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December 13, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 13 December 2020

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General Debate

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krazykiwi

When will Ardern clearly articulate policy for unlocking NZers from our island prison?
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December 13, 2020 8:02am
- fernglas
  
  The only policy is to wait and see. Reactive rather than proactive.
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:07am
  - Harriet
    
    Reactive and conniving.
    
    She has over 50% of the vote so she also has to keep in mind that she has a very broad base to satisfy. Here comes identity politics.
    
    Low wage workers and women at home get online training hubs, school leavers and the unemployed get council learning hubs, manual workers and vagrants get H&S physiotherapy hubs.
    You get the idea – business as usual in socialist NZ.
    
    btw. Your TV’s, radios and news papers have all been turned into ‘stakeholder’ hubs.
    
    Long live Pravda/Pokitui comrade! 😎
    
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    December 13, 2020 12:17pm
- Ruahine
  
  I read where ‘we’ can travel to the Cook Islands without having to quarantine on return to NZ.
  Does this mean that there will be an Ardern Christmas get together in the Tokoklaus?
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:08am
  - GazzaW
    
    Opening up the Cooks is pure political window dressing. With a total of just 3,000 beds available the destination will be booked out for the entire year within a few days. You can bet your bottom dollar too that those resort rooms won’t come cheap either.
    
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    December 13, 2020 9:28am
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      You can only get entry to the Cook Islands if you are a citizen or resident. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the resorts are going to reap a windfall.
      
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      December 13, 2020 11:19am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I commented on this yesterday. I think she will not open up until a vaccine has effectively ended the pandemic, even if that takes another 3 years.
  
  Quarantine free travel from Australia is possible earlier than that, but that will depend on how and when Australia reopens its own borders to other countries.
  
  Jacinda was reelected on the back of saving everyone from the virus. That is her brand. She will protect that brand at any cost.
  
  To answer your question. She will not articulate anything.
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:18am
  - Frank the tank
    
    She will only open the borders if there is pressure politically or economically from the bulk of NZers. So in other words until the delusion of Little Aotearoa is over.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:19am
  - kevn
    
    @Benedict… Her minders/puppet master/mistresses will decide.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:56am
  - redeye
    
    She also repeated ad nauseam during the election campaign that they had a plan.
    True to form that plan was never articulated.
    And true to form media never asked her to.
    
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    December 13, 2020 11:28am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      even the arse licking compliant media know there is no plan . . .
      
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      December 13, 2020 11:44am
    - JackRabbit
      
      As with all tyrants, her real plan is to do whatever it takes to keep her top of the polls and in power, so the socialist agenda can be rolled out.
      
      This is typical socialist / marxist thinking. Typical conscious or unconscious socialist indoctrination is:
      [1] Socialism works, but has never been given a chance. The high profile socialist failures around the world occurred because it “wasn’t true socialism”.
      
      Socialism fails because:
      [a] “From each according to their ability, to each according to their need” is fundamentally theft.
      [b] Socialism relies on fascist controls to implement it.
      
      [2] Dumb capitalists who are “materially focused” have to have socialism implanted on them. Given free choice they will continue to “rape and pillage” the environment. According to socialists, “capitalists” have too much power and greed.
      
      [a] The “capitalists” who rape and pillage the environment are actually “corporate socialists” who enjoy privileges and protection from the state. Real capitalists respect and enjoy the free market.
      Right now, vaccine companies are enjoying a protected market, since word leaders are saying “Only a Vaccine will stop Covid-19”, and any attempt to say otherwise is struck down as hate speech.
      
      [3] Socialists always encounter resistance from the public, when they try and introduce socialism. The socialists have to resort to force to introduce socialism, and in doing so become totalitarians, and become drunk on power and greed,and in doing so become the very thing they despise.
      
      Jacinda is drunk on power and greed and has devolved to a tyrant.
      
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      December 13, 2020 12:39pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      It is not just New Zealand politicians that pedle snake oil. Remember this article from a few weeks back?
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/300152939/direct-flights-between-tasmania-and-new-zealand-set-to-resume-from-2021
      
      The Australian Government has spent $50 million providing immigration and customs facilities at Hobart Airport for Hobart – Auckland flights. They think that because they say they “want” such flights the airlines will then fly the routes. Of course the airlines have been totally silent on the idea. There never will be such flights. The immigration and customs facilities will sit at Hobart Airport like the proverbial white elephants. $50 million wasted.
      
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      December 13, 2020 12:42pm
    - chukar
      
      To the above,
      The “success “of the Berlin Wall has clouded her judgement.
      
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      December 13, 2020 8:12pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Still talks a lot though.
    
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    December 13, 2020 6:51pm
- peterwn
  
  Most prisoners seem to be happy judging by the results of the last election. Indeed potential prisoners are being turned away. One would doubt that NZ could be compared with Alcatraz or Devil’s Island.
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:18am
  - fernglas
    
    There’s still more leaving than arriving, so maybe not everybody thinks this place is paradise.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:19am
- Doctor Sigmund Freud
  
  When idiotic voters stop worshipping her. Until then the country is screwed.
  
  Or until her daughter wishes to go overseas to study and needs to come back for a holiday with mum.
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:19am
- UkiWop
  
  When the polls in her favour start to slide south
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:20am
  - Paulus
    
    I don’t think we will have to wait too long.
    The gloss is wearing off rapidly and the longer she keeps Mallard the quicker it will come off – despite new money for the media.
    She should look for interviews overseas now via some on line system or interview in the Cook Islands in January.
    
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    December 13, 2020 11:22am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  She’s on holiday.
  
  Perhaps we should all go on holiday…..to Eketahuna or Winton….or Palmerston North!
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:34am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I wonder what she does on holiday?
    
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    December 13, 2020 8:40am
    - Chris R
      
      Nothing…same as the rest of the year.
      
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      December 13, 2020 10:14am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Hey! There’s nothing wrong with Eketahuna…
    
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    December 13, 2020 8:48am
    - Paulus
      
      Usually she goes to Gizzie where his parents live.
      
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      December 13, 2020 11:22am
    - Harriet
      
      “….Hey! There’s nothing wrong with Eketahuna…”
      
      Nasska lives there or so he said.
      
      He has low ears, walks with a limp and holds a torch with his 6 fingers. 😎
      
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      December 13, 2020 12:58pm
    - PhilP
      
      Suze, they have the best country Pub in the Wairarapa.
      
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      December 13, 2020 2:56pm
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Or to Taranak where the greatest sheeple live!!!
    
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    December 13, 2020 9:07am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      That’s what happens when you get hydrogenated…
      
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      December 13, 2020 10:17am
- rouppe
  
  When will the law allowing warrantless entry into our homes be repealed?
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:34am
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    Those days are gone, the great reset will make sure we live in a permanent state of emergency.
    The leaders have found the golden panacea and they will milk it for as long as the sheeples conform and stay compliant.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:33am
    - giltee
      
      SOCIALISM. After all the was president of the international socialist youth party. A leopard doesn’t change its spots. She’s looking vi g her dream
      
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      December 13, 2020 10:43am
- WaveyDavey
  
  3 months of “it’s coming…” “it’s nearly here…” “next quarter…” “next month…” “next week…” “tomorrow…”
  
  “Ta-da!”
  
  They are going to milk it for all it’s worth. At least 6 opportunities to deflect from a bad news story.
  
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  December 13, 2020 8:59am
  - Nickc2
    
    Smoke signals from the beehive indicate nothing till at least March. That excludes the Cook Islands for which I believe an announcement has been made.
    
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    December 13, 2020 9:32am
    - WaveyDavey
      
      The Cook Islands is at the “next quarter” stage
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-cook-islands-new-zealand-travel-bubble-without-quarantine-from-early-next-year/5N3ZUPLQHGFLNJEMEV5SL2QTAA/
      
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      December 13, 2020 10:27am
    - redeye
      
      Barely Sober was having a chat with his missus on radio the other day. He said he had received an anonymous email from someone he believed was in an executive position within the government.
      The email claimed that they were lying and had no plans for any sort of bubble with Aussie until at least July 2021, and that all other international travel would be restricted until a least 2022.
      Ardern lying? Who would have thought?
      
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      December 13, 2020 11:37am
- pdm
  
  KK – not going t happen anytime soon because if she does that she loses control.
  
  She loves being in control.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:03am
- SB2
  
  [Deleted – If you can’t make coherent comments, then please come back later. Mod]
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:05am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    My uptick was for the Mod.
    
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    December 13, 2020 9:39am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Mine too
      
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      December 13, 2020 10:18am
      - sooty
        
        Yahoo, the boy has gone back to Kalgoorlie!
        
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        December 13, 2020 4:52pm
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    Does this mean we will see a SB3 to carry on the good fight, or will SB2 go to the naughty corner and reflect on what came out of the keyboard.
    I suspect there are plethora of SB2’s now attempting to keep this blog held to account for commentary from the left.
    I am happy with this, sometimes it is like shooting fish in a bowl.
    What I do object to, is any government removing individuals rights, especially if they oppose the said governments ideals and expectations.
    Well done done mods, fair and just punishment.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:43am
    - Swifty
      
      “….or will SB2 go to the naughty corner and reflect on what came out of the keyboard….”
      
      He will never change. He is incapable of change.
      
      He has had dozens and dozens of chances to do so, prompted either by outright bans or by the blandishments and urgings of his fellow posters.
      
      His scumbaggery and arseholism is hardwired.
      
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      December 13, 2020 11:08am
      - RJ
        
        Yeah and the mods will never do anything about him
        
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        December 13, 2020 3:25pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  She will not as Sheeple are so happy and content under Labour rule.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:06am
- Chris R
  
  Does she want to? Isn’t she enjoying being the boss like her spiritual brother in NoKo.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:15am
- Scooter
  
  Cindy’s just saying this now to draw attention away from the Mallard disaster. Then there may be some new cases in NZ before end of March so conveniently the border won’t be opened. As for Australia is she purposely keeping the border shut to send a message re the deportees?
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:25am
  - artemisia
    
    Strange deportees message then as 501s are still arriving here. What could the Prime Minister’s message be?
    
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    December 13, 2020 9:53am
    - Scooter
      
      Tit for tat, she doesn’t want the deportees here so in turn is making it pretty difficult for Australians to visit unless they quarantine for 2 weeks.
      
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      December 13, 2020 11:29am
      - Scooter
        
        Wanted to add, also hard for NZers to travel to Australia unless they are prepared to spend 2 weeks in quarantine here and pay 3k. BTW how is that new travel “tax”collection going Cindy?
        
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        December 13, 2020 11:41am
- DeepBlue
  
  Ardern has to wait until April before boarders open with the islands… She is poised to crush the RSE scheme and have horticulture pay NZ workers $30+ p.hr. Then NZ workers will be able to afford escalating rent and food. /
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:38am
- tf78
  
  krazy – she wants people to spend money here to keep our economy going and therefore won’t let anyone out anytime soon. Cunning plan don’t you think if your an a hole.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:50am
- Master Mariner
  
  Overseas and cant put in an application for MIQ on return as date unknown.
  Filed a FYI request ( As Artemsia recommended,Thanks) to MBIE to allow seafarers a spot at short notice. However still a couple months for me.
  Sort of the reverse, Locking NZ’ers out who keep supply lines open KK.
  On another note, All Ports should be treated as strategic Assets ( which they are) and out of council hands and Private hands for that matter.
  Container vessels starting to find unfeasible to come to NZ , Especially more so with delays.
  
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  December 13, 2020 12:25pm
- Greg Ettridge
  
  She has, controlling your thoughts, words, and actions, and it won’t change, not enough strong people to push back.
  
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  December 13, 2020 4:58pm
- Martin Williams
  
  Gaza is a prison. New Zealand is a utopian refuge.
  
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  December 13, 2020 5:01pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    And Martin Williams is in dreamland.
    
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    December 13, 2020 8:56pm
I remember when

New Zealand quarantine-free travel bubble.
Is the real problem that Jacinda is in “No” doubt.
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December 13, 2020 8:05am
Ruawai

@ Krazykiwi, you could have stopped at the word ‘articulate’. ie “When will Ardern clearly articulate?”
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December 13, 2020 8:07am
- Paulus
  
  Ruawai
  Ardern cannot “clearly” articulate it’s all tooth, wave and hug.
  
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  December 13, 2020 1:49pm
I remember when

The problem with the quarantine-free Pacific Island workers highlights the Labour/Left problem.
Anyone has to be treated the same – even when they clearly are not!
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December 13, 2020 8:07am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Exactly. Some guy arrives from Tonga to do the hard work that New Zealanders won’t do. So we stick him in a hotel with hundreds of people from the UK, Spain, India,the USA and Pakistan.
  
  That makes sense. Yet again I am unaware of any journalists asking about the stupidity of such a policy.
  
  New Zealand is starting to resemble what went on in Eastern Europe pre 1989. Epic stupidity and a compliant press. Plus a majority of the population that seems mesmerised. I’ve never experienced anything like it.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:19am
  - artemisia
    
    Mesmerised, yes. Even a few years ago that would have been completely alien to the vast majority of our population. Maybe we need a remake of Hillary Clinton’s book What Happened? (? added, though implied in her book title.)
    
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    December 13, 2020 9:56am
  - RJ
    
    Who says New Zealanders won’t do it? All the orchards around where I live and further south have said they have had so much interests from kiwis that they have far more than they need
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:08am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      That’s great. But the reports across the country seem very different.
      
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      December 13, 2020 10:48am
  - Frank the tank
    
    I’ve named it the cult of little Aotearoa. Only when it starts hitting them in the back pocket will they care. At the moment the narrative being peddled “everything is awesome” and “Aotearoa is amazeballs and the best in the word at absudely everthink” . It’s been propped up by a cynical monetary policy that downstream will have a huge negative impact. This has been reinforced by the MSM who are contrasting us with the US or Europe rather than Taiwan or Singapore.
    
    It will bite it will just take time.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:31am
    - ISeeRed
      
      No, they won’t. When they start hurting in the pocket, they’ll just blame rich pricks, greedy landlords, selfish boomers etc. and keep voting for the same criminally incompetent arrogant fools.
      
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      December 13, 2020 11:05am
  - Surely Knott
    
    The cult and mesmerisation is based on a small country receiving international press for being the best in the world and we love it! I wonder what impact the attention Hollywood gave to Venezula had in making them blind to the path they were going down. Those same Hollywood stars of course don’t feel any of the financial impact for the role they had in supporting Venezuelas socialism.
    
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    December 13, 2020 12:14pm
softail 1450

KrazyKiwi ,When will Ardern clearly articulate policy for getting rid of the mutt Mallard?
Seymour will badger Cindy and Quack Quack for the next 3 years if scaredy cat Ardern doesn’t ditch the horrible grubby bastard soon.
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December 13, 2020 8:18am
- pdm
  
  `horrible grubby bastard’
  
  As good a description of Mallard as I have heard.
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:00am
- JibberJabber
  
  Heh, with Mallard gone and with no one to protect her in the chamber even the most ardent of Ardern groupies may begin to see the Empress is indeed butt nekkid.
  
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  December 13, 2020 11:24am
  - Paulus
    
    Without Mallard in Parliament she will not turn up !
    
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    December 13, 2020 1:51pm
- calendar girl
  
  Ardern will not attempt to get rid of Speaker Mallard. As Speaker he will have filed away, carefully, dirt on every Member of the Parliament, especially its more highly-ranked Members on each side of the House. It’s called self-protection.
  
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  December 13, 2020 2:22pm
Doctor Sigmund Freud

Good morning Kiwibloggers.

Good evening Donald John Trump, President-elect.
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December 13, 2020 8:18am
- Don Beckett
  
  ….for 2024. 🙂
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:19am
- BeeJay
  
  The latest Tui ad!
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:20am
- ISeeRed
  
  This is what’s so funny. This isn’t the end of Trump or “Trumpism”. Those crowing about his departure and a return to “normal” have no idea what President-select Kamala Harris has in store.
  
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  December 13, 2020 11:09am
  - BeeJay
    
    I definitely have an idea, as will Biden & Harris, of what we have in store after Trump’s departure! The end of the narcissistic moron tweeting shit and waffling on and on, on any TV Network who will have him!
    Or maybe not? But Late Night Shows will still need to have material for the ongoing comedy section, and Trump won’t be able to help himself, great TV Personality that he is (in his own mind)!
    
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    December 13, 2020 11:46am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Don’t worry BJ. Biden has been called a clown for decades. Once he makes a few gaffes the media will have a yuge amount of material to keep themselves & others like you amused.
      
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      December 13, 2020 1:47pm
      - softail 1450
        
        Don, he’s missing now most of the time my guess is he’s having withdrawal symptoms from whatever they had him on for the last 12 months.
        
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        December 13, 2020 3:17pm
Tauhei Notts

Some have commented here about the Mallard affair being a “beltway” issue.
I looked at this morning’s Herald on Sunday and thought;
“no, this is going to have wide ramifications.”
When a couple of female journalists and the paper’s cartoonist get in on the story it will become serious for Mallard.
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December 13, 2020 8:21am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  A media cartoonist making fun of a Labour figure would indeed be major…
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:21am
  - JibberJabber
    
    https://twitter.com/tauhenare/status/1337829470548283393
    
    Ask and Ye shall receive …
    
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    December 13, 2020 11:15am
- Mobile Michael
  
  Nothing p***es the public off more than politicians who spend money on themselves. I remember how Bolger was reluctant to have the carpet and furniture replaced in his Beehive office despite it being all original and wouldn’t look out of place in a Dubedin student flat. Key took flak for the Parliamentary service replacing the CR fleet even though the previous Government had approved the arrangement and it was baked into the contract.
  
  Within the beltway the wider implication of the new rules is also troubling – with the Crown indemnifying all MPs who make libelous remarks it makes them juicy targets for any sleight, and also releases them from the financial consequences of reckless claims.
  
  Both implications are fundamentally corrosive to democracy.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:38am
- RJ
  
  It’s a a nothing issues. Here is why
  
  Mallard won’t resign
  Labour won’t vote against him
  
  Nothing anyone can do about him. Mallard is prick, always has been, and he is untouchable .
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:09am
  - Paulus
    
    Yup, hope he will stay and remain a thorn in Jacinda’s side.
    
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    December 13, 2020 1:52pm
Benedict Yu

I caught up with an acquaintance yesterday. A public servant. She told me that she liked the borders being closed because things were quieter and she was able to get bargains on hotels in Queenstown.

I finished my coffee and said I had somewhere to be.
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December 13, 2020 8:21am
- MCos
  
  I come from Timaru and when we were kids we often went up through the McKenzie Country to Lake Alexandrina because Dad liked the fishing and the RSA had a hut we could rent.
  Just down the road was Tekapo with a camping ground, a dairy, the stone church, the Mt John Observatory & hardly any people.
  We stopped in at Tekapo maybe a year ago. Tourists everywhere. Souvenir shops, big restaurants, hordes at the church and the observatory.
  No doubt a lot of people who invested in the town are feeling the pinch, but sometimes I think the Kiwis lifestyle has been elbowed out of the way in pursuit of the tourist dollar.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:49am
  - WaveyDavey
    
    The “tourist dollar” was a large part of what pays for the society and “kiwi lifestyle” that you enjoy so much and clearly take for granted
    
    You seem to have a really insular and parochial attitude
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:30am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Yeah well if New Zealand wants fewer tourists it needs to find more ways to generate foreign exchange. Otherwise your kiwi lifestyle which involves buying cars and boats and laptops will be threatened.
    
    That was the whole point of my comment. This wealthy senior public servant is simply divorced from economic reality.
    
    I was at the glaciers last week. I had breakfast in a cafe that seats 200. There were 3 of us in there. We should all be very worried about that. Not just the poor owner of the cafe.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:56am
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      Exporters bring in much needed foreign exchange but get very little, if any, help.
      
      The high Kiwi, the extra week of paid sick leave and another potential paid holliday are more of a problem for exporters than other local businesses. Local businesses compete against other local businesses and can (and will) raise prices. Exporters compete globally against other businesses that have lower wage costs and have much less leeway to increase prices.
      
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      December 13, 2020 2:02pm
    - WaveyDavey
      
      MCos not great on economics
      
      or common sense
      
      https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2012/S00210/tourist-hotspots-struggling-in-september-quarter.htm
      
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      December 13, 2020 4:16pm
  - softail 1450
    
    MCos ,you may not have noticed that around 30 years ago the Kiwi lifestyle and its 4 million people started on a downward spiral of mass immigration ,mass tourism and out of this world house prices .
    Thanks Helen, thanks JK, and thanks Cindy and Robbo, everyone of these arsehole governments were going to do something about these problems yet not one of them has..
    Even in a worldwide deadly pandemic NZs house prices are going UP,UP,UP. go figure.
    
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    December 13, 2020 3:30pm
- gravedodger
  
  In the rusticated world I grew up in Benedict, it was “I have to shift some sheep” see you later.
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:19am
- lifesgood
  
  I don’t know what hotels she’s been staying in. I haven’t seen any bargains advertised in Queenstown.
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:29am
amospicton

KK, this is the first occurrence ever of the words “Ardern”, “clearly”,”articulated” and “policy” in the same sentence.
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December 13, 2020 8:23am
Yvette

Sooper reports – Mallard had the rules changed after he made his outrageous comment to protect him from having to pay the bill for something he should have known would go against him.

The tragedy in all of this is that the man he accused of a terrible crime, who spoke exclusively to me after the Mallard allegation last year, has suffered serious health issues since he was sent packing and it looks as though he will get nothing from the settlement.

The $158,000 made to him is for the payment of his legal bills and $171,000 has been paid to Mallard’s lawyers at Dentons Kensington Swan. A further $4641 went to Crown Law for advice to Parliament’s then Deputy Speaker Anne Tolley, who Mallard delegated to have the rules changed to protect him. [1]

$158,000 + $171,000 + $4641 = $333,641
It’s been confirmed that the almost $334,000 in legal costs have been paid out by the taxpayer.
So how much compensation was paid to the victim himself, that whatever the cost of his serious health issues, may mean he will get nothing from the settlement.
In fact he does get nothing – does he not? – all those amounts just mentioned are legal costs.

Another source [2] says The figure, revealed to the National Party in a written parliamentary question, includes a $158,000 settlement payment from the Speaker to the staffer, $171,000 to cover legal fees, and $4641.70 for Crown Law advice to the former deputy speaker.
In reality the $158,000 settlement payment seems to only be a court costs payment.

And as it seems unexplained anywhere – What was the rule change that involved Anne Tolley?
One source says it was a decision made outside of Cabinet, another says Ardern signed it off, and if it legally allows Mallard to have side-stepped his obligations as it has, it all needs an exact description of what it was, what changed, and exactly who initiated or authorised that.

As Anne Tolley was National at the time, what pursuit of this aspect will there be by Judith Collins?

Sooper needs to properly finish the job he has started.

Related headlines –
• Trevor Mallard defamation case: Settling Speaker’s false rape claim against staffer costs taxpayers $333,000 – National
Was there no separate payment for “damages”, just legal fees?

• Trevor Mallard defamation case: Settling Speaker’s false rape claim against staffer costs taxpayers $333,000 – National
MPs are upset that his statement of apology came out at the same time as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the March 15 terror attack.
Does this perhaps clearly distinguish between what Mallard thinks of the importance of the Christchurch mosques massacres, and burying his own indiscretion on such a news day, as is suggested by some MPs? [3]

And if Mallard, anywhere in the rule-making procedure, had a conflict of interests, will the same not apply to any vote in February on a question of loss of confidence in the Speaker, where Labour, as he is one of their’s, will likely vote in his favour and have the numbers to carry it, as a wrong decision in Labour’s interest, and not a reflection of the truth that Mallard is unsuited to the position.
Should such a vote, on morals and particularly the morals of Parliament, not be a conscience vote – for whatever those are worth these days?

There you are, Barry Sooper – you are only about halfway through your work.

[1] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/barry-soper-why-house-speaker-trevor-mallard-should-resign/WNOF3LFTCMJW3IGHTA4PBEGCLM/
[2] https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/123678280/parliaments-speaker-trevor-mallard-costs-taxpayer-333000-after-rape-allegation
[3] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mps-challenge-house-speaker-trevor-mallard-over-timing-of-his-false-rape-accusation-apology/BZS732WPKVBIW2TOPAQR64EHOA/?ref=readmore
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December 13, 2020 8:26am
- DeepBlue
  
  Anne Tolley as Deputy Speaker was instructed by Speaker Mallard (her boss in those matters) to draft the change. As if that makes for a large separation of duties.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:45am
  - Yvette
    
    As it appears Anne Tolley, as Deputy Speaker, was instructed by Speaker Mallard (her boss in those matters) to draft the change, it depends what date of effect for any change was set, as to whether it becomes a crime of deceit, considering Mallard’s conflict of interest.
    ______
    
    Conflicts of interest in the House
    2.75 – The Standing Orders require a member of Parliament who has a financial interest in an item of business in the House to declare that interest before consideration of the item.
    … The Speaker can decide any dispute about whether a conflict exists. The rules are set out in the section entitled “Declaration of financial interests” in the chapter on general procedures in the Standing Orders.
    
    If the Speaker makes a decision ignoring his own conflict of financial interest, how can he decide any dispute about whether a conflict exists for another member?
    
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    December 13, 2020 3:26pm
- JackRabbit
  
  It was possible with legal latitude, to generate a defamation case against Mallard for comments supposedly made under parliamentary privilege because the comments were an abuse of any supposed parliamentary privilege. So we now know that certain protections enjoyed in Parliament are not always sacred.
  
  In this light, given that Mallard changed the law to extend liability protection to include non ministers, i.e. himself; and the victim did not get compensation, could this be deemed to be an attempt to pervert the course of justice, under the Crimes Act? Theoretically would what Mallard has done be deemed “conspiring to defeat justice?”. Thus it would be a criminal matter, not a civil one.
  
  If this is the case, can one reasonably expect that it is no longer a case of moral duty on the part of Jacinda, to censure or remove Mallard. It would be a legal requirement to:
  
  [1] Immediately censure and remove Mallard from the house.
  [2] Initiate prosecution proceedings against him.
  
  However since she already signed off the change of law to support Mallard this will never happen. In a transparent world, she herself would also be guilty of conspiring to defeat justice. Mind you, the list of non transparent, non legal things is getting longer by the day.
  
  We get more like Venezuela every day.
  
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  December 13, 2020 11:53am
- JJ56
  
  Don’t know if anyone has bothered to look but the amended direction is https://www.parliament.nz/media/7160/speakers-directions-2020.PDF and the interesting point is section 39(1):
  A member’s legal costs from defending civil proceedings in a court or tribunal may be met from party and member support funding if the relevant party leader, the Speaker, and the Chief Executive have approved the payment of those costs from party and member support funding.
  (2)In considering whether to approve the payment of legal costs, the relevant party leader, the Speaker, and the Chief Executive must consider—(a)the extent to which the member’s involvement in the proceedings is due to the member acting in their capacity as a member of Parliament; and (b)the extent to which the liability for the legal costs arises from the member’s personal wrongdoing or impropriety.
  
  So I guess the PM has signed off the payment.
  
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  December 13, 2020 2:13pm
Paulus

When she has assured us that she is in total control and she can fly to meetings. to bask in her glory, around the world.
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December 13, 2020 8:31am
BeeJay

Mod – sorry, hit Report by mistake!
KK – she just loves things the way they are! Why release her captive audience, she wants to keep the team of 5 million under her control!
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December 13, 2020 8:39am
JibberJabber

So the country is in the grip of a Covid Pandemic (allegedly), staring down the barrel of a potentially unprecedented Economic Depression and the worlds laziest Government led by the thickest and laziest Prime Minister and most incompetent Finance Minister and they’ve all fucked off to their Mansions of Glory for 2 months holiday. ?
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December 13, 2020 8:47am
fightingtemeraire

She is busy. The Housing Emergency has been put on hold until the New Year.
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December 13, 2020 8:48am
rouppe

I wonder if there will be protests about the spectre of slavery after video of a black man being whipped – in more ways than one!
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December 13, 2020 8:48am
Tarquin North

Can’t beat Christmas in Dargaville!
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December 13, 2020 8:49am
Happychappy

I find it bazaar and amazing that two of our Media Sources are not contributing to the public the corrupt carry on of the speaker of NZ Parliament over the more than $300,000 that it has cost the NZ Taxpayer in a libelous statement he about a person working in Parliament. Newsroom and the Spinoff have not even questioned the way the speaker had the law changed to seemingly allow himself to escape payment and leave the taxpayer foot the bill while the defendant was left with no gain after settling his expenses. Most people I am sure would be more concerned after seeing and hearing that Jacinda Ardern has stated that she has confidence in Trevor Mallard the Speaker even though there is strong evidence that a motion of no Confidence is likely to be called when Parliament resumes. All News Media should be call be making it there mission to make this story headlines and make sure the public is well aware of the facts as this borders on corruption that is not needed in NZ.
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December 13, 2020 9:03am
- Nickc2
  
  Our MSM have fallen in line with their US counterparts when it comes to manipulating public opinion to achieve an outcome of their choosing. In this instance, it’s all about protecting the political party that pays them and to which they can find employment post print media journalism.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:57am
  - Doctor Sigmund Freud
    
    Most of the NZ media are owned by Australian banks whose principal goal is maintaining high rents and high property prices.
    
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    December 13, 2020 10:47am
    - Nickc2
      
      I was referring to the $50m+ our stupid Govt. paid them to stay in business and keep publishing pro Govt. propaganda during the Covid-19 lockdowns.
      
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      December 13, 2020 12:03pm
- Ruahine
  
  It is something to do with the $50 million that news outlets got from the Government. Spinoff gets ‘gov’t money as do many other ‘news’ organisations. Also they have been promised another $ 25 million. A lot of money comes from the NZ on Air largesse.
  
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  December 13, 2020 12:07pm
Prince

As expected, Alison Mau defends Mallard and attacks Seymour (though subtly enough to pretend otherwise).
Typical.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300182038/alison-mau-parliament-must-not-take-eyes-off-the-prize-whatever-happens-to-trevor
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December 13, 2020 9:05am
- harvey wilson
  
  Mallard knows what it feels like to be mauled by a dead sheep after that article .
  
  I know stuff has effectively zero credibility but having a metoo reporter that ignores Labours entrenched rape culture and long history appalling predatory behaviour from senior staff to teenagers is surely a disgrace even by their pathetic standards .
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:33am
- Doctor Sigmund Freud
  
  It’s hilarious observing a lesbian covering for a male making false rape accusations.
  
  Time to buy popcorn. Or a carpet.
  
  29 2
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  December 13, 2020 10:50am
  - Nickc2
    
    I seriously doubt Cindy has any room left under her office carpet for the Mallard debacle.
    
    17 1
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    December 13, 2020 12:08pm
- Nickc2
  
  What do you call Alison Mau when you are not allowed to call her a deceitful bitch?
  
  18 1
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  December 13, 2020 12:05pm
- Observer of Life
  
  Prince: I saw that. Thought how typical. Deflect the blame away from the a-hole who deserves it. Mau should retire.
  
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  December 13, 2020 12:08pm
Sir Cullen's Sidekick

Bros of the banana republic of NZ – get something straight into your heads before the brain is clouded by Cannabis smoke – Nobody can dislodge Cindy until 2029 or 2030 (if 4-year term comes into play at the 2026 election). Thank you.
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December 13, 2020 9:08am
- Gravelroad
  
  I still think Ms Ardern will be leaving our shores well before the next election to begin amazing the world at the UN – with her mentor Helen Clark by her side.
  Or maybe there will be some consultative position coming up in the White House with the Bidens and Ms Harris.
  She’s far too good for us here, surely? Time for us to proudly share our saviour with the rest of humanity -albeit with a tear in our eye.
  
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  December 13, 2020 11:29am
  - artemisia
    
    I do think Ms Ardern will step down during this term as that is likely to be Mr Robertson’s one and only chance at the top job. Frankly cannot see him scooping up anything like the same level of votes in 2023, though the Green Party might help him through.
    
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    December 13, 2020 12:14pm
  - Paulus
    
    Helen staying to be next GG then President so will not go back to NY where she was disliked hence her not being in the running for SG.
    
    6 1
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    December 13, 2020 2:00pm
hullkiwi

From the file of “did none of the idiots proposing moving Ports of Auckland to Northport, not realise that Northport is really Whangarei regional port pretending to be something else…..”

Yesterday, Mrs HK read the following notices on the web…

“From the Road Transport Carriers Association:

URGENT – Northport Advisory

Please be advised that we have been notified by Northport that they are ceasing container operations immediately.
If you have trucks near the front of the queue they may be serviced but a majority will be turned away. Additionally, if you have trucks enroute they will need to turn around.
Northport have informed us that the reason for this is that they have burnt out what limited resource they have and have come up short on the task. Therefore, they will be ceasing operations until Monday.
NRC will remain in constant contact with Northport to try and resolve this issue.”

and…..

https://northport.co.nz/node/16995

and other ships were talking of unloading there….

Need we say more.

Then on top of it, you get Goofy, huffing and puffing in the tame MSM claiming he will appoint Board members to Ports of Auckland “to fix the problems”.

It would help if Auckland had a mayor with political advisors who actually knew what that they were doing. Rather than making lame political appointments to the Boards of Auckland City companies and CCOs.

That includes the new appointment to the Auckland Transport Board, Abbie Reynolds….”saving the world, one whale at a time.”

This cr*p really leaves you speachless!
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December 13, 2020 9:09am
- Nickc2
  
  Agree, we elect fools and then complain when they do nothing and then, low-and-behold, we elect the same bastards again.
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:05am
  - tf78
    
    But do we really?!
    
    1 0
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    December 13, 2020 3:55pm
Sir Cullen's Sidekick

I am so annoyed that I can’t watch NZ cricket on TV due to Spark getting the NZ cricket deal. No way on earth, I am going to pay extra $25 for getting Spark sport along with Sky.
26 4
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December 13, 2020 9:11am
- Albert_Ross
  
  So, if not you yourself – who, do you think, should bear the cost of enabling you to watch NZ cricket?
  
  9 13
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  December 13, 2020 9:42am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Albie bro – I am on benefit for the last 25 years. So I expect you to pay for my expenses. Have you not heard about social justice?
    
    14 0
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    December 13, 2020 10:33am
- Happychappy
  
  Typical Jacinda Ardern lover and Labour supporter that wants everything for free after giving her their vote.
  You and Trevor Mallard expect to pay nothing for your enjoyment.
  
  23 1
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  December 13, 2020 10:02am
- MCos
  
  We thought, bugger this, and went the the Auckland 20/20.
  By the time I’d bought the tickets, had a meal down Dominion Rd, bought beer at the game, I’d spent more than an entire cricket season of Spark Sport.
  Then the game was free on TV1 anyway.
  
  As it happens I love cricket so I’m forking out $25/mth.
  I work on the principle that if you want something you pay for it.
  
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  December 13, 2020 10:07am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Sorry to burst your bubble of principle bro. Here is my (hence Labour party) principle – “if you want something, let somebody else pay for it”. Get the drift?? Work on this principle and soon you will be a Jacinda slave like me.
    
    18 1
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    December 13, 2020 10:35am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  I am so annoyed that cricketers have become puppets for Antifa. Avid cricket fan but I am very close to turning it off for good, cost or no cost.
  
  24 8
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  December 13, 2020 10:49am
  - Nickc2
    
    ME TOO!
    
    17 5
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    December 13, 2020 10:53am
    - chukar
      
      GE
      Flannelled Fools __ as previously identified
      
      1 1
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      December 13, 2020 8:24pm
JibberJabber

Cactus K speaks for all of us who have ever had the misfortune to visit,?
https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/2020/12/mittens-has-redeemed-wellington.html
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December 13, 2020 9:11am
- JackRabbit
  
  Just wait, Jacinda will seize on the popularity of Mittens, and presto, a new “Paddles” will be quickly whipped up…
  
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  December 13, 2020 3:39pm
  - Cactus Kate
    
    I hope not. Paddles didn’t work out too well.
    
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    December 14, 2020 3:36pm
Simon

Bonkers’ NHS advert that shows ‘Santa being struck down by coronavirus’ before medics save him is condemned by critics for ‘upsetting children’ and ‘looking for reasons to make this Christmas worse’

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9045303/Critics-condemn-NHS-charity-advert-shows-medics-saving-Santa-coronavirus.html

The reality from Old Holborn

“Grim advert where Santa gets admitted to an NHS hospital after three years on the waiting list, catches MRSA and Covid from the filthy conditions and gets bummed by a trans in the “gender neutral ward” before dying of sepsis.”

https://twitter.com/Holbornlolz/status/1337699012191916033
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December 13, 2020 9:18am
- mark15
  
  he’s so ascerbic.
  
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  December 13, 2020 9:40am
- JackRabbit
  
  So Santa:
  [1] Is 1720 years old,
  [2] Can travel at Warp 9.9999940000 delivering presents all over the World,
  [3] Has a Tardis type bag (bigger on inside) capable of holding billions of presents, in all sizes from a lump of coal to a new Ford Territory,
  [4] Is able to morph his own body size and the presents he carries small enough to get down a chimney, or through a 1mm crack under a door,
  [5] Able to grant wishes to cure people from cancer,
  [6] Able to withstand extremes in temperature of between +50°C to -70°C,
  [7] Able to pack that all into a few hours, without even cracking a sweat.
  [8] Being doing all this for 1650+ years through extreme years of heat, cold, pestilences, plagues, wars, nuclear testing in the upper atmosphere.
  [9] Can make things appear, disappear,
  [10] Can drink half a billion beers, slices of cake.
  
  And they say he is stopped by a Virus that he could fix in the twinkle of an eye?
  
  Santa exists in children’s imagination and dreams, just as the Covid-19 fear porn exists in many people’s nightmares. What a way to instill fear into children.
  
  Next the NHS will be saying that Jesus has it as well, and the world is being taken over by a giant arachnid out of Dr Who.
  
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  December 13, 2020 4:02pm
Bob

Communism relies on closed policed borders, as was the case with the Soviet Union, to ensure that the ‘people’ are protected from any politically incorrect influences.
We are a communist nation now, Adern was groomed for her present role to transition NZ to a Marxist paradise. Marxism doesn’t talk about revolution anymore, that conveys images of police smoke grenades and street rioting; transition is the new revolutionary phrase.
50.7% of the population voted for this lifestyle, so they had better get used to it, along with the food ques, empty shelves, shutdown public transport for crowd control purposes and similar; and weeding ditches for employment.
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December 13, 2020 9:43am
- MCos
  
  By your own definition your talking melodramatic rubbish.
  Kiwis and permanent residents and come and go as they please as long as they can organize flights. My wife & I can go the Thailand & back, at some expense mind you.
  More importantly there’s a free flow of information in & out of the country.
  
  11 14
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  December 13, 2020 10:48am
  - Flossie
    
    Lucky you and your wife. I would be pushed to afford to go anywhere really, and the 14 day quarantine costs on return would just make it absolutely impossible to afford.
    
    19 3
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    December 13, 2020 11:37am
  - SB2
    
    “More importantly there’s a free flow of information in & out of the country”
    
    Only the wilfully ignorant think otherwise.
    
    1 14
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    December 13, 2020 1:14pm
- Doctor Sigmund Freud
  
  No. Weeding ditches for food.
  
  13 3
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  December 13, 2020 10:52am
- The Housekeeper
  
  And now Police don’t need a warrant to stop and search you and your property, keeping everyone in line will be so much easier. Of course, only those with anything to hide should be afraid, or so they told us.
  
  In 12 months, the Police made 9435 searches without a warrant to do so, nearly twice as many as the previous year. Almost 2/3rds of those searches yielded no charges. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster admits the data is “appalling”.
  
  https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2020/12/unwarranted-police-searches-racial-bias-justice/
  
  23 1
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  December 13, 2020 10:57am
  - SB2
    
    This is germane or …?
    
    “The Bill of Rights has been totally degraded,” says Green MP Golriz Ghahraman, a former human rights lawyer who took a landmark case involving race and the use of warrantless searches.
    
    “It’s become a culture of police going on fishing expeditions to see if they can find something. I hate it.”
    
    2 11
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    December 13, 2020 1:17pm
  - chukar
    
    Yep and Councils enforcement officers do not need to ask permission either.
    This will not end well!
    
    7 0
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    December 13, 2020 1:53pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I have already hung my framed photo of our Dear Leader on the Dining Room Wall.
  
  I’ve ordered my Jacinda Badge.
  https://i.etsystatic.com/22392576/r/il/ee70dd/2533411289/il_570xN.2533411289_lpvu.jpg
  
  I will be checking on my neighbours to see if they are showing appropriate obeisance to our D.L.
  
  22 6
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  December 13, 2020 11:28am
  - SB2
    
    “..showing appropriate obeisance to our D.L.”
    
    Is this just the continuing residue of sour grapes that began post 17/10 /20?
    
    1 18
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    December 13, 2020 1:12pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Extraordinarily enuf for a teetotaller, SB2, I know a thing or two about Brix and veraison.
      
      https://teara.govt.nz/en/viticulture
      
      I’ll leave you to the sour grapes.
      
      6 0
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      December 13, 2020 5:56pm
- MFD
  
  “50.7% of the population voted for this lifestyle”
  
  Labour got 1,443,546 party votes. Population of NZ is around 5M. Education standards really are slipping.
  
  8 2
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  December 13, 2020 12:56pm
RJ

FDA Safety Surveillance of COVID-19 Vaccines :
DRAFT Working list of possible adverse event outcomes ***Subject to change***

Guillain-Barrésyndrome
 Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis
 Transverse myelitis
 Encephalitis/myelitis/encephalomyelitis/ meningoencephalitis/meningitis/ encepholapathy
 Convulsions/seizures
 Stroke
 Narcolepsy and cataplexy
 Anaphylaxis
 Acute myocardialinfarction
 Myocarditis/pericarditis
 Autoimmunedisease
 Deaths
 Pregnancy and birthoutcomes
 Other acute demyelinating diseases
 Non-anaphylactic allergic reactions
 Thrombocytopenia
 Disseminated intravascular coagulation
 Venous thromboembolism
 Arthritis and arthralgia/jointpain
 Kawasaki disease
 Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children
 Vaccine enhanced disease

https://www.fda.gov/media/143557/download

[Mod. Note: This is NOT a list of ACTUAL adverse effects. Before the usual antivaxxers begin their “we’re all going to die” tirades, please read the entire 24 pages of the document, not just the one page the poster has highlighted. It will save us wading through a lot more pointless scaremongering posts.]
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December 13, 2020 10:21am
- RJ
  
  Pretty obvious in my post mod that it is a draft working list of possible adverse event outcomes.
  
  13 7
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  December 13, 2020 11:01am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Yes I agree with MOD. They are just doing a routine job looking at all the potential side effects.
  
  I’ve got no time for anti vaccine folk. I have met a couple. Reasoning with them is impossible.
  
  18 4
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  December 13, 2020 11:05am
- RJ
  
  Also adding
  
  https://www.fda.gov/media/144413/download
  
  7 6
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  December 13, 2020 11:11am
- Pharmachick
  
  Standard list AEs and SAEs. Nothing to see here, move along.
  
  11 3
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  December 13, 2020 11:43am
- ISeeRed
  
  Is anyone who just questions the safety of a particular vaccine an all-round “anti-vaxxer”? Does this black-and-white othering apply to everybody and everything everywhere now?
  
  10 4
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  December 13, 2020 1:38pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    I wouldn’t say so. But if you see KevOB’s comment below/above depending on how your screen is set up, it is blatantly incorrect. Fearmongering is not the same as genuine questioning. If there’s a person like me that actually works in the industry its incumbent upon us to call it out (as politely as possible, but my nerves fray at times).
    
    FWIW I will not take any of the vaccines until I’ve seen the AE and SAE profile in the general population AND the Phase III trial data in entirety (not press releases).
    
    For one thing, even trials containing 30K participants aren’t powered for population-wide subsets of events. I also don’t believe the safety pharmacology/toxicology has been rigorous enough or followed participants for long enough. But we should know in a few months after millions of [other] people have taken it. If that sounds harsh, by all means line up first. But I’m certainly not coming at this from a lay POV. Also FDA approved Pfizer 17 aye/4nay/1 abstention… that’s not the standard margins, I would love to see the data they saw (which isn’t yet public). All the public has seen is interim analysis by press release.
    
    10 2
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    December 13, 2020 3:25pm
    - RJ
      
      I was watching something the other day where they said that it will be a year before some of the side effects can show up In a new vaccine, is this correct?
      
      1 3
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      December 13, 2020 3:31pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        Yes, 6-12 months.
        
        1 0
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        December 14, 2020 5:25am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Good points.
      
      But added to this, some long term side effects may be observed for some years to come.
      
      4 2
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      December 13, 2020 4:07pm
    - chukar
      
      Appreciate comment from genuine health professionals.
      We have to make sure that the cure does not kill the patient!
      
      2 0
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      December 13, 2020 8:31pm
  - RJ
    
    Pretty much to some people
    
    Btw, I’m fully up to date with my vaccines, but will be following my gp’s advice to not touch this vaccine until it’s been out for a few years.
    
    3 3
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    December 13, 2020 3:29pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  When the FDA gives such a list beware. Many of these outcomes have been reported.
  
  7 7
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  December 13, 2020 1:46pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    Incorrect. When FDA hands out that list they are monitoring for adverse events (AEs) and serious AEs (SAEs). It is the responsible population health approach to identify early if there is a population-wide effect that the Phase III trial didn’t pick up. Its called post-approval monitoring or post-marketing surveillance (sometimes called a Phase IV trial).
    
    10 3
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    December 13, 2020 2:58pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      Downtick all you like – that comment was entirely factual, there’s not a shred of opinion in it. You just make yourselves look partisan, uncompromising and silly.
      
      11 2
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      December 13, 2020 3:55pm
- tf78
  
  RJ, give me a dose of Covid any day.
  
  1 2
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  December 13, 2020 4:00pm
lifesgood

Anyone else hear the interview with the owner of Stuff on Media Watch RNZ this morning? Sinead something or other. What an arrogant fool she is. She said that even if someone had deep pockets and was prepared to help fund Stuff she would refuse their money if their views did not match her (marxist, leftist, woke, my words) views. I can’t wait for Stuff to go down in a screaming heap. They deserve nothing less.
36 3
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December 13, 2020 10:36am
- Swifty
  
  Did she also rule out confiscated taxpayer money kindly provided via the NZ Labour Party?
  
  27 2
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  December 13, 2020 11:12am
Tasman Terror

Will the anti hate speech laws preclude abusing white pale males or only brown young women?
24 2
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December 13, 2020 10:50am
Fletch

It’s not over yet…

https://nationalfile.com/how-trump-can-win-scotus-state-supreme-courts-legislatures-and-the-12th-amendment/

Plus, HUGE march for Trump up to the capitol.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmO0luSsj50

Not sure of the numbers, but if the pink pussy hat wearing liberals can march to protest Hillary losing, then so can Trump supporters.
20 9
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December 13, 2020 10:52am
- Fletch
  
  https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1337833603309465600
  
  10 7
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  December 13, 2020 11:03am
- SB2
  
  Fletch, march by all means but like the Hillary protests let thm just fade away as the removal services begin to arrive at the White house .
  
  2 17
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  December 13, 2020 1:08pm
oldfella

Google-owned YouTube shut down ‘Dilbert’ comic strip creator Scott Adams on Friday, stripping a video from the podcaster’s channel without warning.
Adams called his video: “Biden COVID Plan, Swalwell’s Chinese Spy, Pelosi Still a Steaming Pile.”
It follows a recent company announcement that it would be removing any content critical of the 2020 election process alleging widespread voter fraud tipped the outcome of the November contest.
https://thefederalist.com/2020/12/11/googles-youtube-shuts-down-dilbert-creator-scott-adams/
17 4
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December 13, 2020 11:05am
- JackRabbit
  
  I guess South Park will be next. And any episodes of the Good Wife, and Battlestar Galactica that feature ballot box stuffing. And election software rigging in the case of The Good Wife, carried out by Democrats.
  
  8 3
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  December 13, 2020 12:09pm
RJ

What a bloody idiot

The cause of the gas explosion that completely destroyed a Christchurch house has been revealed.

The explosion was caused by Smith not isolating the gas supply to a fire he was halfway through repairing and failing to tell the residents not to turn the main gas supply back on when he left, the New Zealand Herald has reported.

The residents switched the main supply back on after Smith left and the house slowly filled with gas overnight and into the morning.

The explosion was reportedly triggered by an electric thermostat on a hot water cylinder disengaging and creating a spark in the morning.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/300182211/cause-revealed-of-gas-explosion-that-destroyed-christchurch-house
20 1
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December 13, 2020 11:27am
Benedict Yu

What kind of mechanic fills your radiator with water instead of coolant?
10 1
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December 13, 2020 12:05pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  A ‘Claytons’ mechanic?
  
  9 1
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  December 13, 2020 12:23pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I just felt something was not right with this guy. The thing is he charged me for coolant. When I took it to a new mechanic (who seems great), he asked me “Did you fill your radiator with water?”.
    
    Also I asked the dud mechanic to do a transmission flush and service. The new mechanic then tells me there is no way this car has recently had a transmission flush.
    
    Luckily I found out before serious damage was done.
    
    11 0
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    December 13, 2020 12:36pm
- rouppe
  
  Water is a coolant.
  
  3 1
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  December 13, 2020 12:49pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Explanation. By coolant you mean something other than water. That would be antifreeze with a rust inhibitor. There are many different metals inside a motor – aluminium (different grades) cast iron, steel, zinc, cadmium, copper. These all have a galvanic reaction (electrolysis) so a rust inhibitor prevents this. Without it you get normal rust and white rust
  
  9 2
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  December 13, 2020 3:15pm
- greybeard
  
  Many cars use water in the radiator, not a coolant.
  Older ones mostly.
  
  2 0
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  December 13, 2020 4:02pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    White metals were not used then. Ever done water pump impellor on something pre 70s?
    
    1 2
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    December 13, 2020 5:22pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Sorry guys (and girls), just can’t resist…
  Electric cars don’t have radiators!
  
  In five years the only maintenance was windshield wiper fluid and two new tires.
  
  0 2
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  December 13, 2020 7:23pm
  - Dougal10
    
    Electric motors don’t last that long when using a vsd and if not using a vsd you will still be running a transmission which in a modern ice car is the main repair ,so it will also be a repair on an ev especially with the torque applied to it.
    
    0 0
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    December 13, 2020 8:37pm
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      Yes but the transmission in an ev is single speed, not multi-speed, hence much simpler and more reliable. Much less likely to fail!
      
      0 0
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      December 14, 2020 7:09am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The supporters are still behind him.
https://rumble.com/vbtz1l-president-trump-arrives-at-army-navy-game-the-crowd-goes-wild.html?
20 6
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December 13, 2020 12:05pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  I’m kind of curious what he will do on inauguration day. There are a bunch of traditions on that day that involve the outgoing President. Can’t see that working out. Also, for decades at least, the outgoing President has left a handwritten ‘welcome’ letter in the desk drawer in the Oval Office. Can’t see that working out either.
  
  12 0
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  December 13, 2020 12:22pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    This is far from over. No expert but the 12th, 25th and insurrection?
    
    9 7
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    December 13, 2020 3:17pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      See CNN, MSNBC, Fox, and play school TV1 news for more information.
      //
      
      9 5
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      December 13, 2020 3:18pm
    - C J Southern
      
      It’s been over for weeks; the only remaining variable is “how long it takes you to realise it”.
      
      I’m betting that the answer to that question is “quite some time”; going by past behaviour it’s obvious that most Trump supporters aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.
      
      3 2
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      December 13, 2020 9:30pm
  - Fletch
    
    He will be inaugurated on Inauguration Day, of course…
    
    1 3
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    December 13, 2020 4:32pm
- SB2
  
  A familar cry form history that appears to thunder Hail Trump. Hail Trump…
  
  3 18
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  December 13, 2020 1:04pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9t_KDGqOmE
    
    4 4
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    December 13, 2020 3:19pm
- Mike
  
  I hope that comforts you in your grief.
  
  5 3
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  December 13, 2020 1:39pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    No grief Mike. Not over until the fat lady sings. Do you see many fat ladies?
    
    5 8
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    December 13, 2020 3:21pm
    - Mike
      
      No, and I don’t see that cavalry coming either.
      
      5 2
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      December 13, 2020 4:51pm
    - C J Southern
      
      I see fat ladies everywhere.
      
      3 1
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      December 13, 2020 9:31pm
      - RJ
        
        Stop looking in the mirror then
        
        0 1
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        December 13, 2020 10:13pm
oldfella

The Powerline ‘Week In Pictures.’ Good for a few chuckles, unless you’re a woke leftie named Karen, in which case I’d suggest you avoid it.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/12/the-week-in-pictures-timeout-edition.php
5 1
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December 13, 2020 12:19pm
Swifty

Dutch chicken farmer laughs like a chicken:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vOv8Fy1BKg

🙂
5 0
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December 13, 2020 1:21pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Stop it – beer is coming out of my nose
  
  4 2
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  December 13, 2020 4:27pm
  - Swifty
    
    Heh
    
    1 0
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    December 13, 2020 4:50pm
  - sooty
    
    Can he do a duck aswell?
    
    3 0
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    December 13, 2020 5:24pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Candace Owens suing Facebook over fact checkers. She has support World wide.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btnwI_C3Tw8&feature=share&fbclid=IwAR2KEPTrKAkqAAyurNVQsE-6krYi7IwhdlxM_cGKLR_NpL-wCIeEXFRJJsI
6 4
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December 13, 2020 2:10pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Good link!
  
  3 3
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  December 13, 2020 3:31pm
Jack5

Stuff Ltd’s owner and chief executive, Sinead Boucher, in an interview on Radio NZ today, acknowledged mixed reader reaction to Stuff’s apology to Maori over news coverage over more than a century.

“We knew it would polarise people,” said Boucher in an interview in the Mediawatch section of the Sunday Morning show.

“Certainly on the day there was a flurry of newspaper cancellations from people who just didn’t like this idea at all of examining what had happened in the past and also apologizing to Maori for, you know, the harm that our reporting had done …”

Of phone call complaints about the apology, however, there were “less than a hundred”.

“On the other side we had a record day, best day ever by far, of people signing up to be digital contributors and being supporters of Stuff.”

Boucher bought Stuff from its Australian owner for $1 early in the year.

The Radio NZ interviewer mentioned Stuff’s Christmas bonus of about $1000 to each full-time staff member, and touched on State help for the company because of Covid-19. This comprised about $6 million in subsidy for wages, plus a share in the over-all $50 million package for news media to help it endure the financial effects of the pandemic.

The help, I guess, will cloud media scrutiny of businesses that both received millions in pandemic wage subsidies and paid millions in dividends.

Boucher interview (starts about 16 min 30 sec in):

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018776961
8 2
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December 13, 2020 2:17pm
- MCos
  
  I would suggest that staff renumeration is between the employers and employees or their agents.
  One expects the staff were on rock bottom wages knowing what we do about the state of media in NZ.
  Businesses received wage subsidies when the met certain criteria.
  The media support package was entirely different.
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/covid-19-coronavirus-government-unveils-50m-support-package-for-media/WVRWQAFUC34OKE4DXOU2OWPIGQ/
  
  3 3
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  December 13, 2020 7:53pm
Fletch

R.I.P Charley Pride.

https://apnews.com/article/music-charley-pride-country-music-774ff52dd02d1d857983b1e9f41fcf34
7 2
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December 13, 2020 3:41pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://i.redd.it/12t6pkgad2751.gif
5 4
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December 13, 2020 3:52pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Ted Cruz on Silicon Valley control.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=716057299344467
4 4
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December 13, 2020 4:24pm
Martin Williams

Question: Is the man Mallard was referring to in this case Soper himself??
1 14
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December 13, 2020 5:02pm
Chuck Bird

I note that the rule change that allowed Mallard not to have to pay anything was for some reason signed off my Anne Tolley? She is no longer an MP so cannot be asked why she did so.

Does anyone have any idea why she would have helped Mallard out?
5 3
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December 13, 2020 5:29pm
- RJ
  
  I read it was signed off by mallard, that Tolley was simple the one that had to look at mallards case and approve the case met the guidelines for payment
  
  3 3
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  December 13, 2020 6:02pm
- Swifty
  
  Because it is convention for the Deputy Speaker to carry out the instructions of NZ’s Parliamentary Speaker unless clearly unlawful?
  
  That’d be my guess.
  
  5 1
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  December 13, 2020 6:09pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  At the time Tolley may have been unaware that Mallard was being sued by the ex-Parliamentary staffer.
  
  9 1
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  December 13, 2020 6:14pm
- RJ
  
  Perhaps the best person to comment on this story is Chris finlayson
  
  “I think this has all hallmarks of a bit of a mess. If they open their big mouths and they’re sued they should pick up the tab themselves.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/former-mp-chris-finlayson-says-trevor-mallard-no-confidence-vote-is-ritualistic-rubbish/V5DVX2UYPXHETHOKZO75O5JYJE/
  
  7 4
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  December 13, 2020 6:20pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I heard him on air but when asked about Tolley he said they would have to ask her.
    
    3 3
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    December 13, 2020 8:42pm
    - RJ
      
      Wtf are people down ticking you for.
      
      Hopefully Tolley will come forward with an interview
      
      2 1
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      December 13, 2020 9:06pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Thanks RJ, the down ticking does not just happen to me but others. People downtick the person not what they say quite othen rather than reply with a logical arguement.
        
        0 0
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        December 14, 2020 7:57am
mikenmildagain

Pro-Trump crowd chants ‘Destroy the GOP’.
Rest of America: ‘OK’.
3 4
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December 13, 2020 6:25pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Pictures coming in of the crowd:
  https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a4/58/0a/a4580a61ba6b0554b8333a7b6967de61.jpg
  
  2 7
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  December 13, 2020 6:28pm
RJ

Dominion’s vote totals showed 663 people voted in a district where there were only 6 eligible voters and only 3 of those 6 actually voted. Somehow, Dominion added 660 additional votes to the final tally.
5 3
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December 13, 2020 6:56pm
- RJ
  
  https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/12/will-small-county-northern-mi-key-overturning-nations-election-results-america-find-monday/
  
  2 2
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  December 13, 2020 6:57pm
- C J Southern
  
  No. They didn’t.
  
  2 1
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  December 13, 2020 9:33pm
  - RJ
    
    Let’s see, either the physical evidence and print outs are a lie or you are, I’d go with you are the liar over physical evidence
    
    0 2
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    December 13, 2020 10:12pm
Flossie

Just kind of watched TV news and vaguely recall an item regarding concussion in rugby players…all set to sue someone. And concussion worries in cricket too.
Next item is boxing where two large guys beat each other’s head till one falls down. I ask you!
9 1
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December 13, 2020 7:00pm
Fletch

As Sebastian Gorka said – “If we don’t stop the theft of this election then we will never ever have a free and transparent election again in America”
4 3
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December 13, 2020 7:30pm
- SB2
  
  Fletch, that is only in the mind of those fooled by an outgoing malignant narcissist who simply fairly and squarely lost the US Presedential election . 3/11/20.
  
  2 13
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  December 13, 2020 8:10pm
- C J Southern
  
  It’s OK; thankfully the courts were up to the job and didn’t everything necessary to stop Trump stealing the election.
  
  Thankfully, it was quite an easy task for them given that Trump’s lawyers couldn’t produce any credible evidence.
  
  4 2
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  December 13, 2020 9:37pm

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