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April 14, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 14 April 2022

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General Debate

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Warren

Has our media got there knickers in a twist because there favorites Labour have lost the support and trust of small and medium businesses, with the support for our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern dropping 15% as National Leader Chris Luxon soars to 42% leaving the Prime Minister on 25%.
In 2020 a Newshub – Reid Research Poll found voters trusted Labour with the Economy more than National after the Government’s Covid -19 success, and it wasn’t that long ago Labour was the most trusted Party to solve the housing Crisis.
So now with New Zealander’s now struggling with high inflation- food prices having increased 7.6%, the largest increase since 2011 – and confusion over covid – 19 rules Labour are seen to be losing support.
The latest ANZ Roy Morgan consumer confidence survey published earlier this month shows consumer confidence dropped even further in March to reach a fresh record low in data that began in 2004.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/04/support-for-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-among-small-businesses-drops-15-points-as-national-s-christopher-luxon-soars.html
Because of this Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister has flip flopped on her silence over the report blaming Supermarkets for price gouging that she wasn’t prepared to tackle 2 months ago and is now threatening them with legislation to curb there monopoly because she believes it’s there fault for the large increases in inflation, again our Prime Minister seeks to blame others for her own incompetence.
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April 14, 2022 8:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  When will she be confronted about her compulsive lies?
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:26am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Best to let her lies fester away, she is that stupid, she probably thinks we can’t notice, but she is the worst liar we have ever seen, body language has LIAR written all over her face
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:05am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Never. The end justify the means for neo-Marxists like Ardern and her coterie of clinger’s on.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:05am
- amospicton
  
  Odd too that with 3 Waters in trouble there are regular msm stories about problems with the status quo – asbestos in Chch water yesterday. It’s all so transparent, dishonest and corrupt.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:35am
  - Paulus
    
    But I am reading about Three Waters Departments in a number of Councils now, and that a number of Maori Women have been appointed to head them up – at huge Public Service salaries I expect.
    
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    April 14, 2022 1:15pm
- cmm
  
  Rule #1: Cindy never goes under the bus.
  Rule #n: See rule #1
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:37am
- kowtow
  
  If small and medium business owners trusted Ardern and Co cos of the batflu lockdowns then they have only themselves to blame for the total shambles that is now upon all of us.
  
  You’d have to be an idiot if you’re a property or business owner to support any left party.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:54am
- MCōs
  
  Business will generally stick with National, well almost almost always. The last few leaders were a bit hard to stomach.
  Likewise those further down the social scale generally stick with Labour.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:55am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Isn’t it funny they keep referring back to Newshub poll, Newshub have missed a whole poll cycle, but they did poll and did not release their findings, referring to the previous Newshub poll is like going back to election night and saying Bats are on 25%
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:04am
- Than
  
  I call complete BS on the supermarket duopoly excuse. That situation has been around for years, if not decades, and it has never caused noticeable inflation before. Why would it suddenly be having this major an impact now, when nothing has changed? A weak, non-credible excuse even by Jacinda Ardern’s low standards.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:14am
  - Swifty
    
    You’re on to it Than.
    
    Exactly.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:46am
    - Bridgenag
      
      To be the devils advocate so to speak…… Why not let the local butcher baker candlestick maker let people in one at a time during the “pandemic” What kick back did the party get for letting the supermarkets crush the little local businesses
      
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      April 14, 2022 2:00pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  What drives price increases in supermarkets? Well lots of things, but here are some:
  
  Increases in the minimum wage
  Increases in diesel prices
  Increases in fertiliser prices (massive increases)
  Labour shortages in orchards
  
  I have said it before but I doubt that many folk understand the centrality of petroleum to food production and distribution, or that nitrogenous fertilisers are made from natural gas.
  
  Markets and capitalism have delivered a food miracle over the last 30 years. If you want to see higher prices and food shortages, let the dead hand of socialism lose.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:20am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    lose or loose?
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:23am
  - RockyJ
    
    Price controls! That’s never been tried before.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yup, if you had breakfast this morning, thank a farmer and a truckie.
    Supermarkets are price gouging though. I may only be 10 cents here and there but it adds up when you think of the huge turnover
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:54am
    - whostoblame
      
      Remind us who banned supermarket plastic bags only to add the replacement costs to the consumer. I now have draws full of $1 bags while covid masks litter the landscape.
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:55am
  - Matt Long
    
    The Government is consulting on using Road User Charges to combat Climate Change.
    How might RUCs combat climate change I wonder?
    How could this this effect food price inflation?
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:01am
    - SoloView
      
      @ Matt
      An increase in RUC could lead to freight being moved to more fuel efficient options than road e.g. shipping or rail.
      
      Less fuel used – fewer climate changing gases.
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:19am
      - Weetbix3ways
        
        Don’t see a lot of rail lines or shipping canals around this country…
        
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        April 14, 2022 11:02am
      - Matt Long
        
        Riight, can’t wait to see all the trains and ships parked outside the supermarkets delivering produce.
        
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        April 14, 2022 11:30am
      - Stellaboxer
        
        Never seen a ship or train delivering to a supermarket.
        
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        April 14, 2022 11:32am
    - Matt Long
      
      Having said that transport emissions have gone up by 72% since 1990, what’s an incompetent government to do?
      Recognise that the ETS is set up to offset emissions? No the Ministry for the Environment, “Te Tarangi Haurehu Kati Mahana a Aotearoa” points the finger at dairy farming using the discredited CO² equivalent model.
      https://farmcarbon.co.nz/focus-on-methane-emissions-from-dairy-unjustified/?utm_source=Farm Carbon List&utm_campaign=4b039c94b2-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bc19d36f23-4b039c94b2-280457565
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:32am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Dont forget shipping and Port congestion costs.
    Ports of Auckland have only themselves to blame for Carriers to arrive.
    In fact the costs to goods arriving/departing NZ are inflated by their ineptitude hence why they should be out of council / share holders hands and made Strategic assets.
    The costs to NZ’ers is horrendous due to their mismanagement.
    Hence major costs in the Supermarket.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:59am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Whoops missed the link,
      https://www.pressreader.com/new-zealand/the-new-zealand-herald/20220407/281827172290838
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:59am
  - Raphael
    
    Increases in fertiliser prices (massive increases)
    
    I recall seeing some figures of fertiliser and weed/pest control prices between 3 to 6 months ago. And some per hectare costs were tripling even the smallest increases were close to double the previous season. Those are the increases that are hitting us now that the food produced back then is arriving at the market.
    
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    April 14, 2022 2:13pm
- Nickc2
  
  Perhaps the Labour Party will be bringing Mike Williams (former party President) out of retirement and giving him a bucket load of money to go and dig some dirt on Luxon and Seymour as they did with John Key?
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:37am
  - Biscuit
    
    Why IS it, Nick2, that these former party Presidents think their contributions are a) relevant or b) welcome years and years after their terms expired?
    
    It’s not just Mike Williams. Michelle Boag is another prime example.
    
    Both of that duo, shelf-lives WELL-expired, should confine their utterances to in-front-of-their-mirrors ‘I was important once!’ weep sessions.
    
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    April 14, 2022 12:40pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Perhaps you should put that question to Helen Clark. She’s not one to let a chance go by where she can’t add what she would call some wisdom to the issue.
      
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      April 14, 2022 1:09pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Warren Bro – Thanks for bringing this up. There are three traitors who put Ardern in power with such a majority in 2020. Farmers, Small Businesses and the sheeple of Taranaki. It looks like one of the traitor groups is slowly turning around. Still 25% support Labour which is pathetic. If you are a small business owner, you should be dead set against this gummit and Cindy.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:17am
- Sacha
  
  Thats her default setting: if anyone disagrees with her, or criticises, she will pass another bit of ‘spur of the moment’ legislation to deflect attention and shut them up.
  And we gave her permission by way of an absolute government majority.
  Let’s be more careful with our character assessments and who we vote for next time.
  
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  April 14, 2022 11:17am
NeverMindTheBollocks

I received a letter from Wellington City Council advising that they intend to increase the road reserve rental on which my car deck sits by 100%.

100%! Could only come from a world of monopolists.
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April 14, 2022 8:05am
- Ian Boag
  
  Just out of curiosity … how much was the rent before this rise? How long since it was last increased?
  
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  December 14, 2021 8:48am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Has been increasing every year since I’ve been there.
    
    The other thing is that this is an interim step: they also want to subsequently pro rate the value against GV of surrounding properties.
    
    So much for getting car parking off the road.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:48am
    - pussycat
      
      And never mind that most of road reserve is useless to anyone but the adjoining owner, who coincidently saves the council from maintaining it. But the council have to pay for the rainbow crossings and bike lanes somehow.
      
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      April 14, 2022 11:38am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    May be it was $10 before and now it becomes $20. Last increase was in 1897.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:18am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  What is road reserve rental? Honestly I have no idea.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:28am
  - Rich Prick
    
    Because of Wellington’s topography, a lot of properties have a garage or car deck perched on road reserve (that bit of land between the actual road and a property). It’s vested in the Council and the Council charges a rent for its occupation.
    
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    April 14, 2022 8:44am
    - Mike
      
      A lot of this is a hangover from the days when people built garages, fences, etc wherever they wanted without bothering with tiresome legalities that were seldom enforced.
      
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      April 14, 2022 9:16am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Cheers
      
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      April 14, 2022 9:28am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Correct. In theory it’s to allow for road width expansion. In practice, seldom happens; & costs of expansion would be prohibitive given the topography. In effect, it’s generally useless to anyone except the adjacent land owner. People occasionally buy it from Council; but the bureaucracy & costs involved are at least as high as you would expect.
      
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      April 14, 2022 9:51am
      - artemisia
        
        I sold a Welly house where a previous owner had purchased the road reserve. The amount was derisory in today’s dollars, and I was told easy to do back in the day. The houses on each side had not bought their bit, but the rent was small.
        
        I suppose the moral is, the rent / purchase price is never going to get cheaper so might be worth biting the bullet if that’s possible.
        
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        April 14, 2022 12:17pm
- MCōs
  
  What is that in dollars and cents?
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:40am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Circa $500 pa before any increase; approaching 10% on top of rates bill
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:00am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Congratulations for electing a Labour-Green council.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:17am
- NoCash
  
  I have had a property in Johnsonville since 2003 and the full year encroachment fee was $248 in 2004. Last year it was $337. So while the proposed increase seems excessive, it’s just playing catch up really.
  
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  April 14, 2022 7:58pm
Matt Long

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/how-would-i-vote-in-the-tauranga-by-election?postId=2f12996c-307e-4159-90fb-f9560c13e494&utm_campaign=1ebb6cf6-a141-4a2b-abdc-6976575f0854&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=9d7370bb-089a-44f9-9a9b-275104a9b1d9&cid=db970c6d-6f12-48e2-a04d-5c512f666dee

Don Brash shows that Key’s government were racists on the same level as Ardern’s.

“Mr Peters offered the 12 votes of New Zealand First to achieve the kind of RMA reform which Nick Smith said was required but only on condition that all references to race were removed from the Bill. John Key’s Government rejected the offer, and we’re stuck with a seriously dysfunctional RMA today.”

But don’t worry because Labour is going to replace the RMA with with 3 significantly worse things.

I must disagree with DG that Key made a mistake in signing up to the UN charter on the rights of indigenous people. I believe it was part of a planned planned progression, which Labour has naturally followed with Te Puapua, 3 Waters , and “Tweaked” democracy.
Where is the outrage from Dear Chris? The signs that he might be mildly disturbed?
Anyone believing National are going to repeal this is deluded. (Sorry G.) Oh but look at the polls, he’s so electable. So is Ardern, still, and I don’t want her destroying the country further either.
For those who have forgotten here’s Chris and Ardern at the Freedom Protests again.
https://youtu.be/ZyhrYis509A
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April 14, 2022 8:06am
- Yvette
  
  Matt Long
  Alongside, Australia, Canada and the United States, New Zealand voted against the Declaration. New Zealand said that the Declaration breached the Treaty of Waitangi (Treaty) because it would give Maori special rights over other citizens.
  
  When New Zealand finally signed –
  The statement in support of the declaration:
  • acknowledges that Maori hold a special status as tangata whenua, the indigenous people of New Zealand and have an interest in all policy and legislative matters;
  • affirms New Zealand’s commitment to the common objectives of the declaration and the Treaty of Waitangi; and
  • reaffirms the legal and constitutional frameworks that underpin New Zealand’s legal system, noting that those existing frameworks define the bounds of New Zealand’s engagement with the declaration.
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/national-govt-support-un-rights-declaration
  
  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.
  https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/49HansD_20100420_00000071/ministerial-statements-un-declaration-on-the-rights-of
  
  https://www.culturalsurvival.org/news/new-zealand-endorses-declaration-rights-indigenous-peoples
  and so on
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:32am
  - Matt Long
    
    Yvette, do politicians ever do or say things in public that are different to their private agendas?
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:32am
- kowtow
  
  Don Brash has a blind spot where organised crime syndicates ( aka the gangs ) are concerned .
  
  He needs to wise up on that account.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:56am
- Scott
  
  Not sure I agree Matt Long. Here in Masterton I go past an official National sign that says National will repeal and replace 3 waters. That sends a good signal to me about race relations under a new National government.
  The main problem we have in NZ is the rise of a university educated radical middle class. They like all this bi cultural stuff.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:56am
  - Matt Long
    
    That’s the political electioneering game, in the rural electorates put up signs against 3 Waters, play it different in the cities, ambiguous messages and keep your actual agenda well under cover.
    
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    April 14, 2022 12:06pm
  - Paulus
    
    Too late as it appears that many Public Service Maori Lady appointments have aready been made.
    Mahuta has Gazumped the lot of us.
    
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    April 14, 2022 1:35pm
- chukar
  
  ML.
  One NZ Government .
  There is so much real reform needed and now no way voting can achieve this.
  National and Labour are one
  For example Luxon has already said he is not worried about RMA regulation over natural NZ .so we can expect no change.
  Land managers, forester’s and farmers have been screaming out for sensible deregulation for decades but the regulatory bus rolls on. No change, just more cost and less and less productivity.
  National expect to be elected on this no change platform .
  That is simply not good enough!
  If ML is correct about Peters offer to Key re the RMA ,National has betrayed NZ
  Voting has become pointless. MMP has ensured the new career politicians are not accountable to voters.,
  just to their parties.
  So this one Government is destroying our democratic country!
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:17am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    From my memory Peters put a tight act on over RMA tried to publicly ridicule, and show what a tossed he was, Nats said we’ll stick it, we now know you can’t be trusted
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:01am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  You don’t have to say sorry to me, but what won’t they reverse? They have said the RMA will be gone, and 3 waters they are putting up billboards around the country saying three waters under Nats, Luxon has said there will be no such thing as separatist services for just one race, and same with ownership of other resources, he has stated apart from that Labour have not told us what co-governance represents, how can he be outraged at what he doesn’t know.
  You might think I am biased, but as I said with my post after a break from arguing with mods that I do respect all peoples opinions. I see things in black and white when it comes to the election, and it will be either a Nat run government, or another Labour green government, but with the greens getting much more say.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:19am
  - Matt Long
    
    G prior to the 2008 election I saw things in black and white too, I was euphoric when Clark got her DCM.
    Then the Nats started with their regulatory splurge, compliance, compliance, compliance, no time for productivity.
    McCully used our time time on the security council to sponsor an anti Israel paper written by terrorists.
    In 2017 Nat representatives told us, a group of farmers, that the election was going to be fought on water quality, one of the supposed crises the regressives were pushing, and that they were going to throw farmers under the bus in order to get votes.
    They are politicians, you can’t believe a word they say.
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:08am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Well, enjoy your third term on Cindy and her Marxist damage, there is two choices, Cindy with the Greens who will have far more clout, and the Nats and Act, there is no other option , a vote for the rotten Peters, is a vote for Labour.
      
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      April 14, 2022 6:27pm
  - chukar
    
    GG
    Your comment is too simplistic .
    “ they have said the RMA will be gone”
    First, they have said that or similar for a number of elections, almost ever since National and Bolger passed it.
    
    Second the legislation is now far too complex to make a call like that.
    Reform maybe,
    A whole mainly regulatory industry led by Local Government is now based on the RMA, and yes there is plenty of racial privilege within that document!
    So all in all it is pretty unlikely they will make any meaningful changes
    
    Past experience in this field means no Governments can be trusted with meaningful RMA reform!
    
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    April 14, 2022 1:05pm
billyt

Isn’t it so bloody painful watching this govt try and walk back all of the restrictions in a way that it looks like they mattered in the first place? and unbelievable large chunks of the population still take this govt seriously and their stupid rules.
Before this debacle I thought kiwis had a rebel streak in them and we just wouldn’t comply in the face of stupid but how wrong was I
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April 14, 2022 8:07am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  They need to be told (controled) what to do.
  Socialism has been creeping in since I was at school some 57 years ago. 1965 my social studies teacher was incredibly unhinged – I challenged her many times and got the can for it!
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:37am
  - Scott
    
    Be honest Steve. You never ever deserved the cane? Be honest now.
    
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    April 14, 2022 8:59am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I got the cane for daring to argue with her. It was about the Aswan Dam. People building it were dying. I could not get it into her head that many die anyway in a 3rd world country. The dam would provide irrigation so they could grow food and feed themselves. She wasn’t having a bar of it, or maybe she just could not comprehend. All this at 11 years old.
      Typical Marxist.
      
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      April 14, 2022 12:18pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    cane* ffs
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:30am
    - Biscuit
      
      I bet you can spell all sorts of four-lettered words PERFECTLY, young Otto.
      
      My study, five minutes.
      
      Expect pain.
      
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      April 14, 2022 12:44pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Dunno about the young bit – prob way older than you.
        Shall I bring a bottle of Jacks?
        
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        April 14, 2022 12:52pm
      - pdm
        
        Steve Biscuit is very old – he tells those of us who receive his regular diatribes – bordering on decrepit I would say.
        
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        April 14, 2022 1:19pm
- Stellaboxer
  
  Yesterday l walked into a cafe to purchase a pie over the counter. I was the only person standing up with out a mask. Within earshot a maskless elderly woman sitting with her husband started to berate me ,not for putting maskless her at risk but for not following the rules. I turned to her and advised her to mind her own business to which she replied that I should have a mask on if I were standing up! I asked did she think Covid made the same distinction . I got a vacant stare . A few hours later it was announced in a rather confusing manner that masks aren’t necessary in cafes anymore so I wouldn’t be surprised if I saw the same couple standing without masks today. That’s what we’re up against folks morons.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:53am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Is it against the rules for someone to self appoint themselves as Covid rules enforcement Police?
    Morons is being kind to them, they are rabid fuckwits
    
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    April 14, 2022 12:21pm
  - artemisia
    
    Newshub poll on masks in retail today – a third of votes were yes, keep masks for retail. So yes, a lot of cult followers out there.
    
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/04/have-your-say-do-you-think-masks-should-still-be-mandatory-in-retail-settings.html
    
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    April 14, 2022 12:24pm
  - Bridgenag
    
    And they breed!…..//
    
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    April 14, 2022 2:07pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I can not see anything that will change what I have been doing, Masks still in super markets and retail, pubs were not seating us anyway apart from town where I don’t go, yo me there is no change
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:22am
artemisia

So a clinical psychologist has joined the panicked epidemiologists, predicting a tsunami of mental health issues when employees have to return to the office.

Dr Dougal Sutherland predicts –

… a return to the office for thousands of people could present major mental health challenges. … Research around it shows a few days at home are really good for people’s wellbeing and productivity. From one to three or four days at home seems to be the sweet spot.

One to four days sounds more like a paddock than a spot. Are employees really so fragile? Under H&S legislation employers are required to support employees under stress and can be expensively liable if they don’t. More costs on business, guess what happens to prices.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-omicron-orange-day-dawns-after-curve-flattened-and-return-to-office-looms-for-many/QJAH6Y4XNJV3O2AMCHVHCLTESI/
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April 14, 2022 8:07am
- graham
  
  And yet, many other studies and psychologists were talking about the doom and gloom that would eventuate when we weren’t allowed to go into the office. Stuck at home with bored kids, a partner that starts to get on your nerves, missing the friendships and the chance to go out with colleagues for a coffee …
  
  I personally would like to think we as human beings are generally a little more resilient than maybe these “experts” give us credit for …
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:33am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “a return to the office for thousands of people could present major mental health”
  Oh you poor little petals. Some of us in the manufacturing (making shit to sell) industry never stopped. Just closed the factory gate to keep the nosy parkers out.
  Returning to the office problems are what you get from a pathetic patronising Govt
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:45am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    If they keep people at home it helps with controlling the narrative. No idle chatter around the water cooler.
    
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    April 14, 2022 8:55am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Did have a truckie come in to take away about 30 pallets. He was masked and asked me why I was not. Just told him I don’t subscribe to that psychotic bullshit. He unmasked and smiled. He had found one person that was not a sheep
      
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      April 14, 2022 12:25pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        Don’t forget the virtuous have phone spy and they could loose their jobs
        
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        April 14, 2022 2:09pm
- Mike
  
  As a counterpoint, many businesses a d their employees will share a sweet spot of lower costs for the business and productivity gains from employees working at home. It’s a rapidly changing environment.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:19am
  - artemisia
    
    Maybe, as Dr Sutherland said, there are productivity gains based in research. In the real world … I worked for a global company that cancelled ALL working from home because they had a good look at what was actually happening. It was gradually loosened up a bit over time.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:47am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Can’t cut the steel and weld it at home Mike.
    Can actually, but not on a productive scale
    
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    April 14, 2022 2:42pm
- Ehlana
  
  What about all the people who continued to go to work throughout the pandemic?
  
  How come no-one is concerned about them?
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:27am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Doctors and Nurses come to mind. Had a few trips (5) to NS Hosp since Oct. Those people on the floor work bloody hard.
    Also the first responders. What is it with pen pushers in an office? Wimps.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:33am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Goodness, how did folks manage to survive 40+ hours/week in an office year after year after year, in pre-covid day?
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:34am
  - Ehlana
    
    They were tough Maggy. They walked 5 miles to school, uphill both ways in the snow in the deepest Waikato. And drank unpasteurised milk. And ate red meat.
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:23am
    - zulumonster
      
      Those Waikato kids had it easy … I’m reliably informed the Taranaki kids did the same, but barefoot on gravel roads in the snow …
      
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      April 14, 2022 1:19pm
    - greybeard
      
      No shoes.
      And they had to help to milk the cows first.
      I remember those days.
      
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      April 14, 2022 4:44pm
    - Matt Long
      
      Raw red meat
      
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      April 14, 2022 5:03pm
ecco

Labour internal polling must be pretty bad, eh, for them to panic stations and move their alert level announcement forward a day AND make the change immediate from midnight the day of the announcement. So it can be done JA – where there’s a will there’s a way…

You’d have to think the covid numbers for cases, hospitalisations and deaths must all be fudged to suit the narrative. Wouldn’t put it past this crowd to do that. They have no bounds. Btw where were Baker and Wiles and their other payrolled, resident epidemiologist experts yesterday?? Didn’t hear a peep from them beforehand or after the announcement.

The changes are incrementally minor to most people unless you are a business person. The real change they need to make, as Seymour says, is they need to lower the isolation rules so businesses can get moving before they push a few more over the cliff.

Hipkin’s performance yesterday was classic Ardern government modus operandi. You can imagine what their inner caucus meetings must be like. Pure keystone cops stuff. They don’t even know WTF they are doing before sending someone out to front the announcement. We know that anyways.
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April 14, 2022 8:11am
- EssenX
  
  Baker has criticised the changes so I’ll give him points for consistency.
  
  Wiles is a Labour apparatchik, but her and Henry’s silence stems more from the legal issues they have had in recent times.
  
  I agree Labour’s polling must be disastrous. If they were consistent with their logic and their “science” then Auckland would be at orange and the rest of the country would remain at red for a few more weeks. There’s been some serious backtracking over the past 4-8 weeks. Politics, like sports such as cricket and basketball, is a game of momentum and somehow Labour has lost momentum. It’s very likely they lose 2023 despite starting from such a strong position last election.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:35am
  - Matt Long
    
    Wiles must be on the outer, in her group of twits she calls it a terrible example of ableism by the government.
    
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    April 14, 2022 5:07pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  This is one of the best pieces regarding the covid circus that I’ve read in the last 2 years and I’ve read plenty. Enjoy and share widely. Covid is the warm up act for the”great reset”. The current attempt by the WHO to give themselves the power to control any future “pandemic” is stage 2. This has to be stopped and that organization needs taken apart, brick by brick.
  
  https://michaelpsenger.substack.com/p/one-giant-fraud?r=11s70p&s=r&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:40am
  - mawm
    
    Clan – that is a very good read. You might be interested in this essay “Cock-up or Conspiracy? Understanding Covid-19 as a Structural Deep Event”.
    https://www.pandata.org/cock-up-or-conspiracy/
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:45am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Baker and the pink terror are hiding. Bullshit has caught up with them
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:47am
  - kowtow
    
    Pink Terror has a neck , as does the Media Pardy still taking and giving so much air time after her trip to the beach .
    
    When the Great and the Good declared swimming not to be swimming , while mere mortals were hauled before the courts for lesser breaches .
    
    Talking of which have the Highlanders been interviewd by Plod or banned by Air NZ for allegedly breaking the law and Air NZ’s own rules by nor being masked up on a flight.
    
    Asking on behalf of the all us mere Plebeians who were forced to follow the rules under threat of state sanction which would have destroyed us.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:03am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Wiles isn’t hiding. She tweeted her displeasure at the switch from red to orange yesterday.
    
    But she’s now well and truly out of the loop as far as the Prime Minister and Cabinet are concerned.
    
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    April 14, 2022 2:10pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Tweeted yes. But those on the idiot box are not sucking up to here these days. Bad publicity (swimming, no mask, and all that shit)
      
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      April 14, 2022 2:45pm
- Stellaboxer
  
  If they weren’t panicking changes would have come into force at 11.59pm Monday. It’s the sort of spiteful control the ghoul has employed through out the pantomime. She must have gotten a deep gratification out of it all as displayed in the now infamous “ yes that is what it is” plank of the week interview.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:01am
  - Ehlana
    
    So a decision was made on Monday and announced on Wednesday. I get the governments e-mails to employers about these changes. It arrived 5:30pm on Wednesday night.
    
    Even at 1pm on Wednesday, with Friday and Monday public holidays, how the ** do they expect hospitality businesses to take advantage of the changes – to roster the additional staff, order and take delivery of the additional food and drink required, book a band?
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:33am
    - Sarkozygroupie
      
      They don’t actually care but mostly they don’t have any experience in logistics. Not the first time they have shifted levels with no actual thought about the business involved. Such a thought would have involved a lead in time of 3-4 days to cope with the avalanche of orders.
      
      They moved the announcement forward a day because they were alerted to the fact that if they had made the change to take place at 11:59pm on Thursday night there would have been one minute of trading time before pubs etc had to close at Thursday midnight for Good Friday.
      
      Can you imagine how stupid, unaware and incompetent they would have looked?
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:44pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The giveaway is no leaker internals anymore, and Newshub not releasing their last poll which they did commission, and the rotten media jumping on the slightest Nat thing, like the Reti thing which was no where near the sackable offence that Hipkins pulled, and the Mp that asked for Zelenzky to speak hen his voters asked
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:25am
- Paulus
  
  I suspect that the inner caucus meetings are something like Ardern saying what they are going to do and everybody quickly put up their hand so it is unanimous.
  How dare anybody do a Walls.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:48am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Labour’s internal poll shows Labour + Green comfortably getting 65 seats. So don’t bother ecco bro.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:19am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not what I heard, they have received at least 2 internals with a 2 starting the number, and have received 3 with a combined figure less than 40%, even MP support can’t save them now, don’t say I don’t know, because I know a person who works for Clark and they are deeply worried
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:05am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      And with all the potshots Winston Peters has been taking at Labour lately, they can’t count on his support again, should NZF be able to fluke its way past 5%.
      
      Then again, it’s a bit rich that Winston seems to have forgotten that he was solely responsible for putting Ardern in the Beehive in the first place! It’s just as well that WE haven’t forgotten!
      
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      April 14, 2022 2:13pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Don’t even listen to Peters, he did the same in 2017, he will go left because he will look like a rotten smoldering asshole going back to Nats, a vote for NZF, lets that rotten prick back in , and he does not deserve it.
        
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        April 14, 2022 6:30pm
      - ecco
        
        Wouldn’t put it past Peters to go with them again even though he appears to be campaigning against them currently. That would be a worry though. The guy can hardly string a coherent sentence together these days. On a par with Biden cognitively I’d say. They should get Peters tested/scanned before letting him get anywhere near Parliament. Is he still fit for purpose??
        
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        April 14, 2022 6:47pm
      - curry4me
        
        When it comes to New Zealand Worst Chris Luxon should say there is no way a coalition deal with them is possible, end of story.
        
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        April 14, 2022 6:54pm
    - david
      
      Clark?
      David or another?
      
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      April 15, 2022 8:37am
- nathie
  
  Don’t forget travel from Australia also resumed yesterday – can’t have Aussies and returning Kiwi’s saying out loud that under traffic light red that they couldn’t easily wine and dine (seating wise, plus why are most establishments closed) and can’t even have a dance or visit entertainment spots (closed night clubs and venues etc).
  
  What a bad look (and PR) for Labour that would have been!
  
  Imagine the amount of “refuting” going on from our PM, which would be ridiculed, internationally too!
  
  The tragedy is, dropping down an alert level to orange (or even when at red, loosening up indoor venue restrictions) should already have happened, like at the time of (or a few days after) the outdoor restrictions were lifted recently.
  
  Labour eh!!
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:25am
Maggy Wassilieff

The very comfortable relationship between MSM journalists and the governing elite

“I feel that white liberal elites have gotten very rich, and they’ve abandoned the working class.”

Journalists used to be working class and they saw their job as being outside of power looking in but are now part of the system, she says.

“They’re part of the elites, they go to the same colleges as billionaires, their children go to the same schools as politicians, they are now within the elites writing for other elites, creating content for other elites.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018837801/fears-woke-media-is-undermining-democracy
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April 14, 2022 8:15am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Bought and paid for shills, 99% of them.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:37am
  - Paulus
    
    Sounds similar to the UK so called media.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:49am
    - Jack5
      
      Newsweek magazine deputy opinion editor Batya Ungar-Sargon (Maggy Wassilieff’s post at 8.15) meshed well with the RNZ interviewer, Jesse Mulligan.
      
      Jesse spoke of inequalities in the NZ health system, talked of people fighting for social justice issues and probed Ungar-Sargon on the word “Woke”. She responded diplomatically.
      
      “You must have copped a lot of flat for this,” Mulligan said. Ungar-Sargon responded, agreeing, “I’m not popular.”
      
      But good on Mulligan for having her in the programme. He’s Woke, but moderate, tolerant, urbane, witty.
      
      White Liberals have abandoned the working class, said Ungar-Sargon. She admitted to being a Marxist, and to having been a Woke holder of the “anti-Trump syndrome” until she was converted by her rabbi.
      
      I’ll read this book if I can get my hands on it: Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy.
      
      In the meantime, most Kiwiblog followers would likely enjoy Mulligan’s interview with Ungar-Sargon at:
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/audio/2018837801/fears-woke-media-is-undermining-democracy
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:27pm
- cmm
  
  I’ll bet you can’t get a job at one of these “impartial” places unless you’ve nailed your Red/Green colours to the mast.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:40am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  This from the link: “And the difference was white liberals dumbed down their vocabulary, when they meet a black person and white conservatives don’t do this.
  
  “I read this in 2018 and I thought, this is an indictment of my entire worldview. Because I immediately recognised myself and everyone I knew in that, and that impulse to dumb down your speech that comes from that generous place of like, we must help these people.”
  
  Rang a few bells with the patronizing NZ Govt ads incessantly putting people into their bro speech.
  
  I spent my entire working career with Maori Pacific Asian & European men & women from the factory floor to the Boardroom: nobody spoke like that & if I’d tried that nonsense theyd see right through it & I’d have been laughed out of the job.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:50am
- Master Mariner
  
  Yes Indeed, A concerted effort that has its links to a state entity.
  https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/the-rise-of-the-radical-left-and-its-threat-to-the-western-society/
  https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/books/341322/new-book-argues-that-woke-media-is-undermining-democracy/
  As everyone says follow the money.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:24am
- Mike
  
  Journalists used to be working class?
  Hardly. Many of the 19th century elite politicians starred as journalists and news proprietors, for example.
  Some of the marxists here might be able to cite some analysis of the journalism profession by class, but it sèns an odd way of looking at a very fluid industry.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:25am
  - Jack5
    
    To be a reporter, recruits in pre-polytechnic days trained in apprenticeship-style cadetships. (A joke of the times was: a journalist is a reporter who owns two suits.)
    
    The tradition was for a novice to begin on a smaller regional newspapers, and after a few years move to a bigger newspaper. Work might begin with menial tasks such as ferrying paper “copy” from reporters, or helping proof readers.
    
    This system provided regional newspapers with cheaper, apprentice-style labour, and provided bigger-city newspapers with reporters with beginning on-the-job experience.
    
    In addition, newspapers employed a range of adult entrants from a swathe of occupations: farmer, sailor, lawyer, deer culler, bulldozer driver, school teacher. Reporters with university degrees were few.
    
    A flaw was a dearth of female reporters. A regional newspaper might have one female running “the women’s page” or “family news”. This page picked up advertisements aimed at women readers. The newspaper might also have one female cadet as a reserve.
    
    Newspaper staffs were far from the present predominantly female, polytechnic or university humanities BA’s.
    
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    April 14, 2022 12:25pm
  - cjn
    
    Michael Frayn did because his wife (a doctor’s daughter) was studying sociology and taught him when she came back from class. As a journalist he was classified on the Hall-Jones scale and the A/B scale used by the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising. It turned out that he was I PA group C1 (Supervisory and Clerical) on the grounds that he minded other people’s business. Group C 1 is lower middle-class. He didn’t like it one bit.
    
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    April 14, 2022 1:09pm
- amospicton
  
  The “billionaires”??? Seriously, what world does this journalist live in. How many college students in NZ are billionaires? It’s probably zero.
  
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  April 14, 2022 11:08am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    She’s talking of the situation in the USA.
    
    However, I do note that Our Dear PM of a Labour persuasion and her Media Mate Hubby-to-be had made arrangements for their wedding at a (multi-)Billionaire’s Antipodean hang-out.
    
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    April 14, 2022 2:23pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Journalists go to the same schools as billionaires? Really? I think not.
  
  Journalists are in fact rather badly paid. It’s only the Labour bribes that keeps them from the poorhouse.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:34pm
Simon

Ruble the currency with a future. Western woke climate change bedwetter currencies are doomed.
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April 14, 2022 8:17am
- stewmar
  
  Simon, I think that you’re on the wrong blog.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:43am
- kowtow
  
  Spelling error there , should be rubble .
  
  Anyway who’d trust them , other than the other authoritarians and a few wannabes.
  
  Not a chance .
  
  As to the woke west , you’re right , but that will change , when the lights start going out , when people can’t heat their homes or afford to eat.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:11am
  - mawm
    
    Kowtow – Do you trust the Fed?
    
    I think Biden’s controllers have shot themselves in the foot and given Putin a chance that many others have been “pressured” by the US not to even think about doing – challenging the petro-dollar. He seems to be taking China, India, the other BRICS and even possibly Saudi Arabia along with him. Germany is in talks about paying for their gas in roubles and who knows who else. Unintended consequences.
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:58am
- pdm
  
  Simon is your Ruble related in any way to Russias heavily devalued Rouble?
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:13am
  - Mike
    
    Investment in Russian tank-repair facilities is currently recommended as a growth industry.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:27am
    - Jack5
      
      ‘Morning, Milky.
      
      Are you working on Jacinda’s image re-make as a Valkyrie?🙃
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:47am
  - westernScientist
    
    The RUB went though a spike when sanctions were in the news and people thought that there was risk the west might stop buying russian oil/gas/etc., but it is back in range with long term trading now at about 78 rub/usd. The lowest it has got to in the last 2 years is ~70.
    
    It really hasn’t crashed regardless of what the media like to pump, the Europeans and the Asians are still buying Russian products.
    
    Edit: RUB chart
    https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/MOEX-USDRUB/
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:42am
  - Simon
    
    heavily devalued Rouble?
    
    ??. That was a very brief period when the market thought Russia was on its own. Russian economic alliance wtih China & Indian. Political alliance with China. The economic alliance is an alternative to the western neolib shit show.
    
    The woke west is fast falling.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:53am
    - Batman
      
      At what point do you suddenly announce your allegiance to the stalinist/communist alliance, Simon?
      
      Would make a great season finale.
      
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      April 14, 2022 10:42am
      - Simon
        
        “At what point do you suddenly announce your allegiance to the stalinist/communist alliance, Simon?”
        
        The ruble is a sound currency, part of the China/India/ Russia economic mix. Its about alternatives not failing alliances. America is in decline, its pretty much over, just a matter of time. Its history.
        
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        April 14, 2022 12:11pm
  - Littletramp
    
    Spelling is optional either way. The Ruble is just over 5% lower to the USD than it was pre-invasion.
    Is that heavily devalued?
    Roughly what the NZ$ has devalued to the Ozzie dollar since January.
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:58am
  - SoloView
    
    Is Ruble a new cryptocurrency?
    
    3 1
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    April 14, 2022 10:24am
  - Jack5
    
    The rouble is around 80 to $US1, pretty much as it was at February 22, before it dived to 130 to $US1 in early March.
    
    India and China buying oil in roubles are among the main props to the Russian currency.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:41am
cmm

I see we have some of the Covid slush fund being used to kill trees and generate more methane.

Is this a metaphor for the whole of NZ? Poison Western influences, but don’t completely remove them. Leave them as shelter in which non Western values can grow.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/128269152/willows-poisoned-to-make-way-for-native-bush-at-christchurchs-horseshoe-lake
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April 14, 2022 8:19am
- I remember when
  
  “But also, remember when National was going through all its troubles, Labour kept their noses out of it.
  The Prime Minister instructed her MPs not to wade in and kick them while they’re going through all this because we’ve been through it ourselves and we know how horrible it is.”
  And then the Giant Fairy……………
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:07am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Play school TV1 is on. The speaker of the house insists.
I swear I am watching the moari channel, can’t understand most of the dialogue
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April 14, 2022 8:20am
- graham
  
  Other end of the day for me, but SWMBO insists on watching One News while we eat dinner. She can’t understand why I keep walking out of the room to get a drink …
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:35am
- MCōs
  
  Read a book.
  
  6 2
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  April 14, 2022 8:43am
- Stellaboxer
  
  Steve Otto actually most of the Māori channel is either in English or subtitled they don’t indulge in the nonsense as the channel is aimed at Māori not the rest so there’s no need for the BS.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:32am
  - Bridgenag
    
    Ok They didn’t write and didn’t have the wheel when the rest of the world for thousands of years had structured sophisticated societies ….. but hey the war dances and clunks of greenstone or bone prove they were a force to be reckoned with… B3 via eating a captive and a larder if the slaves were on a march//
    
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    April 14, 2022 2:18pm
- Nickc2
  
  Careful Steve, you’ll get a shitty response from Batman for saying that. I got one yesterday for exactly the same thing.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:04am
  - Batman
    
    Hey it’s not my fault you both insist on limiting your vocabulary for stubbornness reasons!
    
    Meanwhile the rest of the country is perfectly fine with learning words.
    
    2 25
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    April 14, 2022 10:48am
    - graham
      
      Apparently not.
      
      https://www.newsroom.co.nz/mori-media-in-for-a-big-shake-up
      
      In order to revive a “struggling Māori media sector”, Willie Jackson, the Minister for Māori Development and former broadcaster, wants to see more content in English.
      
      According to Minister for Māori Development, Willie Jackson, Māori TV’s ratings have fallen away because it lacks good programming – in English.
      
      “In the past it has all been about the language (te Reo), a huge focus on the language, but we need our own news in English and we need our own programmes in English; it’s not so much about the language, it’s about the stories. Most of our people don’t speak te Reo and we shouldn’t do it at the expense of our people.
      
      So the Minister for Māori Development doesn’t want the Māori language used on Māori TV because “Most of our people don’t speak te Reo”.
      
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      April 14, 2022 11:35am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Ace!
        
        5 0
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        April 14, 2022 8:38pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Most made up words Batman. Many of them did not exist even 60 years ago.
      Karoti = carrot.
      Hikureti = cigarette.
      Virtue signaling at it’s best. Loo at me, I can speak a smart moari bro.
      
      19 2
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      April 14, 2022 12:31pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Look*
        
        5 1
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        April 14, 2022 12:54pm
    - leoj
      
      And right there is the difference between most us here and you.
      The rest of the country is not anywhere near interested in learning te reo. Certainly not interested in having the language rammed down out throats.
      We want to please ourselves.
      If you want to learn maori, go ahead. We will not stop you but good luck communicating with the majority.
      If it has to be translated, what is the f****ng point?
      Voluntary is us.
      Mandatory is you.
      Just mind your own business and leave us alone.
      
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      April 14, 2022 3:42pm
pdm

Surely this comment by Claire Trevet in Todays Herald is the dopiest of the year so far:

` She’s (Ardern) demoted ministers for what wouldn’t be considered major under performance.’

FFS most of her current ones should be sacked too based on that criteria.

Link (hopefully) follows:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/the-front-page-why-neither-louisa-wall-nor-jacinda-ardern-look-good-in-departure-drama/UGH6NCYADDEN5YWQYCJ72WKRTY/
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April 14, 2022 8:22am
- Frank the tank
  
  Red Clare and Audrey Not so Young are on defense atm. Internal polling numbers must be shot.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:32am
- Ehlana
  
  Which ministers are not considered major under performers?
  
  33 1
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  April 14, 2022 8:36am
  - pdm
    
    Difficult to find even one Ethlana.
    
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    April 14, 2022 8:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    David Clark – he is so awesome at everything he does, that’s why his portfolios change – experienced at everything///
    
    29 2
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    April 14, 2022 8:53am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    As Scribe said “Not many, if any”!
    
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    April 14, 2022 2:15pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She tried to say Ardern sack ILG for having an affair, from what I remember, he stood in tears and said I resign at the election, no mention from Ardern saying I have sacked this minister, same as Curran, she fail on her own sword
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:41am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  What I don’t understand is why the PM doesn’t reach out among her backbenchers and pluck a talent or three & raise them up into Cabinet. All those minority representatives must be stellar examples of their kind, well able to meet the demands of Government.
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:44pm
I remember when

Traffic light system:
System Meaning: A set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting netwaork; a complex whole.
Okay, they got the “complex” right.
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April 14, 2022 8:23am
peterwn

Recent court case – in the course of an argument (not a ‘domestic’) a male squirted CRC from a can within reach or similar into the face of a female causing pain, temporary blindness, etc. Now that would seem to be the next worst thing to acid throwing. He was charged with ‘assault with a weapon’ but his lawyer managed to get it reduced to male assault female (which was an amazing concession on the part of the prosecution) and he was fined $1.5k and ordered to pay $2k reparation. IMO the penalty was pitifully inadequate.
But wait for it, the guy is all bitter and twisted because he was not discharged without conviction and this would affect possible overseas travel, ability for his firm to win Government contracts, blah blah. He says he is going to appeal this. Bring it on, I have read enough ‘discharge without conviction’ to know he is dreaming.
He claimed that he did not do it but only pleaded guilty because he claimed he could not afford to defend the charge – but did not seem to consider the future consequences of a conviction. See:
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/128314741/ruapuna-speedway-volunteers-face-burnt-by-chemical-in-aerosol-attack
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April 14, 2022 8:29am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Oh dear, oh dear…
  
  The Christchurch Speedway President reckons this incident has been “over dramatised”.
  
  Seems the poor woman should have just shut her trap and had a wee giggle about the episode… boys will be boys!
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:49am
  - peterwn
    
    There seems to be quite a few girl petrolheads in that game.
    
    2 0
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    April 14, 2022 11:56am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Puts Maggie Pie’s can of oven cleaner in context
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:46pm
Frank the tank

I had the displeasure of listening to the lump of stupid Lloyd Burr last night.

First he was talking to a female (Jenna Lynch?) and making all sorts of excuses for the economic tsunami coming our way.

Then later he was interviewing the Chipster and asked about the mask mandates for retail. Chipster said something nonsensical about not having a choice visiting the supermarket and the lump just accepted it with a feckless kind of stupid.

And I thought the 2 ronnies in the afternoon on ZB were scraping the barrel. Stacey Daniel’s pops sounds like a life member of Mensa in comparison. Even Toxic sounds half competent is comparison.
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April 14, 2022 8:30am
Maggy Wassilieff

Someone has lost the plot..

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/04/covid-19-chris-hipkins-defends-keeping-masks-mandatory-in-supermarkets-but-not-nightclubs.html

We’ve had about 2 million people in NZ infected with covid-19, even though most of the population was vaxxed and wore masks on command.

If it was such a health imperative, then Hipkins WOULD have known the rules about mask wearing at orange.
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April 14, 2022 8:35am
- cmm
  
  It’s theatre and they want to keep the theatre going.
  
  While everyone keeps wearing masks in supermarkets, they can keep telling themselves we’re doing something.
  
  48 3
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  April 14, 2022 8:43am
  - curry4me
    
    I’m surprised more people haven’t applied for mask eemptions. Mine works fine.
    
    4 1
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    April 14, 2022 12:53pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Maybe the supermarket staff don’t want to see our faces when we pick up a tray of eye filet, or 500G of butter?
  Tararua salted butter $4 at the warehouse. $6.20 at the supermarket last Sat
  
  28 2
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  April 14, 2022 9:00am
- pdm
  
  Maggy – masks will have to be worn at least until we have a change of Government and even then I am not sure about Luxon on an issue like masks.
  
  20 2
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  April 14, 2022 9:16am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Depends if mask wearing gets votes – for both teams
    
    6 2
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    April 14, 2022 12:33pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Screw their rules. Make your own.
  
  20 2
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  April 14, 2022 9:22am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I would have thought he would have made the tiles, clearly not, or has Cindy gone and changed something after a cabinet decision, she is stupid enough to
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:42am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  I thought official numbers were closer to 1 million infections to date? Is there a known or reasonably well estimated under-reporting factor in play?
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:56am
  - Batman
    
    Estimated to be four times the number of recorded cases.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:41am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The known cases in NZ are from those that have had a confirmed test…
    That is NOT a measure of the number of folks who have been infected.
    
    Most epidemiologists agree that the confirmed number is an underestimate of the true number of infections.
    They estimate that the true number of infections is anywhere from 2-6X the confirmed number.
    
    https://ourworldindata.org/covid-models
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:59am
- krazykiwi
  
  For we like sheep.
  
  6 3
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  April 14, 2022 10:19am
Maggie Pie

A lot of people find it funny that the local Butcher’s name is Dick Hogg.
But had to smirk to myself last night tho, when I heard them talking about Spagetti Junction being closed for maintenance over Easter….turns out Waka-Kotahi-Tamaki-Makarau-me-Te-Tau-Tokerau Regional Manager’s name is Jacqui Hori.

LOL!!
36 9
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April 14, 2022 8:42am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  May as well close the bridge and fuck all of Auckland up
  
  21 3
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  April 14, 2022 9:04am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Don’t make jokes like that lest they become reality.
    
    12 2
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    April 14, 2022 9:48am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      It is control. I do remember the bridge being closed on Boxing Day (I think) The day that people go to the beach or bach in droves. All that happened just to control traffic buildups. Takes 3 times as long to get from A to B.
      
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      April 14, 2022 12:37pm
- Swifty
  
  Sorry, not in the least funny.
  
  9 4
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  April 14, 2022 9:10am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    I take it you don’t reside in Remmers then Swifto?
    
    4 7
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    April 14, 2022 11:17am
    - Swifty
      
      It’s Swifty thanks, Maggie Pie.
      
      7 3
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      April 14, 2022 11:29am
- Tony Stuart
  
  My father used to swear that in the 1930’s, there was a butcher’s shop in a small New Zealand town owned by Messrs Hitchcock and Scratchitt.
  
  8 0
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  April 14, 2022 2:17pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    And a Barber, surname Firkin.
    Get a firkin haircut
    
    7 1
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    April 14, 2022 2:52pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  If you had studiously studied Te Reo you would know that there is an “h” in spaghetti. Although you are a keen gardener you should not mock horiculture.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:01pm
I remember when

The devastating effects Covid-19 has on our brain: The daily digest:
And, that’s even before you are infected.
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April 14, 2022 8:46am
Rusty

[grossly offensive to victims of war and the pandemic. Do not attempt to repost, final warning – Mod]
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April 14, 2022 8:46am
- Rusty
  
  Dear moderators , my post was a sort of cynical observation. I wasn’t endorsing any of those points I made, but you see it a different way so I accept my telling off!
  
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  April 14, 2022 4:57pm
wisteria

I have just read the piece by Sara Templeton about wolf whistling and nasty comments on her various social media pages. My issue is not that this is not acceptable but why do people not just stop their own access and forget about them. The people who matter most in one’s life are those that are either standing in front of them or on a personal phone call. Maybe much of the “mental health issues” can be traced to social media. Turn it off.
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April 14, 2022 8:47am
- Batman
  
  Yes, all the most successful politicians are famously offline and never use social platforms to communicate s/
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:31am
Yvette

Police response times
• Police Minister Poto Williams has cited COVID-19 disruption in defence of slower response times for police help in almost all regions under Labour’s leadership.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/04/poto-williams-blames-covid-19-disruption-for-slower-police-response-times-under-labour.html

• ‘I’ve looked at the numbers’: Slower police response time data ‘conflated’ – Ardern
“What has been conflated here is, for instance, the fact that when you separate out the emergency response times by police … that has changed, over five years by about 39 seconds – despite the incredible demands on them over the last 12 months.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/i-ve-looked-at-the-numbers-slower-police-response-time-data-conflated-ardern/ar-AAW4rz9?li=AAFtepJ

So Poto Williams acknowledges there are longer police delays
Ardern claims “that has changed, over five years by about 39 seconds”
They can not both be right – so which one is not telling the truth?
Perhaps a minor point, but it all adds up
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April 14, 2022 8:47am
Maggy Wassilieff

New paper in the Lancet on myopericarditis after vaccination

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(22)00059-5/fulltext
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April 14, 2022 8:49am
- I remember when
  
  Do we need to know whether myopericarditis is possible if you have been vaccinated and then get covid.
  Does vaccination double the chances.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:58am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  They’re saying 1 in 30000, but I saw a hong kong study months back that had 1 in 2700 for teenage boys. who to believe? And how does it square with the extra 2000+ deaths we saw in nz (compared to 2020) during the first 6 months of the vaccination program in 2021?
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:00am
slightlyrighty

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/128356592/wellington-welcomes-australian-visitors-in-next-stage-of-border-reopening

I see our PM was at the Airport chatting to arrivals.

Has she no shame? She was the one stopping people coming into the country for years, and now she turns up to show how who lovely she is for the tourists and those of us her policies have kept out.

There is nothing that she won’t try to politicise.
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April 14, 2022 8:49am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  What the hell is the point of that FFS she can’t run the country, but she would rather skylark at the airport, what possible success was that, many of the people getting off the plane were families that weee angry they had missed funerals and birthdays, the last person they wanted to see was the dictator in chief
  
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  April 14, 2022 11:12am
- Ehlana
  
  Why is she at the Airport?
  
  I thought the idea was to encourage Australian tourists to come here. Silly me.
  
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  April 14, 2022 12:12pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  But did you see the photo? That’s going to launch a few memes, of that I have no doubt!
  
  https://twitter.com/TonyStuart55/status/1514314633532022784
  
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  April 14, 2022 2:19pm
  - Nickc2
    
    A Scare Crow and a Kiwi, which is which?
    
    4 1
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    April 14, 2022 2:21pm
Rich Prick

Mask rules: you can pash in a nightclub, but you have to mask up at the gas station. Labour is stupid: convince me I’m wrong.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-omicron-orange-day-dawns-after-curve-flattened-and-return-to-office-looms-for-many/QJAH6Y4XNJV3O2AMCHVHCLTESI/
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April 14, 2022 8:53am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “I DID THIS!!!!”
  
  18 2
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  April 14, 2022 9:06am
- Ehlana
  
  You don’t need a mask outdoors though, Rich Prick.
  
  So just avoid the indoor gas stations…
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:29am
  - Rich Prick
    
    You ought to take a wander along Lambton Quay. Lemming land.
    
    13 3
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    April 14, 2022 11:41am
    - artemisia
      
      I did just that yesterday. You are 100% correct. Probably more than 80% masked up. Outside.
      
      And what is more plenty of social distancing as the pedestrian traffic in Lambton Quay was low as a low thing.
      
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      April 14, 2022 12:38pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  My Mobil station has changed to ‘pay at the pump’. Very convenient and no queuing up to pay. Is this the future?
  Not so good for those wankers who have to buy coffee and pies and hold everyone else up though.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:38am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Couldn’t agree with you more Cap!
    
    It appears to be a very special type of person that stops in for breakfast 😀
    
    14 5
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    April 14, 2022 9:59am
    - Nickc2
      
      YAY! Recognised at last, I’m special. It’s taken a while. TKS Maggie.
      
      10 2
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      April 14, 2022 10:13am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      Another advantage. Drive-offs will be a bit difficult.
      
      12 1
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      April 14, 2022 10:17am
      - James Stephenson
        
        That’s the trade-off. You force people to pre-pay for gas but you lose on impulse buys of chocolate and fizzy drinks.
        
        10 0
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        April 14, 2022 10:22am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Especially if you leave your card behind.
        
        4 5
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        April 14, 2022 10:28am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Our GAS station installed theirs a few weeks ago. Good for 24hr access too.
    
    9 1
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    April 14, 2022 10:26am
  - graham
    
    Yep, back in the good old days when I was actually driving into the office I was forever getting held up at the local BP by the hordes of people buying their coffees.
    
    Gave up and went to the Gull just around the corner.
    
    12 0
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    April 14, 2022 10:30am
    - MCōs
      
      I’ve never bought coffee or food at a petrol station in NZ.
      I don’t like eating/drinking in the vehicle. I like to lounge around in a cafe passing the time of day chatting with whoever I’m with in a civilized manner.
      Furthermore
      I never prepay for petrol, except at Gull.
      
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      April 14, 2022 12:44pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Who are the violent extremists?

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/extremist-or-freedom-fighter-nzs-double-standard
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April 14, 2022 8:54am
- Yvette
  
  Maggy Wassilieff
  In fact, the sense of Ardern Government’s response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, not only is rhetoric but also now actual actions to incite violence, or be construed as that, against the minority that Russia now is.
  Let Jacinda and Chris Faafoi define “hate speech” to accomodate that.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:04am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The ‘powder puffs’ are worried about how the men will behave at home after returning from conflict.
  Where do these idiots come from? How do the think families of men in the SAS survive when back home?
  Uni degrees on human behaviour are just fantastic/
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:14am
  - RichardX
    
    Yes…because PTSD isn’t real//
    
    8 1
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    April 14, 2022 10:49am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Without the // PTSD is very real, two of my Uncles had it.
      My original point was people in usually Govt positions think they know what is good for us, when they have and never been in the position of a SAS personel, let alone a volunteer mercenary.
      
      9 2
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      April 14, 2022 12:43pm
      - cjn
        
        I find the expression “volunteer mercenary” puzzling. They are being paid? By whom? I wish that the politicians and the chattering classes in NZ had allowed Ardern to help the Ukrainians with her idea of donating to International Red Cross. I would like Ukraine and Russia to negotiate and for NATO to withdraw from the country . The inevitable endgame is being postponed by the hawks in US,UK,EU and now NZ. Meantime both sides bleed.
        
        4 0
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        April 14, 2022 2:01pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Add: very hard to converse with Uncles, who had seen things I will never see. Families were fine, visits were fine, but I soon got the message not to ask anymore. PTSD was not even known in the 60s.
        Uncles in the Forces with a German surname was hard for them – and I have had my share of shit too.
        Grandfather came to NZ before WW1 – from South Afrika!
        
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        April 14, 2022 4:02pm
      - Jack5
        
        Steve Otto’s …Uncles in the Forces with a German surname was hard for them.
        
        But not for Freyberg or Kippenberger.
        
        4 0
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        April 14, 2022 8:19pm
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        CJN,
        If NATO got out of Ukraine none of this awfulness would ever have happened.
        Jack5 at 8.19 p.m. = brilliant.
        
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        April 14, 2022 9:08pm
- Taieri
  
  Interesting discipline, the Peace Studies…
  What do they actually study? According to the University of Otago web page:
  
  Peace Education
  Nonviolence
  Femicide
  Genocide
  Gendercide
  Suicide
  Peace and Conflict Studies
  Cultural Violence/Nonviolence
  Yogic Peace Education
  Curricular Analysis
  Personal Peacebuilding
  Encounter Theory
  Sex/Gender
  Human Rights
  Human Security
  Conflict Resilience
  Trauma and Recovery
  Peace Pedagogy
  Resilience
  Cyber Violence
  
  “Personal Peacebuilding” is the most intriguing one, I think…
  
  9 1
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  April 14, 2022 10:42am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    What the hell is Yogic Peace Education? Sounds mind numbing
    
    7 2
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    April 14, 2022 12:46pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Yoga, Gandhi and Peacebuilding
      https://www.mkgandhi.org/articles/yoga-as-a-tool-in-peace-education.html#:~:text=As%20Peace%20Education%20aims%20at,that%20a%20proper%20integration%20of
      
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      April 14, 2022 5:00pm
    - Jack5
      
      Otago University “peace department” at war within itself.
      
      https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/campus/peace-being-outweighed-conflict
      
      3 0
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      April 14, 2022 8:22pm
  - curry4me
    
    You left out the most important unit of all from “Peace Studies”. Applied BS.
    
    4 1
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    April 14, 2022 1:00pm
Swifty

“From my plush, well-equipped offices in Brandon Street, Wellington and Shortland Street in Auckland I look upon recent information from the equally well-appointed offices of AUT and I see that there are differences in what people are paid.

Much of these differences can be explained – age, education, length of time in the workforce etc but some of the difference cannot be explained so I am going to leap to the conclusion (because my job depends on it) that the remaining gaps especially those between the ‘races’ are all down to racism, bias and discrimination – with a strong undertone that this is more evidence of the sins of white people.

As a result of this observation I am now going to throw my weight about, stomp my feet and demand other people change what they are doing so that I can feel more self-righteous about myself and be feted and lauded as a kind, caring person.

What people have to do differently I have no idea. I have thought of the pay gap register and helped put that in place but now I am out of ideas.

Of course, that perfectly sums up the role of the NZ Human Rights Commission; from our well-padded chairs point out things in NZ society which offend our sensibilities and demand others do something about them.

The impacts on people as a result of ‘doing something’ – the cost, the regulatory burden, the extra load, the chipping away of freedoms, giving away our confidentiality, the unforeseen consequences – I don’t give two hoots about. That’s someone else’s problem.

It’s sufficient for me to look about the nation, point to something and label it using the evil-of-the-day, racism, and now I can swan off nationally and around the world to receive the adulation and praise due to me for pointing out what has existed since people first developed society – that some do better than others.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/the-house/audio/2018838117/urgency-called-for-as-parliament-committee-works-on-pay-gaps

“How that is done, Mr Goldsmith, I would say that that is not the role of HRC to prescribe that, but it’s something that our unions and our businesses and bodies perhaps like the EMA (Employers and Manufacturers Association) can help to develop,” Dr Sumeo said.

Well, I’ve got two responses to Dr Sumeo:

1. I take it the irony is lost on her that Dr Sumeo a brown, immigrant woman has reached such a lofty position in the racist, bigoted, cesspit of discrimination called New Zealand.

2. Both working and currently unemployed no or low-skilled Maori and Pacific and women need to be very careful about joining Dr Sumeo’s clamour for ‘something to be done’. And so should anyone else who values these people being in work.

Dr Sumeo has made it plain that she wants to see every firm and organisation in the country, large and small, public and private create and maintain racial and gender pay gap registers.

Strong evidence coming from overseas, particularly the States, show that firms respond to gaps by doing two things; favouring women and ‘minorities’ in higher-paying positions but also ceasing putting women and ‘minorities’ in lower paying positions – preferring instead white males.

This is for the simple reason that putting women and, in our case Maori and Pacific, people in those positions helps maintain instead of close the gaps – so it looks bad on their numbers.

I restate – the practical effect of these pay gap registers and the demonisation of owners and managers of firms and organisations who have stubborn gaps will be to limit job opportunities for women, Maori and Pacific people, especially the young and unskilled.

Let’s also encourage Dr Sumeo to not lose sight of the far, far bigger elephant in the room with regard to New Zealanders having equal opportunities in life – by addressing the appalling, scandalous failure of our largely government monopoly education system which fails Maori and Pacific people in huge numbers.

Large numbers of such youth leave school barely or unable to read, speak, write and add up.
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April 14, 2022 8:58am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  Hah!
  
  I’ve just finished reading a stuff opinion piece, Embracing our cultural history and te reo Māori by Ben Kepes, which he begins by explaining the success in IT of a mate with wrong political views – white middle-aged male – as partly hard work, partly ‘white privilege’. How big a part white privilege played he doesn’t say; exactly which features of white privilege prevented his Maori peers from succeeding, he also neglects to mention. Kepes could be right or wrong, but without further information this is just unsubstantiated dogma.
  
  After some personal history, the end of the piece is a moan (I think – his phrasing is a bit ambiguous) that only a few at a professional development meeting introduced themselves in Maori, ‘a beautiful way of grounding oneself in one’s place, people and history, perhaps a pepeha that recognises one’s ‘maunga, awa, iwi or whanau’ which is desirable as a great way to ‘pay respect to a language and culture, and provide a little bit of balance to, at times dark, history of our country.’
  
  Kepes didn’t identify the ethnicities and languages of the participants, explain why most of us, growing up in cities, should have a mountain and river, what relevance the participants’ families were to the proceedings, or why at a development meeting the participants should pay respect to anything other than the purpose of the meeting.
  
  Such are the ethnic obsessions du jour.
  
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  April 14, 2022 4:37pm
Prince

I’m still waiting for some intrepid journalist to ask Ardern/Hipkins how many Covid deaths they consider are ‘acceptable’ ..
Same question as they asked Bridges/Collins/Luxon every time they dare criticise.
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April 14, 2022 9:06am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Per capita we are now one of the worst case numbers in the world, we are now 71 in the world with such a small population, 800k cases, and a huge number of cases not reported just in the people I know, one reason they did not report, many had issues with the blocked website and said stuff it, or was that the plan
  
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  April 14, 2022 11:16am
- Ehlana
  
  Or to ask why, if we considered over 800 deaths from influenza and pneumonia in 2019 to be acceptable, they are now so obsessed with no-one dying from Covid, regardless of the cost?
  
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  April 14, 2022 1:19pm
Lee C

Watch this by Chantelle Baker for the danger to our democracy inserted into our lives by ‘covid’ -https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4992731480812443&aggr_v_ids[0]=4992731480812443&aggr_v_ids[1]=565841041323642&notif_id=1649873442955333&notif_t=watch_follower_video&ref=notif
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April 14, 2022 9:11am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Lee, can you repost? I would like to see that but the link not working
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:18am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Highlight the URL, copy and paste into new browser works.
  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4992731480812443&aggr_v_ids%5B0%5D=4992731480812443&aggr_v_ids%5B1%5D=565841041323642&notif_id=1649873442955333&notif_t=watch_follower_video&ref=notif
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:20am
- kevn
  
  @Lee… Is this the beginning of a slow unraveling of Xi’s dream? The nightmare of Shanghai residents.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:27am
- RdM
  
  https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=4992731480812443
  
  alone takes you to the same video.
  (Different selection of silly ones underneath though.)
  
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  April 14, 2022 11:54am
graham

So who didn’t see this coming … (/sarc)

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/employment-court-customs-doesnt-know-what-tikanga-principles-it-breached-in-sacking-worker/4ZVL3ZGDJ5WOZA57AQGKDDFUGQ/

New Zealand Customs dismissed a worker for failing to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The worker has turned around and said he’s going to challenge the case using principles of Māori customs and how they related to the workplace.

Part of the former employee’s claim was that Customs failed to act in accordance with tikanga principles relevant to the employment relationship, including its own whanonga pono (values).

To act in accordance with tikanga is to behave in a way that is culturally proper or appropriate.

Should be interesting to see the outcome of this one. If the former employee wins his case, on the basis that Customs failed to “behave in a way that is culturally proper or appropriate”, I can see that opening the floodgates.

And you have to laugh … NZ Customs asked for a clearer explanation from the former employee, saying it did not know what “other tikanga principles” the plaintiff contended were relevant and which it was alleged to have breached.

But the judge declined their request, saying she was satisfied that sufficient information had been provided to inform the defendant of the case to enable them to take steps to respond.
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April 14, 2022 9:13am
MCōs

Last evening I watched a two part documentary on Netflix about Jimmy Savile.
That guy was definition of creep.
It’s only when I saw his long ‘career’ condensed down into a couple of hours it became apparent to me how predatory he was.
No mates, no home, hang around for years in children’s hospitals . . .
The amazing thing was how many people knew he was a pedophile and even talked about it; well known people.
Very disturbing.
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April 14, 2022 9:17am
- All_on_Red
  
  Johnny Rotten condemned Saville in an interview he did in 1978.
  The BBC suppressed it.
  Here’s an interview Johnny did with Piers Morgan and they have a Clip of it.
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esKnWAIgpLY
  To me, those who enable Grooming are just as bad as the Groomers.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:54am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Here’s evidence that Rikki Fulton (Scottish Comedian) and probably others knew back in the 1980s that something very nasty was up with Savile… but Savile was well protected by his media mates.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMecf6jUhAU
  
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  April 14, 2022 11:34am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I haven’t seen the Netflix doco yet, but I have read a couple of books about Savile, and it defies belief that senior management at the Beeb could claim not to know what was going on. Savile’s abuse was quite literally happening in full view, yet some very powerful people were protecting and enabling him.
  
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  April 14, 2022 2:24pm
- Observer of Life
  
  Ditto MCos. I remember watching him on Jim’ll Fix It when I lived in England back in the ‘80’s. He made my skin crawl then. After watching it, it confirms how disgusting he actually was. Boy so many people fell for it all.
  
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  April 14, 2022 6:02pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  How do you think future New Zealanders will regard Jacinda & her crew?
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:57pm
Maggie Pie

We happened to catch the hit-piece Andrew Bolt ran last night on that nasty little whiney weasel Labor wannabe Prime Minister …. Anthony Albanese. (Elbow to his friends)

He’s had a complete make-over according to Bolty.
Changed his hairstyle, ironed his suit, even got silly looking new glasses.
My partner reckons he ain’t got a sh*t-show anyway.

Watching him actually reminded me a wee bit of Angry Andy.
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April 14, 2022 9:22am
- Frank the tank
  
  Unfortunately he’ll romp home as the Aussies are looking for a change. Elbow is following the old coot’s example and not doing and saying too much.
  
  My best mate in Brisvegas calls him Australia’s answer to Kelvin Davis. Apparently he is that bad. Watch for Plibersek to roll him in 12 months time as history repeats as Australia Labour rolls an incompetent male for a competent female.
  
  And for entertainment watch the 2 foreign ministers attempt to “outradical” each other as Penny Wong meets our Tainui Princess.
  
  Then there are the specials in their inner circle such as Joel Fitzgibbon, Bill Shorten and “Hollywood” Kristina that wouldn’t be out of place in our gong show of a government.
  
  Trans Tasman diplomacy certainly won’t be a Mensa conference for the next 18-odd months.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:44am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not so sure, Sco Moo is the preferred pm in polls still, and they are no where as far behind as they were in the polls in 2019
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:18am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      I heard that Albanese decided that he’d invent a nickname like ScoMo did, by taking the first two letters of his Christian and surnames. Do you think AnAl will catch on?
      
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      April 14, 2022 2:26pm
  - waripori
    
    He should romp in. The coalition have accumulated years of stuff ups and bad publicity and the post covid desire for change should be enough for a comfortable win for Labor. Problem might be Albanese. He has been around in Aussie politics since Bob Hawke ran the show and the Aussies have never liked him. Anyone can forget a number even a critical one and get away with it. Should be able to laugh that off. He didn’t . He looked panicked and then terrified. Next day he shut down the presser and made up a story about being an economic policy advisor to Hawke. Still early and plenty of time for Morrison to stuff up but sometimes this sort of loss of momentum can create pressure which leads to more problems. Labor plan has been to copy Biden and hide in the basement. May not be able to do that now.
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:37am
- pdm
  
  Maggie – he is sure proving to be a bumbling dickhead. Would match up well with Ms Ardern.
  
  Stupid and more Stupid.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:46am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Dumb and Dumber.
    
    12 2
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    April 14, 2022 9:49am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Elbows thought their OCR was 5.1/2% Woods thought ours was 2% and she is associate finance minister
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:48am
  - Ehlana
    
    Did anyone ask if our actual finance minister knows?
    
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    April 14, 2022 1:24pm
- Nickc2
  
  Same stock as Angry Andy. He was a Trade Union official of some sort.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:21am
- MCōs
  
  I don’t think Australians care much for their politicians otherwise Jacinda Ardern wouldn’t be more trusted over there than their own wretched bunch.
  However
  Some of the reporters are so piss weak a good cup of milo would knock them over.
  Witness this sorry arse learner get blown away by the leader of the Greens.
  https://twitter.com/flashnewsau/status/1514098590527811586?s=21&t=aHqWPkhkPT12b908F3ZvEw
  
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  April 14, 2022 3:10pm
Lee C

The mistruths and BS about vaccinations:
https://www.bitchute.com/video/VrjcQygFRPwt/?fbclid=IwAR0j_yOdxaHkXYBoKTp4o8Fr1sZB8IFm4OEI52adkOCq5Ywlt60Sy94wgnI
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April 14, 2022 9:29am
Nickc2

To whoever did it, thanks for bringing the old KB format back. Much appreciated.
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April 14, 2022 9:39am
Maggie Pie

A lot of people reckoned Monica Lewinsky had bad taste in men.

Looking at Bill today I think they may have been right 🙁

https://twitter.com/NahBabeeNah/status/1513965415646564357
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April 14, 2022 9:51am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Keith Richards outlived Michael Jackson – never thought that would happen
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:14am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Speaking of which, how do you know when it’s time to go to bed at Michael Jackson’s house?
    
    When the big hand touches the little hand.
    
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    April 14, 2022 10:29am
    - Jimmy Brown
      
      Michael Jackson was out sailing when he fell overboard. They found him 10 minutes later clinging to a bouy.
      I’ll get my coat.
      
      23 1
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      April 14, 2022 10:31am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        And he stopped off at McDonalds for a Michael Jackson burger on the way home.
        
        What’s that? A 40-year-old piece of meat between 12 year old buns.
        
        I’ll meet you outside.
        
        22 1
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        April 14, 2022 11:14am
    - Swifty
      
      Heh.
      
      10 0
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      April 14, 2022 10:59am
    - Biscuit
      
      Loddenthinks, and the sign that (apparently) someone erected outside Neverland once:
      
      YOU MUST BE UNDER THIS HEIGHT TO BE RIDDEN BY MICHAEL
      
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      April 14, 2022 12:54pm
    - Mike
      
      Pedophile jokes – I find them a bit childish myself.
      
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      April 14, 2022 3:05pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Keith Richard’s snd cockroaches survive nuclear war
    
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    April 14, 2022 11:20am
- Frank the tank
  
  In fairness 40+ years with Hillary would kill 99% of men.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:14am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Lady Nancy Astor: “Sir, if you were my husband, I’d poison your tea.”
    
    Winston Churchill: “Ma’am, if you were my wife, I’d drink it!”
    
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    April 14, 2022 1:54pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Ok, so true story. My next door neighbour Fred* is an Oscar winning movie director. I’ve held Fred’s Oscar. It’s kinda heavy. Fred has an uncanny ‘Bill Clinton-like’ appearance, something Mrs kk noted as they moved in 4 years ago. As we got to know them he has shared a few Holywood stories, and one of these is going to a party where mid-evening Monica Lewinsky walked in. She took one look at Fred and immediately spun round and fled. Fred never got to meet Monica and said he wished he had, which earned him an elbow in the ribs from his wife 🙂
  
  *not his real name.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:16am
- cas
  
  I always think I won’t click on your links Maggie and then I do and more often than not it is worth it.
  
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  April 14, 2022 10:24am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She had a bad taste in her mouth they say
  
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  April 14, 2022 11:19am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Bill went vegan
  https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-08-2013/bill-clinton-vegan.html
  
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  April 14, 2022 2:32pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Ahhh….that will explain why he looks like he does today then.
    
    It’s not poor ol’ Hills fault after all 😛
    
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    April 14, 2022 3:40pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    His self chosen misery entertains me.
    
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    April 14, 2022 6:50pm
Tasman devil

I reject the premise of the criticisms of the government.
I have no idea why but I am.
What’s a premise?
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April 14, 2022 9:54am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Tea is an evil substance. Tea is much more dangerous than beer!
I discovered this last night. I had drunk 14 beers at the pub up until 3am while my wife was drinking Tea at home. You should have seen how angry and violent she was when I got home! I was peaceful, silent and headed for bed as she shouted at me, all night and into the morning.
Please Ladies, if you can’t handle your Tea, then just don’t drink it.
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April 14, 2022 10:03am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Can’t we just have a place for all the socialists to go and live with each other and be happy?
Every few weeks we could send them the aid they’d need to stay alive. In return they could write us long essays on why capitalism has failed.
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April 14, 2022 10:11am
Maggie Pie

And remember I posted on GD yesterday about the drug-dealer in Mangere disguising himself as a Jehovah’s Witness?

Talk of the devil…..

https://twitter.com/JeromeChandra/status/1514363447848230916
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April 14, 2022 10:17am
Loddenthinks

You have to laugh – Northern Ireland women’s soccer/football coach laments the fact that his team often concedes another goal shortly after the other team scores, which they do. Says it’s because women are more emotional than men, which (as a rule) they absolutely are.

Women immediately howl him down in a rather emotional way.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/61094432
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April 14, 2022 10:26am
bjools

Just had a major argument/discussion with Hutt City council rates dept.
They mistakenly charged me late payment penalties.
All sorted now, but was staggered to learn that their penalty was 5% of outstanding balance every 2 months.
That’s, cumulatively, 30% PA…. that’s about 50% higher than credit card rates.
Extortion?
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April 14, 2022 10:58am
- Swifty
  
  They’ll whack you mercilessly if your payments are late, but they can then waste the same payments on frivolous spending and with impunity.
  
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  April 14, 2022 12:05pm
- peterwn
  
  See https://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2002/0006/latest/DLM131394.html sections 57 and 58.
  If the Council methodology falls within that, then it is legit. It is a ‘penalty’, not late payment interest. IRD would be similar.
  It is a complex process for a Council to have to go to court to arrange a rating sale, and the Council may be left out of pocket on some court costs if the (non)ratepayer (eg the late Penny Bright) chooses to fight the rates payment.
  Years ago a disgruntled ratepayer paid his rates less one penny with the intention of creating bureaucratic mayhem. He was however cut off at the pass when the Town Clerk pulled one penny out of his pocket and gave it to his staff to clear the deficit.
  
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  April 14, 2022 12:11pm
oldfella

3News sport segment led last night with a story about the BLT+++ community offering sensitivity training to the Warriors after a player got stood down for 4 games.
Does anyone else think that was a bit of a harsh penalty for calling an opponent a bundle of sticks and branches?
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April 14, 2022 11:33am
- Yabster
  
  yep- the woman on the clip -wouldn’t have a clue about competitive sport – most men wouldn’t give a toss if someone called them names -still have a beer afterwards.
  
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  April 14, 2022 12:37pm
- rockape
  
  When I chop my woodlot I always turn the twigs into faggots. A faggot is a great way to start a fire. Piles of twigs are far harder to store.
  
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  April 14, 2022 1:44pm
oldfella

Tenants ordered to pay landlord more than $30,000 for meth contamination
That’s the horrid headline. Seems straightforward enough. But, wait, when you get to the bottom of the story and it says…
The tribunal ruled the tenants had intentionally damaged the property by committing an unlawful act.
They were therefore liable for costs and ordered to immediately pay the landlord $13,572.
The compensation covered the insurance excess, $6137 for the meth testing, $1000 exemplary damages, and for replacement of the blinds, rangehood and heat pump.
The tenants’ bond of $2400 was also to be paid to the landlord, the tribunal ruled.
Not sure about you, but no way that those add up to $30K.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/tenants-ordered-to-pay-landlord-more-than-30000-for-meth-contamination/FMQDRGMOGLWQU3BAW4T3EUF64Y/
And of course no way the landlord will ever get the money the tribunal awarded him.
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April 14, 2022 11:45am
oldfella

Don’t you just love the Sun UK headline…
POOTUS Bird POOPS on Joe Biden during infrastructure speech today in Iowa as president trolled for ‘talking ‘s***’ on Twitter
Yep, a bird shat on old Joe during a speech.
https://www.the-sun.com/news/5111480/bird-poops-joe-biden-during-infrastructure-speech-today-iowa/
Is that as bad as having a dildo thrown at you?
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April 14, 2022 11:53am
rockape

Looks like more egg on face for Andrew Little. The legal advice on Nurses pay is that back pay for 26 months could not be negotiated away. So the pay equity won’t even be put to nurses now. They have said nurses are owed about 7k more a year so can’t backtrack on that. The negotiation is now that they will have to front with the backpay. That will be close to an average of 20k per nurse. Get the check book out Robbo or have nurses strike during the Covid ,flue season. Nurses are angrier than I have ever seen them.
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April 14, 2022 12:10pm
- Nickc2
  
  …and Angry Andy’s a Trade Union Lawyer FFS.
  More Govt ineptitude. Will Angry get the chop, moved aside, or retire gracefully? Short answer, none of the aforementioned.
  Taxpayers will foot the bill for his incompetence and as far as Cindy’s concerned, life will continue at an even greater rush towards Totalitarianism.
  
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  April 14, 2022 12:18pm
  - Keith White
    
    Every time I wonder aloud if this Labour lot can get any more incompetent, I worry that someone is listening and reporting back to Control and they take it on as a challenge.
    
    Hey, just because I’m paranoid does not mean they’re not spying on me 🙂
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:53pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSJ7dbK4skM
Is Elon Musk Just Trolling Twit-ter?

Elon Musk has become Twi-tter’s biggest shareholder, and it’s unsurprisingly dividing Twit-ter. Will he return the platform to the days of online free speech or will he make it a bastion for bullying and hate speech? Is he going to bring major changes to Twit-ter, or is he just buying up shares to troll it? What is clear is that everyone’s watching Musk’s next moves. [10:08]
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April 14, 2022 12:29pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUJJ5fOqXXI
China Delivers Missiles to Serbia.

Chinese military planes have been spotted delivering anti-aircraft missiles to Serbia. This has raised concerns in the West about Serbia relying on an authoritarian country for its defense needs. At least the West hopes it’s just about defense—there are also concerns it could be arming itself to take back its former province Kosovo. Watch this episode of China Uncensored for more on the Serbia-China relationship, what this could mean for Serbia’s efforts to join the EU and what NATO has to do with the Serbia-Kosovo conflict. [11:52]
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April 14, 2022 12:30pm
I remember when

An american wind energy company has admitted killing at least 150 bald and golden eagles, most of which were fatally struck by turbine blades.
As part of a plea agreement, ESI Energy was sentenced to more than NZ$11.6 million in fines and five years probation.
It will implement up to $27m in measures to minimise future eagle injuries and deaths.
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April 14, 2022 12:31pm
rockape

I have listened to Littles presser. He must have mentioned “ binding agreement” a dozen times. You would think an ex union lawyer would know that it isn’t a binding agreement till the union members vote on it and they haven’t. What Little should do now is give nurses their pay rise now and speedily settle the backpay issue. I am sure the nurses would support a figure around 15k, less than the backpay but enough to keep them onside. Does he really want to lose the support of over 100,000 union members?
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April 14, 2022 12:53pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  A former union official who can’t get a union on side.
  How much more incompetent can he be?
  
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  April 14, 2022 2:01pm
- Warren
  
  The biggest failure in the work place that New Zealand has ever seen whether as boss of the Union or as a Politician couldn’t run a brewery piss up .
  
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  April 14, 2022 3:15pm
  - rockape
    
    Have we forgotten the 4 million in union funds that was misplaced and never found under Littles watch !
    
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    April 15, 2022 10:40am
- bjools
  
  a classic example of….don’t make promises you either can’t keep or have no intention of keeping.
  
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  April 14, 2022 7:21pm
Swifty

Imagine if they lost their power……

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-t9rtS0YSc

Some might say this applies equally well in NZ.
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April 14, 2022 1:22pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

Scary to see that the black dude who shot up the NY Subway yesterday, even had his own YouTube channel….
‘prophet oftruth88’

An absolute racist and a very angry man by the sound of things 🙁

https://youtu.be/4YpJSad7kic
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April 14, 2022 2:09pm
- Keith White
  
  He cannot be a racist; according to very many spokeswombles in NZ, only white people can be racist.
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:50pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Video unavailable. So who is the cancel culture person who did this? YouTube or NZ busybodies?
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April 14, 2022 3:02pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Well they’ve just taken them all down it would appear SteveO!
  How on earth this maniac was able to get away with using YouTube for the promotion of his racist hate for sooo long needs to be investigated. Surely this should have been brought to the attention of Homeland Security yonks back?
  
  Even saw the NY Mayor on Fox earlier, calling for an expanded Police presence in the Subway.
  He was saying…. “Cameras simply don’t cut it. You need the sight of armed police in greater numbers patrolling the area. That is the ‘Gold Standard’ for deterrence”
  
  Made me think what they consider to be the Standard for our own Cops?
  
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  April 14, 2022 3:36pm
Jack5

Southern Te Rrrrreo …

Invercargill, whose main streets are named for the rivers of Scotland whence pioneer white settlers came, seems keen to promote Maori street names in the city.

The campaign is led by the deputy mayor, Rebecca Amundsen, who once wanted to become mayor of her home city, W(h)anganui.

Amundsen, who is 39, moved to Invercargill in 2001 to study at the polytechnic, which had a zero-fees scheme, funded locally.

She studied for a bachelor’s degree in social anthropology from home, and in 2013 was elected to the council.

With the MP for Invercargill, Penny Simmonds, a former chief of the free polytechnic, making much of her maiden speech to Parliament in Maori, you have to wonder whether the Southern Institute of Technology has gone ~~rogue~~, oops, gone Woke.
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April 14, 2022 3:28pm
MCōs

Electricity is going up by 54% in the UK if I read this correctly & inflation is expected to hit 8%+
https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/ftse-european-stock-markets-inflation-economy-cac-dax-081232459.html
I also read the other day that British expats in Europe are now migrants and if they didn’t get themselves organized in time have only limited access to their houses in Spain or wherever.
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April 14, 2022 3:36pm
- fernglas
  
  Brits are now third country citizens in Europe since Brexit, and have to comply with the same rules as others, ie you can spend 90 days of each 180 in the Schengen area visa free. Oddly enough, Kiwis, Aussies, Americans and Canadians are often better off, as those countries have bi-lateral visa waiver agreements in place with many European countries, which in effect mean you can have 90 days in the Schengen area, a further 90 in a particular country, such as Germany or Spain, then leave the Schengen area (to Ireland, the UK etc) and return within a coiuple of days to start the whole procedure over again.
  
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  April 15, 2022 1:08am
rockape

The nurses pay equity gets even worse. The union lawyers have now put out that trying to deny backpay is against the Equal Pay Act Now you would think an ex union lawyer would know that. It is illegal to not give the backpay as it was part of the Mecca agreement that it would be backdated. Poor old angry Andy, your boss is going to be most upset ! Any chance of you being in the leadership race post Ardern and her election loss just flew out the window ! Not sure the unions 2ill want you back either !
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April 14, 2022 3:43pm
- rockape
  
  NZNO told 1News Little had “jumped the gun” and that it was currently preparing a communication to its members.
  
  It said a statement would be issued later today.
  
  That statement said the proposed settlement was contrary to the Fair Pay Act, which states a settlement that “contains a term that reduces an employee’s employment agreement entitlements has no effect. The proposed settlement agreement conflicts with this rule as it removes a large part of the contractual back pay entitlement previously agreed.”
  Suck that up Mr Little !
  
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  April 14, 2022 4:14pm
surfing

Interesting how mortgage rates are increasing but savings rates are not.
5 0
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April 14, 2022 4:20pm
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION…..

How many Kiwis were killed to make Louisa Wall’s feather cloak?

Asking for a friend.
17 2
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April 14, 2022 5:04pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Maggie, have you been advising the Russian government on how to laugh at their stupidity. I ask this because trending this morning Ukrainian Time.
  
  “Russian ship that guards on Snake Island (Black Sea) told to go f**k itself, is now F***ED!
  
  Oh dar, seems like Vlad’s war in the South is going the same way as it did in North Ukraine@
  
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  April 14, 2022 8:17pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    This is just bullshit Ukrainian propaganda, The truth is that the missile cruiser Moskva has been promoted to submarine for the glory of Rodina!
    
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    April 14, 2022 9:12pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  More than the number of Kiwis killed to make the cloak worn during her maiden speech?
  
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  April 14, 2022 9:10pm
bjools

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300566366/covid19-new-zealand-heads-into-easter-with-fewer-rules-than-ever
So this clowns definition of “ever” is 2 odd yeas….how old is he…two?
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April 14, 2022 7:17pm
chukar

Late at night so won’t get the attention it needs.
But further to my earlier “one government “ comment.
Labour has today appointed their Parliamentary commissioner for the Environment.
Simon Upton , late of National
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April 14, 2022 8:58pm
hullkiwi

Russians want bragging rights for f***in their own flagship.

I say let them have them, it will only show they are piss poor sailors and have learnt nothing in 22 years (and we all know how that ended, glug, glug)…..
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April 14, 2022 9:46pm
wilderbeast

Random thought: five years ago we couldn’t have possibly seen coming the recent shift to tribal governance and electoral structures and associated erosion of the “one person one vote” model that has (more or less) constituted democracy in NZ since anyone can remember. What will things look like in another five years?
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April 14, 2022 9:56pm

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