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May 4, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 04 May 2023

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General Debate

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Maggy Wassilieff

Unshackle me.
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May 4, 2023 8:02am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  It’s not easy to unthink that…
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:07am
- Maggie Pie
  
  You guys into a bit of BDSM then? 😛
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:09am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    After 6 years, it’s not fun anymore.
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:13am
    - thirteenstars
      
      Give it a bit longer and you’ll get the hang of it.
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:24am
- slightlyrighty
  
  is Whaiteri your “Safe Word”?
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:10am
  - sirknz
    
    Tell me I’m a bad colonialist oppressor with too many properties…
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:21am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Stop being such a hetero-pessimist Maggy…
  
  (Apparently hetero-pessimism is a thing and worth serious academic research by Gender Studies professionals – it’s all something to do with the end of capitalism I think).
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:47am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    There are professionals in gender studies? Do they wear knotted handkerchiefs on their heads and complain that their head hurts?
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:59am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      Head to the cafe at your local university – it shouldn’t be too challenging; just look for the stacked reading materials on sexuality, politics, online culture and the limits of capitalism…
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:07am
    - Keith White
      
      They’re all Karens and they’re not OK
      They lie awake at night and they vent all day
      
      16 0
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      May 4, 2023 9:09am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Poet and didn’t know it
        
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        May 4, 2023 10:16am
  - Taieri
    
    it’s all something to do with the end of capitalism I think
    —————-
    
    And Climate Change no doubt…
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:23am
- lastmanstanding
  
  IMHO King Charles will be NZs last Monarch. At some point sooner rather than later we will be a Republic with an appointed President. They will be Maori. It will be a White MotherF….. free zone. Unlike the Monarch they will interfer in matters of State. NZ will become a sad little banana republic ruled by a Maori Elite who will seek to extract vengence from Non Maori in particular WhiteMotherF…… for events that happened over 200 years ago.
  These people are to use our former Prime Ministers words Haters and Wreckers. They will seek to destory democracy and private property rights and replace them with a Tribal system where the Tribal Elites own and control all assets within their boundary. We are already seeing this with 3 Waters with regional areas based on Tribal areas.
  Welcome to your future.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:17am
  - Clyde
    
    Sadly, I think you are right. Aided and abetted by Marxists like Ardern and her rotten clique. It doesn’t matter for her as she will follow her socialist chardonnay life style overseas.
    
    There are only two possible paths in the future. One where the screeching demands of rotten racists prevail, and one where they don’t. To achieve the latter this government must be booted out totally. If this is not done, then I foresee violence on a scale not witnessed in New Zealand before.
    
    It is amazing that more people don’t, or can’t see, just where NZ is heading.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:40am
  - kowtow
    
    It’s already here .
    
    Appointed Maori “representatives” on local govt council bodies already over throwing the democratic process.
    
    And no one seems to care .
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:03am
  - sirknz
    
    Just need enough people pointing out that staying as a monarchy costs us next to nothing.
    
    Point out that it will cost us more financially to become a republic than the status quo.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:23am
    - slijmbal
      
      @sirknz – with you – we have a head of state that holds no real power, does not interfere in our politics and costs us a few royal visits every few years. We could easily end up with a none figurehead head of state and problems and extra cost.
      
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      May 4, 2023 7:39pm
  - Taieri
    
    a Maori Elite who will seek to extract vengence from Non Maori in particular WhiteMotherF…… for events that happened over 200 years ago.
    —————
    
    Many members of a “Maori elite” are actually predominantly “white”…
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:28am
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    lastmanstanding
    
    I doubt it. The only way to become a republic is by way of a referendum. I don’t see any likelihood of more than 50% of the population voting for a republic in the next 20 years.
    
    I used to think New Zealand would be a republic well before 2040. That is now only 17 years away and I don’t believe public sentiment will dramatically change toward republicanism in that time. Maybe in another two generations, which puts the issue into the 2050 timeframe, or beyond.
    
    The views of various PM’s on this issue don’t seem to influence the public views on this issue very much.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:35am
    - House
      
      I’m not sure Treaty claimants would want to change to a republic as it is much easier to get a claim accepted by the public when the claim is against “the Crown” rather than “the People”.
      
      Also, we’d lose a public holiday.
      
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      May 4, 2023 1:06pm
    - Philview
      
      If Iwi ever reach a point of revoking the Treaty then it will not matter about democracy if the Courts back Iwi.
      
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      May 4, 2023 1:28pm
    - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
      
      I think you are right on this.
      
      I’d add to the equation, something like 20% of our population was born outside NZ. Unless they are simply passing through on the way to Australian citizenship (quite plausible) they will not vote for NZ to become a banana republic.
      
      Most of these new New Zealanders are keeping their heads down and trying to fit in and assimilate – but the core social hygiene factors matter a lot to them – housing, good schools, good healthcare and good infrastructure, and they won’t be very tolerant of watching it getting screwed around.
      
      Maybe the Jarpies won’t want to be seen opposing co-governance or republicanism because for them it would be a bit of a bad look, but I can’t imagine Chinese, Filipino or Indian NZers being scared off that easily when the stakes are so fundamental…
      
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      May 4, 2023 2:06pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Correct, and I am not a Jarpie, but my Grandfather was!
        
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        May 4, 2023 6:30pm
  - rockape
    
    The worst thing is it’s being welcomed by the Labour Party. And the Greens
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:24am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      The only hope of staying in power, they are imploding!
      
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      May 4, 2023 6:28pm
  - Media hater
    
    A real shame as this beautiful country deserves better than these moronic, hopeless shitkickers.
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    You have been reading http://www.Stopcogovernance.kiwi right?
    
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    May 4, 2023 6:26pm
- Frank Thomas
  
  Methinks what’s her face truly believes she’s Rosa Parks and this is her Back of the Bus moment……
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:21am
- lastmanstanding
  
  I smell a rat. A dirty big Maori rat. I say this was all a set up by Labour and the Maori Party to ensure a Labour/Green/MP victory.The MP will then demand an accelerated Co-governance programme rather than the phased in to 2040 as per He Puapua.
  They will also demand a full blown CGT with only the family home and a modest Kiwisaver balance exempt.
  Their plan is to confiscate assets thru a CGT return a small amount of this to ordinary Maori and pocket the rest ala Mahuta Corp etc.
  You are being played like a fiddle and most of you cant see it.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:36am
  - Frank Thomas
    
    My 2 cents. I see the big winner of this mess being Winston First. This sort of race based politicking is bread and butter to him and he will hammer it for maximum impact. I predict there will be a rise in the polls to NZF and possibly ACT, probably at the expense of Liebour. National unfortunately will be too busy umming and arrhhing to get any traction. The Māori party vote will probably actually decrease as a lot of Māori will actually be disgusted by how underhanded and deceitful they and her have acted together
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:04am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The poll yesterday was bullshit, it had Māori party at 4.5% they will never get anywhere near this, or does this organised coo mean that Māori seats will push MP up towards 5%.
      
      As for NZF I hope he tots in hell, he created this mess, he lied about not knowing about He Puapua, his name is at the top of the meeting of present MPs when it was discussed.
      
      As for Nats humming and raring, they have stated there will be No cogovernance in public services, nothing to hum snd are about, many voters will think hmm, not sure I can risk Labour cause greens and Mp, they may think vote Nats to keep greens and Mp out
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:11am
    - paulscott
      
      That effect to NZ First is occurring now. Also the conservatives have lost 1% recently and after the weird ACT approach on Tamaki ACT will also drop in favour of NZ First. Peters will eat Luxon before lunch time
      
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      May 4, 2023 4:46pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Sad, but yes. Luxon is National Jaspinda – be nice.
        
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        May 4, 2023 6:34pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It’s quite possible, yesterday had a stench of the so called unexpected resignation of Ardern, that whole thing had been planned well before Christmas, there is no way Labour could have had a no mistake hand over if it was all so unknown, remember when they first got into power, these same idiots didn’t even know that the likes of Parker who went off sure not sworn in and his vote for speaker did not count
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:06am
- Lee C
  
  I may do … but only if you ask nicely and call me ‘Daddy’.
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:28am
Yvette

Has Whaitiri gone to the Maori Party or gone from Parliament?

Can any experts confirm… my understanding is that the withdrawal method only works before delivery, not after – Camrybn Brown

I’ve also heard that Finance Minister Grant Robertson spent several hours with the Speaker yesterday. Why? Was he advising him on what to do?
The Hansard from Wednesday shows the Speaker struggling to explain how he can declare she is an Independent MP, but also still a Labour Party MP. – Kiwiblog host David Farrar 7am post

Doesn’t the Speaker now have to display his impartiality by “releasing all correspondence he has had with Whaitiri and the Labour and Maori Parties on this issue.”
Has National or ACT made an OIA request
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May 4, 2023 8:02am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Just more evidence the country is being destroyed by the worst, most corrupt government in history. How bad are National if this shower of shit are able to match them in the polls?
  
  Seriously, consider what they’ve d0ne in the last 5 years, and we’re not talking positive achievements here. We’re talking about their systematic dismantling and destruction or loss of trust in all of the pillars of our society. How is it remotely possible that National aren’t leading them by 10 percentage points? It’s not due to lack of issues to attack them on, it’s an abject failure to do so.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:18am
  - Lara
    
    Because Joe Blog is pretty stupid!
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:53am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Lara – either that or totally dependent on taxpayer largesse for their reward for voting for these shockingly corrupt/inept clowns. What a perverse bastardisation of the ‘welfare’ state.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:03am
    - Paulus
      
      As long as you throw money at him he will vote for anybody who does.
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:34am
    - paulscott
      
      Not so much dumb Joe, more that Luxon is woke, and unelectable.
      
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      May 4, 2023 4:52pm
  - redeye
    
    I left the TV on while doing something else last night. The TVNZ news was on. After they finished the Meka the Muss stuff they spent considerable time reading out government press releases about how good the economy was, and how any downside will be fixed very soon.
    That might have something to do with the polls.
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:54am
  - Matt Long
    
    Could AI replace politicians, with less stupidity and corruption?
    https://futurism.com/the-byte/replacing-ceos-with-ai-makes-sense
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:59am
    - Ghost
      
      A Monkey could do the job better than some of them
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:01am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        Way better looking too…
        
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        May 4, 2023 9:11am
      - Ghost
        
        Speaker spent half an hour yesterday trying to stick a square resignation letter in a round hole. Monkey would have worked out that so fast and corrected it.
        
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        May 4, 2023 9:15am
  - Overworked
    
    “How is it remotely possible that National aren’t leading them by 10 percentage points?
    
    I think it’s because most New Zealanders don’t know what is happening. The media is full of people stuck in adolescence and passionate to ‘make a difference’ rather than report news, and in any case the media has been corrupted by government subsidies. Failing print media were thrown a lifeline by the government and they are not about to bite the hand that feeds them by reporting on government corruption.
    
    The fourth estate has failed us all.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:18am
    - Cantabrian
      
      Unfortunately our changing demographics have a hand here as well. I wonder how many of the recent immigrants, particularly those from Asia and India, know or care about what is going on. Like our young, they will – if they have had any exposure – been told that Euorpeans are bad and the country is being reclaimed by its original owners. I’m guessing that many of the 30-odd percent of non-Pakeha, non-Maori amongst us have no connection with the country we with ‘settler’ ancestors (by which I include anyone who arrived up until the late 20th century) love so much and fear for. If they vote at all, I wonder how many will just go with the current government without looking behind it.
      Regrettably, like Pandora’s Box, what we are going through is irreversible and a change of government will only postppone the inevitable.
      Australia, despite its own developing racial problems, is looking very good.
      
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      May 4, 2023 11:17am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        our changing demographics have a hand here
        
        Indeed they do…and that is why the Push for Co-governance has grown so strong so quickly.
        
        Already the Asian population of NZ equals that of Maori…. Young Asian folk are not going to sit back and see their businesses ram-raided or their bright children overlooked for places in Med, or Engineering schools.
        
        They are not interested in being overlooked by a “bi-cultural” partnership.
        
        Maori realise that if they don’t achieve co-governance /control of natural resources within the next few years, they’ll lose out…as other groups of new NZers begin to assert their rights.
        
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        May 4, 2023 12:58pm
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        I think they are starting to notice, and they won’t be liking it. What they don’t yet appreciate is how much power they too wield at the ballot box.
        
        I guess they also expect all politicians to be venal and corrupt. The difference is that they also expect politicians to only steal some of the pie (“Mr 10%) but otherwise make sure things keep on working.
        
        Third world countries politicians steal all the pie, and the lights go out, and the toilets stop flushing (Zimbabwe, South Africa etc)…
        
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        May 4, 2023 2:10pm
    - Che Guava
      
      “The fourth estate has failed us all.”
      
      In a democracy, the people are (in theory at least) sovereign, and therefore have a duty to inform themselves, which is perfectly possible in the internet age more than ever. If people remain uninformed, it is their own fault.
      
      This is why it is practically impossible to have a putative democracy when so much of the information is curated and censored for certain ends by media that is owned by powerful interests, whether public or private. More than any other factor, media censorship (always dressed-up as being for noble and benign reasons) is completely inimicable to popular sovereignty. If not for censorship and narrative control, the entrenched socio-political status quo would have fallen long ago.
      
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      May 4, 2023 11:24am
  - House
    
    I blame woman’s suffrage for the results of the last election.
    Every complaint about the health system, crime rates, housing and so on I heard from a woman (human with the gear to give birth) I just remind them that woman voters go Labour, Green and Ardern pulled in something in the high 60% or more of the female vote.
    The sooner we disallow such voters the better. //
    
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    May 4, 2023 1:14pm
- Nickc2
  
  Response from the Office of the Speaker.
  
  Due to staff shortages, this office is unable to comply with OIA Requests until after the next election. //
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:19am
- G152
  
  They only obey rules that they wrote and if you question they will write more rules.
  Looks like we’re not in New Zealand any more
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:26am
  - 7kiwi11
    
    Speaking of rules, I noted that Rawiri Waititi wasn’t wearing his hat in the Marai when welcoming the waka jumper.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:07am
- Scooter
  
  Apparently doing a 3 way, in Labour, Independent and Maori Party. Hedging all bets
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:28am
  - Scooter
    
    https://twitter.com/LjahNo/status/1653649520755081216?t=oP4fBL4fkxWVJiRQMTEnCg&s=19
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:36am
- RoboRob
  
  This is just another case of Labours ‘laws apply to other people’ attitude.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:53am
- k1w1
  
  The Speaker insists there was no letter, signed or unsigned (as a response to an implication it was email). Wasn’t it reporte that Meka herself said she had sent the letter to the Speaker? If so, one of them is a liar. Why isn’t the media asking this question? Perhaps they are, but with Meka not taking calls… Assume she ain’t taking salary either, being unanswerable.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:57am
  - Kumbukani
    
    Surely this would have been the course the Speaker should have taken?
    
    Tell Grant Robertson to Foxtrot Oscar.
    
    Contact the Solicitor General seeking legal advice on the implications of the letter and /or emails he had received.
    
    Receive legal advice. Make decision. Announce decision. Release legal advice.
    
    How hard can it be?
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:34am
    - Bob
      
      How hard can it be….
      far too hard for a corrupt government with a now, not very well hidden alternative AGENDA; which does not include the continuation of DEMOCRACY as the rule of law in NZ.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:54am
    - Wayne Mapp
      
      The Speaker would not get legal advice from the Solicitor General since the SC is part of the government. He would take his advice from the Clerk of the House.
      I can’t imagine the Speaker would lie in the House. It would be fatal to his position to do so.
      So if he says he only got an email and not a letter I would be inclined to believe that. Of course the question might arise as to who advised Meka to write the email in the format that she did.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:20pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Meka not taking her salary! Sorry that made me laugh.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:36am
  - Paulus
    
    So Robertson acquired the original letter from the Speaker, and the next one found applies that he can use.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:37am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    The letter certainly exists. It’s in the post …
    
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    May 4, 2023 6:22pm
- peterwn
  
  At the risk of being downticked off this planet, I am going to support Meka and the Speaker on this one. Her intent was clear – she wanted to leave Labour and sit with the Maori Party MP’s and vote with them (whether as an Independent or Maori Party MP does not matter). But she seemed to have botched her notification letter to the Speaker. In such a case I consider that Mr Speaker is quite justified in asking ‘are you sure?’. If she triggered the ‘Waka Hopper’ Act without meaning to do so, it is right that she be given an opportunity to withdraw the letter or other communication and start over.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:25am
  - Nickc2
    
    NO! Never give a sucker an even break.
    Her intention was clearly stated in her resignation from the Labour Party AFIK.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:33am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    I think it would be overly generous, but if she was allowed to retract and Labour agreed it would look better for them at the election. Secondly, I think the MP exposed an unsavoury side by agreeing for her to become the candidate at the election despite that they had already chosen one. I think JT has his hands over that and it is not a good look in a long-term Labour electorate. Labour has become very PC, but calling a spade a spade was a very treacherous act – so far they have maintained a decorum where the late Rob Muldoon would have chucked a left hook and an empty whisky bottle.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:50am
  - Right of way is Way of Right
    
    Sorry Peter, but the process has been deliberately manipulated in order to ensure that the very situation this legislation was drafted to manage will not apply, which has led to a Twilight Zone like moment where Meka Whaitiri is simultaneously an independent MP, a Labour MP and a Te Pati Maori MP dependent on who is asking the question.
    
    While this exercise is largely an academic one, as it does not effectively change the balance in parliament, could you imagine the constitutional crisis that would be created if the Government Majority in the house was a single seat?
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:55am
  - sirknz
    
    Let’s see how that excuse works in other areas of law.
    
    “I’m sorry Your Honour, I didn’t intend to run over the rail protestors in Wellington”
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:29am
    - peterwn
      
      Sorry, this is comparing apples with oranges. Running over a protester is irreversible. Retracting a letter or email which in hindsight should not have been sent or should have been differently worded is quite honourable and proper. It is reversible with no significant harm (unlike a hurtful or ‘objectionable’ communication which can cause irreversible harm). To err is human, to forgive is divine. Meta would have been under considerable stress at the time and that should have been remembered and taken into account.
      
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      May 4, 2023 12:43pm
      - Centrist
        
        Running over a protester is not irreversible. Just as one can drive forwards over them, so too can you back over them.
        
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        May 4, 2023 1:39pm
  - Che Guava
    
    I tend to agree peterwn. While this isn’t a contract issue as such, “parties’ intentions” is the common approach to determining what was and wasn’t intended, regardless of what is in black and white. The Electoral Act isn’t a “gotcha” piece of legislation that sets traps for people to fall into. For goodness sake, where was National’s outrage during Covid and associated actions of the Labour government? My response to this matter is basically “so what, who cares?”
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:33am
    - Phronesis
      
      I agree, but then why the coverup? They could tell the truth but that’s an option that never even occurred to them. They deserve everything they get for poor behaviour all round.
      
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      May 4, 2023 3:53pm
    - peterwn
      
      I remember the Hone Harawira situation when he left the Maori Party (when it was more moderate) to form the Mana Party. He resigned and was re-elected at a by-election. He had to form and register a new party in double quick time and round up the 500 members required. The Electoral Commission fell over backwards to be helpful where it could have been obstructive and scuttled his chances of continuing in politics.
      
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      May 4, 2023 4:53pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  There was lengthy points of ordered over this yesterday, and it sounds like rotten Robertson has been heavying the speaker to change the way
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:13am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Not sure that the Speaker is subject to the OIA
  
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  May 4, 2023 6:19pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Ask JT. He is flexing his muscles now
  
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  May 4, 2023 6:37pm
Right of way is Way of Right

Anyone got the odds on the Deputy Speaker managing Question Time this afternoon?
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May 4, 2023 8:03am
- pdm
  
  Nah – Robbo will be in that hot seat.
  
  An impertinent question:
  Is it permissable to put The Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament under witless protection?
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:30am
  - kowtow
    
    He attended that meeting with the police commissioner over the freedom protest, but they claimed as the local MP , in order that it didn’t look like they were messing with the constitution.
    
    Yet here it is , again.
    
    It’s a pity the average swing voter has a low IQ and even lower interest in our hard won freedoms , because that’s how this regime gets away with it .
    
    Along with a naturally compliant , but bought and paid for , controlled so called fourth estate.
    
    This is literally third world stuff .
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:50am
    - RoboRob
      
      Yup. The police commissioner just met with Local Wellington MPs, who just also happened to be the most powerful MPs in parliament.
      
      That the police commissioner doesn’t have the integrity to admit the truth speaks volumes about the issues internally with the police.
      
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      May 4, 2023 8:56am
      - pdm
        
        RR = David Parker a Wellington MP?
        
        I don’t think so!!!
        
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        May 4, 2023 9:15am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Swing Vote, where Luxon is hunting
      
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      May 4, 2023 6:57pm
hmmokrightitis

Thinking about the current polls and wondering – is NZ in an abusive relationship with its current government, and cant walk out?

Or are we afraid (as I still see quite a few folk wandering about in public masked up) to jump horses, better the devil you know etc etc?

Polling suggests dyed in the wool labour voters could watch Robbo shoot a baby and find a way to rationalise it.

Early Thursday morning pondering over coffee…
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May 4, 2023 8:04am
- kowtow
  
  My worry is that a certain block of voters who consider themselves clever will go to NZF , again, to counter this even bigger swing to the ethno nationalist left , and will make the situation worse , again.
  
  What’s needed , vitally, is a very strong Act voice with the Gnats .
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:25am
  - RoboRob
    
    These ‘smart voters’ always look at Winston and what he says, they ignore the policy and more importantly the people in NZF. The actual candidates are typically left wing people. The concept that Winston would go with National was farcical, as it proved in reality. As I said at the time, I knew some of the candidates, they would have fit in very well in the Labour party.
    
    Remember Winston cares about power and prestige. His goal is to get into power. He doesn’t care about the policies he promotes.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:05am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Maybe, the elephant in the room is still the question, why are National doing such a dismal job in the polls? This should be the easiest election in many years to win. I know the media are biased/bought, but the Nats refusal to attack the opposition on the big issues is bizarre.
      I don’t fully understand the machinations of politics, I find the behaviour of our so called representatives childish most of the time and their failure to call things out quite bizarre.
      
      Maybe National have a cunning plan and are waiting until 6 weeks out from the election to spring it on us. I really hope so, in the meanwhile I’ll carry on despairing for the future of NZ.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:26am
      - Burtland
        
        the poll(s) show Labour’s support comes from women under 50 AND they think government is heading in the wrong direction
        
        Cindies abdication has left them confused
        
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        May 4, 2023 9:55am
      - stewmar
        
        Cm, but the Nats refusal to attack the opposition on the big issues is bizarre.
        
        National attack the Government (not the opposition) daily. Don’t you watch question time in Parliament?
        
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        May 4, 2023 10:06am
      - Paulus
        
        History will show that when a Party make such a gross SNAFU then do not interfere.
        Let them continue to dig.
        Little Chippie will be back shortly after his Royal Sauasage Roll to continue the dig as chief digger.
        Just watch and do not give cause to be accused of interference.
        
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        May 4, 2023 10:42am
      - Che Guava
        
        Nobody watches Question Time, unless they are a masochist. Unless they are attacking Labour in a much more public forum, they aren’t really attacking them at all.
        
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        May 4, 2023 11:39am
      - rockape
        
        The honeymoon is over for Hipkins. Watch for the polls late May and I think you will see National back to a 6% lead. I expect by end May we will see National ACT totalling 50% of the vote.
        
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        May 4, 2023 1:38pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Why? Luxon does not understand politics, or his advisors are Labour Plants
        
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        May 4, 2023 7:00pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        @Che,
        
        Yes they do – to read the body language when watching them!
        Jaspinda frumps down on the seat – childish – see? it works!
        
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        May 4, 2023 7:04pm
    - Bob
      
      He badly wants that elusive KNIGHTHOOD!
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:08am
      - Paulus
        
        Robertson you mean !
        After all he is considered by the poorest patients, who voted Labour, as a great Finance Minister
        (who claim to fame is that he bankrupted New Zealand)
        
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        May 4, 2023 10:42am
  - Matt Long
    
    Certain block, like Don Brash?
    https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/don-brash-national-should-do-a-deal-on-northland
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:19am
    - peterwn
      
      No Way!!!!! If National is going to be split out, far better for Labour to win the seat. Also in the longer term NZF would most probably implode when Winston dies or becomes incapacitated. Last thing that is needed is an ‘understudy’ who can take over and allowing NZF to win a second seat means there is such an understudy.
      
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      May 4, 2023 5:46pm
  - Bob
    
    What’s needed , vita…
    is an honest unbiased MEDIA prepared to stand up as JOURNALISTS, and start reporting FACTS, not fanciful IDEOLOGY.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:07am
    - Paulus
      
      Would not know how to as they are paid to continue to lie – wait for AI then they will all be redundent.
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:47am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        AI is just something else to blame, lefties are NEVER wrong
        
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        May 4, 2023 7:07pm
    - Che Guava
      
      Not gonna happen. So the next question is, what are National paying their PR people for? Pay them to find a way, or get someone else.
      
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      May 4, 2023 11:40am
      - peterwn
        
        National’s PR people are up against a $55M problem. However the closer the election the more attention the media will have to pay to National. It is that point National will open up. However all National MP’s have to be careful not make balls-up’s. Media will go after them mercilessly if they do.
        
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        May 4, 2023 5:31pm
    - Wayne Mapp
      
      Matt
      An interesting perspective by Don. Most commenters on KB are apparently unaware of it, going by the comments today. However, it shows that a number of senior people with knowledge of politics have concluded it is essential to get NZF into parliament if the Right are to have a decent chance of forming a government. They clearly believe that NZF will be part of the Right bloc.
      
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      May 4, 2023 4:36pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Sad as it is Wayne, I think you are correct!
        Does Luxon know how to play Poker? He will need it
        
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        May 4, 2023 7:16pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        National better get ready to get real on Winston and work out a way to welcome him to the tent and get along. They may have to sweat it out over a significant period and eat some humble pie to get an agreement. Having the toxic clown show in power for yet another term can not happen.
        
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        May 4, 2023 8:14pm
  - paulscott
    
    We recognise quite well the record of Peters as treacherous. We also know that he took a pounding over on the left and has had a seismic shift [ Liz Gun interview and other ] Peters described himself as a Nationalist. If Luxon had anything going for him at all this attempt to block the Globalist woke weak crap that an empty brittle shell National is situation would not occur.
    
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    May 4, 2023 5:04pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Peters tells lies – all lefties do.
      Peters also tells lies by ommission, now where have we heard that?
      
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      May 4, 2023 7:20pm
- john1234
  
  It’s the “battered wife syndrome” for voters. We’ve seen this in Wellington for years – those idiots down there constantly complain about loss of roads for drivers, constantly complain about the council pissing away their money on rainbow crossings instead of pipes, yet term after term they vote in not just leftie councils and mayors – now they have themselves a Green mayor.
  Idiots.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:46am
  - Lara
    
    We are supposed to be the most educated. It shows you that degrees don’t necessarily mean common sense!
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:58am
    - Burtland
      
      a degree in nomarxist gender studies is “educated” ?
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:58am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    It’s a good indicator that people are selfishly voting for who gives out the most lollies in the scramble and don’t give a shit about the long term impacts on the country.
    Wellington is a bit like Washington DC, totally out of touch with the country, only kept together by the money flow from the taxpayer via the troughers in parliament and the associated laptop class in the bloated bureaucracy.
    Plenty of parasites and plenty of other parasites sucking off that bloated mass of ineptitude.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:32am
    - Che Guava
      
      “[P]eople are selfishly voting for who gives out the most lollies in the scramble and don’t give a shit about the long term impacts on the country.”
      
      That’s democracy.
      
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      May 4, 2023 11:42am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Tory Mayor.//
    
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    May 4, 2023 7:17pm
- RoboRob
  
  I know of some hard left voters. Trying to understand how they feel about, what I see as, the failure of the current government.
  
  They honestly believe that the issues are endemic and related to decades of poor government. While labour isn’t great, they are trying to fix things unlike the cruel / business focussed Nats. They will once again be voting Labour.
  
  This is why Labour has such strong support in polls still. It’s kind of the Biden / Trump thing, ‘I don’t like Biden but I’m voting for him because he’s not Trump’ (and visa versa).
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:01am
  - rouppe
    
    Sounds like Stockholm Syndrome.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:11am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That’s pretty much my impression of my lefty-voting mates.
    
    Even though most are born & raised Kiwis, they are obsessed with Trump… and interpret any National/Act Policy in terms of USA politics.
    
    It’s really weird.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:18am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Not the same animal!
      Labour don’t have Domion Voting machines, yet, or do they?
      
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      May 4, 2023 7:45pm
  - Inandout
    
    RR, I am old enough to remember when Rogernomics was introduced in the 1980s and how lost for words my Labour workmate was. He became mute when politics was mentioned, whereas a week before he was singing the praises of Lange. This scenario was of course replayed recently with the Covid vaccines fiasco and how most people clam up when faced with the awful truth of how they were duped.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:20am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Inandout – that’s a great analogy. Same here, the community I live in is very small and at a minimum, 70% Labour supporters.
      Of course the vast majority of these have some sort of financial dependency on Labour. This is only matched by their irrational hatred of Trump, or anyone who manages to survive independently of the government bribes. Those people are clearly corrupt capitalists who have taken advantage of the poor plebs.
      There are a few exceptions, very few.
      
      Barring a miracle it would appear that these people are going to help destroy NZ as a functioning country, they will wake up in a decade or so in horror as they realise there is no free lunch and that we have become a mirror of Zimbabwe.
      
      How did their name change work out for them?
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:38am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      “I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour, I did not vote Labour.”
      Becoming sickening! But Labour 30% bullshittery going on, but my friends or the media?
      Sounds like both!
      
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      May 4, 2023 7:52pm
  - kowtow
    
    There’s a huge constituency of relatively well to do middle class NZers who’re totally reliant on tax payer transfers for keeping them in the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed .
    
    The public service . And ancilliary agents; like the media , consultancies etc
    
    Bagging Trump ( and Brexit) is simply their shorthand way of virtue signalling , that they care .
    Notice too , many are greenstone wearing , kia ora greeting , tesla/leaf drivers .
    
    But good leftist Labour voting types they are , they still insist on living in the best neighbourhoods , sending their children to fee paying schools and flying out on regular overseas holidays .
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:43am
    - Taieri
      
      But good leftist Labour voting types they are , they still insist on living in the best neighbourhoods , sending their children to fee paying schools and flying out on regular overseas holidays
      ————-
      
      Just like all those progressive Socialists who enthusiastically accept their knighthoods and damehoods…
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:46am
  - Burtland
    
    the abdication of Cindy has left women under 50 confused by who to vote for – all the women in the media will convince them to vote labour
    
    they are all living in phone world – stuff facebook instagram
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:05am
    - thirteenstars
      
      It’s true. I observe it many times a week.
      
      There was that old joke about a woman driving a car being bad enough, but they become truly dangerous when the car’s full of them because they insist on looking at each other to seek comfort in head-nodding consensus.
      
      Add in, yes, social media and endless free phone minutes and the hive mind goes into overdrive.
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:35am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      You typical far right, nazi misogynist………//
      
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      May 4, 2023 11:02am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Sting support? If yesterdays poll is factual it had Labour at 30%
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:20am
    - Ghost
      
      Sting? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KLVq0IAzh1A&pp=ygUFU3Rpbmc%3D
      
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      May 4, 2023 12:02pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Should have said strong
        
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        May 4, 2023 2:28pm
  - Burtland
    
    to win the next election Nat/Act need a new leader that resonates with under 50s women …
    
    so its a young aspirational woman with a baby or maybe a cute guy with a six pac – think Trudeau, Meloni – anyone from the Womens Weekly trash bin
    
    to quote an intelligent fem with a PhD – “what we dont need is another bald guy telling us what to do”
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:36am
    - Bob
      
      dont need is another bald guy telling us what to do….
      No we don’t..WHAT we need is a worldly wise intelligent PM with proven real world experience in management, rationalisation and ability to analyse information; sorting and discarding the abundance of chaff, from the the few fertile grains of wheat information facts that are left, with which to develop the country for ALL the residents benefit.
      Something that we haven’t had for about six years!
      
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      May 4, 2023 1:19pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Who was the last bald PM? Mike Moore or Rob Muldoon, I guess.
      
      Not what you’d call recent.
      
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      May 4, 2023 6:32pm
  - Paulus
    
    It would appear that they are possibly mainly middle class, overweight, well paid, women who love Ardern still to stupidity and can never find themselves to vote otherwise.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:50am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Male farmers are looking at their Wives strangely these days
      
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      May 4, 2023 7:56pm
- Keith White
  
  No need to shoot babies when NZ law allows babies to be killed all the way up till 40 weeks’ gestation as long as …”If you are more than 20 weeks pregnant, you will need to see a health practitioner. The health practitioner will need to consult a second health practitioner, and decide whether an abortion is clinically appropriate.”
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:12am
  - Che Guava
    
    If people were already married when they were having sex, then abortion wouldn’t even be an issue. Abortion on demand is really just a symptom of so-called sexual liberation. Like many issues, get rid of the few root causes, and the multifarious flow-ons disappear as well.
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:47am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      American post abortion is the pits, disgusting
      
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      May 4, 2023 7:58pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        Well, NZ’s abortion law is far worse. We elevate it to a nationwide level. One murder fits all, so to speak.
        
        In the US since the revocation of Rowe v Wade, states have the choice, and many choose sanity.
        
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        May 4, 2023 8:13pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    Yet tell the woke that there’s nothing stopping the murder of a 35-week-old baby and they’ll utter some nonsense about extreme circumstances, mother’s life, etc. when in fact the law allows a termination at that point for *no other reason* than the mental health of the mother.
    
    Now, I’m one of those that thinks up to a certain point in pregnancy we are not discussing a human baby and that abortion should be up to the woman, but there is a grey area in which the cutoff operates and we must always err on the side of caution, but you can say with certainty that at some point a human baby exists and it is most certainly murder to end that pregnancy.
    
    What the law actually says is this: if a couple of doctors should authorise a termination one day before natural birth, it is legal. Yet if one day later the child is born, it is murder to end its life by exactly the same means the termination would have been performed just one day before.
    
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    May 4, 2023 7:01pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Liberalism is a mental disorder – client and doctors
      
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      May 4, 2023 8:02pm
- Bob
  
  Once inflation really begins to bite, and unemployment becomes a breakfast table reality for many; MANy will probably look up from their navel, and notice that the real world horizon has retracted some distance further from NZ
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:05am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The poll yesterday had Labour at 30% hardly the stuff of holding government, one thing the poll did show was people saying the country is heading in the wrong direction was up, the poll for better or worse in the next 12 months was well down to the worse. Chipkins gloss has well snd truly warn off
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:17am
slightlyrighty

Thomas Sowell, the African American Conservative academic, has noted that those in minority communities that appoint themselves leaders seldom achieve any improvement for the communities they purport to lead.

Te Pati Maori is a prime example of this.

They strive to create a culture of collective victimhood for themselves and collective guilt in those they paint as oppressors.

Meka Whaiteri would be one hell of a case study.
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May 4, 2023 8:09am
Scooter

Will Hipkins cancel future overseas trips for fear more will jump ship while he’s away?
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May 4, 2023 8:13am
- Ghost
  
  I’m surprised that someone jumped ship, I expected that when he was overseas Mahuta would stab him in the back and go for leadership
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:23am
  - Bob
    
    Mahuta would stab him…..
    watch that space during the next week.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:14am
- pdm
  
  Scooter.
  
  Doubt it. Hipkins is already learning pidgin for his forthcoming trip to meet Doddery Old Joe Biden in Papua New Guinea in a few weeks – July I think.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:33am
  - Dr John
    
    pdm: Chippy doesn’t need to go to PNG to learn pidgin. We already speak pidgin in what was New Zealand. It started with the conversion of ‘family’ to ‘whanau’ and has now spread to a bucket full of real or imagined ‘Maori’ words. Like kawhe is coffee, kirikiti is cricket. The list is endless and growing [I know, that sentence is contradictory, but so are most things in our new language]
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:44am
    - Ehlana
      
      I think kirikiti is the Maori form of kilikiti, or Pacific Island Cricket.
      
      It makes sense that many words in Maori will be versions of English words, as Maori would first have encountered the objects or concepts in their contact with the English. Similarly, English people adopted local place names and other words from Maori.
      In both cases, after many years of pronunciation by speakers of another language the word can sound quite different. For some reason this is only considered offensive mispronunciation when its done by non-Maori people.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:10am
      - pdm
        
        kirikiti is Samoan.
        
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        May 4, 2023 9:21am
    - pdm
      
      Dr. have you heard the people of Papua New Guinea speaking pidgin. The people were from Lae.
      
      I have, albeit some years ago and it was fascinating to listen to a group of 3 or 4 talk among themselves. They did it to show a few of us how it went.
      
      A whole lot better than the bastardisation of English and Maori we currently have being attempted in New Zealand mostly by Pakeha activists.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:20am
      - lifesgood
        
        My favourite pidgin is “No walkem back” for jandals…so apt.
        
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        May 4, 2023 10:16am
      - rockape
        
        Test for understanding of Bislama, Vanuatu pigeon.Clue it’s a three letter word. Him big him got teeth, he come he go he kill wood dead.
        
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        May 4, 2023 1:50pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        ? Saw
        
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        May 4, 2023 3:54pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Hawaii is similar, but they don’t force it!
        
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        May 4, 2023 8:18pm
Matt Long

Someone at the Herald believes the era of Te Pati Maori ascendency has come.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/willie-jackson-says-game-on-to-win-seat-after-meka-whaitiris-shock-defection-from-labour-to-maori-party-opening-up-ikaroa-rawhiti/ZP2WVXGDBFH2BHZYI33RLUIXPU/
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May 4, 2023 8:14am
- Matt Long
  
  When I see ethno Marxist states, I see poverty and crime, failure of infrastructure and eventually a failed state.
  The ethnic elites see gold toilet seats.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:16am
  - thirteenstars
    
    You are correct.
    
    Zimbabwe comes to mind. Speak to any Zimbawean immigrant to NZ, of which there are many going back a couple of decades now, and they will tell you the horrible truth.
    
    I think we all just shrug our shoulders at the Zimbabwes of the world and say, well, that’s Africa, and it’s the inevitable result of the cultural history of that place.
    
    But NZ might very well become the first example of a once-wealthy, First World country committing suicide, sacrificing itself upon the altar of apathy, angst, and ultimately, cowardice.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:46am
Michael J Baker

There have been some unsettling questions emerging lately. One of them is ‘to who are Māori politicians and public servants loyal to?’ If I said ‘I’m unapologetically loyal to Caucasians, I’d possibly lose my job or be kicked out of a parliamentary party. Now, I appreciate that Māori are a legitimate political group, and that it’s “ok” for individuals to be loyal to their political group. But the overlap of ‘legitimate political group’ and ‘ethnic group’ makes this issue concerning.
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May 4, 2023 8:18am
- RoboRob
  
  I was wondering this morning if someone should start a ‘NOT Maori party’. A party that looks after the rights of everyone not Maori to ensure they are not eroded. Fighting for the English interpretation of the Treaty.
  
  Obviously fighting against co governance, Maori seats, Maori only access to health and jumping entry requirements into courses would be key policy issues.
  
  Such a party would also highlight the irony of having a Maori party. I am sure that would be lost on the academics however 😊
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:11am
Right of way is Way of Right

A quote from John Tamihere on Meka Whaitiri.
“She is crossing the bridge to her own emancipation.”

Emancipation???

Only in New Zealand could a Cabinet Minister in the Government, an actual member of the ruling class of the country, claim to be so discriminated against that her low handed and deceitful exit from the party can be claimed as some form of emancipation.

She was a Cabinet Minister, not a slave!

They need to look up the meaning of the word emancipation, and while they’re at it, they can also look up the meaning of the word ‘compromise’.
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May 4, 2023 8:22am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  She’s crossing a bridge from stupid to imbecile.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:41am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  She was a Cabinet Minister, not a slave!
  
  Yep, She has been one of our Oppressors for 6 long years.
  
  She thinks she is free from the shackles of the Labour Party, but Te Pati Māori is in an alliance with the Māori arm of Labour.
  
  As Christopher Luxon has pointed out:
  
  “I think it’s pretty clear that Te Pāti Māori are going to side with Labour and the Greens,” Luxon said when asked if he’d reconsider his stance on the party. “That’s been their choice and their decision, and I think that’s pretty obvious here.
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/05/meka-whaitiri-christopher-luxon-says-pretty-clear-te-p-ti-m-ori-are-going-to-side-with-labour-anyway.html
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:43am
- sirknz
  
  Maybe they’re taking the ‘servant’ part of ‘public servant’ a little too literally…
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:48am
- cmm
  
  In NZ, Maori have had the vote longer than others.
  
  If anything it should be non-Maori talking about emancipation.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:38am
- Kumbukani
  
  She was not a Cabinet Minister. She was a junior Minister outside Cabinet. She WAS a Cabinet Minister but got sacked for bashing one of her staff.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:39am
  - Paulus
    
    She got paid as a Cabinet Minister though !
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:52am
- Dave
  
  Perhaps Tamihere is echoing Bob Marley: “Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.”
  
  Appropriately post- colonial with a touch of Marxist false consciousness for the Māori Party, though I tend to think of a dead white dude writing, “In every cry of every Man, In every Infants cry of fear, In every voice: in every ban, The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.”
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:41pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Of course, Bob Marley had a white Dad. Would have fitted in here, no problem.
    
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    May 4, 2023 6:38pm
Maggie Pie

Hmmm….. a little surprised tbh to hear the Minister-of-Justice maintain she had absolutely no prior knowledge of Meka’s departure.

You’d think if anybody was kept in the loop, Kiri would have been?

https://twitter.com/LjahNo/status/1653649520755081216
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May 4, 2023 8:24am
- pdm
  
  maggie
  
  What about her Labour colleague, Tukituki MP Anna Lorch – what did she no.
  
  Nothing about anything because Anna Lorck is the ultimate example of an Airhead – lucky to know what day it is.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:37am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    “Berocca in the morrrrning” 😀 😀 😀
    
    I really luv Anna….she brings a bit of ‘sexual-tension’ to The House.
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:43am
    - pdm
      
      If the rumours are anly half true that tension you speak of is spread very widely.
      
      Even at High School her nickname was `margarine legs’ and according to our daughter that has graduated to `sticky knickers’ in recent years.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:25am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        LOL!!
        
        Wont tell you what the called me at Boarding School….
        could see myself getting a holiday from Batz 😛
        
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        May 4, 2023 9:43am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Behahshahaha, when the dep PM was asked yesterday who could be the minister for HB recovery, she had the gall to stand and say the brilliant hard working lived Tukituki Mp Anna Lorck which sent rapturous laughter around both sides of the chamber
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:27am
nathie

Kelvin Davis, on Morning Report just now, says Labour heard rumors of Meka Whaitiri defecting on Monday …. so much for this being a complete surprise for Labour MP’s Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

Trust Labour? Sure Can’t!
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May 4, 2023 8:25am
- Ghost
  
  What’s today, Thursday, so they are lying again. Yesterday at the stand up they said they heard rumours on Tuesday. It appears to me that if grant was meeting with the speaker for a few hours on Tuesday that is when her letter came in and they were scheming to try and stop her getting waka jumped out.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:27am
  - sirknz
    
    0: days since a Labour MP told a lie.
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:49am
- pdm
  
  nathie – would Kelvin really know?
  
  After all he is only a token Labour Party leader. or perhaps more correctly a Claytons leader.
  
  You know – the leader you have when you don’t have a leader.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:40am
- Nickc2
  
  If you saw the wide-eyed look of fake surprise and smirk on Wllie Jacksons’s face on TV yesterday, you could only draw the conclusion that this whole fiasco had been planned for when the PM was out of the country.
  Let’s face it, whatever seat in Parliament the defector occupies, it’s still a vote for this Govt.
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:20am
Matt Long

While I think ACT is street ahead of National who present themselves as a sensible competent alternate to Labour but with the same aims, I will not be voting ACT, not just because of their actions at the freedom protests but their push for abortion as set out by Cramner.
https://thebfd.co.nz/2023/05/03/van-veldens-bid-for-aucklands-tamaki-seat/
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May 4, 2023 8:27am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Matt, why on earth are you, as a man, so uptight about what a woman does with her body? Why are you willing to legislate against a woman’s right to bodily autonomy?
  
  That statement is akin to having a bunch of women pass legislation mandating that all men are required to have a vasectomy by a certain age.
  
  Why are men allowed to have reproductive autonomy while women must be subjected to the whim of whatever government happens to be in charge at the time.
  
  If your objection is religious, you are free to practice your religion in any way that you see fit, but you have never had the right to force your religious views on others.
  
  This religious freedom, by the way, is one of ACT’s central principles, but freedom OF religion also means freedom FROM religion.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:56am
  - Matt Long
    
    I don’t care what anyone does with their own body except when they use their body to harm another person.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:23am
    - mandk
      
      That is precisely what abortion does.
      
      Pre-born babies are not part of the mother. They are unique, living human beings.
      
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      May 4, 2023 9:46am
  - kowtow
    
    Only it’s not just the woman’s body is it .
    It actually involves a whole , other body .
    
    And it needn’t only be religious objection . It could also be philosophical, economic , moral and societal , couldn’t it .
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:32am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    I have never entered the abortion debate. But when you talk about women’s rights my first reaction is, what about the baby’s rights?
    There can be a whole different discussion about when fertilised egg becomes a person. But 40 weeks? There is no discussion. Zero. That’s a person who can’t speak for themselves.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:49am
    - kowtow
      
      Ardern , ( and her sycophantic media and other followers) so heroically “saved” a few very old and very sick people for a cuppla weeks from Batflu ,is the same person who proudly expanded the wholesale slaughter of babies under the heading of ‘women’s rights’.
      
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      May 4, 2023 1:19pm
  - Cantabrian
    
    There is something inherently obscene about this debate. Essentially those claiming that it is a woman’s right to abort a baby up until the moment of birth are saying killing a baby when the umbilical cord is cut is murder, but killing it as the head is crowning is not. I completely fail to understand the logic. It is sick.
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:29am
  - Centrist
    
    Are you assuming Matt’s gender? How do you know “Matt” is a man?
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:31am
  - miltonF
    
    “Men have reproductive autonomy”
    
    Are you suggesting that men have the right to terminate their unborn child? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think that is true.
    
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    May 4, 2023 6:55pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Right of way is Way of Right: I think you’ll find it’s not about “a woman’s body” but about giving the benefit of the doubt to the value of a human fetus (especially the closer it gets to being a fully formed human being).
    
    I suggest listen to Ben Shapiro’s arguments on why abortion is wrong. Not because they are motivated by religion but because they are compelling and should make you think outside the trendy slogans you’ve become accustomed to.
    
    I’m not religious.
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:26pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  I agree that a low blow like that is like starting with a kick to the groin of a future coalition partner, in a political sense.
  
  O’Connor was stupid – VERY stupid – to post something around abortion and especially in the context of an inconsequential (for NZ) and misrepresented constitutional ruling in the USA.
  
  But I would prefer that ACT did not stoop to the silliness and ugliness of the likes of Labour and Grant Robinsion, who then banged the drum about National’s anti-abortion faction (ignoring their own, including the hypocrisy of Mahuta).
  O’Connor’s post opened attack angles on Luxon, which still seem to resonant with some women & ammunition for media and lefties.
  
  O-Connor was very stupid, to be clear: but ACT should not be so openly picking that scab.
  Yet still 100% ACT supporter here.
  
  But consider this – this is ugly perhaps, but it is also the type of ‘show me the mongrel side’ and going for the throat that many here are demanding of National vs. Labour.
  Would just prefer that ACT go for the throat of Labour, and simply differentiate themselves from National on details. That is enough.
  But in politics, National needs to learn to kick in the groin when it is needed.
  
  This brings up an issue: what is it with National party people posting dumb things (or risky things) on social media?
  And even some of the statements that are perhaps reasonable or about personal morality, but then Luxon has to retract them on behalf of?
  Seems like their MPs need a lesson in running personal opinions or hot button topics past the party first, before putting them out – they are NOT private citizens like you or I. They are part of a party, and stand with a party and represent that political movement.
  I you are instructed to take down a post by your leader, like O’Connor – You F–ked up.
  I mean, I don’t post inflammatory or divisive or overtly political stances on my own social media, nor would I do that in my workplace communications, and I aren’t trying to represent a political party and my life doesn’t depend on voters.
  
  In short – ugly from ACT, but National MPs are too often pretty naïve or short sighted in their social media.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:24am
  - Matt Long
    
    In some ways I agree with you, however at this point it seems like if you are instructed to take down a post by Luxon you’re on the right side of the argument.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:24am
  - lifesgood
    
    Seriously? If people think the most important thing to worry about is whether they should be allowed to kill a baby or not then this country really has sunk to the lowest of low depths
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:26am
- mawm
  
  Matt – sometimes one just has to swallow a dead rat. Inevitably libertarians push their ideology too far. I agree with you one this, and can add ACTs support of euthanasia as I consider it the thin edge of the wedge, and their support for the scripted fake response to a viral respiratory illness. However on just about all else ACT has shown itself to be better than the others. OTOH Luxon has feet of clay.
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:34pm
  - Matt Long
    
    However if I vote for some who promotes abortion up to birth with very weak controls, no pain relief for the victim, not medical intervention for babies born alive, then I’m complicit in his actions, I prefer to let his guilt be upon his own head.
    
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    May 4, 2023 3:20pm
Drone

There’s a press release by James Shaw aon the Beehive website https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/all-coal-boilers-be-removed-new-zealand-public-hospitals that trumpets the $$ spent on removing fossil fuel boilers and climate change actions. How about an equivalent press release trumpeting reductions in waiting lists and increases in elective surgery. Which would have been a better use of the $$.
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May 4, 2023 8:30am
- I remember when
  
  Only a matter of time before the fossil-fueled and battery driven generators have to kick into action.
  In fact, how soon will it be before the whole world grinds to a halt because the electricity supply can’t meet the demand.
  Rule 1:
  Always put all of your eggs in the one/same basket.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:07am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Drone – I’m guessing they are getting rid of the boilers in recycled plastic bags? Amazing.//
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:52am
- Ghost
  
  So we are going away from a system that heated every room in the hospitals cheaply to heat pumps?
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:07am
  - Burtland
    
    all the new school builds have massive heatpumps – you would think they would have solar panels as they can use the power directly during the day, but no.
    
    It seems solar panels come from Shane’s Provincial Growth Fund – maraes seem to have plenty.
    https://waikato-tainui.my.site.com/kaitumutumumarae/s/bookings
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:07am
- Burtland
  
  interesting read – the hospitals are using their health funding to top-up the costs
  
  BOP Hospital – 60 electric vehicles
  $2.023 million to purchase electric vehicles and install charging infrastructure.
  Te Whatu Ora – Bay of Plenty will invest $2.080 million from its own budget.
  
  $68K per vehicle – suppose the UTE Tax is going there too
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:30am
- Cantabrian
  
  So are we going to get a release teling us how much carbon will be emitted through cutting down trees, chipping them and transporting them to the boiler? I ask this because I see some organisations are lauding their transition to biomass as a fuel.
  No comment on the destrtuction of land through forestry or the hundreds of truck loads needed to move the chip/biomass.
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:33am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Did he mention how much effect on the climate getting rid of the boilers will have?
  It’d be nice to get an idea how well spent the money was. It’s our money, after all.
  
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  May 4, 2023 12:07pm
- Kumbukani
  
  Wouldn’t it be better to allow hospitals to replace the coal boilers when they reach the end of the line? Coal is covered in the ETS. If coal is still the cheapest way to heat a hospital, use coal.
  
  What next? Is the government going to pay Fonterra to replace coal-fired milk powder plants? That would be insane but nothing would surprise me any longer.
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:27pm
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    I think it’s simpler than that. I get the impression that government wants farmers to cull their herds, or convert farms to forests.
    No cows, no milk, no need for milk powder plants.
    
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    May 4, 2023 2:51pm
  - Burtland
    
    Fonterra subsidies
    
    https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/news/fonterra-receives-2-5m-funding-to-replace-more-coal-boilers/
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:28pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Department of Conservation and its deferred maintenance of back country tracks and huts and bridges:

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/crisis-hit-doc-considers-closures-offloads
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May 4, 2023 8:33am
- Matt Long
  
  Perhaps DOC and the EDS could consider prioritising actual conservation work instead of paying expensive lawyers to screw over private property owners in the Environment Court.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:41am
  - I remember when
    
    Wouldn’t DOC have to actually invest before it would be possible for divestment to happen.
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:53am
- Matt Long
  
  WJP may just have the answer to maintaining DOC assets, giving the assets into the care of Iwi under a co governance arrangement, it’s a proven concept.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:43am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Perhaps they shouldn’t have wasted all that money on Kia Toipoto: Gender, Maori and Ethnic Pay Gap Action Plan and strengthening cultural competence. Which of course includes the usual crap on “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”. And perhaps they shouldn’t have wasted all that money giving themselves a Maori name and changing branding, mission statements and mission (Partner with whanau, haps and Iwi) etc. And they shouldn’t have been so hung up on being carbon neutral. Perhaps if DoC stuck to their core tasks, they might have a bit more money in the kitty.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:57am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    True for every public agency in the country
    
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    May 4, 2023 6:46pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    NZ can barely afford the basics. All this woke “nice to have” stuff is just driving up the cost of those already barely affordable basics.
    
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    May 4, 2023 8:36pm
- Burtland
  
  This is an old Cullen trick – he did it with State Housing – deferred a $1B. It put the skids under State Housing.
  
  I guess they will have to give them all to maori
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:14am
Ghost

Dear China and Russia,

This is your enemy, please be scared and don’t piss yourself laughing like the rest of us

The US Navy invited an active-duty drag queen to be a “Digital Ambassador” – as part of a recent drive “to attract the most talented and diverse workforce” and combat plunging recruitment.

Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who identifies as non-binary, was appointed as the first of five Navy Digital Ambassadors in a pilot program that ran from October to March.

Article
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May 4, 2023 8:42am
- Matt Long
  
  Yeah, that’ll get people lining up to join the navy and drink Bud Light.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:44am
- I remember when
  
  Does “Digital’ and ‘Ambassador’ even go together as publicity for the navy.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:49am
- sirknz
  
  Too think, it used to be a joke about how the Navy separating the men from the boys by using a crowbar…
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:52am
- kowtow
  
  UK so called Top Brass want their fighting vehicles to be environmentally friendly.
  
  You can’t make this shit up.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:07am
  - Ghost
    
    So do the USA
    
    https://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2022/2/4/military-wants-its–vehicles-to-go-electricwith-detroits-help
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:09am
    - virtualmark
      
      They want them to be electric (or more to the point, hybrid) for tactical reasons.
      
      Easier to creep up on people when you don’t have a huge Diesel engine.
      
      Side note: The Abrams tanks have a gas turbine, which guzzles like a vicar, but is surprisingly quiet. It can easily be 100-200m away before you know it’s there.
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:15am
      - kowtow
        
        “…….on the path to meeting Netzero 2050 sustainablity objectives’
        
        Tactical , my arse.
        .
        
        From the British army website .
        
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        May 4, 2023 3:16pm
      - virtualmark
        
        To be fair, the starting point is electric motorcycles not electric tanks. For example:
        
        https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/commander-in-ukraine-wants-quiet-electric-bikes-for-his-sniper-teams
        https://electrek.co/2022/10/27/us-special-operations-military-electric-moped-huck-cycles-overland/
        
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        May 4, 2023 3:35pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Think of the military has having two fleets of vehicles.
        
        Fleet One = Cars and trucks just like any other large organisation.
        Fleet Two = Tactical equipment, from light wheeled vehicles up to heavy tanks.
        
        Fleet One will naturally go electric because all those vehicles, private or military, are on a path to being electric.
        
        Fleet Two are also in a path to being hybrid or electric, but for tactical reasons. But it’ll be a slower path because they’re more specialised lower-volume items and because operational needs will drive their specification, not environmental needs. But the operational needs also value electrification, because it’s silent and doesn’t emit as much heat.
        
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        May 4, 2023 3:45pm
      - rockape
        
        My old unit has given up its 4 ton trucks and Landrovers and replaced them with quads with machine guns and trail bikes. Stealth versions of those would be cool!
        
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        May 4, 2023 5:48pm
  - Ehlana
    
    Excellent. Since one must consider “whole of life” with regard to these things, I look forward to the first generation of environmentally friendly weapons.
    Perhaps some form of seeds and nutrient rich soil?
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:30am
- rockape
  
  Maybe he should be seconded to the Royal Navy and be recruited into their field gun teams,see how he works out.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:44am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Was he/she/it (shit) drinking a Bud Light by any chance? Asking for a friend…..
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:54am
- oldfella
  
  Ghost, did they use the Village People disco classic in the recruitment video? You know the one: ‘In the Navy…’
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:47am
  - Ghost
    
    I did think of posting that video, but then I thought the village people looked more capable of being in the navy than him
    
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    May 4, 2023 12:00pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  A good reasons for the red states to split off from the woke states. This stuff is actually dangerous.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:42pm
Nickc2

Due to mounting interest in NZ’s October election, the Electoral Commission acting on advice from the Office of the Speaker, an order has been placed for 2,000 ‘Dominion Remote Programmable Voting Machines’.
An initial approach to borrow said machines from the US was declined. The White House stated the Democrats declined to release any such machines from their custody. //
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May 4, 2023 8:43am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Be careful Nick, casting aspersions about Dominion’s voting machine can be an expensive exercise. Ask Rupert Murdoch.
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:58am
  - Nickc2
    
    I’m advertising their product. Their fame has spread to Aotearoa and their pending use is endorsed by the Labour, Greenz, and TPM Political Parties. //
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:11am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They used those machines last election here, not for counting, but they used them to tabulate the results, why with our small population do we need these bloody machines
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:34am
      - Paulus
        
        Maybe that Labour, Greens and the Maori Party could use them in October !
        
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        May 4, 2023 1:40pm
      - mawm
        
        Does this mean that the results should be treated with suspicion? Were there any counts added in the wee hours of the morning….and only for 1 party? Asking for a friend.
        
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        May 4, 2023 2:41pm
- MCōs
  
  We don’t use electronic voting machines in New Zealand.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:03am
  - Nickc2
    
    Read the small print.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:06am
  - kowtow
    
    No but large proportions of the electorate are emotional voting machines.
    
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    May 4, 2023 9:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They were used last election, not yo count, but to tabulate the result
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:34am
    - MCōs
      
      No they were not.
      All counting was done manually
      https://elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/about-elections/how-are-general-election-votes-counted/
      
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      May 4, 2023 12:15pm
      - rockape
        
        Partially right. The votes are counted manually and the votes for each party kept seperate. The then go to the electoral officer where they are recounted electronically.
        
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        May 4, 2023 2:25pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Read what I said again, I said they weee not used to count, but the tabulating was done eith the machines
        
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        May 4, 2023 2:32pm
  - Paulus
    
    We might use machines now !
    They are easily transferable to whatever.
    Why ?
    
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    May 4, 2023 1:37pm
- Paulus
  
  Why are we buying Dominion Remote Programmable Voting Machines ?
  Must be 1st April or what am I missing ?
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:23pm
I remember when

Does anything demonstrate the difference from the ‘good old days’ than the closure of Albany Senior High School because of a measles outbreak.
In fact, even a measles outbreak consisting of a single known case.
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May 4, 2023 8:46am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  The Samoan Measles Outbreak of 2019 killed 83 people, mostly children.
  
  The vaccination rate in the country had plummeted from 74% to about 35%, mostly in response to vaccine hesitancy after two infants dies after receiving the vaccine, however it was later determined that the deaths occurred due to the vaccine being mixed with expired anaesthetic instead of the appropriate diluent.
  
  Anti-vax activists took this information and used it to incite fear towards vaccination on social media, causing the government to suspend its measles vaccination programme for ten months, despite advice from the WHO.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:04am
- Kumbukani
  
  With respect, you are glamorising the good old days. Prior to the measles vaccine, children were severely maimed by measles and some died. It just wasn’t talked about much because nothing could be done.
  
  Vaccination rates have now plummeted. IMO the closure of this high school is way more justified than the hysteria about the risk of COVID to children and teenagers.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:46am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Improvement in socio economic conditions is the reason measles deaths dropped by over 98% from the start of the 20th century to the introduction of the vaccine in the 60s.
    
    I’m not “anti vax”, had them all (except convid) and so have my kids and everyone I know basically. I’m not arguing against them, particularly in the case of places like Samoa which clearly have the poor living conditions in which all diseases thrive.
    I only take issue with claims that vaccines saved everyone from everything. They didn’t. All of these graphs indicate that incidences of disease had already declined dramatically in the US long before a vaccine appeared on the scene.
    
    https://learntherisk.org/vaccines/diseases/
    
    I’ve seen similar graphs in a number of locations, if they are demonstrably fake or can be proven to be manipulated let me know.
    
    To be clear, I’m NOT advocating against vaccines, as stated above, my family and I are all fully vaccinated for everything bar covid (and HPV in the case of my youngest daughter).
    
    I’m pointing out that they are not remotely the miracle cure which so many tend to believe they are.
    As per the covid circus, “correlation is not causation” – but the statistics clearly show that the improvement in outcomes from transmissible diseases was happening long before vaccines became available.
    
    Downtick away!
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:28am
    - Kumbukani
      
      “Improvement in socio economic conditions is the reason measles deaths dropped by over 98% from the start of the 20th century to the introduction of the vaccine in the 60s.”
      
      Can you provide any evidence for such a claim?
      
      “While better sanitation (clean water, for example) has decreased the rates of diseases spread through food or water (such as cholera and typhoid), it has a minimal effect on measles, which is spread person to person and through the air . ”
      
      https://www.idsociety.org/public-health/measles/myths-and-facts/
      
      Measles is, literally, the most contagious of all viruses on the planet. It is as contagious today as it was 100 years ago. Before anti-vax sentiment took hold, measles was eliminated in many countries including the USA. That was all down to the vaccine.
      
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      May 4, 2023 11:09am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Kumbukani – check my link above for the graph showing this trend in all communicable diseases.
        
        I have seen similar graphs before. I asked in my post, if anyone has evidence that the information is fake, to please let me know with evidence.
        
        I’m not anti vax. Even after presenting this data, I would still the recommend MMR vaccine, but there are increasing numbers being added to the schedule and I find that concerning.
        
        The last 3 years has taught me that given the same environment, our natural immunity is far better and undoubtedly safer at dealing with disease than anything a for profit corporation can come up with. There might be a few exceptions but I doubt it.
        Either way, this is what the deplorable actions of every MP in parliament have led to, complete loss of trust in the institutions I used to implicitly believe in.
        
        Cheers.
        
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        May 4, 2023 12:53pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Kumbukani – not meaning to be pedantic, but if measles was eliminated, how did it get back in?
        
        The first childish comment after I posted obviously didn’t read what I said and resorted to abuse and what looked like a physical threat at the end of their post. Classic keyboard warrior. Anyway, here’s a reference to the graph re fatalities from measles last century.1900 – 1960.
        
        https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/vsrates1940_60.pdf
        
        Note, the graph is from the US government, not a conspiracy theorist.
        
        To find the relative measles data press ‘ctrl F’ (hold the control button on your keyboard and press ‘F’). It lets you find a word in a document.
        
        It will give 2 returns. Go to the second one to see the chart.
        
        It shows the dramatic decline in measles fatalities since the turn of that century when no vaccine was available. Correlation is not causation, but the only obvious thing that changed during that period was sanitation, diet and overall lifestyle.
        The measles vaccine wasn’t available in the USA until 1963.
        
        From the WHO.
        
        Individual countries introduced mass vaccination programmes against measles at the national level from the 1960s on
        
        I’ve done the best I can to validate the data I posted, as I always do. I am always open to corrections. I will never deliberately post fake information.
        
        [Mod – just seen it. Thanks]
        
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        May 4, 2023 1:19pm
      - Kumbukani
        
        “Kumbukani – not meaning to be pedantic, but if measles was eliminated, how did it get back in?”
        
        It was eliminated in the USA and a few other countries.
        
        Then vaccination rates fell. Then people visited the USA with measles. You get the picture.
        
        Quite different from smallpox. Literally eliminated globally.
        
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        May 4, 2023 5:26pm
    - Kumbukani
      
      “…but the statistics clearly show that the improvement in outcomes from transmissible diseases was happening long before vaccines became available….”
      
      Post away your statistics.
      
      New Zealand experienced waves of polio epidemics in the 20th century. All with case fatality rates of between 2 percent and 10 percent. The last outbreak was in 1955-56. Then it, literally, was banished over a very short period. All due to the vaccine, invented by a genius who made no money from it. He refused to take out a patent so the whole world could benefit.
      
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      May 4, 2023 11:13am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        The last outbreak was in 1955-56. Then it, literally, was banished over a very short period. All due to the vaccine
        
        Banished over a very short period of time? NZ didn’t get the polio vaccine until 1969. If the numbers were low in the intervening 14 years, was the country just lucky? Or did living conditions for the poorest people improve dramatically? If that was related to declining polio numbers, why is the vaccine given all the kudos for the drop in numbers? Surely good sanitation still contributed?
        
        I’m originally from the UK, born in 1958. We didn’t have an inside toilet or bathroom until 1970. We lived in a very cold, damp house. We didn’t have running hot water. We had. a tin bath that was filled once a week and shared. I had a neighbour who had polio.
        
        I’m not arguing against vaccines. I said in the first post, I would still recommend getting them.
        
        There is a school of thought that attributes a spike in polio cases with the widespread introduction and use of DDT during the same period.
        We now understand the damage that pesticides can do, particularly to the central nervous system.
        In those days DDT was used liberally at home and at school. What impact did the liberal spraying of the whole of the public and the food they ate have on health? DDT was introduced into NZ in the early 50s. Correlation is not causation, all of the time, not just when it suits your argument.
        
        For the last time, I’m not anti vax. My argument is they weren’t the miracle so many believe they were. The data I presented backs that up. That sanitation, diet and lifestyle were the major factors in improving statistics.
        
        I constantly say “correlation is not causation”, particularly during debates around covid and the (lack of) efficacy of vaccines. Apparently, because polio numbers dropped after 1956, correlation IS causation? Even though the polio vaccination wasn’t in the country for another 14 years?
        
        I give up.
        
        Most vaccines work, but:
        
        Improved sanitation and water supplies virtually eliminated the major bacterial diseases of the 19th century from New Zealand’s European population by the 1920s. Epidemic diseases were no longer major causes of death.
        
        The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
        https://teara.govt.nz/en/epidemics/page-5
        
        I’m NOT anti vax. Well, most of them.
        
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        May 4, 2023 2:30pm
      - Kumbukani
        
        “NZ didn’t get the polio vaccine until 1969.”
        
        NO. In 1961.
        
        https://www.immune.org.nz/diseases/polio#:~:text=New%20Zealand%20began%20immunising%20with,of%20vaccine%2Dderived%20poliovirus%20infection.
        
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        May 4, 2023 5:27pm
      - Kumbukani
        
        “For the last time, I’m not anti vax. My argument is they weren’t the miracle so many believe they were. The data I presented backs that up. That sanitation, diet and lifestyle were the major factors in improving statistics.”
        
        Sorry vaccines WERE a miracle.
        
        Sanitation was effective at stopping cholera, a water borne disease.
        
        “Diet” had bloody nothing to do with the elimination of these diseases. Apart from cholera, it was all vaccines.
        
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        May 4, 2023 5:30pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Right of way – clearly you’re a big fan of ad hominem, not so much on presenting evidence. I’m guessing you believed the covid narrative too and rushed out to get jabbed? Probably lining up for your booster…….
      
      As for ‘hateful’. You should just go and join the lefties who are using smears and ad hominem as a weapon because they have zero ability to rationally discuss and debate.
      
      If you have any real evidence to prove that those graphs are fake then provide it. Same with the DDT claim. As I said in my original comments, I agree, correlation is not causation but it is still compelling data indicating there is a problem somewhere.
      
      Otherwise stay out of adult conversation if you aren’t capable of contributing to it. Calling people names because you don’t like what they say is kindergarten stuff.
      
      I won’t even waste the energy to downtick such an inane comment. Have a lovely day.
      
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      May 4, 2023 12:04pm
Maggie Pie

One of the girls from Tennis posts… 😀

‘Who would you rather have a one-night stand with?”

Uptick: Kiri

Downtick: Meka
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May 4, 2023 8:52am
- Ghost
  
  Oh bugger I really wanted to vote in your poll but I can’t seem to find the vomit button
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:56am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  I couldn’t stand one night with either of them!
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:58am
- mandk
  
  I don’t know the origin of the quote, but I could neither attain nor sustain for either of them.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:50am
- virtualmark
  
  Kiri and Meka were once a couple.
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:17am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Can I drop acid first? I’ll go both, I suffer from a severe case of SMD……
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_masochism_disorder
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:39am
- Nickc2
  
  Which one is the BJ Specialist?
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:08am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, now watching them perform may be a different turn on.
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:19am
- Burtland
  
  old joke
  How can you tell if your house was built by lesbian carpenters?
  All tongue-in-groove, no studs.
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:38am
- rockape
  
  I would rather cut my dick off !
  
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  May 4, 2023 5:53pm
DeepBlue

For one month Whaitiri has been at the coal face of the cyclone recovery.
It is quite possibly the first time she has had to consider the whole region and not from a Maori-only perspective.

Maybe she didn’t like the hard, hands-on work.
Maybe she didn’t like what Labour has done to the country in reality, out of Wellington.
Maybe she doesn’t like what is coming (very little) for those East Coast marae and communities as there is no money left.
Maybe she cannot support relocation off whenua.
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May 4, 2023 8:56am
- Matt Long
  
  Politicians at the coalface, that doesn’t really pass the sniff test. Politicians getting in the way of frontline workers for photo opps then claiming credit for their work sounds a little more likely.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:52am
Tomtoddy

I have been trying to figure out an aspect of co-governance that is rarely discussed. Who is Māori accountable to? Under the current Westminster system of Government any citizen is ultimately accountable to the Crown which is, as I understand it, Parliament for practical purposes. Parliament, by majority, enacts the laws, within a framework of precedents and conventions.

If Māori are differentiated from the Crown and therefore not bound by the Westminster system where is the accountability? Who makes and unmakes their rules? What systems for continuity and orderliness are anticipated?

For that matter what is meant by Māori? What happens to my neighbour who has Māori blood but will not have a bar of co-governance and simply wants to be a New Zealander?

Anyone understand this movement and where it is heading? What is planned? If the Māori party holds the balance of power after October what might emerge? Are we going to be governed effectively by a few who are accountable to only themselves? Is this possible?
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May 4, 2023 8:58am
- Keith White
  
  We’re heading for a MRA
  
  …or maybe an IWA (Iwi Republican Army)
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:15am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Could we even see a referendum for the decriminalization of cannibalism?
  
  Asking for a friend.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:25am
  - Burtland
    
    It was criminalized by the signing of the Treaty – another poor outcome of colonisation. However Willie Jacksons mob ignored it along with slavery on the Chathams.
    
    The taxpayer forked out $18M for this last barbarous act in the British empire.
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:49am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Maori will be accountable to their own Iwi..essentially the Leader of their Iwi.
  
  Are we going to be governed effectively by a few who are accountable to only themselves? Is this possible?
  
  We will not be governed effectively.
  
  There will be a great jostling for control of the Government coffers by different factions within the Māori power base.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:36am
- Ehlana
  
  Accountability in Maori tribes was presumably to the chief, who would have ruled with support from the tribes top warriors.
  
  Chieftainship was hereditary (as long as you retained warrior support). So there’s probably no particular problem tracing the chief to whom you and your neighbour will be accountable. Please have your best cars valeted and ready for collection.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:36am
- Burtland
  
  Im not sure whether “Maori” can be used collectively – they dont identify as a group but instead as Iwi. This was the problem with the original Treaty – how to get a deal with all Iwi.
  
  This can be seen with Tuku Morgan recently in Auckland – theyre scraping over which Iwi has the right to Central Auckland – land disposed by government there will be worth a fortune.
  
  Ngai Tahu want Maori representation on councils to be appointed by them – they are a minority in the South and so oppose elections.
  
  Politics will be dominated by Tribalism. Ngati Wikitoria wont get a look in.
  
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  May 4, 2023 12:07pm
rockape

I think a clear line has been drawn in the sand and voters need to see that. We have a choice, a choice between conservatism and the socialism and Maori anti democratising of NZ. We either chose National and ACT or we chose Labour/ Green/ Maori and see NZ become a third World country. Wake up people, the media want headlines and will get them at the expense of our country. It’s time to put petty grievances aside and vote for NZ.
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May 4, 2023 9:04am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yes, and as I have said for months, a vote for a small party is utterly wasting the vote and helps the crim parties
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:37am
Maggie Pie

We were discussing people who use ‘pronouns’ at dinner last night.

Turning to the Bible, it was interesting to find that ‘DEMONS’ actually refer to themselves as…. they/ them/we/ us

Mark 5:1-13
Mark 16:9
Luke 11:24-26
Matthew 8:31

What does that tell you?
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May 4, 2023 9:17am
- NZer In Exile
  
  There allegedly was more than one demon? 😝
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:54pm
Wayne Mapp

rockape,

There will be a number of people who will also include NZ First in your mix. Almost certainly on the Right side.

So the basic choices for the alternative governments are National/Act/NZF (the latter being a possible) on the Right and Labour/Green/Te Parti Maori on the Left.

This changes the nature of coalition discussions. There is likely no longer a “King maker” who can go either way. The two packages are reasonably clear. Instead the coalition discussions occur within each bloc. These can’t be finalised till after the election since the balance of policies and Cabinet positions will be dependent on how the the parties within the winning bloc actually fare at the election.

Nevertheless I think that the parties in each bloc should come to a broadly agreed plan covering the fundamentals of their offering to the voters. The voters deserve this so they can make an informed judgement. Labour and the Alliance did this prior to the 1999 election. On the Right, such arrangements could not include NZF for two reasons. One, because they are not actually in Parliament, and may not get there. Two, because it is not absolutely fixed that NZF can only go right, though all the indications is that is what they would do. This was not the case in 2017, when it very clear WP would negotiate with both sides.

In short, MMP is changing, with the role of King maker disappearing. There are now two reasonably obvious groupings on either side of the political divide. But what is not clear is the agreed offerings of each bloc.
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May 4, 2023 9:26am
- rockape
  
  Do you think Winston Peters will play third violin to Seymore? He will have to as ACT will be the second party in that alliance. The best we could expect from NZ First is them sitting on the cross benches screwing both sides.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:36am
  - I remember when
    
    Will Winston sitting on the cross benches achieve what he wants for NZ First.
    With politics being so divisive at present, does NZ First have a chance to demonstrate how MMP is meant to work.
    Would working cohesively with National and ACT result in them taking over the ground available for a major centrist party.
    Is it possible for Winston to accept the changes this would mean for him.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:12am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Can you sit on the cross benches and also be foreign minister? Asking for an enemy!
      
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      May 4, 2023 5:32pm
- Prince
  
  Peters would NEVER go with National.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:42am
  - peterwn
    
    Chris Luxon would love such an assurance as it would remove a campaigning complication. But Winston would never give such an assurance as it would undermine his bargaining power. In 2017, Winston had all the bargaining power, but the Greens did not as they had vowed never to go with National.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:12am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Peters has stated he will not go with labour cause lies, so that means he is left with going with Nats ACT, or sitting on the cross benches which would let Labour greens snd MP in possibly, if that scenario came about, then he may as well sided with Labour
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:42am
      - Paulus
        
        Peters and his Party are going anywhere as many of his voters are no longer with us, and the younger ones do not know who he is anyway – and do not care.
        
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        May 4, 2023 1:44pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Paulus you never know with Winston. He’s creeping up in the polls. He certainly has a lot of material to work with to get people riled up!
        
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        May 4, 2023 8:56pm
      - Prince
        
        No, he said he would never go with Ardern.
        
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        May 4, 2023 10:53pm
      - Ghost
        
        Winston Peters rules out working with Labour – kind of
        
        Peters made a speech attacking Labour for its co-governance policies. The speech ended with Peters saying he would “never” work with any party “whose policies threaten … fundamental rights” – a hint that Labour would have to drop those policies if he were to work with them after the next election.…..
        
        Speaking to the Herald, Peters would not explicitly rule out Labour, but implied it would be very difficult to work with the party again.
        
        “We were in government for three years. There were matters which were clearly not disclosed to me or my party – He Puapua and going to Ihumatao.
        
        “Since the election you have seen the emergence of what are clearly race-based policies and a pathway to apartheid – there’s no other word for it.
        
        “They’ve ruled themselves out as far as we’re concerned,” Peters said of Labour.
        
        Article
        
        Although it does appear he did know
        
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        May 4, 2023 11:00pm
  - kowtow
    
    He’ll go where the baubles are brightest .
    
    And any idiot voter who gives it to him deserves the wool he’ll pull over their eyes , again , and again and again.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:17am
    - Nickc2
      
      For the good of the Nation, we can’t afford to have this corrupt, lying, incompetent Govt re-elected.
      If you want to see He Pua Pua implemented in total, you know where to place your votes.
      Maori Academics have been planning this for some time and the majority of NZers have turned a blind eye.
      FFS, pay attention before it’s too late!
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:50am
      - kowtow
        
        Yep , party vote Act.
        
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        May 4, 2023 12:36pm
  - Right of way is Way of Right
    
    No, Peters would never go with John Key.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:42am
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    Prince,
    
    Read what Don Brash has to say about this issue. There is a reference to his article further up in todays General Debate. Don will not be saying that unless there was a clear indication of Winston Peters intended direction.
    
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    May 4, 2023 1:55pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    I dunno about that. None of the Nats he wanted utu on are still in parliament, apart from Gerry perhaps.
    
    Winnie being the ultimate spinner, it wouldn’t surprise me if he flips.
    
    “You know, I liked the look of that lovely young Jacinda and her noble aspirations – so kind! – that I allowed myself to be persuaded to give her a go. But you know, well, it didn’t work out so now I’m going to be the bigger man & bury the hatchet with my old friends in the National party. But, you can rely on me to provide common sense and keep them on the straight & narrow”.
    
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    May 4, 2023 7:16pm
    - Prince
      
      In, not with.
      
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      May 4, 2023 10:52pm
- I remember when
  
  “In short, MMP is changing, with the role of King maker disappearing.”
  A Maori Party (not necesarily Ti Pati Maori), if they could achieve broad Maori support, could very clearly dominate the ‘Kingmaker’ space.
  It could also have a significant effect on the present domination of the two main parties.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:49am
  - rockape
    
    Unless of course the right wing government whatever it’s makeup cancels Maori seats! Maori are already overrresented in Parliament.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:43am
- greybeard
  
  Good analysis, and good initial comment by Rockape.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:51am
- Nickc2
  
  Either way Wayne, we’re going to be stuck with this Climate Change BS, Maori Centric Public Servants, and probably certain ingredients of 3Waters Legislation.
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:57am
cmm

Am I the only one that thinks Labour has gained from Mega Fighter crossing the floor (though she still seems a bit confused)?

Mega Fighter is/was a huge embarrassment for them. Things were much better after she was slightly censured and put under a tarpaulin in the back row.

All this publicity can’t be helping remind Labour that Mega Fighter is one of them.

I think they’d rather she jumps shit and they can air-brush her out of Labour history Stalin-style.
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May 4, 2023 9:27am
- Kumbukani
  
  You make a good point. However there are downsides.
  
  Public think Labour has disunity.
  
  Contagious effect. Maybe someone else will go.
  
  Publicity for the Maori Party. Maybe their vote will benefit.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:57am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    I think Labour will lose votes to Maori, but I also think thgis will adversly affect their turn out on polling day, while others will go to National.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:11am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  It shows Labour in disarray, how could it possibly help Labour
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:43am
- ClanMcleod
  
  “jumps shit” – was that an intentional typo? If so, well played!!
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:46am
  - Paulus
    
    Is ther another Labour Maori MP about to join TPM ?
    
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    May 4, 2023 1:46pm
- MCōs
  
  I would suggest that in a couple of weeks this whole affair will have faded away for the folks not directly involved.
  
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  May 4, 2023 11:38am
Ghost

Cost of living up
Fuel about to go up 25 cents so cost of living will again rise
Crime is up
Health is in crisis
Education is in crisis
Poverty is increasing

I can’t think of a single thing that is better under labour for anyone including Māori

The deputy leader of the Labour Party says it’s not their fault Meka Whaitiri has defected to Te Pāti Māori.

And, despite the defection, Kelvin Davis told AM on Thursday life was “absolutely” better for Māori under Labour.

Article
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May 4, 2023 9:28am
- Prince
  
  Most of the Maori elite, and some selected non-maori consultants, are significantly better off.
  The rest, not so much.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:40am
- Kumbukani
  
  Fuel will go up 30 cents. Add the GST
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:51am
- Matt Long
  
  Kelvin means he and his colleagues are doing better and thousands of his whanau have been released from prison.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:57am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Fuel up 25 cents plus gst, all planned so inflation figures will not be out before the election
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:45am
I remember when

Waitangi Tribunal’s findings and recommendations on RMA (2012):
Wai 2358 – National Freshwater and Geothermal Inquiry Stage 2 Report.
“We reiterate that the Crown should monitor the Treaty performance of local authorities.
For fresh water matters, this should be carried out by the co-governance body.”

Does this explain the later addition of geothermal waters to 3 Waters?
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May 4, 2023 9:30am
Chuck Bird

David Seymour GD

https://ondemand.parliament.nz/parliament-tv-on-demand/?itemId=232361
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May 4, 2023 9:47am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Very good, except for the part where he says “covid is over”. No it isn’t.
  Not for those of us still struggling mentally after a couple of years of being shunned by society. Not for those who are still mandated out of their jobs, and certainly not for those who were permanently injured or died as a result of being forced to take an experimental product against their will.
  
  This elephant in the room isn’t going away no matter how much Seymour and Luxon pretend it has. Grow a spine, simply acknowledge that much was wrong about what was done. No apology needed, just admit the mistakes.
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:57am
  - mawm
    
    Perhaps he should be directed to this page.
    https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-current-cases
    
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    May 4, 2023 2:56pm
New Zealander

Surprise, surprise. Tauranga’s unelected council commissioners aren’t interested in democracy.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/tauranga-domain-stadium-city-leaders-spurn-negative-poll-results-as-meaningless/HOT6VU2RINFFHARM2WGPEGXSVA/
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May 4, 2023 9:50am
- Paulus
  
  Cannot afford it as Rates already through the roof and Tauranga is an unholy mess in demolition, all under this Mahuta Commissioners.
  Where are the exisiting social facilities, Croquet, Tennis and Bowls etc who have been there for coming 100 years, going to go first – will cost many many millions first if anywhere can be found.
  Council dreamers – staff committees of course.
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:53pm
Suze Wainwright

Heh, just reading about a young (white) artist – moderately successful in their own right and a definite supporter of the funding grants often promoted by ‘centre left’ govts to foster the arts.

For some strange reason, this artist is questioning and bemoaning why indigenous people in their nation are now at the top of the pecking order when it comes to accessing and obtaining such creative arts govt funding grants.

Interesting…
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May 4, 2023 9:50am
- Matt Long
  
  The whole time I’ve been alive there have been special grants and pathways for those who have a Maori ancestor.
  Why would people be surprised by this now?
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:30am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    I believe that in this particular artist’s spheres of activity, indigenous funding has recently significantly ramped up – at the expense of others who may be objectively more talented.
    
    Of course in its earlier stages, this artist was fully in favour of govt support to indigenous artists. However, now it’s possibly going a bit too far…
    
    Amazingly, it’s got to the point where this otherwise exemplary supporter of the contemporary political milieu, now seems to be doubting their faith in wokedom and intersectionalities.
    
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    May 4, 2023 11:05am
    - rouppe
      
      indigenous funding has recently significantly ramped up – at the expense of others who may be objectively more talented.
      
      You mean like access to medical school?
      
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      May 4, 2023 1:19pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Time to pull the NOX tab. Transition! You know you want to.
      
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      May 4, 2023 7:29pm
- cmm
  
  I must say I see very little point in state funding “art”.
  If people want to spend their own money on it then fine, but taxpayer money should not go into it.
  
  Some “artists” are really just taking the piss.
  
  $182k for duct taping a banana on the wall?
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/korean-student-eats-182k-banana-artwork-at-maurizio-cattelan-exhibition/GZXEG4SSYVBA7PZW43K6JJETBM/
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:51am
Tom Barker

I assume all those deep-pocketed National donors recruited by Paula Bennett included a clause guaranteeing them a refund if the vote doesn’t go their way. I mean, they didn’t make all that money by being generous.
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May 4, 2023 9:51am
- peterwn
  
  And where would the money for a refund come from? It would have been spent on the campaign.
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:07am
  - rockape
    
    Don’t rise to the troll.
    
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    May 4, 2023 10:38am
- cmm
  
  The real rich donors fund both sides. They don’t mind which side wins because they’re both beholden.
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:57am
Observant Octagenarian

Does anyone think that John Tamihere and Willie Jackson have fallen out?
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May 4, 2023 10:00am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Maybe it was their love of Roasts that busted them up?
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:04am
- rockape
  
  Willie is Labours traitor in the woodpile. How many political parties has he shunted between. Alliance Mana Maori then Labour. His principles are like chaff in the wind. He also welched on a $500 political bet with me !
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:07am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  No.
  
  They are working to plan.
  
  When the He Puapua putsch failed, they came up with an alternative.
  
  The Māori Power base in Government is strengthened by gifting Ikaroa-Rawhiti to the Maori Party.
  
  If Labour continue to poll around 30% they stand to lose a number of Maori MPs.
  
  Rawiri Waititi and Debbie Ngarewa-Packer are not guaranteed to win their electorates (although Debbie N-P stands a better chance now that Adrian Rurawhe has gone List)…
  
  But now the Maori Party is assured of at least one seat this election….and ultimately JT and Willie Jackson couldn’t care who is the Token Leader in Government….as long as they have the numbers to push their agenda.
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:19am
Maggie Pie

ANOTHER reason not to buy a Tesla…..

The steering-wheels are falling off!

https://www.nj.com/news/2023/03/feds-investigate-tesla-after-two-steering-wheels-fall-off-including-one-from-nj-mans-car.html
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May 4, 2023 10:13am
- cmm
  
  Notices how MSM wouldn’t say anything bad about Teslas.
  
  Then Musk draw outside the lines and all the Telsa bad press is leaking out…
  
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  May 4, 2023 10:54am
I remember when

Did the performance of Rawiri Waititi at the announcement of Meka Whaitiri’s change of party show his lack of leadership ability?
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May 4, 2023 10:22am
- rouppe
  
  The fixed smile on the face of Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was quite frightening.
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:16pm
Yvette

[John} Tamihere was the “master crafter of these political movements”
– former Te Pāti Māori MP Marama Fox

Hansard –
SPEAKER: Yeah; there are several different issues going on, and a lot of them are repeating or asking the same thing that I’ve already answered. For parliamentary purposes, the Hon Meka Whaitiri being an independent MP is a determination under Standing Orders. She has not told me that she is an independent MP, but for the purposes of Parliament, I have notified the House that she has asked me and informed me that she has withdrawn her proxy from the Labour Party and she wishes to sit somewhere else. That’s it. – Hansard
https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20230503_20230503_12

So it seems from this unless Whaitiri or Labour – that’s Leader Hipkins when he stops stuffing his face with sausage rolls with King Charles – notify the Speaker, Meta still is a Labour member – just sitting somewhere else in Parliament and voting with the Maori Party.
And bloody Winston horse-traded away gas and oil exploration for this vague waka-jumping law? WTF
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May 4, 2023 10:37am
Maggie Pie

Just WHAT is going on in this country?

Newsroom reports….. Chippie has pulled out of toasting the ‘Chinese-Business-Club’ dinner next week, although Police Minister Ginny will still attend.

And bestie Prof Anne-Marie Brady exposes some of the leading figures in the CCP United Front working in New Zealand 🙁

https://twitter.com/Anne_MarieBrady/status/1653588958306267136
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May 4, 2023 10:38am
Libertarians are right

Stuff has an article showing the “racist” personal text messaged allegedly sent by Tucker Carlson that allegedly resulted in him being fired.

He said that a bunch of people beating up an Antifa thug was “not how white men fight,”.

Huge gotcha for ignorant Lefties.

The full text message actually made me respect him a bit:

“A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living sh** out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight.

Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?”

This was a personal text message. It’s crazy that they see it in a negative light.

As for “it’s not how white men fight” – That’s more a cultural statement about white culture (which I don’t actually agree with), rather than explicitly claiming other races act differently.
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May 4, 2023 11:05am
- Che Guava
  
  But that is how African Americans fight, which was the implication. There are videos all over social media of packs of Blacks ganging up on individual White people and committing what are as close to racially-motivated hate crimes as anything you’ll see. If there were footage of a pack of Whites beating up a Black person, it would be a national story. We have to assume that there are no such videos.
  
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  May 4, 2023 12:38pm
- cmm
  
  It’s completely stupid to say that typical white and typical black people fight the same. They just don’t.
  They don’t walk the same, stand the same, sit the same.
  
  It is obvious enough that observers could tell the difference between white and black soldiers in the Angolan/Rhodesian bush wars. Even when wearing the same uniforms,carrying the same weapons, in the twilight a couple of hundred metres away. The “black is beautiful” camo paste isn’t enough.
  
  It isn’t racial. It’s cultural.
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:15pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Carlson was giving a mature and honest take on choosing NOT to give in to normal base human impulses. IE choosing to act like a civilised adult.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:16pm
I remember when

Remember when if you went on strike, you went on strike.
The Post Primary Teachers obviously aren’t prepared to put their money where their jobs are.
So they have put out a list covering the next 7 weeks of days when selected year groups will not be taught.
Of course, they are very sorry for the fact students will disadvantaged, parents arrangements disrupted, and look forward to their continued support.
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May 4, 2023 11:06am
- Paulus
  
  Do Teachers not get paid for the days they are on Strike – who says so ?
  And I have heard that it is too complicated to do it for each, named Teacher involved – so ummmmm !
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:58pm
Kumbukani

Like the way the Health Minister gaslights us about the health system. 🙁

““Coordinated at a national level, the health system is better prepared to respond locally and connect its people to share knowledge and deliver services this winter,” Verrall said.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/131942402/new-winter-health-plan-gives-more-power-to-pharmacists-gps-and-paramedics

Trigger words for bullshit:

“respond locally”
“connect its people”
“share knowledge”

This is why I like listening to David Seymour. He never talks like a moron.
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May 4, 2023 11:43am
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION

What portion of the $21,000,000+ in donations made to the RED CROSS for victims of Cyclone Gabrielle has been released yet…..and how much interest has been accrued on the money to date?
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May 4, 2023 11:56am
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  The wife and I stopped giving money to charities and now ask them what material goods they need instead.
  
  The Whangarei Salvation Army told us tooth brushes, baby diapers, washing soap, wet wipes and jams and that is what they got. No money.
  
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  May 4, 2023 12:28pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YIP… I’m exactly the same. Rather than selling my last years outfits to the Recycle Boutiques, I now take them over to the clothing-bins in Epsom.
    
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    May 4, 2023 1:30pm
- cmm
  
  Were those donations completely ringfenced for the NZ Cycloe Gabrielle victims?
  
  From my limited understanding how much of your donation ends up where will depend very much on what appeal you respond to.
  If you respond to a Special Appeal for Hawkes Bay Victims then you can expect a large % (maybe even 100%) of your donation to end up going to that purpose.
  
  If you donate to the NZ Disaster Fund or whatever it is called, then it is probably a lot more blurry.
  
  So the moral of the story when dealing with these charities is to first make sure EXACTLY where your donation is going. If you are not careful it could end up in First Class air tickets and climate change activism.
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:31pm
  - Keith White
    
    Over many years here and abroad my family and I have found the very best way to ensure donations are both useful and end up with the people they are of most use to, is (a) to hand-deliver them to the points of need, and (b) eschew all disaster relief organizations.
    
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    May 4, 2023 5:06pm
Swifty

The most important question on everybody’s lips today is have Maori Party MPs been watching too many Flava Flav videos?

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/131940007/dont-assume-meka-whaitiri-will-bring-ikaroa-rwhiti-to-te-pti-mori

See video.
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May 4, 2023 12:03pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  I get what you mean.
  There was an old McPhail and Gadsby skit I am old enough to remember (despite being a kid) and this one stuck with me, that (Tipene O’Regan I think) was being parodied and every time the camera cut away and back again the bone carving around his neck got bigger & bigger, until it was like a metre across his chest and down to his hips.
  
  I find wearing jade or other ornaments outside the clothing to be showy/purely signalling to others.
  If it is personally meaningful, then keep it so & that doesn’t mean in sight, and jade in particular is better warn against the skin.
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:59pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    Started as Stephen O’Regan, then Tipene O’Regan and the greenstone necklace and carved walking stick, then Sir Tipene O’Regan now Ta Tipene O’Regan.
    
    Apparently Ta is Sir in Te Lingo.
    
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    May 4, 2023 4:19pm
  - alex Masterley
    
    I look at the things people wear around (or below) their necks and wonder whether if the are floatation devices the bone ones or anchors, the greenstone ones.
    
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    May 4, 2023 4:45pm
Taieri

Newspeak at Te Whare Wananga o Otakou (formerly the University of Otago):

“We are seeking to appoint an outstanding Pūkenga to join the Department of Botany at the University of Otago based in Ōtepoti Dunedin, Te Wai Pounamu South Island. We are the only Department of Botany in Aotearoa New Zealand…”
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May 4, 2023 12:07pm
- Ehlana
  
  At least there’ll be no danger of an appointment from outside New Zealand. And since their work, if produced in the same language, will be unintelligible beyond our shores, no danger of the appointee ever departing for elsewhere.
  
  I thought pukenga were those dark-trunk palms (?) that are used as borders for garden beds.
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:18pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    They’re ponga/punga – tree-fern trunks.
    
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    May 4, 2023 1:43pm
- kowtow
  
  Botany ?
  
  More like a frontal lobotomy.
  
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  May 4, 2023 3:05pm
Maggie Pie

News @noon

ZB’s political reporter refers to Meka as…. ‘a cunning Maori’

LOL!!
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May 4, 2023 12:16pm
Swifty

Labour Party MPs are either:

1. Liars
2. Ambivalent to the issue of street layabouts and thuggery, or
3. Totally incompetent

https://i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/131939352/new-zealand-has-a-begging-emergency-and-it-demands-tough-action

Which one is it?
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May 4, 2023 12:22pm
- Ghost
  
  All 3 of the above and so much more.
  
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  May 4, 2023 12:25pm
Ghost

Newshub understands the Speaker will make a further ruling about Meka Whaitiri in the House on Thursday afternoon.
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May 4, 2023 12:34pm
oldpark

Let’s review Joes accomplishments since Jan 20 2021. Reduce Americas status to that of a third world country, Restrict resources to advance the deaths of the elderly, poor and sick, Restrict border enforcement by inviting open migration, restrict the media from actual reporting, restrict Law enforcement by supporting Anti-Police activities and progressive DAs, restrict American farmers from farming, restrict women’s rights in sports, restrict religion by denying equal protection, restrict freedom of speech by manipulating the media, restrict freedom of expression, restrict gun rights for law abiding citizens, restrict voting procedures that would prevent cheating, restrict freedom of movement by restricting access to fossil fuels, restrict hunting, restrict freedom to assembly in peaceful protest, restrict victims rights, restrict a home owners ability to remove trespassers and squatters, restrict freedom to spend your money as you see fit, restrict freedom to invest in companies that you like, restrict your children into failing Public education systems, restrict where you can live by encouraging lawlessness, restrict political discourse of your opponents, use the power of government agencies to target political opponents… I’m sure there are many more. Socialist or Communist you decide.

Even though this is Bidens’ America.
Seems New Zealands present Regime also have carried out most restrictions on their citizens as well .Check out the similarities.
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May 4, 2023 12:43pm
Ghost

Argh. Do we really want this, I’m going to use a pronoun because he ain’t a man. Do we really want this he in the community?

A former Christchurch doctor and repeat sex offender has been caught attacking patients for a third time.

Rakesh Kumar Chawdhry was working as a GP at the Riccarton Clinic when he sexually abused 12 men between 2011 and 2015, mainly through the use of a “milking procedure” in which he tried to give them erections.

Article
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May 4, 2023 12:59pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  “The Board was satisfied that Chawdhry no longer posed an undue risk”
  
  WTF?!!
  
  I wouldn’t trust the horrible old perv as far as I could throw my leather-bound illustrated edition of the Kama Sutra.
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:16pm
ClanMcleod

The American FDA (NZ equivalent is Medsafe) has an “enforcement arm”.

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F87fc4aef-457e-4d31-b98a-a24dc8ddcde4_1194x1032.jpeg

Apparently a nation’s drugs regulator needs armed people to enforce their policies……sounds like the Mafia to me!
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May 4, 2023 1:01pm
- virtualmark
  
  Murica!
  
  Most US Federal Government agencies have an “enforcement” arm. Witness the uproar recently when it came out the IRS had spent US$10m in last 3 years on guns & ammo.
  
  Gunz. Moar gunz.
  
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  May 4, 2023 1:41pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Took down Al Capone. I’m guessing some firepower was handy.
    
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    May 4, 2023 7:44pm
Yvette

NZ First leader Winston Peters (not currently an MP) said Whatiri was “trampling” on the democratic process, specifically the waka-jumping law that was meant to prevent MPs from defecting from parties they were elected to represent, and getting to stay in Parliament.

No, Winston, you are the one who screwed with democracy, {as I have mentioned above, today) horse-trading off oil and gas exploration (out-of-Cabinet, it would seem, you aerosol) for your dopey waka-jumping legislation, with a bloody black hole in it, that Meka Whaitiri has just flown a Millennium Falcon through (May the 4th be with you) – apparently all you need do is tell the Speaker who you are voting for, but not that you’ve resigned from anything, although you can tell people outside Parliament, or what party you really belong to, and Labour is too frighten to do the same (tell the Speaker) because they don’t want a by-Election and the tyranny of the majority to blow them outta the (3) Water(s)

Control: Enemy at 2 o’clock
Millennium Falcon: Roger that! What should we do until then?
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May 4, 2023 1:16pm
- rockape
  
  Your last bit reminded me of an incident I witnessed on a search and rescue mission aboard a Nimrod. We always had a submariner Lt Cdr as an exchange officer on secondment he was onboard as an extra pair of eyes. When he saw a vessel he said. Fishing boat at red 30 meaning 30 degrees off the port side. The navigator dropped by and told him that in the RAF we usually one the clock method. Shortly later he announced another vessel. This time at two bells on the second watch !
  
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  May 4, 2023 3:02pm
Maggie Pie

My partner’s only just pulled out. He’s heading down to the Waikato to make sure everything’s organised before the other boys arrive for Opening-Day.
He’d been hoping to get away a lot earlier, but it took him ages to find his camo gear.
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May 4, 2023 1:46pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  Geez Maggie that is some fine first sentence there!
  
  Made me laugh
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:13pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Reminds me of the old panda joke. “Eats shoots and leaves”.
  Your partner’s should be “eats shoots, leaves and shoots”……lol
  
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  May 4, 2023 3:03pm
Ghost

Speakers new ruling on Meka Whaitiri is a white wash
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May 4, 2023 2:03pm
- Ghost
  
  Damn he’s struggling to read this ruling
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:06pm
  - Ghost
    
    Speaker will not release any correspondence from her
    
    9 0
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    May 4, 2023 2:09pm
  - nathie
    
    “Damn he’s struggling to read this ruling”.
    
    Maybe because Robbo wrote the waffle soup for him???
    
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    May 4, 2023 4:12pm
- slightlyrighty
  
  Post Mallard, I had hoped to experience a speaker with more integrity.
  
  That hope is now dashed.
  
  I have no respect for, or confidence in the current speaker….
  
  24 0
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  May 4, 2023 2:23pm
- Ghost
  
  Speaker will not release any advice he received to make his ruling
  
  10 0
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  May 4, 2023 2:29pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Corrupt
    
    15 0
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    May 4, 2023 2:43pm
- Paul Marsden
  
  You mean a black wash
  
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  May 4, 2023 2:59pm
- Swifty
  
  I didn’t catch their name but earlier today I heard someone, involved in all this, quoted on the radio as saying “it’s in nobody’s interest to invoke the waka-jumping law.”
  
  Nobody’s interest? You mean the political parties involved?
  
  What about our interest? The people. Our interest in seeing the bloody law followed. The very law that the Labour Party brought in.
  
  I have no view particularly on the virtues of this law one way or the other. But it is still the law and these people are making a mockery of it. They are in effect choosing which law to follow and which to breach, and breach with apparent impunity.
  
  They are our elected law-makers and they are playing fast and loose with the very laws they are responsible for and all in the pursuit of political advantage.
  
  As far as I’m concerned their activities over the last 48 hours has brought them all and our parliament into disrepute. It’s all a great joke to them.
  
  “Look how clever we are, we’ve got away with it!”
  
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  May 4, 2023 4:45pm
ClanMcleod

Here’s a great example of how to take down a climate change lunatic. In defense of closing mines and stopping new permits, she claims that it won’t have any impact on jobs for the people of the country, that there are almost 2 jobs for every person in America.

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

We need someone to target the ideological Greens like this in Wellington.
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May 4, 2023 2:54pm
Maggie Pie

Home alone tonite so under no pressure to prep for dindins.
Thort I’d watch a bit of QT to see what ‘Mr Speaker’ had to say.
He comes across to me like a dopier version of The Duck.

Q5 was the best.
Paul Goldsmith sticking it up the Min-of-Justice about the undeclared rent contribution she received from Meng-the-Merciless….and whether or not she’d recused herself from Cabinets decision to fund an additional $10mill for the HRC.

Thort to myself…. if Meng was watching, his sphincter would have tightened a bit.
LOL!
10 4
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May 4, 2023 3:18pm
- Kumbukani
  
  “Thort I’d watch a bit of QT to see what ‘Mr Speaker’ had to say.”
  
  Shit, you are way short on entertainment options. 🙂 Maybe you live way out in the boonies.
  
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  May 4, 2023 7:01pm
Surely Knott

Ockham Residential new apartment with outdoor heated pool. Apartments cost $450k.

Why is it that a single apartment building complex can afford and maintain an outdoor swimming pool to serve it’s community. But Auckland Council , despite adding hundreds of thousands of new residences who are new paying customers
doesn’t have any outdoor swimming pools in all of West Auckland despite most of the beaches being dangerous surf beaches. There are good historic ones in Herne Bay and Parnell. But none in the West and only 1 small one on the North Shore.

This Spanish thread commenter reckons in Spain every small town of over 300 people has a public outdoor pool.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/housing-minister-to-open-ockham-residentials-16th-apartment-building-in-avondale-today/JDNPEWEB25GBTOPJF6RRUF3HFQ/

https://www.aucklandforkids.co.nz/outdoor-swimming-pools/
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May 4, 2023 3:29pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  The pool looks smaller than ours!!
  Imagine about 300 people trying to go for a swim in it on a hot day.
  LOL
  
  5 1
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  May 4, 2023 4:15pm
ClanMcleod

Again, overseas first, the truth re the scam policies that we were subjected to during the last couple of years of tyranny.

German government admits it has no evidence face masks work

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/05/03/german-government-admits-it-has-no-evidence-face-masks-work/

Meanwhile in clown world NZ we still see these people in our daily lives……..
11 2
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May 4, 2023 3:39pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  I think you’ll find it’s mainly women who got beaten by God with the ugly-stik that still like wearing them.
  
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  May 4, 2023 4:00pm
kevn

@Maggie… and people in the dock at court. More like hiding their identity of course.
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May 4, 2023 4:16pm
Right of way is Way of Right

So it’s up to the Speaker of the House to determine where everyone sits apparently. And here I was thinking that the seats in the House of Representatives are allocated on the basis of votes cast by the people whom the members of the house are there to represent.

Today is a sad day for democracy in New Zealand.
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May 4, 2023 4:53pm
- Swifty
  
  Andrew Geddis, Otago Law Prof, was on RNZ just now – he’s deeply unimpressed with these shenanigans.
  
  FFS – Whaitiri voted for the waka-jumping law!
  
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  May 4, 2023 6:22pm
- Piniwi
  
  Time for a vote of no confidence in the speaker especially today after struggling so hard to read out his decision (instructions provided [Mod – use correct name]) to the extent nobody understood it. More deflection from the key question with a smoke screen and a lot of waffle.
  
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  May 4, 2023 9:09pm
MCōs

Just for a change there will be a general election in Thailand on 14-May
About 70 parties are registered to compete for about 500 seats plus there are 250 preselected by the elite, upper house seats. From what I understand.
After that it all gets a bit hazy, but I think the PM is selected by the 750 members.
If it doesn’t go the way of the elite another coup is on the cards.
Don’t take my word for anything except even though I lived there for all those years, the longer I was there the less I knew.
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May 4, 2023 5:56pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Get this shit!
“The judge rejected the former president’s argument on Wednesday, saying the case failed “as a matter of constitutional law,” ordering Trump to pay legal fees and associated costs for the Times and its reporters.”
Reporters as well? Fake news reporters?
Trump should have legal recourse against this.

https://nz.news.yahoo.com/judge-dismisses-trump-suit-against-021713394.html
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May 4, 2023 6:23pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

My comments are late. Just got home from surgery.
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May 4, 2023 6:24pm
- Ghost
  
  You ok?
  
  4 0
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  May 4, 2023 6:27pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yeah man, cubital tunnel, move the ulnar nerve.
    Anesthetic and stella and whisker work just fine for me ):
    
    2 1
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    May 4, 2023 8:24pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      whiskey* ffs, only had one of each.
      
      1 1
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      May 4, 2023 8:24pm
    - Ghost
      
      That’s good you finally got that done.
      
      3 0
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      May 4, 2023 8:50pm
Kumbukani

You really need to wonder. I am a late 50s paunchy guy. I am going to get my 20s law interns drunk and take them to a sex shop 🙁 That will be totally OK.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/canterbury/131950019/christchurch-lawyer-suspended-for-disturbing-conduct-with-young-colleagues
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May 4, 2023 6:49pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Did in the 70s! Boss paid and gave us $1 notes to slide into the “Gs”
  These days we have the offended, even though they were NOT the offended.
  NOTHING HAPPENS WHEN YOU GET OFFENDED!
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceS_jkKjIgo
  
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  May 4, 2023 8:33pm
Maggie Pie

I see tonite on the news we’ve given Ukraine $78 million in ‘aid’ over the last twelve months.

So everything’s ok here then, our roads, health, infrastructure?
Is the 100’s-of-billions Biden has thrown at Zelensky not enuff?

What a total waste of taxpayers money.
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May 4, 2023 6:54pm
- Kumbukani
  
  In addressing Government waste, I would have aid to Ukraine well down my list.
  
  If you care the future of New Zealand, wake up tomorrow with real solutions. Ukraine, or your advice from your tennis mates, well not one of them. Use your intelligence and wealth to save the country. Not to make smart arse comments.
  
  3 9
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  May 4, 2023 6:58pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    When you contribute as much tax as we do, you can also make ‘smart arse’ comments about how these commie wastrels spend our money. OK?
    
    7 2
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    May 4, 2023 7:07pm
    - Kumbukani
      
      [Mod – personal abuse deleted]
      
      0 3
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      May 4, 2023 7:10pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        You lose!!
        
        3 2
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        May 4, 2023 7:50pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      kumbaya, yep yep yep
      
      2 1
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      May 4, 2023 8:49pm
- Paul Marsden
  
  That’s $78M to continue the slaughter of Ukraine’s finest young men. When will the fact that Russia is prevailing and will continue to prevail in this conflict, until wiser heads prevail?
  
  4 4
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  May 4, 2023 7:06pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Exactly right. As I’ve heard peopke say… anyone who thinks Ukraine can win a war agaist Russia is delusional. With or without Nato.
    
    5 5
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    May 4, 2023 7:27pm
    - Right of way is Way of Right
      
      Ask Finland about a war with Russia! Ask Afghanistan.
      
      3 4
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      May 4, 2023 8:28pm
      - Paul Marsden
        
        That was then. This is now. Every day the war progresses, Russia’s military and economy grows stronger. On another matter, credible sources report that approx 15,000 Ukraine troops were slaughtered in April alone.
        
        3 0
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        May 4, 2023 9:41pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Only just out of the bath.
      This is something I discovered my partner had filed youse mite like to read?
      
      PROJECT AERODYNAMIC
      
      https://twitter.com/SS77915365/status/1586985252119281664
      
      ‘
      
      0 1
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      May 4, 2023 10:20pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Ukraine. has potholes.
  
  2 1
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  May 4, 2023 8:36pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  New Zealand is fighting a proxy War with Ukraine?
  Just like Joe is?
  
  4 2
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  May 4, 2023 8:52pm
Surely Knott

Jack Brazil. Police give an update.

““Dunedin police are seeking to identify a man who was in the car with Jack Brazil when the prominent Dunedin activist was shot.” “At the time of the shooting, Brazil had been in a vehicle with another man, whom police wanted to speak to.”

**So how is Jack’s health? Can’t he identify the man in the car with him at 3am?

““The man’s vehicle had been located, police said in a statement.”

*** Jack was shot in the Liver in first report. Was the shooting from outside the car through the door to his liver? Or did the man in the car shoot him? What did Jack say about the shooting or the offender?

First report: after the shooting Jack drove to Yours cafe, and then Jack found another lift to the hospital.

This follows 4 very strange shooting events in Dunedin. Including another driveby. Are any of them linked?

CASE 1 – 3 March,
What: a 33 yr old man sparked an eight-hour rooftop standoff with armed police
A search of his vehicle revealed a .308 firearm and various bladed weapons, police said.
Who: Name?

CASE 2 – 10 March.
Driveby Shooting. Shots fired one car to another in Dunedin.
Car of interest: 2005 Silver BMW Saloon registration GCE188, which is believed to have been involved in the incident.
Location: 4.40pm on Thomas Burns Street in the city centre.
Who: 25 years old (later identified as Caleb Bell) and an accessory. No photo or job details given to confirm identity.

CASE 3 10 April: Man arrested another sought.
What: 3 shots fired residential lane – Manor Place
Who: A 44-year-old man has been arrested, as police continue to search for another man believed involved in the incident. Names?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/police-seek-man-who-was-with-dunedin-activist-jack-brazil-when-he-was-shot/OV6LEAAA4NBDRH6YJKU2IZWD7E/

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/crime/man-charged-attempted-murder-named
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May 4, 2023 8:05pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Jacks besties with the Member-for-Tijuana.
  Theyve posed together on twitter.
  Although I see jacksie has suddenly protected his tweets from prying eyes.
  
  The plot thickens 😎
  
  6 1
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  May 4, 2023 8:51pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    ‘Blot’
    
    2 1
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    May 4, 2023 8:53pm
wilderbeast

I’m confused:

Though I vow never to watch TVNZ sometimes momentary lapses in concentration catch me there. I see Melissa Stokes and Daniel Faitaua enthusiastically marketing the upcoming Kings coronation. Given they are such willing mouthpieces for everything woke and surely there is no institution more evocative of oppression than the British monarchy (ya know, “colonisation” and “entrenched power structures”) I’m left wondering if they and TVNZ draw the dots…or am I expecting too much…?
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May 4, 2023 9:03pm
Ghost

Surprise surprise

Newshub can reveal the Education Minister’s office instructed officials to delay the release of attendance data so it could be timed with a truancy announcement.
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May 4, 2023 9:14pm
Swifty

I call on Maoridom, and particularly Maori MPs, to own up to and take responsibility for the vast history of invasion, murder, butchery, rape, enslavement and cannibalism that they perpetrated on each other before and since European contact.

I also call on Maoridom, especially Maori MPs, to recognise and apologise for the rampant crime and resultant harm in NZ communities TODAY, caused primarily by Maori males and which is way above what we should expect in their population size.

I further call on all Labour, Green and Maori Party MPs to apologise for the wretched effects their policies have had on Maori for the last 60 years where they have treated them as children, torn families apart, paid women to churn out children they can’t or won’t love and care for and otherwise reward Maori for indolence and irresponsibility.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/maori-party-want-king-charles-iii-to-own-up-to-horrific-impacts-of-colonisation-genocide-and-enslaving-indigenous-peoples/35ARDFFIRBAS3GBUJ7LJL3ZCKQ/
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May 4, 2023 9:52pm

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