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March 20, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 20 March 2023

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General Debate

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Simon

If you get covid for a second or third time this is how you know the vaccine is working.
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March 20, 2023 8:01am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Long term genocide?
  See Bill Gates.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:38am
  - Simon
    
    “Long term genocide?” No just grinding stupidity.
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:07am
  - surfing
    
    Ha ha , I don’t think Bill Gates cares about you or Krazykiwi. Maybe you think he does, but he doesn’t.
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:37pm
- Bob
  
  know the vaccine is working…..
  against your better health prospects!
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:24am
- Frank the tank
  
  How would I know – I don’t test anymore and treat as a cold.
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:06am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The people I have spoken to who have had it twice have all stated it was very mild, and threes said they only felt tired
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:14pm
  - KH
    
    Exactly. People vaccinated mostly only get tired. That’s the purpose of the vax.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:30pm
    - Ghost
      
      Most of those hospitalized with covid are vaccinated. I’d say they are more than tired.
      
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      March 20, 2023 1:44pm
      - Overworked
        
        If you consider the population over the age of 55, between 90% and (reading from graph) and 100% are vaccinated, depending on the age band (MoH) so of course there will be more of them in hospital than unvaccinated people. As a percentage of each population though unvaccinated number vaccinated.
        
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        March 20, 2023 7:45pm
      - Ghost
        
        As I said those in hospital were mostly vaccinated and not just tied which the poster claimed,
        
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        March 20, 2023 7:58pm
    - burt
      
      People vaccinated mostly only get tired. That’s the purpose of the vax.
      
      You are repeating the marketing material, there was no clinical studies to back this up and the data from hospitalisations does not support it. Maybe you should think carefully about who’s bidding you are doing by repeating such blatant misinformation.
      
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      March 20, 2023 2:03pm
      - waikatosinger
        
        Some of them get so tired they drop dead.
        
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        March 20, 2023 2:26pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      I find it bizarre there are still people who think this experimental product is “safe and effective”.it’s neither.
      We were experimented on. Medsafe advised the government there wasn’t enough evidence. Ardern, Bloomfield and Hipkins in particular ignored this advice and experimented with the health of the people of this country – they did so in the most tyrannical manner.
      
      https://open.substack.com/pub/cranmer/p/pfizer-vaccine-approval-in-nz-under?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android
      
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      March 21, 2023 7:14am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    G – exactly as should happen as your own immune system works out how to deal with it. But the more shots you have the more likely you are to catch covid. And it does damage to your innate immune system. Basically, whatever number you’ve already had, never have another one. Ever.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:30pm
Matt Long

The Good;
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/northern-advocate/news/nationals-northland-election-candidate-is-maungaturoto-farmer-grant-mccallum/EJFOAHPYV5C45PULSMN2FWAGYY/
The Bad;
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/election-2023-mp-ibrahim-omer-defeats-former-labour-president-claire-szabo-in-race-to-replace-grant-robertson-as-wellington-central-candidate.html
And The Ugly;
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mike-hosking/E37NTIKLKVDCRC7QGZMAYX6QDM/ Crime, economy and health.
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March 20, 2023 8:03am
- birdhaven
  
  Matt King will beat Grant McCallum for the Northland seat.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:10am
  - Matt Long
    
    I would love to see King in parliament but I don’t see him coming 4th in Northland.
    
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    March 20, 2023 8:59am
  - Mike
    
    LOL. At best, his hatred for his former party will split votes from National in favor of the current MP.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:02am
    - Tarquin North
      
      Nobody could be worse than Willow Jean Prime who is the current M.P. Mc Callum is a carpet bagger from Maungaturoto, the locals won’t like that. National should let Matt King win, hopefully he will bring a few more with him. They need to get more pragmatic, King is not their enemy and this is MMP. Unfortunately I don’t believe they are that smart.
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:22am
      - I remember when
        
        Will Willow-Jean Prime’s hardest job as Minister of Conservation be the conservation of Willow-Jean Prime?
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:00am
      - Matt Long
        
        Maungatoroto is in the Northland Electorate.
        The slew of parties that have attempted to enter parliament under MMP but failed, starting with Meurant’s ROC party, illustrates that parties need to band together like the Alliance or United Future if they hope to succeed or develope a close relationship with a major party like ACT has done with National.
        King has avoided doing either, so all the best for him in raising and publicising important issues but let’s just see what the polls show in Northland.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:16am
      - peterwn
        
        How can National let Matt King win? It is the voters who decide, not the party chiefs. The key thing people need to remember is a vote for Matt King is effectively half a vote for Labour. Go figure.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:38am
      - cmm
        
        peterwn: Sorry I reported you by mistake.
        
        How does National let him win? Easy. Make a cup of tea deal with him.
        
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        March 20, 2023 11:24am
      - igm
        
        Luxon needs awakening to this predicament . . . he being the cause of yet another dissatisfied National caucus and supporters!
        
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        March 20, 2023 12:50pm
  - rockape
    
    What’s Matt Kings membership of his party in Northland. Is it anywhere near Nationals at 3,500 ? If not he won’t make it but he may divide the right vote and let Labour in .
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:16am
    - Clownworld
      
      Why vote for the uni party National or Labour? Both push green woke agendas. Both stood on authoritarian principles rather than listen or engage with NZers outside parliament.
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:54pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      He should campaign for electorate vote only. Some chance of getting in that way without splitting vote.
      
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      March 20, 2023 1:26pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    All he will do is split MCullums vote and let the most useless Mp ever back in, how will Northland like that damage?
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:16pm
- artemisia
  
  Wellington Central – looking like Green Party Tamatha Paul. Lots of experience in student politics and as a city councillor. Perfick.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:24am
  - Thought Criminal
    
    She sounds great. She’ll know what’s best for everyone.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:32am
  - Prince
    
    Looks like a dirty deal between Labour and Greens, and a long time in the making.
    – Robertson steps away.
    – Greens pick a city councillor.
    – Labour picks an unknown list member.
    – Greens attack National as racist etc.
    Guarantees another Green electorate seat to ensure presence in Parliament.
    Ties Labour/Greens at the hip as the long-term strategy.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:59am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Greens telling the country they will be in cabinet, that should scare the shit out of any voter
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:18pm
  - virtualmark
    
    So there’s plenty of opportunity for National to pick a stand-out candidate and win the seat.
    
    I’m not confident of the first part of that last sentence though.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:17am
    - peterwn
      
      Robbo only won the seat because of strategic voting by Green supporters. Perhaps Robbo realised the writing was on the wall with this and chose to walk.
      
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      March 20, 2023 10:42am
      - Steve Todd
        
        I can’t believe it! Yet another commenter who simply won’t be told.
        
        As I pointed out to you three months ago, that statement is quite wrong – see https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/12/the_battle_for_wellington.html/comment-page-1#comment-3290571.
        
        Why do you persist in pushing incorrect information?
        
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        March 20, 2023 11:49am
      - Steve Todd
        
        And this, in response to your weak response to me – https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/12/the_battle_for_wellington.html/comment-page-1#comment-3290955.
        
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        March 20, 2023 11:57am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        They may well split each other’s vote and let Nats sneak in
        
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        March 20, 2023 12:20pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Wellington is deranged – most left wing/watermelon electorate in the country is where the most public servants live. And that tells you pretty much everything that is wrong with NZ governance.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:28pm
  - Burtland
    
    Paul is a marxist activist
    
    “we need normal people, everyday people in positions to change things and positions of power … like teachers, nurses, people with a criminal record, people who have been members of gangs before, people who didn’t go to uni”
    
    “We need real people being our decision makers”
    
    Tamatha is ex-uni poli who’s never had a job – she doesnt meet her own definition of a REAL person.
    
    Starts at 16:20
    https://www.maoritelevision.com/shows/outliers/S01E001/outliers-episode-1
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:15pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  The Bad;
  
  Remember when the question was raised…
  “Is New Zealand ready to elect a ‘Gay’ Prime Minister”?
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/9083770/Gay-prime-minister-may-be-a-step-too-far
  
  OK then, well what about a ‘Cleaner’ from Eritrea?
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:27am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I wonder why Claire Szabos is missing selection…
  
  Will she be gifted a high List placing?
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:44am
  - pdm
    
    Maggy – do you think being Jacindas friend is part of it.
    
    Is Hipkins trying to wipe the slate clean of anything related to Ardern?
    
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    March 20, 2023 8:48am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Yes I am very surprised that Szabo did not get selected. I expect she will get a high list placing
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:00am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      She better had. Not too many on the Labour List likely to be elected come October.
      
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      March 20, 2023 6:35pm
  - Paulus
    
    Claire Szabo as ex President of the Labour Party I would have expected her, who is a highly likeable and intelligent woman, would have been able to chose what she wanted – but what has she done to upset the system she ran ? ~
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:23am
    - Steve Todd
      
      Perhaps it simply again puts the lie (after Rongotai) to one of Kiwibloggers’ most cherished tropes – that Labour’s “Head Office” routinely succeeds in imposing it’s favoured outsider candidate on local electorates.
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:13pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    There will be lots lining up as a high list Mp, Robertson, Little, Parker and Jackson
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:22pm
    - Paulus
      
      Isn’t Par5ker supposed to be quitting at the next election ?
      Has a few skeletons too ?
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:46pm
    - Burtland
      
      “Do-nothing” Duncan Webb is already electioneering – ads on electronic billboards
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:18pm
- Inandout
  
  Matt, Ibrahim Omer is a Muslim and if voted as Member for Wellingon Central to replace Robertson will he stick to his beliefs as regards women being one of two genders? Could be a most interesting challenge for his religious standards which I presume are sacrosanct.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:58am
  - Mike
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Could you link please to a description of Mr Omer’s personal beliefs? Otherwise, I might have to assume you think that all Muslims have identical beliefs about gender.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:06am
    - Inandout
      
      Mike, dig and delve, perhaps firstly landing on his FB page. Muslims, especially those from Muslim countries, tend to stick to their beliefs. Change my mind.
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:25am
      - Widogast Corwin
        
        I cannot be bothered searching for his views. If he is a practicing Muslim, it is most unlikely that he is a fan of gay and transgender folk. However, I think you will find that he publicly expresses no views at all on gender and sexuality.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:10am
      - Paulus
        
        Is Omer Ibrahim from the Tampa veseel family ?
        
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        March 20, 2023 12:47pm
      - Ghost
        
        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibrahim_Omer
        
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        March 20, 2023 12:56pm
    - Colville
      
      I think there is a old book you could read on the subject??
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:25am
      - rockape
        
        I would, but I burned my copy!
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:15am
    - RoboRob
      
      Why do you keep asking for links Mike? When people supply them you don’t bother reading them.
      
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      March 20, 2023 10:55am
    - cmm
      
      Mike: This is not Google.
      
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      March 20, 2023 11:26am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Calm down Mike, there’s absolutely no way the good citizens of Wellington Central would ever allow others to perceive them as Islamophobic, is there…?
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:35pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    In the interests of the electorate, Omer should be asked that question by the Fourth Estate.
    
    I bet it won’t happen, though.
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:41pm
- Jim
  
  Hosking and Hipkins: only go there if you like watching a cat mercilessly play with a mouse. With the state of NZ journalism today, it’s the only place the PM gets a thorough grilling!
  There is so much gone and going wrong in NZ which is directly and indirectly attributable to PM Ardern, it’s amazing that the opposition aren’t killing the polls.
  
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  March 21, 2023 6:38am
Bridgenag

Pfizer Vaccine Approval in NZ Under Scrutiny: A Retrospective Analysis
The government’s enthusiastic promotion of the Pfizer vaccine approval in New Zealand overstated the strength of the clinical assessment despite significant gaps in the data.https://open.substack.com/pub/cranmer/p/pfizer-vaccine-approval-in-nz-under?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 20, 2023 8:05am
- Tomtoddy
  
  It would be interesting to know if there was any later risk/benefit work undertaken by Medsafe. It also raises the question whether other jurisdictions like Australia’s TGA carried out risk/benefit work and what their results were.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:17am
- mawm
  
  From your link – “Due to the unresolved concerns and additional quality, safety and efficacy data to be provided at the time of completion of the evaluation, Medsafe is unable to recommend that this product be granted consent…”
  
  So did Dr Jacinda overrule Medsafe? On what basis or at whose direction?
  
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  March 20, 2023 2:52pm
Southern Raider

Last night on TV One they had an article about a 3 or 4 month training scheme to “kiwise” overseas doctors who have migrated here.

Sounds like a positive thing to help the massive health care shortages we have. But
– why only now after 6 years of non delivery
– why only two regional courses and still be in trial mode
– why emphasis on the extra cultural sessions needed

Seems Health sector is paralysed by analysis and focusing on one minority culture over all well being
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March 20, 2023 8:06am
- pdm
  
  ` why emphasis on the extra cultural sessions needed’
  
  These new Doctors may have to treat a Maori Man or Woman with an ingrown toenail one day.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:50am
  - Gravelroad
    
    @pdm-
    Careful – we must be aware that there is a whole range of things that are considered to be taonga to people in certain sections of our society.
    Doctors from wherever must know about this so as not to cause offence (albeit unintentionally).
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:42am
    - alloytoo
      
      Perhaps people in certain sections of our society should value quality healthcare over being potentially offended.
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:56am
- cmm
  
  No, it isn’t kiwi-isation. That would be a broad-based cultural assimilation that includes sausage sizzle etiquette etc.
  
  This is just mono-cultural bludgeoning with Maori mumbo-jumbo that the vast majority of Maori don’t even know about, let alone practice day to day.
  
  Doctors, and all professional people for that matter, have options. They can live and work wherever they like. The very last thing they need is yet another hoop to jump through.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:52am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    You betray your belief system as a racist CMM by believing other immigrants see, or will see NZ in the way you do. Equally you don’t see that you brought your own prejudices with you and expected a different outcome.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:17am
    - Yabster
      
      Brian the old racist because he disagrees with your opinion is pathetic- stop stealing oxygen…
      
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      March 20, 2023 10:08am
  - Burtland
    
    Have acquaintances from overseas – both doctors.
    
    Their assessment was that NZ Heathcare was 1st Class in Cultural Safety, everywhere else its not, particularly in women’s health.
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:35pm
    - mawm
      
      The Helen Clark National Women’s “scandal” that was used to drive men out of health care for women and to introduce direct entry midwives – ie no nursing background needed. I’m not surprised with the outcome.
      
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      March 20, 2023 6:44pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Southern Raider – never forget the health care professionals mandated out of their jobs.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:05am
- NothingLeft
  
  Extended cultural indoctrination sessions for prospective immigrant health workers is a woke purity filter for prospective health sector employees – ensure they are sympathetic, or at least prepared to bend the knee to extreme left wing.
  
  For people of a rational/scientific mindset this may be greatly cutting down on the numbers who will apply for work in NZ, and it should probably work in reverse – people who are prepared to kowtow to such lunacy are probably not the sort of submissive fruitloops that you want working in health sector.
  
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  March 20, 2023 1:42pm
  - artemisia
    
    If they do come, they don’t have to stay.
    
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    March 20, 2023 2:31pm
- Burtland
  
  yes, the person delivering the course had an English accent
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:25pm
bennerg

Guyon Espiner has an interesting article on political lobbying in NZ over at RNZ:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/lobbying/486312/lobbying-firms-earning-hundreds-of-thousands-from-contracts-with-government-agencies

It seems SOEs are paying lobbying firms to gather political intelligence on MPs and ministers – providing them with information about their attributes, vulnerabilities and personal and work lives.

Espiner highlights that New Zealand’s lobbying industry is unregulated. There is no lobbying register, lobbyists don’t have to reveal their clients, there is no code of conduct and no restrictions on how fast they move between top government jobs and the private sector.

Perhaps it’s time for someone to do a “Wayne Brown” on this industry.
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March 20, 2023 8:07am
- Philview
  
  The article doesn’t mention the close association of lobbyists with Jacinda Ardern and Helen Clark but does mention the National Party relationship with the same firm. I would categorise this oversight as misinformation. It implies with further references to Trump and Brexit that the right is using lobbyists to manipulate policy.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:07am
- ClanMcleod
  
  bennerg – no wonder MPs are so compliant. Very few (if any) will not have something they don’t want known publicly.
  
  The uniformity of support (still applicable) among 121 MPs for all of the covid policies still confounds me.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:08am
- Lucia Maria
  
  Auckland University paid $10,000 to Sherson Willis in 2021 but refused to release its communications with the lobbying firm under the OIA arguing they were too sensitive.
  
  Wonder if they are related to covid or the fallout from the seven scientists who challenged NZ’s scientific direction in the Listener. Or it could have something to do with the university not protecting their high profile staff from online abuse.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:29am
  - Mike
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Could be related to something else you hate about Auckland university.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:35am
    - Lucia Maria
      
      Meow
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:52am
- Clownworld
  
  Does the article mention Pfizer’s special relationship to the government and opposition parties too?
  
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  March 20, 2023 1:00pm
Maggie Pie

Can we all at least agree on one thing then, that Jacinda Ardern did everything she possibly could in the last 5 years to destroy the New Zealand we all knew and loved.

And I’m not just saying this for the upticks….i’m serious.
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March 20, 2023 8:07am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  It is all part of the control she desired as a socialist/communist.
  Power is paramount. Unfortunately she did not have the mental capacity to keep up with her spin doctors, hence the continuous lies.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:10am
  - kowtow
    
    When you own the already fawning media you don’t need spin doctors.
    
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    March 20, 2023 8:15am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Needed to write the scripts for Jaspinda and the media.
      Can’t have them asking the wrong questions!
      In Parliament General Debate she lost her way many times – I refude that.
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:53am
      - kowtow
        
        “Jessica , then Tova”.
        
        Never forget , never forgive.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:14am
    - Jim
      
      But maintaining a ‘political ideological deception’ takes far more energy than holding on to real truth, hence (despite deliberately muzzled journalism) why Ardern’s tank ran dry.
      
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      March 21, 2023 7:06am
  - artemisia
    
    Wonder how much Ms Ardern really believed, and how much was weak leadership.
    
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    March 20, 2023 8:26am
    - Master Mariner
      
      I’m thinking more along the lines of a “Useful Fool”.
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:24am
    - Clownworld
      
      “Am I a Muppet or a Puppet?”
      I am sure that line from a Muppet movie kept Ardern up all night
      
      The real answer is she was both.
      
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      March 20, 2023 1:02pm
    - Nickc2
      
      IMO, weak leadership never entered into it! She was a disciple of the WEF and thus One-World-Govt. She only did as she was told and unfortunately for us, she succeeded when she split the nation and turned friend against friend with her divide-and-conquer racism legislation (3Waters, Co-Governance, and Maori Health).
      She also went a long way towards bankrupting the country with her Covid-19 Management and Mandates and for that, the WHO, WEF, UN, and Black Rock will look on her favourably.
      PS: How much of our debt is owed to Black Rock?
      
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      March 20, 2023 2:35pm
      - Clownworld
        
        Agree she is a puppet but either she feigned being a Muppet or she was a Muppet too.
        
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        March 21, 2023 10:07am
  - Lee C
    
    Well, even this Russian commentator has little ss
    postive to say about Ardern her or her Party’ success:
    
    https://youtu.be/C0klPU7iDIA
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:40am
- Southern Raider
  
  At least she can claim she delivered on something. I think even her spin doctors would struggle to find one area of NZ society that doesn’t have dramatically worse statistics than when she came into power.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:15am
  - kowtow
    
    She proudly “delivered” a redefined abortion law .
    Which kills New Zealanders , this from a regime that trumpets it saved thousands ( who were on their last legs and had lived their lives already).
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:17am
- Morry45
  
  Imagine a world where she might be held to account!
  
  44 2
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  March 20, 2023 8:20am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    That is why she ran. Can’t stand the heat in the kitchen.
    
    26 3
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    March 20, 2023 9:54am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Maggie – here’s a big “conspiracy theory”.
  Ardern never acted on behalf of NZ. She was always an agent of the UN and WEF. Her role was to help implement Agenda 2030 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
  
  She is a product of the WEF Global Young Leaders programme and was President of the International Union of Socialist Youth. It’s quite clear she was never here to do what is best for NZ.
  
  Let’s revisit this “conspiracy” in a couple of years when more evidence emerges, though there is clearly more than enough already available to prove this statement is accurate.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:22am
  - alloytoo
    
    I am not usually a follower of conspiracy theories, generally I find that incompetence can account for much of Labour’s failings. However in the past 5-6 years, the obvious and unashamed capture of state media (Not just in NZ, but in most of the English speaking world) by the left, the rise of Ardern, Trudeau and Biden with striking similar agendas and the manipulation of language as a weapon against certain groups have me wondering.
    
    I agree this is worth revisiting.
    
    On the bright side the money is running out, both for socialist bent governments and for woke Hollywood and people are becoming skeptical of doomsday climate change narratives which don’t offer rational analysis or policy.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:19am
    - kowtow
      
      Perversely it’s not just “progressive” regimes such as Turdeau , Ardern and Biden , it’s just about all of them .
      
      In the west so called centre right govts are almost indistinguishable from their “progressive” so called opponents .
      
      Britain , Ireland , Holland leap to mind.
      
      And there’ll be many others.
      
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      March 20, 2023 10:21am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Quite clear to you ClanMcleod because you are wedded to the idea.
    
    5 46
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    March 20, 2023 9:20am
    - Mike
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      I’d bet he couldn’t even name the sustainable development goals, much less explain what is so terrible about them.
      
      5 38
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      March 20, 2023 9:37am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Mike – seriously? I won’t list them, they are readily available with a 1 second google search.
        
        The problem is they are being implemented without any attempt at discussion with the NZ public. It was never mentioned in any electioneering, a bit like co-governance. That isn’t democracy.
        
        There might even be some good ideas among the SDGs, I don’t know, nobody has ever tried to tell me about them. But if it comes from the unelected UN then I’m not really interested. I want OUR politicians to tell me (prior to election) what they are planning to do. That permits me to make an informed choice.
        Apparently in the woke, liberal paradise that NZ is being transformed into, informed choice isn’t permitted. Well, we learned that during the experimental jab rollout didn’t we?
        
        You have a wonderful day in lala land.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:10am
      - Yabster
        
        What do the Adern worshippers think of what Hipkins is doing to her so called legacy?-
        Doesn’t surprise Milk is a WEF fanboy.
        
        26 2
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        March 20, 2023 10:12am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Unfortunately CM, It could not be clearer in my mind.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:28am
  - Clownworld
    
    Well just look where Bloomfield landed next gig. Working with WHO on enacting worldwide legislation where sovereign countries give over control of future pandemics to the UN.
    
    Another conspiracy? Another truth.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:05pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Clownworld – I’ve been asking these Labour idiots for months to tell me what conspiracies they are talking about. Tumbleweed, they all came true.
      
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      March 20, 2023 4:15pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    “Agenda 2030 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.”
    
    It would be instructive to remove those labels, list the main points, and run them past Chris Luxon, Nicola Willis, and indeed the whole National caucus, and see how many they agree with.
    
    You don’t have to be a “young leader” or have been heavily involved in Socialist Youth to be fully beholding to the same ideologies albeit under different names and justified on slightly different grounds.
    
    That’s why most Western democracies are now ruled by uniparties.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:39pm
    - Clownworld
      
      Well said thirteenstars.
      
      7 1
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      March 20, 2023 2:37pm
  - Jim
    
    Question of the day…….
    
    “Ve hav penetrated ze cabinets”
    
    Answers below please.
    
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    March 21, 2023 7:10am
- Cassandra
  
  I don’t think she was Machiavelli, Maggie, just a figure-head with no control over an assertive caucus and its factions. She’s not all that bright.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:24am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Cassandra – I agree “she’s not all that bright”. But she definitely was and is an agent of Schwab and Aunty Helen at the UN. Those were the people for whom she was acting. Those were the policies she was driven by to seek the role in the first place.
    
    It was never about the people of NZ.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:15am
    - alloytoo
      
      If we could ever find a smoking gun to that effect, I would strongly support charges of treason, nothing less.
      
      19 2
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      March 20, 2023 9:22am
      - virtualmark
        
        I don’t think that word means what you think it means.
        
        Read Section 73 of the Crimes Act.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:21am
    - Paulus
      
      But remember Auntie Helen got the UN job because she actually had a good brain, despite everything else.
      Whereas Jacinda does nothave that brain which I do not expect anybody with intelligence will not touch her with your bargepole and she will be around New Zrealand like a bad smell for some time.
      
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      March 20, 2023 10:30am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Helen Clark wasn’t afraid of work, reading up on topics, and of writing her own speeches.
        
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        March 20, 2023 11:32am
      - NothingLeft
        
        Yep – an endlessly wrongheaded woman, but a cunning and effective political operator.
        
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        March 20, 2023 1:44pm
    - david
      
      i’d still like to know the identity of the phone caller from London who obviously made a compelling argument in favour of ditching a decade of consideration, research and planning (AKA The National Pandemic Plan) in favour of hitherto untested, untried, untested, unresearched, heinously expensive, economically suicidal, socially destructive, largely ineffective lockdowns and isolation.
      Too many unknowns for the unprecedentedly most transparent Government ever.
      What a legacy!!!!!!!!!!
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:20pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Yep, must be really persuasive
        
        9 1
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        March 20, 2023 12:45pm
      - Clownworld
        
        “Now zlisten Zardern very carefully I shall zay zis only wance… “
        
        8 1
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        March 20, 2023 1:07pm
      - Nickc2
        
        Does the name Jeremy Corbyn ring a bell?
        
        7 0
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        March 20, 2023 3:02pm
      - Ghost
        
        Well, Daren Hughes rang up and said he was coming home to stand in politics again, quick thinking Jacinda thought “shit, close the borders”
        
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        March 20, 2023 3:06pm
- Jethrod
  
  33 upticks and only 8.36!
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:36am
- Scooter
  
  Jacinda and Mahuta were so poisonous to Labour being re-elected that they have effectively been shut down, sent out to pasture (in Cindy’s case) and no where to be seen. I wonder if the voters will see through Hipkins pretend make over?
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:40am
  - Philview
    
    It does suggest some brutal discussions where she was forced to resign. I wouldn’t be surprised if Nash was involved in this as the media appear to be enjoying piling into him. Someone leaked to the media some aspects of that story.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:13am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      [Mod – debate what is said, not attack the person]
      
      3 28
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      December 20, 2022 9:25am
      - Mike
        
        it would need philu to return in place of Philview to make Kiwiblog properly nutty again.
        
        2 27
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        March 20, 2023 9:39am
      - Yabster
        
        with you and Milkdud it def ups the nutty factor..
        
        18 2
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        March 20, 2023 10:13am
      - Philview
        
        Generally, Kiwiblog offers an opportunity to respond to the MSM. For example, last week the ODT produced an editorial criticising Stuart Nash and also accused the National Party of hypocrisy over Nash and referenced Sam Uffindell. It is not nutty to wonder what the editor is up to by drawing a line between the two men.
        
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        March 20, 2023 11:00am
      - Nickc2
        
        Yep, yep, Nash knows where all the bodies are. That’s why he wasn’t sacked eh?
        
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        March 20, 2023 3:35pm
  - Clownworld
    
    Perhaps like a previous Lableak leader Christopher Hipkins will apologise for being a man followed by the new narrative he identifies as a woman-man. Welcome to co-gender governance.
    
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    March 21, 2023 10:13am
- oldpark
  
  @Maggie Pie 8.07 am
  Even worse her Legacy is being carried on and being enacted by her replacement same old theme.An old record with a new needle . Chris Hipkins, maybe even more cunning and sinister .”Ruling by Fooling”.Check out recent polls where seems he has sucked in 36% gullible fools to practice on .
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:52am
- pdm
  
  Maggie – what is telling is that at 8.52am there are 45 up ticks and no down ticks.
  
  You mus be right.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:53am
- Colville
  
  The best thing about Jacinda was her incompetence.
  If she had Helen Clarks ability to get things done then we would be proper fucked rather than just a bit ragged around the edges.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:32am
  - NothingLeft
    
    NZ IS proper fucked. $100billion in debt added in just 6 years, record 9% current account deficit, 20-30% of kids chronically truant – high percentage leaving school functionally illiterate, health sector on last legs, high inflation, out of control crime, Anti-democratic racist govt being pushed on country. But worst of all; an incredibly ignorant voting population who think that Labour/Green are a good option for next election.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:49pm
- Ghost
  
  No, there was a lot more she could have done.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:57am
- mogg
  
  “Comrades, Comrades, there is much work still to be done”, destroy the family, destroy the church, undermine all traditional values,we are the one source of truth. We must go back to year zero, co-governance is the only way forward.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:57am
- Frank the tank
  
  On instructions from Klaus?
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:12am
- Bill Felt
  
  I have been thinking about this a lot.
  
  I think it is more that she actually believed that she was as good as her supporters told her she was. She did not understand that working 100 hours each week for 30 years in a corporate enables you to develop leadership skills (eg Key, Joyce, Luxon). She expected that her own skills and experience would be enough not recognising that they were inadequate. So she implemented policies that she expected to work and policies that she expected people to follow. However, there are people like you and me who critically appraise things (not just accept an ideology). Over time, as her policies failed and she was shown up as a poor leader, she had to exercise more and more control to implement these policies. Until she broke.
  
  In retrospect you can see that if you wanted to destroy NZ you would do everything she did but I think she was just so hopelessly out of her depth and her supporters were just so blind with red tinted glasses.
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:34pm
- Burtland
  
  the “comrade” video should have been a red flag
  
  instead the sheple thought it was a term of endearment
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:40pm
- mawm
  
  Maggie Pie – you might not be saying this for up ticks but at 109 (6.48pm) surely you have some kind of record!
  
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  March 20, 2023 6:49pm
- Black with a Vengeance
  
  Can we all at least agree on one thing then, that Jacinda Ardern did everything she possibly could in the last 5 years to destroy the New Zealand we all knew and loved.
  ___________________
  
  Yeah nah…I’m pretty sure the NZ you knew and loved was the one the rest of us wished we didn’t know and abhorred.
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:41pm
Scott

I see the forces of darkness, also known as left-wing liberalism, are conspiring to have former Pres Trump arrested, reportedly this week. They plan to arrest him and put him in handcuffs and give him the full perp walk no doubt with the mainstream media suitably alerted to give the event maximum coverage.

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2023/03/19/trump-and-hillary-have-been-accused-of-the-same-crime-but-hillary-never-faced-potential-arrest-n1679660

It’s amazing to me how quickly the United States of America is devolving into a banana republic. That’s one of the definitions of a banana Republic. Once you have power you use it to persecute your political enemies. Apparently Trump allegedly paying hush money to Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 election is sufficient to have him arrested in 2023!

Now I would suggest that Joe Biden, the sitting president, has far more serious allegations against him including his son sitting on the board of a Ukrainian energy company earning $1 million a year while his father was vice president of the United States in charge of the United States relationship with Ukraine. I would suggest that Joe Biden and his relationship with China could well be investigated given that again son Hunter appears to have attracted millions of dollars of Chinese investment. Joe Biden is actively involved in foreign-policy negotiations with China as we speak. How do we know that Joe is not compromised?

But that’s obviously all by the by. The most important thing is what happened in 2016 with former president Trump and someone who is essentially a prostitute. That’s where the Justice Department and the district attorney needs to be spending their time.

Anyone with an ounce of common sense can see this for what it is. The Democrats and their deep state allies are doing their best to take out a political opponent. Because they are worried that in 2024 the people of the United States of America will rise up and again elect him to be president of United States. That’s what this is really about.
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March 20, 2023 8:08am
- Inandout
  
  Scott, the US is well known for legal matters taking years to resolve. Before next election?
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:02am
- All_on_Red
  
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11875521/Elon-Musk-says-Trump-win-LANDSLIDE-2024-Manhattan-DA-arrests-Tuesday.html
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:10am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Scott – most of the western countries are becoming banana republics. NZ is no exception. Canada is a basket case. The UK is a joke.
  Incidentally, all 3 of these 5 eyes countries have leaders who were WEF Global Young Leaders. What a coincidence……..
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:31am
- virtualmark
  
  Scott,
  
  First, no one has been charged with anything yet. Let’s wait and see what actually happens.
  
  Second, the speculation is that Trump will be charged with crimes connected to paying off Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 Presidential election. **Trump’s own DOJ** investigated that, determined a crime had been committed, charged and got a conviction for Michael Cohen, and put him in Federal prison. With lots of references to “unindicted co-conspirator 1”. So it’ll be hard to argue this is a Democrat stitch-up … although no doubt you will still do so.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:24am
  - Scott
    
    Virtual mark – righto then, it’s all on the level. Justice is totally being served. Prosecuting Trump now for what happened in 2016, seven years ago, is really justice being served.
    
    It’s nothing to do with eliminating your main electoral opponent with an election coming up in 2024? Got it.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:49am
    - virtualmark
      
      Scott, it would be helpful if you could write out a list of all the crimes that are not allowed to be applied to Donald Trump – just so we can all plan accordingly.
      
      Or, alternatively, you could agree with us that no one is above the law, not even former Presidents of the United States.
      
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      March 20, 2023 10:58am
      - Scott
        
        Virtual – you honestly believe this is impartial justice? You honestly believe it has nothing to do with eliminating your political opponent so he can’t run in 2024? You honestly believe that?
        
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        March 20, 2023 12:11pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Scott, yes, yes I do.
        
        Let’s wait and see what, if any, charges are laid and then what evidence is brought before the Court. I’ll entertain complaints about stitch-ups etc after we’ve seen all that.
        
        Innocent until proven guilty. But recognising that prosecutors only lay charges if they think they can indeed prove guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
        
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        March 20, 2023 1:01pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    FGS, the main reason Cohen went to Prison was for Tax Fraud and Bank Fraud.
    So far the case against Trump is a Misdemeanor where the Statute of Limitations has expired.
    The NY AG is stretching to make it Federal.
    Most legal Commentators think it would fail.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:58am
    - virtualmark
      
      Red, I suspect it will be hard to get a jury to give a unanimous verdict.
      
      See John Edwards from 10 years ago or so … pretty much the exact same charges that are expected for Trump.
      
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      March 20, 2023 11:00am
      - NothingLeft
        
        Washington DC, New York and Californian Cities are heavily biased towards Democrats in every regard – just look at their electoral results, and to the point where any residual Republicans are silent/furtive knowing they will be persecuted if they speak up. Finding anything like political balance in their public institutions is impossible, they are biased beyond any semblance of rule-of-law in matters political.
        
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        March 20, 2023 1:55pm
    - RichardX
      
      All_on_Red
      
      FGS, the main reason Cohen went to Prison was for Tax Fraud and Bank Fraud.
      So far the case against Trump is a Misdemeanor where the Statute of Limitations has expired.
      
      What is the Statute of Limitations on campaign finance violations?
      
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      March 20, 2023 5:59pm
- Ghost
  
  Trump had consensual sex.
  
  Biden’s own daughter wrote of inappropriate showers with her daddy, who has a sick history of behavior around children. No protests in the streets for an old pedo
  
  Strange place the USA
  
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  March 20, 2023 2:01pm
  - RichardX
    
    Consensual sex is not a crime and Trump will not be indicted for having consensual sex.
    
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    March 20, 2023 5:47pm
Bridgenag

How to restore trust in the CDC and FDA…. Incredible how much applies here

https://open.substack.com/pub/stevekirsch/p/how-to-restore-trust-in-the-cdc-and?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 20, 2023 8:10am
artemisia

Maybe Minister Woods has already commissioned a strategic review of electricity demand and supply alternatives. If so what options were considered and presumably did not make the cut.

How about working out the costs and benefits of reducing electricity use. Was that an option? For example giving every household 10 free LED lightbulbs would cost a tiny fraction of building new generation. Add a free low flower shower head on request to use less water, less electricity.

Too simplistic?

Shades of Ms Clark’s nanny state failure, but free and voluntary is a whole different ballgame.
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March 20, 2023 8:15am
- alloytoo
  
  Has Minister Woods figured out the pumped storage is a Battery that needs to be charged, and if she’s plans to charge it from intermittent renewables (AKA unreliables) which it’s supposed to be supporting then there may be some laws of physics involved and even the Labour Party can’t break those.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:34am
  - Ehlana
    
    alloytoo, you forget, they have Maori science and it is just as valid as “Western” science.
    
    Since you’ve raised the laws of physics, I know a couple of young men of Indian descent pursuing degrees in physics. Is it still Western science when it is studied by Indians?
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:00pm
Lee C

Having taught her tribe how to be divisive, Ardern’s legacy will be a very ugly election.

The ugliness? Accusations of racism.

We’ve already had Trotter, Now Shaw (acusing ACT) and an inflammatory article about anti-co-governance protesters trying to ‘erase’ Maori.

Expect more of this lamentable incitement to violence from the ‘caring’ side of the political divide, is my advice.

Of course, destabilising ‘failed’ capitalism, encouraging schisms and armed violence and revolution is every post Marxist’s wet dream.

Someone is bound to get her ’employee of the month’ badge from those shadowy globalist corporations that appear hell-bent on manufacturing a ‘new normal’.

Competition is tough this week.
Will it be the ‘we just report the facts’ Media?
The ‘I’m warning you of the ugly rise of fascism’ commentator?
The accusations of ‘race-baiting’ Green politician?
The supremely divisive fifth columnist ex-PM?

Ps. Get vaxxed!
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March 20, 2023 8:19am
- Brian McDonald
  
  As at 9.27 28 other [Mod – well at 9.45am the Mod agrees you should behave]
  
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  December 20, 2022 9:30am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    At 9.45 Brian’s post gets sent to the dustbin of irrelevance. Democracy is a wonderful thing when it is permitted to flow……
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:33am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Lee C – interesting isn’t it? The “racist” is the new “anti vaxxer”.
  
  How convenient, no attempt to engage in serious discussion about a clearly dangerous and contentious policy. Take your pick. Either covid or co-governance. The tactic is the same. NEVER engage in debate. Smear your opponent, vilify, abuse and attack.
  We are in dangerous times and it is going to require a leader with strength and courage to call a halt to this madness. But it can all be traced back to Ardern. She created this nightmare and she did so deliberately. The worst PM in the history of this country.
  However currently, National appear to be too frightened to move an inch away from what they perceive is “the middle”. They need to grow a spine and do what’s right, not what the focus groups tell them.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:30am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Its always been this way with the Left, LeninThink and the Modern Left:
    
    In Lenin’s view, a true revolutionary did not establish the correctness of his beliefs by appealing to evidence or logic, as if there were some standards of truthfulness above social classes. Rather, one engaged in “blackening an opponent’s mug so well it takes him ages to get it clean again.” Nikolay Valentinov, a Bolshevik who knew Lenin well before becoming disillusioned, reports him saying: “There is only one answer to revisionism: smash its face in!”
    
    When Mensheviks objected to Lenin’s personal attacks, he replied frankly that his purpose was not to convince but to destroy his opponent. In work after work, Lenin does not offer arguments refuting other Social Democrats but brands them as “renegades” from Marxism. Marxists who disagreed with his naïve epistemology were “philosophic scum.” Object to his brutality and your arguments are “moralizing vomit.”
    
    From “Chippy” to Trotter to Bradbury to Minto….
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:12am
  - Lee C
    
    Yip Yip CM.
    
    The ‘slow march through the insitutions’ has been a singular success.
    
    I think Ardern probably views herself as more of a ‘cosmopolitan’ than as a ‘kiwi’, and as a result, most of her activities played to teh international gallery.
    
    As far as better or worse PM, it depends how you view it.
    
    If you are looking for a dangerous destabiliser who forwards the post Marxist agenda -she’s bee a hige success.
    
    If you
    re looking for someone who left New Zealand in a better state than how she found it – a dismal failure.
    
    IMO.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:32am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Pps. Be kind!
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:42am
- slightlyrighty
  
  Actually, Trotters view of Co-Governance mirrors my own, in that this country allows a say for all groups and that the current push for Co-Governance is thinly veiled seperatism.
  
  He’s actually critical of the push for Maroi Nationalism, and the notion of collective Pakeha Guilt.
  
  https://bowalleyroad.blogspot.com/2023/01/what-is-co-governance.html
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:03am
- MCōs
  
  ‘Very ugly election’
  What a load of bollox
  Neither of the two main parties are at all interested in fighting an election over what are now fringe matters such as covid. Few believe Labour are Marxist.
  It’ll be the economy and what measures should be taken.
  Ardern is forgotten already, let alone by election time. It’s the Hopkins/Luxon show now
  Battle of the Bland.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:35am
  - Lee C
    
    We shall see, Mcos, we shall see.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:43am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Ardern will never be forgotten. She has a terrible legacy and it will never leave her, apart from the few useful idiots who still refuse to see what is in front of their face.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:48am
  - Clownworld
    
    Agree on that point, the WEF made sure that govt and opposition parties moved along from Wuhan Flu Lab Leak as quick as possible. The truth is the first casualty of war.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:16pm
Pavel

So now we’re complaining about a competition not being fair because men competing against women is unfair because a man’s physical size gives them an advantage. Yet if there was a men’s and woman’s division we’d be happy for a man to take estrogen for 12 months and compete against women. Crazy times.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/131506215/prize-money-row-in-south-island-ultra-race-ignites-international-debate
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March 20, 2023 8:20am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Good news! Transgender men can compete against natural women! (and men, but whisper that quietly).
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:49pm
freemark

https://realitycheck.radio/

Has started today. Good to hear our esteemed KB fellow Rodney Hide making sense, with Peter Williams, Chantelle Baker etc.
Spread the word.
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March 20, 2023 8:33am
- Rodney Hide
  
  Thank you freemark. I am transitioning from River of Filth to esteemed!
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:40am
  - Charmaine Hawke
    
    Thank Rodney
    It was a fantastic start to what I hope will be a shakeup in the broadcast media with an organisation not afraid of topics that need to be discussed. How long before you entice Leighton Smith as he has to be on ever thinning ice with his podcast platform.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:01am
- Dougal10
  
  Doesn’t work on my phone . When screen turns off so does this radio.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:29am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Dougal10 – early days, there may be a few gremlins. It works fine on the computer but if you get a chance to message them do so, give them a chance to sort it out.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:34am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  I note that Sean Plunket has been uttering a few little digs at this new platform (e.g. “beware of copycats” when plugging The Platform), but I see the start of reality check radio as a good thing for us all.
  We’ve gone from zero competition to the awful legacy media to two outlets in the space of a year or so.
  I wish them both success. We should support them both as much as we can because the alternative ain’t pretty.
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:35am
ClanMcleod

That was an interesting hour and a half listening in to the new Reality Check Radio.

https://www.youtube.com/@rcr_nz

Mr Rodney Hide, Peter Williams, Chantelle Baker and Paul Brennan. This morning was a basic chat between the four regarding where they want to take their individual shows. It will undoubtedly have much to say re the covid nightmare, but it will not be a single issue show.

I’m very much looking forward to being able to listen to open and free debate after 3 years of propaganda.
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March 20, 2023 8:35am
- Rodney Hide
  
  Thank you Clan. It will be nice just to have politeness and no name calling.
  
  Rodney Hide
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:41am
- Widogast Corwin
  
  I recall that talk back radio station kicked off Peter Williams and Sean Plunkett. I think it has changed its name now. They had the audacity to say on air that Peter Williams had “retired”.
  
  The replacement hosts now talk about serious topics such as ‘what is your favourite variety of pie?’
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:49am
I remember when

How can what is lumped into the general category of ‘racism’ not be considered to be increasing.
Every time there is a shooting, or some one is killed, we instantly think Mongrel Mob.
If it is gang conflict it is Mongrel Mob and Black Power, sometimes Killer Beez.
It is not colour of the skin, it is the colour of the crime!
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March 20, 2023 8:40am
Widogast Corwin

The Mexican MP wants the government to ban Kellie Jay Keen from entering New Zealand because she is a ‘security risk’. The left folk are consistent in wanting to silence anyone with contrary views.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/rainbow-greens-urge-government-to-ban-gender-activist-kellie-jay-keen-minshull-from-new-zealand.html

Remember when Don Brash was banned from speaking at Massey University because he was a ‘health and safety risk’?

The masked MEN who gave Nazi salutes at her Melbourne event hijacked proceedings. They turned up, did their thing, and ran off. But now left are claiming that Kellie Jay Keen ‘supports Nazis’. 😳

Just to recap on what Kellie Jay Keen wants.

1. Keep biological men out of women’s ‘spaces’ eg prisons and locker rooms.

2. No puberty blockers or surgery on minors.

3. No biological men in women’s sports.

That is it. There is nothing Nazi there.

Now some folk may disagree with her. So debate her. Instead these crazed people scream at her and then claim she is a security risk.

It will be a dark day if Immigration New Zealand prevents her from entering New Zealand.
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March 20, 2023 8:42am
- Lucia Maria
  
  Immigration NZ have form – they banned Avi Yemini last year!
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:57am
- spanish_tudor
  
  I went to her Let Women Speak rally here in Sydney. She’s brilliant, incisive, and on-message. We were opposed by a gaggle of sloganeering, morris dancing students with no argument.
  
  The way the Australian media have labelled her “anti-trans” and tried to link her with the far right is shameful.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:17am
  - Widogast Corwin
    
    The New Zealand media will be all over here when she arrives later this week. As I have commented yesterday, she was a life long supporter of the Labour Party in the UK. She fell out with them over her views on trans extremism.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:30am
  - Widogast Corwin
    
    A Victorian Liberal Party MP, Moira Deeming, was at the Melbourne event and spoke in support of Kellie Jay Keen.
    
    She is now facing expulsion from the Party.
    
    https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/vic-liberals-leader-to-expel-mp-over-anti-trans-rally/o5gi0dq78
    
    This is the world we are in. Express a contrary view on climate change, the Treaty or gender and your life can be ruined.
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:30am
    - MCōs
      
      Shock Horror
      
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      March 20, 2023 1:43pm
- Widogast Corwin
  
  Just as I expected!
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/immigration-nz-reviewing-anti-transgender-activist-kelly-jay-keen-minshull-s-travel-to-nz-after-chaos-in-melbourne.html
  
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  March 20, 2023 2:57pm
  - Widogast Corwin
    
    “If Ms Keen-Minshull has to apply for a visa, immigration officials could deny its approval, although Immigration NZ didn’t respond directly to the question of whether it would ban the far-right activist from visiting the country.”
    
    https://www.news.com.au/national/victoria/news/visa-hurdle-for-antitrans-activist-kelliejay-keen-minshull-after-controversial-protest-in-melbourne/news-story/85a2155d9544514d5f241a7d939ef882
    
    Good grief. Now she is a “far right activist”. I guess it is just inconvenient that until she fell out over its trans activism, she was a life long supporter of the UK Labour Party.
    
    I have never heard this woman utter anything “far right”. She is meticulous about staying on script about what she is trying to achieve.
    
    Amazing example of identity politics. Socialists disagree with you. Then you are labelled “far right”. Then you are excluded from New Zealand. Then that smug Mexican MP will gloat about how he saved everyone from hurt feelings.
    
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    March 20, 2023 4:32pm
- Lee C
  
  I would have thought the Nazis would be protesting against her – I recall the National Socialists were pretty hot on experimenting on live humans.
  
  The Nazis and their supporters would have absolutely loved all teh medical ‘purification’ that pfizer appear to have gotten away with.
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:48pm
  - Widogast Corwin
    
    I have never heard the Australian neo Nazis say anything against or for Kellie Jay Keen. It seems they just crashed her event. “Hey Kellie Jay – the nazis crashed your event. That must mean you are a nazi”.
    
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    March 20, 2023 4:34pm
Ehlana

So, the Rainbow Greens would like a speaker banned from New Zealand. Apparently, when she speaks, people protest against her speaking and fights break out between her supporters and the protesters.

Seems like the argument is: “if you exercise your freedom of thought, expression and assembly lawfully, we may behave unlawfully, therefore you should be banned.”

How about those who disagree with her protest peacefully (which means not disrupting her meetings). Or even better, organise an alternative event elsewhere at the same time to positively promote their views.
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March 20, 2023 8:45am
- Widogast Corwin
  
  I am unaware of fights between her supporters and the trans activists. In the UK a couple of her supporters have been bashed as they left the event.
  
  In Melbourne on Saturday, without the police, the trans activists would have over run the women. It would have been a riot. The trans protestors resorted to punching the police horses. Instead of arresting these people, the police asked Kellie Jay Keen to end the event early because they feared for the safety of the horses. She complied.
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:55am
  - Ehlana
    
    On a second look Widogast, even the Rainbow Greens admit that is only alleged that her supporters have assaulted protesters. But they do seem certain that violent outbreaks had happened. I assumed those must have been between her supporters and the protesters, on the basis that those were the only two groups present.
    
    For some reason, the idea of assaulting police horses has never occurred to me.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:22am
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      I would have thought that punching a police horse in Australia would be sure way to get arrested. Apparently not. (As an aside I have never seen mounted police in New Zealand.)
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:39am
- slightlyrighty
  
  It’s called “The Thugs or Hecklers Veto”
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heckler%27s_veto
  
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  March 20, 2023 8:55am
  - graham
    
    I much prefer “Thugs Veto” because it REALLY upsets the people who object to being referred to as THUGS – “How DARE you refer to us as THUGS? We’re not THUGS, we are simply exercising our democratic right to protest and making our feelings known …”
    
    I say, refer to the “Thugs Veto” as often as possible and let these people know exactly how they appear to others.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:11am
- spanish_tudor
  
  I’ve attended her rallies here in Australia. There was no violence, at least not from her side.
  
  Meanwhile in Melbourne on Saturday, the trans activists opposing her breached police safety cordons, punched police horses in the face and belly, and sprayed women with faeces – all because they can’t handle someone with a different view to their own.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:21am
  - Widogast Corwin
    
    And those “Nazis” dressed in black. Were they really “supporters” of Kellie Jay Keen, or were they there to cause mayhem?
    
    The Victorian MP who was there to support Kellie Jay Keen is now being expelled from the Liberal Party because she now has ‘link to neo nazis’>
    
    https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/liberals-move-to-expel-moira-deeming-over-neo-nazi-rally-links-20230319-p5ctgm.html
    
    It is appalling. A woman goes to even to speak for the rights of women. A bunch of masked men turn up and give Nazi salutes. They then run off. So the media conclude that the women there are supporters of nazis.
    
    What the fuck?
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:35am
    - spanish_tudor
      
      The neo-Nazis arrived without warning, and were basically given a free pass by Victorian police. The trans rights activists basically ignored them while the neo-fascists stood on the steps of Parliament and performed the Nazi salute – instead, the trans activists kept hurling abuse at women attending a free speech event.
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:06pm
- Widogast Corwin
  
  It appears likely that they have succeeded.
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/03/immigration-nz-reviewing-anti-transgender-activist-kelly-jay-keen-minshull-s-travel-to-nz-after-chaos-in-melbourne.html
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:00pm
Chuck Bird

I wonder if Luxon feels the same about Shaw and the Greens now.

Asked if he respects the Prime Minister, and indeed likes her, Luxon says, “I do’’.

And it’s not just Labour being dished compliments; he says Climate Change Minister and Green Party co-leader James Shaw is “someone I really respect and have spent a lot of time with’’.

He wants his climate change spokesperson Scott Simpson to have a close working relationship with Shaw and to work hard on a bipartisan approach.

“The background is that I was very much about embracing net carbon zero.’’

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/chris-luxons-desire-to-work-more-with-the-government
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March 20, 2023 8:51am
- cmm
  
  If you zoom out a bit and see that modern politics is really similar to professional wrestling then a lot more of it makes sense.
  
  You’re not going to get anything more from Luxon – with or without the extra t.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:00am
- Widogast Corwin
  
  Luxon is crazy adopting this approach. What is he thinking? James Shaw openly despises the National Party.
  
  So he “embraces” net zero? Can he explain what it means? What is the “net” part? Is it net of land use change? Is it net of the international emissions trading balance? What are the economic impacts on New Zealand?
  
  Or does Chis Luxon understand none of this?
  
  What a disaster.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:02am
  - virtualmark
    
    One option for the Nat’s is to beef up their “blue-green” credentials and try to carve off the 3-4% of the urban population that votes for the Greens.
    
    The Greens will help this strategy by giving Marama Davidson more airtime. The more she talks about raising taxes on the wealthy the more suburban housewives start to question why they vote Green.
    
    I’d also argue that the combo of demographics and voting preferences of Millenials & Gen Z make this a existential decision for the Nats. Unless the Nats build out their “green” credentials they will not win a viable percentage of that younger vote.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:30am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      virtualmark – you may well be right, but the fact that a political party has to consider embracing a lunatic policy is a very sad indictment on the state of our education system.
      How did Millennials and Gen Z get so indoctrinated to the point they believe this without question? I’m not stating as a fact that there can’t be any connection between our activities and the climate, I’m saying that what we are being told isn’t “science”, it’s pure ideology and propaganda.
      
      The same as we had to endure under the covid regime.
      
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      March 20, 2023 10:52am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        The question that has not been faced up to is the cost of dealing with Climate Change. We’ll see how keen the Mill/Gen-Z contingent is when they’re looking at vast increases in electricity prices, plus blackouts, plus a general squashing of the economy (and hence good jobs/wages/salaries( in “solving” this problem – although they’ll probably just head off overseas while still voting for this crap.
        
        I rather appreciated this guys factual, if annoyed, take on things as a True Believer in Climate Catastrophe:
        
        Lester was right, by the way – 80% reduction of global carbon emissions was a precondition for the salvation of a return to the Holocene, but it didn’t happen. I didn’t pursue an 80% percent cut in my emissions in that decade, and neither did you. I am not going to do so willingly in the years to come, not unless the known world collapses around me, and I know no one who is planning to give up all social advantage to become -80% carbon people while all around them folks rush to grab their share of that cheap energy bounty.
        
        Sure, you’ll recycle a little, maybe buy an electric car, get some new lightbulbs, perhaps even vote for a mush-mouthed old-timer for president whose apparatchiks issue nice climate pronouncements, but those “consumer” actions do not undo the damage of the past, and they are not, cumulatively, going to put a dent in those pesky yearly global carbon emissions. How are we getting down below 37 billion tons next year, gang? Ideas?
        
        In that context – assuming Luxon was a very cynical politician – making kissy-face on the “Teal” front makes sense. If these idiots want to believe then take advantage of their beliefs and then allow them to come to their own conclusions slowly as they hit reality. In that respect they’re also like Labour, although the latter have shown more cynicism with their recent 180’s on GHG emission policies.
        
        Sadly I suspect Luxon is not so cynical.
        
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        March 20, 2023 11:04am
      - virtualmark
        
        Clan,
        
        As a general observation … I have no problem with policies that help us live cleaner, with less impact on the environment. And I have no problem with policies that place the cost of externalities on the people who cause those externalities.
        
        But I also think we need to stop wringing our hands and spend more time on thinking about how we will adjust and exploit climate change. NZ can’t materially change the course of climate change – do our bit, but let’s be realistic.
        
        And there must be opportunities as well as difficulties. Auckland will become as warm as NSW. Wellington as warm as Auckland. etc etc. It’s not like we’re going to turn into the Sahara.
        
        The problem we have is that the narrative is being driven by the apocalyptic “woe is me” part of our population.
        
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        March 20, 2023 1:06pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “…making kissy-face on the “Teal” front makes sense. ”
        
        Not even then since all you’ve achieved with your cynical vote-catching is to encourage and enable even worse excesses from your opposition, and as you indulge in ever greater degrees of moral hazard you become that which you are supposedly cynical about.
        
        Luxon’s treatment of Pugh, her apostasy, and her re-education, if it was a calculated move on Luxon’s part to win some votes, it’s backfired since it has greatly disheartened many in his own party and presented less of a clear choice to swing voters.
        
        But frankly, Luxon just ain’t that smart. He’s a true believer, and so, by the way, is Nicola Willis. Be it stupidity or cunning, it hasn’t worked and Labour after five years of shafting Kiwis are looking more and more likely to retain the treasury benches.
        
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        March 20, 2023 1:54pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        A large fraction of general public prioritize peer-group acceptance (trait agreeableness) over coming to your own conclusions – truth/rationality (trait openness). You can see this operating in uptake of religion in all societies around the world, and sadly it is concentrated in women in particular – who receive and acquiesce to indoctrination at industrial scale in ideologically captured halls of education and academe.
        
        Perhaps AI tutors – already being experimented with by the likes of Khan Academy in USA, and that will almost certainly take over bulk of teaching at all levels in a few years – will be able to de-corrupt the education system of this far-left extremism.
        
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        March 20, 2023 2:03pm
  - Paulus
    
    What about the expression “Slowly Slowly catchee Monkey”.
    I would expect that that probably sums up what Luxon thinks of the Greens.
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:57pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      “Slowly Slowly catchee Monkey”
      
      Silly Silly, Losee Electionee
      
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      March 20, 2023 2:48pm
- Matt Long
  
  I have a rescue plan for National, rational members of the caucas form a delegation to ask Steven Joyce to come in on the list.
  Steven takes the leadership, Reti as deputy. Luxon gets new Woke Affairs portfolio, Bishop toxic substances promotion. Willis ummmm, Whip.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:19am
  - Matt Long
    
    Part of the reason National lurched so far to the left this term is the loss of electorate seats. This means list members have the ascendance in the party at present which explains why they have moved so far away from their base.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:22am
    - MCōs
      
      The Nats still have far more electoral seats than list 23/10
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:36am
      - Matt Long
        
        Still, Barbara Kuriger the only farmer in their caucas, Agriculture now passed to another Todd that has even less connection with Agriculture.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:00am
      - Ghost
        
        Barbara shouldn’t get it, and if you need reminding why https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/10/national-mp-barbara-kuriger-steps-aside-from-roles-during-family-dispute-with-ministry-of-primary-industries.html
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:03am
      - Matt Long
        
        Ghost, I’m not arguing for Kuriger to get Ag again, I’m pointing out the shallow pool National has to draw on currently.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:30am
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      Unfortunately, ACT seems to have topped out at about 10 percent. If National/ACT get over the line (which appears increasingly unlikely), I will be relieved to see the back of the current government.
      
      However, it will be a very much muted celebration. I have completely lost faith in the ability or intent of Chris Luxon to reverse the economic decline of New Zealand. He will implement what Wayne Mapp described as a “public service freeze” and knock off the worst aspects of current policies. He will wind back co-governance. Resource management will still be a mess. So will education. The Reserve Bank will be a mess. The media will haunt every move the Government makes. Then in six years (at best) the communists will get in and the race to the bottom will accelerate.
      
      It would be good to see a PM with the willingness to do what is right, even at the risk of being a one-term government. Incremental change will not now save New Zealand.
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:48am
      - artemisia
        
        Evolution or revolution? Voters don’t like revolution – hard to get arms around it and big change is scary.
        
        We have had evolution since 2017 – a lot of change has happened and voters seem to think it’s OK.
        
        Evolution needs an ideology, a plan or both. We have just had the first without the second.
        
        Don’t forget that the government holds many purse strings and tightening them to reduce ‘waste’ will go down well with voters, as witness Mayor Brown. That word ‘waste’ is now appearing daily, with examples. Though the policy bonfire has cut away some of that ground.
        
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        March 20, 2023 12:49pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        We better hope ACT hasn’t topped out and I don’t think they have.
        
        ACT is no more than National circa 1990-93 with a few innovative policies thrown in, so the idea that they are too radical for greater support is nuts.
        
        But it’ll take a correction even bigger than 2008 (and that will surely come) for Kiwis to take a reality pill and ‘fess up to their part in the ongoing demise of this once great nation.
        
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        March 20, 2023 4:12pm
    - peterwn
      
      Electorate seats mean absolutely nothing (except in a very unlikely event of an overhang situation). It is the Party Vote that counts, that counts, that counts.
      
      9 1
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      March 20, 2023 11:45am
      - Matt Long
        
        Party votes determine whether a party gets representation in Parliament.
        Electorate votes determine if local people’s representatives make up the party Representatives, or if they are Party apparatchiks off the list.
        
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        March 20, 2023 4:13pm
    - Clownworld
      
      The real question is..
      
      How did Nat lose safe rural seats?
      
      Oh that’s right just before the election Nat farmers decided to vote for Greens to keep Labour out.
      
      How do the votes get counted?
      
      Do we use voting machines or are we still hand counting them ?
      
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      March 20, 2023 1:33pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        Oh that’s right just before the election Nat farmers decided to vote for Greens to keep Labour out.
        
        I don’t understand. If they are Nat voters and they want to keep Labour out they would just vote Nat (?)
        
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        March 20, 2023 3:18pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    The problem is that it is unlikely that he wants the job.
    
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    March 20, 2023 9:44am
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      No. IIRC he left politics because he had a child who needed his attention.
      
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      March 20, 2023 9:49am
      - Matt Long
        
        And he missed out to Bridges 8n the leadership vote.
        
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        March 20, 2023 10:02am
  - leoj
    
    Luxon and Bishop will lose this election for the Nats/Act coalition.
    
    Both are really leftists wearing blue ties.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:32am
  - virtualmark
    
    I have massive respect for Steven Joyce – smartest Minister I ever dealt with. Big brain, good instincts, asked smart questions, not that ideological.
    
    But to be the front man of the band requires more than a big brain. The leader needs charisma and public appeal. The everyman/woman touch.
    
    National always seem to have a solid bench of Steven Joyce, Christopher Luxon types … smart, capable, get things done. But those people struggle to have the charisma. I’m not criticising – I know I would be exactly the same … smart, capable, get things done, but without the special personality to reach out to all people.
    
    John Key was an exceptional combination of the smarts and the charisma. The Nats board and leadership have had 20 years to find another John Key-like talent. Either it’s not out there, or they’re inept. I really don’t know which of those two options is the truth.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:35am
    - Mark Hanley
      
      The combination of the smarts and the charisma is very rare and those that possess it are already successful, which explains why we don’t see many in politics. .
      
      Rather than criticize Luxon, we should thank him for taking the large income and quality of life “HIT” to take on politics.
      
      Try looking at National’s policies rather than bullshit media stories and political commentators on Kiwiblog clearly aligned to other parties.
      
      Luxon’s state of the nation speech does not mention CO2 or anthropagenic climate change emergency.
      
      The priorities Luxon outlines all make sense to me:
      One – National will curb the rising cost of living.
      Two – National will lift incomes for all.
      Three – National will deliver resilient infrastructure for the future.
      Four – National will restore law and order.
      Five – National will provide better health and education services.
      
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      March 20, 2023 11:45am
      - Widogast Corwin
        
        Delivering those 5 objectives will require radical policy changes. I do not understand what they are. Numbers 1, 2, 3 and arguably 5, are not compatible with Luxon’s stated commitment to ‘zero carbon’. (I don’t even understand how he is going to achieve that.)
        
        Those 5 commitments are laudable, but they cannot be achieved from where we are now without very radical change. So forgive me for being skeptical.
        
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        March 20, 2023 12:29pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        So you are skeptical about official National policy but media and opposition party spin doctors heresay are OK?
        
        Luxon is the most qualified person in NZ politics to bring about change and action in government.
        
        If not National and Luxon, who do you suggest has the qualifications, experience,and proven success to bring about change?
        
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        March 20, 2023 3:19pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “…are not compatible with Luxon’s stated commitment to ‘zero carbon’.”
        
        And there’s the rub, and it reveals much about where National’s collective head is at, let alone Luxon’s.
        
        To believe, at this late stage of the game, that Net Zero or anything even close to it, is doable in the context of raising living standards, etc. is to miss the whole bloody ideological point of Net Zero, that being that humanity, particularly the wealthy Western nations, are a cancer on the planet and that the only solution is to *downsize*, but capitalism does not do downsizing, which is why capitalism is Public Enemy #1 for all Net Zero disciples.
        
        Luxon and many others seem to think they can have their capitalism and eat it, too.
        
        Ship of Fools.
        
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        March 20, 2023 4:21pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        I see Luxon being lambasted for suggesting we count the carbon absorbed in our oceans in our net zero calculations. Looking to balance the equations looks like a great way to meet our targets. e.g., farms are net carbon absorbers when their pasture is included in the equation.
        
        Whilst the more interested/informed/and intelligent know the anthropagenic climate change emergency is the biggest lie ever told in the history of mankind (for the financial benefit of a few), most people buy it and trying to change their minds is a complete waste of time.
        
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        March 20, 2023 4:56pm
    - cmm
      
      The best front-men create space where the best ministers can operate.
      
      Like John Key.
      
      It wasn’t Key that was a firm hand on the tiller during the GFC. It was Bill English. John Key created space for him to operate.
      
      And the same can be said for other Key-era ministers: Joyce, Amy Adams, …
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:52pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Key had English, Joyce, Ryall and Finlayson as top tier talents. Brownlee, Collins, Power and Bridges as very good talents. McCully to practice the dark arts.
        
        Of the current National line-up I suspect Luxon would be one of those top tier talents … as a Cabinet Minister. But who in the current line-up would be the equivalent of, say, Judith Collins? Hard to see them. Maybe Shane Reti?
        
        It seems to me that at the moment National is going through a generational desert of talent.
        
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        March 20, 2023 1:11pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        I will never be a fan of Key. He was responsible for paying one of NZ’s worse mass murders almost a million dollars knowing that he was guilty as the judge from Oz said.
        
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        March 20, 2023 2:13pm
  - Lee C
    
    Was that last bit a freudian slip, Matt?
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:45am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    “Steven takes the leadership, Reti as deputy.”
    
    Good plan. The woke one can have the Woke Affairs portfolio. Then he may learn something. Always said Luxon is a good manager, but not a leader.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:53am
  - peterwn
    
    Changing leadership now would reduce a 49% chance of losing to 100%.
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:42am
    - Ghost
      
      And yet labour changed out little in 2017 just before the election, how’d that work out?
      
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      March 20, 2023 11:46am
  - bennerg
    
    How about bring Wayne Brown in for good measure. With his cost cutting knife.
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:03pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  I have my doubts that this prediction will come true – at least before years of rolling blackouts finally cause the penny to drop…
  
  I predict in 5-10 years corporations will scrub any reference to Net Zero from their corporate website and LinkedIn archives following widespread recognition of the damage this aim has wrought on the poorest in society. Everyone of them promoting it now will deny they ever did.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:17am
  - Master Mariner
    
    It certainly does not bode well when nobody can clearly define how to achieve this.
    I’ve followed some “Road maps” to net zero and certainly can not see any light in how this will be achieved.
    What is it actually apart from wonton destruction of our way of life ?
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:13am
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      I keep asking the same thing. What does “net” mean in this context? Does anyone know? Does Luxon know?
      
      If it means “net of international emissions trading” then yes it is technically achievable. We would need to pay tens of billions to reduce emissions in countries where the marginal abatement cost is lower than in New Zealand (which is most places). Is that Luxon’s plan? Does he know? Do his colleagues know? With agriculture making up more than half New Zealand emissions, what is Luxon’s plan? If it is what these guys came up with, it won’t make a dent:
      
      https://hewakaekenoa.nz/
      
      So many obvious questions. No answers.
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:08pm
    - Ehlana
      
      I think that’s the problem Master Mariner. Green ideology makes for great slogans of the “Mom and Apple Pie” variety – no-one can really be seen to dislike it and be a reasonable human being.
      
      But to actually achieve what people tell pollsters they want would require sacrifices I don’t think people are actually willing to make themselves. So politicians are stuck between a rock and a hard place – people demand that politicians say they’ll act, but also demand that action requires nothing of them.
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:12pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        “people demand that politicians say they’ll act, but also demand that action requires nothing of them.”
        
        It might have been an Ancient or a modern historian, I can’t quite recall, but they said of the world’s oldest democracy: when the people worked out they could vote themselves largesse from the public treasury, Athens was doomed.
        
        Which has always been the problem of democracy: at some point we become our own worst enemies and indulge in wholesale moral hazard, passing the buck and denying culpability when it was we who voted, over time, in our own self-interest while conveniently forgetting that everyone else was also voting in their own self-interest.
        
        “no-one can really be seen to dislike it and be a reasonable human being.”
        
        Yes, they can, and that’s the premise that has to be challenged because it’s at the root of every despicable ideology ever invented. You don’t get to say, this is the way things *should* be but it’s just not practical, it won’t work, so we have to do the wrong thing and accept the guilt.
        
        What is moral, works, and what is not, doesn’t.
        
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        March 20, 2023 6:11pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Go look at Bishops article, he stated it’s a bit rich these Wally’s saying the Nats act would be a racist government, he said we will never work with these smucks, people will have seen that and come off the undecided
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:31pm
Maggie Pie

Remember that strange case involving lawyer Davina Murray?

This is the same woman who fell in love with and married her former client…… convicted killer Liam Reid, who raped and murdered that poor deaf girl Emma Agnew 🙁

Well I’ve just BLOCKED her on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/DavinaLiam/status/1636781074054549504
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March 20, 2023 8:55am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Maggie – apparently an educated lawyer but can’t spell “disdain”. I’m not a grammar pedant, but I find that bizarre.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:41am
lifesgood

Julian Batchelor calls Luxon Luxton….really? He should know better.
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March 20, 2023 9:01am
- leoj
  
  It might be purposeful.
  Luxon is fast becoming irrelevant and worthy of forgetting, hence the “t”.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:34am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Utterly pathetic, I think I heard Peters call him Luxton recently
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:32pm
I remember when

Levelling the playing field- green spaces as vital as infrastructure. Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Report. 16 March, 2023.
Suddenly we have a report on the Urban Heat Island effect and International reports of similar research elsewhere.
It appears that we haven’t really considered possibly UHI outcomes in too much historical depth.
As Roy Spencer Ph.D notes on his Global Warming blog, “very little research has ever been funded to search for natural mechanisms of warming.”
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March 20, 2023 9:09am
- alloytoo
  
  Urban Heat Island effect was in my Geography syllabus in High School in the 80’s
  
  It would appear that many climate change pundits either forgot it or ignored it.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:44am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Indeed..
    
    It was a developing field of climate research in the 1970s-early 1980s..
    
    Modeling the Winter Urban Heat Island Over Christchurch, New Zealand
    https://www.jstor.org/stable/26179554
    
    But all went quiet when the greenhouse gases story began to rise to prominence.
    
    50 years on, we continue to take Temp. measures from built up environments and blame CO2 for the rise in temp…. not the surrounding reflective hard surfaces of tarmac, Steel & concrete.
    
    https://sustaintrust.org.nz/blog/urban-heat-islands
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:23am
    - kowtow
      
      UHI gave the “scientists” the excuse to , cough cough , adjust the figures ……….to suit their narrative.
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:44pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Urban Heat Island Effect is a real thing
  ‘A new study, Corrupted Climate Stations: The Official U.S. Surface Temperature Record Remains Fatally Flawed, finds approximately 96 percent of U.S. temperature stations used to measure climate change fail to meet what the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) considers to be “acceptable” and uncorrupted placement by its own published standards.’
  ‘ The research shows that… these stations are corrupted by localized effects of urbanization – producing heat-bias because of their close proximity to asphalt, machinery, and other heat-producing, heat-trapping, or heat-accentuating objects. Placing temperature stations in such locations violates NOAA’s own published standards’
  
  Remember the ‘Heat Wave’ in UK last year (It was only for two days even though it has to be five to be classed as a Heat wave…)
  Well, that Stevenson Screen was on the edge of an Airport Taxiway at Heathrow Airport next to rows and rows on Brick Tenements.
  Do you think Tarmac, hot Jet wash and how Brick houses might distort the measurements?
  
  Combine UHIE with using good old fashioned Mercury Thermometers to measure the Temp where the margin of error is over 0.5C
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevenson_screen and frankly anyone quoting stats like ‘0.14’ rise etc is being fooled bigtime.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:45am
  - NothingLeft
    
    The problem with UHI is that it produces a long slow rise in temperature at any urban weather station as city grows around it. To the point where eventually the weather station is often moved to a station further from the city centre – where the long slow rise continues. But the high priests of climatology love that magnified artificial rise, and refuse to remove its corrupting effect on climate temperature series – instead of eliminating those weather stations and relying on rural stations that aren’t corrupted, they do the opposite – leaning or biasing towards the urban to the detriment of the rural – even using the urban series to argue that the rural ones are biased/wrong.
    
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    March 20, 2023 2:14pm
Warren

Labours Mental spending projects delayed amid soaring costs, why would you promise these projects five years ago and blame the opposition for not investing enough into Mental Health knowing that it would take years to achieve this goal.

Labour has used Mental Health to smear the Opposition knowing the could not build what they had promised while taking political pot shots at the expense of the previous Government knowing that they couldn’t achieve the goals they had set themselves.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mental-health-building-projects-delayed-amid-soaring-costs/3WVHD2PLDFF23AL5ABW5WJURVU/
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March 20, 2023 9:10am
Ghost

Nearly 200 US banks are vulnerable to the same toxic recipe that toppled Silicon Valley Bank last week, as a series of significant financial wobbles warn of a 2008-style meltdown.

There are 186 banks across the US that could fail if half of their depositors were to withdraw their funds quickly, according to a new study published on the Social Science Research Network.

While the US government insures bank deposits of up to $250,000, these at-risk banks have high numbers of uninsured depositors who the study claims are more likely to pull their funds for fear of losing them.

NZ Herald
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March 20, 2023 9:18am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Some are saying this will help pave the way for CBDC. Strange times we live in.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:42am
- MCōs
  
  There are over four thousand banks in America. None in all 48 states
  There are 27 banks here.
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:49am
  - All_on_Red
    
    In the GFC, almost 500 Banks failed.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:49am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    There are 50 States. Hawaii and Alaska have Banks.
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:24am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Only half? I would think closer to all.
  
  Banks borrow short & lend long. That’s what they do.
  
  Anytime there’s a rush on deposits, beyond a certain point banks need reserve funding so they can cough up. Whether that’s a fire sale of long term investments, a bale out from the Central Bank, a mandated merger with a competitor (qf Credit Suisse) or whatever, no bank has all its funds sitting in cash in the vaults.
  
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  March 20, 2023 1:01pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

What future our kids? Now they can get FREE…
‘Build-your own-Queer-Kits’ 🙁

The kits include….. ‘A chest binder, tucking underwear, an ‘ezi-squeezy’ soft pecker, and condoms. All delivered to your home in discreet packaging so your parents wont know what it is’

https://twitter.com/EITC_official/status/1636955129625853953

(OMG…check out the replies!)
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March 20, 2023 9:30am
- MCōs
  
  Where do you find this stuff?
  
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  March 20, 2023 9:41am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Twitter. Says so in the link. Keep up.
    
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    March 20, 2023 10:47am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      😀
      
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      March 20, 2023 11:52am
    - MCōs
      
      There’s a lot of stuff on Twitter
      Weird tweets like that don’t just surface without someone being in the loop.
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:44pm
Stellaboxer

The real reason that the far left want any debate closed down on any particular subject is their fear of it illuminating how ridiculous their argument is. If they believed in the strength and robustness of their argument they wouldn’t need to protect it from contrary opinion. The truth is that most of the things they push are in themselves merely vehicles to cause disharmony, chaos and societal disintegration. The goal of the far left is to collapse society so that they can rebuild it . It is not and never has been to tinker with a capitalist society and help make it more just and pleasant an experience for its citizens. They are never going to help build a better New Zealand because they fundamentally despise it and everything that it represents.
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March 20, 2023 9:38am
- MCōs
  
  I expect there’s a few people on whatever segment of the political spectrum Trump supporters occupy who would like this embarrassment shut down.
  https://twitter.com/tamieuscongress/status/1637603577358155780?s=61&t=yFkzCNMWRCaVt1p5eRxUog
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:50pm
I remember when

Napier-Taupo SH5 is open for use by general public, 7am to 7pm, from today.
NZTA have no restricts on who can travel the highway, which has 32 damage sites, various states of repair and numerous crews working.
It has been closed for 34 days.
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March 20, 2023 9:46am
ClanMcleod

We’ve been inundated with dire threats of the dangers of the terrible “dis” and “misinformation” that we’ve been apparently exposed to over recent years.
Particularly from those “far right misogynistic anti vaxxers”.

Steve Kirsch has some wonderful advice for the poor “fact checkers” working so hard to protect us from this societal cancer.

My advice to the “misinformation busters” to be more effective
Stop lying to people

Call for information transparency as I have done here. Anyone who is not actively and consistently calling out world governments for hiding the health outcome data should not be trusted. In particular, the mainstream media and medical authorities are silent when it comes to data transparency. None of them should be trusted.

Focus all your efforts on the biggest targets, i.e., the real “misinformation spreaders”: US government health officials, the CDC, FDA, etc. Ignore the smaller misinformation spreaders such as Susan Oliver and her dog Cindy (who is still in training to be a scientist).

Make sure you always present both sides of the story to your readers and let them decide between the best argument from both sides.

Engage the biggest misinformation spreaders in a public debate and ask them tough questions. This is the best way to discredit them in full public view. For example, if you get CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to debate you, ask her how hiding the 700+ safety signals from the public for 2 years enhances public health. People would love to hear her answer questions like this instead of the scripted softball questions she normally gets. Or ask her why they lied to the American people about the stroke risk. The FOIA results clearly showed VAERS noted the risk as well (download the spreadsheet), it wasn’t just VSD. But they claimed to the American people it was just in VSD! Or ask her when the DEATH safety signal triggered in VAERS and why they didn’t notify anyone about it. I have tons of other questions you can ask. Just reach out to me and I’ll give you a list. Ask her why, after the Cleveland Clinic study was made public showing that the more you vax, the higher the infection rate, they didn’t say anything about it. Or use the list from my “Why can’t we talk about it?” article or from my Elephant in the Room presentation.

Feel free to reach out to me or any of my colleagues if you need help. We’re just a phone call away. We are happy to advise you on which statements from the CDC, FDA, WHO, etc. are misinformation. However, in general, government organizations such as the CDC and WHO have been very reliable in spreading misinformation; it’s hard to find anything they’ve said about this pandemic that has been correct. All of us are willing to help you out with this at no charge whatsoever.

Doing just those six things would make your efforts to combat misinformation more effective. And I truly hope you are successful. The CDC and others need to be stopped ASAP.

https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/how-the-misinformation-busters-could?publication_id=548354&post_id=109428268&isFreemail=true
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March 20, 2023 9:48am
Observer of Life

Random T Person: Just checking how you’re getting on. Hope you’re holding up.
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March 20, 2023 10:10am
Loddenthinks

I saw an interesting article last evening, about a lady with an inherited gene that gave her 50% chance of developing a horrible disease. Scientists almost 10 years ago developed a technique called CRSPR, which allowed them to edit the rogue gene to prevent the disease developing.

To consider that our knowledge and understanding (providing it is applied ethically and for purposes such as this, rather then “selecting” for height, beauty, gender etc) of science, biology and the human body has developed to such an extent that we can save lives with such precision, is simply amazing.

And then there’s science’s exact equivalent, matauranga maori. People suggesting that “maori ways of knowing” are equivalent to science is laughable.
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March 20, 2023 10:11am
- virtualmark
  
  It was great to see the work being done to cure amyloidosis.
  
  You might be interested to know though that the same technique is about to get full approval (ie approval, not just trials) for “curing” sickle cell disease. Amazing technology.
  
  Not cheap though … about US$1 million per person at the moment. No doubt it will drop in price over time, and yes you have to put that cost against the cost of treating the person. But a strain on health funding.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:40am
  - cmm
    
    Be careful what you wish for.
    
    For example, sickle cell anemia gives protection against malaria.
    
    While sickle cell anemia can cause early death, getting malaria instead is worse and makes earlier death even more likely.
    
    Therefore getting a deadly diseases can actually prolong your life and “curing” sickle cell anemia might have negative consequences.
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:39pm
Loddenthinks

I’m a bit confused this morning, this time about the cognitive dissonance in an article on $1uffed – https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/131506215/prize-money-row-in-south-island-ultra-race-ignites-international-debate

Organisers of a 100km ultramarathon have put up a prize of $10k for the first person to break 8 hours for the race. Cue outrage from those who are advocating that this is an attack on women, sexist, misogynist and deeply unfair.

Why, you ask? The shrieking is all about how this disadvantages women, because everyone knows that men and women are different. Surely this is heresy! Someone described as “Veteran Kiwi endurance athlete Fiona Hayvice” had this to say:

“Men are physiologically different to women. There is ample evidence of performance differences between men and women in distance running. If someone sets a non-gender specific target, then of course men are going to be more likely to achieve that target,” says Hayvice.

“The organisers are mistaking gender equality for gender equity.”

Er, no, I think the organisers are trying to drum up legitimate interest in their event, and trying to attract the best possible field. Oh, there’s another thing. Last year’s winner (that’s winner of the race overall), was a woman who set a woman’s record of 8 hours, 24 minutes, 3 seconds. The men’s record over the exact same course? 8:21.45, less than 1% quicker. Awkward.
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March 20, 2023 10:22am
- cmm
  
  We’ve all met feminists who wail when they are not treated like princesses. Same here.
  
  Pathetic really. Real feminists are like my long-dead great aunt Eileen.
  
  She fitted her name well – getting polio as a child which have her a short leg, one hand frozen open all the time and a skull defect that looked like she had a golf ball embedded in her face.
  
  She worked as a mechanic and an ambulance driver during WW1. She just got on with it. None of those impediments got in the way of doing things.
  
  The last I saw her, she was in her 90s, carrying her toolbox back from fixing a plumbing issue for the next door neighbours. She said she likes to help old people (though they were in their 70s and she in her 90s).
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:47pm
  - MCōs
    
    “We’ve all met feminists who wail when they are not treated like princesses.”
    I’ve met/known a lot of feminists over the years and none of them act in the way you describe.
    Maybe you should think about why you think that way.
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:58pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      I’ve met a lot of feminists. Most were decent reasonable people. A few were barking mad. Another few were nasty political operators. Probably much the same spread as the general population.
      
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      March 20, 2023 6:24pm
I remember when

Reefton Boxing Club spreads its wings: West Coast Messenger.
The club is all about providing fitness, confidence and well-being to children and youth.
It currently has 15 members, six of them girls.

No matter what your attitude is to boxing, it is certainly an example of overcoming all obstacles.
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March 20, 2023 10:22am
Maggie Pie

We hear later this year, Council will be providing households with yet ANOTHER plastic Rubbish Bin.
It will be a third one – strictly for Food-scraps!

Now imagine every ‘collection-day’ outside this new Apartment Complex on Auckland’s North Shore.
There’s going to be nearly 400 of the suckers left sitting on the side of the street!
Honestly, there’ll be sh*t everywhere 🙁

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1637186963181654016
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March 20, 2023 10:27am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, it appears KO bought the lot and I am glad I live nowhere near Northcote.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:38am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Future slums.
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:30am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Here in The Bay, Maggie, we’ve had food scrap bins for quite some time, a couple of years I’d say. The scrap bins get collected every week, and they can get pretty ripe in summer, I don’t mind telling you.
  
  We put out the rubbish bin every other week, with the second week being for recycling plus glass, so we have 4 different receptacles. It doesn’t really cause me any bother, the wife’s got a good system so she doesn’t get mixed up too often, bless her :-).
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:44am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    It wont worry me either Lodds. We have a private contractor who supplies and collects our bins twice a week.
    Any really smelly food scraps like Indian, my partner double bags on the nite and drives them to a council bin out West somewhere.
    
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    March 20, 2023 11:02am
- kevn
  
  @Maggie… Imagine the bin pickup truck manoeuvring around all the cars parked on the street.
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:06am
- Ghost
  
  We have four, green waste, household rubbish, glass, recyclables. Green is weekly, household rubbish is rotated fortnightly with glass and recyclables
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:22am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Will there be a charge? Buy another sticker to mount around the handle?
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:32am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Doesn’t look like Hamilton mucks around with its recycling
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/300830408/recycle-rort–hamiltons-20k-bins-send-80-to-tip
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:40am
Bullion

Man, Republicans are complete control freaks

During a Florida House Education Quality Subcommittee hearing Wednesday, state Rep. Ashley Gantt (D) questioned her Republican colleague, state Rep. Stan McClain, on his proposed legislation that would restrict certain educational materials used in state schools, which Democrats and critics have likened to banning books. House Bill 1069 would also require that instruction on sexual health, such as health education, sexually transmitted diseases and human sexuality, “only occur in grades 6 through 12,” which prompted Gantt to ask whether the proposed legislation would prohibit young girls from talking about their periods in school when they first start having them.

“So if little girls experience their menstrual cycle in fifth grade or fourth grade, will that prohibit conversations from them since they are in the grade lower than sixth grade?” Gantt asked.

McClain responded, “It would.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/17/florida-bill-girls-periods-school-gop/
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March 20, 2023 10:27am
- Inandout
  
  Bull, some conversations are best left at home.
  
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  March 20, 2023 10:40am
  - Swifty
    
    NZ teachers constantly complain of being overworked and spread too thin.
    
    Is a solution staring at us in the face? Dramatically cutting the ‘nice to have’ subjects to make more room for the ‘must haves’.
    
    I constantly see the calls for the schools to take on more and more – this can’t end well, we must make some tough decisions. Either that or the school day just gets longer and longer over time or that the academic subjects, the essentials like reading, writing and arithmetic get further and further squeezed.
    
    Just imagine what difference it would make to learning outcomes by taking 20 or 30% of teacher’s workload off them in one stroke so that they can focus on the critical stuff.
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:45pm
    - Ghost
      
      How about we get rid of teachers and have all students educated by Microsoft Ai, seems to be as moody as a teacher
      
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      March 20, 2023 12:48pm
    - slightlyrighty
      
      It’s not the added workload, it’s the added Wokeload!
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:07pm
      - Swifty
        
        Heh
        
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        March 20, 2023 3:28pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  Man, people who judge an entire political party on the actions of a small group are playing identity politics, which is lazy and disingenuous at best.
  
  Almost as bad, man, as reporting half-truths and incomplete conversations, which shows bad faith, man. here’s the bit you consciously chose to ignore, to make a half-assed point and smear an entire political party:
  
  “The GOP lawmaker representing Ocala, Fla., later clarified that it “would not be the intent” of the bill to punish girls if they came to teachers with questions or concerns about their menstrual cycle, adding that he’d be “amenable” to amendments if they were to come up.”
  
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  March 20, 2023 6:15pm
Yvette

Sometimes it may be mildly interesting when you Google one thing and find another thingie –

Shaw Plotting Nationalisation Of Whenua Māori
Climate Change Minister James Shaw’s admission that the Government is considering becoming the exclusive purchasers of carbon units from forest owners highlights a clear plan to nationalise the earnings from the Māori green economy and force owners of whenua Māori into a new dependence on the Crown, says Māori Climate Commissioner Donna Aware Huata.

… Commissioner Awatere Huata says the Government must immediately denounce this nationalisation programme.
“There can be no partnership under Te Tiriti when one party holds all the power. Māori will fight this creeping nationalisation at every step, to ensure we maintain control of our whenua for the good of future generations.”

… The potential impact to Māori in terms of lost investment and earnings is estimated to be up to $16 billion.
https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2210/S00062/shaw-plotting-nationalisation-of-whenua-maori.htm

This was back in 11 October 2022, so enough time may have passed now to consider if this is a fine example of “co-governance” – or not
☂
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March 20, 2023 10:29am
- Taieri
  
  Māori Climate Commissioner Donna Aware Huata
  —————–
  
  Are criminal convictions a prerequisite to become the Climate Commissioner these days?
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:31am
  - Paulus
    
    Its a prerequisite for many cushy jobs in all parts of Government especially it seems Maori ones.
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:48pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      The Maori Climate Commissioner role is not a Government role.
      
      It’s just a made-up entity and title…
      
      http://maoriclimatecommission.co.nz/media/a-new-independent-body-that-will-give-advice-about-climate-change-from-a-maori-perspective-to-the-government-has-been-established/
      
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      March 20, 2023 4:52pm
Tony Stuart

Chris Hipkins is going to read the riot act to the Labour Cabinet this afternoon. What will he use as props, a feather, or a wet bus ticket?

Hipkins had a golden opportunity to assert his leadership credentials last week, but instead forgot he has given Nash a last warning and gave him a final warning instead. Nash’s sole punishment will be having to walk a few extra steps to get to seat #20 at the Cabinet table. It’s Labour’s version of Three strikes, where there strikes means you’re in!
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March 20, 2023 10:41am
- BeaB
  
  Being mauled by a mouse as Mark Mitchell aptly said.
  
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  March 20, 2023 1:38pm
- Paulus
  
  New Cyclone Repair tax to be discussed as to who is going to pay for it ?
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:49pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/

Today’s Blog:
https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/the-media-are-now-chasing-but-so-are-the-protesters/

Here we have TV3 6pm news coverage.
The item says “A large line of police separated protesters and attendees at an anti-co-governance meeting in Auckland to ensure everyone’s safety.”
Nope. There were around 13 – 15 Police. That is not a large line. Police were outnumbered 3 – 1 by Maori protesters.
At Massey Uni a young kid said 20 to 30 Police Officers there. That is a lie. Besides, I did not see him at the meeting. I think he is just a media puppet.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/03/police-line-separates-attendees-protesters-at-anti-co-governance-meeting-to-ensure-safety.html

Further down an item about Janet Wilson. She is clearly an activist but does not know it. Says Julian Batchelor is a ‘villain’
The Waipu/Ruakaka meeting is this Friday 24th at 7pm.
Where? Ruakaka Rec Centre, 9 Takutai Place, Ruakaka.
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March 20, 2023 10:47am
Paulus

In Tauranga we already have 3 bins plus one, if required, for an additional price, for garden material.
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March 20, 2023 10:50am
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  We don’t have a council collection but we have a recycling centre. 3 types of glass, 2 types of cans, 3 types of plastic bottles, 2 types of milk bottles, 3 types of other plastic, paper and cardboard.
  
  Who sorts your rubbish because 3 bins certainly doesn’t.
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:25am
Yvette

HelloFresh, the German meal kit company, announced it would stop using coconut milk from Thailand this year, after allegations by the animal rights advocacy group PETA of the use of forced monkey labor in the coconut industry there.
Abby Dreher, a spokeswoman for HelloFresh, confirmed that “out of an abundance of caution” the company had decided not to buy coconut milk from Thailand starting later this year. The decision was made in December and was made public last week.
Walmart, Costco and other large American retailers have halted sales of Chaokoh coconut milk, a Thai brand, but HelloFresh has pledged to stop using coconut milk from Thailand entirely – New York Times [subscribed]

Wait until they get around to the livestock of New Zealand – especially the cattle of Southland sometimes shown hock deep, and often deeper, in mud instead of grass – and our primary industries may be a little flocked.
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March 20, 2023 10:52am
- cmm
  
  “forced monkey labour”. ??Labour??
  Labour implies a human did the work, but then that’s PETA for you!
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:28pm
  - Yvette
    
    So in your English, labour can be donkey-work, but donkey-work can not be labour?
    
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    March 20, 2023 12:59pm
    - cmm
      
      Yup. We call it “donkey work” because it is hard work that a beast of burden should be doing.
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:38pm
- kowtow
  
  They published that story on the wrong day.
  Not April 1st yet .
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:40pm
Jack5

Problems rising with skills (or lack of them) in immigration …

Meat workers says supposedly skilled imported labour is often unskilled, and that the immigrants are paid more than locals.

Skilled meat workers are in short supply in developed countries. The work is tough, and to many people, it’s unpleasant, to put it mildly.

One reaction has been automation, which isn’t easy in the industry because sizes of the raw material vary, making it a challenge for robots.

However, Scott Technology of Dunedin has seen the market gap and is advanced with sophisticated meat robotic tools and sophisticated measurement of animal parts.

That is the way the industry must go, unless the world goes vegan first.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/486329/union-says-unskilled-migrants-at-meat-works-demands-wider-probe-of-industry
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March 20, 2023 11:03am
- cmm
  
  People have been investigating various levels of robotic animal processing in NZ since the late 1980s/ early 1990s. Yes, we’re probably now at a point where a sequence of robots could do the whole operation end to end, delivering packaged product ready to be shipped.
  
  The higher wages are pushed, the sooner that point will be economically viable.
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:24pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Part of the problem is that the man on the sharp end has to be Muslim to satisfy the requirements of the Islamic country customers.
  
  Back in the day, being the man with the knife was a sought after job as it was the best paid.
  
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  March 20, 2023 1:08pm
  - cmm
    
    Can’t a robot be Muslim?
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:39pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Now, there’s a question.
      
      Hey Siri
      
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      March 20, 2023 7:03pm
sirknz

I can’t keep up with the gender ideologues anymore:

https://archive.fo/5175x [$tuff]

Now they’re complaining about a cash prize that favours biological males, but these same people will say that there are no differences between males and females and that you should sleep with a trans-woman just because they identify as a woman, but they can’t even define what a woman is most of the time.

Can’t we just tell them all to kick rocks?
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March 20, 2023 11:31am
- Ghost
  
  Bringing trans into this is confusing since that has nothing to do with this story and female athletes are not in support of Trans woman in their sports.
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:38am
  - Taieri
    
    female athletes are not in support of Trans woman in their sports
    ———-
    
    What’s “Trans woman”?
    
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    March 20, 2023 1:22pm
Maggie Pie

There are some really stupid people out there!

Just heard on ZB News that the Police are hunting for a 36 year-old man with ‘PORIRUA’ tattooed across his face.

Honestly, for the same money he could have had ‘REMUERA’
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March 20, 2023 11:49am
- Ghost
  
  Yeah, but does anyone want to admit they come from Auckland?
  
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  March 20, 2023 11:51am
- kowtow
  
  Mongrel Mob Porirua .
  
  Wanted in connection with a shooting in Wellington.
  
  Impossible , I say ; the gun confiscation made the country safer .
  
  Or were they lying , again.
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:53pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Talk of the evil….twitter-link just popped up!
  
  https://twitter.com/NZStuff/status/1637570163091599360
  
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  March 20, 2023 12:57pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Consider Minister Woods has just approved a further $75m (I think) for additional research about Onslow.

Meanwhile, the UK Space Agency has announced GBP2.9m of funding for Rolls Royce to demonstrate a lunar modular nuclear reactor.

Clearly, we are receiving poor value for our research dollar.

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Rolls-Royce-Wins-Bid-To-Power-The-Future-Of-Lunar-Exploration.html
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March 20, 2023 1:13pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Nuclear, if it ever comes to NZ, will almost certainly be on barges that can be built in foreign ship yards and floated to use point. Then at end of life taken to a distant decommissioning shipyard. Time to build is only a year or two and costs will be far lower.
  
  NZ doesn’t have industrial base or skilled workers to build nuclear plants anyway.
  
  https://www.powermag.com/floating-nuclear-power-buoyant-on-new-prospects/
  
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  March 20, 2023 2:23pm
Maggie Pie

Shouldn’t laugh, but now they’re saying when Zimbabwe Prez Robert Mugabe confiscated the farms from the White settlers and gave them to the Blacks….they didn’t know you actually had to FARM it.

LOL!!
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March 20, 2023 2:30pm
- kevn
  
  @Maggie… Much the same in SA I would say.
  The constructive, resilient white farmers adern wouldn’t let migrate to NZ.
  
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  March 20, 2023 2:47pm
  - Swifty
    
    And Uganda during Idi Amin.
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:27pm
  - MCōs
    
    So who are all those South African migrants in NZ?
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:35pm
    - kevn
      
      @mcos… The same enterprising useful people. Not many farmers amongst them. As you will have noticed.
      
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      March 20, 2023 3:52pm
- cmm
  
  There’s a whole lot missing in this.
  
  The areas that most of the South African and Rhodesian whites settled in and started farming were largely uninhabited and unfarmed. Why was that?
  
  Well SA and Rhodesia are not uniformly suited to subsistence agriculture. It is mainly the Eastern parts of the country which get the most rainfall and provide reasonable crops without sophisticated Western technology like irrigation.
  
  As a result, the Eastern parts of Rhodesia and SA were inhabited (and farmed), but the Western areas were generally uninhabited.
  
  In South Africa the Eastern parts encompass what used to be called Zululand and Transkei – where Zulus and Xhosa have lived continuously – not being kicked off their land even during the depths of apartheid. This is where the Zulus and Xhosa (the strongest tribes) settled many hundred years ago – long before the white man showed up. The Zulu area has been under control of the Zulu king for at least 200 years.
  
  My knowledge of Rhodesian history is limited, but there is some similarity. Most of the black Rhodesians lived in areas called Tribal Trust lands which are fertile lands suited to subsistence agriculture.
  
  In SA (and Rhodesia) most of the white farmers settled in unoccupied (or close to unoccupied) lands. They were unoccupied because they were unsuitable for subsistence agriculture. It was only White Man’s Magic of commercial agriculture (irrigation etc) that made these areas productive. So productive they were the breadbaskets of Africa.
  
  So guess what happens when the white man is kicked off those farms and stops injecting his magic? Subsistence agriculture techniques just do not work. No magic, no food!
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:35pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    https://twitter.com/JamesHeck85/status/1637453505123303428
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:58pm
Widogast Corwin

Sad to see these parents worn down by endless appeals in the Courts over their suitability to foster a Maori child because they are of a different ethnicity 🙁

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/131476321/hardest-decision-of-our-lives-foster-parents-return-moana-to-state-care
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March 20, 2023 2:32pm
- Ghost
  
  Here’s hoping in the coming years this girl doesn’t became another statistic.
  
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  March 20, 2023 2:38pm
  - cmm
    
    Well in many ways she already has.
    She has already been sacrificed on the alter of woke. Perhaps her foster parents can get her back.
    
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    March 20, 2023 3:14pm
- Lance
  
  Oranga Tamariki using endless taxpayer money for very expensive lawyers, to break the will of decent people.
  With the comment by one of the perpetrators, ” They are now focused on picking up the pieces of this colonial experiment”.
  Words fail me…..
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:39pm
  - trout
    
    re: the moana saga: ideology trumps humanity
    
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    March 20, 2023 4:42pm
  - Cinematic
    
    That quote from the lawyer beggars belief.
    
    Where are these colonial people she speaks of? It’s 2023 for fucks sake.
    
    Moana will suffer for the wildly inappropriate ideologies of nutters like that lawyer.
    
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    March 20, 2023 6:18pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Napier’s Oranga Tamariki doesn’t seem to be able to provide wrap-around care for the poor little kiddies that fall into its grasp.
  
  https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2303/S00174/moana-caregivers-bullied-by-bureaucrats-into-giving-up.htm
  
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  March 20, 2023 5:02pm
  - Ghost
    
    So we have one case here where the parents were loving and caring, and that is bad because they aren’t Māori.
    
    Yet we have endless stories like this where children have been failed by Oranga Tamaiki
    
    https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/10/chief-ombudsman-slams-oranga-tamariki-for-handling-of-malachi-subecz-case-says-it-failed-to-take-action-before-child-was-murdered.html
    
    Time to relook at Oranga Tamariki, it doesn’t seem to have children’s best interest in their work
    
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    March 20, 2023 5:10pm
    - Alan Wilkinson
      
      Like every Government entity the first and foremost priority is their management’s best interests. That requires making sure their direction matches the current political winds. Co-governance in action here, pity about the kid. She is just a trophy now to be passed around the winners and then forgotten.
      
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      March 20, 2023 6:36pm
- Gravelroad
  
  So I guess what can be learnt from this is that in some ethnic groups children are little more than chattels.
  It it more important for the child to be with a certain race no matter how badly they might be treated.
  And the authorities just shrug their shoulders and say “so be it.”
  
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  March 20, 2023 6:25pm
Chuck Bird

The Country 20/03/23: David Seymour talks to Jamie Mackay

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/53-the-country-28628176/episode/the-country-200323-david-seymour-talks-111006895/
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March 20, 2023 3:08pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  I forgot to mention that Seymour is paying his own way.
  
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  March 20, 2023 4:20pm
cmm

Stuff says the ministry of health needs to shift from plans into action.

Nope. they need to change PRIORITIES.

How about they stop messing about with all the woke shit and focus on their core mission?

Just like you can have your pudding once you’ve eaten your veges, you can have your poi-waving etc, but only after you’ve actually delivered the medical services.

It’s called Ministry of Health, not Ministry of Poi-waving. Guess what your prime mission should be!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131541847/health-focus-must-shift-from-plans-to-action-to-address-surgery-wait-times
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March 20, 2023 3:12pm
- cmm
  
  PS: Rinse and repeat for: education, roads, crime, …
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:13pm
Ghost

Ginny Andersen new police minister
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March 20, 2023 3:13pm
- Swifty
  
  I have to say that at least she’s got some relevant experience, in this case a good decade in the police.
  
  Unlike of course many, many other Labour Ministers and caucus members who are just lightweights winging it.
  
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  March 20, 2023 3:25pm
  - Mobile Michael
    
    Her decade in the Police was as a Policy Analyst, not a Constable. She’s a career Public Servant, and it shows when you talk to her.
    
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    March 20, 2023 4:06pm
    - Swifty
      
      Understood.
      
      My main point was that unlike David Clark, Robertson, Ardern, Sepuloni, Salasea and a host of others I could name, at least she has some industry and work experience preceding the start of their Ministerial appointments, in Andersen’s case actually with the police albeit in a policy unit.
      
      Please don’t get me wrong, I think we have to go back to the period 84-90 to find some real Labour heavy hitters – the current lot are lightweights, way out of their league, ineffective in their roles to the point of incompetence – and it shows.
      
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      March 20, 2023 4:45pm
      - Jack5
        
        Extracts new Police Minister Ginny Andersen’s maiden speech to Parliament in 2017.
        
        “ I passed School Cert and Bursary Maori. I completed a BA in Te Reo Maori and an MA on the Ngai Tahu settlement. I got my first real job as a negotiator for the Office of Treaty Settlements …
        
        “… I’m proud to come from a long line of socialists. There’s a couple of communists in there as well. Both sides of my family hold strong beliefs in fairness and the rights of workers …
        
        “ … On my father’s side, I would like to acknowledge Bill Andersen. My first awakening to politics was listening to heated discussions around the dinner table about what he’d been up to. He was involved in the 1951 Waterfront Lockout…
        
        “…He was the president of the Northern Drivers’ Union and the president of the National Distribution Union. Bill supported the Ngati Whatua occupation of Bastion Point and organised union support during that protest.
        
        “From 1972 until 1981, he stood for Parliament in the seat of Tamaki against Robert Muldoon. While unsuccessful, he took much delight in letting Air New Zealand staff always seat him next to Muldoon whenever they flew together, always greeting him with a ‘Hello, comrade’. “
        
        Of her work with NZ police, Andersen said: “Police is also the place where I met my husband. My mum gave me very clear instructions that I was to marry a neurosurgeon from Roseneath. I got a dog handler from the Hutt—love you, honey.”
        
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        March 20, 2023 5:12pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        .
        
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        March 20, 2023 5:42pm
      - Swifty
        
        I really don’t understand the psychology of it all.
        
        Anyway you wish to cut or slice it the 20th Century was a heavyweight clash between two opposing forces. Two contrasting ideologies and their performance in practice. For decades they slugged it out to see which was the superior system.
        
        One clear winner emerged with the other collapsing under its own weight of lies, incompetence, terror, bankruptcy, tyranny and millions and millions of bodies.
        
        But here we have NZ Labour Party politicians gladly, gleefully, gaily, pinning their colours to the mast of the failed ideology and hoping that New Zealanders think their heart if in the right place and to vote for them.
        
        I just don’t get it.
        
        They’re sick.
        
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        March 20, 2023 6:56pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Ah – Bill Andersen’s daughter. He was an out & out Commie.
        [Fake news – not his daughter. mod.]
        
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        March 20, 2023 7:08pm
  - kevn
    
    @Swifty… In what role I wonder?
    
    7 0
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    March 20, 2023 4:06pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Studied Te Reo at Secondary school and University then taught it at nite school.
      Worked 9 years for the police….. ‘delivering action plans’
      
      – Beehive bio
      
      13 1
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      March 20, 2023 4:15pm
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        It’s all a cunning plan to give her enough gravitas to stop Bishop getting his electorate back.
        
        12 0
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        March 20, 2023 4:20pm
      - kevn
        
        @Maggie… ‘Action Plans’ with some sort of maori bias I guess.
        
        6 0
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        March 20, 2023 5:55pm
- nathie
  
  Would have though ex-cop Greg O’Connor would have been the most qualified candidate?
  
  Labour’s message to potential supporters and candidates – don’t bother joining the Labour Party unless you are woke, a follower of identity politics or are super excellent at sucking up to Labour’s ruling elite!
  
  16 0
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  March 20, 2023 4:03pm
- greybeard
  
  There can’t be many Labour politicians left by now who haven’t been Police Minister.
  
  19 0
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  March 20, 2023 4:23pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    Inc Megan who was stand in Minister for a few days there have been 6.
    
    Nash, Poto, Hipkins, Nash, Megan, Andersen.
    
    8 0
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    March 20, 2023 6:48pm
- Hugh Jarse
  
  Just shows you how serious Labour are taking the current crime wave. Not. But on the other hand, a good indication of what experience the PM has available to him.
  
  7 0
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  March 20, 2023 7:14pm
  - Ghost
    
    I disagree, I think she is the perfect person for the job and her past experience will mean she will shine
    
    Prior to that, she worked at the Office of Treaty Settlements
    
    Wiki
    
    4 2
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    March 20, 2023 7:28pm
    - Nickc2
      
      So she worked for the Police and at the Office of Treaty Settlements. I would suggest there are a lot of cleaners who can also add such accolades to their CVs.
      IMO, she’s nothing special unless the PM requires Window Dressing standing behind him when on TV and Nanaia Mahuta’s not available.
      
      6 0
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      March 20, 2023 7:46pm
      - Ghost
        
        She’ll be the best police minister to gift the police force to iwi, will help reduce Maori crime rate
        
        4 0
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        March 20, 2023 7:50pm
      - Nickc2
        
        Ghost @ 7:50PM
        Did you mean ‘best’ or ‘first’?
        
        2 0
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        March 20, 2023 7:56pm
    - Hugh Jarse
      
      LOL
      
      3 0
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      March 20, 2023 8:13pm
Alex13

“Foreign Affairs Minister Nanaia Mahuta will travel to China to reestablish face-to-face relationship with Beijing”

There’s a part of that headline that makes me cringe.
19 0
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March 20, 2023 3:37pm
Chuck Bird

THOMAS CRANMER: Pfizer Vaccine Approval in NZ Under Scrutiny: A Retrospective Analysis

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/thomas-cranmer-pfizer-vaccine-approval-in-nz-under-scrutiny-a-retrospective-analysis?postId=5c3efa4f-af59-4033-9ff4-0e706ed7c299&utm_campaign=776f3b32-93ae-4fb3-a788-c4416cea3c37&utm_source=so&utm_medium=mail&utm_content=a738933d-71e9-4f3a-8621-0d0cf5df3d11&cid=5ad2ad14-ab55-4e15-92b1-7b9538cabd9bT
8 2
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March 20, 2023 3:37pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump is ‘very anxious’ of possible indictment.

https://nz.yahoo.com/news/trump-very-anxious-ahead-possible-030012651.html

No he’s not. Key words $130 thousand, Stormy Daniels. A prostitute gold digger. I understood Trum’s lawyer paid her. Trump may have reimbursed him.
So bloody what? Daniels got STFU money.
Trump has dealt to these arseholes before. He loves it. Just playing 5D chess with the media and laughing his arse off!
Anxious my left tit.
8 3
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March 20, 2023 4:28pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Add. Trump is saying ‘come on, do it. It is great for my Election campaign.
  What is ‘adult film actor?’ She is a porno, why not say that?
  Celebrity Stephen King says ‘nobody is above the law’ Here is Trump welcoming the law. Bet he gives them a nice snack and tout of Mar a Lago!
  
  Stephen King should lecture Alec Baldwin about ‘nobody is above the law’ He shot and killed someone while being a fuckwit.
  
  7 2
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  March 20, 2023 4:38pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    nice tour* ffs
    
    5 1
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    March 20, 2023 4:41pm
Maggie Pie

GO WOKE – GO BROKE

Just how much shit is ‘TodayFM’ really in?

Dallas Gurney just resigned.
11 1
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March 20, 2023 4:31pm
kevn

@Maggie… Dallas Gurney, well known only in Auckland?
13 0
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March 20, 2023 4:38pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  YIP! All the staff call him…. “The Gurrrnard” 😀
  
  7 1
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  March 20, 2023 6:48pm
Swifty

Is this another dagger in the heart of New Zealand students, parents and families?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/486357/kokirihia-plan-to-end-streaming-in-kiwi-schools-unveiled

I don’t know, but I hope like hell it’s not.

What I will say is my distrust of both the NZEI and the PPTA is such that any educational change they actively support is generally a bad move for students and parents etc albeit good for the teacher union members.

How many times have we seen them support changes which have contributed to wrecking student learning outcomes, and, drown at birth initiatives that could have made a real positive difference to our educational objectives?

Labour’s neglect of our educational performance over decades really is a national disgrace.

We set our sights way too low, and fail to meet even them.
13 0
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March 20, 2023 5:21pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  From the URL: ‘And kids placed in lower-ability classes are more likely to give up on learning altogether, their confidence shattered’
  
  Ah – no. Quite the reverse.
  
  Surprising that the Teacher Unions want it. Surely it’s easier to teach just part of the bell shaped curve rather than all of it.
  
  5 0
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  March 20, 2023 7:13pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I’m surprised that the Left haven’t called for the removal of “streaming” in sports.
  
  I never got into the First 11 Hockey Team..and I’m sure that stunted my development as a hockey player…
  
  6 0
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  March 20, 2023 9:09pm
Ehlana

From the Herald: “Police say two men approached the pupils of ACG Strathallan on Clevedon Rd in the rural Auckland village south of the city, demanding they hand over their money and mobile phones.

One of the men presented a gun during the robbery.”

So now we have armed robbers targeting school children. Reminder how we are better off under Labour?
20 0
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March 20, 2023 5:33pm
Maggie Pie

My partner arrived home about half-an-hour ago.

Reckons “….he’s got a bad feeling something BIG is about to happen”

Just saying 🙁
7 2
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March 20, 2023 7:08pm
- Ghost
  
  He’s not the only one
  
  4 0
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  March 20, 2023 7:25pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    So you just get home late as well then Ghost?
    
    1 2
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    March 20, 2023 8:23pm
    - PeterB
      
      I have after playing bridge.
      
      1 0
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      March 20, 2023 10:01pm
Swifty

Just posted – Kellie-Jay Keen on NZ events etc

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wT6VW6Du3ic
3 0
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March 20, 2023 7:47pm
- Swifty
  
  Some Aussie politicians are making fools of themselves over Kellie-Jay:
  
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VmFDjUTLChk
  
  Will NZ pollies fall into the same trap?
  
  4 0
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  March 20, 2023 8:39pm
Swifty

Crack up – a Maori stop/go fulla.

https://www.facebook.com/jahden.ghee.94/posts/pfbid0q2rLXn7nJUEgGsfrfZi7g4sjXeHEyChk2RxwYowiwVNnbULrCDJZzWr5NoEqD7Qyl
2 0
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March 20, 2023 9:18pm
Swifty

The Aussies are having co-governance ructions too:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eurx_heMuDE

And with bloody Aussie Labor trying to force it through. Surprise, surprise.
2 0
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March 20, 2023 9:31pm

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