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January 23, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 23 January 2020

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General Debate

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Captain Mainwaring

Amusing myself by re-reading some old books, notably those by Bob Jones, Richard Prebble and Roger Douglas.
Chapter 7 of Prebble’s 20 year old ‘I’ve been writing’ Is headed ‘Making MMP work’, and the next line is ’Making sure Winston doesn’t hold the country to ransom.’
Well, 20 years later he still is. Time to lance the boil.
Over to you Simon.
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January 23, 2020 8:01am
- Tall Man
  
  https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/23-01-2020/simon-bridges-is-about-to-make-a-big-decision-that-could-shape-the-election/
  
  For me the simple question has been and still is, “have they made a positive difference”.
  
  It would take the stupidest supporter of “what’s in it for wynston” to say he has benefited New Zealand in any way.
  
  The same could be said of the ardernists, she has not benefited New Zealand in any memorable way and in my opinion the divisiveness she has used to actually gain power has made us worse off as a country.
  
  As far as I am concerned, the “boil” should be lanced now and National and Act should use whatever political ability they have to rid New Zealand of “that woman” and the “boil”.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:34am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Well you’re deluding yourself if Simon and David can do it wit the help of Kbs 40 or so rabid righters!
    
    Political sucess lies outside the rarefied air of KBs Trumpeter bubble chamber.
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:51am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      From the Stephie dictionary:
      Rabid righter: Anyone who doesn’t support Commo Cindy and her band of incompetents.
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:01am
    - rightoverlabour
      
      You are deluded about everything.
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:36am
    - JackRabbit
      
      60 minutes and already 37 downticks.
      
      Make that 38.
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:53am
      - Humble Capitalist
        
        81 not out
        
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        January 23, 2020 4:46pm
  - arkhad
    
    How about the idea that has been floating about that Bridges could rule out working with Winston but keep the option of working with NZ First.
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:44am
    - Tall Man
      
      I honestly don’t think there is a single useful specimen in the “what’s in it for wynston” party.
      
      According to leaked reports they are told they are there to support “what’s in it for wynston”, shut their mouths unless told to speak and they need to be grateful for the opportunity to gorge themselves at the trough we provide.
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:13am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Jones is ne t cab off their rank. He would be worse than WP.
      
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      January 23, 2020 1:35pm
  - Komata
    
    TM@0834
    
    Re: ‘…National and Act should use whatever political ability they have to rid New Zealand of “that woman” and the “boil”.
    
    But to replace it with exactly what?
    
    Sadly, it’s not for nothing that the Nats are known as ‘Labour lite’ and their policies are almost indistinguishable from that of Cindy, Peters and co., with Simon seeming to quite happily support a very high percentage of what the CoL is doing. (Guns, revised curriculum etc.).
    
    As a rersult o0f such things, in the US, he would be probably bed tagged a RINO (Republican In Name Only).
    
    Would that it was not so, hence my question.
    
    Thank you.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:05pm
    - Tall Man
      
      In your mind National are labour lite and you may well be right but, labour are now “communist lite” so you choose what you want. I know what I don’t want and that is any government with golly, ardern and “what’s in it for wynston”.
      
      Secondly, you and others criticise Simon Bridges and National ceaselessly over their failure to start to attack current changes. Perhaps you all need to do a recount and see just how many votes they have in Parliament to see if their stand would make a difference. It would not and even David Seymour was too fucking dopey to even turn up for one of the votes. Opposing something when you haven’t got a hope in hell of defeating it is just retarded politics and would provide a “stick” for labour to beat National with for the entire year until election time.
      
      Look at the National website and decide if you want them or more ardern because that is your current choice. Nothing else despite how much you want it to be so.
      
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      January 23, 2020 2:57pm
  - Faroffsound
    
    Yes – let’s not do this again.
    
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    January 23, 2020 3:49pm
- Harriet
  
  I read Jones on management. Box ticking supervision, mainly by young low ranking females – they ain’t moved on from that either in 20yrs. 😎
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:54am
  - Tall Man
    
    Yeah but now the “box” is on an iPad 🙂
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:12am
- freethinker
  
  Simons response – were is this Lance who will do something to my kettle – sarc?
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:56am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Knowing Simon, he will do nothing. Sit and yawn.
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:25am
  - tf78
    
    It just shows SCS that you don’t know Simon at all.
    
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    January 23, 2020 4:38pm
- Max
  
  I agree Captain to keep Winston from holding the country to ransom i.e. that tail wagging the dog, however to effectively allow such a facility, we have to acknowledge that the MMP system we have in NZ is flawed, and IMHO therefore requires amendment.
  The German MMP system stipulates that the party with the most votes should have time to arrange a government, one time it took Merkel 5 months to form a government. Our NZ version allows a 7 % list party to decide the government, last election the three losing parties. Sadly I can’t see any of the current smaller parties voting for such an amendment.
  
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  January 23, 2020 1:15pm
artemisia

It would be an easy fix to housing and minimum wage job availability for locals to seriously reduce overseas students coming into the country for certain courses and permission to work limited hours (officially). Courses like business (big sector), hospo, tourism.

Some stay on and work here, legal or not.

Impacts on the provider sector and tax revenue, but offset from freeing up housing, jobs, jobseeker benefits, under the table work and bureaucrats.
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January 23, 2020 8:05am
- Stephen Russell
  
  Those overseas students do work like picking kiwifruit, serving in restaurants, cleaning toilets etc, that locals won’t do. We actually need them.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:27am
  - alloytoo
    
    You’re suggesting we don’t need the locals……
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:30am
    - igm
      
      Migrant workers go to work when asked, are very seldom late, and sure as hell do not have 20 grandparents who pass away monthly.
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:15am
      - skyblue
        
        As a lot of Maoris are only guessing who their father is.
        
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        January 23, 2020 10:17am
      - JackRabbit
        
        The reason why the Chinese work hard is that they are raised knowing there is no free lunch, and family can only give limited support. The concept of shame towards those that do not work, exists in China.
        
        Apparently, people hold suspicion towards those that do not appear to have a job or legitimate income, since they must be living somehow, and therefore are possibly involved in crime.
        
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        January 23, 2020 12:43pm
      - GoVege
        
        God is their father.
        That’s probably why Maori have more soul… 🙂
        
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        January 23, 2020 1:04pm
      - GoVege
        
        And they have more mums.
        My mum used to have a little shop in the city.
        She was a bit of a soft touch so homeless people used to hit her up for a few bucks.
        One day a big long-haired Maori dude named Samson came in, wearing his rough sleeping clothes, when mum was serving some posh lady.
        He says “can I borrow $5, mum”?
        As she hands him a fiver, posh lady looks aghast, presumably thinking this fella really is her son. 🙂
        
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        January 23, 2020 1:11pm
  - Tarquin North
    
    Stopping benefit payments to people who won’t work or fail drug tests would go a long way towards fixing that problem.
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:32am
    - Sydney Alvarado
      
      Only up to a point. If you run a bar in Queenstown would you employ a German backpacker who is keen and hard working or someone WINZ sent you has been unemployed for two years?
      
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      January 23, 2020 8:56am
      - Positan
        
        You’re right. What’s now necessary to re-aquaint our burgeoning volumes of the lazy and dedicatedly unemployed is something akin to compulsory boot camp attendance; where basics like getting up, washing/shaving, dressing appropriately, being on time (or earlier) for commencement of work and delivering an honest effort for a day’s pay, are taught/instructed until they become the norm in those individuals’ lives.
        
        In short, ensure every slacker becomes a useful, contributing member of society.
        
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        January 23, 2020 10:00am
      - JackRabbit
        
        If you adopt Tarquin North’s idea, people won’t remain unemployed for 2 year. They’ll either work or starve.
        
        In the short term, the bar in Queenstown may not want to employ them. They have have to beg to get a job cleaning public toilets at the young Labour party events, until they can change their attitude and outlook on life.
        
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        January 23, 2020 10:01am
      - freethinker
        
        Syd – Don Brash had a solution – time to revisit?-Simon are you listening ?
        
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        January 23, 2020 11:10am
  - artemisia
    
    Do we need them or do we need labour? While the nephs are on the couch? Work visas are available if criteria are met, including the scheme for seasonal workers. And think of all the staff in edu freed up!
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:34am
  - lifesgood
    
    They also bring in millions of dollars in revenue. Many schools and universities would have severely limited facilities without them.
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:34am
    - artemisia
      
      A lot of that revenue is going to maintaining the institutions and their staff and would not be needed if many students did not come. Tax revenue I grant you, but let’s see some rigorous and independent analysis of overall costs and benefits.
      
      I do wonder why we have so many from the subcontinent coming here to do business and hospo courses. Much much cheaper to do them in their own country. (Channelling highly cynical here ….)
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:01am
      - Ruawai
        
        Education in easy courses is a back door way of getting long term employment and visas.
        
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        January 23, 2020 11:11am
      - Michael NZ
        
        That’s to stay here after.
        I got a masters student from India in to do some floors with me.
        
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        January 24, 2020 1:13am
    - artemisia
      
      How much does social housing cost the taxpayer* and what would the waiting list look like if a whole bunch of housing for working overseas students was freed up.
      
      * Capital cost of social housing is huge, obviously, but also income related rent (for nearly all tenants) averages $300 pw plus ongoing costs of maintenance, rates, water, admin and these days pouring resource into tenants and their neighbours with issues. Never hear much about all that, but I worked there and it is yuuuge.
      
      Like I say – costs v benefits. Let’s do this.
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:46am
  - Tall Man
    
    You and Art are both right so things need to change massively.
    
    Few countries in the world provide a cradle to grave welfare system without the individual ever having to contribute a cent.
    
    Many refer to the “Scandinavian system” as something to aspire to yet few actually look at how they deal with unemployed. Congenital unemployment is a double blight on our country as it takes money to keep the “unemployed by choice” in the manner they want to be kept and we also have to put a strain on all our resources to import workers to full the workforce. Anyone who doesn’t think migrant workers have a “cost” to our country has never sat in an emergency department of any hospital in a major city in NZ.
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:43am
    - tf78
      
      A lot of import workers also staff our hospitals.
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:27am
      - sooty
        
        A lot of import workers, helped screw the scrum last election!
        
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        January 23, 2020 11:05am
      - mark15
        
        There’s a good reason for that.
        
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        January 23, 2020 12:09pm
      - artemisia
        
        My original post was not about migrants who obtain work visas because they are on the skilled list. But about students whose visa allows them to work 20 hours a week (on the books) while studying at courses, eg entry level business, they could do in their home country. No issue with skilled migrants, or students where their qualifications are not available at home.
        
        Thousands come in each year.
        
        One of our tenants is a PhD student on full ride scholarship from his home country. He will return home after graduation and will do very well there with his qualifications. Not much time to work but he does do some as translator in his home community here and probably saves every cent. That seems fine to me.
        
        But ‘restaurant manager’, not so much.
        
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        January 23, 2020 12:24pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      cradle to grave welfare system without the individual ever having to contribute a cent.
      
      That includes the pension …..
      
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      January 24, 2020 10:41am
  - Harriet
    
    Those who perform some low skilled jobs in NZ are treated like kindy kids – over supervised, cleaning is one. It’s pathetic placing people on minimum wage because their supervision has to be paid for, when they can be trained to perform the job without supervision. It’s demeaning. I wouldn’t work low wage in NZ!!!!!
    This is not my opinion — but opinions of kiwis who I know – and there are a lot of them.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:02am
    - Jules99
      
      Where do you think those supervisors come from?
      They are the hardworking minimum wage staff who realised that if they worked diligently and upskilled themselves they could make more money. Those languishing on the minimum wage are happy to leave the responsibility to others. Nothing wrong with that, but don’t blame others for your lack of opportunity if you make no effort.
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:08am
    - tf78
      
      Sometimes Harriet, needs must – very old fashioned idea of people doing menial work, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do.
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:28am
      - artemisia
        
        Back in the day my job disappeared. I had a mortgage and a family and was a solo p with no child support. I was ready to get up at 4 am to make sandwiches or clean toilets. I was not ready to default on the mortgage or go on a benefit.
        
        Not needed actually but I would have done it.
        
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        January 23, 2020 12:28pm
    - DigNap15
      
      You would if that was the only job you could get.
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:36am
      - freethinker
        
        As many overpaid high ego but useless Burecrats/Politicians/Real Estate agents/Lawyers et al will discover when the next recession arrives.
        
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        January 23, 2020 11:14am
  - artemisia
    
    But we apparently have a serious housing crisis. I suggested a fast and effective way to mitigate that crisis. There are always tradeoffs, but my underlying point is that governments have the power to make choices and should do so on the basis of rigorous analysis. And not overlook opportunities because they might be a bit hard.
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:03am
- Stephieboy2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  artmesia, why not follow the US’s lead anf reduce the minimum wage to say a vote catching $12.00 an hour?
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:52am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    THats $12 USD about $18NZD
    US taxes, in most states are lower than here.
    So, they would be better off…..
    So would the taxpayers.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:40am
    - freethinker
      
      Stoopidboy couldn’t work out the exchange rate so shoots himself in the foot again, next time aim for your arse and blow your brains out.
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:16am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Or leave them on the benefit so that they can be trolls on Kiwiblog.
    
    Or let the Labour party employ them. Get paid and as a bonus get to stick your hand down other peoples pants!
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:07am
    - Tall Man
      
      Or be like shane and keep them down your own pants……….
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:08am
      - freethinker
        
        Or get a job in the PTPMs office were opportunities galore exist and Taxinda wont notice.
        
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        January 23, 2020 11:18am
Surely Knott

Climate Change evangelist’s, Megs and Harry, top real estate option is this low lying mansion less than a metre from the ocean as their top pic. Hmmmmm. https://www.newidea.com.au/pictures-the-jaw-dropping-40m-mansion-meghan-markle-and-prince-harry-want-to-buy-in-west-vancouver-canada
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January 23, 2020 8:08am
- chaos
  
  If they aren’t renting I wonder who is buying it for them. Worth more than they are.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:44am
  - Tall Man
    
    Daddy pays Harry approx $NZ5,000,000 per year. I’m sure he could fund a decent mortgage on that plus the hoped for “endorsements”…..
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:11am
    - lifesgood
      
      I don’t believe for one moment that Harry and Megs will pay back the money spent doing up their “cottage”. It will be Charles who quietly and discreetly foots the bill.
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:10am
    - slightlyrighty
      
      James Hewitt is better off than I thought?
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:34am
  - kevn
    
    @chaos… Get them in your pocket… soros play?
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:13am
  - freethinker
    
    Owned by a friend of the Obummers and Clintons I have read.
    
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    January 23, 2020 11:19am
    - Batman
      
      I’m sure you have ‘read’ that somewhere ?
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:25am
  - Komata
    
    chaos@0808
    
    It makes a mockery of their declared intention to ‘step back’ and desire to apparently ‘vanish into anonymity’.
    
    Despite her wild accusations and protestations to the contrary, MEghan© would never allow it; she needs them more than they her.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:16pm
- Local Miller
  
  Obviously firm believers in Global Warming and the inevitable rise of the oceans (sounds like a movie title) /sarc. Or maybe they really believe that all the this accords and climate conferences around the world are going to prevent climate change.
  They are in the same class as Obama: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2019/08/24/sea-level-rise-president-obama-just-bought-a-beachside-property/
  I believe it’s starts with an H!
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:07am
  - Old White Loser
    
    Very Much like Auckland Council investing and developing the current Auckland waterfront, when we are being told the sea level could rise by 3 meters.
    
    This does not make sense, they should be developing K rd which will be the future waterfront.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:38am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    Bought mine on a hill in Lower Hutt, thinking of sueing Al Gore, he said 6m of sea level rise by now.
    I was hoping to tie my yacht up at my front door.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:45am
    - Tall Man
      
      Is this what you mean?
      
      https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/13/article-2391873-0F2F55E500000578-166_634x413.jpg
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:06am
      - RW Capitalist
        
        Just looks like a poorly designed boathouse to me.
        OH
        and some pretty lousy parking.
        
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        January 23, 2020 11:48am
- Ruahine
  
  Certainly looks a lot better than Africa. Probably nicer neighbours as well.
  
  Whoever made the decision to send the Sussexes on that African tour certainly knew what they were about.
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:42am
Yvette

A very minor aspect of the monstrous atrocity of the Christchurch mosques massacres appears in a link [1] supplied by Maggy Wassilieff a couple of mornings ago –

Draft Record of the notes from the Muslim Community Reference Group Hui 1 with the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Attack on Christchurch Mosques on 15 March 2019, held at Ngā Hau E Wha Marae on 25 July 2019 –

The mana whenua (host people) welcomed the manuhiri (visitors) onto the marae at 10:00am. Alamein Connell was the kaikaranga (caller) for the mana whenua (host people) and Gaye Stanley was the kaikaranga (caller) for the manuhiri (visitors).

Henare Edwards spoke for the mana whenua (host people) and Tyrone Smith for the manuhiri (visitors). We then greeted Henare and Alamein with hongi (press noses) and harirū (handshakes). We then all moved into morning tea in the whare kai (food hall).

… Sir William and Jacqui in their introductions, commenced by saying that at the heart of their thinking are the 51 shohada, who died as a result of the events of 15 March. They also acknowledged those who were wounded, the Muslim communities of New Zealand and New Zealanders who are deeply hurting, and that there are many who remain deeply distressed by the attack, and that lives will be changed forever due to grief, trauma and disruption.

“Shohada” – with respect (as referenced in the remained of that paragraph) – does not just mean “dead” or “killed” as one might guess, but apparently has a context of “martyr”.
I may of course be wrong, but why was an explanation in brackets not given for that word?
Why are “host words” explained, but “visitor words” not?

The whakawhanaungatanga / introductions continued with all present introducing themselves to the whole group. Two thirds of the group introduced themselves before we broke for lunch. Lunch and Zhuhr Salat occurred from 12:35 to 1:15. The meeting recommenced at 1:15 with the whakawhanaungatanga / introductions for the remaining third of attendees. […] Some members left the meeting early to catch flights. The meeting formally closed at 3.30pm.

It may be the use of the word whakawhanaungatanga [introductions] – saying it just a few times, must obviously somewhat delay proceedings – likewise the German word, Empfängnisverhütung, for contraception – the time taken to say it, may easily defeat its intention.

[1] https://christchurchattack.royalcommission.nz/assets/130a9bf716/Notes-from-Muslim-Community-Reference-Group-Hui-1-25-July-2019.pdf
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January 23, 2020 8:10am
- cmm
  
  There is a good reason for that.
  
  The notes were taken for a Muslim audience who would not know what a hongi is, but they would know what Shohada means.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:34am
  - Nukuleka
    
    I’ll bet that plenty of those Muslim attendees considered the nose rubbing to be a thoroughly unhygienic means of greeting. I would.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:08am
- Stephieboy2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Yvette, gingering the country up for a bit of veiled Islamaphobia g in election year?
  
  Other than that your point?
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:56am
- SGA
  
  “Shohada” – with respect (as referenced in the remained of that paragraph) – does not just mean “dead” or “killed” as one might guess, but apparently has a context of “martyr”.
  
  well… yeah. Most simply a “martyr” means one who is killed because of their religious beliefs (Christian, Jew, Muslim, whatever). A group of people massacred solely because they were Muslim would fit that broad definition (that said, it often also has the idea that this death required a “choice” of some sort).
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:25am
  - cmm
    
    ” Most simply a “martyr” means one who is killed because of their religious beliefs ”
    
    Not really correct. A martyr is killed in fighting for, or standing up for, their religious beliefs. The choice factor you mention is critical.
    
    You should not translate an Islamic concept into a reference frame from other religions and use that.
    
    Shahid/shahada means so much more than the Christian concept of a martyr.
    
    There’s a nice fat blurry line between a shahid (martyr) and a mujahid (warrior).
    
    https://www.al-islam.org/al-serat/vol-12-1986/concept-martyrdom-islam/concept-martyrdom-islam
    
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    January 23, 2020 11:10am
    - SGA
      
      Not really correct. A martyr is killed in fighting for, or standing up for, their religious beliefs. The choice factor you mention is critical.
      
      I looked it up before I posted that – some dictionaries required “voluntary”, others didn’t. Hence, the way I wrote it.
      
      You should not translate an Islamic concept into a reference frame from other religions and use that.
      
      Agreed. I thought that about the original post.
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:42am
Swifty

I am aware that a New Zealand couple, staunch Labour supporters and longstanding residents of the US, have recently sold their business for $300M USD and is now actively engaged in planning NZ philanthropic projects for their retirement.

Labour party coffers may be in for a massive boost – in time for election year.
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January 23, 2020 8:10am
- igm
  
  Don’t forget donations from a couple of crims seeking NZ citizenship!
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:37am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  If they were truly philanthropic then Greebour are the last party they would be supporting, they’ve managed to increase beneficiaries, gang numbers, social housing waiting lists, homeless numbers, worsened child poverty, increased hospital wait times, lowered immunisation rates… I am actually struggling to think of any ‘wellbeing’ KPI that they have improved on.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:48am
  - Swifty
    
    Oh, I quite agree UN.
    
    But we must never overlook that in the minds of most lefties the cure for the failures of socialism is even more socialism -as there was clearly not enough first time round.
    
    We must never expect logic, results or empirical evidence to feature in their calculations.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:03am
  - Tall Man
    
    Personal asset base of ardern, robertson etc and most importantly….. “what’s in it for wynston”.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:06am
  - backster
    
    I believe the Health Department are handing out $millions in resource to maori health initiatives to foster comfort with their natural environment and this has improved their wellbeing immeasurably.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:14am
- Surely Knott
  
  Longstanding residents of the U.S. – so enjoying the worlds greatest capitalist economy and then sending the dollars home to leverage a socialist economy onto those who still live here???
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:02am
  - cmm
    
    Yah mean like all those white virtue signalers (Cher etc) that said they would leave USA if Trump got in because of Mexico.
    
    Did they plan to go to Mexico then? Nope, they wanted to go to even-whiter Canada.
    
    And did they go? No.
    
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    January 23, 2020 11:13am
- Stephieboy2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Swifty, tantalizing.Give us some clues. Otherwise a product of you barren imaginative life.
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:17am
  - Swifty
    
    So, your insinuation is that unless I do what you say and I tell you names or at least more of what I know; then you will smear me as lying on a public blog site.
    
    Got it.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:52pm
- 453mm
  
  Money alone does not win elections. Just ask Colin Craig or Gareth Morgan.
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:44am
  - Swifty
    
    True that – doesn’t hurt though.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:53pm
- freethinker
  
  So lets keep an eye on election expenses returns for Foreign Donations (are they illegal?) or those over $1500.
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:26am
Jack5

An academic authority on environmental fires gives his views on Australian fires in the English-language edition of Der Spiegel.

Maggy Wassilieff may have mentioned him in her posts, but here we have a layman-reporter interviewing Professor Stephen Pyne, of Arizona.

A sample response, this when German interviewer Johann Grolle asks Pyne about the causes of the present fires in Australia:

“Some people are using the fires to strengthen their climate change agenda, others prefer to blame arson. This helps distract from systemic problems. It’s about climate change, but also the way people live in such landscapes. About their power supply, their agriculture, their settlements … “

Pyne doesn’t suggest the fires could have been prevented, but says they could have been altered. He says that, after World War II, Australian foresters switched to a strategy of large-scale, prescribed burning. “But then, unfortunately, controlled burning fell into disrepute.”

Arizona State University’s staff blurbs say Pyne has written more than 30 books, mostly on the history and management of wildland and rural fire, and is completing a multi-volume fire history of the United States and its regions since 1960.

The Spiegel article:
https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/what-australia-needs-is-more-fires-but-the-right-kind-a-92182ab2-0c16-434e-99d5-6b9e93e19f77
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January 23, 2020 8:11am
- Wangas Feral
  
  30 books. pfft. What does he know. Greta and co know it is climate change and nothing else.
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:36pm
hullkiwi

Caucus retreat in Martinborough, so what will be this year’s soundbite before Ratana?
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January 23, 2020 8:11am
- Tony Stuart
  
  It was at last year’s caucus retreat that the PM first uttered the unfortunate phrase “Year of Delivery”, and we all know how THAT worked out.
  
  My suggestion is that a session be held today on CV writing, because a number of Labour MP’s are likely to be looking for employment after 19th September, which is tipped as the likely election date.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:33am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Kiri Allan has just shifted into Gisborne.. to begin her campaign for East Coast.
    
    http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/local-news/20200122/mp-setting-up-house-in-gisborne/
    
    Have the Nats put up a candidate yet?
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:38am
    - Tall Man
      
      She seems a decent bloke. Maybe she should be judged on her achievements and those of her party……
      
      That means she’s a gone burger!
      
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      January 23, 2020 8:47am
  - Vallager
    
    I always assumed Year of Delivery meant she was going to have another baby?
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:07am
- freethinker
  
  Heard interviews this am with Angry – using the term – Safety is of Paramount importance when dealing with the slow progress and likely budget blowout at Pike River, then Goofy defending the cancellation by Fullers of Waihiki ferry services. Perhaps Lierbour will use a version to defend their total failure of policy since occupying the treasury benches courtesy of the evil dwarf.
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:30am
- Paulus
  
  Ardern has effectively said that she will tell the truth in this election.
  That will be a first !
  
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  January 23, 2020 1:33pm
  - tf78
    
    You can guarantee Ardern won’t be boasting about their achievements as there aren’t any. Other than attacking National on 9 years of neglect they will have to dole out the cash to fool the people once again. (facebook doesn’t allow untruths).
    
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    January 23, 2020 4:48pm
  - alloytoo
    
    She’s already broken that promise once before.
    
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    January 23, 2020 5:19pm
  - LTA1955
    
    No doubt Jackass with visit the gangs this election year and have a round of hugs for thugs with a cuppa tea and a bikkie
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:39pm
    - LTA1955
      
      *will
      
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      January 23, 2020 8:45pm
Evadne

On the ongoing Sussex saga..

Harry declares Meghan has been stalked by paparazzi, who apparently hid in bushes to take pictures of her without permission or knowledge, and now threatens legal action.

On the other hand, said pictures show a beaming Meghan staring straight down the lens. If you look at the series of photos, you can see her flirting (and I mean flirting) with the camera… sideways glances, sly smiles, and the full on publicity grin at just the right moment.

No one does that to thin air when they think they’re alone, privately walking the dogs, looking after baby.
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January 23, 2020 8:13am
- Evadne
  
  You can see the series here, if interested: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7909539/Meghan-Markle-dons-160-boots-98-Lululemon-leggings-Archie-walk-Canada.html
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:23am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    I don’t see anything in that article to indicate that this is the same occasion that Harry was talking about?
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:42am
    - Evadne
      
      That article has the photos. The stalking accusation is covered by plenty of others, eg:
      
      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2020/01/21/harry-meghan-claim-paparazzi-stalked-within-hours-reunion-canada/
      
      The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have issued a legal warning over paparazzi photographs of Meghan and Archie in Canada, complaining that they are being “stalked” following their split from the Royal family, causing them “considerable distress”.
      
      Within hours of Prince Harry joining his wife and son on Vancouver Island for a more “peaceful” life, the couple’s lawyers Schillings sent out a strongly worded letter claiming that the images had been taken by paparazzi who had been “hiding in the bushes and spying”.
      
      The complaint came after the Sun newspaper published pictures showing a smiling Meghan walking her dogs while carrying her eight-month-old son in a baby sling. The photographs have also been published online.
      
      Accompanied by two bodyguards, the 38-year-old can be seen holding her beagle Guy and a black labrador on leads while walking along a popular woodland trail in hiking boots.
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:13am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        You appear to be saying that if a person appears content to have their photograph taken in some contexts, that means that anybody can take their photograph anywhere and anyplace.
        
        That’s your opinion. Mine’s different. Let’s just leave it there then.
        
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        January 23, 2020 9:36am
      - Evadne
        
        @ Albert Ross
        
        No, I’m not saying that in the slightest. I actually don’t disagree with you about context.
        
        I suggest you actually read the Telegraph excerpt: Harry is threatening legal action over the ACTUAL photos Meghan is encouraging, not others taken elsewhere, on another occasion.
        
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        January 23, 2020 2:11pm
  - Wangas Feral
    
    To be fair – my boots cost more than $160 but I guess the difference is I only have one pair at time.
    
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    January 23, 2020 2:25pm
- Tall Man
  
  I don’t see the issue. Public place, public photo.
  
  Oh I see, she wants a few bucks to have her photo taken……
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:50am
- Ruahine
  
  She is just haggling over the price.
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:47am
- Jules99
  
  That whole thing looked staged to me. Dogs looked sad and she doesn’t seem to know how to hold a baby. It was not an everyday event.
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:12am
  - Surely Knott
    
    Yes. What’s up with the baby?. The baby carrier clip is not attached on the left. And the strap is completely off her shoulder. It looks weird and unsafe. Surely one of the guards would have helped. It looks like they have put the baby onto her in a hurry for the photo and passed her the dogs.
    
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    January 23, 2020 11:10am
    - Evadne
      
      I think it more likely she slid the strap down so her face was visible for the cameras. If the baby was in the correct position, her face would be obscured.
      
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      January 23, 2020 2:14pm
- JackRabbit
  
  If you think you are being covertly photographed and said photos will be published, you do not want to pull a scowly, pouty or quivery lip face do you?
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:13am
  - Tall Man
    
    Are you sure?
    
    https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BBYi9fj.img?h=761&w=1141&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f&x=302&y=178
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:58am
    - JackRabbit
      
      🙂 Thanks.
      
      I knew someone had a photo.
      Put me off my lunch tho.
      
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      January 23, 2020 1:45pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Sorry about that.
        
        I do have a recently shot dead rabbit waiting for me to collect it under he bay tree….. A peace offering for a late lunch?
        
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        January 23, 2020 4:54pm
    - lifesgood
      
      Ewwww. that’s hideous.
      
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      January 23, 2020 4:37pm
mikenmildagain

“He’s not the Messiah. He’s a very naughty boy.”
– RIP Terry Jones
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January 23, 2020 8:16am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Sad news indeed. They don’t do comedy like that any longer, and we are poorer as a result.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:36am
  - Two fish and a scoop thanks Cindy
    
    Luxury!
    
    When I t’wer lad, comedy was Dad marching us 500 miles then beating us to death!
    
    -if we were lucky!
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:50am
  - Wangas Feral
    
    That is because the outrage driven SJW left have killed comedy.
    
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    January 23, 2020 2:26pm
- Tall Man
  
  Death is part of life and in the past we have had new “personalities” emerging to fill the void the loss of people like Terry created.
  
  Who do we get these days……… greta!
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:52am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Greta is not comedy.
    It is Reality TV, Truman show style.
    This years theme is Autism and child abuse.
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:19am
    - Tall Man
      
      She may not be comedy but she is a joke!
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:55am
- Bell-47
  
  RIP Terry..
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjkBzf6leGo
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:46am
Scott

TV1 news 6pm Wed starts with the Ihumatoa protest and is totally from the Maori activist viewpoint.

It appears that Fletchers will not be able to build on the site. It appears that they will receive compensation. From whom, you may ask?
Well certainly not from Waikato Tinui. No no no. The government will be approached to compensate Fletchers!

So let me get this straight. After a settlement under the treaty of waitangi involving payments to the Tribe this agreement is now void. Instead the government will have to compensate Fletchers. While the Tribe gets the treaty settlement money, doesn’t have to pay it back and also gets to keep the land!

Is this a case of being able to have your cake and eat it too? Does anyone else find this outrageous?

Sadly it does not end there. The news report talks about negotiations with the Maori King who appears to be in the thick of it exercising real political power. As if he was a real king rather than a ceremonial figure. This appears to be where we are heading – the Maori sovereignty movement. All aided and supported by the Maori reporter who thinks this is all marvellous.

One can only hope that the people of NZ will rise up and stop this split into two nations. That we will be one people and one nation with one government and one sovereign. To do this we need a better government that will exert their authority and not kowtow to minority interests.
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January 23, 2020 8:18am
- Tony Stuart
  
  The news this morning is that Winston Peters is suggesting the Ihumatao isn’t a done deal just yet.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12302691
  
  It must be election year.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:37am
  - Tall Man
    
    You cynical bastard 😉
    
    Of course the “deal” is done, it will just be another shadow dance to be played out in the media to boost ardern’s profile and make “what’s in it for wynston” look like a politician rather than a grubby little thief.
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:56am
    - Jack5
      
      Leftist TVNZ, Radio NZ, and the skeletal remains of the print media won’t touch the double payment angle.
      
      MMP has given minorities such as Maori and the Greens disproportionate power. We’d had MMP half a century ago, the Social Credit nutters would have totally wrecked New Zealand in a currency maelstrom.
      
      You can see how MMP’s grandparent, the German proportional representation system of the 1930s, fostered the chaos that helped the Nazis to power.
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:33am
  - freethinker
    
    What demands will Peters make so The Chip Shop Girl can appear important at the Mawree day wankfest?
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:06pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Lop off the head of the hydra before it eats you. More Money Pushover (MMP)–who got the Waitangi billions?
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:38am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  Ignore that down tick- Fat Finger Syndrome.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:40am
  - Tall Man
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SUS4TpBry6c
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glD17Lyh8EE
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78b67l_yxUc
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:59am
- LTA1955
  
  How about the Marxist’s at TV1 donate 50% of their salaries bonuses to the settlement of Ihumatoa debacle as a grand gesture to the ever suffering New Zealand Taxpayer?
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:01am
  - Jules99
    
    How about the tell urban working Maori that this is coming out of their taxes and they get no benefit.
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:14am
- Bell-47
  
  The “Maori King”… an overweight former truck driver. He is no more a king than I am. Surrounds himself with fraudsters and hand out seekers.
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:50am
  - Tall Man
    
    “hand out seekers”
    
    Hand out getters you mean.
    
    I wonder what his “cut” on the deal will be.
    
    I had a client “advising” an Iwi on commercial property after a tribunal payout . I asked him WTF he knew about commercial property…….. his answer,
    
    “for 10%…. more than them”.
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:53am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Wasn’t this subject to a Waitangi treaty SETTLEMENT.
  That appeared to, quite neatly balance settlement/ grievance with private property RIGHTS.
  Now thrown out the window for a shallow political attempt to win Maori votes.
  What of all the similar “settlements”?
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:01am
- tf78
  
  Who has the money that Fletcher’s originally paid for the land or is that all spent.
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:46am
  - Komata
    
    tf78@1046
    
    ‘Who has the money that Fletcher’s originally paid for the land or is that all spent’.
    
    ‘Someone’, but because in Maori hands ‘money’ becomes wraith-like’, and more slippery than a Tuna, no-one can ever-actually tell you where it has gone. Many will say that they have seen it ‘as it went past’ but as to it’s final destination and in whose hands?
    
    ‘I dunno bro, ask uncle xxx; HE might know, but then again…’
    
    Welcome to the world of Maori finance; the Mafia, by comparison, are rank amateurs…
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:36pm
    - Tall Man
      
      The family that sold the farm to Fletchers has the money and to be honest it is irrelevant.
      
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      January 23, 2020 5:56pm
- Clyde
  
  This is an outrage and has been from day one, but the problem is what can be actually DONE to complete the rapid slide into institutionalised racism in NZ. Frankly I’m sick and tired of all this pandering to newly invented sensitivities from the East Polynesian community. Posting on a blog doesn’t actually ACHIEVE anything. Who has got some achievable ideas to reverse this nonsense?
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:06am
  - freethinker
    
    Votes – but is Simon listening, probably not!
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:11pm
  - Tall Man
    
    I’m not sure if you are a youngster or a recent arrival to NZ but this has been going on since some bugger chopped down the flagpole in my next of the woods.
    
    Generally the older the maori leaders get the smarter they become but the less their own people listen to them. By 75 they are as sharp as a tack but are ignored by those that have never worked and see everyone else as the master/mistress of their misfortune.
    
    The original deal brokered between Fletchers, the Auckland Council and the Iwi was a fucking great deal which would have provided 40 low cost homes with assistance and advice on how to parley those houses into the beginnings of a residential portfolio using the equity.
    
    All of the Iwi bar 4 accepted the offer with pleasure. How will they feel now? No extra money, no real ownership and no houses.
    
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    January 23, 2020 6:13pm
- Yvette
  
  • Ihumātao: ‘A resolution is imminent’- Pania Newton
  • Ihumātao dispute resolution expected by Waitangi Day – Kiingitanga
  • Māori King visits Ihumātao as deal over Fletcher housing development dispute draws closer
  • ‘Simply false’: Winston Peters says Ihumātao deal still a long way off
  • Claims Ihumātao deal near ‘simply false’ – Winston Peters
  
  Honest and transparent as mud.
  
  Newton was at Waitangi in 2018 for Jacinda Ardern’s first speech there as Prime Minister when she asked Māori to hold her government to account.
  “Hold us to account. Because one day I want to be able to tell my child that I earned the right to stand here. And only you can tell me when I have done that,” Ardern said at the time.
  
  A spokesperson for the Prime MInister said “the government continues to work with all parties to reach a resolution as soon as is possible”.
  
  Does “all parties” actually include Newton and Peters?
  Does “all parties” actually include Ardern, and if so, as Prime Minister, why does she not inform the country of what point negotiations have reached, rather than allowing her Deputy or Newton to fill in for her? Is she earning “the right to stand here”?
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:40am
  - tf78
    
    According to Taxpayers Union there seems to have been discussions between Grant Robertson and Philistine Goff.
    
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    January 23, 2020 5:00pm
  - Tall Man
    
    ““the right to stand here”
    
    Next to the long drop at the back of the lower marae.
    
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    January 23, 2020 6:17pm
Maggy Wassilieff

2 Degrees helping to prop up the Zimbabwean health system.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51205619
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January 23, 2020 8:18am
- cmm
  
  It is not clear if he is a billionaire or a Zim$ billionaire. Given that the new Zim$ was pegged as 1:1 with USD about a year ago and is now at approx 18:1 (official) and probably closer to 50:1 (street), that Zim$100M is not going to go far.
  
  Or, as one wag put it: If you aren’t a billionaire yet, wait two weeks.
  
  Poor buggers – two complete financial meltdowns in a single generation…
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:43am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    cmm, but they’re certainly not yearning for the good old days of Ian Smith and UDC!
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:19am
    - cmm
      
      You might actually be surprised there stephie.
      
      It’s all very well playing comrade, comrade when there’s food on your plate, but when incompetent people have taken that food off your plate then the comrade. comrade game gets a bit thin.
      
      When they got rid of Smith they were hoping for one man one vote. They didn’t get that did they?
      
      Nope they got a poxy dictatorship that ran the country into the ground and has killed way more people than Smith’s lot ever did.
      
      They have elections but these are rigged to hell and the MDC still won. Did the MDC get to take power? No.
      
      Robert Mugabe was bad, but the new guy is worse.
      
      The people have voted for MDC, but they still get ZANU-PF.
      
      Would they take Ian Smith over MDC? Likely not, but they would take Ian Smith over ZANU-PF.
      
      Could the MDC fix things? Sorry, no way. The country is too far gone now. Superman can’t fix it, but they could make it less bad.
      
      Of course this is all theoretical. ZANU-PF will not give up power and don’t mind running the country into the ground again and pushing more than 50% of their population into starvation territory.
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:29am
      - Local Miller
        
        “and pushing the remaining 50% of their population into starvation territory.”
        
        There, fixed it for you.
        
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        January 23, 2020 2:07pm
      - cmm
        
        Spot on LM.
        
        Approx half the population have fled to neighbouring states. Those that want to travel honestly are screwed because the Zim government has, quite literally, run out of paper and ink for passports.
        
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        January 23, 2020 3:10pm
      - tf78
        
        I heard an old joke today (either Dean Martin or Ronald Reagan) : A lady asks a politician “was communism invented by Politicians or Scientists?”
        Polly says “Why Politicians of course”. Lady : “That figures, a scientist would have tested it on mice first”.
        
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        January 23, 2020 5:04pm
      - curry4me
        
        They do have one man one vote. The dictator du jour is the man, and he has the vote.
        
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        January 23, 2020 5:52pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    Prior to the Euro, there was nothing more satisfying than getting an account balance from a Greek ATM.
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:43am
  - freethinker
    
    Zimbabwe/Venezuela/S Africa/Middle East – vote for shitheads so don’t complain about the stink.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:12pm
    - Tall Man
      
      You’ve missed one….. New Zealand. 36% labour, 7% “what’s in it for wynston”, 6% watermelons.
      
      We have what the country voted for.
      
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      January 23, 2020 6:24pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    In USD, Strive Masiyiwa is worth 2.5 Billion.
    
    In ZWD, Masiyiwa is worth about 900 Billion.
    
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    January 23, 2020 2:38pm
    - Tall Man
      
      I think that has answered the question Maggy 🙂
      
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      January 23, 2020 6:25pm
tedbear

Look, I know this excuse for a govt don’t really give a stuff about well-being of anyone let alone children and anyone with mental health issues.
But I reckon if this https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=242&v=NxaKn6JYMqc&feature=emb_title was shown on tv news there’d be a public outcry.
Won’t happen of course with govt controlled TVNZ.
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January 23, 2020 8:26am
Happychappy

Is this a reason why Winston his Lawyer and others chose to start a company in the Forestry Business after the last Election. Chief Executive’s from more than50 forestry wood processing companies have signed a letter calling on the Government to honour its Wood committment to implement its promised wood procurement policy for Government buildings. Industry spokesman and red star group Chief Executive Marty Verry said the policy had the backing of NZ First and the Green Party and it was time for Labour to move on it.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118969601/timber-processing-industry-calls-on-government-to-keep-election-promise-or-lose-support-for-2020
Now is this part of why Shane Jones was asked for funds from the PGF, obviously there would be a lot of money in.a Government Contract.
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January 23, 2020 8:28am
- rouppe
  
  Even if he got the funding, his wood would be 25-30 years away. In other words 3-5 changes of government
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:27am
- freethinker
  
  If you are right and your suggestion has credibility – conflicts of interest anyone?
  Attempted fraud/corruption/deception ????????????
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:16pm
- Old White Loser
  
  Marty Verry seems to be very upset about an election policy from Labour, were there private promises?
  
  And how could he get 25,000 people to vote a certain way? Is he saying their votes can be bought?
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:45pm
Paulus

Am over halfway through the auto biography of Marilyn Waring “The Political Years”.
What a fascinating time (my Wellington time) and MP – pity we do not seem to have as good as she – I believe her to be equally as good as Helen Clark.

Last evening it was suggested from a worthy via the Press Gallery that at the Labour Caucus weekend in Masterton from today, that the “fodder” (sorry Labour MPs) will be acquainted with the fact that the deal will (has) been done with Peters as the current polls show that without him they are done.
Ihumatao settlement is only a PR ruse – no deal has been done and may not be for a while.
Only raised before Ratana and Waitangi to obfuscate anything.
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January 23, 2020 8:32am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  ” I believe her to be equally as good as Helen Clark.”
  
  You’re not setting a very high bar.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:57am
  - freethinker
    
    Captn – I took it as an insult.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:17pm
Minsk400

So now the Chinese Communist Party gets to control the narrative on Xinjiang province at Te Papa:
https://www.interest.co.nz/news/103329/china-delivers-message-its-diaspora-nz-xinjiang-deradicalization-programme-has-been

Why is Te Papa suddenly a vehicle for CCP propaganda?
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January 23, 2020 8:34am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Te Papa is always short of money. so maybe it’s just a simple sellout, like our political parties.
  
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  January 23, 2020 8:54am
- KevO'Brien
  
  It’s not.
  The Chinese Embassy hired the function room. They are free to say what the like to their nationals at a private function.
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:32am
  - tf78
    
    I wish Phil Goff held the same views when hiring out ratepayer owned public function areas – i.e. the rejection of Stephen and Lauren.
    
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    January 23, 2020 11:07am
Maggie Pie

My partners been taking a keen interest in what he calls the ‘Impeachment Circus’ playing out on FOX and CNN. Although it’s like he said, “Everyone KNOWS Trumps a lying c~~t, but who else they got?”

And looks like ‘HIGH NOON’ on the 29th could be interesting as well 😛
https://twitter.com/Jack_Burkman/status/1220036002485428224

Tick Tock
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January 23, 2020 8:38am
- EuropeanCanon
  
  The whole thing is a farce. The Democrats turn up for the trial saying their evidence is overwhelming on the one hand, and then on the other we need more evidence. What a joke. Trump 2020 all the way
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:30am
- freethinker
  
  And Gulliani has something to release of Friday.
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:31pm
Manolo

A progressive, a bitter one.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/world/malcolm-turnbull-slams-pms-response-to-climate-change-and-bushfires/ar-BBZdK56

Malcolm Turnbull has accused Prime Minister Scott Morrison of “misleading” Australians over climate change and the summer bushfire disaster, in a dramatic worsening of simmering tensions between both men.
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January 23, 2020 8:45am
- RW Capitalist
  
  and the BBC had a story about how the bush is already regenerating.
  BUT
  I seem to remember in my life time, it has done this before (why the surprise).
  Also being taught as a kid, that this is how it has happened for 10 000 years and why Australia’s flora and fauna are the way they are.
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:26am
  - Batman
    
    Well the grass is regenerating. Other stuff takes a while longer of course
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:29am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      No…The trees and scrub, that is what they showed.
      
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      January 23, 2020 9:55am
    - cmm
      
      Some eucalyptus trees are highly allelopathic. The euc. leaves and ash will often suppress other plants including grasses and give the euc.s an edge.
      
      This is fairly common – particulary in dry scrublands that are fire prone. The proteas and other vynbos in the area around Cape Town work the same. Fire gives them an edge and without fire the grasses etc choke them out.
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:29am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    RW Capitalist, it is though the 2019-20 bushfires were good for the local wild life and plant life?
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:39am
    - cmm
      
      There is no such thing as “good for the local plant life” or “good for the environment”.
      
      All the plants in an area compete for resources: light, water, nutrients etc.
      
      The bushfires happen, then those plants and animals which have adapted to fire will thrive and those that have not will not.
      
      The concept of there being an “environment” that cares (I know, anthropomorphism) what happens to it is just sentimental mythical bullshit.
      
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      January 23, 2020 3:32pm
  - Paulus
    
    Was in the Grampians few years ago – Halls Gap three months after the devastating fire and the re growth was phenomenal.
    We were told that without fire there would be virtually no regeneration.
    
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    January 23, 2020 1:52pm
- MCos
  
  Turnbull is certainly not a progressive just because he’s critical of Morrison’s limp approach to climate change, which he compares unfavorably to Boris.
  These three guys are all conservatives.
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:48am
- tedbear
  
  Turnbull said “everybody knew we were in a very dry time” before the fire season, and that it “was likely to be very bad”.
  
  I have a couple of questions for Turnbull, ones that the useless interviewer hadn’t the balls to ask.
  1. With respect to your statement ‘everybody knew we were in a very dry time’, what would you have done to prevent the latest fires starting?
  2. Knowing that bush fires can start at any time on any month, if you are ever Prime Minister again, would you promise to never be out of the country so you can be on call so to speak to present yourself at Ardern-like hand-ringing photo opportunities?
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:00am
  - tedbear
    
    Oh, just before we wind this up Mr Turnbull. Under the next government you lead, what would be your timeline for shutting down all twenty four of our coal fired power stations, closing all the coalmines and stop all coal exports, all of which the delegation that wanted to meeting with Prime Minister Morrison were demanding? No hurry to give all the answers, my producer says we can extend our interview coverage so the Australian public know exactly where you stand on coal.
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:21am
    - MCos
      
      Turnbull should have got on to that years ago and maybe he wanted to for all I know.
      Anyway it’s not his responsibility anymore. They chucked him out, remember?
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:09am
Stephieboy2

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Are we’ too ideological blinkered to learn from the Finns ?

. In Finland, the number of homeless people has fallen sharply. The reason: The country applies the “Housing First” concept. Those affected by homelessness receive a small apartment and counselling – without any preconditions. 4 out of 5 people affected thus make their way back into a stable life. And: All this is cheaper than accepting homelessness.

https://scoop.me/housing-first-finland-homelessness/

I mean a paltry 300 or so new houses nine years of National and 9,000 or so ( not nearly enough) under the COL!
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January 23, 2020 9:04am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Bull shit
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2018-02/A%20Stocktake%20Of%20New%20Zealand%27s%20Housing.pdf
  Twyfords own report
  There is a graph of housing that shows rental and ownership (personal)
  2008 approx. 1.1 million houses
  2017 approx. 1.35 million houses
  OCCUPIED……thats 250 000 increase ie > 25 000 per year.
  Hows it going lately?
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:35am
- JimBobJoe
  
  What 9000 houses Stephie?
  
  Where are they exactly and are they built and occupiable?
  
  How many were contracted for or started under the prior government? (i.e. can’t be claimed as COL initiated or delivered – you know projects like Tamaki Redevelopment….)
  
  Front up with data and links to reputable sources….
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:46am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    Ok I bit generous with my figures but Mr Twitford is optomistic c 16000 with the reset by 2o21,
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12235197
    
    Now back to pre election 19th septemnber 2017?
    
    Figures
    
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    January 23, 2020 11:12am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Housing Minister Phil Twyford says he’s ‘disappointed’ by KiwiBuild’s performance so far
      HAHAHAHAHAHAHA
      He talks about “kiwibuild” like it’s something separate from him, his performance and the performance of this incompetent (I hesitate to use the word) Government.
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:56am
- Fletch
  
  Neil and Tim?
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:00am
- cmm
  
  I’m struggling to take an article seriously when the title is:
  
  “Finland ends homelessness and provides shelter for all in need”
  
  They have not ended homelessness, but reduced it.
  
  Helicoptering in policy from elsewhere is something that needs to be done with care and thought because you can seldom do an apples-to-apples comparison.
  
  Finland is very different in many ways:
  1) Homogenous: 99% Fin and Swedes.
  2) Finlan’d climate makes it very challenging to live rough which makes it far more important to get people housing. Here – particularly NI – rough sleeping is relatively comfortable.
  3) The Sami (0.1% of the population) have a culture of looking after themselves as nomads. And even they have a culture with a written language etc that goes back 400 years.
  4) They didn’t kill off their oil and gas, but, instead, use that as a social revenue source.
  5) Their definition of homelessness is different to the one we use here, making our numbers look far worse. The number of actual people with no place to stay is actually very low here.
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:20am
  - Stephieboy2
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    cmm, the fact that Finland is homogeneous is irrelavant. Are you implying that certain races in NZ are rersponsible for their homelessness?
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:31am
    - Stephieboy2
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      This artiicle here suggests that your way, way off beam. The countries policies and ideas are worth investigating and where applicable adopted. Not a crude appeal to Finnish ” white” ethnicity
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019/jun/03/its-a-miracle-helsinkis-radical-solution-to-homelessness
      
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      January 23, 2020 10:36am
      - Minsk400
        
        From the article: ” ‘You can have all sorts of projects, but if you don’t have the actual homes … A sufficient supply of social housing is just crucial.’ Helsinki owns 60,000 social housing units; one in seven residents live in city-owned housing. It also owns 70% of the land within the city limits, runs its own construction company, and has a current target of building 7,000 more new homes – of all categories – a year.”
        
        I can’t see that happening in NZ tbh. Those are essentially pre-requisites of the policy working.
        
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        January 23, 2020 2:32pm
      - cmm
        
        stephie: Why are you being such a racist and bringing race into the argument. I never mentioned race.
        
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        January 23, 2020 3:18pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @cmm
        stephie: Why are you being such a racist and bringing race into the argument. I never mentioned race.
        
        Because you are stephie’s new bitch on this blog.
        
        He can’t get away with smearing me as a racist anymore without being shown up for the absolute dick that he is…so to carry out his fantasy as the exposer of rampant racists on KB, he’s fallen upon you.
        
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        January 23, 2020 6:59pm
    - Jack5
      
      Duty Stephy: It’s No use sucking up to Finland under its new feminista government.
      
      There’s no way even they will open Finland’s borders to free entry for Stephiestanis. ?
      
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      January 23, 2020 11:11am
    - Billy Collins
      
      Not race, but culture.
      
      A society where pretty much everyone has the same diet, spending habits, exercise habits, same genetic health concerns, same approach toward parenting, education, and relationships, etc makes it a lot easier to address and solve problems.
      
      We have a society that is not like that. Being religious, for instance, tends to correlate with being more socially involved and having stronger community support structures. Being homogenous with religion also helps. Finland is over 70% Christian, and being largely of a single Lutheran sect.
      
      We are definitely not like that at all.
      
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      January 23, 2020 3:00pm
    - cmm
      
      “Are you implying that certain races in NZ are rersponsible for their homelessness.”
      
      No, everyone is equally responsible for their own homelessness, just like they are responsible for their own incarceration and educational outcomes.
      
      If the numbers happen to correlate with race, well, that’s just a coincidence right?
      
      Cultural differences become very problematic when welfare is involved because different cultures have different attitudes around accepting charity/hand outs.
      
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      January 23, 2020 3:17pm
- Sideoiler
  
  …. and 9,000 or so ( not nearly enough) under the COL!
  
  Citation please?
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:40am
  - cmm
    
    Aspirashuns are as good as outcomes!
    
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    January 23, 2020 3:20pm
- EuropeanCanon
  
  Maybe a link would be in order for these 9000 houses
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:08am
Yvette

Claims Ihumātao deal near ‘simply false’ – Winston Peters
But Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking this morning that was not the case.
“The reality is that this has been a long-range discussion that will take a long, long time to be completed if it ever is,” he said. – Herald

And yesterday on Magic Talk Radio, Winston seemed emphatic that tax-payers would not finance any Ihumātoa solution. That may require confirmation, but will be most interesting to see how the rumoured transaction is handled.

But it is also difficult to tell from media reports, whether either Pania Newton or Winston are actually involved in the discussions, between whoever or wherever they may be.

Pania Newton, co-founder of Save Our Unique Landscape (Soul), told the Herald a deal was close.
“We are just working through the details, and have a meeting with whānau tonight to confirm they are happy with the arrangement.” She knows enough detail to say that?
“We are hoping a resolution is just hours, if not a day, away.” She doesn’t really know, according to Winston

It is also a little hard to tell that the land’s worth, now put at $40 million, is in fact Fletchers figure, after they purchased the land for $19 million (land records)
Auckland Council’s zoning of the land as special housing land, seems to have boosted the rateable value to around $32 million, but should that be changed if the land is to become park, heritage reserve or something else?

The relevant iwi Treaty Settlement seems to have been about $6.8 million plus land. If they are now even indirectly gifted $40 million, what consequence may that have?
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January 23, 2020 9:20am
- MCos
  
  This time next week Winston will put a different spin on ‘simply false’.
  When I said simply false I didn’t mean it wasn’t true. You people always misconstrue what was implied.
  
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  January 23, 2020 9:54am
- KevO'Brien
  
  How can a “deal” be done by an occupying force on private land?
  Why haven’t the Police done their duty?
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:25am
  - Manolo
    
    Don’t forget it: the natives have a lot more rights than the rest of us…
    
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    January 23, 2020 10:45am
  - freethinker
    
    Because they are too busy playing Rambo & dressing up like Darth Vader at Christian Gun submitters to a select committee who don’t own a gun.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:44pm
  - cmm
    
    The cops can only really intervene on private land if the owners, Fletchers, ask them to run the trespassers off.
    
    I think Fletchers has a problem. Run these guys off and trucks and partially built houses will mysteriously catch fire
    
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    January 23, 2020 3:22pm
- Toko
  
  The value for Fletchers has to take into account the costs of consents, opportunity costs of delays and lost future profits on development. They are an unwilling seller that bought private land, zoned for their business. That has been unilaterally changed by the public pressure of activists on the government. So the compensation has to reflect those factors. It is not as simple as handing them the supposed current bare land value.
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:25pm
secondcumming

Remember when we were kids there was all this talk about having *Flying Cars*
by 2020…….. I see TradeMe are still listing Honda Accords for about 2 grand 😎
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January 23, 2020 9:41am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Here you go:
  https://youtu.be/Jcpq6XYYoY4?t=44
  These are going on sale this year for ‘cost of an SUV’, don’t even need a pilots license in US (due to low weight they fit in microlight regulatory category).
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:23am
Monique Watson

Both Stuffed and the Horrid are running this:

moving to a plant based diet cuts emissions and saves billions:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12302611

One can only hope we see more of this in r err section Year. Bound to help Labour lose the election as people realise Labour are not distancing themselves from this kind of daily indoctrination.
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January 23, 2020 10:03am
- tf78
  
  I’m so pleased (for once) that Shane Jones actually said what we all think.
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:14am
- JackRabbit
  
  “…cuts emissions and saves billions”.
  
  Too bad human brain cells die, energy levels drop, and dementia becomes more widespread and at a younger age.
  
  I mean look at young Cindy (I prefer not too). She must be on a plant based diet, and must have dementia, poor young thing.
  
  She either can’t remember promises she made, or remembers it differently to what was recorded at the time.
  
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  January 23, 2020 1:07pm
chaos

Does she even understand the meaning of factual. Seems if we hold her to account with the last campaign and what she has said as pm she has no idea of the meaning

* Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has opened the election year promising a “robust” but “factual campaign,” saying she doesn’t want New Zealand to “fall prey” to issues that have hit recent overseas elections.

Stuff understands as part of her push on this issue Ardern will announce later today that Labour will be signing up for a voluntary Facebook transparency tool for political advertising, months after it was first asked about it in August.*

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118980480/jacinda-ardern-opens-election-year-warning-of-misinformation-will-sign-labour-up-to-facebook-transparency-tool
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January 23, 2020 10:05am
- sooty
  
  Well, there’s there’s the first lie, right there!
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:14am
- tf78
  
  Nothing from the COL will be allowed on facebook then if there is no tolerance for mis-truths.
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:16am
- RW Capitalist
  
  * Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has opened the election year promising a “robust” but “factual campaign,” saying she doesn’t want New Zealand to “fall prey” to issues that have hit recent overseas elections.
  So she’s going to change a habit of a life time personally and as far as the Labour party are concerned, the habit they have developed since their inception.
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:01pm
  - chaos
    
    I’m waiting for the media to start running stories that there are Russian bots involved.
    
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    January 23, 2020 12:54pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Start the year with self deception. That will make Ardern an easy pushover. She gets awfully rattled when confronted by a fact–even worse, repeated challenges.
    I have come to the conclusion that “bullies” are a distinctive personality type and commonly found in unionists, activists and teachers. Ardern fits my classification.
    
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    January 23, 2020 1:12pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    “So she’s going to change a habit of a life time personally and as far as the Labour party are concerned, the habit they have developed since their inception.”
    
    In a marriage:
    
    “I will be faithful from now on”, just don’t ask me about all the affairs I have had, and do not ask to see my email account or mobile phone, it’s private. trust me I am not hiding anything.
    
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    January 23, 2020 1:19pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    Jacinda is not using this tool to keep Labour honest. She will use it to accuse other parties of being dishonest. Just you watch.
    
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    January 23, 2020 1:26pm
    - Minsk400
      
      Ever notice that under questioning in the House her go-to way of answering the question is “what I do know is…”
      
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      January 23, 2020 2:35pm
- JackRabbit
  
  “…Ardern will announce later today that Labour will be signing up for a voluntary Facebook transparency tool ”
  
  Oh Cool. Will she be listing the Labour party rapes on Facebook, and how she managed to scuttle them?
  
  She has no credibility. “I’ll be transparent and honest, so long as you do not ask about the blood leaking from the Skeletons in the closet, or the multiple bumps under the carpet.”
  
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  January 23, 2020 1:14pm
- Local Miller
  
  If you read the details of this tool, you see it doesn’t enforce or even check for honesty in the facts of the ad, it’s only about who the sponsor was and why you are seeing it.
  e.g. This is a Liebour Ad and your are seeing it because you went to the National Facebook page.
  They can still lie as much as they always have.
  
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  January 23, 2020 2:55pm
rangitoto

I hear we have some climate change sceptics on this board. I can assure you that if you pay lots more tax to the government as suggested by the Greens, then the climate will be fixed. No more droughts, storms, floods, unusually cold weather or bush fires. You just need to pay Cindy more tax. Anyway must rush off, my Cayman Islands registered yacht awaits.
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January 23, 2020 10:06am
- Local Miller
  
  Do you also have bridge for sale? I really need a good second hand bridge, hardly used. 🙂
  
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  January 23, 2020 2:57pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118980480/jacinda-ardern-opens-election-year-warning-of-misinformation-will-sign-labour-up-to-facebook-transparency-tool
What !!
You mean no more promises of hundreds of thousands of houses, billions of trees, no more poverdy, reduced immigration, free education, blah, blah.
So what will they be offering ?
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January 23, 2020 10:08am
- Tall Man
  
  Hugz and if you’re one of the special people… Feelz, whoever you like 😉
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:19am
- freethinker
  
  Greybeard – just more misery dressed in different clothes.
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:49pm
chaos

Another broken promise

* The timber processing industry is disappointed the government is not implementing a promise to look at using wood for more government buildings, and has threatened to block-vote against it in the 2020 election.

Chief executives from more than 50 forestry-wood processing companies, representing more than 10,000 employees, have signed an open letter calling on the government to honour its commitment to the procurement policy for government buildings, which was consistent with its Zero Carbon goal.*

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118969601/timber-processing-industry-calls-on-government-to-keep-election-promise-or-lose-support-for-2020
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January 23, 2020 10:12am
- Tall Man
  
  Silly man, “aspirational promises” made solely to get elected are not “real promises”.
  
  Real promises are those made by “what’s in it wynston” to those special people called…. Donors!
  
  16 2
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  January 23, 2020 11:19am
  - chaos
    
    Wasn’t it a Winston idea?
    
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    January 23, 2020 11:30am
    - cmm
      
      Yup. Winston said more wooden govt buildings and more research funding.
      
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      January 23, 2020 3:27pm
chaos

* The Chinese government has quarantined the city where the deadly coronavirus originated and plans to shut down the airport and public transport, according to reports on the country’s social media networks.

China may have also drastically under reported the number of people infected by a mysterious coronavirus that has since spread around the world.

The number of deaths linked to the virus, that originated in China, has risen to 17 — a near doubling in the past 24 hours – according to officials in Hubei province. More than 500 people are infected.

But there are fears that figure could be as high as 10,000, with warnings the new strain is “as deadly as Spanish flu” which killed 50 million people.*

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12302723
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January 23, 2020 10:14am
- chaos
  
  Worth watching, interesting view into the way China works in cases like this
  
  * China’s Coronavirus is Much Worse Than You Think*
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLp8CHeKQkI
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:53pm
kevn

@Yvette… Now then, who would you believe? whinney?
The trick with interpreting his utterings, is to go to the opposite for ‘closeness to truth’. Never truth/honesty, just close. Sometimes. Rarely.
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January 23, 2020 10:24am
secondcumming

I read where the *Coronavirus* can be spread by humans who either lack or ignore simple hygiene procedures. That doesn’t come as a great surprise to some of us.

Just saying.
11 3
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January 23, 2020 10:40am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Might pay to take a raincheck on performing hongi this Ratana- Waitangi season.
  
  8 2
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  January 23, 2020 2:05pm
  - secondcumming
    
    And think I’ll leave the *Chinese takeaways* to Len Brown as well 😎
    
    7 1
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    January 23, 2020 3:38pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyxeB5zktsI
Brussels wants the UK in a post Brexit straitjacket!
Hopefully, if push comes to shove; BoJo will say FU to the EU.
17 2
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January 23, 2020 10:44am
- KevO'Brien
  
  He will. Jan 31st the UK’s out. The Lords have given their assent too.
  
  6 1
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  January 23, 2020 1:04pm
- freethinker
  
  With luck the 27 members will not ratify the withdrawal agreement and the UK exit the UK 31/1/2020.
  
  5 2
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  January 23, 2020 1:04pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvpWkqY6swI
Not a Single Republican Poised to Convict Trump!!!
Even RINOs like Mittens Romney are on board. KAG!
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January 23, 2020 10:45am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Correct. Some republicans, like Romney, Collins and Murkowski, will frown and tut tut for the cameras, but they’ll fall in line as usual.
  
  2 7
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  January 23, 2020 11:32am
  - Billy Collins
    
    Mitt Romney already disappointed the Dems by openly supporting what the Dems are deeming an unfair fast-tracking of the trial, by simply pointing out that its the exact same process that was accepted unanimously for the Clinton impeachment trial.
    
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    January 23, 2020 3:18pm
- rangitoto
  
  Will be interesting to see how many dimocrat senators acquit him. Some of them come from states that love The Donald.
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:48am
- Komata
  
  curry4me@1045
  
  Sorry, too late; Collins has defected.
  
  One down, Four to go?
  
  2 1
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  January 23, 2020 12:54pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Collins voted to support an amendment to allow senators additional time to file responses to motions. Iirc, it was for extending from 2 to 4 hours
    Hardly a major ‘defection’
    *shrugs*
    
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    January 23, 2020 3:00pm
  - curry4me
    
    I hope she can be primaried when the time comes.
    
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    January 23, 2020 6:13pm
Sacha

I won’t be here to see it, but it sounds like fun –

https://quadrant.org.au/opinion/jocularity/2020/01/prince-archie-of-the-blood/
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January 23, 2020 10:47am
- Ruahine
  
  Good story. However France is on to it’s Fifth Republic.
  Charles de Gaulle established it on 4th October 1958.
  The way things are going in France at the moment with the Yellow Vests et al piling in against Macron, Ardern friend, it may well be heading for it’s Sixth.
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:09pm
chaos

Email from the tax payers union.

Statements from Finance Minister Grant Robertson, Auckland Mayor Phil Goff, and Kiingitanga all indicated that the finishing touches are being put on a deal, with details to be revealed ahead of Waitangi Day.

In short, it appears the politicians are giving in to the protesters with your money…

Our understanding is the deal will involve reimbursing Fletcher Building (the current legal owner of the land). The land is valued at $36 million.

But worse than the cost is the precedent: this intervention will inspire other activists to illegally occupy land with the expectation of reward.

The development of this land was already considered by the Māori Land Court and Environment Court. When politicians recklessly undermine those authorities, the integrity of other “full and final” settlements is threatened.

Nearly 8,000 New Zealanders have signed our petition. We’ve already delivered it to Grant Robertson – we’ll now give copies to Phil Goff and the Auckland Councillors who we understand will be voting on the deal in a few weeks’ time.
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January 23, 2020 11:26am
- rangitoto
  
  Winnie will be salivating at the thought of all the baubles Liarbore will need to supply him to get his permission for this to go ahead.
  
  7 1
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  January 23, 2020 11:45am
- DigNap15
  
  8,000 signatures?
  There is your problem, you need hundreds of thousands to make a point.
  I’d get more at my local shopping mall in one day.
  
  6 1
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  January 23, 2020 11:49am
- Nickc2
  
  I heard Winston on Hosking this morning stating any rumoured settlement wasn’t going ahead. I don’t normally believe anything Winston says but in this instance, perhaps he knows more than the rumour mongers who infest our air waves.
  
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  January 23, 2020 12:55pm
  - chaos
    
    Problem is a lot of times Winston has spoken to the media it has latter turned out to be bullshit, so you can’t really trust what he says.
    
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    January 23, 2020 1:56pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Fletcher’s should get double for the attack on them.
  
  6 0
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  January 23, 2020 1:01pm
  - chaos
    
    they should at least get the current value and all costs they have spent there.
    
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    January 23, 2020 1:20pm
  - Paulus
    
    Understand that the start of the rebuilding of the Grey Hospital is being delayed.
    Could it be that Fletchers are awaiting some cash from somebody to get started ?
    Or ?
    
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    January 23, 2020 2:00pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118984376/9400-people-who-were-counted-as-migrants-in-year-to-may-were-just-visiting
It is bloody hard to believe anything one reads these days: this particular article almost comes across as some sort of election message.
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January 23, 2020 11:40am
- Tall Man
  
  However, how many of the thousands that arrived on “temporary work visas” will never leave?
  
  6 3
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  January 23, 2020 2:50pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Oi, downticking tossers, before you downtick why don’t you look up how many short term visas have been issued then ask immigration how many become overstayers.
    
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    January 23, 2020 6:57pm
- cmm
  
  Is this caused by scrapping the arrivals card?
  
  5 0
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  January 23, 2020 3:39pm
DigNap15

I see that Mexico, Thailand and China are all bringing in bans on reusable plastic bags and plastic straws.
What is the world coming to.
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January 23, 2020 11:52am
- Stephieboy2
  
  DigNap15, an election year mantra back to the good old days of unrecyclable plastic bags?
  
  2 13
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  January 23, 2020 2:13pm
- MCos
  
  If you lived in Thailand you’d understand perfectly well why plastic bags are a a curse on the environment.
  Disused bags are everywhere like you wouldn’t believe. In the canals & rivers, on the beaches, under people’s houses, in the gutters
  
  7 1
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  January 23, 2020 2:24pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Actually it’s not the bags, it’s the pigs that are too fucking lazy to pick anything up and put it in a bin.
    
    12 1
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    January 23, 2020 2:39pm
- Rachael Membery
  
  Well them doing it would have more impact than us having done it
  
  3 0
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  January 23, 2020 3:57pm
  - Tall Man
    
    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-environment-day-plastic-idUSKCN1J10LM
    
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    January 23, 2020 6:54pm
Maggie Pie

Well i laughed 😀

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EO0LavNW4AMGT4g?format=jpg&name=small
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January 23, 2020 12:32pm
- chaos
  
  Hmmm, so one is a model pretending to be a surgeon and the other is a real plastic surgeon
  
  6 0
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  January 23, 2020 1:52pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    And remember…
    if life gives you lemons, a simple operation can turn them into melons 😛
    
    7 0
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    January 23, 2020 2:35pm
    - chaos
      
      what is life giving you here, apart from a sword back?
      
      https://www.nairaland.com/attachments/4738959_20170114112402_jpegca4b606d203df4958f0ed0a693457cef
      
      3 0
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      January 23, 2020 5:32pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Really really big melons.
        
        1 0
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        January 23, 2020 6:50pm
      - chaos
        
        I wonder if anyone has ever run up to her with a pin and tried to pop her.
        
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        January 23, 2020 7:01pm
    - Tall Man
      
      A dyslexic surgery?
      
      1 0
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      January 23, 2020 6:48pm
Jack5

People in Wuhan, China, centre of the coronavirus scare, are rushing to leave the city before 3pm (NZ time) today, when all city buses, ferries and long-distance travel from Wuhan will be suspended.

The South China Morning Post reports the city’s railway station and airport are packed with people trying to leave.

Wuhan, with about 7.5 million people is about the seventh largest city in China.

The South China Morning Post says wild animals are a key ingredient of the disease outbreak. Many of the 375 people in Wuhan who have contracted the disease work at or near the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, believed to be the source of the outbreak.

“One stall that was on the east side of the market caught people’s attention online. According to a menu posted by the stallholder on Dazhong Dianping – the most popular review and rating app in China – around 100 varieties of live animals and poultry were available, from foxes to wolf cubs and masked palm civets.”

Civets are thought to have been an intermediate host carrying a virus from bats that jumped to humans in a wet market in Guangdong province that led to the outbreak of SARS in 2002-03.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3047263/china-coronavirus-travel-ban-issued-residents-wuhan
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January 23, 2020 12:38pm
- chaos
  
  * University of Otago professor of public health Michael Baker said the Ministry of Health should be taking more precautions……
  
  Baker said it was a fast moving epidemic and data coming from China was outdated, which was worrying……
  
  “We can not be reassured by any numbers we see this point. They tell us what happened a while ago … It might be weeks before we know the full picture about how infectious and dangerous it is.”
  
  There were people coming to New Zealand from Wuhan via other airports and now was the time for New Zealand to act and not just “hope for the best”, he said.
  
  “We need to plan for some of the worst scenarios that could happen with this virus.”…..
  
  Health Minister David Clark was approached for comment but is currently at a Labour Party caucus retreat and questions were directed to the Ministry.*
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/118989349/government-warned-nz-needs-to-take-a-precautionary-approach-to-coronavirus
  
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  January 23, 2020 2:03pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Ministry advice here:
    https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/novel-coronavirus-china-2019-ncov
    
    3 9
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    January 23, 2020 3:37pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Consider also the population density we now have compared to previous major pandemics. The interaction between other biological organisms and humans is related to both proximity and density. Suburban development has added to the risk. I won’t attempt numbers but I see the potential for a great increase in pandemic deaths.
    
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    January 23, 2020 6:51pm
- Faroffsound
  
  Obviously SARS taught them nothing – they’re still eating dodgy meat and there are still no laws against it.
  
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  January 23, 2020 4:43pm
Maggie Pie

For those wondering whats happened to Golly’s overstaying mate – my twitter bestie tweets an update. The replies are all classics 😀

https://twitter.com/SandyBeachesAkl/status/1219846857305706496
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January 23, 2020 1:38pm
- chaos
  
  I’d doubt he has grounds to stay here since that he was one of the people to be resettled in the USA.
  
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  January 23, 2020 2:09pm
Stephieboy2

Trump’s sleaze ball team .Dershowitz known for his dubious connections to Jeffrey Epstein.

“Trump’s Tainted Legal Team Will Help Him Debase the Impeachment Process”

Picking Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr proves Trump wants impeachment to be a circus.

https://www.thenation.com/article/dershowitz-starr-impeachment-circus/

Enough said!
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January 23, 2020 2:27pm
- All_on_Red
  
  The irony of a creep like Stephie calling someone else a ‘sleezeball’!
  
  19 2
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  January 23, 2020 2:50pm
- burt
  
  Don’t worry about Epstein, if he wasn’t killed he would have become a Muslim and then his endeavours with girls as young as 9 would be called perfect behaviour and unable to be criticised.
  
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  January 23, 2020 3:27pm
- alloytoo
  
  The impeachment was always a circus.
  
  8 0
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  January 23, 2020 5:38pm
chaos

What a stupid idiot, in so many ways, then posting his crime online.

* Disturbing footage of a vandal walking over, and jumping on a 2018 Lamborghini Huracan Spyder in a residential area of Auckland has recently emerged online.

Posted on Instagram, the vandal in question can be heard talking to his friend before stepping onto the bonnet of the supercar, walking across the windscreen, and jumping on the canvas roof. *

https://www.driven.co.nz/news/news/watch-idiotic-vandal-damages-300k-lamborghini-in-auckland/
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January 23, 2020 2:30pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Absolutely disgusting!!
  At least the police have the audio which will enable them to narrow down
  any possible suspects to those who speak fluent Te Reo.
  
  11 2
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  January 23, 2020 3:28pm
  - sooty
    
    Hang on, was it parked correctly, or was the owner a self entitled git, parking were ever the wanted!
    Answer that one first!
    
    1 7
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    January 23, 2020 5:38pm
    - chaos
      
      Right, and how it is parked justifies someone damaging the car? And you could answer that question by watching the video
      
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      January 23, 2020 5:49pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Early start Sooty or a stronger brew than normal?
      
      1 1
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      January 23, 2020 6:40pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      I do understand where you’re coming from on that one Soots.
      We had some inconsiderate prick park his works Plumbers Van with the bumper poking right over the edge of our driveway the other day, which made it a bit difficult for my partner to pull out. So he sneakily put a couple of those big ‘Z Nails’ under his back tyres.
      In that case tho it was totally justified.
      
      2 1
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      January 23, 2020 7:04pm
      - sooty
        
        Youtube had a video of pissed of person got his big angle grinder out and sliced 500mm off rear corner of a dicks car so he could park.
        
        1 1
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        January 23, 2020 9:49pm
      - sooty
        
        Don’t often go to videos put up! So no I did not see it!
        
        1 1
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        January 23, 2020 9:50pm
Manolo

A monumental cretin:
https://babylonbee.com/news/aoc-stalin-was-center-right

Addressing a crowd earlier this week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez declared that Joseph Stalin was actually a conservative or at least a center-right kind of guy.

“Nobody was actually on the left in Soviet Russia — Stalin was center or center-conservative,” she said.
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January 23, 2020 2:59pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  The Babylon Bee should come with a banner:
  “Satire alert – content may not be suitable for morons”
  
  2 10
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  January 23, 2020 3:33pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Then don’t go there Mike
    
    9 1
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    January 23, 2020 5:36pm
- All_on_Red
  
  https://babylonbee.com/news/all-white-democratic-debate-mistaken-for-kkk-rally
  
  6 0
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  January 23, 2020 4:06pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Babylonbee and me follow each other on twitter.
  It’s amazing just how much inside-info comes into their hands that they are able to break to their followers!
  
  4 0
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  January 23, 2020 5:33pm
burt

You see what you get when you’re not a Labour Party member or employee !

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/118935098/entertainment-boss-sex-trial-mixed-verdicts-reached
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January 23, 2020 3:20pm
Captain Mainwaring

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12301398

Maybe the secret outbound cargo was DotCrim.
We can only hope.
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January 23, 2020 5:07pm
- chaos
  
  Plane wasn’t big enough carry him, rumour is they are hiring the whale for him
  
  https://icdn4.digitaltrends.com/image/airbus-belugaxt-1500×1002.jpg
  
  4 1
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  January 23, 2020 5:27pm
  - Tall Man
    
    To stand trial as a surrogate?
    
    3 1
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    January 23, 2020 6:39pm
Rodney Randall

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/118990297/canterbury-sex-offender-doctor-struck-off-register

“He admits he failed to adequately upskill himself as to New Zealand clinical practice.”

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

Clearly the former Dr. had the wrong lawyer.

Had the former Dr engaged the services of defence counsel Lee Lee Heah he could have explained the offending away as a “cultural mistake.”
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January 23, 2020 5:17pm
- Tall Man
  
  Now I was going to post a reply to this but self moderation to avoid upsetting a mod stopped me. Suffice it to say it involved hands on shoulder and free hands.
  
  3 1
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  January 23, 2020 6:35pm
  - chaos
    
    You have self moderation ? Who are you and what have you done with tall man?
    
    4 0
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    January 23, 2020 7:52pm
MrTips

Oh God save us from people like this. https://www.otago.ac.nz/news/news/otago731501.html

No…… just NO.

I am so sick of woke academic colleagues. Take your tofu and play potter puppet Pals somewhere else. Leave us real people to enjoy the feast nature provides us.
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January 23, 2020 5:54pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Its all lies…
  
  Does he think that Soymilk grows on soy bushes here in NZ?
  
  The water in soymilk might come from NZ, but the soy flour/ soy beans doesn’t.
  
  3 0
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  January 23, 2020 8:04pm
  - chaos
    
    I don’t think they understand farming Maggy.
    
    I’m surprised grain farming is so low. Have a lot of farms around here. What put me off wheat was watching the farmers that grow it. Starts with the farm spraying weed spray on the land he is planting it on. They then heavily fertilise the ground, plant it. In the time from germination to harvest see them spraying fo weeds several time. Then after cropping it they then cover the town in smoke and ash as they burn off their paddocks. Oh by the way, the wheat is then stored in their farms silos until the glorious day that the ship comes into port then there is a constant convoy of trucks for a Few days to fill up the boat that then transport the wheat overseas.
    
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    January 23, 2020 8:22pm
chaos

Ah shit, just what they don’t need

* Authorities are searching for the wreckage of a Large Air Tanker that crashed while fighting a bushfire in southern NSW.

Flight data shows a Large Air Tanker suddenly stopped about 2pm south of Canberra
An RAAF aircraft is circling an area near where that Large Air Tanker’s flight data ended
Emergency warnings have been issued for bushfires in the area
In a statement, the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) said “contact had been lost with a Large Air Tanker which was working in the Snowy Monaro area”.

“Local ground crews indicate the aircraft may have crashed,” the statement said.

“A number of helicopters are in the area carrying out a search.

“No further information is available at this time.”*

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-23/nsw-rfs-air-tanker-crashes-near-numeralla-bushfire/11893554?pfmredir=sm
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January 23, 2020 6:06pm
- Tall Man
  
  God that is dreadful.
  
  Let’s hope they’ve managed to evacuate before the inevitable.
  
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  January 23, 2020 6:29pm
- chaos
  
  Article updated
  
  * Three crew members died when a Large Air Tanker crashed while fighting a bushfire west of Cooma.*
  
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  January 23, 2020 6:54pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Even more tragic is the fact that it was a Canadian-registered aircraft and the deceased crew were North Americans.
    They were only trying to help.
    
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    January 23, 2020 9:17pm
chaos

Good interview, worth watching.

* The dirty little secret of Davos 2020 is they all need Trump to be reelected: Niall Ferguson*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKzKdpzCd74
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January 23, 2020 6:53pm
chaos

What a load of bullshit

* New Zealand will have no representatives at a global Holocaust memorial in Israel after ministry officials only told Foreign Minister Winston Peters of an invitation days ahead of the event, despite knowing about it for*

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12303011
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January 23, 2020 8:09pm
Swifty

‘”I’m going to make sure that if I go to jail I’m going to make it worth it,” Maney said, before later finding the meth in her own underwear.’

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12302736

FFS
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January 23, 2020 8:11pm
chaos

*Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is in damage control as five senior Māori women head to the Waitangi Tribunal over its handling of Whānau Ora.

Ardern has extended an olive branch to the group – but it may be too late.

Some of the claimants gathered on Thursday at Rātana Pā to set the agenda for election year.*

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/01/senior-m-ori-women-head-to-waitangi-tribunal-over-handling-of-wh-nau-ora.html
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January 23, 2020 8:44pm
- Prince
  
  Industrial-strength bobble-head, head tilts and serious face required.
  Shane Jones will have to extend his invitee list to the champagne and crayfish nibbles ‘night before Waitangi’ shindig this year for those on the take, and Ardern may have to increase the numbers of snarlers and add bacon to the 6th Feb Waitangi BBQ for the hoi polloi.
  Tough times for Labour’s Maori MP’s but I’m sure their three years salary will see them through.
  
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  January 23, 2020 10:39pm
- softail 1450
  
  chaos ,”JT challenging for a Maori seat”,doesnt this uber bludger Tamihere ever give up ? he’s been up to his $500.00 sneakers in the public trough since he was born .
  
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  January 24, 2020 7:34am
Captain Mainwaring

Interesting times ahead for the people’s princess.
Maybe not the Maori’s princess any more.
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January 23, 2020 10:24pm
Hugh Pavletich

NEW ZEALAND’S OUT OF CONTROL AND DESTRUCTIVE HOUSING MARKET …

Kiwi homes pass $1.2 trillion in value, Core Logic says … Rob Stock … Stuff New Zealand

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/119005258/kiwi-homes-pass-12-trillion-in-value-core-logic-says

The combined value of New Zealand’s houses and apartments has topped $1.2 trillion.

The average house value at the end of December was a record $710.129, said property research company Core Logic senior economist Kelvin Davidson.

He expected further house price rises in 2020. … read more via hyperlink above …
.
.
WHAT LESSONS ARE BEING LEARNED FROM GREATER CHRISTCHURCH ? …

New survey ranks NZ’s most and least affordable cities … Anne Gibson … NZ Herald

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12301144

Tired of the traffic hassles and back-to-work blues? Thought of moving to Christchurch to get a better life and lifestyle? That city turns out to be by far our most affordable when incomes are compared to house prices.

Down south, the house prices are low but the incomes are high and out of eight areas just surveyed throughout New Zealand, Christchurch house-buyers have by far the best deal financially. … read more via hyperlink above …
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January 23, 2020 11:51pm
- Hugh Pavletich
  
  Whakatane teacher feeling impact of housing unaffordability ‘threat to middle class’ … Susan Edmunds … Stuff New Zealand
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118924598/whakatane-teacher-feeling-impact-of-housing-unaffordability-threat-to-middle-class
  
  All sectors of New Zealand housing market ‘severely’ unaffordable: survey … Eleanor Ainge Roy … The Guardian
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/20/all-sectors-of-new-zealand-housing-market-severely-unaffordable-survey
  
  The housing crisis, which Labour government pledged to address, has spread to the provinces … read more via hyperlink above …
  
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  January 23, 2020 11:53pm
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    Trademe rental searches up 17pc as prices in Wellington soar … Ruth Hill … Radio New Zealand
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/408029/trademe-rental-searches-up-17pc-as-prices-in-wellington-soar
    
    Many people have been spending their summer house-hunting, with rental enquiries on TradeMe up 17 percent in December compared with the same time last year.
    
    According to TradeMe’s latest rental price index, the Wellington region is the most expensive place to rent, at a record breaking $580 a week.
    
    In the city, median weekly rents hit $600 for the first time. … read more via hyperlink above …
    
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    January 24, 2020 1:19am
igm

How much longer do taxpayers wait for this sort of bullshit policing to stop?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/118978450/father-in-hospital-after-latenight-group-assault-on-his-birthday
When one reads this type of article it does nothing but make one resolute to see the end of this vile and corrupt CoL.
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January 24, 2020 4:09am

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