She looked hot.
        https://twitter.com/audreynzh/status/1039276547339771905
        
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        February 18, 2019 7:28pm
      - Universal Smith
        
        They used to photoshop Helen Clark like crazy, when she took on human-form for an election run.
        
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        February 18, 2019 7:34pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Universal Smith:
        
        They used to photoshop Helen Clark like crazy
        
        Well, giving this photo its most charitable interpretation, even Helen didn’t recognise her photoshopped self!
        
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        February 18, 2019 7:41pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Where is the commentary on Winston? I think Winston being gone is the way bigger story, I mean Winston usually thinks so.
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:44pm
  - Pascal
    
    The problem? New Zealand Media does not report on the bad shit that comes out of the coalition. They just simply avoid it and blame Bridges for his haircut, for what he says, etc.
    
    If it was somebody outside of the Coalition mocking anybody else in the world for the “Choina” way they speak, do you think the Media would let them off?
    
    But they’ll trawl back to opinions Bridges held as a snot nosed school kid to try and do him in.
    
    We live in a country with a corrupt, complicit media.
    
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    February 18, 2019 8:43pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Pascal, I think the average voter in this poll knows what side his/ her bread is buttered on!
      
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      February 18, 2019 9:40pm
- rightoverlabour
  
  Hang on, 16% are not stating a preferred option. However, if you add the percentages they = 98%
  
  Could someone with a brain explain this?
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:33pm
  - Pete George
    
    All the numbers are rounded so fractions may make up the difference.
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:45pm
    - Ross12
      
      C’mon Pete rounding can not equate to 16%.
      
      I am pleased to see a figure for undecided being reported again.
      
      4 1
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      February 18, 2019 7:49pm
      - Pete George
        
        Taking the above totals, 2% for roundings.
        
        3 1
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        February 18, 2019 7:53pm
      - Ross12
        
        Pete
        They add up to 99%. But if 16% did not give an answer or did not know, does it really mean that of those who answered the relevant %s apply ? If that is so, the reporting is totally misleading –the 16% should be taken into account .
        
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        February 18, 2019 8:27pm
- stephieboy
  
  Longknives must be utterly gutted as he desperately drags his paunch to the lav!
  
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  February 18, 2019 8:55pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Ah, the moronic steffy, pissed on our dollar, is back.
    
    ardern is a liar.
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:14pm
    - stephieboy
      
      adern is a liar? Those polled don’t seem to think so!
      
      You loser!
      
      1 10
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      February 18, 2019 9:42pm
      - Wired-one
        
        Why do you come here?, its obvious you are a left wing troll. Are you seriously that lonely and pathetic that you take joy in trying to make others here annoyed?. Go away, and get a life please, god I feel sorry for you.
        
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        February 18, 2019 10:48pm
MrsAnnie

I actually think poor polling might work to Nationals advantage in the long run. For the next couple of months we need a smug Labour that will confirm CGT. We have become so used to stable polling under key we have forgotten it is very normal for polling to be all over the place.
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February 18, 2019 6:58pm
nasska

Right……we’re going to have to move on to Plan B.

Simon has to have a baby! 🙂
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February 18, 2019 7:09pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Nasska:
  
  I could be wrong, but I doubt Simon will want to take parenting advice from Scout Barbour-Evans!
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:11pm
  - nasska
    
    Desperate times call for desperate measures! 🙂
    
    9 0
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    February 18, 2019 7:14pm
- MrsAnnie
  
  with a Gay-ford?
  
  7 1
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  February 18, 2019 7:11pm
  - Longknives
    
    Well Clarke is known to be very generous with ‘spreading his seed’..
    
    9 0
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    February 18, 2019 7:12pm
    - RF
      
      Yep. Spray and slink away.
      
      Pray for a crop failure…..
      
      1 0
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      February 18, 2019 10:02pm
Longknives

“Refuse to answer 6% ”

This is an interesting Stat.
I know for a fact they are extremely rude and condescending to you if you state your Household Income is over a certain level…I wouldn’t be surprised if people terminate after this (although they actually terminated on me!)
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February 18, 2019 7:11pm
- nasska
  
  Add to that 6% to the “undecided 10%”. I wouldn’t call the CoL’s tally a ringing endorsement of their policies.
  
  More like an electorate bored shitless with beltway issues.
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:23pm
  - Universal Smith
    
    National have polled with amazing consistency for many years now. With a few tweaks, and a likeable leader, they would have a chance.
    
    However they need to be a bit more caring. They definitely need to stop gutting the public services at the front lines, then spending a fortune stocking Wellington with policy analysts, business advisors, managers and other assorted jobsworths, while employing a standing army of spin doctors to tell us its working.
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:44pm
    - Pascal
      
      You have written “National” where you should have written “Labour”.
      
      7 1
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      February 18, 2019 8:40pm
    - Wired-one
      
      National is a caring party. Labour are the party who make people dependent on welfare and be content with poor outcomes in life. They convince their voters, that they cannot sort out their own lives. The reason why they are poor, or not striving to achieve, is because of other people, never themselves. That’s not caring, that’s fluffy fake bullshit, that people need to wake up to.
      
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      February 18, 2019 10:57pm
sooty

Winston Peters MP. Ha ha!
Winston Peters PM. HA, HA ,HAAA, HAA!!!
Has a very good ring to it!
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February 18, 2019 7:24pm
- Nostradamus
  
  Sooty:
  
  If you want more “HA, HA, HAAA, HAA!!!” inspiration:
  
  Jacinda Ardern: Prime Minister; Minister for National Security and Intelligence, Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Child Poverty Reduction
  
  Kelvin Davis: Minister for Māori Crown Relations: Te Arawhiti, Corrections, and Tourism; Associate Minister of Education (Māori Education)
  
  Hon Grant Robertson: Minister of Finance and Sport and Recreation; Associate Minister for Arts, Culture, and Heritage
  
  Hon Phil Twyford: Minister for Housing and Urban Development and Transport
  
  Megan Woods: Minister of Energy and Resources, Greater Christchurch Regeneration, Research, Science and Innovation, Government Digital Services and Minister Responsible for the Earthquake Commission
  
  That’s their top 5!
  
  HA, HA, HAAA, HAA!!!
  
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  February 18, 2019 7:34pm
  - Swifty
    
    What is it about the NZ political system which results in such non-entities reaching such heights?
    
    Actually, I think I know……
    
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    February 18, 2019 7:42pm
    - stephieboy
      
      Profound and deep from KBs 5th rate lightweight!
      
      1 14
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      February 18, 2019 8:58pm
      - Swifty
        
        Heh.
        
        You’re touchy tonight.
        
        Feeling a bit silly about something? Something to do with wood exports?
        
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        February 18, 2019 9:19pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Yup, steffy will show you…
      
      6 2
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      February 18, 2019 9:12pm
  - sooty
    
    They are not going to drown are they?
    Mind you they would all float as they are all light weights. Legends in their own mind! None of them will be remembered three years after leaving office!
    
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    February 18, 2019 9:50pm
MrsAnnie

What polls do show us is the next government if an election was held today would be a left wing Labour Green one. Winston even though we may loathe him is a moderating force. Will the middle ground still support and be willing to vote for a left wing government over a centre left one????
3 0
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February 18, 2019 7:28pm
- Tall Man
  
  Then vote National..job done.
  
  3 2
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  February 18, 2019 9:10pm
brett68

If National wants to win in 2020, they need to distance themselves from China, big business and actually start directly representing people, at the moment there’s a bit of a disconnect with a reliance on trickle down.

The biggest voter block in NZ is the MIDDLE CLASS, they’re the ones that pay the lion share of the taxes, they’re the ones that keep the country a float.

They’re also the ones politicians take for granted, National should be their champion.
9 2
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February 18, 2019 7:33pm
- nasska
  
  Yes & no. The middle class are being taken over by the beneficiary class thanks to WFF. That’s not terminal for National but the cold hard political reality that dictates that the uncommitted centrist voter decides elections escapes them.
  
  Instead National have decided to run with socially conservative policies. The cheers of the Godaddled & the control freaks deafens them to the protestations of those who want government to hell & gone out of our private lives.
  
  8 0
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  February 18, 2019 7:42pm
  - Universal Smith
    
    The average worker has no one in their corner nasska and it has been that way for years. It is truly grim surveying the political offerings we have before us today.
    
    4 4
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    February 18, 2019 7:46pm
    - DigNap15
      
      Yes and where is our hard right party?
      
      2 2
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      February 18, 2019 7:53pm
      - nasska
        
        You’ve hijacked National. What more do you want?
        
        The fucking Pope as Head of State?
        
        9 0
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        February 18, 2019 8:04pm
      - Universal Smith
        
        Kiwis don’t like or need hard right.
        
        We need pragmatic policies that work for ordinary people. Policies that put outcomes first, not special interest groups and ideology.
        
        The whole left/right thing is unhelpful. Either way both Labour and National are not great parties for the masses. And frankly I don’t see who is right now.
        
        7 1
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        February 18, 2019 8:10pm
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        “Yes and where is our hard right party?”
        
        It doesn’t exist, and deservedly so.
        There are no votes out there.
        
        8 0
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        February 18, 2019 8:19pm
      - stephieboy
        
        DigNap15, resuscitate Colon Craig!
        
        2 11
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        February 18, 2019 8:59pm
- DigNap15
  
  Yes and they are the ones that will be hit with the CGT, but may also get a tax cut
  
  6 1
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  February 18, 2019 7:54pm
- Happychappy
  
  Brett the difference in winning and losing is the female vote secure that and you will win. Jacinda has started to model what John Key did with hero parade last weekend in Napier and of course having photos done with children. That was a formula that worked for Key and is also working for Jacinda, not many woman care about politics its who tickles there fancy.
  
  4 1
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  February 18, 2019 8:23pm
  - Tall Man
    
    What a condescending bucket of shit.
    
    5 3
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    February 18, 2019 9:09pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Their, and women don’t tickle my anything.
    
    2 0
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    February 18, 2019 11:20pm
Herodotus

Face the press
How Monty Python spoofed Phil Tywford
Claiming to build 88 thousand million billion houses a year and you built 3 in the last 15 years !!
About 1:20 into the clip
Sounds familiar ???
Monty Python was onto it Labour way back then !!
https://vimeo.com/5704713
10 1
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February 18, 2019 7:39pm
DigNap15

I have been saying for a while that the COL appeals to the masses as they have had wage rises (another one on its way soon.
Benefit rises.
A Baby
And everyone is feeeling OK – look at the malls and coffee bars, and all the day long parties in my street.
Its going to take a lot of bad news to swing the electorate.
Not minor stuff like JLR.
7 3
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February 18, 2019 7:51pm
DigNap15

Remember also that although people have been saying its the centre vote that counts, a lot of those centre voters are middle class, but also have SJW and caring attitudes
Lets help the poor
Lets go soft on crime
Lets save the world
4 4
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February 18, 2019 7:53pm
- nasska
  
  …..”a lot of those centre voters are middle class, but also have SJW and caring attitudes”…..
  
  They also are generally liberal on gay marriage & abortion. They don’t believe that teenagers should be put against a wall & shot for experimenting with drugs as some idiot control freaks on this forum suggest. They don’t give a fuck about religion or what makes Baby Jesus happy.
  
  So what do National do? Align themselves with the remnant losers from the NZ Conservatives & associated redundant control parties. The same losers who represent less than 5% of NZ voters.
  
  Then we wonder why we’re on 42%.
  
  Give me strength!
  
  8 3
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  February 18, 2019 8:01pm
  - Nostradamus
    
    Nasska:
    
    Do you think National should join forces with Redbaiter:
    
    RRM, you’re so smug and self satisfied and so damn wrapped up in your delusional little world you’ll never latch on to the simple fact that I am just the vanguard of a political movement that is going to wipe Progressives off the face of the earth. They’ll disappear like the Dodo birds did. I am spearheading a force that will grow from hundreds to thousands to millions and you will be gone.
    
    Jacinda would wet herself (not in a sexual way) if Redbaiter fixed his steely gaze on her!
    
    10 1
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    February 18, 2019 8:15pm
    - nasska
      
      RRM once did a cracker take-off of the Great Conservative Nostra.
      
      Ended up with Baity & his spear along with his army sheltering a rural mailbox. 🙂
      
      8 0
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      February 18, 2019 8:28pm
    - Swifty
      
      That must rate as one of the greatest KB comments of all time.
      
      Unequalled.
      
      7 0
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      February 18, 2019 8:33pm
  - Universal Smith
    
    “losers who represent less than 5% of NZ voters.”
    
    That’s not fair. Baby Jesus conservative friend Simon is up to 6% in the new poll.
    
    Take that back! 😉
    
    4 3
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    February 18, 2019 8:29pm
  - stephieboy
    
    “we’re on”
    
    ??
    
    1 7
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    February 18, 2019 9:00pm
    - Swifty
      
      Stiffy, how much wood did we sell to China last year?
      
      5 0
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      February 18, 2019 9:05pm
      - stephieboy
        
        15% sawn timber and 75% unprocessed lumber.
        
        Next question?
        
        1 5
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        February 18, 2019 9:45pm
      - Swifty
        
        No, how much?
        
        Quantity.
        
        Was it ‘about nil’?
        
        6 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:47pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  I have a caring attitude but so does Simon Bridges and Judith Colins.
  
  2 8
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  February 18, 2019 8:13pm
  - sam green
    
    Chuck “I have a caring attitude “ Bird. Man of Mystery.
    
    5 11
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    February 18, 2019 8:21pm
- Universal Smith
  
  “caring attitudes
  Lets help the poor”
  
  And there is the problem. I really don’t think NZ has worked out for you. Best you toddle off home.
  
  5 4
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  February 18, 2019 8:14pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    NZ has worked very put good for me. I would be in the top 10 or 20% for assets. But that does not mean I do not care about others as the left would claim of National MPs
    
    4 4
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    February 18, 2019 8:38pm
    - sam green
      
      But Chuck – you’re not a National MP.
      
      5 5
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      February 18, 2019 8:43pm
      - Swifty
        
        Are you gay? (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
        
        4 0
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        February 18, 2019 8:49pm
      - sam green
        
        Are you?
        
        4 7
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        February 18, 2019 8:50pm
      - starboard
        
        Stoooooooopid boy, green sam.
        
        8 4
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        February 18, 2019 8:51pm
      - sam green
        
        Starboard is threatened by me because I know his secret. Aaaaand I think everybody knows yours now too Swifty.
        
        6 6
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        February 18, 2019 8:52pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Sam:
        
        Show Chuck Bird some respect!
        
        On Friday I was speaking to two MPs I had not meant before … At the end of our conversation one said she would look forward to seeing me again at the AGM in Christchurch.
        
        I’m not sure if “look forward to seeing me again” is a euphemism… hopefully Chuck can clarify!
        
        7 2
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        February 18, 2019 8:54pm
      - sam green
        
        Oh my Chuck – do tell Man of Mystery.
        
        6 3
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        February 18, 2019 8:55pm
      - Swifty
        
        Thanks Sam – you’ve answered my question most fully.
        
        6 1
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        February 18, 2019 8:57pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Swifty LGBT??
        
        1 8
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        February 18, 2019 9:01pm
      - sam green
        
        Oh Swifty – please don’t tell Mrs Green.
        
        6 5
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        February 18, 2019 9:02pm
      - Swifty
        
        I suspect she already knows.
        
        5 1
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        February 18, 2019 9:09pm
      - sam green
        
        Well – she knows about starboard – but not about you.
        
        4 5
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        February 18, 2019 9:12pm
      - Swifty
        
        Yes Stiffy, you’ve sprung me, I will reveal myself:
        
        https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carmen_Rupe.jpg
        
        6 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:14pm
      - stigie
        
        You look extremely rootable Swifty ole chap..?
        
        4 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:19pm
      - Swifty
        
        Thanks stigie, big boy, it’s a lot of work but I try my best.
        
        5 1
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        February 18, 2019 9:22pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Swifty:
        
        I always thought of you as having a striking resemblance to Conchita. Have I been mistaken all this time? 🙂
        
        4 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:32pm
      - sam green
        
        Stigie – you are a dark horse – or should I say “donkey”?
        
        2 3
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        February 18, 2019 9:38pm
      - Swifty
        
        Heh.
        
        My boss while I was an apprentice was shown some oral attention by ol’ Trevor in the doorway of his place one night – we never let him live it down.
        
        It was not long before the Trades Hall bombing – the next night we were screaming up Vivian St in his 124, a tranny walked out and was struck a glancing blow on the driver’s side, it was in the papers in the next day or two cause the cops were still around and reported it.
        
        We made a lucky getaway.
        
        4 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:43pm
      - stigie
        
        Come round to my place and find out sammy ?
        
        4 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:44pm
MrTips

If we get these polls mid-year I’m selling all capital gains relevant assets and buying an RV.

I cannot believe the country is so dumb.
15 1
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February 18, 2019 8:00pm
- sam green
  
  Perhaps it’s you.
  
  3 10
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  February 18, 2019 8:22pm
  - Happychappy
    
    Sam that’s unlike you.
    
    6 1
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    February 18, 2019 8:25pm
    - sam green
      
      Happy ? – you know me so well!
      
      5 5
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      February 18, 2019 8:30pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Well that fell a bit flat didn’t it Sam?
    
    5 2
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    February 18, 2019 8:28pm
    - sam green
      
      Your cap’s at a jaunty angle tonight Cap’n – got a date?
      
      3 6
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      February 18, 2019 8:31pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Still a couple of days to full moon though.
        
        3 5
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        February 18, 2019 8:37pm
      - stigie
        
        We might see Dad soon then..?
        
        4 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:12pm
      - sam green
        
        Oh – I’ve missed him.
        
        6 0
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        February 18, 2019 9:36pm
- Universal Smith
  
  “If we get these polls mid-year I’m selling all capital gains relevant assets and buying an RV.”
  
  Don’t bother. National banned camping. You can no longer pull over and sleep in your RV in your own country. Apparently that is freedom camping and is bad because investors in accommodation told National it was.
  
  6 9
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  February 18, 2019 8:45pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Bullshit, just make sure you shit in your place not mine…
    
    6 2
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    February 18, 2019 9:00pm
Pascal

[[“I’m very comfortable and confident in my leadership,” he told Newshub – repeatedly.]]

That last “repeatedely”. Do they really qualify this as journalism? Scott Palmer should be ashamed of himself – may as well just go write press releases for Jacinda Ardern.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/more-trouble-for-bridges-another-poll-confirms-national-plunge/ar-BBTJXUh?ocid=spartandhp
8 0
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February 18, 2019 8:39pm
Swifty

Bugger.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/110681349/obituary-author-peter-wells
4 2
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February 18, 2019 8:52pm
- Tall Man
  
  Possibly…
  
  0 5
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  February 18, 2019 8:57pm
- Swifty
  
  Actually, that wasn’t my best choice of words.
  
  I meant no offence.
  
  I have regularly seen Pete and Douglas at the Avondale Sunday market and admire them both.
  
  My apologies. I would have been better to say something else.
  
  4 0
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  February 18, 2019 9:00pm
  - sam green
    
    I’m sure you meant no harm.
    
    4 4
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    February 18, 2019 9:04pm
Muttonbird

Yeah, the Colmar Brunton poll is another great result for New Zealand and it seems to confirm that Kiwis really, really hate the attack style politics which the National Party thinks they are onto a winner with.

They also hate sordid, extramarital and acrimonious affairs between caucus members. They hate workplace bullying, and they hate corruption, electoral and otherwise. All of which the Nats have shown in spades since they got turfed out.

Under Bridges, they look like an angry, drunk person shouting at people at the end of a messy night. The trouble for them is the alternatives will be worse.

Hate to be them.
3 20
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February 18, 2019 8:58pm
- Swifty
  
  Heh.
  
  7 0
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  February 18, 2019 9:01pm
- starboard
  
  Muttonheads been on the pipe again..tsk tsk
  
  4 2
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  February 18, 2019 9:49pm
- Tall Man
  
  Nope, but they do like the freebies and the “fuck the rich pricks” attitude.
  
  3 3
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  February 18, 2019 9:50pm
- Tall Man
  
  Not very well are you shit head?
  
  Remember, if wynston the thief has his dick up your arse, you’re fucked and wynston the thief wipes it on a daily basis.
  
  You just don’t get it do you? We have the money and the expertise to avoid whatever mindless drivel the coalition throws at us.
  
  You and your sorry bunch of bludgers are at the pointy end of wynston the liar’s dick.
  
  He can’t fuck us but he will fuck you.
  
  Smile as it goes in dip shit.
  
  3 5
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  February 18, 2019 9:58pm
  - Muttonbird
    
    Jesus, what a train-crash of a comment.
    
    Go to bed, idiot.
    
    3 5
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    February 18, 2019 10:02pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Not more than they would hate to be you.
  
  0 0
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  February 18, 2019 10:55pm
Universal Smith

I do wish some people on KB would show more respect for the dead and stop parading Simon Bridges political corpse around. It really is bordering on necrophilia.
2 15
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February 18, 2019 8:59pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Really, considering the hatchet job the media does on him I am surprised that he gets 6 %, they don’t do a hatchet job on Winston and see where he is placed,
  
  If the media held Jacinda to account for her actual failings to the degree they hammer Simon on perceived ones, things would not be the same for her either.
  
  7 1
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  February 18, 2019 9:42pm
  - stephieboy
    
    RM, I don’t think that ever figured amongst those polled by Colmar!
    
    Get used to it, loser!
    
    1 13
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    February 18, 2019 9:49pm
    - Tall Man
      
      You mean by Iris, that example of modernity in the left?
      
      Is she still at Colmar’s?
      
      8 2
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      February 18, 2019 9:51pm
    - Swifty
      
      Speaking of losers, how much wood did we export to China last year Stiffy?
      
      Was it ‘about nil’?
      
      7 1
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      February 18, 2019 9:53pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      They don’t ask the ‘right’ questions then do they.
      
      2 0
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      February 18, 2019 10:50pm
- starboard
  
  Confirms to all that Liarbor are shit scared of Simon Bridges with comments like that , universal..lol and right on cue, Brett68 upticks !
  
  8 2
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  February 18, 2019 9:44pm
  - stephieboy
    
    starbaord, sniffle, sniffle, boo hoo.
    
    2 13
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    February 18, 2019 9:51pm
Monique Watson

Predictably the Mouthpiece has spoken. New Zealand and China are getting along just fine.

Check out the Bait and Switch. Helen put her up to this one IMHO. Brady has nothing to do with economic relations but Chompers is shamelessly dangling her name in front of the media.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/18/jacinda-ardern-disputes-reports-of-diplomatic-tensions-with-china
10 0
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February 18, 2019 9:11pm
- Monique Watson
  
  And maybe not Klarkula. It’s a bit ham fisted, a Little bird whispered in my ear.
  
  If you take it as concrete that Brady is being ‘watched’ by a concerned faction of the CCP. (We can assume this is most likely the case given the nature and far reach of Brady’s publications.)
  Then why the fuck isn’t she offered protection by the Government. I’d want her as undisturbed as possible given her area of expertise is of National significance.
  You fools. Once again played instead of taking charge.
  
  9 0
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  February 18, 2019 9:42pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Not important?
    
    1 0
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    February 18, 2019 10:43pm
stephieboy

The day has ended rather glumly for KBs alt-and rabid righters.

Cheers!
1 13
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February 18, 2019 9:50pm
- Swifty
  
  Still, we’ve reproven the fact that you’re a creep and a perv though.
  
  Now a bad day all round.
  
  10 2
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  February 18, 2019 9:52pm
- Tall Man
  
  Not me shit for brains. Assets up, income up, turnover up..
  
  Did I mention that
  
  ardern is a liar
  
  ardern is a sick media whore
  
  9 2
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  February 18, 2019 9:53pm
  - stephieboy
    
    Quickly grab your emergency supplies of theatrical tear kits
    
    Boohoo, loser!
    
    2 12
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    February 18, 2019 9:56pm
    - Nostradamus
      
      Stephieboy:
      
      You always run away when I ask this question:
      
      Would you be comfortable if someone were to print off a selection of your Kiwiblog comments and ask people at St Albans if you’re a true Christian or a charlatan?
      
      I imagine they’d be shocked at your ShoppingMallWatch comments! And the hypocrisy of someone who does church readings but, at the same time, who writes the most perverted things on a public blog!
      
      6 3
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      February 18, 2019 10:01pm
      - stephieboy
        
        Nostradamus, go to it and do leave your real name and contact details.
        
        Bet you-you won’t!
        
        Gutless!
        
        2 10
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        February 18, 2019 10:11pm
      - Nostradamus
        
        Stephieboy:
        
        Plenty of people read Kiwiblog.
        
        Maybe it’ll be the person who (and this is your unsubstantiated claim) left a notice on the St Albans church door describing you as a “PERVERT”! (The block capitals were in your comment.)
        
        4 1
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        February 18, 2019 10:18pm
      - starboard
        
        “I imagine they’d be shocked at your ShoppingMallWatch comments! ”
        
        *snigger*
        
        5 1
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        February 18, 2019 10:28pm
  - Muttonbird
    
    Nice virtue signalling. If that is the case, why the angst with this government?
    
    1 7
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    February 18, 2019 9:59pm
    - Rachael Membery
      
      Other than them being unprepared and inept you mean?
      
      5 0
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      February 18, 2019 10:29pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Why? It is all media hype. I can’t control what others think, but I am damned if I will be told what to.
  
  4 0
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  February 18, 2019 10:28pm
Muttonbird

Yep. 500 comments and they are going backwards. ?
1 9
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February 18, 2019 9:53pm
Jack5

Muslim lawyer describes likens stranded British jihadi brides to World War 1 soldiers in shell shock.

The Greens denied there were jihadi brides from New Zealand, but I’d take Rebecca Kitteridge’s word over theirs.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/74881123/null

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6716167/Jihadi-bride-east-London-Shamima-Begum-family-lawyer-says-want-baby-son-home.html
5 1
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February 18, 2019 11:05pm
starboard

The bitch should be thrown on a bonfire along with the lawyer.
4 1
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February 19, 2019 12:44am
DigNap15

I saw that isis girl on tv with her letterbox friends in their black burkas.
How can England even let people in like that in the first place.
They do not belong in western countries.
4 0
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February 19, 2019 3:55am

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