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March 24, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 24 March 2022

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General Debate

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Warren

I am probably leaving myself open to heavy criticism with this question but I am baffled and maybe dumb because I can’t see any evidence that 538,839 infections since the pandemic began brings us to the point we are just about peaking on the virus.
Even with the suggested figurethat Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister says that 1.7million New Zealander’s could have been effected with Covid taking into account that many may not have been tested and reported their test results, that’s well above the Country’s case tallyof 538,839 infections since the pandemic began.
With over 5 million living in New Zealand how can less than 10% of the population that is or has been effected we are now at our peak.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/covid-19-easing-restrictions-won-t-make-material-difference-to-health-system-pressure-pm-jacinda-ardern.html
I ask this because science has not been right in predicting the thousands that will die from the pandemic so how can you trust them on this.
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March 24, 2022 8:00am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I think the powers-to-be are only looking at Auckland with respect to “peaking”.
  
  The rest of NZ doesn’t figure into any of their plans.
  
  Remember when all of NZ entered into lockdown when 1 case was discovered in Auckland?
  
  The fact that the South Island is experiencing a rise in case numbers is pretty irrelevant to the folks in the Beehive.
  
  Can you name a SI politician with any pull in this Government?
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:50am
  - DeepBlue
    
    You’re disrespecting Rino. He’s such an influence//
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:54pm
- westernScientest
  
  To give them the benefit of doubt, which they probably dont deserve, but anyway. One would expect the peak of cases to be well below half the population having had the infection. The reason is that as people catch it and then get natural immunity the effective reproductive number declines. Say a positive case comes in contact with – and exposes, like kisses them all or something – 10 people, at the start of the pandemic when there is no immunity, they pass it on to all 10 people. Once 5 out of the 10 people have immunity then they can only pass it on to the remaining 5. What it means is that as the population recovers then less people get infected from each case. So during the peak it took a day to infect say 50000 people, but a month later it might take a week to infect 50000 people just because there is less spread going on, because there are less people who can actually catch it.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:03am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    People get natural immunity? Not according to the MoH and various local councils. Apparently only triple (or is it quadruple) jabbed have any real protection from the deadly virus.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:19am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      It is misleading to say you don’t have immunity until you’ve had Covid. If that were the case, you’d die when you became infected. If you have a sound immune system, then you have natural immunity before contracting the virus. I would say the strict difference is that you have better immunity once infected and recovered.
      
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      March 24, 2022 11:58am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  You’re clearly not following the science, Warren. The government’s science advisers – ie, the science of psephology – have concluded that now is an appropriate time to ease up a bit on mandates, etc.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:18am
  - artemisia
    
    Don’t think we have reached peak angry yet. Peak grumpy, yes.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:54am
- Scott
  
  Warren – fair comment. I would say that thousands and thousands of people have got covid and we have 10 people a day dying with covid rather than of covid. For the vast majority of people covid is like having a cold or the flu.
  
  Given then that the actual number of people dying of covid is very small, wouldn’t that suggest that the crisis is over? That covid is not the end of the world?
  
  So in answer to your comments I don’t trust the “experts” or the government which has constantly told us that covid is the end of the world and engendered massive fear in the population of this country.
  
  In fact there has been a worldwide conspiracy of governments promoting fear, promoting lockdowns and promoting vaccines as the only way to combat the virus, as the only treatment.
  
  So for me I don’t trust any of them. Not Jacinda, not the redhead epidemiologist, not Tova, not Michael Baker, none of them. There is a predetermined narrative that appears to be about government control and the massive profits of pharmaceutical companies.
  
  I think they have been lying to us for the last two years.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:19am
- Nickc2
  
  Science is not this Govt’s strong point (if they have one). They declared a Climate Change Emergency/Crisis FFS and couldn’t come up with any verifiable science to prove it.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:27am
- lastmanstanding
  
  I have been following politics since the late 1960s. This is by far the most incompetent regime I have ever seen. I dont call it a Government because good Governments govern and this one hasnt.
  The latest omnishambles is that only 40% of the MIQ costs have been collected.
  
  Now imagine a hotel that only collected 40% of their guests charges. They would go broke very quickly.
  
  So did MIBE ensure every “guests” credit card was swiped on entry. I suspect not. I suspect they were asked for a physical address that wasnt verified so when the bill was sent through NZ Post it came back “Address Unkown”.
  
  Of course as usual nobody will be held accountable and the costs met out of the long suffering tax payers tax.
  Having worked mainly in the private sector Im not saying its perfect but in my long experience if you make one cock up you might be excused two and your fired.
  In the Regime if you make a cock up you are promoted to make even a bigger cock up and then promoted again.
  Until we get a Government with the rigor to impose discipline on the Public Service and hold individuals accountable nothing will change.
  Depressing.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:41am
  - Squeek
    
    Hosking made your point well in the Herald this morning – that this crowd have never listened to or drawn on the private sector to help get through Covid. The MIQ charging debacle is a classic example. They could have simply asked the hotels to bill the ‘guests’ on the way out.
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:59pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      As lastman surmised, they didn’t do that, but the right thing to do is swipe the credit card on the way in not the way out.
      
      My cousin’s husband came over from the US last year and had his 2 weeks MIQ and was never asked for any payment for anything. He’s a Polish/American and has literally no connection to the country (my cousin has never lived in NZ but her Mum’s a kiwi), and as long as he stayed here 3 months he didn’t have to pay a bean.
      
      He didn’t stay here just for that reason, said he wouldn’t pay anyway if they were too slack to ask him, and to be honest I don’t blame him. If they’re handing out lollies then get some.
      
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      March 24, 2022 3:46pm
      - Mr_Blobby
        
        So you are detained by the Government, it is detention because you have no choice.
        
        And you pay for it.
        
        That would work well in our prison system.
        
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        March 24, 2022 5:05pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Agree, and when a new Govt is installed and presented with a massive black hole that masquerades as the economy and taxes and other charges are increased to repay the debt, people will complain that the new Government’s worse than the previous.
    What’s even worse, is Cindy and Robbo won’t give a fuck (figuratively that is)!
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:06pm
- Rusty
  
  Warren – 20 odd people died with or of covid in 2020 before the vaccine came out.
  
  The ‘expert’ prediction of 80,000 deaths in 2020 unless we went into lock down should still have resulted in at least 1000 deaths.
  
  5000 deaths predicted last year for delta, a dozen odd deaths resulted.
  
  If no one had mentioned the words covid or pandemic in march 2020 you would never have thought there was a health emergency in the first place.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:59am
- fisho
  
  Understandable based on the fear the govt and others have been peddling, but I’d assume even they are now accepting that not everyone will catch it, or will at least be aware they caught it.
  Think back to the old days when we didn’t lock ourselves away from others when they had colds, some of us were infected by others, but others managed to dodge it.
  I have friends who are unvacc’d, daughter caught the ‘rona, they didn’t isolate from her and in fact were very close to her throughout, neither picked it up. Granted a lot of people are catching it, but by no means the majority at this stage.
  
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  March 24, 2022 5:06pm
2ic

So, 20,000 cases yesterday when vaccine mandates are being axed, and we learn from our Prime Minister that she is in fact not driven by plummeting poll nummbers or responding to protests – it’s all what the ‘science’ tells her.

I think some OIA requests are in order because I have not seen evidence anywhere in the world that mask mandates have reduced Covid-19 transmission. In fact, before Covid-19 the WHO never recommended mass-masking as a public health measure precisely because the science told us it didn’t work. So presumably the PM can elucidate us with new data she has to justify this (and not just ‘modelling’ from her hand-picked ‘experts’).

I’m sick of having my children muzzled at school. There’s no justification for it. The only reason I can see is the PM is trying to bring up a generation that is compliant with government edicts. It’s an untenable situation as a father, because I’ve always brought up my kids to respect authority. Now the world has turned on its head and I’m trying to convince them that they need to push back.

Some positive news on the mandates yesterday, but masking requirements are with us for the foreseeable future and there’s no justification for it. And in the case of children, it’s nothing short of child abuse. This madness must stop now.
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March 24, 2022 8:00am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  Where is the balance and fair comment from our media.
  
  We have put our lives on hold for 2 years at a stagerringly high price both economically and socially, to not just go nowhere but go backwards.
  
  What I know personally.
  
  The one source of truth changes so often my head spins.
  
  At best we have delayed the inevitable.
  
  The number of people I know who were coerced into getting a vaccine they did not want.
  
  The number of people I know who had a bad reaction to the vaccine, from mild to severe.
  
  The number of vaccinated people I know who have or had covid .
  
  I chose not to get vaccinated, not for any particular reason, I’m not antivax I’m pro choice, the level of coercion I faced was staggering, but I prevailed, what i found was, that the view is always better from the moral high ground.
  
  I caught covid from my vaccinated wife, who got it from her vaccinated staff, who got it from a vaccinated customer. To the best of my knowledge I have not passed it onto anybody.
  
  Out of all of us, wife and staff, I appeared to have the mildest reaction.
  
  The number of people I know, intelligent people, who choose fear over freedom, or should I say illusion of safety,who are still locked away, afraid they will die if they catch covid.
  
  As a covid survivor I get a congratulatory text from the MoH that I have completed my isolation (solitary confinement ) period, 10 days, no congratulations you now have natural immunity, here is your covid passport you can rejoin society.
  
  I called the MoH to enquire about my covid passport, about an hour to talk to an actual person, only to be told they don’t recognize natural immunity in the unvaccinated.
  
  What I don’t know.
  
  Why did people so willingly, give up freedom to the government for the illusion of safety, to end up with neither freedom or safety.
  
  I’m so confused about the science, that you are not allowed to question, 1 case we lock the whole country down, 100,000 cases we open back up again.
  
  So I ask again, where is the balance and fair comment from our media?
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:01am
  - Rich Prick
    
    You failed to comply with Cindy’s dictates. You will forever be an unperson in her eyes.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:27am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Worse, you are one of the many who has disappointed our great leader. Who has sacrificed so much for us.
      
      She is sad.
      
      You will be punished.
      
      You will be grateful.
      
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      March 24, 2022 9:34am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        It’s been “bloody hard”.
        
        https://twitter.com/radionz/status/1506392989945368580
        
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        March 24, 2022 10:33am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      I did comply I got tested, to be fair I was not going to, but my wife and staff tested positive, so I got tested just out of interest.
      
      In reality we need a shit load more people to get and recover from Covid, we are a long way from natural immunity.
      
      It is blatantly obvious that all the covid elimination measure did not work.
      
      The endless cycle of vaccinations have obviously not worked.
      
      The problem now is that we lack natural immunity, when the next bad strain comes along we will be woefully unprotected, it get really really bad.
      
      Sweden wont have that problem, any Country that has had high infection rates will fare much better than the Countries that relied on a leaky imperfect vaccines.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:16am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Simple, biological facts, but big Pharma and their compliant administrators in various countries around the world have decided for us that they can do a better job than thousands of years of evolution. AND they can make a dollar out of it which is handy.
        I’ll stick with my immune system thank you.
        
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        March 24, 2022 11:35am
- kowtow
  
  The Ferald editorial is about the polling .
  
  They even said if she is following the polls , that too could be leadership . Seriously.
  
  They must be desperate for whatever handouts there are around .
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:06am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Everybody knows that it was driven by the Political Science.
    
    Like everybody know we have a cost of living crisis.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:17am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I believe (and hope) that people will push back en masse with the ridiculous muzzling. As long as there’s no abuse towards staff, who’d also cop it from their bosses, we should simply refuse to wear them anymore. I’m starting today.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:08am
  - DaleK
    
    Whilst I agree about not abusing staff, it seems to me that there are a hell of a lot of little Hitlers out there who, given a smidgeon of power, like to use it. There is a serious lack of common sense out there. As an example yesterday, dropping a document at a lawyers front desk while wearing a mask and being asked for my vax pass. I was in the building for approximately 45 seconds. It took me longer to piss around getting my pass up on my phone. Silly little girl was loving the power trip.
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:21am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Silly little girl was loving the power trip
      
      Doing what her employer told her to do. Don’t shoot the messenger ….
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:49am
      - Stellaboxer
        
        Ian yeah just taking orders I guess.
        
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        March 24, 2022 9:15am
      - Harriet
        
        “….Doing what her employer told her to do. Don’t shoot the messenger….”
        
        Patting the backs of the wrong people above her.
        
        45 secs masked at the desk —— I wouldn’t use that law firm if they are that fucken ignorant ……. and arrogant.
        
        They are just civilians. End of adults. 😎
        
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        March 24, 2022 10:56am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Just say no and this ends.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:08am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Simply refuse to wear a mask – I have never worn a mask, except when I went into a rest home to visit a couple of elderly people. I respected the rest home’s protocol, but there is no protocol to muzzle yourself from breathing in clean fresh air, whether its outside, in a supermarket, or pub. I don’t wear a mask when I visit the doctor, nor when I get my script from the chemist. Some people stae at me disapprovingly, and I smile back & say “gidday”. 🙂
        
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        March 24, 2022 10:20am
    - JerJer
      
      You don’t need a mask. You just need an exemption, and they are freely available.
      
      I decided to use mine a few weeks ago, and went to a bunch of shops and supermarkets and malls, basically to see what happened.
      
      Generally people do not ask you anything, except I went to one location and someone did ask.
      
      I politely told him, I have an exemption. He wanted to see it, so I politely told him that the rules specified by the MoH, are that I have an exception, and the reason for it is a private matter. I am under no obligation to tell you about it or show you, and you are actually not allowed to ask me to provide any evidence.
      
      He accepted that, as he already knew it, and I entered that store too, with no mask.
      
      The rules are so loose it is pathetic. You don’t actually need to have an exception or carry it, as they are not allowed to ask you to prove it. This is why retailers are complaining that people are taking advantage of these lax rules, which they clearly are, and asking for them all to be scrapped and have people apply for them again and get a medical certificate.
      
      Cindy is so unpopular right now if she tried that there would probably be more protests, so there is no chance of that happening. So, I would say go with the exception, and don’t wear a mask.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:17am
      - Hebe123
        
        I went into a bakery here in Chch as I’d been told that despite their location in a group of boutique shops who were enforcing vax passes, that they were not.
        
        No – but they had compulsory masks. No exemptions. I would have been in ordered paid and out in about 60 sec but no, they would. It accept it. I took my $13 elsewhere and will do so every week until eternity.
        
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        March 24, 2022 7:13pm
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      Drop the documents and walk out.
      
      End of story.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:19am
      - Aurelia
        
        I wouldn’t have shown her squat
        
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        March 24, 2022 7:37pm
    - SoloView
      
      @DaleK
      I agree about a lack of common sense.
      However – why does it seem to be such a necessity on this blog for people to bolster their argument (or lack of it) with personal abuse?
      Would you have called someone in the receptionist’s position a fat old man?
      
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      March 24, 2022 11:05am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        ” Would you have called someone in the receptionist’s position a fat old man?”
        
        He may not have but plenty of others would have. Misandry is more acceptable than misogyny these days. I recall a certain uppity and verbally abusive (usually towards male callers) female ZB host calling all former male mayors “grumbly old men” on air. This was of course in comparison to a star female mayor she was waxing lyrical about.
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:11pm
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      Tell them “no” often enough and they will simply stop enforcing. Most people don’t like pushback so they will avoid it. However, pushback must be anticipated by the non-complier – then do it anyway.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:05pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    The fruit and vege shop down the road has four staff members behind the counter. All four have mask “exemption” certificates on lanyards. Now what are the chances of all four staff members having some anxiety disorder that would qualify them for an exemption. I think it is hilarious. 🙂
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:22am
    - pdm
      
      By – good on them.
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:28am
      - Nukuleka
        
        I’ve just ordered a personalized exemption card on a lanyard online. I’ll be wearing it proudly around my neck with a ‘I dare you to challenge my right to be maskless’ look on my face once it arrives. I encourage others to take a stand.
        
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        March 24, 2022 8:38am
      - JerJer
        
        Originally you could download the exception directly from the Moh internet site. Without filling in your name or any details.
        
        It came in three sizes, credit card size, something a little bigger and then sandwich board size (massive), so you can make like one of those guys on the side of the road running around advertising a pizza shop.
        
        I did think of printing the sandwich board version and walking around in the shopping mall.
        
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        March 24, 2022 10:21am
    - Roona
      
      I wonder if we frequent the same shop as I see this too! I haven’t worn a mask since November, only a handful of has anyone said anything to me about it, I simply tell them I have an exemption.
      I am going to tell the school that my son has an exemption when he goes back (currently has the said plague)
      I’m utterly over it all. I’m not playing Pandemic any longer!
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:29am
      - Bridgenag
        
        Where can we get the mask exemption stuff?
        
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        March 24, 2022 9:32am
    - Surely Knott
      
      Our local fish shop the young people behind the counter had no mask. The park today 3 of the young construction guys had no mask 2 did. Lots of people at the mall with masks on under their nose. Went to the optometerist to try on glasses, the woman encouraged me to just take a few steps away and then take off my mask so i could see them. So people are loosening up which is great. Although almost everyone on the street had a mask on in Newmarket
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:02am
      - glowworm
        
        Welly is still pretty bad. Yesterday we saw a woman, in her car, by herself, double masked and with goggles on her forehead.
        
        I’m not kidding. Also seen a number of people wearing perspex face shield things …
        
        The number of young people with masks on outside, in windy Welly is simply staggering…
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:06pm
      - Batman
        
        Who knew personal freedom was such a no-no these days huh?
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:59pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Displaying the exemption isn’t actually a requirement. I understand some people use it to make life easier. But if you just state “I’m exempt” confidently and walk on it works in most cases.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:11am
    - KiwiSapper
      
      Seems that the One Trick Show Pony’s minders have thrown issuing exemptions into the too hard basket and as from February this year they pass the responsibility on to non government organisations,
      ,
      “….Requesting an exemption card
      You should request an exemption card only if you have a disability or health condition that makes wearing a face mask unsuitable.
      You can request an exemption card from the Disabled Persons Assembly NZ by contacting them on 04 801 9100 or emailing them at info@dpa.org.nz.
      Blind Citizens NZ is available for blind, deafblind, low vision, and vision-impaired people. Contact admin@abcnz.org.nz or 0800 222 694. Visit the Blind Citizens NZ website.
      People who are deaf or hard of hearing can contact Deaf Aotearoa at covid@deaf.org.nz
      People with dementia can contact their local Alzheimers and Dementia organisation.”
      .
      LINK TO SOURCE https://tinyurl.com/2p9eb7rb
      
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      March 24, 2022 11:41am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      The problem with exemptions is that they just show buy-in and give validation. Just refuse to comply. It makes you feel like a real human being.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:08pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    At my work we were required to mask up even when showing a customer the product outside.
    Only one has ever asked why I am not wearing a mask. Answer is “I don’t believe in that psychotic nonsense, and it about time others did the same”
    He nodded that he understood
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:40am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      Good on you Steve. It’s a self-sustaining thing: because everyone wears a mask, everyone wears a mask. Just break the cycle and take back your human dignity.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:10pm
  - wisteria
    
    Absolutely agree. We stopped QR code scanning last week and yesterday I went into several shops and only in the supermarket did I don the mask.
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:45am
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      Scanning in without a Covid pass is a little bit like dobbing yourself in.
      
      Personally I never started, in 2 instances I took a photo of said QR code that kept them happy.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:23am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    I took my mask off last weekend as I left a well known produce ‘supermarket’ and as I left one of the employees bellowed at me that “you need to keep you mask on until you have left the building” and by bellowed she bellowed. I ignored her as I was almost outside but my partner following me heard her say ‘rude’ in a loud voice…..who is abusing whom?
    
    When staff abuse customers should it be OK to bite back.
    
    I was stunned that she should even care that much as I was exiting the shop.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:17am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      When “no” is insufficient for the mask fanatics, ignoring them is the next step.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:11pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    I’m almost never stopped or questioned. On one occasion, a hardware chain with a ‘welcome’ person at the door, I was asked if I had a mask. I stopped and asked the employee if they were authorised to deny entry to anyone without a mask, or if their authority extended simply to advising of the policy. It was the latter, apparently. I smiled, thanked him, and walked in. No problems. No agro.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:00am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I won’t be wearing a mask anywhere. Ever.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:36am
    - glowworm
      
      Kudos. You guys are braver than I.
      
      What about flash mob style de-masking events? I might be brave enough as part of a mob…
      
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      March 24, 2022 1:31pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I walked into Countdown in Wellington when I was down at the protest. A large security person asked me on the way in did I have a mask. I didn’t look at him, just said I was exempt and kept walking. What was he going to do? Gang tackle me and hold me until the police arrive? What for? I didn’t break any laws. Went in a couple more times that week and he didn’t bother asking again.
        The first time can be nerve wracking, that’s Ardern’s whole philosophy. Terrify people and coerce them into complying with her insane diktats.
        
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        March 24, 2022 3:33pm
- Chris R
  
  The PM is well beyond even recognising the truth. The “follow the science” routine is just the latest jingoism to mask her dismay at her rapidly falling popularity. She really is a piece of work!
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:16am
- Debsta
  
  I find it incredible that everybody is still voluntarily and dutifully wearing their useless masks. I stopped in November, and rarely been challenged. Just stop.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:18am
- Pavel
  
  My arse is always double masked (underpants and jeans) and yet when I fart you will know.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:27am
  - Don Beckett
    
    😆 😆
    
    12 3
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    March 24, 2022 10:22am
- Flossie
  
  Apparently we (us taxpayers that is) are going to spend a pile of money making schools better ventilated. Great. Then we want the students to wear masks and rebreathe their exhaled air. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:31am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Winter is coming..
    
    Children (& teachers) will not want to sit in classrooms with wide-open doors and windows.
    
    I won’t want to sit in a cafe/restaurant with a southerly gale blowing around my nether regions.
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:55am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    It is virtue signaling bullshit of the worst kind and it is a complete waste of money.
    Reminds me of Nicola Sturgeon wanting to spend half a million cutting the bottoms off doors in schools in Scotland to increase air circulation. Sounded great until the fire authorities pointed out that the whole purpose of fire doors was to starve a fire of oxygen. ??
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:15am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  A socialist experiment to see how far and how much they can install their propaganda in kids – until the kids grow uo and start asking “Why?”
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:34am
  - cmm
    
    They don’t ask “why” because they have been taught critical thinking in school.
    Unfortunately critical thinking, as taught, is the very opposite of what it says on the packet.
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:38am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      The control has become a disease with no cure available yet
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:43am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I suspect quite a few folks have now developed some sort of immunity to any further infections of this insidious control.
        
        Many of us will not play willing any longer…
        The control freaks will either have to to call out their enforcement gangs more often to make us comply or they will have to live with a fractured NZ – the compliers and the ferals.
        
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        March 24, 2022 9:03am
- Simon
  
  “Some positive news on the mandates yesterday”
  
  No it wasnt. The fascist should not have this level of control in the first place They can exert their control back over society whenever they like. Society gets used to it and becomes conditioned. Its what fascist do.
  
  Anyone who supported mandatory jaxxs is a fascist. For e.g National is the party of medical fascist. Society needs to be protected from National & Labo. Not wait around for permission from some fascist woman child.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:35am
  - 2ic
    
    You’re right of course – what I should have said is “moves in the right direction”. Our freedoms are inalienable rights, not there at the behest of our PM. It’s pretty clear we have been lined up to accept greater control from Government in our lives, and it’s showing no sign of stopping:
    
    A post-pandemic ‘normal’ won’t come until after winter, at least
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/128141896/a-postpandemic-normal-wont-come-until-after-winter-at-least
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:35am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      “A post-pandemic ‘normal’ won’t come until after winter, at least”
      
      They won’t give it to you – you’ll have to make it impossible for them to implement anything other than ‘normal.’ Nobody is coming to save us. It’s up to the people of New Zealand.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:15pm
    - Jim
      
      I was disappointed in yesterday’s performance. Based upon the observed dutiful compliance of msm consuming normies today, I have only fear for our future freedoms. By example today people were queuing up to scan into Bunnings behind an old couple fiddling with their smart phone. I just smiled at the judging and certainly scathing looks I received as I walked past them. I thought about informing them that Ashley’s contact tracers haven’t been in work for two weeks and it’s all cancelled in 36 hours.
      I can only conclude that our world is chock full of gullible fools that exhibit zero critical thinking skills.
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:17pm
- cmm
  
  People tend to think in backward chaining logic vs what they should: forward chaining logic.
  
  In other words, they use emotion to find the solution they want, then backfill with justifications to make it seem a well reasoned response. Feelz first, then cherrypick the evidence/beliefs to support the feelz.
  
  This is the opposite to science which starts with the data then go wherever the data takes you – as uncomfortable as that might feel.
  
  Yesterday I had a wee run in with the vets’ office booking a jab for a cat. All sorted to get an appointment for 20 April, then finally they said I’d have to produce a vaccine passport.
  
  So I asked her why they required that. Surely, being vets, they would be a bit more scientific and understand that the CV19 vax has little, if any, benefit is preventing transmission and is thus pointless to protect their staff from customers. So she then said that in the consulting environment it kept everyone safer, and it made the staff feel safer.
  
  Then I told her Cindy had just been on the news a few minutes back scrapping the vax pass on 4th April. Would she still feel unsafe if I came?
  
  No, it would be perfectly fine.
  
  So what changed?
  The virus hadn’t changed in the previous half hour.
  The science (the real science, that is) hasn’t changed.
  The virus is “sneaky” and doesn’t listen to Cindy.
  
  So what had changed?
  All these people have gone from fearful of the unvaxxed to happy just because someone has told them what to do.
  
  Pathetic. Is this what a generation of “critical thinking” in education has done to our people?
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:37am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I wonder if Jaspinda could absorb that, or is it way above her comprehension?
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:46am
  - krazykiwi
    
    I had this exact same situation with a staff member. On Monday he declined to travel to Wellington to be part of an early April meeting that I will be attending because, and I kid you not “I follow the science. I don’t meet with unvaccinated people”. Yesterday he decided it would be fine to attend. The cognitive dissonance required to hold a belief in science and total subservience to an arbitrary and obviously politically motivated state edict must be exceptional.
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:46am
    - cmm
      
      Unfortunately it is by no means exceptional.
      
      Thinking is hard, feelz is easy.
      
      That is exactly why we have emotions: emotions bypass thinking and lead us to decisions faster. It takes our thinking brain a while to catch up and the cognitive dissonance then tells the subservient thinking brain where it can park.
      
      Unfortunately our emotions have been subverted and reprogrammed for nefarious purposes. They don’t serve us as well as they used to.
      
      To be any good at science, you need to be able to control your emotions. Ideally you become like Data in Startrek.
      
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      March 24, 2022 9:15am
    - bennerg
      
      One advantage of this whole affair for me has been to actually learn whom of my friends, family, work associates, clients and neighbours I can now trust to be rational, thinking, normal people.
      
      I’ve now learned who are simply led by the “influencers”, the personalities, those who purport to be in control> They have abrogated their responsibility to utilise critical thinking to critique the news and information they are fed daily via the mainstream media, who themselves, are for the most, are part of that group.
      
      Let’s use this “data” to help build better lives for ourselves.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:32am
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      In our world of ubiquitous Newspeak, “I follow the science” really means “I don’t follow the science.” The Covid saga is many things, but it is principally an IQ test. Many have failed spectacularly.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:18pm
    - Jim
      
      Freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:23pm
  - Hebe123
    
    I’ve just made a complaint to my vet – not about being seen outside in the carpark (first visit), as i was expecting that even if i find it abhorrent, but about the second visit to pick up meds where i walked in the door and was shouted at “You can’t come in here, you’re unvaccinated!”. This may be a fact, but not one i’d shared with her (i’d simply said previously i don’t have a VP) and not one that should be shared with the other 5 people in the room.
    
    If i don’t receive a sincere apology, acceptance that this was not OK, i’ll be forwarding it to the HRC.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:34am
  - Bridgenag
    
    The Blokes at bowls are asking……Could someone please give the real reasons why we should not bother with masks. Such a sad thing to see people hide all the time………sigh
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:07pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I jokingly said to the vet, “Does my cat have to wear a mask?”
    That would be fun trying to put a mask on my cat.
    
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    March 24, 2022 3:52pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Is your cat actually a cat? Or a furperson? Just checking
      
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      March 24, 2022 7:34pm
- Ruahine
  
  Cindy reckons she follows the ‘science’. Oh Yea.
  Science. She would not even know what Baking Soda is. The only ‘science’ this lot know anything about is Political Science and how to use it to manipulate people who are unskilled and unknowing of what is happening.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:44am
  - westernScientest
    
    maybe someone should give her some vinegar with that baking soda, might learn something.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:10am
- Albert_Ross
  
  https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118
  
  Yes, I know, you don’t believe in any scientific paper that appears to provide support for any Government policy. That alone is proof enough that the scientists were corrupt and the evidence falsified in exchange for payment.
  
  Fine, so with that out of the way: just as a thought experiment, what would the evidence you seek actually look like?
  
  For example, one approach which should provide definitive conclusions would be if a Government were to mandate 50% of its population to wear a mask and ban the other 50% from doing so (regardless of what the people involved actually wanted) and then monitor everybody’s every move so minutely, and test them so regularly, that it would then be possible to identify precisely how many transmissions were mask-to-mask, how many non-mask-to-non-mask, how many mask-to-non-mask, how many non-mask-to-mask. Would that do you? Do you think we should have done that here? And if not – what?
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:46am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I note that paper was published in 2021.
    
    The problem here in NZ is that for the last 4 months, practically everyone in NZ has been wearing masks, yet the omicron virus has spread through the population.
    
    – I’m not against masks..and I’ve always loathed the folks who used to freely sneeze and cough in public settings… let alone those who would hoik their nasal mucus over the footpath.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:13am
  - JCB
    
    “Yes, I know, you don’t believe in any scientific paper that appears to provide support for any Government policy.”
    Only because there are a greater number of scientific papers that DON’T support Govt policy which don’t see the light of day via our MSM or are ever referenced by our Govt or Health authorities.
    
    https://www.rcreader.com/commentary/masks-dont-work-covid-a-review-of-science-relevant-to-covide-19-social-policy
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:13am
  - Ra Henare
    
    Another summary of wearing Facemasks that
    Surprise Surprise doesnt agree with your paper.
    
    https://swprs.org/the-face-mask-folly-in-retrospect/
    
    Follow the science?
    
    With over a million papers published re Covid(and increasing) There are plenty of opinions to choose from
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:26am
    - Aurelia
      
      Look around Ra ….would you say masks have prevented omicron in new zealand. You have got to be joking.
      
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      March 24, 2022 7:52pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    For example, one approach which should provide definitive conclusions would be if a Government were to mandate 50% of its population to wear a mask and ban the other 50% from doing so
    
    Funny you should say that. You’re describing a Randomised Control Trial and they’re considered the gold standard for medical trials, especially when connected to the “Intention-To-Treat” that insures that the treatment group remain as such even if some members don’t get the treatment being studied.
    
    And our government didn’t and doesn’t need to conduct such an RCT because they’ve already been done:
    
    In sum, of the 14 RCTs that have tested the effectiveness of masks in preventing the transmission of respiratory viruses:
    
    – Three suggest, but do not provide any statistically significant evidence in intention-to-treat analysis, that masks might be useful.
    
    – The other eleven suggest that masks are either useless – whether compared with no masks or because they appear not to add to good hand hygiene alone – or actually counterproductive.
    
    Of the three studies that provided statistically significant evidence in intention-to-treat analysis that was not contradicted within the same study:
    – one found that the combination of surgical masks and hand hygiene was less effective than hand hygiene alone;
    – one found that the combination of surgical masks and hand hygiene was less effective than nothing;
    – and one found that cloth masks were less effective than surgical masks.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:50am
  - krazykiwi
    
    One meta-study of cherry-picked studies? Is that all you’ve got? I’ll see your lame hand, and raise you 167 studies and pieces of evidence/reporting showing COVID face masks and mandates are ineffective and harmful.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:55am
    - Jim
      
      The ridiculous performative ‘mask on mask off’ jig that everyone has to perform never fails to grinds my gears. I’m just surprised at the naivety of those who truly believe it keeps them safe, and not realising it’s just a masquerade.
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:37pm
  - Taieri
    
    https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2014564118
    
    Yes, I know, you don’t believe in any scientific paper that appears to provide support for any Government policy
    —————-
    
    The SCIENTIFIC paper quoted above says, among the other things:
    
    “(…)Creating New Symbolism around Wearing a Mask.
    
    Ritual and solidarity are important in human societies and can combine with visible signals to shape new societal behaviors (119, 120). Universal mask wearing could serve as a visible signal and reminder of the pandemic. Signaling participation in health behaviors by wearing a mask as well as visible enforcement can increase compliance with public mask wearing, but also other important preventative behaviors (121). Historically, epidemics are a time of fear, confusion, and helplessness (122, 123). Mask wearing, and even mask making or distribution, can provide feelings of empowerment and self-efficacy (124). Health is a form of public good in that everyone else’s health behaviors improve the health odds of everyone else (125, 126). This can make masks symbols of altruism and solidarity (127). Viewing masks as a social practice, governed by sociocultural norms, instead of a medical intervention, has also been proposed to enhance longer-term uptake (128).(…)”
    
    My question is: what’s scientific there?
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:37am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    There is clear and definitive evidence that masks don’t do squat to prevent spread of aerosol viruses. There may have been some uncertainty at the beginning which could be an excuse for the policy at the time. There is ZERO evidence now to support them which means Ardern’s comments yesterday are just more virtue signaling nonsense. The masks are nothing more than political theatre to support the idea there is a “deadly disease” and to show compliance and subservience to she who must be obeyed.
    But here’s some evidence to support what I’m saying.
    I’ll see your one “face masks are good” paper and raise you a dozen that say it’s bullshit.
    
    1) A May 2020 meta-study on pandemic influenza published by the US CDC found that face masks had no effect, neither as personal protective equipment nor as a source control. (Source)
    
    2) A WHO review of ten randomized controlled trials of face masks against influenza-like illness, published in September 2019, found no statistically significant benefit. (Source)
    
    3) A Danish randomized controlled trial with 6000 participants, published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in November 2020, found no statistically significant effect of high-quality medical face masks against SARS-CoV-2 infection in a community setting. (Source)
    
    4) A large randomized controlled trial with close to 8000 participants, published in October 2020 in PLOS One, found that face masks “did not seem to be effective against laboratory-confirmed viral respiratory infections nor against clinical respiratory infection.” (Source)
    
    5) A February 2021 review by the European CDC found no high-quality evidence in favor of face masks and recommended their use only based on the ‘precautionary principle’. (Source)
    
    6) A July 2020 review by the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine found that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks against virus infection or transmission. (Source)
    
    7) A November 2020 Cochrane review found that face masks did not reduce influenza-like illness (ILI) cases, neither in the general population nor in health care workers. (Source)
    
    8) An August 2021 study published in the Int. Research Journal of Public Health found “no association between mask mandates or use and reduced COVID-19 spread in US states.” (Source)
    
    9) A large Spanish school study, published in March 2022, found that “mask mandates in schools were not associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 incidence or transmission.” (Source)
    
    10) A May 2020 article by researchers from Harvard Medical School, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, concluded that face masks offer “little, if any, protection”. (Source)
    
    11) A 2015 study in the British Medical Journal BMJ Open found that cloth masks were penetrated by 97% of particles and may increase infection risk by retaining moisture or repeated use. (Source)
    
    12) An August 2020 review by a German professor in virology, epidemiology and hygiene found that there is no evidence for the effectiveness of face masks and that the improper daily use of masks by the public may in fact lead to an increase in infections. (Source)
    
    https://swprs.org/face-masks-evidence/
    
    Cherry pick all the crap you want, the science is clear. Masks are useless. In fact they are likely to be harmful, especially as most people don’t use them properly in the first place.
    
    Here are plenty of links to the risk associated with face masks.
    
    https://swprs.org/face-masks-and-covid-the-evidence/#h-risks-associated-with-face-masks
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:35pm
  - Albert_Ross
    
    My point here is not to defend the mask mandate. It is to push back against poor argumentation, which I am very strongly opposed to – particularly when it is deployed in support of something I’d actually like to agree with, but can’t on the basis of the case made here.
    
    “I’m not aware of any evidence” is no argument at all. “There is no evidence” isn’t much better, since your opponent only has to produce one piece of evidence to prove it wrong. “More/better scientific papers support my side than yours” is an argument that we’ve consistently rejected out of hand when applied to climate change, so we are on shaky ground using it here. “My own experience says otherwise” proves nothing, the plural of “anecdote” is not “evidence”.
    
    Surely we can do better? What’s the real case?
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:36pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      You’ve been given a shitload of evidence that masks do not work in preventing an aerosol virus. What more do you want???
      
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      March 24, 2022 3:50pm
    - Aurelia
      
      How about empirical evidence….masks have FAILED to stop omicron in this country. Nuff said.
      
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      March 24, 2022 7:55pm
- Mummy
  
  She is on record early in this debacle when people were calling out for masks and the government was resisting them as saying that masks provide a false sense of security and as someone else here says, the science hasn’t changed. A virus is a virus and from that point of view this one isn’t any different.
  The stupidest situation is gyms making us wear them not when we’re huffing and puffy and spitting over our mates during a class but when we’re walking in the door, standing still chatting or generally not exercising. And the even stupider thing is that masks are not required by the government for “customers” in the gym but by an outfit called Fitness NZ who require them to be worn like this not for health and safety reasons but as a “business tip” according to the CEO in a video on their website. Bonkers.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:48am
- David Garrett
  
  2ic: Excellent points Sir, particularly that the WHO never recommended mass masking.
  
  I have seen all masks other than the N95 one as “about as much use as a dust mask made of chicken wire”.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:52am
  - oldfella
    
    DG: remember when we all got the order to upgrade our masks? No more scarves around the face, or simple home-made masks?
    Of course no one took a blind bit of notice, and we never did see any follow up stories on how well it worked.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:37am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    DG even the N95 has to be fitted to the person. People need to be trained in their proper use. This government won’t even tell people how to look after themselves and their bodies to better cope with any illness or disease. Everything is directed from the ‘single source of truth” and none of it talks about eating healthily, exercising, losing weight etc. No, it’s stick a nappy on your face and let us inject you with an experimental product.
    It’s too ludicrous for words. That means it can only be malevolence.
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:44pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  The mere fact that the PM referred to the protests and said she wasn’t responding to them makes it highly likely that they and recent polls forced her hand yesterday. But she’s still desperately hanging on to a level of control because as soon as she relinquishes it, Covid will cease to be an issue from which she can get political leverage. And at the moment, she needs all the leverage she can get!
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:52am
  - artemisia
    
    Suggest it is not so much ‘she’ as the Party seeing its sinecures slip sliding away.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:05am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Tony she’s in a death spiral, my son told me yesterday that all the bedwetters on reddit are crying about safety and talking about moving to the greens . Everyone else is angry that she hasn’t gone far enough and is still trying to cling on to control ( to the point of lying about the science). It’s what happens when you are a poll driven light weight with out a moral compass let alone a rudder. It’s hilarious that in her plate spinning world trying to please everyone has ended up pleasing nobody. The strain must be excruciating lol.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:29am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Exactly. She can’t let go of covid. The rest of her resume is utter shit. She would be gone in a month if the covid narrative isn’t maintained.
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:46pm
  - Aurelia
    
    Remember when she allowed her ministers to refer to the protestors as filth and or ferrals? Be kind witch. I guess we really can see hate speech when we hear it. Just like Cindy said we would.
    
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    March 24, 2022 7:58pm
- k1w1
  
  Really? I brought mine up to have a healthy disrespect for authority. To always question their true motives.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:56am
- MCōs
  
  That Florence Nightingale has got a lot to answer for.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:28am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Here’s RNZ yesterday:
  
  Ardern says masks are vital, and while people do not like them – for good reason – a study from the British Medical Journal late last year showed mask wearing reduced new cases by 53 percent.
  
  No chance to respond to that in the comments with links as one can in a blog, with even the Washington Post finally admitting that Mask Mandates didn’t make much of a difference anyway. Check out the video of the reaction of little kids when told they don’t have to wear masks anymore.
  
  But the WaPo was merely catching up with information that had been around for more than a year, Masquerade and Mask Pornography, which contains links to sources like The Lancet and the like for detailed medical studies, even aside from the basic data showing timelines of infection outbreaks vs mask mandates in multiple nations and US States (see the graphs).
  
  There is just no damned excuse for any reporters to have been this ignorant or to continue to be so.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:33am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Tom they don’t need an excuse. They’re not trying to give out facts they’re trying to prop up their ideological bedfellows. It’s the first time they’ve gotten a “ progressive “ regime and they’re going to do everything they can to hide the shortcomings of it. To do anything less would mean the re examination of their whole world view. Do really think that’s going to happen? It would mean their humanities prof was wrong and they’d been suckered which of course is true but it’s easier to fool someone than convince them that they’ve been fooled.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:50am
  - MaxG
    
    Indeed. And as noted in two critiques in the BMJ to the original paper, the 53% figure is nonsense
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:10am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Yes, misinformation from Ardern. Again. It’s tiresome.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:48pm
      - Stellaboxer
        
        It’s almost as if she believed she is the only source of truth and the WWW doesn’t exist.
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:06pm
  - chiz
    
    Tom Hunter:
    
    But the WaPo was merely catching up with information that had been around for more than a year, Masquerade and Mask Pornography, which contains links to sources like The Lancet and the like for detailed medical studies
    
    One of your links doesn’t work, and the other one is nonsense. Swprs is a Russian disinformation website and you should be wary of anything it claims. There have been nearly 5000 papers on masks and covid so the fact that it can find a few to support its position doesn’t really mean anything. A quick search on pubmed for example finds at least two reviews on masks – which conclude that they work – which aren’t mentioned by swrps (here and here). I have no doubt that if I had the time – and the interest – to do a more detailed look I would find plenty of other studies that are ‘conveniently’ not mentioned by swrps.
    
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    March 24, 2022 3:25pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Here’s the link to Mask Pornography from which I took the quote about the 14 RC trials on masks.
      
      Swprs is a Russian disinformation website and you should be wary of anything it claims.
      
      I’m wary of anything smacking of “Russian disinformation” but the most I’ve seen is the claim that due to one letter it’s suspected that the content creator of Swiss Policy Research is likely to be from outside Switzerland, which is more vague than your claim.
      
      In any case each of the twelve papers they cite link back to the likes of the WHO, CDC, European CDC etc and all that Swprs did was summarize into a single sentence the conclusions reached by those papers.
      
      By contrast the two papers you cite contain the usual waffle I’ve come to expect from such meta-data analysis…
      
      The preponderance of evidence indicates that mask wearing reduces transmissibility per contact by reducing transmission of infected respiratory particles in both laboratory and clinical contexts.
      
      Or
      
      Sensitivity analysis showed that the results were robust..
      
      I also love the little out they gave themselves, which goes directly to my last point:
      
      Robust randomized trials are needed in the future to better provide evidence for these interventions.
      
      Robust RCT’s have been done and the results were well summarised in my comment.
      
      And that’s before we get to the best “Meta-data” of all, which are the repeated observations from multiple locations of case counts exploding after mask mandates were imposed. The best that one can claim is that perhaps the counts would have risen more steeply and further if the mask mandates had not been used, but given the near vertical slope of many of those graphs that seems like a weak claim.
      
      It’s something even the WaPo and numerous government health officials round the world seem to have concluded in recent months as they dropped them in the middle of “exploding” case numbers. Since I’m sure you gave them your overwhelming concurrence at the time I’m surprised your still fighting back on this issue now that they’ve turned (though not our “experts” obviously).
      
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      March 24, 2022 5:15pm
- alloytoo
  
  The masking of children (indeed all of us) is criminal.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:35am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She shut Auckland down when they had no cases at one stage
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:37am
- Nickc2
  
  I’m sick of having my children muzzled at school.
  IMO, every parent with school-age kids should be worried about their little ones struggling to breathe through layer(s) of cloth for most of their day whilst their lungs and heart are not yet fully developed.
  I’m no Scientist or Doctor, but even I know when I wear one of those fucking masks, I struggle to breathe as well.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:37am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    My advice to parents would be take your kids out of school. Even if it’s months or a year, it will be worth avoiding the psychological damage, and it’s a tangible protest. I really cannot see what the downside would be. Masking is a social conditioning exercise, nothing more.
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:32pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Yup, done that. Just waiting to see how the BoT are going to respond re the teachers and teacher aide that were sacked due to their medical choices.
      
      5 1
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      March 24, 2022 3:56pm
- Show me the evidence
  
  Family in Queensland told me they don’t have to mask at all anymore. Just before the Omi wave it was the same, they had got rid of masks, and they were reintroduced during their peak in Dec/Jan. I wonder if the medicos in Queensland may have looked at other studies (there are many) showing masks don’t do anything much. My mother’s (in Queensland) GP told her masks don’t so anything and are a waste of time – and the GPs over there have been muzzled/censored by their associations over in Oz as much as they have here and told to stick to the “Truth” or else, so that’s what makes me wonder if the “useless mask” message is coming from the top (over there).
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:41am
Benedict Yu

So we are going to be wearing masks for months to come, with the reason now that they will be needed to combat influenza and other viruses.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/128141896/a-postpandemic-normal-wont-come-until-after-winter-at-least

I’m over it. The irony is that the mask “exemption certificates” are widely available online for downloading. When mask wearing became a requirement, it seems that the Government thought that few people would seek an exemption. So you could just decide you were “exempt” and download a certificate. That was shut down, but too late.

If everyone just marched into venues shouting “I have a mask exemption”, this thing would collapse. And as time goes by, we will see more of that behaviour.
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March 24, 2022 8:00am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Likely it will go much the same way as contact tracing through reasoned non compliance by individuals as they reach a point where they consider the personal risk of contact exposure to infection is negligible.
  
  The real issue is this is her latest attempt to manufacture a future crisis as all she has every been able to achieve is to convince the gullible (through the help of her MSM) that she is “good” at crisis management.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:30am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    The thing is that compliance is still remarkably high, at least in Christchurch. I very rarely see anyone at a supermarket/mall unmasked. Maybe 1 in 200? I don’t see any signs of large scale disobedience. It would require enough people to stop wearing masks that they become visible to others – and that is probably at least 10 percent. After that it could be an avalanche and the whole thing collapses.
    
    Most New Zealanders are remarkably compliant. And I confess I am one of them 🙁
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:36am
    - cmm
      
      It’s just easier than explaining yourself to every checkout supervisor that goes Karen on you.
      
      Sometimes you have to pick your battles.
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:41am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        Wrong attitude. If you can’t stand up to a teenage girl at a supermarket checkout in the name of taking back your autonomy, then you’ve got to take a serious look in the mirror. Our ancestors went to war, ffs.
        
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        March 24, 2022 12:35pm
      - Batman
        
        Grown man shouts at teenage girl in minimum wage service job.
        
        Classy.
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:50pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Taking the “path of least resistance” is a road to nowhere. It’s like allowing yourself to be cowed by a bully. It won’t make the problem go away, in fact, it usually makes it worse.
        Sometimes you have to do the hard yards and confront the bullshit. It usually only needs to be done once. The more others see you not complying the more they will feel empowered to do the same.
        
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        March 24, 2022 12:52pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:15pm
      - cmm
        
        Sure I get the point, but people don’t have to face every evil that crosses their path.
        
        You could write a stiff email to every MP every day. I bet you don’t.
        You could address every single idiotic posting on social media, but no you don’t.
        
        Sometimes you just need to pick your battles and put in your energy where you might have some influence.
        
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        March 24, 2022 5:06pm
    - Rodney Hide
      
      FWIW, I don’t have an exemption and I don’t wear a mask at supermarket or hardware shops. I have never been asked to put one on.
      
      I would either politely decline and leave or politely comply but I have never been asked.
      
      It’s very liberating. Plus you have the thrill of being naughty. And then the madness of the thought that not wearing a mask shopping is naughty.
      
      It is truly messed up.
      
      I refuse all compliance wherever i possibly can. I have never ever scanned in. If we had, say, 10 percent not wearings masks then it is over.
      
      Plus they clearly don’t work. I tested positive. I have had worse hangovers. It’s a joke.
      
      Rodney Hide
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:43am
      - Lee C
        
        “I’ve had worse hangovers.”
        
        Indeed, I’ve survived most of covid by duping my body into believing I was hung-over.
        
        I treated both vaccinations with a consistent course of Jamiesons, prior to and after each one. (but not during)
        
        Ironically, now I’ve had covid, I’m going to make efforts to cut back because I’ve come to terms with the fact that drinking is actually much much more dangerous nd potentially lethal than the virus.
        
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        March 24, 2022 9:15am
      - Creature from the river of filth
        
        Hello Mr Hide,
        
        Can you confirm if I will be able to vote for you in the next election?
        
        I am trying to find someone who has been anti mandate from the start, and you are most closely aligned with my politics.
        
        If not, who are you voting for?
        
        Thanks for your time.
        
        Cheers
        CftRoF
        
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        March 24, 2022 10:12am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Rodney – exactly. It doesn’t take as many as people think. Once you are seen walking in without a mask without any negative outcomes, others start asking themselves – “why should I bother?”
        The first couple of times can feel a bit uncomfortable, most don’t enjoy confrontation, but once you have done it a couple of times it is mighty liberating.
        
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        March 24, 2022 12:55pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Benedict: Don’t beat yourself up…All supermarkets – well – at least the two which I visit – require masks as a condition of entry. Given that they are private property they are perfectly within their rights to do so.
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:54am
      - oldfella
        
        DG: if you have to wear a mask, simply pull it down under your nose. Which is what I always do. A small protest, but also a lot more comfortable, and your glasses don’t fog up.
        
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        March 24, 2022 10:44am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        DG, mask exemptions are legal. How is any business, private or otherwise, permitted to discriminate on medical grounds? I would have thought if I had the money to do so, legal action on the grounds of discrimination could be interesting.
        I might be wrong, but in the current woke climate in which everyone is allowed to be whatever they want, you could never get away with banning someone who was trans let’s say?
        I don’t know the legalities, but the hypocrisy is glaring.
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:00pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Agree Benedict. I only wear a mask in my supermarket when there’s a Brown Gorilla in a Security Uniform at the door who says I can’t go in without a mask.
      IMO, it would be a waste of time trying to reason with said Gorilla because that’s what he’s getting paid to do.
      
      12 2
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      March 24, 2022 9:45am
    - Show me the evidence
      
      Yes, although I am unvaxxed and inwardly defiant I confess I still wear a mask – I really struggle with not blending in. Very hypocritical I know, I always was a compliant person. I think it’s all those years of Catholic schooling that did it…..The most naughty thing I have done probably in my life now has been going somewhere a few times where I shouldn’t be able to go without a pass.
      
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      March 24, 2022 9:47am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Don’t blame the Catholic schooling – I had 5 years of it – boarding at Sacred Heart College. It was there that I learnt to buck the system – but only for things that didn’t make sense – one of the Marist brothers who taught us told us to never comply with anything that was wrong – either legally or morally. That just happened to suit my personality.
        Whern I was a kid ( 3 0r 4 y/o) if I got threathened with a smacking, I would run outside, and when told to come in, I would bargain at how many whacks I would get. When it got down to 3, I would go in – then get about 10. I learnt early on that even bargains can be broken by the best of people. 😆
        
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        March 24, 2022 10:36am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        If you went to a Catholic school, it’s unusual that you weren’t told that you should only fear God (one reason, incidentally, why totalitarian atheists always want to remove or neutralise Christianity). Who cares what the mindless drones at the supermarket think? The truth is, a lot of them will envy you for your courage. If everyone sits around waiting for someone else to do the right thing, nobody will ever do it.
        
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        March 24, 2022 12:41pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Same with signing with the date and time. There are a lot of “Donald Ducks” out there
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:48am
    - Don Beckett
      
      And Mickey Mice. 😆
      
      10 3
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      March 24, 2022 10:38am
- pdm
  
  BY – believe me there is no one stroppier than a person with a `Mask Exemption’ trying to enter the premises of a business eg a medical center, that does not recognise the exemption.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:31am
- G152
  
  It will be dialed back with the next unfavouable poll
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:39am
- cmm
  
  You never had to produce a certificate just say you have an exemption. And nobody is allowed to ask why you are exempt.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:40am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I also think it may be illegal for someone to self appoint themselves as ‘mask police’
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:50am
  - Inandout
    
    cmm, that woukd explain why a local chap I know who is fiercely independent strides through the supermarket and hardware stores unmasked.
    
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    March 24, 2022 8:52am
- Paulus
  
  I have had my Flu injection for many years and will do so again shortly.-
  But I have no intention of wearing a mask because of it.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:56am
mikenmildagain

Happy International Day for the Right to the Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims!
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March 24, 2022 8:01am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I hope you informed your great leader Jaspinda, Mike
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:51am
- Rich Prick
  
  Not Cindy’s favourite day of the year then.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:38am
PHC

If someone has recovered from the virus, why is a mask still necessary?
28 3
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March 24, 2022 8:02am
- kowtow
  
  Props in the theatre of fear.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:26am
- alloytoo
  
  Because then the rest of the surfs may feel its unfair (or worse unnecessary*)
  
  *unnecessary from a compliance POV not any scientific perspective.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:38am
- ClanMcleod
  
  The mask does nothing, whether you have had the virus or not. It’s optics for narrative control, nothing else.
  
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  March 24, 2022 1:04pm
peterwn

Conversation on Facebook – by obviously staunch David Clark supporter in Dunedin Electorate.

“Permitted to copy this about certain Nat person, by a poster on FB: “Hmmm have friend who worked for Air NZ for 10 years. He said Rob Fyfe was an amazing down to earth guy. Luxon an absolute Wa—er who couldn’t give you the time of day. Treated the staff like underlings. No man management skills just a money man. [it is not uncommon for some employees to dislike their CEO].”

“Fyfe did the hard work . luxon just shuffled paper. Run an airline? Couldn’t run a bath let alone a country. “

“or a piss up in a brewery…. [surely this would apply to David Clark].”

“Mind you I’d be a worry in a brewery. “

“Re Luxon: My impression too . . . thorougly anodyne with no real principles, just says what will win votes. As for tax cuts, they favour the rich and do a disservice to the poor. But Labour, too, is currently kowtowing to the business world which is disappointing. As epidimiologist, Rod Jackson, says, we still have huge numbers contracting the virus and dying. Let’s keep all the precautions and save lives.”

If Labour people continue to believe their own BS, that is not exactly going to help their election chances.
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March 24, 2022 8:04am
- BeaB
  
  Don’t all Labourites hate the bosses?
  This is just the usual cliched gossip.
  Jacinda, however, rated Luxon so highly she wanted him to work closely with her government.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:21am
  - peterwn
    
    Only when it suits her. Jacinda sough and received support from Simon Bridges at the start of Covid, but spat him out when she she did not need his support any more.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:42am
- Warren
  
  It just shows the anxiety that the Labour voter has over Luxon v Ardern, she is a spent force with nowhere to go except out the door at the next election.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:21am
  - peterwn
    
    Or the UN. Unlike Helen Clark’s case I do not see Chris Luxon supporting any effort by Jacinda to get a UN job. She will have to organise this before the next election.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:46am
- kowtow
  
  Clark was the larfing stock of Dunedin , going for a bike ride , with his personally branded Labour Pardy van in a huge empty carpark ,in the middle of the ‘war’ on the one in hundred plague , when he shudda bin in Wellington in the command bunker with the rest of the Oberkommando der Heeres.
  
  Short memories and of course there’s always the tiny ,small minority die in a ditch types. Nutters.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:25am
  - peterwn
    
    Unfortunately he is very unlikely to lose his seat. If he was National, then there would have been a high risk of the locals putting up an alternative candidate since ‘Head Office’ has little influence over National Party candidate selection in electorates with high Party membership.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:49am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  How about you wait till he has policy to work with, he said they won’t be releasing policy before the end of this year, give the man a break I say, he is our only chance of getting rid of the tyrant.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:43am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    Why is Luxon waiting until next year to completely underwhelm us, when he could do it sometime this year? They’ve had 5 years in opposition, you’d think they would have formulated a few ideas by now. We know you’re a National Party sycophant, but what about trying to convince us sceptics?
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:48pm
- Melbury
  
  For what it’s worth, earlier this year I met a former senior manager at Air NZ who spoke very highly of Mr Luxon. It was encouraging to hear.
  
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  March 24, 2022 10:00am
  - peterwn
    
    I remember at High School we had an austere, strict Principal who was held in respect (underpinned by fear) by the pupils. Some of the staff hated him. He retired and his successor was rather wishy-washy. We missed the former Principal because he was the ‘real thing’.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:38am
- peterwn
  
  Now this dyed in the wool ‘has been’ left wing political commentator Gordon Campbell is trying to put the boot in:
  https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2203/S00071/on-christopher-luxons-trashing-of-the-poor.htm
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:53am
Tricati

Have done a lot of traveling around the South Island over the last 4 months and have to say the opinion of the government is very low. Even in Labour heartland of Blackball and Reefton, locals are over the theatrics and BS, as it is obvious, they are suffering financially from lack of through traffic and covid restrictions.
Talking to an old guy in Reefton last weekend and he said this is the luckiest government he has known. Lucky Winston picked them, lucky covid came along when the country was entering a recession of their making, lucky they don’t get scrutinized by real journalists, and now lucky Omnicom arrived during our summer. Its great talking to these folks as you get a real sense of the true feelings out there and its not looking good for the current government.
What to expect next – Old guy reckons, a big spend up fueled by increased taxes and more borrowing with money thrown at activist groups that will promote the government constantly, all at our cost. Hard to bet against him I thought.
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March 24, 2022 8:05am
- nathie
  
  We need that “old guy” in parliament – as well as being astute he has more commonsense than the entire Labour and Green parties!
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:20am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The west coast always say they are over the government, Maureen is very popular, but like metal to a magnet, they can not help them selves.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:44am
- Nickc2
  
  Age and stealth will outwit youth and enthusiasm every time.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:53am
Harry Knuts

Our own little germaphobe will be forever disappointed – perhaps she is more disappointed in the fact no one listens to her anymore – https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/03/i-am-disappointed-siouxsie-wiles-very-nervous-about-government-s-covid-19-decision.html
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March 24, 2022 8:06am
- kowtow
  
  Why do the Media Pardy keep going back to her when she was the public face of the two faced regime lockdown “rules” .
  
  off to the beach with a friend , unmasked and paddling in the sea . Hardly “exercise” .
  
  The friend ‘swimming’ but declared not to be by Blofeld .
  
  Rank hypocrites, the lot of them.
  
  But let’s villify the freedom protesters or the so called Wanaka Runaway couple .
  
  Never forget .
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:17am
Muttonbird

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Hoskins whinging hard about the PM’s press conferences again. Doesn’t like the way she promotes NZ’s Covid response.

The desperation is real.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-calls-to-boost-vaccines-masks-as-pm-relaxes-covid-protections/WU52MEDIZUWVSH5Y5GDO5GPLX4/
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March 24, 2022 8:07am
- pdm
  
  M/bird – 5 minutes late and 10/15 minutes of nonsensical waffle.
  
  Mike Hosking is not alone in complaining – she is becoming the LAUGHING STOCK of New Zealand.
  No manners (always late) and makes little sense.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:50am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Happy to see more and more Kiwis are understanding what “waffle” means.
    Demonstrated almost every day
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:03am
  - alloytoo
    
    The Mrs and I thought we might make a drinking game of the lateness and waffle.
    
    Common sense, both financial and health considerations intervened.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:41am
  - Nickc2
    
    If you listened the Mike Hosking Show this morning, you would no doubt have heard Kevin Rudd (ex-Aust PM). This guy is another who drowns himself in his own Word Soups. He has about a two to three-minute FIGJAM preamble before he answers a question.
    I lived in Aust during his and Gillard’s reign you can take my word for it, you’d have to be a dyed-in-the-wool Labor Supporter to not switch off the TV or Radio when either of them wants to voice their opinions on anything.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:04am
    - greybeard
      
      That is interesting:
      All of the comments by listeners after that interview were praising Rudd, to the extent that Mike Hosking said he would have him on again some time.
      I heard much of what Rudd said and I thought he was articulate, well-informed and on top of his subject matter.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:41am
      - Nickc2
        
        He was well prepared. He’s most probably been forwarned of topics to be addressed and you can probably be assured he has answered them all many many times previously. He’s an avid name-dropper and he would have had all those names and dates in front of him or place markers in his book he was quoting from/being quizzed about.
        IMO, He’s a charlatan of the first order.
        
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        March 24, 2022 11:41am
- krazykiwi
  
  Yes, the desperation is real, Mutton. Your deity Ardern is finally being shown for what she is: a collapsing, craven megalomaniac who is well past her use-by date.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:54am
- Benedict Yu
  
  His name is “Hosking”. How hard can that be?
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:01am
  - David Garrett
    
    Bene: And you complain about my correcting grammatical errors! Even today many people refer to our most successful PM in 20 years as John Keys
    
    24 4
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    March 24, 2022 9:31am
  - MCōs
    
    Considering the PM’s name is rarely spelt correctly on this forum I don’t know why you should suddenly worry about his name.
    
    4 20
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    March 24, 2022 9:34am
    - oldfella
      
      Shindy Ardernity? We all know how to spell that.
      
      7 2
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      March 24, 2022 11:04am
    - Opie
      
      She does not command enough respect to have her name spelt properly.
      
      I wont even refer to her as the prime minister as it defies belief that someone so awful could be placed in charge of a country.
      
      A failed student politician seeking to divide a country by taxing the hard workers and giving it to others, mainly based on the colour of their skin.
      
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      March 24, 2022 11:11am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      B R E N D A – let’s go!
      
      5 2
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      March 24, 2022 1:16pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  you know the tide is against Labour and the Left when the Muttonbird flies in and drops dung everywhere.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:30am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The woman sickens me to the craw, Hoskins is right, she is patronising, and speaks down to us like little kids, her “bloody hard” bullshit is the second time she has used that analogy, the whole thing is orchestrated, get to the point, and stop the waffle, plus turn the f….up on time.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:48am
- Frank the tank
  
  I agree – Our Glorious Leader’s desperation is real for all to see. Your mob will be inconsolable when she hits the eject button after her Washington/New York holiday. The Fisherman will be going out for Halibut and Lobster before the year is over
  
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  March 24, 2022 10:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    No sign of him on the hustings for some time, if he was ever going to show, he would have been at Queenstown, she has been there a few times, he is always hanging on, no sign, #whereisclarkegayford
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:46am
- ClanMcleod
  
  You must be talking about Brenda’s desperation. It reeks.
  
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  March 24, 2022 1:13pm
Opie

Massive burn from David Seymour yesterday. And even newshub printed it!

ACT leader David Seymour suggested Ardern was unable to “let go of control”.

“No wonder we have a productivity problem when even the Prime Minister takes 22 minutes to deliver two minutes of information,” he said, criticising the speech Ardern gave at the Beehive before making the announcement.

“Jacinda seems to have a case of separation anxiety, she can’t let go of control. She keeps announcing and restricting while the economy slides into recession. A real leader would cut to the chase and then be open to scrutiny from journalists, not preach to us at length.

“The Prime Minister’s real problem is that she’s leaned into fear as a means of control for two years and doesn’t know how to shut down the fear factory.”

Pretty much spot on really.
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March 24, 2022 8:13am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Seymour only just found out what most of us have known since that vid clip in 2009?
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:06am
  - Cassandra
    
    Nonsense, Steve. Seymour has been criticising Ardern ever since the appointment by Peters. Consistently.
    
    15 2
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    March 24, 2022 10:38am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Refresher.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9rsxFaq6Ig
      
      1 2
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      March 24, 2022 3:58pm
Yvette

The “science” of masks is that if you wear one and it fogs up your glasses, should you happen to also wear those, it indicates moisture is escaping – moisture that if you are covid contagious, carries a viral load.

As is said, if thick denim jeans will not stop a decent fart, why expect a flimsy cotton mask to stop a virus?

And the more efficient a mask, the more anyone already taxed with two blocked coronary arteries is forced to inhale the carbon dioxide they have just exhaled, increasing the chance they fall over waiting in the supermarket queue, or suffer in the presence of oxygen-thieves like Ardern, Bloomfield, or that guy from Canterbury University thick as two short Planks.
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March 24, 2022 8:23am
kowtow

In theory , according to Hipkins the whole country could be held back under the ridiculous so called traffic light system until some backwater like the west coast dhb hits its peak.

More bat shit crazy , on the hoof , policy making.
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March 24, 2022 8:28am
- Ehlana
  
  Strange. After all, they were happy to put Auckland only into the strictest of lockdowns, while giving more freedom to other parts of the country.
  
  Now that Auckland is post-peak, shouldn’t we be getting the freedoms while the rest of the country is more restricted?
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:06am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Auckland only lockdown was because Jaspinda hates Auckland. Evil Capitalism right in her face is too much to bear
    
    15 3
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    March 24, 2022 9:10am
    - Ehlana
      
      Doesn’t she live here? When she is not fleeing ahead of lockdowns, that it.
      
      15 0
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      March 24, 2022 9:11am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        The house is land banking investment. Taking advantage of the ever increasing property value in Auckland.
        Evil Capitalism, but it’s different when the left do it
        
        17 1
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        March 24, 2022 9:32am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Who understands the Traffic light system?
  
  How can we still be in red when criteria have changed?
  
  When even MPs fail to understand some of the ever-changing covid regulations, how can mere citizens?
  
  https://www.1news.co.nz/2020/04/06/health-minister-david-clark-demoted-by-pm-after-trip-to-beach-mountain-bike-ride-during-lockdown/
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/463342/green-party-mp-elizabeth-kerekere-breaks-self-isolation-rules
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:34am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Maggy you aren’t meant to be able to understand any of this. A perpetual state of bewilderment is part of Ardern’s tactics. Keep people confused.
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:21pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    Under the new red , with the “removal of outdoor gathering limit” can we eat outdoors at a cafe on Saturday? “From Saturday, there will be no gathering limit on outdoor events. The gathering limit for indoor events at the red traffic light setting will also double, to 200 people.” Or do we have to wait until april 4. Surely if outdoor events and sports are ok. outdoor cafe is good to go?
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300548823/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-visits-eden-park-as-outdoor-events-get-the-nod
    
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    March 24, 2022 6:12pm
Maggie Pie

Happened to catch Cindy’s giggly little interview with Tova earlier 😀

Tova’s sidekick on the Breakfast show asked her….. “If it was true that she and Tova flatted together and whether ClarkE was in Columbia?”

Cindy’s response…. “They’re just conspiracy theories”

Guess that’s an emphatic ‘NO’ then?
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March 24, 2022 8:33am
- G152
  
  Its a no reply to the question asked.
  Just another lie
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:42am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Perfect example of ‘lies by omission’
    
    23 2
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    March 24, 2022 9:11am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I have listened to that Tova morning radio show on three occasions. It sounds to me like National Socialist Radio with advertisements. 180 seconds is the longest I have been able to tolerate that infantile giggling.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:42am
  - Nickc2
    
    The only way to voice your opinion wrt that Radio Station and Tova, in particular, is to boycott their advertiser’s products. Switching off or changing stations doesn’t mean zip to them.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:21am
- Gravelroad
  
  I will look forward to hearing a soft, chortling interview on the radio between Mr Luxon and one of his former classmates/flat mates or drinking mates then.
  You know – for balance?
  How long will I need to wait?
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Until late 2023 when the current media gets the DCM
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:12am
- kowtow
  
  Is that the radio station she refused to ‘appear” on when Plunkett and Williams were there , and which Robbo also welshed on.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:50am
- Phronesis
  
  So Clarke will be in Columbia in six months time?
  
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  March 24, 2022 10:05am
- Frank the tank
  
  I listened to that gong show for 15 minutes this morning (all I could manage) – Mags – who is the idiot co-host that makes the 2 ronnies on ZB look cultured?
  
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  March 24, 2022 10:11am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Part mooree guy by the name of Mark Dye. A real lefty by all accounts.
    One of the girls from tennis was saying he used to co-host with Kerry Woodham on ZB a while back. When they finally got rid of him, KW’s ratings went up over 60%.
    Go figure.
    
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    March 24, 2022 2:52pm
- oldfella
  
  Maggie, perhaps the answer to the ClarkE question should have been, ‘No, but if you do see him, please ask him to phone home’.
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:42am
RockyJ

Kiwibloggers need to get in behind Chris Luxon and forgive his slip over the anti mandate protest. In a 30 minute interview with Kerre McIvor on Newstalk ZB he finally reveals his thinking on some of our biggest issues. One sovereign state, one healthcare system, Three Waters is a dog.
He got into specifics and gives me great hope in his ability as a future prime minister.
Examples are a strike force to combat gangs, bring back charter schools, bring back oil and gas exploration, support the ETS, bring back performance targets for government departments.
As a potential leader he impresses. He gave the government credit for the way it handled the 2020 Covid response. He talks against centralised control, talks aspiration for our young and, at the same time, is on top of the numbers
A huge contrast to “be kind, most open and transparent government ever and I never lie”
It’s not about personal brand it’s about personal philosophy.
Remember that voting for these new centre right parties springing up only splits the centre right vote and helps Labour win the next election
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-mcivor-mornings/video/national-leader-chris-luxon-joins-kerre-mcivor-live-in-studio/
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March 24, 2022 8:34am
- krazykiwi
  
  You could strap me to a gurney and play Ardern speeches 24×7 and I would still not vote for Luxon. His vote-seeking flapping in the focus group breeze is the reason another Ardern will rise up. He is part of the problem. He is not a solution to the problem.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:01am
  - BeaB
    
    I despair at you morons who do everything you can to make sure Winston puts an Ardern back in power.
    2 ticks National!
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:25am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Despair away, BeaB. People like Ardern exist and rule because NZers consistently vote governments out, no matter the quality of what is left to fill the void.
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:50am
    - Surely Knott
      
      An apology from Luxon Bishop and Seymour would go a long way. We are sorry. We over reacted and lost sight of peoples key rights. People should never have lost their rights and bodily sovereignty. We need to respect the bill of rights as sacrosanct. Nudging people to perform is bizarre and authoritarian. You won’t see it in a Nat govt. Chris bishop taking down his twitter handle. That kind of stuff. Then we can move on.
      
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      March 24, 2022 11:48am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Surely Knott – That’s an excellent assessment.
        
        8 3
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        March 24, 2022 1:26pm
      - Matt Long
        
        Don’t be holding your breath.
        
        5 0
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        March 24, 2022 1:27pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Then get National to grow a spine ffs and stop playing Labour lite.
      
      8 4
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      March 24, 2022 1:23pm
      - mawm
        
        National needs to behave as an opposition. Period!
        
        5 0
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        March 24, 2022 4:31pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    FFS wait till he speaks about policy that he said will start being delivered at the end of this year, glad you are happy with the utter shambles we have now
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:54am
    - mawm
      
      I hadn’t read your comment when I made mine above. I’m not interested in waiting for him to start campaigning for an election – he has a job now….and he’s failing.
      
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      March 24, 2022 4:33pm
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    Oh dear kk – you got hammered on this very premise the other – are you slipping into the Ardern mould – if repeated oft enough ……… 🙂
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:37am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Not really bothered, 70. I maintain that while a majority of NZers are willing to install any government to replace the current one then our social, economic, cultural and political futures will all be bleak. I’m younger that you, yet I have learned this where you appear to be happy to make the same mistake election cycle after election cycle.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:56pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Would you prefer National brought back Judith as leader, and watch National reduce back down to 26%, and have Labour win the 2023 election by another large majority?
    
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    March 24, 2022 3:35pm
- Muttonbird
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  This was the same interview in which he said the poor were bottom feeders.
  
  Who would have thought National could come up with someone even more devoid of ethic and moral than John Keys.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:18am
  - BeaB
    
    So you didn’t bother reading what he actually said.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:58am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Do you have a comprehension problem, Muttonbird?
    
    Luxon didn’t say the poor were bottom feeders .
    This is what he said:
    
    And if you want to have a go and you want to make something of yourself, we don’t just do bottom feeding and just focus on the bottom, we focus on people who want to be positive and ambitious and aspirational and confident, right?”
    
    https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/03/22/christopher-luxon-explains-his-bottom-feeding-comments/
    
    See..
    
    Nothing to do with poor people.
    
    He’s talking of folks who prey on others:
    
    But what we don’t have a lot of time for is frankly people that are, as we’ve seen in recent weeks, are people that are in state houses that actually aren’t paying the rents, that are trashing the houses, abusing the neighbours.
    
    https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/03/22/christopher-luxon-explains-his-bottom-feeding-comments/
    
    Thugs.. they are the bottom feeders to whom Luxon is referring.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:29am
    - Yabster
      
      Mutton is full of bs an will spin things if he can- getting desperate lol
      
      14 2
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      March 24, 2022 11:36am
    - Gravelroad
      
      @MW-
      Yes but that is why opposition spokespeople have to be so very careful about the terminology used.
      Many party activists are only too happy to seize on some throw-away comment and cynically twist it.
      Then it is repeated until the leftist shills have made “vulnerable people” believe it without question.
      A valued socialist PR tactic.
      
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      March 24, 2022 1:10pm
    - Mike
      
      Not a very convincing explanation.
      
      1 12
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      March 24, 2022 1:51pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Do you think being poor gives you an excuse to be a lousy human being?
        
        14 1
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        March 24, 2022 2:45pm
      - Mike
        
        Why, are you poor?
        
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        March 24, 2022 4:58pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    He has nothing on Ardern though when it comes to ethics and morals.
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:29pm
- westernScientest
  
  It only splits the vote if they dont get into parliament. Yeah a vote for NNP is probably wasted, but a vote for ACT is not. A strong ACT will make it more likely the NATs will actually do the things that Luxon is saying they will. I doubt they will do much of them without the pressure from ACT.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:27am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    See if you can get Seymour to to stop repeating Ardern’s lies about masks, if he does that I’ll be close to committing to voting for him.
    
    8 2
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    March 24, 2022 1:31pm
- David Garrett
  
  Ah Rocky…Are you a young fella by any chance?
  
  Politicians – including John Key who I greatly admire – say they are going to do all sorts of things when they are in opposition…When they get onto the Treasury benches they are suddenly afflicted with huge memory loss regarding what they promised they would do.
  
  Oh, and offshore oil and gas exploration is as dead as a dodo and can never be revived, for reasons I have outlined here several times. In short, trust that a government won’t change the rules – especially without warning – has been lost, and like virginity, once lost it cannot ever be regained.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:38am
  - RockyJ
    
    Ha. I am turning 70 tomorrow.
    Somehow I have not lost my faith in humanity yet. Maybe I need a bit of growing up.
    No leader is ever perfect. Well, there was one 2000 years ago and he ended up on a cross.
    Abraham Lincoln was beset by depressive episodes. He would probably be panned today by the media.
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:52am
    - MCōs
      
      There are plenty of Americans who loathe Abraham Lincoln.
      
      3 2
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      March 24, 2022 12:36pm
      - Batman
        
        Yes, the mean bastard who took away their states’ rights!*
        
        *Just don’t ask what rights they were.
        
        6 1
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        March 24, 2022 1:48pm
      - Mike
        
        His political opposition at the time subjected him to all sorts of abuse on account of his birth and education.
        
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        March 24, 2022 1:53pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I actually think Luxon will deliver more than Key did
    
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    March 24, 2022 9:55am
    - Sideoiler
      
      I actually think Luxon will deliver more than Key did
      
      I don’t think that it is much of a reccommendation and I am pretty sure he wont.
      
      10 3
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      March 24, 2022 11:02am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        I reckon he will, I am entitled to my opinion, one thing is for sure, both men will or have delivered more than the useless PM
        
        9 3
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        March 24, 2022 11:48am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Key delivered stable leadership. The rest, and there was lots of it, was delivered by Bill English, Tony Ryall, and Stephen Joyce. Oh to have that caliber of MP available today.
      
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      March 24, 2022 12:59pm
      - Sideoiler
        
        Key delivered stable leadership…..
        
        Key had the opportunity to make the transformational changes that this country is still in need of today.
        
        Key coud have pissed on everyone’s cornflakes and still got National re elected.
        He was seen as a nice bloke, one of us and everyone liked him, but NZ inc would be a better place if Don Brash had won an election.
        
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        March 24, 2022 2:51pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They are trying there best, he never said the poor were bottom feeders, he said we don’t just give to bottom feeders, we try to help all NZers up, for what it’s worth he may have said this purposely
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:52am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Luxon will appeal to the centre right and win back the voters that last time voted Labour. The centre is where elections are won and lost. And if the last few polls are correct, he’s doing a good job so far.
  
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  March 24, 2022 3:38pm
Grant

A genuine question:
Yesterday, Arderne said that everybody needs to get vaccinated or boosted.
I have had the two shots, quite some time ago, and I got Covid a month ago, so why do I need to be boosted?
Is there any logical reason why I should?
G
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March 24, 2022 8:35am
- pdm
  
  Very difficult Grant.
  
  We have been trying to get our grandson who lives with us a booster due to serious recently diagnosed health issues of his Aunt. He is aged 17yrs 4mths and is about 6ft and 15 stone.
  
  Not possible because no boosters for under 18;’s.
  
  Why?
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:03am
  - Sacha
    
    If he was my grandson, he’d be forbidden to go anywhere near a booster. Having a sick Aunty is bad enough, the last thing I’d want is a a grandson at risk from myocarditis as well.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:38am
  - Hebe123
    
    due to health conditions of his Aunt?
    That’s rank.
    First, him having the booster has no effect on her getting covid, or not.
    Second, the risks of a young man from the jab is much much higher than for other parts of the population. And its cumulative.
    Seriously, you need to research this before going ahead with something so nuts.
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:46am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Because of reasons only she knows
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:15am
- Opie
  
  Let me assure you, the last thing you want is a booster.
  
  It wont stop you from getting the thing you have already had and god only knows what the long term effects are of jamming this unproven shit into your arm every however often they say to.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:19am
- Lee C
  
  “Is there any logical reason why I should?”
  
  Follow the money, Grant.
  
  9 3
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  March 24, 2022 9:19am
- Zero Kindness
  
  No there isn’t Grant.
  There are however 1291 reasons why you should not get boosted, according to the Fizzer trial documents being slowly released.
  
  8 1
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  March 24, 2022 9:21am
- westernScientest
  
  MOH say:
  
  If you have tested positive for COVID-19 but you still need a booster dose, we recommend you wait at least 3 months after you have recovered to get your booster.
  https://covid19.govt.nz/covid-19-vaccines/how-to-get-a-covid-19-vaccination/getting-your-booster-dose/
  
  As for a logical reason…..
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:32am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I have been boosted and got it, but hardly got effected, it should not be called a vax, it should be called a treatment
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:56am
- Show me the evidence
  
  No, another booster is just a top up of your antibody immunity to the original Wuhan strain. It doesn’t do anything more than the other shots, other than “top up” your immunity. In fact, your most recent infection will have given you a broader immunity, and a more antigen specific immunity to Omi and any other strains that evolve from that. In Australia they are telling people infected after 2 shots that they don’t need a booster for three months post infection (I have family in this situation). In fact, you don’t need a booster for many months, probably even years depending on your age. You may catch another strain once the antibodies wane, but the T-cell memory you have developed from infection means your body has a sort of vague long term memory now that gives you long term memory from serious illness, so you would just get a mild cold. This is why, when they tested the blood of people that contracted SARs-covid-1 they had a good degree of immunity 17 years after their infection.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:59am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Actually, more and more reasons emerging as to why you should never get a jab and if you’ve already had a couple, never get another.
    As predicted, the vaccines are looking like they compromise your innate immune system.
    This has been an experiment from the very beginning.
    
    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/pfizer-vaccine-can-damage-brain-cells-and-immune-system-study-suggests/
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:36pm
- MCōs
  
  Apart from anything else whatever immunity you derived from being infected a month ago may have petered out by now.
  From what I understand you could expect three months protection, but it varies from one person to the next.
  It’s not like taking out insurance for a specific time period.
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:46pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    MCōs – no, that’s the vaccines you are talking about which is why we are onto shot number 3 just to be considered “vaccinated” and it won’t be long until number 4 is required to give you a few weeks “protection” while having no idea what it is doing to your long term innate immunity.
    Natural immunity is far longer lasting and much more robust. It is why this is now a pandemic of the vaccinated. Negative efficacy running at 300%.
    
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    March 24, 2022 4:20pm
Warren

We have a Prime Minister that thinks poll results and protests have played no part in her agenda whe adjusting the settings on the new Traffic Light rules.
Inflation is now costing households another $150 extra per week according to Economist this morning.
Six people injured in overnight shooting in Auckland.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/six-injured-auckland-home-cordoned-off-after-overnight-shooting-incident/Q2HC6TFJTQ4I5PYISQJ3EE7RDQ/
All these things could be avoided if the Government we have listened and forgot about themselves when implementing their archaic policy’s.
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March 24, 2022 8:36am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  No doubt the Glen Innes shooter used a licensed weapon and had passed their firearms license.
  
  // (sarc.)
  
  “When guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns.”
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:51am
  - Nickc2
    
    Reported in the Midday News on ZB that the Police had previously confiscated the rifle used by the deceased but returned it to him. How does that work unless this was previous to the gun confiscation program undertaken at Cindy’s insistence?
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:43pm
- peterwn
  
  Will Labour actually get round to repealing ‘three strikes’ or will it be allowed to drop to the bottom of the ‘to do’s’. Repealing ‘three strikes’ could be a vote loser given current circumstances.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:24am
RoboRob

Did my first ever Roy Morgan poll last night. Replied as you might expect (voting right, country in wrong direction, worse off than last year etc).

Very interesting last question, they had already identified who I would party and electorate vote for but at the end asked a question like which of these three parties would you vote for; National, Labour or Greens. I challenged the guy that a number of options were missing. He replied it was just a ‘general direction’ question.
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March 24, 2022 8:46am
- kowtow
  
  Interesting when you see polls that say about what concerns people that the environment / sustainablity score so highly .
  
  Wonders how much these are pushed by the pollers and whether we really are “concerned” as we queue up for cheaper petrol , if we can find it , while travelling in cars or as we board a flight to somewhere exotic ?
  
  There will come a point where one thing or the other has to give , simple fact is human existence is not “sustainable” or eco friendly as there just aren’t enough caves for us all to live in or wide free ranging pastures where we can gather berries and nuts or hunt feral cattle.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:03am
- pdm
  
  Did you answer – none of these Robo?
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:05am
  - RoboRob
    
    No, I answered National to ‘indicate’ my right wing preference.
    
    9 0
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    March 24, 2022 1:26pm
- peterwn
  
  Very interesting. The people conducting the poll would read from a script and would have no direct influence on choice of questions. It was interesting that he replied it was a ‘general direction’ question. Seems they are given some guidance on how to handle such situations and keep on side of those being polled. This one was a good response that was neither too abrupt nor encouraging an argument to start, either of which would be harmful to the polling company.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:32am
Maggie Pie

And remember…. ‘TURN ARDERN’?

I can hardly wait to head back over to Countdown now for more HotX’s 😀

https://twitter.com/lazzaNZL/status/1506487069606281219
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March 24, 2022 8:47am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, are those stickers available locally?
  
  10 0
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  March 24, 2022 9:01am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Yup, I have some of those, along with instructions on where not to put them, but if you find one, take a photo and send it to The Taxpayer’s Union
  
  12 1
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  March 24, 2022 9:19am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Where can I order a few dozen?
  
  9 1
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  March 24, 2022 10:17am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I am thinking of scanning them, then printing them on adhesive labels
    
    7 1
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    March 24, 2022 10:52am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    My partner got them online from ‘The Taxpayers Union’ shop. $5 for 3.
    He bought hundreds and I’ve given heaps to the girls at tennis.
    
    9 2
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    March 24, 2022 11:10am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Quite good to stick one each side to racquet and get continuous aces …..
      
      4 1
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      March 24, 2022 4:03pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/shop#!/I-did-this-Ardern-sticker-3-for-$5/p/446042928/category=0
    
    3 0
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    March 24, 2022 4:22pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Oh dear, I’m a compulsive shopper. B0ught far too many…..lol
  
  8 2
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  March 24, 2022 1:51pm
Benedict Yu

So New Zealand is having “biblical floods”?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/300548222/biblical-floods-in-nz-and-a-heatwave-in-antarctica-are-they-related

What is it with New Zealand journalists and the weather?

NIWA has a very neat resource that lists major historical weather events.

https://hwe.niwa.co.nz/search/summary/Startdate/n-a/Enddate/n-a/Regions/all/Hazards/Flooding/Impacts/all/Keywords/none/numberOfEvents/20/page/1

Since weather records began, New Zealand has experienced 684 major flood events, many of them far worse than what we are seeing now on East Cape.

I just wish journalists would learn some basic research skills.
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March 24, 2022 8:47am
- kowtow
  
  They are not journalists , they are activists .
  
  ‘Covering Climate Now, an initiative that comprises media outlets committed to improving their climate journalism, provides an innovative model of how news outlets can collaborate and report on the climate crisis with the sustained attention and urgency the issue deserves.’
  
  Cui bono.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:05am
- Ehlana
  
  I wish they would not use the term “biblical” unless they have actually read the Bible. All of it.
  
  Otherwise, it would seem like cultural appropriation, or some such woke sin.
  
  27 2
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  March 24, 2022 9:10am
  - cmm
    
    Equally with Darwinism.
    I’ll bet not one in fifty people who spout about Darwin have never written a word he wrote.
    
    On the Origin of Species is hands down the driest book I have every read, so I can’t say I blame them.
    
    16 2
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    March 24, 2022 9:27am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Well,
      try this one if you want some bodice-ripping hot sex and detective drama
      
      http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?pageseq=1&itemID=F800&viewtype=text
      
      5 3
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      March 24, 2022 10:26am
      - cmm
        
        Wow Maggy, some 50 shades of Darwin!
        
        I had to open my top collar stud after reading the first paragraph.
        
        I’m sure Origin would have been a lot better read if he’d stopped going on about damn pigeon breeders.
        
        8 2
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        March 24, 2022 11:42am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Maybe they have simply decided it is the End of Days. We have done Pestilence, we have War, when do the Locusts show up?
    
    9 0
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    March 24, 2022 10:39am
  - kowtow
    
    That’s a big ask .
    
    Movie time ,1956 ,Ten Commandments will do the trick.
    
    5 1
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    March 24, 2022 11:51am
- David Garrett
  
  Bene: Basic research skills? They can’t even be bothered to use spell check!
  
  15 2
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  March 24, 2022 9:42am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    They don’t know “how” to use spell cheque. 🙂
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:18am
Tomtoddy

Interesting stories out of the USA. Commentators are starting to write about Biden’s soon coming eviction. Harris who is a total nitwit will go first. She is even worse than Agnew who was forced out because of his incompetency – the tax issue was a blind.

The MSM refused to have anything to do with the Hunter Biden laptop story execpt to say it was a Trump jack up. Now they are running the story and implicating poor old Joe. Softening up the population for moving him and Harris out? Who knows? He is certainly way down in the polls and his performance is dismal to be kind.
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March 24, 2022 8:55am
- kowtow
  
  Kevin Rudd on Hosk ( strangely adoring , pfft)
  
  ‘Trump a madman’ .
  
  Rudd , go f@#k yourself.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:07am
  - Nickc2
    
    Rudd has the honour of being a fuckwit in his own right.
    I notice Mike Hosking didn’t ask him how many people were killed as a result of his electioneering bribe of installing free Pink Insulation Batts in everyone’s houses? Instead of admitting his arrogance, he threw his Minister of the Environment (Peter Garrett of the musical group Midnight Oil) under the bus.
    He’s a slimy bastard IMO.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/10/kevin-rudd-to-give-evidence-in-class-action-over-failed-pink-batts-scheme
    
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    March 24, 2022 12:27pm
    - kowtow
      
      Hosking seemed in awe of the guy .
      
      Pfft.
      
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      March 24, 2022 4:25pm
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    The TQ (Trump question) is a good barometer as to a politician’s electability, and a gauge as to whether they “get it” or not. Rudd, unsurprisingly, failed the test.
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:03pm
- Inandout
  
  Tom, the question is who succeeds those two and how does the Constitution provide a pathway?
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:39am
  - Steve Todd
    
    No, Inny, the question is, “What are Tomtoddy’s sources / links?”, (1) to what the “Commentators are starting to write about”; and (2) to the ridiculous notion that Spiro Agnew was “forced out” due to incompetence, rather than for being investigated for tax fraud (up to and including while he was Vice President), as a result of which he resigned (after negotiating terms, including no jail time, and pleading “no contest” in federal court).
    
    At this point, absent court convictions, then, given that the Republicans will not have two-thirds of the Senate seats (67) after the mid-terms in November, there will be no convictions of “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes [or] Misdemeanors.” (Article II, Section 4.)
    
    There is only one way Biden and Harris will be “evicted” from office, and that is by the People on Tuesday, 5 November, 2024.
    
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    March 24, 2022 1:59pm
  - Nickc2
    
    In America, they assassinate Presidents don’t they?
    Come on you downtickers, prove me wrong on that.
    
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    March 24, 2022 2:24pm
Biscuit

So St. Jacinda tells us that she has listened to the science and thinks this is now the time to relax her mandates.

‘I udderly refute that this has had anything to do with those wee protests or that ginormous slump in our poll numbers…’

So how come it is that just about all of the scientists-cum-experts whose opinions have been thrust upon us are saying ‘Nooooooooooooooo! Unwise! Too early!’?
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March 24, 2022 8:55am
- kowtow
  
  Ha ha ha .
  
  They hand picked those “scientists” cos they knew they’d deliver them the “science” they wanted.
  
  Now that the Proles and polls have turned and the nose bag is in danger of being lost , those scientists are an inconvenient embarrasment .
  
  Anyway , anyone with more than one functioning brain cell always knew the whole thing was a scam.
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:11am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Those ‘experts’ are known liars
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:22am
- Rich Prick
  
  Those “experts” are worried that the great hoax is coming to an end. So too their fanfare.
  
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  March 24, 2022 10:02am
- pdm
  
  Biscuit are you referring to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern?
  
  Better known as the ABSENTEE electorate Member of Parliament for Mount Albert Auckland.
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:50pm
ecco

Robertson’s a trick isn’t he, going along to the Akl Chamber of Commerce do yesterday and saying inflation is imported from overseas. When he’s still spraying borrowed government money around hand over fist into the economy at an unprecedented rate, under the guise of the covid response.

Heard from someone’s whose early 20s uni student millennial has a Ministry of Health covid related contract – working from home- getting paid $40 an hour. This is an upgrade on the $30 an hour I’d heard they were paying out for these contracts.

This kid has no previous work experience and that rate of it is totally excessive and over the going market rate, and is quite frankly disgusting to hear as a long standing nz taxpayer.

As I’ve mentioned before this is outright vote buying of the student vote, and their parents, using government contracts paid at well over the going rate. It also explains why no private sector employer can find employees at the moment, what with closing the borders and having an immigration visa process that moves at glacial speed. No wonder inflation is going through the roof. It’s largely government induced in NZ’s case.
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March 24, 2022 9:03am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Ha! Can confirm that. One of my daughter’s friends is doing the same job for that pay rate, which is far beyond any other starting job she might get.
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:10pm
- RichardF
  
  I am aware of some govt department salaries that would make you weep. It’s not uncommon to find people on $160k plus who don’t have half a brain, promoted way above their station. And the courses these people attend, costing thousands of (taxpayer!) dollars. Some jammy buggers seem to spend all their time doing ‘professional development’ programmes and bugger all actual work. I like ACT’s policy of reviewing every department and making them justify their existence. We could lose 20% easily.
  
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  March 24, 2022 4:18pm
- Hard Cheese
  
  I have a relative helping with the booster rollout. Her last shift they vaccinated 8 people over a whole day. A whole bunch of them are being paid to sit around, read books, do their grocery shopping, etc. while they wait for people to roll up. She’s contracted until June.
  
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  March 24, 2022 5:00pm
ecco

Hilarious listening to the Netball nz ceo trying to say it’s ‘all good’ with the increase from 100-200 in crowd numbers announced yesterday. Of course she can’t really get into the government as that would be biting the hand that feeds her sport. She would, no doubt, be getting handsome funding grants from High Performance Ssport nz being a woman’s sport. Women’s Sport – typical pet project for woke govenment payments from our woke PM.
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March 24, 2022 9:05am
- oldfella
  
  ecco, I chuckled at how the relaxation on outdoor crowds was hailed as just in time for the women’s cricket world cup finals.
  Yeah, right, I’m sure Kiwi crowds will pour into the grounds now to see the equivalent of second grade men’s sides battle it out. And without the NZ team there. Nah…
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:25am
  - Joely Doe
    
    equivalent of second grade men’s sides battle it out
    
    You will find that most good (World Class) female athletes / teams operate at about the level of 16 yr old male athletes / teams.
    An middle of the table Second Grade Mens team would smash them.
    
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    March 24, 2022 7:10pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      I can’t believe how many dolly catches are dropped in practically every match
      
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      March 24, 2022 8:33pm
fernglas

The following article in Stuff lets the cat out of the bag about the reality of the Covid death statistics; funnily, it seems to have been buried since earlier today
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/explained/300547805/why-the-daily-covid19-death-toll-isnt-as-clearcut-as-it-might-seem
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March 24, 2022 9:08am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  So much for following the science..
  
  We don’t know how many folks in NZ have been infected with Covid
  We don’t know many folks in NZ are currently infectious
  and we have no clue as to whether 41 or 184, or 210 folks have died from Covid
  
  If I was collecting data with the possibility that it was out by a factor of 4X -5X, then I’d be bloody cautious about concluding that I was following best practice science.
  
  https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-current-cases
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:43am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Only 2 years late. Great work Stuffed.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:03pm
Ehlana

From the COVID-19 Government Response team e-mail I got yesterday:
“New Zealand’s successful management of the Omicron outbreak and high rates of vaccination mean it’s now safe to ease the restrictions that have successfully prevented widespread health ”

That is the sentence in its entirety.

Perhaps before they worry about learning Maori words to drop into their sentences, they could brush up on English?
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March 24, 2022 9:14am
- RockyJ
  
  Maybe that is really what they intended to say
  
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  March 24, 2022 9:29am
- bennerg
  
  A Freudian slip?
  
  9 0
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  March 24, 2022 11:09am
  - Fisiani2
    
    An Austrian undergarment
    
    3 0
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    March 24, 2022 1:58pm
Bruce C

When “traffic lights” were introduced on 3 December 2021 with less than a weeks notice the MBIE website (govt info for business) clearly stated that hospitality businesses using the vax pass no longer required masks. I believe the wording was masks were “encouraged”. I told my staff that mask use was not required because only vaccinated people were allowed to set foot in the premises. Small compensation for coercing my wife and me to submit to the vaccine against our will. We dismissed our son who chose to remain unvaxed. On that Friday it was a joy to step into the shop and be greeted by the staff without masks. Without any official communication the rules were amended at 7:00pm on the same day. Amongst those amendments was that masks were again required, even in vaccine pass participating premises. We found this out through social media on Saturday and contacted the shop immediately to tell staff to mask up. On Monday morning a police officer was in my store responding to complaints that staff were not wearing masks. I explained the facts of the situation, shared my view of those in the beehive and told him what he could say to those who reported my business to the authorities. The officer was sheepish and said “You wouldn’t believe what people ring the police for these days”. The following Wednesday I received a phone call from work safe bringing the same accusation. Having been particularly stressed trying to run my business, adhere to the continuously changing rules and look after my family, the work safe agent received my full vocabulary at considerable volume. Again the response was sheepish.

Be careful the fights you choose. Your neighbors are watching and keen to score points. The authorities are in no mood to tolerate dissent. This is communism 101.
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March 24, 2022 9:23am
- Matt Long
  
  A public slimeball informer list would help bring healing between the good people of New Zealand.
  
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  March 24, 2022 1:52pm
  - kowtow
    
    The list would be very long.
    
    I read another article , can’t find it , that the recruits at the police school were used during lockdown to man the stasi lines.
    
    So busy the fuzz were swamped . What a shameful indictment of the ‘team” of whatever.
    
    https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/new-way-dob-lockdown-breachers
    
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    March 24, 2022 4:37pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Bruce C – Sadly as many are finding out the hard way, you cannot comply your way our of tyranny.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:06pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Yup, I have some of those, along with instructions on where not to put them, but if you find one, take a photo and send it to The Taxpayer’s Union
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March 24, 2022 9:25am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Posting went all wrong there.
  I wrote ‘whoever wrote that probably does not know that it does not make sense’
  Somehow a previous comment was posted
  
  8 1
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  March 24, 2022 9:28am
  - Biscuit
    
    Your Downticker was unimpressed either way, Steve!
    
    4 2
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    March 24, 2022 9:47am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Prob confused the fuck out of them – such is the IQ level
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:54am
Rusty

The Wellington protests were not in vain at all despite what Jacinda and the media may have said to the contrary.

That along with bad polls for Labour did influence the PM to scrap many covid restrictions which were illogical and unworkable in the first place.

I’m assuming this stupid traffic light system will go soon and hopefully mask wearing will be optional

I still have a sour taste in my mouth with what’s happened —-it took protests and polls as the only way for our PM to take notice on what she and this govt were doing to this country.

I have a theory on who the real ‘experts’ on covid in this country are — we the people are the experts!
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March 24, 2022 9:30am
Maggie Pie

If you need a bit of a larf…thort I’d share this from Ali Mau 😀

https://twitter.com/AliMauLIVE/status/1501380426685825026
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March 24, 2022 9:40am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Tell me the original was not staged. Anything, anything for the duped subjects
  
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  March 24, 2022 10:58am
- oldfella
  
  Maggie, is that supposed to be ClarkE she’s talking to? What’s with the nanny reference?
  I though Mau was a Cindy fan girl?
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:30am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    I think you might me thinking of a different ‘Ali Mau’ 😀
    
    https://twitter.com/AliMauLIVE/status/1501413946892292096
    
    5 1
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    March 24, 2022 1:15pm
Rusty

The Wellington protests were not in vain at all despite what Jacinda and the media may have said to the contrary.

That along with bad polls for Labour did influence the PM’s to scrap many covid restrictions which were illogical and unworkable in the first place.

I’m assuming this stupid traffic light system will go soon and hopefully mask wearing will be optional

I still have a sour taste in my mouth with what’s happened —-it took protests and polls as the only way for our PM to take notice on what she and this govt were doing to this country.

I have a theory on who the real ‘experts’ on covid in this country are — we the people are the experts!
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March 24, 2022 9:47am
- Rusty
  
  Oops, must have clicked a wrong button to duplicate my post.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:49pm
Yvette

Ashley Bloomfield has established “full vaccination” is now having the two shots plus a booster
Coronavirus: Three doses now considered ‘up to date’ with vaccinations, not two – Dr Ashley Bloomfield [1]

Yesterday’s official figures – 34,199 third primary doses; 2,560,822 booster doses [2] = 2,595,021 third doses
so those “fully vaccinated”, with third doses, are 51.9 percent of the “Team of 5 Million”

If Ardern’s 90 percent absolute “milestone” is now abandoned, why are lesser important restrictions still enforced?

[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/03/coronavirus-three-doses-now-considered-up-to-date-with-vaccinations-not-two-dr-ashley-bloomfield.html
[2] Vaccines administered to date: 4,024,862 first doses; 3,972,660 second doses; 34,199 third primary doses; 2,560,822 booster doses: 257,404 paediatric first doses and 48,185 paediatric second doses
https://www.health.govt.nz/news-media/news-items/20087-community-cases-960-hospitalisations-31-icu-11-deaths-reported-today
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March 24, 2022 9:50am
- ClanMcleod
  
  “Just three weeks to flatten the curve” – soon to become, “you need your fifth booster to be classed as fully vaccinated.” The difference between a conspiracy theory and a fact – about 6 months.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:17pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    If you over vaccinate and die, you still can not sue them
    
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    March 24, 2022 4:13pm
Dave

Ive been thinking this Gov’t and Prime Minister needs some form of memorial to remind future voters of the need to look carefully at what we’re voting in.

What about using David Seymors recent ”adernity” quote and getting it incorporated into everyday langauage. Would welcome suggestions from wordsmiths but heres a starter for 10

Noun Adernity The period of time a speaker treats the audience like fools during a speech.

Ardernity – the period of time between an announcement to action.
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March 24, 2022 9:50am
- Yvette
  
  “Ardernity – Let’s Still Do This”
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:13am
- oldfella
  
  Ardernity: the period of nonsensical waffling before an announcement.
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:33am
- Lexicon
  
  Ardernity: the way time seems to drag until the next election.
  
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  March 24, 2022 3:44pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Graham Adams on the co-governance changes ahead for our Research institutions and universities.

https://tinyurl.com/2p8sw7mt
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March 24, 2022 9:54am
Alan Wilkinson

Message for Wellington:

F.O. out of our lives.

Thanks
Rest of NZ
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March 24, 2022 10:03am
- Harriet
  
  Message for Wellington:
  
  Stay where you are.
  
  Thanks
  Rest of Earth.
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:25pm
Warren

It looks like criminals are allowed more leeway in committing crimes in New Zealand by Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister and Police Commissioner Coster than hard working New Zealander’s that have been penalized by this out of their depth Government.
No chases Police rule embolden young thieves. More than 500 vehicles have been stolen in the Waikato since February 1st, but a updated pursuits policy means Police can’t chase them down.
Young criminals are leaving Police in their dust thanks to a updated Police pursuits policy that forbids officers from chasing them.
Since February 1st for example Waikato Police have arrested more than 50 people aged between 12 to 18 years and more than 500 vehicles have been stolen.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/300542137/no-chases-police-rule-emboldens-young-thieves
Stuff understands Police Officers are frustrated by their inability to pursue offenders who go onto commit multiple offences without being caught.
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March 24, 2022 10:08am
Surely Knott

Why did we follow an elimination strategy? B3ecause we have the worst provision of icu beds in the oecd except for Mexico. Now we’ve spent $60 billion and we haven’t added any additional hospitals facilities and we have people with the virus being cared for in tents.
From the skegg report, “The New Zealand health system is still poorly resourced to deal with any large outbreak of a disease such as COVID-19. As we entered the pandemic, the provision of intensive care beds (per capita) in New Zealand was less than onethird of the average among 22 OECD countries. New Zealand was in 21st place,
followed only by Mexico.”
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March 24, 2022 10:09am
sgthree

According to the governments covid-19 website, when we get to the Green traffic light setting, there will be no restrictions and no requirement to scan in or for a business to display a QR code poster or have mandatory record keeping.
Which begs the question, why do we need to have a traffic light setting?
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March 24, 2022 10:17am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Why? Because NZs are treated like children and the traffic lights are childish
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:01am
Ehlana

As evidence of the fear that has been stoked: https://twitter.com/MicheleACourt/status/1506722453275705346

“Without scanning and vaccine passes, I am even less likely to go out and spend money.”

How much danger do these folks actually believe they are in?
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March 24, 2022 10:18am
- mandk
  
  That’s excellent news, Ehlana.
  
  It means I can be sure of not accidently meeting the mad woman.
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:19am
- Show me the evidence
  
  They don’t realise their kids have been rubbing shoulders with unvaxxed kids (mine) and they have been shopping besides the unvaxxed (me) all this time and we haven’t had it!!! So many of the unvaxxed people round us have though, my workmates are dropping like flies. I don’t understand what part of “the vax doesn’t stop you catching or transmitting it” they haven’t yet understood. To be fair, Jacinda has never actually spelt it out for people, which is why this really is being perpetuated from the top. They know the mandates don’t appreciably prevent/slow down infection rates, they were only ever there to encourage people to get vaccinated “for their own good”, and to stop the hospitals being overwhelmed, but that’s not an argument anymore with such high vax rates. They will bring passes back when the next “new variant”comes, although thankfully they didn’t use that excuse with BA.2 like they are in Australia. According to govt stats (see https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/450874/covid-19-data-visualisations-nz-in-numbers) BA.2 is already the dominant variant. In Australia they’re using BA/2 as an excuse as to why they’re having anther wave of cases, and hence why they need a fourth shot. It’s nonsense though, because if the vax couldn’t stop BA.1 it’s not going to be anymore effective on BA.2. It’s such a minor mutation from one to the other that if you’ve had one you’re unlikely the get the other.
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:04pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Great news. I’m sick of dealing with paranoid Ardern supporters. So infantile.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:27pm
Shanon

“Vaccine passes were a useful tool… to drive up vaccination rates… Ardern said.”*

Do people not realise this is **coercion** or do they just willingly accept it?

**The practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or THREATS**

*https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/covid-19-easing-restrictions-won-t-make-material-difference-to-health-system-pressure-pm-jacinda-ardern.html
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March 24, 2022 10:21am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Tell it like it is:
  BLACKMAIL!
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:03am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    not only will there be no forced vaccinations, but those who choose to opt-out won’t face any penalties at all.
    Blatant LIES.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-confident-enough-kiwis-will-get-covid-19-vaccine-for-herd-immunity-without-being-forced-to.html
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:06am
  - Shanon
    
    You’re right!
    
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    March 24, 2022 3:11pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Mandating or coercing a medical procedure is contrary to the principles outlined in the 1947 Nuremberg Code, and contrary to Article 6 (Section 1) and to Article 6(Section 3) of the UN Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights of which New Zealand is a signatory.
  
  Ardern is one of a bunch of state leaders who are all guilty of gross malfeasance. Bring on Nuremberg 2.0
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:19am
Maggie Pie

AUCKLAND TRENDING….

Shootings in Glen Innes last night. 6 seriously wounded.

We still have the ‘unexplained death’ of the beautiful Pauline Polkinghorne haunting us in Remuera as well 🙁
And see where her hubby appeared in court yesterday…. plead not-guilty to a charge of ‘careless driving’.
The house hasn’t been sold yet either.

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1506464416677732356
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March 24, 2022 10:24am
krazykiwi

The Covid-cautious are hungriest for war

Risk calculus is a funny thing. According to a new poll, the Canadians most cautious about the risk of catching Covid-19 are also the most likely to support open war between Russia and the United States.

It wasn’t a big sample, but the results were stark. Ekos Politics polled a random sample of around 1000 Canadians, and stratified the results by vaccination status. This revealed that whereas 56% of unvaccinated Canadians oppose the idea of NATO imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine, an even greater number of the triple-vaccinated — 59% — support doing so.

As curious as this is, polls like this don’t factor confounders such as age. It could well be that older people who are more likely to be vaccinated are more supportive of a hard line (aka war), while younger, less vaccinated people are not.
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March 24, 2022 11:13am
- Show me the evidence
  
  It has nothing to do (directly) with age. It is all about how much your opinions about everything are being manipulated by MSM. I realised this with the people around me on different political sides of the spectrum (and they are in different countries even). These people I know, with vastly different political views, in different countries, have one thing in common – they get all their information from MSM, and they therefore all have an unquestioning belief in the safety and efficacy of the vaccines. I realised a few weeks ago they (family and others) also all had exactly the same beliefs about the war, and what a great guy the Ukranian President is etc. I hadn’t paid any attention to the details/politics of the war (other than to be horrified that it was happening (obviously). But I realised some manipulation of the message was happening when these different parroted the exact same ideas to me (kinda like Fauci and Bloomfield saying the exact same phrases regrading mask wearing). I don’t know what the people at the top are trying to achieve but it looks like there’s some sort of effort being exerted to get the Five Eyes nations to get involved. Maybe it’s about money as war is profitable for certain companies. Regardless of the motives, I believe there’s some sort of media manipulation happening (as has happened with covid).
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:45am
- Lee C
  
  KK – They are simply the most credulous and easily gulled by the MSM.
  
  They would amputate fingers if called upon – ‘for the greater good’…
  
  One minute ‘covid’ nek minute ‘Putin’…
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:30pm
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  It’s no surprise at all that those who were sucked-in by the Covid hysteria campaign are also those sucked-in by the Ukraine hysteria campaign. They are the idiots among us, the kind of people who can be talked into doing and believing anything, who wear their badge of idiocy on their sleeves thinking is in fact a badge of moral superiority. They have no opinions of their own, they are just empty vessels who will accept without question anything poured into them, solely on the basis that it is an “authority” doing the pouring.
  
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  March 24, 2022 1:11pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    These “crises” allow nondescript, beige people who’s lives are generally devoid of meaning, something they can virtue signal with.
    That sounds harsh, it isn’t meant to be, it’s an observation. I lived in basically a warzone for years. There is no binary “good and bad”.
    
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    March 24, 2022 2:44pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  The sheep. People who let others do the essential job of thinking for them. Don’t be a sheep, sheep are farmed and eaten.
  
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  March 24, 2022 1:27pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  I think a lot of the reason for the poll result is that those who have seen through this covid con job are more untrusting of the “official” narrative and tend to research extensively for ourselves. Anyone prepared to spend a little time investigating the Ukraine situation will quickly find out it isn’t as binary as “Russia bad, Ukraine good”.
  I don’t like any wars. I find the idea that some of the greatest achievements of humanity has been coming up with “better” ways of killing each other. Imagine if that effort, time and money was put into improving our lives………
  The Russian actions were entirely predictable thanks to US driven actions, particularly by their proxies in NATO.
  Excellent analysis here:
  
  https://in-this-together.com/ukraine-war-part-1/
  
  That’s part 1, there are 4 in total.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:38pm
Maggie Pie

Ukraine update just thru from Tatiana….

‘Putin beheads bio-weapon engineers’ 🙁

https://twitter.com/RealRawNews1/status/1506664156778356737
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March 24, 2022 11:20am
- krazykiwi
  
  Nope. RealRawNews: “This website contains humor, parody, and satire”
  
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  March 24, 2022 11:40am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    I’ll bet you were a little pimp at school.
    
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    March 24, 2022 11:54am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Lols. Guilty as charged. But I was also a champion sprinter. Essential skill.
      
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      March 24, 2022 11:56am
- ClanMcleod
  
  No he doesn’t.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:46pm
Libertarians are right

So the main argument in the confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson seems to be her leniency with regards to peddlers of child porn. She’s arguing that they shouldn’t have their lives ruined for actions that took them 15 minutes.

The Democrats are of course arguing that Jackson’s leniency on scumbags is better than Kavanaugh’s rape history. Obviously, they’re ignoring that unlike with the accusations against Kavanaugh, Jackson’s judicial history is proven AND highly relevant considering she’s after a spot on the top court.

Her main positive seems to be that she’s been a defense Council but the Supreme Court deals with Constitutional Law. It’s hard to see, outside of advocacy, which is irrelevant, what relevance being a defense council has on constitutional law.
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March 24, 2022 11:29am
- mikenmildagain
  
  How did Lindsey Graham get so worked up on this non-issue that he seems to imagine should be a barrier to confirmation, less than one year after he voted to confirm Jackson as an appeal court judge?
  
  Fun fact: the senate did not find it necessary to hold confirmation hearings for supreme court nominees until the early twentieth century, when a president had the temerity to nominate a Jew.
  
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  March 24, 2022 1:13pm
  - Batman
    
    What’s more, Lindsey Graham’s question about her faith breaches article 4 of the Constitution, which bars the imposition of any kind of religious test or question.
    
    Not that it was ever really enforced….
    
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    March 24, 2022 2:09pm
    - Mike
      
      Not so sure about that. Isn’t religious ‘test’ referring to imposing some kind of legal restriction on the basis of faith?
      But still very odd, when Graham and his ilk appear to believe that ‘religious freedom’ is a right that trumps all other constitutional rights.
      
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      March 24, 2022 2:24pm
- virtualmark
  
  The questioning on that, from the likes of Ted Cruz and Lindsey Graham, was just performative art staged so they could get a 10 second soundbite on Fox News. Note that if the executives of any company behaved like that in a job interview it’d be a serious HR matter.
  
  I watched quite a bit of the Ketanji Brown Jackson confirmation hearing, just like I watched the Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barratt ones. KBJ comes across has a superb jurist. Certainly *far* more qualified than ACB (who’d barely been a judge before being rocketed to the Supremes). And KBJ certainly has more maturity, thoughtfulness and self-control than Kavanaugh.
  
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  March 24, 2022 4:46pm
  - Batman
    
    Graham, Cruz, Hawley and one other all got their Fox interviews tonight so they could appear before their dear leader and ask for donations.
    
    Mission accomplished for another week in the GOP outrage machine.
    
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    March 24, 2022 4:58pm
Ruawai

https://twitter.com/MarjaLubeck/status/1506430113508110336?s=20&t=ghpPILC3Gps446xQBVwmTg
Link to Marja Lubeck Labour post covid peak plan.

Not really sure you can call something a plan when you write it as you are doing it??
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March 24, 2022 11:44am
krazykiwi

Gotta love The Babylon Bee: US Horses Terrified Obese Americans Will Need Them For Transport Again 🙂
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March 24, 2022 11:54am
- Ehlana
  
  Note to young foals – they have to catch you before they can ride you!
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:19pm
Shanon

DATA: “Aotearoa’s Covid-19 death toll in perspective”

Some thoughts on the graph in this stuff article which stick in there with no commentary; just as a nice nice of visual narrative; “Look at how well we have done”.

Yep – This is more of a narrative peice then it is “science” and anything substantially helpful.

Two major flaws.

1. It’s not comparing apples with apples. People die every day. The US & UK have had Covid circulating in the community for over two years; that a long time to cumulatively collect ‘deaths WITH Covid’. In NZ, it’s been a few weeks!

2. It’s looking through a straw. It lacks perspective. What matters is excess deaths. Prior to Covid, on average, 90 people a day die in NZ, with a 3rd being from cardiovascular diseases.
– Since Covid has come along what’s the change?
– What has the change been in the US and UK been?
– Have there been excess death due to Covid; or have we just seen one cardiovascular disease change for another?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300547908/covid19-nz-government-removes-vaccine-pass-most-vaccine-mandates-and-outdoor-gathering-limit
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March 24, 2022 12:05pm
- Prince
  
  Note that the data is based on March 3rd figures, as opposed to other data in the article which is more up to date.
  So 10 deaths per million = around 50 deaths. But yesterday we were at 170.
  Perhaps Stuff needs to start fact-checking themselves.
  
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  March 24, 2022 12:52pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  If covid leaves you sick for a week, and 90% of the population get it (threshold for herd immunity with Omicron BA2) then about 600 people will die with Omicron this year even if Omicron itself is the cause of zero deaths. We are at about 200 at the moment, with a substantial proportion of the population having already had it, so it appears that it is actually causing near to zero deaths.
  
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  March 24, 2022 6:45pm
Prince

Breathless Stuff Headline…’Ardern visits Eden Park’.
So what !
Will any intrepid reporter dare to ask her about last night’s shooting, and the escalation of gun violence since she ‘banned firearms’ ?
What about the increasing influence of gangs on our streets. Does she regret her granting of $1.5M to the Mongrel Mob ?
What is she doing about all this – apart from passing the buck to her pet Police Commissioner.
And what are her plans to rein in Government spending, which has blown out over four years to create a $140B Govt debt, growing by $83M per day. When will she consider this a problem. What is the Govt’s plan to address this. More tax ? Less spending ?
No word soup please. Some actual policies would be appreciated.
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March 24, 2022 12:14pm
- Jimmy Brown
  
  $2.75 million was given to the feral M Mob.
  
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  March 24, 2022 1:29pm
- alex Masterley
  
  I couldnt believe that she was actually visiting (a) Auckland and (b) a place in her electorate.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:50pm
krazykiwi

Meanwhile, in the UK

Real household income will fall by 2.2 per cent this year, according to the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which called the drop “the biggest fall in living standards in any single financial year since records began in 1956-57”
:::
Inflation will hit 7.4 per cent this year but could get closer to nine per cent in the final months of the year, the OBR said – a level not seen in 40 years.
:::
It means the overall [tax] burden is forecast to hit 36.3 per cent of GDP under Mr Sunak and Boris Johnson – its highest level since the late 1940s.

Ardern followed her UK friend’s advice. I expect our bitter pill will be similar.
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March 24, 2022 12:26pm
- gump
  
  The Conservative Party has ruled the UK for the last 12 years.
  
  This is a good reminder that Conservative Governments don’t actually deliver better economic outcomes. Just as Labour Governments don’t actually deliver better economic outcomes.
  
  What matters in an increasingly global world is trade access to global markets. And by implementing Brexit the UK has wrecked their economy by cutting off access to their key trading partners in the EU. There could be no other result from such a stupid decision.
  
  Swallowing bitter pills is exactly the right description for what is happening in the UK.
  
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  March 24, 2022 6:31pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    What on earth are you talking about? UK/EU trade is as brisk as ever, and the threatened flight of financial markets from the City never eventuated.
    
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    March 24, 2022 7:54pm
    - gump
      
      I’m talking about verifiable facts. The trade statistics speak for themselves.
      
      https://obr.uk/box/the-initial-impact-of-brexit-on-uk-trade-with-the-eu/
      
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      March 24, 2022 10:55pm
oldfella

Breitbart on Cindy’s latest Covid moves. The reader comments are brutal.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/03/23/new-zealand-drops-strict-coronavirus-lockdown-measures/
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March 24, 2022 12:27pm
Jack5

But it feelz good …

Fonterra is ending dairy exports to Russia, which were worth about $170 million last year. (Whether it would commit financial hari-kari if China invaded Taiwan is an interesting question.)

Meanwhile …

Nestle, the world’s biggest food company, is staying on in Russia, just reducing activities. It says it has a responsibility towards its 7000 employees there. At first it said it would do its utmost to ensure a reliable supply of safe and essential food products for the local people.

Since then, Nestle announced it has stopped stopped exporting and importing non-essential food items, like coffee (eg Nespresso) and water (eg Pellegrino), but other Nestle products (baby food, confectionery, breakfast cereals, etc.) will remain in Russian stores.

Several French firms are staying put in Russia. These include car manufacturer Renault, Total Energies (oil and gas buyer), and bank Societe Generale, whose local local lender is processing transactions for Russian clients.

French food manufacturer Auchan says it also is staying on in Russia. Auchan, after former sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Crimea, moved cows of a French breed to Russia and began making cheese in the country.

Leroy Martin, a French-owned chain of more than 100 supermarkets in Russia selling building products and furniture, will trade on as normal, and even expand.

American tobacco giant Philip Morris Interational, which does more than $NZ50 billion worth of business a year in Russia, says merely it is scaling down Russian production and suspending new investment.

Burger King franchises continue to trade in Russia, but is halting “corporate support” for them.

The Italian tyre maker Pirelli says it will limit production in Russia to provide enough income to cover wages of staff “and services”.
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March 24, 2022 12:34pm
- MCōs
  
  China may or may not invade Taiwan and leave NZ on the horns of no-win dilemma.
  If the Nats are in charge there’s no way we’d ruin their friends in the dairy industry by withdrawing trade from from that country if markets for the resultant surplus production hadn’t already been teed up.
  Note that for all the huffing & puffing by Australia over the serious maltreatment of Uighur they confined normal trade, except where China pissed them around for awhile with some minor obstructions.
  
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  March 24, 2022 3:44pm
  - MCōs
    
    Errata
    *confined* should read *continued*
    
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    March 24, 2022 5:11pm
  - Mike
    
    The Australians don’t particularly care about the plight of the Uighurs. What they do care about is agents of the Chinese dictatorship infiltrating and undermining their state institutions.
    
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    March 24, 2022 5:12pm
curry4me

https://www.bitchute.com/video/g-LnYwyiv1k/

Biden Has Officially Become Unelectable!!!

We’ve got more polls coming out showing that Biden has officially become unelectable! In this video we’re going to look at those polls, we’re going to see how a major voter constituency of the Democrats is abandoning Biden, and stick with me to the very end of this video to find out why it doesn’t look like Democrats are going to find any way out of this! [9:03]
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March 24, 2022 12:37pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S5MdGgjA4A

Russia, China, and India are Crushing Liberal Globalism!

Russia, China, and India are Dismantling and Crushing Liberal Globalism! We are watching the single most momentous political world event since the fall of the Soviet Union! We’re going to look at precisely what’s happening, how Russia, China, and India are joining forces to crush the liberal globalist order, and how, in the most amazing irony of ironies, it was Bumblin’ Biden’s sanctions that ultimately did it.
[11:46. There are alternatives to SWIFT, and Mastercard/Visa. That’s 40% of the worlds population.]
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March 24, 2022 12:38pm
- virtualmark
  
  Whatever keeps you warm in those cold nights in St Petersburg mate. You’re welcome to go live in any of Russia, China or India. Personally there’s no way I’d trade life in NZ for life in any of those three.
  
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  March 24, 2022 4:50pm
  - Mike
    
    But I keep reading on Kiwiblog that NZ is a hellhole of totalitarian liberalism.//
    
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    March 24, 2022 5:08pm
- Ehlana
  
  India?
  
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  March 24, 2022 4:54pm
Maggie Pie

A BORN LOSER?

I can honestly say I don’t know ‘Clint Smith’ from Granny Smith.

But whoever he is, he keeps hijacking a lot of right wing twitter-threads with his own twisted leftard views of National and in particular Chris Luxon.

Must admit I had to larf the other day when I saw him described as…. “someone who STILL rents a tiny flat in Wellington and is known to like watching himself goose-stepping nude in front of a full-length mirror” LOL!!

https://twitter.com/ClintVSmith/status/1506709109361770497

I think I’ll just block him.
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March 24, 2022 1:05pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Mirror, Jask the peg?
  
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  March 24, 2022 4:22pm
- Harriet
  
  Redbaiter from memory always referred to someone here from the left as ‘Clint’ in the comments.
  
  And that line is defiantly something Redbaiter would say.
  
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  March 24, 2022 6:06pm
  - RichardX
    
    Who would RB be defying when he says such a thing?
    
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    March 24, 2022 10:39pm
Squeek

I’ve had Covid. So why do I need to wear a mask now?
Does me wearing a mask protect others? Well the MoH has decreed that 7 days isolation is sufficient before re-entering society, so presumably I’m not going to infect people.
Wearing a mask clearly is not for my own protection as I’m presumably unlikely to pick up another bout of Covid, at least in the near future. Why therefore do I need to wear a mask? Just asking.
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March 24, 2022 1:09pm
Fisiani2

https://www.her.ie/life/relationship-troubles-heres-always-mans-fault-no-really-332284

Men make or break relationships. The Man’s Guide to Women is an essential read for men.
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March 24, 2022 1:10pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  So what they’re saying is that women are irrational and abusive? What a load of trash.
  
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  March 24, 2022 2:27pm
Suze Wainwright

Anecdotal I know, but was conversing with a couple of (former?) Ardernistas this morning re her proposed COVID changes.

They’re absolutely disgusted with the changes and believe that Jacinda is no longer saving them. I imagine they’ll be leaking to green (as there’s no way these people would ever vote National/ACT).
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March 24, 2022 2:42pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Why did they ever think Ardern was interested in saving folks?
  
  She’s only ever been interested in herself.
  
  It was obvious ages back that when the going gets tough, we are all on our own.
  
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  March 24, 2022 3:13pm
- bjools
  
  leaking to green
  ie from the incompetent to the stupid
  
  7 1
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  March 24, 2022 6:35pm
Tom Hunter

God, I will be so glad to be able to return my two decade policy of ignoring the MSM as this Chinese Lung Rot shit grinds to an end. Here’s fucking Newshub (TV3) today…

But the move has caused concern for some vulnerable communities, including 5 to 11 year olds who have only been eligible for vaccination in mid-January.

As I said earlier today on the matter of masks, there is just no excuse for this sort of ignorant bullshit. Kids aged 5-11 are just about the most immune demographic to any variant of Covid, let alone the mild Omicron one, as the survival rate stats from the CDC published at the end of 2020 (and thus dealing with unvaccinated population) showed:

0-19 years: 99.99997
20-49 years: 99.9998
50-69 years: 99.995
70+ years: 99.946

Or their updates in 2021 that broke out the numbers for kids with medical issues.

We even had one tiny sliver of such facts here in NZ in Stuff.co:

Then for other children in the 5-11-year-old age group, you really have to put a high premium on ensuring safety. Because we know that once you’ve excluded that probably 2 or 3 per cent of children with severe other problems, then the rest of the children, the chance of them getting even more than a cold or something they may not even notice, is really very small.”
– Peter McIntyre. Otago University professor of women’s and children’s health,

But that was buried by more dramatic BS articles.
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March 24, 2022 2:43pm
- Ehlana
  
  So we have a new virus. Some people won’t even notice they’ve caught it, others will be somewhere between mildly and critically or fatally ill.
  
  People who are already very old or who have other serious health conditions are more likely to have a bad response. That’s probably already true of their responses to other viral illnesses. The real question is surely, what is their increased risk of serious illness or death as a result of the new virus? If such a person previously had a 4% chance of dying from complications due to viral illness, what is it now? 5%? 15%? 50%?
  
  If there is a very small chance that primary age children will get “more than a cold”, is there really justification for “a high premium on ensuring safety”?
  
  I’d say we’ve lost the plot, but some people seem never to have had the plot to begin with.
  
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  March 24, 2022 3:41pm
- Mike
  
  Poor Tom, having to read other sources of information than stuff from his carefully created bubble of culture war nonsense.
  
  3 14
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  March 24, 2022 4:07pm
Maggie Pie

‘People-of-Walmart’ series takes sinister new turn…..

https://trib.al/sWd4HAy
6 3
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March 24, 2022 3:14pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

So, Kris Faafoi is pleased to announce …..that Australia has finally accepted New Zealand’s offer to take 150 Manus Island refugees every year from now on.

Mad if they didn’t. Should blend in quite well with the 501s.
22 3
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March 24, 2022 3:28pm
- Jack5
  
  Watch what happens to visa entry to Australia for New Zealanders when the Manus Island border jumpers start showing up in Australia as NZ residents.
  
  What about legitimate refugees from Ukraine?
  
  14 3
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  March 24, 2022 3:39pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Blue-eyed blondes with tight bodies look out of place here these days.
    
    15 2
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    March 24, 2022 4:52pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Watch what happens to visa entry to Australia for New Zealanders
    
    Yep,
    this could be just the excuse the Ozzies need to put the screws on easy entry to Australia for us.
    
    7 1
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    March 24, 2022 7:17pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      My partner recons he can hear Peter Dutton now….
      
      “You only get one Kris Faafoi once in your life, and I’ve had mine”
      
      LOL!!!
      
      8 2
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      March 24, 2022 7:43pm
    - Nickc2
      
      These people we have agreed to relieve Aust of are NOT refugees! These people are ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS who attempted to enter Aust using People Smugglers as part of their attempted entry.
      IMO, when John Key made an offer to take some of them, he knew full well Aust wouldn’t have any part of it.
      
      3 2
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      March 24, 2022 8:09pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING…

‘Greta urges Ukrainians not to throw Petrol-Bombs.
Suggests either electric/hybrids or lettuces.’
23 1
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March 24, 2022 4:35pm
MCōs

I’m picking the Queen is fading fast, but nobody wants to talk about it.
At the same time Prince William has had a frosty reception in Jamaica and pretty much as some as he’s buggered off they intend to become a republic following on from Barbados last November.
No coincidence this all occurs following on from the way the biracial Meghan Markle has been treated by the racist UK media which has given people from their neck of the woods a hard time for years.
Soon it’ll just be PNG, Canada, Oz and NZ left with the Queen/King(maybe) as Head of State.
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March 24, 2022 4:44pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Markle is disliked because she has broken a lot of the rules (like being overtly political and being very “look at me”). Your claim of racism is just a dishonest attempt at yelling down their legitimate concerns (and potentially just a racist attack against the UK media).
  
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  March 24, 2022 5:00pm
- Mike
  
  Time to choose our head of state some other way than accident of birth.
  
  2 4
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  March 24, 2022 5:01pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Your left a few monarch heads-of-state out. Here’s the full list: Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Belgium, Belize, Bhutan, Cambodia, Canada, Denmark, Eswatini, Grenada, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Lesotho, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Monaco, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saudi Arabia, Solomon Islands, Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Tonga, Tuvalu, United Kingdom.
  
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  March 24, 2022 5:12pm
  - Mike
    
    He was obviously talking about the relics of the British empire.
    
    2 3
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    March 24, 2022 5:38pm
  - MCōs
    
    I’m referring to the same monarch we have as Head of State.
    Currently QEII.
    Hence the definite article *the* prefixing Queen/King.
    
    4 0
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    March 24, 2022 6:15pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  The PRC is chucking money at them and when they have the next Hurricane who will be first there?? The RN and RFA
  
  2 1
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  March 24, 2022 5:14pm
- virtualmark
  
  I’ll wager that both Australia and New Zealand will be republics within 3 years of the Queen passing.
  
  Huge respect for Queen Elizabeth II, who’s lived the role with honour. But it’s time we had our own Kiwi head of state.
  
  Slightly off-topic … I’d favour a President who has the same basic powers as the current Governor-General and who’s appointed by popular vote from a short-list where each political party with more than 5% of the total seats in the House gets to nominate one person to that short-list. That way the Parliamentary pollies would need to put people forward who had broad appeal, not just tired hacks like Phil Goff or Annette King.
  
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  March 24, 2022 5:16pm
  - Nickc2
    
    I wouldn’t let politicians have anything to do with the election of a President for NZ,
    
    0 0
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    March 25, 2022 7:37am
    - virtualmark
      
      Nick, reality is that politicians have a lot to do with elections.
      
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      March 25, 2022 10:48am
- Harriet
  
  China was somewhat behind that — I’ve read somewhere that they realize English speaking countries , more so commonwealth ones, are strong together, so they are trying to separate us.
  
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  March 24, 2022 6:03pm
- bjools
  
  ” biracial Meghan Markle has been treated by the racist UK media”
  I think you will find she has been treated like she has, because she is a self aggrandizing asshole.
  
  11 3
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  March 24, 2022 6:15pm
- Jack5
  
  Prince William faced demonstrators in Belize, too.
  
  That tiny central American enclave has been independent from Britain for more than 40 years, but remains a constitutional monarchy.
  
  The population make-up has been changing as Belizeans migrate to the United States and Canada, and mestizos from neighbouring Guatemala migrate to Belize.
  
  Guatemala has long had ambition to absorb Belize, and this will likely happen when the constititional links with Britain and the Commonwealth weaken sufficiently.
  
  Belizeans will then endure a brutal and ugly colonialism.
  
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  March 24, 2022 8:04pm
Warren

Police watchdog confirms investigation into policing of Parliament protest, may not provide report intil March 2023.
Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister gets her wish that the Police will investigate their own but by the time they report gets to Parliament many will forget the part our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and the Speaker of the House Trevor Mallard played.
This will hopefully show just how compromised the Police and Commissioner Coster were over having to meet the daily demands from a out of her depth Prime Minister
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March 24, 2022 5:16pm
- Prince
  
  The terms of the review specifically rule out considering the Speaker’s actions.
  
  8 1
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  March 24, 2022 6:32pm
  - Warren
    
    And Jacinda gets her way again and the public won’t see the whitewash to protect herself and the Speaker from their blatant lies and action over the protest.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/parliament-protest-speaker-trevor-mallard-s-actions-won-t-be-covered-in-ipca-review.htm
    
    4 1
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    March 24, 2022 7:55pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Tui’s Bilboard.
      The most open & …..etc…..etc…..
      Yea, Right!
      
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      March 25, 2022 7:40am
Maggie Pie

-1
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March 24, 2022 7:11pm
Tauhei Notts

Following tonight’s news Act has picked on co-governance. Think about it.
In our next parliament Luxon may be the head of the second party in the governing coalition.
8 1
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March 24, 2022 8:45pm

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