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February 15, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 15 February 2023

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General Debate

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Maggie Pie

I suppose we should spare a thought for the poor Census-Collectors.
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February 15, 2023 8:02am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Will it be put off again, because you know, climate change?
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:03am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    OMG imagine them turning up now 🙁
    They’d be as welcome as a dog shit on a Persian Carpet.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:22am
    - Biscuit
      
      You know me, Maggie: empathy oozes out of every pore in my body…
      
      Watching TVNZ’s DisasterPorn channel yesterday – the bastards even canned my ‘The Chase’ for the day – I was so moved at hearing that pdm’s beloved Hawkes Bay was under the can that I overlooked – overlooked, I say – said pdm’s cruel jibes over the years against me and actually murmured to the cat ‘I hope pdm is okay’.
      
      The cat was LESS sympathetic, mind. ‘Stop worrying about him and go get my next two feeds ready!’.
      
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      February 15, 2023 8:31am
      - Pavel
        
        If they had of played The Chase you wouldn’t of been able to read the questions as they would have a banner at the bottom of the screen with a couple of messages running on repeat all through the show. You’d think the geniuses at TVNZ would put the banner at the top of the screen.
        
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        February 15, 2023 8:50am
      - Biscuit
        
        Indeed, Pavel…
        
        I am an evil nit-picker re TVNZ.
        
        Its errors/faux-pas – and not just with their subtitlings – are the stuff of legend.
        
        Yesterday one of their reporters pointed out a ‘completely-submerged’ car.
        
        Except that you could see the top six inches of said car clearly NOT completely submerged.
        
        Nitpicker Moi 1, TVNZ 0
        
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        February 15, 2023 8:59am
      - pdm
        
        Thanks for the kind thoughts Biscuit.
        
        Any chance of you giving that bloody cat a kick on my behalf?
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:48am
      - tui47
        
        Cats far less tolerant of bad weather than dogs. Mine was seriously pissed off after he could no longer hunt (and bring inside) his nightly rat/mouse catch to torture. Dogs on the other hand were absolutely overjoyed by the weather particularly the emergence of new ponds in which to splash in.
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:04am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Who is this TVNZ you speak of Kemosabe?
        
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        February 15, 2023 5:03pm
    - tui47
      
      It will be a bit difficult to take a census in a house that has floated down the river or slipped down the hillside. As for transversing the highways and roads to get there are they going to use helicopters?
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:01am
    - Andrew S
      
      Oh my goodness Maggie. The ‘Persian Carpet’ is a victim from the gweens.
      
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      February 15, 2023 2:04pm
  - hmmokrightitis
    
    Interesting. Sat listening to a couple of clients discussing last week. Primary statement was “the scientists know its much worse than they are letting on, they just don’t want to scare people”.
    
    Decided against talking about the fact that even the IPCC was dialing back the rhetoric and that many scientists were now publicly stating that whilst there was change, it was not significant and probably more likely to be natural as opposed to driven by (wo)man – or Sam Smith and his inflatable pants.
    
    Should we look after the environment more and better? Of course we should. NZ does pretty well, particularly compared to the big boys.
    
    At some point the scare mongering might get held to account. Might.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:23am
    - Opie
      
      Watched tv news for the first time in years last night.
      
      What got me is during the hyped up fear monger reporting in a language that I could barely understand at times they said that the effected area at muriwai had previously suffered a big slip before, in 1965 I believe and that engineers said at the time no houses should ever be built there again. 4 people were killed.
      
      Was that slip in 1965 caused by climate change too?
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:03am
      - hmmokrightitis
        
        No, back then it would have been peak oil…
        
        Or global cooling, remembering when Time magazine for ages banged on during the late 60’s and early 70’s about the approaching Ice Age.
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:52am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        It is laughable if it wasn’t so sad.
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:29am
    - Doc Holliday
      
      Where do you get such silly ideas from? The IPCC is warning time is running out to reduce GHG emissions quickly enough to reverse manmade global warming, and, generally scientists are ‘conservative’ – read cautious – because they know half the population has the immature brain of the adolescent.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:08am
      - Don Beckett
        
        “……because they know half the population has the immature brain of the adolescent.”
        So which half do you fit into, Doc ?
        With statements like you made re IPCC, I suspect you don’t even make the grade.
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:32am
      - Simon
        
        “The IPCC is warning time is running out”
        
        Lol
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:52am
      - Taieri
        
        generally scientists are ‘conservative’ – read cautious
        ——————–
        
        Yeah right. Here is the latest example of their “conservatism”:
        
        “(…)Researchers studying ecology and evolutionary biology should be encouraged to use terms such as “sperm-producing” or “egg producing” or “XY/XX individual” to avoid “emphasising hetero-normative views”, experts say.(…)”
        
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/14/words-male-female-should-banned-science-enforce-idea-sex-binary/
        
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        February 15, 2023 3:11pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        The careers of the IPCC ~~is warning~~ are over if they ever admit time is not running out.
        
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        February 15, 2023 4:41pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Doc, can you link to the IPCC source that backs up your claim?
        
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        February 15, 2023 8:45pm
    - kowtow
      
      At some point the scare mongering might get held to account. Might.
      
      Sadly overseas trends seem to be about the big pension funds , ESG , corporations etc going daft /woke and skewing things bigly towards “climate catastrophe”.
      
      I think it’s just getting going .
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:43am
      - Master Mariner
        
        There has been plenty of push back regarding ESG funds, mainly pension funds and the like.
        Hope it continues.
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:16am
      - The Redbaiter
        
        Kowtow- “Sadly overseas trends seem to be about the big pension funds ”
        
        It is absolutely unbelievable, but it is true that Greenpeace NZ (led by communist Russell Norman) is directing the NZ super fund as to where they should/ should not invest.
        
        IMHO they (NZ Super) should be sued for negligence.
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:49am
    - alloytoo
      
      Greens and their lackys are spamming social media with Climate Change propaganda.
      
      People are responding with inconvenient truths:
      
      1. That the frequency of cyclone events is at a all time low, have declined considerably in the 21st Century.
      
      2. Nothing New Zealand does will have a measurable effect on climate change.
      
      3. Making ourselves poor is a stupid response to extreme events.
      
      4. Perpetuating energy poverty is frankly criminal.
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:07am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Latest Global Average Tropospheric Temperatures:
      
      https://www.drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/
      
      These are (non-fiddled) average temps of the whole earth as scanned by a purpose built satellites since 1979.
      
      Can anyone spot the “pauses”?
      
      And here are the temps of the last 2000 years (using reliable “proxies” such as lake bed sediments and ice cores):
      
      https://www.drroyspencer.com/global-warming-background-articles/2000-years-of-global-temperatures/
      
      Think it over. One side is perpetually bullshitting and creating unwarranted hysteria. See if you can work out which side it is.
      
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      February 15, 2023 8:53pm
  - The Redbaiter
    
    Don’t mock the religion of climate change.
    
    Christopher Luxon, National Party leader, spoke directly to people like you on Radio NZ this morning when he said-
    
    “If you’re still a climate denier or a climate minimalist you’ve got to give that up. There’s just no doubt about it that its real and its happening. I believed that from my previous life in business. I believe that in the world I see now through political life”
    
    That my friend is a direct quote. So you have been told!
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:06am
    - thirteenstars
      
      Oh, it would be easy to mock if it weren’t so tragic.
      
      Also, now that National’s blue-green faction has morphed into (or amalgamated with) the Teals, and [Mod – use their actual name] Luxon is fully onboard with it all (and who ever doubted he would be?), and we know the Old Guard-Deep Blue stalwart Nats hate the bloody pants off ACT, it looks like National has a nice option to form a coalition with the Greens.
      
      Intersectionality, folks, it’s everywhere these days.
      
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      December 15, 2022 10:39am
      - leoj
        
        [Mod – no, thanks for pointing out it slipped through]
        
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        February 15, 2023 12:08pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        Mod: perhaps you can clear this up
        
        [ Mods do not get into discussions. If you are unhappy about some aspect of moderation, send DPF an email ]
        
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        February 15, 2023 12:39pm
    - Justitia
      
      He’s clearly not competent to be PM. A gullible panic merchant with the personality of an amoeba.
      
      New Zealand’s most severe storms in the past 60 years have been Gisele (1968), Bola (1988) and now Gabrielle (2023). Is there a pattern here?
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:20am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Justitia: New Zealand’s most severe storms in the past 60 years have been Gisele (1968), Bola (1988) and now Gabrielle (2023). Is there a pattern here?
        
        Possibly known ocean heat cycle related.
        
        The main pattern is the media being consistently full of shit though. Don’t forget those cyclones are only the ones of the last 60 years. What about the last 10,000 years, the last 50,000 years or the last 200,000 years???
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:18pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I wonder how he would have gone down if he stated global warming was a heap of shit this morning
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:30am
      - Simon
        
        “I wonder how he would have gone down if he stated global warming was a heap of shit this morning”
        
        Interesting question. If you really believed in man made climate change you would be talking about regime change in Russia / China to end rising living standards in these countries.
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:57am
      - The Redbaiter
        
        “I wonder how he would have gone down if he stated global warming was a heap of shit this morning”
        
        Many overseas political leaders are voicing the truth that climate change is a very very incrementally occurring natural phenomenon and not affected by mankind’s activities.
        
        Shouldn’t we expect similar truth from Mr Luxon, and if he wants our vote, shouldn’t he express that truth?
        
        Or is the National party today all about its “renewable energy” investing corporate donors and seeking the favour of the hysterical green left?
        
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        February 15, 2023 12:01pm
      - leoj
        
        Your boy doesn’t have the guts to find out and tell the truth.
        
        He’s just another waffler, spouting from an uninformed, agenda-driven, biased media.
        
        He’s totally weak. Listening to Mueller too much, another climate freak greasing up with James Shaw.
        
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        February 15, 2023 12:06pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        To all who sneered me over this post, just stop and think what happened to Nationals support when Bridges tried to voice his opinion on COVID against this weasel government. That’s right, National support dropped from 47% in the Feb poll to 28% in March, sneer away, but if he does not doubted like he supports this government’s response, then the election will have been lost right there, it still might have been with this bloody disaster.
        
        By the way, although climate has changed in the last 40 years, I refuse to believe it is man made or cow farts
        
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        February 15, 2023 1:42pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        The Redbaiter: “Many overseas political leaders are voicing the truth that climate change is a very very incrementally occurring natural phenomenon and not affected by mankind’s activities.”
        
        Yes mostly correct as I understand things. However there is evidence humans will have a non significant contribution (therefore “some” influence, albeit certainly not worth shitting one’s pants over to any degree).
        
        The whole thing is based on a half baked hypothesis that has been shot to pieces from all sides. The loony-left/green narrative-fluffers of course don’t want to listen.
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:12pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        He would have shown he has a clue, has a spine and media heads would have exploded.
        
        Better for him to not rile up the retard media/big-tech/neomarxist complex though. Just acknowledge that yes climate is changing and we need to build more resilience to unpleasant climate phenomena. Hell, also just talk of one (measured) climate tax. Should keep both the sensible and the climatards reasonably placated.
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:25pm
    - kowtow
      
      The man’s an idiot.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:44am
    - Odakyu-sen
      
      “If you’re still a climate denier or a climate minimalist you’ve got to give that up. There’s just no doubt about it that its real and its happening. I believed that from my previous life in business. I believe that in the world I see now through political life”
      
      That sounds rather authoritarian to me.
      What are you going to do if I don’t follow the gospel of Climate Change? Burn me at the stake?
      
      What happened to free will and a diversity of opinion?
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:10am
      - The Redbaiter
        
        Mr Luxon is more into the religion of climate change than he is Christianity.
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:20am
      - thirteenstars
        
        It’s no different, in effect, than Ardern’s chilling statements during COVID that the state was the only reliable source of truth and that it was justified (gleefully) that Kiwis be divided into two groups with different rights based upon their vax status. Also, the general thrust of government to act as the arbiter of truth and disinformation that we see going on around us, manifested regularly by local councils and publicly-funded organisations banning groups from speaking at public facilities based upon their political opinions.
        
        Luxon is doing no different here. He’s saying the debate is over. Get with the programme or the programme will run you down. There is no place for you at the table unless you adhere to the same view as we do. You are cut out of the process unless your sharpen up and fly straight.
        
        What do DPF and other high profile National surrogates have to say about this very Ardern-esque attitude to dissent and debate?
        
        What’s the point of voting National when all you’re voting for is to be told to sit down and shut up by an authoritarian with a different coloured flag?
        
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        February 15, 2023 12:10pm
      - coge
        
        Luxon says he ‘believes’, and you’re a ‘denier’ if you don’t. What are we to make of that simplicity?
        
        He’s welcome to his personal beliefs, which may include a steadfast belief in a coming vast climate apocalypse. He’s entitled to believe in whatever he chooses, as long as it doesn’t exclude others from theirs.
        
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        February 15, 2023 1:04pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        Coge: “He’s entitled to believe in whatever he chooses, as long as it doesn’t exclude others from theirs.”
        
        Oh, the likes of Luxon will stand up all day long for free speech and at the same time tell you you have no place in the decision-making process if you have a different view.
        
        We see this tactic constantly evolving. Councils, universities and publicly-funded bodies are constantly trying to cancel and outright ban dissenters from their processes and facilities. The Free Speech Union has pushed back and won some victories. But the morphing continues.
        
        The latest tactic, as outlined by the FSU:
        
        Last week, you may have seen the Rotorua Lakes Council voted, without public consultation, to accept a policy that “removes from consideration” public submissions if they are deemed “offensive”, “discriminatory” or “irrelevant”.
        
        As with Luxon, the attitude is, sure, say what you like, but don’t say it to us because we aren’t listening. You don’t get to make a submission let alone a seat at the table. The official truth has been decided and you can go sling your hook.
        
        And by the way, just as Labour’s mates in the media have been carrying their water on a wide range of issues, Luxon will now have his carried by the same types. How much interest will National have in disestablishing the Public Interest Journalism Fund and it’s tens of millions now the media area doing their bidding, too?
        
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        February 15, 2023 2:46pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      Having listened to it I’ll at least give Luxon credit for talking mainly about mitigation – before the interviewer pinned him on “denial”, to which that quote was part of his response.
      
      As I point out here the cartoon of Norman Kirk in election mode in 1972 describes the same approach, yet in that case Kirk very much did do some things he’d merely waffled on during the election, but only after getting elected.
      
      I also point out that Labour’s getting it in the neck from the Warmists – which is heartening because it shows Labour has some sense of reality, at least when it comes to energy production. Much hot air for wind, but Huntly is still running, and with more imported coal than ever.
      
      Still, it’s pretty sad when you’re merely hoping that he’s lying through his teeth just to get elected and will, like Labour, disappoint the “Moderate Centre” on Climate Change when in power.
      
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      February 15, 2023 12:40pm
      - The Redbaiter
        
        “Still, it’s pretty sad when you’re merely hoping that he’s lying through his teeth just to get elected”
        
        His past history with Unilever and Air NZ suggest he is not lying and that he will be even worse when elected. Many overlook the fact that Willis is even worse than Luxon (on Climate change, Maori issues etc) and is pushing hard from the background. My view is once they’re elected they will go (combined) full tilt green left.
        
        Here’s Willis from a few years ago lecturing the NZ UN Association (who say they’re fully committed to the aims of Agenda 2030) on climate change. She’s right into all that stuff. Totally in the wrong party.
        
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        February 15, 2023 1:52pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        Redbaiter: “She’s right into all that stuff. Totally in the wrong party.”
        
        It’s becoming harder to see the reasons why National supporters maintain the likes of Luxon and Willis are in the wrong party. It looks like they’re in the right party and in reality it’s the shrinking group of National stalwarts that haven’t cottoned on to the tectonic shift within their own party, and why so many have jumped, and will continue to jump to ACT.
        
        At some point the patient can’t be saved and the doctor has to call time.
        
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        February 15, 2023 5:03pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Maybe it’s time Luxon and Willis “came out” of the green/far-left closet?
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:31pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      And he was interviewed on the midday TV news bulletin essentially conceding the entire issue of climate change to the Labour Party stating that governments of different colours over the next decades would have to grapple with this issue and come up with solutions.
      
      So on the major political football of our era, Luxon and Labour (and the Greens) are all playing on the same team. So why vote National at the next election?
      
      Further, and related, this morning Sean Plunkett at The Platform interviewed Bryce Edwards about the possibility of a snap election and about the chance of Luxon being rolled by Nicola Willis, and Edwards gave the snap a 20% chance and Luxon’s rolling a 35%. Pretty entertaining interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2learvwX9tM
      
      But really, getting Willis instead of Luxon is about as much change as getting National over Labour.
      
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      February 15, 2023 12:59pm
    - Taieri
      
      Christopher Luxon, National Party leader, spoke directly to people like you
      ———————-
      
      Perhaps he should now speak to the leaders of the People’s Republic of China and ask them not to build any more coal fired power stations? And to demolish the existing ones.
      Otherwise, his utterances are as useful as cow’s farts. Just as James Shaw’s are.
      Don’t these Titans of Intellect realise that a medium size Chinese (or Indian) city has bigger population than the entire NZ? The stupidity, it seems, doesn’t recognise political barriers…
      
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      February 15, 2023 3:16pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        Oh, think global, act local. That’s been the Green slogan for decades. It’s pretty catchy, and Chris Luxon is fully onboard.
        
        Doesn’t matter that NZ can’t make a jot of difference, it’s the act of contrition that matters. God has bigger fish to fry than your repentance but you must repent or be damned.
        
        And it’s the damnation they can’t stomach.
        
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        February 15, 2023 7:11pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      RB on CL: “If you’re still a climate denier or a climate minimalist you’ve got to give that up. There’s just no doubt about it that its real and its happening.”
      
      Sad. That statement alone shows he has no clue whatsoever on the subject and is just following green activist numpties”.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:01pm
  - Stellaboxer
    
    On the bright side of the latest calamity to befall us during labour’s tenure, Baker , Wiles, Jackson and Hendy don’t get a look in and in fact disappear in the rear view mirror.
    
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    February 15, 2023 1:58pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Even with those 4 there are many the same that we did not hear from.
      The Public Sector is full of these parasites who have never had a real job.
      By that I mean how much did they do to for exports from NZ?
      
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      February 15, 2023 6:16pm
- Mike
  
  Must be tough. Have you done that gig before? Get to meet new people, I guess.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:16am
- Scott
  
  The cyclone is being used as a vehicle for the Greens and Labour to gain more control over the masses. According to James Shaw we must move faster to mitigate the effects of climate change.
  
  First of all how do we know the storm has anything to do with climate change? There have been storms in NZ forever, including the Wahine storm in the 1960s. Was that caused by climate change?
  
  Secondly if we shut everything down and stopped all our carbon emissions and killed all of our livestock would that affect the weather one iota?
  
  Thirdly climate change is too loose a concept. Is every storm the result of climate change? Is drought due to climate change? Couldn’t it just be the weather?
  
  Lastly there are too many post Christian New Zealanders who want to play God. Like King Canute telling the tide to go back people like James Shaw want to change the world and change the weather. And they want to use your money to do it.
  
  https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131224734/cyclone-gabrielle-devastation-potentially-moves-the-dial-on-climate-change-action
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:22am
  - Biscuit
    
    Let’s hope the weather improves enough for James to jet off to the latest Climate Crisis meeting at the latest luxurious resort so that he can again tell the whole world what we’re doing wrong…
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:04am
    - Gravelroad
      
      Yes, he may well be able to report significant losses of farm animals eg cows, due to flooding in the rural areas.
      That should make the Greens in Wellington very happy.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:34am
  - nathie
    
    James Shaw is like the modern day equivalent of Phil Goff turning up for photo opportunities (shoveling sand for the cameras in a suit during the Rena grounding) for his 5 minutes of fame.
    
    So James Shaw now talks about “climate resilience”, how opportunistic, when for years and years he bangs on about public transport, trainsets, EV’s, “dirty dairying”, less cows, planting more pine trees (and on top of farms) etc.
    
    So after reading that article James “Opportunity Knocks” Shaw wants to draft up a new bill (New bill? What? What has Shaw been doing for the last 5 years?).
    
    Wouldn’t trust Shaw and the Greens with any new bills – no thanks – no doubt it it will be badly drafted as usual, have unintended consequences, wouldn’t be surprised if they try and slip in “anti-farming” and “anti-private citizens’ choices” in there somewhere?
    
    Was concerned National would sign up to it but thankfully Todd Muller is quoted as saying “We always look at all proposed legislation that gets put (to Parliament) on its merit. “If they now want to bring it forward with some urgency, we will look at it. But that broader framework will take time.
    
    Good, now please stick to that Muller/National! Don’t let Shaw twist your arms into supporting something half-twisted. As the article also quotes, Greenpeace/Russel Norman of one L fame is demanding the Greens go full hard-core and ignore consensus and common sense. With those sorts of clowns breathing down Shaw’s neck (with his agitated green party activist supporters breathing in unison), National needs to be aware of Green Party and James “Opportunity Knocks” Shaw’s trojan horses!
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:11am
    - Justitia
      
      What is Todd Muller still doing in Parliament? We have Todd Muller 2 in Luxon.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:44am
      - Ian Boag
        
        Bloody democracy again. Voted in and all that. Bunch of ignorant voters ….
        
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        February 15, 2023 1:04pm
  - PhilBest
    
    Why does anyone who claims to be a shining light because THEY “believe the science” also hysterically clamour that “the solution” is unilateral economic suicide on the part of Kiwis who are zero point zero zero something percent of the planet?
    
    The only people bright enough to deserve to be listened to are those who say that the solution is to cynically utilize everything we can to become wealthy enough to weather-proof our infrastructure and to “build” in the RIGHT places, whatever we need to for maximum long-term resilience.
    
    Otherwise what we are asking for, is to join the ranks of third-worlders we regularly see on the news surveying their devastated mud huts and gouged-out dirt roads.
    
    It is also an indicator of terminal crypto-totalitarian slope-brow brute stupidity to fanatically insist on cramming urban populations in to concrete jungles with inadequate drainage or places for the water to go. Not to mention right on fault lines and other high risk places – looking at you, WCC “planners”.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:13am
    - Don Beckett
      
      “….an indicator of terminal crypto-totalitarian slope-brow brute stupidity….”
      
      Just love that – can I borrow it? 🙂
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:42am
      - PhilBest
        
        I am flattered, Don.
        
        4 1
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        February 15, 2023 11:45am
  - igm
    
    Sad to hear Luxon giving this anthropogenic rubbish support.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:28am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Sad? It is utterly tragic. We have the leaders of most political parties completely captured by a fake, destructive narrative.
      
      33 3
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      February 15, 2023 9:43am
      - glowworm
        
        Agreed.
        
        Jordan Peterson has had a few good interviews with climate scientists recently.
        
        https://open.spotify.com/episode/1jYRcP5d5nv1C13JtVttis
        
        https://open.spotify.com/episode/7zMCKBru3waZpdZBxfjgTH
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:59am
      - kowtow
        
        I wonder if they’re captured or do they think the focus groups are telling ’em something.
        
        Can they really be so stupid as to “believe” in this cultism.
        
        7 3
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        February 15, 2023 10:46am
    - Random T Person
      
      Luxon yet again demonstrating his woke CEO credentials. Tool.
      
      21 5
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      February 15, 2023 9:50am
      - thirteenstars
        
        I love Kiwiblog. There’s always a nice bit of invective on display. But, yes, a tool. And a blunt one.
        
        NZ needs a leader with David Seymour’s brains and Helen Clark’s balls.
        
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        February 15, 2023 7:18pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      If he didn’t, he would have been crucified
      
      5 10
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      February 15, 2023 10:32am
      - ISeeRed
        
        So he can’t take the heat as a leader? He’s no leader then.
        
        14 5
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        February 15, 2023 11:06am
      - PhilBest
        
        Trump demonstrated that it is possible to make a good enough fight that you come close to defeating the enemy, not to mention showing your own team’s next generation of leaders how to proceed. Too many people on the “centre right” might as well be stooges of the Left acting as enablers.
        
        8 3
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        February 15, 2023 11:48am
      - leoj
        
        Yep, no guts whatsoever.
        
        When will you learn. He’s not a leader, he’s a follower.
        
        10 3
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        February 15, 2023 12:11pm
      - Random T Person
        
        Either his principles are lacking, or he is a greenie and on the wrong side of the house. Either way, not a snowball’s chance in hell I’d ever vote for the woke loser.
        
        8 3
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        February 15, 2023 12:18pm
      - coge
        
        It’s better to shut up and be thought a fool, than to open it and remove all doubt!
        
        2 0
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        February 15, 2023 1:07pm
      - JJ56
        
        “If he didn’t, he would have been crucified”
        
        All it needed was a mild comment about not knowing the contribution from the volcano, and leave it at that.
        
        That’s what the science is saying.
        
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        February 15, 2023 7:33pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        See Ron DeSantis leadership style on how to defeat woke lunacy. Joining the loons leads to nowhere good.
        
        0 0
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        February 15, 2023 9:45pm
    - mawm
      
      igm – sadly it was totally predictable.
      
      2 0
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      February 15, 2023 3:29pm
  - Andy from Auckland
    
    Bad urban planning decisions are being blamed on climate change. Why fix the problem when we can whine about it while destroying our economy?
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:39am
  - Mike
    
    Scott, you sound a bit like Charlie Kirk on shooting down balloons:
    “Could this all just be a false flag operation to fake an alien invasion or fake a UFO hysteria crisis to try to justify more power — lockdowns — control?”
    
    4 14
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    February 15, 2023 9:46am
    - JimBobJoe
      
      Ahhh Mikey, what we all do with out your regular dishing out plates of Snide?
      
      2 0
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      February 15, 2023 9:18pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Best to ignore it.
        
        2 0
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        February 15, 2023 9:49pm
  - Inandout
    
    Scott, was mentioned on Hosking that Aussie is looking at exporting $130 billion dollars worth of coal to China. Are we not also sitting on hundreds of years worth of the stuff also? Such a windfall would keep this country in the black for years, especially if you added our untouched offshore oil. But no, we continue to be a welfare country that borrows money like there is no tomorrow.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:50am
    - Ian Boag
      
      if you added our untouched offshore oil
      
      Undiscovered too ….. 🙂
      
      6 10
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      February 15, 2023 10:21am
      - crikey
        
        Ian Boag: And now undiscoverable too.
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:40am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Undiscovered – is that what you think? I suggest you learn a bit about the process of locating and extracting commercial quantities of oil. They have a very good idea where it is and how to get to it, it’s not like battleships.
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:43am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      The far left authoritarian loons in charge of Victoria are blocking the extraction of gas from it’s abundant fields. The price of energy is going through the roof (this after they have repeatedly lied and said energy would be cheaper in their wind/solar fantasy world).
      
      I’m seriously thinking of emigrating away from these suicidal lunatics.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:53pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    If you believe the scuttlebutt, this is the penultimate move to make before Labour calls an election.
    
    First they gave Princess Jacinda the shove and beautifully staged-managed the succession, and although caught a little by surprise their disciples in the media got quickly on board proclaiming Hipkins the Second Coming of Gingers, whereby he promptly put a handful of policies on the backburner, and got a bump in the polls, which is always fun.
    
    They couldn’t believe their luck when a cyclone comes on the tail (see what I did there?) of a big downpour in Auckland that got all the luvvies wetter than they normally are (I’m on a roll here), enabling the declaration of a completely unnecessary *National* state of emergency, so they and their media mates can milk it like Trev from Tahuna.
    
    So, a snap election in the first week of March with climate change as the cause du jour and a modified Three Waters (with extra mahi-tahi) promoted as the solution.
    
    It all makes *perfect* sense.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:57am
    - NothingLeft
      
      the Second Coming of Gingers
      you mean Gingus?
      
      2 0
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      February 15, 2023 4:45pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        Gingivitis, perhaps.
        
        3 0
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        February 15, 2023 5:36pm
  - Stellaboxer
    
    There is nothing we can do to mitigate climate change. Even if we went back to pre European living . Our contribution to global emissions is such that it’s like a drop in the ocean. Speaking of Oceans whilst watching footage of the flooding across the North island and having had the dubious pleasure of touring those very regions by road in the old camper van earlier this summer a thought occurred to me, the South Pacific must be absolutely awash with road cones now to the point of being a hazard to shipping.
    
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    February 15, 2023 11:44am
- Prince
  
  Armed with those vital questions about ethnicity, religion and sexual preferences.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:56am
  - Tempist
    
    Is it too late to organize a campaign to get people to identify themselves as kiwi, jedi, metrosexuals…? (no fussed about the jedi bit really..)
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:28am
    - crikey
      
      Tempist: “ no(t) fussed about the jedi bit really..”
      
      You might want to think about the Pastafarians then.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:42am
      - Sideoiler
        
        Tempist: “ no(t) fussed about the jedi bit really..”
        You might want to think about the Pastafarians then.
        
        Why? What have the Pastafarians ever done for us?
        
        6 0
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        February 15, 2023 11:47am
- Jack5
  
  Still no word how poster Maggy Wassilieff is faring in Gisborne?
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:29am
artemisia

Queenstown and Wānaka housing crisis fuelled by quarter of homes being unoccupied

“In a new report, economist Benje Patterson said about 650 more new houses were built in the last year than were needed to meet the needs of both population growth and short-term stay demand. However, there were fewer homes available for rent. … Trade Me data showed a 49% drop in rental listings in the district from December 2021 to December 2022”

Reasons mentioned in the article – holiday homes, short stay accommodation, something else but what?

Not mentioned – the elephants in the room. Rules – new rental rules from Labour and local authority rules. Labour’s tenure rules – only very specific, and also very few, reasons to terminate a standard tenancy. That means owners who liked to stay in their own place time to time probably can’t. Because rules.

That would be rules that don’t apply to short term stays. Mind you the local council has its own rules for them – and plenty of them – rules about number of nights, number of occupants, resource consents , breaches ….

The District has the highest house prices in New Zealand. That suggests owners need rental income less than they need rules, hassles, stress and paperwork, and to add insult to injury possibly unable to stay in their own place when they want to. So they leave their property empty unless they and their mates want to stay there. Sounds fair.

Did the rulemakers think about would happen IRL?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/homed/housing-affordability/131223922/queenstown-and-wnaka-housing-crisis-fuelled-by-quarter-of-homes-being-unoccupied
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February 15, 2023 8:05am
- kowtow
  
  Another factor is in the west te media pardy is very happy to repeat and amplify the views of the far left who seem to think that private property owners have some obligations to the “homeless” and want to create a moral panic around second home ownership as well as whip up hatred against the ‘rich’.
  
  More of the cultural revolution these people are anxious to promote.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:29am
  - artemisia
    
    Meanwhile asset owners make choices that suit them, Because they can.
    
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    February 15, 2023 1:39pm
- CJames
  
  Isn’t this called unintended consequences? Something the government was specifically warned would happen but they said it wouldn’t and went ahead anyway? Example 2318 of why ex-student politicians shouldn’t run the country.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:42am
- ClanMcleod
  
  artemisia – as is fast becoming the norm with modern technocrats and ideologues, they have no idea how to plan for likely future impacts of their decisions.
  The law of unintended consequences has never been as active as since the left came to dominate government and the bureaucracies that work so hard make our lives a misery.
  
  On a positive note, a big thank you to all of the actual workers out there doing the hard yards helping people and beginning the massive clean up that is coming.
  
  Particular thanks to those genuine heroes who rescued that boatie who’s anchor line snapped at Great Barrier Island. I was sure he was toast. There were a number of attempts to rescue him but conditions were horrendous. 8m seas. The police boat couldn’t get there so a navy frigate was sent out.
  A lucky, lucky fella. Well done to the rescuers.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:47am
  - Bob
    
    Well done to the rescuers….
    that would be our NAVY, or the remnants of it.
    An department of the DEFENSE Forces that Comrade Clarke tried very hard to dismantle during her time of mismanagement.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:54am
    - Flossie
      
      That’ll be Comrade Clark…no “e”
      
      8 1
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      February 15, 2023 10:16am
- Dairy Flat
  
  Our 3 bedroom house in Wanaka is sitting empty because of the stupid regulations labour inflicted on us. Better to have it available to family and friends who can be trusted to take care of it and won’t alter it to suit them. There are many others we know of doing the same thing. Yes, there is a major rental shortage, and it’s all down to the moronic government and it’s nonsense ideology.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:55am
- Pavel
  
  The real elephant in the room is house prices. I considered buying a rental for 589k. With a 20% deposit the repayments (over 20 years), rates and insurance comes to about $700 a week and the place is currently rented at $430 a week. Then there’s the stress of bad tenants, inspections, agent fees etc. It’s just not worth buying houses as rentals anymore.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:56am
  - Ian Boag
    
    It’s just not worth buying houses as rentals anymore.
    
    Has been that way for ages. Rule of thumb – 5% gross return is $1/$1000 per week. So $430/week for a $580k property is gross return of about 3%. Then there is rates, maintenance and insurance plus the non-deductibility of mortgage interest.
    
    Back in the day, if you wanted a rental to wash its face (ie be cash neutral) you needed a 40% deposit and a 30 year 4% loan. With the new situation plus higher interest rates you probably need over 70%.
    
    20% deposit and a 20 year loan was never going to be cash neutral. Ever. Presumably you were going to buy it for capital gain anyway ….. ?
    
    Healthy homes etc don’t have a lot to do with it.
    
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    December 15, 2022 9:32am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Mortgage interest is deductible Ian, just not 100% and it is being ratcheted back a bit. However, interest on NZ mortgages taken out for rental property in Australia is 100% deductible in NZ owners tax returns. Leverage and deductibility are wonderful things.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:28am
    - Pavel
      
      I don’t really agree with that. In the late 90s and early 2000s you could buy a house in any large city for 200k and rent it for $300 a week. At 4% over 20 years the loan repayments on 160k were around $225 a week and rates and insurance were not $75 a week. A lot of people went in with no deposit, using their existing house as collateral, and at 100% finance were just cash neutral. If something did go wrong with the house or it was left empty for a month or two between tenants you’d be lucky to top up your account by $100 a week. Not so anymore and hence the reason there are fewer rentals around, people just ain’t buying them anymore.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:37am
      - artemisia
        
        Here’s a simple but quite dramatic number. Reserve Bank reports number of investors borrowing for residential property. Average per month: 2021 – 3,145; 2022 -1,860.
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:07am
  - stewmar
    
    rates and insurance comes to about $700 a week
    
    I don’t think so. $700*52 weeks = $36,400 pa.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:10am
    - fernglas
      
      Read it again, Sam
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:14am
    - Pavel
      
      I think you might have missed the first half of the sentence.
      
      4 0
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      February 15, 2023 9:17am
    - Tempist
      
      “repayments…, rates and insurance”
      
      4 0
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      February 15, 2023 9:18am
    - Bobba Fret
      
      Mortgage repayments, rates and insurance.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:54am
- Its only I
  
  Latest tourism stats show increase of over 75% of tourists and accommodation providers are increasing in numbers for the first time since the Labour oppression years. If it works for you then your better off by some considerable margin taking your rental out of the local rental pool and look at versions of air b’n’b.
  
  We have just dropped two houses back into the tourism industry as demand for short stays by large group numbers have improved. All the fishing guides are busy this year….even though the rivers are low.
  5 months in the top end accommodation market is the same as two years rent. After the season ends we change out the furniture and contract out to farmers needing worker accommodation.
  
  Labour have to go.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:35am
  - Ian Boag
    
    demand for short stays by large group numbers have improved
    
    Your place – your choice. The employers who moan about being unable to find workers – because workers are unable to find affordable accomodation – are not your problem …
    
    All a bit hard. Need more backpackers ….
    
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    December 15, 2022 10:32am
    - Its only I
      
      Ian you seem to be worried enough for both of us.
      
      You do know airbnb is a good place to list your spare room, caravan, bunk on a yacht or even a shed or sofa. You can alway set your prices to donation only.
      [Mod – don’t make it personal]
      
      3 2
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      February 15, 2023 1:22pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Mortgage interest is deductible
        
        Sort of …
        
        Since 1 October 2021, the following rules apply.
        Interest cannot be claimed for residential property acquired on or after 27 March 2021 unless an exclusion or exemption applies.
        The ability to deduct interest is being phased out between 1 October 2021 and 31 March 2025 for properties acquired before 27 March 2021.
        
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        February 15, 2023 4:09pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Nor worried at all – just saying how it is.
        
        What you want to do with your property is obviously over to you …
        
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        February 15, 2023 4:12pm
- Muttonbird
  
  A Land Tax, Wealth Tax, or Room Tax should fix that behaviour up real quick.
  
  One or other of these taxes is incoming (or all three, lol) and greedy asset hoarders will only have themselves to blame.
  
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  February 15, 2023 1:56pm
  - artemisia
    
    Yes you might well be 100% correct. Any thoughts on what might happen next?
    
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    February 15, 2023 4:36pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

And 501s think they have it tough

Ukraine war: Migrants who commit criminal offences in Russia forced to fight in Putin’s war

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-64582985
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February 15, 2023 8:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  NZ does not go to War.
  Be kind.//
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:20am
  - Mike
    
    You might have forgotten NZ’s long, and continuing, contribution to the War on Terror, including the 10 dead in Afghanistan.
    
    4 19
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    February 15, 2023 8:32am
  - coge
    
    They will if they get one of those “Calls from London” Then the media will go into overdrive, promoting the war and dehumanizing those who oppose it.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:39am
Tomtoddy

The cost of electrifying the vehicle fleet is beginning to dawn on the alarmists. A leading university in the USA has come up with possible scenarios for achieving the elimination of fossil fuels in transport. The report states, “Vehicle electrification, declines in car usage and ownership, more public transport and reductions in the size and weight of personal vehicles (to increase their energy efficiency) are necessary steps that must be pursued in combination to remain within a sectoral carbon budget consistent with limiting to 1.5-2°C of warming”.

The answers will not go down well with vehicle owners, especially those who like their big Rams and Chevy’s. All cars must be small and limited in overall numbers. “Get on a bus” will be a tough message to take for those families with 2 or 3 cars.

If you think that the kind of regulation needed to make this happen would never be enacted in the “home of the free”, just listen to Biden’s State of the Nation address. He is guaranteeing more interference and rule making than ever before. Even Xi Jinping would hesitate to interfere in the way Biden proposes. America is lurching left.
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February 15, 2023 8:07am
- cmm
  
  Herald says a NZ study shoing higher rates of heart disease after the vaxx should be treated with caution.
  
  I agree.
  
  ALL studies, reports, experiments should be treated with caution. It is not “science” to accept something based on one report or one methodoly.
  
  And it certainly is not science to accept the safety of the vaxx based on “coz it’s banned to say otherwise” or “coz Pfizer said”. Pfizer, who were so certain about the safety that they got every country to sign a waiver from prosecution before they would provide product.
  
  I find it interesting that they try to counter this with:
  “The risk of vaccine-related adverse events was still dwarfed by the risk of heart problems from catching Covid-19, the paper said.”
  
  So, in effect, don’t worry about the adverse events because they are tiny compared to the risks if you do get Covid. That makes it sound like the vaxx is good on balance.
  
  However anyone with more than half a brain will realise that the vaxx did not stop you getting Covid, so the purported benefit is non existent.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-nz-study-showing-higher-rates-of-heart-disease-after-covid-vaccination-should-be-treated-with-caution-expert/B5XJ7LODPBGTTFMNXDY3SYDQZ4/
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:09am
  - cmm
    
    Please ignore. It is posted in its proper place below.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:17am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    cmm – “The risk of vaccine-related adverse events was still dwarfed by the risk of heart problems from catching Covid-19, the paper said.”
    
    That is a blatant, out and out lie, the Whoreald copying and pasting bullshit yet again. Words can’t begin to describe my contempt for that rag.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:57am
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      Precisely. If the vax didnt prevent COVID, then the data should be neutral on catching COVID, and focused instead on the not negative risk of vax injury.
      
      If they are saying that the vax somehow inhibited the impact of covid, then perhaps they could explain how and the data….
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:00am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        The experimental jabs do more harm than good, and the younger you are, the higher the risk. FACT. Yet NZ is still pushing it as “safe and effective”. That is a lie.
        
        The premise of all medical care, certainly in the west, is supposed to be “first do no harm”.
        
        This could never have been true of this experiment until rigorous and long term trials were carried out. They weren’t, and the long term data is still being collected.
        There was no way in the world they could claim this toxic substance was “safe and effective”, but they did.
        
        The claim of “95% effective” was a completely malicious piece of deceit. It refers to Relative Risk Reduction. It is meaningless unless you are also given the Absolute Risk Reduction figure, which for the Pfizer experiment is 0.84%. This number was kept hidden from the public, because they knew the uptake of the experiment would have gone down the toilet if people were aware of that figure.
        We now know the “vaccines” give SOME protection but rapidly become negatively efficacious. The more you jab, the more chance of getting covid, and damaging your innate immune system in the process.
        
        It is all explained in the video at this link,
        
        https://metatron.substack.com/p/did-pfizer-commit-fraud-in-the-reporting?
        
        Watch it and pass it on. People need to know just how big this lie is, and understand that Medsafe and the NZ Government (and the opposition parties) are permitting this lie to continue.
        
        They cannot say “we didn’t know”. I can assure you, they have been contacted numerous times and this information has been presented to them.
        The politicians, Medsafe, MoH, “experts”.
        
        At best they ignored the evidence, that is malfeasance. But it is willful malfeasance and they need held to account.
        Ardern has done a runner, but we know where she is. Hipkins is fully responsible, he was the covid minister.
        We know they deliberately removed information given to them by their own advisors, that the jabs were dangerous for young people. Hipkins was in charge. He is responsible for that.
        
        Rory Nairn would likely be alive if he had been given that “informed consent”. He wasn’t. The information was deliberately withheld.
        
        NZ media? Tumbleweed.
        
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        February 15, 2023 1:41pm
      - cmm
        
        Clan: A huge problem many people have is that they made an irreversible decision, under huge pressure and have no way to undo what they did. How to they then fix that in their brains.
        
        Take for example people like our host who really, really, want to be a good parent as well as be seen to be a good parent. They dutifully lined up their toddlers for a jab – some believing it to be right and some because of the massive peer pressure being inflicted on them.
        
        Stuff like “If your child dies it is your fault” will make many parents crawl over glass to get their kid jabbed.
        
        Now what do those people do with new evidence? There’s no vacuum pump strong enough to pull the muck out of a kid’s arm.
        
        Equally, it is very, very hard to accept that by submitting to the peer pressure and rushing things you were being a “bad parent”.
        
        It’s one thing to have made a daft decision for yourself, quite another for your kid.
        
        So what the hell do you do now? Make an excuse that you were following the best science available at the time (even though there was shit science)? Double down? Ignore the evidence?
        
        We were very fortunate that our offspring are both adults now and were thus making their own choices. It’s way harder when you’re trying to make decisions for a child.
        
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        February 15, 2023 2:36pm
      - Bridgenag
        
        Forgot to post this morning
        From America
        “When COVID-19 hospitalizations were at their peak, many patients were entering the hospital for some completely different treatment, but were tested and admitted as COVID-19 patients and were put on a ventilator or given remdesivir against their wishes.
        I can’t tell you how many calls we got from panicked relatives who wanted us to use the legal process to force hospitals to offer patients alternative treatments or let them go. And the hospitals wouldn’t do either one.
        In one case, three corporate law firms were hired by a hospital to defend the hospital’s position and keep that patient in the hospital when all the relatives wanted to get him out. The hospital said he wasn’t sufficiently stable to move. The relatives said they were willing to sign whatever releases the hospital wanted. They wanted him off the ventilator and in a different facility. We had a facility that was willing to take him and a doctor who was willing to take over his care, but the hospital probably spent hundreds of thousands of dollars fighting us to keep him in the hospital.
        That’s what I call a hospital kidnapping case. It doesn’t make any sense. If you’re the patient and you don’t want them to treat you anymore, why can’t you make that decision in a free country?”
        
        https://open.substack.com/pub/tessa/p/im-not-going-to-stop-jeff-childers?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
        
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        February 15, 2023 7:42pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        cmm – you’ve just clearly identified the mammoth in the room. It is exactly where we are right now, not just in NZ, but around the world.
        The vast majority of those who were duped (by the biggest psyop and propaganda campaign in history) do not know how to deal with this angst they are feeling, and for now, they are avoiding it. As most of us do when faced with a situation with no obvious solution.
        
        None of us like to admit when we get something wrong. We might feel stupid. We find it hard to acknowledge this to those around us who we might have either ridiculed or shunned at the time.
        At some point, the adults among us realise that the only way to resolve this will be to acknowledge it. As we tell our children. When you get it wrong, own it. Don’t try and hide it.
        
        The response for those of us who didn’t succumb to the propaganda is going to be to simply listen and support. In the majority of cases no blaming. No accusing. Simply listen and understand, but make sure we get to a position where we all agree we will NEVER let this happen again.
        
        There are those who actively and viciously supported and pushed the worst excesses and attacks on those who refused to bow down. There are “experts” and politicians and “journalists” who still refuse to acknowledge they got it wrong and continue to vilify those who got it right. These people deserve nothing but contempt and at the very least, loss of job and status.
        
        Our society will never get back to anything resembling “normal” until these things happen. The sooner those, like our host, understand this, the sooner we can have the adult conversation and get back to living fruitful and fulfilling lives. Not this hollowed out facade we are currently stumbling through.
        
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        February 16, 2023 8:07am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Wonder how Alaskans will take this?
  I have never seen so many Dodge Rams as in Anchorage. Hundreds.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:13am
  - Ehlana
    
    Apparently part of the reason for the American love affair with pick-ups is rules related: trucks have lower emissions standards and escaped things like the “luxury tax” on some new cars in the 90’s. They’re also often 4WD, higher off the road and easier to drive in the snow apparently.
    
    Even our previous PM might consider Alaskans “legitimate users” of pickups.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:00am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      And petrol is still cheaper than ours.
      5.7L V8 can suck it up but they don’t seem to care. Our host families moan about $3.80a gallon but I sent them my calculations.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:09am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Ill be interested in NZ insurance claims from recent flooding regarding written off EV’s.
    Therein lays your answer.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:10am
    - alloytoo
      
      Submerged ICE is also likely to be written off, though I suspect also far more likely refurbished if sold for scrap.
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:30am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Yep agree. But thinking the height of the battery pack , normally in the floor of EV, as opposed too the air filter of ICE , etc.
        Ie height of water ingress during floods.
        Maybe EV has a totally sealed water proof battery ?
        
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        February 15, 2023 1:13pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  A cynic would say that this is all part of the plot. Get people in fervour about e-cars, then limit the supply. Classic bait and switch.
  
  If this is a conspiracy theory, who are the conspirators?
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:15am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The left are always conspiring.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:56am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Who are the conspirators?
    
    The unelected WEF and UN. Enabled by the socialists who wheedled their way into power around the world, many via the Global Young Leaders programme, such as Ardern, Merkel and Trudeau to name a few.
    More people are realising this isn’t a “conspiracy theory”, it’s for real, and push back has started. Ardern is going, I give Ardern’s ideological twin Trudeau less than a year. Canadians have had a gutsful of the slimy creep.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:03am
  - cmm
    
    EV cars should come with a bumper sticker:
    
    “My tailpipe is in Huntly”
    
    That’s a lot of the problem, nobody wants to build more power stations to power these electricity gobblers.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:38am
    - alloytoo
      
      “E” in EV stands for External Combustion.
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:31am
  - Master Mariner
    
    The ones who score ESG for companies and countries.
    Very murky.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:12am
- alex Masterley
  
  The authors of the report have forgotten how big the USA actually is. The scale is enormous.
  Outside of the major urban centres there is a lot of space without EV chargers or public transport for that matter so the good old internal combustion engine will still reign.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:15am
  - kowtow
    
    When the EV bubble bursts and the moral panic disappears the ICE will still be there.
    
    The latest alchemy is green hydrogen and that too will go the way of this tulip mania.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:33am
  - Swifty
    
    I find it helpful at times to think of the USA as a continent, rather than just as a country.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:34am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Try Alaska. When they say “The Last Frontier” they mean it. 730,000 in the biggest State. You have to be there to realize it.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:10am
- cmm
  
  I watch bus passenger numbers here in Chch.
  It is extremely rare to see buses on the normal routes with more than 5 passengers.
  Most of the time there are zero or one passenger.
  Average is about 2.
  
  With numbers like that it would be cheaper, and use less fuel, to run everyone around in “free” Humvee taxis.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:16am
  - Mike
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Public transport around Wellington is very well used. Perhaps people in Christchurch can’t work out decent travel arrangements.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:24am
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      People in Wellington (mainly) use public transport to travel to the CBD. Because the cost of congestion means that it is (sometimes) faster than using a car. And the cost of parking in the city is prohibitive.
      
      In Christchurch those two factors do not apply. Therefore most folk would not use PT even if it were free.
      
      It is better to think about the incentives that drive choices rather than make smart arse comments about all the people of Christchurch.
      
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      February 15, 2023 8:57am
      - bennerg
        
        Wellington has a unique topography combined with a high degree of office workers in the CBD, making that suited to public transport for those people.
        
        This does not translate to Auckland, Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, etc.
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:37am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Wellington is full of ‘Joe lunchboxes’
      All have the same bland look on their faces.
      
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      February 15, 2023 8:59am
      - tui47
        
        Going back to the Hutt Valley in the 70s. My father referred to the train catching civil servants as the ‘flannel brigade” – ‘here they come’ he would say. The train would rattle up the valley dispersing civil servants at every stop. Every evening at exactly the same time a large group of brown suited men would turn into our street. That group would gradually reduce as they peeled off into individual houses. Very few appeared to communicate with each other. Dad was particularly scathing of the fact they were civil servants who caught the train. That picture of them walking down the street together now seems quite comical.
        
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        February 15, 2023 11:15am
    - cmm
      
      Mike, you might well be right that Canterbury and Wellington are different. I am sure they are. For example, Canterbury isn’t neck deep in government sponges (just knee deep).
      
      But the only reason ECan keeps sending hundreds of buses to do nothing is because they are sucking money out of the economy via taxation and thus are not required to think efficiently .
      
      The bus system in Wellington does not work. It “works” because it is massively subsidised. Every time you buy an avo to smash and grumble about the price, recognise that, in reality, you’re also paying some loser’s bus fare.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:43am
      - Mike
        
        Public transport works well in Wellington because of the geography and scale. Not every urban area can be so fortunate.
        And people only grumble about subsidies when they can’t see any personal benefits from them. Elderly Kiwiblog commenters don’t tend to grumble about taxpayers providing their benefit, for example.
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:56am
      - cmm
        
        No, MM, Wellington bus service does not work well.
        If it worked well it would not need subsidies.
        
        The retirement benefit is somewhat different. Most people view that as a them having paid in over time rather than it being a current burden on current taxpayers.
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:33am
      - Mike
        
        Yes cmm, most recipients of the taxpayers’ largesse view themselves as entitled to it. The oldies’ benefit is just the most extreme case of this – no recipient has ever paid for it over time. That’s just the easiest example, there are plenty more where those subsidised by others, directly or indirectly, don’t want to think about it in those terms.
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:53am
    - Ghost
      
      Can’t you comment without the stupid remarks
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:49am
      - Mike
        
        Kiwiblog would be a very different place without stupid remarks, which are actually the mainstay of the comment threads.
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:57am
      - Yabster
        
        Mike you’re the king of stupid- so maybe lead by example?- nah that would spoil the jollies you get out of trolling- what a life!
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:33am
    - Joely Doe
      
      Bus across Chch to work would take about 80 mins in each direction, with a change of bus at the Feral Farm central bus exchange.
      Plus the short walk to the bus stop (5mins) each way.
      
      The idea that I am going to spend nearly 3hrs of my day, on a bus to get to and from work, when a car trip is only 20mins (40min total) is nuts.
      That also assumes the bus is on time and doesn’t allow for arriving early to catch the bus.
      
      Nope. Never going to happen.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:54am
      - Mike
        
        I agree. Christchurch sucks and I’m surprised we bothered to rebuild it after the earthquakes.
        
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        February 15, 2023 9:58am
      - Yabster
        
        Christchurch is great not so many Public servants and def less trolls…
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:35am
  - Hugh Jarse
    
    Same observations as cmm, very familiar with Wellington as well and same observations there except for both maybe for the hours around the morning and afternoon peaks. If stats were available on diesel usage per passenger it would be pretty enlightening I think.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:26am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      No no no! We cannot let Councils find out how much money they are wasting.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:01am
    - cmm
      
      Buses use around 35l/100km.
      At an average of 2 passengers that’s 17l/100passenger-km.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:45am
  - alex Masterley
    
    In Auckland almost every school bar one Auckland Grammar was closed yesterday, yet AT ran school buses.
    I am not sure what goes on in that entity but none of the thinking has anything to do with the real world.
    
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    February 15, 2023 8:37am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Yep, schools closed but AT school buses still running in the lost valley of Bayview.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:05am
    - tui47
      
      There is a reason parents pay high property prices to get into the Auckland Grammar zone. When the Govt told high schools that year end exams were optional, Auckland Grammar made them compulsory. Of course Grammar was unlikely to flood! But as for AT, I don’t think they think at all.
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:20am
- Mike
  
  Did you like the part of the address where he trolled the republicans by reminding them that they had promised to repeal social security and medicare?
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:22am
  - Phronesis
    
    You mean that massive own goal when Biden attempted to make fun of a Bill that was basically the same as one he introduced himself.
    
    https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3850207-biden-once-offered-budget-bill-strikingly-similar-to-rick-scotts/
    
    “The Biden measure bore striking similarities to the plan Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) unveiled in 2022 to sunset all federal legislation after five years — which is now at the center of a political firestorm.”
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:49am
    - Mike
      
      Ha ha.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:59am
- PhilBest
  
  The old categories of Left and Right don’t work any more. It is the CCP now which cynically pursues economic growth at any price, while countries allegedly run by so called “capitalists” are busily committing economic suicide.
  There is a logical explanation for this: the kind of capitalists who make their wealth from speculation and gaming and gouging LOVE shortages and price volatility and rent-seeking opportunities, especially in resources including urban land. Unfortunately the capitalists at all levels from grassroots up who just want to put good ideas into practice to increase the value for money of goods and services, and create new ones, don’t get a look in these days, against the devil’s alliance between the crony, vampire capitalists and the religious fundamentalists in “resource preservation”. Baptists and Bootleggers taken to another level.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:20am
cmm

Herald says a NZ study shoing higher rates of heart disease after the vaxx should be treated with caution.

I agree.

ALL studies, reports, experiments should be treated with caution. It is not “science” to accept something based on one report or one methodoly.

And it certainly is not science to accept the safety of the vaxx based on “coz it’s banned to say otherwise” or “coz Pfizer said”. Pfizer, who were so certain about the safety that they got every country to sign a waiver from prosecution before they would provide product.

I find it interesting that they try to counter this with:
“The risk of vaccine-related adverse events was still dwarfed by the risk of heart problems from catching Covid-19, the paper said.”

So, in effect, don’t worry about the adverse events because they are tiny compared to the risks if you do get Covid. That makes it sound like the vaxx is good on balance.

However anyone with more than half a brain will realise that the vaxx did not stop you getting Covid, so the purported benefit is non existent.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-nz-study-showing-higher-rates-of-heart-disease-after-covid-vaccination-should-be-treated-with-caution-expert/B5XJ7LODPBGTTFMNXDY3SYDQZ4/
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February 15, 2023 8:09am
- crackle
  
  Goes back to what a few (cancelled) experts said at the very start of the vax program. The risk benefit equation might make sense in small portions of the population. Never should have been mandated nor should we have used fear to push it at young people. Human immune system is pretty damn robust.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:19am
- PhilBest
  
  “…the purported benefit is non existent…”
  
  BINGO!
  
  And that is so true of everything in this whole sickening debacle. There was a guy in Quadrant Magazine years ago wrote an essay saying the death of logic would be what kills our civilization. “Experts” can be absorbed with stuff under a microscope but have no clue how to frame the big cost-benefit questions.
  
  It is the same with “climate change”, they frame the question as if “doing something” – like living in apartments and catching trains – will avert “the costs of climate change” when all it will do is delay the phenomenon by 6 weeks in 2050. So we get the costs of mitigation AND the costs of climate change anyway!
  
  With Covid we have the costs of mitigation AND the costs of Covid anyway – not just the harms of these mRNA jabs, but lockdowns, border closures, costly sanitizing measures, health system interruption etc etc
  
  The unprecedented overload of the health system now is a perfectly predictable consequence; missed screenings, missed treatments, mental health implosions, stress and trauma, etc. Then there is “immune deficit” – something else perfectly predicted by suppressed experts all along.
  
  Exponential increase in money-printing to paper over economic shutdown will have consequences too. Discussion of all these consequences will of course be suppressed, at least in so far as they are “own goals”. If the censorship machine had suppressed Covid information as much as it is suppressing “Covid mitigation” harms, we wouldn’t even have known there was such a virus circulating! In fact all they needed to do was not do the terror propaganda psy-ops and just report honestly!
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:32am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Great comment, Fully agree.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:18am
- ISeeRed
  
  Would love to find data on “Long Covid” sufferers and whether they were also injected.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:57pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Looks like back-pedaling by the same people who said it was “safe and effective”.
  
  Professor Peter McIntyre, an epidemiologist at the University of Otago, said the vaccine’s link with myocarditis was picked up and communicated very early in New Zealand.
  
  Not until most young people had been injected.
  
  While some had complained at the apparent speed at which the vaccine was introduced, he said this had likely saved many lives.
  
  But we only had excess mortality only after the shots were rolled out!
  
  “One thing to emphasise is that the checking and double-checking of the vaccine was really well done in New Zealand. And the [risk] information was added – maybe not as quickly as we might have ideally liked – but it was still quickly and it was still something that was acknowledged and carefully followed.”
  
  They are trying to cover themselves.
  
  He said that while the study provided further reassurance about the vaccine programme at the height of the pandemic, it was now time to reassess the blanket approach of targeting all age groups for Covid vaccination.
  
  Oh, now after most people have had 3+ shots!
  
  “The older population is going to have to keep having yearly boosters, possibly even more, because they’re continuing to be at risk.
  
  Only because older people dropping dead is not as obvious, except for that high excess mortality problem we seem to be having.
  
  “But for young people, having had their two doses, and in most cases having had an infection, the picture is different … and the risk of myocarditis is still there, even though it’s rare. So we may need to start moving away from everything for everyone to … specific targeted messaging for groups.”
  
  Not as rare as they are making out, if you look at the Thailand study of 300 teenage boys, where the rate of harm leading to hospitialisation was 1 in 100!
  
  3/301 children enrolled in the study developed myocarditis or pericarditis. One 16 year old developed clinical myocarditis with a peak cardiac troponin of 593, and 2 others developed pericarditis. All three were admitted to the hospital. While it is not explicitly stated in the study, the child with myocarditis was likely monitored in the intensive care unit prior to being discharged.
  
  So many young people in NZ have had 2 or more shots, that they were forced into by our reprehensible govt and health nutjobs, that will do who knows what to their long-term health. No wonder they are trying to cover themselves now.
  
  My final point is that the NZ study is only using data from Feb 2021 to Feb 2022; likely because it all went pear-shaped from March 2022, as the younger cohorts were getting their 3rd shots.
  
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  February 15, 2023 2:30pm
  - mawm
    
    “…..said the vaccine’s link with myocarditis was picked up and communicated very early in New Zealand.”
    Pfizers trials detected raised troponin levels, a marker for myocardial damage, but they did not investigate further (or did and hid the results). The product should never have been approved for emergency use but I suppose the august bodies that sit and weigh these sort of issues are also susceptible to hysteria (or bribes).
    
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    February 15, 2023 3:58pm
Stellaboxer

Quite a serious mess unfolding in the wake of the adverse weather. Just the sort of event that nationals rainy day fund was earmarked for. Pity it was squandered on zero Covid vanity dreaming.
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February 15, 2023 8:15am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Only thing that happened here was the roof boot for my Prado was in my carport and is now up against my back fence.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:25am
- Tricati
  
  Labour need to rename itself to the ‘Lucky Party’. Lucky Peters picked them in 2017, when Bridges was making inroads and Labour had already sqaundered Nationals surplus along came covid, and they politicized that to the max. Now along comes a cyclone, and the lessoned (fear) learnt from Covid, assisted by a compliant MSM. Labour will use it to distract from the fact they dumped unpopular policies, and havent replaced any, and still haven’t committed to wider population consultation on co-governance.
  My bet is they will use the cyclone to hide co-covernance and march on with its implementation. What we need is for Luxon to grow a pair and challenge the 3 waters organisation structures, the intent of the Mana o te Wai Statements and how can 17% of the population dictate the direction on water and challenge Hipkins on his actual performance in Education, Covid and Polytech merger.
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:31am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    Tricati – Whatever Luxon does, he won’t be PM. So please wait patiently until Nice Nicola wins the 2026 election and becomes the PM.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:04am
    - coge
      
      I agree Luxon is now in trouble. But a change to Willis or Bishop won’t improve National’s fortunes. I’d urge Luxon to come out and address the elephant in the room. National’s support of Ardern’s 2022 Covid intitiative, especially the casual dismissal of the NZ bill of rights act at that time. Done right, he could flip it right over on top of Hipkins. Who was one of Ardern’s main architects. National might have a chance of redeeming themselves to hundreds of thousands on New Zealanders. The media doesn’t matter to those particular Kiwis, but their rights certainly do.
      
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      February 15, 2023 9:28am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        What is he to do, his state of the nation speech was widely put on hold for another day, parliament still has not begun this year properly, the media are starving him of oxygen as they did Bridges, and this bloody cut line has everyone doing other stuff, I can’t see how leopard even thinking about politics in these places at present
        
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        February 15, 2023 10:48am
      - ISeeRed
        
        There’s always an excuse, G. National are just Labour in suits.
        
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        February 15, 2023 2:20pm
  - emmess
    
    Does that make Hipkins the Labour leprechaun?
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:12am
  - Gravelroad
    
    @tricati-
    These floods will be an absolute godsend for Labour’s Three 3/5 Waters ambitions.
    People who were not sure before of the need for it will be convinced now that it is vital to have central government in charge of water resources – because local councils have spent too much money on theatres, parks and libraries and not enough on storm drainage.
    As have said here before, for many, as long as clean water comes out of the kitchen tap and goes down the plug hole, that’s all that matters.
    How water gets to the tap and where it goes after use is irrelevant.
    The Labour Party will be quietly very pleased, I would think.
    
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    February 15, 2023 11:07am
  - ISeeRed
    
    It’s not 17%. More like 0.17%. It’s a small tribal elite. Ordinary Maoris get no more benefit or say than you and I.
    
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    February 15, 2023 1:01pm
- Paulus
  
  Looks like Robertson and his little boy will have to find something in the order of $10 billion as the infrastructures and no insurances will pile in, as they have done so already with many more to come.
  All I am hearing is
  Who is gonna pay – the Taxpayer of course.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:56am
Nickc2

Why did the Govt put the National Crisis Management Center in charge yesterday and not leave Local Civil Defence organisations to manage their own situations?
Simple really, it enabled the Govt to push their MPs, Labour-sponsored Mayors, and Councils in front of MSM cameras and journalists.
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February 15, 2023 8:17am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Nick2 – there was absolutely no other reason for that declaration than virtue signaling and grandstanding.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:30am
- Ghost
  
  According to the latest report local civil defence teams asked for a national state of emergency
  
  “NEMA met with the local civil defense teams earlier this morning and advised that local civil defense teams also fed back that a national state of emergency would be beneficial.”
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/02/cyclone-gabrielle-state-of-national-emergency-what-led-to-declaration-parliament-s-plan-in-aftermath.html
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:37am
  - Nickc2
    
    Your link refers to political grandstanding.
    I stand by my accusation.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:56am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Ghost – I read that yesterday, it sounds like an Ardern word salad.
    
    I read it again. This is part of what McAnulty said:
    
    NEMA had made the message very clear to affected regions over recent days: “Tell us what you need and we’ll get it to you.”
    
    That’s a very definitive statement and what I would have expected to hear.
    
    What NEMA didn’t say was – “ask us to declare a national state of emergency or we can’t help you.”
    
    Also not all regions apparently felt it was necessary.
    
    But feedback that morning was that while not all regions needed national support, some were wanting it.
    
    So my question is still the same, why do we have an apparently inflexible emergency response system that can’t respond to a request from a particularly region or regions alone? Focus on where the assistance has been requested? Why does it have to be so clumsy?
    
    Again, as NEMA clearly said, “tell us what you need and you will get it.” That’s what any rational person would think should happen surely?
    
    I think think this comment gets to the heart of the matter.
    
    “It” (the declaration of a national state of emergency) “will also, I hope, provide public assurance that national authorities’ have this and no effort will be spared. It’s not our intent to start micromanaging the operational response from the ground.”
    
    That’s admitting being seen to be doing something.
    It also conveniently allows the government to deflect from the numerous disasters they are directly responsible for by closing down parliament. Something they are using a lot these days.
    As David Seymour said:
    
    “Every ACT MP is in Wellington ready to do their job and hold the Government accountable, but Labour has cancelled Parliament.”
    
    “New Zealand needs democracy to continue, with Parliament functioning whenever possible, not cancelled whenever the Government can get away with it.”
    
    Luxon didn’t exactly inspire me with his comments. The “thoughts and prayers” comment comes across as trite and widely overused everywhere. But this was a concern.
    
    …..New Zealand prepares to face more extreme climate events, he said.
    
    Luxon said National would offer cross-party support on how to build climate adaptation into key infrastructure.
    
    So he’s an avowed “climate change” fanboy?
    How long before they start “climate change” lockdowns and restrictions on movement? 15 minute cities anyone?
    We are being herded into a dystopian nightmare and apparently other than Seymour, not a single politician has anything resembling an opposing voice.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:31am
    - Nickc2
      
      “We are the Govt and we are here to help you.”
      However, you must ASK us first eh?
      …. and all the little piggies that are the Labour Govt’s disciples waddled off to grab their cell phones.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:56am
    - The Redbaiter
      
      ClanMcleod- “How long before they start “climate change” lockdowns and restrictions on movement? 15 minute cities anyone?”
      
      Chris Bishop has already stated that he wants to make a start on doing the groundwork for such restrictions/ limitations. He’s (IMHO) another green lefty in the wrong party.
      
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      February 15, 2023 3:32pm
- Paulus
  
  To show you who is in charge like the unlamented Ardern aways did – no difference with the boy on the lecturn. – same as.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:58am
- Wayne Mapp
  
  The nature of government is when you are in charge, you are in charge and get to do things.
  Most people would accept that the declaration of National Emergency made sense in the circumstances, including National’s spokesman, Gerry Brownlee. The scale of the event was simply too large and needed a larger response than local councils could do.
  Is it the scale of the Christchurch earthquake, no, but very large for a storm. If there have only been 2 declared before, maybe that means we have been too restrictive.
  Sure that means the PM gets to talk to the nation, but as I noted above that is just how it is. The declaration is not an obvious abuse of power.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:50am
  - Nickc2
    
    Don’t get me wrong Wayne, this Govt can do whatever it wants (and it does), simply because it has the numbers. I’m surprised they chose in this instance to canvas the thoughts of other Political Parties (that’ll piss Nanaia Mahuta and Willie Jackson off).
    As for Gerry Brownlee, just imagine what a field day Te MSM would have had at National’s expense if he had said declaring a National Emergency wasn’t necessary because local Civil Defence organisations were coping with the situation and hadn’t asked for Govt interference to date.
    Te MSM would have blamed every Moggie, Puppie, Budgie, and even human injury or death multiplied to the power of # on Gerry Brownlee and the National Party.
    
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    February 15, 2023 11:32am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Wayne – read my comments above, other than virtue signaling and allowing Hipkins and others to get on TV on yet another “podium of whatever” – what did it add to the work already being done?
    
    As McAnulty said:
    
    NEMA had made the message very clear to affected regions over recent days: “Tell us what you need and we’ll get it to you.”
    
    He didn’t say “we’ll help you once I get on TV and make a declaration……”
    
    Tell me which rescue services or resources were sitting in a room somewhere waiting for the declaration?
    
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    February 15, 2023 11:35am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Fully agree Wayne,
    However,
    The declaration is not an obvious abuse of power.
    
    What is Declaring a bloody climate emergency then ?
    
    Absolute abuse of Power.
    
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    February 15, 2023 1:23pm
- Reg Perrin
  
  Its only earlier days and as things start calming down there will be a need for action. People will quickly become frustrated and angry as needs are not met. They may regret being the at the front when people are looking for someone to blame
  
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  February 15, 2023 11:40am
Frank the tank

So after EX-CYCLONE Gabby hammered the Hawkes Bay anyone want to guess what the cost of fresh produce will be for the next 6 months.
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February 15, 2023 8:18am
- Master Mariner
  
  Yep.
  Ukraine war, Covid supply chains and now Cyclone.
  Its a ” see look over there”, mentality. Unfortunately most do !
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:22am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Not to mention Maggie’s favourite tipple
  
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  February 15, 2023 6:21pm
Tony Stuart

Pretty heartbreaking to see the damage on the East Coast and in Hawke’s Bay. The cost of this is going to be significant, especially in terms of stock and crop losses, which will have an ongoing economic impact. There will be less produce available, and prices will go through the roof, further fueling inflation.

Then there’s the property damage, and unforeseen consequences. Those who have lost appliances like fridges and freezers are likely to face a significant delay in getting them replaced because of supply chain issues. New Zealand doesn’t have the international heft to whistle up dozens of containers of new appliances. That’s also going to lead to price increases due to the scarceness of supply.

As for the “rainy day fund”, that’s long gone, replaced by massive debt. The debt clock now shows our national debt at $148 billion, and rising. Thanks a bunch Robbo.
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February 15, 2023 8:26am
- nathie
  
  Perhaps Robertson could put the unspent Covid fund to good use (instead of plundering for election bribes).
  
  Like how about paying debt off … or now putting towards the post cyclone rebuild?
  
  Robertson …? Tumbleweeds!
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:17am
Maggie Pie

Absolutely beautiful morning here. Just a slight zephyr.
First time we’ve been able to take breakfast on the patio in the last 2 weeks.
The upside to Gabby…. is the lawns have never looked sooo lush for this time of year.
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February 15, 2023 8:31am
- Mike
  
  Whose patio did you take the breakfast from?
  
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  February 15, 2023 8:37am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Here we go again.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:14am
  - cmm
    
    Mirror, mirror on the wall…. What’s the point of my life?
    
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    February 15, 2023 1:56pm
cmm

People living in port village complain about ships…

Yup, the burgers of Lyttleton are getting annoyed about cruise ship passengers taking over.

Their biggest gripe is the bus service being overwhelmed by cruise passengers. ECan says they don’t have more drivers to lay on more buses.

I have an easy solution.

Most of the other bus services in Chch are woefully under utilised. On a drive out from Chch to Sumner you’ll pass maybe 4 buses going in each direction with an average of about 2 passengers each. Ditto buses going out to Burnside, Shirley etc.

If a third of those empty buses were used to go to Lyttleton it would be problem solved.

The only reason ECan can have such an poorly run system is that they are funded by the tax/rate payers.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/131213190/lyttelton-overrun-and-overwhelmed-by-cruise-ship-passengers
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February 15, 2023 8:35am
- Widogast Corwin
  
  The shuttles for the passengers to Christchurch are put on by the cruise ships. IIRC they charge $70 for the return trip to Christchurch. Absolute gouging. Of course the passengers then discover that the regular buses charge about $8 instead of $70 so they swamp the buses for other folk.
  
  But you are right. If the folk who ran buses here had brain they would redeploy all the empty buses all over the city to the ship terminal with a big sign “Christchurch $20 return”. They could make some money and under cut the cruise company.
  
  Of course that kind of thinking is beyond them.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:02am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Environment Canterbury could do a bit of research and find out when the Cruise Ships are in town. No? Not their job? NZ is becoming very lazy.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:19am
    - Zapper
      
      The CEO of ECan is too busy making “State of the Region” speeches which might as well be a Labour Party rally. I wish I was joking
      
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      February 15, 2023 1:06pm
  - cmm
    
    If the Chch buses were privately run they would respond to the opportunity.
    
    But no, some cardigan-wearing, clipboard-waver in ECan gets paid the same if the buses are full or empty. Why put in any effort?
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:50am
- Ehlana
  
  You’d think there would some people who could tell when a cruise ship was in port. You’d think either the cruise companies would know that Lyttleton is not in Christchurch, and lay on buses themselves. Or that they could co-ordinate with the Christchurch Council to put on extra buses at the time.
  
  Perhaps, for a suitable fee, some kind soul would let the Council know when a ship arrives. Could probably be done by a blind person with a good internet connection.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:33am
- Gravelroad
  
  In Picton there is a community group which goes along to actively meet and greet the cruise ship passengers. Think the group is called Friendship Force or similar.
  They give out flowers, small gifts, maps etc because they want the people to go into the township and spend money there – in the shops and cafes.
  It is a simple concept-
  Make the tourists feel welcome, valued and informed about the local scene and they might pay that back by supporting the local retailers.
  AFAIK there no bitching about bus fares.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:00pm
  - cmm
    
    There’s a similar group doing info etc in Lyttleton. The difference is that very few cruise ship passengers spend much time or money in Lyttleon. Most head off to Chch or on tours to see sheep shearing and other Kiwi delights.
    
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    February 15, 2023 2:18pm
Cassandra

There are consequences from every action: spend your rainy day money on other things eg unused bike paths/bridges etc and there’s nothing when the rain comes; abandon oil and gas exploration and then you’re reliant on overseas supply. It’s an endless list but you get the gist. So if you get it how come the Labour Patty doesn’t?
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February 15, 2023 8:45am
- Prince
  
  That would make a great blog post/comments section.
  Some more contributions:
  Govt pays the media to spread their message => Public lose faith in media objectivity.
  Govt forces minimum wage increase => Prices go up.
  Govt abolishes 3 Strikes and reduces prison population => crime increases.
  Govt stops Police from chasing young drivers driving erratically => increase in young drivers driving erratically.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:19am
  - Cassandra
    
    To say nothing of shoplifting! Rife in Tauranga.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:15am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Labour is not capable of forward thinking.
  They never will be.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:22am
- Ehlana
  
  If they really were a patty, at least we could BBQ them.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:35am
krazykiwi

I have worked at Vodafone NZ a twice over the last couple of decades. Both times in senior leadership roles. Canon in that industry has always been that RF emissions are safe, and in line with ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection) safety guidelines. End. Of. Story.

So I read this article with interest: 5G Has Its Day In Court

… a Judicial Review in which Michael Mansfield KC challenged the Government for its “failure to give adequate information to the public about the risks of 5G and to explain the absence of a process for investigation of any adverse health effects”. These failures are deemed to be in breach of Section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 due to positive obligations to protect human life, health and dignity as stated in Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Interesting stuff, and still another example of a government obfuscating when transparency demanded.
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February 15, 2023 8:45am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Governments do not like being told what to do from the ‘Mr Mansfields’ They can do it themselves, they are clever you know.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:32am
- cmm
  
  A lot of the problems with this sort of stuff is that there is an element of truth in many of the lies.
  
  The only way to get higher bandwidth (as needed by 5G) is to crank up the frequency of the transmitter.
  
  Once you’re operating over 2GHz (as is also used by Bluetooth and Wifi), you’re up in the water absorption spectrum etc. You know – the same place as microwave ovens.
  
  So, OMG! Sparking up a Wifi, Bluetooth or cellphone is like putting your head in a microwave. Well, kinda.
  
  The difference is that your microwave is belting out 700W in a reflective box so the energy bounces around until it gets soaked up by some water.
  
  Your Wifi is limited to around 100mW and most of that just escapes. You’re maybe getting 1/100,000 of a microwave’s worth. And Bluetooth is less than a tenth of that and 5G phones maybe 10x as much.
  
  So far we really don’t have a full appreciation of the effects of such low levels.
  
  I would suspect though that most people would be prepared to take on the risks for the rewards they get.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:59am
- peterwn
  
  The science is pretty well settled up to 4G. So the issue becomes why 5G is any different. One argument is the frequency allocations for 5G means frequencies are being used that are allegedly more harmful than G1 to G4 frequencies but then no one can really point to evidence that say 800Mhz is more harmful then 1200Mhz. The other argument is the increase in traffic means more radio waves and hence the more likelihood of harm. The problem with this argument is that more cell sites are needed to handle the traffic so there is no more radio waves in a particular location to carry the extra traffic. Moreover the signal strength for a particular call is adjusted at the site and in the user’s phone to be adequate for the call in question. This stops signals from one site interfering with signals from another site.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:17am
- NothingLeft
  
  RF radiation is non ionizing, and gets harmlessly absorbed and turned into heat in your body just like every other type of non-ionizing photon. If you are worried about radio waves hitting your body then make sure you never go outside in sunlight or hold a warm drink in your hand or sit near a heater – all of which will have greater impact.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:22pm
kowtow

If we keep talking about “climate change” , net zero and controlling the temperature by subsidising Indonesian coal powered EV’s , destroying our agriculture and pastures with exotic carbon forest farming and spending literally billions on said mania then the real problems with out built environment will never get the priority or fixes it needs.

Houses built on flood plains behind insufficient levees , weak bridges on untended river beds , structures on cliffs , slopes and coast liable to slip and erosion . Power lines under huge trees ( which no one allows chopping) Etc

Those are the problems the country is presented with by a panicky media . Not carbon emissions.

Is Luxon listening , no he’s cosying up to Shaw .
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February 15, 2023 8:51am
- Widogast Corwin
  
  “Is Luxon listening , no he’s cosying up to Shaw.”
  
  IMO his statements over the last few days has cost him the election.
  
  He should be shouting “Which countries can adapt to climate change? Rich countries”
  
  James Shaw WILL make New Zealand a poor country. Poor countries suffer terribly from natural disasters because they cannot afford proper infrastructure. Compare Pakistan (floods) with the USA (hurricanes).
  
  Whatever NZ does on emissions reductions will have ZERO effect on the frequency and intensity of cyclones. Time to get the infrastructure upgraded. That will mean less spending on stupidity. Of course that is not happening. Look at the legacy Goff left and the shambles now unfolding in the new Wellington council.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:07am
  - krazykiwi
    
    “Whatever NZ any country does on emissions reductions will have ZERO effect on the frequency and intensity of cyclones”
    
    Fixed. There is no proven, causative relationship between anthropogenic emissions and changes in climate, so arguing the case around effect size is effectively buying into the lie that such a causative relationship is confirmed.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:59am
    - peterwn
      
      “IMO his statements over the last few days has cost him the election.”
      Seem to be an awful of of pundits who think they know more about politics and political strategy (Bryce Edwards included) than Chris Luxon does. Climate denial could also cost Chris the election especially as the MSM and others would get stuck right into him. Climate change may not even be the main battleground for the election. Chris could well open up on a completely different battle front when the timing is right.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:25am
    - alloytoo
      
      Why I agree with you, I do feel that a more palatable argument is that wealthy nations are better prepared irrespective of the nature of the disaster.
      
      Policies which make us poorer are treasonous.
      
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      February 15, 2023 11:42am
- emmess
  
  Keep repeating, the weather we have been experiencing recently is zero to do with climate change and almost entirely due to the Tonga volcano, last year.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:16am
- Phronesis
  
  National need to show some leadership and offer some real alternatives. They need to change the narrative away from trying to save the world to trying to save NZ. If these storms are caused by climate change then it’s clearly too late to fix the climate. It’s time we took seriously living with this new reality and invested heavily into mitigation INSTEAD of carbon reduction. What could the response from Labour and the greens be. They can’t deny the “Climate emergency” because they literally created it.
  
  Climate change is solely a means to an end for the left but there is no reason that the right can’t use it for it’s own ends. In the face of this “climate crisis” what we obviously need is resilient food production, much more infrastructure investment, including all weather roads. Upgraded energy networks with guaranteed supply. All things that they can point to as being weaknesses in the face of storms like this weeks.
  
  One of the great weaknesses of the lefts position is that it’s not clear to voters what all the money we are spending on decarbonising the economy is achieving, mostly because it isn’t achieving anything. If the right spend money on infrastructure in the name of climate change then people will feel like they are both getting something for their taxes and fixing the climate change problem.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:14am
Tony Stuart

Sometimes you just have to despair at the state of our media. Today it’s Stuff, crossing the line well beyond what is reasonable, reporting on the missing Auckland volunteer firefighter:

Vets North partner Mark Young declined to comment when contacted on Tuesday afternoon, other than to say “we’re just devastated”.

A father of two, van Zwanenberg studied in the United Kingdom before moving to New Zealand.

He owns a house in Muriwai with his wife and two children.

Vets North’s website said van Zwanenberg “is a highly valued member of our equine team”.

“Outside of work he can usually be found down the beach kitesurfing or when the wind is not blowing wakeboarding,” the website said.

He previously wrote an ‘ask the experts’ column for Horse and Pony magazine and flew small planes.

Both van Zwanenberg’s wife and a woman working at Vets North declined comment when contacted on Tuesday.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/weather-news/300806785/cyclone-gabrielle-hero-firefighter-caught-in-muriwai-slip-a-vet-pilot-and-father-of-two?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

So, a “journalist” from Stuff rings up this bloke’s wife and his workplace seeking comment. FFS, the poor woman doesn’t yet know whether her husband is dead or alive, and the ghouls in the media want to know what she thinks. This both sickens and angers me.

I know the media creed is “If it bleeds, it leads”, but wouldn’t it simply be a matter of common decency to give a bit of space to a woman who doesn’t know if her husband will be coming home to her and their children?

Not your best work Stuff, Catrin Owen and Blair Ensor. A little compassion and sensitivity would go a long way.
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February 15, 2023 8:52am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Oh spare me Tony. Stuff haven’t been a news outlet for years. The old Truth used to provide better and more balanced news than those clowns. The give their opinion, that’s all. Stop reading their crap and let them go quietly into the night. Where they belong.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:05am
- Blog-aholic
  
  compassion, sensitivity and moral professionalism.
  
  Sadly missing in that organisation.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:10am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Must be the children again. An experienced journalist would think first, maybe?
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:37am
  - Bob
    
    MAYBE!!!!!!!!
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:10am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Still no power here after 45 hours so using my cellphone. Can anyone tell me how to use the “find” function so I can skip through my posts in yesterday’s General Debate on Kiwiblog?
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February 15, 2023 8:54am
- RightNow
  
  If it’s Chrome then click the three dots and look for “Find in page”
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:05am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Thanks, it works just fine 🙂
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:43am
- DimChappie
  
  In firefox do Control F (find) then enter Otto and hit the up or down arrow, return to find next.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:19am
Handyman

You can tell Transpower is a government agency.
They built a (single point of failure) substation on the flood plain right next to the main river.
At any time in the past 100 years they could have built a wall around the substation with permanent heavy duty pumps.
But no. They are “working on” a submission to have some work done by 2030.
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February 15, 2023 9:12am
- nathie
  
  If I heard correctly with Hosking (interviewing Transpower) it was built in 1937(?) and the last major upgrade was in 1980 (when NZ’s population was 3 million).
  
  43 years later and with 5.5 million NZ’ers (meaning more people and industry relying on that single substation), have Transpower dropped the ball in terms of building alternative systems?
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:22am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    nathie – yes.
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:39am
  - peterwn
    
    Redclyffe was built in the 1970’s to provide a 220kV reinforced supply to Hawkes Bay (fed from Wairakei Power Station being the nearest convenient connection point). Prior to that Hawkes Bay and Gisborne areas were fed via 110kV lines from the south together with the three Waikaremoana power stations.
    What I find a bit surprising was that Transpower was apparently unaware of flooding issues at Redclyffe until the control centre in Wellington lost communications contact with the substation.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:40am
    - nathie
      
      Thanks Peter, what sort of costs to build a new (replacement) power station somewhere close by but in a safer position from the river?
      
      Ditto Melling as Mike mentions below?
      
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      February 15, 2023 5:14pm
      - peterwn
        
        $10M upwards and Melling would be a bit cheaper. As far as I know Melling would have benefited from flood protection works carried out on the Hutt river banks. Also I think equipment may have been rearranged so as to be unaffected by some flooding but I am not sure.
        Interesting many medieval cathedrals in Europe were built on high ground as the builders probably realised that they (especially the crypts ie basements) could be flooded. Lincoln, Durham (UK) and Chartres (France) are examples.
        
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        February 15, 2023 5:55pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Built not long after the Napier earthquake. Perhaps it was not clear whether & how the river might flood.
    
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    February 15, 2023 6:29pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Handyman – we were discussing that yesterday, I said I couldn’t understand how such a critical piece of infrastructure could be located somewhere that could potentially see it so compromised. At the time I had no idea of the location. Ghost checked it out on Google Maps and reported back that it was right beside the river.
  Complete and utter incompetence.
  
  There need to be numerous post mortems after this is over.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:42am
  - kowtow
    
    No , the prospective PM of NZ calls this “climate denialism”.
    
    We build critical infrastructure in all manner of vulnerable places and when something inevitably goes wrong and you rightly queston that , you’re a ‘denier ‘.
    
    This is reaching the proportions of medieval blasphemy faith thinking and authoritarian control.
    
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    February 15, 2023 11:02am
  - peterwn
    
    Those responsible will either be in rest homes or pushing daisies.
    
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    February 15, 2023 2:56pm
- Mike
  
  I think you might find that there a numerous very expensive pieces of infrastructure that could be destroyed in similarly large-scale disasters.
  An example would be the Melling substation:
  https://mapcarta.com/W29545850
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:06am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Mike – my point is, why put it there? Surely there are better locations available? If not, as someone pointed out, if it must be located there for some reason then protect it adequately.
    
    My cynical side tells me if things operated smoothly through a weather event then there is no drama and it makes it a lot harder to sell the climate change bullshit. Now they can ramp up the fear porn.
    
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    February 15, 2023 10:39am
    - Mike
      
      Ah, it was cunningly placed there decades ago, deliberately vulnerable, so that the government could exploit the inevitable disaster.
      
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      February 15, 2023 10:57am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Mike – apparently “climate change” is a recent phenomenon. Those who originally built the substation wouldn’t have had a clue what was coming, Al Gore and Greta weren’t around to warn them.
        
        However, the current government are the people who have been warning us about “catastrophic climate change” for years. They are hysterically telling us right now that this cyclone is a portent of worse things to come.
        
        As they apparently knew this was going to happen, they least you’d think they would have done since they came to power was protect key infrastructure? Never mind Kiwibuild or cycle lanes!
        
        Or are you telling me they deliberately let the substation go underwater causing misery for many tens of thousands? Sounds like a very Labour thing to do actually. Ram the message home eh?
        
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        February 15, 2023 1:53pm
I remember when

Food inflation at 10.3%:
Also now very unlikely to reduce anytime soon with the crop destruction, state of the ground and damage to infrastructure.
Add in the need for growers to recover their losses and the vegetable and fruit market doesn’t look good.
What is going to happen to the motor vehicle market, the building supplies sector and the construction industry.
How will it affect the export proceeds from fruit, how much are dairy export earnings likely to reduce and where does forestry go now.
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February 15, 2023 9:14am
Handyman

Power will need to be rationed up the east coast for a while.
Will the PM request people not charge their battery powered cars?
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February 15, 2023 9:17am
- nathie
  
  Petrol and diesel is still the way to go (be that powering vehicles, portable generators and diesel back-up power plants)! Plus it can be resupplied quite easily (by land/sea/air)!
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:24am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    nathie – that stuff that we used to refine here in NZ with a byproduct of CO2 for industry and health services and bitumen for roads?
    I wonder who destroyed that critical infrastructure…
    
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    February 15, 2023 9:45am
    - nathie
      
      Ah yes that pre-Aotearoa place that used to be known as New Zealand until 2017/2020.
      
      The good old days of New Zealand … will we ever see them again?
      
      (Yes we must)!
      
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      February 15, 2023 5:10pm
- cmm
  
  Well you’d be a numpty if you’re driving your Tesla around in ankle-deep water.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:53am
- Ruawai
  
  Can they use their charged up battery cars to power their houses?
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:46pm
backster

Aw Maggie that’s not very ladylike.
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February 15, 2023 9:25am
- Maggie Pie
  
  I’m a bitch
  I’m a lover
  I’m a child
  I’m a mother
  I’m a sinner
  I’m a saint
  And I do not feel ashamed
  I’m your hell
  I’m your dream
  I’m nothing in between.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:50am
  - Biscuit
    
    You forgot the killer line, Maggie:
    
    And I belt six shades of excrement out of innocent Tennis balls.
    
    9 2
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    February 15, 2023 10:10am
    - Bridgenag
      
      And ….. carry oven cleaner to ward off attackers
      
      1 1
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      February 15, 2023 7:30pm
Master Mariner

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-UAE-Is-Worried-About-An-Oil-Supply-Shortage-In-2024.html
Yes Indeed, if you think all the oil majors are making record profits then think again.
During the largest oil and gas decline, The oil majors made record losses in the previous 7 years .
Its a long term plan with extremely high costs till they break even.
ESG, Well all the oil majors are big proponents of ESG.
So much so, They are on record as stating the unfeasiability of increasing refineries numbers due to the detrimite of Lower ESG scores.
The demand for Refineries will be meet in mostly Asia and the likes of India.
The outcome of low ESG scores in the West, Basically means No one can and will do business with you.
In fact my previous company had to change company policy to Zero Injuries. The shear impossibility of this bought an outrage. CEO came out and said we will not be able to charter vessels unless we stated this new policy.
In a NZ context, Road to Zero is the one and same messaging fron THE same source.
Closure of Marsden Pt is another.
So who did ex PM meet personally at Blackrock. He is the architech of ESG.
So in light of all this, How sovereign and independant is NZ ,?
The real question is are they doing this “knowingly” or been blindsided through ideaology ?
Im picking a bit of both, And too hard to withdraw.
So where does all this leave NZ,
No fuel security
A divided country.
Propaganda and complicit media.
The list really keeps on giving if you look through these lenses.
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February 15, 2023 9:42am
- ClanMcleod
  
  MM – sounds like a conspiracy theory but it isn’t. This is deliberate and Ardern was moved on once she had passed her “best before” date. We will see how she is rewarded by the end of the year, but have no doubt, she WILL be rewarded.
  Our democracy hasn’t been under this much threat since WW2. It is becoming clear our parliament is effectively controlled from outside of the country. There is no opposition other than the sideshow divide and rule shit around race and covid. Deliberate tactics to fracture society, gaslight the public and create a state of fear and confusion.
  There are no real leaders among our politicians.
  
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  February 15, 2023 9:50am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    There aren’t too many leaders, world wide. It seems to me that most leaders these days are veritable pygmies in comparison with those of years gone by.
    
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    February 15, 2023 6:32pm
rockape

Oh dear, never mind! elson Mail, 6 February 2023)

Hospital’s coal use consent clashes with climate goals

Nelson Hospital has applied for consent to burn up to 4000 tonnes of coal a year, for seven years, to heat and power its buildings.

But Nelson mayor Nick Smith says the application is inconsistent with climate change emissions targets, and he wants Nelson City councillors to take over the decision-making process from staff.
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February 15, 2023 9:49am
Inandout

Fancy email from BP says I can save 10c today on petrol so I looked on Gaspy and they were selling for $2.49 a litre, so back to $2.39. The local supermarket price, less 6c discount, is $2.22. God loves a trier I suppose.
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February 15, 2023 9:58am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  P&S Mill Road is 2.20 across the road in BP about 2.35.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:05am
- Bob
  
  It is BP though, par for the course with them. Highest price first, last to lower pricy.
  
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  February 15, 2023 10:13am
Jack5

A third apology is made to NZ Chinese for the poll tax on Chinese in pioneering days, and it brings a big language issue of China to New Zealand.

The third apology is in Cantonese, which though it has about 80 million native speakers, is under pressure.

The apology was initially delivered 20 years ago in both English and Mandarin Chinese. Most of the early Chinese who came to New Zealand spoke Cantonese.

Since Mao, China has moved to unify China under the Mandarin/Beijing standard language. Cantonese is a leading language of south-east China, where until recently most Chinese emigrants originated.

Most linguists regard Chinese as a group of spoken languages, not mutually intelligible, but which use the same written language.

Until recently, Chinese who settled around the Pacific region overwhelmingly came from south-east China, where the most used language was Cantonese.

Cantonese-speakers and other non-Mandarin speakers from the coastal provinces settled overseas in regions that had been colonised, at least initially, by Britain, or to a lesser degree, France.

This article, from eight years or so ago, explains Beijing’s pressure for standardisation on Mandarin:

https://www.businessinsider.com/china-is-forcing-its-biggest-cantonese-speaking-region-to-speak-mandarin-2014-8?op=1

And this article explains the Mandarin drive in Hong Kong, a stronghold of Cantonese:

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/cantonese-speakers-worry-about-future-of-their-language/6765748.html
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February 15, 2023 10:12am
Doc Holliday

And again thanks to kiwiblog’s climate deniers for reinforcing my concept of human irrationality versus insanity. They draw the fine line with a fat crayon.

What is the multi-version of Folie a deux?
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February 15, 2023 10:21am
- Cinematic
  
  I’m not aware of anyone on KB denying Earth has a climate. Links?
  
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  February 15, 2023 11:06am
- Richard
  
  If New Zealand achieved net zero emissions tomorrow, would it prevent cyclones?
  
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  February 15, 2023 11:08am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Richard – no, but everybody else would think we’re “kind and caring” and “empathetic” and we give nice hugs……
    
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    February 15, 2023 11:21am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Doc – stop lying about man made climate change.
  
  Here’s some light reading.
  
  https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/12/two-top-climate-scientists-find-further-evidence-that-global-warming-has-been-exaggerated/
  
  It’s a scam supported by liars, frauds and charlatans. Like this “journalist”.
  
  Another €100,000 (£88,000, $107,000) has been gifted to a climate journalist via the foundation of Spain’s second largest bank, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (BBVA). The money is an annual presentation and was recently given to the New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert. The bank said it gave her the cash “for her extraordinary ability to communicate in a rigorous, attractive manner the fundamental environmental challenges of our time”. BBVA is deeply involved in funding subsidy-heavy renewable technologies. It recently declared record profits for 2022 of €6.42 billion, and noted that it had channelled €50 billion into “sustainable business”. Past cash recipients include Matt McGrath of the BBC, the Guardian newspaper and Marlowe Hood of Agence France-Presse (AFP).
  
  https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/14/journalist-receives-100000-from-bank-for-promoting-climate-alarmism/
  
  Like the big lie during the covid circus. The SCienCe isn’t “settled”, not remotely. Real science never is.
  
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  February 15, 2023 11:11am
- mandk
  
  I doubt you will find any climate deniers on Kiwiblog, although there might be one or two climate change deniers.
  
  However, the point is that the climate has always changed. Many times, in fact. All without the actions of mankind.
  
  And there have always been dramatic weather events. How else would river valleys, flood plains, shorelines etc. be formed? Seismic events build up, weather wears down.
  
  Believing this has anything to do with human activity is religious. And thinking humans can do anything about it is hubris.
  
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  February 15, 2023 11:13am
- alloytoo
  
  Doc, the climate has changed since time immemorial. As a species we have been adapting to climate change for about 5 million years and getting increasingly good at it.
  
  Richer societies adapt better. (not just to climate change but to any other disaster).
  
  Policies which make us poorer are not fit for purpose.
  
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  February 15, 2023 11:49am
ClanMcleod

Germany was one of the worst covid fascist states in the world, as this article from the blogger Eugyppius points out, they are a long way from actually reappraising and addressing the disastrous and policies implemented.

Don’t be fooled by dumb talkshows and the emerging disingenuous mistakes-were-made rhetoric – there will be no general Corona reckoning in Germany.

What you are seeing now, is a series of tactical admissions, as the media and the political establishment work to contain the discussion.

https://www.eugyppius.com/p/dont-be-fooled-by-dumb-talkshows

In New Zealand? We’re still doing the “safe and effective” circus.
Everywhere else in the world is waking up, some, like Germany are doing so slowly. But this country is still living in lalaland. A blanket refusal to even discuss the proven injuries and deaths this toxin is causing. Never mind the disastrous impacts of the lockdowns, masking, mandates and vax passes.

As the author notes:

It’s important to remain optimistic and forward-looking, but we’re not going to see any kind of near-term victory here. As I say all the time, complicity in pandemic abuses is extremely widespread. The media, the greater part of our political establishment, and our bureaucratic and academic institutions, all had a hand in these crimes. They’ll never accept blame as long as they’re still in power.

It’s going to take time to have these people held to account but they will be.
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February 15, 2023 10:58am
- mawm
  
  Two interesting pieces today.
  
  John Campbell on covid iatrogenic deaths. He has a very telling comment at the end about NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence).
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEwktv-AGEw&t=3s
  
  Then Prof Norman Fenton addresses the iatrogenesis hypothesis as well at:-
  https://wherearethenumbers.substack.com/p/the-deadly-initial-spring-2020-covid
  
  To me this has been a malicious campaign of fear and the deliberate culling of covid infected.
  
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  February 15, 2023 4:22pm
Sir Cullen's Sidekick

Another opinion poll – another blow for Luxon. I am telling you he will never be PM. Nice Nicola will be. She will be the mother of the nation.
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February 15, 2023 11:05am
- Ruawai
  
  I prefer Erica Stanford for leader. Nicola as deputy. Two strong women.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:43pm
  - leoj
    
    Nicola would be more comfortable running as a Labour candidate.
    
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    February 15, 2023 2:18pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Jesus, Ruawai! Who gives a rat’s arse what sex they are.
    
    Just, competence and integrity, please!
    
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    February 15, 2023 6:35pm
ClanMcleod

I see helmet head Ursula von der Leyen is being sued by the New York Times over her text exchanges with head of Pfizer Albert Bourla.

The New York Times is taking the European Commission to court over the executive institution’s failure to release text messages between its president Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.

The newspaper will face off against EU lawyers in the bloc’s highest court, arguing that the Commission faces a legal obligation to release the messages, which could contain information on the bloc’s deals to purchase billions of euros worth of COVID-19 doses.

El gato malo does the excellent observation on the subject.

be honest you guys, i mean, did anyone at all have “NY times sues EU over release of documents on pfizer contract corruption?” on their febraury bingo card?

jeez this game is hard…

and i’m no expert on government procurement or anything, but does anyone else think that maybe “oh, sorry, we used disappearing messages on signal to buy billions of dollars of drugs with public money” is probably not quite as much accountability as is generally expected?

In response, the EU’s Values and Transparency Commissioner Věra Jourová claimed that the text messages may have been deleted, due to their “short-lived, ephemeral nature.”

those europeans, huh?

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/kitten-corner-ny-times-sues-eu-over

🤣🤣🤣
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February 15, 2023 11:18am
O C Smith

I hope the Govt will consider what redundancies are required for our fibre network.
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February 15, 2023 11:38am
- rangitoto
  
  Requires backup power at each house.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:17pm
  - O C Smith
    
    I was thinking more of the commercial aspects. UPS’s are available for domestic use.
    
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    February 15, 2023 12:56pm
- Ghost
  
  Elderly or sick people who do not have a mobile phone can get a mobile phone supplied free or a battery free for their phone system.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:29pm
  - Matt Long
    
    Yeah, the mobile network here has just been down for 3 days, wireless broadband with solar and generator back up has been the only effective network, thank Uber of Whangarei who didn’t get wads of taxpayer cash to set up their network.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:04am
Prince

Bad news for NZ re the Gabby disaster.
Judging from TV1 live broadcast, Andrew Little has become involved.
Prepare for a complete ballsup and any budget to be blown.
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February 15, 2023 11:48am
- Bob
  
  Andrew Little has become involved…
  remember that this is ELECTION YEAR; never too early to use any opportunity available for political promotion
  
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  February 15, 2023 2:52pm
I remember when

Yesterday on TV the CEO of Unison stated that they didn’t know what the situation was at the Redcliffe Sub-Station.
If this knowledge was urgent it would not take a lot of effort get a view of the sub-station.
Okay, it might take a bit of local knowledge and a walk in the hills, but if it was vital??
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February 15, 2023 11:51am
- kevn
  
  @I rem… Google Earth would have been useful.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:25pm
Rusty

The sun is shining in Auckland – are the climate change alarmists going to whinge about that as well?
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February 15, 2023 11:52am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Skin Cancer alert………
  
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  February 15, 2023 11:55am
- MCōs
  
  This time next week some people will deny there was ever a cyclone.
  
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  February 15, 2023 1:58pm
Maggie Pie

SO…looks like Prince Andrew’s accuser Virginia Giuffre might be in for it?

With the release of the EPSTEIN docs, (over 2000 pages attached for your reading pleasure)…. they show she claimed she NEVER actually had sex with Randy Andy 😛

https://documentcloud.org/documents/6250471-Epstein-Docs

> REF: p 220-223
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February 15, 2023 12:04pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  I hope she hasn’t spent the money, honey.
  
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  February 15, 2023 12:30pm
  - Jack5
    
    The Epstein-Maxwell documents earlier unsealed plus the photograph of the fat, dumb-arse Andrew with the accuser have pretty much settled public opinion.
    
    Earlier release of documents:
    
    https://news.yahoo.com/shocking-revelations-unsealed-jeffrey-epstein-211253711.html
    
    AND:
    
    https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/queenstown/controversial-prince-andrew-photo-not-fake-photographer
    
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    February 15, 2023 1:23pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Tx for trawling through it, Maggs, so we don’t have to
  
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  February 15, 2023 6:38pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    No wurries!
    Biggest prob is trying to fill in the gaps with all the redacted bits.
    
    Although it can be entertaining 😛
    
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    February 15, 2023 6:53pm
leoj

Note to smug Tesla owners:

Your over-priced purchase didn’t stop the cyclone.
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February 15, 2023 12:16pm
- Jack5
  
  Any word on how electric cars and hybrid vehicles are coping in the floods?
  
  The batteries are supposed to be securely sealed, and their weight might make a car less likely to float off, but there are murmurs about fire danger.
  
  This is some advice after Aussie floods:
  
  https://thedriven.io/2022/03/02/electric-vehicles-and-floods-how-to-stay-safe-and-minimise-risk/
  
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  February 15, 2023 1:34pm
- ISeeRed
  
  There are indeed a few smug Tesla owners. The amount of hate on EVs, however, is approaching TDS levels.
  
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  February 15, 2023 2:41pm
  - mawm
    
    It’s probably at the level of hatred for cyclists at present.
    
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    February 15, 2023 4:26pm
Ruawai

Time to put those job ready job seekers to work with shovels in the Hawkes Bay. Get army to be there as support with tents, food and water.
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February 15, 2023 12:40pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  They a job seekers….they are not looking for a job.
  
  There is a difference in perception and reality with the current regime.
  
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  February 15, 2023 1:02pm
- Bob
  
  be there as support with tents……..
  and to show the ‘job seekers’ (?) how to use a shovel; and what the concept of the word ‘WORK actually is in the real world.
  
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  February 15, 2023 2:50pm
Ghost

It seems strange, last week they weren’t balloons. They were different shapes, unknown propulsion. One military person refusing to rule out alien.

This is despite the aircraft having amazing cameras on them

I guess a story broke a few days ago the govt wanted to shut down….

The leading explanation among US intelligence officials is that three objects shot down over North America last weekend were balloons being flown for benign purposes, the White House said Tuesday, the furthest the administration has gone in describing the as-yet-unidentified crafts.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2023/02/white-house-says-shot-down-objects-were-likely-benign-balloons.html
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February 15, 2023 1:34pm
I remember when

Tutaekuri River:
In 1897 floodwaters flowed through Taradale and reached 4 ft in Napier.
In 1917 Meeanee, Taradale and Greenmeadows were flooded with water reaching 4′ 6″ in Napier.
Floods occurred in 1893, 1924, 1927, 1929, 1932 (4 times), 1934 and 1938.
The 1931 Napier Earthquake raised the ground level resulting in the 1934-36 diversion of the Tutaekuri river mouth to Waitangi.
In 1963 the river rose to within 3 inches of the top of the stop-banks before the river cut a seperate outlet to the sea.
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February 15, 2023 1:39pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  But “climate change”………..always remember, correlation is not causation, except when it’s climate related. Then it’s definitely climate change!
  
  Hypocritical bastards.
  
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  February 15, 2023 2:13pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  The Marist Fathers relocated their seminary from Meeanee to Greenmeadows due to repeated flooding at the earlier site. Now The Mission, of wine & concert fame.
  
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  February 15, 2023 6:40pm
Maggie Pie

Batz – since the ‘context’ has been censored, can u please remove the above.
It makes me look a bit silly.
Thx.

https://i.imgflip.com/45mg4i.jpg
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February 15, 2023 1:50pm
CAKE FACE1

New Zealand’s economy is now a giant Ponzi scam, based on ever increasing central and local government spending, to ensure any economic growth at all.

You may have noticed that central government spending has risen by over 10% per annum for the past five or six years, each and every year! Local government spending is typically increasing by about this amount as well. This spending feeds into GDP. Yet something is amiss. GDP hasn’t risen much at all over the past five or six years. What has offset this unprecedented increase in government spending, in the GDP figures?

The answer, of course, is that the private sector has been completely annihilated. Nowhere better is this illustrated than our current account deficit, which shows our exports less our imports. We have a current account deficit of 7.9% of GDP, which is the highest in the OECD, and the highest in our history. Increasing government spending increases GDP, but unfortunately it doesn’t increase exports. Our current account deficit is the canary in the coalmine.

So what, you might think. Why don’t we just increase government by another 10%, or 20%, or 100% more, for good measure? This will improve our GDP. And so it would – in the short term, Ponzi style…

Government spending is funded by taxes, from the productive economy. Government borrowing is funded by future taxes on the productive sector.

The private sector is now shrinking, every time new government spending is made. The financing load of unproductive government spending has now become intolerable for the private sector. At some point, the Ponzi breaks.

The entire New Zealand economic Ponzi scam is now close to collapse, in my opinion.

In the next few years, there will be an economic collapse. People will blame Rona, or blame the floods. Since these were some of the reasons justifying Ponzi style increases in government spending, there will be some truth to the claims. But only a smidgen of truth.

I suspect that the uncontrolled government spending over the past six or so years is largely a consequence of Kommissar Robbo suffering from unfortunate mental issues. He can’t help gorging on ever bigger spending plans. He is addicted to spending. He simply cannot help himself.

New Zealand’s institutions failed us. The Treasury became socialists. The Team of $55 million are little more than socialist lickspittles. No one stopped Kommissar Robbo and his out of control addictions. We will all pay the price.

Winter is coming…
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February 15, 2023 1:51pm
- Odakyu-sen
  
  “Winter is coming…”
  
  Bring it on.
  
  Hard times make strong men…
  
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  February 15, 2023 2:36pm
- Philview
  
  As we well know we are poorly served by much of the TV media. They seldom hold this Government to account and much of the output feels like propaganda. Sadly even when we get reporting on the cyclone it seems hyperbolic and hence I start to doubt what I am being told.
  
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  February 15, 2023 3:47pm
I remember when

You sometimes wonder why the question isn’t asked.
Michael Morrah in Newshubs Cyclone news showing some old concrete steps down to the beach, that the pounding surf have uncovered.
It demonstrated the power of the waves and the cyclone –
no mention of the depth of sand covering them and how it got there.
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February 15, 2023 1:56pm
MCōs

A romantic Valentines Day interlude from America
https://twitter.com/profmmurray/status/1625669079846510593?s=61&t=d8S6xJxWPHEWaQyY4yRsHg
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February 15, 2023 2:47pm
Maggie Pie

Here we go fam….this was Moscow last night.

Our cleaning lady just retweeted this.
She was saying it’s NOT Ukrainian sabotage, but more likely since all the western engineers have left Russia, they no longer have a clue how to maintain their power plants, chemical factories, etc.

https://twitter.com/Kirilenko_a/status/1625253943168102402
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February 15, 2023 2:49pm
surfing

Has Gisborne been renamed? I was wondering where Tairāwhiti was, and it seems to be the new name for Gisborne?
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February 15, 2023 3:51pm
- MCōs
  
  Tairāwhiti is more than just the city of Gisborne from my understanding.
  
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  February 15, 2023 5:25pm
- Widogast Corwin
  
  It is the region that was once called “East Cape”. One day it was just ‘renamed’. A prelude to New Zealand being renamed. Which will 100 percent happen if there is a Labour/Green/Maori Party Government. I would currently put the odds on that at 60 percent and rising by the day.
  
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  February 15, 2023 5:33pm
Swifty

Maori wonderfulness on full display on Good Morning America:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHEo4lIRQRY
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February 15, 2023 4:10pm
Ghost

Hmmm, stuff have a new journalist…..

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131224247/kris-faafoi-what-can-kiwis-and-politicians-take-from-mother-natures-fury
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February 15, 2023 5:30pm
Sol Invictus

Decent shake here in Wellingotn. 6.2 All we need!
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February 15, 2023 7:43pm
Prince

That was a jolt
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February 15, 2023 7:44pm

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