General Debate 28 August 2019

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Steve Otto(North Shore)

Video footage of Jeffrey Epstein deemed unusable. Well how about that?
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August 28, 2019 8:09am
- BrownSnake
  
  Even if they showed it released it
  
  It would be an almost complete Fabrication
  like the JFK Zapruder film
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:17am
  - stephieboy
    
    “It would be an almost complete Fabrication
    like the JFK Zapruder film”
    
    Rubbish!
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:18am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Zapruder film was shot on 16 mm film, and the original exists. Pretty hard to fake.
    
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    August 28, 2019 6:10pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Bet the Clintons have a usable copy on a server somewhere . . .
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:50am
  - stephieboy
    
    Paulus Gnome. don’t forget the body bags!
    
    LOL!
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:19am
atomic drop

So Biden is now being kept away from the media as much possible because of his continual gaffes. Apparently only 30 people or so turned out for a Biden rally in NH, though Biden did not make an appearance.

Meanwhile Trump pulling massive crowds at his ralllies. Might be hope for him yet.
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August 28, 2019 8:10am
- Scott
  
  Atomic drop – Trump is still drawing amazing crowds, 20,000 is not unusual for him.
  Joe Biden maybe draws a few hundred?
  Elizabeth Warren campaign claims 12,000 at her last event. That is almost certainly a very exaggerated number? However it seems she can gather at least a few thousand to hear her speak. How long she can do that remains a question mark. Her hectoring tone may not last well.
  
  Warren is also very radical and has policies that are well outside the American mainstream.
  
  I’m not seeing anyone who will give trump a run for his money come 2020!
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:24am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Hoping for an outsider to come up through the ranks. Currently #8 Yang would be my preference.
    
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    August 28, 2019 8:41am
    - atomic drop
      
      Yes, he is the only candidate who has said he is most concerned about the plight of poor white people – he literally said “white people”.
      
      When has white supremacist neo nazi Trump ever referred to his white supporter base openly?
      
      Ok, Yang is asian so can maybe get away with it. But it is a sad sad indictment on our civilization that white people cant even expect a white politician to openly support their interests – instead it is encoded in phrases like “middle america”.
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:54am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Nah, I see this in a far more positive way: most people (whatever melanin levels) are totally sick of identity politics and want nothing to do with them.
        
        I want politicians to openly support many of my interests that have absolutely nothing to do with melanin levels.
        
        And I totally reject politicians who campaign on identity politics. Heard a crazed Whangarei woman on the radio this morning campaigning on giving her ‘a chance’ simply because she is lesbian and youngish. Said voters should reject the ‘pale, stale, male’ politicians.
        
        Not a single effing word about policies! She sounded like a racist, sexist, ageist, heterophobe turd who just wants people to vote on identity politics.
        
        And decent people everywhere are getting mighty tired of this.
        
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        August 28, 2019 12:04pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    They reckon about 6000 turned up.
    I’d say Warren is running a very good campaign.
    Her message is clear and consistent.
    https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/02/opinions/elizabeth-warren-campaign-axelrod/index.html
    He’s new Ad is all about ‘Economic Patriotism’- protecting jobs in the US and having a go at Corporates taking jobs offshore.
    Looks like she is attempting to build the old Democrat ‘Blue Collar’ Wall.
    It’s a pretty Trumpian strategy.
    There’s holes in it of course but it’s clever.
    
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    August 28, 2019 8:44am
    - atomic drop
      
      Yes Pocahontas has some good ideas. Apparently she started off as a Republican politician back in the day and is actually an experienced skillful politician.
      
      But faking your blood line to get your Lilly white backside into Harvard via race quotas. And then taking a bow as she was being celebrated as Harvard,s first women of color appointed to head of the Law School?!!!
      
      And then she does some weasel “apology” about learning from one’s mistakes, being more culturally sensitive blah blah blah.
      
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      August 28, 2019 11:01am
  - SGA
    
    To be fair, Scott, I’d expect a sitting President to be drawing more substantial crowds than any one of the number of potential candidates this far from the primaries. If that wasn’t the case, then it would be notable.
    
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    August 28, 2019 8:48am
- DigNap15
  
  Not hope for him!
  He is going to romp home
  MAGA
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:24am
Maggy Wassilieff

“This activity spans the political spectrum and occurs at a central and local government level.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/397622/nz-spy-agencies-call-for-greater-transparency-on-political-donations

Jacinda Ardern and Andrew Little were quick to condemn National yesterday over a political donation from a NZ Company with links to Mongolia, but they are silent on the SIS revelation –

-could it be linked to this story?
China’s communists fund Jacinda Ardern’s Labour Party: What the United States Congress was told
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12058818
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August 28, 2019 8:14am
- burt
  
  Get ready for the stock Labour party excuses.
  
  It’s how we have always done it.
  Others do it too.
  It’s not fair to just punish one party.
  The law is confusing.
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:17am
  - namron
    
    Some of you may be interested in these details which “freethinker” contributed to General Debate over a year ago.
    The jury trial of the Labour Party youth camp
    “carrying-ons” 18 months ago will commence on Mon 2 Sept at the Auckland District Court.
    The case reference number is –
    CRI-2018-oo4-005593
    Apart from the result of the trial itself, I am sure there will also be considerable interest in any efforts made to keep all details of the people etc involved in the trial out of the news media.
    
    Other information from “freethinker” if you were thinking of attending the trial.
    “The trial courtroom has not been allocated yet. Proceed to the Auckland DC Criminal Counter in Level 1 to get the Courtroom number.
    The Judge has directed an interim suppression on the names of defendant and witnesses. The details and facts of the case are also suppressed.”
    
    [Mod note: thanks for highlighting the supression orders. We will be ensuring that KB doesn’t break those orders and anyone who tries can expect censure from DPF. Cheers!]
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:36am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Interestingly, one of the complainants in the case recently outed himself on Twitter, despite the suppression order preventing publication of his name. I wonder if he will cop a rebuke from the Judge hearing the case.
      
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      August 28, 2019 1:16pm
    - calendar girl
      
      Why would there be any prospect of name suppression for the relevant defendant? We would need to hear a very strong argument to justify any such name suppression.
      
      So far, the defendant is rumoured to be related to a Labour Party MP, or a highly-placed Party official. If either association is substantiated, that would provide no rational reason why name suppression should be granted to shield the parent from personal embarrassment.
      
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      August 28, 2019 4:16pm
- Prince
  
  Listening to Bridges being harangued by a screaming interviewer on Morning Report (why does he bother ?), I waited for him to bring up the subject of Labour’s Foreign Intern scandal from last election.
  That was a foreign donation – or if it was not counted as one it should have been.
  Similarly Green Party support from Greenpeace.
  
  I think he should come armed to these slugfests expecting to be screamed at and constantly interrupted, with some zingers such as these.
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:27am
  - david
    
    More relevant would be obvious connections between donations and favours in return. Think here of the racing industry and multiple favours (tax changes and racecourse restructuring), think also of the fishing industry and favours such as fudging over surveillance cameras and the Kermadec Sanctuary.
    Oh wait, there is only one party at the centre of these mutual back scratching exercises (or more to the point one man).
    Come in spinner!
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:27am
    - Michael
      
      Yep, there is so much Simon could have had prepared.
      Maybe he doesn’t really want to be PM?
      
      I mean if he can’t go for it 100% maybe he should step aside for someone who does…
      
      Just saying.
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:50am
      - Lizziep
        
        Maybe he is waiting, revenge is a dish best served cold you know. As time goes on closer to the election there hopefully will be many times the National party are able to quote misdeeds back to this ghastly col.
        
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        August 29, 2019 11:04am
- Maxx
  
  If the $150k donation was against the spirit of the law as Ardern stated, is she now going to be against using the sale of art to mask donor’s contributions as well?
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/95891686/artworks-used-to-funnel-secret-donors-contributions-to-the-labour-party
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:35am
  - Happychappy
    
    Try this one from Donghua Liu’s
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11281460
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:47am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Fargofs book at mayoral fundraiser by a foreign buyer who may not have been able to differentiate between the content he bought and anything from the Enid Blyton collection?
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:56am
- rouppe
  
  For me, the only sources of donations should be natural persons who are citizens – not just residents – of nz.
  
  No companies, trusts, organisations or any other entity. They should be able to donate any amount, and be public information.
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:44am
  - pdm
    
    No Union donations then rouppe?
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:07am
    - sooty
      
      Or goods in kind!
      
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      August 28, 2019 9:20am
    - rouppe
      
      None. Nor chamber of commerce nor racing industry nor greenpeace nor fonterra etc
      
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      August 28, 2019 11:29am
    - burt
      
      All voluntary time ‘donated’ by the unions should be costed at the living wage.
      
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      August 28, 2019 12:57pm
  - Swifty
    
    If I wish to give a few hundy to the National Party annually why should it be public information?
    
    It is a private donation.
    
    And, who knows what havoc nasty lefties would wreak with private donor information.
    
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    August 28, 2019 10:06am
    - igm
      
      I donate to National, and will keep donating, even if a third party is needed to present it.
      Labour thieve megabucks via their capitation fees from misguided and subservient unionists plus use unpaid labour. Time this was made a little more public.
      
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      August 28, 2019 2:38pm
    - rouppe
      
      Because when a political party is in power, they make decisions that affect everyone.
      
      Therefore it is important to know where donations are coming from, to see if there is a skew anywhere
      
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      August 28, 2019 3:53pm
  - srylands
    
    Why should small donations be public information? It is totally impractical for no benefit.
    
    I would only have one electoral finance law. All large donations are published. What is “large” is debatable but it is probably $1,000 – $2,000.
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:04am
    - rouppe
      
      It could be impractical, especially for the smaller donations.
      
      However as above, politicians make decisions that affect all of us. Therefore we should know whether there is a skew is where the money is coming from.
      
      As soon as you put in a non-disclosure limit, there is temptation to make multiple donations just under that limit. So if there is a limit, it should be pretty low. Maybe $100. $1,000 might do it, but $10,000 is still a substantial donation, and it’s easier to make 10 $1,000 donations that 100 $100 donations
      
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      August 28, 2019 3:57pm
- SGA
  
  @Maggy
  
  NZ Company with links to Mongolia
  
  Huh? Why are you saying it is Mongolia, not China? As I understand it, Lin Lang is a Chinese citizen. The company is called Inner Mongolia Rider Horse Industry NZ – Inner Mongolia is part of China not Mongolia.
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:00am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That’s the problem with being an irredentist.
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:26am
    - SGA
      
      Keep that information about yourself quiet if you ever go to Taiwan 🙂
      
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      August 28, 2019 9:30am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I’ve been twice to Taiwan and wouldn’t mind going a few more times (haven’t seen the East coast and the Central Mountain Range).
        
        But seems you were absent back in July 2017 when we covered the Inner Mongolian Horse Riders in some depth…
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/07/major_donors_so_far_this_year.html#comment-1964277
        
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        August 28, 2019 10:02am
      - SGA
        
        Possibly – or I just didn’t pay much attention. My general view is that NZ political parties should take the approach of “if you dine with the devil, use a very long spoon”, because there is no such thing as a free lunch.
        
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        August 28, 2019 10:19am
- freethinker
  
  The donation in question does have a perception of being an attempt by China to gain influence through a Billionaire who may have deep connection with the Chinese communist party. If that is unacceptable then Trade union donations to Labour definitely fit the description of donating both money and non money in the form of free Labour of Union staff during elections to gain influence over a Labour Govt – possibly a connection with a little former union leader? If banning donations with overseas potential connections then also ban all union donations of any kind and at the same time remove any Charitable status of unions as their clear intention is to support Labour so legislation favourable to Unions and their members and supporters as a little minister and the appointed PM have and continue to legislate.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:43am
  - david
    
    You could make a very good case (if you were so inclined) for every donor to make a statutory declaration detailing all sources of their income, subject to random confirmation audit by the Auditor General.
    Such a suggestion alone would flush out a raft of objections by all sorts of organisations which might be embarrassed by such details being made public.
    We are all for transparency but ……
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:28am
G152

So, evidently labours wanting to control all firearms and firearm owners and sports groups has taken another turn.
And some-one was so disturbed by it that they leaked the plans to National
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August 28, 2019 8:15am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I’d suggest there will continue to be leaks from Labour as long as an alleged bully and sex pest is being protected by the PM’s office and the party’s top brass.
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:20am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yep,
    a real test for identity politics:
    Do you support your Party
    or do you support the abused and bullied?
    Gosh, Politics is difficult, isn’t it?
    
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    August 28, 2019 8:50am
  - pdm
    
    Allegations of rape are a bit more serious than `sex pest’ Inv.
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:09am
    - sooty
      
      Tony, it is one of the Labour party top brass!
      That they are protecting it’s not just a penpusher
      
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      August 28, 2019 9:23am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        I’m aware of the name, and it means nothing to me, so I don’t believe it is one of Labour’s top brass. My understanding is that the person concerned is a senior staff member in the PM’s office.
        
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        August 28, 2019 10:00am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      I’m a little sceptical of the rape allegation pdm, so I chose my words carefully. This person has lawyered up, and I don’t want to be sued!
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:02am
  - freethinker
    
    Will the mods allow us to identify those who work in the PM office, eliminate females and then make personal unpublished judgements on who may be involved?
    
    [Mod – no! DPF has an allergy to suits for defamation]
    
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    August 28, 2019 10:46am
    - Tall Man
      
      However, once identified as such calling a rapist a rapist is not defamatory.
      
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      August 28, 2019 2:52pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        But be careful about calling someone a murderer.
        PM sued for defamation
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=172840
        
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        August 28, 2019 7:09pm
oldpark

Thought for today. If you are sitting in you’re car planning the day . Maybe even getting rid of greening slippery concrete. Buy some spray and walk away cleaning fluid.
Cost is maybe up to $60 less than some other get rich quick merchants who keep peddling their cleaning fluid on a daily basis. Nuff said.
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August 28, 2019 8:17am
- sooty
  
  Move it. Works.
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:41am
- Blackbob
  
  spray and walk away is bleach based, it doesn’t kill the underlying mould and stuff so it’s a false economy
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:48am
  - skyblue
    
    Spray & Walk away is based on benzalkonium chloride (quat). This is same as Wet and Forget. I am in this industry and the cost of quat is around $3-4/kg in drums/IBCs.
    Agree, Wet & Forget is a rip off though.
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:03am
    - sooty
      
      What’s your choice of product?
      I just pumped 20lt drum of move it in a knapsack and the packs with hose on apeals to me after that!
      
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      August 28, 2019 1:00pm
      - skyblue
        
        Use the hose attached one. Easier to use.
        
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        August 28, 2019 4:09pm
    - Ruahine
      
      skyblue is quite correct. Interesting piece of information regarding moss and mould sprays. Many are based on benzalkonium chloride which is also used in eye drop solutions for the control of Glaucoma. Common names are Travoprost and Bimatoprost respectively. One of the side effects of its use as treatment for Glaucoma is that it makes ones eye lashes long and lustrous after prolonged use.
      
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      August 28, 2019 5:02pm
  - Lizziep
    
    Very disappointed with spray and walk away, cheaper but not as good as the other product advertised. Not sure if its OK to say the name. I do kind of believe you get what you pay for in these products.
    
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    August 29, 2019 11:12am
- tf78
  
  I use old fashioned janola and it works really well.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:11am
Maggie Pie

We really love watching Andrew Bolt [compare him to Tame Jack] LOL!!
Last night Bolty really blasted China for the arrest of Australian author Yang Hengyun, on ‘trumped up charges’ of spying. A charge which carries the death penalty. He’s been held in a Chinese prison since visiting there 7 months ago. Andrew maintained it was nothing more than retaliation for Australia’s stance on banning Huawei 5G. He called out Oz politicians for doing nothing to help by “putting money above freedom” and “not risking a dollar by offending China”.
If you missed it you can watch it here – my partner reckons it sends a chilling message of what might be expected in this country as well 🙁

https://twitter.com/SkyNewsAust/status/1166298057333456896
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August 28, 2019 8:22am
- freethinker
  
  I think China will regret its actions like this and the enemies it is and continues to make over its S China sea claims and failure to adopt the standards on most of the worlds leading countries on international law and what is acceptable practice especially on intellectual property and trade practices in relation to foreign owned companies plus Hong Kong problems. Whilst Govts may compromise with China Western populations may choose not to support China by refusing to purchase Chinese made goods irrespective of manufacturers name. It is not too late for China to change its policies and loose a little face now, later on the loss of face will be larger.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:54am
- Michael
  
  China is a threat to democracy and freedom everywhere.
  through The confucious Institutes their Intelligence Organs reach into cities and nations worldwide and from within.
  
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  August 28, 2019 11:08am
- Bell-47
  
  This is a serious issue not just for the author being held but many in the business community. My business makes and sells specialty measurement equipment to China and their government institutions along with the rest of the world. Since the Huawei announcement, I have not travelled to China. I may well be safe but it is the possibility of detention given the people and entities I deal with in China and other parts of the world they could easily convince themselves I am a spy. It’s ridiculous of course but I am nobody and would the NZ government care? I will be staying away for now.
  
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  August 28, 2019 11:47am
- RightFirstTime
  
  I watched Q&A on Monday night. What was with Jack waving his right arm about in a circular motion right at the end of the programme? It seemed a bit odd. But I must say that his Te Reo is getting better!
  
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  August 28, 2019 4:21pm
Paulus

Watched Parliament yesterday and saw Ardern obviously being embarrassed and appearing to be lying in answer to Bridges questions re Ihumatao The question was has the Government agreed to the (interest free) LOAN to Tainui to buy Fletchers out of this debacle. Tainui would not expect to repay it anyway despite their having a Billion dollars of assets.
Koha from the Taxpayers.
She as usual tried to obfuscate in her usual shouty way and not answer the question.
Mallard was his usual self projecting himself again to be one of the worse Speakers we have had (since Margaret Wilson).
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August 28, 2019 8:27am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Mallard claimed not to hear Ardern make a clearly offensive comment at Paula Bennett during Question Time yesterday. Unfortunately for Mallard, and as predicted by Gerry Brownlee, the Hansard reporters DID hear the comment:
  
  Hon Paula Bennett: In that 2012 MSD cybersecurity blunder, did the Minister actually front with the chief executive and take responsibility and then know the details and ensure it never happened again?
  
  Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: I can’t speak to what the member did personally at that time, but I can tell, Mr Speaker, that I would never weaponise people’s personal information, either.
  
  Hon Gerry Brownlee: Is that comment allowed to stand?
  
  SPEAKER: Well, there was a comment that was drowned out by a barrage of noise from my left, which I didn’t hear well enough to rule out.
  
  Hon Gerry Brownlee: I raise a point of order, Mr Speaker. Now, Mr Speaker, the physical contortions of your face would have led me to believe that you did hear it, and it was an unacceptable statement and should be withdrawn.
  
  SPEAKER: Order! The member is going to start by withdrawing and apologising, and then he will re-put his point of order.
  
  Hon Gerry Brownlee: I withdraw and apologise. There will be a Hansard record of what has just been said. It will, I think, based on your past rulings, not meet the test of what should be an acceptable answer or comment in this House, and I think it would be appropriate for the Prime Minister to withdraw the comment.
  
  Brownlee was dead right to challenge Mallard on his supposed “moment of deafness”. The comment was clearly audible on the TV, and obviously audible to the Hansard reporters. When the House convenes at 2pm today, I expect the Speaker to apologise to Gerry Brownlee, and even if he cannot require the PM to withdraw and apologise a day later, at least acknowledge that the comment she made to Paula Bennett was out of order.
  
  However, I won’t hold my breath!
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:43am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    “weaponise”…
    such a silly “buzz word” employed by our PM
    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/27/weaponise-the-meaning-of-2017s-political-buzzword
    
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    August 28, 2019 8:56am
    - alloytoo
      
      In would appear that Brownlee has “Weaponized” Hansard.
      
      Good on him.
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:36am
    - stephieboy
      
      MW, also the “ silly “ metaphor has been used by the US President. From your” MSM” link,
      
      I”n our embattled age, it seems everything can be turned into a weapon. The Scottish Tory leader, Ruth Davidson, has frequently accused Nicola Sturgeon of “weaponising Brexit” to break up the union. Donald Trump’s “loose talk about Muslims”, the Washington Post reported, was “weaponised” in the courtroom battles over his travel ban. The Greenham Common protesters, Suzanne Moore wrote in this newspaper the other day, “weaponised traditional notions of femininity”
      
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      August 28, 2019 11:30am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        As I have repeatedly told you, stephieboy, Trump isn’t of much interest to me.
        
        Take your stalking/trolling elsewhere.
        
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        August 28, 2019 11:54am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Funnily enough, the Greenham Commons protestors were funded (through “secret” cash infusions) by………wait for it….. The Soviet Union.
        
        It was part of a Soviet campaign to prevent the deployment of US medium range nuclear weapons as a response to the Soviet deployment of the same.
        
        Those Greenham Common protestors were working on behalf of the Soviets. Most of the rank and file probably didn’t know, but the leaders certainly did.
        
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        August 28, 2019 6:23pm
  - chaos
    
    Mallard heard it, but as usual he has to act as her protector
    
    Funny how mallard can’t hear the princess making her usual snide and offensive comments, a national mp talks to someone beside them and he jumps up
    
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    August 28, 2019 8:57am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      That’s because he now has a hearing aid in his left ear, and just before Question Time starts, he turns the volume up.
      
      Mallard has done a few good things as Speaker, but his pathological hatred of a few National MP’s affects his objectivity.
      
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      August 28, 2019 9:02am
      - Bobba Fret
        
        Hey Tony
        Just out of interest, what good things do you consider Mallard has done as speaker?
        I struggle to see him as unbiased.
        
        5 0
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        August 28, 2019 3:23pm
    - Gravelroad
      
      Yes, watching Ms Ardern during Parliamentary QT
      is a real eye opener.
      Just a shame that most of the old and young ladies and gents, students and celebrities don’t see it.
      Many would be surprised at her vicious comments and and nasty demeanour…….. a wolf in sheep’s clothing to be sure.
      
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      August 28, 2019 9:27am
      - igm
        
        She sure is making herself more detestable by the sitting.
        
        6 2
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        August 28, 2019 2:41pm
  - igm
    
    Mallard is a failure as Speaker, as he was a politician, and also a man.
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:03am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    “I can’t speak to what the member did personally at that time, but I can tell, Mr Speaker, that I would never weaponise people’s personal information, either.”
    Will be interesting Tony, bit of a stretch though. The PM (cleverly) said she ‘can’t’ speak to what the member did. And then said she would never weaponise personal information either.
    
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    August 28, 2019 10:16am
- rouppe
  
  There’s a loan being made to Tainui? How is that “by Maori, for Maori”?
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:08am
  - sooty
    
    No it’s by the taxpayer, for maori!
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:27am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Maybe the government is only going to use money from Maori taxpayers to pay off Fletcher’s…
      
      20 0
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      August 28, 2019 10:03am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Again and again and again and again and again and again ad infinitum
      
      17 0
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      August 28, 2019 10:05am
- KevO'Brien
  
  This is very serious.
  Fletchers have lawful title.
  (Kuini) Ardern has decided protesters can have their will .
  The Govt will fund it?
  Where is any suggestion of law in this?
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:26am
  - kowtow
    
    In a “progressive” world , feelz trumps the law every time.( as long as the feelz suits the gubmint’s agenda)
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:09am
- freethinker
  
  Being a worse speaker than wilson is a high bar and Mallard may not yet have jumped that high but he still has time, regretably.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:56am
KevO'Brien

Amazon? Pics from everywhere time and place.
Who is going to be held accountable for the alarmism?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-08-27/while-celebrities-pass-fake-news-pictures-burning-amazon-heres-what-raging-fires
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August 28, 2019 8:29am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Gird your Loins!
  There’s lots more alarmism coming our way next month.
  
  http://joannenova.com.au/2019/08/3-weeks-to-go-til-climate-propaganda-week-starts/
  
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  August 28, 2019 8:59am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Joanne is always good value.
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:27am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    I am unclear on how exactly one girds anything. Anyone able to shed some light?
    
    2 0
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    August 28, 2019 9:50am
    - Swifty
      
      Encircle with belt or band.
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:02am
      - david
        
        Is that similar as “girt” (or is that “gurt”) as in “our land is girt by sea” ?
        
        1 0
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        August 28, 2019 11:33am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @ david
        In some uses girt is a synonym of gird.
        
        But it can also be the past tense or a past participle of gird.
        (as in: my loins were girt/ my loins were girded)
        
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        August 28, 2019 12:13pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-gird-up-your-loins-an-illustrated-guide/
      
      12 0
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      August 28, 2019 10:38am
      - freethinker
        
        Thanks Maggie I learn something new every day and today I thank you for the lesson.
        
        8 0
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        August 28, 2019 10:59am
      - Aliog
        
        Brilliant! I always had a vague idea, but now I know 🙂 You are a constant source of erudition and entertainment, Maggy – one of my favourite commentators.
        
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        August 28, 2019 11:04am
surfing

Democracy in this country is being subverted by bureaucratic little weasels…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/115286831/auckland-mayoral-race-council-finance-chairman-refuses-to-back-john-tamiheres-rates-freeze?rm=m

If John Tamihere campaigns on freezing rates and wins the council election — why is it that a council bureaucratic is able to overrule the will of the people?

It reminds me a bit of brexit, where people voted to leave, but MP’s are refusing to do so!
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August 28, 2019 8:35am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Ross Clow is an elected councillor, not some faceless bureaucrat. If Tamihere is elected, he will appoint committee chairs, and presumably Clow won’t be one of them.
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:04am
- Jules99
  
  Elected councils members are frustrated at every turn trying to deliver on promises. Sure pollies are dishonest too, but it seems the unelected bureaucrats rule. Yes Minister was a documentary.
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:09am
  - Batman
    
    They’re either frustrated or they’re actually focused on delivering their little empires and white elephants
    
    7 1
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    August 28, 2019 9:20am
    - Gravelroad
      
      Many local body electeds have no idea what they are getting into.
      Most end up as community figureheads, single interest fanatics, or sock puppets.
      Many confuse big picture governance with dabbling in management.
      Most have no idea of the profusion of regulations and rules they are supposed to know about and are forced into being “guided”( ie instructed) by high level staff as to what they should think and do about them.
      Naive candidates who go into council elections thinking the focus should be on “core business” eg rates control, roading, water/sewerage and other boring stuff, are treated with derision by Council leadership. And anyway, the government has decreed that local council emphasis should be on solving social issues.
      Not many candidates know this. They think they are going to change something.
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:04am
- G152
  
  Welcome to the club.
  Hamilton had a like situation with their City Council back in the 2000’s
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:33am
- Allan
  
  With people like Clow in positions of importance like finance no wonder the place is going down the tubes.
  With luck he will be sacked as soon as JT gets the nod from the voters and Auckland will be better off without him there.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:06am
- MCos
  
  Just as the Brexit referendum was theoretically not binding so will JT’s stupid rate freeze promise not be binding if he’s elected because it’s impossible.
  He doesn’t have the final say, the council does and he has one vote.
  Of course the council could indulge in some jiggery pokery by adding a separate ‘surcharge’ of some sort and tacking it on to the rates bill. For example a public golf course maintenance levy or an America Cup base levy.
  
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  August 28, 2019 11:37am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    You’re right on this one. It’s totally unrealistic, with rising costs for everything the council does. Maybe if they got serious about really only doing core business, but *neither* candidate is standing for that.
    
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    August 28, 2019 1:10pm
- Paulus
  
  Simple and not new – it is the Council Executives who control what the Council does – the Councillors are only puppets to whitewash the Executive and can get turnover every three years. The Executive are there for as long as they want.
  All New Zealand Councils are the same.
  
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  August 28, 2019 1:48pm
Maggie Pie

Kim Dotcom tweets 🙂

“Karma Sutra takes care of assholes”

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1166371438439223296
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August 28, 2019 8:43am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Is Mr Schmitz making a prophesy about his own fate? The court must be due to hand down a decision soon on his final appeal against extradition.
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:06am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    hiyaa Tony – he has already prophesied the decision of the Supreme Court, 2 -3 against.
    
    https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1158792413457969152
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:19am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      The Bible has lots of warnings about false prophets Maggie. Personally, I believe the Supreme Court will unanimously uphold the decision of the lower courts that he is eligible for deportation. Then the ball will be in Andrew Little’s court.
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:08am
  - G152
    
    Why is that thing still here ?????
    Many better qualified for citizenship have been turned away.
    This is a joke
    
    19 0
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    August 28, 2019 9:35am
  - Tricati
    
    Maybe a hit piece on National after she got ‘spoken’ to by the Labour enforcers after her weekend column regarding Bridge’s cut through.
    It seems MSM are going full steam on National with the $150K donation (made some years back), John Key selling his holiday home, Gayford’s attempt to show Cindy is working that back fired and trying to paint increasing the super age to 67 as mean.
    The MSM bias is becoming tiresome.
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:40am
    - david
      
      Talking about $150,000, wasn’t there an amount very close to that which NZFirst obtained by means subsequently determined to be foul (as opposed to fair) and the repayment of which has never been connected to any meaningful evidence?
      A circumstance of which the public should constantly be reminded but for which the media seem to have a blind spot.
      Lest we forget.
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:07am
MrsAnnie

Anyone with a Herald subscription have Audrey Youngs ranking for National MPs?
12 0
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August 28, 2019 8:44am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I suspect that those on here who have Herald subscriptions won’t own up to it for fear of ridicule. It’s a bit the same as not being able to find anyone around who will admit to voting the NZ First in 2017!
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:07am
- GJM
  
  for premium articles, save the article to Pocekt in Firefox , then you get the full text (but no pictures)
  
  11 0
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  August 28, 2019 9:34am
  - WaveyDavey
    
    So it does. Much appreciated.
    
    8 0
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    August 28, 2019 10:47am
- kloyd0306
  
  Having her hidden behind a pay wall is no bad thing.
  Her biases in support of the CoL are clear. She is no journalist. She is a leftist opinion writer.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:21am
  - brett68
    
    She supports Team Vag.
    
    8 1
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    August 28, 2019 10:25am
- rightoverlabour
  
  open the premium bit abnd hit screen saver before the pop up occurs. Its a bit clunky, but if you are desperate to read rubbish, feel free.
  
  5 0
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  August 28, 2019 10:51am
- kowtow
  
  Mrs Annie
  
  Go down to your library and register to go on press reader ,if you’re paying rates then you’re paying your library’s subscription to press reader.
  
  6 0
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  August 28, 2019 11:17am
  - Jules99
    
    I just noticed you can get it online via the Auckland Library website if you enter your membership details.
    
    3 0
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    August 28, 2019 2:01pm
Maggie Pie

It amazes me why we havent heard from Prince Phillip on this.

The UK Sun calls on Prince Andrew to “Open up” about his relationship with deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein – saying: “The reputation of ‘The Firm’ is at steak”

https://twitter.com/TheSun/status/1166403082508492801
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August 28, 2019 9:03am
- colinm
  
  Really Maggie? A newspaper reported that? I thought only our papers were bad enough to confuse meat with risk. Or to be clearer steak with stake. Stupid proof readers (if there are any).
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:13am
- chaos
  
  Andrew Is willing to will work with the fbi if asked, it what if prefers chicken over steak.
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:20am
Yvette

While Curran is momentarily current again –
It would be nice if Ardern could explain how a major Election policy item – a new television channel under the control of RNZ (state radio) to be called RNZ Plus – appears, because of a few “operational” mistakes by then Minister Clare Curran, to have disappeared without any reason given for its need to be established, or comment on its function, that had it gone ahead could have cost around $38 million.
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August 28, 2019 9:11am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I think this scheme will be waiting in the wings whilst the Luvvies plot how else to achieve a transfer of tax-payer funds to their pockets.
  
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  August 28, 2019 11:33am
Brian McDonald

Took 2 trips on the Wellington Flyer, fascinating trip through a still beautiful city – narrow roads, big electric buses, busy, but still moving. Nope, didn’t see the motorways. I know there are initiatives about the homeless but saw a few sadly, 1 man with obvious mental health problems being aggressive toward woman.
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August 28, 2019 9:11am
brett68

Why did National announce they’re going to raise the age of super? have they forgotten they’re in opposition? isn’t politics about trying to convince as many people as you can to vote for you?

“Hey,vote National we’re going to make life harder for you”.

“Hey,current government and MSM, here’s a big stick you can use beats us with.

I don’t get the strategy behind that announcement.

Sure super has to go up but do it from government where you get to control the narrative.
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August 28, 2019 9:15am
- Batman
  
  It’s a fiscally responsible announcement. People like that. It’s also so far into the future that anyone who is exercised over it (i.e. near 65) won’t be affected by it at all.
  
  Those of us who will be impacted are probably fully intending to be active and working at 67
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:18am
  - brett68
    
    I disagree, it’s stupid politics, it’s easy to paint it as another attack on Millennial’s and some Generation X’ers
    
    “Blah blah, fucking boomers, ruin our planet, make housing unaffordable and now make retirement harder!”
    
    This is something which the “youth adjacent” Ardern will use to her advantage in 2020.
    There’s some real hate out there towards older people, this sort of announcement will help further feed that.
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:27am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      These ‘old people’s are the ones paying for their ‘free’ tertiary education
      
      There is a little lesson for the panty waisters; ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’ (unless one happens to be a 20 yo blue eyed blonde with legs up to her armpits)
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:14am
      - sooty
        
        But what about Cindy signing up thousnads of young bennies?
        Nothing said about them!
        
        6 1
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        August 28, 2019 3:59pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Yep,
    Young folks don’t like the thought of paying high taxes to support a burgeoning aged population, especially when they know our current superannuation scheme is unsustainable in the long term.
    At present, there are about four workers for every person receiving the pension. That’s expected to drop to two in the coming decades, as people live longer. Over the next five years, Government spending on assistance is expected to increase $6.8 billion – the vast majority of that not going to families in poverty, but to retirees.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/07/superannuation-an-intergenerational-fiscal-hole.html
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:42am
    - gump
      
      The scary thing about there only being two tax paying workers supporting each retiree is that each retiree will receive two-thirds of the median wage.
      
      Even if all the income tax collected in NZ was used to fund the superannuation scheme then it still wouldn’t be enough.
      
      Superannuation is a ticking time bomb that perfectly illustrates the absolute contempt that baby boomers have for their children.
      
      3 15
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      August 28, 2019 10:11am
      - stephieboy
        
        Sir Robert Muldoon who intoroduced the Super scheme and was his brain child was not a” baby boomer “ !
        
        2 13
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        August 28, 2019 11:35am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        “each retiree will receive two-thirds of the median wage.”
        
        No, totally incorrect. Each partner in a marriage/de facto, which most of us live in, will receive only *33%* of the average ordinary time wage after tax.
        
        “The after-tax NZ Super rate for couples (who both qualify) is based on 66% of the ‘average ordinary time wage’ after tax. For single people, the after-tax NZ superannuation rate is around 40% of that average wage.”
        
        https://sorted.org.nz/guides/retirement/about-nz-super/
        
        I still agree that change is needed, as people are living longer, but posting incorrect information is not necessary.
        
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        August 28, 2019 1:39pm
      - Tall Man
        
        What utter rubbish.
        
        Of course the country can afford super, now and in the future. You obviously have the same fiscal skill as the finance minister…. none.
        
        The money is generally spent within NZ and so provides a stimulus to the economy. Generally, every dollar that is paid out in benefits or pensions is returned many times over in taxes.
        
        However, you have bought in to the alarmist bullshit because it suits your narrative.
        
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        August 28, 2019 2:43pm
      - gump
        
        @Classic Liberal
        
        I appreciate the correction, but it simply validates my conclusion.
        
        If the average single retiree gets 40% of the average wage then he or she will require more than one taxpayer to support them (since the average person doesn’t pay 40% of their income in tax).
        
        The same thing is true for couples receiving 65% of the average wage. The average taxpayer doesn’t pay 32.5% of their income in tax (as only income over 65k is taxed at the highest marginal tax rate). So again the retired couple needs more than two tax payers to support them.
        
        The superannuation system is fundamentally broken and needs massive reforms. The failure of either party to defuse the time bomb is a sad reflection of their unwillingness to confront difficult decisions.
        
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        August 28, 2019 8:03pm
    - rouppe
      
      It’s weird how all those predictions tend to project out to around the same time as all the boomers will be dying…
      
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      August 28, 2019 4:35pm
  - Swifty
    
    Agreed Batman.
    
    I respect politicians who make decisions good for the country – irrespective of whether I personally benefit from them or are punished by them.
    
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    August 28, 2019 9:59am
    - kowtow
      
      Yep , this needed doing a long time ago.
      Key was wrong to say “not under my watch” , that makes it harder for future leaders.
      
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      August 28, 2019 11:21am
    - MCos
      
      ‘I respect politicians who make decisions good for the country’
      
      That’s the difference between communism and a society that cares for the rights of the individual.
      China flooded god knows how many villages after it built the three gorges dam.
      
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      August 28, 2019 12:00pm
  - Deadly pony
    
    Everyone I know who is over 65 still works. I don’t know how the figures account for workers and super recipients being the same people.
    
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    August 28, 2019 2:13pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  It’s a reasonably safe and relatively harmless way of showing that they’re prepared to take tough decisions.
  
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  August 28, 2019 9:45am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Showing that they might be prepared to take tough decisions in their 6th term, assuming they last that long. It’s stupid, but it’s also bullshit.
    
    3 4
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    August 28, 2019 10:11am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      I agree – it’s a very mild and not particularly onerous commitment, which won’t actually do all that much to address the issue; and yet it has many people running around and screaming as if the sky was falling in.
      
      How are politicians supposed to have any hope of really tackling the really tough issues, if this is the reaction they get to floating such a bland and tentative proposal as this?
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:32am
      - Paulus
        
        Comes in in 2037 I believe !
        
        5 0
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        August 28, 2019 1:53pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  It’s the same policy National campaigned on in 2017, where they were the largest polling party by some margin. Most reasonable people understand that the population is aging quickly, and a modest increase to the age of entitlement signalled almost 20 years in advance is no big deal.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:11am
- Raphael
  
  Speaking as someone who would definitely be affected by a change in the Super Age (i.e. I am young enough that even a phased rollout means I get the full impact). I support a commitment to increasing it
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:19am
hullkiwi

Joke of the morning, listening to Sleaze Galloway being interviewed on Morning Report.

Sleaze Galloway came out with this gem….

We have to pay high salaries to MPs to ensure parties attract high calibre people to be MPs. At which point I almost crashed as I couldn’t stop laughing….

Thinking high calibre and….

Chloe Swarfega
Gloria
Twitford
Megan Woods
Grant Robertson
PriNZess
Carmel Sepaloni
Jenny Selesi
The entire Maori Labour caucus with special mention for Mega Fighteri, Willie Jackson, Face scribble Mahuta, Kelvin (and witless protection programme)
The entire Green Caucus
The entire NZF caucus
Chippy Hipkins
Sleaze Galloway
David Clark
Megan Woods
Angry Andrew
Clare Curran
Toxic Gnome
Shane Indiana Jones
Skid Mark
Tracey Martin
JAG
James Shaw
Eugene Sage
The 2 Labour O’Connors.

about the only CoL member to avoid the list because he works hard is Kris Faafoi (I not saying he is a great thinker, because his media appearances suggest the opposite).

What is frightening is there is not a person on the list I would hire except for Swsrfega to do a Social Media job.

The rest are an expensive waste of space….
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August 28, 2019 9:25am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I see Chloe Swarbrick has gone on Twitter this morning to say that she is a depression sufferer, who is on medication.
  
  How odd then that she is such a strong advocate for the decriminalisation of cannabis, when the mental health effects of cannabis are so widely known and accepted.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:13am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Is she fit to be Parliament?
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:12am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      I don’t see why not. I function perfectly OK on anti-depressants, although I avoid recreational drugs like the plague!
      
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      August 28, 2019 11:51am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Good on you for sharing that, Tony.
        
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        August 28, 2019 1:44pm
    - DigNap15
      
      So thats her and JLR?
      There should be a medical test before standing for parliament
      
      5 0
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      August 28, 2019 2:18pm
  - rouppe
    
    Probably needs to increase her Woke Points. They’re like experience points, but for socialists.
    
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    August 28, 2019 4:38pm
  - Ruahine
    
    The medication is probably cannabis.
    
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    August 28, 2019 5:16pm
- tf78
  
  hullkiwi – I find it interesting that very few ex-Labour MPs are ever employed in the private sector, they all go into local govt type cushy jobs, whereas the Nats are normally well sought after types.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:53am
  - MCos
    
    You could look at that in two ways.
    Is it right that someone should only see being an MP as a stepping stone to a lucrative private enterprise career as you infer?
    
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    August 28, 2019 12:12pm
    - Tall Man
      
      I guess you have the labour eye issues. “Most” ex National MPs resume the careers they had before they became an MP.
      
      labour mps have never had a career so just keep troughing on.
      
      10 0
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      August 28, 2019 2:28pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Heard ILG asked on One ZB while I was driving home if he deserves his $295k salary, I almost drove off the road when he said he works really hard and basically yes he does deserve it!
  As the presenter said: “Two words – Karl Sourbek”
  
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  August 28, 2019 3:37pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    $1000 a day to hide from journalists behind a pillar:
    https://twitter.com/JLongReporter/status/1057487280632422401
    “Lees-Galloway tried to avoid reporters on the way into House on Wednesday by hiding behind a pillar for several minutes before telling them he was late to Question Time and would not talk to them till after.”
    
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    August 28, 2019 4:16pm
Yvette

While both Winston Peters (many of the protesters at Ihumātao are imposters) and Shane Jones (scattered stones on a cow farm) seem a little adverse to the issue, will Ardern and the Greens still manage a rumoured loan or giveaway to Tainui to “purchase” Ihuamato?

And in that possible regard, how will they resolve what Fletchers should be paid or compensated, when records show Fletchers purchased it for $19 million, but Auckland Council now values it at $38 million?

More exactly: will the land be reclassified first, since the potential to build anything on it determines its value.
If the amount Fletchers may receive is lower, will Ihumatao then have a covenant placed on it, that houses may never be built there, unless Fletchers is topped up according to the principle of the Ngai Tahu on-going settlement ‘sun-never-sets’ clause?
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August 28, 2019 9:30am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  The land where the protest is happening has no particular cultural or historical value. The goal is to extract more money from taxpayers. Once that is done, Tainui can go ahead and build houses and there will not be any protest.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:07am
  - Paulus
    
    Why the hell would Tainui want to build houses there ?
    
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    August 28, 2019 1:55pm
    - Tall Man
      
      400 plus houses… not kiwibuild… close to Auckland.
      
      I dunno 😉
      
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      August 28, 2019 2:26pm
      - sooty
        
        Why build houses when you can have a shopping centre?
        
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        August 28, 2019 3:53pm
  - rouppe
    
    I fail to see the difference between Tainui building houses, and the current iwi selling the land to build houses…
    
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    August 28, 2019 4:41pm
  - Straight arrow
    
    I believe that SOUL is a nimby organisation. They do not care about who owns the land, or about compensation. What they care about is that no one builds on the land, because if houses were built then that would negatively impact (in SOUL view) with the Ihumatao village community.
    The fact that SOUL is not included in the substantial Kingitangi and Te Kawerau a Maki discussions is telling.
    
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    August 28, 2019 5:23pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  The protesters should be forcibly evicted and the law upheld.
  The PM should be held to account: sued if necessary for the losses caused by her regal act. Ardern is not above the law nor is she the law.
  
  Bloomin’ amateurs.
  
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  August 28, 2019 11:15am
Yvette

A man convicted of refusing a blood test and resisting arrest after he was suspected of driving drunk has had his charges overturned in the High Court because the policeman who arrested him was trespassed from the property.
But he took his case to the High Court at Auckland, saying the police officer had acted unlawfully by staying on the property in defiance of a trespass order – making his subsequent actions invalid.

What implications are there, if any, in Pania Newton’s invitation to the Prime Minister to join her, Pania, on land she is trespassed from?
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August 28, 2019 9:39am
- cmm
  
  He odd part is how a cop got trespassed.
  
  What sort of recruiting do they do these days if they are hiring people who have been trespassed?
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:20am
  - rouppe
    
    The “trespass order” is a fluid thing.
    
    Everyone has the right to come on to your property to knock on the door. However at any time the lawful occupant can tell that person “I trespass you from this property” and it is done.
    
    The person arrested repeatedly asked the police officer if they had a search warrant, which the court took as sufficient evidence that the officer had “been trespassed” from the property.
    
    This happened because the police officer entered the property after the occupant had arrived home. Things are different if you fail to stop when instructed and flee to your property pursued by a police officer.
    
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    August 28, 2019 4:46pm
- MCos
  
  None
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:15pm
Maggie Pie

What i find amazing is how the sentence….. “don’t believe everything you read on the internet”, is the same backwards as it is forwards.
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August 28, 2019 9:45am
- rightoverlabour
  
  Bugger..Fell for it. I’ll go and kick my self in the gonads quickly…
  
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  August 28, 2019 11:31am
  - Tall Man
    
    Maybe that’s why “what’s in it for wynston” has a knee problem. He’s so pissed off with himself for anointing ardern he stop trying to kick himself in the balls.
    
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    August 28, 2019 2:24pm
lastmanstanding

IMHO China is having too much influence on our economy and our politics.

Will our grandchildren curse when NZ is a Southern Province and they are subject to one party communist rule?
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August 28, 2019 9:46am
- MCos
  
  Before the UK joined the EC we had a particularly unhealthy economic and political bond with those buggers, except nobody knew.
  We survived that rupture.
  Right now we have produce that China wants.
  The donations to political parties are a concern.
  Bigger problem is the unpredictable USA.
  Trump’s negotiating style reminds me of my wife discussing the price of a cooked kumera with a Vietnamese street vendor when neither could speak the other’s language. At least after a bit of glaring and walking away they came to an compromise.
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:42pm
- Tall Man
  
  Dunno, depends if ardern the commie gets in again in 2020….
  
  Not likely… Payback 2020.
  
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  August 28, 2019 2:21pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Why on earth does NZ pussy-foot around with e-cigarettes?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/397544/philip-morris-tried-to-target-poor-through-poverty-group-and-counties-manukau-dhb

Just do what India proposes and ban the silly things.
https://www.aljazeera.com/ajimpact/india-health-ministry-ban-electronic-cigarettes-190822151639913.html
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August 28, 2019 9:51am
- marcw
  
  Those that I have seen walking down the street with a cloud of vapour swirling around their head look like total tossers – seems very uncool. Maybe social media could focus on this appearance as a way to discourage the uptake.
  
  It’s not woke to toke – don’t be a moron in the cloud.
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:14am
- Andrei
  
  Why ban anything – the rise of e-cigarettes is a consequence of the attempt by busybodies to rid the world of cigarettes.
  
  These things never work out the way the people who want to control other peoples lives expect.
  
  A whole culture has developed around vaping which wouldn’t exist if tobacco had been left alone.
  
  You’d have thought the example of prohibition in the USA would have been a saluatury enough lesson for professional busybodies – but alas no
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:16am
  - cmm
    
    Correct. Social shunning has worked better than taxes or anything else.
    
    I remember in the 1980s “I’d rather lick an ashtray than kiss a smoker” catching on.
    
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    August 28, 2019 11:23am
    - Biscuit
      
      Agreed, cmm.
      
      I have never kissed/slept with a smoker.
      
      I detest the smell of tobacco in my hair and clothes – and don’t start me on having to clear away the mess smokers leave behind.
      
      I came back, a mile-long stroll, from a friend’s place just before and went through an alleyway by the railway tracks.
      
      Six schoolkids. All smoking. All Maori. All female.
      
      Gimme strength…
      
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      August 28, 2019 12:48pm
      - DigNap15
        
        All soon to be pregnant?
        
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        August 28, 2019 2:17pm
      - Biscuit
        
        Dignap, what cheered me was that there were no schoolBOYS with them.
        
        Chatting with my great nephew earlier he tells me that there’s only one male in ‘his’ crowd who smokes.
        
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        August 28, 2019 3:01pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  Depends what you think the alternative to smoking e-cigs is.
  
  Not smoking at all is better for your health and others’ around you than smoking e-cigs. However, smoking e-cigs is better than smoking tobacco.
  
  Your comment implies either that you think that if people are prevented from smoking e-cigs, they won’t smoke anything at all; or that you would rather they smoked tobacco than e-cigs.
  
  Which is it, and why do you think that?
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:21am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Your comment implies either that you think that if people are prevented from smoking e-cigs, they won’t smoke anything at all; or that you would rather they smoked tobacco than e-cigs.
    
    It doesn’t imply either of those things at all…
    
    Of course I know a ban won’t be enforced, let alone work.
    
    I’m trying to get people to think why we are having such a big advertising push on vaping/e-ciggies… and to consider the consequences here in NZ if India (with a population of 100M smokers) closes the door to Philip Morris).
    
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    August 28, 2019 10:29am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      Then I don’t understand what point you are making in calling for e-cigs to be banned in NZ like India is doing. What do you think will be the consequences, why do you think that and do you think that will be good?
      
      Why are we seeing an advertising push – E-cigs are being advertised because their manufacturers and importers want people to buy them, same as why any other product is advertised. So?
      
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      August 28, 2019 10:39am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        It’s called being a Devil’s Advocate.
        
        You seem to have swallowed the snake-oil that smoking e-ciggies is better than smoking tobacco.
        That’s the line that is being pushed here in NZ…
        
        I can’t see any evidence to support that claim in the long term.
        
        It took over 40 years for Tobacco to kill my Daddy…
        https://teara.govt.nz/en/ephemera/38970/kiwi-and-aussie-cobbers-smoking
        
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        August 28, 2019 11:41am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        We are seeing an advertising push because NZ is a 3rd world backwater with out-dated legislation.
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/397630/vaping-ads-rocket-ahead-of-proposed-regulation
        
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        August 28, 2019 11:58am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Albert: not permitting advertising is not the same as banning.
        
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        August 28, 2019 1:52pm
Swifty

WTF?

Charter schools were smashed by this government but they are happy to hand out our money to (Shane’s Northland) mates to pprovide education for young people?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/115013511/northland-trust-empowers-young-mori-by-following-the-mori-battalion

If Maori kids are failing in such numbers why doesn’t this government hold the schools and teacher’s feet to the fire!

This way we’re paying for the same outcome twice!!
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August 28, 2019 9:53am
- Classic Liberal
  
  Hold “teacher’s feet to the fire!”
  
  Teachers can only achieve what the school and *parents* support, every day with strong principles and supervision.
  
  This UK school has some good ideas if we really wanted to support academic achievement.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michaela_Community_School
  
  But that’s not what identity politics and leftism support at all. I think they actually don’t care if Northland Maori do badly academically, because ‘other cultural values might matter more to their communities’. Everything, to today’s identity politicians, is relative to one’s groupthink perspective.
  
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  August 28, 2019 2:01pm
Liberty

So now it is legal to get totally pissed. Drive home and as long as you get onto your private property you can give the police the fingers.
If the Judge had some fortitude he would have thrown the book at the piss head.

Stuff
“A High Court judge has quashed an Auckland man’s convictions because a police officer unlawfully arrested him in his driveway after he refused a breath test. “
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August 28, 2019 10:07am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  One for the lawyers: You get stopped by police for breath testing. You jump out of car, toss keys to ground and drink from a hip flask of vodka, capturing this all on phone camera.
  
  Aside from drinking in public can you be prosecuted for anything?
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:39am
Yvette

Participating in a gun buy-back because you think criminals and extremists may have guns they shouldn’t have, is like having yourself castrated because you think your neighbours have too many kids.
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August 28, 2019 10:16am
Swifty

Taser! Taser! Taser!

https://www.liveleak.com/view?t=a7FmM_1566860010

Not suitable for work.

🙂
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August 28, 2019 10:33am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  reminiscent of a lion bringing down a hippo
  
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  August 28, 2019 10:41am
Jack5

We shouldn’t laugh, but …

A gathering of metal-detector hobbyists has been broken up by a celebratory cake that was spiked with cannabis oil.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/27/metal-detectorists-rally-descends-chaos-cannabis-cake-passed/
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August 28, 2019 10:46am
Hugh Pavletich

BOND FINANCING OF INFRASTRUCTURE …

The Bond Markets Are Begging for Infrastructure Spending … Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-13/bond-markets-are-begging-for-infrastructure-spending

Government-financed public works projects could end the plague of negative-yielding debt.

Bond buyers worldwide, awash in negative-yielding debt, are crying out for fiscal spending. A seven-minute stretch in the German bund market proves it.

On Aug. 8, just before 9 a.m. in New York, Reuters published a headline that blared “Germany mulls fiscal policy U-turn.” According to an anonymous senior government official, Germany was considering abandoning its long-held balanced budget goal and instead was looking to fund an expensive climate-protection package with new debt. … read more via hyperlink above …
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August 28, 2019 10:49am
UrbanNeocolonialist

SpaceX bunnyhop test of a truncated version of their new fully-reusable super rocket an hour ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYb3bfA6_sQ

Aiming to have prototypes fly 100+ ton payload to orbit within a year for 10% of current launch costs, making it cheap enough for Mar’s and Lunar colonisation as well as trips to space for middle class tourists
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August 28, 2019 10:57am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Why does Mars need an apostrophe for Christ’s sake?
  
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  August 28, 2019 1:39pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Mostly to pi’ss you off 🙂
    
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    August 28, 2019 2:20pm
chaos

She would have zero chance of winning

“Mark Penn, a former adviser to the Clintons, believes Hillary Clinton will make another run for president in 2020.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/416164-ex-clinton-aide-hillary-will-run-again-in-2020
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August 28, 2019 11:21am
noskire

It’s 2am at the McDonald’s Point Chevalier drive-thru and Cindy and Jethro have got the munchies (some names have been changed to protect the identities of those involved).

Drive-thru attendant: Welcome to McDonalds, can I take your order please?

Cindy: (Nodding furiously) Mmm, that’s a very good question and I am, um, glad you asked it. I think all New Zealanders, um, in fact most New Zealanders and some tanga te whenua would agree with me…

Jethro: For frigs sake, here we go again…

Cindy: I can’t speak for all New Zealanders, but, um, I will speak for all New Zealanders and say, ah, this is something we all, umm, as New Zealanders, need to start thinging about having a conversation about.

Jethro: Just order the frigging burgers!

Cindy: (Furiously pointing finger at Jethro) Grant and Meghan normally handle this, so put a sock in it Jethro. Just remember who pays for your “fishing trips” and keeps the lawns manicured!

Drive-thru attendant: Can I take your order, please?

Cindy: Look, as I’ve stated pweviously, um, I don’t have a personal position on that, um, if you had pweviously made my office, ah, aware of your line of questioning…

Jethro: There’s a friggin big menu to your right!

Cindy: (Furiously wringing hands) If you would let me finish, rather than talk over me – um, what’s your name again, comrade?

Drive-thru attendant: Mike.

Cindy: Oh. Well, good morning Mike, as I’ve, um, stated pweviously, a head’s up would have been helpful…

Jethro: Just get us two fillet of fish burgers and a crushed almond smoothie.

Drive-thru attendant: So, would you like fries with that?

Cindy: I udderly reject the premise of that question.

Jethro: Um, where’s the baby?

TBC…
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August 28, 2019 11:23am
- david
  
  You assume that Cindy is behind the wheel … is that a defensible assumption?
  
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  August 28, 2019 11:49am
oob

Bridges refuses to rule out going into coalition with NZ First at the next election:

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/08/simon-bridges-won-t-rule-out-new-zealand-first-coalition-despite-superannuation-differences.html

This is a strategic blunder.

My guess is the vast majority of National voters are aghast at NZ First’s utterly corrupt PGF spending and not only want them gone but also don’t want a National government to continue letting them get away with it.
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August 28, 2019 11:36am
- All_on_Red
  
  It’s a bigger blunder ruling him out right now.
  That gives Peters the chance to adapt to that reality.
  This way, Peters might still he has the chance for Bridges to be gone and he can play both sides off again.
  Better to rule the old prick out at the last possible minute.
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:04pm
  - oob
    
    It’s a bigger blunder ruling him out right now.
    
    It really isn’t. If Peters knows he has no chance of coalition with National he will tack left, binding himself to the failed Ardern government.
    
    And that suits National for 2020. The electorate is going to punish the fuck out of the incompetent Ardern government and affording NZ First the opportunity to disassociate themselves from it is extremely poor strategy.
    
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    August 28, 2019 3:00pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Maybe Bridges is keeping his powder dry in case the wrinkled old despot doesn’t make it to the election.
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:11pm
Poppa

I think I heard Peters is off work due to a knee operation or something similar.

Then it struck me how pleasant life is without having to listen to his blathering every day or two. Perhaps he could make that permanent please
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August 28, 2019 11:37am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  I hear he tripped over a bauble.
  
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  August 28, 2019 1:32pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Q.12 looks interesting today:

STUART SMITH to the Minister of Immigration: Does Immigration New Zealand queue-jump applications for visas based on criteria that are not publicly available?
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/order-paper-questions/list-of-oral-questions/oral-questions-28-august-2019/
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August 28, 2019 11:48am
Maggie Pie

I got caught up in the same thing at Remuera ‘Fruit World’ when they advertised Spring Onions @50c a bunch

https://twitter.com/newscomauHQ/status/1166484535753629696
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August 28, 2019 11:48am
All_on_Red

Ilhan Omar in the news again.
‘ A Washington, DC, mom says her political-consultant husband left her for Rep. Ilhan Omar, according to a bombshell divorce filing obtained by The Post.
Dr. Beth Jordan Mynett says her cheating spouse, Tim Mynett, told her in April that he was having an affair with the Somali-born US representative …alleges the filing, submitted in DC Superior Court on Tuesday.’
Mynett was consulting to Omar and got paid $230,000. Theres allegations funds paid for travel expenses were used to facilitate the affair. Omar has already been found guilty for using Campaign Funds for personal reasons.
As one wag on Twitter put it; “Somebody did something with someone else’s husband”
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August 28, 2019 12:15pm
- Fletch
  
  She’d most likely be stoned for that in a strict Muslim country…
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:52pm
Tony Stuart

Lots of talking points in the All Black squad for the Rugby World Cup. Bad luck for Ngani Laumape, Owen Franks, Vaea Fifita, Jackson Hemopo and Liam Squire, all of whom have missed out.

The tournament has probably come a year too late for Franks, who has been a great All Black servant. Laumape will doubtless be told to keep himself fit, given the injury histories of SBW, Ryan Crotty and more recently, of Jack Goodhue. Steve Hansen has just said at the media conference that Liam Squire is available if required as a replacement, but was not considered for the 31.
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August 28, 2019 12:16pm
- alex Masterley
  
  There seems to be shock and horror in the media about Squire not being selected.
  Why that is the case is beyond me. He only said he was available in the past week or so. It is unreasonable to expect to hold a place open for some-one like he purely on the basis he might say he is available.
  So Squires absence should not be a surprise.
  I think all the other names will be told to keep match fit in anticipation of the inevitable injuries.
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:48pm
- oob
  
  Squire should be there because the ABs stone cold abso-fucking-lutely require a blindside.
  
  The Convicts pioneered the modern version of the Jaapies playing flankers left and right with two opensides, starting with Phil Waugh & George Smith and continuing today with David Pocock and Michael Hooper.
  
  It doesn’t work, teams give away too much bullocking ball carrying over the gainline and, as Bledisloe II demonstrated, the AB’s lineout suffered majorly both on attack and defence in the absence of that blindside jumper.
  
  Laumape should be there because Girly Bill Kardashian is in a head-to-head competition with Isaia Turn-e-ova for the title of Worst All Black of All Time.
  
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  August 28, 2019 3:16pm
- Colville
  
  I would have picked Squire with Guzzler still wounded for his height and mongrel.
  But as someone much closer to this than me told me, the AB selectors may not be too worried if they lose the opening game as we would probably get Ireland in the quarter final and Ireland aren’t looking flash.
  
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  August 28, 2019 3:47pm
stephieboy

U.S.

DONALD TRUMP’S BORDER WALL: HOW MUCH OF THE BARRIER HAS ACTUALLY BEEN BUILT—AND WILL IT EVER BE COMPLETE?

“..While, during his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had vowed to build a towering 2,000-mile wall that would stop migrants in their tracks before they considered attempting to cross into the U.S. outside a designated port of entry, the U.S. leader scaled back on that promise in January of this year, admitting that his border wall would not, in fact, be the “a 2,000-mile concrete structure from sea-to-sea” that he promised to build. “These are steel barriers in high-priority locations,” he said.”

“..The 46.7 miles of border wall that has so far been built (a meager 2.3 percent of the border itself), according to CBP, stands small in the shadow of the 654 miles of barriers that already existed along the southwest border before Trump took office. That total included 354 miles of pedestrian fencing, designed to stop people from crossing on foot, in addition to 300 miles of vehicle barriers, which prevent vehicles from driving across the border, but which can be scaled by a person on foot.
The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates that border apprehensions are hitting historic highs…”

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-border-wall-built-progress-how-much-1446311

Whats the hold up Trump fans?
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August 28, 2019 12:17pm
- theoldbloke
  
  Pay attention:
  The holdup?
  Its Called the US Congress not approving Trumps budget.
  Remember its the Congress that controls the money.
  Not the President
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:39pm
  - Batman
    
    Nor are they a rubber stamp authority for Trump’s wish lists.
    
    I don’t think they’ve passed a proper, normal budget for at least a decade. They’re surviving on temporary spending bills, hence the shut downs.
    
    It’s completely silly from both sides of the equation.
    
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    August 28, 2019 12:52pm
  - stigie
    
    Just like the US Congress, Stiffy controls the goats !~
    
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    August 28, 2019 1:35pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Court action was the hold up.
  All go now the Supreme Court has cleared the way.
  Here’s the latest news- you should try to keep up.
  ‘So far, more than 60 miles have been constructed “along the SW border since 2017,” and the agency is expected to “complete 450 miles by the end of 2020,” the tweet read (from the US Customs and Border Protection on 25th August)
  https://m.theepochtimes.com/border-patrol-unveils-60-miles-of-us-mexico-border-wall-in-drone-footage_3055182.html
  A lot more has been replaced elsewhere. But, wow, all on track to build FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILES OF WALL
  You were told this yesterday.
  Which begs probably a better question.
  Why are you so stupid?
  
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  August 28, 2019 12:47pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    You should read the info in the link. Quite a lot there about how much is going.Certainly more than your 3 month old article.
    There’s even video footage!
    I’m sure those Trump supporters for whom the Wall is important will be happy. Especially those who care about sexual abuse of children.
    Of course that doesn’t seem to be a concern of Labour supporters in NZ- like you Mr ‘ample but supple breasts’!?
    
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    August 28, 2019 12:53pm
Maggie Pie

EXPLOSIVE!!
“He knows what he’s done” 🙁

Jeffrey Epstein’s teen sex slave, Australian Virginia Giraffe claims she was forced to have sex with The Duke of York – and issues a scathing challenge to Prince Andrew
Urges him to “come clean”

https://twitter.com/newscomauHQ/status/1166500735141335041
7 1
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August 28, 2019 12:46pm
- rightoverlabour
  
  Maggie – be careful The “Firm” does not like being embarrsased. Ask Epstein.
  
  7 1
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  August 28, 2019 1:08pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Are you suggesting i should avoid the Pont de l’Alma tunnel?
    
    5 1
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    August 28, 2019 2:10pm
    - chaos
      
      No need to worry until they have gotten rid of Harry’s wife
      
      3 1
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      August 28, 2019 3:43pm
      - rightoverlabour
        
        Looks like things are a bit iffy in terms of her personal happiness.
        https://www.thedailybeast.com/meghan-markle-is-finding-out-how-lonely-royal-life-can-be
        
        I personally think you have to be bonkers to get involved with that (German) family. https://www.sbs.com.au/guide/article/2017/08/28/brief-history-british-royals-and-their-alleged-nazi-connections
        
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        August 28, 2019 9:59pm
Kabull

An interesting report from Tony Heller on the temperature history of Iceland and how it has been manipulated, is worth watching.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7lgKjvAqt4

Heller demonstrates the changes over time to the temperature records for Reykjavik, and how they were manipulated to remove the warm period of the 1940s.
He claims that ‘climate scientists’ can get away with such obvious frauds because nobody is brave enough to challenge them – they know they can do anything with impunity.
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August 28, 2019 12:46pm
- All_on_Red
  
  There was another one like that done by a Japanese scientist on the temp data for Hokitika Airport.
  They had records since 1880.
  Current versions had the past Temps lowered to show a rising trend.
  I would have thought Hokitika was a bit immune from the influence of a Urban Heat Island Effect,
  Not like the Albert Park one in Auckland.
  
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  August 28, 2019 1:00pm
GoVege

Apparently Duncan Garner and his mate are upset that KFC (in the US) are offering customers a meat-free alternative…as if they are being forced to eat it.
I’m surprised more males aren’t vegequarian.
After all, males are the primary victims of the meat industry.
Several million day old boy chicks are minced or gassed every year in NZ.
Probably a similar number of male newborn calves.
BTW, anyone know if in-egg chick sexing is being trialled in NZ yet, to avoid all this carnage?
1 11
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August 28, 2019 12:53pm
- GoVege
  
  Loved that bit on Rush Hour 2 where Chris Tucker aims his (police issue) gun at a Chinese woman about to decapitate a chook for him and says: “put the blade down and let the bird go!”
  Every chicken needs a Chris Tucker guardian angel… 🙂
  
  1 11
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  August 28, 2019 1:19pm
  - chaos
    
    I loved the bit where I cut into my steak and it slightly bleed as I cut into it, mmmmm, tasted nice
    
    9 1
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    August 28, 2019 1:57pm
- GoVege
  
  Da truth sure do hurt…dont it, down-tickers? 🙂
  Btw, KFC NZ has a beeee-autiful vegeburger for only 3.99.
  Heaps of yummy veges and a patty that tastes so much like chicken….I thought they’d given me the wrong order!
  Try it…you’ll like it. 🙂
  
  2 9
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  August 28, 2019 1:38pm
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Yawn. I used to be a vegetarian. Then I felt the need for meat. Humanely killed, I’m quite ok with it.
    
    And I don’t expect any sensible person to identify with an animal just because of its gender!
    
    If your point is that some animals are being inhumanely killed, then give detailed evidence and action plans that don’t necessitate people giving up what for many of us is a healthy and delicious form of protein: meat.
    
    8 1
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    August 28, 2019 2:15pm
    - GoVege
      
      Meat from mammals is not healthy, CL.
      Why do you think we have so much bowel cancer?
      
      0 9
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      August 28, 2019 6:21pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Because ardern is giving everyone the shits… I think she must be a vegan as she is really fucking annoying.
        
        Meat not healthy… shows why meat is necessary, your brain is rotting from the inside out.
        
        2 1
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        August 28, 2019 9:23pm
    - GoVege
      
      Meat is also bad for the planet.
      Millions of acres of forest are cleared every year to raise animals for humans to eat.
      Can’t you see that all us animals are related and it is only a matter of good luck that we happen to belong to a species of ape currently running this planet.
      They are our biological cousins and deserve better than how we treat them.
      Also, when you look at mammal flesh on sale in the shops, it is virtually identical to our own innards.
      Maybe its because women do most of the cooking that far more women are vegetarians than men.
      
      0 9
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      August 28, 2019 6:33pm
- Tall Man
  
  Don’t know, don’t care… had chicken for lunch…. yummy. Didn’t look for balls or ovaries… again, didn’t look don’t care.
  
  Do veges have gender or are they all transgender?
  
  Do you eat boy veges or girl veges? Are they grown up when you eat them or do you commit “vege infanticide”?
  
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  August 28, 2019 2:01pm
  - chaos
    
    I used to take photos of our lambs when we had a farm sleeping next to mint sauce, mmmmm. Tasted much better than shop brought meat.
    
    7 0
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    August 28, 2019 4:40pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Covered in butter with anchovies and garlic slivers inserted into the roast…. slow cooked and served medium rare…… beats the fuck out a nancy vege burger any day.
      
      1 0
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      August 28, 2019 9:22pm
      - GoVege
        
        So thats why guys won’t eat vegeburgers.
        Someone could suspect they might be….limp-wristed!
        
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        August 29, 2019 1:32am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Do veges have gender
    Sure they do… but not always separately.
    
    A couple you may be familiar with:
    
    https://www.scienceofcooking.com/difference_male_female_zucchini_blossom.htm
    
    https://farmwest.com/images/client/BreedingCorn%20Fig%201.JPG
    
    6 0
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    August 28, 2019 5:02pm
  - GoVege
    
    TM: do you know any veges (of either gender or any age) that have a complex nervous system like us animals?
    
    0 5
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    August 28, 2019 5:55pm
    - Tall Man
      
      I believe that recently they have discovered that trees communicate with each other and can also provide sustenance when one is unable.
      
      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/25/science/tree-stump-alive.html
      
      2 0
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      August 28, 2019 9:19pm
      - GoVege
        
        How sweet.
        But I don’t eat trees….only their fruit or nuts… just before they fall off.
        
        1 0
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        August 29, 2019 1:35am
Fletch

And this guy is running for president….

Man: I was born Sep. 8, did my life have no value Sep. 7?

Beto O’Rourke: “Of course I don’t think that … but … this a decision that neither you, nor I, nor the United States government should be making. That’s a decision for the woman to make” pic.twitter.com/DhmvzcqfRN

— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) August 27, 2019

To cheering from the crowd. The party in favour of abortion, and now infanticide…
8 3
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August 28, 2019 1:05pm
Tony Stuart

From Maxine Gay, former head honcho of the CTU:

Maxine Gay @GayMaxine

This story is reflective of Bridges – his claims that the donation was legal while technically true are substantively false

I have asked Maxine the following:

What about the $237,000 the Service and Food Workers’ Union spent on getting Labour re-elected in 2005 Maxine? Was that “technically legal”, given Labour declared only $20k in donations, and who made up the shortfall in SFWU’s accounts?

This relates to a story in Investigate Magazine in September 2006. It was subsequently repeated in Ian Wishart’s book about Helen Clark, Absolute Power. I am not aware of anyone suing Wishart, so must therefore conclude that the story is true.

It’s certainly worth a re-read for anyone interested in dodgy electoral goings-on. You can find it here, on pp 43 and 44 – https://issuu.com/iwishart/docs/investigate_sep06
22 0
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August 28, 2019 1:22pm
- chaos
  
  Since prime minister do nothing confirmed it was legal, I’d say end of story move on to the next which I believe will be the countless labour sexual allegations. Oh no wait that is what these stories are to try to take the public’s attention away from.
  
  Cue the defenders of the labour sexual assault allegations.
  
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  August 28, 2019 1:56pm
GoVege

In-ovo/egg chick sexing would do away with the need to destroy millions of day old boy chicks.
And, the need to sex all the hatchlings in the first place.
Its being done in Europe.
Why not here?
3 7
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August 28, 2019 1:24pm
- GoVege
  
  And the male eggs can be diverted to other purposes such as to make vaccines or animal feed…win..win! 🙂
  
  0 3
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  August 28, 2019 2:10pm
  - GoVege
    
    Can’t you dudes imagine it?
    Knock yourself out breaking your way out of your shell, only to be thrown in a mincer on your first day outside?
    For the crime of being MALE?
    Where’s the justice in that ?!
    
    0 7
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    August 28, 2019 2:13pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Where is the rational for anthropomorphising animal thought’s and lives? Almost all animals in Nature die by being rent apart by the teeth of predators.
      
      4 1
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      August 28, 2019 3:04pm
      - GoVege
        
        Usually not at only a day old, UrbanNeocolonialist!
        Nature may be red in tooth and claw, but it gives most animals a fighting chance.
        Unlike the human killing machines….
        
        0 4
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        August 28, 2019 4:46pm
      - GoVege
        
        I don’t need to “anthropomorphize”, UN.
        Other animals don’t need to be exactly like humans to have feelings and suffer fear/pain etc.
        BTW…did you know that birds are actually “avian dinosaurs”, the only survivors of the dinosaurs after they were obliterated 65 million years ago.
        They are also highly intelligent.
        There are alternatives to eating other animals you know.
        
        0 3
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        August 28, 2019 5:27pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      ‘I’m sorry for being a man’ now has a new meaning?
      
      3 1
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      August 28, 2019 3:46pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  OK, sounds like it could reduce waste, if nothing else.
  
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  August 28, 2019 2:19pm
freethinker

I think China will regret its actions like this and the enemies it is and continues to make over its S China sea claims and failure to adopt the standards on most of the worlds leading countries on international law and what is acceptable practice especially on intellectual property and trade practices in relation to foreign owned companies plus Hong Kong problems. Whilst Govts may compromise with China Western populations may choose not to support China by refusing to purchase Chinese made goods irrespective of manufacturers name. It is not too late for China to change its policies and loose a little face now, later on the loss of face will be larger.
9 1
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August 28, 2019 1:32pm
- chaos
  
  You mean there are goods that aren’t made in China?
  
  5 0
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  August 28, 2019 1:53pm
Sacha

All ant-vaxxers are out in force on Magic this afternoon.
I had all my kids vaccinated against MMR because in 1960 when I was nursing in the children’s ward in Wellington hospital we had a sunny balcony with about 10 beds which were permanently occupied by children who had suffered encephalitis as a complication of a Measles infection. The poor things were growing, inert little bodies with no hope of ever, ever returning to a semblance of normal life.
It was horrific.
16 1
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August 28, 2019 1:58pm
Hugh Pavletich

NEW ZEALAND: When can we expect a long – overdue announcement (access extensive backgounf information via http://www.PerformanceUrbanPlanning.org ) from the Minister for Urban Development Phil Twyford on the bond financing of infrastructure ? …

… The Minister for Urban Development (then Housing) Phil Twyfords important late March speech …

New Zealaned (then Housing) Urban Development Minister Phil Twyfords speech to the New Zealand Initiative Members Retreat … New Zealand Government / Beehive

https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech-nz-initiative-members%E2%80%99-retreat

… extract …

… In our view there are three big challenges that have to be addressed:

1. A broken system for financing infrastructure

2. A planning system based on urban containment

3. The failure of governments until now, both local and central, to actively work with the private sector to enable urban growth and expansion. … read more via hyperlink above …
.
.
Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr puts in a plug for the Government and businesses to invest more to take advantage of low global interest rates … David Hargreaves … Interest Co NZ

https://www.interest.co.nz/bonds/101414/reserve-bank-governor-adrian-orr-puts-plug-government-and-businesses-invest-more-take
.
.
The Bond Markets Are Begging for Infrastructure Spending … Bloomberg

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-08-13/bond-markets-are-begging-for-infrastructure-spending
3 17
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August 28, 2019 2:07pm
- sooty
  
  You link whoring again!
  
  14 4
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  August 28, 2019 3:37pm
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    … AUSTRALIA … CONSTRUCTION SECTOR TANKING …
    
    Construction recession deepens and spreads across all sectors – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
    
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-08-28/construction-work-done-q2-2019/11455886
    
    Key points:
    
    • Construction work has fallen 11pc over the past twelve months and, in terms of value, it has retreated to levels reported at the start of 2017
    
    • Home building has fallen for four consecutive quarters to be down 10pc over the year
    
    • The “ugly” result is expected to have a material impact on second quarter GDP, slicing around 0.4ppt off growth … read more via hyperlink above …
    .
    .
    Home-building shrinks, economists cut GDP forecasts … Australian Financial Review
    
    https://www.afr.com/property/residential/home-building-shrinks-at-fastest-pace-in-19-years-20190828-p52ljj
    
    … Google NZ Search ‘Australian construction’ …
    
    https://www.google.co.nz/search?source=hp&ei=TRlmXcqHHp3dz7sPz5W7mAg&q=australian+construction&oq=australian+construction&gs_l=psy-ab.12..
    
    0 13
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    August 28, 2019 6:33pm
    - Hugh Pavletich
      
      THE FONTERRA FIASCO … CONTINUES …
      
      Fonterra says its milk volumes in Australia were down nearly 29% in the first month of the new season, following on from a more than 20% drop for the whole of last season … David Hargreaves … Interest Co NZ
      
      https://www.interest.co.nz/rural-news/101417/fonterra-says-its-milk-volumes-australia-were-down-nearly-29-first-month-new
      
      … FROM YESTERDAY >>>
      
      A review of things you need to know before you go home on Tuesday; some key rate cuts, house inflation reviving, bank reputations improve, ugly Fonterra drop, swaps firm, NZD stable, & more … Interest Co NZ
      
      https://www.interest.co.nz/news/101391/review-things-you-need-know-you-go-home-tuesday-some-key-rate-cuts-house-inflation
      
      … extract …
      
      $1 BLN LOST IN ONE MONTH
      
      A feature today in local markets is the continuing sharp fall of the Fonterra share price, now at a seriously worrying $3.15 and a drop of another -8c today alone. Investors are fleeing fast. The company’s capitalisation is now only $5.077 bln and that is $1 bln less in just one month. This is a company that had a capitalisation of $10.7 bln in January 2018. It has halved since then.
      .
      .
      Treasury to be asked about solidness of Fonterra’s financial reporting … Andrea Fox … New Zealand Herald (behind paywall)
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12262311
      
      Google NZ Search ‘Fonterra’
      
      https://www.google.com/search?source=hp&ei=jOJkXfv2GcL59QPFia2QAw&q=fonterra&oq=fonterra&gs_l=psy-ab.12..
      
      1 4
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      August 28, 2019 7:52pm
Swifty

Another Maori trust fleeced by the people entrusted to look after it:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12262517

I don’t know. How do these people expect to get away with it?
15 1
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August 28, 2019 2:37pm
- fernglas
  
  In my experience of these things, there is usually a fairly strong sense of entitlement and a lot of arrogance.
  
  6 0
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  August 28, 2019 8:35pm
  - sooty
    
    A lot do start out from school on a bennie and just continue through life.
    
    4 0
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    August 28, 2019 10:08pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Looks like he got a harsher sentence than a number of demonstrably violent offenders…
  
  1 0
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  August 28, 2019 10:40pm
  - GoVege
    
    First thing I thought too, Suze.
    But he has hurt a lot of people in other ways.
    
    0 0
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    August 29, 2019 1:27am
- GoVege
  
  “The siblings have been removed as trustees of P3G”.
  Well thank God for that!
  But how come the Maori Land Court dismissed an application for Henare to be removed as trustee when he had already stolen half the money?
  Thereby giving him the opportunity to rob the trust of the remaining half a million!
  Is there no accountability at the Maori Land Court either?
  
  1 0
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  August 29, 2019 1:24am
Maggie Pie

YUK!! I was just doing a bit of chanel surfing at the end of QT and was shocked to see that horrible ‘Don Lemon’ is still hosting CNN News Hour!
As my partner said the other night, “Imagine if say Sean Hannity had been accused of putting HIS hand down another blokes board shorts and then wiping his fingers under that persons nose. They would have had him off-air before you could say “do you prefer pussy or dick” 🙁
10 1
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August 28, 2019 3:04pm
- Inandout
  
  Lemon and Cooper, what a team.
  
  2 2
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  August 28, 2019 6:04pm
Captain Mainwaring

Yet another sensible hydro scheme harpooned by the greenies:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/115349596/mt-cook-of-rivers-will-not-be-tamed-as-govt-rejects-waitaha-hydropower-scheme

Don’t come crying to me in 30 years time when your fancy electric car is up on blocks because there’s not enough electricity to run it.
Useless plonkers.
23 2
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August 28, 2019 3:38pm
- stoptheboats
  
  what a durrrrr decision, another example of economic vandalism by the Luddites
  
  9 2
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  August 28, 2019 4:48pm
Maggie Pie

A bestie from LA tweets..

I honestly think we are DOOMED.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EDBu9XGW4AEv0Vm?format=jpg&name=small
6 0
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August 28, 2019 3:54pm
- mandk
  
  At least it has the good manners to wear a biohazard symbol on its forehead.
  
  5 0
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  August 28, 2019 4:33pm
- chaos
  
  What strange animals and pets they have there. Don’t feed it.
  
  6 0
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  August 28, 2019 4:38pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    My partner sez ….”he finds it quite horny”
    
    [I dunno – maybe mum was right all along?]
    
    6 1
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    August 28, 2019 5:06pm
Kabull

Hats off to Alan Jones. “Amazon fire ‘lies’ are ‘designed to feed climate alarmist movement’”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sj215wMUwTY
I bet we won’t see this sort of reporting/analysis in NZ media.
13 1
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August 28, 2019 4:20pm
- chaos
  
  Oh I don’t know, newshub have already reported that the fires are mostly on established farm land not the Amazon rainforest.they also reported that some photos being shared are old
  
  11 0
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  August 28, 2019 4:37pm
- Kabull
  
  Whoops – I should have said Andrew Bolt.
  
  7 0
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  August 28, 2019 4:43pm
  - Kabull
    
    Sorry – having finger trouble this afternoon. Ignore reference to Andrew Bolt in my 4:43 post.
    
    6 1
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    August 28, 2019 4:53pm
Happychappy

It sounds like Jacinda is not happy that Simon won’t back her gun laws and a good time now for them to question her motive in Question time and through the media. Keep winding her up like they tried with Simon many times, she won’t be able to handle it like he did.
16 1
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August 28, 2019 5:06pm
- sooty
  
  Yep! Come in spinner!
  
  2 0
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  August 28, 2019 10:06pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Our PM is still remaining very coy about whether her Government is going to prop up Tainui to buy Ihumatao.

Closed and Opaque Government in action
Q. 2. From 1:37
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20190828_20190828_08/tab/video?page=5&mode=form
18 2
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August 28, 2019 5:59pm
- chaos
  
  I’ll help her for you
  
  Yes. And we don’t expect it to be paid back. But it’s ok because I am going to build a runway on daddies island so I can get away from people when they realise what an incompetent pm I am
  
  13 1
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  August 28, 2019 6:44pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Boris is going to shut down UK Parliament…
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-49493632
6 0
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August 28, 2019 8:26pm
- fernglas
  
  Got painted into a corner; he would have been stuffed if he didn’t have no deal as a negotiating tool. Be interesting to see what the Queen has to say.
  
  1 0
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  August 28, 2019 8:40pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Go Boris …………………………………
  
  7 0
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  August 28, 2019 8:53pm
- chaos
  
  Hmmmm,
  
  I wonder if we promise to give randy Andy asylum in New Zealand if the queen will shut our government down.
  
  2 0
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  August 28, 2019 8:54pm
sooty

Cindy, what’s this Tree dee, that you speak of?
You do have trouble getting your tounge around words don’t you and yet you and your mates laugh at Simon.
Don’t hold up a mirror will you!
4 0
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August 28, 2019 10:12pm

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