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February 16, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 16 February 2023

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

I have to say that I am stunned that no one is talking about suing the arse off the forestry and logging companies for the damage caused by slash. In what other industry is by-product just dumped where it falls? Cattle farmers must be wondering why they have to fence off their streams.

As far as I am concerned, these companies are losing their social licence to operate, which calls into question the entire hill country pine tree carbon credit farming industry.
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February 16, 2023 8:00am
- Southern Raider
  
  Completely agree. For every bridge washed out there is a massive pile of slash everywhere
  
  Would be interested in a civil engineers view around how many bridges collapsed due to water volume alone, versus having a dam of slash against them and the force of the water behind the slash causing the collapse
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:40am
  - thetiedarch
    
    Bridge Engineer here. I can’t say for certain but I cannot think of a design condition in which water alone could cause a bridge to collapse (other than a Tsunami, dam break or some other insanely extreme flash flood). Uplift forces on a bridge due to it being inundated by only flood waters would be substantial, but as long as the girders were physically connected to the foundations (which they generally are due to how we design for EQ’s), there’s little chance water alone could destroy a bridge.
    
    When we design bridges for flood events, we’re actually designing for the debris. And we do this using estimates of the size of the debris mat, as this artificially increases the cross-section of the bridge and increases the pressure the water exerts.
    
    Based on my experience, the calcs we do for those debris mats are educated guesses, but guesses nonetheless.
    
    So if you get rid of all slash, your debris gets limited to only the tress felled by flooding, or is outright removed. Likely at this point the worst that could happen to a bridge would be washout of the approaches – which is pretty easy & quick to remediate.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:00am
    - Doc Holliday
      
      Thanks. Seems to me it wasn’t just slash – looked to be a lot of logs. Do the operators remove logs as they cut or do they do a big block then transport?
      
      Also, could machines like cranes not clear the debris while the bridge is still safe?
      
      Just to add, videos showed cars crossing bridges where the water was a within reach. Such faith…
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:32am
      - Peter S
        
        Generally, NZ has a really short cycle time from felling to transport. It is driven by a combination of factors, two of which are that the skid sites tend to be small, with little storage, and the fact that the quality of logs can degrade fast due to sap stain.
        
        A significant portion of the large stuff that I have seen in the coverage has been willows rather than logs.
        
        The slash is undoubtedly an issue, but it’s impact is made many times worse by willows and the like (often washed from the banks of the river by pasture). The branched trees are what tend to catch on the bridges and then catch the smaller slash/debris that would otherwise have washed straight through.
        
        Reducing the problem in the future is not going to be possible unless all of the contributing factors are addressed. This will include maintaining non forestry plantings along side waterways as well as the commercial forestry aspect.
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:41pm
    - I remember when
      
      The question of forestry ‘slash’ must be settled but appears to be largely an East Coast/Gisborne problem.
      However, the Hawkes Bay bridge collapses, which in every case I saw showed tree debris at point of collapse, did not seem to be the result of forestry.
      Every time the Tutaekuri flooded during my experiences a considerable amount of tree debris (often whole trees) was visable.
      Afterwards varying degrees of debris mat would remain around the bridge supports.
      Why did the Hawkes Bay bridges collapse now?
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:33am
      - Keith White
        
        The bridges collapsed because Atau was angry.
        
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        February 16, 2023 11:27am
      - Jimbob
        
        This slash is happening everywhere. I have done two plantations and both the loggers left large quantities of slash. I asked about getting rid of this, they say it’s not their problem. They are only there to make money.
        Pine is a useless firewood, lasts about two minutes.
        
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        February 16, 2023 11:41am
      - Sacha
        
        Could it be that some of the bridges were built back in the day when traffic in general was lighter, and slower – and were overdue for replacement anyway?
        One hint might be to avoid building bridges downstream of forestry plantations.
        And houses.
        
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        February 16, 2023 5:24pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  I read elsewhere that the slash used to be burned but the Greens forced a law change to prohibit that.
  
  Seems a perfect waste of good firewood.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:42am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Greens.
    If a native tree dies and falls in the bush, you can’t have it for firewood, it has to decompose naturally.
    Not sure about NZ, but fallen dead scrub has to stay there. Just lovely for forrest fires.
    Fucking Greens. They really are a pain in the arse, and we can’t get rid of them.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:33am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That would be correct, remember the tiny forest on the west coast years ago? They wanted them left to rot in the ground, and I am pretty sure say this, rotting trees give of CO2 emmisions
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:10am
    - Matt Long
      
      Methane, which is why old growth forests don’t absorb a lot of CO²
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:44am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    So, the floods will have killed vast numbers of fish & other aquatic creatures, and destroyed their environments. Much of this is due to the impact of slash.
    
    It seems to me that the Greens need to choose between burning the slash & protecting native creatures. But, from the Greens comes only deafening silence.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:37am
  - Mike
    
    I think a citation for that claim would be helpful. I don’t recall such a law changes, let alone one ‘forced’ by a minority party.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:11am
  - fisho
    
    Was talking to my old man the other day about this and he confirmed what you’ve said. He has a lot of experience over many years as an earthmoving contractor who works in and around logging operations, pushing tracks in, building skid pads etc.
    To summarise what he said, a lot of the slash is from old logging sites before there were many rules, but nowadays they’re still having to push it off the edge of the skid site into ‘rafts’ and it just stacks up and sits there because they’re no longer allowed to burn it.
    So it’s a bit of both really, the rules have become more stringent, but they’re still finding it very difficult to actually get rid of. There are times of year when burning is absolutely safe under controlled conditions, however the greenies refuse to accept that.
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:07pm
    - rouppe
      
      If it can be pushed off the skid site, it can be fed through a chipper for turning into pellets
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:41pm
- Mickey
  
  The answer lies in who gains the most from this industry.
  
  These people have special rights and their masters have the worst environmental record in the world.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:48am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Nash said he refused to look at anything to do with slash after the flood on the east coast a couple of months ago, then the kid got killed, now this, oh and it’s now important to fix, bloody hypocrites
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:12am
    - igm
      
      Where is this apology for MP Nash?>
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:39pm
- TS Child
  
  Yes! The waste create by flooding damage won’t be carbon neutral either. Not to mention the human misery. I understand after the last set of problems, the industry promised to do better. I imagine that doing better will take some time to organise (manpower, plans, equipment to reduce waste) But are there any plans yet? Even preliminary plans? Also, weren’t some of those forests planted 30 years ago to stabilise the ground? Are they now being harvested? Because that would seem problematic without a clear management plan to avoid slips and floods..
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:51am
- The Other Enoch
  
  You are not wrong. But the law is written to protect these vandalous bastards. Successive governments have simply ignored the issue. Perhaps we should get a petition organised?
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:55am
- Chris2
  
  My wife who has no interest at all in politics mentioned she had heard that previously the forestry companies would burn all the slash, but conservationist activists had complained about this decades-old practice and had been able to have it stopped. Is there any truth in this?
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:15am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Years ago my Parents lived in Turangi. We would go into the bush (access 10?) to get firewood. Slash and Manuka.
    Along come the Forrestry Police,flashing lights and all. We had to unload my trailer and leave.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:41am
    - Ehlana
      
      Oddly enough, a colleague and I, with no knowledge of forestry, were wondering yesterday why this waste isn’t disposed of. We thought they’d surely be locals willing to come and take it away for firewood or whatever other use they could make of it.
      
      So the answer to that is Green stupidity. That we reckoned without.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:21am
      - fisho
        
        OSH, Worksafe & PCBU responsibilities are the main reason.
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:14pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes, just like you can no longer manage bush for fire risk
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:13am
  - JohnRidd
    
    I think it is true. Perhaps we need to reintroduce the practice of burning slash.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:33pm
- Nookin
  
  I agree that forestry companies must be accountable.
  I disagree that no-one is making them accountable.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/119572453/hikurangi-forest-farms-fined-379000-over-slash-destruction
  
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  February 16, 2023 2:55pm
  - Peter S
    
    It gets more complex.
    I have heard that some land owners received compensation to remove slash washed onto their land in the earlier event, but had not done so, and this debris has then been washed onto other properties.
    So who is now responsible?
    
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    February 16, 2023 4:23pm
- Peter S
  
  With livestock farming the waste does get mostly left where it falls, or is redistributednd over the land. It performs an important role in regenerating the land, though the nitrate runoff also causes issues. An odd similarity?
  
  The slash being left does perform a similar role in keeping soil degeneration to a minimum over multiple forest harvest cycles (there are some good New Zealand research papers on this).
  
  Cut over sites are also great for bird life including the NZ Falcon.
  
  I am not a fan of the social license concept myself. Sometimes I feel it is about time we started limiting the social license of people to limit the activity of others this way, mainly because it is usually emotion driven and based on an incomplete understanding of the situation.
  
  Forestry is an easy target at the moment, and, while there are very real issues, they are very far from the whole picture.
  
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  February 16, 2023 4:19pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Interesting that, despite the problems accessing Wairoa by road from north and south, no one’s talking about using the road down from the BoP. Likely there’s no problem with slash in the river. It’s not a great road, but perhaps no one wants to deal with Tuhoe.
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February 16, 2023 8:01am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  That road is bound to be covered in slips. It will be impassable for weeks. And nobody cares about the poor stranded people in Ruatahuna.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:54am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Maybe. It would be interesting to know how well it’s stood up to the rain. A point of difference with that road is that it’s surrounded by native bush, not pine trees & no slash. It’s also dirt, most of the way, so there’s less hard surface runoff. Not much structured drainage though.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:14am
    - Jack5
      
      Kiwiblog poster Maggy Wassilieff must be incommunicado at Gisborne because of her internet being down.
      
      Maggy will be seething when she gets back online.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:12am
      - Ghost
        
        I think she said she was on a hill so should be safe
        
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        February 16, 2023 11:23am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Paul Coll was unlucky to lose the Sportsman of the Year Award at the Halbergs last night. World No. 1, British Open Winner, double Gold Medalist at the Commonwealth Games. Hard to know what else he could have done.

Spare a thought also for Ajaz Patel with his 10 wickets in an innings, which feat has been accomplished just thrice in the entire history of Test cricket. Joanah Ngan-Woo’s lineout steal is certainly a wonderful moment, but both awards illustrate as much as anything the power of the media to shape public opinion.
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February 16, 2023 8:02am
- Opie
  
  Especially when the second placed sporting moment was some virtue signaling winger singing a song. Yea yea I’m racist. I know. That wasnt a sporting moment though, it was propaganda.
  
  So much hype over a team that only won the final because it was 14 against 15. They were getting pantsed untill England lost a player.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:41am
- Loddenthinks
  
  The judges had a near-impossible task to decide winners in all categories, but the Best Sporting Moment was a public vote, so no complaints with the winner.
  
  I didn’t vote, but for me that lineout steal, which won the Black Ferns the RWC, is my favourite moment.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:52am
- Paulus
  
  The propaganda media are the only opinion that matters remember.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:38am
- Mike
  
  Patel’s 10 wickets came in December 2021, and so wouldn’t qualify for the last Halberg awards, I believe.
  
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  February 16, 2023 11:39am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Ajaz is listed in the nominees
    
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    February 16, 2023 6:07pm
- Bob
  
  what else he could have done……
  the men contestants could have worn a skirt; might have had more impact on the judges!
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:14pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  You might be right Bollocks, but Synnott won a gold medal at the Olympics. That’s a pretty big deal as well. It’s not a job I’d want, judging the Halbergs and trying to compare disparate sports achievements. It’d be a pig and you are in a lose|lose situation.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:52pm
Souvlaki

This is in truth is a shocker…but many are asleep & dont seem to give a toss about education …too many seriously dim people in NZ.

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/professor-elizabeth-rata-et-al-open-letter-to-the-pm
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February 16, 2023 8:05am
- Blog-aholic
  
  The education of young (and older) New Zealanders is in deep, deep trouble. Prof. Rata is on the money here, who will answer her call to account?
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:10am
  - kowtow
    
    No , there’sno “trouble”. It’s going according to plan.
    
    Radical change driven by far left ideology creating a future of ill educated , dependant and angry people who’ll be easily manipulated by the authoritarians in charge.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:02am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Suvlaki – more evidence that ideologues have zero concept of reality and the law of unintended consequences.
  We are actively looking for somewhere overseas to continue our daughter’s education if she wishes to do so when she finishes high school.
  At this point in time, we wouldn’t send her anywhere in NZ to be indoctrinated into this apartheid system.
  
  Ardern and her colleagues with the full support of the Greens and the urging of the racist Maori Party are accelerating the divisions in this once wonderful country. It will take decades to repair the damage, if it ever can be repaired. It is an alarming situation.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:16am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Hipkins is the pm thanks to retirement, he has clearly left the state of education in the worst state in living memory, yet he is lauded. Grrrr
    
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    February 16, 2023 8:19am
  - ecco
    
    The cyclone is going to increase Hipkins chance of getting back in. I’ve encouraged the kids to move offshore and maybe we even will. What’s the future for NZ for the next decade?
    
    Pretty bleak. Higher taxes, rebuilding areas we never go to, high fruit and veg prices due to the agricultural belt being destroyed. What’s the point. It’s beyond Hipkins scope. All they will do is reallocate in disproportionate amounts to their pet groups and areas.
    
    This is much more wise spread and wide ranging than the Christchurch earthquakes.
    Already paying 6 figures in tax in this household that was already getting redistributed to Jacinda’s and now Hipkins pet voters. Will only be worse now. Not trying to downgrade the suffering in the North Island areas but I’d say there will be an exodus from NZ after this event.
    
    Another scenario is that the situation is ripe for the Chinese to come in and offer their belt and road initiative and tie nz up in debt to get their roads built. May be Nz’s only option…
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:26am
    - Ghost
      
      No it’s not
      
      What this cyclone will do is put up the cost of fruit and vegetables. The cost of living will continue to rise. And this storm has done nothing to fix the key areas at the moment, cost of living, health and education and crime.
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:33am
      - Paulus
        
        Warehouse are introducing Fruit and Vegs into some stores from today to compete with the big two supermarkets.
        I give it one month.
        
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        February 16, 2023 10:41am
    - Keith White
      
      3-year residency permit in Curacao costs 280000, with right of renewal, and Dutch citizenship after 5 years. Antigua / Barbuda also priced right.
      
      Malta and Canada much more expensive; besides, Trudeau.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:33am
  - cmm
    
    People really need to look at how education is falling apart in South Africa.
    
    The trajectory we are on is only a decade behind.
    
    82% of their grade 4 pupils cannot read for understanding.
    
    They have now lowered the pass mark for matric (equivalent to NCEA3) to 30% for some subjects.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:37am
    - Tommo
      
      The country that performed the first heart transplant
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:14pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hipkins has been Min of Ed for the whole time these muppets have been in power. His failure must be drawn to public awareness.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:16am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    He was also the covid minister. Has anyone ever handled portfolios so disastrously and been rewarded with the top job????
    
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    February 16, 2023 8:50am
    - Mickey
      
      In the land of the blind the man with one eye is king!
      
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      February 16, 2023 9:13am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Never, but that just shows you that favourables are bullshit, only him with a positive favourable, and Luxon and Seymour with negatives
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:16am
    - Tricati
      
      And was Police Minister, overseeing ram raids and dairy robbery solutions (Haven’t seen none that work) – He’s getting a free ride on his abysmal performance.
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:29am
    - cas
      
      Michele Hewitson’s column in the latest Listener says about him: “Bounce. Bounce. Bounce. Tidy. Tidy. Tidy. Chip. Chip. Chip. The new Prime minister is part Little Roo of Winnie the Pooh, part Marie Kondo and part that remedial plasterer you get in after the last contractor did a lousy job.” She goes on to talk about his utterings on Three Waters: “”Explain it then. Unbraid that knotted river. Nobody knows what it means and it sounds like he doesn’t either.”
      And about the RNZ/TVNZ merger. when he said a good closer look was needed. “No kidding. But where was his closer looking when that proposal, one that has already been vastly expensive and patently poorly explained, was mooted? ”
      
      She also describes Luxon’s speech at Waitangi as “he read from cue cards with all the charisma of an assistant secretary of a rotary club reading the annual report at a provincial branch in, say, Te Awamutu.
      
      If Michele has replaced Jane Clifton, I look forward to more humour like this.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:16am
- Ehlana
  
  Apparently, the first step in the curriculum refresh was to abandon the use of English. The refresh is apparently going to “adorn our akonga with a 3 strand whenu (cord)”. I don’t know what an akonga is, and the writer doesn’t explain, but “adorning it with a 3 strand cord” sounds like a fancy way of saying we’re going to hang it.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:22am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Next step changing History, oh wait.
    
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    February 16, 2023 8:27am
  - Widogast Corwin
    
    “akonga” are “learners”. It is a term increasingly used by the Ministry to describe school pupils. Never mind that 90 percent of parents will have no idea what it means.
    
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    February 16, 2023 8:30am
    - Opie
      
      They can hardly grasp concepts using English (a language they talk in) let alone the pidgin shit that’s being spewed out now.
      
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      February 16, 2023 8:44am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        C’mon Opie, they have been bringing in “Maori” education for the last 5 years. And it’s all going well.
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:55pm
    - kowtow
      
      99.9 %
      
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      February 16, 2023 8:45am
    - RoboRob
      
      I’m more and more convinced the Ministry is the core problem with our education system. The teams and management that assess the corriculum (esp English) should all get the axe. They have known for 30+ years our reading system was worse than the phonic system it replaced yet none of them did a thing.
      
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      February 16, 2023 9:08am
    - Chris R
      
      So…would the best learner in the class be a King Konga?
      
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      February 16, 2023 9:59am
- Yabster
  
  its all part of the takeover- brainwash the next generation.. from primary right through our universities/polytechs.
  
  Glad I don’t have a child at school- if you do you should be looking very closely at what these socialist fucking teachers are teaching them.
  
  Min of Education needs a complete over-haul- but the childlike PM is shoulder deep in this shit, so he is not about to change anything- National and ACT need to campaign on this.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:25am
  - kevn
    
    @Yab… ‘What teachers are told to teach’.
    Our 9 yo came home the other day saying she was sad to be English. This after a drilling about selective and sanitized recent NZ history.
    Angry I be.
    
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    February 16, 2023 8:39am
    - Yabster
      
      you should be and at the next parent teachers expess it!
      
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      February 16, 2023 8:43am
    - kevn
      
      and I did give her an accurate summary of the same history. Without causing her distress… hopefully.
      
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      February 16, 2023 9:13am
    - kevn
      
      ps… our 9 yo is a 6th generation NZer.
      
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      February 16, 2023 9:22am
    - Jimbob
      
      Teachers are [Mod – deleted], alway have been, always will be.
      Only solution is to send kids to a private school.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:46am
- Widogast Corwin
  
  “We draw your attention specifically to the effect on the curriculum caused by the false claim that traditional knowledge and modern science are equivalent (mana orite). This is damaging, not only to science education within New Zealand but to our nation’s international reputation. ”
  ____
  Students are being taught that Maori knowledge and folklore is the same as “science”. It is scandalous.
  
  I am so pleased I don’t have school aged children.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:33am
- Gravelroad
  
  @souvlaki-
  “but many are asleep & dont seem to give a toss about education.”
  Maybe so, but what can the average person do about it?
  Look at it from the point of view of parents flat out working to keep their families going. They pay taxes which go into the education system.
  For that they expect teachers to educate their kids at least in the basics of language, science and maths, geography and history.
  Is it the parents fault that the current education system seemingly does not deliver the results and skills they expect for their children?
  Many parents are not natural teachers. We employ trained people to do that.
  All very well to blame parents and their kids for failures in the education system but, as above, how would you expect ordinary people to fight back against our current education system which is now so politicised?
  Politicians and unions have more influence over teachers than does any parent- asleep or awake.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:35am
  - Local Miller
    
    @Gravelroad –
    While you are right, not all parents can stop work and start homeschooling their children, but that doesn’t excuse them for having abdicated their responsibility for overseeing their children’s education.
    Parents should be making informed decisions about their children’s education, even down to making the correct voting decisions. It’s been clear for the past 30+ years that the education system was being bent further and further left, and eventually it would break. By continually voting in leftist governments this state was inevitable.
    Our only hope is that the opposition (NAT/ACT) will start hammering the corruption of the education system and people will start listening.
    My fear is that if a Nat/ACT government tries to roll this back, we will see an uprising radicals who are prepared to use violence, possibly supported by unions, even if only in intent.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:01am
    - Ian Boag
      
      There is a tendency on KB to label anything posters don’t like as “hard left”.Whatever this steady “leftward” progress is/was over the last umpty years, did it slow/stop when Hekia was in the chair?
      
      Personally I don’t see this Maorification in education thing as particularly left or right or centre.
      
      The “Maori science” thing beggars belief – by all means have it in history or social studies but not as part of science education.
      
      The more I read about history teaching the confuseder I get. There is apparently money being spent (more is needed) gathering iwi/hapu oral history in different regions. I sort of got the impression that the pre-whitey history teaching will be regionally based. So what they learn in Taranaki will be different from what they get in Auckland. Maybe I got that wrong.
      
      As far as the phonics vs whole language methods of teaching reading is concerned this is a debate that has been going on in educational circles for a long time. eg https://www.readinghorizons.com/reading-strategies/teaching/phonics-instruction/reading-wars-phonics-vs-whole-language-reading-instruction
      
      Naturally us oldies are comfy with phonics because that’s how we learned to read if I recall from 70-odd years ago … Worked for those of us who are literate enough to post on KB 🙂
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:49am
- Yvette
  
  the last paragraph excerpt from Souviaki’s link
  https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/professor-elizabeth-rata-et-al-open-letter-to-the-pm
  
  … the status of the Treaty is subject to unresolved political contest. It is undemocratic to engineer a revolutionary constitutional change through the educational curriculum. We ask for the restoration of an academic curriculum and qualification system based on the democratic principles of universalism and secularism; a system that enabled generations of New Zealanders to acquire the universal knowledge of humanity. It was the reason for the nation’s successful education system that has lasted nearly one hundred and fifty years. The transformative Curriculum Refresh will undo the principles and practices that made such success possible with dire consequences for New Zealand’s future.
  
  Prime Minister Hipkins, the Curriculum Refresh and the NCEA Reforms were developed on your watch as Minister of Education. It is, therefore, incumbent on you to repeal them before irrevocable damage is done to our country. As Prime Minister, you are certainly in a position to do so.
  
  Signed, Professor Elizabeth Rata
  Director of the Knowledge in Education Research Unit
  Faculty of Education and Social Work
  University of Auckland
  and others…
  
  What this open letter may be against is Aryanism – an ideology of racial supremacy which views the supposed Aryan race as a distinct and superior racial group which is entitled to rule the rest of humanity.
  Yes, like the beginnings of Germany’s utter shame …
  
  This is Maori exceptionalism – lifting a race above others, which as Pressor Elizabeth Rata argues may have “dire consequences for New Zealand’s future”
  
  The Race Relations Commissioner should be making a statement about this, but doesn’t.
  This racial exceptionalism may actually be driving a wedge between Maori itself – a tribe of Elites and a tribe that unfortunately rests among the lowest societal measures of the country – one ‘tribe’ that stands on the shoulders of the ‘others’ – which may result in disaster in itself.
  Where is Foon in all of this?
  MIA?
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:50am
- Local Miller
  
  They attached Christians and demanded that Religious Studies be either totally removed from schools or made optional. Now they are making Maori Religious Studies a core role in every subject in the curriculum.
  This is nothing more than a religion: “It defines mauri as: The vital essence, life force of everything: be it a physical object, living thing or ecosystem.”
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:52am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    LM sounds more like folklore than a religion as such. I very much doubt many of Maori heritage take this stuff seriously (as in live their lives by it). That being said, the loony left will be pushing it as replacement religion as their MO is dismantle and disrupt to make way for the great nebulous loony-lefty utopia (which usually results in impoverishment, mass murder and totalitarianism).
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:46pm
- The Other Enoch
  
  Yes, this is not the first time that Dr Rata has published such an excellent piece on bassettbrashandhide. But good luck finding it in any op-ed in any of the MSM publications. Simply won’t happen. $55M buys a lot of bias.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:59am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Not to mention the loony academic Left’s Conversation? How come Rata isn’t published there?
    
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    February 16, 2023 3:53pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  I fail to see any problems – people have to accept that edukayshun in aotearoa is raysist
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:31am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That is just how Labour want them, stupid and welfare dependent.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:50am
- Loddenthinks
  
  The leftards believe that “maori have been disadvantaged and cheated out of what was rightfully theirs” for so long that “maori receiving massive advantage to the detriment of every non-maori in the country” is a well-justified square-up.
  
  Playing rugby, I hated referees that tried to even things up if they made a mistake against one team. This is no different.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:05am
- Justitia
  
  Thanks Souvlaki, I was also going to post this open letter from Prof Rata on Kiwiblog too because I am bloody furious. Not just at the subversion of our education system but because of the silence of the “Opposition”. They should be all over this like a rash, lending their support to Prof Rata and demanding that Hipkins halt this madness immediately. Where is that Woke corporate booby Luxon? Too afraid of his own shadow. Not a leader!
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:31am
- oldfella
  
  Souvlaki, I was looking forward to hearing Richard Dawkins thoughts on this kind of nonsense when he toured NZ in a few weeks, but it’s not to be.
  Richard Dawkins cancels NZ tour due to stroke
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/richard-dawkins-cancels-nz-tour-due-to-stroke/E4DY3OYJEQGTEYKILEJZ4ETLGI/
  Get well soon, Professor.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:15pm
  - JohnRidd
    
    I have tickets to see him on 25th Feb.
    I hope he makes a full recovery.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:52pm
Yvette

What came down ☂ in the last shower
• ‘Strong’ 6.1 earthquake felt near Wellington followed by another quake by Taupō

• How Māori use maramataka to care for mental health issues and how the practice will be incorporated into treatment by Māori Health Authority
The new Māori Health Authority has a budget of half a billion dollars and CEO Riana Manuel has allocated $100 million of that to [research and]support centuries-old treatments.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/07/how-maori-use-maramataka-to-care-for-mental-health-issues-and-how-the-practice-will-be-incorporated-into-treatment-by-maori-health-authority.html

As a casual observation, I believe the wellbeing of many may be improved by their having the chance to be better prepared for possible multiple disasters – flooding and earthquake – if a very small amount of some Government funding could be allocated to examining the occurrence of earthquakes in relation to extreme weather events, since the thousands of tons of rain water dumped on tectonic plates must stress them to interact at certain potential breaking points, as the last few flooding events / earthquakes show, and the previous flooding / earthquake a two weeks ago, and many before.
This may be better than Brian Tamaki’s Kaikoura theory.
And so New Zealand may perhaps be better prepared.

Silly science or not, a small amount of funding may be better spent on examining the relationship between a tearful Ranginui and an already stressed Papatūānuku, than on even sillier “science”.
Perhaps …
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February 16, 2023 8:08am
- Local Miller
  
  There’s already been some research into the relationship between rainfall and earthquakes, but it has been an “observation” more than detailed research.
  The examples cited are typically several month to years between rain events and the subsequent earthquake, which seems to be a very tenuous link. In on example there was 3 years between the extreme rainfall and the earthquake.NZ is an earthquake prone set of islands, and at a very high level I can’t see any increase in earthquakes soon after heavy rains compared to low rain years.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:12am
  - Yvette
    
    @Local Miller – all the same …
    
    • Newshub this morning
    ‘Strong’ 6.3 earthquake felt near Wellington followed by another quake by Taupō
    The quake comes just two days after a magnitude 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck 25km west of Gisborne.
    …during Gabrielle
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/02/strong-6-0-earthquake-felt-near-wellington.html
    
    • Magnitude 4.8 earthquake strikes near Te Aroha, felt in Auckland
    02:46, Feb 03 2023
    “We are thinking of those currently dealing with rain, landslides & flooding who were woken with an earthquake this morning,” GeoNet wrote on Twitter following the earthquake.
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300798447/magnitude-48-earthquake-strikes-near-te-aroha-felt-in-auckland
    
    … and this cofluviance has happened before that. I can’t go back further …
    
    but just saying
    could be the start of a new conspiracy theory
    but more helpful than ‘Life of Brian’
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:17am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Pressure., mainly pressure systems.
    Intense Low increasing pressure rapidly . Seems very plausable.
    Maybe not Rain so much as the reason.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:40am
hmmokrightitis

Why is the media not talking about the fact that a range of medications, drugs etc are not available in NZ because we simply cannot source them at the moment?

Is the Minister of Health doing something about this – or is he/she/they too busy creating the apartheid health system?
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February 16, 2023 8:08am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Other than the banned hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin? Things are getting bad……
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:55am
  - Keith White
    
    Shortages of benzodiazepines, inotropes, high-efficacy antibiotics and antihypertensives especially the non-generics, and anticonvulsants (the non-benzo types) with the best side-effect profiles.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:37am
  - Master Mariner
    
    With this symptom of blood clotting, Why the hell dont they issue aspirin during vaccinations of which blood thickening is/may be a symptom ?
    Any ideas?
    Seems pretty sensible.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:43am
    - Keith White
      
      I absolutely and totally never was a haematologist, but from previous reading, aspirin enters the clotting “cascade” at a different point than would be effective for the premortem jab clotting. (I’m not saying it wouldn’t work at all, it would be good to have a appropriately scientific study, but one of the big features of the whole WuFlu jabdemic has been a lack of robust research that was the usual pre-Pfizer standard).
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:00pm
- Local Miller
  
  A lot of other things are getting hard to find at the moment. I needed to buy a very specific glue to fix some Perspex, not only could I not find the glue I needed, but the normally full display at both Bunnings and Miter 10 were not more than about 30% full with many products simply out of stock and others at very low levels.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:16am
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Retail orders going in for over the counter pharmacy products come back 2/3 out of stock at present. Even paracetamol was on backorder for a while.
    
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    February 16, 2023 7:45pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Minister of Health has not been informed, or something.//
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:52am
Nickc2

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Do you have confidence in your new PM (Chris Hipkins)?

Uptick YES
Downtick NO

Comments welcome.
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February 16, 2023 8:10am
- kowtow
  
  Doesn’t matter.
  
  Te Media Pardy doing its duty to promote him via weather porn. The Teddy Bear Cultists will be very impressed , again.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:47am
- Yabster
  
  It pathetic that some have fallen for his re-brand- the child like pm is just as culpable for all the Ardern mess along with the Finance and Foreign Affairs ministers- the media is working overtime to get his profile out there and sadly its working. (the podium of flooding is also helping….)
  
  Covid Minister- lied constantly about the vaccine, lockdowns etc
  Min of education- what a fucking mess from the racist teaching/history reset to the polytech fuck up
  Min of police- crime and gangs out of control- couldn’t even get bollards rolled out- fucking hopeless.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:52am
  - Nickc2
    
    Agree, he was the chief cheerleader under the tyrannical rule of our last PM.
    IMO, Leopards (in Chippy’s case ‘Pussy Cats) don’t change their spots.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:14am
- Hacked-Off
  
  Everything he has touched has turned to shite. Even his reputation as a ‘Fixer’ is undeserved.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:25am
judith8409121

oh look – child and young adult deaths from covid vaccines hidden in Australia to “Maintain Public Confidence” – could that same behaviour be happening here in NZ?

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/02/15/australias-drug-regulator-hid-child-vaccine-deaths-to-maintain-public-confidence/
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February 16, 2023 8:20am
- judith8409121
  
  original
  https://rebekahbarnett.substack.com/p/breaking-australias-drug-regulator
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:23am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Yes. Most other countries are at least beginning to take the tentative steps to have the required conversation.
  NZ has a herd of elephants in the room and nobody is allowed to talk about them.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:57am
  - Keith White
    
    I’ve given up trying to get the NZ Medical Council to respond / comment. They just won’t.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:38am
- Local Miller
  
  The more I read on this the more I’m glad my wife and I, and at least one of my 4 kids chose not to get this jab. And thank God my grandchildren are too young for this. Hopefully my daughter and SiL will have learned enough soon to agree that we were right to resist.
  After the deaths and long term effects, to me the sad thing is all the hurt and division that was caused by the mandates and lockdowns.
  Our international accommodation business crashed cutting 25% of our income and some of my kids are still angry with us for insisting we were right and they were wrong to accede.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:34am
- kowtow
  
  The “noble lie”.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:52am
kowtow

Co governance in action.

A vote by elected councillors in Dunedin swung by the two unelected Maori “representatives”

This is an outrage against democratic principles which were hard won in a struggle of a thousand years and are now instantly swept away in a far left cultural revolution.

“The council voted 8-7 in December to ask council staff to explore how flexibility might be incorporated into the remainder of the project.

Mana whenua representatives on the committee Donna Matahaere-Atariki and Marlene McDonald proved to be decisive in today’s result.”

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/george-st-revamp-mayors-push-design-change-fails
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February 16, 2023 8:23am
- Grunter
  
  This is disgusting. Apartheid in action. Democracy at a local level is gone. There is no argument (a logical argument that is) that says providing one race special voting privileges is right. So sad. Just makes me angry.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:17am
Maggie Pie

STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES…..

This is the same twat that granted Residency to the Czech drug smuggler.
And incredibly, I understand he gets to retain the title ‘Honourable’ for life 🙁

https://twitter.com/IainLG/status/1625561662630817793
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February 16, 2023 8:25am
Paulus

The said same DrugSmuggler was due to be deported in March but understand has again been able to try and get the latest deportation deferred or canclled. But perhaps he no longer has political favour but will again cost us in legal fees.
Get rid of the b..ard.
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February 16, 2023 8:29am
- cmm
  
  I don’t understand this “due to be deported in three months” type nonsense.
  
  His deportation status should have been worked out while he was in prison and it should have been directly from the prison to the airport. That’s it.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:50am
Tom Hunter

So I saw that long-time commentator, Black with a Vengeance got booted yesterday (possibly for a few months?).

Readers may get a chuckle in watching him defending the indefensible in this old KB thread from 2011 about the Key vs. Goff debate.

He hasn’t changed in over a decade! 🙂
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February 16, 2023 8:29am
- Antoine
  
  Oh nice. Good riddance
  
  A.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:37am
artemisia

So, a landslide for Mayor Brown in Auckland. Yet he shows little empathy and even less charisma. What sort of leader is that? So how did that landslide happen?

Well, he stood on what he reckoned Aucklanders wanted, bottom line not what the woke and Wellington wanted. And a focus on boring management stuff, like what do all these people spending our money do all day, and why. Turns out he was right.

Mr Luxon is also a manager with a lot of experience. I would hope he and his MPs will take note of the Auckland result, and actually I’ll bet they are. Quietly, so far.
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February 16, 2023 8:39am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I think you will see a change when policy begins to be released straight after the budget
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:58am
  - Nickc2
    
    Te MSM (Auckland Division) is deliberately running blocking tactics regarding anything Mayor Brown is doing or wants to do.
    Te MSM went feral against him even before the majority of Aklders elected him.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:17am
Stellaboxer

Ardern goneski, Sturgeon goneski now it’s just Trudeau and Macron.
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February 16, 2023 8:41am
- Grunter
  
  And the rest….. Sunak, Biden, most/all the Democrats, the entire EU, Albo, Hipkins, Robertson, all NZ Labour, Greens and the racist Maori Party, …….. and, and, and. The list gets bigger by the day!
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:22am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    NATO, UN.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:57am
  - Matt Long
    
    Luxon, Willis, Seymour…
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:13am
- Wayne Mapp
  
  Do French Presidents resign?
  Resignations is more a feature of parliamentary systems where the PM is not directly elected as such, but is simply the Leader of the major party of government. At least in a theoretical sense, all MP’s are equal.
  It is very rare for a President to resign. In the US the last was Nixon. In contrast NZ has had 6 PM’s resign (or be defeated by their own MP’s) in the same timeframe.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:31am
  - Keith White
    
    Is the Bastille full? Asking for un ami.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:42am
- Surely Knott
  
  Sturgeon resigning is huge news. A blow for her extreme transgender ideology as the public reject putting biological men (especially rapists) in biological women’s prisons. Also a blow for the covid response and authoritarianism. Even if she is replaced by someone from the same party, (like the public rejection of Ardern and replacement with Hipkins), the replacement will have to publicly walk back some of the more extreme ideology.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:10am
  - Keith White
    
    And whay the weird Ardern-mimicking comment about her tank running empty. Is this some sort of WEF-sorority ‘thang’?
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:43am
    - Ghost
      
      It’s a common statement I’m guessing
      
      All I can say is that I gave it everything I had.
      
      I have left nothing in the tank.
      
      Prime Minister John Key announces resignation
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:46am
    - emmess
      
      When tank runs empty, they can no longer fight the war on Western Civilization.
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:43pm
Widogast Corwin

I think it is worth reflecting on the performance of Weather Watch, NIWA and the Metservice in forecasting the severity and the track of the cyclone. The modelling was remarkably accurate, a week before the cyclone hit.

https://www.weatherwatch.co.nz/content/stunning-accuracy-from-computer-models

People frequently criticise meteorologists for issuing weather warnings for events that turn out to be not so bad. This time they got it right.
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February 16, 2023 8:41am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Widogast Corwin – that’s a fair comment. It was tracked and the information was updated frequently.
  
  I used an app called “Windy” to monitor the progress and it was also spot on.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:47am
  - kevn
    
    @Clan… Windy.com was excellent and it is a global weather site.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:19am
    - Don Beckett
      
      I followed Metservice, and they were pretty good. It’s the news media that create all the exaggeration & fear porn.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:35am
      - Widogast Corwin
        
        Exactly.
        
        You can get a laugh from this India news service reporting on the earthquake off the Kapiti Coast last night.
        
        “Another calamity strikes New Zealand”
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3xcZfwnydk
        
        There were no injuries and no damage AFAIK. But it was a calamity.
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:10pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    On my phone Windy want me to pay.
    Desktop is fine but we have no power.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:59am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Plug your Nissan Leaf in Steve O ,
      All your problems are solved //
      
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      February 16, 2023 5:51pm
ClanMcleod

The Honourable Andrew Bridgen MP

A wonderful post by Robert Malone, a key actor in the creation of mRNA technology. Double jabbed, not an “anti vaxxer”, but a strong and eloquent advocate for the immediate suspension of this experimental disaster.
In his latest blog post he writes in support of Andrew Bridgen MP. In fact he goes further, he actually travelled to the UK to support Mr Bridgen.

https://rwmalonemd.substack.com/p/the-honorable-andrew-bridgen-mp

Andrew Briden MP did something not one single MP in NZ has the courage to do. He stood up in parliament and spoke of the elephant in the room.

He demanded the suspension of the “vaccine” programme pending a thorough investigation into the deaths and injuries clearly being caused by this experiment. It is long past the time for this to happen, yet in NZ we carry on with the ludicrous “safe and effective” and are now sticking this toxin into babies as young as 12 months old.

Bridgen highlighted the propaganda, lies and psychological manipulation of all of us in a drive to force participation in this dangerous experiment. For his troubles, he was smeared as an antisemite. A familiar trope, moronically used last year by Labour’s Michael Wood when he viciously slandered protesters at parliament.

In fact, Jewish scientists from around the globe have objected to this defamation of Mr. Bridgen:

Jewish scientists from around the world have called on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to withdraw claims that Leicestershire MP Andrew Bridgen is guilty of making antisemitic comments. The request was made in an open letter to the PM amidst the continued controversy over Mr Bridgen’s remarks where he compared Covid-19 vaccinations to the Holocaust.

The group, which includes epidemiology expert and former advisor to the Israeli Healthcare Public Committee, Dr Ifat Abadi-Korek, claims that the PM’s remarks “seized upon an opportunity” to criticise the outspoken MP. They also believed the remarks “limited free speech” and the right to question vaccine efficacy.

The whole post is excellent, in particular, I recommend reading or watching Bridgen’s speech to parliament fully. (There is a video link in the blog post.)
He understands his subject, his speech is comprehensive and the only embarrassment was how few of the other MPs were in the house when he spoke.

Please read it and share it. The silence in NZ among MPs, “experts” and media can only point to one thing, a conspiracy of silence because they know they cannot win this debate and many of them are culpable in fully supporting this disaster.

Understand that if this is permitted to continue then democracy as we once knew it is dead in this country.

If anything Bridgen said is demonstrably untrue then highlight it and give evidence to support this.

The covid vaccines do not work. The covid vaccines cause injury and death. The mandates caused far more harm than good. Masking caused far more harm than good. Lockdowns caused far more harm than good. The assaults of basic human rights were horrendous.

We will have to address this eventually. The sooner the better.
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February 16, 2023 8:41am
- Grunter
  
  Well done ClanMcleod! You are bang on.
  As a ‘triple-jabbed-sucker’ I can not believe how I personally fell for the jab BS. I was suspicious but did not believe that the depth of corruption could be weaved so well by govt’s around the world. If I had known that Pfizer had immunity granted to them by Hipkins and Ardern I wouldn’t have taken it.
  As all this comes out (and it will), the collapse in TRUST will be dramatic. Big Pharma are fcuked. Govt trust will be lost for generations. It will make the Protest on Parliament look like a picnic.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:33am
  - Nickc2
    
    Is our current Govt going to hold a public inquiry into their handling of the Covid-19 fiasco before the next election?
    Their scapegoat will have gone to greener pastures by then.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:25am
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      It was announced some time ago. A Royal Commission.
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:10pm
      - Nickc2
        
        I understand that, but we have a new PM.
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:25pm
      - Ghost
        
        The one thing is that this was meant to start feb 1, no mention of anything that it has started
        
        Never mind, found an article we will find something out end of the month, maybe.
        
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/covid-19-royal-commission-chairman-details-when-public-will-be-informed-on-inquiry/XYIDNLWQLVDMHPUXNEIR73UIQQ/
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:30pm
    - Ghost
      
      https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/royal-commission-draw-lessons-pandemic-response
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:17pm
      - Nickc2
        
        That was an Ardern edict.
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:28pm
      - Ghost
        
        See above link
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:33pm
  - Keith White
    
    I’d like to respectfully point out that many who got the injection are not suckers and were not suckers.
    
    A lot of people believed that we would not be lied to so comprehensively by both the government and our doctors.
    
    A lot of people didn’t trust the vaccine but had to get it, such as in my family, without the vaccine one member could not have graduated, started the job and gone to take up a job.
    
    If I hadn’t had the jab I would have been locked out of New Zealand for even longer because my own country having first locked me out and then making me play the lottery, required our national airline to have evidence of jab proof before allowing me to buy a ticket home after 10 months.
    
    In short there are a lot of reasons why people got the jab and it wasn’t always a free choice.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:46am
    - Local Miller
      
      @Keith “In short there are a lot of reasons why people got the jab and it wasn’t always a free choice.”
      
      And this is part of the case against the government. NZ is a signatory to the UN Convention of Human Rights, and it expressly says everyone has the right to chose to take a medial procedure with “full informed consent” and “without coercion”. If you took the jab and it wasn’t by free choice you and other’s like you should be able to take the NZ government before the UN for breaching your human rights, or collectively for crimes against humanity.
      
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      February 16, 2023 3:43pm
    - TS Child
      
      I would say very few of us had a free choice. And doctors were between a rock and a hard place. Enduring the pandemic with their friends and families and patients, required to be jabbed to work at all, in danger of being not able to work at all if they voiced concerns, let alone anything stronger. And vaccines are usually a good thing and were supported by the ministry of health etc – whose job it is to vet these sorts of things and provide, usually guidelines, but in this case more like edicts. So very, very hard for any doctor to speak freely regardless of their personal opinions. And we can perfect world our opinions all we like, but once the panic spread world wide, it was very difficult for any people to do anything about it – there’s whole genres devoted to decent people not being able to do the right thing, now we’ve seen it first hand. The real question is how do we stop governments producing these sorts of mandates ever again? Because mandates are divisive. Especially mandates that try to manipulate by dividing the world into moral and immoral.
      
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      February 16, 2023 3:46pm
    - kisekiman
      
      I hear you mate, Air New Zealand were bastards. Their no vax, no fly policy basically only lasted about 2 or 3 months but no one could have known at the time how long it was goimg to be in force. It was all part of a coordinated campaign of coercion. To have held out against that kind of pressure required an iron will most people do not possess and while I admire the ones who did refuse I do not blame the ones who saw little choice but to comply. The unrepentant jab lovers are another matter altogether. Clan is correct, those responsible will need to be held to account, little wonder our savour-in-chief has turned and ran. Shit is gonna get real.
      
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      February 17, 2023 11:45am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I tracked dissenting data on the safety of the vax pretty closely, and I still judged it to be a reasonable choice as a middle aged male to be vaxxed in Q3 2021 when more dangerous delta variant was in play. I wouldn’t have if I was a young adult though. Once Omicron hit it was clear only high risk individuals should consider it.
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:44pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Yes, I judged it best for myself then but definitely not for younger healthy adults.
      
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      February 16, 2023 6:45pm
Maggie Pie

Farmer from Gizzie on talkback brought tears to my eyes when he described the utter horror of thousands of drowned animals and all the poor Cows unable to me milked.
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February 16, 2023 8:43am
- Gravelroad
  
  The Greens will be loving it though, Maggie Pie.
  Probably doing a little dance right now.
  I am sure this will be advanced as another reason to cancel primary production – cruelty to animals during flood events.
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:49am
- Bridgenag
  
  Will the govt. give money to farmers or just send some to the catastrophes overseas. ……..
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:59am
- I remember when
  
  The Cyclone has presented a different problem to the one farmers in Canterbury faced with the gale force winds.
  At least then they had access to the generators brought in for the Christchurch earthquake.
  Roads were passable, electricians available, telephone contact possible and the infrastructure was back up and running within a week.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:32am
Paulus

Another subject
A group of is geriatrics were taking ale when the subject of the tragic floods particularly in the Hawkes Bay came up.
We eventualy believed that the spirit of New Zealanders whatever faith was coming out of this tragedy.
People were helping each other without limitation and conditions, the local services were performing above and beyond what we have perceived to have been seen to be the norm in recent years.
Even in adversity there was some light humour to be seen, especially farmers who appear to have lost everything.
What we are seeing is that both the sadness and the potential of our country alongside.
We have been media propogandad and conditioned in recent years to the fact that we are told the Government knows best, and is in charge, so there is nothing for the peasants to do.
Most of our group are in the very twighlight of our lives but with this tragedy we see there may be a future fo our country despite adversity providing we do not let the Government continue to control us.
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February 16, 2023 8:46am
Inandout

I read the new moon is the closest for over 1300 years.
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February 16, 2023 8:56am
- I remember when
  
  As regenerative and organic farming numbers grow, so does the level of anti-vaccine.
  It is probably reasonable to expect the same to occur with the growth of the numbers of vegetarians and vegans.
  If you believe in the benefit of nature and ‘natural’ systems then the debate about interventions becomes more personal.
  These systems are ‘total’, which means if you believe in a little bit, you believe totally.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:12am
- kevn
  
  @In… That is significant.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:16am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Ken Ring is worth following.
  He predicted last nights earthquake.
  
  Just saying.
  
  https://facebook.com/ken.ring.378/
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:19am
  - Jack5
    
    Ken Ring bases some of his forecasting on past seasons, which is pretty much what traditionalist Maori do, and that’s likely useful for, say, gardening, but this from Maggie Pie’s link to Moon caught my eye:
    
    “Addressing recent events, at the same time as Uranus conjuncted the moon, the rain hammered down just before midnight on 14 February, more intense, as mentioned, than it had been all day, and typically eased soon after, as the conjunction reached separation …
    
    Ken is peering at Uranus! 😀
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:00am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Wonder if he’s into sunning his Perineum?
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:59am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  So that’s what is wrong-lunatics.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:03am
Maggie Pie

Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate between ‘Official’ and ‘Parody’ accounts.
But it looks like ‘WATERCARE’ is having a lot of fun on Twitter…..

https://twitter.com/watercare_nz/status/1624927567341027331
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February 16, 2023 9:04am
Ehlana

Apparently the curriculum refresh has worked faster than expected. This on Twitter this morning about Cyclone Gabrielle:
“This is the climate crisis unfolding here and now.
It is being caused by industrial emissions and the failure of Government to regulate.
The dairy industry is NZ’s worst polluter.
Make Fonterra Pay.”
It was posted by one Nick Young, head of communications at Greenpeace Aotearoa.
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February 16, 2023 9:05am
- RoboRob
  
  I hate the whole ‘big storm / draught’ = 100% proof of climate change. The same could equally be applied ‘Best summer in Canterbury in years’ = 100% proof climate change is over.
  
  The arguement devalues their point and puts peoples backs up (even people who tend to agree with them).
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:16am
- I remember when
  
  Of course if Fonterra pay – we all pay.
  We all agree that we need some CO2.
  All we need to do now is agree how much.
  When does CO2 become pollution?
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:20am
  - Local Miller
    
    CO2 will only be pollution when it gets to the level where there is no O2. This is only going to take a few million years, specially given earth is largely a self correcting system. More CO2 = more plants = less CO2.
    
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    February 16, 2023 9:53am
    - Ian Boag
      
      I guess you are saying so long as there is oxygen, then the amount of CO2 doesn’t matter.
      
      Dunno where you got that from – a link maybe?
      
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      February 16, 2023 10:57am
  - Doc Holliday
    
    When does CO2 become pollution?
    
    More than 280 ppm, if we want the stable climate that fostered civilisation.
    
    Currently ~420 ppm and rising.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:36am
    - Matt Long
      
      Quick everybody, start eating crickets to improve the weather, someone said a computer model said so.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:27am
    - rangitoto
      
      Too much risk of an ice age, which would make parts of the US, all of Canada and Northern Eurasia uninhabitable. We are much better off with higher CO2 levels.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:42am
    - Local Miller
      
      BullS* Doc.
      During the Cambrian period the CO2 level was 1500 ppm – 2000 ppm, and it was one of the explosive periods of earth’s history. Look it up under “Cambrian Explosion”. And despite the “Increased CO2 causes ocean acidification” myth, much of that explosion was corals, shells and crustaceans which are supposed to die off in high CO2 climates.
      
      At the current 420 ppm you can’t point to anything being poisoned, and the evidence is that earth is benefitting from the high CO2 levels with increased greening and shrinking deserts.
      Go check https://ourworldindata.org/agricultural-production and you will see that almost all crop production has increased significantly, often exponentially over the past 100 odd years. Not only the net production, but the yield per hectare, giving us more food without using much more land.
      Similarly, poverty is down by 90%, life expectancy has increased world wide, the numbers just keep getting better across all important indicators. Those indicators that are going backwards are lifestyle related, things like heart disease, diabetes, smoking related deaths, etc.
      
      All this information is on the internet on sites that are not “climate deniers” but that I’m sure you would be happy to accept if you were prepared to do some decent research.
      
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      February 16, 2023 4:10pm
      - Doc Holliday
        
        Now refute what I wrote – and what is important to Homo sapiens and life now:
        
        “More than 280 ppm, if we want the stable climate that fostered civilisation.”
        
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        February 16, 2023 6:34pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Except climate was never stable – ask the Aboriginals who populated northern Australia during the last ice age.
      
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      February 16, 2023 6:48pm
- Keith White
  
  Nick Young certainly has an emissions problem.
  
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  February 16, 2023 11:47am
- JohnRidd
  
  I notice that all the diggers and bulldozers clearing the roads are plug in electric. /s
  
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  February 16, 2023 3:59pm
BeaB

The small silver lining to the disasters of the last week is that we can all relax about climate change. Now our official Meteorological Service has informed us several times the weather is due to Māori gods who will do whatever they want to do.
If the experts know it is the gods and not climate change, who are we to argue?
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February 16, 2023 9:05am
- rangitoto
  
  Chippie [Mod – deleted, just use their name] must be angering those gods.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:44am
  - Keith White
    
    Atau has not received enough koha through his terrestrial iwi agents.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:48am
  - rangitoto
    
    So why [ Mods don’t discuss/explain moderation decisions. Take it up with DPF by email if you feel strongly about it ]
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:50am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Labour propagandists (Neale jones, Clint etc) on twitter are pushing “Chippie” as a nickname for Hipkins, it obviously tests well with their focus groups. Is it kiwiblog policy to not allow it?
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:48pm
    - Ghost
      
      He’s gone by chippy for a long time.
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:54pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Norway is one of the most aggressive EV markets in the world. In 2014, the country’s EV share on the roads reached 1%. By 2020, new EV sales represented 54% of new car sales in the country …. In 2021, over 20% of the cars on Norway’s roads were EVs.

How did this impact the country’s overall oil demand? According to the 2022 BP Statistical Review, in 2014 — the year Norway reached a 1% share of EVs on the roads — the country’s oil demand was 216,000 barrels per day (BPD). In 2021, with a 20% EV share, that number had fallen to 199,000 BPD.

That’s a decline of less than 8% in seven years.

The conclusion is that EVs on their own will not reduce oil consumption significantly.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-US-Will-Be-Dependent-On-Oil-For-Far-More-Than-A-Decade.html
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February 16, 2023 9:10am
- cmm
  
  Norway is pretty much the perfect place for EVs with 90% of their power being hydro and sites to build more if they need.
  
  And still it doesn’t make the problem go away.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:11am
  - Yabster
    
    Bit ironic then it is making 200 billion in 2023 from oil and gas…
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:32pm
- NothingLeft
  
  There is a serious problem about to hit with lack of copper and a few other metals needed to build EV’s PV and Wind turbines. There are no options to increase production to the degree needed to allow the transition to EVs to proceed as projected. It takes decades to hunt out and develop mines, and ore concentrations are plummeting making extraction far dirtier and more expensive.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:52pm
Mobile Michael

Remember, this is nearly 20 years old but it seems nothing changes…
https://youtu.be/KpVfVLVXZDM
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February 16, 2023 9:12am
NeverMindTheBollocks

An overreaction to a negative review – Ballet director suspended after smearing dog poo in critic’s face

Ya think?

http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/lifestyle/2023/02/german-ballet-director-marco-goecke-suspended-after-smearing-dog-faeces-in-critic-s-face.html
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February 16, 2023 9:13am
- Inandout
  
  NM, a case of Frappé?
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:29am
I remember when

There are two problems with floods.
The first is when the rivers, etc, burst their stop-banks.
The second is, how do you get rid of the water once this happens?
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February 16, 2023 9:16am
- kowtow
  
  The “problem” is floods will always happen , always have .That’s why the flat,good agricultural land is where it is.
  
  The problem is we come along and think we can control nature with stop banks , willow trees and boulders and then build critical infrastructure and housing in harm’s way .
  
  Then this gets politicised and called “climate change”.
  
  Yes it is a disaster and a tragedy , but common sense needs to be applied along with a healthy respect for the power of nature .
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:48am
  - Doc Holliday
    
    If we respected nature we wouldn’t be burning fosil fuels and destabilising the climate that fostered civilisation.
    
    The problem is ‘modern’ religions taught people the planet was a storehouse for humans to plunder.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:39am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Hahahah. Wallow in your delusions there, Doc.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:49am
    - Taieri
      
      If we respected nature we wouldn’t be burning fosil fuels and destabilising the climate that fostered civilisation.
      ————————
      
      Without fossil fuels there’d be no civilisation as we know it. And you would be tending oxen in the organic fields. If your family was rich enough to afford them. And if you’re lucky enough not to have died in your childhood.
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:07pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Exactly, I’m starting to think this guy is going senile with the nonsense he spouts.
        
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        February 16, 2023 1:44pm
    - Yabster
      
      says Dic typing on a keyboard made of plastic……
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:37pm
    - Local Miller
      
      No Doc, the “climate” never fostered civilization. Cheap sources of energy fostered civilization. Prior to the industrial revolution which was largely driven by man’s ability to harvest cheap energy from fossil fuels like coal and oil, civilization was progressing in fits and starts, with 90% of the worlds population living in abject poverty. Maybe you should go live in the medieval village for a while just to see what it was really like. There’s one in the UK and it’s as authentic as they can make it. Apparently you come in as a surf. Life literally stinks!
      While there were periods of “civilization” across the past ~5000 years, most of those were built on the back of slavery and war, and happened during periods of warming climates when food production increased and populations could expand. Think the Greeks and the run up to the Roman warm period. But between these peaks civilization went backwards as happened between the fall of Rome and the start of the Renaissance.
      If the greens wet dream agenda is achieved we will enter a world wide period of energy poverty and people will die across the world in their millions. The signs of this are already being seen in Europe and the UK where there are acute energy shortages thanks to the move to “environmentally friendly” energy which is unreliable. Germany is desperately recommissioning their mothballed nuclear reactors and coal fired power stations to prevent disaster.
      
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      February 16, 2023 4:28pm
      - Doc Holliday
        
        So when did civilisation start, roughly? At the Industrial Revolution?
        
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        February 16, 2023 7:00pm
    - Local Miller
      
      Doc, at least you got this part right: “The problem is ‘modern’ religions taught people the planet was a storehouse for humans to plunder.”
      
      The Christians and the Jews taught that we were stewards of the earth. Gen 2: 15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”
      It was the modern anti Christian groups that abandoned this message and started exploiting the earth.
      
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      February 16, 2023 4:33pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      The modern religion is fearmomgering that we have annoyed Gaia by living too well and now must do penance, embrace poverty, vote Green and donate to Greenpeace.
      
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      February 16, 2023 6:52pm
  - Ehlana
    
    Could this be why old towns were often built on hillsides?
    Sure you had to walk or ride to your fields, but your house stayed dry.
    
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    February 16, 2023 3:16pm
- rangitoto
  
  They are called flood plains because they have been plained by floods.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:42am
Gravelroad

So the divisive, authoritarian Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland, has thrown in the towel and resigned.
Just shows that even politicians with extreme social engineering agendas will go away eventually.
Ms Sturgeon was anti- the UK, anti Brexit and very pro manipulating the education systems to provide unbounded rights for trans gender people – at the expense of others.
She went too far.
It can happen.
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February 16, 2023 9:26am
- Doc Holliday
  
  Scotland should leave the UK and join the EU. The Conservatives are driven along by loonies like Farage.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:42am
  - Ian Boag
    
    and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:59am
  - kowtow
    
    Yes that makes huge sense .
    
    Och aye laddie , let’s become “independant” and then become a vassal state of the unelected elites in Brussels.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:22am
    - Yabster
      
      it makes sense to lefty socialists for sure…
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:38pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    The Tories would be glad to see them go.
    They would be in power forever and not have to cover Scotland’s Deficit of 8 Billion Sterling pa.
    You’re a bit dumb aren’t you.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:43pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Good to see you are an all round nutter, Doc. Who will fund your independent Scotland to the same tune the wicked English do? Seems the Scots are still canny enough to figure out which side of their haggis has gravy.
    
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    February 16, 2023 6:57pm
- Keith White
  
  Two Covid Queens removed from the global chessboard.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:18pm
  - Ghost
    
    Two Covid queens remain one I doubt will outlive the year
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:21pm
- Greenheart
  
  So overseas trade by the UK has reduced by one fifth as a result of Brexit. Sturgeon and Scotland were right to vote against Brexit.
  Is the EU any worse than the corrupt English Tories in Westminster? Think of Boris Johnson or Liz Truss.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:41pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    EU is doomed by economics – highly indebted southern members with enormous unemployment are inevitably going to collapse greece-style, ending the Euro. It’s when not if.
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:56pm
  - Swifty
    
    You fundamentally misunderstand why a majority of Brits voted to leave.
    
    Even if the UK is slightly worse off, and it’s very early days, they can now live without being dictated to by unelected European bureaucrats – and on matters not even dreamt of back in the 1970s.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:54pm
  - coge
    
    Remainers trying to confuse the public by using global economic trends to bolster their failed cause. The UK said no.
    
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    February 16, 2023 2:31pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    Nothing to do with Covid then?
    
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    February 16, 2023 6:59pm
Frank the tank

Mark my words – this will be worse than the Christchurch earthquake for a number of reasons:

1). Christchurch had available land to re-build quickly and a government with persons of ability and desire (Key/English/Joyce) to drive things along.
2). The areas affected (HB/Gisborne) don’t have an ability to re-build quickly with alternative land.
3). Our financial position isn’t robust as it was prior to the Chch earthquake.
4). Significant areas of our horticulture and crops have been destroyed and will need to be de-silted, re-planted and developed with crops at least 2-3 growing seasons before first harvest. This will impact food prices directly and indirectly (i.e. feed)
5). Our major fuel port (Marsden) is cut off from State highway one and an alternative route that will disintegrate with continued excess usage.
6). There is no ability to find temporary accommodation and these are filled up already. There are already horror stories coming out of the Auckland rental market.
7). The current government will refuse to budge or free up consenting/planning bottlenecks indeed will slow this down given further “environmental” impacts to be considered.
8). Our post covid “can’t do” attitude coupled with a general desire not to work.

Without decisive leadership this country could slip into a significant and sustained recession. Does anyone trust Hipkins, Robertson, Woods and Wood to manage us through this time?
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February 16, 2023 9:32am
- Doc Holliday
  
  As you say it’s an enormous task.
  
  Going onto a war footing is one answer.
  
  Luxon is witless but Labour could do without his constant niggling and I’m sure something useful could be found for him to do.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:46am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Luxon has been quite restrained and I can’t think of any politicking from any opposition MP since this has occurred.
    
    Contrast this to labour’s response in Chch and the never ending barking and white anting from their ‘team’ regarding the rebuild.
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:57am
  - Yabster
    
    hippy chippy is hopeless- witless v hopeless- hmmm
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:39pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Yep Hipkins has a long track record of massively screwing things up as a Minister, his true roll has been as most capable obfuscator and dissembler in Labour cabinet – so they had him fronting basically everything contentious. You’d have to be a fool to put him in charge of anything that matters. NZ included.
      
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      February 16, 2023 4:27pm
- MCōs
  
  As I recall certain people were calling the cyclone a nothingburger a few days ago.
  
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  February 16, 2023 3:18pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    For most of NZ population it was – had zero impact on our ability to get on with our lives – outside of the governments over-reaction in putting everywhere into a state of emergency and closing schools. Only a few districts and towns with low lying flood plains and slip-prone areas have had serious issues, and a few people have died, but you would not even notice them on a graph of normal rate of deaths in NZ.
    
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    February 16, 2023 8:11pm
    - than
      
      Yep. Just a bit of rain and wind where I am in Wellington. nothing out of the ordinary
      
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      February 16, 2023 8:41pm
- Master Mariner
  
  5. Marsden cut off.
  Yep. But it was already cut off after NZ tankers were sold.
  Thats really cut off now.
  
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  February 16, 2023 6:03pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    Oil from Marsden Pt is not distributed by road or rail …
    
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    February 16, 2023 7:23pm
blue collar

What is up with national supporters / party ?
Why do they always turn on the leader ?
I voted Nat local and act party last time .
I liked Simon bridges .
He stuck it to labour over the lockdown and so he should hv . His job is to hold them to account .
Next minute he’s rolled by muller backed by the backstabbing brigade .
Then Collins
Now the knives are out for Luxon .
To me the one constant is willis and she needs to go . Let’s be honest , she was only appointed as they think they need a woman to get the female vote and compete with Cindy .
Her comments are divisive re over 40 year olds and Māoris .
I think she is toxic
And just because someone says Luxon isn’t performing suddenly everyone , their own supporters included , goes dark on him .
Yeah he’s woke . Maybe more manager than charismatic leader but he’s steady , has pulled the party together , has opposed labour policy and promised repeals . He’s doing ok .
He can say the climate belief crap , I suspect it’s aimed at green or climate minded voters who there are a lot of , particularly after a devastating storm .
It’s smart politics .
Doesn’t mean he actually believes it or will cripple the country with rank climate policies once in power
And there’s the rub
He has to get into power first . Do you guys understand this ?
I think act doing their thing and nays doing theirs covers all bases . It’s the right approach . Luxon does need to start getting headlines for the right reasons and making a splash with shots at labour and dragging Hipkins through the wringer .
It’s time .
Start now .
Guys , don’t buy into the anti Luxon smear attempt . You gotta back your man .
It will be a bloodbath , labour are gone . Once the storm leaves the news , and Hipkins gets shown up by an opposition coming out swinging ….. the labour slide will continue .

Relax
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February 16, 2023 9:34am
- Paulus
  
  Propaganda Media running out of things to do and say – they will continue to do as they are paid to deselect anything National especially Luxon, who to many of us is doing the job expected of him at this point in time before the election.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:51am
- lifesgood
  
  I very rarely comment on here now but I am so pleased with your post, blue collar. National supporters seem to whinge and moan whoever is leading the party, Bridges was superb, highly intelligent, had his finger on the pulse. Why in heavens name was he rolled? I gave Collins the benefit of the doubt but that pathetic stunt she pulled to get rid of Bridges was disgraceful. Luxon is going to be good, give him a chance, he is keeping his powder dry right now and will absolutely demolish Hipkins in any debate. For goodness sake, moaning Nat supporters, you are heading the right way to allow another three years of this appalling government. Is that what you want? If the answer is “No” get in behind Luxon and support him. A leadership change now would be disastrous. Remember all the idiots who voted Labour to keep the greens out? Look how that turned out.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:54am
  - Observer of Life
    
    Life: How much longer is he going to keep their “powder dry”?
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:47pm
- Ian Boag
  
  I voted Nat local and act party last time
  
  Your Act party vote was a vote against National. Your “Nat local” vote did nothing to increase the number of Nat MPs of course, even if a lot of the electorate agreed with you.
  
  Good ole MMP …
  
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  February 16, 2023 11:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Clearly you don’t understand MMP either, if ACT was to get a higher party vote, and Nats won above their support with electorate wins, it creates an over hang, so if all Nat voters voted ACT in party, but all Act and Nats voted Nats in electorate, it would create more seats
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:24pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      True. Don’t hold your breath though … If it worked, Labour could later pull the same stunt with the Greens. Either/both major parties could split to pull the same stunt.
      
      We lve in interesting times …
      
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      February 16, 2023 7:18pm
- Taieri
  
  Maybe more manager than charismatic leader
  ———————
  
  Managers don’t win elections. Charismatic leaders do.
  Because there’s a difference between leaders and managers. The former have charisma.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:01pm
  - coge
    
    Leaders seek to bridge division. Not compliantly endorse the dehumanization, segregation and persecution levelled at the NZ people in early 2022.
    
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    February 16, 2023 2:33pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They start hearing this bullshit by other voters and start thinking the same, it will be a huge win to Labour if they dear change the leader again
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:17pm
- Prince
  
  That is very funny.
  ‘What is up with National supporters ?
  Then
  ‘To me the one constant is willis and she needs to go . Let’s be honest , she was only appointed as they think they need a woman to get the female vote and compete with Cindy’
  
  Indeed, what is up ‘National Supporters’ ? They seem to be as dumb as a sack of hammers. Labour can give us a lesson on unity and purpose.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:51pm
- MCōs
  
  ‘What is up with national supporters / party ?
  Why do they always turn on the leader ?’
  
  It’s the caucus that changes the National Party Leader, not the supporters or party.
  
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  February 16, 2023 3:15pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

If only we had Judges like this here!

Judge doesn’t hold back during sentencing of filthy Child Molester……tells the piece of excrement exactly what she thinks of him before handing down 22 year jail sentence 😀

https://twitter.com/MyLordBebo/status/1625132661063704580
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February 16, 2023 9:37am
- Ghost
  
  But if you read the tweet below, her ruling was reversed.
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:50am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Yes but that’s not the point. It’s the what the Judge had to say during sentencing. OF COURSE it was going to be overturned by some softcock liberal dudges sitting on the appeals bench under orders from Biden.
    
    Others actually had an even better idea….
    
    https://twitter.com/Mister_XRP/status/1625384225254920192
    
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    February 16, 2023 10:11am
    - Frank the tank
      
      President Ronnie the second will fix that.
      
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      February 16, 2023 11:03am
DeepBlue

With the government being at least 1 day late to take charge of the emergency responce, where are the media attacks? Crickets. It is all about how authentic they are.
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February 16, 2023 9:57am
I remember when

Could it have been much worse?
HB Gravel Management Study – RMA Issues and Gravel Demand Drivers: June 2016.
Tukituki River: Analysis shows approx 800,000 cubic metres gravel above defined ‘grade line’ in upper Tukituki.
A significant 14 million cu above ‘grade line’ in mid Tukituki.
CHB gravel resources are experiencing low demand and rivers are aggrading.
Gravel extraction is funded by some flood schemes across Regional Councils surveyed, but not by HB flood schemes which rely on commercial extractor demand.
Gravel Extraction in CHB ramped up in CHB rivers: HB Today 7 Oct 2021.
The river managers across NZ put up a $300m programme, that was funded by the Covid recovery programme from central government, and $30m of these programmes are occurring in HB.
The government is subsidising 64% of the $8m project to extract excess gravel from the Upper Tukituki catchment.
Without the flood control measures the Heretaunga Plains would effetively flood quite frequently.
The Upper Tukituki is also protecting the towns of Waipawa and Waipukurau.
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February 16, 2023 10:09am
Local Miller

Yesterday I was talking to someone who has a part time property maintenance business. Painting, internal repairs, fencing, etc. With all the storm damage he’s seeing a lot more business plus his mate doing the same thing full time has more work than he can handle. They are struggling to find people willing to work. Offering $40 an hour for unskilled work, even when they are offering a full 40 hour week. The “reason” they get is that as soon as you earn over $200/week your benefit cuts are too high and the $1600 a week before tax with work doesn’t compare with $1200 per week (all up) on the various benefits when you can sit on the couch and play computer games or watch movies. This aligns with PaulL’s excellent set of articles on this and shows the unintended consequences are real.
Our high benefit payments are making this country one of lazy buggers happy to live off other peoples’ money.
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February 16, 2023 10:19am
Maggie Pie

Caller from Esk Valley manages to get call thru to ZB’s Kerry Woodham.

Asks….
“Where the ‘F’ is Stuart Nash. Nobody here has seen or heard from him”

Good question.
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February 16, 2023 10:33am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  He’s been waiting for a major event in his electorate to prove his uselessness.
  
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  February 16, 2023 10:53am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Like my partner just said….he’s too busy working out ways to further penalise law-abiding gun owners to be worried about the plebs in his electorate.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:01am
- Frank the tank
  
  In fairness to Stu he couldn’t get into Napier until this morning and then with the rain forecast this afternoon they might close it all down again.
  
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  February 16, 2023 11:06am
  - Keith White
    
    I believe that we should be fair to Nash to the same extent as he was fair to us.
    
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    February 16, 2023 11:50am
- kowtow
  
  They’ve all been trying out their branded NEMA jackets and getting them tailored so’s to look good on the podium.
  
  Next will be the fly boy jackets and Raybans for when they take up precious space on the whirly birds.
  
  Suits you sir .
  
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  February 16, 2023 11:25am
- Nickc2
  
  Will the take-down of Hipkins prior to the next election be as painless as the take-down of Cindy?
  Don’t forget, Stuart Nash sees himself as a future PM and that’s probably what he’s working on in his absence.
  Don’t forget, it’ll be a toss-up between Willie Jackson and Nanaia Mahuta on the dark side and Stuart Nash and Kieran McAnulty on the light side.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:00pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Because he refused to deal with slash on the east coast 2 months ago, he is tainted by NZF and Labours crocked forestry crimes
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:26pm
Frank the tank

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/02/cyclone-gabrielle-waka-kotahi-says-tailgating-driving-with-lights-off-was-really-disappointing-during-storm.html

Seriously you [Mod – Deleted] – this is what you are worried about right now when parts of the country are effectively cut off from the world. How about devoting all your energy to fixing roads…..

What is wrong with the world summed up with one news story.
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February 16, 2023 11:26am
- Nickc2
  
  Hey Frank, I saw a guy on TV this morning speaking on behalf of NZTA (Waka Kotahi) and he was white. How does that work? He must be related to some Maori Princess eh?
  Mind you, it was on Play School (the Breakfast show).
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:10pm
- Local Miller
  
  I didn’t see any tailgating in that video. Too close maybe, but not tailgating which is specifically driving very close to the car in front of you.
  
  Driving without lights in those conditions is poor driving, but then that’s because of poor driver education. When I got my license many moons ago I was taught by my dad that if you can’t see 500m behind you in your rear view mirror you should turn on your lights. I don’t recall anything like that being taught to my kids except by me.
  
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  February 16, 2023 4:47pm
Handyman

Luxon will make an excellent Prime Minister, but hew will never get the chance if he doesn’t wise up.

Yesterday Labour said it will take year to rebuild the roads.
Luxon said National will support Labour to do that.

What he should have said was “Labour and the Greens cancelled Nationals continuing investment in roads, including the vital lifeline from Whangarei to Auckland. It is just another thing National will need to fix once we are in Government”
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February 16, 2023 11:34am
- Cinematic
  
  At what point did National Party strategists decide it made sense to get into bed with the witless Labour fools on every major issue?
  
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  February 16, 2023 11:47am
  - Nickc2
    
    Whilst I don’t agree with National’s approach here, essentially it means they can’t be held to account/ridiculed by Te MSM.
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:17pm
    - Cinematic
      
      Ahhh so the strategy is running scared from the legacy media?
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:29pm
- Prince
  
  Really ? Do you think after a massive cyclone the country is in the mood to have an Opposition moaning about what the Govt ‘should have’ been doing ? Ask Simon Bridges how that goes.
  But yeah, I know, ‘Luxon should grow a pair blah blah blah…’
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:22pm
  - Cinematic
    
    Moaning is not required. Pointing out the failures of the current government and the consequences of those failures is democracy.
    
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    February 16, 2023 12:30pm
    - Ghost
      
      There is a time to do that, when body recoveries are on going, towns are cut off, no power, phone, water, etc etc is not the time to try to get political brownie points.
      
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      February 16, 2023 12:33pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Exactly, just like what happened to Nats support from Feb 2020- March 2020 because Bridges attacked Labours response
        
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        February 16, 2023 12:38pm
      - Local Miller
        
        If the Nats don’t make relevant opposition noises while the topic is hot, it will be too late. In a week’s time the media and public will have moved on and any comment will be brushed aside. It’s all a matter of how they comment.
        “We support the government efforts but if they had not canceled our continued upgrade projects when they came into the treasury benches 5 years ago these problems may not have occurred”
        
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        February 16, 2023 4:54pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Again, when Bridges rubbished Labour during covid, the Nats polling when from 47% to 28% , this disaster would create the same problem, if you go and listen to Luxons media stand up and questions, he did mention that they canceled Nats roads, he said they can they, then reintroduce them, then don’t build them, he said with a slightly angry voice we have to get things done.
  
  I think if he said Labour are crap in this disaster he would be pilloried by media further, and it would catch on, he has to sound like he is supportive until this crap quietens down.
  
  They tried to set a trap yesterday saying Fo you still agree with tax cuts, he did not take the bait and said threshold indexing is the right thing to do
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:36pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Yesterday Labour said it will take year to rebuild the roads.
  Half that if they focus on fixing roads rather than devoting the majority of their workforce to herding vast armadas of road cones and writing cultural impact statements
  
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  February 16, 2023 8:14pm
Cinematic

Wondering if the $2.5m Labour gave to HB Mongrel Mob for fictional drug rehabilitation might have been better invested in up stream early flood warning system?
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February 16, 2023 11:44am
thirteenstars

Excellent overview from Spiked about the idea that instead of reaching peak oil we are in fact heading towards peak renewables.

The energy crisis was a major wake-up call for the world. It was a reminder that our energy supplies are far more fragile than we often realise. And it made it clear that green technology can rarely be relied on. The exception to this rule is nuclear power, which can produce vast quantities of electricity without any carbon emissions. Despite this, during last year’s global energy crunch, working nuclear power plants were shut down across the world, from California to Germany. This will be seen by future generations as a moment of absolute madness. As will attempts to phase out fossil fuels before reliable replacements are available.
…
Poland, which currently relies heavily on coal, has decided to go all-in on nuclear power. It is planning to open up new fleets of both conventional nuclear reactors and, later on, smaller modular ones. Meanwhile, it is creating regulatory hurdles for renewables like wind. In some countries like Germany, people are terrified of living near a nuclear power plant. But in Poland there is just as much resistance to living near wind farms, which is why a new law has increased the minimum distance onshore wind projects must be from people’s homes, from 500 to 700 metres.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2023/02/14/is-the-eco-bubble-about-to-burst/

This in light of National’s senior manager Chris Luxon going full-woke on climate change and possibly handing Labour the election as a result. And that might be a good thing as the sooner this idiocy crashes and burns and the luvvies (and the Luxons) feel some real pain from the consequences of their ideological imperatives and political opportunism the sooner the rest of us can get on with living in the real world.
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February 16, 2023 11:55am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  You really believe that as Luxon said we need to build infrastructure to cope with these storms will be seen negatively? They are stuck between a rock and a hard place
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:39pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    “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”
    
    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2023/02/general_debate_15_february_2023.html#comment-3321363
    
    That’s the full woke right there, and National is committed to Net Zero and all the policies that will create massive rises in energy costs for Kiwis and worsen the housing crisis through the same climate policies that have long-restricted land use in NZ.
    
    Luxon could easily have said he was advocating that councils build infrastructure to cope with such events but he chose at the same time to jump on the same bandwagon of seeing climate-related hobgoblins at every turn, and demonising and marginalising those who have a different view.
    
    But Luxon, like Ardern, and all those who can afford the costs and impositions, they get to preach while the rest of us have to pay.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:22pm
- Doc Holliday
  
  Rubbish analysis. The problem is the dependence on fossil fuels, orchestrated by the lying oil industry – that copied the tobacco scoundrels. Evil personified.
  
  We could have started the transition to renewables 3-40 years ago.
  
  Now it may be too late – for goodness sake, fancy anyone being brainwashed to the extent of denying the science after what’s happened here.
  
  Bjorn Lomborg sends his best wishes but says money’s a bit tight at the moment – so just suck up the cost…
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:51pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    Best Doc Holliday is undoubtedly that played by Val Kilmer in Tombstone, 1993, a real peach of a movie.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhDmcDwSP6c
    
    If you haven’t seen it folks, you’re missing out.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:40pm
  - Taieri
    
    fancy anyone being brainwashed to the extent of denying the science
    ———————-
    
    Computer modelling is not a science. At the best it’s a set of projections based on assumptions.
    Back in the old days they had very similar “science”; an examination of entrails to determine the future.
    
    Perhaps instead of propagating drivel on the internet, a thorough reading of IPCC reports would come handy. Full reports that is.
    
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    February 16, 2023 1:59pm
  - Swifty
    
    In all my years posting on KB I’ve stayed right out of the climate change subject. It’s all way over my head.
    
    I have noticed though in the last week multitudes of articles, cartoons and comments from interested parties and politicians that our recent rain is yet another example of climate change.
    
    Here’s another one:
    
    “Now it may be too late – for goodness sake, fancy anyone being brainwashed to the extent of denying the science after what’s happened here.”
    
    Please provide us the hard evidence that the recent rain has been caused by ‘climate change’ and has been worse or more frequent than previous heavy rain weather events.
    
    Is there any such evidence Doc?
    
    There have been heavy rain events recorded in NZ since forever. If there is evidence that these events are getting worse or more frequent then I’d like to see it.
    
    While I remain open-minded I have a sneaking suspicion that this evidence doesn’t exist and that any adverse weather event is now being used by the climate change pushers as fuel to their fire – and irrespective of evidence to the contrary.
    
    What day you Doc?
    
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    February 16, 2023 2:11pm
  - Local Miller
    
    @Doc, you are deluded. “3-40 years ago” (sic) the renewable technology was no where near what it is now. We had Lead Acid Batteries at best which are significantly more bulky compared to modern batteries. Solar panels were even more inefficient, bulky and heavy (glass not plastics) and wind generation was in its infancy. Even today renewable technology is no where near advanced enough to support a technologically advanced society without forcing a total revamp of how society functions. You need to do some serious research on the required area of solar panels and the amount of battery storage required to meet current energy requirements. And the rate of raw material production (lithium, etc.) would need to increase many times over with immediate effect to produce the batteries we need. At the current rates they are already talking about a shortage of batteries over the next few years and into the foreseeable future, with care manufacturers downgrading their production forecasts because of these shortages.
    If we were 100% renewable (solar/wind with battery backup) at the moment we would have been is serious trouble over the recent storms. The wind was often too strong for our wind generation systems, and the number of sunless days would make the solar panel generation inconsequential. Over almost 2 weeks of nonstop bad weather our batteries would all be dead and we would be without power.
    In NZ we are fortunate to have a lot of Hydro and Geothermal which makes up most of our power generation, but we are pitifully short if we forced people into have EVs. Think at least double our current generation as a starting point. We haven’t built a new dam or geothermal plant of consequence in about 40 odd years (I’m sure someone who’s lived here longer than me can give the exact date) it’s going to take forever to build another dam. i.e. It will never happen!
    
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    February 16, 2023 5:20pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      It’s going to take forever to build another dam
      
      I think there are problems about where we would put it. I mean something the size of Benmore or Manapouri ….
      
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      December 16, 2022 7:37pm
- Handyman
  
  Quite right.
  I call it the folly of straight line extrapolation.
  This occurs when people extend a short term trend into the future. For example, sales of battery cars have increased from zero to a whole lot. Some people have extrapolated that to battery cars replacing all ICE cars.
  They apparently are not aware of, well, anything.
  
  Straight line extrapolation is particularly silly when applied to cyclical trends. Applying a ruler to any ten-year period in a series with a 30 year cycle will always give a crazy result. The obvious example is weather related short term trends.
  
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  February 16, 2023 12:59pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Take a look at Chinese coal usage increase on this graph here where I ask whether Luxon has seen it? Plus the renewables vs. fossil fuel.
  
  The reason all these loons haven’t even come within a whisker of supplanting fossil fuels despite decades and trillions of investment is physics that’s simpler than climate change models: renewables just don’t have the same energy density and are unreliable.
  
  But I guess we’re going to have break our power grids and other energy systems to prove the point.
  
  Oh, and as far as Lefty idiots screaming about the fossil fuel companies like BP, Exxon and such…
  
  “The Big Picture is that over 70% of the world’s reserves are produced by National Oil Companies (NOCs). These are companies with reserves and production that dwarf those of ExxonMobil or Shell, and with names you have probably never heard unless you are in the bidness. These are companies like PDVSA, Aramco, PetroBras, CNOOC, Gazprom, Yukos, and Pemex.”
  
  Billions of barrels of oil that can be lifted out of the ground for $US10 per barrel, in nations that few other export earners. They will drill, they will lift and they will sell it.
  
  8 0
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  February 16, 2023 4:06pm
Cinematic

All over NZ local governments have become obsessed with non core expenditure. Labour has practically ignored investment in critical infrastructure.

The result is death and mayhem. NZ sits atop the ring of fire and is regularly visited by decent storms (in a global context Gabrielle wasn’t even a powerful weather event). Elected folk need to get their priorities straight, and fast.

Luxon needs to grow a pair and say wanton frittering of our money on non core areas has come at the direct cost of many lives.
14 2
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February 16, 2023 11:58am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He is saying develop infrastructure to cope with these weathers, not stupid ban oil and gas and the like
  
  4 1
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  February 16, 2023 12:40pm
Maggie Pie

And STILL nothing heard from Maggy W 🙁
She needs to know the entire fam is a little worried about her.

XOXO
18 0
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February 16, 2023 12:05pm
- Ghost
  
  She might be enjoying not being trolled. Hopefully they can get the cellphone towers up and running today.
  
  4 1
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  February 16, 2023 12:10pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  If she lives in Napier she won’t have power or internet, we can not communicate with our dispatcher in Napier apart from one phone call we got them nothing, Mike who I talk to on FB has been absent as well
  
  2 1
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  February 16, 2023 12:42pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Maggy W lives in Gisborne.
    
    6 0
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    February 16, 2023 12:55pm
- Ghost
  
  Power back on for some is gisborne, now we wait
  
  2 0
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  February 16, 2023 5:04pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    We had power in Russell long before phone and internet came back on. Anyone seen a decent time/space record of phone and internet backbone outages?
    
    2 0
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    February 16, 2023 7:11pm
Ghost

Hmmm, I can’t put my finger on the issue with these news planes, something doesn’t seem right

https://ibb.co/g4pktvy
1 3
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February 16, 2023 12:25pm
Ghost

Hmm, we’ve changed from filling out census forms on census day to you can fill them out as soon as you get them.
3 2
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February 16, 2023 1:03pm
Maggie Pie

“May you live in inflationary times”

– old Chinese curse.

What made me think about that, was I shot up to NW just before to grab one of their stuffed rotisserie-chickens and a pkt of raspberry-buns for lunch.

Earlier in the year, I recall those chickens were $11.50….TODAY $17.99!
That’s nearly a 60% increase 🙁
8 2
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February 16, 2023 1:06pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, thank goodness we are wealthy enough to take these increases in our stride.
  
  5 2
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  February 16, 2023 1:16pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    It’s the less well-off among us I feel for I&O.
    Every time we have Crayfish or something, my partner says…..
    “I wonder what the poor people are eating?”
    
    7 7
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    February 16, 2023 1:41pm
    - Keith White
      
      Cake. We’re eating cake. Or brioche with kale.
      
      6 1
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      February 16, 2023 5:47pm
Ghost

John Campbell on the pm press conference pushing 3 waters to the pm
7 1
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February 16, 2023 1:18pm
- Prince
  
  Pre-scripted.
  
  7 2
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  February 16, 2023 3:11pm
Gravelroad

So it hasn’t taken long for people on twitter from a certain ethnic group to start blaming “White settler farmers” for the flooding.
And something must be done!!
Apparently most, if not all food production is exported for other people to eat and taxpayers here have to prop up the settler farmers.
Why are people so ignorant about the purpose and value of exports?
Perhaps Mr Luxon and his agriculture spokesperson Mr Muller, could do something useful to try to educate the first settlers about exports?
Or even get someone from the Ngai Tahu Corp to assist.
Would be a start for them to gain some credibility in the rural sector……
9 2
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February 16, 2023 1:38pm
- Prince
  
  I know it is hard to understand, but Luxon and Muller are not in Government.
  Try to keep up.
  
  8 5
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  February 16, 2023 3:13pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    I know it’s hard to understand why I should vote for Mr Luxon and his party.
    Thanks for the gratuitous advice about trying to keep up – you really are a prince eh.
    
    6 3
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    February 16, 2023 4:37pm
- Ehlana
  
  Settler farmers?
  What is this, the 1800s?
  
  8 1
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  February 16, 2023 4:58pm
BeaB

What an incestuous little band of cronies around Hipkins. They’ve all been working and plotting together for years. How cosy. No wonder they frittered away billions and years on trivia while our poor little country was left defenceless in the face of natural disasters.
17 2
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February 16, 2023 1:44pm
- Prince
  
  We are being set up for a multi-$B spend on ‘infrastructure roads’.
  ie More consultants, more koha, more taongas, perhaps a ‘Maori Waka Kotahi’ Bureaucracy, and not one inch more roadway before 2040.
  Five and a half years, $100B more debt, and….nothing. So they reset the spin for next October.
  
  7 2
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  February 16, 2023 3:10pm
- Mike
  
  Perhaps you could calculate how many billions it would have cost to see the country unaffected by this cyclone. Then multiply that number by a factor representing the area of the country missed by this event.
  Please show your workings.
  
  3 7
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  February 16, 2023 5:09pm
pdm

Bloody hell.

At about 10 to 2 I realised a cricket test was starting in NZ at 2pm – zapped the TV on and through the Sky Channels – Nothing.

Then inspiration TVNZ have got it – no way.

Google search shows it is still with Spark.

One pissed off pdm – Biscuit where is that cat when I need something to kick.
5 1
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February 16, 2023 2:05pm
- Ghost
  
  Tvnz have the rights from July 1
  
  1 0
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  February 16, 2023 2:07pm
  - pdm
    
    Thanks Ghost.
    
    Mind you TVNZ and test cricket have seldom been compatible.
    
    We can but wait and see what they dish up.
    
    4 1
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    February 16, 2023 2:13pm
  - Mike
    
    TVNZ has been showing selected matches free to air. Spark is worth it for a month wirh four home tests.
    TVNZ might do okay with the cricket, as the pause between overs provides opportunities for advertising.
    
    1 1
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    February 16, 2023 3:04pm
- Prince
  
  Don’t worry, you wont have to put up with ‘Scotty’ Stevenson’s commentary.
  Hopefully when it goes To TVNZ, Stevenson will be sent packing.
  
  4 2
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  February 16, 2023 3:06pm
Maggie Pie

A bestie from UK retweets 😀 😀 😀

Illegal immigrants are like sperm….millions get in but only one works.

https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1625828805662191618
11 3
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February 16, 2023 2:56pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I liked this comment:
  
  If you’re are sleeping homeless in UK tonight – get a group together launch a boat into the Channel and get free hotel accommodation, phone, Costco card and some walking around money…why suffer?
  
  8 0
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  February 16, 2023 7:03pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YIP…here it’d be a state house, working-for-families bene, ACC and free health care. All courtesy of us mug taxpayers.
    
    7 0
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    February 16, 2023 7:50pm
Swifty

Would anyone know how I might determine how many MPs New Zealand has had, ever?

Grateful for any steer.
1 1
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February 16, 2023 3:16pm
- Ghost
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_House_of_Representatives
  
  1 0
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  February 16, 2023 3:18pm
  - Swifty
    
    Sorry, whereabouts on that page Ghost?
    
    0 1
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    February 16, 2023 3:39pm
    - Ghost
      
      Go down to Number of members, that will give you up to 1996, then you’ll have to add the elections since then
      
      1 2
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      February 16, 2023 3:41pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Here you go, Swifty: https://www.parliament.nz/media/9506/roll-of-members-of-the-new-zealand-house-of-representatives-1854-onwards.pdf.
  
  Unfortunately, the MPs are not numbered. I haven’t done the “hard yards” for you – sorry – but 96 pages times 15 (roughly), plus page 99, with seven, gives an approximate total of 1,447.
  
  (Tama Potaka is there, so it’s right up-to-date.)
  
  3 0
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  February 16, 2023 4:16pm
  - Swifty
    
    You beauty.
    
    Many thanks Steve, exactly what I was after.
    
    Cheers.
    
    2 0
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    February 16, 2023 5:42pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      You’re welcome, Swifty.
      
      I’m going to add them up, but not today.
      
      2 0
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      February 16, 2023 6:25pm
Ghost

Transpower identified its crippled Redclyffe substation in Napier two years ago as one of 12 substations around the country where improved flood protection was “critical”.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/131247383/transpower-knew-napier-substation-was-critical-risk-in-worst-case-flood
7 0
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February 16, 2023 3:21pm
Ghost

Lock your doors tonight? Weird statement

Sen. John Kennedy on the Senate’s briefing “This has been going on for a long time… & we don’t know what most of them are” “The President & the DNI… need to explain… what these things are, who put them up there & do they pose a threat”

Sen. Tom cotton on classified briefing about flying objects: “President Biden owes the American people an explanation”
4 2
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February 16, 2023 3:49pm
- Ghost
  
  Paywalled
  
  US plans major UFO address amid shock balloon backflip
  Joe Biden is considering a rare ‘address to the nation’ after the White House made a stunning U-turn on the Chinese spy balloon.
  
  Article
  
  3 0
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  February 16, 2023 4:09pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Ugh, I am quite interested in UFO’s as a subject, There is some chance that Aliens have been watching us for a long long time (the “Zoo hypothesis” is a good answer to the Fermi paradox “where is the intelligent life”) – though mostly on the basis of very old, even pre-aviation reports – more recent reports are less compelling and CGI makes modern video and photos untrustworthy. This pattern would make sense if Aliens were getting more furtive as our technology improves to prevent chance of incontrovertible discovery.
  
  We are less than a century away from being able to seed whole galaxy and even local galactic cluster with AI observers (would take a few million years to propagate), hard to believe no other intelligent life has done that before us in the last 5-10 billion years amongst the 100’s of trillions of stars close enough to have originated intelligent life and sent out observers, the cost is near zero and the variability of life is probably the most interesting anomaly in the otherwise relatively simple and boring universe.
  
  But this recent mania in USA is clearly mundane – balloons, chinese or other.
  
  2 0
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  February 16, 2023 4:44pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Or there aren’t any Aliens as it is the nature of intelligent life to destroy their own civilisation.
    Pauses, looks around and goes ‘oh’.
    
    4 0
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    February 16, 2023 5:09pm
- Ehlana
  
  If there is intelligent life out there in the Universe, why would it come to Earth?
  
  Unless its to make a documentary about primitive life and the strange beliefs of pre-contact peoples.
  
  7 1
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  February 16, 2023 5:02pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    https://twitter.com/PaulHook_em/status/1624911901107912704
    
    😀 😀 ;d
    
    4 2
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    February 16, 2023 5:17pm
  - Ghost
    
    Check up on the humans they created….
    
    3 1
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    February 16, 2023 5:22pm
surfing

Flybuys replaced their 0800 phone number with an email address that takes 5 days to respond.

Customer service is no longer a priority for this company!
7 0
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February 16, 2023 4:01pm
Colville

Back online!!

Thanks to the ‘bro for the generator and Elon Musk for the internet!! 🙂
8 0
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February 16, 2023 5:34pm
- Ghost
  
  Welcome back, hope you didn’t get any damage
  
  1 0
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  February 16, 2023 5:38pm
Ghost

Damn. 72 charges filed so far

Three people have been charged as part of an investigation into historical sexual and physical offending.

Police launched an investigation after Oranga Tamariki raised concerns in June 2021 about a contracted care provider operating within the wider south Auckland region.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/02/three-people-charged-over-historical-sexual-and-physical-offending.html
4 0
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February 16, 2023 5:37pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Usual suspects…. 🙁
  
  5 2
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  February 16, 2023 6:58pm
CAKE FACE1

I wonder what the zero Covid nutjobs now think about their decision to waste over $100 billion and burn our economy to the ground?

Zero Covid meant that New Zealand now has zero reserves. This act of economic vandalism was simply sabotage.

I suspect that the zero Covid ringleaders will never be held to account. They get away scot-free.

This is a tragedy.
13 1
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February 16, 2023 6:13pm
- nathie
  
  Yep Robertson has blown the govt coffers and when caught out by a 10-20+ billion natural disaster he pretends all will be well as he continues to stuff $$$ into Labour’s election war chest!
  
  4 0
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  February 16, 2023 9:57pm
Doc Holliday

The oil company scientists understood global warming 40 years ago but for most kiwibloggers the penny hasn’t dropped yet!

Kiwiblog gives them a stage to perform their pantomime but thank goodness their audience is small. What, about 100 at most?
3 8
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February 16, 2023 7:18pm
- NothingLeft
  
  You clearly learned nothing about manufactured scares and panics in the last decade – even as so many have been exposed in minute detail by new sources circumventing legacy propaganda channels – the DISC (Distributed Idea Suppression Complex) in Eric Weinstein’s terminology.
  
  Your desire to believe is this quackery is genetic, religion and non-specific anxiety can assist survival, but nonetheless you’re just another victim of the latest ‘sciencey’ Millennialist apocalyptic cult, no different from myriad others of the last few 1000 years.
  
  The earth is warming, and it’s no big deal, not even top 50 in things that threaten humanity.
  But it does keep a lot of academics and politicians and NGOs in highly paid jobs with frequent international junkets.
  
  4 1
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  February 16, 2023 8:42pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

I am not a cellphone wiz, but I have no power.
The links are a problem.
http://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi
Best I can do ATM
Fuck!
2 1
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February 16, 2023 7:43pm
- Ghost
  
  Still. When are you due to get power back?
  
  0 0
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  February 16, 2023 7:53pm
Ghost

Hmmmm.

Cellphone tower, strong wind, power knocked out to it. What will the govt propose is done

Cyclone Gabrielle: Prime Minister Chris Hipkins won’t rule out regulation to improve telecommunications resilience

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/02/cyclone-gabrielle-prime-minister-chris-hipkins-won-t-rule-out-regulation-to-improve-telecommunications-resilience.html
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February 16, 2023 9:25pm
- nathie
  
  Not quite. The most stupidest question was put to Hipkins by that Newshub reporter, Hipkins simply responded flatly “won’t rule anything in and out” to brush it off.
  
  Now that that Newshub reporter has put words into Hipkins mouth, I wouldn’t be suprised if she ambushes Luxon tomorrow to ask whether he supports Govt intervention!
  
  That Newshub political reporter has got to be their worst, most laziest reporter (notice the lack of effort she puts into her reports and people interviewed, usually one, compared to the other journos) who appears to indulge in “gotcha” politics … what a waste of taxpayers funds flying her up to Gisborne with the politicians to pose stupid questions that she could have from the Press Gallery in Wellington!
  
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  February 16, 2023 9:52pm

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