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October 28, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 28 October 2021

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General Debate

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PhilBest

Everyone is criticizing the Ardern regime for failure to increase hospital capacity for Covid, even if with temporary facilities elsewhere (which makes good sense so as to keep pandemic-infected out of the hospitals). And they are also criticizing the slow vaccine rollout.

I WISH everyone would also wake up to the gross official incompetence on spread of Covid being by aerosols NOT “contact, droplets and surfaces” – which is the incompetence that enabled this virus to infect people coming and going from airconditioned hotel buildings where people were being “isolated”.

I guess this is just another reason “they” are pushing on with the long-since disproven falsehoods about how it spreads – because this is yet another point on which they stand to lose too much now. Consider the fraudulent criminalisation of “being outdoors” which is perfectly safe and actually a health “plus”; and colossal waste of resources, economic damage and social damage from mitigation “strategies” being aimed at “everything” rather than just the superspreading indoors environments.

This is now perpetration of falsehoods to political ends, and a “cover-up”. It is this, not failure to increase hospital capacity or order vaccines soon enough, that is a basis to put officials in JAIL. Early in 2020 it could be excused as an honest “mistake”. By October 2020 at the latest, it was a sackable malfeasance. Once the WHO finally admitted their “error” in early April 2021, any public health official not changing the messaging should have been removed from their post by the Police, if the politicians wouldn’t do it. Australia across the Tasman, does set an even worse – a “world’s worst” – example; but that is still no excuse for Bloomfield et al.

And the top brass of the WHO should be languishing in cells contemplating their likely date with the hangman. Their first opportunity to get it right on “how Covid spreads” was early April 2020. TWENTY TWENTY. The evidence was presented to them by dozens of experts from around the world. Political opportunists are scapegoating all the wrong people over the death and damage from this pandemic. The vaccine hesitant and other scapegoats, such as people who dared to go for walks in fresh air and sunshine, are victims just as much as anyone else, of the official cabal’s evil conspiracy which REQUIRED mass homicide by omission as a basis for its “success”.
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October 28, 2021 8:01am
- lastmanstanding
  
  You gotta laff. When Cindy said there will be 2 classes of citizen the vaxxed and unvaxxed and clearly implied the 2nd was lower she condemned her favourite people especially the young ones to being a lower class.
  To those who think she is The Great Communicator I say your heads are up your arse. If she was she would have engaged her brain before opening that big mouth.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:26am
  - dcrane
    
    She is best qualified to be a PM’s spokesperson, not a PM.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:58am
    - Don Beckett
      
      You give her far too much credit. That position would also be well above her pay grade.
      
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      October 28, 2021 10:46am
      - PhilBest
        
        Even Mark Steyn’s website, in its regular recommended links feature from Laura, lists THIS:
        
        https://www.facebook.com/45300632440/posts/10158184984037441/?d=n
        
        For the COMMENTS….
        
        I wonder when they will get deleted?
        
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        October 28, 2021 11:36am
- lastmanstanding
  
  The Government is doing a great job diverting us from talking about an issue that is much much bigger than Covid and will have a much longer influence that is the fraud of COP26 and the secret agenda.
  
  This is a massive transfer of wealth to the rich and the Elites politicians, academics, business, ethnics whilst imporvishing the middle class and making the poor even poorer.
  
  It has nothing to do with Climate Change. CC is just a stalking horse to achieve the goal.
  And all the while it happens under your noses whilst you panic about Covid.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:39am
  - Paulus
    
    Maori Seabed and Foreshore by stealth plus one hell of a lot more.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:29am
    - Observer of Life
      
      Speaking of which.. anyone have a suggestion as to how you can get your local MP (National) to reply to an email sent mid-September (and a recent follow up enquiring when I can expect a reply) asking about the unfolding result of THEIR Foreshore and Seabed legislation and how they’re going to fix it if they EVER get back into power (along with a couple of other questions)? From my experience, and this scenario proves it, Bayly is an arrogant arse.
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:28am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Did you see my post yesterday regarding the 20 Teslas they purchased (100k each) to ferry the participants to and from Gleneagles? Turns out Gleneagles only has 1 charging station so they’ve contracted a local company to supply diesel generators to charge the rest.
    Monty Python couldn’t make up a skit like this.
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:33am
    - zulumonster
      
      A good story but doesn’t look like it is actually 100% true.
      No Tesla’s purchased but electric Land Rovers are being used (not purchased). But the charging station issue is possibly still an embarrassment for them …
      
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      October 28, 2021 3:07pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Cheers, I’m usually pretty thorough with checking sources but took a while to get to the bottom of that one. Yes, it looks like they are using electric landrovers and apparently the generators they are using to charge them are run on recycled cooking oil, not diesel. Still, quite ironic they have to hire generators to charge them so they can maintain the illusion of saving the planet.
        How many is Shaw taking with him, 14? The whole thing is farcical.
        
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        October 28, 2021 6:40pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  PhilB, sorry I accidentally hit “report” on your 11:36AM comment while not looking properly and treating it as a “reply” link.
  
  While it was my fault, it would be helpful if the comment nesting could be improved.
  
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  October 28, 2021 2:34pm
Warren

Government considering vaccine mandate for Police.
So could someone please explain why we have rules for the Private Sector being inforced and different rules for the Police Force under the new traffic system with workers in close contact businesses like Restaurants and Hairdressers will need to be vaccinated in order to operate.
So why have the Government waited so long to approach this subject when the Police – who often come in close contact with the public – are not yet required to be vaccinated, other Government workforce such as Teachers and Healthcare workers are required to be vaccinated.
Figures released last week suggest 83% of our Police have received one doze the vaccine while 70.5% were fully vaccinated.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300439764/covid19-nz-government-considering-vaccine-mandate-for-police
Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister is quick to blame the unvaccinated for our latest numbers and outbreaks in new parts of our Country but sits on her almighty arse and allows Government Departments like our Police Force that come into contact with many people daily to please themselves.
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October 28, 2021 8:01am
- Nickc2
  
  Do we have the right to insist that only vaccinated coppers poke their heads anywhere near our car windows?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:48am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  You don’t piss off you’re enforcers – they might start to get other ideas.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:49am
  - Inandout
    
    70, some Chicago Police have ‘other ideas’ apparently.
    https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sen-braun-welcomes-chicago-police-officers-fired-vaccine-mandate-indiana-you-deserve-respect
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:12am
    - Observer of Life
      
      That Chicago Mayor always looks bloody evil!!
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:31am
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        A weird frog eyed looking thing for sure. Might not be evil. I mean, Kermit was pretty softly spoken and never took out his work pressures on others, even when he was stressed out, unlike his violent & abusive partner.
        ….But a particularly bad picture of the Mayor, that one.
        I have a mate from Chicago, and African American to boot. I must ask his thoughts on her when we can next meet for a beer.
        
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        October 28, 2021 1:53pm
- alex Masterley
  
  There should be a whole of government mandate for vaccine. Nothing more and nothing less.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:35am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    People have the right to choose what medical treatments they have.
    
    Try bill of rights. You can’t be forced to take any medical treatment
    
    Human rights act. You can’t be discrinated against for any reason including medical
    
    Privacy act. Your medical history is your private information.
    
    Once you go down that road it is very difficult to come back.
    
    A virus that has a 99.7% surviveability does not cut it with me.
    
    What price freedom and privacy.
    
    Certainly not the illusion of safety.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:13am
  - kevn
    
    @alex…. Cut all the booze and cigarettes while you are at it. We know they create real health issues. Oh, and takeaways as well, cut them out for the same reason.
    Exercise more at the set time you are allotted, and don’t goof off, do it.
    
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    October 28, 2021 4:45pm
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    That’s right Alex. Just trash 20% of the population that don’t agree with your narrow thinking.
    
    “All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”
    
    Good people are starting to get irritated enough to start doing something. Wait for it.
    
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    October 28, 2021 7:00pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    I imagine all of MBIE would run a mile from that mandate (btw, why are we talking about mandates? They should be very polite invitations, “we the people” and all of that).
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:49pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    Judging from those downticks Alex (and you ordinarily never get any) you’ve pinched a nerve with our Governmental overloads. You bad, bad clear thinker.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:52pm
    - alex Masterley
      
      Given the general population has been told to get jabbed I thought it only appropriate to hold the whole of government to the same standard. The Down ticks were not unexpected.
      I would be interested to see the percentages vaccinated in MOH, DIA, Justice, MIQ, Police, Customs and local bodies. Simply to see if people walk the walk as well as talk.
      
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      October 29, 2021 6:56am
- Aquataur
  
  She needs the cops onside at the moment – but just wait until she doesn’t
  
  And has anyone thought of waht happens when 10% of Police, Fire, ambos, teachers, nurses, etc resign or take up other work ?
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:54am
  - sooty
    
    She calls in the military by asking everyone in MIQ to be kind and stay in their rooms!
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:51am
  - Observer of Life
    
    Aqua: To take up other work? Pfffh.. you mean the dole. Cindy has clearly stated “the dole” is a good option. ?
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:33am
    - crikey
      
      OoL: Cindy has clearly stated “the dole” is a good option.
      My recommendation she takes it up forthwith.
      
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      October 28, 2021 12:51pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  The Police have to be respected as they operate under Cindy’s licence. The Rule of Law has been suspended in NZ for the Rule of ARDONE.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:03am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  They sneaked corrections in with health and teachers.
  
  I imagine most prisoners would say no to a test and say no to a vaccine, anybody know the numbers.
  
  The people they are mandating are smart people, so if it is so good why mandate, surely they would be lining up right, what happened with midwives.
  
  Our prime minister is treating unvaccinated as infectious and are to be considered leepers and 2nd class citizens, vaccinated apparently need to know that they are surrounded by other vaccinated, to feel safe, surely it is the unvaccinated that are more at risk.
  
  Maybe we unvaccinated should wear a star or something on our clothing to warn the vaccinated to stay away from the unclean ones.
  
  Hitler would have been proud of the progress made in such a short time.
  
  Cowering a whole nation making them so afraid of their own shadows.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:04am
  - Oldmate
    
    I was at a camp last week when a middle aged woman started crying. Turns out her son (who I know well) that was just put in prison in the Manawatu was beating quite severely (lost his from teeth and broken nose etc).
    
    The reason for this… the prison had offered ‘treats’ to any cell block that had a 100% vaccinated population. This guy deserves to be in prison, but to be severely beaten because of purposefully applied pressure from the powers-that-be!
    
    I was shocked to hear it.
    
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    October 28, 2021 2:52pm
- Classic Liberal
  
  The jabs don’t give full immunity and still allow infection and transmission, as well as encouraging the breeding of more vaccine-resistant mutants.
  
  So NO, nobody should be coerced into taking it with the incorrect claim that they won’t infect other people.
  
  It should remain a private medical decision.
  
  Ardern knows this. See after 6 mins: “we entirely expect that people who are vaccinated will still get covid 19”.
  
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y3IStLKyKD8&feature=youtu.be
  
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  October 28, 2021 3:15pm
Maggie's partner

I recall Cindy once saying the only reason she is in politics is to eliminate child poverty. Surely we must have one right thinking billionaire who could nobly hand over some cash to all children in poverty so her job would be done and she could sod off?
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October 28, 2021 8:01am
- Frank the tank
  
  She won’t though – that’s the problem.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:45am
- rouppe
  
  Well I’ve way is to put everyone in poverty. Then there is no child poverty.
  
  She’s well on her way
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:53am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Maggies p, and to that end, I bet Ardern is making voluntary tax payments over and above that which attaches to her income, to assist in the elimination of child poverty……
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:55am
  - Ehlana
    
    If that’s how you bet In Vino, I have no fear of your ever winning…
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:55am
- pdm
  
  Maggies partner said.
  
  `she could sod off’
  
  I say – the sooner the better
  the further the better.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:06am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    And when she gets to sod she can sod off some more
    
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    October 28, 2021 7:56pm
- RoboRob
  
  If she cares so much about child poverty why has she done so much that makes it worse (fuel and rent rises for example)?
  
  Seems like the equivalent of the Mrs World ‘I wish for world peace’ slogan. Words but no intent.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:15am
mikenmildagain

Fifty years ago today, Prospero became the first British satellite to be launched by a British rocket. It also became the last British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.
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October 28, 2021 8:02am
- DeepBlue
  
  Thanks for the laugh in this weird, stressed world. More of the funnies in GD would be appreciated.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:47am
- stewmar
  
  Fifty years ago today, Prospero became the first British satellite to be launched by a British rocket. It also became the last British satellite to be launched by a British rocket.
  
  and your point is?
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:48am
  - septic skeptic
    
    An interestingbit of trivia. Makes a change from talking covid all bloody day.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:39am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Exactly.
      
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      October 28, 2021 10:49am
  - sooty
    
    MMA makes a dad joke!
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:45am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Expecting there to be a point to comments seems to me to be imposing unreasonable expectations on Kiwibloggers.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:48am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Why did you not just stick to riding the wave Mike?
      
      The opportunity to get back in there with a good ol’ bit of snark too much to resist?
      
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      October 28, 2021 12:28pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        It’s not my fault that stewmar asked a silly question.
        
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        October 28, 2021 1:50pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    It was a tempest in a tea cup !
    
    And good on you Mikey, we rarely agree, but that was a good one.
    
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    October 28, 2021 5:51pm
Scott

Star South African cricketer Quinton de Kock refused to kneel in their international matches and has withdrawn from the next one. The SA team has been directed to kneel.
The kneeling is in support of Black lives matter and “racial justice”.
Some points stick out for me :
-BLM is a violent organisation that rioted throughout the USA in 2020 at the cost of 25 lives and billions of dollars of property destroyed by looting and arson. Even in BLM protests in England 27 policemen were injured.
– The South African cricket team is racially selected. Only four white players are allowed regardless of merit. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espncricinfo.com/story/south-africa-set-to-bring-in-tougher-transformation-targets-1240622%3fplatform=amp
How is that not racist? There is no such thing as a sin for thee but not for me.
– Quinton is being compelled to do this. This is not free speech. It is the opposite of free speech. The whole team is being compelled to do this. To literally bow down before their BLM overlords.

Don’t think this doesn’t apply here. The NZ team knelt in their games this season. What happens if a player doesn’t want to kneel?

This is another instalment of socialism marching through the world today. Everything is politicised. There is no freedom of speech. And white people get used to being ordered about by your new non white overlords.
And if you don’t think this will happen here I have only one word for you – Mahuta.
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October 28, 2021 8:02am
- I remember when
  
  Of all the countries that have BLM problems South Africa would be close to the front of the line.
  Surely this is satire at its very best.
  Action like charity should start a home.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:56am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Black lives don’t matter to their black masters hence SA has been going backwards for years.
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:10pm
- Inandout
  
  Scott, even Jesse Owens wasn’t required to give the Nazi salute to Hitler who was seated in the stands.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:14am
- MCos
  
  Apart from anything else there’s a lot more than four white blokes in the South African team.
  Here’s a short video showing the top eleven players. Plus there are some other back up players not shown.
  https://youtu.be/N6-Zc4JDxbA
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:24am
  - Scott
    
    MCos – the video is of somebody’s preferred team. Here is a picture of the actual team that took the field.
    https://www.news.com.au/sport/cricket/photo-exposes-south-african-cricket-teams-glaring-black-lives-matter-divide/news-story/8f5693e1a849798d9bb48636f6ccdd6d
    
    Now I don’t know the racial background of all of these people. Because unlike the South African authorities I don’t think it’s important.
    
    However it is the official policy of the South African cricket board, I have included the link in my previous comment, that the team be racially selected.
    As further evidence I would submit that Devon Conway is not playing for South Africa because he didn’t make the team. He has said that in South Africa there are only four places for white players.
    Fortunately South Africa’s loss is our gain and he is now an excellent member of our team, which is not racially selected. It is selected on merit.
    
    I don’t think this is a hard concept to grasp?
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:21am
    - Yabster
      
      its hard to grasp for some obviously…
      
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      October 28, 2021 12:30pm
Yabster

Great interview with Chatelle Baker – re Jacindas domination/control of the media.

https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/outsiders/jacinda-ardern-has-full-control-of-new-zealand-media/video/7223c63f527719b907d991b26816b167
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October 28, 2021 8:04am
- Nick R
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Who?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:42am
  - Yabster
    
    She’s a political commentator- daughter of Leighton Baker – you could have just goggled that Nickers…
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:06am
    - stewmar
      
      Chantelle Baker, Leighton Baker???? Never heard of them, are they famous like Hosking?
      
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      October 28, 2021 9:50am
  - ecco
    
    Commentators like Chantelle Baker aren’t getting to see the light of day in NZ MSM due to the covid media relief/bribe fund. Good to see some sunlight being shone on these practices of Ardern outside of NZ.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:06am
  - herb1
    
    Jacinda Ardern. She’s New Zealand PM . For the moment anyway
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:12am
- Ruahine
  
  Russell Coutts is making his feelings known.
  Good that people who do not depend on the Gov’t or have to suck up to MBIE for their or their employees livelihood continue to speak out about the bullying and the blackmailing of people by Ardern using the power of the state against us.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/covid-19-delta-outbreak-sir-russell-coutts-accuses-government-of-dictatorship-in-social-media-post/UC7WOEFFRHR36TSDXJQ4PXX4C4/
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:02am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    But he’s a rich, white male
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:42am
    - sooty
      
      Just wait till the waters sold, then you will the rich of equal colours.
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:01am
  - Aquataur
    
    And the only reason that the Horrid Ferald put this article in was to presumably stir up hatred against Coutts, who they have been targetting for years now.
    
    Hate speech, anyone ?
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:57am
    - Mrs_Right
      
      From the top comments it looked like he got plenty of support until they decided to close them.
      
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      October 28, 2021 3:01pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Were there comments?
        
        They seem to have vanished.
        
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        October 28, 2021 5:22pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Good on him. We need more like him. Come on Sir Bob Jones, you’ve usually got a lot to say about stuff, please lend your assistance to this worthy cause.
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:18am
- ecco
  
  Good interview. Thanks for posting.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:05am
- doublehappy
  
  Well posted; I am amazed at the evil way this government is destroying New Zealand, to make it racially based, and in a lot of debt. In order to achieve their goal of Marxism.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:12pm
jgw739

Does anyone remember 2015, when the left put the torch to John Key for holding a flag referendum? $26m wasted! No mandate! Vanity project!
How many flag referenda has Mahuta just spent to help line her own pockets?
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October 28, 2021 8:04am
- hullkiwi
  
  Not forgetting the special interest pockets of Infrastructure New Zealand “who are strongly supporting the Three Water Reforms”.
  
  Mahuta on the amShow this morning, saying “that the modelling shows that the reforms will bring strong economic growth to the regions”. In other words, garbage in, garbage out!
  
  Take out all the special interest groups who will profit from the 3 Waters Reforms, and may be then you might have a starting point for any reform. However, “reform” of NZ’s water systems is not what is being discussed here, is it?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:59am
  - Ehlana
    
    What struck me was that she was saying what she came to say, not answering the questions. I didn’t feel confident that she actually understood what she was saying, it was more like sticking to a script.
    
    I’d have liked her to be asked, for example, to explain how these water entities can “leverage” off the water assets when their owners (who will continue to be the Councils, according to her) can’t?
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:01am
  - Ruahine
    
    hullkiwi
    Ms Mahuta is correct when she says that the ‘reforms’ will bring strong economic growth to the regions. It certainly will bring plenty of growth to certain Iwi coffers as the ticket is clipped and a levy is paid to said Iwi by everyone who is connected to a Council ratepayers water system.
    It will go like this. Starting off quite low at maybe a $1.00 for every thousand litres you use which when you pay your water Bill that dollar gets passed to the Iwi in your area. One dollar this year $1.50 next year.
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:12am
    - Nickc2
      
      Just imagine all the couches they can buy with that sort of guaranteed income (tax-free).
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:25am
Benedict Yu

I got a bit irritated with Helen Clark yesterday wailing about low COVID vaccination rates in Papua Guinea and telling the New Zealand Government to something.

PNG is a corrupt cesspit. They hosted an APEC meeting a while back and the government bought a bunch of high end European SUVs to ferry the guests. Most of them were stolen.

We can’t fix the world’s problems. And we certainly can’t fix PNG.
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October 28, 2021 8:05am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Benedict
  
  PNG is one of the most corrupt places in the world and Moresby is one of the 10 most dangerous cities in the world.
  
  I was first there in 1968 when Oz ran the place and it was OK but you had to take care.
  
  Last time I was there was late 80’s and it was a cess pit.
  
  I was asked to go up in the mid 1990’s to do a job and put such demands on the prospective client they were amazed. They asked if it was as bad as I made out and I said yes. They then told me that all the other people they had asked had said the same thing.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:12am
  - Charmaine Hawke
    
    I had a client who worked up there a few times a year. He said you went from the hotel to the workplace and back again with an armed guard. You never left the hotel for any reason Moresby was that dangerous.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:23am
    - Jack5
      
      New Zealand was sending Covid vaccine to PNG earlier this year – before it had the vaccination programme here at full speed.
      
      https://covid19.info.gov.pg/nz-government-donates-covid-19-vaccines-to-png/
      
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      October 28, 2021 9:54am
- Exclamation Mark
  
  Funnily enough, PNG is exactly what an uncolonised New Zealand would look like: totally corrupt, riven with tribal divisions and violent conflicts, horrifically polluted by huge multinational company exploiting the country’s mineral wealth by paying off the tribal elites. The tribal elites would, of course, spend most of their time living in luxury on the Gold Coast, just as most of PNG’s ruling caste live in Perth.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:17am
  - Nickc2
    
    Will Mahuta and her tribe receive NZ 3 Waters Royalties when they are ensconced on the Gold Coast?
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:16am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Surely we could be kind and show them the Jacinda Method?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:23am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Even better, give them Jacinda.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:01am
- Flossie
  
  What has H Clark had to say about getting New Zealanders vaccinated? Or the lack of action on upping ICU facilities in our own country.
  We can’t be held responsible for PNG as well as all the other Pacific islands.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:24am
  - Jack5
    
    Was Helen Clark also responsible for New Zealand bringing into the country from Fiji a World Health Organisation staffer suffering from Covid-19?
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-positive-patient-from-fiji-being-allowed-into-new-zealand-for-hospital-care/V7IAEC6IJ3DUW6NPJM7E7C5BGE/
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:46am
- Raphael
  
  We can’t even fix our problems, we voted them back in.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:26am
- pdm
  
  PNG is Australias problem anyway – not ours.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:27am
  - hullkiwi
    
    It was before independence, and it has been since. As part of the independence deal, the Australian taxpayer picked up an annual bill of A$500mill to prop up PNG. This included cash, and other support, including military staff to keep the Indonesian boat people from landing on Australian shores.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:05am
- hullkiwi
  
  Benedict, I worked in Moresby in 1991-2. On the day I arrived, the govt had decreed a dusk to dawn curfew because “rascal” crime was getting out of hand, and PNG’s hosting of the 1991 South Pacific Games was at risk of going down the drain.
  The lessons from my time were (and I do not believe anything has changed, were:
  
  It was often said amongst us expats:
  1. the only growth industries in PNG were the “3Cs”, crime, corruption, and compensation; and
  2. To work in PNG you could be diagnosed with one of the “3 Ms”. That is you were 1 of (or possibly a combination of all 3), a misfit, a missionary or a mercenary.
  
  You never showed too much being (especially women in the shops/supermarkets), it was a good way to lose a finger or your life.
  
  The Wontok (curry bro) network of the Nationals was dangerous – ever gone to the bank and discover you were K1800 in overdraft because a bank clerk and one of her cuzzys have emptied your bank account. That happened to me at Westpac Waigani.
  
  You never tangled with the PNG politicians, that was a sure fired way to get you chucked out of the country, as happened to lawyer I knew.
  
  The safest place in the country was the Aussie High Commission if you were in trouble, because the Aussies could at least ensure you could get out.
  
  Aids was endemic in the country, because of homosexuality – mainly expat men and nationals.
  
  The coffee groups among expat women were often both dangerous and sources of information – because often they were the font of all rumours or could corroborate what was going on.
  
  Wife and girl friend “swapping” was a popular pastime amongst the expats, and the coffee groups identified above often knew all.
  
  It was a life once experienced, that unless you were a glutton for that lifestyle not to be revisted.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:32am
- Bob
  
  We can’t even fix our own NZ grown problems; certainly not while Ardern is in control!
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:47am
- KevO'Brien
  
  I thought Helen Clark was a former PM. Surely she encountered PNG and its ruling classes?
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:08am
Yabster

From Judith: re 3 Waters:

Dear …

As we suspected, Labour has announced today that they are forcing their Three Waters reforms on local councils by legislation.

Let me make our position very clear: National will repeal the Three Waters reforms and return all seized assets back to your local councils as soon as we return to Government.

Labour will try to ram their bill through Parliament at any cost, but National will fight them every step of the way. We can’t afford to lose the ‘local’ from local government.

Labour have failed to deliver on just about everything they’ve promised, and we need your help to tell as many Kiwis as possible. Can we count on your support?

Nanaia Mahuta has foreshadowed this path for months, continually refusing to rule out mandating the reforms:

First, the Government tried a $4 million scare campaign of misleading cartoon ads, showing sludge pouring from people’s taps.
Then they announced a $2.5 billion slush fund to buy council support, which most councils saw for what it was.
Finally, and most despicably, Nanaia Mahuta and Jacinda Ardern were willing to put councils though a sham consultation process, when they always intended to make it mandatory.
It is plain for anyone to see that the Three Waters reforms are an asset and power grab by a Government that never met a public service it didn’t want to centralise and control.

We need every fed-up New Zealander despairing about this Government to know that National has your back and we’re focused on making sure Labour has no chance at the next election.

National has been vocally and relentlessly opposing the Three Waters asset grab in the news, in parliament, and on social media. Our job on Three Waters has only just begun as we prepare to throw everything at Labour to oppose the legislation.

Tell your family and friends that National opposes Labour’s Three Waters reforms. We will repeal and reverse it.

Until next time, thank you again for your support. Any contribution you can make to our efforts to return National to Government is greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Judith

Hon Judith Collins
National Party Leader
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October 28, 2021 8:06am
- Nick R
  
  I think this is missing a trick. I reckon National and ACT should support the Three Waters reform on the basis that they will privatise the new water bodies as soon as they are able to form a government. This works on two levels. It might scare the Government off because there is no way it can legislate a regime which would bind the hands of a future Government – that would impossible and unconstitutional. But if it doesn’t, National and ACT could go right ahead and privatise. I’m sure it would be popular with the right and centre-leaning voters, and the left would go ballistic. Fun for all the whanau.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:47am
  - Jack5
    
    Not a good idea, Nick R.
    
    Privatisation of water would be just as unpopular as Maori control. Why cancel a good political plank with an another unpopular one?
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:48am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Are you sure that Mahuta and goons are not going to sell NZ’s water off to Nestle or others?
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:10am
- Tomtoddy
  
  It is not so much the reforms that concern me – some schange is needed – but it is the Iwi takeover that Judith and all of us should be screaming about.
  
  Mahuta is an arrogant, manipulating Minister out of control.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:51am
  - 7kiwi11
    
    The fact no one in the media is even questioning future iwi involvement for fear of being labeled racist that scares me.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:13am
    - Jack5
      
      No media mentions… not because of fear of being labelled racist, it’s because the media has been bought by the Government and is in Jacindarella’s pocket.
      
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      October 28, 2021 9:50am
      - sooty
        
        Why was muhuta fronting and not cindy?
        Where’s cindy been all week?
        
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        October 28, 2021 11:13am
      - Observer of Life
        
        Sooty: Cindy only does fluff ..
        
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        October 28, 2021 12:27pm
    - Geoff1
      
      “The fact no one in the media is even questioning future iwi involvement for fear of being labelled racist that scares me”.
      May have something to do with the Public Interest Journalism (Propaganda) Fund
      https://d3r9t6niqlb7tz.cloudfront.net/media/documents/210429_PIJF_General_Guidelines_f4RtoKG_cRdUBNy_cLXUAKM.pdf
      That the guidelines state in part:
      • Actively promote the principles of Partnership, Participation and Active Protection under Te Tiriti o Waitangi acknowledging Maori as a Te Tiriti partner
      • Reflect the cultural diversity of New Zealand
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:17am
    - zulumonster
      
      The De Kock dilemma …
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:33am
    - Nickc2
      
      Yes, why Judith didn’t play the Race Card beats me?
      I think it’s because she may have to invite the Maori party and others to join her to form a Govt in the future.
      To me, this is not a good enough reason at this point in time because the lunatics we currently see masquerading as the Maori Party probably won’t be around too much longer. IMO, they currently only have the support of young Maori academics, radicals and those seeing dollar signs for doing nothing, not the Maori Elders with their influence over Maori issues on their Maraes (this is what I’m being told by Maori mates around my own age).
      I sincerely hope they are right because the last thing NZ needs is to regress into a reverse apartheid system of Govt.
      
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      October 28, 2021 1:04pm
  - Clyde
    
    Mahuta’s next major agenda item is the reform of Local Government (well under way) and ONE of those reforms is that ALL local government will be structured with 50/50 maori co-governance. Local Government NZ are already on board with that one.
    
    Would only take one decent investigative reporter to work on that story to reveal it to the general public but no hope of that happening either.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:16am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    She is beyond that. She’s a sneaky insurrectionist. The PM must be aware so what’s in it for her?
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:11am
- dcrane
  
  Re: Judith and 3 Waters – Where has this sort of resolute opposition been on the pandemic response?
  
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  October 28, 2021 11:47am
  - Observer of Life
    
    DC: And just how hard will it be to reverse? I truly do not believe it will be reversed. National can promise what they line, but the proof will be in the pudding. Think Key’s election promise (2008??) to get rid of the Maori seats. Hmm.. how did that work out?
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:30pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Play school TV1 this morning. Some professor rabbiting on about covid vax misinformation bein spread on social media by people who are not experts. Does she mean people like Hendy, Wiles, Plank, Baker are experts? Sure they are.
Reactions to the vaccine are a REAL thing, but she is trying to cover it up. Govt propaganda full stop.
Here is an example of a young Australian girl’s life ruined. Does this professor know about this? Does she say it is misinformation?
https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/teen-equestrian-star-cienna-knowles-hospitalised-with-blood-clots-after-pfizer-vaccine/news-story/286e7cd42e896b091e4b257322296a05
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October 28, 2021 8:07am
- RockyJ
  
  Their is a developing story about the vaccine disabling our body’s natural immune response. The consequence is that we may have to rely on boosters forever as the virus finds it way around vaccine protection
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:26am
- PhilBest
  
  And the six figures of people kicked off Facebook because they joined a support group for adverse reaction sufferers? Long time ago, too.
  
  Does the fact that Big Brother memory-holes these people mean they really truly don’t exist?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:28am
- emmess
  
  The only reason we are reading about that poor girl, is because she was a social media influencer.
  For less popular people, health care workers are being told to say it is unrelated to the vaccine.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:48am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    See the photo of the blood clots on the palm of her hand? It is serious, and ruined her life – media influencer or not.
    Less popular, like the year 13 girl from Ponsonby?Authorities still say she did not die from the covid vax – propaganda
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:38am
- Raphael
  
  What they are failing with is this:
  Every medical treatment has side effects, in some cases those can be very serious (I don’t know what would be worse, sudden death or anal leakage).
  
  The treatments that passed their trials, the risks from side effects is lower than the benefits of the treatment.
  
  But trying to bury the side effects of these vaccines they are infact hindering our ability to make an informed decision (as Joe Rogan commented, Google is killing the reports in search, he had to use Duck Duck Go)
  
  I researched the information available and came to the conclusion that any risks were out weighted the benefits.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:06am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    And that needs to be a private medical assessment based on your personal circumstances. Not wide-spread coercion as we now experience.
    
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    October 28, 2021 3:39pm
Yvette

3 Waters – He Puna Wai, He Puna Ora
Government kills off capital gains tax, won’t happen on Jacinda Ardern’s watch.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern [said] there was no mandate – and no consensus – for a CGT.
In doing so she has rejected a key recommendation from the Tax Working Group – which cost an estimated $2 million to run.
“The Tax Working Group gave the Government, and the country, an opportunity to look at the fairness of our tax system and debate options for change,” she said.

“Debate options” – a “conversation” in which Government never gave its side – never expressed what its side of the “conversation” actually was – just as with the “hate speech” conversation where the matter being discussed isn’t defined apart from “When you see it, you will know it”.

… Ardern said under her leadership, the Government would never push for a capital gains tax.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-kills-off-capital-gains-tax-wont-happen-on-jacinda-arderns-watch/PRAJYZ2BSONYAFTJI4HJ6JUS5A/

So where, in 3 Waters, is a mandate from New Zealand’s ratepayers
Councils don’t own the infrastructure of drinking water, waste water or storm water, the ratepayers of New Zealand do.

And a Maori spokesperson said yesterday they would guard against privatisation – when he is a voice for the group involved in very privatisation – Maori – who are to get 50 percent control of 3 Waters while being an ethnic minority of about 16.5 percent, and even a lesser percent of ratepayers than that. And will any largesse be bestowed on Maori iwi elite and not trickle down to those Māori … more likely to be overweight, depressed, homeless, incarcerated and uneducated [Kelvin Davis, 2017] … and now unvaccinated?

(But to say much more may offend the undefined “hate speech” – ‘I do know it, so you won’t see it’)

As covid screws the nation, should Government do the same?

I haven’t taken my morning medications yet, or had the coffee to wash them down.
(One pill is a statin, which fucks with your memory until you forget to take it – then you come right again, for a while, until you remember to take it again because the good it does is supposed to exceed the side effects. Pity I can’t say the same of Ardern’s Government – who can take much more of it?
But this is a distraction from the point above – WHERE IS THE FUCKING MANDATE OR CONSENSUS ?)

For the use of the “f” word – please see Osho https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upnCWRbkzXM
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October 28, 2021 8:09am
- Tony Stuart
  
  The Covid outbreak in Christchurch must NOT be allowed to take any focus away from the Government’s Three Waters betrayal.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:38am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Tony the feckless are like goldfish – they have forgotten about 3 waters already.
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:51am
  - Yabster
    
    Perfect timing though isn’t it……..
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:07am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Indeed.
      How can we be sure to trust any such announcements. The testing regime leaves plenty of scope for deceit.
      
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      October 28, 2021 10:15am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Deceit? Bareface lies is better
        
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        October 28, 2021 10:40am
      - sooty
        
        Will we get a nationwide lockdown with the Chch covid?
        That may impede the leaders travel plans!
        
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        October 28, 2021 11:17am
    - bronny1
      
      I understood the person from Auckland has been here for a week. So they must have known about it from waste water testing.
      Timing is everything.
      
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      October 28, 2021 12:05pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The media has been paid to deflect
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:34am
  - Warren
    
    Just like the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Nanaia Muhuta admits Three Waters ‘not a popular set of decisions ‘, says ‘misinformation ‘ causing unnecessary fear.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/10/nanaia-mahuta-admits-three-waters-not-a-popular-set-of-decisions-says-misinformation-causing-unnecessary-fear.html
    When this Labour Government took control four years ago the scare mongering began with nine years of neglect in our Health System and gross underfunding, then Covid -19 came along and to hide their glaring mistakes and gross incompetence they used the dailly pulpit of supposed truth to condemn misinformation supposedly from the opposition parties to say we are the only source of truth.
    Now we have the very same exercise happening from Nanaia Muhuta blaming misinformation for the Three Waters confiscation that is pending from this Government, so again this political corrupt Government turns to scaremongering and bulling to hopefully win a argument that should never take place.
    Theft is a word that should be not used when debating political mistakes but really what other word could you use.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:24am
  - cmm
    
    I reckon that’s half the reason it came out.
    
    The person has been sick in Chch for 2 weeks. It only comes out the day after the 3 waters shitstorm. Bloody convenient!
    
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    October 28, 2021 3:21pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      If they’ve been sick for two weeks they’re no longer infectious. The analysis I’ve read suggests the virus is mostly gone by day 10 and what’s left is cellular damage and derangement that has initiated a hyperinflammatory response.
      
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      October 28, 2021 3:26pm
RockyJ

Nanaia Mahuta will push through with her Three Waters legislation no matter what. She held hui up and down the country from which the media were excluded. It begs the question of how far the conspiracy amongst Maori to corrupt our country goes. What she promised Maori no one knows. But I bet that backing down would mean a massive loss of face. And looking at her face that would be a lot to lose.
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October 28, 2021 8:10am
- DeepBlue
  
  Yesterday Ngai Tahu announce they are happy with reforms.
  
  That’s the same iwi trying to convert mega plots of Canterbury forestry blocks and land to dairy, but can’t YET due to declined water access.
  
  Stewards of the land, until there is a buck to be made.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:00am
- hullkiwi
  
  And not much of a face to be lost for the rest of us in this country.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:01am
- Albert_Ross
  
  I have a question here.
  
  Do we think local councils have been doing a good job of water management, and if not, what do we think the Government should do about it?
  
  Yes, obviously the answer is not “hand over all the power to unelected, unaccountable individuals qualified by nothing but their self-identification as Maori”. But what then is it?
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:26am
  - septic skeptic
    
    It’s not just water. The whole of local government doesn’t work. There might be some exceptions in smaller districts, but Auckland is completely out of control.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:47am
  - bronny1
    
    there is a whole range of models that should be considered well before centralisation. For example, setting quality standards with implications of those that fail to meet them. Help out with funding to accelerate programmes of work, if this is the constraint. For those that fail to meet quality standards within a timeframe then you might look to put in place different management. This approach of centralising though is extreme and as Castalia said, the CBA is laughable.
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:09pm
Southern Raider

What we have learnt today

You can be double vaccinated in Auckland and not allowed to cross the border under Police threat

However if you are an unvaccinated sex worker, truck driver, going to a funeral or returning to ChCh you can just ask the Govt nicely and they will let you travel without having to take the jab

These idiots get more incompetent each day
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October 28, 2021 8:15am
- 7kiwi11
  
  and you can take your unvaccinated status on a plane no less!
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:17am
- MCos
  
  It is not specifically a requirement to be vaccinated to travel anywhere in NZ . . . . . yet.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:30am
  - Ehlana
    
    This government attacked Judith Collins for travelling to Wellington to do her job (one of the more important in a democracy), but it’s okay for anyone else to go from Auckland to Christchurch?
    
    Does that make sense to anyone?
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:24am
Captain Mainwaring

So Covid’s on the loose in Christchurch.
Question: Why are unvaccinated people allowed to get on planes?
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October 28, 2021 8:17am
- Scott
  
  Quite right Capt! Why are unvaccinated people allowed on planes? Why are they allowed in restaurants? Why are they allowed in church?
  
  Don’t worry. No doubt in due time our socialist overlords will have issued vaccine passports so you can travel throughout your own country and your own town and have the “freedom” to drink coffee in a café. Only after producing your vaccine passport of course.
  
  The funny thing is that many people are perfectly okay with this?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:27am
  - MCos
    
    “Why are unvaccinated people allowed on planes?”
    Because it’s not mandated by the airlines to travel domestically.
    The person who flew to Chch could just as easily travelled by land or sea.
    The only requirement is to have a covid test before leaving Auckland.
    
    Apart from that the bug was always going to find its way around the country sooner or later.
    I predicted on this very forum Chch would be on the radar before the end of the month. It doesn’t take a PhD in contagious disease science.
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:43am
    - sooty
      
      Don’t you need an exemption to leave level 3 in auckland to travel over the border?
      How did they even get on a plane?
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:23am
  - DeepBlue
    
    At 90% vaccine coverage, passports should no longer be required…. if vaccines work.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:02am
  - Inandout
    
    Scott, many people are OK with this because they have been pre-conditioned to obey with the face masks. Passports are merely a follow on to this.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:43am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    The funny thing is that many people are perfectly okay with this?
    
    It’s not funny at all. In fact that’s the thing that concerns me the most about all this, not the government but the people. You can replace a government.
    
    Several million Germans had to wait until the fall of the Berlin Wall and the search through the Stasi files before they found out they’d been spied on, ratted out and had their lives screwed over by friends, lovers, spouses, parents and children.
    
    In contrast I can say about my fellow New Zealanders that at least I know all this up-front because they’re not hiding it.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:44am
- krazykiwi
  
  Question: Why are unvaccinated people allowed to get on planes?
  
  I suggest the bigger question is this: Why do you ask such stupid questions?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:28am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Apparently, mandatory vaccinations for internal travel between places with different alert levels are still in the Government’s “too hard” basket.
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:32am
    - Charmaine Hawke
      
      Tony and there they should remain
      
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      October 28, 2021 9:27am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I stress I do not agree with the idea, but I think the Government will ban the unvaccinated from domestic air travel and the inter islander ferries.
        
        Justin Trudeau has gone that route in Canada and it has widespread public support. Jacinda will read the tea leaves and go down this route as soon as vaccine certificates are enabled.
        
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        October 28, 2021 11:43am
  - Bevan
    
    Another question could be, why do you love the Adern government that you’d defend them on this?
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:34am
- PhilBest
  
  An intelligent answer, if the airline industry had a spine, would be the ventilation rates on planes makes them the safest environment you could be apart from outdoors.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:29am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  All part of Jaspinda’s evil plan so she can slam Te Waipounamu into Level 4 (red light) to get them under control like Auckland. Everything needs to be equal under socialism//
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:39am
  - DeepBlue
    
    Clearly the first agent in Blenheim failed. Now to call the sleepers out and have them reveal their worst activities.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:04am
  - Bridgenag
    
    ….some more equal than others…
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:33am
  - bronny1
    
    sorry where? or what?
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:10pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Whooossshhh //
      
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      October 28, 2021 3:10pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  vaccinated people spread covid too. The only way to prevent spread is stopping all travel, second best method would be rapid saliva testing – but govt is too negligent to get that running.
  
  To be honest at this stage we are probably better off with rapid spread – to see an end to govt lockdowns sooner rather than this slow economic garrotting of NZ as they try to slow things. And if you are vaxxed you are better off catching covid sooner rather than later – every day of delay in our population getting covid will kill about 1 person through immunity deterioration with age, and that is ignoring the rapid drop in vax immunity which makes the situation many times worse. Delays will kill.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:39am
- bronny1
  
  You’re asking the wrong question. Unvaxxed people at least have symptoms generally, if we need to differentiate, the vaxxed are more dangerous as often they don’t even know they have it.
  
  The question should be, if we are determined to keep it out of the SI, why are pre departure rapid tests not done?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:40am
  - MCos
    
    A pre departure test was done.
    The rapid tests are not particularly reliable.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:00am
    - bronny1
      
      they might not pick up everyone, but they will pick up some proportion of them.
      
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      October 28, 2021 12:12pm
- Frank the tank
  
  Don’t worry I understand that the government has purchased some spare land out the back of Morrinsville that they can run rail lines to.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:54am
  - sooty
    
    That would be a fitting place to have the Gulag!
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:27am
- dcrane
  
  The question is a distraction (why allow the unvaxxed on planes). The vaccinated, too, will be getting infected increasingly often as their antibodies wane, as is amply demonstrated by data from the likes of Israel and the UK.
  
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  October 28, 2021 11:49am
- Benedict Yu
  
  What is interesting is the up and down ticks are evenly balanced. This is on a blog that champions freedoms. In the general population there will be overwhelming support from banning the unvaccinated from domestic flights. I think such bans are almost a certainty when we get the vaccine certificates up and running.
  
  Dividing societies like this never ends well.
  
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  October 28, 2021 12:04pm
CAKE FACE1

Locking down until a 90% vaccination rate is achieved is simply absurd.

The economy is being vandalised to save a small number of people.

How did such irresponsible governance become normalised?
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October 28, 2021 8:20am
- Ra Henare
  
  Lockdowns dont work.
  According to real experts!!
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zG7XZ2JXZqY
  
  Fast forward the boring bits 🙂 🙂
  There are gems in the whole interview.
  
  This guy has the creds that Jackson, Baker et all DONT have.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:38am
- MCos
  
  The current restrictions are in place to save the hospital system.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:05am
  - kowtow
    
    The hospital system has essentially , de facto, collapsed already .
    All the cancellations are a proof of that .
    
    It hasn’t worked properly for over 18 months.
    
    What’s been saved .
    
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    October 28, 2021 4:28pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    That’s what they say, but if it were true, they would be addressing that problem. Since they have actually managed to reduce ICU beds over the past year to 18 months that excuse doesn’t meet the smell test any more.
    
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    October 28, 2021 6:49pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Another one who thinks people should be forced to sacrifice themselves to save the health system.
    
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    October 28, 2021 7:27pm
- stewmar
  
  How did such irresponsible governance become normalised?
  
  The sheeple voted them in…..simple
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:43am
Old White Loser

Here is a question, if you need a third vaccine shot because you are immunosuppressed and not fully protected should you be counted as fully vaccinated until you have the third?
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October 28, 2021 8:26am
- krazykiwi
  
  The number of shots you have subjected you adaptive immune system to and your vaccination status are orthogonal. The status will be set by your quasi-fascist rulers in a manner that elicits continued compliance with whatever diktat de jour is currently being served up.
  
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  October 28, 2021 7:32pm
yossarian

Expect the cabal to attack Sir Russell Coutts in 3…2…1
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October 28, 2021 8:26am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  He’s got fuck-off money, so no problem. Good on him for speaking up though.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:40am
- alex Masterley
  
  Sir Russell hosed me off in 2000 when he jumped ship from Team NZ.
  I am starting to warm to him again after comments like that.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:38am
  - DeepBlue
    
    We need a leader who is tough and clinical. There’s no doubt Sir Russell proved his capabilities in 2000.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:08am
  - MCos
    
    I couldn’t give a toss about him jumping ship from from Team NZ. At that level you’ve got to expect career comes first.
    I read his piece yesterday and once again self interest comes first.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:13am
  - cmm
    
    Perhaps that’s not what really happened.
    
    The whole of Team NZ “jumped ship” to the big cheque from Dubai.
    
    It is hardly “Team NZ” at all, except the buggers don’t mind putting a siphon into our pockets and pumping them dry.
    
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    October 28, 2021 3:29pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Name something stupid that liberals do.
Claim there is a ender pay gap then turn around and say there is no such thing as gender……
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October 28, 2021 8:26am
- emmess
  
  They ceased being liberal a long time ago
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:53am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Claim they are “Liberals” then spend all their time dictating how others must live their lives.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:14am
Captain Mainwaring

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Next question: Why are there so many anti-vaxers on this blog?
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October 28, 2021 8:27am
- krazykiwi
  
  Define ‘anti-vaxxer’. In accurate terms. Just when you’re ready.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:29am
  - Bevan
    
    If you want a definition, I’m sure you know how to use google.
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:33am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Someone who is not a Sheep???
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:35am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Let’s put this to rest. Here is a definition:
    Someone who may be opposed to just Pfizer, or maybe mRNA vaxes in general but might be OK with Oxford AZ, or someone who is waiting for Novovax, or someone who wants to rely on their natural immunity. Or someone who just doesn’t want to Vax against covid but might do against some other disease. Accepting that any and all of these groups will have subsets that are for or against the MMR Vax, and a group that just doesn’t believe in vaxes.
    
    It’s too tiresome to type it out. So we use “anti-vaxxer”
    
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    October 28, 2021 9:50am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Anti-vaxers is a label not just now applied to those who do not want a Covid 19 vaccine. It seems to be aimed at those who have had vaccinations for all sorts of diseases. Quite untrue. Those vaxes were tested over many many years – not 20 months like Covid vaccine.
      Anyway, if you have say polio, tetanis, measles vax, it is unlikely you will get those things.
      Covid vax is not stopping covid (poss making it easier to cope with) Therefore the Covid vaccination is NOT a vaccination, it is like taking Vitamin C before the winter.
      Those who think otherwise are deluded sheep.
      Yes I have had my first vax, but I resisted for a quite different reason
      
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      October 28, 2021 3:21pm
    - Salacious Crumb
      
      So what do you call someone who thinks a person should have a medical treatment they neither want nor consent to?
      
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      October 28, 2021 4:59pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        [Deleted – OTT. mod.]
        
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        October 28, 2021 6:53pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Not an anti-vaxer. I am happy to take a vaccine to protect myself from the Covid19 virus when a vaccine becomes available.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:31am
- emmess
  
  I am sure everyone here has vaccines
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:54am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  It’s a side effect of being well informed, and not instinctively swallowing all the bullshit fed to you by a corrupted and propagandizing govt/media edifice in the pay of Big Pharma and their multi-billion dollar lobbying/advertising budgets. Big Pharma has effective control of a few pivotal institutions and media outlets pushing their preferred outcomes on the whole population. You have to take a lot on faith with regard to reporting of side-effects to go with vaccination as a young person with low natural risk from covid.
  
  My personal judgement as an older adult is that the benefits outweigh the likely risks for me, but I would not criticise anyone who comes to a different assessment of those risks given how appallingly opaque and negligent/deliberately obfuscating the powers that be have been with regard to assessing and reporting negative side effects. There is no doubt that the vaccine is causing serious injuries and even death in many (and who knows what other potential long term harms are being done – that will take years to be fully revealed), but the data collection mechanisms in place to track and quantify those risks are generally very poor. What is alarming however is the hints coming from increased non-covid hospitalisations and excess deaths, as well as the insanity of pushing the risky and damaging vax on kids with nearly zero risk from covid itself.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:12am
- bruceavon
  
  Yes. I used to read and somethimes comment on here a while ago, about things to the right of politics in NZ. But now when I come back it seems full of covid conspiracies I have no interest in. Links to dodgy articles, facts placed from all over the place. Arguments that are never going to change anything and are therefore pointless. All the political parties accept the fundamental views about covid.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:48am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Because the definition of “anti-vaxer” has been changed to anyone that’s against vaccine mandates.
  
  I am double vaxed and believe it is the correct play but am against mandates.
  
  That makes me an anti-vaxer apparently.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:16am
- The Boss
  
  Captain: You will be an expired vaxer soon. You will be in the same boat as the anti-vaxers.
  
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  October 28, 2021 12:59pm
- Observer of Life
  
  Cap: I’m certainly not anti-vaxx. (What can’t people understand with this???) I had my double shot of the Fizzer back in March. But I can not condone forcing a medical procedure on those that don’t want it. It’s quite simple really. Choices. And with choices we all understand there will be consequences. If you listen to Des Gorman he does not believe our hospitals won’t cope. They’ll just shuffle patients/procedures as required. Nothing different to what we are currently experiencing with these ridiculous lockdowns.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:22pm
- Salacious Crumb
  
  Captain I think you should have your prostate removed immediately. There is ample evidence that by doing so you mitigate the risks associated with Prostate Cancer but the procedure may leave you impotent, incontinent or dead but is otherwise deemed ‘safe’. Because of the prevalence of Prostate Cancer in New Zealand this will likely be compulsory for men over 40 to remove the stress on the health system for this common disease. Your freedom of movements and societal participation will be removed until you comply. I am sure you understand and accept this healthcare initiative.
  
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  October 28, 2021 5:03pm
Tony Stuart

A must-read from Marc Daalder at Newsroom:

Documents reveal ‘real lack of preparedness for Delta’

Health briefings obtained by Newsroom show the Government only began planning for a Delta outbreak in late July, just weeks before the virus escaped MIQ in August, Marc Daalder reports

A single bullet-point in a late July health report is the first sign that the Government was preparing for a Delta outbreak.

Officials from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) told Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins they were “considering refinements to plans in light of the Delta variant and the global up trend in maritime outbreaks”.

The reference appears in an excerpt from a Covid-19 weekly report provided to Hipkins on July 22, released to Newsroom under the Official Information Act alongside a number of other documents about how Delta might alter the Covid-19 response.

Two weeks later, officials provided more details, with health officials saying “the increasing transmissibility of the Delta variant also prompts the need to ensure our measures to present in-MIQF transmission are as strong as possible” and DPMC advising that a system-wide workshop on Delta was scheduled for August 10.

On August 6, Hipkins received a more extensive briefing about how the response would shift in light of the danger that Delta posed.

“In order to maintain elimination, our response will need to be faster, possibly last for longer, employ more stringent public health measures than may have been previously used, and possibly use these more widely, including the use of Alert Level 4 restrictions if necessary,” Ministry of Health officials told Hipkins.

The next day, a traveller from New South Wales infected with Covid-19 arrived in the Crowne Plaza MIQ facility. Within days, the virus would be circulating in the community. By the time Hipkins signed off on the briefing, on August 12, he had already publicly warned that Level 4 might be needed to tackle Delta, but it was another five days until the outbreak was discovered.

That day, August 17, was also the day a report on Government-wide readiness for Delta was due to be submitted to chief executives of government departments. The bulk of the Delta preparedness work programme wasn’t scheduled to be completed until the end of August and “larger pieces of work” were still slated to be done only in mid-September.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/pro/documents-reveal-real-lack-of-preparedness-for-delta

We all may have suspected that the Government got complacent and didn’t really prepare for a Delta incursion. Now we have the confirmation, via official documents released under the OIA. Little wonder there hasn’t been a proactive release of documents!

Daalder also quotes Chris Bishop, National’s Covid spokesman:

National Party Covid-19 Response spokesperson Chris Bishop said the documents show the Government waited until too late to begin planning for Delta, with the work only truly getting started once the virus was in the community.

“The documents seem to back up what we and others have been saying for a while now, which is that there was a real lack of preparedness for Delta,” he said.

“You know we did such a good job in 2020 that I think the Government essentially went into a bit of complacency for the first six months of 2021, and really only started to grapple with the reality of Delta basically around about the time that Delta turned up. So, literally, these documents are contemporaneous with Delta arriving into New Zealand on the 7th of August, one of the briefings is dated the 6th of August.”

It’s pretty clear that Labour dropped the ball in preparing for the Delta outbreak, which has now affected New Zealanders for more than ten weeks. It reinforces the need for a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Government’s Covid response, the single most costly event in New Zealand’s history.
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October 28, 2021 8:30am
- Tomtoddy
  
  I can verify the Daalder claims Tony. I have to be careful because of family connections but senior doctors at our major hospitals prepared plans over a year ago to extend ICU beds and Health Ministry and politicians did not take any notice.
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:39am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Has there ever been a more useless fuckup of a govt in NZ history?
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:42am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      They are not finished yet . . .
      
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      October 28, 2021 9:17am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Nope Urban. Even the Rowling had people around him with a few clues. As Deputy PM, he had Hugh Watt and Bob Tizard. Ardern has….. Robertson and before, Davis. Rowling had Phil Amos in Education, Ardern has…. Hipkins. Health, either of Tizard and Tom McGuigan v Little. Sigh. Social Welfare, Norman King v Sepuloni.
      The list goes on and not one of Ardern’s cabinet would have made Rowling’s. Rowling had Mat Rata, Roger Douglas, Joe Walding, Warren Freer on top of those mentioned. Ardern has Woods, Mahuta, Henare, Davis. The gulf in firepower is massive.
      
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      October 28, 2021 9:24am
      - sooty
        
        You forgot the font of all knowledge Phil Twyford!
        
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        October 28, 2021 11:33am
  - cmm
    
    I don’t have any contacts in Min H but my cardiologist was halfway chewing his arm off with frustration in the middle of last year.
    
    In February 2020 they were very proud in having worked damn hard to clear up all the outpatient backlogs etc and were performing extremely well. Then came March 2020 and their outpatients services were shut down for 4 months due to Level 4 – even though there were never more than 2 CV19 patients in Chch hospital during that whole time (most of the time there were zero).
    
    In July they started again with a huge backlog and had failed to provided timeous care to all their patients. For some that would lead to poor outcomes (I was OK, but I was kept on a nasty med for 4 months longer than I should have been). The cardiologist was ropeable. He hated the fact that his patients had been compromised by a stupid blanket policy.
    
    Having worked hard to catch up in Feb 2020, he reckoned it would take at least 6 months to catch up again.
    
    Poor bugger. Working hard to help us and the government making things impossible.
    
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    October 28, 2021 3:46pm
- I remember when
  
  The worst feature of the government planning, or lack thereof, is that Winter was the time when Delta’s impact would be greatest.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:41am
- alex Masterley
  
  Tony, the words smug indifference spring to mind.
  Blind Pew could have seen what was happening in NSW with their delta outbreak.
  Planning should have commenced immediately.
  I hold the government (and particularly the Department of the Prime Minster and Cabinet) entirely responsible for the current outbreak through its failure to plan properly which has lead to piss poor performance
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:42am
- cmm
  
  “It’s pretty clear that Labour dropped the ball in preparing for the Delta outbreak”
  
  Does Labour really get a say in the matter? Isn’t it all Cindy and her awesome inchewishun?
  
  Cindy has a child mind. She hang her brand on the elimination strategy. She probably thinks that actually fixing ICU numbers to be prepared for the inevitable would jinx her elimination strategy.
  
  Yes, I really do believe that she is child-minded enough to believe in jinxes.
  
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  October 28, 2021 3:34pm
I remember when

In memory of Christmas Parades:
Not now coming to a town near you.
Another Government cost saving measure.
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October 28, 2021 8:32am
- Tony Stuart
  
  If anything, I’d prefer them to cancel Halloween!
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:36am
  - emmess
    
    One day, medical tyranny will be cancelled
    
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    October 28, 2021 8:55am
- Ehlana
  
  Last year I went for a Covid test in the Ellen Melville Centre. As I queued in Freyberg Square I admired the colourful Diwali decorations.
  
  Later in the year I went back to see how it was decorated for Christmas. It wasn’t.
  
  In fact, Council’s decorations for Christmas were few, far between and pathetic. I don’t think it is cost-saving, so much as antipathy towards anything associated with the west.
  
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  October 28, 2021 12:02pm
  - marcw
    
    Wait until next year and watch them falling over each other competing to see who can spend the most on Matariki – “my virtue posturing is bigger than yours” will be the norm.
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:20pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Whitehouse has never heard of ‘Let’s go Brandon’
LGBFJB.
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/white-house-claims-they-never-heard-of-lets-go-brandon-chant/?
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October 28, 2021 8:33am
- Reid
  
  In order to do what they do, the left have to pretend not to know various things. This is just an example of that same phenomena. Another example is pretending not to understand the devastating consequences to a child’s normal development if they’re indoctrinated with highly se3xualised education material at a very young age. They do it all the time. All. The. Time.
  
  If we had a real media they wouldn’t allow this and would call lefty’s bluff everytime they did it. But of course, you know why that never happens.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:55am
- Ed Snack
  
  That would be par for the course, the various anti-trump adherents here used to claim that Trump lied all the time, be compared to Biden and his administration he was a rank amateur. And Biden lies about things that matter.
  
  Though to be fair all the fake stories he tells at every opportunity aren’t fake in his own mind, the senile do tend to believe the guff they spout, and he’s no different.
  
  Biden turned up at a rally to support McAuliffe for Governor of Va, and the crowd was about 40-50 people once you excluded security and press.
  
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  October 28, 2021 7:01pm
Yvette

The Electricity Authority (EA) says households may be paying an extra $200 per year for power, as they subsidise the cheap energy the Tiwai Point Aluminium Smelter receives.

Why … really?

Especially if green-hydrogen is going to replace Tiwai usage?
And, although financially this darling project of Winston Peters will be like the Hindenberg hitting the Titanic, what is it to do with those who get electricity from any other source?
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October 28, 2021 8:33am
- peterwn
  
  I can only conclude the Electricity Authority is politically posturing or its analysts are on another planet. Meridian Energy made as NZX announcement where it commented on the report and is well worth a read – see https://www.nzx.com/announcements/381605
  Interestingly, the mainstream electricity retailers could have increased small customer retail prices in line with increases that major users have suffered but have chosen not to. This would have been partly to avoid a political backlash and partly because as far as I know, there are still customers with old meters that cannot cope with variable tariffs. If the Government introduces reforms based on faulty analysis, the whole thing could blow up in the Government’s face. It would depend too on whether Grant Robertson would be prepared to tolerate lower dividend payments from the three Government partly owned ‘gentailers’. Another risk is power generation companies could stop investing meaning that the Government may be forced to invest directly in power generation.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:52am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Speaking of electricity, what about Pie-Lady’s ‘pumped hydro’ scheme? This involves pumping water up to a reservoir at the top of a mountain and generating electricity as it flows down again through a pipe. Not sure how it generates more electricity than it took to pump it up there.
  I thought this was a new idea, but no, I saw a TV show last night featuring just such a scheme which was built somewhere in the USA in 1963.
  The only problem was that about 40 years later the wall of the reservoir failed and all the water fell out, causing a massive flood.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:18am
  - Flossie
    
    If the wall of the reservoir failing was “the only problem” do I have to draw the conclusion that the scheme actually worked?
    (Not a fan of Ms Woods btw.)
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:37am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      Perhaps I should have said: ‘the MAIN problem’.
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:03am
      - Don Beckett
        
        They have a similar operation in Kangaroo Valley in NSW operating on the Kangaroo river – the pumping station is beside a waterfall and pumps the water back up during low level electricty use. I don’t know how succesful or financially viable it is/was, but I think it’s the only one in Oz – so maybe not worth repeating.
        
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        October 28, 2021 11:41am
  - septic skeptic
    
    The basic idea is you pump it up on a warm windy day and run it down on a cold still day.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:55am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Like charging a battery at the time when power is cheapest.
      
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      October 28, 2021 1:47pm
  - marcw
    
    The scheme could work if:
    1. We had unlimited water supply (we don’t)
    2. The pumped store water was where the electricity it provides was needed (it isn’t).
    
    If we run hydro overnight to pump for storage, there will be insufficient for normal needs. The Cook Strait power link is already at capacity, so the power will have nowhere to go.
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:26am
    - sooty
      
      With failing cables in Cook Straight!
      
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      October 28, 2021 11:35am
  - bronny1
    
    It uses, in general, about 25% of the electricity it generates for the pumping uphill. So for every kwh worth of water at the bottom, its worth 0.75kWh at the top. This could be useful given the range of prices peak/offpeak, but unfort the cost of the dam build blows any benefits out of the water.
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:18pm
  - peterwn
    
    There are inflows into Lake Onslow already and the scheme means the potential energy of these inflows can be harnessed. However the efficiency of the scheme would be about 80% or less with respect to pumping/ generation. The scheme is arguably premature since there is still sufficient buffer capacity in the present hydro stations to buffer the variable outputs of wind and solar power. The other claimed benefit is to ‘buffer’ dry years, but I suspect there is excessive optimism in this regard. A big problem too is the lake when the scheme is to be commissioned has to be initially filled. This means Roxburgh output has to be reduced for that period and the shortfall would need to be made up by burning coal at Huntly.
    
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    October 28, 2021 1:06pm
- Ed Snack
  
  That is, to put it mildly, bull. Manapouri power can’t even be distributed to the rest of NZ, and it is sold to the smelter at cost plus a little margin – the station takes f*** all to run, it’s all done remotely. And they probably make a small profit running tours through.
  
  It’s a political statement, nothing more. The administration wants to make changes and is setting the scene to justify it.
  
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  October 28, 2021 7:03pm
  - marcw
    
    Small point ES, the power station tours have been abandoned for about 2 years. H&S apparently. Pathetic I know. It was a highlight of my visit back last 1976.
    
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    October 28, 2021 7:15pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Snap. Probably about the same time too. Unforgettable.
      
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      October 28, 2021 8:29pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        Went through with my boys around 2014 or so, after completing the Milford track. Great experience, just wish we’d known that you could book a special guided tour to go deeper down with the turbines, a level below where the normal tourist route, definitely a highlight.
        
        Some years earlier also did the combined trip to the power station and over the Wilmott Pass to doubtful sound but didn’t do the overnight stay on the sound. The pass was fascinating in that over what is a fairly short road trip, the bush goes from green, to extra lush and green, to extra extra lush, green, and wet ! It was of course raining in the sound area though fine at the lake.
        
        But thanks for the comment, didn’t know that they had stopped the tours, they used to be quite popular.
        
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        October 29, 2021 12:56pm
westernScientest

Well that made the 3 waters theft disappear into the darkness to be forgotten very quickly….
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October 28, 2021 8:34am
- Gravelroad
  
  @western:
  The Labour Party knows that most people don’t know or care where water comes from – so long as it comes out of the tap and then down the gurgler.
  If there are increased charges the Party will ensure there are subsidies for the urban poor to pay water rates.
  Same goes for electricity. Who cares where that comes from as long as the on switch works?
  And again, more taxpayer grants will appear – just wait for election year.
  Also a lot more subsidies for electric vehicles to quell
  outcry about rising petrol prices.
  It’s all in hand, comrades.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:47am
  - westernScientest
    
    While I agree, these same peoples entire view of the world will come crashing down when water doesn’t come out of the tap, or the power goes out. Just look at the hysteria during the winter when one night a blackout was required to protect the grid.
    
    Ultimately it depends if the spin can convince people its the fault of capitalism, 9 years of neglect, the unvaxed, colonialism, or what ever the buzz word happens to be at the time, and more socialism is needed to fix it, or if people start to see through it and realise ‘KiwiPower’ is probably not the greatest idea. The same goes for the water, 3 waters will be a monumental failure, people will not like it, it is just a question as to whether they realise where the blame lies.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:11am
- peterwn
  
  Three waters may be a blessing in disguise for Judith Collins. However the average person may not care about it enough to significantly affect votes. A good tactic may be to scare the hell out of communities that do not currently have water metering.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:10pm
I remember when

The good news for the Government.
All going well myIR comes back on line today.
Another classic mistiming example.
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October 28, 2021 8:40am
Southern Raider

Counties Manukau DHB still needs 9,900 more first jabs to get to 90% before they can even think about double jabs

Robertson said earlier this week he was confident 90% would be reached by that DHB by end of this week

There daily run rate is around 500 new first jabs. As a Finance Minister 9,900 divided by 500 does not come anywhere close to 3 more days
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October 28, 2021 8:44am
- Yvette
  
  Southern Raider
  Of course, if the 9,900 to even have first jabs to get to 90 percent all went and did that today, it would be three weeks to 2nd jabs, and two weeks again after that for full vaccine efficacy, after Robertson’s confident prediction that DHB “milestone” would be reached by end of this week – so (five weeks total) near mid-December sometime.
  And Robertson on the side, as well as being yet another Minister of Health, is handling finance?
  
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  October 28, 2021 8:58am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Yvette, add to that, some numpty is urging Hipkins to encourage schools for Years 1 to 10 to reopen.
    
    Given that we know:
    1. Children under the age of 12 are not vaccinated;
    2. That it is 2 weeks away before the NZ Medsafe authority has received and analysed the US FDA decision and as to what vaccines will be available for NZ or whether they give children a reduced dose of the current adult dosage;
    3. That Covid Delta is spreading amongst children in school settings; and
    4. A significant proportion of NZ parents see schools as a baby sitting service for their “darlings”, do not worry whether their children are ill when they send them to school each day and whether they will then pass their germs on to other children.
    
    What do you think the chances of not having a significant Covid outbreak among primary school children before Christmas are?
    
    Given the track record of Jax and her collection of numpties, I would say not very high.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:37am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Pretty spot on for his arithmetic capabilities I would have thought.
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:08am
- 7kiwi11
  
  Surely we could just say “close enough” or apply some Swedish rounding?
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:22am
- Stu2
  
  Won’t be this week, but not long. Depends whether the rates get back to the levels of last Friday and Saturday, or stay around the Tuesday level.
  
  Friday 22 – 1,516
  Sat – 2,014
  Sun – 695
  Mon – 708
  Tue – 1,116
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:40am
- Frank the tank
  
  Math ain’t Grunter’s forte.
  
  Ironic really.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:05am
- DeepBlue
  
  Plan B. 10,000 CMDHB people who are not vaccinated are eligible for a 1 month all expenses paid trip to Northland.
  
  Auckland problem solved.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:16am
  - Bridgenag
    
    send the 501’s up too
    
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    October 28, 2021 11:50am
westernScientest

More people speaking out:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/300439983/sir-russell-coutts-slams-covid19-restrictions-accuses-government-of-dictatorship
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October 28, 2021 8:46am
I remember when

Three Waters.
‘A mistake’,’devastation’, ‘unacceptable’.
That seems to have gone well.
Who said Labour can’t the hard decisions.
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October 28, 2021 8:49am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The Biden Burger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srAsllHkdmw
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October 28, 2021 8:57am
I remember when

So Air NZ have greatly reduced the number of Domestic flights involving Auckland Airport.
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October 28, 2021 9:21am
kowtow

I don’t feel sorry for councils that have 3 W’s imposed on them and are unhappy.

They are the same people who were happy for Maori mandated wards , ignoring rate payers’ wishes.

They don’t like it up ’em.
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October 28, 2021 9:26am
- krazykiwi
  
  +1 for the Dad’s Army reference.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:32am
I remember when

How much use are the ‘Covid Vaccination Passports’ going to be.
Are there even going to be opportunities to use them.
Who would be prepared to run any sort of event of size during this Summer.
Of course, that is exactly when we should be holding possible ‘covid risk’ events.
Outdoors, lower risk and a chance to have contact with the virus while hospital availability is high.
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October 28, 2021 9:28am
- Aguy
  
  None for me. I refuse to give patronage to any place that requires one.
  
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  October 28, 2021 10:05am
Chuck Bird

Did anyone see Parliament yesterday where Hipkins chipped on q1 with a patsy question and asked Cindy if NZ had a higher vax rate than Oz, the UK and the US?

The truth is NZ Vax = 71.7 Oz vax = 72.7

I hope this can be raised in the House today.
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October 28, 2021 9:39am
- Stu2
  
  We are lower than the UK as well, and the EU.
  He asked this a week too soon.
  
  https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
  
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  October 28, 2021 9:47am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Thanks Stu but Bloomberg is way out of date.
    
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    October 28, 2021 10:51am
    - Stu2
      
      Out of date for where?
      
      It has been spot on for NZ and Oz. The rates it shows are for the entire population BTW.
      
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      October 28, 2021 12:49pm
- Paulus
  
  On Mike Hoskins programme this morning little boy repeated those figures only to be told accurately that his figures are wrong and Australia are ahead of New Zealand.
  He tried to bluster as usual but made an arse of himself again.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:57pm
Handyman

Judith Collins (and other National folk) should change their language. How many times I have heard Judith say “this government is terrible; this government will be much better”. It works in the debating chamber where she can point at the sides of the house but not anywhere else.
She should always refer to the current administration as the Labour Party, in much the same way people now refer to the Chinese government as the CCP.
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October 28, 2021 9:55am
Frank the tank

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/10/27/florida-tied-for-lowest-daily-coronavirus-cases-per-capita-in-the-u-s/

One for Batty. Looks like Ron’s doing a lot better than most Democrats without:

a). Mandates
b). Masks

Who would have thought?
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October 28, 2021 10:04am
- All_on_Red
  
  Batty will do what he usually does and denigrate the source of the reporting
  He only believes info from Approved Sources don’t cha know
  Probably explains why he knows so little
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:08pm
- dcrane
  
  To be fair, the article didn’t mention if Florida is testing at the same level as other states.
  
  But that aside, the hot season is over, and everyone is coming out from closed-in air-conditioned environments.
  
  And the corporate media will no doubt be completely ignoring this, after having pointed fingers at them earlier in the year.
  
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  October 28, 2021 4:04pm
Sacha

Good Morning New Zealand! PM Sacha here.
I had a Zoom meeting with all of you, in my dreams last night, and after giving your comments MUCH THOUGHT, I have decided upon the following actions, which will take effect at mid- day today:
All levels are removed. NZ is open!
All New Zealanders are to resume their active and productive lives. They will take all reasonable precautions to safeguard their own health – this includes such rudimentary practices as covering the mouth when coughing, and opening windows to enable fresh air to circulate.
Employers are not to impose pro-vaccination conditions on employment.
The vaccination industry will cease production at 12 mid day, and all medical staff will resume their regular duties. PCR tests will no longer be used as a diagnostic tool for COVID19.
Police and Defence forces will return to their regular pre-pandemic duties.

Other good news: I am pleased to say that the Care Packs have arrived from India, and act comes with instructions for use, in English. These will be distributed to ‘hot spots’ throughout New Zealand within the next 24 hours, and the next shipment is expected to arrive by Monday next week. There will be enough available for every person who gets symptoms of onset of COVID19 to start using them immediately. There will be no cost to the user.

That’s it. Everyone take a deep breath and smile. We can do this!
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October 28, 2021 10:07am
dime

Landlords and tenants divided over rent relief bill

LMAO

Great headline Herald.

In tomorrows edition:

Chicken and Dime divided over whether Chicken makes a delicious meal.
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October 28, 2021 10:14am
JohnnyOverton

Looks like there’ll be 2 ‘No to 3 Waters’ & ‘No to He Puapua’ protests in 2 weeks. The first in Christchurch Cathedral square, Sunday 14th November at 1 pm & the following week another organised by Groundswell, see link below. Spread the word on your social media accounts.

https://groundswellnz.co.nz/events/

It’s time to declare a people power war on the secretive & racist UN/Labour/Maori caucus backed He Puapua agenda.
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October 28, 2021 10:40am
- bronny1
  
  Ah so this is the reason they are suggesting a lockdown for Christchurch.
  
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  October 28, 2021 12:21pm
  - JohnnyOverton
    
    Wouldn’t surprise me at all, they’re an extremely sneaky, dirty tricks, spin & ratbag mob up there in the Queen bee’s hive.
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:44pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Quite a well organized event according to the long list of coordinators listed with their names, city and phone numbers.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:31pm
- dcrane
  
  When is Labour planning to force through 3 Waters? Will this be too late?
  
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  October 28, 2021 4:01pm
Nookin

I see that Murray Bolton was successful in his application for judicial review of the decision to refuse self isolation on his return from the USA. The High Court set aside the decision and directed the ministry to reconsider having regard to what seems to me to be basic and self-evident assessment criteria.
https://www.courtsofnz.govt.nz/judgments/high-court
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October 28, 2021 10:44am
Flossie

I think the idea of returning primary kids back to school mid November is ridiculous. Surely a bunch of unvaxxed kids together has got to have worse results than an inoculated barber giving an inoculated client a haircut.
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October 28, 2021 10:46am
- septic skeptic
  
  The sooner everyone accepts “endemic” the better.
  
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  October 28, 2021 11:57am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  You need to stop pretending that you can avoid covid. You (and NZ) can’t.
  
  The reality is that almost Everyone is going to be exposed to covid in next 6 months. Best to bring it forward to summer months when environmental factors are most in our favour (health in general is better in summer months with higher vit D levels and levels of activity).
  
  School kids and their parents (mostly vaccinated 30-50yr olds) are low risk, may as well rip that bandaid off.
  
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  October 28, 2021 11:59am
- hullkiwi
  
  Flossie note the downticks. I am left shaking my head in disbelief. Primary schools are one of the fastest incubators known to modern man for the spreading of germs and viruses. If the downtickers and Jax numpties want to see major outbreaks before Christmas, open the schools.
  
  Schools are modern day baby sitting services. It is a dead certain guarantee, if you want to spread a virus, rely on children in schools to do it for you! Ask any parent, how often their children come home and spread the “love” caught in the school playground!
  
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  October 28, 2021 12:17pm
  - bronny1
    
    I think we are going to have outbreaks and summer is a much better time to have them….
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:30pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      This is the correct take.
      Its sunny, we have high UV and its breezy.
      Make sure the classrooms are ventilated to lessen any viral load,get the parents vaxxed and lets let the virus loose.
      Better now than winter.
      Lastly, according to the US Centre for Disease Control, survivability for the under 17’s is 99.995%
      Our children will be fine.
      
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      October 28, 2021 1:13pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        so similar to their annual risk of dying from road accident (~1 in 20000). Far less if you exclude kids with comorbidities.
        
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        October 28, 2021 2:09pm
  - Mrs_Right
    
    You are wrong. According to the latest studies from Israel, children have little to do with the spread of Covid .
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:30pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Really, look at the reports in the UK. An environment and climate closer to that of NZ. Israel also has higher vax levels than NZ or the UK.
      
      I agree we cannot avoid the virus, but dropping children straight in, is not the way to go. At least leaving it to the new year provides a chance the worst will be over.
      
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      October 28, 2021 12:56pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        You seem unaware of what little risk our children have.
        IIRC statistically the under 12’s are more at risk from an adverse reaction to the vaccine than from the Virus itself – exceptions obviously for the already vulnerable. (someone might confirm that?)
        
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        October 28, 2021 1:20pm
      - dcrane
        
        It’s seriously looking like our kids may be better off the sooner they get this virus, and get through it naturally. Rather than get jabbed by a compliance cult.
        
        My guess is “the worst” will be well beyond the New Year. More like much of next year, and the one after that. We’re behind everyone else in the world, and getting jabbed with increasingly outdated vaccines.
        
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        October 28, 2021 3:57pm
  - Flossie
    
    Yes I do not understand the down ticks.
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:35pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      You imagine that keeping schools closed is going to save lives, but I think it might actually cost them through delaying infection of people with immune systems at peak condition (recently vaxxed, and benefits to health delivered by summer months). It also comes at a dreadful cost to kids development, and societies overall stress levels, mental and economic health. It represents an irrational and pathogenic aversion to what is a very minor risk. Like refusing to travel by car due to concerns about dying in a crash.
      
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      October 28, 2021 2:16pm
Truman lodge

Jacinda has more or less declared medical marshal law.

No Xmas we will be locked down everywhere. Its getting like the movie Equilibrium where citizens are told to self medicate daily to suppress their emotions. Like the movie we have daily sermons from the ruling elite reinforcing their orthodoxy on the masses.
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October 28, 2021 11:30am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Socialists never relinquish their control without a fight
  
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  October 28, 2021 12:32pm
  - Biscuit
    
    TV One, Christmas Day Afternoon, 2021
    
    6pm The Jacinda Ardern News … including Our Saintess’s Christmas Day Lectu oops Message to her subjects
    NB: The Queen’s Message will not be broadcast this year
    
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    October 28, 2021 12:43pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Christmas is going to be just fucking wonderful.
      Because of the uncertainty we have not booked the beach camp at Mangawhai. Usually first the boat goes up there and into storage. Then a few days after new year we spend 12 days at the camp.
      Not able to do that, fees are not refundable during peak times. My part retirement is on hold.
      Fuck you Jacinda Ardern
      
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      October 28, 2021 3:30pm
bronny1

Anyone been listening to the podcast The Dispatches by Brendan Malone. He is excellent and recently covers a lot of covid topics, from a philosophical/morality perspective. Its like providing the philosophical framework for many of the discussions we have here.
Yesterday’s episode was about 10 reasons why vaccination passports are unacceptable to the Christian church, for example, because the bar to be not allowed to a christian church is very high (and vaccination status doesn’t cut it). I’m not religious but it did make me wonder when the churches will start coming out against it, because according to his judeo/christian analysis it is totally unacceptable. Thoughts?
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October 28, 2021 12:24pm
- Fletch
  
  I’ve been listening for a while now. Very good episodes. He was totally on the ball when he mentioned the Prime Minister getting up last Friday (he is calling it “Black Friday”) and saying that the unvaccinated are a threat and a danger that we must be protected from. It is absolutely shocking behavior for a PM. She should be ashamed.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:43pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  What were his thoughts about gatherings for other religions, or for secular gatherings?
  
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  October 28, 2021 2:01pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Destiny?
    
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    October 28, 2021 3:31pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I don’t believe in destiny, as a concept, or in Destiny church.
      
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      October 28, 2021 4:43pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Covid news is a diversion. Play school TV1 on 3 waters – nothing. Amazing what a financial bribe will do. Mahuta is laughing at NZ
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October 28, 2021 12:27pm
- kowtow
  
  It’s cos the Media Pardy are on board with the attack on the constitution , it was the same with mandating maori wards.
  
  A very diminishing democracy and the Media pardy refuses to hold power to account.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:09pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Then play school TV1 mentioned Alec Baldwin. No mention that 500 live rounds have been found and removed from the set.
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October 28, 2021 12:30pm
- All_on_Red
  
  He didn’t check the gun and it sounds like he was goofing off a bit with it. Not good.
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:22pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Could you explain in a bit more detail the firearms protocols in place for movie sets?
    
    2 8
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    October 28, 2021 1:59pm
    - Ehlana
      
      I would have thought the answer would be fake guns that simply do not fire. Of course they could still look real – look how “real” places like Hobbiton were built to look. And noise/light effects would be added in post-production.
      
      I’d also have thought that actors would be well aware of gun safety on set. If you pick a gun up, you are surely responsible for what you do with it.
      
      BTW – the 500 rounds live ammo was on TV3 this morning. I’ve also heard their armourer was a fairly young woman. I wonder if she just wasn’t taken seriously by the crew.
      
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      October 28, 2021 2:23pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Thank you for “I would have thought” and “I’d have also thought”, but I was hoping for something a little more authoritative.
        
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        October 28, 2021 2:34pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Most prop guns do not even have a barrel, just a hole in the front. It is immposible to even chamber a round.
        Bottom line, Baldwin is a blowarse fuckwit
        
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        October 28, 2021 4:14pm
      - Russ the Muss
        
        I tell u want, if I was an actor(Godforbid) and I was being ‘shot’ at, I can tell you I’d check the firearm before the scene! Like hell I’d put my life in the hands of a amourer on min wage and probably half stoned from the previous night partying, nor the other actor. Talk about blind faith!!!!!
        
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        October 28, 2021 8:34pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Don’t be a bigger idiot than you already are Mike.
      Google, wait no, use Duckduckgo to get some unbiased truth
      
      6 3
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      October 28, 2021 3:33pm
    - dcrane
      
      One rule some impose is absolutely no live rounds (i.e., non-blanks) allowed on a set with weapons. Seems so obvious.
      
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      October 28, 2021 3:53pm
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      Live ammunition on set, nope.
      The armourer was a novice, and there was an audio clip of her saying how {on a previous job} loading blanks made her nervous, played on ZB.
      Sounds like unqualified staff, and armourer who was actually a props person, and major breach of either common sense AND firearms safety.
      They were shooting at targets with live ammo in spare time.
      Recipe for disaster.
      So instead of being a smart arse, and asking for the “protocol” (a curiosity troll), how about you use you own fucking judgement about how well run you think this was?
      
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      October 28, 2021 4:29pm
      - Observer of Life
        
        Fuzz: I wonder if the young female armourer was given the job due a quota system? Consequences.
        
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        October 28, 2021 6:49pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Reasonable actor, but a fuckwit.
    Having been to Alaska twice and been out shooting with our friends, this Baldwin fuckwit broke the basic rule. It is all his own fault, but as an anti gun leftie he will try and blame someone else.
    Prob Donald Trump’s fault
    
    9 3
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    October 28, 2021 2:13pm
  - mawm
    
    He didn’t check the gun, he pointed it at someone and he pulled the trigger. The rest is all fluff.
    
    8 2
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    October 28, 2021 2:34pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Such a fuckwit he would not know how to identify live from blank
      
      4 3
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      October 28, 2021 3:35pm
Michael

Why was it necessary for that Aucklander with covid to travel to Christchurch? Likewise re that person from Te Awamutu that went to Blenheim.
1 6
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October 28, 2021 12:43pm
- marcw
  
  We had 2 broadcasters move from Auckland to Wellington last week, Barry Soper and HDPA. Essential?
  
  6 1
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  October 28, 2021 12:47pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Get it right. The person travelled to Auckland and returned to Christchurch. The excuse to look after a child in Auckland. I know of 2 people stuck in Auckland with children in Tauranga they can’t get to.
  
  Then the Blenheim case. Went from Te Awamutu to Tokaroa, before later flying from Rotorua. I have not seen or heard asked in the media a key question, this being:
  How did the said person leave the Waikato border in order to get to Rotorua, to catch a flight to Blenheim?
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:04pm
Michael

Well done Quinton de Kock for taking a stand even though it’s going to cost him. So far as I am concerned this whole “taking a knee” thing is a farce. However ,if some sportsmen or women feel the need to do it, well, that is their choice. But “taking a knee” should not be forced on anyone. I am surprised that all the Black Caps are OK with “taking a knee”. I would have thought some of them would have objected.
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October 28, 2021 12:58pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Our cricket team is well known for its ‘no dickheads’ policy. Like many successful teams, they place a premium on getting along with each other, talk things through, and seldom have disagreements visible to the public. It’s possible some of the team would prefer not to kneel, but we all make compromises for more important goals, don’t we?
  
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  October 28, 2021 1:55pm
  - Harriet
    
    “……It’s possible some of the team would prefer not to kneel, but we all make compromises for more important goals, don’t we?…….”
    
    Fuck you talk some shit from time to time Milky.
    
    The Warriors and all Blacks are made up of Christian pacific islanders who from time to time kneel to God.
    There is no way in hell that you and other hypocrites would go along with the notion that all the team should kneel to God.
    
    In other words Milky you are just an out and out racist that supports the idea that blacks should go about harassing people into holding a particular school of thought.
    
    You’re an idiot who needs to think more. 😎
    
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    October 28, 2021 2:25pm
    - Yabster
      
      well said Harriet- an idiot that clearly has too much time on his/her.. hands.
      
      8 5
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      October 28, 2021 3:13pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I feel sorry for you, Harriet, and regret your inability to engage in a reasoned and civil discussion.
      
      3 5
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      October 28, 2021 3:22pm
      - Yabster
        
        I am sure Harriet feels bad now [Deleted – use commenters names please. Mod]- reasoned ? nah blinded by socialism and ideals yes..
        
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        October 29, 2021 8:03am
- surfing
  
  Reminds me of Cunliffe apologising for being a man.
  
  Taking the knee is an extreme socialist movement where one must share the blame for crimes committed by others. No wonder people don’t want to do it.
  
  16 1
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  October 28, 2021 2:13pm
Truman lodge

I wonder if critisism of the Govt will be made illegal? I’m waiting for Jacinda and Clarke to have their wedding. I’m guessing it will be Charles and Di level intensity. Like royal weddings are celebrated in the UK. In nz kiwis will have BBQs and party’s celebrating the occasion with a huge build up. Tins of sweets with their pics on it and other souvenirs will be on offer.

It seems everyone supports the Govt unconditionally. The media and govt propaganda is constant and sharp. However they know we don’t believe any of it. But they want you to think others think like that in a hope to silence and demoralise you into not speaking up or opposing it. Especially at work or in groups.
13 3
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October 28, 2021 1:24pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  I think this link will help you with your shopping, as you seem such a keen fan:
  https://www.redbubble.com/shop/jacinda+ardern?gclid=Cj0KCQjw8eOLBhC1ARIsAOzx5cFoixC70K0ZvA6ziEV0UAddZvujfmjYpD-lm4qXnimW17XAhTYnMWAaAh9UEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds
  
  1 10
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  October 28, 2021 1:57pm
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Hmmm, the bulk of the items seem ‘competitively priced’ however I couldn’t locate the lavatory tissue I was wanting, so left the site
    
    8 1
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    October 28, 2021 2:35pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I’m not sure there is anything there I would ~~be caught dead in~~ want to buy, but Truman lodge seemed pretty keen on the whole thing.
      
      1 2
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      October 28, 2021 3:20pm
    - Ehlana
      
      I’d love to know what their sales have been. That site is unbelievable.
      
      1 0
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      October 28, 2021 5:20pm
  - graham
    
    T-shirts and mugs emblazoned with “What Would Jacinda Do?” …
    Jacinda Stardust stickers …
    A Jacinda Ardern Stained Glass Window Sticker, featuring Ardern looking like some sort of Messiah figure …
    
    That’s GOT to be a spoof site, right? Please tell me it’s somebody’s bad idea of a joke …
    
    4 0
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    October 28, 2021 4:14pm
potato

Stuff needs some help with a survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MMQ78CZ
5 0
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October 28, 2021 1:28pm
- potato
  
  After a week of saturation doom marketing a key team of 55 million player asked if we were doomed – Nice.
  
  2 0
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  October 28, 2021 1:48pm
- alex Masterley
  
  I have helped.
  My 14 year old might “help” as well.
  
  8 0
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  October 28, 2021 3:47pm
- dcrane
  
  Told them the greatest threat we face is Bio-fascism
  
  3 1
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  October 28, 2021 3:50pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    I told them it was crap media.
    
    2 0
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    October 28, 2021 8:14pm
- Hard Cheese
  
  Q: Which of these do you rate as the greatest threat to society for future generations?
  – Social inequality
  – Housing affordability
  – Climate change
  – Covid19
  A: Other (please specify)
  The Labour Party
  
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  October 28, 2021 7:32pm
Michael

hullkiwi
Bit risky travelling to Auckland for whatever reason, wouldn’t you think? I sure as hell wouldn’t go there.
But having taken that risk I reckon they should have stayed there at least until they had received a negative test.
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October 28, 2021 1:28pm
- MCos
  
  I live in Auckland.
  It’s not risky living here if you’re reasonably careful, which is helped somewhat by being vaccinated and minding who you give cheek to!
  
  2 0
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  October 28, 2021 7:30pm
stroker08

Hipkins has given away some of the Government’s thinking with his stand up today. He said he expected home isolation for fully vaccinated people travelling into NZ by the end of the first quarter in 2022.

That means at least another 5 months of MIQ in some form. If we hit 90% vaccination what’s the point of MIQ!!! Auckland is stuffed for Xmas.

When will someone ever be able to walk off a plane and do as they wish? Are they intending to run domestic isolation for international travellers forever?
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October 28, 2021 1:53pm
UrbanNeocolonialist

Very honest and open Irish Public Health guidance on vaccines for younger people, really looks to be best-in-class, it appears to avoid propagandizing, lists know side-effects and estimates of probabilities, including elevated risk of myocarditis for teenage boys at about 1 in 16000, and finishes with this:

“Consider not having the vaccine, or waiting until more information is available, if:
You do not want to risk the very rare side effect of myocarditis and pericarditis from vaccination.
You want to wait for more information to become available about the risk of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome and of COVID-19 in children and young people.
You want to wait for more information to be available about the longer term effects of the vaccines in children and young people.”

https://www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/covid-19-vaccine/moderna-leaflet/patient-information-12-15/
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October 28, 2021 2:06pm
Lucia Maria

Victorian MPs form ‘Rebel Parliament’ after being BANNED over vaccine passport

Avi Yemini reporting in Melbourne, Australia – talks to MPs – Video

Worth watching what is happening in Victoria, as a warning to where NZ might end up heading.

What are they talking about? Watch this video from a couple of days ago:
Sky News host Peta Credlin says Victorians should be filled with dread by new laws Premier Daniel Andrews wants to bring in to make himself even more untouchable
12 2
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October 28, 2021 2:15pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Video: Sky News host Peta Credlin interviews Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy who says Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is not just drunk on power – he is abusing it.
  
  The ramification of what is happening, could be used as a precedent for other parts of Australia.
  
  8 2
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  October 28, 2021 2:27pm
- Harriet
  
  Victoria and NZ Labour have been partners in socialism for decades. They follow each other and British Labour.
  NZ police does the same largely with regards policing – Victoria and the UK Met. While QLD and NSW police are to a degree ‘American style’.
  
  In other words it’s a matter of NZ and Vic holding a more ‘authoritarian’ view of things.
  
  5 3
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  October 28, 2021 2:44pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    Hi Harriet,
    
    Interesting. Am curious as to what will happen in NSW on December 1 – apparently the vaccine passport access to society will be temporary and the unjabbed will be able to go to cafes, etc.
    
    It’s hard to get a good idea of what’s going on over there, so much news all over the place!
    
    3 1
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    October 28, 2021 3:27pm
Fuzzysnuggleduck

Subscriber comment, but WOW, the comments!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-74-cases-waikato-alert-level-eased-school-return-plan-for-november-15/IRHPMFYKXS5COJRLPOZ6K3NBOA/

I expect the hammering the government is getting via Subsriber comment, shows that those who might pay a little to get information are less likely to be lackeys and covid-cultists (i.e. the intellectually and aspirationally lazy who are the hard-Labour supporters).

Not any sign of labour supporters usual deflections, “But think of all the lives saved!….NZ is envy of the world! Our health system would collapse!”.
Government being hammered.

Support my general feeling that the greatest Labour supporters are those that vote for their living, rather than work for their living.
Labour is lately & temporarily supported by the ‘Safety at all costs’ and ‘Jacinda is lovely’ brigade.

But take away the Jacinda-cult-of-personality angle, and/or the ‘Covid is a deadly peril’ vote, and suddenly Labour is back to 20% range…..
Christmas is coming, in more ways the one.
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October 28, 2021 2:17pm
kiwikidsnz

https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/112950/anthony-grant-sees-undeclared-drive-government-tax-people-associated-trusts

“Last December, the government enacted powers giving the IRD the right to acquire a huge amount of information about trusts.

In response, the IRD published an Official Information Issues Paper a few days ago. The public has been invited to make submissions on it by 15 November 2021 – a deadline so tight it suggests the IRD doesn’t want many submissions.

The IRD has also issued a 46-page ‘operational statement’ entitled Reporting requirements for domestic trusts and the deadline for comment on this paper is 30 November 2021.

The explanations the IRD has given for wanting huge amounts of information about trusts that are recorded in these reports is:

to gain insight as to whether the top personal tax rate of 39% is working effectively; and
to provide better information to understand and monitor the use of structures and entities by trustees.
The real reason for wanting to get so much information about trusts appears to be a wish on behalf of the present government to tax people associated with trusts in ways they have never been taxed before.”
6 1
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October 28, 2021 2:41pm
- westernScientest
  
  Given some of the information they want it almost seems like they are getting ready to do a confiscation of trust assets.
  
  5 1
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  October 28, 2021 2:59pm
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    Comment at the link by “Foxglove”:
    “The base & thrust of this legislation passed by this government goes well beyond the issue of trusts. The mechanism empowers the IRD to enquire into, as forcefully as may be necessary, and ascertain the value of all assets held by NZ citizens. This is novel. It also effectively will serve as a precursor to the ambition of The Green Party to impose their fabled wealth tax. The Greens have made it abundantly clear that will not enter into a coalition with Labour without an agreement that it will proceed. The government, have just proven that when they want to, they are well capable of looking forward.”
    
    5 1
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    October 28, 2021 3:17pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I thought broadening the tax base would be a good thing. We have taxed income for a very long time, and goods and services for a long time. In principle, is there anything wrong with taxing assets?
      
      1 5
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      October 28, 2021 3:30pm
      - kiwikidsnz
        
        In principle, those assets have been purchased with after tax income. How many taxes/clips of the ticket from the less than 50% of population who are net taxpayers (approx a third pay 75% of all tax) do you think should be necessary ?
        
        Unless you’re another envious socialist of course who wilfully ignores the inconvenient truth that all central & local Govt funding & welfare support (= charity) is generated from taxation of those who actually create wealth in the first place.
        
        9 1
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        October 28, 2021 6:41pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Some things are in our Trust, and some are not – by design.
    
    3 4
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    October 28, 2021 3:39pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Oh lookie here, a downtick. Prob from an idiot who can’t comprehend ‘avoidance’ and ‘evasion’
      Go you good thing, vote Labour always
      
      7 5
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      October 28, 2021 4:18pm
- Inandout
  
  kiwi, I have friends who have gone the ‘trust’ way to camouflage assets and others who want to be shielded from having their assets taken from them. Speaking of trusts, the iwi industry seems to have their fair share.
  
  5 1
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  October 28, 2021 4:19pm
Stu2

The MIQ announcement was underdone.

Right now if someone who is double vaxxed with a negative test flys in to their home in Auckland, then if their home situation suits they should isolate at home. Not for 7 days in MIQ from mid-Nov. And 14 days until then.

Auckland is running 80-90 cases a day anyway so the odd case like this that turns positive isn’t worth MIQ resource.
10 0
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October 28, 2021 2:42pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Total fuckup. Why should I not be able to go to Hawaii and return and isolate in my own freehold home?
  Ankle bracelet with a 100 meter geofence. So fucking simple but the Govt is simple too
  
  5 4
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  October 28, 2021 3:41pm
  - Flossie
    
    The ankle bracelet seems excessive. If they can’t trust you not to leave the premises how can they trust you won’t have visitors. Just let people get on with life.
    
    7 1
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    October 28, 2021 4:45pm
- cmm
  
  “Auckland is running 80-90 cases a day ”
  
  Let’s stop calling them cases. They are positive PCR tests.
  
  The meaning of “Cases” has been highjacked and changed.
  
  It already had a useful medical definition – those showing symptoms.
  
  Rinse and repeat for “deaths”.
  
  9 3
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  October 28, 2021 3:50pm
  - Taieri
    
    Let’s stop calling them cases.
    ————-
    
    Good for fear-mongering though. “Positive PCR test” just doesn’t sound scary enough.
    
    0 0
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    October 28, 2021 7:45pm
Fletch

Medsafe have renewed provisional approval for the Pfizer vaccine for another 2 years (it was due to expire soon).

28 Oct 2021
Today Medsafe announces its decision to renew the provisional approval for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
The renewal of provisional approval is for a period of two years, until 3 November 2023.

Pfizer has met all obligations required to date by the conditions of the provisional approval granted in February this year. This included providing additional data about the clinical trials and vaccine monitoring.

By renewing the provisional approval, we will continue to receive and assess data from Pfizer about the administration of the vaccine around the world.

During the 2-year renewal period, Medsafe may grant full approval at any time, once Pfizer has submitted a relevant application and information.

Medsafe will continue to assess any supporting information against the appropriate standards as additional quality, safety and efficacy data is received and reviewed.

The remaining conditions relate to ongoing supply of clinical trial data, ongoing requirements for monitoring the use of the vaccine globally, specific batch test results for vaccine supplied in New Zealand, and reporting these to Medsafe on request.

Medsafe has a robust process for assessing quality, safety and efficacy data for all vaccines and medicines supplied in New Zealand. The same stringent measures are applied to COVID-19 vaccines and we do not take any shortcuts when it comes to the approval process. Provisional Consent renewal is routine and has been applied previously to other medicines. Provisional approval is limited to defined time period no longer than 2 years.

Medsafe will continue to prioritise the assessment of information for COVID-19 vaccines and will provide further updates when possible.

https://covid19.govt.nz/alert-levels-and-updates/latest-updates/medsafe-renews-covid-19-vaccine-provisional-approval/
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October 28, 2021 2:51pm
Harriet

LOL —- Maguire -who has already been busted for LYING——has just told the corruption authority that he and the NSW premier loved each other, were going to get married…..

…..and have a baby.

He’s fucked —– she’s in her 50’s! 😎
5 3
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October 28, 2021 2:55pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Will the last moderator please turn off Kiwiblog for today?
2.55 is the last comment, it is now 4.37
6 3
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October 28, 2021 4:37pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Nope, just 3.41.
  Asleep at the wheel is not a Kiwiblog thing.
  Must be bbq time
  
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  October 28, 2021 4:40pm
cmm

What I find shockingly poor is that with all the contact tracing systems they have, the owners of the “locations of interest” are not informed by “the system”. Almost all the locations of interest only became away that they were locations of interest when Stuff contacted them.

What’s the point in a tracing system if it doesn’t provide information to those that are most interested in having it?

The only logical answer is that it is to tick the box: got “gold standard” tracing system – approved by someone in a lab coat who is politically connected.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126809563/covid19-thirteen-locations-of-interest-linked-to-two-christchurch-cases
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October 28, 2021 4:41pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  That’s interesting.
  As an old civil libertarian I was a bit dubious about signing in to all those QR codes; I felt that big brother was watching me.
  But now, CMM tells us that big brother’s systems are so far kin useless that signing in to a QR code is the sort of thing that the “Karens” and their limp wristed partners do to get the maximum amount of jollies.
  Another day. Another Labour Party far cup.
  
  8 2
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  October 28, 2021 5:59pm
  - Lucia Maria
    
    Big brother wants to get you used to signing into everything!
    
    I’ve been bagging my hubby for years about signing into a restaurant app that makes you “mayor” of a place if you sign in more than anyone else. He has a number of friends that also use it – don’t understand it myself, why would you do that??
    
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    October 28, 2021 7:38pm
surfing

Possibly a cheap covid treatment…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10136637/29p-depression-pill-slash-unvaccinated-patients-risk-hospitalisation.html
3 1
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October 28, 2021 5:10pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/126729310/antarctic-relic-transported-to-the-ice-despite-cancellation-of-annual-blessing-ceremony
Hey! Maybe some maori could sail/paddle down there in one of their replica ancestral canoes. And prove once and for all that they long ago discovered the South Pole using nothing but flax cloaks and huia feathers to ward off the cold.
7 1
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October 28, 2021 5:46pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  That would explain the shortage of huia feathers.
  
  2 1
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  October 28, 2021 7:20pm
fernglas

http://www.nzlii.org/nz/cases/NZHC/2021/2869.html
This is the guy who wants an exception to the MIQ rules, for compelling economic reasons,and has a perfectly safe alternative plan, but the civil servants have refused an exemption. Yet again, they have failed to properly consider the exercise of their discretion. These are the stiff-necked, arse-covering fools that are revelling in the capricious exercise of enormous power. The sooner this farce is over, the sooner there can be some accountability.
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October 28, 2021 7:13pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Unless the courts rediscover what they are there for it won’t happen any time soon with this pack of idiots in power.
  
  4 0
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  October 28, 2021 7:22pm
- marcw
  
  Bloomfield’s response earlier today to the Aunt being denied permission to attend her nephews funeral was ‘Staff are following operational instructions’. Great response from Venning J here. MoH put on notice I hope.
  
  4 1
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  October 28, 2021 7:23pm
  - fernglas
    
    The operational instructions, and their implementation, have been shown to be wrong repeatedly (every time someone goes to Court, basically) but there is no acceptance of responsibility for that. It falls at Bloomfield’s feet, but he washes his hands of it.
    
    2 1
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    October 28, 2021 7:27pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Surely it falls with the Ministers after that. But we know they are useless.
      
      Yes, the judgement is sensible. May there be many more.
      
      1 1
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      October 28, 2021 7:46pm
fernglas

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-three-quarters-of-children-in-england-infected-with-virus-experts-say/2RDT7V6TMOVVRUBVFSKRBHDA7Y/
76% of English kids have Covid antibodies, derived purely from infection. Most of that infection was picked up in the last 6 weeks. How many deaths? Maybe 2 or 3.
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October 28, 2021 7:25pm
- marcw
  
  Antibody tests are not permitted here, the logic defies me too, but …
  
  9 0
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  October 28, 2021 7:28pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    The logic is something like this: –
    
    1. Controlling the fear narrative requires control of the data and its distribution. Antibody tests put those objectives at risk
    
    2. Antibody tests raise the specter of vast numbers of people discovering that they once had, and have now recovered from Covid-19 without ever knowing they’d been infected. That put the fear narrative at risk.
    
    12 3
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    October 28, 2021 7:41pm
Truman lodge

I’m absolutely convinced Auckland will be locked down at Xmas but with a red or orange light. Bars and gyms etc will reopen. But the city will have police borders so we can’t leave over Xmas.
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October 28, 2021 9:47pm

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