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January 29, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 29 January 2022

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General Debate

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krazykiwi

A few quotes…

“We must not allow the post-COVID recovery to return to business-as-usual”
— Jacinda Ardern, NZ PM

I suppose this is what one gets when socialist student activism is catalyzed with World Economic Forum hubris. Although to be fair to our trainee tyranny, business-as-usual for her mob of utterly inept hangers on would mean continued cock-ups, zero delivery and dawn-to-dusk lies.

:::

“We are saying farewell to the restrictions and welcome to life as we knew it before corona”
— Mette Frederiksen, Danish PM

The Bard got it wrong. There may be something rotten, however it is not in the state of Denmark.

:::

“The closer the collapse of an Empire, the crazier its laws”
— Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman statesman

I was reminded of this quote when my vaxx status barred me from wandering around an outdoor animal park with my grandchildren, and when similarly barred from a PYO berry farm.
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January 29, 2022 8:00am
- artemisia
  
  Words of the year to date – ‘train wreck’. Based on increasing count in the media, mainstream and other. Like this very good article from Bryce Wilkinson (always worth a look) about government policy making, paywalled in the Herald but freely available at the below link.
  
  Key point –
  
  Unfortunately, good intentions are not good enough. Particularly when it comes to public policy. There are always unintended and undesired consequences. Responses to a misdiagnosed problem will often make things worse, not better.
  
  https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/opinion/new-opinion-157/
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:15am
- Marcus Vinicius
  
  Timely and relevant quotes KK.
  
  H L Mencken was on to something when he wrote:
  
  “The kind of man who wants the government to adopt and enforce his ideas is always the kind of man whose ideas are idiotic.”
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:21am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Yes she does speak with forked tongue.
  
  She tells us one thing but her actions say something different, what would you believe words or actions.
  
  It is becoming more obvious by the day that the vaccine was a dud. One shot didn’t do it a 2nd shot didn’t do it, what to do?
  
  A third shot we can call it a booster.
  
  Looking overseas vaccinated are still catching covid in increasing numbers, worse the latest variant ignores the vaccine completely.
  
  What to do with millions of vaccine doses that are now useless, admit you got it wrong, throw it out, or push ahead regardless.
  
  And the answer is push on regardless.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:23am
  - bronny1
    
    What to do? Whatever it is that your contract with Fizzer requires you to I would imagine.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:24am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      Is that contract in the best interest of New Zealand, I think not.
      
      Will we get to see the contract, I think not.
      
      All liability is carried by the Government not the manufacturer, how does that work.
      
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      January 29, 2022 10:15am
      - artemisia
        
        Well it was an emergency situation and buyers had the choice and the chequebook. And decided to accept the contract terms.
        
        I don’t suppose Pfizer guaranteed ‘safe and effective’, their lawyers would not have permitted that. Our Prime Minister declared it so anyway, and has been shown to be mostly right. So far.
        
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        January 29, 2022 4:42pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The first quote by Ardern is a beauty. Shows us how desperate she is to hold on to power.
  Without Covid she is nothing
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:50am
  - pdm
    
    SO – with Covid she is nothing too.
    
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    January 29, 2022 8:55am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yup, just a desperate socialist
      
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      January 29, 2022 8:57am
      - Nickc2
        
        A desperate lying Socialist.
        
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        January 29, 2022 8:59am
      - Mr_Blobby
        
        Desperate is dangerous, very dangerous, look at history.
        
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        January 29, 2022 10:16am
      - mawm
        
        It’s a pity she doesn’t understand that “business as usual” is what brings money into the exchequer and puts food on our tables. Although the money in the exchequer doesn’t seem to bother this lot as there be more to borrow from wherever the last lot came from and bugger the consequences.
        
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        January 29, 2022 11:26am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Tautology
        
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        January 29, 2022 1:30pm
  - kowtow
    
    Without the Media Pardy she’d be nothing .
    
    They annointed her.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:06am
    - RalphT
      
      Well that’s what $105 million gets you. Another 50 and it’ll be a coronation.
      
      44 2
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      January 29, 2022 9:17am
      - plc
        
        And National won’t scrap the handouts once they are in power….they’ll just run them more efficiently
        
        The Long March continues
        
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        January 29, 2022 9:30am
    - David George
      
      Speaking of nothing.
      With inflation at generational highs, major geopolitical issues, an out of control border and a dysfunctional government The Herald has a story on Biden’s new cat.
      
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      January 29, 2022 11:14am
      - Nickc2
        
        U-effin-believable!
        
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        January 29, 2022 1:38pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        He need a cat. Already surrounded by pussies
        
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        January 29, 2022 5:16pm
    - Lee C
      
      Don’t forget the National Party, kowtow.
      
      Credit where credit’s due.
      
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      January 29, 2022 1:34pm
- Flossie
  
  Quite amazed (really not unexpected) that security outside our library in Hamilton required scanning the QR and showing a Vax certificate in order to deposit returned books into the slot outside the building.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:07am
  - artemisia
    
    Wellington City libraries are very slightly better. No scanning etc to return items IF there is an outside slot. Last time I looked there was no list of these.
    
    They do however have no contact pick up for reserved items. It is so heavily restricted in times and locations it is just virtue signalling. Someone must be absolutely desperate to use it.
    
    Interesting when once-were-public libraries become locations of interest. Terrified staff heads will explode (again).
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:25am
  - Other_Andy
    
    Nothing surprises me anymore these days.
    Common sense around covid was lost a loooong time ago.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:29am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The unvaxxed folk , who have been sought-out/hunted down by the virus are contaminated…and even a fingerprint of theirs could spread the virus onto clean unsuspecting vaxxed folk.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:31am
  - curry4me
    
    Flossie: There was something similar outside the Beckenham library yesterday. They weren’t bothered about me using the exterior returns slot though.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:34am
  - Scooter
    
    Sounds like NZ has gone quite mad.
    
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    January 29, 2022 8:54pm
  - Fight4NZ
    
    I’ve had zero issues entering the library, withdrawing and returning books. There must be a quick, simple solution you are missing.
    
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    January 30, 2022 2:28am
- Scott
  
  Yes it is clear that covid has been used as a cover to bring in massive social change, the kind that a far left prime minister wants.
  Command control of the economy and a massive increase in the public sector. Sexual mores upended so that children are encouraged to question and change whether they are Arthur or Martha.
  An iron grip on the press and constant reinforcing of the covid message.
  The upending of society so that Maori people are given privilege, such as their own health system, undemocratic representation on city councils and control of the water supply.
  Sooner or later economic reality will win and we are going to have a crash. The socialists are going to run out of money. That’s what always happens.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:11am
  - crikey
    
    No, the socialists don’t run out of money, we run out of money.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:06am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Who are Arthur and Martha?
    
    I think it’s Mana or Mx Manu now.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:12am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    This is where the reset comes in.
    
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    January 29, 2022 2:05pm
- coolas
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Krazy, you pluck half a sentence, without quoting the context, to repeat your tiresome nonsense.
  
  The PM said, “We must not allow the post-COVID recovery to return to business-as-usual, inexorably driving up emissions and the trajectory of global warming.”
  
  Of course, selective part quotes to justify your opinions, is in line with the grandparental anti-vax victimhood stories.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:47am
  - kowtow
    
    Ah well there you go then , we get over one “emergency” only to have another thrust on us by the same controlling statists .
    
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    January 29, 2022 12:33pm
- BananaLlama
  
  “We must not allow the post-COVID recovery to return to business-as-usual”
  — Jacinda Ardern, NZ PM
  
  She’s gone mad with power.
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:16am
  - Nickc2
    
    Methinks she’s so pissed with power, even the UN won’t want her.
    Now there’s a disappointment for most of us.
    
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    January 29, 2022 2:10pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      “I’ll be back” you bastard peasants.
      I am only the start of New Venezuela
      
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      January 29, 2022 5:19pm
artemisia

Supermarkets are not too happy with the commandeering of RATs. Some extracts from their latest industry newsletter, full version at the below link.

You may have noticed that the term ‘essential’ is no longer being used to describe businesses now that Omicron is spreading, and our Traffic Light System has been put into place. There’s a new word the Government is using which is ‘critical’ and not all businesses that were once considered essential will fall under this new term.
…
While food production is listed as one of the sectors deemed critical, not all food producers will be treated equally
….
Many companies will not be approved, of course, despite this being a critical time for everyone. The “secondment” by the Government of the RAT kits will certainly be challenging for those businesses who thought they were prepared as we wade through the upcoming weeks. It is unlikely that the Government will have a smooth delivery system let alone a fair one when they dole out the kits. Once again New Zealand businesses are caught up in the lack of planning by the Government, looks like you just can’t plan ahead and look after your business – not when you’ve got the Ministry of Health blocking you

Despite that, in the Herald today, the supermarket sector is ready, willing but so far unable.

Covid 19 Omicron: Sir Ian Taylor – How to solve the rapid antigen tests crisis in three hours

https://supermarketnews.co.nz/news/omicron-update-essential-is-not-critical/
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January 29, 2022 8:04am
- Taieri
  
  Covid 19 Omicron: Sir Ian Taylor – How to solve the rapid antigen tests crisis in three hours
  ——————-
  
  This article should have been written by a journalist, but there’re no journalists left…
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:42am
- Tomtoddy
  
  This article by Taylor is compulsory reading. It shows not just incompetence but utter disdain for business. Ardern, Robertson, Hipkins are traitors to the best interests of New Zealanders. Arrogance, blind allegiance to a failed ideology and nastiness on top of their incompetence. I am so angry I would join a peasant’s revolt to get rid of this scourge.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:46am
  - Nickc2
    
    The next knock on your front door will be the Thought Police to convince you that your post doesn’t comply with Cindy’s soon-to-be Gazetted Thought and Hate Speech laws.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:07am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Tomtoddy – 40% of sheeple don’t think so. That is the point here. Add to that 9%, the unwashed stinking hippies who vote for the toxic Greens whose sole aim in politics is to legalise cannabis and introduce wealth tax so that they can give free money to beneficiaries.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:36am
    - Colville
      
      Soon to be 39% ..then 38%… then 37%…
      
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      January 29, 2022 2:29pm
    - Fight4NZ
      
      Those hippies also make up the backbone of the antivaxxer movement. That’s how you know how ludicrous the whole circus is.
      
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      January 30, 2022 2:34am
- Clownworld
  
  The irony is the communist govt want a planned economy. So either they are terrible at planning or these are all part of a cunning plan.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:56am
- pdm
  
  Two questions:
  
  1. Had the supermarkets and other businesses paid the suppiier for the RAT tests? If so what the government has done is blatant theft.
  
  2. Why aren’t supermarkets and other businesses taking the Government to court in this matter?
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:00am
  - artemisia
    
    1. Probably order placed and payment when goods arrive.
    2. Supermarkets trying to do the right thing, and aware that if they rock the boat they may be forced to reduce their footprint by decree.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:33am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Some of the NZ companies had paid for their orders.
      
      Director Clair Connor said as of yesterday, Health Works had $100,000 worth of rapid antigen tests on the way; ordered, confirmed and paid for.
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/460254/govt-commandeered-100k-rat-order-company
      
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      January 29, 2022 10:34am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    It’s not theft, that would be wrong. Oh no, it’s just repriortisation, that’s all.
    
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    January 29, 2022 1:34pm
    - stewmar
      
      Consolidation
      
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      January 29, 2022 3:16pm
slightlyrighty

I was talking with a mate in banking about the new CCCFA laws..

I think we can all agree that they are a dogs breakfast, but the bigger issue is that 60% of mortgages are up for renewal this year, and if that process occurs under this regime, it’s going to create carnage.

The first step to fixing this problem is for the government to admit they made a mistake.

Hold your noses, people. We’re in deep shit.
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January 29, 2022 8:05am
- Pongo
  
  It looks like Ardern wants to take out 1st home buyers for a few months to slow the housing market. She has announced a review but hasnt even bothered working out what the terms are and when its going to happen.
  This either suggests she is happy with unintended consequences or she still isnt really back off holiday yet and neither is her cabinet.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:24am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ‘Admit they made a mistake?’
  Will NEVER happen
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:58am
  - Clownworld
    
    Will never admit it was a mistake, it is has been done on purpose. Sacrifice the many to do the bidding of a few.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:36am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Burn down the villages to rid it from disease?
      
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      January 29, 2022 1:52pm
  - slightlyrighty
    
    which is WHY we are in deep shit.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:17am
- Simon
  
  “I was talking with a mate in banking about the new CCCFA laws..”
  
  What is going on? Are they stress testing borrowers when the interest rates double or so over the next few years?
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:36am
  - Pongo
    
    They already stress tested to 7% before the CCFA was brought in.
    The CCCFA for banks is ridiculous and they were warned, the only surprising thing is that National arent using this to steal away the 1st home buyer vote. Quite a large amount of young women that have so far been stuck to Ardern are wanting their 1st home and will be a bit grumpy their fertility and appearance regime is now the governments business.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:34am
- curry4me
  
  slightlyrighty: It looks like the sheeple will get the result they wanted good and hard.
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:37am
- rouppe
  
  I think there’s next to zero chance that someone with existing lending will find themselves unable to renew.
  
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  January 29, 2022 1:43pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

This government is so inept that even public transport advocates reject the new Auckland tram project as offering terrible value – Radio NZ report
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January 29, 2022 8:05am
- Tomtoddy
  
  Simon the Shill loves it.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:30am
Nickc2

Hear ye Hear ye
At last someone has the ballz to call the PM out!
https://thebfd.co.nz/2022/01/29/face-of-the-day-488/
Leo Molloy for Akld Mayor anyone.
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January 29, 2022 8:08am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Yep, what that man said.
  60,000 doses – Timaru or Morrinsville – brilliant.
  Jaspinda understand how businesses work? Impossible
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:09am
- Clownworld
  
  Most of his words were fair. However he needs to stand up with principles and show integrity.
  
  Why is he helping divide NZ into by agreeing and pushing vaccine utopia by discriminating against the unvaxxed?
  
  He comes across as pragmatic opportunist not as a liberator.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:14am
  - Nickc2
    
    Why is he helping divide NZ into by agreeing and pushing vaccine utopia by discriminating against the unvaxxed?
    The fucking law mate! If he didn’t obey the law, his businesses would be shut down quick smart. He has no option!
    Our stupid PM intimated she wasn’t going to make it an even playing field for the unvaccinated.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:54am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  And look… that man can speak clearly without a scripted blurb.
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:37am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Year right Leo Molloy, will get about 16 votes.
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:38am
krazykiwi

Another quote I’ve just seem. Elon Musk has recently called Biden “a damp sock puppet in human form”. Brilliant.
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January 29, 2022 8:10am
- bartybart
  
  You watch musk get cancelled. The left have tolerated him with his EV offering but they will eventually burn him
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:12am
  - All_on_Red
    
    I don’t think he cares. Look at the way he crushed Elizabeth Warren
    https://nypost.com/2021/12/14/elon-musk-calls-elizabeth-warren-senator-karen-in-spat-over-taxes/
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:13am
- Simon
  
  Elon Musk eh? Has to widen the appeal of EVs away from soy left woke.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:39am
Benedict Yu

I could agree with that Jacinda statement. Except I would see the desirable changes somewhat differently. ?
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January 29, 2022 8:10am
surfing

I’m on the Maori side on this one…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127604465/p-wars-blasting-at-quarry-blamed-for-partly-destroying-ancient-village

Atrocious behaviour from Jswap and the family that behind the company.
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January 29, 2022 8:12am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I note that the pa site was only rediscovered in 2014 – can it be a case of deep cultural links when the local iwi & hapu basically forgot all about it?
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:24am
  - Nickc2
    
    Is more Koha required?
    
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    January 29, 2022 8:43am
  - CJames
    
    These type of events rank with the radio waves being taonga.
    Odds on they only found the pa because the quarry had to do some archeology work to expand its boundaries. No doubt all will be settled with compensation.
    
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    January 29, 2022 8:44am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Really? You think anything buried or lost and then rediscovered can have no contemporary value?
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:09am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Correct response Bollocks. The only time something is precious to Maori elite is when there is something in it for them. “Deep cultural links” are words for “made up shit”. And it is right that they be called out on it.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:16am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    When I was a child in the early 1970s a Roman villa complete with mosaics was unearthed during the excavation of foundations for a Methodist church in the small town I lived in. It had been lost for around a thousand plus years. Does that mean it had no deep cultural links to us ? If no I wonder why it was preserved at great expense and the church redesigned so that we could all visit the mosaic s now preserved and on display.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:24am
- Scott
  
  Surfing – well I’m not. “There are bones of our tupuna there”. Well who do you think killed those people in the 14th century? It’s the remains of the incessant tribal warfare that plagued this land until 1840.
  Here’s a question. Do we have to stop work every time a Maori artifact is discovered?
  
  It seems so.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:05am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    You might be unaware that excavation and building works are routinely stopped when archaeological sites are discovered or disturbed.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:10am
  - surfing
    
    They were damaging other people’s private land, have you no respect for property rights? Clearly not!
    
    Maybe it is because they are maori that their rights do not count?
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:48am
  - artemisia
    
    There are human bones most everywhere. Including in what are now people’s gardens. They are just bones, dust to dust. Their legacies are those who came after.
    
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    January 29, 2022 4:37pm
cas

The tyranny of NZTA continues. They have proposed new speed limits on the State Highway between Rotovegas and Whakatane. The top speed limit is to be 80, down from 100 even on the straight bits. About 2/3 at 80 and the rest 60!!!!!!It’s up for consultation but consultation doesn’t seem to mean anything these days ie 3 waters. A lot of law breakers coming up suspect.
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January 29, 2022 8:24am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Given that there’s no commitment to fixing the roads the only solution is to slow everyone to a crawl. Within months this will apply to every road in NZ that’s not a motorway. Get used to it.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:49am
  - Bridgenag
    
    No … Our rubbish country roads are all at 100km
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:16am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      At the moment they are. Watch this space.
      
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      January 29, 2022 10:35am
    - chukar
      
      Yep ,but they want to get rid of rural residents!
      
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      January 29, 2022 9:45pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Slowly but surely the open road speed limit will be reduced to 80kph for all of NZ. Socialist control
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:12am
- Other_Andy
  
  They are proposing the same for the Taupo-Napier highway. Here, North of Auckland, they have reduced ALL limits. On roads that never had any accidents. It’s looking like a crusade against cars.
  All party of the idiotic “Road to Zero” (Where have I heard that before?) policy.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:14am
- RightFirstTime
  
  More money for Waka Kohataki from the speed cameras they will install. This is not about safety. This is all about money.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:57am
- Observer of Life
  
  Out our way what was once a sensible 100 has been lowered to 80, and now we hear it’s dropping again to 60. Dead straight roads. Wide. What the f… Revenie gathering by the police when you sneak over by a kilometre. Crazy.
  
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  January 29, 2022 2:59pm
- jgw739
  
  Thankfully for those of us in Whakatane, National managed to build a decent 2 lane road to Tauranga with a 110kph speed limit.
  
  Little reason to visit Rotorua these days and even less once the speed limit is dropped going through the lakes.
  
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  January 29, 2022 3:49pm
Lee C

It appears tht faith in Jacinda is slipping: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/in-fortress-new-zealand-faith-in-saint-jacinda-is-starting-to-fade?fbclid=IwAR1qOGCoaEnbgxpkEveknX-0ejQ5cJlEXlPUviPm2XBGDR3sp1x-4J7A2qs
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January 29, 2022 8:26am
- Chuck Bird
  
  I found out about it last night when David Cohen was on Sky News.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:38am
Clownworld

Quotes

“If only it were so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? ”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn from
The Gulag Archipelago

“The unexamined life is not worth living” Socrates
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January 29, 2022 8:26am
- Chuck Bird
  
  However, there is a lot more evil in the left.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:39am
  - Clownworld
    
    “Clowns to the left of me , jokers to the right”
    
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    January 29, 2022 8:52am
Pongo

The UK is handing out Paxlovid in 2 weeks time, it has a 90% effectiveness at reducing severe Covid. Medsafe, after having 5 weeks off over Christmas are still to make a decision, one may have thought a minister might have ridden them hard for a decision but its a bit tricky to do it when you are having 6 weeks off yourself.
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January 29, 2022 8:27am
- kevn
  
  @Pongo… MedSafe are also still pondering the NovaVax supply offer from November 2021.
  That Pfizer contract must be VERY restrictive.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:27am
  - Pongo
    
    I would imagine that there are emails between Pfizer and the government that are acutely embarrassing and that is why we are the only country in the world that only offered one choice. If I was Reti I would be saying once I am health minister I am going blow open Labours utter incompetence with a huge enquiry.
    Israel is the same but they did that to be first in the queue where we were last which took some pretty terrible negotiating.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:38am
  - Jim
    
    Let’s demand to see it! After all it is public funds that were committed to it.
    
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    January 29, 2022 5:38pm
- Charmaine Hawke
  
  Pongo it is looking like Paxlovid may not be the panacea we were promised, a bit like Phizer’s other product in the vaccines.
  https://nationalpost.com/health/pfizer-anti-covid-pills-dangerous-interaction-with-common-drugs-will-narrow-its-benefit-experts-say
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:37am
Benedict Yu

The first detailed data on vaccine uptake for the 5 to 11 year olds.

https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data

Looks like it is back to the Waitangi Tribunal. Vaccinated all ethnicities is 29 percent. Maori is 15 percent. And Maori in Northland is 7 percent.

Vaccination rates are highest in Auckland at 40 percent with Wellington and Christchurch close to that.

Of course this was totally predictable. Guess which demographic of adults has the lowest vaccination rates? Maori between 20 and 25. The very group that is most likely to have young children.

Unless there are sanctions I would see vaccination of Maori kids struggling to hit 40 percent. White parents in the main centres are vaccinating at pace. Expect rates to reach 75 to 80 percent. And of course 99 percent of Chinese parents will have their young kids vaccinated. ?

If there are long term sanctions like banning kids from many activities and education, that picture will change.

BTW read some data last night on transmission by children with omicron. Vaccinated young kids and unvaccinated kids are highly infectious. But as we know they rarely get seriously ill. So we are not vaccinating 5 year olds to protect them. They are all going to be infected. And it won’t protect granny. So why are we doing it?

I would love to see some updated data on Maori vaccination rates for measles. Maybe the KFC vouchers could work there. The vaccine actually STOPS measles outbreaks. And stops young children from measles induced blindness and brain damage. ie It works.
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January 29, 2022 8:28am
- slightlyrighty
  
  Given the amount of effort and money spent on upping the vaccination rate among Maori, as some point we have to acknowledge that we have done as much as we can, and announce that the burden falls on the individual.
  
  This is a concept that can be transferred to other issues as well.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:41am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    It appears to me that the majority of COVID related race based comments are in fact fish hooks baited to enhance division amongst New Zealanders or for media click bait.
    
    Race is only one of multiple divisions they have exploited and ratcheted up over the past 4 years. Others include:
    
    Tenants v Landlords
    Employees v Employers
    Vax pass holders v Non-pass holders (Anti-Vaxers)
    Teachers v Parents whether schools should open
    Unhealthy v Healthy
    Kiwis overseas v NZ based population
    Poor v Middle class
    Maori, Muslim, Pacifica v NZers of European ethnicity
    
    I’m not prepared to buy into it anymore. What about you?
    
    The focus of our antipathy needs to be singularly on our leaders, who are in fact the barbarians within, vandalising our country.
    
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    January 29, 2022 3:26pm
    - curry4me
      
      Pineapple Lumps: Nailed it. That’s exactly what the gobblement are up to.
      
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      January 29, 2022 6:48pm
- I remember when
  
  Which one of the three monkeys do we want to be –
  see no evil, hear no evil or say no evil.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:57am
- bronny1
  
  Seems like they are the ones doing the right thing. Sweden is not rolling the vax out to kids as they state there is no net benefit to doing so. You can get it on prescription if a vulnerable type. Many studies support this. The question you should be asking is who are all these mad people in NZ getting their kids jabbed against something that is of no threat to them but which has significant risks?
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:32am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    99 percent of Chinese parents for a start ?
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:14am
  - MCōs
    
    My grandchildren’s parents.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:18am
- MCōs
  
  I grew up in an age when there was no vaccine for measles and all the kids got the damn thing.
  I never heard of anyone going blind, dying or becoming brain damaged as a result, although I’m sure there must have been somewhere.
  I’m sure there’s an immunity to the worst of the effects when the disease has been floating round in the community. On the other hand Samoa was hit hard because vaccination was low due to anti vaccine activity after some sort of a mishap at a vaccine clinic. Plus the islands had had little previous exposure to the disease. Consequently they were hit hard.
  In The Far North, NZ, antivaxxers have had a field day among the Maori together with distrust of the government. Sentiments that some people on this forum seem to relate to.
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:15am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I never heard of anyone going blind, dying or becoming brain damaged as a result,
    
    I had an elderly friend who trained as a paediatrician
    in the 1940s. She would leave you in little doubt as to the damage measles caused to a fetus and to new borns.
    Back in the 1950s, mums didn’t really discuss with all and sundry when they had had a late-term miscarriage.
    And many families didn’t make mention of their brain-damaged babes who had been sent into IHC institutions.
    
    But here’s a paper on 2 adults who suffered eye damage after being infected by measles in NZ’s 2019/20 outbreak.
    https://www.publish.csiro.au/hc/pdf/HC20013
    
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    January 29, 2022 1:53pm
    - bronny1
      
      Ive also never heard of anyone dying or getting damage to their heart or blood clots from the measles vax.
      
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      January 29, 2022 2:57pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Most of the problems were from German measles – Rubella, which was often deadly to unborn children.
        The garden variety measles raely caused problems.
        
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        January 29, 2022 3:22pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Maggy is quite correct. Before 1970 people didn’t talk about serious complications of measles because there was nothing that could be done. Sure most kids recover but it can be pretty bloody hideous.
    
    A reality check. My granddaughter recently had COVID. I was not worried. If she had measles I would be horrified. So why the hell are we frightening parents into COVID vaccinating 5 year olds? The last government had measles vaccines targets. This government abolished the targets. And guess what has happened?
    
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    January 29, 2022 5:19pm
lazza

Hey krazykiwi

Probably missed it, but from the tenor of your comments, I assume that you are NOT jabbed … correct?

If this is so then I have some challenging comeback lines to try out on yuh …OK?
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January 29, 2022 8:28am
- bronny1
  
  There are many unvaxxed and highly informed on the subject on here along with a number of soon to be unvaxxed. go for gold with your questions.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:33am
- Lee C
  
  I’d challenge anyone to answer why it is now considered ok to openly request other peoples’ medical details and expect others to violate their own right to privacy because of peer-pressure.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:53am
- RightNow
  
  I can’t wait to see your challenging lines… just assume he’s unvaxxed and give it your best shots (and boosters) ?
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:35am
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Hey Lazza, I have questions that you may be able to answer for me.
  
  1. With travel into NZ only available to the vaxxed, who is responsible for Omicron being in the country?
  
  2. There are two Auckland College rugby representatives, one has no disease and is unvaxxed, the other has hepatitis and is vaxxed. Which one is a bigger health risk to the other players on the field and should be excluded from playing?
  
  3. Twin brothers of an identical age, but due to major lifestyle choices one is lean unvaccinated and the other morbidly obese vaccinated. Which one does our health system need protection from?
  
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  January 29, 2022 3:37pm
Warren

So the Government have left Charlotte Bellis to fend for herself whilst pregnant in Afghanistan ,so now will we see the media take exception to these stupid MIQ rules and give the Government the towling they and their stupid rules deserve.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-new-zealand-journalist-charlotte-bellis-pregnant-and-stuck-in-afghanistan-denied-emergency-miq-spot/M5CYHAFNIEXPGRHW6EKAXXPJVA/
Jacinda Ardern caring and kind , she has no heart show can our Country and the population keep voicing that opinion.
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January 29, 2022 8:33am
- artemisia
  
  My immediate question was why she could not stay in Belgium with her Belgian partner. The article just said she could not stay there. Why not? Headlines back here?
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:13am
  - surfing
    
    She is unlikely to receive free medical care in Belgium, maybe it is that? If something goes wrong, she’s up for a big bill. Plus, she is the one having the baby, it seems better for her to be in her home country. Imagine being deported from Belgium with a new baby? During covid.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:04am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Why not? The father is a Belgium citizen.
      
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      January 29, 2022 10:59pm
  - kowtow
    
    My thoughts exactly .
    
    Given the EU is a safe haven for just about anyone , why not her. She could also have just popped over the the UK , no way they’d have booted her.
    
    Another point : she did not “call out” the Taliban with that question.
    
    She worked for Al Jazeera , owned by the Qataris who are , cough cough , very close to the Taliban .
    
    First question of the conference went to a foreign female English speaker from Al Jazeera . That conference was clearly run and set up as a propaganda coup for the Taliban , aimed at a foreign English speaking audience .
    
    That was a patsy question , and it appears she continues to be an apologist for the Taliban.
    
    The whole thing stinks.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:42am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Explained here:
    New Zealanders can only spend three of every six months in the Schengen zone and I had eaten through half of that by the time January came around.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-charlotte-bellis-an-open-letter-on-miq/U4WQGYTJHUP36AGVOBN3F6PJSE/
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:50am
    - rouppe
      
      Does a marriage certificate solve that? She’s having his baby after all.
      
      If she’s prepared to be visible in a Taliban controlled country surely a marriage certificate isn’t too scary.
      
      But again: she knew she was pregnant; she continued to work in Afghanistan; she left there when the pregnancy was becoming obvious to avoid a stoning for adultery; then at the last minute goes “oh I’m pregnant and need an emergency miq”.
      
      Come on. A fucking 5 year old can plan better than that
      
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      January 29, 2022 1:57pm
    - fernglas
      
      She’s wrong. New Zealand has a visa waiver scheme with 18 countries within the Schengen area which allows Kiwis to have further months in those countries after doing the Schengen 90 days. Belgium is one of them, giving an extra 2 months. Then you leave Schengen long enough for 6 months to have elapsed (in her case, one month) and then re-enter and begin again. She could have popped across the channel and had 6 months visa free in the UK, which can be renewed repeatedly at the discretion of UK immigration, simply by leaving for a day and returning. Had she asked the NZ embassy or used some of her investigative skills, she could have saved herself a lot of trouble, but it would have spoiled a good story.
      
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      January 29, 2022 7:02pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Warren, Ardern is just an ordinary leftist. Lives off unearned moral high ground. National needs to take that off her, and she will have nothing.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:19am
- nathie
  
  Watch Labour suddenly give Charlotte Bellis access to MIQ quick smart pronto …. otherwise they might see MSM/political headlines like these:
  
  “IRONY: TALIBAN PROVIDE SUPPORT TO PREGNANT NZ JOURNALIST AS LABOUR GOVT WONT LET HER BACK INTO NZ”
  
  or: 😉
  
  “PREGNANT NZ WOMAN DENIED ACCESS TO NZ – SHOULD HAVE WROTE ‘PREGNANT PERSON’ ON HER/HIS APPLICATION FORM AS THAT WOULD PROVIDE PRIORITY ACCESS TO MIQ PRONTO”
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:45am
  - Paulus
    
    I always thought that Bellis was a Left Wing Reporter anyway so why not Cindy, as she will vote for you.
    Like you Cindy she is a potential unmarried mother too.
    
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    January 29, 2022 1:52pm
  - Nickc2
    
    If she was reporting in Te Reo, she’d be home by lunchtime.
    Where’s our Foreign Minister when you need her? Oh, she’s still on holiday. Sorry Charlotte you’ll have to wait until she decides to return and addresses your problem.
    
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    January 29, 2022 2:35pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  This says a lot about the decency of our MIQ system:
  
  When the Taliban offers you – a pregnant, unmarried woman – safe haven, you know your situation is messed up.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-charlotte-bellis-an-open-letter-on-miq/U4WQGYTJHUP36AGVOBN3F6PJSE/
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:53am
  - EssenX
    
    Many have pointed out for some time that MIQ is horrible. But this makes it so clear that we are worse than a war torn country run by Islamic fundamentalists. When will the many women, Māori and low socio economic groups in this country that support Ardern fanatically wake up and realise that Ardern hasn’t saved them, she is killing them slowly?
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:00am
iMP

UKRAINE. Will Putin go in to the northern Crimea and Donetsk areas of Ukraine, perhaps with Belarus border distractions or incursions (like Manchuria)? It has been 50/50 but now appears to have tipped, 60/40 he will. USA is saying Feb. Allies have been shipping weapons to Ukraine.

The alternative was for Putin to agitate snd instal pro-Russian politicians snd take it over by stealth. Perhaps with a helpful assassination or two. But Putin is out of time, he wants a legacy established.

I suspect he will invade and will trade off the Russian ethnic areas of Ukr for peace, just like Hitler did with Austria, Sudetenland, and Czech. He realises Europe will likely not go to war or will be half arsed. It’s a ruthless gamble. His economic reserves can more than smooth out “ crippling” sanctions. The Putin wins at the mo appear to outweigh the cons.

Standby. It’s August 1939.
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January 29, 2022 8:43am
- Nickc2
  
  Putin’s Foreign Minister was on TV stating Russia didn’t want to go to war.
  However, you know what lying conniving bastards Foreign Ministers are.
  3 Waters anyone?
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:52am
- All_on_Red
  
  I don’t think he will. There’s no money in it for him. The area is poor and Russia would end up subsidising it. Whilst keeping a massive army there.
  They cant afford that.
  Its just a threat to keep Ukraine out of Nato and preserve the buffer. Also Putin probably regards it as useful mischief!!
  Crimea was worth having. Big parts of the Ukraine ain’t.
  
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  January 29, 2022 8:56am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Ukraine doesn’t qualify for NATO membership, and NATO doesn’t want Ukraine as a member anyway,
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:12am
    - All_on_Red
      
      It doesn’t qualify because States which are having Border disputes cant be considered.
      I think Putin knows this.
      
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      January 29, 2022 10:31am
- MCōs
  
  I don’t know much/anything about internal Russian politics, but I read yesterday that a war with Ukraine has little attraction for the Russian population.
  The situation on the home front in Germany leading up to WWII was entirely different. Entirely.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:09am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  My opinion is that Putin is playing mind games with Biden – to expose how weak Biden really is.
  Putin will not invade Ukraine.
  But then there is the gas problem…..
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:20am
  - Rich Prick
    
    I’m not sure Biden is suitably equiped to be played in the way you suggest.
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:28am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Putin just exposing Biden to the World, over and above the left leaning media especially in the US
      
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      January 29, 2022 9:41am
    - mawm
      
      RP – best comment of the day.
      
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      January 29, 2022 7:07pm
  - curry4me
    
    Steve Otto(North Shore) If mind games are being played; it does rather assume both participants have a mind. Not sure Biden qualifies.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:50am
  - crikey
    
    It is getting increasingly difficult to play mind games with Biden.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:22am
  - MCōs
    
    It wouldn’t matter who the President was.
    A military intervention by America in a war between America/NATO & Russia would go down like a cup of cold sick back home.
    I’m guessing here, but I’d say if Russia invaded Ukraine a good percentage of Americans wouldn’t even know it happened let alone give a toss.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:31am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Americans would not give a toss – even if Biden withdrew the troops and left another 82billion dollars of equipment behind – and imported a whole lot of Russian defectors!
      
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      January 29, 2022 1:57pm
  - Jim
    
    Yep but ……has Putin calculated that Biden has a new cat?
    
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    January 29, 2022 5:52pm
- EssenX
  
  I really don’t see the point in Putin invading Ukraine and I would be very surprised if he does so in the way western intelligence claims. I believe he’s just playing games to demonstrate how incompetent Biden is and how he has Europe by the balls in order to get more respect (that he and Russia probably deserve). The US and Europe should make friends with Putin because the real enemy to everyone isn’t Russia, it’s Xi and the CCP.
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:05am
- Kevin Herlihy
  
  Without doubt Putin is piling on the pressure in the Ukraine and is unequivocally demonstrating the strategic importance the Ukraine represents to Russia’s security and defence.
  Western media is trumpeting an armed conflict that can potentially escalate to include the US and allies despite an unwillingness by European states to engage in a long drawn out war.
  Putin is pushing hard for a regime change in the Ukraine, a regime that conforms with Putin’s ideal of a greater Russian confederation not dissimilar to the now defunct USSR.
  Therefore what we will see in the Ukraine will be a coup detat, the current Ukraine regime will be forced into exile by pro Russian forces within Ukraine backed by Russian military based on the borders. Putin will install his people and in due course seize control of the civil service, utilities and enterprises within the Ukraine. There will be fighting but for the Ukrainian armed forces the writing is on the wall, and that will be to lay down your arms or suffer the consequences.
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:54am
  - mawm
    
    Didn’t the Americans under Obama install their puppet in the Ukraine?
    
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    January 29, 2022 7:10pm
  - smttc
    
    Jesus. What a fantasist.
    
    First of all. It is Ukraine. Not the Ukraine.
    
    Secondly, Ukrainians might be disappointed with Zelensky. But they are not going to agree to some puppet being appointed by the Kremlin. They have already been there and have the Maidan revolution to 2014 to over turn it.
    
    Lastly you underestimate the love that Ukrainian people have for their country. Their army will undoubtedly lose in the face of a Russian army many times its own strength. But do not underestimate the resolve of the Ukrainian army and the Ukrainian people to resist any invasion.
    
    I am certain Putin dwells on this.
    
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    January 29, 2022 8:35pm
Marcus Vinicius

The Washington Post editorial today wants Biden to end the death penalty in the USA.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/28/president-biden-its-time-end-death-penalty/
(subscription needed to read the full article).

At the end of the op-ed the WAPO opines:
“Yet even if its application were fairer, state-sanctioned life-taking would remain an affront to human dignity. The federal government needs no further review. Mr. Biden can commute all federal capital sentences and direct the Justice Department to refrain from seeking the death penalty. He should, immediately.”

Are Biden and the Dems likely to take this issue on in a half term election year?
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January 29, 2022 8:45am
Maggy Wassilieff

Don Brash doesn’t need to learn Te Reo

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/why-is-the-maori-language-being-thrust-down-the-throats-of-people-with-no-interest-in-learning-it
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January 29, 2022 8:47am
- Jack5
  
  The Woke apparatchiks of national and local bureaucracies are splashing Maori language all about.
  
  It’s almost as though they are revelling in a language that 90 per cent of the people cannot read or speak.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:02am
  - Taieri
    
    The Woke apparatchiks of national and local bureaucracies are splashing Maori language all about
    ———–
    
    But are they? Not really. All they’re doing is bastardizing the English language. To what purpose? Who knows…
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:28am
- MCōs
  
  Ears maybe, but not throat.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:12am
- mikenmildagain
  
  I’m always intrigued by writers who use the very odd term ‘thrust down the throat’.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:14am
  - Jack5
    
    It’s just a metaphor, Milky. Perhaps here it relates to vowels. The tongue and palate are related to a metaphor about these. ?
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:35am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Perhaps you are unacquainted with the practice of force-feeding
    
    https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/application/files/5815/3873/6485/Force-feeding-poster.jpg
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:37am
    - Inandout
      
      Maggy, and to the present day where turkeys are force fed to fatten them in time for Thanksgiving.
      
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      January 29, 2022 10:48am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Yep
        and I won’t mention foie gras.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foie_gras_controversy
        
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        January 29, 2022 1:31pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Lovely clear morning here in Gisborne… it’s not going to get too hot.

It is a perfect day for an outdoor wedding.
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January 29, 2022 8:50am
- Jack5
  
  He’s gone fishing!
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:03am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Shame!
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:15pm
Yvette

The $55 Million Media Lie
This comment is here in General Debate because I figure most people have moved on from Melissa Lee’s Guest Post: The Future of New Zealand Media, 7am

Please tolerate a little background –
The “mission statement” on the Fund is –
NZ On Air is administering the Public Interest Journalism Fund. The $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund will support New Zealand’s media to continue to produce stories that keep New Zealanders informed and engaged, and support a healthy democracy.

Further – ????Both NZ On Air and Te Mābga Pāho are Crown Entities established by the Broadcasting Act 1989. The primary function of NZ On Air is to reflect and develop New Zealand identity and culture. The primary function of Te?????? Mānga Pāho???? ??is promote the Māori language and culture. The Agencies recognise that it is time to refocus and refresh our bicultural foundation as a nation and that there is an opportunity, need and willingness for the Agencies to demonstrate leadership in this space by working together in a more collaborative and Te Tiriti responsive manner.

As responsible Crown entities we strive to be trusted Te Tiriti partners ensuring through consultation with tāngata when and tāngata trite??????? ???that the principles of Te Tiriti: partnership, participation and protection are reflected in our decision-making.

Te Puna Whakatongarewa ?– Public Interest Journalism Fund ??PIJF?? has been established to preserve and enhance public interest journalism that would otherwise be at risk or lost due to the impact of COVID-19. It will support the production of journalistic content that is critical to an open, progressive democracy, and to protect jobs at a local, regional, and national level.

■ The possible “key” factor is in first bold type above: “it is time to refocus and refresh”, which indicates a new emphasis which is missing at the time of writing that.
• The justification of the $55 million funding is in the second portion bold typed: the $55 million funding is to “preserve and enhance public interest journalism that would otherwise be at risk or lost due to the impact of COVID-19.
• Put the two ideas together and the covid relief $55 million funding is to preserve something that was “missing” any way.
It is all another Labourless Government lie – playing with words – like the “consolidation” of RATs.
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January 29, 2022 8:51am
- Lee C
  
  Yvette my take too: Thank you for your thoughts Melissa Lee.
  
  An Enquiry is required here.
  
  I would request an audit of how much tax-cash has been pumped into the media via:
  
  ‘transparent’ means – the so called support and education packages.
  
  advertising – in this respect how our cash has been channelled to media outlets as ‘covid announcements’.
  
  This alone would incentivise a practically salivatory support of the covid narrative for example.
  
  I’d also look into who holds shares in our major media conglomerates. Is it, as suggeted elsewhere, true that the pharmaceutical industry has secured these – if so, is our media simply a money-laundering service for ‘vaccines’ and ‘covid’ fear-porn’, using our taxes as a nice little sideline?
  
  Then I would seek to establish how much of this tax-money has been employed to conspire with teh shareholders ‘advertise’ the Government’s policies and maintain this apparently very profitable for all concerned narrative.
  
  In other words how shareholders and Government subverted election spending rules by employing the media to become their ongoing electioneering wing for the duration of the parliamentary term?
  
  Finally I would seek an audit of the political slant of media throughout this period. Because it is one thing to claim they passively accept cash and have another to use this to incentive maintain a pro-Government narrative, but it’s evidenced that they reach much further than this.
  
  They actively attack, marginalise and bully any agency or individual who appears to be ‘anti-Government’. I’d suggest they have effectively neutered Her Majesty’s Oppostion, so fearful are they of ‘negative press’.
  
  Consider the free passes for Ardern, compared to the relentless attascks on Judith Collins. They are subverting our democracy and should be brought to account.
  
  The ‘Fourth Estate’ has become a corruptly-engaged politicised attack-dog, incentivised by our taxes to keep the current administration and their share-holders on life-support for as long as they can.
  
  That is an affront to our democratic system,
  
  However, all private’ is not the sole answer, as we do require some balance, and cannot risk simply replacing one corrupt self-interested media with another which merely agrees with our own political views.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:56am
Maggy Wassilieff

The unintended consequences of carbon-credit trading.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/26/carbon-offsetting-environmental-collapse-carbon-land-grab
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January 29, 2022 8:57am
Benedict Yu

So checking my email this morning. Invite from a Wellington public servant to a workshop on data set analysis. She invited me to lead a session.

She notes “because of the current COVID red setting we will not be able to meet Kanohi ki te Kanohi”.

Why do they do this? I had to look it up. Anyway I have decided not to go. A red warning. I am thinking of ditching government agency clients. It is becoming insufferable.
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January 29, 2022 8:59am
- pdm
  
  BY tell us, please tell us – what that phrase you had to look up means.
  
  No point in all of us wasting time on google when you have done the hard yards for us. lol.
  
  28 2
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  January 29, 2022 9:06am
  - MCōs
    
    Face to face
    
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    January 29, 2022 9:16am
    - Rich Prick
      
      Why use three words, when four and a Google translate will do?
      
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      January 29, 2022 9:31am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        or three syllables instead of 8.
        
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        January 29, 2022 10:26am
      - tf78
        
        RP – why bother at all – ignorance is bliss for once.
        
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        January 29, 2022 2:06pm
- septic skeptic
  
  I suggest you email back with the key information in Mandarin.
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:42am
- The Feed
  
  Mixing in Te Reo – when someone is not fluent in Te Reo – is a great signal.
  
  It lets me know this person is a woke prat.
  
  That’s efficiency.
  
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  January 29, 2022 12:51pm
- Jim
  
  I do hope they also specified their gender pronouns, as we wouldn’t want to create any confusion now, would we?
  
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  January 29, 2022 5:59pm
All_on_Red

A win for Voter integrity in Pennsylvania. The mass mail in voting system the Dems engineered has been ruled unconstitutional.
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/katiepavlich/2022/01/28/republicans-score-major-election-victory-in-pennsylvania-n2602517?utm_campaign=rightrailsticky3
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January 29, 2022 8:59am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Pelosi will be screaming as well as getting drunk
  
  25 4
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  January 29, 2022 9:28am
  - Inandout
    
    SO, I will correct your statement: ‘screaming while in her usual drunken state’.
    
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    January 29, 2022 10:52am
Chuck Bird

Did anyone see the bit on Sky News about a Muslim rugby player who would not play at some Gay Pride game as Muslims like some Christians oppose homosexuality? The left did not complain like they did with Israel Folau.
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January 29, 2022 9:02am
- MCōs
  
  I believe that was mentioned several times yesterday
  
  11 8
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  January 29, 2022 9:18am
- RichardX
  
  Chuck, Did Sky misrepresent the facts as badly as you just did?
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:52am
- Centrist
  
  Yeah. It is a female AFL player.
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:21am
Surely Knott

The Origins of the Pandemic:
Some of the first imagery we were shown by media in Jan 2020 to prove that there was an terrifying disease in China was an image of a man lying dead on the street in Wuhan surrounded by people in haz suits and a video of multiple people suddenly collapsing in the streets of China which media sources said was suspected to be from “the virus. ” ”
Looking back these images look outrageously fake. The man who has collapsed dead in the street from the virus is perfectly groomed and healthy in a suit and lying perfectly like he is asleep – not like he has crawled out of bed coughing and sweaty and unable to breathe. The collapsing people just are standing up straight and then fall forward losing consciousness and fall on their face. Clearly this is not what happens even when you have a severe case of “the virus”. Were these images and video faked? Who created them and paid for them? And why did media so gleefully spread them when they even admit in their articles they are unverified? While the media say the images are unverified they then go on to hype up the hysteria? Were they also paid and by whom? Who gave them the images? Just like yelling fire in a crowded theatre, if these videos are fake then people should be held to account by the law.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7923981/Coronavirus-Disturbing-videos-claim-people-collapsing-Wuhan.html

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/31/a-man-lies-dead-in-the-street-the-image-that-captures-the-wuhan-coronavirus-crisis
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January 29, 2022 9:03am
- MCōs
  
  Happened in Bangkok too, although not so well dressed.
  What have you got to say about that?
  BTW
  None of the videos show
  “. . . people just are standing up straight and then fall forward losing consciousness and fall on their face.”
  You don’t know how they got there; although you insinuate they were placed there because it suits your agenda.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:36am
  - Surely Knott
    
    Bangkok articles in July say people were dying in the street waiting for hospital care. I can believe that.
    
    But the original coronavirus videos from China clearly show people just standing in the middle of the street tipping over and dying and is entitled “Apocalyptic footage shows people collapsing suddenly in Wuhan city ” This was the news we were shown in January that formed the start of the pandemic. It was so central to our opinion that the Guardian called the collapsed man “the image that captures the Wuhan coronavirus crisis”
    
    https://videos.dailymail.co.uk/preview/mol/2020/01/24/2255681910686892688/636x382_MP4_2255681910686892688.mp4
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:22am
- Lee C
  
  Wuhan cleared Hong Kong of student demonstrators overnight.
  
  Just sayin’…
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:58am
Maggy Wassilieff

The media is starting to develop the narrative that we are on our own when Covid strikes our families.

Learning to live with Covid-19 is no longer a fringe idea.

New Zealand modelling shows about half the population is expected to transmit Omicron over the next three months.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/127600150/vaxxed-and-done-or-vaxxed-and-cautious-nzs-differing-omicron-risk-perceptions
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January 29, 2022 9:07am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Yes, Clare Trevett’s has prepared us all for the fact that this govt can no longer do everything for us – not sure if it’s been understood yet
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:29am
- bronny1
  
  Good. I suspect this will improve the likelihood of coming thru unscathed given the gumming destroys all they touch.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:45am
- tf78
  
  Maggy, don’t stress the DHB’s are distributing Ibuprofen, Panadol and hydration sachets – that is how serious this pandemic is and that is the Government’s recommended treatment. Wake up people, we are being conned now.
  
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  January 29, 2022 2:10pm
I remember when

Refutes – is to prove wrong by argument or evidence:
show to be false or erroneous:
Is it time for the press to remind Jacinda that saying I, “absolutely refute” doesn’t actually do any such thing.
Perhaps Trevor could do the same thing.
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January 29, 2022 9:12am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Should be a follow up question next time she does it “Do you know what the word refute means”
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:51am
- Centrist
  
  I’m no Jacinda fan, and really want her out, but “refute” has more than one meaning. It also means “to deny or contradict a statement”. I assume that is what she is meaning as she is offering no proof or evidence.
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:19am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Here’s the thing:
    
    Over the last few years folks have become sloppy in their use of language and muddle up words that once had precise meanings.
    
    We have been told on a number of occasions that Jacinda Ardern was a top school debater….and as such she would know the importance of a rebuttal – i.e. how to refute an argument.
    
    You can’t just stand up as 3rd speaker and state:
    “I deny your argument”…and expect to win.
    
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    January 29, 2022 3:44pm
    - jgw739
      
      Not at all, that would jeopradise the teams chances.
      
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      January 29, 2022 6:24pm
Rodney Hide

How did this sneak through the fact checkers? :

Prof Micahel Baker

“Overall, it’s proactive governments that have saved millions of lives around the world, or the alternative: have cost millions of lives. That’s the lesson over and over again.”

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/127600150/vaxxed-and-done-or-vaxxed-and-cautious-nzs-differing-omicron-risk-perceptions
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January 29, 2022 9:14am
- Rich Prick
  
  The left are fond of presenting a counter factual as fact.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:33am
- K
  
  A literature review and meta analysis on the topic out of Johns Hopkins:
  
  “This systematic review and meta-analysis are designed to determine whether there is empirical evidence to support the belief that “lockdowns” reduce COVID-19 mortality. Lockdowns are defined as the imposition of at least one compulsory, non-pharmaceutical intervention (NPI). NPIs are any government mandate that directly restrict peoples’ possibilities, such as policies that limit internal movement, close schools and businesses, and ban international travel. This study employed a systematic search and screening procedure in which 18,590 studies are identified that could potentially address the belief posed. After three levels of screening, 34 studies ultimately qualified. Of those 34 eligible studies, 24 qualified for inclusion in the meta-analysis. They were separated into three groups: lockdown stringency index studies, shelter-in-place- order (SIPO) studies, and specific NPI studies. An analysis of each of these three groups support the conclusion that lockdowns have had little to no effect on COVID-19 mortality. More specifically, stringency index studies find that lockdowns in Europe and the United States only reduced COVID-19 mortality by 0.2% on average. SIPOs were also ineffective, only reducing COVID-19 mortality by 2.9% on average. Specific NPI studies also find no broad-based evidence of noticeable effects on COVID-19 mortality.”
  
  https://sites.krieger.jhu.edu/iae/files/2022/01/A-Literature-Review-and-Meta-Analysis-of-the-Effects-of-Lockdowns-on-COVID-19-Mortality.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1XYjF0FvHjVITeseNIbLkBeU3Dp1PkK3_kHa5meMOFX049zDH0w3IpGjg
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:05am
- krazykiwi
  
  So called fact checkers, generally junior/amateur researchers with lightning fast Wikipedia skills won’t touch anything unless it is contrary to The Narrative™. They have families to feed, and money flowing from The Trusted News Initiative is essential.
  
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  January 29, 2022 11:12am
mikenmildagain

I see that woke politicians in Florida want to ban school teaching that causes pupils to “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin.”
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January 29, 2022 9:16am
- plc
  
  How does that work then?
  
  I thought white people were obligated to feel guilt
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:35am
  - David George
    
    They are obliged or, more correctly manipulated to feel guilt, our new history curriculum has a similar intentions, Mike is taking the proverbial. That Republican proposal is aimed at ending the insidious CRT based indoctrination in schools.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:08am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  The left are all like “stop racism in schools”, so the right helpfully move to stop kids being targeted on the basis of race or gender in cultural revolution style ‘struggle sessions’ by CRT/marxist zealots employing the bully pulpit of lower school pedagogy and then the Left are all “no, not like that”.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:39am
- RightNow
  
  Next they’ll be setting up “safe spaces”, complaining about micro aggressions and demanding trigger warnings at the start of classes.
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:55am
- Lee C
  
  … but not whether they are vaxxed or not, or wish to be, or not?
  
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  January 29, 2022 9:59am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    That might be a separate issue. This bit of craziness seems to be about heavily regulating what teachers can or can’t say.
    
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    January 29, 2022 11:04am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Mischievous post Mike. Concern troll.
  
  If it means treating people with a basic & consistent dignity, as in not maligning or singling out a group, that is fine.
  That is common sense and basic decency.
  In one sense, the best way to do that is to be blind to race and identity politics as part of education.
  
  However, when avoiding discomfort means trigger warnings for topics and searching for micro-aggressions in normal situations, walking on eggshells with special groups, then it is snowflake pandering.
  
  No body wants to distress children, but when outrage and offence is currency in modern times, just like victimhood is virtuous – efforts like this can be taken ‘Full Retard’.
  
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  January 29, 2022 10:55am
- Nickc2
  
  Where’s the reference link, or is that a CNN quote from some boofhead masquerading as a News Anchor?
  
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  January 29, 2022 2:01pm
Bridgenag

We used to live in a nice little friendly country…… One of the blokes from bowls took the Missus to get her doctors “competent to drive” form done. Rang to make sure the Doctor was on time…”Oh yes just 2 people to see” …….sat waiting for 50minutes….then the moron put the next days date on the form. In a rush and didn’t get the docket from payment and off they went to the nearest centre 1/2 an hour away. NO… The wrong date. No docket. Not even a call to the doctor would do it. He did a rant about commonsense prevailing and was asked to leave. Had to make the 1 1/2 hour return trip the next day. HE HATES THIS GUBBERMINT
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January 29, 2022 9:49am
- MCōs
  
  “He did a rant about commonsense prevailing and was asked to leave.”
  Maybe the chap should have checked the form before leaving the doctor’s.
  
  Maybe he should have left his wife to organise things for herself.
  
  Never mind. If everything turns to custard.
  Just remember.
  You can always blame someone else
  Doctor’s receptionist
  Doctor
  Someone at the ‘centre’
  Bouncer at the ‘center’
  Government.
  
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  January 29, 2022 2:47pm
curry4me

https://nypost.com/2022/01/28/covid-hits-one-of-the-last-uninfected-places-on-the-planet/

COVID hits one of the last uninfected places on the planet.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — When the coronavirus began spreading around the world, the remote Pacific archipelago of Kiribati closed its borders, ensuring the disease didn’t reach its shores for nearly two full years.
Kiribati finally began reopening this month, allowing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to charter a plane to bring home 54 of the island nation’s citizens. Many of those aboard were missionaries who had left Kiribati before the border closure to spread the faith abroad for what is commonly known as the Mormon Church.
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January 29, 2022 9:58am
curry4me

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/01/28/pennsylvania-court-strikes-mail-voting-law-00003179

Pennsylvania voting fight escalates as court strikes down mail ballot law.

A Pennsylvania state court on Friday struck down the law allowing any voter to cast a ballot by mail, handing a victory to Republican lawmakers who sought to curtail the practice amid former President Donald Trump’s attacks on mail voting. [The good guys are fighting back, and winning.]
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January 29, 2022 9:58am
Yvette

After years of light rail promises which have been light on delivery, the Government has finally committed to an option for Auckland
So after “7.1 metres of press release pledges” – now to be binned – Robertson “is promising it’s for real this time”, “with shovels in the ground on early works next year” and “an end time for the project by approximately 2030 to 2031.So it’s 10 more years, Auckland”, “if light rail stays on track.”

Taxpayers will pay for the lion’s share and Robertson wants to borrow to build.
“If central government is serious about this kind of nation and city-building project then we do have to have a slightly different conversation in New Zealand about public debt,” Robertson said.

But – … “A quarter of Auckland’s growth can be accommodated along this corridor,” said Wood. – and there is an indication that, benefiting the most from that position, they should pay some “tax” towards the project.
Why? – if it is the “nation and city-building project” that Robertson claims it to be.
It’s like charging everyone living within 100m of Lake Terrace, in Taupo, an extra levy because it is easier to access State Highway 1 to Auckland.

And, incidentally, – The 24km route will have up to 18 stations and run every five minutes – just turn up and go.
Say a train stops 2 minutes at each station that would be 36minutes at stations.
if it went at an average speed of 80kph it would complete the 24km route in 18 minutes. Add the station time. 36 mins 18 mins, so 54 minutes one way. so 108 minutes round trip. So to have a train passing through a station heading in one direction every five minutes would need 21.6 trains, so 22 ‘units’ whatever a train comprises.
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January 29, 2022 10:14am
- alex Masterley
  
  In the herald yesterday maximum hourly capacity was claimed to be 12000 pax per hour – I am assuming each way. In the NBR the number was 15000 per hour (again I assume each way) that means each of the 24 units on the line at any given time will need to carry 625 passengers (for 15000paxph) or 500 passengers (for 12000 paxph). yet when i attended consultation meetings we were told unit size would be 410pax which is a bit short of the number required.
  So either we were told porkies by the consultation people about unit size or we are being told porkies about capacity by the promoters.
  I also think the journey will take over an hour as linger time at stations will be about 90 seconds and minimumt time between stations will be about 2 minutes which adds up to 61 minutes.
  
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  January 29, 2022 1:29pm
Clownworld

Dystopian socialist madness.
Don’t let them take your kids minds.

The picture in the article below shows people outside, distanced wearing masks???

How do you do step 2 of this mindless activity?
Breathe? With a mask on?

Mindfulness is simply new age zen bhuddist training sweeping corporate and now school culture like old trends like self actualisation.
Having said that like anything there is some merit in some of the ideas.

Articles like this are promoting state knows best for your children what enters their minds in terms of meta-physics and spirituality rather than parents.
Curiously at the same time as pushing this they stifle religious views within schools.

Perhaps removing masks will improve developmental learning ( well according to the science).
Removing masks will help increase oxygen and in turn help brain health.
Removing masks and explaining why science got it wrong and scientisim is evil might be more important than pseudo new age mindlessness.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/education/taradale-primary-school-teachers-learn-mindfulness-techniques-to-help-kids-cope-as-covid-bears-down/
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January 29, 2022 10:51am
oldfella

Yet we are charging ahead. Why?
Sweden has decided against recommending COVID vaccines for kids aged 5-11, the Health Agency said on Thursday, arguing that the benefits did not outweigh the risks.
“With the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don’t see any clear benefit with vaccinating them,” Health Agency official Britta Bjorkholm told a news conference.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/sweden-decides-against-recommending-covid-vaccines-kids-aged-5-12-2022-01-27/
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January 29, 2022 11:07am
- Jim
  
  History will be the judge of this government and its ‘experts’ as the truth is revealed.
  
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  January 29, 2022 6:30pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

This sounds familiar:
https://thepoliticalinsider.com/u-s-spent-562-4-billion-on-interest-payments-in-2021/?
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January 29, 2022 11:31am
Maggie Pie

Me & Ma went ‘window-shopping’ this morning in Newmarket.

Honestly….the whole joint was dead as a doorknob. Don’t know how anyone’s paying the rent in that Westfield Mall. Although we did buy a kilo of Mandarins from Countdown. Imported from Oz. Just peeled a couple. DEEELISH!!
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January 29, 2022 11:32am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://babylonbee.com/news/trudeau-claims-truckers-only-hate-him-because-hes-black
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January 29, 2022 11:41am
Maggy Wassilieff

Where has 2 years of team-work taken us, folks?

In other words, the team of five million, while still a rhetorical invention, has fallen by the wayside. Unless you get really sick, you are on your own.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/127626878/the-you-survived-two-lockdowns-and-all-you-got-was-this-inflation-tshirt-political-strategy
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January 29, 2022 11:55am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Jacinda’s female fan club who think talking is work will never read that.
  
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  January 29, 2022 2:10pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Of course they won’t… It’s placed at the end of a long piece trying to talk up Labour and explaining away its lousy financial management.
    
    18 1
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    January 29, 2022 2:19pm
Pongo

Just in case you didnt see anything in the NZ media this week:
Biden got caught on a hot mic calling a journalist a son of a bitch, cast your mind back to when Trump did this.
There is a 70km long anti vax mandate protest in Canada.
Nancy Pelosi,s son is now facing his 6th FBI investigation but no word yet on the investigation into Hunter Biden. Nancy is running for her 9th term at the age of 187.
26 1
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January 29, 2022 12:03pm
I remember when

So after two years, is it time to decide whether we have handled covid correctly.
We have closed the borders, created land borders, closed businesses, fined businesses, sent people to jail, double jabbed, boostered, reported neighbours breaking the rules, restricted numbers able to attend, restricted how far from home you could travel, enforced masks, enforced signing in, mandated a passport, allowed restriction to media reporting to go largely unopposed, introduced MIQ, prevented New Zealanders from coming home.

Have we eliminated Covid yet?
35 1
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January 29, 2022 12:10pm
Rusty

As I have asked before — is this govt trying to eliminate covid or eliminate democracy in this country?
22 0
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January 29, 2022 12:35pm
Surely Knott

Fear for thee but not for me.
Celebrities who have been vocal supporters of the governments strict lockdown approach and mandates for you are in LA, working, partying and having a great time.

Bene has cancelled her NZ leg of the tour. Well she supports the governments mandates and appreciates that the government is taking the disease seriously she herself will be travelling through the USA and all of Europe where omicron is rife.

The other celebrity in LA is anti conspiracy theory journalist David Farrier. In November 2021. Farrier writes in RNZ ,

“While it’s easy to point the finger at New Zealand’s outspoken conspiracy theorists such as Billy TK and Brian Tamaki, Farrier is personally more alarmed by the “large group of mainly middle-class white people” who are jumping on board the conspiracy train out of sheer terror.

“[These people] have been top of the food chain as far as race and privilege goes, and I think this is the first time and they’re shocked that they might have to change the way they do things and life might not be going back to how it was.

“We are going through a world-changing event and that is making people who haven’t typically struggled… struggle in an entirely new way.”

Farrier finds these people selfish for overestimating the importance of their own personal freedom.”

But actually David Farrier was in the USA when he wrote this and has been for months having a grand time touring round, living in LA and even catching covid while presumably fully vaxxed.

So while he gets newspaper columns to call you a selfish, white-privileged, racist conspiracy theorist at the top of the food chain for questioning the effectiveness of the vax or protesting your personal freedom. He is actually in the USA having a blast, and his daily reckons are front page news – a privilege for those at the very top of the food chain only. He’s honestly laughing at you. But he’s not scared of the virus and he doesn’t believe in restrictions either – just for you.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/saturday/audio/2018820386/david-farrier-examining-conspiracy-culture-in-new-zealand

https://www.instagram.com/davidfarrier/?hl=en
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January 29, 2022 12:37pm
- MCōs
  
  The other day a couple of other ‘top of the food chain’ Kiwi ex-pats, Zinzan Brooke & Dan Wootton took a swing at the way the government is handling the situation.
  I note you don’t mention those guys in your piece.
  Of course neither of these two have been resident here for a very long time.
  
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  January 29, 2022 4:07pm
Yvette

Experiment –
Live: Health officials to release latest case numbers as concerns grow over potential super spreader events 2 hours ago – Newshub headline
– see when the 1pm release really happens … while supposedly a nation waits?
Time now 12:40
12 1
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January 29, 2022 12:41pm
- Yvette
  
  Health officials are set to release the latest number of community Covid-19 cases as people in the upper North Island escape Auckland and other cities for the long anniversary weekend.
  May be no one gives a Stuff, 1-News or Newshub, because they are all stuck in a traffic-jam somewhere – 1:37pm
  
  11 1
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  January 29, 2022 1:38pm
- Yvette
  
  There it goes –
  Latest on COVID-19 community outbreak – Saturday, January 29 – Newshub
  –about 1:40
  Just as well lives don’t depend on it
  
  10 1
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  January 29, 2022 1:48pm
Warren

The Government need flogging for there total ignorance and pathetic attitude on the deals that were offered on Rapid Antigen test kits by Sir Ian Taylor.
https://www.odt.co.nz/opinion/sir-ian-taylor-how-solve-rat-test-crisis-3-hours this has been a disgraceful attitude from our Government and Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister who have not been prepared to listen or engage for the sake of New Zealander’s and all about their selfish need to control.
20 0
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January 29, 2022 1:02pm
Inandout

It has been mentioned that up to 60% of bank mortgages renew this year. The question must be asked.. as the interest on those mortgages will increase then what percentage will fail to meet their payments? Yes some theorists say this will be a perfect opportunity for Robbo to snap up these properties at bargain prices but he has admitted the coffers are empty.
Example:
$800k mortgage @ 2.49% over 5 yrs = $1456 month when taken out.
$800k mortgage @ 4.29% over 5 yrs= $1824 m0nth when renewed.
However it is calculated these are some current rates:
https://mortgagerates.co.nz/mortgage-rates
15 1
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January 29, 2022 1:36pm
Chuck Bird

This is not premium and I would say anti-Labour.

Covid 19 coronavirus: Stranded pregnant journalist Charlotte Bellis’ MIQ situation ‘unsurprising’ – MP

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-stranded-pregnant-journalist-charlotte-bellis-miq-situation-unsurprising-mp/OI7SWHYPC6U6OTO6HZ7SZDZUF4/
14 3
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January 29, 2022 1:48pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Good of Vic University to finally acknowledge that complaints of Jack Body’s predatory behaviour had been made whilst he was employed by the University.

“We have since learned that concerns about sexually harmful behaviour were raised by staff and students at the time, and that our initial media statement inadvertently caused further harm.”

The statement said the university acknowledges that harm took place over a long period and was ” embedded in historical policy, cultural and institutional failures”.

It would have been better if they revealed who acted to protect Body.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/01/victoria-university-apologises-to-former-students-for-harm-caused-by-teacher-composer-jack-body.html
16 0
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January 29, 2022 2:24pm
- Swifty
  
  I’ll never listen to the Close To Home theme in quite the same way again…
  
  https://fb.watch/aQqF-tjB8r/
  
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  January 29, 2022 4:15pm
Hollyfield

Observations from my workplace this week, since moving to Red.

Jacinda said everyone who is mandated to be vaccinated in their jobs has to wear a face mask. My workplace is mandated to be vaccinated (although the departments in my building are not public facing, so interactions are between a limited group of people). I have checked each person and counted who wears a mask and who doesn’t, and have calculated the figures very carefully, using a calculator to get decimal points – 0% wearing a mask.

We are supposed to keep physically distanced. Again I checked where each person was working, plus checked the lunchroom and the percentage of people following this rule – 0%.

This week we had a meeting that people from around the country flew to Auckland for. Numbers keeping a mask on after getting out of their taxi – 0%.

We asked the team if they were comfortable having dinner in a restaurant after moving to red, or if they preferred to keep safe by eating room service in their hotel room. The numbers of people choosing room service instead of mixing with the public – 0%.

People don’t care any more. We are all (pretty much all) vaccinated, and making sensible choices about our own risks. We have to wear masks in supermarkets and taxis so for the most part are, but if the mask wearing seems contradictory we don’t bother. The Government does not have the general public behind them on further restrictions announced this week.
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January 29, 2022 2:24pm
- Cinematic
  
  Hollyfield, have you double checked your calculations and had the results peer reviewed?
  
  Don’t want anyone to label you Hendy the Second. Or perhaps the second coming of Plank.
  
  10 0
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  January 29, 2022 4:58pm
  - Hollyfield
    
    @Cinematic. You raise a good point. Yep peer reviewed – I shared the calculations in the lunchroom while sitting next to the HR Manager and across from the Finance Manager. One might not be too good at the maths, but the other one I hope is, and it’s reassuring that both agreed with my calculations to reach 0%. This was done informally without referring to paperwork at the time but I think far surpasses the rigour used in the Government’s calculations.
    
    4 0
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    January 29, 2022 7:11pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Congratulations,
      Peer-reviewed research; now published on KB and with a readership of at least 17 individuals.
      
      I think we can all agree you are now well on your way to being an expert.
      
      However, I’m afraid that you have neglected to give details of your Matauranga advisor, so you will probably not be used as a Government consultant.
      
      3 0
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      January 29, 2022 7:54pm
Alan Wilkinson

A depressing picture of the direction youth is heading – fear, guilt and suppression:
https://www.city-journal.org/cancel-culture-generational-divide
10 0
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January 29, 2022 2:29pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Here is the h h h thing again.
Look at their faces.
https://rumble.com/vt7h8z-unmasked-the-view-panelists-whine-about-anti-maskers.html?
13 3
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January 29, 2022 2:43pm
Chuck Bird

FYI

Jacinda Ardern’s ‘draconian measures’ are a ‘futile delaying tactic’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOQXZDjFUfk
9 2
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January 29, 2022 3:09pm
Maggie Pie

HOLY MOTHER!!

Driving home from Newmarket this morning.
Chatting away to Ma and sort of overheard them saying something on the radio…. “that a man had burned to death during a house fire in Benghazi” 🙁

Never thought too much of it tbh. Sounded like just another day in Libya.

Turns out it was actually in……. PANMURE!!

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/01/man-dies-in-panmure-auckland-house-fire.html
6 4
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January 29, 2022 3:13pm
plc

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127625054/woman-desperate-for-normal-life-after-3-years-in-temporary-housing

Chalk drawings on the walls of the motel.

Yep, she can move into my rental
13 0
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January 29, 2022 3:23pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  Stuff neglected to ask her about that.
  
  10 0
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  January 29, 2022 4:28pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  And honestly plc…you wouldn’t want a horrible bloody smoker anyway 🙁
  
  10 4
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  January 29, 2022 4:38pm
  - MCōs
    
    What about a classy smoker?
    
    5 1
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    January 29, 2022 5:58pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Yes, well….I remember gran sitting in her lounge with a long black & white Ivory cigarette-holder sucking on a Camel.
      
      Strangely, I actually liked the smell back then 🙁
      
      6 1
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      January 29, 2022 7:14pm
- artemisia
  
  Don’t see chalk on the wall as a problem as it is easily removed.
  
  What is a problem is that the woman is clearly seen as risky by private landlords or she would already be in a private rental. As we know banks can, and are almost obliged to, dig into the lifestyle of applicants for borrowing. Landlords are not allowed to do most of that, so must make their risk assessment using whatever is legally permitted to ask supplemented by their eyes, ears and judgement.
  
  The main point is that risks and their associated costs and hassles have been imposed by new government rules. So landlords make decisions in that context. And the risky join the other 25,000 plus on the social housing waiting list.
  
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  January 29, 2022 5:10pm
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    If I was a landlord there would be no way I’d rent out a place to anyone that didn’t have at least two impeccable references from previous rentals.
    
    0 0
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    January 30, 2022 7:31am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The article implies that the Harris family are no longer involved in crime…
  
  After their release from prison in the mid-1990s, the Harris brothers became strangers to the courts, seemingly preferring to keep a low profile.
  
  But it appears that Christchurch folk aren’t really rid of them…This from a couple of years ago:
  
  An altercation involving a group of people that ended with a man being stabbed is believed to have involved members of Christchurch’s infamous Harris family.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/116655796/police-swarm-christchurch-property-after-critically-injured-person-turns-up-at-hospital
  
  It is a pity that ms Harris didn’t pick up some useful qualifications/skills whilst in prison….
  https://www.corrections.govt.nz/working_with_offenders/prison_sentences/employment_and_support_programmes/employment_activities
  
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  January 29, 2022 5:12pm
Benedict Yu

What the hell? Since this government has been in office, childhood vaccinations have sharply declined with Maori kids below 60 percent!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/127609790/risk-of-deadly-disease-outbreaks-as-noncovid-childhood-vaccinations-plummet

According to the pediatrician quoted, a young kid is 100 times more likely to die from measles than COVID!!

Is there not one thing this government can get right? ?
19 0
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January 29, 2022 5:13pm
- fernglas
  
  The pediatrician is wrong. He says one child in a thousand dies from measles. The rate for Covid is about one in a million, so closer to 1000 times more dangerous.
  
  3 0
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  January 29, 2022 7:45pm
greybeard

“All Soundsplash festival attendees are being asked by the Ministry of Health to get tested for Covid-19 immediately.” ( Stuff article ).
Yeah right, I can really see THAT happening.
24 0
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January 29, 2022 5:25pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Who remembers “Two shots for summer”?
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_Soj97CVUs
  Two shots to hit the festivals
  Two to hit the front
  Two to bust shapes with the crew
  Two to straight up stun
  
  Really sensible sending kids out to a 3-day rave in the middle of an epidemic.
  
  Those 2 shots have sure done the trick.
  
  13 0
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  January 29, 2022 6:32pm
  - nathie
    
    No worries, Labour will simply “disappear” these ads from internet searches (they seem to know influential people in all sorts of high places)!
    
    10 0
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    January 29, 2022 7:18pm
- Don Beckett
  
  Two of my grand-daughters went. Do you think they’re isolating and getting tested? Not on your Nellie.
  
  7 0
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  January 29, 2022 10:52pm
- Bea Rossini
  
  Hope they don’t die.
  
  0 2
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  January 29, 2022 11:14pm
Inthe09

3 Waters poll – TVNZ

https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/01/29/poll-more-voters-against-three-waters-than-support/

Only 26 per cent of voters support the Government’s Three Waters reform, according to the latest 1News Kantar Public Poll.

The poll indicates 40 per cent of voters are opposed to the reforms, while 35 per cent were either unsure or didn’t know they were happening.
1 0
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January 29, 2022 9:42pm
Chuck Bird

I seen on the breaking news that Ardern and the GG are isolating.
2 1
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January 29, 2022 11:12pm
- Bea Rossini
  
  Sit still Chuck – you magical creature you.
  
  0 0
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  January 29, 2022 11:14pm
- Manu-Rau
  
  Saves one of them from fronting the media.
  
  0 0
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  January 30, 2022 4:39am
- Nickc2
  
  The old faux Waitangi Day trick eh? That’d probably be the last time they were together.
  Those tricky Maoris have been at it again. Spreading good will that is.
  
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  January 30, 2022 7:54am
Alan Wilkinson

Any news on her RAT test results?
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January 30, 2022 11:03am

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