General Debate 30 August 2019

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Right of way is Way of Right

So the princess of posidividy wants to start a programme of school lunches for children who don’t have lunches!

Fair enough, as long as the cost of those lunches is deducted from any benefits that are payable to the parents or guardians of those children!
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August 30, 2019 8:01am
- oldgolfer
  
  Yes, and free lunches, for some families, will provide an excuse not to provide breakfast or tea.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:18am
  - igm
    
    More for meth, booze, pokies and petrol.
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:38am
    - sooty
      
      You forgot the ciggies! Silly.
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:38am
      - igm
        
        No, ciggies are too weak for the overfunded beneficiaries . . . they like the high-powered goodies we taxpayers provide via the PTPM.
        
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        August 30, 2019 11:49am
  - Souvlaki
    
    ?
    https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/99124605/controversial-fairfax-media-cartoons-insulting-judge-says
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:12am
  - stigie
    
    Who will feed the kids in the school holidays..?
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:19am
- Scott
  
  Well there are a number of problems with this. Number 1-its going to be us the taxpayers who are going to be on the hook for this to the tune of approx $35m!
  Secondly the government is not your parent. It’s up to parents to organise the children’s lunch, not the taxpayer and not the government.
  
  That’s a key difference between right and left. The left think that more government is the solution to everything.
  Here on the Christian Conservative right we believe in freedom and families being responsible for their own children.
  Furthermore the unintended consequence of this programme is that the natural functions of families is being taken away from them. That makes families weaker.
  We believe in stronger families and less government and hence lower taxes. The left believe in any kind of family is ok, more government and more taxes. That’s a big difference right there.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:23am
  - Prince
    
    Whose responsibility is it to ensure the food is 100% organic GE-free gluten-free fresh ellergen-free, non-chokable wholesome sustainable recyclable etc etc etc ?
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:35am
    - artemisia
      
      Don’t forget locavore. Because carbon and air miles …
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:41am
  - projectman
    
    So there is, after all, such a thing as a free lunch.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:02am
    - artemisia
      
      Nope, someone is paying. Wonder who that would be.
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:41am
  - mark15
    
    The Christian Conservative right?
    AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:23am
    - Batman
      
      I had a similar thought.
      
      This blog is not Christian conservative. The right is not Christian. Some parts of the right aren’t even ‘conservative’ in the traditional sense.
      
      I’m economically orthodox and socially liberal. A near-Libertarian.
      
      The Christian conservative tag probably applies to 5% of the vote, as we’ve seen in previous elections.
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:56am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        I hope this blog is no specific thing, because we voice many different points of view.
        
        I also see myself as socially liberal, economically conservative.
        
        To me that means: have kids if you want, but feed them yourself.
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:37am
      - Batman
        
        Agree completely!
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:39am
    - Scott
      
      Mark 15 – talking about myself really. I’m a Christian first. Conservative second – there is a great thing called western civilisation that needs conserving.
      And I’m on the right because of freedom. The right believes in freedom as their defining principle. As opposed to the left whose defining principle is equality.
      
      But yes a Christian can be right or left, Christianity transcends politics. Jesus came so our sins can be forgiven. This applies to people regardless of their political affiliation. Even Helen Clarke! ?
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:48am
  - dave_c_
    
    Yes Scott – I can forsee there will be no exception, no bringing your own lunch – all will be forced into the same classification (read lowest common denominator as the ruling elite desire)
    Once you have them hooked on the small things, hooking/ forcing them into larger things becomes so much easier.
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:57am
  - stephieboy
    
    Scott,
    
    “..Here on the Christian Conservative right we believe in freedom and families being responsible for their own children..”
    
    As if your kind have a monoply on this kind of pious virtue signalling!
    
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    August 30, 2019 2:02pm
- G152
  
  So what happens during school holidays?
  Do the kids line up at school every morning during the ‘holidays’ ??????
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:25am
  - burt
    
    What about teacher only days and paid union meeting days?
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:40am
    - oldgolfer
      
      So no free lunches at all?
      
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      August 30, 2019 8:41am
    - rouppe
      
      The teachers will get a good feed those days
      
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      August 30, 2019 11:18am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Has anyone considered that the free school lunches will be dished out in little plastic boxes? These will just go in the bin to be replaced with new ones the next day, and the day after that, ad-infinitum. Contrast with the lunches that kids actually bring to school with them. They are in their own plastic boxes which will be taken home to be washed and recycled.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:30am
- Tony Stuart
  
  As a Communications graduate, the PM should know better than anyone that there’s no such thing as a free lunch!
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:30am
  - Tarquin North
    
    I’ve just paid gst and our provisional tax, that hurt but not as much as knowing Jacinda is giving it to bludgers hand over fist. As usual she doesn’t even know how this latest feel good exercise is going to work. Worst government ever.
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:40am
    - igm
      
      She would not know what a GST return looks like, and provisional tax would be what she thinks she can use for providing food for bludgers’ hungry kids.
      Taxation time, rates, etc get me really irate when I see where it is all being wasted.
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:38am
    - Batman
      
      Tarquin, I like to imagine that all my tax money goes to the NZDF, Treasury, and building roads.
      
      It makes it much easier to swallow, even if we are being ripped off by the income tax thresholds!
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:58am
      - Ian Boag
        
        The dole costs about 4% of the budget.
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:24am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Ian: please provide a link to stats, and don’t forget to add DPB to dole.
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:41am
      - Ian Boag
        
        https://www.interest.co.nz/news/100033/budget-2019-social-welfare
        
        Oops. My mistake. Jobseeker more like 2%. No such thing as the DPB – Sole Parent Support and Supported Living payments.
        
        Jobseeker – $1.6bn
        SLP – $1.6bn
        SPS – $1.1bn
        
        About $4bn all up – something like 5% of the budget …..
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:59am
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Thanks Ian, I’ll check it out.
        
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        August 30, 2019 11:31am
  - pdm
    
    Hardly Inv – she is more than a bit thick!!
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:48am
  - James Stephenson
    
    There’s no such thing as “free”, only that someone else is paying!
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:16am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      First rule; for someone to have something, for free or otherwise, someone else has to give something up
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:27am
      - septic skeptic
        
        Not correct. I can create something for myself. It’s not free, but nobody else has to give anything up.
        
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        August 30, 2019 12:05pm
  - John Warren
    
    I said that yesterday!
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:19am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Back in my kindy & primary school days, we all had a half a pint of full cream milk supplied daily around 10am.
  yum, yum.
  In winter we took an enamel mug to school and got a warm/hot cocoa drink at Lunchtime… yum,yum,yum.
  
  I went to kindy & school in Castlecliff, Wanganui – a suburb that is placed in the highest level of socioeconomic deprivation in NZ.
  
  I never heard anyone in that suburb speaking out against free milk for children…. that call seemed to come from the luvvies in leafy Wellington Suburbs.
  
  Now hungry kids will have to wait until lunchtime before they get free sandwiches…..won’t be too much learning going on in the morning, then.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:36am
  - Biscuit
    
    Maggie, I was at Waiouru Primary from ’60-64.
    
    Different times, of course, but everyone knews everyone and the Mums, in wintertime, would prepare hot cocoa for us to swill at Playtime and Lunchtime.
    
    Entirely voluntary, of course, and that would have been after breakfasting us little horrors before (as I may exaggeratingly recall!) kicking us out into the driving snow, in shorts and barefeet, to GET to that school, ha.
    
    Free milk was still going on into my second year of College. Never missed out!
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:47am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Cost us Island Bayians, 2/6d a term for winter cocoa!
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:29am
      - Mummy
        
        I used to fill the urn with milk on cold winter mornings so the hot cocoa would be ready at lunchtime at Island Bay School
        
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        August 30, 2019 2:28pm
  - gravedodger
    
    My primary school milk not so great Maggie.
    Four hours in the non- refrigerated freight cabin of a NZR coach from the City 100 Kms distant arrived at 2.30 almost Yoghurt many days but the culture not quite Yoghurt and the curdled cream sans sugar .
    The straws quite a big diameter but still plugged by thee “milk”.
    c1950 for reference.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:33am
    - Sacha
      
      We had that too. I loathe milk.
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:52am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Recall similar experiences – in winter and if stored in the shade the milk was fine (if you liked milk), but in summer it was often all just poured away, when it would pour.
      
      As for lunches, at the school where my children first went (Decile 3-4 as I recall) there were perhaps 6 or so children who regularly turned up without lunch, so a lunch program was started. In about 2 weeks over 60 children were coming to school without lunch in order to get the “free” food, and the numbers kept growing. So the school actually managed to get in touch with Social Welfare. Welfare targeted the original 6 children’s parents, visits, education, ensuring they had access to whatever benefits they were entitled to etc, and the free lunches were halted. From then on, all the children had lunches provided by parents and the “problem” such as it was, went away.
      
      There was a similar related issue where some children sometimes had a bought lunch and sometimes didn’t. The problem there was that those children were given money to buy lunch – and usually an adequate lunch though tastes may vary. The temptation to go without lunch in exchange for a windfall of lollies on the way home was often succumbed to. No easy answer to that one. Those children BTW were the first to opt into the original school lunch program and made sure to keep information about that program from their parents so they would keep supplying the “lunch” money.
      
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      August 30, 2019 11:17am
  - madamezucchininz
    
    …..I attended a primary school in Christchurch……we got the milk….it was great in the winter……the summer not so much as it would stand in the sun til morning tea……one year we had a teacher that taught us how to turn it into butter…..spread on the proverbial milk loaf……wonderful……
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:36am
  - Lizziep
    
    Fontera supply free milk to schools I thought? I saw a sign on a school yesterday stating that.
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:58am
    - Mummy
      
      Yes I know of at least one primary school in Wellington that gets school milk today.
      
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      August 30, 2019 2:30pm
- niggly
  
  Another Labour “great idea” (in terms of a Cindy soundbite), but like the gun buyback scheme (when Police weren’t ready to implement policy/store guns and had them stolen) how is this going to work in practice?
  
  Schools don’t generally have kitchens and dining rooms for their pupils (and nowhere to reheat food), so again no real leadership from Labour/Cindy and it will be left to Schools to figure it out.
  
  A much better plan for Labour (but they are too stupid to think strategically) would be to implement say a 10-15 year development plan for new build Schools to have a kitchen and student dining facilities and to make funding available over the next 10-15 years for existing Schools to build kitchen/dining facilities. Now that would be a lasting legacy for generations to come.
  
  I can recall when I was at school some kids would bring food in to share with their friends (eg one person brings a piece, another person another piece etc) and realised there were no facilities to do properly so the kids would do this in the classroom. I understand from our own kids nowadays that their schools lock them out of their classrooms at lunchtimes unless it is wet (as it is being used for other purposes) so even today doing the “bring and share” food thing might not even work in some cases!
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:55am
  - marcw
    
    Checking on supermarket prices today, wouldn’t these be better value than the proposed $9/meal per student from Cindy?
    
    Frozen:
    Watties Roast Meal $8.50
    McCains Roast Meal $7.50
    Weightwatchers meal $5.99
    
    There’s also Indian, Vegetarian, pizza, and lasagne etc etc. (starting at only $3.00).
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:02am
    - IC5000
      
      I brought the watties meal for AUD4.50 a couple of weeks ago in Sydney. So glad I don’t live in NZ anymore
      
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      August 30, 2019 12:53pm
  - alloytoo
    
    They have no idea how this will work, they will expect the people on the ground to come up with something.
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:52am
    - niggly
      
      Exactly … sounds like Labour is setting up another “KiwiFail” type situation!
      
      Will Jacinda become Labour’s new “Phil Twyford” i.e. the face of failure?
      
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      August 30, 2019 1:23pm
  - Akarak
    
    When you consider issues such as the food would need to be prepared in approved commercial kitchens to ensure that all children will be given food that will be safe and free from contamination, that food will meet stringent dietary or ideological requirements, will provide a nutritional benefit and not be a diet based on some imposed ideological belief and ensures that children have the right to choice then this is simply another PTPM programme that will never fly!
    
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    August 30, 2019 11:48am
    - niggly
      
      Very good points!
      
      So in other words, community “mums and dads” groups won’t be able to supply food for school kids (and because there are no school cooking facilities) the unintended consequences will be “corporate” contracts to supply Schools (eg like they do hospitals), does that mean the food will be inedible “crap” (that some school kids will avoid and remain hungry thanks to lame parenting)?!!!
      
      If so, Jacinda, the feelz won’t work!
      
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      August 30, 2019 1:14pm
- dubya
  
  Remember when John Key announced a weetbix in schools programme with Sanitarium some years ago? I recall some fervent lefties complaining how insensitive it was, as the announcement fell during coeliac awareness week…
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:58am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Sadly its more complex than that. it’s another CoL bandaid.
  
  labour has massively increased the cost of housing for poor people – ill designed policy around rental accommodation, demonising landlords, tilting the regulations to favour tenants… all of which has led to an entirely predictable of exiting stock from the market, and huge price increases for what stock is available.
  
  So, strangely enough, if you can get a rental, you now how less money for food. Maslovs hierarchy of need kicks in.
  
  Perversely, its a great time for first time buyers to buy, as all the ex-rental stock that is uneconomic to upgrade is coming onto the market!
  
  Apparently its Ok to own a house without double glazing or insulation, but not to rent one.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:00am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  The more you do for people, the less they will do for themselves.
  The parents who can’t be bothered to give their children lunches will be very happy to let the State take over the role.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:11am
  - marcw
    
    Teach a man to fish …
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:04am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Rule 21 for effective mercenaries:
      
      Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Take his fish away and tell him he’s lucky just to be alive, and he’ll figure out how to catch another one for you to take tomorrow.
      
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      August 30, 2019 11:24am
- Belinda
  
  And she reads every postcard that children send her, she should have been a kindergarten teacher.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:47am
- yossarian
  
  It also bemuses me that we hear so much about children starving, how come we don’t hear about any adult famine? Shouldn’t there be 1000s of starving adults walking around because of course any decent parent would fed their child before themselves… wouldn’t they?
  
  Wouldn’t they…
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:56am
  - John Warren
    
    Not one of the kids at the school Cindy graced with her presence for the policy announcement looked like they’d gone hungry recently. Quite the opposite, one might say.
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:25am
- John Warren
  
  And of course all those parents who can afford to provide their kids lunches now won’t because the school does a free one. Cindy hasn’t heard of the law of unintended consequences. One of the consequences will be the schools all being overwhelmed by the demand for lunches by “starving” children, the media will report gleefully on it, and the whole thing will turn into a giddying and hysterical positive feedback loop.
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:23am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  This social initiative is going to cost , without hyperbole, 10x as much as if the useless cnuts who can’t be fucked ensuring their kids go to school with lunch actually did the job the govt is paying them welfare for.
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:05pm
Yvette

The trial – which will provide free lunches to children every school day – will begin in 30 schools from term one next year before expanding to 120 schools in 2021. When the policy is fully rolled out, 21,000 children will benefit. [1]

It’s estimated 384,000 families will be better off by an average of $75 a week, once the package is fully implemented in 2020. [2]

If the government’s families package targeted 384,000 families, why are only 21,000 children in need of a free lunch?
Does not a family by definition have at least one child, so what will happen for a minimum 363,000 children – do they get to watch a fortunate few eat free lunches?

And in that regard, 21,000 children over 120 schools caters for an average 175 children per school involved, it would seem free lunches would not be available to all children in each school. So how will children be selected for free food without apparent discrimination or labelling?

But it’s a trial. Yes it could be, for those included and also not included.

[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2019/08/government-announces-free-school-lunch-trial.html
[2] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/360801/govt-s-families-package-takes-effect-step-in-the-right-direction
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August 30, 2019 8:05am
- srylands
  
  “do they get to watch a fortunate few eat free lunches?”
  
  Yes.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:17am
  - sooty
    
    Only poor children!
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:37am
    - BassilFawlty
      
      Perhaps only Maori kids will get a free lunch.
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:25am
    - Komata
      
      Sooty@0837
      
      Re: ‘Only poor children’!
      
      Since by definition these are now those who live in state -provided housing, it would appear that any children of families living in their own (purchased) home have now automatically become ‘Rich Pricks’ ; ignoring completely (and deliberately) the fact that the sacrifices necessary to be able to own one’s own home can at time impose immense ‘poverty’ on members of the family involved.
      
      As a side (but associated) issue, but because in the socialist’s world all house owners in NZ are ‘rich’ , and the intention is ‘equality for ALL’, one has to wonder where this places priNZess and her house in one of Auckland’s most expensive suburbs?
      
      Is it because she’s a’Leader’ and therefore ‘entitled’ to such things..?
      
      One wonders.
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:17am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  $75 a week??!!! It costs my family about $1-1.5 a day to do a kid’s school lunch, $5-8/week. We’re not scrimping. If the govt are budgeting $15 a day each that is massively wasteful. What is wrong with the (mostly beneficiary) parents of these urchins? Too busy? They need severe sanctioning.
  
  Nanny state infantalising chronically useless fucking parents.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:48am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Here’s an idea: if they can’t feed their kids then naughty step the arseholes: take away their sky, netflix and internet for a few days. Get them to prioritise their responsibilities.
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:51am
    - marcw
      
      It’s nothing less than child abuse – Principals are required (by law) to report child abuse, so why aren’t these parents in court if their children turn up to school without lunch?
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:08am
  - niggly
    
    “$75 a week??!!! It costs my family about $1-1.5 a day to do a kid’s school lunch, $5-8/week.”
    
    I heard Cindy saying yesterday that her announcement will “lift thousands of children out of poverty” (or words to that effect)!
    
    But like you when I heard that I did a back of an envelope calculation and came up with a figure of a minimum of $1-2 day for a child’s lunch (eg bread sandwiches with a filling), so like you perhaps $5-10/week.
    
    So let’s say it was $10/week, and if there are around 40 weeks in a School year that’s $10×40=$400 per year (per person) …. so is Cindy really that stupid and is saying that an additional $400/year (per child) will “lift thousands out of poverty”????
    
    Geez Cindy (“as in Geez Wayne”) if that’s all it takes ($400, per child/per family) to eliminate child poverty well isn’t that just amazing! Or is it just more “feelz and bullsh!t” again from the PTPM?
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:08am
    - Spam
      
      But remember, it’s all about the definitions of “Child Poverty”. That probably has some silly definition like “Goes to school without Lunch”.
      
      I know the definition has “two pairs of shoes” in it, so watch out for the “free shoes” announcement.
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:11am
      - alloytoo
        
        As I recall the measurement for poverty is the household as compared to the median household income, it’s not an absolute measure of hardship.
        
        Since they’re not actually “Increasing” their incomes, merely reducing their expenses this action will do exactly “Squat” for the poverty stats.
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:55am
    - Komata
      
      Niggly@0908
      
      Re: Or is it just more “feelz and bullsh!t” again from the PTPM?
      
      No, far more simple that that; Votes!
      
      There’s an election looming and she needs ALL the support she can get; what better way to get them than to buy them?
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:21am
      - niggly
        
        Yes you are right! It’s just to provide “feelz good” headlines for the election campaign (after all the trial starts in election year 2020 – so by the time everyone works out it “ain’t working well” a year or two later, it will be too late)!
        
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        August 30, 2019 1:19pm
  - G152
    
    There will be more employed making these lunches so the bludger rate will be down
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:12am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    Make it a condition of free lunches that the mother (who needs a father anyway…) must give up:
    – Netflix
    – Sky TV
    – Smartphone
    – Vaping
    – Tobacco products
    – Bars and pokies
    
    That would save a lot of money.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:16am
    - Lizziep
      
      They should be made to attend budgeting and live by the budgeters rules. Most people coming in the organisation I worked for were not interested in attending budgeting lessons/help. They would just make the appointments to attend so they could get free food from the food bank. Some going through a difficult period were more than happy to get the help they needed but most were not interested.
      
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      August 30, 2019 12:40pm
  - Swifty
    
    What price your labour?
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:06am
Brian McDonald

A few weeks ago a poster was dismissive of truck (tractor) units being produced commercially – I guess Freightliner wasn’t listening: https://www.trucksales.com.au/editorial/details/freightliner-reveals-its-electric-reality-120209/?utm_source=Responsys&utm_campaign=trucksales_Newsletter_Automated_2019_08_29&utm_medium=email&utm_membership_id=56AA3B2E-1E50-4668-A673-041C1C46D1C5&utm_content=carsalesc.8411125
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August 30, 2019 8:09am
- Tall Man
  
  Whoop de do……. But not all is as it seems.
  
  “The rigid truck, called the eM2, is designed for urban delivery applications and boasts a GVM of 12-15 tonnes.”
  
  Did you see the word “urban”… did you see “.com.au”…..
  
  A truck in Oz could be totally urban dedicated and be utilised fully throughout the day in their major cities.
  
  Outside Auckland in NZ…. not so much eh?
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:40am
  - sooty
    
    And it has to go ni ni’s at night to charge it’s batteries. So they can’t just change drivers and run 24hr days. So not everybody will want one!
    Council just changed to electric rubbish trucks at 70thou each extra.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:44am
- WaveyDavey
  
  That would be me.
  
  Still doesn’t actually exist though does it?
  
  Max range (at best 400km) and then you have to wait 90 minutes for an 80% recharge – so won’t do a return trip to say Tauranga without having to stop for an hour and a half. I guess given the driver is unproductive for that time they won’t be paid then? Or will they have to take the refuelling as their lunch break.
  
  Also, how many charge points are we going to need at each truck stop given that each point will only be able to charge 16 trucks a day (and not to full capacity either). Maybe watch the Southern motorway for a while and see just how many trucks drive past, now imagine them all queuing to recharge and the carnage that will cause.
  
  And the non-e version of the Cascadia (already available) has a GVM of 30 tons (so can move twice as much by weight). It’ll also weigh more than the ice version.
  
  So to sum-up:
  
  Will cost more
  Will carry less
  Will be far more expensive
  Will bugger up transport company logistics
  Will lead to a lower hourly rate for drivers
  Will lead to increased costs for customers
  
  but mainly
  
  Still. Doesn’t. Exist.
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:06am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Vapourware.
    
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    August 30, 2019 11:28am
Ruawai

“One in five children experience moderate or severe food insecurity. “ from Newshub article 29.8.19 on PM giving out free lunches.
This is the newspeak way of saying hungry or parental neglect or not using welfare and working for families money to buy your kids school lunches.
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August 30, 2019 8:10am
- srylands
  
  Underclass parents these days lack the skills to produce meals. My family did not have much money as a kid but my father bought flour in bulk. My mother baked and tended to a very large vegetable garden.
  
  I still have a vegetable garden because of that childhood.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:22am
  - Tall Man
    
    As do we and we are definitely in the upper income bracket.
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:41am
  - Biscuit
    
    In my school, srylands, I’d be making sure many charges could:
    
    Read
    Write
    Budget
    Prepare five basic main meals
    Learn to drive
    Get clued-up on how we are governed
    Get Sex Edded
    
    When I was a nipper, my Mum and Dad’s house regularly won ‘Best Lawn’ and ‘Best Veggie garden’. Guess who was press-ganged into keeping both of those up to scratch, eh?
    
    We also had something like 30 hens in an almost-free-range, wired-in section of our back yard. No prizes for guessing who doled out the mash each a.m., the wheat each p.m. and – o joy – who got to dig over the run every so often whilst being surrounded by worm-crazed hens.
    
    Every couple of weeks I would march into the Post Office Savings Bank and bank my share of the eggs proceeds.
    
    Great days.
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:57am
    - dave_c_
      
      Alas those halcion days are no longer – One could almost blame the modern ‘capitalism’ and the new mantra of those in power – Consume, Conform, Obey is now the new order being foisted on the masses
      
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      August 30, 2019 11:18am
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    I have almost never seen a member of the underclass without the latest smartphone.
    
    Information on how to produce meals is out there.
    
    These Slavs know how to survive in a harsh environment (Life of Boris)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKfmRhfuI8g&list=PLbS0HkS8Xsorrdr3pPk4lP80tUAzfyxP1&index=17&t=90s
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:19am
  - Sacha
    
    It would probably be more effective to install a kitchen in each school and have the senior kids (boys and girls) learn how to cook simple dishes for the daily school lunches.
    Remember the old Home Economics classes?
    
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    August 30, 2019 11:03am
- kowtow
  
  Smack your child to teach ’em a life lesson ; you’re a cruel evil parent who could end up in court with a conviction.
  
  Fail to feed your child ( which must be a crime of neglect and abuse ) and Aunty State will reward you by taking over your responsibility to feed said child.
  
  This regime has some seriously fucked up values.
  
  Or is there really a bigger picture , a hidden agenda: bash the good parents , reward the shit and keep creating mayhem and division , all the while increasing the power and scope of the state ?
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:33am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Hey,
    you don’t even have to look after your kids at night time…
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/115374325/mother-admits-child-abandonment-charge
    (of course it helps to tell the Judge you are studying law/social work)
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:17am
- septic skeptic
  
  The scheme would be OK if it worked like this:
  The full cost of these lunches including all the admin and everything is deducted at source from the parent’s benefits or wages. It’s a voluntary scheme, but in order to opt out you have to send your kid to school with lunch. I would also provide parents with “free” training if required. Show them where in the supermarket to buy a loaf of bread, a jar of peanut butter or marmite and a bag of apples. Give them the recipe for peanut butter sandwiches.
  This might actually fix the problem and teach the kids that lunch is something your parents send you to school with. Under the proposed scheme quite a few of these kids will be sending their own offspring to school for the free lunch in ten years time.
  Give a man a fish, or show him how to fish!
  
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  August 30, 2019 12:19pm
Simon

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Bridges & Brownlee off to kowtow to the murdering CCP. No dignity. Shameful meeting these shit heads. Suppose Natz got to earn some more “donations”

Jian Yang will be in China with them. What a fucking joke. They can drop him off.

There is India, Korea, Japan, Vietnam & Taiwan. NZ doesnt need trade with the criminal CCP scum.
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August 30, 2019 8:14am
- kowtow
  
  The Viets aren’t exactly into personal freedoms….
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:28am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Like the National party is the only party getting money from the Chinese, right?
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:34am
  - igm
    
    At least they are not taking money from Dotcom!
    
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    August 30, 2019 8:41am
    - oldpark
      
      Or NZs Trade Unions.Massive levy paid to the coffers of Labour Party. Go figure that one.Talk about Labour hypocrisy,this one beats the too sweet to be wholesome comments made by Peters selected COLs also rans in NZs Parliament. That gang of ne’er do wells,have a lot to answer for come 2020 General Election.
      
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      August 30, 2019 9:46am
- Nookin
  
  Appalling, isn’t it, Simon. Unfortunately it’s the sort of thing that comes with free trade agreements. They create obligations as well as benefits. You also have to keep communicating – otherwise agreements tend to go off the rails. You might remember this free trade agreement. It was negotiated and concluded by the last Labour government and was regarded, by them, as one of their more significant achievements. Not that there was a hell of a lot of competition!
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:07am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Quite so Nookin. It’s even more important as it becomes increasingly possible that National will be the lead party in New Zealand’s next government.
    
    And as much as I despise Phil Goff’s politics, I have nothing but admiration for him getting the China FTA across the line before the 2008 election.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:46am
- Simon
  
  Bridges dealing with CCP endorsed business owners. CCP businesses pollute like fuck, dont pay tax, use corrupt practices and treat their work force like cattle. Yep these businesses have a lot of surplus cash to pour into even a back water like NZ.
  
  And NZ has a free trade agreement with the scummy CCP.
  
  Why did Fonterra lose so much money in China? Because Fonterra isnt corrupt. Corruption is what it takes to make it in CCP run China.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:09am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    use corrupt practices and treat their work force like cattle.
    
    Are you sure you’re not confusing the CCP for the Labour Party Simon?
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:47am
  - Justitia
    
    I agree with you Simon. New Zealand is in real danger here.
    
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    August 30, 2019 5:04pm
Happychappy

Does this back up peoples thoughts about the Police Commissioner being pro Labour and NZ First.
Chief Ombudsman forces Staut Nash to release unredacted letter following IPCA report into Deputy Commissioner Wally Haumaha.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12262845
Police Commissioner Mike Bushwarned his Deputy Wally Haumaha tht his
“Professionalism must be without Question” after the Police Watchdog found his behavior to inappropriate and aggressive. Why would the Police Minister want to hide this report if Labour or Winston were not wanting this covered up.
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August 30, 2019 8:14am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  So the 2nd top Cop in NZ has had to be pulled up for inappropriate, aggressive behaviour (bullying of at least 3 women)
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/363744/wally-haumaha-allegations-of-bullying-raised-in-parliament
  
  Seems some men in NZ have zilch ability to communicate with women without coming across as
  DICKS.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:48am
  - Biscuit
    
    Maggy, I regularly try inappropriate, aggressive behaviour with my partner.
    
    ‘Get to the kitchen, woman, and cook your man some eggs.’
    
    After a while, and when she has quit the laughter, I follow up wih ‘Benny or Scrambled, presh?’ as I depart for the kitchen…
    
    And she wonders why her regular Performance Reviews get F marks under ‘Deference To One’s Male God’…
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:01am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Well-trained are you?
      Mine has just called me in from the garden to show off the plate of hot blini and the cuppa he has prepared for me.
      (musn’t grumble…beats his usual stodgy scones).
      
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      August 30, 2019 11:13am
      - Biscuit
        
        I call it ‘compromise’, Maggy!
        
        Oh, I agree re the scones – just about every one I bite into leaves my mouth dry and floury.
        
        Just about to head into town for some shopping/lunching.
        
        The joy of cellphones is that I no longer need tag along, deferentially, to carry any purchases SWMBE makes. These days, its ‘Ring, ring’ and a ‘Get your carrying arms to (Name of store) NOW!’.
        
        MY shopping will be an hour-long browse through a decent bookstore. Heaven!
        
        Out!
        
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        August 30, 2019 11:44am
- Tony Stuart
  
  It’s Peters who wants this covered up. His deputy leader Fletcher Tabuteau is whananu of Wally Haumaha, and Peters himself knows the Deputy Commissioner very well. After all, Haumaha once had ambitions of being a candidate for NZF, and you don’t get to that level without being vetted by Peters first.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:49am
Paulus

Will the Children go along to their schools to get their lunches during the School Holidays ?
What happens if they do not like what is on offer –
children are very particular as to their likes unless it is Macs or KFC.
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August 30, 2019 8:18am
- jcuk
  
  Back in my UK childhood it cost 6 pence for a school lunch which I didn’t like so I spent the money on books and perswaded my guardian to provide me with a sausage sandwich for “morning tea” instead.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:49am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    “books and perswaded”
    
    Typo of the day 🙂
    
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    August 30, 2019 11:07am
oldpark

It surely is great news to see how Labour/Greens reward their supporters. In a Labour /Green stronghold in Wellington where most people there voted for both mentioned Parties. In fact Aro Valley boasts almost 10% of the far left lunatic Green Party support.
Surrounding electorates in that part of Greater Wellington also voted for Labour as well to a man. Their reward is an alleged veto by two well known out of control and out of their depth Peters selected Labour /Green Ministers . Named Twyford and Genter.
Twyford fresh from Oxfam and recently the Kiwibuild disaster has done it again. Aided and abetted by Genter who once tried to get Transmission Gully kept on the back burner.
Yes it has now been revealed that they decided that Wellingtons’traffic problems in the Eastern Suburbs could be deferred for at least Ten more Years.That is the payback for their electoral support.What the fugh is happening to the once proud go ahead City of Wellington when decisions just mentioned are made in favour of scooters ,bycycles and walking tracks for an ageing population.Go figure.
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August 30, 2019 8:19am
Maggie Pie

My partner was saying he just heard that Simon and Gerry are off to China for ‘trade talks’.
He hopes they’ll also take the opportunity to have a word with Prez Xi about the number of his fellow countrymen who have been arrested here on charges of importing Class A drugs and Money Laundering. It’s really really getting beyond a joke 🙁
Maybe we could do something similar to what Aussie does with the Kiwi undesirables they don’t want in their country?
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August 30, 2019 8:22am
- Tall Man
  
  Maggie, we do but as we are tiny in comparison, our deportation level is also small….. just like our nasty polluting emissions.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:45am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Perhaps they’re asking the Chinese for advice on what to do with Brownlee’s nemesis, Trevor Mallard 😉
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:52am
G152

Educators want Maori history taught in schools???
WTF
I had this idea … crazy I know… that teachers taught history as part of the curriculum.
Maybe its because the ‘history’ isn’t quite the nice peaceful loving all mates together they currently espouse…
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August 30, 2019 8:29am
- Tall Man
  
  It will be a much sanitised version…..
  
  If the more little snowflakes get “triggered” by clapping, imagine how rampant cannibalism will be viewed.
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:47am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  History is not being taught. That’s why the kids know absolutely nothing about the failures of Socialism. Too gruesome for the precious little petals
  
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  August 30, 2019 8:55am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  So difficult to check primary sources of information for Maori history before 1800.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:25am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Make it up, maori do.
    
    Oh right, there was paper, ink, writing, the wheel, . . .
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:42am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  I have one child at primary school and one at intermediate. There is almost no history or geography as most of us would understand it. Just based on the school curriculum, a 12 year old is not going to be able to tell you when WWII started and ended or point to Germany on a map. Parents need to teach those things at home.
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:43am
Yvette

Police compensation figures suggest old and low-powered firearms in poor condition are being handed in. Even worse, most people are handing in just one firearm. However, if estimates of 1.5 million firearms and 250,000 licensed firearm owners are correct, the average person has six. [1]

A caller to Magic Talk Radio two days ago said he had turned in two firearms, then with the proceeds purchased two new rifles, the same calibre but of course a lower legal firing rate bolt action. He said he knew of many friends who were also up-grading or re-newing their weapons.

And to my considerable surprise, not long after the Christchurch mosques massacres, a stuff item covered the arrest of a person possessing who, according to a police summary, had spoken to others about how easy a mass killing could be carried out and mentioned how to optimise deaths, which would somewhat compensate even a bolt operated firearm.
This somewhat startling idea has now been edited from the item, but I see it still exists elsewhere online.

That National expresses doubts about the next tranche of firearm law is not surprising.

From overseas comment, changes to New Zealand firearm law seem to be tracking pretty much as terrorist Tarrant predicted, although he wanted his use of firearms to trigger more conflict in the US Second Amendment arguments.
The failure of New Zealand gun law may possibly still contribute to that, as well as not making New Zealand any great degree safer.

1] http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1908/S00279/national-finally-wakes-up-on-gun-reform.htm
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August 30, 2019 8:29am
srylands

If the government wants to ban something. Here is an idea. Unflued LPG gas heaters. More damaging than automatic weapons.
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August 30, 2019 8:31am
sooty

Is this the vote catcher, that Cindy thinks it’s going to be.
Will the ones that miss out going to be voting her way. Seems to split the Labour vote, some get it some don’t and be thinking why not!
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August 30, 2019 8:32am
Bykmad

What a JOKE this Government is! So we now have another “Benefit” available to feed Kids in Schools with no rules or structure. Just throw money on the pavement and watch the sheeple eagerly accept yet more Taxpayers Cash.
Yes, there is a problem with kids not being provided with Breakfast/Lunch at school. Just throwing money at it does not work. We need solutions, not cash splash.
What about details. Who prepares the food, where is it prepared, where is it stored, how is it kept fresh, how is it distributed. Do we need a regime of Breakfast/Lunch Food Inspectors to ensure the best value for money, food preparation is up to standard etc.
If we expand on this Food for Schools, lets look at Small Business Owners. With the minimum wage being increased by the Government, increased compliance costs, increased Petrol Tax etc, will they also provide “Food for Business Owners” for employers who a do not have enough left over to feed their family. No, didn’t think so.
Worst Government NZ has ever had!
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August 30, 2019 8:39am
Maggie Pie

The Jeffrey Eptsein scandal continues to take its toll. I feel really sorry for Randy Andy’s two girls, princeses’s Eugenie & Beatrice. They have been caught up in the allegations against their dad and his association with that now deceased Pedo. It must be very difficult for the entire family to have these accusations hanging over such a high profile member.

https://nypost.com/2019/08/29/princess-eugenie-to-delay-sex-trafficking-podcast-amid-prince-andrew-accusations/
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August 30, 2019 8:42am
burt

Counting down to the school lunch makers strike. 3,2,1….
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August 30, 2019 8:43am
- sooty
  
  But they will all be on the living wage and paid for the full year!
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:50am
- yossarian
  
  So true, 6 months in they’ll be wanting pay equity with the teachers
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:04am
Gravyman2

Not content with paying the feckless to breed we now enable them to continue neglecting their children. That’s really caring /
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August 30, 2019 8:48am
- MCos
  
  An incentive to produce more children may not be such a bad thing considering the warnings from various economists the country is faced with an age imbalance in future years.
  
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  August 30, 2019 7:06pm
Yvette

The camp’s ‘Code of Conduct’ was given to everyone who registered for the event – “zero tolerance for inappropriate behaviour” and “The organising committee has to pay special attention to the activities of all under 18s in the camp (especially in regards to alcohol). We do not want to prevent you having fun but must act according to the law. No Means No! Sexism and sexual harassment of any form will not be tolerated.”
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August 30, 2019 8:55am
- sooty
  
  Obviously not organised by the NZ Labour party.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:52am
stephieboy

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
American farmers say China tariffs are making life worse — and rancher support for Trump is fading fast
Support for the US President is wavering among US farmers as a great many suffer the effects from his tariff wars with China Slump in demand and prices feature as China does business else where . Nothing like the good old days pre 2016 that witnessed positive growth in commodity prices and steady demand from China

Thanks Trump as US farmers face much bleaker prospects Their patience is wearing thin with your absurd and senseless Tariff war

https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/markets.businessinsider.com/amp/news/us-farmers-slam-china-tariffs-as-heartland-support-for-trump-falling-2019-8-1028481336

More here,

Trump’s Trade Wars Are Hurting Midwest Farmers, Banks, And State Coffers

https://www.google.co.nz/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/mayrarodriguezvalladares/2019/08/12/trumps-trade-wars-are-hurting-midwest-farmers-banks-and-state-coffers/amp/

The United States dumbest President ever!
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August 30, 2019 8:57am
- Maggie Pie
  
  From now on, I’m going to be nice to everyone.
  
  Oh look…….a fukwit!
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:03am
  - sooty
    
    Fukwits don’t count as people!
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:53am
  - chaos
    
    thanks For being nice and warning us all
    
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    August 30, 2019 11:10am
- chaos
  
  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/american-farmers-may-angrier-trump-123000865.html
  
  On one hand, farmers have never been this critical of the Trump administration and the trade war with China. On the other, their love for the president seems to be growing.
  
  Support for the president rebounded in the past year, with 67% of farmers saying they’d back him for reelection in 2020, according to a survey of 1,150 growers carried out by Farm Futures between July 21 and Aug. 3. That’s up from last year, when backing fell to just under 60% following the introduction of Chinese retaliatory tariffs on American soybeans.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:09am
  - All_on_Red
    
    ‘The Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture’s latest producer survey, which was conducted last month and released Tuesday, showed a record-high 78% of farmers said they believe the trade war will ultimately benefit U.S. agriculture. That roughly matches Trump’s overall approval rating of 79% among farmers, according to a Farm Pulse survey conducted around the same time.’
    https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/07/us-china-trade-war-is-hurting-farmers-but-theyre-sticking-with-trump.html
    
    So, they understand it’s short term pain for long term gain. China has been screwing them for years with Tariffs. China is the fifth largest market for Agricultural products. NOT the largest.
    Japan announced at the G7 they will be buying Billions more of agricultural products- which will help absorb the reduction from China.
    Trump is also spending $16 Billion of Tariff income on the farmers.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:57am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Hopefully with Brexit the USA (and rest of world) will be able to start selling beef into UK in a couple of months, and it will no longer cost 2-3x as much for a steak in UK as in more enlightened USA.
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:03am
    - stephieboy
      
      Farmers like these are not impressed !
      
      Minnesota Farmers Let Agriculture Secretary Know They Are Not Happy With Trump’s Trade War
      
      “Farmers’ discontent over President Donald Trump’s escalating trade war with China erupted into the open Wednesday as his agriculture secretary was confronted at a fair in rural Minnesota.
      Gary Wertish, president of the Minnesota Farmers Union, drew applause as he leveled criticism of the administration’s trade policy at a forum with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue in front of thousands of farmers gathered in a metal barn for a panel discussion.
      American farmers took a fresh financial hit from Trump’s trade war over the weekend as China announced a halt to all U.S. agricultural imports after the president threatened Beijing with another tariff increase….”
      
      https://time.com/5646774/minnesota-farmers-agriculture-secretary-trade-war/
      
      BTW lobbying Nats for similar NZ China Trade war?
      
      LOL
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:21am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Looking at your Time link I see I was wrong in stating $16 Billion in support from Trump for Farmers.
        Your link says $28 Billion!
        Wow. China exports are only $9.7 Billion.
        I see from your Business Insider link further above it also says this: ‘ In a Farm Journal Pulse survey of 1,153 farmers on Friday, 71% said they still supported the president.’
        
        So a pretty clear trend they are sticking with him.
        Thanks for that.
        LOL.
        
        Narrator: Stephies smear didn’t quite work out how he planned- again
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:36am
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘BTW lobbying Nats for similar NZ China Trade war?’
        
        Now this comment really shows how dumb you truly are. NZ enjoys a trade surplus with China of over $5 Billion. So why would we start a war.
        
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        August 30, 2019 10:40am
    - stephieboy
      
      Trump is also spending $16 Billion of Tariff income on the farmers. etc.
      
      Oh sure! And much going to Corporate Farmers and those not working on the land,
      
      “..The announcement comes amid criticism of farm subsidies. The U.S. already gives farm operations billions of dollars every year, with most of this going to the biggest producers—and some going to people who are not directly involved with farming, the Government Accountability Office found in 2018. According to the non-profit Environmental Working Group, $38 million of last year’s $12 billion in trade relief went to people who do not work on farms.
      
      This time around, the federal government will pay producers for a large variety of crops that never made it China, one of the biggest consumers of U.S. soybeans and other commodities. The Department of Agriculture said it will raise the payment cap to $125,000 per person—twice as much as last year’s limit. (EWG claims some farmers were already paid well beyond this limit.)..”
      
      https://psmag.com/news/the-trump-administration-will-pay-farmers-16-billion-for-its-trade-war
      
      Sheer Madness!
      
      Lobby Nats to restore state farm subsidies?
      
      LOL
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:36am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Your link to Time says $28 Billion
        No wonder Trumps support is so high amongst farmers.
        Look at the way he supports them.
        Oh well, another day Stephies own links undermine his narrative of Orange Man Bad.
        
        Stephieboy is truly Kiwiblogs Dumbest Commentator
        
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        August 30, 2019 12:07pm
- herb1
  
  Yes it takes a special kind of dumb to make billions , it takes a special kind of dumb for a first time politician to win the most powerful job in the world , against the most qualified ever candidate.
  What sort of special dumb does it take to be a Stephieboy?
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:11am
  - Batman
    
    His revenue is in the billions, yes. But how many billions has he lost? Probably about the same given what we know. So that just leaves the family money.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:43am
- srylands
  
  Worse than James Buchanan?
  
  Trump is novel. I’m no fan but he is not dumb.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:27am
- oob
  
  Stephie’s post here is informative. All of you down ticking him on reputation or to defend the buffoon Trump should learn to play the ball instead of the man.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:41am
  - sooty
    
    HHHHAAAAA,hhhaaaaa,
    Stephie, informative.
    
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    August 30, 2019 9:55am
    - stephieboy
      
      sooty and UN, Rich irony alerts out!
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:45am
      - Swifty
        
        Evidence? Seems all made up to me.
        
        12 0
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        August 30, 2019 10:52am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    His incessantly shitty trolling means has long since passed the point of deserving anyone’s time. Downtick and move on.
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:05am
    - Swifty
      
      Yep, he has burned his bridges.
      
      14 1
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      August 30, 2019 10:20am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Betta get Kuini Taci Cinda on the job to help Trump.
  Does he get enough lunch?
  
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  August 30, 2019 11:35am
DigNap15

Will the parents who do feed their children now get a tax reduction?
22 0
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August 30, 2019 9:00am
- sooty
  
  No! The tax increases to pay for the darlings!
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:57am
- Martin Williams
  
  Perhaps when employers pay a living wage.
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:52am
  - sooty
    
    What? They are all ready getting WFF, Cindys extra hundy from last year and now free feed!
    
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    August 30, 2019 12:52pm
  - lofty
    
    Are you addressing all employers Martin?
    
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    August 30, 2019 1:03pm
- MCos
  
  Will I get a tax reduction because I don’t get one cent return from the education vote, Americas Cup vote, cycleways, and 1001 other things the government throws money at that I never use?
  
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  August 30, 2019 7:14pm
Wired-one

If kids are going to get tax payer funded lunches at school. Then why the hell are we also providing parents with working for families? God I’m sick and tired of this continual expansion of entitlements and the entitlement culture that prevails in society. National need to get back in and dismantle this nonsense, it’s not good for society. Too many with their hands out, instead of up.
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August 30, 2019 9:20am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I’ve several times stood in the queue at the supermarket, watched someone buy a packet of smokes, then hand back two or three food items to get the bill down to the money they have. That sickens me, to be frank.
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:12am
  - MCos
    
    We often go to the Pak n Save Mangere.
    Now I’m sure that’s just the sort of supermarket your talking about.
    Am I right?
    I don’t recall ever seeing anyone remove stuff from their shopping at the checkout because they’re short of money, but maybe that’s because I’m minding my own business.
    In future I’ll keep an eye open
    
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    August 30, 2019 7:27pm
lastmanstanding

So some moron in the Australian Prime Ministers Office decides the make the loos in the Office unisex.

Nor surprising some of the women staff complain.

Again not surprising ScoMo ordered the signs be removed and calls it out at PC nonsense.

How I wish we could swap Prime Ministers.
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August 30, 2019 9:34am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I usually take my shoes off when I’m on a long night flight …
  bad move, I discovered as I padded onto a urine-drenched loo floor, courtesy of the old dribbler that had just exited.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:41am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Amateur mistake. Men know better. But removing shoes during long flights is a very very good idea. Always fly in slip on shoes
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:08am
  - lofty
    
    oops Sorry Maggy, I used to gush like Niagara Falls..now…sigh.
    
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    August 30, 2019 1:04pm
gravedodger

So said Kiwiblogs dumbest commenter ever, well there was PhilU?
13 1
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August 30, 2019 9:38am
- stigie
  
  …..eh…..?
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:48am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I ventured over to The Standard the other day, and saw comments from two pests who no longer grace Kiwiblog with their presence; Ure, and Robert Guyton (aka Greenfly and Village Idiot), who I think DPF banned permanently for stealing his identity.
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:54am
  - sooty
    
    Robert Guyton, is he the boss of some union?
    
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    August 30, 2019 10:00am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Not as far as I know. Guyton is a Green Party former candidate from Southland.
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:20am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Robert Guyton is a Southland Regional Councillor
        https://www.es.govt.nz/council/councillors/Pages/Meet-your-councillors.aspx
        He plagued Pete George’s blog last year before decamping over to The Standard.
        
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        August 30, 2019 11:05am
      - Garbageman
        
        He is also on the Environment Southland council who is desperate for us to call a climate emergency down here, just another Green Taliban hippy that wants to control everyone’s lives & seems to spend more time on the Ctrl Alt Left The Standard website than he does at his job
        
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        August 30, 2019 11:36am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        Maggy and Garbageman – yes, I’d forgotten he had found that particular trough to sup from. Thank goodness the majority of Southlanders speak common sense and not Greenspeak like Robert.
        
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        August 30, 2019 11:52am
    - PhilP
      
      Sooty, I think you mean Robert Reid of 1st Union
      
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      August 30, 2019 10:55pm
Jack5

National doesn’t have to worry much about Jacinderella’s campaign to nail it for the big Chinese donation at the last general election.

Why? The donor and his firm have been keeping the New Zealand thoroughbred and harness horse breeding industries afloat, and we know how much Jacinderella’s coalition partner, Winnie the Pooh, loves and protects horse racing.

The gentleman at the centre of the company buying the horses and generously tipping National is from Inner Mongolia, now part of China, but is of the Manchu minority, cousins of the Mongolians who conquered and ruled China. The Mongolians and the Manchu traditionally were great horsemen – and great warriors.

The entrepreneur and his company, which is, or has been listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and customer investors in China, have been building up racehorse numbers in a gamble that Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo – the People’s Republic of China – would legalise gambling on horse racing (it’s legal to bet on them in Hong Kong, where the horses are big business, but given the uprising there you have to wonder for how much longer).

President’s Xi recommitment to Marxism must put a damper on on the prospect of full-scale horse racing with betting for China as a whole.

Meanwhile, “Vice-President” Peters in New Zealand is thoroughly committed to horse racing, and the Manchu buyer has been important to the industry.
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August 30, 2019 9:40am
- Jack5
  
  Michael Reddell, at his Croaking Cassandra blog, looks at what Jami-Lee Ross is saying in Parliament about Chinese donations to NZ political parties.
  
  Read it at:
  
  https://croakingcassandra.com/
  
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  August 30, 2019 9:52am
Martin Williams

I have noticed some high profile support for/pushing of e-cigarettes on this blog.

Seems not only are tobacco and e-cigarette companies targeting Maori and low income communities, but they have also been targeting kids!

AGS principal says 50% of his students own a vape or have tried it!!

Is it time for a walk back from the fluffers of the e-cigarette industry and an admission they have it very very wrong?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2019/08/auckland-high-school-principal-calls-on-government-to-get-tough-on-vaping-epidemic.html
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August 30, 2019 9:56am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Goodness; a post from Martin I can uptick!
  
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  August 30, 2019 11:53am
Brian McDonald

Of course I noticed the GVM, it’s the commercial development point. Urban in Auckland is a big sweep as are 6 to 7 tonne loads. A 400 k range goes further South than Hamilton and back and would include Whangarei at 360 ks return. You pass an equal number of 4 and 6 wheelers on Auckland roads as you do truck and trailers. With 350 people working on the model it’s naive to think they will not be wanting to extend the range as they want to take advantage of the subsidies, on the other hand the range is suitable for NZ at 400ks. I think I posted earlier German engineers have developed prototypes longer range. Try to keep up.
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August 30, 2019 10:02am
Maggie Pie

Honestly, you gotta laugh! 🙂

‘The Queen’s Surgeon, Professor Krokowski, brands some of his colleagues “hairy-arsed Muslims”, when they take time off for Friday prayers’

https://twitter.com/DailyMailUK/status/1166992648466571264

[I just retweeted this to the girls from work. Nice to know we’re not the only ones. LOL!]
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August 30, 2019 10:08am
Hhhh

Why is the media obsessing over Hugh Grant? Also in the tweet why is Hugh Grant saying his grandfather fought for the EU? After all… the decision to suspend parliament is completely legitimate and has been done before.
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August 30, 2019 10:12am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Since Hugh Grant made his outburst about Boris Johnson on Twitter yesterday, he’s been getting some Divine retribution in response 😀
  
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  August 30, 2019 11:54am
Bobba Fret

I missed most of the announcement but think I heard correctly on the radio, that NZ First are wanting stiffer penalties for these idiot drivers that flee from the police and less blame to go on the police…..did anyone else hear that?
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August 30, 2019 10:25am
- Biscuit
  
  Bobba, there ought to be a law that automatically instructs judges that any given sentence is to be increased by 25% if it is proven that the perp in question has endangered law enforcement oficers whilst he was perping his crime.
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:53am
stephieboy

More on this environmental catastrophe,

Why is the Amazon burning?

An unprecedented number of fires have raged throughout Brazil in 2019, intensifying in August. There have been more than 80,000 fires so far this year, the most ever recorded by the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE). It’s a nearly 80 percent jump compared to the number of fires the country experienced over the same time period in 2018. More than half of those fires are taking place in the Amazon.

Experts say deforestation and a practice called slash-and-burn are to blame for most of the flames. People cut down patches of forest, allow the area to dry out, then set the remains ablaze to make room for agriculture or other development. They might also set fires to replenish the soil and encourage the growth of pastures for cattle. Brazil is the world’s top exporter of beef, according to the US Department of Agriculture

These are intentional fires to clear the forest,” Cathelijne Stoof, coordinator of the Fire Center at Wageningen University (WUR) in the Netherlands, tells The Verge. “People want to get rid of the forest to make agricultural land, for people to eat meat.”

“There is no doubt that this rise in fire activity is associated with a sharp rise in deforestation,” Paulo Artaxo, an atmospheric physicist at the University of São Paulo, told Science Magazine. He explained that the fires are expanding along the borders of new agricultural development, which is what’s often seen in fires related to forest clearing….”

https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/28/20836891/amazon-fires-brazil-bolsonaro-rainforest-deforestation-analysis-effects
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August 30, 2019 10:26am
rightoverlabour

Sorry – are these woman fucking stupid?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/115401927/amateur-porn-site-created-by-kiwi-at-centre-of-us-court-case

If you think that you can shag in front of a video camera and then not expect it to emerge online… The Mind boggles….
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August 30, 2019 10:33am
stephieboy

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
More shameful acts of environmental vandalism from the US President and the Republicans,

Trump Moves to Open 16.7 Million Acre Alaskan Rainforest to Corporate Exploitation

President Donald Trump has reportedly ordered the U.S. Department of Agriculture to open Alaska’s 16.7 million-acre Tongass National Forest — the planet’s largest intact temperate rainforest — to logging and other corporate development projects, a move that comes as thousands of fires are ripping through the Amazon rainforest and putting the “lungs of the world” in grave danger.

The Washington Post, citing anonymous officials briefed on the president’s instructions, reported late Tuesday that Trump’s policy change would lift 20-year-old logging restrictions that “barred the construction of roads in 58.5 million acres of undeveloped national forest across the country.”
The move, according to the Post, would affect more than half of the Tongass National Forest, “opening it up to potential logging, energy, and mining projects.”
The logging restrictions have been under near-constant assault by Republicans since they were implemented, but federal courts have allowed them to stand. As the Post reported:..’

https://www.ecowatch.com/amazon-wildfires-trump-alaska-exploitation-2640082295.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1
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August 30, 2019 10:43am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Idiot. Do you have any idea on how huge Alaska is?
  A few million acres is nothing. Seriously, I have been into the interior. You think ‘I wonder what is on the other side of this valley?’ – but it will take you 5 days to walk there
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:27pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  “lungs of the world” in grave danger.
  
  I’m pleased to see that you are finally realising the value of Botany, stephieboy.
  
  But no need to push Biological nonsense.
  The Amazon Forest/or any other forest/or any other ecosystem are not the”lungs of the world”
  
  We owe our current oxygenated atmosphere to events in the dim Geological past.
  
  The net Oxygen output of the Amazon Forest is about Zero.
  
  Seems many people forget that photosynthesising organisms also respire.
  
  https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/08/why-amazon-doesnt-produce-20-percent-worlds-oxygen/
  
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  August 30, 2019 5:54pm
Straight arrow

I notice that on (primary) school outings that children are wearing hi-vis jackets. Don’t know if this is all schools, don’t know how they are paid for. It certainly is easy to see them, and easier for a teacher to spot a child who wanders off. Seems to be a good idea.

But it raised a question for me, how long before children will be required to wear them going to and from school? Would you as a parent encourage (not necessarily making use compulsory) the use of hi-vis jackets for walking / cycling to school, especially for own child?
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August 30, 2019 10:43am
- Batman
  
  They’re not under the care of the school until they get there, so I would assume it comes back to parents.
  
  I know some walking school buses runnby parents use hi-vis for the younger kids, again for the same reasons you point out.
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:46am
- chaos
  
  What’s wrong with wearing them. Our local primary schools have all kids wearing them as they walk to the local pool. They have to cross the main road, and on top of that with the idiot drivers that seem to be around then it is smart making the kids as visible as possible.
  
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  August 30, 2019 11:05am
G152

Went to donate to Daffodil Day and got sick of the demands the bank site ANZ laid out that I gave up.
2 1
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August 30, 2019 11:06am
- chaos
  
  If you don’t want to give your personal details just give to a collector.
  
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  August 30, 2019 11:56am
sooty

Is there some creative accounting done in Cindys travelling expenses?
I would have thought that her holiday and shopping trips would have bumped it up. I know some recent ones are still to come.
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August 30, 2019 11:14am
- chaos
  
  The use of the airforce plane and the naval boat are never included.
  
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  August 30, 2019 11:54am
  - sooty
    
    Why just because they have to spend so many hours training?
    
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    August 30, 2019 12:46pm
Maggie Pie

My partner was wondering if there’s any truth in the rumor going round, “That WP has asked for his Knighthood to be fast tracked?”
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August 30, 2019 11:28am
- chaos
  
  There will be a long line of people wanting to knight him, just with a real sword
  
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  August 30, 2019 11:53am
  - sooty
    
    So Whinestone is due to pop his clogs?
    Or he wants it now because he going to collapse the COL. If he did that he would never get one!
    
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    August 30, 2019 12:44pm
- rockape
  
  Is that so he can remember getting it?
  
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  August 30, 2019 12:53pm
- Sacha
  
  I heard a wisp on the wind, that his old football injury required a couple of stents in his coronary arteries . . . . . .
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:05pm
  - sooty
    
    Shit, he’s been pushing that old football injury since Adam was a cowboy!
    
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    August 30, 2019 4:27pm
plc

So when a climate change “expert” from Waikato University says he disagrees with Treasury’s finding on the feebate foe EVs but doesn’t want to “second-guess” their numbers, I guess we can view his research as having limited validity.
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August 30, 2019 11:32am
Maggy Wassilieff

Could all you Aucklanders just stay home for the next few months?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/397769/nz-may-have-lost-herd-immunity-for-measles
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August 30, 2019 11:44am
- stephieboy
  
  MW, not really. Those born before 1969 ( like yoiu and me have natural immunity.
  
  Most sincne have the MMR vaccine other than those who have opted out in ignorance or due to anti vacine quakery!
  
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  August 30, 2019 2:00pm
  - rightoverlabour
    
    What do you mean “Natural Immunity” I am from Africa, so I suppose I have been immunised against anything that moves. However, the advice given at school was if you are over 50, this does not apply to you ( prove vaccination or stay at home) I am beginning to think it only applies to NEW Zealand born people over 50. Maggy, would I be correct?
    
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    August 30, 2019 2:59pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      The advice Yesterday from the Min of Health and Genter was that ANYONE travelling to Auckland must get vaccinated
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018711008/measles-spreads-in-auckland-travellers-and-students-warned
      
      The advice released today is that EVERYONE should get vaccinated.
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/397811/national-crisis-centre-set-up-to-combat-measles-government
      
      I’ve never had measles. I have no evidence that I have natural immunity.
      Measles is an incredibly infectious disease.
      
      I would disregard anything stephieboy says.
      
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      August 30, 2019 6:03pm
      - alloytoo
        
        Following my health challenges last year, and given two boys in the school population I got myself immunized when the first cases started appearing early in the year.
        
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        August 30, 2019 9:08pm
kevn

Hands up anti vaxxers…
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August 30, 2019 11:51am
- Straight arrow
  
  It is easy to spot the anti-vaxxer’s kids.
  
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  August 30, 2019 12:28pm
  - sooty
    
    They are the skinny, weedy kids that look as though they were strained thru a pair of
    pantyhose!
    
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    August 30, 2019 12:40pm
- chaos
  
  Sure, I’m anti the flu vaccine.
  
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  August 30, 2019 12:33pm
rouppe

I see Greta Thunberg landed in the USA after her “zero carbon footprint” trip across the Atlantic in a racing yacht.

I also notice that the racing yacht has no toilet, so despite issuing no CO2 into the atmosphere, plenty of pollutants will be tossed into the ocean.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/14/greta-thunberg-sets-sail-plymouth-climate-us-trump
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August 30, 2019 12:20pm
- sooty
  
  Along with flying her and her crew home and flying in replacements to sail the boat home.
  
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  August 30, 2019 12:37pm
- Straight arrow
  
  Not true, as surely the only “pollutant” she generates would be a rainbow.
  
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  August 30, 2019 12:59pm
Hugh Pavletich

… NEW ZEALAND …

The number of new dwellings being consented in Auckland has doubled over the last five years … Greg Ninness … Interest Co NZ

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/101451/number-new-dwellings-being-consented-auckland-has-doubled-over-last-five-years

The residential building boom shows no sign of abating with the number of new dwelling consents issued throughout the country up 24.3% in July compared to July last year, according to Statistics NZ.

The increase was across all dwellings types led by apartments which were up 47.8% compared to July last year, followed by townhouses and home units +21.9%, standalone houses +21.4%, and retirement units +10.8% (see interactive chart below).

On an annual basis consents for 35,472 new dwellings were issued in the 12 months to the end of July, up 8% compared to the previous 12 months. … read more via hyperlink above …
.
.
Statistics NZ … Building Consents Issued … July 2019

https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/building-consents-issued-july-2019

Statistics New Zealand is still failing to employ the standard industry measure of ‘consents / approval rates per 1000 population per annum’, so that a more helpful sense of activity is provided, based on population bases for particular markets … and too … and changes over time.

Note from the accessible data files above that there is now more consenting within the combined adjoining small local authorities of Waimakariri and Selwyn that Christchurch City Council area.

There is a massive shift south to Selwyn Council area underway.

Again … the July figures expressed on a ‘consents / approval rate per 1000 population per annum’, suggest it is likely New Zealand residential building activity is moving ahead of Australia.

Nationally for the month of July the residential consenting / approval volume was 3,420. Expressing the July figure over 12 months is 41,040. New Zealand’s current population is about 4.928 million.

The consenting / approval rate per 1000 population per annum for the month of July was therefore 8.32 … which can be described as ‘encouraging’.
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August 30, 2019 12:23pm
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  … AUSTRALIA … JULY DWELLING APPROVALS PERFORMANCE …
  
  Australian dwelling approvals accelerate off cliff – Leith van Onselen … MacroBusiness Australia
  … behind paywall …
  
  https://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2019/08/australian-dwelling-approvals-accelerate-off-cliff/
  
  The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released dwelling approvals data for the month of July. At the national level, the number of dwelling approvals crashed by a seasonally adjusted 9.7% to 12,944. The overall slump in approvals was broad-based with both houses (-3.3%) and units (-18.4%) falling.
  
  In the year to July 2019, dwelling approvals crashed by a seasonally-adjusted 28.8%, with house approvals down 16.6% and unit approvals tanking by 44.2%: … read more via hyperlink above …
  .
  .
  At 12,944 dwellings consenting / approvals for the month of July … the July figure annualized is 155,328. Australia’s population is currently about 25.251 million.
  
  The consenting / approval rate per 1000 population per annum for the month of July is therefore 6.15.
  
  On the same basis New Zealand’s for the month of July was 8.32.
  
  Nationally for the month of July, New Zealand’s residential consenting / approval volume was 3,420. Expressing the July figure over 12 months is 41,040. New Zealand’s current population is about 4.928 million.
  
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  August 30, 2019 4:44pm
Straight arrow

Government’s Child and Youth Wellbeing Strategy (of which lunches is part)
The nine principles are:

1. Children and young people are taonga.
2. Māori are tangata whenua and the Māori-Crown relationship is foundational.
3. Children and young people’s rights need to be respected and upheld.
4. All children and young people deserve to live a good life.
5. Wellbeing needs holistic and comprehensive approaches.
6. Children and young people’s wellbeing is interwoven with family and whānau wellbeing.
7. Change requires action by all of us.
8. Actions must deliver better life outcomes.
9. Early support is needed.

Do you agree with these principles? Are they universal (eg look at point 2)? What role has government in fulfilling these principles?

And, as an aside, why is “fulfilling” not include the full “full”?
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August 30, 2019 12:26pm
- Garbageman
  
  Should point 10 be stop killing your mokopuna at an alarming rate im sure its 5 Maori babies killed since they started blaming CYFs & the Govt for all of their woes recently which kinda makes point 6 relevant as yes their wellbeing is indeed interwoven with whanau
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:08pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  change requires action by the useless fucks we are paying to have babies and raise the next generation of beneficiaries and prison inmates. Hand them all a mirror with the words “you are looking at the source and the only solution to your problems” inscribed on it.
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:12pm
stoptheboats

soft on drugs ?
read this
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/08/29/surgeon-general-false-perception-marijuana-not-as-harmful-as-other-drugs/
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August 30, 2019 12:33pm
burt

Another guy who will be wishing his job was in parliament rather than a private company;

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/115409459/canterbury-banker-raped-sleeping-woman
8 1
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August 30, 2019 12:50pm
- sooty
  
  Would have been safe if he worked in Cindys office! Wood you wonder how safe the fiddler is?
  
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  August 30, 2019 4:24pm
Maggie Pie

My partner just asked me this little joke:
“What’s yellow and dangerous?”
Me: “I give up”
Him: “China!”

LOL!!
5 3
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August 30, 2019 12:53pm
- stephieboy
  
  What’s white and dangerous?
  
  My Missus,” I give up”
  
  Me “Ande s Brevik and Brenton Tarrance”
  
  LOL
  
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  August 30, 2019 2:36pm
Maggie Pie

Awkward?
Interesting to see how the Chinese now view WP…

https://twitter.com/Arctosia/status/1166445414666526721

[some may need to clik on google translate] 🙂
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August 30, 2019 1:07pm
- niggly
  
  Google translate gives me this:
  
  Under the efforts of Chinese companies represented by Ryderma, even the local anti-Chinese people have turned into pro-China… Winston Peters was very opposed to selling New Zealand land to Chinese entrepreneurs, and now he has changed. Concept. In an interview with the media, he generously stated that Chinese entrepreneurs’ investment in New Zealand can be a driving force for the development of the Malaysian horse industry.
  
  WTF! Either Winnie talks crap about what he thinks of China or someone there has the wrong end of the stick!
  
  (Actually there IS a picture of a “nice looking horse” in the tweet … so someone does know what Winston likes)!
  
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  August 30, 2019 4:03pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Golly yes niggly – init that an exstrawdinary about face?
    You would have to wonder what bought that on. LOL!!
    
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    August 30, 2019 5:32pm
Straight arrow

Some people have been using $9 as the price per school lunch. Could someone point me to the source or how it was worked out.
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August 30, 2019 1:52pm
- cmm
  
  It sounds ridiculous until you add layers of H&S, organic, fitting the schools with kitchens, training staff, asking Jamie Olliver in as a consultant, blessing each meal individually etc etc.
  
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  August 30, 2019 2:29pm
  - chaos
    
    It will just be packed lunches delivered to the school I believe, as is currently done and has been done for a few years now.
    
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    August 30, 2019 2:48pm
- rangitoto
  
  $1 for the food. $8 for the bureaucrats.
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:04pm
Maggie Pie

JUST IN……!!

Jacinda admits to receiving ‘dick pics’ on twitter 🙂

https://twitter.com/newscomauHQ/status/1167257126474878976
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August 30, 2019 2:19pm
- chaos
  
  well of course there are pictures of her on there
  
  7 1
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  August 30, 2019 2:54pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  In her case (and competence)
  They’d be selfies wouldn’t they?
  
  9 1
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  August 30, 2019 3:16pm
- cmm
  
  Naah, wasn’t Justin. She said she didn’t recognise the sender.
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:22pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Or maybe she just misunderstood the question 🙂
    
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EB-OHbaU4AEM7SV?format=jpg&name=medium
    
    7 0
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    August 30, 2019 4:39pm
    - rightoverlabour
      
      Could you put a big “Warning – Likely to Cause Mental Distress If Opened” on your posts? I will have nightmares for months now….
      
      8 0
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      August 30, 2019 6:06pm
  - sooty
    
    How many other people have the PMs personal mobile phone number. We know the dud cheque has it, was it his dick photo?
    
    7 0
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    August 30, 2019 7:08pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      You don’t even need to have a ‘personal mobile number’ soots – just be on Twitter!
      I get about 3 a week 🙂
      
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      August 30, 2019 7:39pm
- rightoverlabour
  
  Maybe they were “Hoover” ads…
  
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  August 30, 2019 6:08pm
RW Capitalist

Did I see correctly
Principles will get a bonus if they are union members?
So I, yes me, johnny tax payer, will be paying their union dues!!!
What’s next, cossie club membership?
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August 30, 2019 2:47pm
- Batman
  
  The teachers got that too, then some whined about tax bring taken off it haha
  
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  August 30, 2019 2:50pm
- Batman
  
  The teachers got that too, then some whined about tax being taken off it haha
  
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  August 30, 2019 2:50pm
- cmm
  
  “What’s next, cossie club membership?”
  
  Well taxpayers pay for prisons aka cuzzie club, so why not cossie club too?
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:25pm
stephieboy

“Trump vows to continue China trade war even if recession hits US, as he says Russia should be readmitted to G7 ”

Donald Trump has said he will continue with his trade war with China even if it means the United States falling into recession.
The president stressed that he thought the US was “very far” from a recession but acknowledged that his administration was looking at a payroll tax cut to boost the economy, something that had previously been denied. And he said he was pressing on with his trade policies “whether it’s good or bad for” the prospects of a recession.

Speaking at the White House after a meeting with the Romanian president, Klaus Iohannis, Mr Trump urged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, saying: “If the Fed would do its job we would have a tremendous spirit of growth .. you would see a burst of growth like you’ve never seen before…”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-news-live-impeachment-latest-recession-approval-poll-mark-sanford-a9070991.html

The United States Dumbest President!
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August 30, 2019 2:49pm
- rangitoto
  
  Says Kiwiblog’s dumbest poster.
  
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  August 30, 2019 3:10pm
rangitoto

Cindy delivers a new record.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/115412063/public-housing-waitlist-at-new-high-with-12644-households-waiting-months-for-housing
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August 30, 2019 3:04pm
Morrissey

Holding Assange’s persecutors to account

Dear @hmpbelmarsh

I have heard that Julian Assange is emaciated, isolated, not allowed to mingle with other inmates or workers passing by his single cell in the health wing, unable to work on defending himself legally and is in extremely rough shape. Please help.
I understand that the Prison warden / governor would want to punish other inmates for taking a video of Mr. Assange which was later posted online… but it is exacerbating the psychological torture and physical challenges he faces daily. He should not be punished for the video.
I am very grateful that someone took that video. As a member of the public, I am very angry at the British gov’t that he is shut away in your prison to begin with. I am even more angry that he is hidden away in some corner of that foreboding, loud, overcrowded, decaying building.
He is being treated like a political prisoner who is not allowed to speak to the media, be seen or heard. If he were being treated “equally” as the other murderers, rapists and grave criminals in your facility, he would be allowed to fraternize, chat and interact with people.
He would have access to the library, computer, tv, legal documents, pen and paper, have more time outside his cell and have proper medical care. I understand that his spectacles were poorly done following an optician’s prescription for his loss of sight.
The man has been cooped up for 8 years now. The breach of bail is such a minor infraction, it does not even qualify as being a “crime” so it does not make sense to me that he went directly from Ecuador’s embassy to your facility. He’s not a criminal.

Assange is a criminal *suspect* in the US, not the UK. He is a person who placed priority on preserving his life, freedom of expression and avoidance of US torture — so he sought asylum at the embassy instead of fulfilling his bail conditions in June 2012. His instinct was right
From Dec. 7 2010 until June 19 2012 Mr.Assange dutifully fulfilled his bail conditions. He infracted them when he reached a tipping point of knowing he was about to be handed over to the United States with a stopover in Sweden or extended stay in Britain. He was right.
Mr. Assange was placed in Belmarsh before the details of the US indictment(s) were unsealed. Up until May 1 2019, Mr. Assange was thought to be delusional / paranoid about his fear of persecution / prosecution in the US. As it turned out, he was right. The US charges came after..
US charges came after the utterly disproportionate, insanely severe punishment was dealt by your British court — he was still in shock (capture shock) following his illegal extraction from the embassy and a fresh victim of US theft of his belongings / paperwork / jump drives.
It is not @hmpbelmarsh ‘s job to mete out the judgement. It is your job to mete out the punishment which was handed down by your courts. In Mr. Assange’s case, your courts got it wrong, but you still bear the responsibility of carrying out his disproportionate punishment.
You are under surveillance in all your activities and actions at the prison. Your duty to punish Mr. Assange is difficult. If you deviate from the directions you are given, it will show up on cameras, audio recordings and notes from informants.

Read more….
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1167253142670626817.html
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August 30, 2019 4:05pm
- Happychappy
  
  Shouldn’t you be highlighting the sexual predator out of the Prime Misters Office helping the twelve victims that Jicinda does not want to know. Assange played with fire and got burnt and deserves every thing he gets.
  
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  August 30, 2019 6:20pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Well said Happychappy. Like everyone associated with or supporting Labour, the Greens and NZF, Morrissey has selective blindness to this issue, and to that of the Labour Summer Camp sex pest who goes on trial on Monday.
    
    You must admit Morrissey, that the culture in Labour must be bloody toxic when those alleging bullying and unwanted sexual advances have to go to the Opposition’s most senior female MP to have their voices heard. Who would have thunk it?
    
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    August 30, 2019 6:26pm
    - sooty
      
      Morrissey, is a rape enabler supporting the rapist/sexual pervert in the PMs office on the ninth floor of parliament.
      
      8 2
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      August 30, 2019 7:03pm
thetiedarch

In line with the general PC wankery of this government, I hear that NZTA will be rebranded as ‘Waka Kotahi’. It’s already one of the names they use, but now it will be the main name.

I honestly can’t think of anything more I’ll-fitting.

Nzta is the government agency responsible with transport. Wtf has Maori got to do with it????? Last I check they had zero to do with inventing concrete, roads, traffic lights, cars, regos, walking tracks, state highways, asphalt, project management, etc, etc, etc

Sigh
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August 30, 2019 6:50pm
chaos

A nice story that shows what a great team this is

*After four years as “camp mother” keeping the Roncalli College girls’ rugby team hydrated, a Timaru 16-year-old with Down syndrome has made her debut on the field.

Meghan Phillips burst into tears when her mother told her she would be donning yellow and blue stripes for the final five minutes of an hour-long match against visiting school Prebbleton on Friday.

“I’m a wee bit nervous,” Meghan said, ahead of the 3pm game

While the Roncalli College Year 12 student was “rugby-mad”, she had only ever played the sport with her brother – so she enjoyed her first time practising and warming up with a team.

“I like playing rugby with all the girls.”

Although her team lost, Meghan scored the game’s final try – ploughing through half a field of opponents to ground the ball.*

https://www.stuff.co.nz/timaru-herald/news/115422892/halffield-try-scored-by-rugby-fanatic-with-down-syndrome-in-field-debut
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August 30, 2019 7:09pm
kevn

JAG (say it slowly) the parking consultant/car hater is sorting the measles epidemic solutions.
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August 30, 2019 8:35pm
- sooty
  
  Are they going to slow down/stop refuges, imigration?
  
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  August 30, 2019 10:48pm

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