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March 30, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 30 March 2022

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General Debate

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Tricati

When will National grow a pair and stand up to this Co-governance nonsense that’s getting real traction? I’m tired of hearing Ardern say they are only completing what National signed up for – That is nonsense, as National did not sign the UN Rights of Indigenous People to implement a separatist agenda in NZ. They signed it to show that we ‘already’ have the mechanisms in place to protect the Rights of Indigenous People; as clearly expressed in Dr Pita Sharples speech to the UN at the time.
National need to promote reading of Dr Sharples speech, including its intent and call out Ardern’s ‘mis-information’ on this as Labour are getting a free ride at National’s expense at present. National have a record second to none on settling Māori grievances, so need to get out a loudly remind all of their results, and show the current state of Māori living standards under Labour.
Luxon’s apparent ambivalence on taking this co-governance issue head on is disturbing, and until he starts hitting back hard, I can’t see National taking the treasury benches anytime soon.
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March 30, 2022 8:02am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Yes I read his word soup response. Very disturbing. If he just said “No it is wrong. We are going to stop it” National would get a huge boost.
  
  He is even using Jacinda speak. Demanding a “conversation”. Sickening. There is no point in having a change of government if it is just a more efficient version of the current government.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:12am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Welcome to the pattern of New Zealand government since 1935. The labour party role has been to introduce changes, for good or ill. The national party role has been to oppose those changes, but never return to the status ante quo.
    This is an almost immutable template for governing New Zealand, which does not have any tradition of revolutionary change.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:18am
    - Ian Boag
      
      You forgot Muldoon and the pension ….
      
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      March 30, 2022 8:31am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I wrote ‘almost immutable’…
        
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        March 30, 2022 8:40am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Don’t forget, Ian, Labour’s Super scheme only started on 1 April 1975. Therefore, Muldoon was able to knock it on the head in December 1975; it hadn’t got too far along.
        
        Had the scheme started on, say, 1 October 1973, it would probably not have been feasible to stop it dead, 26 months later.
        
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        March 30, 2022 9:53am
      - bjools
        
        Or Holyoake
        Massive economic change
        Pounds to dollars
        
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        March 30, 2022 10:51am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Steve
        
        Yeah – as my children used to say -“I knew that”:-)
        
        This was one where National did overturn a Labour initiative and that’s why I quoted it.
        
        I think it was an awful thing to do. We are dealing with the consequences 50-odd years later as pension costs eat more and more of the budget. There is no way out of it. The initial cohort of 60+ year olds got a free ride into the system. Any attempt to reverse it now would mean there would be a cohort that has to save to explicitly fund their own pensions (later) and continue to fund their parents’ one (now).
        
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        March 30, 2022 3:53pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Thanks, Ian.
        
        Yep, I know you would have known that. I just wanted to make sure others knew that Muldoon was only able to abolish the scheme, because it was so new.
        
        And you’re so right, it was “an awful thing to do”, as you explain. Fourteen-and-a-half years ago, Brian Gaynor was absolutely scathing of the decision. See https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/ibrian-gaynori-how-muldoon-threw-away-nzs-wealth/SCLHC7PSJVDE4QCRJWCO4LDYNE/.
        
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        March 30, 2022 8:10pm
    - cmm
      
      Almost right.
      
      Labour introduces changes, but National makes them work.
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:05am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Thank hod the Nats have ruled out separatist agenda then
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:09am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      “for good or ill” mike. Yep, mostly for ill, as their changes involve spending other peoples money. With NZ’s productivity so low, a decent chunk of that is due to dud Government policy.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:33pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    If he had just said “no it is wrong” to the covid circus that would also have boosted their numbers.
    They seem a very timid lot in National. Concerning.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:44am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He did say it’s wrong and he will rule out any seperate sector such as the Māori health board, as he said, he does not know what Labour has devised in secrecy, let’s see what happens
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:12am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I listened to his interview yesterday, he does not want anything that has a seperate Māori bureaucracy, he said that is a complete rule out now, he said he can’t make a statement about anything else, as there is no case as yet, and he has not ruled out a referendum at all, as he said it is not useful at this stage as we don’t know what it entails, rather clear to me what he said
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:06am
    - mawm
      
      While he sits and waits for the next election so he can release all his wonderful ideas he still has to act like an opposition – which he is not doing. If he had any balls he’d announce one level of citizenship for all and programs to help those who fall on the wrong side of all metrics – irrespective of race. While the country needs a leader with vision to undo the divisions created by Ardern, to take the economy forward, we have a wet rag who is scared to dip his toes in the water. He’s not winning votes by doing what he is, any increase is solely due to other parties bleeding votes because of their failure to read the electorate. David?
      
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      March 30, 2022 1:15pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Actually the point is that a Labour government would continue to make things worse whereas National would at least plateau. Sometimes you do have to make the least bad choice.
    
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    March 30, 2022 1:37pm
- Mr_Blobby
  
  They say bad things happen when good men do nothing.
  
  Where are all the good men.
  
  Have we ever had such a wet woke house of Representatives.
  
  We have never had such an inept incompetent government that I can remember, so where is the opposition to the Tyrant and her minions.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:13am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    When people are too woke/stupid/scared to even define ‘woman’ and ‘man’ is it any wonder good men are reluctant to stick their head above the parapet.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:26am
    - kowtow
      
      Extraordinary isn’t it , this “progressive” agenda has come so far so fast . granted it’s been happening for years but has ramped up to the totally insane in just a matter of a few years .
      
      You’d think soemone , somewhere had planned and executed the collapse of common sense , confidence and competence .
      
      It really is a victory for extremism.
      
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      March 30, 2022 8:45am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The problem is the wet woke voters, the centre will not tolerate knee jerk reactions
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:13am
  - leoj
    
    Seymour is leading the charge while Luxon and the Nats are sticking the finger in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.
    
    Luxon is no leader. Too weak. Too woke. Too wet.
    
    Two ticks ACT. Give the Nats two fingers and a shake up. They need to find a spine from somewhere.
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:45am
- pdm
  
  Tri – time for Pita Sharples to step forward and speak up.
  
  Even if one does not agree with him he will still make more sense than Ardern, Mahuta and `Organ Grinder’ Jackson combined.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:28am
- David Garrett
  
  Tricati: As I have pointed out before, ACT was the only party voting against our adopting the UNDRIP…for the excellent reason that we foresaw exactly what is happening now.
  
  As for what Sharples might have said at the UN, he was playing the long game; he knew exactly where this was going to go.
  
  IIRC – he will correct me – Rodney made strong personal representations to Key on this issue. He was ignored. A rare and unfortunately highly significant misstep by Key.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:30am
  - Inandout
    
    DG, Key inexplicably reversed Clark’s foreshore legislation which gave all NZers free access to our beaches. During his first tenure as PM this man seemed to elevate Maori simply because of their race. And then we got Chris Finlayson with a legal background in the Treaty industry being handed the setttlement money bag.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:54am
  - Matt Long
    
    I may be wrong but it seems consistent with Key’s agenda.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:16am
    - David Garrett
      
      Matt: No, I actually think Key was taken in by the lovable Dr Sharples and that nice Aunty Tariana.
      
      I’m going to be shouted down by the usual suspects, but Maori have always played a long game – utu may take a generation or more to be exacted, but it always will be, eventually. For the same reasons, they are prepared to play a long game in other arenas.
      
      In short, the normally hugely smart John Key was taken in.
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:41am
      - Cassandra
        
        I think you’re right, DG, although Key was always looking at tomorrow rather than the long term. He had no need to include the Maori Party. I discussed this Key and Sharples. Sharples plan was crystal clear; Key should have seen right through him.
        
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        March 30, 2022 10:13am
      - Matt Long
        
        When was New Zealand a signitory to a voluntary UN declaration that didn’t result in government policy change?
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:30pm
  - Chris R
    
    Why can’t any NZ government simply withdraw from UNDRIP? I accept that Ardern’s lot won’t but why not campaign on a full withdrawal in the future?
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:52am
    - Justitia
      
      It’s not a treaty, so there is no withdrawal mechanism. It’s simply a declaration which is non-binding. New Zealand is under NO obligation to implement any of it. Ardern is lying through her teeth. My concern all along had been that activist judges would try to incorporate it into New Zealand law but so far that doesn’t seem to have happened.
      
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      March 30, 2022 3:37pm
- Nickc2
  
  I agree Tricati. Friends are telling me Luxon’s keeping his ammunition on the subject dry until he’s in election mode. My answer to that is he should never be out of election mode.
  That said, there are many arguments that can be made now and progressively leading up to and during an election campaign.
  If National don’t start their campaign against this assault on democracy now, these dirty slimy Labour Politicians can and probably will push this crap through Parliament purely on their supremacy in numbers.
  IMO, Luxon should support Seymour’s push for a referendum now.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:44am
- Yvette
  
  This morning, at 4.45 New Zealand time, 12.45 p.m. New York time, the Minister of Māori Affairs, the Hon Dr Pita Sharples, appeared before the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and announced New Zealand’s support for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples as follows –
  
  Ministerial Statements
  UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples—Government Support
  … The Declaration acknowledges the distinctive and important status of indigenous peoples, their common historical experiences and the universal spirit that underpins its text. The Declaration is an affirmation of accepted international human rights and also expresses new, and non-binding, aspirations.
  In moving to support the Declaration, New Zealand both affirms those rights and reaffirms the legal and constitutional frameworks that underpin New Zealand’s legal system. Those existing frameworks, while they will continue to evolve in accordance with New Zealand’s domestic circumstances, define the bounds of New Zealand’s engagement with the aspirational elements of the Declaration.
  In particular, where the Declaration sets out aspirations for rights to and restitution of traditionally held land and resources, New Zealand has, through its well-established processes for resolving Treaty claims, developed its own distinct approach … – Hansard
  https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/49HansD_20100420_00000071/ministerial-statements-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of
  
  also – https://www.parliament.nz/en/document/49HansQ_20100427_00000010
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:46am
  - Tricati
    
    Thanks Yvette for posting this.
    Now for either Luxon, or a real journalist, to ask Ardern how this implies co-governance.
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:27am
  - Nickc2
    
    Did you CC this to Willie Jackson?
    Obviously Willie Jackson’s skills don’t extend to Hansard Reading.
    Willie Jackson never was IMO one to check the facts before embarking on a fame-seeking endeavour.
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:28am
  - birdhaven
    
    The Maori are not Indigenous they came here by sea.
    
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    March 30, 2022 5:20pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “Ardern’s mis-information”. Another of her lies by omission. Cunning as a shithouse rat.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:50am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He said yesterday that we don’t even know what it means anymore, he said he rules out anything to do with seperate bureaucracy, apart from that he can’t make a statement about what he doesn’t know, typical Labour, muddy the waters
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:02am
- peterwn
  
  Softee softee catchee monkey. Chris would soon lose credibility and votes if he went at everything people ask for like a bull at a gate. He cannot be all things to all people.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:22am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Agree wholeheartedly Peter. Remember all those people who accused, at various times, Simon Bridges and Judith Collins of barking at every parked car?
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:13am
  - JeffW
    
    Yes, but if he is to choose one issue, this is it.
    
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    March 30, 2022 1:01pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Listen to his words that he said yesterday, not the media writing, but the recorded interview and answering of questions, he has clearly stated that he needs to know what the hell the policy is before he decides, he also ruled out anything that gives separate governance to any sector of bureaucracy, for example, the maori only health board, he said that will be a no go, and the maori health board will be booted, why do people tie them selves up to trying to eat them selves with in, he stated the Maori governance at this stage is already here, meaning giving maori the right to negotiate over something , like what happened with the Waikato river, like selling excess land, meaning Maori get first right to buy, that governance is already in place, so he is right to say he cant comment on something that is not yet an actual thing
      
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      March 30, 2022 3:51pm
- Si334
  
  do you have a link to Pita Sharples speech?
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:23am
  - Yvette
    
    https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/49HansD_20100420_00000071/ministerial-statements-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of
    
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    March 30, 2022 2:44pm
- Philview
  
  Jacinda talks about releasing Labour’s position in the next few months while. The way things are going all the legislation will be passed before any public consultation happens.
  
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  March 30, 2022 11:25am
- wairarapapaul
  
  For political reasons it may be better to let Labour implode before providing a solution.
  
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  March 31, 2022 7:43am
mikenmildagain

It’s the feast day for Saint Quirinus of Neuss. He must be a particularly busy demi-god, as his magic may be invoked against bubonic plague, smallpox, gout, other problems with legs, feet or ears, paralysis, ulcers, goitre, skin conditions, and also diseases affecting cattle and horses.
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March 30, 2022 8:03am
- Simon
  
  Apparently he was quiet ethnical and would have owned up to causing massive numbers of jaxx injuries.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:13am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Is a ‘quiet ethnical’ a brown person who knows his place?
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:19am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      “Ethnic” is not an exclusively colour issue Milkey. It refers to any shared cultural heritage, ancestry or origin. Keep up.
      
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      March 30, 2022 8:47am
    - Simon
      
      lol – ethical, As a Christian he will have the moral basis to admit to mistakes such as jaxx injuries.
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:44am
    - Cassandra
      
      You can’t resist, mike, can you? St Quirinus might be able to help you.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:15am
- Sean OConnor
  
  Do you have to dial the obnoxiousness up to 11 by implying Catholics think their saints are demigods?
  I’m a Protestant with some pretty big reservations about how Catholicism treats its saints, but there’s no need for such a thing.
  
  Saints are ordinary people who were blessed for extraordinary goodness, kindness, love, self control, etc, and the main point of their stories is to demonstrate God’s goodness, not their own power, and to motivate others to exercise such characteristics.
  
  The way you look is like someone who starts off with a comment snarking at Jews or Asians; nasty and obviously taking cheap shots at soft targets.
  
  PS Quirinus was a willimg martyr, making him braver for his beliefs than you will ever be for yours.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:26am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Quirinus probably didn’t even exist. As for him having special access to a god to amplify the prayers of desperately ill folks – let’s not dress that nonsense up with any veneer of plausibility.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:43am
    - I remember when
      
      It’s called Placebo effect.
      Often used by the medical fraternity today.
      
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      March 30, 2022 2:16pm
    - Sean OConnor
      
      The story of Quirinus – the bit you didn’t mention- is that he was a Roman tribune who was ordered to execute three Christians under Trajan. Impresssed with their character and an unspecified miracle, he refused to execute them, converted, and was himself executed.
      
      There’s nothing at all implausible about that story, even if medieval Germans did add some mummery along the way. Normal historical practice regarding the ancient world is to accept single textual witness.
      
      What, oh superb scholar, is your reason for rejecting a perfectly plausible story such as Quirinus’s? You guys stand on your supposed rationality but you make up bullshit double standards wherever you go.
      
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      March 30, 2022 4:15pm
  - kowtow
    
    He’s a troll and does not deserve the dignity of such a respectful reply.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:48am
  - Sean OConnor
    
    The real, actually pretty laudable story of St Quirinus: Quirinus was a Roman official (a tribune). Under Trajan, he was ordered to execute three prominent Christians. Having met those Christians and witnessed their character and an unspecified miracle, he refused the order, converted, and went to execution himself by public decapitation.
    Sounds like someone worth celebrating having been on your team to me, regardless of a certain amount of medieval German mummery that grew up around the legend (Naturally, the only thing Milky shared).
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:05am
    - Mike
      
      As real as the resurrection.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:59pm
      - Sean OConnor
        
        A lot less textual witness, but sure.
        
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        March 30, 2022 4:16pm
  - Cassandra
    
    mike frequently gets downticked to oblivion so I guess that’s a form of martyrdom.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:16am
- lastmanstanding
  
  Some random questions.
  
  1. China is planning on building air and seas bases on certain South Pacific islands. Are these to cater for its citizens holidays?
  
  2. If at some point in the future China annouces it intends to annex New Zealand and Australia as its South East and South West provinces and will launch a nuke strike against any country that attempts to defend them will the Western Alliance move to defend the two countries or will it do nothing?
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:27am
  - Nickc2
    
    America, Britain and Canada will most likely come to Australia’s assistance. New Zealand, probably not. We’re not a trustworthy Allie and most certainly don’t commit enough money to even protect ourselves. Why should others come to our aid?
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:40am
  - David Garrett
    
    Lastman: Sadly the second of your two propositions is not totally fanciful. And the answer to you hypothetical is, I believe, “No, the western alliance would do nothing if their direct interests weren’t threatened”
    
    Which is the reason I was an anti nuke protestor back in the dim and distant, and would be again if we ever again welcomed nuclear armed vessels here.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:47am
    - Nukuleka
      
      Why should we be concerned about a nuclear power like China extending its influence in the Pacific Islands, closer and closer to our shores? The Solomons- and Samoa, Fiji and Tonga – are independent nations who have every right to make decisions in what they see as their best interests. If they see closer ties to China as being in their best interests, that’s for them to choose. Isn’t it?
      
      At least, hasn’t that been our attitude to Ukraine? They have been happy to have another nuclear power, the USA, involve themselves in their politics. We poo poo and condemn Russia for feeling threatened by USA imperialism yet we feel the same way about Chinese imperialism. Gosh. We wouldn’t want to be hypocritical, would we?
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:12am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Yes, it is hard to understand , isn’t it?
        
        Our Dear PM sent troops up to the Solomon Islands a couple of months ago following a request from PM Sogavare.
        https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/significant-projects-and-issues/operation-solomon-islands-assistance/
        
        Seems PM Sogavare (Waikato Uni graduate) needs more help….
        
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        March 30, 2022 10:49am
      - David Garrett
        
        Nuku: With respect, I think you are confusing sovereign rights – which the Pacific countries you list undoubtedly have – with our concern about the possible consequence of the exercising of those rights.
        
        To use an example in Tonga with which I am very familiar: the Tongans of course have every right to allow the Chinese to establish a naval base in the Port of Refuge in Vava’u but that doesn’t mean that we don’t have a right to be extremely concerned about a large Chinese naval base 1300 miles north of us.
        
        (There currently is no Chinese naval base in Vava’u but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if China offered to cancel Tonga’s debt in return for a 99 year lease of said Port of Refuge, and the Tongan government accepted the offer)
        
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        March 30, 2022 10:49am
      - Rodion Raskolnikov
        
        “the Tongans [Ukrainians] of course have every right to allow the Chinese [US/NATO] to establish a naval base in the Port of Refuge in Vava’u but that doesn’t mean that we [Russia] don’t have a right to be extremely concerned about a large Chinese [US/NATO] naval base 1300 miles north of us.”
        
        100%. I guess we would like to prevent that, if we had the means. But in that case, anyone here who fervently “stands with Ukraine” will have no business commenting in opposition to China’s growing influence in our general area. If China soaks up a few more Pacific nations in our region and makes overtures towards the US vassals of Australia and New Zealand, then the US will be forced to remain silent (unless, of course, it wants to retain its status as the world’s largest hypocrite and holder of a set of awesome double standards).
        
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        March 30, 2022 11:05am
      - stiff cheese
        
        Nukuleka wrote,
        
        “[Solomons, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga] are independent nations who have every right to make decisions in. . . their best interests”.
        
        Do you think that will happen?
        Or will it be closer to: greedy corrupt leaders take the brown envelopes coming their way from China?
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:58pm
      - Sean OConnor
        
        Well, I think NATO bears some of the blame for Ukraine, so let me say with a clear conscience: China must not be allowed a base in the Pacific, and AUKUS / the Quad / the US / ANZUS should go to war to prevent it. Seriously, it need not be large or bloody, but Pacific nations would have to accept that China will not be allowed down here.
        
        NZ should double defense spending immediately; if we go to 3% of GDP now we might just be prepared when things go bad in 5 to 10 years. Ukraine has been prepping since 2010 or so and it may still not be enough.
        
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        March 30, 2022 4:23pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      The peaceniks like you were wrong in the 80s and are still wrong today.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:12am
    - Cassandra
      
      You’re being naïve, DG. Your approach just makes it easier for China to expand. The protest was never about nuclear weapons. You and other “useful idiots” simply allowed the far left to get its way.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:20am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    Why did Japan have a base at Guadalcanal in the S Is??
    
    It could be used to strike the US/Aus supply line.
    
    That is why the PRC wants to be there.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:46am
    - Colville
      
      Dont cruise missiles make it a very different proposition now tho?
      
      Push a button and the naval base is GONE.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:38pm
    - Mike
      
      The PRC wants influence anywhere in the world. It is particularly keen to exert influnce where there are communities of overseas Chinese, who the Beijing dictatorship consider should be loyal to them. Several Pacific countries have substantial Chinese communities.
      Should Chinatown in Honiara be destroyed again, as it was in 2006, it’s not implausible that a substantial PLA force would arrive quite quickly. Like most other colonising powers, they might never leave.
      
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      March 30, 2022 1:36pm
Matt Long

Extract from Eric Metaxix biography of Detrich Bonhoeffer. “The Nazis kept increasing the scope of government with more and more laws and regulations, constricting and choking off the liberties of every German…”
This sounds very like another country in the 21st century.

Get Outlook for Android
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March 30, 2022 8:04am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Upticked for making a pseudo-sophisticated Nazi comparison with a liberal democracy. Most of the nutters just go outright and call the prime minister Hitler or Stalin.
  It’s refreshing to see someone try just a bit harder.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:22am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Ardern is following the same track as Adolf. Check out Germany and the laws in place in 1933. Nobody saying she is aspiring to match his feats, but she is so far following in his legal footsteps with her exclusion of a minority from NZ life.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:50am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Hitler had a great load of apologists, too.
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:12am
  - David George
    
    When does it stop being a liberal democracy though?
    Laws underway or implemented to remove petition rights, mandated speech laws, abandonment of basic democratic principles, institutionalised ethno-separatism, mandating medical intervention suggest an update is needed to the idea we’re still living in a liberal democracy Mik.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:03am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Good question. I would suggest you study the paths away from liberal democracy being taken in countries like Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Brazil or India, and then ask yourself whether NZ is closer to those situations or closer to the liberal democracies of western Europe.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:21am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Which liberal democracies of western Europe? All of them are heading down the path of tyranny. Like NZ, they are advocating “hate” speech laws without a clue what the definition is. They are advocating “online harm” bills without a single idea what they actually mean. Vague, meaningless terms that once enshrined in law can be interpreted any way the sitting government decides. That will be used to further oppress people and shut down dissenting voices.
        We’ve already seen them in operation in Wellington. It wasn’t pretty. It is going to get worse if we do nothing to fight against it.
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:17pm
      - Mike
        
        Oh Clannie, do tell me which are the freest countries in the world. Dear old Redbaiter, sadly missed on Kiwiblog, liked to yamner on about Singapore, but perhaps you have other suggestions.
        
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        March 30, 2022 1:05pm
  - Matt Long
    
    I’m not comparing Ardern’s government with Hitler’s Nazis, most of them wouldn’t even have made WAGs for Hitler and his mates.
    I’m drawing attention to the intrusive state choking off personal freedom in New Zealand which began under the 18 years of the Clark government.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:21am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Um, that’s exactly what you did.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:16am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    I was at a cafe the other day with all the usual Castro and Che paraphernalia and wondered why Castro, Che, Mao, Lenin, Stalin, Marx etc are all regarded as socially appropriate but Hitler isn’t.
    
    I worked it out – Those others were all Communists, they’re slightly different to what Socialists are trying to achieve.
    
    Hitler was a Socialist, very much along the same mould as today’s Socialists. He realised that the Government didn’t need to actually own the means of production, he used and controlled businesses to further his agenda (Socialism is Government ownership or control of the means of production).
    
    They have worked very hard for a long time to treat Hitler as a far right menace because they really don’t want to be compared to him.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:29am
  - Simon
    
    For the left Nazism went from the Nazi party 1932 election win straight into Auschwitz with nothing in between. Thats what they like to think and everyone else has to think this as well. Its a form of history denial.
    
    The Nazis were left wing and share many common traits with the modern left.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:57am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Or Mussolini mike. They were all leftists though.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:15am
- artemisia
  
  Happen to know a bit about the rules and regs in the rental housing sector. Plenty of new ones recently, not simple and some crossing the boundary into ridiculous. One impact of the increasing complexity is driving landlords to engage professional property managers, at about 10% of rent received. Guess who pays.
  
  Yes, tenants for sure. But also taxpayers – 25,887 households on the social housing waiting list.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:43am
  - GJM
    
    Yes, exactly. We use a property manager for our rental house investments. We have been lucky with great tenants, and I look at that 10%. I keep with the management because I know how badly things go wrong with bad tenants and one little slip up in paperwork means no insurance and a tenancy tribunal loss. It is a form of insurance. Yes, when I went and got management, it coincided with a tenancy change and the rent was increased 10% as a result.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:14pm
graham

One week ago, an acquaintance posted on Facebook, “THANKS, JACINDA, FOR KEEPING US SAFE!!”, and went on to post about “Aotearoa’s Covid-19 death toll in perspective.” Basically crowing because our deaths per million were so low compared to other countries.

Today, I’m really tempted to post this.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-nz-surpasses-us-covid-mortality-rate-for-the-first-time/Y6BALC45GL5EFI4Z6725LIL5MY/

New Zealand has marked its darkest day of the pandemic with a record 34 deaths, taking the country’s Covid-19 mortality rate past that of the United States for the first time.

However, as she also wrote “JACINDA IS AMAZING”, I suspect this would be written off as fake news or something. Seriously, this is the first time I have ever seen someone I personally know, however distantly, write something like this. What is it with some people? She’s someone in her early fifties, so not exactly a giggly teenager or twenty-something.
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March 30, 2022 8:04am
- Simon
  
  That has been one of the many problems of covid in NZ. People take a snap shot of what is happening currently and thing that will last for ever.
  
  The virus evolves, zero covid was a cult and jaxx dont work as promoted. Things change.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:19am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  2 years ago CMM and KK saying that NZ would have covid immunity by now which adds another reason to expect the opposite of whatever they predicted. Because of the changing nature of Covid even having had Covid once will not mean one has immunity. There have been successful tests on pills that will restrict deepening infection of Covid as a treatment. 2 years later life rises above conspiracy nutters.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:26am
  - Sean OConnor
    
    They weren’t far off, if you’ve summarised them correctly. NZ’s an international outlier, immunity has more or less ended the pandemic overseas, and even in outlier NZ, we’re probably only months away from it being reduced to a minor nuisance. Sub in 30 months for 2 years and voila.
    
    Said comments were a heck of a lot more accurate than ‘We’ll have 80000 deaths’ Hendy, or even later iteration ‘We’ll have 15000 deaths Hendy’. Whose predictions lead to policy mistakes?
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:32am
    - kowtow
      
      Amazing innit .
      
      KK and CMM were way ahead of the carefully chosen govt “experts” , right from the outset .
      
      How the hell the regime couldn’t get it right when a number of kb contributors did .
      
      But we do know the answer to that .
      
      The regime adopted the totalitarian , dictatorial CCP model .
      
      When we should have used the Swedish open , trusting , democratic one.
      
      And none of this is hindsight . many of us held that view from the outset.
      
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      March 30, 2022 8:53am
      - mawm
        
        We already had an Epidemic Response Plan. They should have stuck to it.
        
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        March 30, 2022 1:32pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    You are wrong about reinfection.
    
    There is no evidence that new variants of COVID cause reinfection.
    
    The latest large scale study in Denmark revealed 187 cases of reinfection out of 2 million infections.
    
    https://www.healthline.com/health-news/can-you-catch-omicron-twice-what-we-know-now
    
    All the evidence I have seen reveals that infection provides very high levels of immunity. Certainly much greater than the vaccines.
    
    I did not understand the rest of your comment.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:38am
  - krazykiwi
    
    You exist because if a billion years of evolutionary development of herd immunity. I’m wondering if it was worth it, given your sub-par intellectual prowess, your constant evidence-free misrepresentation, and willingness to kill fellow humans.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:43am
    - David Garrett
      
      krazy: Comment of the day so far Sir.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:50am
  - cmm
    
    You keep on saying that I said this. Please show me where. I suspect you completely misunderstood something I did say.
    
    Those that have said there would be herd immunity include Faucci and his friends.
    
    There are at least three things that limit herd immunity for CV19:
    * Hiding under our beds for two years has prevent spreading. Without spreading there can be no herd immunity.
    * Dabbling with vaccines has likely altered the natural course of the virus.
    * It has been known from the start that this is a coronavirus. Coronaviruses are extremely prone to mutation which is why the common coronaviruses that cause the common cold continue to cause us hassles even though we’ve been exposed to them often. Herd immunity is problematic with unstable viruses.
    
    What I do recall saying back then is that all viral pandemics in the past have gone away of their own accord after approximately 2 years, as happened with the Spanish Flu which was arguably 300x as bad as CV19. And that has pretty much happened here.
    
    The pandemic is ending and that is not due to vaccines or mask wearing etc. It is down to viruses doing what they always have done in the past (but will not necessarily always do) – mutate into a less virulent but more transmissible form.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:46am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      If a Covid vaccine does not stop, or reduce the chances of contracting Covid; then it is NOT a vaccine. Full stop.
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:04am
      - cmm
        
        It certainly has reduced it pre-Omicron, but not sufficiently to be a cure (eg. like smallpox vaccine is).
        
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        March 30, 2022 9:16am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        That was the point I was making. Polio, Measles, Chickenpox and the rest vaccines will protect most from being infected. Covid vax is just experimental medication – fear porn used to control the sheep.
        
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        March 30, 2022 9:31am
    - Stellaboxer
      
      But will not necessarily do ? I haven’t come across anything that evolves into something less successful and survives. Seems contrary to the principles of evolution. Keeps bedwetters like Baker in the limelight of course. I’m no expert though .
      
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      March 30, 2022 9:37am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Covid has killed an estimated 18million, Spanish flu about 50million, but in a population perhaps 1/4 of current, so Spanish flu probably killed about 10x as many per head of population. 300x is ridiculous.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:00am
      - cmm
        
        Nope you have that wrong for a few reasons:
        
        CV19 deaths are not counted the same as Spanish Flu deaths were. There was no PCR test back then. All deaths counted as Spanish Flu deaths were really people that had significant symptoms and really died FROM Spanish Flu.
        CV19 deaths are counted WITH, or within 28 days of a CV19 positive test (or suspected). THus we have the ridiculous situation of asymptomatic people being counted as CV19 deaths.
        
        So, to put them on an even footing, (ie. counting the Spanish Flu way), there have been less than 2 million CV19 deaths.
        
        Secondly, the population needs to be taken into account. The world population in 1918 was about 1.8 billion. Now it is 7.8 billion. 4.33 times as many. Adjusting current numbers back to 1918 as a baseline requires dividing by 4.33. That 2 million deaths CV19 scales down to 460,000.
        
        So how are we doing? Well so far we have 50 million for Spanish Flu vs 460,000 for CV19 (adjusted). Already a factor of 108x.
        
        Then consider that the cost of a Spanish Flu death was greater. Most of the people dying from Spanish Flu were around 30 and were losing 30 years of life expectancy. With CV19, the deaths are mostly people in their 80s with less than 2 years of life lost. That’s another x15 factor.
        
        So based on those numbers, the impact of Spanish Flu deaths is arguably around x1500 times – 5 times what I said.
        
        Now notice I did say “arguably”. You could argue that there really have been 18M CV19 deaths (ie. someone gets shot 27 days after testing positive is really a CV19 death). You might argue that the the death of an 80-something year old in terminal care about to die of cancer should count the same as a death of a healthy 30 year old.
        
        Even if you did that, you still need to adjust for population, so the 18M becomes 4.15M adjusted to 1918 population and Spanish flu then killed 12x as many as CV19.
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:12pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        18 million is a global estimate from looking at excess deaths around globe during the pandemic, covid testing has nothing to do with it.
        https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02796-3/fulltext
        
        Wanting to integrate years of life lost is reasonable I guess, and by that standard Spanish flu was a lot worse.
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:38pm
      - GJM
        
        When getting shot in your driveway counts as a covid death, you know someone is lying about the figures.
        We will never know the true figures, but they will be much less than claimed. My guess is 20% of the claimed values.
        
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        March 30, 2022 9:19pm
    - artemisia
      
      Farr’s Law, since 1840.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:35am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    You can’t get any immunity if you’ve never been infected.
    
    The covid virus has only had a relatively free run in NZ since School started in February…. In that sense we are 1-2 years behind most countries in the World.
    
    But with our current rate of infection, we seem to be catching up .
    
    Being in lockdown for months, then being well-vaccinated has led us to now – where many folks await winter with trepidation in case they get a double whammy of covid and influenza.
    
    Keep well.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:48am
    - Littletramp
      
      Maggy, a big truth stated there that we should have embraced right at the start. Closing the schools (and now injecting the kids) was a gutless, disgraceful decision that achieved nothing other than develop fear in the young ones.
      “You can’t get immunity, if you’ve never been infected”.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:55am
    - alloytoo
      
      The problem we currently face is that the Vaccine induced immunity had a sell by date, by vaccinating and pursuing a Covid Zero policy with closed borders the Ardern government took us close to or past the Best buy date. (fiddling with jab intervals for political gain didn’t help either.)
      
      We should have set a target date for reopening borders and told everyone to get jabbed by that date.
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:09am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Brian, Ardern kicked the can down the road by forcing people to hide under the bed, excessive sanitizing and social distancing for 2 years. You don’t get herd immunity unless you are part of a herd.
    The only proven conspiracy nutters of the last 2 years have been Ardern (the jab will fix this like measles), Hendy/Plank/Jackson (80,000 dead) and the other “experts” who got everything about this circus wrong from the beginning.
    We have real world data now, we aren’t dependent on click bait, fear porn and child like computer models.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:55am
  - Simon
    
    Lol – Its Brian McDonald. He thought the economy was fine, believed with all his might in zero covid, thought the jaxx prevented covid 95% of the time, (when it was all falling apart), and actually thought and promoted the idea Cindy had defeated covid.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:49am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Please don’t attempt to explain to him the difference between Relative Risk Reduction (95% apparently) and Absolute Risk Reduction (0.8% according to Pfizer’s own stats). He’ll blow a couple of neurons if he has any left.
      
      “Relative risk reduction and absolute risk reduction measures in the evaluation of clinical trial data are poorly understood by health professionals and the public. The absence of reported absolute risk reduction in COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials can lead to outcome reporting bias that affects the interpretation of vaccine efficacy.”
      
      This needs to be rammed home every time some useful idiot repeats the “95% effective” bullshit when referring to the Pfizer experiment.
      
      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33652582/
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:33pm
  - Local Miller
    
    CMM’s and KK’s prediction around immunity were predicated on a normal society where people could continue interacting and the virus could spread at a normal rate. The Liebour lockdowns essentially had two major effects:
    1) They reduced social interaction to a minimum, reducing the infection rate and reducing the rate at which natural immunity could develop.
    2) They reduced peoples ability to exercise and get out in the sun and boost their immune systems (add to this the denigration of things like Vit-D & Zinc, etc.) . The result being when the more virulent but less serious Omicron variant arrived the population was in a poor condition to cope with the virus.
    The delay in getting to natural immunity is ALL Liebour’s fault.
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:27pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Basically it was the normal Ardern tactic of trying to polish a turd and when that didn’t work, covering it with fairy dust and glitter and claiming success?
      Pretty much sums her and her government up in everything they do. What a fraud.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:37pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  Everything in that post by your friend, and your response, is BS I’m sorry. Jacinda never ‘kept us safe’, she’s far from amazing and if you believe any figures about New Zealand’s “Covid death toll” you’re signing up to drink the Kool-Aid.
  
  Since we have no way of knowing if ANY of the people that died with Covid died from it, any reference to a death toll or Covid mortality rate is speculation and hyperbole.
  
  34 people dying is a “record toll”? I call BS on that. On average, more than 3 times that number dies in New Zealand every single day, from a range of causes – just like the 34 poor souls who died the other day. From a wide range of causes, one of which may (or may very well not) be Covid.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:34am
  - graham
    
    “34 people dying is a “record toll”? I call BS on that.”
    
    Well yes, you are quite correct Loddenthinks. The article is just playing around with the numbers, presumably to continue in the media’s obsession with keeping us all fearful.
    
    In fact the original article is comparing our daily Covid-related deaths per million over a seven-day rolling average.
    
    The figures, and the stats, that we are fed are just utterly useless. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve resisted the urge to yell at the TV, “Give us the CONTEXT!”. And it’s not just Covid either.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:44am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    The daily death toll is highly irregular, not smoothly changing – so there are obviously big reporting lag issues. 7 day rolling average in Australia peaked at about 3.5 per million (15-20/day NZ equivalent) which is probably about where NZ is at the moment
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:01am
- David Garrett
  
  graham: Your last sentence is the most disturbing: “Jacinda is amazing” (was the original comment ALL CAPS?) is the kind of comment you expect from a giggly teenager or early 20 something, not a woman in her fifties.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:37am
  - graham
    
    Yes, both comments were all caps.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:45am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Check the ages of those 34.
  “”One person was in their 30s, 1 person was in their 50s, 5 were in their 60s, 9 were in their 70s, 7 in their 80s and 11 were in their 90s.”
  Most died from age, not Covid. Died with Covid, not because of Covid. We are being played by the same bullshit artists.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:58am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    If we could see the details of those younger people I would bet money there were serious other issues involved that were the main factors causing death. That covid contributed little if anything to their cause of death.
    The media and their emotive use of these deaths has been one of the more abhorrent actions in a very long list of abhorrent actions by the fourth estate.
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:41pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      New Lynn, drug deal gone wrong I think. The guy died ‘with; Covid, not ‘from’ Covid.
      Shot in the back – he died from lead poisoning
      
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      March 30, 2022 1:50pm
- cmm
  
  Something something Trump something something.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:52am
- Ra Henare
  
  Statistics statistics and damn lies.
  
  Ie today US deaths are on decline after reaching their omicron peak earlier than NZ
  Feb 10th 7.81 per Mil
  Today 2.08.
  
  NZ Peak so far 2.48. Closing in on Peak Omicron.
  
  So fear porn from the media again
  Yawn.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:59am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Last week we passed Aussie per deaths and Canada per capital, we will turn out as bad if not worse than all nations, the screeches do not count per capita
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:59am
- Hebe123
  
  please do share it. We need some balance against these numptys. And its not often the media provides a usable article.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:39am
Matt Long

Married man meets lovely married woman on dating site, refuses to pay $50k love gift to her, it doesn’t go that well https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/air-traffic-controller-who-had-sex-at-work-gets-licence-back/VGFRDQDU2AC23AXBDXQREY4JVQ/
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March 30, 2022 8:07am
- Swifty
  
  Pull out! Pull out!
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:16am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I’m trying to think of an appropriate line from Flying High.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:24am
    - oldfella
      
      Mike: ‘surely‘ you can think of one.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:34am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        You can’t be serious oldfella…….
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:42pm
      - Mike
        
        No, and don’t call me Shirley.
        
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        March 30, 2022 1:08pm
- Frank the tank
  
  How is this a news story?
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:20am
  - Colville
    
    Its fucking funny!!!
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:43am
  - krazykiwi
    
    I guess the idea of having sex on the radar console is a little more novel than using the board room table.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:46am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Further reading will deduce it was a sex act. Could be handjob or Oral.
      Neither would stop the guy doing his Controller duties.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:00am
      - Nickc2
        
        Lends new meaning to the terms:
        Go Around, Go Around, and
        I’m on the Glide Slope.
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:03pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Not every air-traffic controller can dream of being appointed high commissioner to the UK.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:23am
  - David Garrett
    
    Frank: Speaking as an employment lawyer, it is most definitely a news story – albeit with a bit of prurient seasoning. I am actually very surprised this guy got his licence back: even having someone in a control tower who doesn’t belong there used to be a no no, let alone rooting them.
    
    Air traffic controller is one of the most responsible jobs there is. They don’t just hold the lives of one plane’s passengers in their hands as a pilot does; if two planes were to collide the loss of life would be massive. This guy is one very lucky boy IMO.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:51am
    - Ra Henare
      
      Speaking as a pilot. Visiting a control tower by prior arrangement always happened.!!! But then I only go back 50 years. Maybe it was a nono before that.
      
      Covid times excluded from above comments.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:04am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        As did visiting a cockpit back in the day.
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:44pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Could be news to his wife
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:12am
    - OlderChas
      
      It wasn’t. The female involved tried to blackmail the male, he declined to pay, so the female told his wife. (According to the report in the Herald!)
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:31am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Who’s rooting who, and who’s not paying, LOL!
        
        3 2
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        March 30, 2022 1:52pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  I’m a bit puzzled as to why anyone would believe the female blackmailer. Obviously a thorougjly nasty bit of work with no compunction about wrecking other lives.
  
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  March 30, 2022 1:55pm
Warren

Well this looks like it could be a busy year for the Government and our spiteful Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern
know she will devide the Country with three policy’s she vows to consult the country on this year. The idea of Co Governance does not sit well with most of our Nation but this will top the list, then we have Three Waters and even though 75% of our City and Town Councils don’t want it in its present form
the Government have decided to push it through and the new Fair Pay Agreement has not gone down well with the Business Community its lump it or like it as that’s what you are going to get
From Michael Wood.
So I have to ask this question is this a show of confidence from our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern or is it just plan arrogance from a control freak that doesn’t care for anyone apart from herself.
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March 30, 2022 8:08am
- Frank the tank
  
  She’ll likely be gone by the middle of this year and leave the mess for poor man’s Gordon Brown to pick up. He won’t mind safe in the knowledge that he will be our first openly gay PM and his legacy will have PM attached to it.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:21am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I seem to recall confident predictions from October 2017 that she would be gone within months – stress, anxiety, need to look after baby, relationship difficulties, scuttle off overseas, etc. I see nothing at present to indicate that your latest piece of wishful thinking will come to pass.
    It reminds me of the desperate few that still cling to the belief that the 2020 US election will be overturned and Trump magically reinstated as president.
    My prediction is that Ardern will remain prime minister until shortly after the next general election, due by January 2024.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:50am
    - Frank the tank
      
      That was well before our glorious leader was made up to be the second coming of Jesus Christ and then following the 2017 election the narcissism came out. Our glorious leader is barely seen out in the public now.
      
      Good to see your an optimist Mikey – god loves them. I hope your right though – love to be sitting there was a nice port in late 2023 when our Glorious Leader leads the government to a landslide defeat. Imagine the concession speech to Te Reo Luxon.
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:26am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      If she was judged solely on her management of the day to day running of the country she would never have been reelected. The covid “crisis” is the only reason she got another term. That and the Christchurch shootings.
      She is an abysmal politician and leader when judged by the usual standards. She is an average crisis actor who conned many people. She has now been exposed for the fraud she is. The downfall will be relatively spectacular.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:47pm
  - David Garrett
    
    What makes you think the Princess will be gone by the middle of the year?
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:52am
    - Frank the tank
      
      Imagine previously being built up as a savior and getting mobbed for selfies turning into protests everywhere you go. The media and her handlers have built you up to be someone whose shit doesn’t stink and now 50% of the population believes you are a living sewer of filth.
      
      My learned understanding is we aren’t dealing with an individual with the strongest mental fortitude coupled with a well timed trip to the US where she will be fawned over in liberal universities, DC and New York. Chat shows galore. She will want that back again.
      
      Then factor in the looming recession and stagflation where (as is always the case in New Zimbabwe) everyone will be looking for a scapegoat and excuse for their worsening position.
      
      My prediction is she will bug out post the US holiday citing Neve and her family, like Bridges. Our glorious leader won’t want to lose in a landslide at the next general election and will want to go out on a high with her reputation intact for her next NGO role.
      
      Dave – happy to hear a counter argument although I believe my logic is good.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:03am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      [Deleted – let’s stay away from that rumour]
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:05am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        I never mentioned any names, or what type of case of case
        
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        March 30, 2022 3:53pm
    - alloytoo
      
      I think her ego won’t let her lose by the projected landslide.
      
      She’ll hand a hospital to Grant so that she can say “They would have won with me, but my family/health were more important”
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:12am
  - Inandout
    
    Frank, what makes you think Robbo will become PM? We live in a world where some countries have radical views on homosexuality and importantly those nations have oil, a commodity we strongly rely on. Robbo is by no means a shoe in.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:04am
    - alloytoo
      
      Robbo has enough dirt on Labour caucus to win the leadership and therefor the PMship.
      
      He won’t win an election though.
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:15am
    - Frank the tank
      
      Who else is there – Angry? Chipkins? or the Tainui Princess – the later would be such a hoot even just to see if Labour’s support could go sub 20%…..
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:21am
    - Paulus
      
      No, Transport Woods is current Union Favourites from where he came.
      
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      March 30, 2022 1:11pm
    - Local Miller
      
      The PM’s morals have little to no impact on our buying oil or our relationship with these countries. Note that the current PM being an unmarried Mum das had no impact.
      
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      March 30, 2022 2:33pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I reckon she might sneak through till end of year, if you watch certain things she has done, she has gone gown identical as Key did, I predict December 1
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:04am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She actually believes the huge vote she received in 2020 was because people support her, she clear has no idea, because I can not even find one person who supports her in the public domain, the closest you get is she is trying her best
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:02am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Jaspinda may be finally realising the NZ has had a gutsfull of her socialism.
  So donkey deep in this, she can’t find a way out anymore – other than more control and penalties
  
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  March 30, 2022 1:55pm
potato

Official opening of Transmission Gully today – Huge thanks to National for this project. It’s great to see some useful and tangible use of our tax.
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March 30, 2022 8:09am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Steven Joyce seems to be absent from the official party. Did he turn down the invitation?
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:20am
  - G152
    
    Covinda saving money didn’t mail the invite
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:35am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    I imagine that like Winston and the official opening of the second Tauranga Harbour bridge, which he initiated and was pretty much responsible for driving through, he wasn’t invited.
    
    19 2
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    March 30, 2022 8:37am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      One drives over a bridge, rather than through it, I believe.
      
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      March 30, 2022 8:51am
      - Ra Henare
        
        Oh dear, reading comprehension problem.
        He drove thru the decision to build.
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:28pm
      - Colville
        
        depends on how pissed you are….
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:42pm
      - Jack5
        
        “One drives” …. and some of us thought there were two of you: Mike and Mikenmildagain.🙃
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:51pm
      - Mike
        
        You’re on to it, Jack. Ra, not so much.
        
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        March 30, 2022 2:28pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    He has tweeted his congratulations, but said he had a prior engagement in the South Island today.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:56am
    - bjools
      
      Washing his hair….To avoid being in the same town as Ardern?
      
      6 3
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      March 30, 2022 9:16am
  - MCōs
    
    He wasn’t at the original sod turning either.
    That was performed by John Key, Gerry Brownlee & Peter Dunne who, not surprisingly was at the opening today along with along with Nathan Guy & Nicola Willis.
    Maybe Joyce is running against Shadbolt!
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:13pm
- pdm
  
  Spud – and already the local Iwi want to change the name to some incomprehensible mish mash.
  
  Stay with Transmission Gully I say.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:32am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It will become a state highway, why call it anything but what it is
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:07am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It will become a state highway, why call it anything but what it is.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:07am
  - graham
    
    Fine. Let them suggest their name, and let’s see which one catches on and is used most often.
    
    We can add it to the ever-growing list of places in New Zealand where people with an agenda desperately try to push the Maori name. Look how it’s worked out so far.
    
    I don’t know ANYBODY in my circle of friends who talks about taking a break and getting out of “Tamaki Makaurau” for the long weekend – everybody I know can’t wait to escape from Auckland for a few days. Some of them talk about heading down to Hamilton – funnily enough, none of them ever mention driving to “Kirikiriroa“. And, no matter how many times Simon Dallow tries to convince us otherwise, I have yet to hear ANYBODY planning to catch the cable car and visit the Botanic Gardens when they visit “Te Whanganui-a-Tara” … but plenty of people do it when they visit Wellington.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:14am
    - graham
      
      “Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata” … yeah, I can really see that catching on …
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:31am
      - Jack5
        
        A reasonable bet: The Dominion-Post, State TV, State Radio, and Woke Commercial Radio will soon push the two-word description “Te Ara,” to try to head off plebs using “Transmission Gully”.
        
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        March 30, 2022 12:55pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      A casual observation..
      
      China is working on a similar principle. (multilingual) Many street signs/Highway signs have Chinese on Top
      
      ENGLISH underneath..
      Some of the translations are hilarious.
      
      Seems “”the boss””” thinks he is good at English and nobody dares criticize his translation.
      
      My favourit was “”Dont get close in behind…””
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:32pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Too late – the Government has officially renamed the motorway:
    
    “Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata”
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/128190379/live-engineering-marvel-transmission-gully-is-officially-open
    
    “Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata is the name gifted to the Transmission Gully motorway by Ngāti Toa. The name means the defence of Te Rangihaeata.
    
    Ngāti Toa Rangatira chairman Callum Katene says the land was under dispute as early as 1839. Soon after Te Rangihaeata retreated up this valley fighting to protect the land at Battle Hill, and it was the “lighting of the wick” for the battle for land in Aotearoa New Zealand. He says it’s an appropriate name to remember accurate history.”
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:01am
    - Nickc2
      
      Geez, someone’s Granny’s Granny’s Granny’s got a good memory, or are these stories from beyond the grave?
      On a more serious note, what’s it going to cost ratepayers/taxpayers to change the fucking name?
      I can’t wait for the digitised voice on my GPS to try and pronounce the new name.
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:15am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      I didn’t ask for Transmission Gully to be renamed. Transmission Gully will do just fine. It has a noble heritage of 100+ years.
      
      As an aside, can an unwanted gift of this nature be recycled via Trade Ne?
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:56am
    - Jack5
      
      Wellingtonians will keep calling it Transmission Gully.
      
      “Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata” is a six-word mouthful.
      
      “Gifted” by a tribe?
      
      Surely it was dreamed up by the NZ Transport Agency’s brilliant PR team. The Woke folk who come up with long, baffling TV advertisements with no discernible message.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:48pm
      - Batman
        
        It doesn’t take long to do a quick search before demonstrating a lack of thought to everyone online:
        
        “The new motorway has been gifted the name Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata (the great path of Te Rangihaeata) by Ngāti Toa. It references the journey taken by Ngāti Toa Chief Te Rangihaeata after the final stand-off between Te Rangihaeata and Crown forces at Battle Hill, before Te Rangihaeata retreated to Poroutawhao in the Horowhenua.”
        
        So a name from a battle. Which is not exactly of little meaning is it?
        
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        March 30, 2022 2:10pm
    - rouppe
      
      Imagine a tourist calling emergency services or roadside assistance and being asked where they were.
      
      Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata? The dedicated will.
      
      The link road from Whitby has been called Te Ara Kāpehu. SLightly better but I wonder whether WHitby Link Road will stick as well
      
      5 2
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      March 30, 2022 12:58pm
    - Mike
      
      There I was thinking he was principally remembered for dispatching those intemperate Nelson settlers who imagined they could arrest him in 1843.
      
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      March 30, 2022 1:21pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Studying Te Rangihaeata’s bloody life could serve as a great introduction for pupils to how Māori lived and died before the nasty colonialists moved in.
      
      https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/1t63/te-rangihaeata
      
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      March 30, 2022 1:50pm
      - Mike
        
        Should we add him, his uncle and their miadventures to the list of facts and dates I started the other day to be inscribed in the curriculum?
        
        5 1
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        March 30, 2022 2:32pm
    - alloytoo
      
      Can we regift it at Christmas?
      
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      March 30, 2022 3:47pm
  - Flossie
    
    Reminds me of the Gateway Bridge across the Brisbane River…officially the Leo Hilshier Bridge (excuse spelling, and it might even have been the “Sir Leo…”) but nobody I knew or heard of called it anything other than The Gateway
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:00pm
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Original build cost $800M, now up 50% so the MoW could probably have done better. Hardly ever mentioned is the 25yr PPP financing/maintenance contract signed by National’s financial genius to keep it off the initial Govt accounts (“balance the books” at a time of record low sovereign borrowing costs) which ultimately means it will cost well over $3B. Not Nationals finest hour.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:34am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I still think upgrading the coastal route and buying a navy frigate would have been better use of the money. Added bonus of demolishing a large swathe of Paremata.
    
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    March 30, 2022 8:53am
  - bjools
    
    25yr PPP financing/maintenance contract
    and any road built by the old MoW would not require maintenance?
    So National did include that in the cost.
    also…some maths
    $3bill – $1.2bill = $1.8bill/25 = $64mill per year
    Not bad for a comparable road.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:24am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Rubbish, the PPP roils have owned the road, just like the toad Notth out of Auckland, a small toll which is saved in fuel for travelling on a wonderful road, but who cancelled the PPP half way through? And how many 10s of millions did it cost to get out of that project cause socialist hole ?
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:10am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Really?
    
    Have you read the cost benefit analysis of the PPP? I have.
    
    “which ultimately means it will cost well over $3B.
    
    If you calculate the NPV of the stream of payments, it will be nothing like $3 billion. You also need to factor in the maintenance and other running costs of the motorway. The Government will not need to pay for any of those costs for 25 years.
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:04am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      You realise that will be the PPP owners fault, and it will be for them to recoup their lose
      
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      March 30, 2022 3:56pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  And no thanks yo Labour for firstly canning the PPP and sending the Aussie workers home during the pandemic, snd fiddling for the greens
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:06am
- oldfella
  
  potato: the road has been named Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata (the defence of Te Rangihaeata) by Ngāti Toa, so expect our MSM to quickly drop the previous name. Which everyone else will continue to use.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:58am
  - graham
    
    Yep. In the same way that Simon Dallow has a penchant for using the name Ōtautahi to refer to the city that everybody else in New Zealand calls Christchurch.
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:36am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I had someone last year at a social function (not Maori) come up to me and ask me:
      
      “How long have you lived in Ōtautahi?”
      
      When I stared blankly he said along the lines of “You should learn the important Maori names in the region.” I didn’t say a word. Just walked away from him and made a mental note to have nothing to do with him ever again.
      
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      March 30, 2022 2:26pm
  - MCōs
    
    I would suggest that within a very short period of time nobody will even be talking about it at all.
    Unless of course it turns out to be a little used lemon.
    BTW
    The short extension to the northern motorway out of Auckland is tolled; why not this one?
    Are the people who decide these things stingey Wellingtonians?
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:23pm
  - Inandout
    
    old, will be shortened to TAN highway. I can’t imagine an Aussie mouthing the full name.
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:25pm
    - Flossie
      
      Why Aussies? I can’t imagine most New Zealanders bothering with the convoluted name.
      
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      March 30, 2022 3:34pm
cjn

The Daily Sceptic’s second lead story this morning is of the legal challenge by at least 80 named doctors to the (UK) government’s policy of vaccinating children describing it as “grossly irresponsible” and “reckless”.
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March 30, 2022 8:17am
- krazykiwi
  
  They are right on the money. There is something deeply evil about injecting kids with this junk when their average risk of death is lower than being struck by lightening twice on the same day.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:50am
  - Hebe123
    
    is this a true statistic? It’s useful to have such comparisons in ones pocket.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:43am
    - krazykiwi
      
      No, it is figurative.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:57pm
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    Agreed. One of these things is not like the others …
    
    https://gab.com/BeachMilk/posts/108022456664764484
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:32am
- MCōs
  
  What about the 300,000 who didn’t sign up.
  
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  March 30, 2022 12:26pm
kowtow

Interesting the posidive coverage L Wall getting in the media following her retirement announcement , even from the so called right.

Major achievements , blah blah .

All I see is the vanguard for a slew of identity politics issues.
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March 30, 2022 8:19am
- cmm
  
  Interesting that they couldn’t get this done under Helen and had to wait for National to get into power to do it.
  
  By the time Aunty Helen was booted out, Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, Canada and various Canadian provinces and many USA states had all passed such laws.
  
  By the time Walls introduced the bill it was hardly ground breaking. Indeed it was pretty old hat.
  
  Similarly it will likely have to wait until the next National government for cannabis reforms to be passed.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Same-sex_marriage
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:29am
Frank the tank

Grant Dalton wakes up this morning secure in the knowledge he no longer needs to negotiate with the ilk of Goff, Twyford, Parker and Robertson.

Barcelona will be an excellent host city with appropriate and consummate public facilities for an event of this nature and there will likely be >6 teams racing in the next edition.

Of course there will be the little Aotearoans that believe that due to their sporadically watching yacht races every 4 years that the have a proprietary rights to the team. They don’t.

Dalton is trying to make Team NZ sustainable and not dependent on government assistance. I hope he succeeds.
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March 30, 2022 8:19am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Probably the white anting by MBIE in the middle of the last campaign was the last straw for Dalts
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:36am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Gas lighting is a more appropriate term. And Twyford was right in the middle of it.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:07am
  - pdm
    
    kkids – Peter `How are you where are you’ Montgomery gave MBIE a real serve about this when interviewed by Andrew Dickens on NewstalkZB last evening.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:39am
    - kiwikidsnz
      
      https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/sportstalk/audio/pj-montgomery-mbie-are-to-blame-for-losing-the-americas-cup/
      
      Thanks for that.
      
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      March 30, 2022 11:02am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Well I’m shocked and delighted, and don’t mind admitting I was quite wrong on this. I was sure the NZ gummint and Goff would cave in and pay what they wanted.
  
  I’m disappointed to some extent that it won’t be here, but Barcelona is my favourite city outside New Zealand in the world, and will put on a great event I’m sure.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:39am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The Govt and Goff are more interested in another ‘Te Huia’
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:19am
- MCōs
  
  “Dalton is trying to make Team NZ sustainable and not dependent on government assistance.”
  
  Why do you think the the wretched mug is buggering off to Catalonia?
  Because it needed public money to stay in NZ.
  As long as our rates in South Auckland are going to continue rising paying for this event is not a priority.
  
  Personally I’d prefer the money went to an international standard cricket stadium, but that’s just me.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:50am
  - Frank the tank
    
    What the stadium the Auckland City Council promised NZ cricket when they reduced the field size of Eden Park for the 2011 World Cup Cosy. That was (and always is) a pipe dream.
    
    Personally I’d prefer the money isn’t wasted on woke bullshit, “consultants”, diversity officers, activist bureaucrats and Brown mail. But each to their own.
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:30am
    - MCōs
      
      The council was going to convert the Western Springs Speedway into a cricket ground by now, but that’s stalled.
      Now cricket is stuck with the ever more inappropriate Eden Park.
      
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      March 30, 2022 3:48pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  I guess Dalton realise that the Auckland gravy train has come to the end of its line. Smart money might be on a couple of regattas overseas followed by a careful PR blitz to get the racing back here in 2030 or so. With inflation, the money spent over the past 30 years will seem like small change.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:58am
- cmm
  
  “Dalton is trying to make Team NZ sustainable and not dependent on government assistance.”
  
  No, don’t try. Just do it.
  
  Why the hell should the taxpayer be funding a boat sailing in an foreign race carrying huge advertising banners for a foreign airline?
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:32am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Exactly my point. Dalton knows it, we know it although we know this will be painted by the feckless as treasonous desertion.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:06am
- DeepBlue
  
  I’m very pleased it has gone. If TeamNZ come out of this as a sustainable org then all the better and the faster it will come back here. We should consider it a competition like the rugby (or any) world cup. You compete internationally and once in a generation or lifetime it is held on your home patch.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:17am
- alex Masterley
  
  I am a member of the RNZYS. While i am disappointed Auckland will not be hosting the next defence Barcelona is the next best option. Quite frankly at the moment and going forward Auckland is not in a fit state to host anything.
  All I need to do is point to the discussion being had recently on this site about the state of the CBD – violence, thuggish behaviour, vagrancy and ongoing chaos created by various construction sites.
  Also the almost complete lack of support by the Council, and the crown (which includes the active white anting by MBIE mentioned by other commenters).
  I cam looking forward to sitting in Barcelona watching the event in a few years time on a supporters boat.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:52am
  - MCōs
    
    “almost complete lack of support by the Council, and the crown”
    
    Last time a quarter of a billion dollars of public money went towards the staging of the cup.
    
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    March 30, 2022 1:57pm
    - Mike
      
      You didn’t think the august members of the RNZYS would put up their own money, did you?
      
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      March 30, 2022 2:39pm
    - crackle
      
      Love it or hate it the viaduct and wynard would still be a dump if we didnt hold the cup.
      Council would still be arguing about developing it. Over the years it’s done Auckland a huge benefit.
      
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      March 30, 2022 4:47pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The naysayers can’t see the trickle down.
    Spectators from overseas – hotels, food, booze, other entertainment, continued holiday in NZ, taxis, limos
    Spectators from NZ – hotels for some, food, booze; then those who like being on the water – boats, boat trailers, new outboards/inboards, recreational fishing (rods/reels/line/safety equipment)
    Then – the Government miss out as well, fuel (petrol/diesel) Govt misses out on all that glorious TAX! So guess who makes up the shortfall in TAX? Mugless Douglas us.
    I work in the marine industry, I have seen this back in the 1990s
    
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    March 30, 2022 2:14pm
I remember when

Will Smith/Chris Rock:
Was a minor altercation.
Totally inappropriate behaviour by both Will Smith and the Academy.
He should have been evicted and the Academy should have made that decision.
Something that should never have happened? Yes.
But violent – not really.
The trouble with labelling it violent, is that it leaves nowhere to go with violence.
What is happening in the Ukraine at present is violent/violence.
Bar owners/managers would do away with ‘security’ if the worst their customers behaved was like Will Smith.
To compare it with family violence is criminal.
Time to stop the over use of the emotive words that are too often used to exaggerate by the media.
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March 30, 2022 8:22am
- G152
  
  Don’t insult some-ones wife especially when they’re in range.
  And one slap?????
  The ‘comedian’ is lucky he didn’t really get hit
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:38am
  - Nukuleka
    
    So violence is the solution to all problems. Great messaging!
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:21am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      A lot of angry people on this blog. Let’s hope they contain their rage in stressful situations in the real world.
      
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      March 30, 2022 10:25am
      - Yabster
        
        maybe they are angry because they are sick of the trolling…..
        
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        March 30, 2022 11:43am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Let’s hope you don’t behave in the real World like you do here Mike.
        Stick that in your pipe and smoke it
        
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        March 30, 2022 2:17pm
      - graham
        
        “A lot of angry people on this blog.”
        
        And some people who apparently think it’s just fine to make extremely bad-taste jokes about a person’s medical condition on live TV.
        
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        March 30, 2022 2:52pm
- alloytoo
  
  It was staged, they had to have some action in the show.
  
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  March 30, 2022 11:19am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Anyone with two brain cells does not stand with their hands behind the back when they are about to get dropped.
    Staged – they are actors
    
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    March 30, 2022 2:19pm
iMP

“The Academy condemns violence in all its forms”…except all its violent movies.
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March 30, 2022 8:23am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Some religions condemn all forms of violence, unless commanded by god.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:02am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Our State condemns all forms of violence- except against protestors on Parliaments lawn
    
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    March 30, 2022 11:18am
    - Mike
      
      I think you will find our laws provide ample scope for the use of violence in nany circumstances.
      LOL
      
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      March 30, 2022 2:43pm
Matt Long

Lots of paywalled news in the horrid today, Louisa Wall is resigning from parliament, Special K says don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Lots of people holding the thought for you Kelvin.
New Zealand has beaten the US at last for daily Covid morality, the princess describes it as her proudest moment. Did a little dance.
Natural health supplement industry screwed by Government, preventing half a billion in exports.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/giant-flaw-in-natural-health-products-law-proposal-industry-claims/WOPSVYGXVTJMYL3PXH7PU56JIM/
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March 30, 2022 8:24am
- pdm
  
  Matt – the bird replacing her sounds like a real lefties wet dream in the short clip I heard this morning.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:51am
Nukuleka

Had it been President Trump who has ‘mispoke’ about retaliating ‘in kind’ were Russia to use biological warfare against Ukraine, about removing Putin from office and about stationing US forces in Ukraine – all of which Biden has said and which his controllers in The White House have had to ‘walk back’- I believe this blog would have seen outraged posts about his unfitness for his office and the danger he poses as he leads to world closer and closer to WW3.

But how silent the response has been to Biden’s senile ineptitude.
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March 30, 2022 8:29am
- David George
  
  Get the tech boys onto it ASAP, another malfunction of the joe biden hologram and we’ll be in WWW3.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:35am
- Rodion Raskolnikov
  
  Re: Biden’s indiscreet “regime change” comment.
  
  It wasn’t a “gaffe” at all. A political gaffe is really just a euphemism for an unguarded moment of candor. Biden’s accidental expression of what has been implicit US State Department policy since at least 2014 was simply a culmination of years of hostile rhetoric towards Putin, and has, at one stroke, confirmed and provided an immediate and full justification for all of Putin’s stated concerns about the implications of NATO expanding up to Russia’s border. NATO’s number one goal is eventual regime change in Russia, and Biden has said so himself. The US are the principle aggressors in this matter, and have done all they can to push Putin into a response. “National sovereignty” (e.g. as it applies to Ukraine) is clearly a very malleable principle (e.g. as it applies to Russia), and obviously doesn’t apply when it conflicts with US interests.
  
  While Biden wasn’t supposed to say so out loud, his words confirm beyond all doubt that the US wants regime change in Russia (just as they did in Iraq, Libya and have been attempting in Syria) because Russia under Putin remains– unacceptably to the US–an independent and sovereign nation that will not lower itself to become yet another vassal state of the US hegemon. However, their opposition to the Ukraine invasion has to be characterised as a moral crusade in order to dupe the gullible, rather than a cynical attempt to maintain its dominance over most of the world.
  
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  March 30, 2022 11:54am
  - Batman
    
    Awwww, you’re sad that your fave guy has made himself wholly unpalatable to the bulk of the world?
    
    Putin is a criminal who would have been voted out were it not for his rigged elections.
    
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    March 30, 2022 1:51pm
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      Lol. Another red hot take from this guy. “The bulk of the world”? You mean the US, Western Europe and the Anglosphere? I wouldn’t call that “the bulk of the world.” Branch out from your cosseted chauvinistic Western-centric worldview– there’s a whole lot of world out their beyond your narrow conception.
      
      https://archive.ph/nn1ej
      
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      March 30, 2022 2:32pm
      - Batman
        
        Look, you’re welcome to comfort yourself with the luminaries of China, Venezuela, Syria, Cuba, North Korea, and Belarus.
        
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactions_to_the_2022_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine#:~:text=On%207%20March%2C%20the%20Russian,Iceland%2C%20Canada%2C%20Liechtenstein%2C%20Micronesia
        
        Your fascination and love for the morally and financially bankrupt Putin Kleptocracy is certainly interesting. Masochistic maybe?
        
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        March 30, 2022 3:16pm
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Brilliant post, Rodion.
    People need an attention span greater than 140 characters to comprehend exactly what you wrote.
    That is why so few people will understand what you wrote.
    
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    March 30, 2022 2:15pm
  - virtualmark
    
    So Rodion, does that mean you think Putin should remain as the leader of Russia?
    
    Or do you just have to say this stuff because otherwise you don’t get paid?
    
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    March 30, 2022 4:01pm
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      I call a spade a spade, and I do so free of charge. For example, accusing someone with a view that runs counter to your own of being “paid” to express that counter view makes you look like a sophomoric idiot who knows nothing about geopolitics. Instead of risking that perception, why don’t you attempt to find fault with my argument and the logic that holds it together?
      
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      March 30, 2022 6:24pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Yes, the US wants regime change in Russia. And has done since at least 1945. So none of this is news.
        
        But it also doesn’t want chaos in Russia. And it also wants democracy in Russia. And it wants long-term stability in Russia. And it’s not prepared to take any sort of military action in Russia.
        
        So wanting something is quite different to actively trying to make it happen.
        
        And the West’s opposition to the Ukraine invasion is based on the West’s respect for democratic values and the right of independent states to choose their own paths, dating back to the Kellogg-Briand Pact in the 1920s. Trying to characterised as a crusade in order to dupe the gullible is sophomoric student politician geopolitics.
        
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        March 30, 2022 9:35pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Oh, and Rodion, when you got home last night did you catch Evgeny Popov saying that it’s time for regime change in the US “before its term expires” and that Russia needs “to again help our friend Trump become President”.
    
    So the Russians are in on the regime change calls too eh.
    
    And nice of them to be clear about who owns Trump.
    
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    March 30, 2022 4:07pm
- virtualmark
  
  You support a guy who said windmills cause cancer, used a Sharpie to change the path of a hurricane, autographed Bibles, saluted a North Korean general, stared into the sun (twice), said there were planes in the Revolutionary War, wanted to nuke hurricanes, and suggested that bleach could cure Covid.
  
  Priebus said “He’s an idiot”
  McMaster said “He’s a dope”
  Mnuchin said “He’s an idiot”
  Cohen said Trump is as dumb as shit
  Kelly said Trump was unhinged and an idiot
  Mattis said he had the brains of a 5th grader
  Bill Barr said he was shockingly detached from reality
  Roger Stone called him his greatest mistake
  Bannon said he was an 11 year old child
  Tillerson got straight to the point and said he was a fucking moron.
  
  And those are people who’ve been in the same room as him. Not just brainwashing themselves with Fox News and Facebook.
  
  So, sorry, but I don’t place a lot of weight on your judgements of anyone’s sanity.
  
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  March 30, 2022 1:43pm
  - bjools
    
    Lowest unemployment
    A vaccine
    no new wars
    Started the process for Afghanistan withdrawal (which Biden screwed up)
    Appointed first female head of CIA
    HHS appointed a black man
    Best unemployment figures when racial demographics taken into account
    Can we have an immature,misogynistic, racist idiot like this…..please…..
    
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    March 30, 2022 5:43pm
Yvette

The Treaty is not a living document
It has no Amendments, like, for example, the 27 Amendments the Americans have to their “living document”.

Depending on what figures you take, Maori were 90 to 97 percent of the population at the time of signing the 1840 Treaty.

Had there been any Amendments since, one would surely have addressed the changing population ratio between Crown, Maori, and non-Maori – if co-governance were to be an ongoing consideration.
There aren’t anyAmendments – bugger
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March 30, 2022 8:30am
- David Garrett
  
  Yvette: The lack of any amendments to this so called living document is an excellent point. But the show’s not over yet…The American Constitution has been front and centre for over 200 years; as recently as the early 80’s the treaty was formally regarded as the “legal nullity” that it had always been, and remains.
  
  Remember young Maori chanting “the treaty is a fraud”?
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:57am
- cmm
  
  It has plenty amendments. They just are not written down.
  To insist that they are written down would be forcing colonial values on this document.
  
  Looking at how the Treaty works (or does not), is a microcosm for understanding why a complex society cannot emerge without some basics like:
  * mathematics
  * a written language
  
  Without those you’re screwed. There cannot be a proper basis for law and order and effective administration required to build complex societies that build effective cities etc.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:38am
  - virtualmark
    
    Maori were – literally – a Stone Age people.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:56am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Stone age? Were they lower paleolithic, middle paleolithic. upper paleolithic, mesolithic or neolithic?
      
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      March 30, 2022 4:23pm
      - bjools
        
        Who cares.
        No wheel and no metals, to spite having plenty of raw materials/minerals.
        
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        March 30, 2022 5:46pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        MacMillan Brown said both paleolithic and neolithic
        http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-BroMaor-t1-body1-d12-d3.html
        
        But nowadays, I think it’s just neolithic
        https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1918374117
        
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        March 30, 2022 8:32pm
  - Yvette
    
    Cmm, as you say, without a written language you are screwed
    Which is why the ethereal “amendments” need to be written down – and all in the same place as the Treaty
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:20am
Frank the tank

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/christopher-luxon-says-will-smith-chris-rock-meme-on-national-s-facebook-page-wasn-t-appropriate.html

Yes Te Reo Luxon there is no humor in a post-woke corporate worldview. This is why Act needs to be >15% come the 2023 election.
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March 30, 2022 8:31am
- stiff cheese
  
  Simon Dallow covered Luxon’s apology for the ‘slap’ meme, on 1News last night. Apparently, it ‘condoned violence’.
  (I don’t think it did at all, but 1News struggles with impartiality).
  
  Dallow seemingly thinks the naughty person who posted National’s meme, will be punished. They would “get a slap on the wrist, figuratively speaking”, Dallow said, smirking.
  
  Okay ‘news’ mouthpiece, whatever you say, but why are you “condoning violence” in your petty hit-piece, if it’s not okay for the National Party to illustrate a metaphorical slap. That is, the N.Z. electorate getting slapped by Jacinda’s Govt.
  
  Some would say Dallow’s only a newsreader, reading from a script, but I remember a ‘behind the scenes’ story on TVNZ news.
  I got the impression he fancied himself very much in the role of shaping what would be covered at 6 p.m.
  
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  March 30, 2022 2:35pm
wisteria

Is the opening of Transmission Gully really happening. It is thanks to Steven Joyce and the National Government that it even was started. It is the shame of the present government that it has finally been finished, although they have stymied that for a while. We who live nearby and will use it several times a week have been waiting with baited breath. Now its opening is almost done under secrecy and “we can’t have people lining up to use it because it might cause problems.” Is the real reason for its delayed opening is that it is the only major Government project that will be completed this year. They cannot bear the thought that they may have to give some kudos to the National Party.
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March 30, 2022 8:35am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They can’t take kudos from the Nats after rubbish the project right up till last week
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:23am
Tony Stuart

Business New Zealand copped some flack last year for working with the Government to develop the Fair Pay Agreement legislation. But now they’ve pulled their support:

BusinessNZ has run out patience with the government’s plans to implement national compulsory fair pay agreements (FPAs) and will fight to block the scheme.

“The government has taken its phone off the hook and is ignoring widespread opposition from New Zealand business owners and employees to its unlawful compulsory national pay agreements scheme, known as FPAs,” the organisation said in a statement.

Chief executive Kirk Hope said the organisation wrote to Workplace Relations Minister Michael Wood in December to express its deep concerns about “the out-of-touch and out-of-date scheme”, but was yet to receive a reply.

In addition, he said, the government wrote BusinessNZ into the proposed scheme without its agreement.

“Kiwis don’t believe there is a need for the Labour government’s so-called fair pay agreements and don’t want their right to flexibility in the workplace to be taken away,” Hope said.

“However, the lack of response from the government and comments they’ve made elsewhere make it clear they’re determined to plough on with FPAs, despite them being fundamentally flawed and out of touch with modern ways of working.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/463974/fair-pay-agreements-fundamentally-flawed-businessnz

But wait; there’s more. Hope said BusinessNZ had taken its fight to the International Labour Organization (ILO), as compulsory FPAs were unlawful under current domestic and international employment laws, and not in the best interests of the workforce.

This is a return to 1970’s-style unionism, and will set workplace relations back in New Zealand at the very time when employers need flexibility due to the stress the Covid pandemic has imposed on their businesses. But Labour owes the unions a debt of gratitude for their ongoing support, and Michael Wood is determined to repay that debt, irrespective of the cost to New Zealand businesses. This is ideology on steroids, and must be opposed.
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March 30, 2022 8:41am
- David Garrett
  
  Tony S: Quite so…and it is significant I think that no-one in the current cabinet (Is O’Connor a cabinet minister??) is old enough to remember the mayhem that ensued when unions ran the cutter in the 70’s: the ferry unions on strike every holiday, thus cutting the country in half; bullshit strikes by every other major union on the flimsiest of pretexts.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:01am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Yep David, the Boilermakers and the BNZ building in Wellington, Mangere Bridge in Auckland and Meat Workers during the killing season are doosies.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:23am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The commies enter our premises I will be telling them to take a hike, they don’t dictate to me, I remember when unions were compulsory, we were sat in a room Aaliyah yo ho on strike for a plastics company in Chch, and older rider fella that was shafted at the freezing works get out of here, I am not going on strike, you lot fo enough damage, the union then threatened us, and told us we will remember that
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:26am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Good luck, Business NZ, taking that case to the ILO. NZ has a history of ignoring ILO rulings. It’s along time since many NZers were committed to the ILO principles of tripartism.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:28am
ClanMcleod

So according to the Whoreald, NZ has (apparently) just passed the US covid mortality rate.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-nz-surpasses-us-covid-mortality-rate-for-the-first-time/Y6BALC45GL5EFI4Z6725LIL5MY/

I am deeply suspicious of the way covid stats are manipulated, not just here, but right around the world. But let’s take this headline at face value.

WTF was the point of the last 2 years of lockdowns, social distancing, sanitising, vax mandates and the creation of a medical apartheid system? What did all of these abuses of human rights achieve? Apart from the demolition of the economy, the destruction of many thousands of lives and relationships, the shredding of the social fabric, the mental distress. What have Ardern and her cohorts achieved?

This country sits today, a shadow of itself. A substantial proportion of the population afraid of its everything. Afraid of other members of society. Suspicious of every interaction with other human beings. Terrified to go out.
The economy is in tatters. The cities are like zombielands. Tourism has been decimated. Inflation going through the roof, homelessness through the roof, poverty through the roof.
Someone please remind me again how Ardern “saved” thousands of lives and the cost was worth it? Surely it can’t have all been the complete failure and clusterfuck that it looks?
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March 30, 2022 8:42am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Indeed; Jacinda didn’t save all our grannies after all…
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:58am
  - cjn
    
    No, Tony. It was the teddy bears in the windows that did it.
    
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    March 30, 2022 4:23pm
- krazykiwi
  
  The point, which I know we’ve discussed, has been to condition us to authoritarian interventions on the basis that these are for our own good. The secondary objectives of flagrantly corrupting the media, and the narrative supporting ‘science’ have also been piloted. It has worked beautifully. Seemingly intelligent New Zealanders have suspended their rational judgement and handed their civil liberties to Ardern and her fellow charlatans.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:58am
  - artemisia
    
    You mentioned the other day there may be a big court case coming up. Any more info on that?
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:22am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Not yet. I’m keeping an ear to the ground.
      
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      March 30, 2022 12:59pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Indeed kk, a good summary of what this is really all about.
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:54pm
- MCōs
  
  There has been more than a million covid-19 related deaths in the US. That’s one in every 334 people.
  In NZ terms that would be about 15,000.
  Didn’t realise it was that bad.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:00am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    No there haven’t.
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:56pm
  - Inandout
    
    MC, don’t forget the 90 per day who die of natural causes.
    
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    March 30, 2022 3:03pm
- Jim
  
  No no Clan the economy has bounced back says Robbo.
  However, my observations align with your assessment.
  Let’s not forget that this wilful destruction was aided and abetted by the shill media which (despite recently reporting a NZ mental health crisis) ran the lead online story this morning about climate alarmism reporting:
  
  The only thing missing for an outbreak of dengue fever in New Zealand is a hotter climate, and we’re doing our darnedest to change that.
  
  Nice timing Stuff, as people (who have jobs and don’t work from home) are having breakfast and about to drive to work. Really Stuff? Utter alarmist BS as your lead story.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/300539202/aotearoas-biggest-tropical-disease-threat-the-tiny-killers-you-can-dispatch-with-a-finger
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:51am
Maggy Wassilieff

Will our Māori students be denied a decent science education?

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/graham-adams-the-biggest-losers-in-the-m%C4%81tauranga-m%C4%81ori-debate-may-be-m%C4%81ori-students
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March 30, 2022 8:56am
- RockyJ
  
  The tragedy will be that young Maori kids will work hard, sacrifice years to get a “science” degree only to be turned down in employment because their degrees are bullshit.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:14am
  - wreck1080
    
    I don’t believe young Maori will develop a work ethic anyway.
    
    We’re teaching them that they have a chip on their shoulder, and the white man should pay.
    
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    March 30, 2022 12:05pm
- bjools
  
  My thought
  If there is indeed, “Maori science” then why not
  Germanic Science
  Anglo-Saxon
  Asian
  Indian
  African
  etc
  Are they different, or do they, to their infinite wisdom, just call it science?
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:47am
- mikenmildagain
  
  No.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:28am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    So you think Professor Cooper is wrong
    
    With much dismay, I have been witnessing a recent profound undermining of the meaning of science in New Zealand, now under way with the introduction of mātauranga Māori education as having parity with sciences including mathematics, chemistry, biology, and physics.
    
    The inherent bias against students in suggesting that rather than a sound grounding in mathematics, biology, chemistry and physics, there is to be parity with non-scientific systems such as mātauranga Māori, will be massively counterproductive for all students, but especially biased against Māori.
    
    Perhaps you could explain where Professor Cooper has gone wrong in his thinking.
    
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    March 30, 2022 1:23pm
    - Mike
      
      Yes, he is wrong.
      
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      March 30, 2022 2:51pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        But no reason for your view is provided, I see.
        
        For that is what words like debate and explain entail….
        
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        March 30, 2022 4:20pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        My reason is that Professor Cooper might be expected to be as much as an expert on educational methods as members of the IPCC are on climate. I mean, you wouldn’t cite Judith Curry, Richard Lindzen or Roy Spencer on climate science, would you?
        
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        March 30, 2022 4:29pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I think Prof Cooper’s years of teaching and lecturing make him eminently qualified to comment on our NCEA science curriculum
        
        Much of my career has been focussed on kaupapa (Māori agenda) research and teaching aimed at improving Māori health care delivery and Māori science education, on marae and in hospital and medical school settings. That focus has been literal – personally designing, writing, and executing novel and successful programmes in both Māori health and education.
        
        https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2022/03/29/garth-coopers-reasons-for-resigning-from-the-royal-society-they-include-his-stance-on-science-education-for-maori/
        
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        March 30, 2022 6:44pm
Rusty

Attacking Chris Luxon a man who is bald with no hair might not be appropriate at the moment considering what Will Smith did.
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March 30, 2022 8:57am
- MCōs
  
  Do you think Gerry might take offense?
  
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  March 30, 2022 1:10pm
Maggie Pie

Damn!! I feel so much better now knowing I’m not the only one 😀

https://twitter.com/Dame_Jane/status/1508893269698424832
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March 30, 2022 9:01am
Maggy Wassilieff

Now we can see why our Dear PM visits kindergartens, Playcentres and Kohanga Reo all the time.

It’s where she picks up policy advice

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/documents-show-miq-lottery-creators-using-lollies-at-a-party-to-describe-kiwis-trying-to-get-home.html
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March 30, 2022 9:01am
Tony Stuart

Sometimes you have to wonder about the quality of advice our government is receiving.

Before landing on the lottery as their chosen system, internal briefings obtained by Newshub show officials tried to develop a waitlist or automated booking system but found it would cost several million dollars and take several months and “the most difficult part” was “creating clear rules… to determine who is eligible”.

COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said on Tuesday there was no easy route.

“Whichever system we went with there was still more demand than there were rooms available so there was always going to be people who missed out.”

But if Hipkins had his time again, “I think we’d probably have more of an emphasis on the emergency allocations, the compassionate allocations.”

Ultimately though, they went with a lottery system, or as Newshub can reveal, a lolly scramble. Documents from a workshop show the system’s architects using the analogy of “lollies at a party” to describe the scenario of thousands of New Zealanders trying to get home.

“We used to have enough lollies for everyone… Now there’s sugar supply issues… Suddenly we get a lolly, so we drop it on the floor and everyone dives at it” which means “attendees think our party is terrible”.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/documents-show-miq-lottery-creators-using-lollies-at-a-party-to-describe-kiwis-trying-to-get-home.html

This is just plain nuts! Who is providing such low quality advice, and is it any wonder that MIQ was an absolute shambles from Day One? Even worse, people were paid large sums of money for this garbage; OUR money!
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March 30, 2022 9:04am
- krazykiwi
  
  MIQ wasn’t badly implemented.
  
  It was just bad. Period.
  
  Any mechanism that ushers in an enduring abuse of human rights is fundamentally evil, and should have no place in a liberal democracy.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:24am
  - bjools
    
    To assume this really was a medical crisis then yes MIQ is valid…but like most of Labour’s actions, it is a misnomer.
    M…….Managed…A self evident joke
    I………Isolation….In the middle of cities? We knew 2000yrs ago, not to house our lepers in our cities.
    Q…….Quarantine…With staff coming and going, especially initially. Seems to defy the actual definition of the word.
    
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    March 30, 2022 9:41am
  - cmm
    
    Both. Awful idea, badly executed.
    
    If it had been Blue Labour in charge then it would have still been a terrible idea, just effectively executed.
    
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    March 30, 2022 10:29am
  - Si334
    
    Disagree – MIQ was badly implemented. From occupancy in the 40-50% range, to lack of compassionate spaces, to lack of compulsory testing and allowing positive cases to drive the length of the country or go to festivals …
    Agree that MIQ was also ‘bad’, and an enduring abuse of rights though ….
    
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    March 30, 2022 4:25pm
bythesea

What are we to make of the covid death figures in NZ? Can anyone guess at the percentages of mostly of / partly with / incidental?

One day they reported 34 deaths, but they could not have come through ICU as there has not been that number in ICU.

A different question but maybe it is the same thing from a different direction, are there any stats for outcomes (good/bad) for patients going into ICU with covid.
(although of course its the same problem – are they in ICU because of covid or co-incidentally caught it)
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March 30, 2022 9:09am
bjools

Will Ardern, at the opening of Transmission gully, take credit for this project?
As she did with the repair of the Kaikoura coast rebuild?
9 2
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March 30, 2022 9:12am
- MCōs
  
  Don’t know, but Steven Joyce did, which may come back to bite him in the bum.
  
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  March 30, 2022 5:50pm
Chris2

So did anybody hear the media ask Louisa Wall if she was leaving Parliament because of a scandal?

No one heard it because it was not asked. But the same media only the week before, asked it of Simon Bridges when he announced his retirement.

Double standard again from the media.

In fact the media have gone all quiet on the reasons Wall is resigning. Afterall she entered Parliament when Ardern did, but never made it to Cabinet. Why is that that media? Let’s hear that story please.
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March 30, 2022 9:12am
- MCōs
  
  There were several articles on the matter yesterday in the all the big dailies.
  
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  March 30, 2022 1:06pm
Warren

Guyon Espiner for RNZ uncovers IPCA only investigates 2% of complaints and isn’t subject to the Official Information Act.
So this doesn’t sound good for all those that wanted transparency over the Parliament Protest clash after already been denied the wish that Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister and Trevor Mallard the Speaker of Parliament be part of the enquiry.
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March 30, 2022 9:13am
- Mike
  
  IPCA is investigating the protest.
  
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  March 30, 2022 2:53pm
- GJM
  
  The IPCA has as one of it’s main objectives to cover up and downplay police misbehavior. Even when they find something wrong, it is all “mistakes were made” and nobody is ever accountable let alone charged.
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:47pm
Yvette

co-governance
At this point it may be appropriate to remind us all that Jacinda’s last Great Nation-wide Conversation was that on Capital Gains Tax –

The Government stated no position – or their side of the Conversation, as a discussion point – so media, some sensible people, but then every nutter possible filled the void for several weeks, waiting a Government statement, but when that came it was Jacinda throwing the whole deal out of the cot –

Government kills off capital gains tax, won’t happen on Jacinda Ardern’s watch
The Deputy Prime Minister’s comments follow the Government categorically rejecting a capital gains tax. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement this afternoon, saying there was no mandate – and no consensus – for a CGT.
In doing so she has rejected a key recommendation from the Tax Working Group – which cost an estimated $2 million to run.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-kills-off-capital-gains-tax-wont-happen-on-jacinda-arderns-watch/PRAJYZ2BSONYAFTJI4HJ6JUS5A/

“However after almost a decade campaigning on it, and after forming a government that represented the majority of New Zealanders, we have been unable to build a mandate for a capital gains tax. While I have believed in a CGT, it’s clear many New Zealanders do not. That is why I am also ruling out a capital gains tax under my leadership in the future.”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/112010254/government-to-make-statement-on-capital-gains-tax

May “co-governance” follow this precedent – just more so
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March 30, 2022 9:15am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  One can hope co-governance follows this precedent, but then there’s also the precedent of local body referendums repeatedly rejecting Maori wards followed by legislation abolishing such referendums, passed under urgency, IIRC.
  
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  March 30, 2022 2:44pm
Maggie Pie

My gran always warned us….
Never trust a man that wears a Bowtie. They’re all a bit odd 🙁

https://twitter.com/honpeterdunne/status/1508626013965922305
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March 30, 2022 9:30am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Well, Peter Dunne, definitely is a bit odd. But aren’t there plenty of bowties being worn when you and your partner attend your imaginary high-society functions?
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:31am
- Matt Long
  
  I will say this for Dunne, when he was Revenue Minister he took the time or allocated staff time to answer when I had policy questions for him.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:36am
- Ehlana
  
  Bowties are cool. http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/35fm9h
  
  2 1
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  March 30, 2022 12:05pm
- virtualmark
  
  There are drums beating in Wellington for Dunne to run for Mayor 😐
  
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  March 30, 2022 4:15pm
  - MCōs
    
    I thought Andy was going to be the bee’s knees.
    Maybe he needs a couple more terms to learn the ropes.
    Is Peter Jackson happy, do you think?
    
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    March 30, 2022 5:46pm
Yvette

Perhaps related to co-governance –

Make a Waitangi Tribunal claim
The basic criteria to meet so we can register your claim
1 – The claimant(s) must be Māori and should specify whom they represent (such as their group, hapū, iwi)
2 – and claim that an ordinance, Act or regulation, order, proclamation, notice or other statutory instrument, or policy or practice, or an act or omission of the Crown
3 – has prejudicially affected the claimant(s)
4 – and that the law, or the action, omission, practice or policy is inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Points to remember
• The ‘Crown’ is the central Government. The Tribunal can only inquire into actions of the Crown/central Government. The Crown is not local government (district or regional councils) and it is not the Courts.
• Any new claim received after 1 September 2008 by the Tribunal can only concern contemporary Crown actions or omissions that occurred on or after 21 September 1992. Any new claim regarding actions that occurred before 21 September 1992 are defined as historical Treaty claims and must have been filed on or before 1 September 2008.
https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/claims-process/make-a-claim/
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March 30, 2022 9:39am
Liberty

Another cry of the week by a Luddite Journalist.
The traditional newspaper industry is gone. Confined to history along with the village blacksmith and the candlestick maker.
So why would Government with an agenda. Subsidize the lifestyle of Journalist ?
Why have the newspapers treated labour with kid gloves?
Why has there been no real investigative journalism on 3 water,
He Puapua?
55million is the reason why.
It is simply not healthy for democracy. for the Government to be in bed with the media.
If the Media had an ounce of integrity it would refuse the slush money. An reformat its industry to
Handle its diminishing demand for its products. Just as shops, factories, farms have had to do for years. They have done it without
Sucking off the State tit.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128185720/public-money-for-local-journalism-is-no-bribe-its-a-deal-of-the-century
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March 30, 2022 9:54am
Frank the tank

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/03/auckland-transport-defends-proposal-to-ditch-kerbside-parking-says-change-is-necessary.html

Definition of smug asshole?
19 2
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March 30, 2022 10:10am
- alloytoo
  
  And totally living in the past
  
  Public transport is so last century
  
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  March 30, 2022 4:37pm
I remember when

From ‘The Hollow Men’ by Nicky Hager:
“The speech gave a sole concrete example of Maori priviledge.
This was the Nelson-Tasman Public Health Organisation (PHO), which, it said, ‘is required to have half of the community representatives on its board representing local iwi, even though the number of people actually belonging to those local iwi is a tiny fraction of the population covered by the PHO.”
From a tiny kano oka a mighty rakau oki grows.
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March 30, 2022 10:27am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

How Far Will A FATHER Go To Keep His Son Out Of Trouble?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5tpepm_z_Y
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March 30, 2022 10:35am
slightlyrighty

Now that China is looking to expand militarily to the Solomon Islands, has anyone in the MSM given thought to contacting Helen Clark and asking her to re-examine her “Benign Strategic Environment” statement?
14 1
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March 30, 2022 10:44am
Yvette

Transmission Gully officially opened
With travel via the route expected to cut journey times for about 25,000 vehicles by about seven to 15 minutes, that would equate to a productivity gain of about 1640 hours a day, Ardern said.

But sub-captioning the accompanying video it says – Waka Kotahi says more than 12 million hours of work has gone into completing the road.

So 12,000,000 divided by 1,640 = 7,317 days, divided by 365 = 20 years
20 years before the new highway recoups the hours of work taken to build it
That interesting, Jacinda. Spin that
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March 30, 2022 10:46am
- mandk
  
  What a stupid woman.
  
  The PM has announced that the new road linking Wellington to the Kapiti Coast Expressway will be called Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata.
  
  Or Transmission Gully, for short.
  
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  March 30, 2022 12:04pm
  - Batman
    
    Instead of getting triggered over Te Reo for the millionth time, perhaps people could just accept that it’s an interesting second name?
    
    I mean, it is extremely obvious that everyone will call the road TG. Even the agency opening it has all its social media here in Wellington as “Transmission Gully”.
    
    Don’t be such white bread snowflakes y’all.
    
    5 17
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    March 30, 2022 2:01pm
    - Yabster
      
      y’all?- you sound like a red neck snowflake…
      
      8 2
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      March 30, 2022 2:33pm
      - Batman
        
        You should be pleased I didn’t call you my homies, bros, or fam.
        
        3 9
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        March 30, 2022 3:12pm
      - virtualmark
        
        He’s just trying to fit in …
        
        3 0
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        March 30, 2022 4:16pm
Maggie Pie

Just been watching SkyNews.

They were saying Ed Sheeran would be performing at Shane Warne’s State Memorial Service tonite at the MCG.

Honestly, you’d think the family had suffered enough.
40 4
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March 30, 2022 10:49am
- Frank the tank
  
  Wait till Our Glorious Leader comes out on stage at the end of the Eden Park concert Mags. Just wait.
  
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  March 30, 2022 11:34am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Wouldn’t Clarke with a troupe of DJs be more appropriate? By then the royal wedding will be back in vogue
    
    9 1
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    March 30, 2022 2:08pm
  - Mike
    
    A concert at Eden Park? Is that the one Ray Avery was promising for charity?
    
    1 5
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    March 30, 2022 2:58pm
curry4me

https://www.bitchute.com/video/zU9FiguOhSA/

How Russiagate Caused the Ukraine War.

Did the Russian Collusion Hoax Cause the War in Ukraine? That’s what we’re going to be looking at in today’s video! We’re going to explore the intriguing work of some brave journalists who’ve been exploring the relationship between Russiagate and the Ukrainian War, and we’re going to see for ourselves what they’ve uncovered!
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March 30, 2022 11:20am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjKmuWdIQ50

28th Amendment to U.S. Constitution Stops Big Money from Local Elections; 57% Ratified

There’s a move to change the constitution so Soros, the WEF and that ilk have less influence on local elections. [16:12]
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March 30, 2022 11:21am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUHdQEzOa3A

India plays both sides with America and Russia

70-80% of India’s military hardware is imported from Russia. If India angers Russia, at times of conflict with China or pakistan all they hav to do is nothing, really nothing eg. Not selling/delaying spares to India. That’s the reason why in 2020 when India and China confrontation happened, first thing Indian defence minister did was to visit Moscow to ensure adequate military supplies. That’s why India is hesitant to go against Russia. It takes time to develop indigenous weapons, since 70 yrs india is completely dependent on Russia. You can’t change things overnight.
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March 30, 2022 11:21am
Maggy Wassilieff

Our out-of-touch, ill-informed PM wrong again.

“We strongly disagree [with Ardern],” CEO Ah-Leen Rayner told AM on Wednesday.

“We’ve been writing to the Government for over six months now… What we know is the Breast Screening Aotearoa system was under pressure pre-COVID, but post-COVID we now know that there are 50,000 women overdue for their screening mammogram and what this means, purely on the numbers, of those 50,000 women, we estimate 300 could have cancer.”

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/breast-cancer-foundation-slams-pm-jacinda-ardern-s-claim-screening-is-keeping-up-says-300-women-could-have-cancer-without-knowing.html
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March 30, 2022 11:48am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  But but, sheeple trust Cindy, Queen of NZ.
  
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  March 30, 2022 1:17pm
Maggie Pie

Disgruntled sounding caller to ZB tells Kerry Woodham ……the reason Dalton has taken the event to Spain, is because he wasn’t prepared to be put thru the same financial scrutiny he had to endure last time.

I thort it was quite naughty of her not to challenge him on that assertion.

Just saying.
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March 30, 2022 11:58am
Captain Mainwaring

So Transmission Gully has now been given an unpronounceable Maori name. I suppose that was predictable but will it make any difference? To 99% of us it will just be part of SH1.
27 1
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March 30, 2022 12:07pm
- Pavel
  
  They gave it a nice easy name that we will always be able to remember, ” Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata”. Is there not some rule somewhere that road and place names need to be relatively simple and easy to pronounce?
  
  15 1
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  March 30, 2022 12:33pm
  - Batman
    
    Given that by 2030 it will be a homogeneous motorway from Wellington to Shannon, I doubt that anyone will care about the names of specific sections.
    
    The TG name has remained, so no need to get your knickers twisted.
    
    5 8
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    March 30, 2022 2:04pm
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      Shannon?
      Do you mean Sanson?
      
      9 0
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      March 30, 2022 3:15pm
      - Inandout
        
        CM, years ago Sanson and Sandon were on opposite sides of the road, same town. It eventually became Sanson; well that is what my Gran told me.
        
        2 1
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        March 30, 2022 5:37pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Sanson is the name of the “Township of Sandon”
        
        https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/1859073
        
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        March 30, 2022 6:30pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Here is Auckland Council’s guidance:
    
    Road names should be intuitively clear, easy to pronounce, spell and write, and preferably not exceed three words (including road type) or 25 characters. An exception to this is the use of Te Reo Māori names”
    
    13 2
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    March 30, 2022 2:38pm
    - graham
      
      Interesting, thanks krazykiwi.
      
      I wonder if Auckland Council are brave enough to explain the rationale behind making an exception for Te Reo Maori names?
      
      8 2
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      March 30, 2022 3:00pm
- wreck1080
  
  It is racist (not really, but since everyone uses the word, join’em), every new place gets a Maori only name.
  
  This isn’t even ‘co-governance’, it is one sided governance when it comes to naming new places.
  
  In Tauranga, the Phoenix carpark was renamed to “Te Papa o Ngā Manu Porotakataka”.
  
  This isn’t even practical, when people plan to meet somewhere, this name is completely unfit.
  
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  March 30, 2022 12:44pm
- Yabster
  
  Te Ara Nui o Te Rangihaeata – yes- most nzers will def use that name… lol admittely tranmission gully sucks also-
  
  5 2
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  March 30, 2022 12:53pm
  - MCōs
    
    In the good old days it would have been called the Kapiti Coast Bypass
    If it was in America it would be the Ambassador James B. Bolger Expressway
    
    1 0
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    March 30, 2022 5:38pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  You better get used to the Maori name because it will be in your ears and eyes pushed by the bribe taking media.
  
  10 1
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  March 30, 2022 1:18pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Hilarious. No-one is going to call that road by that Maori name.
  
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  March 30, 2022 8:34pm
Yvette

The President of the United States made a direct comment then someone the White House (be interesting to know Who) “walked back” that comment, and then Biden “walked back the walk back” …
Who is waiting?

Meanwhile Breast Cancer Foundation slams PM Jacinda Ardern’s claim screening is keeping up, says 300 women could have cancer without knowing

I think Jacinda should only have two shots at this
8 2
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March 30, 2022 12:15pm
- kowtow
  
  Yeah well a former president said of his vice president who is currently the president ;
  
  ” Never underestimate the ability of the vice president to screw things up ”
  
  The fact that he’s been caught at least twice now with cheat sheets to assist him at press conferences says so much , as does the fact that the Media pardy make so little of it .
  
  And he still can’t stick to the script.
  
  The most recent one was headed ” Tough Putin Q & A talking points”
  
  His staff clearly realise they’re shepherding an idiot , have to prep him and he still gets it wrong .
  
  And yet so little from the so called fourth estate , unlike for Orange Man Bad.
  
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  March 30, 2022 2:48pm
MCōs

Australia budget was presented yesterday; five minutes before their general election.
John Clark explains it went
https://twitter.com/joneshowdareyou/status/1508711249747623941?s=21&t=qeUttrzbUzCPkd1gv2icVw
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March 30, 2022 12:41pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Those guys were the best. “The front fell off!” being an all time fav.
  
  3 1
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  March 30, 2022 2:16pm
  - Mike
    
    “It’s outside the environment”
    
    3 2
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    March 30, 2022 3:01pm
  - curry4me
    
    That one is my personal favorite.
    
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    March 30, 2022 7:40pm
Maggie Pie

Currently, we’ve got SkyNews on Ch 85 – or a repeat of Coro Street on Ch 1.

With an election looming in OZ, they’re saying Scomo is intent on passing an urgent amendment to their Immigration law, which will see New Zealand having to take at least FIVE TIMES the number of 501’s than we do at present.

Scotty calls Elbow….. ‘weak on crime’
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March 30, 2022 2:06pm
krazykiwi

Pfizer’s court-mandated release of its vaxx trial data continues. This time they dropped a single document which attempts – but fails – to hide the value of natural immunity. The Naked Emperor sets it all out: New Pfizer document shows Immunosuppression in first 7 days and Natural Immunity exists.

It’s also worth noting that immunosuppression, and the resulting increased rate of infections wrongly attributed to the unvaccinated is the source of a bayesian datacrime as argued by el gato malo: bayesian datacrime: defining vaccine efficacy into existence.
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March 30, 2022 2:15pm
Jack5

The case in Auckland where a woman allegedly held a starter pistol to the head of another has led to a charge of threatening to cause grievous bodily harm and carrying an imitation firearm with criminal intent.

Imitation firearm? Starter pistols fire blank cartridges, and the link below lists of three cases of fatal injuries from a starter pistol held to someone’s neck.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0379073899000201

This link illustrates the popularity in America of starter pistols, that except for firing “real” ammunition, are replicas of other pistols.

https://www.replicadungeon.com/blank-firing-guns.html
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March 30, 2022 2:21pm
Maggie Pie

“It’s like Watergate, but with morons”

– Donald Trump.

Fox reporting FBI Cyber-Chief tells Congress they have lost Hunter Biden’s Laptop.

LOL!!
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March 30, 2022 3:08pm
- krazykiwi
  
  If Biden had tried that quote it would have come out “Great. I like watermelon more.”, and the Whitehouse would have been obliged to step in and translate.
  
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  March 30, 2022 3:47pm
- MCōs
  
  Trump wouldn’t know this, but the Watergate fiasco was caused by morons.
  Another point
  He’s encouraging V. Putin, America’s enemy to spill the dirt on H. Biden.
  Has the guy no shame?
  
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  March 30, 2022 5:27pm
graham

TRIGGER WARNING: The following post mentions Transmission Gully. Apologies to Batman, mikenmildagain, and anybody else who may be offended because I didn’t use the ‘gifted’ name.

Oh dear … turns out that the brand new, $1.2 billion Transmission Gully has a bit of a problem – mobile blackspots.

The head of an industry group says the patchy cellphone coverage stems from the limited access that Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees got to the project during its construction and the telco’s design plan being ignored – and that he understands the solution will involve smashing up parts of the new motorway.

According to the article, anecdotal evidence suggests you can drive for up to three minutes on the new motorway with no cell signal. At 100 km/h, that works out to 5 km!!

As well as inconveniencing drivers who want to make hands-free calls, or who need mobile data for car audio or navigation systems, the mobile blackspots create a potential emergency calling issue in the event of an accident.

Never mind, NZTA will have the answer – lower the speed limits so there are no accidents!!
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March 30, 2022 3:30pm
- krazykiwi
  
  If anything the coverage along SH1 has deteriorated over the last 5 years. Lots more black spots. Because it’s 2000, right?
  
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  March 30, 2022 3:44pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  One of our Maori friends was quick off the mark 😀
  
  He’s suggested they name it… ‘No Transmission Gully’
  
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  March 30, 2022 4:34pm
  - MCōs
    
    Would that be Paul Goldsmith’s Mum?
    
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    March 30, 2022 5:03pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Paul, silly!
      
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      March 30, 2022 5:50pm
- bjools
  
  This may be the safest 27Km on the roading network.
  Due to no cell phone use.
  
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  March 30, 2022 11:56pm
krazykiwi

Vladimir, meaning ‘King of the Earth’, will not be getting Kyiv by the looks of it.

Vladimir Putin has failed in his plan to capture Kyiv, with Moscow on Tuesday pledging to withdraw forces from the Ukrainian capital.

Russia claimed the withdrawal from Kyiv and the city of Chernihiv was to build trust in “constructive” peace negotiations.

Talks in Istanbul broke up on Tuesday after Ukraine offered to make itself permanently neutral if the UK, other Western powers and China provided military protection from future Russian aggression. But hours later, heavy shelling resumed in Kyiv.

Ukraine offered to make itself permanently neutral if the UK, other Western powers and China provided military protection from Russian aggression.

Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s chief negotiator, claimed Moscow did not want to “put Kyiv at military risk” because people whose decisions could bring peace, such as Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, were there.
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March 30, 2022 3:41pm
- MCōs
  
  Pleased to see you didn’t put ‘trust’ & ‘Putin’ in the same sentence.
  
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  March 30, 2022 5:06pm
- bjools
  
  ‘King of the Earth’,…seems to be morphing into
  ‘King of the ashes’,
  
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  March 30, 2022 11:58pm
Maggie Pie

Sweet Tango $7.99 kg at the fruit shop today.

Easy to see why…..

https://twitter.com/IpscVictoria/status/1508963663310635010
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March 30, 2022 4:15pm
BAM

Idiocy from ACT

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/act-s-pledge-to-reverse-sick-leave-pause-minimum-wage-hikes-scrap-extra-public-holiday-and-benefit-boost.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

The rise in sick leave is about the only thing the middle class has got from Labour and you want to get rid of it?

Christ, use your fucking brain, you idiots
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March 30, 2022 4:42pm
graham

Watching One News tonight (SWMBO insists), and the opening of Transmission Gully features, of course. We find out all the details, and then find out that it goes through some iwi’s “rohe“.

I’m sorry … it goes through their what?

I honestly don’t know why One News does this. I always thought the prime objective of a television news program was to inform their viewers clearly and without any confusion. To explain the issues and topics of the day, and inform us on current events, in a manner that is understandable by the broadest possible majority of people in their target audience.

New Zealand, as we all know, is a multi-cultural society. Aisan, English, European, Maori, Pacific, Middle Eastern, Latin American, African, and more. To my admittedly simple way of looking at things, if a prime-time news program is seeking to present the day’s news to such a diverse population, surely they should present it in a language that the majority of that population will understand. And whether they like it or not, that means reading the news in English.

I have no idea what a “rohe” is. Yes, I could look it up, but this would interrupt the flow of the item, and distract me. I’d have to pause the program while looking it up, then most likely rewind a few seconds to remind myself of the context. I’m sorry, but I am simply not going to do that.

Even if One News had bothered to explain what the word means, that would help. But they didn’t offer any clues at all. Why does a prime-time news program use words that many of their viewers will not understand, with absolutely no explanation? I just don’t get it.
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March 30, 2022 7:33pm
- rouppe
  
  It’s the same with the vaccination missives.
  
  There’s now a number of words in there I have no idea what they mean.
  
  You’d think if they wanted to impart important information, that they’d do it in a manner culturally appropriate for the audience, not just the 8% who are fluent in Te Reo
  
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  March 30, 2022 9:39pm
  - graham
    
    Yes indeed.
    
    If the decision-makers at TVNZ and the communications people at the MoH want to have an ever-increasing amount of Maori words being spoken – presumably in an attempt to “normalise” it and under the impression that this will somehow fit in with Nanaia Mahuta’s vision of the vast majority of people in New Zealand carrying on conversations in everyday life in Maori – then fine. Go ahead and do it. But do it in non-essential programs, such as breakfast TV and documentaries. Don’t do it in programs where you are trying to impart important information that is supposedly vital for all the people of New Zealand to understand.
    
    There is an old saying, “A time and place for everything”. The time and place for experimenting with a social experiment is NOT in the prime-time news programming, or when communicating what is supposed to be vital information to “Stop Granny Dying ™“.
    
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    March 31, 2022 7:23am
- septic skeptic
  
  I didn’t happen to watch the 6pm news, so avoided this confusion.
  
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  March 30, 2022 10:19pm
  - graham
    
    Very wise …
    
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    March 31, 2022 8:19am

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