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June 21, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 21 June 2022

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General Debate

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Warren

Conflict of Interests? Director tied to Kiwi Bank contracts to RNZ.
When is the Country going to wake up Labour their Finance Minister and the Reserve Bank Governor, just like the voting on election day at the By Election on Saturday Labour Minister’s think they are untouchable on the decisions they make. Oh the Intitled and what they perceive.
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June 21, 2022 8:00am
- alex Masterley
  
  If this had happened with the Nats in government the cacophony of protest would last for weeks and drown out everything else, but now we get this insipid piece.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:29am
  - leoj
    
    No Milky, McDonald or Batman either.
    
    How odd?
    
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    June 21, 2022 10:49am
    - iMP
      
      Thank you Jesus!
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:15am
    - Frank the tank
      
      Bat ain’t left he is just a loopy liberal in regards to his social politics – think Malcolm Turnbull. So i’d argue he ain’t no fan of this.
      
      To link him with Mikey and big Bri isn’t fair.
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:42am
- lastmanstanding
  
  Before the White Man arrived Maori had no concept of democracy. They were ruled by self appointed Chiefs. Nothing has changed. I give you the Mahutas as evidence.
  Since the latest round of “full and final settlements” I have seen no evidence that the lot of ordinary Maori has improved. In fact the opposite. They feature at the top of eveny negative statistic. Why is this? I say because politicains of all colours and stripes lack the capacity capability and most inportant the will to change the situation.
  Worse some want to have a whipping boy WhiteMotherF…..s to blame for the politicians behaviour.
  I say a curse on all of them for deliberately and knowingly failing in their duty to improve the lot of ordinary Maori.
  I say may they live in interesting times.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:39am
  - namron
    
    The outcomes of the CHOICES we make in many areas of life will determine how our life goes.
    Commonsense, cogitation, observation of others,
    legal restrictions etc etc will give an idea of the best option, although individual differences should be a major determinant.
    Government interference will usually just “muddy the waters” and favour their political supporters.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:01am
  - Jack5
    
    Respected former central bank staffer, one of the few in the world to run a blog, NZ’s Michael Reddell, rips into the appointment of Kiwbank’s Roger Finlay to the Reserve Bank board at the link below.
    
    Finlay chairs NZ Post, which controls Kiwibank. He’s also audit chairman of Ngai Tahu Holdings.
    
    https://croakingcassandra.com/2022/06/10/a-highly-inappropriate-appointment/
    
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    June 21, 2022 10:06am
    - leoj
      
      $55 million buys a lot of “look the other way, nothing to see here.”
      
      Opening the News with such ain’t gonna happen except if both networks were privately owned.
      
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      June 21, 2022 10:54am
    - Nickc2
      
      ….and Ngai Tahu are about to be given, yes, given four-fifths of South Island water complete with all its infrastructure to do with whatever they want and no doubt they will have their hand out for a taxpayer grant for start-up costs all due to skin pigment colour.
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:52am
- Philview
  
  I have read he is also on the board of Ngai Tahu which is probably more relevant given recent utterances of Adrian Orr.
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:08am
  - Nickc2
    
    Ngai Tahu Board. Note, there’s not too many Maori surnames there but you can betch they all have bits of Green Jade hanging off their necks eh?
    • Mike Pohio…
    • Kristen Kohere-Soutar. …
    • Juliet Tainui-Hernandez. …
    • Darryn Russell. …
    • Rodger Finlay. …
    • Sophie Haslem. …
    • Jon Hartley.
    
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    June 21, 2022 12:01pm
    - MCōs
      
      My mother had an Irish surname on account of being married to my father. Neither had never been near the Emerald Isles.
      
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      June 21, 2022 5:04pm
- patreon_36178434
  
  And of course
  good mates with David Parker
  No surprises there……..
  
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  June 21, 2022 7:25pm
peterwn

Wellington train woes – apparently a software issue. Sounds like the Palmerston North telephone system software issue years ago. The signals were working on Friday but not yesterday. Seems an ‘upgrade’ went wrong and perhaps a copy of the old software could not be retrieved to get things back to how they were.
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June 21, 2022 8:04am
- KiwiRupes
  
  Sounds like something is a bit fishy, why is the Metlink app not showing train locations – I find it hard to believe that a signal outage near Wellington station prevents train locations being shown for the Hutt Valley or Kapiti lines
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:15am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Pretty basic. Backup backup backup.
  Normal Comp, stick it on external drive.
  Rail, stick it on another server. I am sure some of these IT people have no idea what they are doing, but they don’t mind charging like a wounded bull.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:08am
Mike

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Happy World Humanism Day!
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June 21, 2022 8:05am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Also the NZ Winter solstice / shortest day. Spring is around the corner LOL
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:06am
Maggy Wassilieff

Could $800M have been better spent?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018846558/hotels-earned-1-point-3m-a-month-operating-as-miq-facilities
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June 21, 2022 8:08am
- cmm
  
  Probably not. Spending requires competence.
  
  Even if they’d used it to build a hospital, they’d still have wasted it buying sacks of taniwha food etc.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:12am
- Ra Henare
  
  Or to ut it in to easy to understand numbers
  $800 mill
  4000? rooms
  18 months
  Average $370 a day (includes meals and security etc I suspect.
  ie the Army, Police and Health would have been subsidized by the MIQ Budget.
  
  Given they were all/mostly 4/5 star hotels (the 2 I stayed in were 5 star)
  
  I suspect normally rooms would have been in the range of 200-250 a day without meals.
  
  Chuck in $50 a day for hotel food. (keeping mind some rooms would have had 2 occupants)
  
  Not out of this world costs, IMHO.
  
  The argument about using top line hotels, and having compulsory MIQ is another debate.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:35am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Seems excessive, but the hotels will now have a lot of repairs to be done.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:12am
  - mawm
    
    I seem to recall that there was a “refurbishment” allowance at the end of the contract.
    
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    June 21, 2022 12:21pm
Tony Stuart

To the tune of Billy Joel’s She’s Always a Woman, here’s a few minutes of parody to start your Tuesday morning:

https://rumble.com/v18vpvj-shell-always-be-cindy-to-me-a-love-song-for-jacinda-ardern.html

It’s very clever!
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June 21, 2022 8:10am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  It’s brilliant.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:15am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Lyrics are as follows:
  
  She’ll Always Be Cindy To Me:
  
  She’s like tits on a bull, but the left idolise her,
  Our team of five million? She sold it to Pfizer
  It’s not chauvinism, or misogyny,
  She can declare her pronouns but she’ll always be Cindy to me.   
  
  She can pretend to care, she can furrow her brow,
  She can fix housing markets, just don’t ask her how,
  And she prints lots of money, like it grows on a tree,
  Blame it on someone else now that petrol’s at $3.33.
  
  Oh…. She takes care of your health. Socialism by Stealth,
  It’s a vast over reach
   Oh… and she’s painfully woke, and she can’t take a joke,  
  She just calls it hate speech.
  
  She’s vain to a fault, she’s flaky and fickle
  She’s building back better with hammer and sickle,
  She’s Lenin in leggings, she’s a trotting Trotsky,  
  We’re the next Venezuela, and she’ll always be Cindy to me.
  
  Hmmmmm…..
  
  Oh…. She takes care of herself, Redistributes your wealth,
  Waves her hands like a mime.  
  Oh… has her snout in the trough, before galloping off,
   She’s just biding her time.
  
  She tells you be kind when she’s really quite cruel,
  If somebody sneezes she’ll shut down your school,
  But she will be evicted in 2-23,
  But she’ll get a job by just calling Klaus Schwab
   And she’ll always be Cindy to me.
  
   Hmmmmmm….. Hmmmm…..
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:27am
  - Opie
    
    Send that to every media outlet! See if we can get it in the charts!
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:20am
    - Mike
      
      Steven Joyce reckons that would be ‘pretty legal’.
      
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      June 21, 2022 1:21pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Well done Anto Coates.
  Just put it on Facebook to piss off the fact checkers LOL.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:18am
  - Sacha
    
    It got a 404 –
    
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    June 21, 2022 10:25am
cmm

Amongst others, Newshub are always keen to voice the opinions of “experts”.

Here’s one telling people to demand 7% pay rises to correct for inflation.

What kind of expert doesn’t understand the implications of tax? To make up for a 6.9% inflation you really need 9% or so otherwise you’re worse off than last year.

Probably comes from the same box of experts that tell us about CV19…

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2022/06/why-expert-recommends-asking-for-7-percent-pay-rise-right-now-despite-recession-fears.html
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June 21, 2022 8:10am
- Tricati
  
  Bernard Hickey is just another Labour Party shrill, and suspect if you took economic advice from him, your business would be toast in no time.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:15am
  - Inandout
    
    Tri, Hickey was once a TV reporter, like Minister Fafisi.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:39am
  - oldfella
    
    This guy talks more sense than Hickey.
    Economist Cameron Bagrie warns hard times ahead
    Bagrie slammed the Government’s Budget released in May, saying the amount of spending wasn’t appropriate for the current environment.
    “That 2022 Budget was the wrong sort of budget to be delivering in an inflationary environment. We need to be reconnecting with the rest of the world,” he told AM.
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2022/06/economist-cameron-bagrie-warns-hard-times-ahead-but-recession-not-imminent-despite-gdp-drop.html
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:35am
- Frank the tank
  
  Barnard Hickey sits alongside the other rent-an-economic-experts such as Liam Dann and Shamubeel Eaqeb that are left-wing activists masquerading as economic gurus.
  
  He is also a very close acquaintance of our Glorious Leader and people such as Clint Smith.
  
  Pay him no attention – 10 years ago he told everyone to sell up in Auckland because it was the peak of the market.
  
  His argument is very close to the current government ideology of restricting workers entering the country to drive up wages. Worked a treat didn’t it.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:30am
  - surfing
    
    Eaqub really lost the plot.
    
    Eaqub shook his head during most of Seymour’s speech saying it made him angry to listen to, calling it “economically illiterate”.
    “It is not Government spending that is driving inflation. We had the UK hit 9 percent inflation yesterday because there is a global inflation crisis.
    
    Yet, he has also said…
    
    Leading economist Shamubeel Eaqub warns inflation caused by Government spending will come in ‘year or so’
    
    So Eaqub, stop being a dick. Answer the question. Is govt spending a driver of inflation or not? You seem confused? And angry.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:14am
    - Jack5
      
      “Leading economist” or “leading expert” of any kind is lazy journalese for he/she agrees with us.
      
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      June 21, 2022 10:41am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    It will be interesting to see what the likes of Hickey and Eaqub, not to mention Robertson himself say about the latest Westpac McDermott Miller Consumer Confidence Index. It’s just come in at the lowest level since 1988, which is the year the survey started, so it’s effectively the lowest level of consumer confidence EVER recorded in New Zealand.
    
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/money/2022/06/consumer-confidence-drops-to-lowest-level-since-1988-in-westpac-report.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
    
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    June 21, 2022 11:10am
    - Frank the tank
      
      The problem with economists Tony is by definition they look back at data not forward. That is why you take all of them with a grain of salt with people at the coal front far more accurate.
      
      Exhibit 1 – GDP figures Q1
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:45am
      - Jack5
        
        You like this old saying, Frank?
        
        lf all the economists in the world were placed end to end they would not reach a conclusion.”
        
        https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/09/13/economists/
        
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        June 21, 2022 2:55pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Good to see you advocating for higher pay rises.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:30am
  - cmm
    
    I am all for people demanding to be paid what they are worth via free market principles.
    
    Public servants and unionism (especially the double-whammy mix of public service unions), not so much.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:54am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      You think public servants and unions should not be allowed to demand to be paid more? Or just that such demands should be ignored?
      
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      June 21, 2022 9:00am
      - septic skeptic
        
        They should be allowed to demand they are paid what they are worth. That would halve the cost to the taxpayer.
        
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        June 21, 2022 9:32am
      - RightNow
        
        Nurses should definitely be paid more.
        Shiny ass bureaucrats not so much.
        Funny how a Labour government cares more for cyclists then nurses don’t you think? This government has blood on their hands.
        
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        June 21, 2022 9:54am
      - Mike
        
        I didn’t know cyclists were paid more than nurses.
        
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        June 21, 2022 10:42am
      - cmm
        
        I think it is completely broken that public servants need unions.
        
        Surely the whole purpose of unions is to protect workers from exploitation by monopolistic fat-cat capitalists screwing the workers.
        
        Why do workers need this unionised protection from the infinitely benevolent socialist state?
        
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        June 21, 2022 10:45am
      - Mike H S
        
        You aren’t entitled to demand anything other than fair negotiations. That is where pay levels are set.
        
        It is a matter of the worker demonstrating to the employer what s/he is worth to the business.
        
        Inflation is the enemy of the worker as s/he has to negotiate each year for an increase just to keep up with inflation. To get anything above inflation you have to prove increased productivity.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:07am
      - Master Mariner
        
        @CMM,
        Why do workers need this unionised protection from the infinitely benevolent socialist state?
        
        To keep wages and employees suppressed. History does not tell lies.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:21am
      - leoj
        
        When you understand that private companies have to justify everything to survive and exist, based on the profits, you might then realise that govt workers have no such qualms. Money is never a problem to them because profit is not part of the equation.
        
        As for govt unions, they should be banned. Their employment is wholly dependent on being funded by us. Leeches comes to mind…..
        
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        June 21, 2022 12:32pm
    - Swifty
      
      Pay claims in the private sector are commercial decisions.
      
      Pay claims in the public sector are political decisions.
      
      In my view, therefore, there is a moral imperative to keep the numbers of people on the pubic payroll as small as possible – to minimise NZ families’ exposure to the financial effects of decisions made by politicians for purely political reasons.
      
      That’s if anyone cares about NZers putting food on their table anyway.
      
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      June 21, 2022 10:15am
    - kowtow
      
      Without the trades unions there’d be hardly anyone left to Boycott , Divest , Sanction the Israelis.
      
      Bugger worker’s safety , there’s real work to be done , a long long way away.
      
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      June 21, 2022 2:27pm
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    When you don’t live on taxpayers charity you need to get your numbers right
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:57am
  - surfing
    
    You’re a labour voter right? How can you defend the absolute disaster that is occurring through all functions of government? Things are really bad out there, more so than I can ever recall in my lifetime.
    
    6 months waiting for a simple answer from a government department, and they gave me an answer to a question I did not ask and closed the case. It is really bad.
    
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    June 21, 2022 11:29am
    - Mike
      
      What am I supposed to defend and why should I defend it?
      Just because I enjoy offering alternatives to what passes for collective wisdim on this blog shouldn’t be taken as an indication that I support everything you complain about.
      
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      June 21, 2022 1:27pm
- Brian McDonald
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  “Amongst others, cmm is always keen to voice his opinion as expert.”
  In fact he or she is downright addicted to it. Keep on the taniwha porridge diet its good for what ails ya.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:31am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Well they’re the most biased (left-leaning) MSM outlet in the country so, you know, no surprises there.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:42am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I wonder why NZ is always broke//
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:23am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  An 8 year old kid knows how not to go broke.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:26am
- Matt Long
  
  The cost of living increases over the past two years are far in excess of the official CPI figures, in order to maintain the same standard of living annual salary increases would need to be in the 15-20% range.
  But look a new pagan holiday for you. Never mind the wage price spiral.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:33am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Irony of ironies – now that Marsden Pt has closed, NZ has to import CO2 (for fresh food packaging). Apparently, its production is a by product of the oil & gas industry.

Yet another unintended consequence.

Also – I saw this story in passing on MSM, but when I went back to look for it, it has been disappeared. Hmm.
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June 21, 2022 8:11am
- alex Masterley
  
  I have been aware of that outcome for some time. A service club colleague was in the gas industry for some time and noted this would become an issue for us.
  I have been waiting for the penny to drop. An it has with a resounding clatter.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:31am
- Frank the tank
  
  Lol.
  
  How are all the beneficiaries going to afford KFC at $100 a bucket?
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:32am
  - pdm
    
    WINZ voucher.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:40am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  If you find dynamic content a bit too confusing, perhaps you could just buy printed copies of all your favourite newspapers and magazines.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:33am
  - rouppe
    
    I’d have thought that sort of comment was beneath you.
    
    While generally downticked, you normally have some semblance of civility.
    
    That was was just snarky.
    
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    June 21, 2022 12:12pm
    - Mike
      
      I’m genuinely at a loss to explain why some people expect their individual preferences for the placement of stories to be exactly followed by media businesses.
      Perhaps it accords with a generally conspiracist mindset to imagine that stories ate always being hidden.
      
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      June 21, 2022 1:31pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  here it is
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/129024460/co2-shortage-threatens-wide-range-of-nz-groceries-including-tegel-chicken
  
  It pays to post an interesting item on Kiwiblog.
  
  KB has a good archive system…and if the item has disappeared from MSM, it doesn’t take too long to retrieve the link from KB.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:37am
- Nickc2
  
  A directive from the Beehive to take it down or no more money from the $55m bribery fund eh?
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:43am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Funny thing is they seem to believe if you keep squashing media coverage of things like the co2 shortage nobody will notice that the cheap source of protein for many families has disappeared from the shops or doubled in price. It’s like I haven’t noticed the pot holes in the roads or the quiet whisperings of corruption and incompetent management of government departments or the fact that the reserve bank governor talks to other central bankers as if they are as foolish as he is. No I don’t notice anything and I believe labour had a great result in Tauranga and Mr Luxon isn’t fit to be PM because he sat on a school desk.
    
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    June 21, 2022 11:06am
    - Nickc2
      
      The sad part of all that is that we have at least another eighteen months of it.
      Unlike Cindy’s Captain Call getting rid of Oil and Gas exploration, we can’t send a bunch of School Kids with a petition to Parliament and demand she and her corrupt mob piss off and give us a chance to elect a Govt of Grown-Ups.
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:39am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Fizzy drinks going to be not so fizzy, or twice the price?
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:31am
  - nathie
    
    The Labour socialists won’t care … unless their chardonnay is affected? 😉
    
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    June 21, 2022 10:53am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Imported
      
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      June 22, 2022 9:07am
  - Matt Long
    
    Perhaps we could repurpose methane from all those dairy cows for fizzy drinks.
    
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    June 21, 2022 11:38am
  - Ruawai
    
    Good way to stop obesity!
    
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    June 21, 2022 1:14pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

A bestie with close ties to the Vatican firmly believes that Pope Francis is about to reign.

https://twitter.com/FrMatthewLC/status/1538940348331872258
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June 21, 2022 8:19am
- alex Masterley
  
  reign? He does that already, over the Bishopric of Rome.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:31am
- Frank the tank
  
  Good riddance – as a non-practicing left-footer I might step back into a church one day if he goes.
  
  A complete and utter left-wing politician with no desire to keep the church away from the state.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:34am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    If you ever get back into practice you might just have to accept that it is the holy spirit, working through the college of cardinals which chooses your spiritual leader, to whom you owe obedience.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:58am
    - Frank the tank
      
      My understanding is there is plenty of buyers remorse regarding WokePope.
      
      I don’t owe obedience to anyone especially someone that advocates the opposite of 70% of my personal belief structure.
      
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      June 21, 2022 9:03am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Can’t not agree with you Frank.
        
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        June 21, 2022 10:40am
      - Mike
        
        Don has it right. Follow the Lord’s annointed or become (yet another) schismatic.
        
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        June 21, 2022 10:47am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Well, that Kraut pope did set a precedent for retiring when too feeble (even for a pope) to continue.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:35am
  - Frank the tank
    
    The word you were looking for was German Mikey.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:47am
    - Mike
      
      Jawohl
      
      2 8
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      June 21, 2022 10:49am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Kraut ?!? Do you mean German ?
    
    5 1
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    June 21, 2022 11:13am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  So we could have THREE Popes!!!!
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:36am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Time for a new movie!
    
    4 17
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    June 21, 2022 8:56am
  - kowtow
    
    Five is standard .
    
    The one in Rome being first among equals.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:03am
    - Mike
      
      Perhaps, but only for a univeral church, which is not a realistic prospect, especially in the information age when it is so easy to set up new sects in the religion business.
      
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      June 21, 2022 10:53am
      - Bridgenag
        
        All the versions of Mike
        have arrived. Must be lunch
        
        8 2
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        June 21, 2022 11:57am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Always nice to hear from a fan.
        
        1 6
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        June 21, 2022 2:23pm
Tony Stuart

It seems that William Gannin Ormsby’s skill are both diverse, and in high demand; Simeon Brown tweets:

Simeon Brown
@SimeonBrownMP
#REVEALED Nanaia Mahuta’s husband was the recipient of another Govt contract. $72k to facilitate hui for Kainga Ora in Auckland

Not only does this raise more questions about apparent conflicts of interest – but speaks to the waste of taxpayers funds under Labour.

https://twitter.com/SimeonBrownMP/status/1538763426243420161

As if the Ministry for the Environment and Youth Suicide weren’t enough, Ormsby, via his company Ka Awatea now facilitates hui for Kainga Ora, for a cool $78,000 fee.

Once again, the optics of this are appalling. A senior Cabinet Minister’s partner has received significant funding from a government agency to provide certain services. What is so special about Ka Awatea’s method of facilitating hui that set it apart from the competiton? Or was there no competition?

One perceived conflict of interest is bad enough. Two is really bad, but three? It’s high time these issues were referred for an independent inquiry as to their probity.
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June 21, 2022 8:25am
- Frank the tank
  
  Tony,
  
  When is Chris going to step up to the plate and start asking for answers in question time?
  
  Surely it is time for Te Reo to pipe up regarding Mahutacorp.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:36am
  - peterwn
    
    Early next year. For now just let Labour continue thinking they are invincible. Chris and co will strike at the right time. The best use of their questions at QT is to probe for other possible issues.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:51am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      I concur Peter. But various National spokespeople have been asking written questions of their Labour counterparts, and answers are just starting to come in. A case is being built, and it will be prosecuted at the most opportune time.
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:13am
    - The Other Enoch
      
      Quite right peterwn. As Napoleon said, or was it that great Chinese philosopher of war, Sun Shzu, never interfere when your enemy is making a mistake.
      
      5 1
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      June 21, 2022 1:55pm
    - Graeme Hall
      
      And while Mr Luxon waits & waits for the most exquisite opportune time to strike, another crisis, trade agreement, speech at the UN or whatever will pop up & this blantant example of Govt corruption will pass unnoticed.
      
      When you see a chance take it. (Good advice from Steve Winwood).
      
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      June 21, 2022 5:02pm
  - Sideoiler
    
    FtT,
    I wouldn’t hold your breath.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:56am
- cmm
  
  Facilitating a hui? I’d like to see a break down of that.
  I’ll bet my standard servo pie that this is just the facilitation fee. I’ll wager it did not cover the costs of the venue, refreshments, administration, furniture hire, digital media consultants, taniwha kibble,…
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:50am
- Gravelroad
  
  There was a fuel industry guy on TV last night (7 Sharp) talking about the rise in petrol prices.
  Could have been Jacinda or Robertson waffling with all the current excuses: Covid, Russia, Ukraine, shipping difficulties, unavoidable inflation, same all over the world, our government not to blame etc.
  His name was Ormsby…………
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:58am
- Stellaboxer
  
  Such a shame when stereotypes are so blatantly reinforced by the very people in positions to alter them.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:17am
Paulus

I have been given a question which emanates from a Auckland City perceived top primary school.
“Why do Maori kids get presents at Matariki and we do not ?”
This appears to have arisen from the school, and confirmed by another mother, when her children were suggesting what presents they wanted for Matariki.
When told it as not like Christmas, then told that a bar of chocolate would be a good present, then it got difficult.
When told historically Matariki was when Maori planted their kumara was met in silence.
Umm !
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June 21, 2022 8:29am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Your meaning is unclear. Are you saying the school gave presents to some children but not others?
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:37am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Matariki falls in June… which is NOT Kumara planting season….
  
  Kumara planting is in Spring when all chance of frost has disappeared. ( Sept-Nov)
  
  Kumara is harvested at the end of summer-early autumn (before Frosts arrive)
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:43am
  - cmm
    
    It’s the traditional time for Maori to plant garlic though.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:47am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      It’s garlic planting day today… 21st June.
      
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      June 21, 2022 8:52am
      - Swifty
        
        I’m a member of the NZ Garlic Growers Facebook page (to pick up some tips) and I see most people sow their garlic in April (some even in March) to get their bulbs as large as possible before rust strikes their crop in spring or summer.
        
        I understand that rust has just exploded over the country in the last few years greatly affecting garlic harvests. (I got it bad last year).
        
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        June 21, 2022 10:45am
      - Jack5
        
        From NZ Encyclopedia (Te Ara in Maori) on Matariki:
        
        Traditionally, Matariki was a time to acknowledge the dead and to release their spirits to become stars.
        
        So it’s a little like Mexico’s Day of the Dead, though really hooked Mexicans seem to think the dead come back and have a chat.
        
        What do Born-Again’s think of Matariki?
        
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        June 21, 2022 10:59am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Were you amused by David Garrett’s comment on Matariki yesterday, Maggy?
    I think Kiwiblogger could do themselves a favour and and start with your excellent Te Ara article and its sources before making bigger fools of themslves:
    https://teara.govt.nz/en/astronomy-overview
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:54am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      You’re the historian…
      
      Tell me how we get around that large gap in time….1769 – 1920…. with no written record of what pre- European Maori life was like with regard to medicine, religion, astronomy etc….but Maori were being exposed to European thought and knowledge.
      
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      June 21, 2022 9:18am
      - Mike
        
        I can think of many more problematic gaps. For example the lengthy period between the alleged discouses of an obscure Galillean around 30 CE and those words being written (in several versions) 150 years later. But that general problem aside, you seem to imply that no indigenous knowledge could survive unless recorded according to specific European conventions. Elsdon Best’s writings might not be the only possible access we have today to traditional Maori lore.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:03am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        you seem to imply that no indigenous knowledge could survive unless recorded according to specific European conventions.
        
        No, I’m not. That’s why I’m interested in NZ archaeology.
        
        But I’m highlighting the problem I have when folks 6-7 generations removed from their tribal existence start repeating back to me stuff I had read in TRSNZ,
        TNZI, JPS , etc fifty years ago.
        
        And even worse, folks who seem oblivious of the investigations of our earlier anthropologists/archaeologists, as they don’t want to acknowledge that their ancestors lit fires that destroyed forest or took shelter in caves.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:25am
      - Local Miller
        
        Mike (AKA mama) you really need to do some proper research before you commit your inane comments to the internet where nothing is forgotten. The “obscure Galilean” was anything but obscure, with more extra biblical references to him than there are biblical. Additionally the first writings were clearly written within 70 years of his death, and were also written by his contemporaries and those who actually walked the countryside with him. These are what we call “first person accounts”, which carry a lot of weight in legal proceedings.
        While most of the physical documents currently held may date from after 150AD, there are fragments that are older, and the personal references indicate clearly that the original authors were among others; Jesus’ disciples, his brother (i.e. his mother’s son to avoid confusion) and at least one person who initially tried to kill his followers (Paul) and who was definitely alive during the 33 years of Jesus’ life.
        
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        June 21, 2022 1:21pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Local Miller
        Most of what you write is disputed. At the very least, there is massive disagreement among scholars, not to mention the multitudinous Christian sects, about what Jesus actually said and what it means.
        
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        June 21, 2022 2:36pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Sure Maggy, it’s a confused area, but probably no more so than many other historical problems. But the absence of evidence documented to some European construct of scholarship does not immediately lead to the leap some on this blog want to make: that Matariki is some completely new ‘invented’ holiday with no basis in tradition. Not to mention that traditions change in all cultures over time, particularly when a culture is subject to violent disruption. An example might be the Maori syncretic religions: are they any less valid as religious systems because they represent a distinctive Maori response to new religious influences?
        
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        June 21, 2022 2:46pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        But the absence of evidence documented to some European construct of scholarship does not immediately lead to the leap some on this blog want to make:
        
        I’m not responsible for what other folks on this blog think or write.
        
        Is it too difficult for you to recognise this?
        
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        June 21, 2022 4:11pm
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Been around for 6 decades and grew up ALL over NZ in and out of Maori communitees and only heard about Matariki about 2-3 years ago……funny that?
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:43am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Exactly MW, Personally I can only think it marked the middle of Winter and “out of whack” by a couple of weeks for the Minority in the North and East who could actually see it “Rise”.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:59am
    - Nickc2
      
      But hey, April, May, and June are the Long Weekend season. Kumera is just an imagined excuse eh?
      
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      June 21, 2022 10:26am
  - oldfella
    
    Maggy, next year Matariki will be on 14th July? Go figure…
    
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    June 21, 2022 4:11pm
Suze Wainwright

Tony, surely the competition wouldn’t have received offers they couldn’t refuse…
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June 21, 2022 8:30am
slightlyrighty

Unintended consequences again.

Shutting down Marsden Point Refinery is about to have a devastating and inflationary effect…on our food and beverage industry.

Marsden point produced CO2 as a by product. One of only 2 suppliers. The other supplier is going through a maintenance period, so supplies are now reduced to the point that users are saying the cost of importing to fill the shortfall is prohibitive, and that food supplies will be affected.

Tegel Chicken is one such user.
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June 21, 2022 8:33am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Do you think taxpayers should have bought or subsidised Marsden Point to make CO2 cheaper for food manufacturers?
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:39am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I would have like to see a cost-benefit analysis of the Government purchasing the oil refinery. The left in New Zealand bang on about Governments and Councils owning ‘strategic’ businesses. There is nothing strategic about them. The Government owns a bunch of farms.
    
    https://pamunewzealand.com/
    
    Why?
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:54am
    - RoboRob
      
      Farms and TV stations. The government owns 33% of Feltchers too but I dont see them using this holding to advocate for consumers either.
      
      If all the ‘assets’ a government might want to hold one would think an oil refinery would be near the top of the list.
      
      Before the oil barrell price rises the cost of fuel was skyrocketing anyway. Why? Well it was put down to increased refinery costs!
      
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      June 21, 2022 9:10am
      - SoloView
        
        @RoboRob
        Which part of Fletchers does the government own 33% of?
        Fletcher Building Ltd shows ACC and the Superannuation Fund owing 5.61% between them.
        Fletcher Construction is a subsidiary of Fletcher Building.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:19am
      - RoboRob
        
        Hi Solo
        
        My appologies. A builder friend told me the NZ govt owned fletchers. I did a google search ‘does nz govt own fletchers’ and it came back saying ‘the general public have a 34% stake in FBU’. I took ‘general public’ to mean govt owned, foolishly. The site was just saying that 34% was not owned by institutional investors.
        
        My Bad
        
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        June 21, 2022 2:05pm
    - Jack5
      
      A small company in Christchurch, eliminated during the Brierley raids, used to make carbon dioxide.
      
      Carbonic Ice was the only source of CO2 in the South Pacific theatre of World War 2. It supplied the US Navy with what the firm described as “enormous quantities” of CO2 for use in fuel tanks of carrier aircraft and for things like inflation cylinders in life-rafts.
      
      Carbonic Ice after the war specialised in making and exporting equipment for manufacturing CO2 and dry ice, which, I believe, is solidified CO2.
      
      It was a good niche industry for an NZ engineering firm, but didn’t rank in Kiwi financiers’ prospects with property development.
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:23am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Mikey – Once again you don’t get it (very rarely do you).
    
    Marsden Point was never an economic question always a strategic question. This is a by-product where there is not many alternatives.
    
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    June 21, 2022 8:55am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Oh he gets it. It’s just deflection, and you’ll notice that his stand is always and only by implication. He’s not interested in making arguments for his positions, in this case whether for or against Marsden Point closing or nationalisation or whatever.
      
      His point is to entertain himself by getting others to respond with arguments for which he has complete contempt – as he does this entire blog – while he saves his own time with soundbites.
      
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      June 21, 2022 10:59am
      - Swifty
        
        Nicely put.
        
        Yep, that’s him to a tee.
        
        20 1
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        June 21, 2022 11:12am
      - Mike
        
        I’m sorry you feel that way Tom. You used to have occasionally astute comments to make.
        Marsden Point is not a ‘strategic asset’. It is a refinery that has been closed for the same reason most Australian refineries have closed: it is uneconomic to operate. Once we make special arrangements for so-called strategic assets, where do we stop. I could make a ‘strategic’ case that NZ should have maintained a automotive manufacturing industry. Fonterra could have made a ‘strategic’ case to retain its investments in added-value processing, unstead of pissing money away trying to become Nestle.
        I can guarantee that if the government had stepped in to ‘save’ Marsden Point there would have bee no chhers from the Kiwibloggers.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:14am
      - Jack5
        
        Mike, at 11.44, you’re obviously from, or have been in, the Wellington Bureaucracy.
        
        Looking for intelligent economic direction there is as futile as drilling for lemonade in the Sahara desert.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:28am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Looks like the Aussies realise they actually need their Refineries…
        ‘SYDNEY, May 17 2021 (Reuters) – Australia has agreed to pay its last two oil refineries up to A$2.3 billion ($1.8 billion) through 2030 to keep the struggling plants open and protect the country’s fuel security.’
        https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/australia-prop-up-its-last-two-refineries-with-up-179-bln-2021-05-16/
        Nice they recognise fuel security in important.
        
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        June 21, 2022 11:38am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “I could make a ‘strategic’ case that NZ should have maintained a automotive manufacturing industry.”
        
        No, you could not.
        
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        June 21, 2022 1:36pm
      - Lenticular
        
        @Mike Not so. Not having a refinery in a world where the Pacific is about to become a conflict zone between superpowers is damned foolishness.
        You can make the case for other assets being strategic, but they aren’t strong cases. NZ does not and has never made its own military vehicles, unlike e.g. the USA. Oil, however, is the lifeblood of an economy.
        
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        June 21, 2022 2:42pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Benedict has obviously not read enough ‘strategic’ cases.
        
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        June 21, 2022 2:48pm
  - RoboRob
    
    I believe the government had the contractual ability to stop the closure of the plant. With refining prices going through the roof why would a country close its sole refinery? When it creates a monopoly for Co2 in this country, why would the commerce comision not be involved?
    
    I am generally against government ownership but in this case it really is a strategic asset. Normally the market would deal with this issue, as it would open an opportunity for a 3rd party to start a refinery or buy the existing one but because the only customers are the fuel companies it makes that impossible as the fuel companies can simply refuse to use it.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:07am
  - cmm
    
    “cheaper for food manufacturers”
    
    You seem to be forgetting this ultimately means “cheaper for the consumer”.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:54am
  - Nickc2
    
    I would support taxpayer money being used to purchase Marsden Point Refining in order to provide a backup for all imported refined petroleum products.
    
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    June 21, 2022 10:05am
  - rouppe
    
    The government (taxpayers) should have had their own oil extraction program from local sources, that in normal times were sold internationally on the open market.
    
    Then in times such as these the owners’ (taxpayers) having a local source could have flattened out the rises caused by external events by diverting our own supply to Marsden Pt to provide for local needs.
    
    A happy byproduct of which is continued supply of a necessary product for a food producing nation.
    
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    June 21, 2022 12:23pm
- cmm
  
  Unintended?
  
  It is somewhat ironic that with all our “filthy” dairy and agriculture, we’re soon going to have to be burning oil in tankers to import industrial CO2 from overseas.
  
  The reality is that CO2 is in incredibly small amounts in the atmosphere and is pretty rare. We don’t have to get rid of it. We actually don’t have enough. Plants are in starvation mode for lack of CO2.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:46am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The left were never taught about photosynthesis, they were taught how to organise protests.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:58am
- nathie
  
  We know that Labour won’t do anything, so the question is, what will National/ACT do?
  
  There seems to be a few KB commentators here with knowledge of Marsden Point (going by previous comments), I think we’d be interested in their thoughts.
  
  Eg would it be practical to build new infrastructure to cater for refining crude to produce fuel and by-products such as asphalt/CO2/Avgas again etc?
  
  Or would a new approach be better, if so, what?
  
  As Marsden Point is in private hands, would it be possible or practical to have the Govt have a controlling stake again (eg greater than 50 percent), with private ownership having under 50% and also providing investment and dividends to their shareholders (eg mixed-model approach like Air NZ or when National sold shares in the power generators but retained majority ownership etc)?
  
  Sure I get it will cost money but considering Labour are spending billions on stupid stuff, perhaps it is time NZ became more “strategic” with its energy supplies, like the Australian Govt’s have when they saved their last two refineries?
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:01am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Marsden Pt is a deep water port in the north of the country. That’s why the refinery was built there in the first place. Hard to find a better location.
    
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    June 21, 2022 7:50pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Don’t forget fertiliser and Bitumen.
  
  In 1982, New Zealand’s only ammonia urea plant was built at Kapuni in South Taranaki. The fertiliser is made from natural gas from the offshore Māui gas field. The plant was part of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon’s ‘Think Big’ policy of industrial development.
  
  “Initially run by Petrochem, in 1992 it was sold to the Bay of Plenty Fertiliser Co-operative (now Ballance Agri-Nutrients). In 2008, they manufactured 260,000 tonnes of urea fertiliser annually, some of which was used in non-agricultural industries. At least that amount is also imported by the fertiliser cooperatives.”
  
  https://teara.govt.nz/en/fertiliser-industry/page-2
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:05am
  - rangitoto
    
    Yeah but the Greens hate nitrogen fertiliser so they will want to close it down.
    
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    June 21, 2022 11:09am
Loddenthinks

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how, whenever anyone with a trace of Maori blood attracts any positive attention in the MSM, it’s always accompanied by their “lineage” e.g. Wiremu Smith (Ngati Kahungunu/Ngati Poneke)?

Yet, whenever someone from the same tribe attracts negative attention e.g. Wiremu Smith is wanted for armed robbery and beating his wife, it’s never accompanied by their lineage or ancestry?

I wonder why that is, and I also wonder why they NEVER include all their lineage e.g. Ngati Kahungunu/English/Welsh/French?
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June 21, 2022 8:35am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I could struggle with this a bit, especially when someone lists more than two iwi or hapu – gets to be a little inconvenient. I get that lineage is important in customary contexts. Also that it is self-supplied – so not used as a descriptor by others, as in your example of being wanted by the police.
  But I have no objection to you signing yourself as Loddenthinks (he/his, Welsh/Dutch/Greek) – you have autonomy over your identity.
  No big deal, is it?
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:46am
- kowtow
  
  Another recent ,silly affectation by the Media Pardy , this one appears to be borrowed from the Australian practise.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:08am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Including lineage or ancestry after a name when that person attracted negative attention, could start Tribal Wars/
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:30am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    “Including lineage or ancestry after a name when that person attracted negative attention, could ~~start~~ resume Tribal Wars.”
    
    Fixed it.
    
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    June 21, 2022 11:58am
cmm

Christchurch Buswatch: Rush hour edition

I generally am not on the roads around rush hour. In previous Buswatch reports I have recorded an average of around 1.5 passengers per bus in various areas of Christchurch.

Someone, was it mma, called me out on this because buses are busiest at rush hour.

So yesterday I was on the road at rush hour and passed 5 buses in service (not particularly sound statistically). Passenger count: 0, 0, 1, 2, 12.

The bus with 12 passengers was at the university residences. The buses there are always busy as students take the very short trip between university and Bush Inn or Riccarton. This is a statistical outlier, but I include it anyway to be as generous as possible.

An average of 1.5 passengers most of the time and 3 during peak times is not sustainable anything.

It would be far cheaper to use Uber. Heck, it would even be cheaper to use individual Humvees!

But no, the reason we can have buses is because of how they are funded.
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June 21, 2022 8:36am
- Frank the tank
  
  Try the Onehunga train – 3 times the size and usually less than 5 commuters on board.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:38am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I didn’t call you out. Your anecdata stands on its own merits.
  
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  June 21, 2022 8:48am
- RoboRob
  
  Cycling to and from work during rush hour I can confirm my stats closely match yours. The bus going past the University (from town) has somewhere between 1 and 6 people. My observation is the primary users of buses are out of zone high school children.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:14am
Maggie Pie

We just heard Dan Carter on 1ZB talking to The Hosk about investing in NFT’s.
My partners reckons it sounds to him like Dan might have spent one too many nights on the piss with Murray Thom.

LOL!!
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June 21, 2022 8:39am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  WTF is an NFT.
  
  13 1
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  June 21, 2022 8:51am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Non-Fungible Tokens.
    
    12 3
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    June 21, 2022 9:07am
    - Blog-aholic
      
      It is code for a REALLY easy way to kiss good by to your cash.
      
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      June 21, 2022 9:44am
    - oldfella
      
      NFTs – the next Personalised Plates. 😉
      
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      June 21, 2022 9:46am
      - rouppe
        
        Well not really, because you actually get a Personalised Plate.
        
        With Dan’s NFT representing pictures of him, you get…. Err…..
        
        Actually, the real reason he’s promoting them is so that every time that picture of him is re-sold, he gets another clip on the ticket.
        
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        June 21, 2022 12:29pm
  - RoboRob
    
    A scam bigger than Crypto!
    
    A piece of ‘art’ (or other) in digital form that you buy and hold like art. Hopefully selling for a profit.
    
    IMHO the problem is scarcity. There are absolute masses of 1 off pieces and a seeming unlimeted supply. Yes there might be only one of a particular image but there are millions ofone off images.
    
    Dans own company (a professed tech company) is ‘making’ a series of Wimbledon art works. Yes its limited to 100 but any man and his dog could also start pumping these out. In 50yrs is someone really going to pay big money for a ‘Dans software’ Wimbledon image?
    
    NFTs have uses and some art works will indeed make money, but the fools rushing into the gold rush will get burnt.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:20am
  - James Stephenson
    
    Tulips for the 21st Century. Avoid.
    
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    June 21, 2022 10:18am
- greybeard
  
  I too heard that interview and texted Mike “It looks like a scam”.
  It then occurred to me that maybe Dan had been sucked-in by people who use his high profile.
  Either way, he was not very convincing and used a lot of buzz-words.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:42am
  - RoboRob
    
    Sadly I think this interview was more of an infomercial as Dans company has been heavily advertising its Wimbledon NFTs on ZB.
    
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    June 21, 2022 1:55pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Makes me wonder if Chemist Warehouse is a real place.
    
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    June 21, 2022 2:49pm
Surely Knott

Stuff reports Wellington deferring surgeries due to high demand and unprecedented short staff. But Cancer and paediatric will not face cutbacks. (Weird because you cannot just move an orthopaedic surgeon to the cancer ward?)

Then further down the article we get to the heart of the problem, It’s specifically a Nursing shortage. “”I don’t like it, but no one wants to do this. I know all the management and they are as unhappy as we are but it’s something that’s been forced on us because there are simply no nurses to look after the patients,” he said.

So why are there so few nurses. Where is the evidence or facts in the article. They say it’s due to years of under resourcing but where’s the graph showing how many nurses the Wellington DHB actually has and how does that compared to previous years? Why wasn’t the covid relief money, an unprecedented debt draw down for health, spent on nurses and hospitals. How many were mandated out? How many extra were hired to cover the extra government holiday? How many nurses have gone to Australia. Did they do exit interviews – was it the pay, the conditions, the upcoming health board merger, the ideology or messaging they don’t like?
And obviously, the vaccine mandates didn’t work. It didn’t provide workplace continuity. Remove the mandates and apologise and at least pick up the nurses in the community who could get back to work. Which parties has the balls to say they made a mistake.
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June 21, 2022 8:41am
- RightNow
  
  This: “Why wasn’t the covid relief money, an unprecedented debt draw down for health, spent on nurses and hospitals.”
  This is at the heart of Labour’s malfeasance.
  Spend hundreds of millions on cycleways and handouts but treat our nurses like crap.
  It can’t be said loud enough or often enough, Labour doesn’t care about nurses!
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:58am
- virtualmark
  
  I have some insight into this, with a family member in Wellington Hospital recovering from cardio-thoracic surgery.
  
  Is almost totally due to unavailability of nurses because of (1) Covid-related lockdowns, often for family members and (2) the current flu season.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:25am
Maggy Wassilieff

Does NZ deliver a good maths/science education?

Well, let’s make sure we never find out.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/morningreport/audio/2018846628/secondary-principals-want-to-dump-pisa-testing
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June 21, 2022 8:48am
- Frank the tank
  
  C’mon Mags,
  
  Get with the times.
  
  Science and maths will be replaced with Maori fairytales and myths – who needs algebra or physics when a student knows how Maui fished the North Island out of the sea and Kupe discovered Antarctica.
  
  The Zimbabwification of our once great country continues………
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:00am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Easiest way to identify poor performers in any field or profession is to notice who puts in effort to hide their work output and prevent oversight. You don’t even need to see the work – the behaviour tells you everything.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:46am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are in a bar. Donald leans over, and with a smile on his face, says, “The media is really tearing you apart for That Scandal.”
Hillary: “You mean my lying about Benghazi?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the massive voter fraud?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the military not getting their votes counted?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean Cattle-gate where I invested $1,000 dollars in “cattle futures” in the stock market and returned a $90,000 dollar profit within 6 months”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean taking millions of dollars in bribes and calling them speaking fees?”
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean using my secret private email server with classified material to hide my activities, and which put National Security and CIA lives at risk from hacking?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean spending four years pushing the TPP job killing Corporate Power Grab for my corporate Globalist donors and then lying that I’m now somehow against it?”
Trump: “No the other one”
Hillary: “The NSA monitoring our phone calls, emails and everything else?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Using the Clinton Foundation as a cover for tax evasion, Hiring Cronies, and taking bribes from foreign countries?
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean harassing, intimidating, bullying and smearing Bill’s rape victims to stop their stories getting traction in the media?”
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean the drones being operated in our own country without The Benefit of the law?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Giving 123 Technologies $300 Million, and right afterward it Declared Bankruptcy and was sold to the Chinese?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean arming the Muslim Brotherhood and hiring their supporters like Huma Abedin to work in the White House?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Whitewater, Watergate committee, Vince Foster, commodity Deals?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “The funding of neo Nazis in the Ukraine that led to the toppling of the democratically elected president and to the biggest crisis that country has had since WWII ?”
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “Turning Libya into chaos?”
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “Being the mastermind of the so-called “Arab Spring” that only brought chaos, death and destruction to the Middle East and North Africa ?
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “Leaving four Americans to die in Benghazi and go to sleep?
Trump: “No the other one:”
Hillary: “You mean gun running from Benghazi to terrorists in Syria?”
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean backing a right wing coup in Honduras in 2009 which increased the Central American drugs gang fueled violence and caused a massive spike in the illegal immigration problem on America’s southern border?”
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “Trashing Mubarak, one of our few Muslim friends?”
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “Encouraging and supporting the murders of Palestinians and the destruction of their homes, towns and villages by Israel ?”
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “The funding and arming of terrorists in Syria, the destruction and destabilization of that nation, giving the order to our lapdogs in Turkey and Saudi Arabia to give sarin gas to the “moderate” terrorists in Syria that they eventually used on civilians, and framed Assad, and had it not been for the Russians and Putin, we would have used that as a pretext to invade Syria, put a puppet in power, steal their natural resources, and leave that country in total chaos, just like we did with Libya?
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “The creation of the biggest refugees crisis since WWII
Trump: “No the other one.”
Hillary: “Leaving Iraq in chaos? ”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The DOJ spying on the press?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean HHS Secretary Sibelius shaking down health insurance Executives?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Giving our cronies in SOLYNDRA $500 MILLION DOLLARS and 3 Months Later they declared bankruptcy and then the Chinese bought it?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “You mean taking tens of millions in bribes from a Canadian mining magnate to sell off US Uranium to Russia?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The NSA monitoring citizens’ ?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “The State Department interfering with an Inspector General Investigation on departmental sexual misconduct?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Me, The IRS, Clapper and Holder all lying to Congress?”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “Threats to all of Bill’s former mistresses to keep them quiet”
Trump: “No, the other one.”
Hillary: “I give up! … Oh wait, I think I’ve got it! When I stole the White House furniture, silverware, when Bill left Office?”
Trump: “THAT’S IT! I almost forgot about that one”.
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June 21, 2022 9:02am
- coge
  
  Hillary has a good memory. But not that good. “You mean arriving in Bosnia under sniper fire?”
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:22am
  - mawm
    
    Really! I remember her saying “I don’t remember” and “I can’t recall” dozens of times to Congress.
    
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    June 21, 2022 2:24pm
Ehlana

A sign of sanity surviving in New York. “Happy the elephant, a long-time resident of the Bronx Zoo, must remain there after a New York court ruled she is not legally a person under US law”, reports the BBC.
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June 21, 2022 9:04am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Dam! The Democrats lose another 20 votes….
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:37am
- Loddenthinks
  
  And our stupid country rules that the Wanganui River and Te Urewera National Park are legal persons.
  
  In other news, bees are fish and apparently men can be women – though thankfully FINA has injected some much-needed reality into that argument.
  
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  June 21, 2022 12:24pm
kowtow

Listening to the transistor I suspect we the tax payer are spending an oarful lot on Pleiades ads , no wonder the Media pardy have embraced it so enthusiastically.
Another trough.
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June 21, 2022 9:12am
Benedict Yu

Worth a read.

http://offsettingbehaviour.blogspot.com/2022/06/reader-mailbag-rbnz-edition.html

“Dear Mr Quigley, Mr Robertson,

I am writing to you, copied to others, to express deep concern at the increasingly political role that the Reserve Bank governor is performing and the risk this presents to the credibility, professionalism and independence of the Reserve Bank. ………”

Regards

Geof Mortlock
International Financial Sector Consultant
Former central banker (New Zealand) and financial sector regulator (Australia)
Consultant to the IMF and World Bank
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June 21, 2022 9:25am
- alex Masterley
  
  That is very depressing.
  
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  June 21, 2022 9:34am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Yes. It will never get reported in the mainstream media here. Because the author tears into Orr’s obsession with Maori mythology and his cringe worthy account of such at an international conference of central bankers. If the media reports that they risk breaching the terms of their $55 million. They will not go there.
    
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    June 21, 2022 9:43am
    - oldfella
      
      Benedict, I assume you’ve seen this. (Warning: don’t read it while holding a hot drink.)
      https://www.rbnz.govt.nz/about-us/how-we-work/te-ao-maori—an-evolving-and-responsible-strategy
      
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      June 21, 2022 11:09am
surfing

Land transport is in a huge mess…
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/469495/waka-kotahi-unit-facing-restructure-deemed-no-longer-effective-documents-reveal

“Therefore, we are no longer effective in our roles or in the delivery of our functions.”

This is appalling, what the hell is going on?

I propose that this level of incompetence is occurring in ALL of government …. justice, housing, transport, immigration, health (crisis in primary and mental health), education, policing, prisons, MBIE, and local government is a huge mess.

My recent engagement with companies office for example, I emailed them in October last year with a question. They replied in February that they were investigating. I received an answer two weeks ago, but they completely misinterpreted the question and gave an answer to a question I had not asked. I told them this, they said they would reply within a three day target, 2 weeks ago, no answer yet.
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June 21, 2022 9:26am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Typical State Sector Employees. We don’t care about the number of truck accidents per kilometer, we just want the roads fixed. Stop looking to blame, do some fixing.
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:46am
westernScientist

Surprised this is seeing virtually no mention anywhere:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/lithuania-defends-ban-on-some-goods-to-russias-kaliningrad/2022/06/20/99e3ff82-f09e-11ec-ac16-8fbf7194cd78_story.html

Lithuania blocking goods transit to Kaliningrad is a pretty big deal. There is something like half a million people live there, and a lot of goods come via rail. They can resupply via sea, but only when the St Petersburg port is not full of ice and while Finland/Sweden are not in NATO. Some can come in from air, but is limited do to what a plane can actually carry, and again threading the needle a bit through the Baltic sea. This could get out of control very quickly.
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June 21, 2022 9:31am
- virtualmark
  
  EU/NATO initiative to put Russia on the back foot and force them to play some defence.
  
  Basically this is a 2022 mirror image of the Berlin airlift.
  
  Russia can easily supply Kaliningrad by sea, or by air. But it will cost more and be slower.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:22am
- ClanMcleod
  
  The west’s handling of the whole Ukraine situation has been an abject disaster in every respect. From sanctions to the supplying of weapons. An unmitigated shit show that is causing the destruction of that country. The US don’t give a toss about the Ukrainian people. They are expendable in the proxy war as a tool to try and hurt Russia. It is backfiring spectacularly. Here’s hoping it doesn’t go nuclear for all our sakes.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:52am
  - Ross Campbell
    
    I agree.It would have been so much simpler and much less mess to just let Russia swallow up Ukraine as according to Putin its not really a country anyway right!.
    Russia is far more caring and benevolent than the West and for the Ukrainians to not embrace this is incredibly selfish…..
    
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    June 21, 2022 12:33pm
    - mawm
      
      I’m sure Putin would have left all as it was if the US hadn’t been pushing to get Ukraine into NATO and Zelenskyy hadn’t used his Nazi thugs to shell Russian speaking Ukranian residential areas for weeks prior to Putin wading in to put a stop to all that. It sounds as if the US is trying to provoke Russia again with Kalliningrad. It’s only Lithuanian lives after all – just like Ukraine.
      
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      June 21, 2022 2:37pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Ross – as usual, you didn’t read the post properly, or if you did your comprehension skills are woeful. I’ll go with the latter. Nothing I said implied that the Russians should be allowed to do whatever they want. I said the responses by the west have been an abject failure and they have.
      The sanctions have backfired badly and are doing far more damage in the countries doing the sanctioning than they are to Russia. Supplying the Ukrainians with older equipment is doing nothing other than ensuring many more young Ukrainians get killed for no gain whatsoever.
      The west has used Ukraine as a tool to try and hurt Russia. It has been a failure. It is destroying Ukraine and killing their young men, and plenty of young Russian men also. Ukraine would not have been targeting the Russian speaking population in the east if it hadn’t been for the active encouragement by assholes like McCain who goaded and pushed them with promises of support they were never going to keep.
      Ukraine is a tragedy, but it’s a tragedy the blame for which can be firmly placed at the feet of the neocons in Washington. A totally disastrous foreign policy failure.
      Ukraine did need to address the problem it has with active nazis. There was no need for a military confrontation with Russia.
      
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      June 21, 2022 3:40pm
cmm

“Consumer confidence plunges to lowest level since 1988”

Well that’s bad, but it’s also incorrect. The survey was started in 1988 and this is the lowest confidence EVER recorded!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/consumer-confidence-plunges-to-lowest-level-since-1988/CXXLNYZUODSU6I7QHQ2ZVX5P5A/
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June 21, 2022 9:46am
Blog-aholic

Reading this morning breaking views blog they have posted an article that the incoming speaker of Parliament want his office to be bi-lingual.

“Adrian Rurawhe says he wants his office to be bilingual, and that his experiences chairing iwi hui will help him referee Parliament’s debates.”

So do the Chinese, Indian, Polynesian communities get a say? Will the Deaf communitee be included?

Answer is NO. It is bilingualism virtue signalling tokenism with a large hint of this is only going to hurt a little as we change the ligua franca in New Zealand.
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June 21, 2022 9:48am
- cmm
  
  For lawmaking to work, the laws need to be written in languages that have precision and a history of being used for administrative purposes.
  
  English is such a language. Maori is not.
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:49am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Maybe he’s suggesting everyone write in Latin //
    
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    June 21, 2022 11:43am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  More of the same bullshit being rammed down our throats.
  Roll on 2023.
  
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  June 21, 2022 10:49am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Rurawhe has yet to be appointed Speaker by the whole House. If he wants the job without a contested selection, he should be more judicious about declaring what his plans are for the role. He’s going to start off with a level of goodwill because he’s NOT Trevor Mallard, but he doesn’t need to spend that capital too quickly.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:17am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Canada has a bi lingual country but French has been there for 500 years and is a modern Language with all the nuances etc.
  
  Maori is not.
  
  Try translating a legal document like a Ship Time Charter into te reo. IMPOSSIBLE
  
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  June 21, 2022 3:01pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    French is a weird language (even aside from all their pronunciation and spelling issues). 75% of (European) French citizens did not speak French as a native tongue at the time of the French revolution and until the 1800s it was was more widely spoken in Holland and Germany than it was in some parts of France.
    
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    June 21, 2022 3:42pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Yep. Blame Napoleon & his empire-building
      
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      June 21, 2022 9:12pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

This Sunday (Saturday in the US)
Be there or be square.

https://www.rsbnetwork.com/video/watch-president-donald-trump-save-america-rally-live-in-mendon-il-6-25-22/?
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June 21, 2022 10:09am
Blog-aholic

I see that Kids Can are advertising on TV for donations to feed New Zealands hungry children.

What happened to all that Government support these parents and children get and where is the Minister of Child Povery on this one?
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June 21, 2022 10:12am
- kowtow
  
  What happened to “our generation’s uclearmoment”
  
  Gone in a flash of rhetorical bullshit , dressed up as “caring”.
  
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  June 21, 2022 1:06pm
- Philview
  
  There is a design flaw in the original model in that it was providing food for children through schools. That worked back pre 2017 but after 5 years of Labour and it seems half the children in New Zealand no longer attend school.
  
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  June 21, 2022 1:22pm
oldfella

Bethlehem College: Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern acknowledges ‘serious concerns’ raised about school
It seems that being a ‘special character’ school is okay, as long as you don’t promote that special character.
The Tauranga Christian school has been under fire in recent weeks for asking parents to acknowledge the belief that marriage was between a man and a woman – something that has been labelled “discriminatory” by an LGBTQIA+ advocate.
Additionally, leaked documents showed the school would use biological pronouns for students – and that the school needed to approve a student’s name aligned with their “biological sex”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/bethlehem-college-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-acknowledges-serious-concerns-raised-about-school/FLXBZJMBOOHOTKMKWFFMMCUCRE/
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June 21, 2022 10:37am
- surfing
  
  Homosexuals are going after religion now.
  
  I thought they said they wouldn’t when the gay marriage law was passed.
  
  20 2
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  June 21, 2022 11:30am
  - Philview
    
    I think the gay/gender issues are used as a pretext but the real agenda is He Puapua and advancing Maori Spirituality and diminishing Christianity. Nanaia Mahuta said yesterday that the Matariki holiday represents the return to what we were before colonisation. The Reserve Bank now worships the God of the Forest.
    
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    June 21, 2022 1:40pm
- MCōs
  
  The way I understand that article the school will refuse to enroll a kid with a Christian name they don’t disapprove?
  Porn is a common Thai name. That’ll set alarm bells ringing.
  Interestingly the Thai education system is very conservative with regards to religion, uniforms, haircuts, and general deference to authority, but the schools are tolerant of kathoey culture (transgender). It’s the tourists who get all excited.
  
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  June 21, 2022 12:52pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Not correct – you obviously didn’t read the article. You missed: “and if a student wished to use a name at school other than their legal name……..”
    
    10 2
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    June 21, 2022 1:36pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    They reckon that there is about 10% trans gender in Thailand.
    
    Thai Ladyboys have been around for centuries.
    
    In Singapore Bugis Street was renowned for them
    
    5 1
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    June 21, 2022 2:58pm
- Philview
  
  ‘The school uses biological pronouns’. The absurdity of where we are at as country is reflected in the media attacks on that school.
  
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  June 21, 2022 1:32pm
- Ruawai
  
  Why don’t they ask the Muslim schools for their opinions on same sex marriage.
  
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  June 21, 2022 1:34pm
oldfella

Oh, dear. This is just not okay. What were they thinking?
Call to play rugby final on day of Matariki labelled ‘culturally insensitive’
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/129021183/call-to-play-rugby-final-on-day-of-matariki-labelled-culturally-insensitive
What’s next? Playing a league test on Anzac Day? No, it’s got to stop. Some respect, please. ///
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June 21, 2022 10:46am
- Inandout
  
  old, any shop open on M Day could be considered insensitive and you can add any crime committed on that day ‘inappropriate’.
  
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  June 21, 2022 11:23am
- zulumonster
  
  Hopefully someone will provide a list of things I can or can’t do this coming Friday. I’d hate to upset anyone by having a culturally insensitive beer or something …. no wait, fuck ’em …
  
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  June 21, 2022 1:07pm
  - Ruawai
    
    Don’t sit on a table.
    
    9 1
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    June 21, 2022 1:35pm
- westernScientist
  
  doing work on labour day?
  
  7 1
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  June 21, 2022 2:40pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Too many people are just like Kiwibloggers: always looking for the latest thing to get upset about. The times when any cultural tradition, Anzac Day, Easter, Matariki or Talk like a Pirate Day dictates what everyonemust do are fading past.
  
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  June 21, 2022 2:58pm
cmm

When you restructure an engineering-oriented ministry to remove engineers you’re fucked. It’s like restructuring health services to remove doctors and nurses.

But what else do you expect when you put a pie muncher with a PhD in women’s studies in charge?

HR staff have doubled from 57 to 122;
admin up 60 per cent to 509;
accountants from 44 to 66;
and communications almost trebled from 32 to 88,
… but engineers are down.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/waka-kotahi-unit-facing-restructure-deemed-no-longer-effective-documents-reveal/E3BC4IBDZOG5RN2KMYMAIXIQOQ/
33 0
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June 21, 2022 10:54am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  The (useless) department has a simple answer for everything – more road cones and lower speeds. When the road collapses you put up signs rather than fixing it. Doing anything requires feeding a bureaucratic army. The pie muncher doesn’t care.
  
  33 0
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  June 21, 2022 11:10am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Yep I reckon you are right. Wouldn’t surprise me if they propose a maximum speed of 80 or 90 km/hr on open roads (even toll roads) for ‘safety’.
    
    10 0
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    June 21, 2022 1:24pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Ardern and her government are the most destructive element ever visited on this country. Everything they touch is a total disaster. The sooner she is gone to the UN the better. The woman is insane.
  
  32 1
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  June 21, 2022 11:44am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    Even the UN won’t have her
    
    11 0
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    June 21, 2022 2:56pm
Iamright

Brilliant!!!
13 1
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June 21, 2022 10:54am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Here we go again. Jaspinda softening us up for another lockdown? She wants to exert her control again.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/ardern-pleads-with-kiwis-to-wear-masks-get-flu-jabs-as-virus-returns-with-a-vengeance/ar-AAYE0vT?
29 2
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June 21, 2022 10:57am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  No amount of failure will satisfy her.
  
  25 2
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  June 21, 2022 11:11am
- oldfella
  
  Steve, according to this, the low level of flu jabs for DHB staff is a looming crisis.
  Low flu vaccination rates could have dire consequences, warns immunologist
  Ministry of Health data show only around 54 per cent of DHB staff have had the flu jab, and in the Nelson Marlborough DHB that dips as low as 39 per cent.
  That is despite predictions of a massive winter illnesses season, which is already contributing to long wait times in emergency departments in all of the major centres.
  There were four other DHBs with fewer than half of their staff vaccinated – Southern (44 per cent), South Canterbury (47), Counties Manukau (47) and Lakes (48).
  
  I think Cindy and co need to come down hard on these medical hold-outs. No jab, no job. Worked a treat last time. //
  
  21 1
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  June 21, 2022 11:17am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    She is trying to manufacture a flu pandemic crisis to lock us down.
    Many have already had the fluvax, she is pulling shit out of thin air – desperate.
    
    19 2
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    June 21, 2022 11:46am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      She created the “Flu crisis” in the first place by locking us into Fortress Aotearoa for 2 years.
      
      Meant the population wasn’t able to renew its seasonal flu immunity for 2 years.
      
      Entirely predictable…as many folks stated back in 2020.
      
      28 2
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      June 21, 2022 1:38pm
      - Cinematic
        
        Exactly.
        
        1 0
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        June 21, 2022 6:23pm
  - mawm
    
    oldie – Questions for her during her next lecture from the podium – will she guarantee that the flu jabs are not using mRNA and lipid nanoparticle technology, will she guarantee that those not vaccinated will not lose their jobs or be treated a second class citizens, and can she guarantee that the QR access codes will not be used to punish the “anti-vaxxers”.
    
    8 2
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    June 21, 2022 2:47pm
    - info@cruzpro.com
      
      The wife and I got the flu jab and me, a covid19 vaccine virgin, sure hope I’ve not been raped.
      
      0 0
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      June 21, 2022 6:57pm
- Bridgenag
  
  Get your exemption
  
  8 2
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  June 21, 2022 1:04pm
Swifty

Confirmation of what we’ve all seen and known – Ardern looked on sitting on her hands while under Poto Williams crime has exploded and she did nothing effective to get on top of it.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/newly-appointed-police-minister-chris-hipkins-indicates-crackdown-on-gangs-package-to-be-announced-in-the-coming-weeks/G7RVUBP3TCDTALCMF5ZZ626VMI/

It’s now gotten so bad that Ardern now has Hipkins and Allan scrambling to limit the damage with the election on the horizon.

Shame on the NZ Labour Party that they fiddled while Rome burned.

They are useless.
39 2
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June 21, 2022 11:05am
- oldfella
  
  Swifty: yep, Cindy fiddled while raiders rammed.
  
  19 1
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  June 21, 2022 11:27am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Cindy had no problem ordering the battering of protesters in Wellington, but I guess the gangs are a her buddies and she prefers to give them money and cuddles.
  
  28 4
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  June 21, 2022 11:40am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Hipkins – assets seized if illegal firearms are found!
  Guess what? No firearms found, illegal or not. This person is yet another compulsive liar. Seen it on the podium of truth.
  
  17 3
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  June 21, 2022 11:51am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump was right again. Biden did exactly what Trump said. Lefties go to the basement please, you will hate this.
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?ref=saved&v=1676411306056226
13 4
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June 21, 2022 11:53am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDo-IfqaJSk

Woman pleads guilty to 26 voting fraud charges.

This couldn’t possibly happen in America. The election system is totally secure. Brandon, and CNN told me so. // [9:58]
9 2
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June 21, 2022 1:22pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4MAg7EYqo8

Bad News for Teacher’s Pet.

The establishment thought they’d excluded the National Rally from power. Not now though. Teacher’s Pet gets an F. [14:13]
5 2
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June 21, 2022 1:22pm
surfing

Bring back Joyce….
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/kerre-woodham-mornings/audio/steven-joyce-former-finance-minister-on-government-dysfunction-and-what-can-be-done/
14 1
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June 21, 2022 1:46pm
Warren

Ha ha Labour MP Megan Woods to have large inquiry into” Jib Shortages “.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/gib-crisis-megan-woods-taking-action-taskforce-formed-to-investigate/6JQNQ62KTNIRFDK75BNUISEE44/
Why wait this long the Government and Megan Woods has known about this for months and now because of the polls have decided they need to do something about it.
20 2
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June 21, 2022 1:47pm
- MCōs
  
  It shouldn’t be the government’s responsibility to fiddle round with that which should be self regulating.
  The problem is Winstones has cornered the local plasterboard market, which was sort of fine until it wasn’t because they can’t keep up with demand, but architects keep specifying Gib on their drawings.
  To specify something else and change the documents isn’t as difficult as changing the direction of the Titanic, but it’s a close second.
  
  1 0
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  June 21, 2022 5:37pm
- greybeard
  
  Miss Piggy to become Miss Gibby.
  
  3 0
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  June 21, 2022 7:16pm
Maggie Pie

Bestie from tennis picked me up earlier. We went for a browse and a bite-to-eat out at the Sylvia Park Mall.
Honestly, there were hundreds of teenagers hanging out there…. probably all up to no good 🙁
The thing that really stood out, was the vast majority of the girls were all sooo FAT!
As Fleur remarked…..”when we were at boarding school, everyone was stick thin”.

Just saying.
22 5
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June 21, 2022 2:06pm
mikenmildagain

A good move from a brave man:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jun/21/nobel-peace-prize-auctioned-by-russian-journalist-dmitry-muratov-fetches-record-1035m
10 7
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June 21, 2022 2:15pm
Nickc2

Aust Foreign Minister gifts $50,000,000.00 of their borrowed money to Sri Lanka. Will our Foreign Minister (you know her, she’s the one who’s gone AWOL) equal or surpass that figure using our borrowed/printed money?
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/06/penny-wong-hands-50m-of-our-borrowed-cash-to-sri-lanka.html
5 2
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June 21, 2022 2:35pm
westernScientist

oh no:

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/116443/taskforce-investigate-ways-increasing-plasterboard-supplies
9 2
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June 21, 2022 2:46pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Is it wrong to think that Brandon should upgrade to a Harley?
6 4
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June 21, 2022 3:21pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Something faster and less stable…..
  
  6 2
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  June 21, 2022 3:42pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Reliant Robin?
    The left can google and pretend they knew what that was – and the Poms here probably had one!
    
    4 2
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    June 21, 2022 4:46pm
    - rockape
      
      Reliant scimitar as close as I got.
      
      7 0
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      June 21, 2022 5:32pm
    - mandk
      
      They are very valuable.
      
      This one fetched GBP42,000 at auction five years ago: https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/del-boys-robin-reliant-sells-11515569
      
      1 0
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      June 21, 2022 5:37pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Uncle Henry Ford would be impressed.
https://www.tesmanian.com/blogs/tesmanian-blog/tesla-giga-berlin-celebrates-a-milestone-production-capacity-reached-1-000-model-ys-per-week?
2 2
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June 21, 2022 4:22pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Grounded Kiwis – Win

Labour Government – Lose

Jacinda Ardern – Deflect, Delay, Drivel

“Ardern was asked in her post-cabinet press conference yesterday whether she would apologise and she batted the question away saying it was up to other Ministers to first decide whether they would appeal the court decision.

“Just over 12 hours later it was announced the Government won’t appeal. She didn’t apologise yesterday because she doesn’t want to be associated with failure – even though this rests firmly on her shoulders.

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2206/S00159/prime-minister-must-apologise-to-grounded-kiwis.htm
17 2
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June 21, 2022 4:41pm
Maggie Pie

I honestly think my partner is part of some stupid competition to see who can sneeze the loudest.

It’s really starting to piss me off 🙁
8 2
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June 21, 2022 4:45pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Just start talking in your sleep. Mention ‘Labour have won again’ and he will wake up in two seconds!
  
  7 1
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  June 21, 2022 4:49pm
- MCōs
  
  I cracked a rib four years ago when I sneezed.
  Took a long time to come right.
  
  8 0
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  June 21, 2022 5:08pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Our Dear PM stands by Minister Mahuta

Ardern said she’d discussed issues where conflicts or potential conflicts of interest had been openly raised.

“I’m confident the process has been followed,” the PM added.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/pm-stands-by-nanaia-mahuta-after-nats-say-government-contracts-to-family-show-pattern-of-perceived-conflicts/OWD2ZPODV5LKYDFMNCXAFO6IQA/
12 0
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June 21, 2022 5:17pm
- kowtow
  
  Process is all well and good but as we’ve been told so many times , politics is about perceptions and this sure don’t pass the sniff test.
  
  2 0
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  June 21, 2022 5:49pm
- greybeard
  
  And we all know that Ardern had never read anything about this issue and probably doesn’t know anyone connected with it.
  
  7 0
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  June 21, 2022 7:14pm
Maggy Wassilieff

For folks interested in the origin of the Mahuta – Ormsby connection:

In 1963 a young Maori miner with a European name reinvented himself.

With a Huntly solicitor as witness, 24-year-old Robert Jeremiah Ormsby changed his name by deed poll to Robert Te Kotahi Mahuta.

The name change was ambitious – Te Kotahi means “number one” in Maori, while Mahuta was the name of the third Maori King.

While broadly hinting at personal aspirations, the new name was at least in line with the young man’s blood connections with the Maori royal family.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/sir-robert-mahuta-a-flawed-colossus/OQGY572VFECADLUAYHKGXXOZ5I/
14 0
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June 21, 2022 5:21pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  They sorta sound like our very own ‘Harry & Megan’….except in reverse.
  
  9 1
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  June 21, 2022 5:43pm
Lenticular

Anyone else notice how the media produce a hit piece on Elon Musk every single day, now that he openly opposes wokeness?
2 0
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June 21, 2022 5:34pm
- alloytoo
  
  That has not gone unnoticed.
  
  1 0
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  June 22, 2022 6:50am
emmess

I demand to know, why was the Prime Minister consorting with domestic terrorists on her recent trip the the US?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpGgXz7g57A
2 0
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June 21, 2022 6:00pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Looks like the Cops have finally made some arrests after the vicious gang assault on a motorist. in March.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/waikato-expressway-attack-three-tribesmen-gang-members-arrested/CCJMVAY6WJOF6ZUXE3SPDWWMDA/
9 0
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June 21, 2022 6:38pm
Maggie Pie

Sitting watching the News and enjoying a cheeky little Sav.
They showed local Iwi atop Bastion Point preparing for the ‘Matariki Celebrations’ come Friday morning.
My partner was quick to point out…..” as the Moa flies, we’re only about 3km away from the actual summit”.
He’s hoping they don’t start too early and wake everybody up.
3 1
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June 21, 2022 6:41pm
- emmess
  
  Down vote for watching ‘the News’
  
  2 0
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  June 21, 2022 8:05pm

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