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July 31, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 31 July 2022

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General Debate

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artemisia

2023.

6 years of Fail. A suggestion was made to go with 5 years of Fail, a one year pass for Covid.

Only one. Fair?
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July 31, 2022 8:05am
- rouppe
  
  Five years of failure is something I started saying last year.
  
  Maybe it’s time to move on to six years of subversion
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:51am
  - ISeeRed
    
    Six years in labour. (Ask any mother how horrifying that would be.)
    
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    July 31, 2022 2:49pm
- Stellaboxer
  
  https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/26fb4d6419460e4a84e3e86e26c2478ca3312f1a1b3b5d52b5ea85442df70d59.jpg Very funny should be oh billboards across the country
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:03pm
  - tf78
    
    Revolting, in more ways than one.
    
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    July 31, 2022 7:16pm
- Michael Johnston
  
  I say it’s definitely six years, although ‘five years of fail’ alliterates better.
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:16pm
  - Michael Johnston
    
    How about ‘six years of stupid’?
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:17pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      six [senseless, squandered, slacking, shirking] years any others???
      
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      July 31, 2022 5:41pm
- Joely Doe
  
  Six Years of Sabotage
  
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  July 31, 2022 2:04pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  artemisa bro – that one year of pass is enough for sheeple to vote Cindy again and again.
  
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  July 31, 2022 6:58pm
artemisia

Paula Bennett in the Herald today, similar to Lindsay Mitchell’s excellent updates –

The job market is in crisis and welfare numbers don’t tally

Paywalled but the key sentence is –

I get that there are people who don’t think they should have to “sell out” to big business or do “menial” work. I believe in free choice – I just don’t think that taxpayers should have to pay for it.
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July 31, 2022 8:11am
- Jack5
  
  Bennett’s a big loss to National in Parliament, Bridges, too.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:51am
  - pdm
    
    I cannot help feeling there was a `bit more spine’ with Bridges and Bennett at the helm of National than we see from `Te Reo’ Luxon and Willis.
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:32pm
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      pdm – Everybody will say John Key – English was the best combination we had. B & B combination is not there any more. All we have is Te Reo Luxon and “I am progressive” Willis. So let us hope they dethrone Cindy and Chief Thief. Otherwise next three years, we will be taxed to death.
      
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      July 31, 2022 7:06pm
  - igm
    
    Do not overlook Stephen Joyce . . . PM material cast aside thanks to the Goodfellow regime.
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:34pm
- An Old Kiwi
  
  Sometimes it’s the employers who won’t consider someone for a job vacancy (even tho they’re experienced & qualified).
  Look at the DHBs. Because of the govt’s pointless mandates, DHBs aren’t allowed to hire NZ trained healthcare workers who are healthy (but have chosen not to undertake a certain medical procedure). Instead, the DHBs have to overwork their current staff to the point that some choose to resign, making the situation worse.
  
  (And in a recession, employers often don’t have the business confidence to hire more staff.
  I’ve been applying for jobs, but employers are often too picky. )
  
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  August 1, 2022 12:57pm
Warren

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300650022/government-plans-to-eliminate-hiv-transmission-in-new-zealand
While we hope that this can be achieved and eliminate HIV Transmission in New Zealand you would have to be naive to think Labour would achieve this goal even though they are talking about the year 2032 .
This is a Government that said the wanted to eliminate measles and instead exported epidemic to Samoa,
this is a Government that wanted to eliminate Rheumatic Fever and to do that they needed families to have housing that wasn’t crowded with also good living conditions, where have they ended up with homelessness at record level thousands in emergency housing and our Healthcare in crisis.
Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister said she could erraticate poverty and after massaging the figure to help her goal all we got is money more families in poverty in New Zealand.
What mater more to people ishonesty and the will to achieve but all you from this Government is failure and deciet so really what chance have got to deliver this promise by 2032.
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July 31, 2022 8:17am
- backster
  
  Maybe they intend to outlaw homosexuality.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:33am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    That’ll deal to the Monkey Pox too
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:15pm
    - emmess
      
      Aka Schlong Covid
      
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      July 31, 2022 1:05pm
- pdm
  
  I doubt this government could eliminate two cockroaches climbing up the wall.
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:33pm
  - Mummy
    
    I wish someone would come to my house and get rid of the big one that occasionally makes an appearance in my house. We’ve named him Winston because I don’t think we will ever eradicate him.
    
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    July 31, 2022 2:17pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    @pdm-
    No, I don’t think this government could eliminate two cockroaches climbing up a wall either.
    That is because cockroaches are quicker, smarter and more determined than the shower of weak minded politicians we have at this time in history.
    Cockroaches are difficult to get rid of. They hide, they scuttle, you think you’ve stood on one and it just keeps going when you lift up your size 9.
    In this, they are similar to our politicians.
    But cockroaches don’t have the media/celebrity/academic market cornered.
    Because of that, they are more respectable.
    
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    July 31, 2022 2:22pm
- RockyJ
  
  All men will be mandated to wear condoms in pubic places. They will only be allowed to take them off when eating. Signs to this effect will be erected.
  Any man not wearing a condom will be required to provide a specimen.
  It blows my mind.
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:55pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Pubic places. Freudian slip?
    
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    July 31, 2022 6:23pm
    - Bluegrass
      
      I see why you chose your nickname…
      
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      August 1, 2022 12:38am
Mobile Michael

Carbon free, easily scalable, reliable electric power generation at a low cost?

https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/07/us-regulators-will-certify-first-small-nuclear-reactor-design/

It’s here, and it’s illegal in New Zealand. Burn that coal instead!
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July 31, 2022 8:29am
- oldfella
  
  MM: our new coal motto can be ‘Dig, Baby, Dig’! (Sorry, might have hit the report button in error.)
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:46am
- rouppe
  
  You can bet your last dollar the taniwha will need oiling for anything that needs a continuous water supply
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:55am
  - tf78
    
    I don’t think the new Nuclear Reactors need to be water cooled anymore.
    
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    July 31, 2022 7:27pm
    - rouppe
      
      Excerpt from the link above:
      
      NuScale has a much more traditional design, with fuel and control rods and energy transported through boiling water. Its operator-free safety features include setting the entire reactor in a large pool of water, control rods that are inserted into the reactor by gravity in the case of a power cut, and convection-driven cooling from an external water source.
      
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      July 31, 2022 9:42pm
Yvette

NZ ACT Leader David Seymour says Jacinda Ardern’s government is “slowly unravelling” and losing its popularity.

NZ pushes for a smoke-free generation

video transcript 2:55 –
… and there’s another aspect of this law that you may be interested in – they also want to limit … the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. Now this last one is particularly stupid because nicotine, while addictive, is not in itself harmful – it’s all the tar and the toxins you get while trying to feed your nicotine addiction that actually harm you. But if you reduce the amount of nicotine per cigarette people are likely to compensate by getting more tar and toxins out of cigarettes that don’t have as much nicotine per drag. This is just how completely illogical the policy has become. What’s more it
will mean the only way to get high nicotine cigarettes will be at the black market – David Seymour on Sky News Australia
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZstF-QHV-hE

2:47 – Well I think the other parties are simply afraid to speak truth to what is out of control power – we now have control for control sake.
– that in the above example may kill more people with kindness rather than save them.
And soon overtake the “5,000 covid deaths” Jacinda already saved.

… Ardern told the radio station even though the Government had to make some tough decisions in their COVID response, she can look back on them knowing she had saved lives.
“One of our critical advisers through this, who’s from the science community, mentioned to me the other day that on their calculation, give or take, possibly 5000 people have been saved by what we had done,” she said. [1]

See? – a vague “expert” calculation, becomes, in the last paragraph, a concrete fact –

“So in those moments, I think of that. Now those 5000 people, they don’t know who they are. “They don’t know that it was them that has been potentially protected by these measures. But I just keep that in my mind. It’s been hard but the flipside would have been even more painful [1]

A saviour is self-conceived – Jacinda d’Arc – in her mind, but before your eyes in black and white on a media website page.
I predict – yeah, even prophesy – the saving of the 5,000 will become an established fact in next year’s Election slogans and blurbs.
Deaths from smoking extra cigarettes to get the same nicotine hit won’t have kicked in yet.

Sey no mour!
_____________
[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-says-she-can-see-the-light-as-new-zealand-deals-with-wicked-perfect-storm-cost-of-living-crisis.html
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July 31, 2022 8:32am
- backster
  
  Maybe it was an expert from Nanaia’s wanau who came up with the 5,000 figure.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:37am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Sounds more like Hendy, Wiles or BakerBoy. “From the science community” indeed.
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:26pm
  - mawm
    
    Is this the critical advisor?
    “Global impact of the first year of COVID-19 vaccination: a mathematical modelling study”
    https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(22)00320-6/fulltext
    
    This is from the Imperial College and is a preprint in The Lancet. It seems to be the WEF propaganda – funded by the WHO, GAVI, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, etc.
    
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    July 31, 2022 2:50pm
    - tf78
      
      Imagine just how many lives would have been saved had over the counter remedies been allowed and there were no vaccines! Millions I expect.
      
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      July 31, 2022 7:32pm
- Prince
  
  That is one sick woman.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:46am
- Benedict Yu
  
  So offensive. She could save more lives at a fraction of the cost by making life saving and life extending drugs available.
  
  The government via pharmac and DHBs places a dollar value on lives when deciding to intervene to extend life. That logic went totally out of the window with COVID.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:59am
- RockyJ
  
  Among the Labour leaders there is a total absence of cause and effect thinking.
  Example, yesterday Chris Hipkins was quoted as saying “the reason for the restructuring of the polytechnic sector was National’s years of underfunding.”
  So, if underfunding was the cause the solution would be to increase funding.
  What he should have said that the cause was that the structure of the sector was not cost effective. But no he didn’t. Words count. They reveal the sloppy lazy thinking going on plus a lack of courage to admit the truth.
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:21am
- rouppe
  
  Have a think about those numbers.
  
  We were told 50,000 people would die if we did nothing.
  
  Now we’re told that “she saved” 5000.
  
  Mathematics then tells us that either 45,000 people have died, or that the real risk was 6502 (1502 actual deaths plus 5000 “saved “).
  
  So either way there’s a lie in there
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:01pm
- pdm
  
  Does Jacinda not know that the majority of smokers are probably Labour voters.
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:36pm
- Close Hen Counters
  
  Your posts are awesome Yvette! I still cannot believe you don’t have a cellphone 😍
  
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  July 31, 2022 3:05pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Yvette – “David Seymour says Jacinda Ardern’s government is “slowly unravelling” and losing its popularity.”
  
  This is a stupid statement. He should check the last Tax Payer Union – Curia poll numbers.
  
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  July 31, 2022 7:09pm
Tomtoddy

I am opposed to polygamy. It is degrading on women. It creates tyrannical males. It is not a great situation for raising kids.

However if some wish to participate that is there business. Live and let live.

Further I do not “hate” any individual involved and I am not suffering from “polyphobia”.

Should I be ostracised for my position? Should there be continuing media articles condemning me for my “beliefs”? If there were rugby league teams recognising polygamists and I choose not to be involved does that condemn me? Should I be “booted out”?

Seems like tolerance is a one way street.
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July 31, 2022 8:34am
- Caleb
  
  We have an existential crisis and can only look to science to solve our gender and racial un-fairness.
  The only equitable solution is the enhanced human embryo currently under development with the joint Syngenta + Pfizer engineering teams.
  The human 2.0 will combine equal amounts of DNA from all races and reproductive organs from all genders.
  Self fertility and Racial fairness will usher in the future; A new world order without advantage, without fear and without hate!
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:00am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    In a cafe au lait kind of way
    
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    July 31, 2022 3:02pm
- Jack5
  
  Tomtoddy, fair enough, but in a Welfare State, such as NZ, a polygamist’s family – or families, on average will be a far bigger burden on taxpayers.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:54am
- Master Mariner
  
  In the big scheme of things i am not too sure.
  
  “I am opposed to polygamy. It is degrading on women. It creates tyrannical males. It is not a great situation for raising kids.”
  
  I’m a firm believer of “Darwin’s natural selection”.
  
  And in this case “Weak” males breeding. Hence why its acceptable practice in a lot of religions and Cults for that matter.
  
  What do we do ? Encourage our least resilent to breed .
  
  But Yeah, Get your point.
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:57am
- Ruawai
  
  Agreed and Sonny Bill Williams was allowed to cover the BNZ logo because his Muslim religion doesn’t believe in banking.
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:09pm
  - Jack5
    
    Muslims object to interest, not to banking. Islamic banks get around the religion’s ban on charging interest by commercial-bill type lending.
    
    Borrowers accept a bill (or the equivalent) for X dollars, and receive X minus Y dollars, but replay the full X dollars.
    
    The concept of interest on loans was also contentious for Middle Age Christians. In England, it was alright to borrow and incur interest if you were borrowing from a foreigner, but Christians weren’t supposed to charge interest on loans to other Christians.
    
    The Islamic Bank of Australia pays to depositors what it calls a profit rate. It says this is based on the bank’s over-all profit. Its loans to home owners seem to entail co-ownership with the bank or leasing until the loan is paid off.
    
    It is explained in a little video here:
    
    https://islamicbank.au/
    
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    July 31, 2022 7:12pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  Because it’s the weekend, and because I find it funny. I hope you’ll forgive the slight diversion from the very well-made point you make.
  
  There was a young man from the Lyme
  Who married three wives at a time
  When asked “Why a third?”
  He replied “One’s absurd,
  And bigamy, sir, is a crime!”
  
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  July 31, 2022 12:30pm
Master Mariner

Do you trust Government with your data?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300630922/the-government-has-built-a-data-colossus–is-it-playing-with-fire

“This information used to be tightly held by the organisation that collected it. It was rarely shared with other agencies, and virtually never with outside parties.

The point of collecting this information wasn’t to analyse it; it was to deliver a government service.

One reason for this was the law. Under the Privacy Act, no two agencies can use the same identifier for an individual, which is meant to prevent the existence of a population register. It’s why you might have an NHI number, an IRD number, an ACC number, a passport number and an MSD client number that are all different – one cannot be directly connected to the other.”

Talk about open and transparent, I guess that does not include you as far as Data is concerned.

https://croakingcassandra.com/2018/10/09/the-idi-and-government-data-linking/

How secure is it and who gets access to the Data, Under what pretences?
https://fyi.org.nz/request/7383-breaches-of-idi-policy

What could possibly go wrong //
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July 31, 2022 8:35am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  I suspect what’s going on here is a slight twist on the old saying “if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it”.
  Twisted (just a little) to something like “if you can’t monitor it, you can’t control it”.
  And no, I don’t trust the government.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:48am
- rouppe
  
  It was even used for pandemic spread modelling that guided the government’s Covid-19 response.
  
  Shouldn’t that cause instant suspicion about its accuracy? Because not one single covid prediction has come true.
  
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  July 31, 2022 3:24pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

I heard on the news that only 5% of New Zealanders are twitter uses. I’m not, instead, when I am walking about I call out dumb things. So far I have five followers. I’m sure three of them are policemen
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July 31, 2022 8:58am
- kowtow
  
  Joking aside , tying in your post with that of tomtoddy’s above , police fascism ( and they are merely agents of the oppressive state) is alive and well .
  
  This is the UK today , and where England goes …..
  
  ‘Ms Jones said: ‘When incidents on social media receive not one but two visits from police officers, but burglaries and non-domestic break-ins don’t always get a police response, something is wrong.”
  
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11063507/Police-force-savaged-crime-commissioner-arrest-army-veteran.html
  
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  July 31, 2022 9:17am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    She’s right but for the wrong reason – it matters not one bit whether the PoPo visit the scenes of burglaries and other crimes before they get round to harassing citizens exercising their freedom of expression.
    
    The problem is they should never be doing that in the first place. For the record, I think depicting “pride” flags (and preferably some execrable BLM ones too) in the shape of a swastika is important social and political commentary, and bang on the mark.
    
    The fact that some Brenda or Karen saw fit to complain to the PoPo, and that the PoPo decided it was worthy of investigation and arrest, rather proves the point Laurence Fox was making. Inclusion? Tolerance? You’re having a larf!
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:37pm
- Yvette
  
  Steve, the fourth is a psychiatry student doing a PHD, and the fifth is Chair of some Labour Working Committee looking for policy ideas
  
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  July 31, 2022 9:51am
  - kowtow
    
    Nah , it’ll be a pair of pricks from some regime funded ‘misinformation’ project getting your personal details in oder to dox you.
    
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    July 31, 2022 11:25am
- curry4me
  
  I’ve got a Twitter account. I used it for a while when it looked like Elon Musk was going to buy it. I logged out when he said he probably won’t buy it.
  
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  July 31, 2022 2:21pm
kevn

@SteveO… I rely on Maggie Pie to put up the stupidest twitter offerings. She does well. A fave.
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July 31, 2022 9:01am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Yes, with Maggie sampling for us, who needs Twitter?
  
  The Herald is running a story about a couple panicking because their toddler cut his head and they couldn’t get an ambulance immediately and actually had to drive him to the nearby hospital.
  
  Try living in the country, baby. Learn First Aid and don’t expect the world to stop for you.
  
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  July 31, 2022 9:14am
  - RockyJ
    
    Last year my brother fell out of a tree and hit his head on concrete. He lived 5 km from the St Johns base in Auckland. It took the ambulance an hour to arrive. He had a brain bleed and died. The coroner’s report has not been finalised.
    Yesterday my wife took a tumble and knocked herself out. We are in Rarotonga. The ambulance took 15 minutes. She had instant service in the ED of Rarotonga hospital.
    Something is wrong.
    
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    July 31, 2022 9:54am
  - Chris2
    
    In the article the woman is quoted “I was just like speeding and overtaking people and running red lights, I just did not care”.
    
    My immediate reaction was what an effing selfish dangerous woman, she had no regard or consideration for anyone’s safety on the road, all she was concerned about was her own family’s.
    
    Well lady, I do not care for you.
    
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    July 31, 2022 10:16am
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Jacinda’s female airhead constituency. Clueless is their middle name. Instead of using pressure to stop the bleeding she uses a towel to soak it up.
      
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      July 31, 2022 11:36am
info@cruzpro.com

It is creepy to read that:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300630922/the-government-has-built-a-data-colossus–is-it-playing-with-fire
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July 31, 2022 9:05am
- JerJer
  
  Maori and Pacifica people should be up on arms about this. It says the purpose is to monitor and predict outcomes and allow for early intervention.
  
  Maori and Pacific Islanders make up 50% of the prison population and only 30% of their kids attended school.
  
  No guesses as to who this database is set up to monitor.
  
  If it was me, I would use this to reduce social welfare benefits to parents not allowing their kids to be educated. For a start. Normal citizens need not worry about a database like this.
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:36am
dubya

So, it turns out Brian Tamaki drives a Chinese Foton Ute! The tithes must have really dried up…
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July 31, 2022 9:08am
- riffer
  
  It was his brother-in-law’s car, I’d read.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:32am
Benedict Yu

So we are going to get a cycleway that will turn a 4 lane busy arterial road into a congested and dangerous 2 lane road.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/129401086/controversial-overengineered-and-overpriced-22m-cycleway-to-go-ahead

It will make it impossible to park outside the many popular businesses. Christchurch shoppers want to be able to park within a 30 seconds walk of wherever they are visiting. Most shoppers, faced with the incoming nightmare on this road, will simply go elsewhere.
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July 31, 2022 9:19am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Elect morons get stupidity. This will do absolutely nothing for climate change and should be judged solely on its economic impact. The pricks on wheels who want it should pay for it.
  
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  July 31, 2022 9:29am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I have to laugh at the name of the cycleway “Wheels to Wings”. The inference is that folk will now cycle to the airport instead of taking an Uber. I have been to Christchurch Airport hundreds of times. There are two sets of bike parking facilities at the airport. I have yet to see a bike parked there. People do not ride bikes to the airport to catch a plane.
    
    It will be interesting to see the results of the next census in cycling’s share of commuting modes. In Christchurch, it is about 2 percent, less than it was 40 years ago. Let’s say by 2025 it moves from 2 percent to 3 percent. How is that going to address the “climate emergency”?
    
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    July 31, 2022 9:50am
    - Nickc2
      
      I can’t carry my luggage to the Airport on a fucking bike!
      
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      July 31, 2022 9:59am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Nick, you need to think more laterally. Get a main suitcase with a long handle and some wheels, stretch out the handle and tie your other bags to the handle, buy a carrier frame and secure the end of the handle to that, and simply tow your luggage to the airport – simples!
        
        Admittedly, you’ll have to pick a day when it’s not raining and there’s not much wind, very little traffic, a route with no bumps or rail/tram crossings, and your bike will almost certainly be stolen while you’re away, but come on man! It can be done if you care about the planet.
        
        //
        
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        July 31, 2022 12:42pm
    - Tomtoddy
      
      I dunno BY….. cant you see a retired 70 year old with a couple of suitcases and hand luggage pedalling furiously up the street in rain and sleet into the teeth of a howling southerly??? Just use your imagination.
      
      It is one thing to have an aspiration that sometime more people will use bikes but there have been enough examples of hugely expensive cycleways that are total failues with one or two bikes a day when its fine for the whole push to build more being arrogance, disdain for hard working ratepayers, dangerous fantacies of brainless idiots.
      
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      July 31, 2022 10:00am
      - Jack5
        
        The Harewood cycle way is a disgrace to the spendaholic Christchurch City Council.
        
        There is a fine cafe on that route, so popular that parking is already heavy around it. The cafe moved there from the centre city after the earthquake.
        
        The cycle way will be so disruptive for customers that surely it will make it hard for the business to remain viable.
        
        The cycleway isn’t needed and will be empty 98 per cent of the time.
        
        The council seems to be run by a Green elite who hate cars and despise ratepayers.
        
        “Bike for climate change you bastards,” seems to be their motto. “Bike, bike, bike, and bike some more.”
        
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        July 31, 2022 11:00am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Yes I know the cafe. It will go under.
        
        In Edgeware there is a small ‘strip mall’ that was constructed 2 years ago on Edgeware Road. I don’t know what the developer was thinking. There is NO parking with yellow lines along that part of the road.
        
        Until recently, only one of the 10 shops was occupied. It is now up to three. A bunch have lasted three months or so.
        
        This is simply because there is no parking.
        
        The cycling advocates can argue all they want. The revealed preferences of a vast majority of Christchurch shoppers is that they will not go to shops where they cannot park.
        
        The ‘Copenhagen Bakery’ in Harewood Road will go broke or it will need to relocate. As the other businesses do this there will be a commercial zone ‘wasteland’ left behind.
        
        This is a graphic mockup of the Copenhagen Bakery post cycleway.
        
        https://tinyurl.com/bdhwnmmn
        
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        July 31, 2022 11:43am
      - Flossie
        
        And his wife who can’t ride a bike on the back carrier!
        
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        July 31, 2022 12:55pm
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Ben, I think that most people realise that cycling is a recreational thing. People, particularly adults, seldom cycle to work, to the airport, to do the grocery shop, even their friends place for dinner! The only people that think it is a “thing” are the socialists that believe cycling will save the world. Those people are invariably Labour and Green Party MPs and voters.
      
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      July 31, 2022 11:12am
      - Jim
        
        Agree IVV. Good luck to them I say, unless the cycleways are segregated from vehicular traffic. I’m a life long cyclist (mostly fitness and some commuting) but have long since given up on road cycling due to the ridiculous risks from distracted drivers (largely texting and calling on cell phones). In our lower NI city the council provided cycle lanes are just gritty potholed median strips with parked cars in them……as such they are not safe cycle routes. Furthermore apart from the impracticality of cycling everywhere, it’s the incessant wind and rain that would make it a miserable and socially isolating experience for 6 months of the year.
        
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        July 31, 2022 12:48pm
    - emmess
      
      Yes, I am going to cycle to the airport with two large suitcases on my back.
      
      These people
      
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      July 31, 2022 1:07pm
    - Jack5
      
      …. the name of the cycleway “Wheels to Wings” …
      
      Really? An English-language name?
      
      Of course …
      
      Maori didn’t have planes, or the wheel.
      
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      July 31, 2022 1:46pm
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      My son is coming home from chch tonight – $6 Uber from his flat to the airport …. Bargain
      
      2 1
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      July 31, 2022 3:19pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    “The pricks on wheels who want it should pay for it.”
    You have to be joking! A cyclist pay? Most (not all) are arrogant selfish bastards who think owning a bike gets you special privileges. It doesn’t.
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:11pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      “I pay for it from the petrol/roaduser Taxes” Nope
      “I pay for it in my Rates” Nope.
      Other Taxpayers/Ratepayers who don’t own bikes are subsidising the facilities you use free!
      
      16 2
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      July 31, 2022 12:15pm
      - mawm
        
        Sorry Steve – 2 downticks from me. I’m a recreational cyclist and bike lanes and paths have made it safer. 99% of the time I drive, I pay road user charges, fuel taxes, and because I live in central Auckland I pay high rates – which subsidise the people travelling on public transport, etc. That’s the way things work.
        
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        July 31, 2022 3:08pm
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        @mawm, but you don’t pay for your recreation. You have externalised your costs to everyone else as the Left like to say.
        
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        August 1, 2022 3:57am
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      A bunch of sweaty virtue -signallers who didn’t have to bike to school against head winds.
      
      11 2
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      July 31, 2022 12:19pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        Icicles on your eyelashes and eyebrows
        
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        July 31, 2022 3:55pm
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      I was in chch seeing my son at university around six weeks ago – weather beautiful a week before winter ugh set in. He flats in Ilam, cycleways for Africa – never saw one person on a bike – couple of blokes on skateboards, heaps of pedestrians
      
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      July 31, 2022 3:23pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The words “cycleway” “$22m” and “overpriced” do not belong in a sentence that any Wellingtonian would recognise.
  
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  July 31, 2022 3:09pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Well this is confusing…

It seems there’s this thing called “hybrid immunity”.

https://theconversation.com/hybrid-immunity-a-combination-of-vaccination-and-prior-infection-probably-offers-the-best-protection-against-covid-183943

Now our experts are telling us that folks who have been vaxxed and have caught covid-19 have the best protection against getting seriously ill from Covid-19.

WOW!

Then why are all be told to get boosted and to avoid catching and spreading the virus?

However, new evidence from Qatar and Denmark (both yet to be peer-reviewed) suggests people who’ve had a previous Omicron infection have relatively strong immunity against BA.5. Qatar and Denmark both have highly vaccinated populations and this is evidence of the strength of hybrid immunity.

https://theconversation.com/new-zealands-latest-covid-wave-is-levelling-off-with-fewer-people-in-hospital-than-feared-187773
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July 31, 2022 9:20am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  I’m pretty much immune to The Conversation, Maggy. Mostly a self-congratulatory scratchng post and safe space for Lefty academia.
  
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  July 31, 2022 9:34am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I’ll be checking in more frequently now that Sciblogs has gone tits-up.
    
    I’m fascinated how our media-star “scientists” are just repeating the guff that I’ve previously read – weeks, or months before hand – in some other rag of correct political persuasion.
    
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    July 31, 2022 9:45am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Alan – you do know it was set up with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation?
    
    https://theconversation.com/us/partners/the-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation
    
    Nothing is a surprise these days.
    
    Your assessment of the place is 100% correct. I posted comments a couple of times about a year ago and was constantly censored and sent messages telling me my “opinion was wrong”. Just another narrative control vehicle.
    
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    July 31, 2022 9:57am
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      I got banned quickly for wrong-think. Idiots run it.
      
      28 2
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      July 31, 2022 10:12am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The Conversation is wholesale rubbish. Read it carefully and you learn nothing.
  
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  July 31, 2022 9:43am
- Lee C
  
  It’s a staged climb-down Maggy.
  
  As teh science piles on, they need a retreat strategy.
  
  Instead of saying “I was a borderline sociopath who got my rocks off from telling everyone what to do.”
  
  They can say “It’s tricky.”
  
  Then “No one was forced.”
  
  Then “I always said vaccinations were just one strategy amongst many.”
  
  Then:
  
  “Let the record show I questioned them the whole time.”
  
  Finally:
  
  “Vote for me because I alone care about your children.”
  
  It’s the constant sound of a metal spoon clanking around a bucket of shit.
  
  In my opinion.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:02am
  - riffer
    
    You know how science works eh?
    
    The advice changes as more evidence becomes available. What was advised a year or two ago was based on available knowledge. Now, with more infections trends emerge and advice changes.
    
    Rather than failure, this is a success of science. Expecting that the story will never change, and will be 100% correct from the outset, ignores how things work.
    
    Addtionally, don’t expect media, who have limited resources and are up against ridiculous deadlines, to get the story right all the time too. They have to work on what they can find in limited time.
    
    All the armchair critics playing Captain Hindsight can’t predict what will be the best solution in a year or two’s time can they?
    
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    July 31, 2022 10:37am
    - Lee C
      
      …except I do know how science works and how the stats were presented, and have been following it for the past few years.
      
      You could have done the same.
      
      And you, too would have realised with superpowers like me as ‘Captain Hindsight’ that it was not science, but bullshit we were being fed.
      
      For short-term political gain.
      
      Feel free to go back in time and find a single endorsement of this madness by me for the past for years on this very forum.
      
      I evaluated the science. You ‘trusted’ it.
      
      So don’t lecture me on knowing how ‘science’ works, bud.
      
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      July 31, 2022 10:56am
      - mawm
        
        He forgot to mention that one cannot question the science because then you are a denier.//
        
        The excuse that it was based on available knowledge at the time is B/S – they changed tried and tested pandemic protocols without any science to back the changes and now we are facing a disaster caused by these failed diktats.
        
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        July 31, 2022 3:19pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Give me a break. I know a fair bit about science and data. At the time Jacinda was telling us she would use the vaccine to ‘stamp covid out like measles’, the science and the data was revealing that would be impossible. The vaccine did not prevent transmission, and after about 8 months post shot it was totally ineffective.
      
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      July 31, 2022 11:06am
      - Opie
        
        Let’s just hope the side effects wear off as fast as it’s effectiveness
        
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        July 31, 2022 11:53am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      You know how science works eh?
      
      After 50 years in the game, I reckon I understand some pretty basic concepts.
      
      31 1
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      July 31, 2022 11:18am
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        Blame the honours degree and PhD, Maggy. I do. If only we had a background in communications and Labour politics we’d understand so much better.
        
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        July 31, 2022 12:07pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        All those years learning about experimental design, controls, sample sizes, randomisation, double-blind trials, and repeatability have obviously stunted our ability to believe political spin.
        
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        July 31, 2022 1:46pm
    - Lee C
      
      Here’s one for you, Riffer.
      
      https://youtu.be/K2xHK_66xWw
      
      2 2
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      July 31, 2022 12:15pm
    - Lee C
      
      Try this..
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-dOFhIenek
      
      4 2
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      July 31, 2022 12:21pm
    - Rodion Raskolnikov
      
      Why is it then, that anyone with internet access has been in a position to contradict the official narrative for months prior to the government finally being forced to acknowledge the contradictions in question? It seems clear that the public is more informed as to the facts than the so-called experts are, as evidenced by the phenomenon of endless “conspiracies” inevitably becoming accepted as established fact.
      
      When the government, going against fundamental principles of scientific investigation, arrogantly assigns itself the position of “the single source of truth,” they have at once put themselves in a position where all of their pronouncements must necessarily be unimpeachably true–they have no wiggle room whatsoever to be wrong. Once they are shown to be wrong, all credibility is gone in an instant. They set the standard, so they must be judged by their own standard. When you claim to be omniscient, your omniscience must be upheld by the facts.
      
      Moreover, there are no “Captain Hindsights” here. Quite the opposite, in fact: myself and many others have demonstrated immense foresight all along, making predictions on many aspects, predictions that have all turned out to be the case and verified by way of the infection and vaccine data, as well as with regard to predicting imminent policies and the future actions of the government. That is, accurate predictions with regard to, e.g., the benign nature of Covid itself, vaccine efficacy, vaccine safety, the ongoing tactical use of masks and lockdowns as tools of psycho-social manipulation, the requirement for vaccine passes and de facto coerced vaccination, the dragging-out of the so-called emergency for purely political reasons (i.e. 2 years plus and counting) … and on and on.
      
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      July 31, 2022 1:21pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      “The advice changes as more ~~evidence~~ poll results become available. What was advised a year or two ago was based on available ~~knowledge~~ polling figures.
      Now, with more ~~infections~~ polling and adverse comment,trends emerge that we are tanking badly and advice changes.”
      
      Now it makes more sense. You’re welcome.
      
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      July 31, 2022 1:24pm
      - Lee C
        
        Love your work Lodden.
        
        12 1
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        July 31, 2022 1:58pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      You mean like climate change, yeah? Where the “science” is “settled”?
      
      That science? Or some other science?
      
      2 1
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      July 31, 2022 3:12pm
    - Scooter
      
      That’s why there should have been years of vaccine testing before it was released to the general population.
      
      1 1
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      July 31, 2022 8:26pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Maggy – they are scrambling for an exit strategy. It’s happening everywhere, the problem for them is that everything they said and did has been captured somewhere by someone.
  
  El gato malo – The tipping point on vaccines and covid policy approaches
  
  “first a trickle, then a flood.
  
  the focus of mainstream news on covid is shifting noticably. it’s becoming OK to call BS. and the jerseys are changing at speed.
  
  tucker (Carlson) is out telling the “the vaxxed are seeing more overall deaths and worse medical outcomes overall/immune suppression/destruction” story that has been in top medical journals for months if you knew where to look.”
  
  https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/the-tipping-point-on-vaccines-and
  
  “criticize vaccines and get banned from ALL debate on all topics” has been the name of the game.
  
  but this is ending.
  
  the overton window is moving.
  
  and many of the other side are now backing away from old positions.
  
  As usual, excellent, rational observations from this blogger. Worth reading in full.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:47am
  - Rodion Raskolnikov
    
    The worst thing we could do, though, is to carry on as usual. Just tick Blue or tick Red, and simply forget about how we have been treated for the past 2 years. Contemporary politics has been exposed once and for all as consisting of a group of actors who are merely the public faces of the real centres of power. We are ruled by people who, once the publicly espoused rhetoric is stripped away, have nothing but contempt for us. Someone like Ardern doesn’t even bother trying to hide it any longer. It’s the adult version of realising that Santa isn’t real. Ardern just reads the Covid script and, for the most part, everyone including the opposition nods in agreement. They aren’t really in a position to dissent, because they know the machinery would be turned on them and they would be ostracised from The Club. I feel nothing but contempt for all 120 MPs in our Parliament and I see them as a collective bad joke.
    
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    July 31, 2022 1:51pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Totally agree.
      
      “Why voting for the lessor of two evils is wrong…..
      
      Pragmatic voting always results in a downward trend in the quality of candidates. Politicians won’t change if they know we will vote for them anyway. Good candidates seldom receive the support they need to become viable. The problem of bad choices is thereby perpetuated, and the nation continues to deteriorate until the day when our choices will be an Adolf Hitler or a Joseph Stalin.”
      
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      August 1, 2022 8:15am
- Master Mariner
  
  I’ve always wondered about vaccination rates and Covid cases in Middle East.
  Do they include a mainly Foreign transcient work force of at least 50% of the population or only include Nationals ?.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:56am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    MM – good luck with that. We can’t even trust our stats here in NZ. They keep changing how they calculate “cases” and of course the deaths with/from covid nonsense.
    AFAIK this country still does PCR testing at a ct of 45 making the results completely meaningless.
    
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    July 31, 2022 11:09am
Nukuleka

I didn’t watch the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham but I was amused by Brendan O’Neill saying it was like being hit over the head for 3 hours non-stop by a copy of The Guardian- a totally unbearable wokefest! It was enough for me to note that gay diver Tom Daley entered the stadium accompanied by a gaggle of folk bearing Pridd flags to protest against the Commonwealth countries of which Tom disapproves. This all in the name of ‘diversity and inclusivity’. It seems that the likes of Tom only approve of his particular brand of ‘diversity and inclusivity’ and isn’t prepared to acknowledge diversity of religious social and cultural beliefs.
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July 31, 2022 9:35am
- mogg
  
  Curtesy of the BBC.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:58am
- Loddenthinks
  
  “gaggle of gays” Nuku, it’s a gaggle of gays. So said Labour Minister Damien O’Conner just 11 short years ago anyway, and he stands by it.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/4872089/Labour-gaggle-of-gays
  
  Fun fact – a mention of Labour wannabe Deborah Mahuta-Coyle, who couldn’t get herself elected back then.
  
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  July 31, 2022 1:32pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The House Drinker is putting on a show. All theatre.
She knows her goose is cooked come November.
https://uniteamericafirst.com/ccp-bullies-biden-threatens-to-shoot-nancy-pelosis-plane-down/?
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July 31, 2022 9:44am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  The worst thing about this though, was the abject lack of response from the Biden administration. Hu Xijin, who made the comment, is editor of China’s state-run Global Times. He is a former Chinese army officer, a member of the Chinese Communist Party and is well known for saying what the Chinese Communist Party want to say, but for political purposes, won’t.
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:17am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    I think Mike Pompeo has played it brilliantly – he called out the Biden administration to support Pelosi’s right to visit Taiwan, and for fighters to escort her.
    
    Now of course they don’t know what to do – acknowledging that a (gasp!) Republican former Secretary of State is correct, and doing what he suggested may be a slightly smaller dead rat than acceding to the demands of the CCP. It shouldn’t be close, but it is.
    
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    July 31, 2022 1:40pm
- MCōs
  
  I would suggest at least part of the reason Pelosi may be going to Taiwan is to shore up sagging rating for the Democrats with elections on the horizon.
  Who would indulge in such blatant populism?
  Well, just about every politician when they want to rally public support.
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:45am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    She has to be one of the nastiest vindictive creatures on the planet. She is still foaming about Trump grounding Air Force One in 2016. She and 92 others (friends and relatives) were off to some junket thing in Europe. Food and piss was all on board. Then two buses driving around DC because they were not allowed on the Airbase. Funny as fuck.
    
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    July 31, 2022 12:26pm
- NoCash
  
  The question for us is if war breaks out between the US and China over Pelosi, are we going to send our troops over to support the Americans?
  
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  July 31, 2022 1:00pm
  - MCōs
    
    Don’t you mean Taiwan?
    
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    July 31, 2022 6:00pm
cas

Apologies if someone has already posted this but I was wondering whether the senior Mongrel Mob member from this story was any relation to Mahuta Corp. I think we should be told.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/waikato-mongrel-mob-member-identified-as-meth-ring-financier-jailed-for-money-laundering/BODCEIINRYNUGPFSEQZUYVQZPY/
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July 31, 2022 9:44am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Goodness..
  
  And even if major players in Waikato Mongrel Mob are not closely linked to the Mahuta-Ormsby families, this item clearly shows that the Human Rights Commissioner was a sucka for gifting $200 taxpayers’ cash to Waikato Mongrel Mob last year.
  
  National Police spokesperson Simeon Brown has written to the Auditor General over the Chief Human Rights Commissioners payment of $200 as a donation to the Waikato Mongrel Mob, where he spoke on the 1st of May this year.
  
  “Government money is going to gangs and this is incredibly concerning as it is likely to fund their criminal activities and drug trade,” Mr Brown says.
  
  “The Human Rights Commissioner gave $200 as a donation in cash – something which is against the Auditor General’s guidelines.
  
  https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2107/S00140/national-seeks-auditor-general-investigation-into-mongrel-mob-funding.htm
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:39am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    $200? I take the point but I’m more concerned about the $2.75m previously donated to the MM.
    
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    July 31, 2022 3:16pm
- Souvlaki
  
  Geographically in the same place…with a surname that’s not common.( if it walks like a duck etc) The same Mongrel mob that are the beneficiaries of the state Largesse ,care of Arden if I’m not mistaken….$2.75 M wasn’t it ?
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:29am
- david
  
  Probably not. Ormsby is such a common traditional Maori surname, it is probably only a co-incidence.
  
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  July 31, 2022 4:23pm
Swifty

What a pity that we are slowly losing our resilience, resourcefulness and self-reliance as a people:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/toddler-rushed-to-hospital-by-parents-after-smashing-head-through-window/TZS6A2MTX4UXTBPEO36UEXTN4I/
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July 31, 2022 9:49am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  Truly pathetic as I posted above.
  
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  July 31, 2022 11:42am
Chris Nisbet

Went out for dinner last night. The only people wearing masks at all were the staff (at least one was using it to hold up her chin), and a very few customers as they entered/left (so for less than 30 seconds at a time).
Is there any other place where mask wearing makes less sense?
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July 31, 2022 9:54am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Chris – you are correct. The idea that you’re safe when walking in or eating, but have to wear it at all other times is Pythonesque in its stupidity. Cleese and co would have dreamt of this sort of material.
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:03am
  - Yvette
    
    ClanMcleod, a Pythonesque segment scenario might depict a laboratory test, ā la “Naked Attraction” (but with much more attractive people) of the often quoted “What chance does a cotton mask have of stopping a virus, if a strong pair of denims won’t stop a good fart” .
    OK, I’ll take my morning meds now
    
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    July 31, 2022 10:26am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Another article showing that masks don’t work and are pure political theater to give people the impression politicians are “doing something”.
  
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/07/17/cloth-face-masks-comfort-blankets-do-little-curb-covid-spread/
  
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  July 31, 2022 10:08am
  - kowtow
    
    Talking of masks Audrey Young has a hit piece in today’s Herald .The ‘only’ MPs who have mask exemptions are 3 from Act.
    
    Each is named with photo to accompany . Also they’ve clearly been interviewed in order to establish their gronds for the exemption.
    
    Wow , that’s going very far in terms of the Media holding to account.
    
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    July 31, 2022 11:29am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      It’s none of anybody’s business what the reason for the mask exemption is. Private medical information is exactly that – private.
      
      16 1
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      July 31, 2022 1:44pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Exactly what I thought when I read the headline, I didn’t click on the link. A snide attack on ACT.
      
      1 1
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      August 1, 2022 8:21am
- MCōs
  
  The other day on Twitter I noticed someone inferred that six Canadian doctors who died within a fortnight because they were covid-19 vaccinated.
  The same person provided no proof they were even vaccinated and when I checked a couple of the names found they’d died of cancer.
  The same person sent out a stream of tweets listing sudden deaths.
  It then transpired the account was in the name of a doctor who died years ago and didn’t work at John Hopkins as claimed.
  My point is, who do you believe?
  The expert who tells you masks prevent transmission or the stuff you read on the internet that doesn’t?
  
  Check a few bank accounts I say.
  
  5 9
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  July 31, 2022 10:47am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    You mean like the $6 million deposit in the account of Te Punaha Matatini? Or did you want full bank details to see where all of the $115 million from the PIJ went?
    
    There are always grifters, but in the covid narrative there are a miniscule amount.
    But it is beyond doubt that the vast majority of those who have spoken out against the covid narrative and the illogical insanity of it have had no skin in the game. In fact, many lost jobs, contracts, security, careers etc etce.
    On the other side, hundreds of billions have been thrown at anyone and everyone who supported this madness.
    One random reference to a Twitter post is evidence of nothing and if it was in a court of law it would be dismissed and you’d be censured by the judge for wasting time. But nothing new there.
    
    The amount of time I’ve wasted countering idiotic comments like this is unbelievable. But I’m learning now to avoid the bulk of them. I’m only responding to this one because occasionally you are capable of rational thought.
    
    It is a provable fact that masks don’t work, certainly not in the way advised and used by the general public.
    I won’t even bother explaining the stupidity of a mask policy that says you need to wear one when standing up but can take it off when sitting down or eating.
    If you want to discuss the topic then I’m willing to do so. But make your case directly. Don’t deflect with inanities that have no actual bearing on the subject.
    
    21 2
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    July 31, 2022 11:07am
    - Ross Campbell
      
      While we are on the topic of talking big and being censured by a judge for wasting the courts time, have you launched your often mentioned defamation action against Michael Wood yet?.
      No didn’t think so but let me know if you do because it would be fun to watch a top QC take your case apart.
      
      3 26
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      July 31, 2022 11:50am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        I’d love to be able to afford to, but I can’t. Also I’m guessing the wonderful Mr Wood would claim parliamentary privilege. He certainly couldn’t win the case because everything he said was an out and out lie. Same as Michael Baker, a proven liar. Same as Ardern, a proven liar. There seems to be a theme here.
        
        0 1
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        August 1, 2022 8:23am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Actually, is there a list of recipients of the PIJ?
      
      Surely one of the recipients, believers in transparency as they themselves assure us that they are, will happily publish the list in full & with details of how the money was spent.
      
      2 0
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      July 31, 2022 3:19pm
  - alloytoo
    
    My point is, who do you believe?
    
    The politician who tells you masks prevent transmission or the peer reviewed articles that indicate they have little or no benefit.
    
    17 1
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    July 31, 2022 11:16am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    This tweet?
    
    6 Canadian Doctors Dead “Suddenly” Within 2 Weeks…
    
    Name and date of death:
    
    Dr. Paul Hannam, July 16
    Dr. Lorne Segall, July 17
    Dr. Stephen McKenzie, July 18
    Dr. Jakub Sawicki, July 19
    Dr. Shariar Jalali Mazlouman, July 23
    Dr. Candace Nayman, July 28
    
    -hollywoodlanews
    
    Two of the doctors are reported as dying suddenly while (1. running, 2. competing in a triathlon).
    
    Whatever the cause, these deaths (which started as 1, then 4 and now 6 deaths) look alarming, given that those that died were not that old.
    
    Also, 4th shot rolled out in that area. Maybe a coincidence. Maybe not.
    
    5 2
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    July 31, 2022 3:59pm
    - Lucia Maria
      
      Sorry, meant to say of the one in the triathlon – it was after competing, not during.
      
      5 1
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      July 31, 2022 4:00pm
- Jim
  
  The repeated touching and reuse of your ‘favourite face mask’ only form multiple new vectors for bacteria and disease to be spread.
  Whilst I have sympathy, I do hate seeing hospitality staff serving food whilst constantly touching their face nappy…..disgusting.
  
  3 0
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  July 31, 2022 12:56pm
Philview

The NZ media are completely silent on the Dutch farmer protests. I read an interesting article today that the protest relates in part to the establishment of WEF farm innovation hubs which seems to be a process for centralised control of farms. Do any KB readers have any thoughts on this?
25 4
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July 31, 2022 10:05am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Could you please post a link to the story you read?
  
  14 0
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  July 31, 2022 11:10am
  - All_on_Red
    
    Not sure which one Phil is referring to but heres some coverage
    https://thefederalist.com/2022/07/29/pay-attention-to-the-dutch-farmer-protests-because-america-is-next/
    
    14 1
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    July 31, 2022 11:59am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      It will happen here.
      
      25 0
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      July 31, 2022 12:17pm
    - Philview
      
      Thanks Red. Same article.
      
      1 1
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      July 31, 2022 12:28pm
- Nickc2
  
  It’s the forerunner to what we are due to experience.
  
  2 1
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  July 31, 2022 12:03pm
- MCōs
  
  I expect the Dutch media and the rest of the free world has been completely silent about the various protests in New Zealand.
  
  4 0
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  July 31, 2022 4:15pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Which simply proves the point that the majority of the media on the planet is a bought an owned propaganda outlet. The only rational information and analysis available these days is on alternative media. This isn’t even a discussion point, it’s a simple fact of life. It’s why you should only actually look at mainstream media to find out what it is you’re supposed to think so you know what not to think.
    
    0 2
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    August 1, 2022 8:29am
Jethrod

Well it has started, the real push to make NEW ZEALAND……aotearoa.
It seems a parliamentary committee has been formed to try and make the change in parliament rather than give the choice to the electorate.
I saw a remark about a week ago on KB concerning this and thought “surely not”, but this mob that governs us must feel that this is their last chance before being voted out next year.
The move to make this change must be a “die in the ditch” moment for any clear thinking person in New Zealand
37 2
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July 31, 2022 10:15am
- Benedict Yu
  
  If there was a referendum it would be massively defeated. I’d guess 70 percent opposition.
  
  40 0
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  July 31, 2022 11:11am
  - kevn
    
    @BY… Same for the 3 Waters. 70% no, 15% yes and 15% dunno nothing.
    
    29 0
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    July 31, 2022 12:25pm
- Flossie
  
  I note the Birmingham athletes have Aotearoa New Zealand emblazoned on their backs.
  
  19 1
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  July 31, 2022 11:38am
  - MCōs
    
    At least they didn’t have Emirates Team NZ.
    
    4 1
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    July 31, 2022 4:10pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      It’s only a matter of time. The ABs kit used to be sacrosanct when it came to advertising.
      
      0 1
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      August 1, 2022 8:50am
- Opie
  
  The problem with this is national and Act won’t even challenge it because they are too scared of the outrage from about 10 Twitter users.
  
  You think there is a brain drain going on now. You won’t be able to book a container this goes ahead
  
  20 1
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  July 31, 2022 11:59am
- Jack5
  
  Are you able yet to tell us any more about the Parliamentary committee, Jethrod?
  
  All I can find is this link to the Maori Party petition for a change to “Aotearoa”, which drew 70,000 signatures, or 1.36 per cent of New Zealanders.
  
  In the report, Maori Party co-leader Waititi says the petition now goes to a select committee, which will decide what to do next.
  
  Whether that was a bill or even a public referendum, it already succeeded, Waititi said. “It’s starting the dialogue, it’s building awareness.”
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/petition-to-officially-name-country-aotearoa-delivered-to-parliament/FSGHSN2UGFD36CQ3VZXW752N2I/
  
  3 0
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  July 31, 2022 2:07pm
  - Jack5
    
    Just found details of Parliament’s Petititons Committee.
    
    It comprises: National’s Jacqui Dean (chair), Shanan Halbert (Labour), Rachel Boyack (Labour), Nicole McKee (ACT), Todd Muller (National), Sarah Pallett (Labour), and Teanau Tuinono (Greens).
    
    2 0
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    July 31, 2022 2:16pm
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      Well what a waste of time and money that is then.
      
      1 0
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      July 31, 2022 9:23pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDKMNqflJvk
It’s EU or no EU moment for Europe.

Germany may stymie the Fourth Reich’s gas reduction plans.
10 2
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July 31, 2022 10:26am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKlafP8g2V4
Melbourne Every Saturday.

Currently in Melbourne, getting some cool content here. Anything else you could recommend
while I’m here, I’m up for it!
11 2
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July 31, 2022 10:27am
oldfella

I thought all things trans automatically got the lefty seal of approval. But apparently not.
Just spotted this on The Standard and was shocked not only at the content and tone of the article, but the overwhelming support in the comments.
https://thestandard.org.nz/why-is-the-uks-only-youth-gender-identity-clinic-closing-and-what-does-this-mean-for-new-zealand/
16 3
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July 31, 2022 11:49am
- Joely Doe
  
  Yep, popped over to have look (gloves and mask on for that!)
  Wow. Can honestly say I had to check the URL.
  Thought I was reading KB!
  
  4 1
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  July 31, 2022 4:15pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Sorry, will have to take your word for it.
    I’m never going to that cesspit.
    
    0 0
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    July 31, 2022 9:24pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Donald Trump underestimated the size of the Swamp.
Liz Wheeler, 8.13.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtNnCb4FbxA
12 2
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July 31, 2022 11:59am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  What he did was picked off a scab and exposed a festering pus filled sore.
  
  17 3
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  July 31, 2022 12:00pm
Rusty

Thinking of the commonwealth games in Birmingham, isn’t it sort of strange this heatwave in the UK (just hotter weather actually) has now disappeared in time for the games and the doomsayers aren’t talking about it?

Didn’t see any of the marathon events have athletes dropping like flies due to the hot weather.

Weird right?
3 1
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July 31, 2022 12:13pm
- MCōs
  
  23° in Birmingham on Monday. That’s a heatwave in that neck of the woods.
  
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  July 31, 2022 6:18pm
Yvette

Māori landowners want more certainty exotic trees will remain in ETS after govt backdown
The National Māori Forestry Association says it is not reassured, despite a government u-turn that will keep exotic forests in the Emissions Trading Scheme.

The government, in a consultation process that is still ongoing, had proposed to remove exotic trees, such as pine, from the ETS to encourage native forest planting.
It came after a backlash from the farming sector that too many beef and sheep farms on productive land would be converted to pine, thus hurting rural communities.
But the moves incensed some Māori landowners, and they formed the group, Ngā Pou a Tāne / the Māori Forestry Association, off the back of it.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/471905/maori-landowners-want-more-certainty-exotic-trees-will-remain-in-ets-after-govt-backdown

Yep! – as I understand it (and that may be misunderstanding it) Maori want certainty about their intention to plant pakeha introduced trees.

However, it raises an impertinent (or impotent) question –

1 – What happened to planting One Billion Trees?

2 – Did that get replaced yet by the Climate Commission’s recommendation to plant 300 million native trees instead
– as outlined in their infamous tome Ināia tonu nei: a low emissions future for Aotearoa, Advice to the New Zealand Government on its first three emissions budgets and direction for its emissions reduction plan 2022 – 2025, among its vast cultural appropriation of Te Ao o Maori, to smear that, as well as the English portion, in not complying with the Paris Agreement.

3 – Where is the 300 lawyers action against the Climate Commission and James Shaw at?

4 – So what is being planted now, or are the unemployed now declining airline work more than they are declining forestry work? – even if Government can decide between exotics or natives?

5 – Does anyone remember the plan to plant One Billion Trees?
4 2
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July 31, 2022 12:35pm
- tf78
  
  Which plan? – Philistine Goff had a few plans as well. Why don’t they get in their flying waka and take a good look at the trees growing all over the country – there’s barely any room for more.
  
  1 2
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  July 31, 2022 7:42pm
Nickc2

Geez, this sheila tells some lies.
Jacinda Ardern – Build back better, reset, Agenda 2030, Sustainable Developement Goals…
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/07/the-build-back-better-slogan-shop-has-crazy-bargains-walking-out-the-door-hurry-dont-miss-out.html
Where is this agenda Cindy? She speaks about it overseas, but we, the people of NZ haven’t seen (or at least I haven’t) the fucking thing. If it concerns us (which it does), tell up about it.
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July 31, 2022 1:24pm
- tf78
  
  She’s becoming a laughing stock overseas.
  
  5 2
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  July 31, 2022 7:39pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Do the folks in Wellington Labour and the Green Party remember mocking Nicola Willis last year when she said that Central Wellington was unsafe at nights?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/07/two-men-critically-injured-in-separate-incidents-after-street-fight-in-wellington-bar-assault-in-christchurch.html

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/129433898/person-critically-injured-in-central-wellington-incident-another-in-christchurch
18 1
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July 31, 2022 2:42pm
Its only I

Is anyone else seeing the Adverts Labour are running on YouTube?

They are saint Jinty liesplaining how the Labour/Gov will heroically protect kiwis from all the EXTERNAL forces of evil making it financially harder for us all in little old New Zealand and what they are doing about it considering Labour/Gov have excelled at the COVID response and left us in an enviable position to bounce back……from the situation they just said we were not in?

Just shows how easy it is for this corruption of democracy to say absolutely anything at any time about anything while the compromised MSN just hold their sad, ridiculous, feeble hands out for Labours corrupting charity.

If National cant make ground against the worse Gov in living memory they never will.
6 2
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July 31, 2022 3:27pm
- tf78
  
  Get off U Tube! Turkey’s always vote for Christmas don’t they!?
  
  2 1
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  July 31, 2022 7:37pm
kevn

Let’s ramp it up and send old lady Pelosi to Taiwan. Just tack fighter jets escort on. No worries mate…
Said dead man walking biden.
4 3
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July 31, 2022 3:41pm
kevn

Why go at all? Good question.
5 0
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July 31, 2022 4:03pm
Benedict Yu

So our media has employed a socialist activist as a ‘cartoonist’. 🙁

https://tinyurl.com/3cum6mt6
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July 31, 2022 7:16pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  If the Labour “auction” and phoney donor names case was technically legal, there wouldn’t be a court case.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/462209/labour-party-donations-case-suppression-lapses-for-three-defendants
  
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  July 31, 2022 7:27pm
Benedict Yu

I find this horrifying.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/128969659/white-anxiety-and-the-quest-for-powersharing-in-aotearoa

It is like a skit from colonial Africa in the 1960s.

These people are dividing New Zealand around racial lines. ALL New Zealand citizens are just that. Citizens of New Zealand. I am no less worthy than someone of Maori descent. We are sleep walking to a disaster.
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July 31, 2022 7:23pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Addendum:
  
  “Power sharing” is a term that gained prevalence in Africa where tribes were killing each other. It is a term that has no place in New Zealand.
  
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  July 31, 2022 7:26pm

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