General Debate 17 July 2019

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artemisia

Rents a big inflation driver. Who knew? The official stats used do seem to be at odds with other rent analyses. For example, Trademe’s May rental asking price report gives NZ wide rent rises yoy at 5.3%, but 8.5% excluding Auckland. Not apples and apples with the official version but hey that’s a big difference.

Noted – this was officially the largest rent rise since the March 2008 quarter. A couple of dots to be joined right there.

Rental costs were the other driver in an otherwise subdued inflation environment. Rent prices rose 1 per cent in the June 2019 quarter, and increased 2.5 per cent over the year. The latest quarterly rise is the largest since the March 2008 quarter when rent prices rose 1.2 per cent.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz//business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12249892&ref=clavis
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July 17, 2019 8:05am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Don’t worry, Labour will have a solution: Price Controls!
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:22am
- Cobolt24
  
  Will we enter a period of stagflation?
  Low economic growth and high inflation, a hard cycle to get out of.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:00am
  - wreck1080
    
    It’s ok, we can recover, by selling property to each other.
    
    Tax free if you hold for 5 years too. Woohoo!
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:50pm
    - burt
      
      Yes this is pretty much how Kiwi’s get rich on paper. We had the chance to stop this with CGT whereby we could have made it so that people couldn’t afford to sell houses to each other. Hard to imagine why that wasn’t politically popular.
      
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      July 17, 2019 3:11pm
      - theoldbloke
        
        You do know that with CGT thta property prices increased at a similiar rate dont you. eg Orstralia, US
        etc etc
        CGT does NOT stop property price increases!!!!
        The science is settled.
        
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        July 19, 2019 3:55am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  This what Jacinda removing poverdy is all about. You won’t see National making any noise about this.
  
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  July 17, 2019 7:31pm
hullkiwi

Post 1 on when are we going to stop listening to idiots and look/invest in real solutions rather than adding a new tax?
I am talking about the Emissions Trading Scheme. As proven by all empirical evidence from abroad (even admitted by self proclaimed Marxist Brian Roper last night on RNZ National), an ETS doesn’t work, it doesn’t change behaviour and all it is is a tax.

But there we have it, Shaw hailing the “agreement” with farmers as a major step forward. Note to Shaw, if climate change was a real emergency, a weak gesture aimed at farming in NZ is going to do in the range of sod all to nothing, nothing!

If people are serious about fixing the production of gas emissions, talk shops and taxes is about the most least effective method I can think of to fix anything.
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July 17, 2019 8:11am
- Albert_Ross
  
  if people are serious about fixing climate change. Let’s take that as a starting point. Just suppose for a moment, only hypothetically of course, just for the sake of discussion, that climate change was real and that we really wanted to do something about it.
  
  It’s certainly true that emissions trading schemes haven’t had much of an effect.
  However, I would contend that that is because no Government has had the cojones to do it properly. That requires universal participation, no exceptions for anybody or anything, and a supply of ETS credits that is so limited that the price really bites, thus engineering a serious cost differential between goods and activities that contribute to climate change and those that don’t.
  
  What would you propose instead?
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:05am
  - Brian Marshall
    
    If man made climate change was real, which I don’t believe it is even remotely is to the extent that is claimed, I think we could do a much better job.
    Start by taxing every single immigrant that comes into NZ from a country that has lower emissions than NZ. This will need to cover mitigation costs and be charged every year and include all descendants. They actually make it harder for NZ to reduce total emissions. Australians or those from the USA coming here would not get a credit though.
    
    Start building sea walls above beaches where there might be increased sea levels. A couple rows of LEGO stacked 3 high should cover us for the next 50 years. (That one is easily sorted and we could use recycled plastic packaging that weighs 20x what the old shopping bags ever did, to make the bricks).
    No overseas aid to nations unless the recipient nation start making real population growth reductions. Why should the west be paying for mitigation when the 3rd world is just making it worse. Since they won’t do that, we can save the money and use it to reduce the taxes on motor vehicles which allow people to buy newer more fuel efficient cars without the government interference. (Or brand new jackets, or ski gear to cope with all the warming).
    Since our food is produced with less fuel in the production, rather than tax the farmers, I’d start using all those taxes that they already pay, to start an international advertising campaign. Eat NZ beef and lamb to save the planet. That tofu burger is going to destroy the world.
    Win win win. ?
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:01am
    - Ross12
      
      Brian
      I assume you mean immigrants from countries with higher emissions not lower as stated in your second paragraph.
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:12am
      - Brian Marshall
        
        No. We get people from the 3rd world move to NZ. Their original country has a lower emissions average than NZ. Because we have a more energy intensive lifestyle, their CO2 emissions will increase and make it harder for the total NZ emissions to reduce down. If we think globally, by taking in 3rd world immigrants, we are actually increasing total CO2 emissions and we get no credit for an increased population from the 3rd world. Australia and USA have a much greater average emissions, so them moving to NZ would be doing the world a favour. (I also don’t give a rats arse about that great plant fertiliser, CO2. I just think everything we’re doing is the worst possible options)
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:29pm
      - Ross12
        
        OK, I see your point now.
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:37pm
    - Albert_Ross
      
      If climate change is to be addressed, then certainly people currently living a low-emissions life will need to be dissuaded from adopting a more emissions-intensive one. However, is your proposal really that these people – those who are least responsible for the present problem – should bear the bulk of the cost of addressing it, and those who are most responsible for causing the problem – those of us currently living a more emissions-intensive life – should not be expected to accept any of the cost of addressing it?
      
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      July 17, 2019 5:50pm
  - alloytoo
    
    “What would you propose instead?”
    
    Build nuclear power stations across the world.
    
    1. Replace coal generation with nuclear.
    2. Facilitate electric transport without adding to the problem.
    3. Still works at night and when the wind stops blowing (or blows too hard)
    4. Doesn’t kill birds bats and insects.
    5. Will desalinate water for desert irrigation.
    
    and wait there’s more!
    
    If an ice age eventuates
    
    1. Will keep us warm, and facilitate green houses in the ice zones.
    
    win win
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:29am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      If nuclear energy is an effective way of reducing emissions, then an emissions trading scheme will incentivise it.
      
      Thing is, if a government seeks to mandate by law something that isn’t economically or commercially attractive, then market participants will devote energy and resources to lobbying and devising other ways of getting out of the obligation. If you instead put in place a system whereby emissions-intensive costs more and emissions-lite costs less, market participants will devote energy and resources to working out how to be less emissions-intensive.
      
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      July 17, 2019 5:53pm
      - alloytoo
        
        A “system” of any sort distorts the market.
        
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        July 17, 2019 9:25pm
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    The notion of man-made climate change is a very useful mechanism that governments can exploit as a reason to further tax their people.
    
    No big-government-loving regime is willing to give up such a Golden Goose.
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:49pm
    - Albert_Ross
      
      Yeah, but what’s the point of creating an excuse to tax people if you then have to spend the revenue on stuff that’s useless and unnecessary?
      
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      July 17, 2019 5:54pm
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        d’oh!
        
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        July 17, 2019 7:18pm
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        Labour is good at doing that. I want Sheeple who voted for Labour to suffer and struggle. Sorry for saying that, but that is the only way they will realise their mistake.
        
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        July 17, 2019 7:33pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Look who benefits…
        Influence has gone from the old elite to the new elite.
        Who pulls your strings?
        
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        July 17, 2019 9:00pm
      - alloytoo
        
        excuse or legitimate problem, the money is still being wasted on useless and unnecessary
        
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        July 17, 2019 9:27pm
  - herb1
    
    Albert do you have any idea what the massive cost to the world economy and ours will be based on the seeming rush to decarbonise the world?
    I suspect you don’t and you probably have no idea of the difference in temperature , if we do.
    I have seen figures from .17 celsius to .3.
    Castrating the Worlds economy for non real gain is no different than going to War , killing millions when you know the outcome will be the stars quo if you didn’t go to war
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:15pm
    - Albert_Ross
      
      I do totally appreciate that the cost of addressing climate change will be very great. One option would certainly be, not to do so; and hope for the best.
      
      However, that isn’t the discussion I was looking to start. My point is that if we’re going to try to address it, a properly-functioning emissions trading scheme is probably the cheapest and most efficient way of doing it. That is because it will give market participants a commercial incentive to seek out less carbon-intensive ways of doing things. Markets with commercial incentives are better at developing, choosing and deploying new and better technologies than are governments.
      
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      July 17, 2019 5:46pm
      - alloytoo
        
        If there is a crisis then all the emissions trading schemes are rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic.
        
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        July 17, 2019 9:31pm
    - projectman
      
      Yep, “How to fuck the economy 101”.
      
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      July 17, 2019 6:23pm
- kowtow
  
  What’s the go with “fixing production of gas emissions” .
  That is a surrender to man made global warming , which is bollocks . The sun is the driver.
  “We” can’t fix a damn thing to do with the climate.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:21am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Bridges was sensible this morning on National Radio about this: 1. NZ farming has the lowest emissions in the world. 2. Better technology/biotechnology, not more taxes.
  
  But he kept being interrupted by the almost screaming interviewer, as usual. They hate him so much.
  
  I wish Bridges would tell interviewers to stop interrupting him, like Winnie used to do.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:26am
  - peterwn
    
    They would cut his microphone and make some lame excuse to terminate the interview.
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:08am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Yes that is correct. The best way to knock of these screaming mongrels is to answer their questions in mono syllables and annoy the hell out of them.
      
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      July 17, 2019 7:37pm
  - Ross12
    
    If he said that CL why is he quoted in the NZH that the Government moving it’s time frame out for the ETS is a back down ? Does not make much sense to me.
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:14am
    - toby1845
      
      “…he is quoted in the NZH…..”
      
      There’s your answer, right there. The Herald makes stuff up. Don’t believe anything you read in it.
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:01pm
      - G152
        
        Its grown from Fake News to Flake News..
        As has all traditional printed media
        
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        July 17, 2019 1:25pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Perhaps he thinks the policy is/was rubbish but they are still retreating from a stated policy so therefore a “back down”.
      
      And just for the idiots in the watermelons, these little videos may help them deal with the back down…..
      
      https://foreignpolicy.com/2013/05/03/5-ways-you-know-youre-eating-rat-meat/
      
      https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+eat+a+dead+rat&oq=how+to+eat+a+dead+rat&aqs=chrome..69i57j33l5.5912j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=_lnMuXdbeAcu9rQGlmIqoDA27
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:09pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Ross, what he said on RNZ (the interview that CL is quoting) is that they don’t know when the government is implementing their policy. As Bridges pointed out, the CoL have move the implantation date from 2021 to 2025, and even this date is not certain.
      
      During the same interview Dann repeatedly tried to get Bridges to commit on air to the ETS and a bi-lateral with the CoL on the policy, and then why National will not commit to the rubbish about a climate emergency, but to his credit he didn’t give Dann anything.
      
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      July 17, 2019 6:02pm
  - White Anglo Saxon Protestant
    
    I wish Bridges would tell interviewers to stop interrupting him, like Winnie used to do
    
    I got an email from Simon yesterday about all of Labour’s new taxes. I wish Bridges would stop sounding like a whiny bitch.
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:46pm
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Sorry he didn’t know that you are happy to pay all the taxes.
      
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      July 17, 2019 7:38pm
      - White Anglo Saxon Protestant
        
        Lets just say, he’s not presenting as a confident, competent alternative, which is disappointing.
        I want to see some teeth.
        
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        July 18, 2019 7:59am
- otago-man
  
  Livestock eat grass, 100% of grass’s carbon comes from the atmosphere, 100% of the carbon in meat, bones,milk, and wool comes from the atmosphere, just like a tree. A percentage is emitted as methane which has a shelf life of 5-10 years , it converts back to CO2 and is made into grass again …WHERE IS THE PROBLEM !!!
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:13am
  - cmm
    
    Ummm calves drink diesel doncha know!
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:42pm
- Lizziep
  
  If it’s all over in 12, well 11.5 years I don’t know why they are bothering at all. Maybe they know its bull sh.. and are just making up shit for something to do. Yep that sounds more likely
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:22am
- rouppe
  
  This bloke has done more for environmental improvement than Shaw and the Greens ever will
  
  https://i.stuff.co.nz/life-style/life-style-top-stories/114240115/kiwi-farmer-perfected-his-water-to-make-the-perfect-beer
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:22pm
Poppa

What is it with Stuff pushing climate change every day? Why would they do this? Have they had instructions from above to push this down our throats?

It is not objective in any way & is making Stuff less & less credible with each article
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July 17, 2019 8:14am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Makes Jacinda look good without her doing anything
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:23am
  - Happychappy
    
    Yes Steve and if we can’t change voters high opinion of here we can expect the same in future. It might not be a Government with NZ First but it will be a “Red-Green”Government and that could change NZ for ever.
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:11am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      It will happen in 2020 and every single possible tax will be imposed on us in the name of climate emergency. Let the Sheeple suffer.
      
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      July 17, 2019 7:41pm
  - Albert_Ross
    
    But it doesn’t make her look good. She isn’t doing anything and clearly doesn’t really want to. So why would she be encouraging the media to keep
    putting her under pressure to do something she doesn’t want to do, that would be destructively expensive and quite possibly lose her the next election?
    
    Indeed, why is every Government in the world – dictatorship or democracy, socially liberal or conservative, capitalist or collectivist – continuing to put huge effort into bribing and blackmailing every scientist in the world to put pressure back on them to do economically and electorally ruinous stuff they don’t want to and know to be completely unnecessary?
    
    And how did all those governments come up with this plan – did they hatch it up together (when?) or did they each think of it separately?
    
    And there are around the world dozens of parties that were in Government – so would have been in on the scam – but are now in opposition. Including National here. Why haven’t any of them spilt the beans? Why don’t any of them see the huge electoral advantage in revealing that in truth there’s no need for any of this hard and painful stuff so let’s instead spend the money on things that voters actually want?
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:18am
    - Batman
      
      Albert do you realise how genuinely insane this makes you sound?
      
      You’ve pretty much invalidated the argument against climate change in one comment!
      
      At the end of the day, pollution is bad for the environment and for humans. To me, the climate part is secondary to that.
      
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      July 17, 2019 9:41am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        The most worrying part of your comment, Batman, is the implication that most other Kiwiblog comments about climate change are not insane.
        Perhaps youstill don’t realise how many Kiwibloggers come from the less-hinged part of the spectrum, the guys that nod and agree when world ‘leaders’ say things like “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive”.
        
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        July 17, 2019 10:28am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        I’ve pretty much invalidated the argument against climate change in one comment?
        
        But that’s exactly what I was trying to do.
        Seriously? I’ve actually achieved it?
        
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        July 17, 2019 10:56am
      - rouppe
        
        @mikenmild
        
        We aren’t insane. We’re curious and willing to ask questions, unlike those that are too afraid of the blowback from people like you to ask questions.
        
        Questions like : CO2 is like a blanket, huh? 400 parts per million is like a thread every 2.5 inches being called a blanket.
        
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        July 17, 2019 1:35pm
      - sooty
        
        Climate change does not apply to the Labour elite, they are flying here, there, everywhere!
        It’s only for the people at the back of the plane!
        
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        July 17, 2019 2:01pm
    - Poppa
      
      Climate change is being pushed as a means of controlling people. It is the new religion where if we don’t act now we will all perish in hell.
      
      It really is no different to the sermons I had to endure as a poor little catholic kid, hell fire & brimstone
      
      Ruling by fear, it suits socialists perfectly
      
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      July 17, 2019 9:43am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        If controlling people is the objective, telling people who can vote you out of office that, because of something that’s difficult to understand and convincingly demonstrate, they have to do things they don’t want to do and can’t have the things they want – is a poor way of achieving it. Wouldn’t you be better off telling them that if you vote for me and then do as I say, you don’t have to do things you don’t want to and I can give you stuff you do want?
        
        There are many real, obvious and convincing environmental and social problems facing the world. Why would you want to divert attention and resource from them by inventing a fictional and unconvincing one?
        
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        July 17, 2019 11:04am
      - tf78
        
        First they took our oil and gas – then tested the water with the plastic bag ban, then banned guns – now the people can’t defend themselves they are free for the picking. Bring on a early election while we can still afford to have one.
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:03pm
      - igm
        
        It is bloody sad when useless unionised communist losers masquerading as teachers are continuously ramming anthropogenic climate change down the throats of youngsters, getting to a point where it is causing troubles within the family home.
        I can see some concerned parents taking action very soon!
        
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        July 17, 2019 4:54pm
    - Dairy Flat
      
      Follow the money.
      The entire scam is a means of transferring wealth from the richer nations to the poorer ones whilst enriching individuals such as Gore and empowering those who crave to control.
      Things will get interesting if the growing evidence of imminent cooling due to a severe solar minimum is accurate.
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:49am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        And richer nations are going along with this? Why?
        
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        July 17, 2019 5:56pm
- igm
  
  If it is not pushing climate change with bull…t, it is pushing the pro-Islam stance of the left-wing unelected PM.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:05am
  - stephieboy
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    igm, speaking of BS!
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:29am
- krazykiwi
  
  “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary” — H. L .Macken
  
  Emphasis: kk
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:16am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Did you mean Mencken? Clever guy. He also foresaw the rise of Trump (hobgoblins and all):
    
    On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:31am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Hillary got more votes and still came second, but you know that.
      
      I would not call Trump a moron but, if it turns out that he is, at least he is OUR moron!
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:38pm
      - sooty
        
        Should keeping your guns, then!
        
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        July 17, 2019 2:03pm
      - Jules99
        
        The way he has the Dems scrabbling in the muck suggests he’s smarter than the average president, certainly in recent times.
        
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        July 17, 2019 2:06pm
      - SGA
        
        I would not call Trump a moron but, if it turns out that he is, at least he is OUR moron!
        
        Fervent partisan politics (left, right, up or down) in a nutshell. Well said.
        
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        July 17, 2019 3:22pm
  - Swifty
    
    Classic.
    
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    July 17, 2019 11:00am
  - Random T Person
    
    Yeah well stuff the government and stuff climate change and stuff Stuff.
    I’ve decided to become the world’s first climate change ENTHUSIAST. I’m tired of arguing with idiots about whether or not climates change and whether or not people are natural or whether or not there is a carbon cycle and whether or not the stuff in the environment came from the environment or some other environment (in a Clark and Dawe-esque fashion).
    Instead, I’m glass half full! I welcome the warming or cooling or better or worse weather which is bound to come along with climate change. Who’s to say, after all, that change must necessarily be bad? Are we not supposed to embrace change? Is change not exciting? It jingles cheerfully, so join me and let’s welcome change. What if it’s actually going to be BETTER for all of us, and why should it not be?
    
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    July 17, 2019 11:31am
    - rightoverlabour
      
      Warmer climates with more CO2 benefit everyone. Plants are under less stress, they lose less water when absorbing CO2 in drier climates and humans have thrived in warmer epochs. They only people who don’t see this are the communist control freaks.
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:17pm
- MickMac
  
  Stuff is a propoganda tool on AGW now.
  I’ve stopped the delivery.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:20am
  - sooty
    
    You are a wise man.
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:04pm
  - andydownhere
    
    I stopped The Dom 2 weeks ago too, after 30 years of paying for delivery. I had had enough of their pro climate change stance with no articles from the other side. Was going to cancel with a letter to the editor, but what was the point? She would have been praying at the altar of climate change, idolising the charleten Al Gore, no time for us heathens.
    Well just send your rag you call a newspaper broke. See if I care
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:22pm
- alex Masterley
  
  I just see Y2K revisited.
  Much ado about not a lot.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:53am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Y2k was another hoax invented by the Chinese to make US inductry less competitive?
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:25pm
  - andydownhere
    
    Yes I remember the Y2K hoax well. Some businesses spent a lot of money protecting themselves. Cindy was about 20 years old then. She might not remember what it cost businesses. The fish n chip shop unafffected? Or was she working for Tony Blair then? Oh no thats right. Was just in the same building
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:27pm
    - artemisia
      
      If you think Y2K was a hoax you are extremely ignorant.
      
      Certainly possible some remediation was done that was not needed, but much was especially in legacy systems.
      
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      July 18, 2019 7:48am
- rightoverlabour
  
  Lets refute each statement one by one. “Earth’s atmosphere has more carbon in it than at any point in more than three million years” .So effing what. The earth is 4.5 Billion years old and at 540 mil years there were 7000 ppm. Life started to thrive in that environment.
  “The amount of carbon in the atmosphere is directly correlated with the average temperature”. At the moment Co2 is correlated with temperature but LAGS by between 800 to 1000 years. A LAG cannot be causative. If we look at the last 540 mil years there is absolutely no correlation between CO2 and temperature.
  “That is why we are living through a climate change crisis. ” The only climate Crisis is the morons that produce this pseudoscience where the models have been tweaked to show a CO2 forcing. The big red 1000,000 with the large 407 is misleading as they can’t actually show 407 as a slice in a pie chart. 1degree on a pie chart represents 2,777 ppm, so 407 would be 0.14 of a degree.
  
  look as these diagrams https://scied.ucar.edu/carbon-dioxide-400-ppm-diagrams The 96 ( 100) pixels of the 240,000 represent Co2. Our crisis is supposedly because we added and extra 25 (pixels) or so to the total volume.
  
  Now read some REAL science https://notrickszone.com/2019/07/16/nasa-giss-surface-station-temperature-trends-based-on-sheer-guess-work-made-up-data-says-japanese-climate-expert/
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:09am
- oldgolfer
  
  I’m sure I heard a scientist on RNZ today say that modelling showed climate change may build up debris on low-lying islands, effectively making them higher.
  Didn’t see that on stuffed Stuff.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:25am
  - Twinkletoes
    
    You did, old golfer.
    
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    July 17, 2019 3:21pm
- KiWombat
  
  Nobody seems to draw a link between humans and climate change, it is too convenient to blame the cows and sheep – BUT
  
  Humans cause every jetliner to exist
  
  Humans cause every car to exist
  
  Humans cause every coal fired power station to exist – and
  
  With the exception of the two sheep and two cows (well cow and a bull) that Noah led onto the Ark, humans have also caused every additional sheep and cow to exist, merely to sate human desire to eat and drink milk.
  
  I have said before that it strikes me that everybody seems to be going about analysing climate control measures arse about face. And the fact that here in New Zealand we see 1,500 or so immigrants arriving each and every week, the goal posts for us are constantly being moved.
  
  How the hell are we supposed to come up with a formula to combat climate control if we have absolutely no idea what we should be aiming for – and quite frankly the rest of the world is in much the same boat as us, starting deliberations at the wrong end of the arguement.
  
  People cause climate change. We blame cows, but the people we need to feed and house are responsible for the number of cows we have, not some other erroneous formula. Same with coal fired power stations, cars buses and trains. And any surplus beef or milk we have is exported to supply, surprise surprise, yet more HUMANS.
  
  So I believe we should firstly arrive at a sustainable maximum population number for New Zealand. Whether is is 5 million or 10 million is immaterial – we need to have a population target to work to. And so does the rest of the planet.
  
  If we have a target population of – say – 5 or 6 million, then we will be able to calculate how much milk we need and how much beef and lamb we need to feed our own. Again, this applies to the entire planet. No point in New Zealand going on a needle in the haystack crusade unless we can drag several major emitters along for the ride. Today’s cow belching in Waikato is Australia’s problem tomorrow.
  
  To stray beyond climate control for a moment, if we did agree on a maximum population number then we would be able to calculate the shape and size of all sorts of other infrastructure well in advance. With the present number of cars on the road we are finding commuting challenging, and if we welcome 1,500 or so immigrants each and every week then the number of cars etc. required to move them around also increases by a large number each and every week. If we knew now, through population targets, that in years to come there would be – say 1 million extra cars on the roads, then we could do a Hitler, plan and build roads that would still be world leading in 50-75 years time. And save on emissions for each and every one of those 50-75 years by planning and building ahead of time.
  
  To get to this electorate, my local MP (writing this from the West Coast) has to be driven from Upper Moutere to Nelson, then fly to Christchurch if he picks his times carefully, otherwise Wellington then Christchurch, then catch yet another plane to Hokitika to be then driven to the Greymouth RSA where he has his local office. Suppose he needs a beer after that regular trip, and it is no wonder he visits his own electorate so seldom. And as for PriNZess Jacinda burning 60,000 litres of aviation fuel just to get home from Nauru in time to stick her *** in the baby’s mouth – don’t get me started on that one.
  
  For too long I have seen climate change pundits on the bottom rung of the ladder looking up, and noticing that with each and every step the ladder is getting longer, we will NEVER reach the top rung unless we decide to hang out the “Full” sign on immigration.
  
  Then we would be able to stand on the top rung and look down to get the right perspective.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:49am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Sounds like a good reason for the West Coast Tasman MP to not visit Greymouth then. Can’t you write him a letter, phone or skype him? I can’t believe you can only communicate your concerns in person. In a representative democracy, it’s unrealistic for for the representives to personally visit every hamlet in this thinly populated, vast country.
    The same goes for most international travel by politicians, btw.
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:32pm
    - KiWombat
      
      You’re a bit off topic Mike !
      
      I was attempting to point out how much carbon he burns each and every time he chooses to visit his electorate for an hour or two. He burns a quantity of petrol, diesel and Jet A-1 every visit.
      
      The West Coast has learnt to manage without him !
      
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      July 17, 2019 4:57pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Why can’t he DRIVE from Upper Moutere to Greymouth?
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:56pm
    - KiWombat
      
      Its called “entitlement !”
      
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      July 17, 2019 11:34pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    People cause climate change.
    
    Utter nonsense.
    
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    July 17, 2019 3:19pm
- AC
  
  Its actually embarassing. When its finally proven to be all BS they will look pretty stupid..
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:51pm
  - Random T Person
    
    Ah, but you are wrong there my dear fellow. These folks have cunningly put themselves in a win-win situation. When nothing happens a decade or two from now, they will claim victory. Notwothstanding the fact that nothing would have happened in the absence of their climate protests and ‘action’.
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:18pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I suspect you are right.
      Just as folks quietly forgot how they and their institutions supported race theory, or poo- poohed Continental drift, or advocated for cholesterol control, or told us that stress caused stomach ulcers…
      They will weasel their way out of their climate change emergency by telling us that they were following best advice.
      
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      July 17, 2019 9:11pm
      - artemisia
        
        Bit hazy on the details now as it was back in the last century, but the American Heart Association jumped on the low fat bandwagon and told everyone that max 15% fat in the diet was imperative. Quietly dropped and a switch to max 10% bad saturated fat.
        
        I guess it is good to update guidelines but supposedly authoritative organisations and bandwagons are not a good combo.
        
        As we are seeing.
        
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        July 18, 2019 6:26am
- herb1
  
  It becomes understandable if you stop looking at the media as Journalists.
  they are salesmen and women .
  their job is no longer to inform but generate page views for their advertisers.
  They are just at a lower level of Social media influencers, trailing way way behind their betters such as Kim Kardashian
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:18pm
  - Batman
    
    Hence the Newshub story about a “scary” sound in a tunnel!! ?
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:26pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    When was their ‘job’ ever anything other that to sell their product, either through subscription or advertising?
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:33pm
Yvette

Mike Smith, chair of the Climate Change Iwi Leaders Group announced on Tuesday that he was suing the Government because “the Crown is failing to protect all New Zealanders, but especially Māori, from catastrophic effects of climate change”.

What I wonder is, should this case reach a court, will Mike Smith and any lawyers have to actually prove the Government is both negligent and capable of prevention, or will he be able to use statements and policies, where applicable as a confession of their guilt?

It could be the same question with terrorist Tarrant. Can his manifesto be used not only to show the premeditation that his killings require to define them as murder, and the document be seen, on certain points, as a written confession emailed to the Prime Minister and others, nine (or however many) minutes before he committed the atrocity?

In a Cabinet Paper, Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones has said, ‘‘For example, if the recent 95% replanting rate was maintained over the next decade, this would equate to 770 million trees.’’ meaning he anticipates having to plant only 230 million to met the 1 billion trees that have been calculated to save Mike Smith and all other New Zealanders,
But Forestry’s 95% replanting rate will actually mean just that: “re-planting” – because they will have elsewhere felled 731.5 million trees.

Or is this, and with all global warming conjecture, just that as well: “conjecture” – it hasn’t happened yet. Is Mike Smith suing for something yet to happen?

Whereas Tarrant’s evil has.

And what of Mike Smith? Did he not cut down one of New Zealand’s most famous trees.
(You can have that, Shane. for nothing)
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July 17, 2019 8:15am
- Swifty
  
  Cutting down trees doesn’t exactly help global warming does it?
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:23am
- Tarquin North
  
  Mike Smith is doing a re-make of the movie “The man who sued God”. I don’t expect his version to be a patch on the original but the outcome will be the same.
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:27am
- G152
  
  Just another racist trying it on.
  We all live in this group of islands in the South Pacific and if one is affected by the magic mystery ‘global warming ‘ then we all are..
  Methinks this is the Koha trap in action
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:28am
  - artemisia
    
    Except Tuvalu, which is getting bigger. And how many more reef islands are also increasing in size but the academics haven’t noticed yet. Or have not had research approval yet. More likely. Especially if iwi have to approve the research.
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:02am
    - Raphael
      
      artemisia, rather like how the researchers who purposefully ignored the Himalayan Glaciers that are increasing in size and only reported on the few that are decreasing?
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:01am
      - Kabull
        
        Or the park in the north west USA that had for some years been displaying signs suggesting visitors should take note of the horrible state of the diminishing glaciers – yet those signs have quietly been removed because (shock!) the glaciers have actually grown.
        
        “May 30, 2019. St. Mary, Montana. Officials at Glacier National Park (GNP) have begun quietly removing and altering signs and government literature which told visitors that the Park’s glaciers were all expected to disappear by either 2020 or 2030.
        In recent years the National Park Service prominently featured brochures, signs and films which boldly proclaimed that all glaciers at GNP were melting away rapidly. But now officials at GNP seem to be scrambling to hide or replace their previous hysterical claims while avoiding any notice to the public that the claims were inaccurate. Teams from Lysander Spooner University visiting the Park each September have noted that GNP’s most famous glaciers such as the Grinnell Glacier and the Jackson Glacier appear to have been growing—not shrinking—since about 2010. (The Jackson Glacier—easily seen from the Going-To-The-Sun Highway—may have grown as much as 25% or more over the past decade.)“
        
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        July 17, 2019 10:36am
  - kowtow
    
    Time to scrap the gravy train that is te treacle.
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:24am
    - Odakyu-sen
      
      “Time to scrap the gravy train that is te treacle.”
      
      Things could get sticky…
      
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      July 17, 2019 12:52pm
      - kowtow
        
        Te sticky bloody fingers in our wallets…….
        
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        July 17, 2019 4:22pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  To have a claim they will have to prove damage not just green say so.
  With IPCC models so deficient compared to reality and the IPCC explicitly stating they could not predict because of the maths there’s sound evidence against for starters.
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:34am
  - backster
    
    “To have a claim they will have to prove damage not just green say so”
    
    Nah!..If the claim is to the Waitangi tribunal all the evidence they need is assertions and myths not facts and no-one asserts the contrary or they would be racists.
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:02am
    - Tall Man
      
      Plus, being maori, they will have unfettered access to the “idiots inchewishion”…..
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:08am
- wreck1080
  
  Mike smith , blaming everyone else for his problems.
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:42am
  - sooty
    
    No, he just wants more money to fix his problems!
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:18am
- The Proper Ghandi
  
  Yvette
  Showing negligence would require proving some loss directly flowing from a failure to “act on climate change.” The principle of proximity. Other than his mind, I’m not sure what Mike Smith has lost.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:53am
- herb1
  
  Perhaps Mike Smith should be sued for contributing to climate change for his deliberate and wilful action of cutting down the most important and well known carbon store in New Zealand
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:21pm
Happychappy

Who would ever put any faith in anything the Minister of Transport Phil Twford or Assistant Minister Julie Anne Genter with what they say or do after their dismal failure so far in Parliament with their political bullshit on Housing Targets and Zero road toll.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/394542/road-to-zero-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-government-s-new-road-safety-strategy
This Government keeps making targets that they will at a later time down the track will call ambitious and expect the public to excuse their total failure once more.
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July 17, 2019 8:18am
- Tall Man
  
  “Targets” are “aspirational”.
  
  GDP is “irrelevant”.. likes and feelz are vastly more important.
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:41am
  - Tarquin North
    
    Much as I can’t stand JAG, let’s not forget where the blame really lies for this on going debacle. At the feet of Winston Peters. We must all remember that at the next election.
    
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    July 17, 2019 8:51am
    - MickMac
      
      I already have,,,,,……
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:24am
- srylands
  
  I will read the strategy with interest. However hearing her on the wireless this morning there are some issues. Just two for example. She seems to be stepping away from improving driving training. She said we can’t create “perfect drivers”. No but we can crack down on drugged aggressive drivers.
  
  She compared new Zealand to Norway. Same size. Much lower road harm. She forgot to add that as one of the richest countries, Norway has a younger fleet. It is also a different culture. Very stringent driving testing and no tolerance for drugged, drunk or aggressive driving.
  
  There will be things in the strategy that make sense. There always are. But reducing speed limits will just cause them being treated with contempt. And that just makes things worse. We also need to get the worse cars and drivers off the road.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:29am
  - MrLovebucket
    
    Do they have Mongrel Mob chapters in Norway?
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:43pm
    - srylands
      
      No but they do have Pakistani gangs.
      
      http://www.norwaynews.com/a-look-at-norways-pakistani-gangs/
      
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      July 17, 2019 2:38pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump is racist – bull.
Envy was once considered to be one of the seven deadly sins before it became one of the most admired virtues under it’s new name social justice.

When they play the race card, it means they have run out of other cards to play
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July 17, 2019 8:22am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  https://www.dropbox.com/s/hvi1odprazcr5de/Trump%20racist.jpg?dl=0
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:46am
- Rich Prick
  
  The “squad” and their friends in the media are all triggered and it is such fun to watch. What they don’t understand is that while they might hold their feelings above all else, Trump doesn’t give a flying fuck.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:17am
  - Batman
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Yep, a racist boy King with an incredibly fragile ego ?
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:35am
    - Tall Man
      
      Met him have you batman?
      
      Why don’t people form their own opinions rather than just follow the trend like sheep……
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:07am
      - tf78
        
        My brother said it’s fashionable to dislike Trump – that’s the only reason most people do I bet.
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:17pm
      - Batman
        
        I don’t have to have met Hitler or Stalin to know they were murdering SOBs.
        
        I don’t have to have met Lincoln to understand that he was, all in all, a good sort.
        
        Likewise, I don’t have to meet Donald Trump to determine that he’s a casual racist. His claim that he isn’t is probably true, he believes he isn’t. But that doesn’t change the fact that he is.
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:24pm
      - sooty
        
        If Donald Trump, upsets Cindy.
        Then he’s the man for me!
        
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        July 17, 2019 2:09pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Batman I think you need a wee time out. Comparing Trump with Stalin and Hilter is extremely childish and also causes me some concern about your moderation decisions.
        
        I have been castigated for identifying ardern as a liar and yet you feel comfortable comparing him to two men who between them are responsible for the deaths of multiple millions of innocents.
        
        https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2018/02/05/who-killed-more-hitler-stalin-or-mao/
        
        To have such a “vehement” opinion clearly demonstrates a severe case of TDS. Trump is not our leader but in the eyes of many demonstrates a vastly more competent ability that the numbnuts we have pretending to govern.
        
        Why not focus on our problems rather than responding to fabricated outrage on Trump.
        
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        July 17, 2019 2:18pm
    - Rich Prick
      
      Care to point to the actual “racist” word(s)? A suggestion to someone that if they are not enjoying life in America they may wish to try elsewhere is not racist. I think she, you and your chums are importing her skin colour into it. Which is standard operating procedure for the left. The word “racist” is screamed so frequently by the left, it has come to mean nothing.
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:45am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        “No Racist; you’re the Racist”
        Paraphrased Trump tweet today.
        It’s always projection – accuse the enemy of being the crook, cheat, traitor, sex pest or racist that the bully is.
        
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        July 17, 2019 10:49am
      - Batman
        
        He didn’t tell any white members to leave did he? He even said that Nancy Pelosi would be happy to arrange travel, presumably because she’s white and thus more worthy of staying in America than people who aren’t.
        
        Let’s face it, Trump wants a whiter America with less ethnicities in it. That is called racism.
        
        The “point to the racist words” argument you guys are using is a distraction. You don’t have to say the N word to be racist…
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:26pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘Presumably’
        Lol
        ‘The “point to the racist words” argument you guys are using is a distraction’
        Even funnier. Silly little boy.
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:40pm
      - Rich Prick
        
        By that argument, none of them were men, so why aren’t you all screaming “sexist” too? Some consistency with the derangement would be nice.
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:44pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      From our own resident racist – Batman.
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:58am
      - Batman
        
        Hahaha sure, defending the rule of law and natural born or naturalised citizens is definitely racist eh?
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:28pm
      - Garbageman
        
        He obviously believes in unconscious bias as well which pretty much means everyone is a racist you just dont know it until you oppose their ideology.
        Batman
        “Likewise, I don’t have to meet Donald Trump to determine that he’s a casual racist. His claim that he isn’t is probably true, he believes he isn’t. But that doesn’t change the fact that he is”
        Yes indeed he uses the word Fact so there you have it folks if you ever need the definition of what is racist ask the resident expert
        
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        July 17, 2019 1:27pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  Let’s get his actual words from Tweet, 14th July, up here.
  
  Whether his words show any assumption that the Congresswomen of different colours were born in other countries comes down to *one word* only: the word ‘originally’. Does ‘originally’ mean he meant they were not born in the U.S., or does ‘originally’ simply mean they are of an immigrant background, as indeed most Americans (and Kiwis) are.
  
  Interestingly, most white people in NZ are being told daily by government, media and iwi that we ‘originally’ don’t come from NZ. Even if we were born here and our ancestors have been here for many generations.
  
  Here is what Trump actually wrote:
  
  ‘So interesting to see “Progressive” Democrat Congresswomen, who originally came from countries whose governments are a complete and total catastrophe, the worst, most corrupt and inept anywhere in the world (if they even have a functioning government at all), now loudly……’
  ‘….and viciously telling the people of the United States, the greatest and most powerful Nation on earth, how our government is to be run. Why don’t they go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came. Then come back and show us how….’
  ‘….it is done. These places need your help badly, you can’t leave fast enough. I’m sure that Nancy Pelosi would be very happy to quickly work out free travel arrangements!’
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:18am
  - srylands
    
    Just wait for all the exploding heads if he is reelected in 2020.
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:11pm
    - Batman
      
      I’m sure some people will develop exploding head syndrome (EHS) lol.
      
      If he loses there will be severe brain material splatter all over Kiwiblog.
      
      …And then Notsofast will be on the case, to inform us that it is in fact not brain matter but is unidentified material ??
      
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      July 17, 2019 12:31pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        This comment shows you are unfit to be a Moderator
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:42pm
      - Batman
        
        AoR, I know you don’t like me but given that I permit 99.9% of the comments I see in approvals, without editing, you don’t have a lot to go on here mate. Especially given I was responding in jest to a clear jab at anyone who isn’t a Trump stan.
        
        Trying to control information to suit your political view is very left wing of you ?
        
        Edit: unless you’re upset about my Notsofast joke? In which case I don’t know what to say about that!
        
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        July 17, 2019 12:48pm
      - srylands
        
        I’m not a Trump fan. I just enjoy the outrage every time he tweets something.
        
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        July 17, 2019 1:05pm
      - Batman
        
        As do I. It really is good popcorn material a lot of the time.
        
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        July 17, 2019 1:05pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Actually Batty. I think you make some very good comments. And can be funny.
        It’s just with Trump you’ve lost your objectivity.
        I mean, really, you just presume things which just aren’t there and which funnily enough fit the left wing narrative.
        For 30 years I’ve watched the Left label every politician on the right as racist.
        The people who have praised Trump include Alvida King (MLK’s niece), Reverands Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton amongst many other black leaders.
        He was given the Ellis Island Medal of Honour in 1986 and received that with Mohammed Ali and Rosa Parks- who were happily photographed with him. His daughters family are all Jewish.
        Yes, he’s a boofhead and some of his Tweets are clumsy but he’s not a racist.
        Who said this:” You can’t buy a 711 unless you have even a slight Indian accent”?
        That was Joe Biden. Now I don’t think he’s a racist really either. Just dumb.
        I think you need to have a closer look at what the “squad” have actually been saying.
        They hate America, deliberately sow discord, incite violence and are actually racist themselves.
        Cheers
        
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        July 17, 2019 1:27pm
      - Vory v zakone
        
        AOR It is compulsory that you MUST accept these TDS psychosis sufferers. Especially when they are 13,900 miles away arguing against a 6’2″ orange goblin who has been living rent free in their heads for the last 3 years ?
        
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        July 17, 2019 3:48pm
      - mark15
        
        He suggested Pelosi make travel arrangemants after cancelling her junket to Afghanistan on a USAF flight due to her party not ending the government shutdown over the budget.
        
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        July 17, 2019 4:01pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Most amusing of all are the Kiwibloggers who go through the arduous mental gymnastics required to agree with every word and deed of the toddler-in-chief.
      Also: batman is a fair moderator. Someone like AoR would go all Whaleoil on anyone commenting against the commissars’ talking points.
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:11pm
      - Batman
        
        Thanks Mike, I do try to keep an even hand on the tiller. Though others do lot more than me!
        
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        July 17, 2019 1:31pm
      - White Anglo Saxon Protestant
        
        I think it is a little but strange the people who don’t wish to comment under their own names are required to have their comments await moderation by a moderator, at least one of whom doesn’t comment under his/her own name…
        
        Just sayn’
        
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        July 17, 2019 2:09pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        So, Milky, you find looking at an actual quote and talking about interpretation ‘arduous mental gymnastics’. I consider it a pretty essential element of political analysis.
        
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        July 17, 2019 3:09pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Not at all Mikey
        I’d probably ban Stephie though. And those other nasties who have had more than Five Strikes. They are obviously children with issues.
        Say, weren’t you whining like a baby the other day to Moderators?
        Wah Wah Wah
        #Hypocrite
        
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        July 17, 2019 4:11pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Speaking of intolerance and ‘Commissar’ tendencies, here is Rep Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) “We don’t need any more brown faces that don’t want to be a brown voice. We don’t need black faces that don’t want to be a black voice. We don’t need Muslims that don’t want to be a Muslim voice. We don’t need queers that don’t want to be a queer voice”
        
        She’s one of the ‘squad’…
        
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        July 17, 2019 4:44pm
      - hullkiwi
        
        Mikey, we leave that for Prentice at the Standit.
        
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        July 17, 2019 6:25pm
  - Billy Collins
    
    What he said wasn’t explicitly xenophobic, but xenophobes will read it that way, the perpetually outraged will read it that way, and those in between will look at it and think “ok, that could easily be motivated by xenophobia”.
    
    The fact that trump fans feel they need to do an in depth literary analysis of Trumps tweet shows that what he wrote is problematic either way. It’s only if you assume he isn’t a xenophobe, and that his tweets are deeper than their surface appearance that you would think we need to know what he meant by “originally”. You have no reason to assume either one though.
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:48pm
    - Classic Liberal
      
      I don’t argue that what he wrote isn’t problematic. And I’m not an all-out fan of anyone.
      
      But ever since Trump got into politics he has been so often misquoted by the media that I want to see his actual words in any situation, and then make up my own mind.
      
      And I do think what he means by ‘originally’ is pretty essential in those Tweets. Clumsy way of saying ‘from immigrant background’? So clueless that he doesn’t know 3 were born in the U.S.? So clever that he knows it will cause media attention and outrage and glue the Democrats to AOC’s crazy policies?
      
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      July 17, 2019 3:02pm
      - Billy Collins
        
        He could have easily created a media frenzy around them without anything that could plausibly be considered xenophobic.
        
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        July 18, 2019 12:41pm
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Well, Styx was right when he said it was all a baiting trick by Trump.
      
      Trumps Master Plan Worked: AOC and Ilhan Omar are the Face of the Democrats, Now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rvPeGyYQnQ
      
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      July 17, 2019 5:41pm
Tall Man

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/sport/globe-trotting-kiwi-cricket-fans-nightmare-travel-story/

“Nightmare”…….

What a total bunch of bullshit.
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July 17, 2019 8:31am
- John Warren
  
  I wonder what our climate change activists might have to say about his carbon footprint?
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:50am
Tall Man

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/07/explained-the-scary-radio-takeover-heard-in-auckland-tunnel.html

“This” is news?

No wonder 37% voted for ardern, they’re obviously fucked in the head.
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July 17, 2019 8:38am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Next message will be “Vote Labour, or we are doomed”
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:55am
- John Warren
  
  Poor little snowflake was scared. And it made the news.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:02am
- Swifty
  
  “I thought this kind of thing wasn’t common in New Zealand, which is why it really scared me.”
  
  Pathetic.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:06am
- Mike22240
  
  What the hell did I just read. I for one am happy that we live in a country that is embracing some common sense road safety technology. As a bonus her radio isn’t just a “scary” static noise when in the tunnel.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:25am
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Tall Man, get an education and learn for a change!
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:36am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Haha, thanks Tall Man, that was a hilarious story. “She says she thought the robotic voice was going to make a nuclear bomb announcement.”
  
  Boy, the media must be desperate for stories…
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:51am
- srylands
  
  It is unbelievable. That it happened. That it was published. This is why I will never ever pay for access to pay walls for New Zealand media.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:51am
- Rich Prick
  
  What is wrong with these people? A public announcement has her running off to the media with her freak-out “story”. And the media actually report it as “news”. FFS.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:02am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Less than 30% of enrolled voters voted for Labour in 2017.
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:07pm
  - Tall Man
    
    I think it was the “no shows” that gifted ardern the 37% of the votes cast.
    
    Payback 2020.
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:16pm
Hugh Pavletich

Recession Looms: Cass Freight Index Negative For 7th Month | Zero Hedge

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-16/recession-looms-cass-freight-index-negative-7th-month
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July 17, 2019 9:02am
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  Bank Run: Deutsche Bank Clients Are Pulling $1 Billion A Day | Zero Hedge
  
  https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-16/bank-run-deutsche-bank-clients-are-pulling-1-billion-day
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:12am
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    How ANZ Bank fought for more than three years to keep its role in New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi scheme quiet … Newsroom / Stuff New Zealand
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/114291409/anz-loses-the-key-to-transparency?cid=app-iPad
    
    NIKKI MANDOW OF NEWSROOM.CO.NZ
    
    How ANZ Bank fought for more than three years to keep its role in New Zealand’s biggest Ponzi scheme quiet, and stop a regulator telling out-of-pocket investors the details. … read more via hyperlink above …
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:09am
    - Jack5
      
      Hugh joins the Labour-Reserve Bank support team whacking ANZ …
      
      Notice this in the report (John Strahl is head of the investors’ group):
      
      … the FMA thinks ANZ, as Ross Asset Management’s bankers, should at some stage have realised what was going on – and acted to stop it.
      
      The FMA doesn’t use the word incompetent, but Strahl does. He says ANZ banking staff working on the RAM account should have pulled the plug on David Ross years before they did – and saved investors a whole load of money and stress.
      
      “ANZ was looking at the operations of the bank accounts on a day-to-day basis,” Strahl says. “They know how fund managers work. Anyone with half a brain could have detected these bank accounts were not being operated how they should have been.”
      
      So, Hugh, the bank had a role in the ponzi scheme? Or is the bank just being whacked because a customer was running one and the bank should have known what he was up to?
      
      What of the investors? You have someone paying out big cash. Isn’t it prudent to find out where the cash is coming from? Or, if that’s too complicated, get someone like Strahl to check it?
      
      This paragraph in the report Hugh links to is relevant:
      
      Strahl didn’t have money in the RAM Ponzi scheme. But he got involved in 2012 when he was asked to be an independent trustee for a family that had money with RAM.
      
      He decided to check out David Ross and was horrified by what he found. After just one meeting with Ross, Strahl advised the family trust to get its funds out of RAM.
      
      Good work by Strahl. But the bank’s fault? Isn’t that like blaming the TAB when the favourite comes last?
      
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      July 17, 2019 12:10pm
hullkiwi

Post 2 on when are going to stop listening to idiots.

Newsroom with RNZ National and NZ on Air produce a programme called the Detail, which by and large is balanced and does inform. However, last night’s broadcast on RNZ National at 6.40pm was part 2 of a saga they started with a broadcast in May.

It was all about the heat in Maoridom and the outcome from the hui’s in Mangere last weekend. The hui was about the anger in Maoridom about Oranga Tamariki and the uplifting of Maori children, and putting said children into state care. Out of the hi it was decided that Maori must investigate the situation. The investigation must be “by Maori, for Maori and with Maori” whatever that means. The hi reclaimed the solution must involved and be determined by whanau, hapu and iwi. There was lots of emotive language and even a threat against Oranga Tamariki. But only once did I hear the words “infant deaths”.

There was no talk about owning the whole problem in Maori whanau. Not once did I hear:
1. About the problems of the “Once were Warriors” culture in Maori communities;
2. Not once did I hear that Maori whanau have a history of intergenerational family violence as highlighted 2 years ago by Norm Hewitt on RNZ National about his youth and his own behaviours towards his own son.
3. Not once did I hear that Maori grandparents in the Hawkes Bay were reporting problems with their own children being hooked on crack and P and not being able to look after the grandchildren (ENZ National 2 years ago).
4. Not once did I hear that Oranga Tamariki had been acting within the law with granted court orders to protect the children because there had a been a history of child neglect and abuse.
5. Not once did I hear that whanau had already failed to step in and stop the abuse and neglect.

Throughout the piece, I heard it was Oranga Tamariki that had got it wrong.

Well Maoridom, when you stop the murder of infants, when you stop the domestic violence, when your communities truly stand up and say they own and recognize the issues, have a solution to resolve the issues and will not look to the State/Crown to finance the solutions (but will instead use their TOW settlements to show sovereignty and guardianship of the issue and solution). Equally, unless they can prove and can own the problem they have got to accept the solution that is Oranga Tamariki and stop falling it institutional racism, because it is not the State acting that kills Maori infants.

To the Children’s Commisdioner and Tracey Martin, stop making excuses and blaming the state for problems within Maoridom.

Stop generalizing about the problem as though all Kiwi fathers are the perpetrators of domestic violence. We are not by your words you are stigmatizing the innocent as being part of the problems.

When the people concerned address and resolve the above, I may then listen to you, but until you do, accept the system as it is, because at least it is stopping Maoridom killing its infants!
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July 17, 2019 9:03am
- sooty
  
  More money will fix it!
  
  14 1
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  July 17, 2019 10:22am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Yes, and it’ll be from the taxpayer’s purse. But nothing will get fixed.
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:41pm
- Sacha
  
  I have had enough. I have reached the stage where I think that Maori Affairs should be handed back to Maori, with a lump sum (never to be increased) and let them get on with looking after their own.
  We hear the same complaints year after year, and throw more money and resources at the problem, but never get any improvement.
  An annual report on progress would serve my need to know.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:52am
  - srylands
    
    If you look at Maori education under achievement, it is not possible for policy makers in New Zealand to ascribe any of the causes to family circumstances. So it is the fault of the schools, the teachers, racism, not enough Maori medium tuition.
    
    Maori kids, or any kids, from drug and crime ridden households have no hope of succeeding at school. And sadly Maori are over represented in such households. They also have higher fertility rates so numbers are in increasing.
    
    The press release below is from 2018. I am sure I could find a similar one from 2008. And I predict nothing will have improved by 2028.
    
    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/m%C4%81ori-achievement-priority-education
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:23pm
    - Sacha
      
      Of course it’s not possible – but why does ALL of NZ society have accept the blame for endless failures on the part of one segment of the population?
      Why are the endless calls for something to be done because things DON’T improve, listened to – it’s just throwing good money after bad, year after year after year, and facilitating continuing failure.
      
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      July 17, 2019 3:53pm
      - Sacha
        
        And I think we could sort out the high fertility rates quick smart.
        Have a basic DPB based on bringing up one child, and no additions.
        People will get away with what they can, but if it’s made too difficult, they’ll amend their behaviour.
        
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        July 17, 2019 3:55pm
- John Warren
  
  But it’s much easier to just blame white colonialism.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:47am
- GoVege
  
  Hullkiwi: I heard that bit about solutions being “by Maori, for Maori and with Maori” and thought, they left out the bit “and paid for by Pakeha”.
  Nothing will change until the section of Maori society who commit all the crime, including family violence, develop a work ethic.
  Most Maori are shamed by the behaviour of these people.
  Unfortunately the so called leaders of Maoridom are not.
  In fact they won’t even acknowledge what the problem is.
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:03pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    GV, your comment about the Pakeha paying is spot on.
    
    In fact we already are.
    
    1. The hui was organized by Whanau Ora – a taxpayer funded body;
    2. The Maoris’ study will be done by Whanau Ora – a taxpayer body; and
    3. The report will call for more money and resources to br directed to whanau, iwi and hapu, plus Whanau Ora to support all the additional support resources. The tab of course will be passed to the taxpayer.
    
    If I’m not mistaken, the same broadcast we heard stated that there are also 3 other studies (Children’s Commissioner
    Ombudsman, and Oranga Tamariki) into this situation already under way. Also all funded by the taxpayer. And all will come to the same broad findings and solution.
    
    The B/S is that Maori have already had Treaty settlements – part of which is meant to be targeted at “on going support and Maori in the iwi” but they’ll still want more.
    
    You’re correct about the Maori work ethic. This was beautifully demonstrated a couple of weeks ago in an RNZ news story about a BoP family who was getting their contact with their children cut because the children are to be adoptes/or go into foster care. The father, a Maori had a history of drug/alcohol abuse, and he had had irregular employment so could not support his children. What he really wanted above the contact with his children was for the State to pay him so he had an income stream to look after his children. What B/S, he had sewen his oats and now what’s the taxpayer to pick up the tab!
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:59pm
- Jules99
  
  I’ve always been a bit anti the idea of ‘reservations’ for Maori, but given how nothing changes from year to year maybe we should give it a go. Shut down all ‘cultural competency’ and Maori directed funding and direct it to a reservation model with reporting accountability. Maori services provided for Maori by Maori that is aligned to the Maori world view. Maori can choose whether they live on the reservation or not. Sounds great!
  
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  July 17, 2019 2:20pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    In a country at the base of Africa it was called apartheid. While the notion may have merits, I don’t believe it would be considered acceptable. This despite regular calls from Maoridom for separate systems to cater for their population.
    
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    July 17, 2019 5:20pm
Lance

At the Apollo anniversary there seems to be a reduction in moonbats now that the Chinese have video of the landing sites, along with India.
Pesty facts

The worst thing about these hoax halfwits is they are pissing over the greatest engineering achievement in human history. 400,000 people worked on the Apollo program with 18,000 engineering Phds being employed. And a few uneducated losers who can’t understand what they see call it fake.
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July 17, 2019 9:03am
- Ross12
  
  Alan Jones interviewed a guy last night that had written a book about Australia’s involvement in the moon landing. The images we all saw came from monitoring by Australia because the NASA monitoring system was down at that moment.
  So a bit difficult to manufacture a hoax in those circumstances.
  Worth looking up a replay, Lance if you are interested in it all.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:39am
  - rangitoto
    
    Australia can’t possibly be real. What would stop them falling off the underside of the Earth.
    
    18 0
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    July 17, 2019 10:42am
    - Tall Man
      
      Velcro on their shoes you idiot … everybody knows that.
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:17pm
      - SGA
        
        But, but, but … kangaroo’s would disappear on their first hop 😉
        
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        July 17, 2019 3:26pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Come on SGA… FFS do I have to tell you everything.
        
        “Joey” is a code word for an “anti gravity” device that all kangaroos have possessed since the Dream Time.
        
        Now don’t get me started on the “boomerang”.
        
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        July 17, 2019 5:14pm
  - Jules99
    
    The film about it with Sam Neill in was great.
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:22pm
- Swifty
  
  Even the Soviets accepted that it happened and if anyone had the motivation and ability to call it a hoax it was them.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:10am
- Batman
  
  Hey Lance, do you have a link or similar for that footage?
  
  I thought the Chinese were landing on the dark side of the moon, nowhere near the Apollo sites.
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:13pm
  - Lance
    
    That was the rovers Jade Rabbit 1 and 2, they also orbited the moon taking photos and video.
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-party_evidence_for_Apollo_Moon_landings
    
    Also NASA has heaps of new images but they are not exactly third party
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:01pm
    - Batman
      
      Thanks mate!!
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:06pm
  - Lance
    
    Also a common misunderstanding is how come telescopes can’t see the landing sites.
    In reality anybody that has looked into optics knows that it is not possible with even the biggest telescope, far too mach magnification needed. An insanely large mirror/ lens would be needed, greater than 100 metres across and outside earths atmosphere to resolve even a crude ‘pixeled form of the landing sites.
    What telescopes are really really good at is gathering light not normally visible.
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:17pm
    - Batman
      
      I have been sort of aware of this problem, hence why amateur sleuths haven’t already proved we landed etc.
      
      Very interesting though, thanks!
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:29pm
Tony Stuart

It was amusing hearing Stuart Nash try to defend Labour’s proposed vehicle tax this morning on his segment with Hosking. In the real world the bloke drives a diesel-powered VW Amarok, and an old gas-guzzling, smoke-belching fire engine!

Do as we say, not as we do demonstrated right there 😀
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July 17, 2019 9:04am
- igm
  
  Nash is either as incompetent as Ardern, or a downright liar. He is totally out of his depth, and I bet Napier are wishing Simon Tremain was standing for Parliament, not as mayor.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:10am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    It’s Chris Tremain who’s standing for Mayor, but he was certainly an excellent MP for Napier.
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:36am
    - igm
      
      Got a bit misled by Stuff, once again. Maybe senility is on the way!
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/hawkes-bay/114286373/former-napier-mp-chris-tremain-to-run-for-mayor
      
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      July 17, 2019 10:07am
  - kowtow
    
    Why either or ?
    
    These people can be both liars and incompetents.
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:05pm
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Liars, incompetents, and as we have found out in the past 12 months, a mother.
      
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      July 17, 2019 1:53pm
  - Tall Man
    
    …
    
    2 0
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    July 17, 2019 1:19pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Ahhh, the sweet smell of moderation……..
      
      3 0
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      July 17, 2019 5:15pm
- Colville
  
  VW?
  
  So from the company that were fined $2.8 bil for cheating their emission tests?
  
  A perfect car for the socialist talking head.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:17am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Yes, but the Amarok was completely excluded from the emission test fiasco – because all such vehicles (mini-trucks)are not subject to the same emissions rules.
    
    It was all the passenger vehicles that had a software routine that detected when they were in a static test situation (on a rolling road – so test if not all 4 wheels are rotating) and if they were restricted output and hence internal temperatures to minimize NOx emissions in particular. In normal use they used a different ignition/fuel map.
    
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    July 17, 2019 11:05am
    - srylands
      
      To be honest, being lectured to just makes me feel like buying an Amarok.
      
      7 1
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      July 17, 2019 12:28pm
    - White Anglo Saxon Protestant
      
      so the VW engineers found a way to meet emissions requirements and the clients performance expectations.
      which way to the nearest VW dealer?
      
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      July 17, 2019 3:05pm
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Tony Stuart,
  
  “In the real world the bloke drives a diesel-powered VW Amarok, and an old gas-guzzling, smoke-belching fire engine!”
  
  Silly equivalence!
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:34am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    How do you come to that conclusion stephie? The Minister wants everyone else to be driving low emissions cars, to mitigate the pollution he generates. He’s being hypocritical, plain and simple.
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:09am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      In the weird world that stephie inhabits, Labour being hypocrites is perfectly normal.
      
      35 1
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      July 17, 2019 10:16am
      - Poppa
        
        Actually Capt that is normal activity for Labour.
        
        Stephie actually got one right! It is a full moon too
        
        17 0
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        July 17, 2019 10:20am
    - Tall Man
      
      Best not to engage with steffy girl.
      
      She is just feeding of you when you do.
      
      12 1
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      July 17, 2019 10:17am
      - kowtow
        
        Yep , down tick and scroll on.
        
        14 1
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        July 17, 2019 12:06pm
    - Swifty
      
      Do as I say, not do as I do!!
      
      9 0
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      July 17, 2019 11:11am
  - srylands
    
    Sorry. Driving an Amarok disqualifies you from lecturing people about climate chsnge. It is that simple.
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:29pm
Brian McDonald

Some folks are handing in their semi auto firearms and some farmers have greeted the new (delayed) ETS. Not sure about the use of the word ‘scheme’ however.
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July 17, 2019 9:14am
- John Warren
  
  I think the operative word is “some”.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:43am
Tall Man

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/394554/new-gun-city-store-in-christchurch-angers-residents-they-should-have-at-least-informed-us

No wonder Christchurch has a dysfunctional council, they have dysfunctional voters.
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July 17, 2019 9:14am
- stinkypete
  
  thank goodness i dont have to drive to the otherside of town
  thanks mr tipple
  
  yours
  south chch ratepayer
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:10am
- John Warren
  
  “It’s taking the shine off the area,” said Sockburn resident Lindsey Corner. I think my fellow Christchurch residents on here will agree that Sockburn had no shine to remove.
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:43am
- stinkypete
  
  and thanks to the police i now have some money in my account to use to buy err things at the opening
  thanks tax payers
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:59pm
john1234

Well this is rather obvious to me, but just in case, some academics have chipped in:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/114291291/otago-university-researchers-call-for-new-sporting-categories-due-to-trans-athletes-unfair-advantage

So yes, the likes of Hubbard have a built in unfair advantage that goes all the way back to in-utero development.

I’m all for Hubbard and co to have meaningful competitive sporting opportunities, but not at the expense of making women born as women uncompetitive in their own events.
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July 17, 2019 9:14am
- krazykiwi
  
  ‘Otago university researchers’ are long on nanny wokeness, and short on providing genuine value for my taxpayer investment.
  
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  July 17, 2019 9:33am
  - sooty
    
    Easy to fix ban a cock in a frock competing in the womans events!
    Come on ladies, stand up!
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:26am
  - kowtow
    
    Investment ?
    
    Sorry but it’s pure waste of scarce and heard earned taxpayer property.
    
    4 0
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    July 17, 2019 12:09pm
- Tall Man
  
  What about seriously obese fatties…. are they to also be provided with ” meaningful competitive sporting opportunities”… other than eating competitions.
  
  What about a special competitive class for real shorties in “highjump” “longjump” and “hurdles”.
  
  Competition is designed to select the best of the best, not the best of the worst.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:16am
- graham
  
  “Science demonstrates that high adult levels of testosterone, as well as permanent testosterone effects on male physiology during in utero and early development, provides a performance advantage in sport and that much of this male physiology is not mitigated by the transition to a transwoman,” Otago University Professor of Physiology Alison Heather said.
  
  Well, what a surprise. You mean that having surgery and hormone treatment can’t make a man completely, undeniably, 100% a woman? Surgery and hormone treatment can’t magically reverse 20, 30, 40 or more years of growing up as a boy, going through puberty, and becoming a man?
  
  Who would have thought …
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:34am
- Swifty
  
  Now let’s see the HRC provide a rebuttal to that. I’d be keen to see it.
  
  According to them, and without any evidence that I’ve seen, trans women have no advantage over women.
  
  ‘However, the Human Rights Commission New Zealand (HRCNZ) has said Hubbard’s selection and participation in the women’s weightlifting section at the 2018 games is the correct decision and those questioning it were wrong.
  
  Taine Polkinghorne, human rights advisor for sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics (SOGISC), said Hubbard or any transgender athlete is selected on merit of performance and background should make no difference.
  
  “There is no valid reason to exclude trans women from competitive women’s sports. Laurel is a woman – not a man masquerading as a woman to gain medals or glory.
  
  “She is an incredible athlete, who has met the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regulations related to acceptable testosterone levels that enable her to compete in sporting competitions.
  
  “Participation in sport and physical activity is a human right.”
  
  Polkinghorne said there was enormous diversity among women athletes anyway.
  
  “So long as their testosterone levels are consistent with those of athletes assigned female at birth, trans women do not pose an unfair advantage in sports.” ‘
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:16am
  - alex Masterley
    
    You would expect Taine P to say that sort of thing.
    It doesn’t mean that it is right however.
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:48pm
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    Males have larger lung capacity that females. Would hormone replacement therapy dimish that respiratory advantage?
    
    I think not.
    
    13 0
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    July 17, 2019 12:57pm
    - SGA
      
      Yeah, I was wondering similarly – i.e., does the increased skeletomusculature development during puberty provide lasting advantageous effects? I don’t know.
      
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      July 17, 2019 3:36pm
alloytoo

Johnny Clegg dead at 66 after a long battle with cancer.

https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/opinion/bye-bye-johnny-clegg-african-rain-and-sky-man-10110519
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July 17, 2019 9:14am
- Grant
  
  Very sad news indeed.
  “Scatterlings of Africa” is an outstanding song, especially with the video shot at Matapos in Matabeleland.
  Hamba gashle
  G
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:05am
- Jack5
  
  Alloiytoo, you would have liked this one of Clegg with Mandela:
  
  https://youtu.be/BGS7SpI7obY
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:29am
krazykiwi

This sums up Theresa May’s time in office: The PM’s poisonous and expensive legacy agenda is storing up problems for the future

The misery is almost over. Britain’s worst post-war premiership is now drawing to its welcome close, as Theresa May enters her final days in Downing Street. After three years of posturing, pusillanimity and paralysis at the top, few will miss her.

Winston Churchill famously said of his wartime leadership that “history will be kind, for I shall write it”. History will not be kind to May. She had one task – to deliver Brexit – and she failed spectacularly. She leaves behind a country still governed by the EU, a broken Tory party without a majority and a Parliament gripped by stalemate.
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July 17, 2019 9:27am
- Batman
  
  I suspect they’ll be in for a rude shock when the next PM comes up short against the psychotic remainders and the smug twats at the EU.
  
  20 9
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  July 17, 2019 9:31am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Yes, some of the Tories still believe their lovely Boris can square that circle. Surely this is all just hastening the long overdue break up of the formerly united kingdom. That must be what the Brexiteers want, surely – they could hardly oppose the transnational project of the EU while supporting English rule over the Scots, Irish and Welsh.
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:45am
  - MCos
    
    As I recall May was against Brexit prior to the referendum. Boris on the other hand lead the charge with promises of big benefits to the country.
    Soon he will get the chance to not only enact Brexit, but make the UK the better for it.
    
    Well, good luck, Boris.
    
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    July 17, 2019 10:59am
    - alloytoo
      
      I believe Boris has what May didn’t have:
      
      A willingness to exit the EU without a “Deal”
      
      The EU may find that harder than the UK.
      
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      July 17, 2019 9:55pm
- kowtow
  
  She was also Home Secretary under that awful Cameron who fired so many police helping to create the knife crime epidemic …….
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:11pm
Paulus

I wonder which Insurance Companies insure the houses in Matata ?
I doubt any do as the risk is too great.
Is it that they expect the taxpayers to pay for any claims that might occur like many in Christchurch, and still do ?
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July 17, 2019 9:48am
Batman

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/114291291/otago-university-researchers-call-for-new-sporting-categories-due-to-trans-athletes-unfair-advantage

Excellent, so that great bastion of left wing ideas, Otago University, has now come up with something that will probably enrage the Twitter activist set!

What we always suspected, trans athletes have an unfair advantage over women…
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July 17, 2019 9:59am
- Poppa
  
  Brilliant, how much did they get paid for that?
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:22am
- Jack5
  
  It’s pretty obvious, Batman.
  
  A more drastic solution would be to wipe out men’s and women’s categories and have only open competitions.
  
  Otago University has been pretty much taken over by Leftists and Ngai Tahu, but it’s got a solid heritage in medicine and dentistry, and it has an international reputation in physiotherapy. I think it now groups physiotherapy and sport in its Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation. The “Otago course” of strength and balance training for old folk is now being promoted in North America.
  
  What is to be ashamed of is the way we have let Maori activists, peaceniks and Leftists take such power in our universities. Massey is an example, and even in Canterbury University Ngai Tahu and general Maori courses infiltrate indigenous “knowledge” into Western learning systems. This is despite the State having created wananga, or special Maori tertiary institutions.
  
  I don’t see how indigenous “learning”, which is basically inherited “knowledge” for societies that did not have writing or formal learning, can be merged with Western education systems. The push for “indigenous knowledge” in universities seems in fact to be a drive for more political power for Maori.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:44am
- Rich Prick
  
  But can they access abortions? Someone didn’t get the memo.
  
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  July 17, 2019 10:55am
- slightlyrighty
  
  Can opened, worms everywhere…
  
  9 0
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  July 17, 2019 11:25am
- MickMac
  
  Trans are therefore cheats.
  As are those supporting them?
  
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  July 17, 2019 3:34pm
Maggie Pie

I’m sure there will be a lot of others here that are enjoying Katie Price’s fab new series “My Crazy Life” (screening on Sky 16 ). Its such a hoot!!
We’re a wee bit behind the times in nz, but Kates has only just undergone another dose of plastic surgery. The real laugh is that she’s in sooo much pain, she can’t even get out of bed. Which means poor old Kris Boyson (her latest bf), not only has to attend to her spastic 17yo son Harvey 24/7, but also has to empty Katies bedpan! LOL.
Gawd, i can only imagine the response i’d get if i ever had to ask MY partner to attend to such matters 🙁

https://twitter.com/TheSun/status/1150963995089805318
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July 17, 2019 10:15am
- GoVege
  
  “Spastic son”, Maggie?
  I think the term these days is cerebral palsy.
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:28pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Hi Vege -the condition is actually Spastic quadriplegia
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:38pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Hey, mods – how come my response to Vege was held back for nearly 3 hours?
    
    Hope its nothng personal 🙁
    
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    July 17, 2019 5:16pm
secondcumming

Now that the OIO has given it’s approval for the *Chinese owned Yili Group* to buy Westland Milk Products, it will be interesting to see what their intentions are in relation to the 5 hectares of land zoned ‘Residential’.

As I understand it, with the land not being zoned Rural, the *Benefit to New Zealand Test* doesn’t apply to this investment.
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July 17, 2019 11:04am
GoVege

Had an altercation with some slobs at McDonald’s recently.
Got my coffee, but the drivethru was blocked by a car and peoplemover still waiting for their massive breakfasts.
No amount of waving, flashing lights or gentle tooting could get then to move a few inches.
Then, when their food was delivered, and the way was clear in front, they STILL wouldn’t move.
(Showing the honky I suppose.)
Reminded me of how I read once that one third of police call-outs are over disputes on shared driveways.
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July 17, 2019 11:11am
- sooty
  
  Never get between a faty and it’s food!
  
  2 0
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  July 17, 2019 2:19pm
- MickMac
  
  “Showing the Honky”?
  
  So they weren’t?
  
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  July 17, 2019 3:32pm
- MCos
  
  I can’t think of many things more depressing than buying a coffee from a fucking McDonalds except buying a coffee from a McDonalds drive through. No wonder you tooted your horn at some slow coaches in front of you.
  
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  July 17, 2019 3:56pm
- gump
  
  It’s good to know that vegetarians are happy to go to McDonalds.
  
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  July 17, 2019 7:55pm
John Warren

Has anybody else noticed the increase in hijab-wearing women in TV ads lately?
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July 17, 2019 11:17am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Triggering?
  
  2 19
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  July 17, 2019 1:19pm
- Tall Man
  
  Don’t watch mainstream TV and I am lucky enough to have inherited a “bullshit avoidance” gene, I automatically tune bullshit out….. yep, that means you steffy girl.
  
  17 2
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  July 17, 2019 1:23pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    shorty
    
    Just curious as to why you go with “steffy girl”. Is it insulting to make out someone is female?
    
    And of course I am eagerly waiting for whatever gentle slap rings your bell today. Give it your best shot ….
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:36pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Still fixated on me eh ian, perhaps you need to get out more.
      
      It is obvious that steffy is not a single commenter and many in the past have been of a female nature. No it is not meant to be an insult. You’re thinking like a “girl” ian… that’s an insult.
      
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      July 17, 2019 5:19pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Yes.
  
  5 0
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  July 17, 2019 1:30pm
  - Batman
    
    They’re comin’ for ya!!! Haha
    
    4 0
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    July 17, 2019 2:12pm
- Prince
  
  I’ve been watching an excellent Thriller recently, ‘The Bodyguard’.
  The sort of thing TVNZ would have as their Sunday feature.
  I’m pretty sure it hasn’t appeared on NZ TV, eg Soho etc, and couldn’t understand why.
  The central theme is a series of terrorist bombing attacks in London. The series has been a ratings success, but took some criticism as ‘Islamophobic’.
  
  7 0
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  July 17, 2019 1:49pm
  - alex Masterley
    
    Watched it on Netflicks last year.
    A very good tv show.
    
    3 0
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    July 17, 2019 3:14pm
- Nukuleka
  
  All over bank ads along with hand-holding gays. Yuk.
  
  5 0
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  July 17, 2019 3:03pm
- MCos
  
  I thought there was only two ads on TV
  The drink/drive one by the surfies and Grant Elliot in his pajamas
  
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  July 17, 2019 3:36pm
Fletch

I heard a story on the radio news this morning about a new “ethics code” that Labour hopes to introduce to “help” small businesses, whereby invoices must be paid within a certain time period.

They want to regulate payment times.

“By that we mean within 10 business days.” [Stuart Nash]

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12249025
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July 17, 2019 11:38am
- Ross12
  
  This clearly shows the lack of business experience in the Labour caucus.
  Not only do they over look the standard of payment by 20th of the month following but they do not realise that generally it is big companies who are the worst at not paying on time (or at least that is my experience). All they have to do is ask a few sub contractors on building projects, as an example.
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:25pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Are Nash & Co going to provide the liquidity to affect a 10 day payment rule? Extra staff, greater costs, lesser profits equals lesser tax take.
  
  Somebody please appoint a competent economic/business advisor to that team.
  
  Oops–they have take advice from Winston or themselves.
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:29pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Something to do with having GST paid quicker maybe? This lot of thieves in Govt are desperately short of cash
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:42pm
- Swifty
  
  Surely the ethical position is to meet the payment terms/times previously agreed – not some period magically plucked out of Nash’s arse.
  
  If you’re not happy with the payment terms offered by another party, either renegotiate them or walk away.
  
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  July 17, 2019 2:44pm
Jack5

Dick Smith, of electronics retail store chain fame, has given half million dollars of tax-credit funds back to the Australian Government saying “I don’t need it.”

The return relates to dividend imputation credits, which apply also in New Zealand and in most other Western countries. Basically this is when a company pays tax, it can pass on tax credits with shareholder dividends. This avoids double taxation.

Australia’s system was amended by John Howard and Peter Costello so that the State provided cash to people who paid no income tax but still received dividend imputation credits. Labour has planned to amend the change by qualifying it with a means test.

Dick Smith said: “I think it’s outrageous for wealthy people to be getting money from the government.”

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/it-s-outrageous-dick-smith-received-500-000-of-franking-credit-refunds-in-one-year-20190716-p527p1.html
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July 17, 2019 11:39am
- Ian Boag
  
  NZ, Australia and Malta are the only places that do this dividend imputation thing. Only the Aussies hand back cash when the credit exceeds tax payable.
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:17pm
Jack5

Here’s why the NZ population is hitting five million and is growing the fastest of any country in the OECD, squeezing our health, education, and prisons system and general infrastructure.

The student visa rort and the temporary worker schemes are being blown out by newcomers bringing in marital partners. No doubt extended families will follow.

And our State media are hyping up this up.

Our politicians have sold out the country.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/394571/visa-delays-causing-heartbreak-for-foreign-couples
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July 17, 2019 11:45am
- Jack5
  
  This report says there is a backlog of 26,000 applications for residence waiting to be processed, up 10,000 on last year.
  
  Red Radio emphasises the feelings of applicants, rather than the economic effect of what is now soaring population:
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/the-detail/story/2018703665/the-heartbreak-behind-the-immigration-backlog
  
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  July 17, 2019 11:53am
  - srylands
    
    They were banging on yesterday about the horror of Australia deporting New Zealand criminals. Just keep on doubling down. That policy is never going to change. I’d like to see Scomo say STFU about it.
    
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    July 17, 2019 12:37pm
- brett68
  
  Yep, it’s an utter rort.
  Anyone can come here on a student visa do a level 7 course which can be as short as 3 months and boom 3 year work visa and then you can apply for any job you want.
  Students with partners and kids can come in as well.
  You can also work for up to 20 hours during your course.
  
  Many many of those students end up becoming residents at the end of their three years, it’s nothing more than mass immigration by stealth.
  
  Anyone who thinks politicians are working for the good of the country is fucking deluded and that applies for all parties, especially National, they’re the ones that created this scheme, why? because it suppresses wages which lowers business costs and drives up the value of housing.
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:49pm
  - Batman
    
    Brett I worked in Tertiary policy, so I’ll just say.
    
    You have to do a full tertiary level course to get a working visa for after your study. It’s one year not three.
    
    You can’t have dependents come too aside from in some certain circumstances.
    
    Yes you can work 20hours. The main problem is dodgy shop owners who make the students work for cash under the table and for way more than 20 hours. Those shop owners are usually the type who have imported third world practices like this with them….
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:37pm
    - brett68
      
      Working post study
      https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-a-visa/about-visa/post-study-work-visa
      
      https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/options/work/explore-work-visa-options
      
      Students with partners
      https://www.immigration.govt.nz/new-zealand-visas/apply-for-a-visa/about-visa/special-work-visa-for-partners-of-student-visa-holders
      
      From what I’ve heard the government changed the rules late last year and everyone with a level 7 qualification or higher gets a 3 year work visa if they apply.
      
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      July 17, 2019 2:10pm
    - Jack5
      
      A lecturer in IT told me that 90 per cent of the foreign folk he taught openly admitted they had no plans at all to work in NZ IT – they just wanted into the country.
      
      Ask the young Asians calling door-to-door for electricity companies, and you’ll find many, perhaps most, studied IT to get into NZ.
      
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      July 17, 2019 3:05pm
  - Tall Man
    
    But Simon wasn’t in charge so how can it be wrong.
    
    Pretty sure this was put in place by helen’s labour government by was altered in 2010 by National.
    
    https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual-archive/I29448.HTM
    
    https://www.immigration.govt.nz/opsmanual-archive/8579.HTM
    
    3 3
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    July 17, 2019 2:01pm
  - Martin Williams
    
    Yep. Key’s National government felt the most important thing for ~~them~~ the country was to keep wages low and house prices high. This benefits their voter base. It wasn’t that they dropped the ball on housing – it was a deliberate strategy.
    
    They have also devalued our once respected international education sector. It is now associated with dodgy agents both abroad and here, and worker exploitation. It’ll take years if not decades to repair that damage.
    
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    July 17, 2019 3:49pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Yep, just another labour liar.
      
      Look back and you will find that the “student rort” started before you were born, or hatched.
      
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      July 17, 2019 8:44pm
- Tall Man
  
  Can’t see the problem, either wait until residency is granted before you marry or do what Trump suggested………..
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:56pm
kowtow

Well worth a short read.

“Richard Walton, who headed the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command until 2016, said his investigation into XR revealed it had a “subversive” agenda rooted in the “political extremism of anarchism” rather than just campaigning on climate change.

He said he had uncovered evidence that XR leaders advocated “revolution” to overturn capitalism, mass protest and law-breaking aimed at achieving a breakdown of democracy and the state – an intent many of its middle class and celebrity backers appeared unaware of.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/07/16/treat-extinction-rebellion-extremist-anarchist-group-former/
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July 17, 2019 12:13pm
srylands

I’m on a bus. I think all New Zealand politicians should be forced to use public transport. Exclusively. For three months. And then we can have a review of transport policy.
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July 17, 2019 12:32pm
- wreck1080
  
  Kiwi cities don’t have the right population density or city design for efficient public transport.
  
  In some ways, the old european cities that were built before the motorcar have an advantage.
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:52pm
- Rich Prick
  
  I used a bus for reasons that don’t matter recently. It was all going OK until a urine soaked derro got on board. I’m sworn off the damn things now.
  
  13 0
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  July 17, 2019 1:34pm
  - John Warren
    
    I’ve always said that the biggest problem with public transport is… the public. I tend to avoid mixing unnecessarily with the great unwashed. It helps me to maintain both my mental health, and my physical health (fewer colds, etc).
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:40pm
    - MCos
      
      Have you informed Steve Hansen you’re unavailable for the ABs either as a player or spectator due to anthropophobia
      
      2 0
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      July 17, 2019 3:22pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Everyone grabs a pole when boarding, everyone grabs something when seating. That’s where the infections come from. Same with handrails on travelators. Someone has been picking/wiping their nose, scratching their arse or masturbating before they grabbed that handrail
      
      5 2
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      July 17, 2019 4:59pm
      - MCos
        
        A lot of the people I see on the bus are way beyond masturbation age.
        I’ll ask around
        
        2 1
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        July 17, 2019 5:20pm
  - srylands
    
    To be fair urine soaked people don’t usually get on buses. But it is hardly a relaxing environment. And in winter they are breeding grounds for he cold virus. Trains are marginally better, but if you need to stand on a 30 minute commute it is a misery.
    
    My point about politicians was a serious one. It is all very well to gush about “public transport” but the reality is that people will prefer private transport unless it becomes cost prohibitive. Because it is more convenient, more pleasant, and healthier. I don’t like being stuck in congestion. But if I have my own space, a podcast, or music, and heating/cooling, that is some compensation.
    
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    July 17, 2019 2:16pm
  - alex Masterley
    
    My son won’t use the outer link in Auckland anymore.
    His bus had to stop and evacuate it’s passengers when some-one took a dump on the back seat.
    
    5 0
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    July 17, 2019 3:16pm
- krazykiwi
  
  srylands, Our politicians know what’s best for us: Public transport. For them it’s chauffeur driven BMWs, biz/1st class flying and charted aircraft.
  
  Incidentally, the socialist’s fascination with rail may date back to Stalin. “Let the stations be the palaces of the people!” he declared as the Moscow metro was being planned.
  
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  July 17, 2019 4:43pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Public transport seems to work quite OK on the odd times that I use it.
    But the other evening when we were in a restaurant in Petone for about an hour and a half I saw at least 8 buses go past with a total of about 2 passengers.
    I wonder who is paying for that?
    
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    July 17, 2019 9:33pm
Rodney Randall

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/114300644/cultural-mistake-led-to-touching-of-boy-at-changing-rooms-in-christchurch

Defence: Cultural ‘Mistake’ ?
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July 17, 2019 12:40pm
- wreck1080
  
  I don’t believe this would be acceptable in any country.
  
  The chinese guy scammed the judge! I had a chinese neighbour, and I know what she would have said had this guy done that to her boy!
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:54pm
- alex Masterley
  
  I have to confess to a double take when i saw that one.
  I am not sure what my chinese friends and clients would make of this “custom”
  
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  July 17, 2019 12:57pm
- Tall Man
  
  Next trip to China I’ll give it a go with a young Chinese woman… I’m sure it will be well received…
  
  I used to think you needed brains to be a judge …. I guess not.
  
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  July 17, 2019 2:04pm
- John Warren
  
  The judge was not only scammed, but clearly can’t use Google. Try searching for this bizarre cultural practice and you won’t get anything except references to that very article. Our very good Chinese friend is calling bullshit on this and, similar to wreck1080’s neighbour, hinting what she might do to any Chinaman who tries that with her five-year-old son. There were knives and ducks involved.
  
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  July 17, 2019 2:23pm
Happychappy

Why would you have a Minister like Phil Twyford in charge of integrating Drones into our Transport System after the mess he made of Housing with his promise to deliver thousands of affordable homes for first time buyers and actually delivered just over 300. Then with Auckland rail his promise to deliver a modern railway system to the suburbs and the airport has been blown out to a One Billion Dollars over budget and cost some businesses thousands of dollars.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/07/drones-the-billion-dollar-transport-industry-tipped-for-government-regulation.html
This idiot is a walking disaster and everything he touches turns to shit.
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July 17, 2019 12:46pm
- Poppa
  
  God help us if Phil is arranging regulations for drones. Imagine what would happen if he ever attempted to fly one!
  
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  July 17, 2019 2:57pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Putting Twyford in charge of drones is a genius master stroke:
  
  Now none of them will get off the ground 🙂
  
  6 0
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  July 17, 2019 4:46pm
  - sooty
    
    He’s the biggest drone!
    
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    July 17, 2019 8:12pm
Maggie Pie

Whats with that Sunny Bill Williams? My partners mums got more go than he has! And shes in a retirement village 🙂
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July 17, 2019 12:53pm
- Poppa
  
  Over rated & over paid. The problem is they are are paying him so much they have to pick him
  
  He hardly plays anyway due to injury thank God for that
  
  7 0
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  July 17, 2019 2:53pm
  - sooty
    
    You forgot the over here aswell!
    
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    July 17, 2019 8:13pm
rangitoto

The CoL caught lying again.

“Federated Farmers says while it has agreed to work with the government to further reduce emissions, it has not signed up to any Emissions Trading Scheme.”

“The Government has put out a proposal to reduce agricultural greenhouse gases which would include farmers paying for five per cent of their total emissions costs by 2025.

After the proposal was released, Climate Change Minister said a “historic consensus with farming leaders” had been reached “to implement farm-level pricing of climate change emissions from the agriculture sector by 2025″.”
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July 17, 2019 1:02pm
- cmm
  
  “consensus ”
  
  A con by the census minister.
  
  6 1
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  July 17, 2019 2:40pm
GoVege

Rodney: Its not just Chinese who do this as a sign of affection.
Newly arrived Polynesians sometimes do it too, until they learn their mistake.
Maybe the custom originated in Asia and spread to the Pacific islands. 🙂
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July 17, 2019 1:08pm
- Tall Man
  
  Outside the immediate family…. I don’t think so.
  
  Any genital touching of strangers or even family is frowned upon within most cultures. Not sure about your home though with you being being a vege.
  
  6 2
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  July 17, 2019 2:06pm
- Happychappy
  
  It used happen in Scouts and Cubs many years ago and and many of them were white NZer’s, but in them days some people never believed their children’s story.
  
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  July 17, 2019 6:49pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump is racist but these following four are not.
Nice to have some news and facts from the right wing instead of the usual leftist dribble.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/07/16/list-of-racist-statements-by-members-of-the-squad-so-far/?fbclid=IwAR378POKZkhS_nug5iXGoGrQkX2m-JajMAp-TfjltJOSQ31tDizXejOBzHo
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July 17, 2019 1:09pm
- stephieboy
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY)??
  
  Trump campaigners made similar against Jews.Furthemore it uis well known that antisemitism is rife amongst his supporters,
  
  Trump’s Soft Spot for anti-Semites Is Now a Big Problem for His Jewish Fans
  
  When pro-Israel Trump invites an alt-right, anti-Semitic cartoonist into the White House, even if he’s belatedly ditched, Jewish supporters have to face an unpleasant truth about the president,..”
  
  https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trump-s-soft-spot-for-anti-semites-is-now-a-big-problem-for-his-jewish-fans-1.7487601
  
  LOL!
  
  1 36
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  July 17, 2019 1:14pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Hey idiot. That link leads to an ‘opinion’
    Is that all you got? Seriously?
    95% bullshit
    
    18 2
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    July 17, 2019 1:50pm
  - Inandout
    
    Get it right stephie, Omar and AOC hate the US with a vengeance.
    
    13 2
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    July 17, 2019 3:40pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      So do Maxine Waters, Rashida Tlaib, Ayanna Pressley, Kamala Harris.
      Pelosi? Maybe not, she’s just a drunk
      
      6 2
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      July 17, 2019 5:07pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  It’s okay to say that there are racists on “both sides”.
  
  2 29
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  July 17, 2019 1:21pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    As usual Mike, you have to have a dig
    
    18 1
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    July 17, 2019 1:55pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Smarmy mike strikes again.
      
      You must be a real gem after a few drinks.
      
      14 1
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      July 17, 2019 2:09pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Jesus, that would be fun
        
        6 1
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        July 17, 2019 5:09pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        To me, mike always comes across as a bit of a sad and lonely individual. He realy needs to meet someone like myself that could give his life a bit of a ‘kick-tart’ 🙂
        
        7 1
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        July 17, 2019 6:54pm
  - Garbageman
    
    Racism replaces Russia in the left’s minds we have had a couple of years of the latter (failed) now for a couple of years of Trump the racist which will guarantee him another term as the usual suspects ramp up their TDS and become increasingly erratic & bizarre in their statements, and we all thought they had achieved that milestone already, now watch the loons double down..such fun to behold
    
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    July 17, 2019 1:59pm
  - WaveyDavey
    
    Still doing this Mike?
    
    Have a read: https://spectator.us/trump-stupid-smart-attack-squad/
    
    6 0
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    July 17, 2019 2:14pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Atm the squad is a huge asset for Trump.
      Yuge!
      
      5 1
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      July 17, 2019 5:13pm
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Here’s the most racist statement I’ve read recently, Milky:
    
    Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “We don’t need any more black faces that don’t want to be a black voice.”
    
    She allows black people only one way of thinking, in line with her, and expects them to put race above all the other, hopefully more important, aspects of their lives.
    
    Now *that* is racism.
    
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    July 17, 2019 4:04pm
- Prince
  
  Thanks for posting that Steve. I suspected Trump’s tweets were in response to some goading from this ‘squad’, but there was no balanced coverage on RNZ or TV. Thanks for putting it in context.
  
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  July 17, 2019 1:37pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    RNZ or TV? They all hate Trump.
    Trump could find a cure for cancer, and the NZ clowns would say that Trump took the cancer away and they want it back
    
    30 1
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    July 17, 2019 1:53pm
    - Garbageman
      
      In 2020 the Democrats are running on:
      We hate America. We hate you. We really hate the Jews. We loathe Donald
      Trump. Muslims are good. Christians are bad. White people are the cause
      of every ill on the planet. We’re OK with murdering newborns. Unvetted
      Illegals can flood in through open borders in unlimited numbers with
      impunity. Carbon is a poison that should be taxed.
      And male Tranny’s should compete in woman’s sports, share the lady’s
      room with your wife and daughter, and groom your sons by reading
      children’s books to them at public libraries in full drag. And you don’t
      need your guns.
      
      17 0
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      July 17, 2019 2:10pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        And that’s just scraping the surface. Storming Area 51, concentration camps, drinking toilet water, fences between AOC and an empty carpark.
        Here’s something – YouTube The United Spot for some fun
        
        8 1
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        July 17, 2019 5:18pm
    - stephieboy
      
      The facts are that anti-Semitism and other kinds of racism, phobias are endemic amongst Trump supporters!
      
      http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/ilhan-omar-islamophobic-backlash.html
      
      and,
      
      https://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/11/06/franken-compares-trump-ad-to-elders-of-zion
      
      1 23
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      July 17, 2019 2:16pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        And the Democrats have got you…
        Lol
        
        8 0
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        July 17, 2019 6:07pm
    - MCos
      
      Let’s worry about that when he finds that cure.
      In the meantime there’s some rather distasteful sides to his character he could work on, but why risk alienating his supporters.
      
      0 7
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      July 17, 2019 3:07pm
    - srylands
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/11/state-broadcaster-ert-shut-down-greece
      
      In Greece they ran out of money and, literally, pulled the plug on the state broadcaster. Just what RNZ needs.
      
      8 0
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      July 17, 2019 5:21pm
- Tall Man
  
  Steve you need to use this (sarc) from time to time..
  
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  July 17, 2019 2:08pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Why? Then the morons won’t show up //
    
    6 1
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    July 17, 2019 5:29pm
Jack5

Hmm, are they pulling someone’s, er, leg?

Is it acceptable in China for elderly men to touch boys’ penises? Or is this a bit of multiculturist bullshit?

Read about an old Chinese bloke touching a kid’s penis in the changing room of a Christchurch swimming pool, and his defence counsel telling the court hears this:

A cultural report, prepared by Ren’s daughter, said tweaking a child’s penis was a common form of endearment in China.

Ah, multiculturism …?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/114300644/cultural-mistake-led-to-touching-of-boy-at-changing-rooms-in-christchurch
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July 17, 2019 1:21pm
- Jack5
  
  Whoops, didn’t see that Rodney Randall had already posted on this. Maybe the moderation queue system …
  
  9 0
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  July 17, 2019 1:38pm
- John Warren
  
  As far as I can make out, running it past Chinese friends and searching on Google, it is bullshit.
  
  8 0
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  July 17, 2019 2:24pm
RRM

50th anniversary of ignition sequence start…

https://youtu.be/zGNryrsT7OI

A monumental achievement, especially for people who weren’t even capable of organizing sharp clear tv footage…
6 0
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July 17, 2019 1:23pm
- kowtow
  
  ……cos it was all filmed with low budget equipment in a garage somewhere …..
  
  (just kidding)
  
  3 0
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  July 17, 2019 1:41pm
- srylands
  
  I envy those who got to witness a Saturn V launch.
  
  6 0
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  July 17, 2019 2:21pm
UrbanNeocolonialist

“Nuclear isotopes on Marshall Islands up to 1000 times higher than Chernobyl or Fukushima”

But failing to say that still many times lower than occur naturally in other parts of the world with no detectable impact on long-term health of locals. Estimates on ‘safe’ levels of exposure were pulled out of their arses by researchers who unjustifiably used linear extrapolation from enormous exposure levels.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12250183
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July 17, 2019 2:13pm
skyblue

Broomstick 1 aka NZRAF Beoing 757 has just landed at Whenuapai (4pm). Who is back?
8 0
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July 17, 2019 4:03pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Being back in the country means she’ll need to find some fresh excuses for skipping QT
  
  6 0
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  July 17, 2019 5:34pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Dunno who may be back. Getting more supplies for the flight to Oz? You know, huggies, formula, and fishing gear
  
  8 1
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  July 17, 2019 5:34pm
  - sooty
    
    She’s visiting the melbourne silo sid by side with her teatowel!
    
    0 0
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    July 17, 2019 8:06pm
All_on_Red

Just for Batman
It must have killed CNN to air this. The interviewer looks flabbergasted
https://edition.cnn.com/videos/politics/2019/07/17/women-trump-voters-react-attacks-on-congresswomen-kaye-ac360-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/ac360-videos/
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July 17, 2019 4:06pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Wonder if Batman clicked the link. Pure CNN diversion. The 8 women had something to say, but there was something else from CNN.
  The ever changing banners on the bottom. I counted 11 biased views in the banners
  
  7 1
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  July 17, 2019 5:41pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    It was on Anderson Coopers show. He’s probably one of the least deranged on a CNN.
    I don’t know why he’s still there. His mum just died (sad) and he’s set to inherit $200+ million.
    Her name was Gloria Vanderbilt.
    
    6 0
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    July 17, 2019 6:16pm
    - Inandout
      
      All on Red. will Cooper need to share the inheritance with his man friend/husband?
      
      2 1
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      July 17, 2019 7:53pm
igm

Why was Karel Sroubek in possession of PM’s personal cellphone number.
Did Lees-Galloway give it to him, or is there definitely something going on between Jethro and lawnmower man?
Maybe Sroubek is merely getting details of his role in the forthcoming wedding, being on the agenda to influence next election.
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July 17, 2019 5:12pm
- Inandout
  
  igm, surely this government isn’t as corrupt as the Dems in the US? If they are then we are sunk.
  
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  July 17, 2019 7:50pm
- sooty
  
  What about Jethro and Mike Bush?
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:03pm
- Tall Man
  
  Between the “deflectors” in the media and the moderators here it won’t be easy getting the truth out…..
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:29pm
- fernglas
  
  She used to chuck her number around like confetti so it wouldn’t have been hard to get hold of. I could have done it with a phone call. It’s a generational thing. Facebook, Instagram etc. Privacy doesn’t exist for many.
  
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  July 17, 2019 8:33pm
kevn

So, will whinney help or hinder US/NZ trade?
He has ‘help’ on the negative side from JA.
I wonder if whinneys arrogance whilst in the USA will trip him (NZ) up?
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July 17, 2019 5:25pm
Hugh Pavletich

… CHINA … OFFICE SPACE UPDATE …

Office glut creeps up in Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai as trade war saps growth plans and start-ups move to co-working spaces … Pearl Liu …South China Morning Post

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3018789/office-glut-creeps-shenzhen-beijing-and-shanghai-trade-war

• Shenzhen’s office vacancy rate rose to 16.6 per cent at end of June, while Beijing’s was at 11.5 per cent, and Shanghai jumped to 18 per cent

• Four of 15 landlords of Shenzhen’s new office towers are major developers, rest are small builders, investment firms or conglomerates

A building frenzy in southern China’s answer to Silicon Valley has driven the vacancy in Grade A offices to a record high, putting the squeeze on part-time developers whose blind inexperience have led them into the industry.

A record 1.79 million square metres (19.27 million sq ft) of vacancy, equivalent to 10 of Hong Kong’s IFC towers, stood in Shenzhen at the end of June, requiring about two years to fill up, according to the real estate consultancy CBRE. Half of that empty space lies in Nanshan district, home to such Chinese technology behemoths as Tencent, ZTE, and drone maker DJI. … read more via hyperlink above …
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July 17, 2019 5:41pm
Hugh Pavletich

Australian Bureau of Statistics research illustrates why it’s a good idea going in to retirement owning a mortgage – free home …

Home ownership continues to fall as the great Australian dream gets more distant for many – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-17/home-ownership-falling-while-more-people-are-renting-abs-study/11318070

… extract …

… Renters spend more on housing than owners

The ABS study found the average weekly housing costs for all Australian households were $311, but vary significantly for different tenure types.

$53 for owners without a mortgage
$484 for owners with a mortgage
$366 for renters …

… On average, private renters paid 20 per cent of their income on housing costs, compared to 16 per cent for owners with a mortgage and 3 per cent for households who owned their home outright.… read more via hyperlink above …

… and too … buying ‘affordable’ homes at or below 3 times annual household income …

2019 15th Annual Demographia International Affordability Survey

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

Definition Of An Affordable Housing Market – Performance Urban Planning

http://www.performanceurbanplanning.org/affordability.html
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July 17, 2019 8:27pm
sooty

Sneeking in to drop your shit and run, after most people have gone to bed. You link whore!
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July 18, 2019 7:59am

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