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June 6, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 06 June 2023

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General Debate

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Mike

Happy UN Russian Language Day!
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June 6, 2023 8:01am
- cjn
  
  No, the Russian language must be suppressed. That will shut Zelensky up!
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:21pm
PeterB

Has Chippy given up? Had the weekend off when speaking with Hosking.
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June 6, 2023 8:03am
- pdm
  
  PB – wouldn’t you.
  
  He is no different to Ardern, other than he fronts on Hosking, with the same incompetent Cabinet and Caucus hellbent on dragging New Zealand and New Zealanders down.
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:58am
- Ruawai
  
  Hadn’t had time to read the news, it is not that hard and only takes 10 minutes on one of those modern smart phones.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:13am
  - Ehlana
    
    You don’t even have to read it yourself. The clever phone thingys will read it to you and you can have moving pictures as well, if you like.
    
    In earlier generations, the Kiwi bloke could keep up with the cricket and still get the garden work done.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:57am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Comprehension is what takes the time.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:04am
- Hollyfield
  
  Whenever Mike asks “did you see xxx in the paper this morning” his response is always “no” he hasn’t had a chance to look at it. Today it was “did you see xxx in the paper over the weekend” and again it was “no”. It seems imperative that a PM look at the newspaper first thing every single day, or have a staffer do it and let him know of key points. Either he doesn’t care about current events, or he deliberately says “no” so he doesn’t have to answer any questions. I have previously given him a free pass when he hasn’t yet seen the newspaper that day, but not seeing a Saturday article by Tuesday is lazy, incompetent and/or deliberate.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:23am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    He is the same as his ex-boss. Will not answer anything, easier to divert or give some word soup waffle.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:37am
    - Hollyfield
      
      I do enjoy the interviews though. Mike’s barely audible sighs whenever the PM says something dumb (about every 6.4 seconds), and Mike’s barely contained chuckles at a particularly stupid response always make me smile at the start of the workday.
      
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      June 6, 2023 10:26am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        I don’t listen to him, but I can imagine the fun he has.
        
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        June 6, 2023 11:40am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Hopkins is lying, that stock answer is a way to avoid having to answer subsequent questions on the topic.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:26am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Key was quite good at “I don’t recall” and basically got a free ride any time it came up ….
      
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      June 6, 2023 4:53pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Yeah, when the questions were about things that happened 20-30 years before Ian. Hardly the same as this morning. Doh.
        
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        June 6, 2023 5:45pm
- Scooter
  
  Every time Mike asks him if he has read an article or seen news Hipkins says no, he hasn’t had time etc. You’d think a PM would be in touch with what’s going on in the news, at least to be able to answer questions.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:30am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    Maybe Hosking shouldn’t ask “Have you read this specific article”, but instead ask, “Are you aware of X or Y”.
    Because not reading Stuff or the Herald opinion is not a big deal, but not being briefed on current events would be a very different matter.
    Alternatively, if the content of the article/a statement is critical – the Mike should read the section out 1 minute before the PM arrives, as of course he is listening in.
    There are ways and means, rather than allowing Chippie an out every time.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:19am
    - Mike
      
      Hosking always seems in a bit of a hurry though, so perhaps he doesn’t have time to prepare beyond reading the paper himself.
      
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      June 6, 2023 12:26pm
  - Dougal10
    
    He probably knows over half of whats published is govt funded not so truthful news so just doesn’t bother anymore.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:25am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    A simpleton who doesn’t know what a women is can’t be expected to keep up with the news.
    
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    June 7, 2023 8:41pm
- Simon
  
  “Has Chippy given up?”
  
  His iwi handlers are having a break.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:45am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Zelensky Admits Fear Of Trump 2024.
To me that sounds like Zelensky does not want the War to end while he and Ukraine live on Overseas aid. All Countries who help Ukraine with money and/or weapons, are fighting a proxy War.
Trump said he could stop that War in 24 hours. I believe that. It comes from r͟e͟s͟p͟e͟c͟t͟ from Putin and Zelensky.
https://rantsofizzo.com/daniel/5392/
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June 6, 2023 8:06am
- Lance
  
  Zelensky wants to the war to end. Russia just has to retreat from the Ukraine lands it violently invaded.
  Putin has already set the precedent, he violently invaded Crimea and other lands.. then promised that was enough. He regrouped, rearmed and went at it again, this time the Ukraine was ready for him.
  I suspect Zelensky and all Ukrainians think Putin is a lying sack of shit
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:22am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I think he wants to extend it for a while. Money money money, and 10% for another big guy. He needs another mansion is a safe place.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:07am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      It’s keeping the US economy afloat right now, best money laundering scheme they’ve had for quite some time.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:25am
      - cmm
        
        If you said Biden family economy, you’d be right.
        
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        June 6, 2023 4:54pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Steve Otto – yesterday’s UK Column News had a good piece on the conflict. They are always a good source of balanced and rational reporting.
      
      https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/uk-column-news-5th-june-2023
      
      Brian Gerrish, one of the presenters, is a former UK Naval Officer.
      
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      June 6, 2023 2:44pm
      - mawm
        
        Quite an impressive clobber list by the poorly-trained, inferiorly-equipped, demoralised Russians on the latest offensive by the Ukies. I believe they even bagged a leopard.
        
        How much longer can the Ukrainian army keep on sacrificing their men for US hegemony, military-industrial financial gain, US politicians’ and BlackRock’s, etc. spoils?
        
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        June 6, 2023 4:41pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        mawm – I’m picking they will wake up pretty soon, when they do, best for Zelenski he’s not in the country.
        He’s been sucked in by the US and any rebuild will finish up in the hands of US corporations, just like Iraq. Remember Cheney and Halliburton?
        The Biden’s will be all over this, as will the rest of the parasites among the neocons.
        Ukraine as an independent entity may well disappear completely.
        It’s a US trait and a tragedy that’s been inflicted on so many countries.
        
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        June 6, 2023 5:07pm
  - Taieri
    
    Putin has already set the precedent, he violently invaded Crimea
    —————-
    
    There’s very little violence involved in the Crimea annexation as there’s hardly any resistance to it from either the Ukrainian military or the Crimea’s residents.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:24am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      What should be remembered is many Ukrainians want Russian control.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:43am
      - Lance
        
        Wow….
        So that’s why the Ukrainian’s are fighting, they actually want Russian annexation
        Seriously dude, your Putin shilling is becoming comical
        
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        June 6, 2023 12:37pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Lance – you are obviously unfamiliar with the history WRT Russia & Ukraine.
        
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        June 6, 2023 1:20pm
      - KH
        
        Putin invaded to protect Russians living in Ukraine. Ukraine had outfits like the Azov regiment who from to time shot somebody in the street for speaking Russian. And in 2014 about 80 Russian speakers were herded into a building in Odessa and burnt to death.
        This is a ethnic war, brothers and cousins murdering each other. Nobody is innocent. And in ethnic conflicts you can’t actually draw a correct border.
        Madness.
        
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        June 6, 2023 1:27pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Lance – do a bit of research on this situation, it’s not as simple as you see it. ‘Putin bad, Murica good’.
        
        As someone else suggested, John Mearsheimer is a good start. He’s a US professor who understands the geopolitics at play. Here’s a speech he gave at the University of Chicago in 2015, a year after the US neocon driven and funded coup in Ukraine.
        
        Long before the Russian invasion, Mearsheimer was warning of the potential disaster that US interference was going to lead to.
        
        Why is Ukraine the West’s fault?
        
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrMiSQAGOS4
        
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        June 6, 2023 2:42pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Lance, many Russian families have lived in Ukraine for generations.
        
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        June 6, 2023 6:30pm
    - Lance
      
      Overwhelming military force with no notice and underhanded tactics can achieve limited victory sometimes. It didn’t work for Putin a second time.
      
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      June 6, 2023 12:41pm
      - mawm
        
        Lance – So who is currently shelling Russian villages and specifically aiming at the civilian population?
        
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        June 6, 2023 4:44pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Taieri – when it comes to Russia/Ukraine, whatever you do, do not tell the truth. It triggers quite a few commenters on KB.
      I’m presuming they are older and still think it’s 1962.
      
      Bring back McCarthy!
      
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      June 6, 2023 1:10pm
    - stiff cheese
      
      @Lance,
      
      Try reading John Mearsheimer’s article about the leadup to this conflict, for some balance. Learn some history: the path toward this war was determined before 2014. Ask the U.S. State Dept. Ask Hillary.
      
      Our local media are one-sided and won’t give even an INDICATION of the Total Casualties.
      
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      June 6, 2023 2:05pm
      - sirknz
        
        Our local media are one-sided and won’t give even an INDICATION of the Total Casualties.
        ————————–
        
        They will tell us about babies, especially baby girls being killed. Usually those stories follow a similar pattern to what we heard when Iraq invaded Kuwait, like the babies being taken out of ventilators and thrown on the floor.
        
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        June 6, 2023 4:40pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Lance,
    Can I suggest you expand your reading on the Russia/Ukraine conflict.
    MSM are only after soundbytes/clickbait and in turn are fed by the Western progoganda machine.
    For Propaganda fed by the Russians, look at Hindustani times eg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRBvUannqcY
    or
    Syrian Arab News Agency eg
    https://sana.sy/en/?p=310013
    
    However to truly understand the conflict, its history and relevance.
    I recommend you watch/read commentary by
    john mearsheimer
    or
    jeffrey sachs
    
    Have a nice day
    
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    June 6, 2023 12:26pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Trump saying he could end the war in 24 hours (if he was dumb enough to say that!) is a stupid statement that shows what a narcissist clown he too often is.
  He either thinks his personal ‘art of the deal’ is so amazing, or else he thinks he can work with threats, or get Western Europe and Ukraine to fall in with any of his great plans.
  Fool.
  
  Putin’s behavior fits into an extension of Soviet Foreign policy (buffers with the West), and a view of Russia that would have it still a regional power at the very least. It is not the kind of ‘national destiny’ aim that gets shelved because of a phone call from a blow-hard.
  
  What a choice America has – to elect one of 2 leaders who will have them cringing with embarrassment.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:26am
  - Matt Long
    
    Neither Presidents Trump or Biden have their party Nominations to stand for President at this time. They Presently have at least two hundred million choices.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:39am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    We will see what happens in 2025. Trump has the respect of many. Putin, Kim Jong un, Xí Jìnpíng, and yes even Zelensky
    Russia would never have invaded if Trump was President. The War would not have happened.
    
    You don’t have to like someone to respect them, and with that respect you gain respect in return.
    DJT.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:49am
  - stiff cheese
    
    At least with Trump you get someone willing to think outside the box, e.g. his meeting with North Korea’s leader that calmed down the nuclear threat from that part of the world. No one else ever thought that would happen. But Trump did it.
    
    Compare that to Joe Biden’s “foreign policy”: within weeks of achieving regime change in Ukraine, the Biden clan were over there stuffing cash down their collective trouser leg (from a local energy company, Burisma).
    
    Also, 10 million (and counting) from China to the Bidens for…. er, no one seems to know.
    
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    June 6, 2023 2:32pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      The full contents of the Hunter Biden laptop contents have been published on a website. What a corrupt family.
      
      https://bidenlaptopmedia.com/
      
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      June 6, 2023 3:04pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      North Korea’s leader that calmed down the nuclear threat from that part of the world
      
      Sure did. No more rockets being fired off anywhere ..
      
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      June 6, 2023 4:57pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Naughty Steve! Telling the truth about what is happening over there will get you frowny downticks here. 🤣
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:28am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yep, 21 so far. Different story if the War was in their backyard.
    Downticks don’t worry me. It just means I have pissed someone off!
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:51am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Steve – same here, it generally means you’re over the target, except in Milkey’s case, then it means the complete opposite.
      
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      June 6, 2023 1:13pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        I rarely bother with Mike – but I do give him and uptick when he is sensible.
        
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        June 6, 2023 6:32pm
  - mawm
    
    After the lies about climate change, Trump-Russia collusion, stolen elections, and safe and effective covid vaccines, and even as our government is preparing to launch a anti-dis/misinformation (anti-dissent) tool, there are people who are still willing to believe the Western MSM propaganda. I guess Jacinda did her job and deserved her gong. //s
    
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    June 6, 2023 4:53pm
Yvette

Bi-lingual signage
Has anyone yet seen any really cogent reasoning as to why Maori wording – in position, colour and typeface weight – should dominate a sign rather than the English which would logically serve the purpose of the sign to communicate to the largest number of road users what for safety is essential to know among the factors of speed, legibility and lack of visual clutter?

Surely over decades the optimum of all functions of a road sign have been refined and established to met the requirements for safety, so what is the impact on this system to serve the totally unrelated purpose of promoting understanding and use of Maori language?

I was distracted, your Honour, when my car killed an entire Maori family

Why not run a series of attractively crafted ten-second spots of state television – of course sight and sound – if you can’t pick essential words up from such a campaign. you won’t from road signage as you flash past it – and road kill will likely be less
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June 6, 2023 8:07am
- kowtow
  
  ‘Why not run a series of attractively crafted ten-second spots of state television ‘
  
  There’s too much already !
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:57am
  - Sacha
    
    People still look at (and take notice of) State Television?
    Really?
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:43am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Sometimes the speaker of the house insists.
      Keep the queen bee happy and the whole hive is happy.
      
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      June 6, 2023 10:09am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Not only is there no reason to have the maori version prominent, there are very good reasons why it should not be.
  
  In every case where there are multi-lingual road signs, the dominant (in this case English) language is recommended to be on the top (if top/bottom) or on the left (if left/right). In other words, the language that the vast majority speaks and reads – in New Zealand’s case that is 100% of people that can read – should be the first thing you see.
  
  Which means, of course, that in New Zealand that advice will be steadfastly ignored and the subordinate language will continue to be rammed down our throats. You see, it’s all about ideology and rushing headlong towards turning the first-world country of New Zealand into the shit-hole ethno-state of Aotearoa.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:09am
  - Ruawai
    
    This is what National should have targeted, Maori should 100% be smaller and below English, otherwise the signs are distracting and confusing to 97% of the population.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:15am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I see a lot being blown in half with a 12G.
      
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      June 6, 2023 9:42am
    - Nickc2
      
      How about we just leave things as they currently are?
      
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      June 6, 2023 9:44am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        It is all part of the Coup, Nick.
        
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        June 6, 2023 11:53am
      - GJM
        
        Have them in the Pre Colonial Maori writing.
        
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        June 6, 2023 4:10pm
    - leoj
      
      With Luxon a sympathiser, National is unlikely to speak up for fear of being labelled as racists.
      
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      June 6, 2023 12:08pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Who bloody cares. If I get called or labeled a Racist it does not worry me one bit. The ones doing that have a problem, not me. Walk away, they are not worth the debate.
        
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        June 6, 2023 6:48pm
  - Hollyfield
    
    And last week Willie Jackson said the reason Maori TV has low viewer figures is because people can’t understand the Maori content and they need to screen more content in English!
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:24am
    - Nickc2
      
      If Willie said that, it must be Election Year eh?
      
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      June 6, 2023 9:46am
    - Yvette
      
      According to Minister for Māori Development, Willie Jackson, Māori TV’s ratings have fallen away because it lacks good programming – in English.
      “In the past it has all been about the language (te Reo), a huge focus on the language, but we need our own news in English and we need our own programmes in English; it’s not so much about the language, it’s about the stories. Most of our people don’t speak te Reo and we shouldn’t do it at the expense of our people
      
      https://www.newsroom.co.nz/mori-media-in-for-a-big-shake-up
      
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      June 6, 2023 10:25am
      - Nickc2
        
        I think Willie’s been struck down by a terminal dose of reality.
        I wish he’d apply this newly found logic to other Govt owned TV Stations and get rid of the talking heads’ persistence in bombarding viewers with Te Reo.
        
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        June 6, 2023 10:55am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Why does he believe they need “our own news in English”?
        
        Why does he want to divide the country like this? It cannot end well.
        
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        June 6, 2023 11:29am
  - Burtland
    
    woke road signs – who would have thought thats a priority//
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:38am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  If there are no living monolingual speakers of Te Reo, why have bilingual signage?
  
  What problem is the bilingual signage trying to solve?
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:21am
  - Ehlana
    
    Lack of income to consultants, Odakyu-sen.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:00am
    - kowtow
      
      Er , “consultants” , cough cough .
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:20am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    The problem that Bilingual Signs is trying to solve is, according to Waka Kotahi, to “contribute to having te reo Māori seen, heard and spoken wherever possible to continue the revitalisation of the language.”
    
    Are road signs the right place to achieve this?
    
    To me, it makes about as much sense as, rather than having speed limits expressed as a number, to have it expressed as a formula you need to solve. This would be to help raise our falling numeracy standard.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:14am
    - Odakyu-sen
      
      Why does a dead language need to be revitalized by the State? Have the voters (and taxpayers) ever voted for such State funding?
      
      Can the descendants of the native speakers of that language not take it upon themselves to keep it alive?
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:41am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    A feeble attempt to revive the language to give it relevance. It won’t work.
    
    They did the same in Ireland and Wales. Basically, anyone who is interested in it will be learning it in their own time at their own expense. The numbers of those interested may have increased a little due to their efforts, but the cost/benefit is horrendous.
    
    Many take it up as a hobby and abandon the pursuit very quickly. The vast majority use English to navigate their daily lives, including the biggest pushers of the language.
    
    Language is about communication. Like everything else, it evolves. That’s why English is predominant and likely will be for a very long time.
    I don’t say it to belittle the other languages, I did Latin in school. It was interesting, purely as a means of understanding it’s role as the root of many other languages and shows how we evolved.
    
    The whole idea of reviving prior languages belongs in academia. Voluntary. For those who are interested.
    It should not be forced on everyone. It will cause more resentment. Just like coercion of vaccines has done.
    Ideologues don’t understand this, they aren’t capable of rational thinking.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:39am
    - Jimbo666
      
      After 100 years of compulsory teaching of the Irish language in schools etc only 3% of Irish consider themselves fluent in the language!
      
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      June 6, 2023 2:47pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        It’s as widely spoken in Ireland as Maori is here. Basically nowhere of any relevance.
        
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        June 6, 2023 3:06pm
      - Dave
        
        Alas, indigenous language revivalists, often being of the decolonized, postmodernist variety, don’t do facts and cost-effectiveness.
        
        According to the 2016 Irish census, so not quite 100 years after declaring Irish to be the preferred national language supported by compulsion in schools and a prerequisite for entry into university and the civil service – this last requirement was partly abandoned in the 1970s:
        
        40% said they spoke it;
        10% said they spoke it weekly, outside education;
        4% said that they spoke it daily, outside education;
        2% said it was the primary home language.
        
        How unsuccessful for how long can a policy be before its supporters notice it’s not working?
        
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        June 6, 2023 3:58pm
- Grumpy Silver Haired Female
  
  Why are bothering to do this? We are not a nation of English/Maori bilingals, many are bilingual in other combinations with English, perhaps our road signs should be English/Mandarin/Tagalog/Hindi/Polish/ and so on…
  All this woke use of Te Reo is compromising the integrity of the language by contorting it to cover concepts it never expressed. Pidgin Maori is the result, for evermore.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:15am
  - Burtland
    
    nothing good will come from woke governance – woke is about distruction
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:42am
Tomtoddy

Yet another wet gloomy day in Auckland. If NIWA wanted to do something useful for a change they could arrange a few fine days for us.
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June 6, 2023 8:07am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Everyone talks about the weather, no one does anything about it – Mark Twain
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:11am
  - kowtow
    
    That was before St Greta learned to see CO2.
    
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    June 6, 2023 8:58am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    NMTB – that’s because most people with a brain understand that you can’t do anything about it, other than dress appropriately.
    
    Climate loons completely fail to understand that. A bit like environmental loons who think they can preserve every animal and plant in it’s current form as though this is the perfect time in history to preserve forever.
    
    The arrogance is stunning. The stupidity, expected.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:47am
    - leoj
      
      All those people that bought electric cars (subsidized by the taxpayer) must be furious that Cyclone Gabrielle had the audacity to take place.
      
      Buying electric was supposed to stop such things.
      
      Smugness countered by reality and there is a lot of smug around, in the form of greenies.
      
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      June 6, 2023 12:14pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        leoj – they will also be very nervous driving through big puddles, and rightly so.
        
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        June 6, 2023 1:17pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Fine days are too costly. We have no money.
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:50am
- Burtland
  
  stop driving your car and using plastic straws and it will all come right
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:44am
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPRETINENT QUESTION

If the Auckland-Airport shares that Transport Minister Michael Woods owns are held in the ‘JM Fairy Trust’……should his wife and City Councillor Julie Fairy, abstain from voting on Mayor Wayne Brown’s Airport share sale?

Asking for a friend.
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June 6, 2023 8:10am
- Dougal10
  
  I think this is Hipkins putting Wood back into his box , just like Mahuta and Jackson have been.
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:22am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Now how is a Labour MP and a Labour PM meant to figure out something that complex, Maggie Pie?
  
  Hipkins said he was under the impression that Wood did not know he had to declare the shares in such detail.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/transport-minister-michael-wood-promises-to-sell-his-auckland-airport-shares/5NBG6QBNDJG6VII3I7NPGKZSMM/
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:36am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Wouldn’t Wood’s Broker know this?
    
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    June 6, 2023 8:43am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      His broker is Sergeant Shultz, obviously.
      
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      June 6, 2023 9:12am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Key caught out over rail shares
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/key-caught-out-over-rail-shares/6USXEACH6DEXR3FAI4V2SD5RQE/
    Anyone remember the great hue and cry made by the Labour Party about John Key’s Trans Rail shares “scandal”?
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:27am
    - nathie
      
      Yes it literally went on for years …
      
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      June 6, 2023 9:34am
  - Scooter
    
    how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? Just asking.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:35am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      About 37 thousand dollars worth.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:55am
- peterwn
  
  Most probably ‘yes’. Some years ago I was having a chat with a Problem Gambling Foundation person who lived in Porirua City. New legislation provided for councils to adopt plans that could limit the number and locations of pokies in their areas and Porirua City Council worked up a plan. A couple of councillors were also on local pokie trusts and my acquaintance was was concerned that these councillors seemed able to vote on the proposed pokie plan. I said that these councillors had a conflict of interest and should not be casting votes on this proposal and he should raise it with the Council which he did. The upshot was that the CEO sought a legal opinion which stated that these councillors could not vote on the proposal and these councillors were pretty grumpy about it.
  So if anyone in Auckland City is concerned about any conflict of interest which Julie Fairy may have concerning AIA shares then they can raise it with Council staff. The odds are that this matter has already been consideration. Another solution is for the Trust to sell the AIA shares on the market to remove the source of conflict.
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:41am
  - kowtow
    
    Conflict of interest ?
    
    This country proved in the 2020 GE that a majority of us are turkeys and that same do vote for Christmas.
    
    I wonder how many of the hordes fleeing to a better life in Australia are also Jacinderites who put us in our current predicament .
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:02am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    I can’t stand Woods – but this all seems very disproportionate when you look at how the extended Mahuta family have benefitted from her positions of power. Worth a lot more than the $13k. But NZ media can’t call that out as it would break the T’s & C’s of the PIJF.
    
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    June 7, 2023 8:50pm
- nathie
  
  It’s not a “thing” according to the Stuff frontpage – no mention of it at all (nor in their politics section)!
  
  (Maybe lucky for Michael Wood he doesn’t have train shares like a former PM had which made the lefties go berserk)!
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:00am
  - alwyn.a
    
    At the time John Key owned the shares he wasn’t the Prime Minister. He was an Opposition MP, not the Minister of Transport.
    As such he didn’t have anything like the conflict of interest that Woods has.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:23am
    - nathie
      
      Agree but point is, the Left still went berserk!
      
      Labour’s supporters were still writing about it years later!
      
      But Stuff today? No mention of Wood!
      
      Hypocrisy!
      
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      June 6, 2023 9:38am
      - Inandout
        
        nath, the voting age issue has been wheeled out.
        
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        June 6, 2023 10:00am
    - Matt Long
      
      I kinda thought regressives would love that a center left politician like Key believed in rail enough to own shares.
      He would have had to have a great crystal ball to know Cullen would lumber NZ with Kiwirail as a departure “gift.”
      Reportedly a once in a lifetime deal according to Toll.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:50am
      - kevn
        
        @Matt… I once bought a small number of shares in an NZ company purely to get a copy of their annual reports.
        
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        June 6, 2023 4:00pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      And I would bet, a substantially larger portfolio making it understandable that he wouldn’t know every detail of everything in there.
      
      I doubt Wood can say the same thing.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:50am
  - peterwn
    
    And those shares turned out to be a total turkey. There were rats fleeing the sinking ship in the form of senior managers selling their shares when they realised (before the market realised) the whole thing was tanking. John Key would probably be the first to admit it was not one of his better investments.
    
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    June 6, 2023 12:15pm
  - SoloView
    
    @nathie
    Just checked – it’s in Stuff/Politics at approx 1200hrs today
    
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    June 6, 2023 12:58pm
- Surely Knott
  
  Interesting. She doesn’t appeared to have declared the trust, or the interest received either. Here’s Julie Fairey’s 2022 elected members declaration.
  
  Question 6 Do you or your spouse/partner have a pecuniary interest in any other company or business entity (except as an investor in a managed investment scheme such as kiwisaver)?
  Answer No
  
  Question 8: Do you or your partner have a beneficial interest in a trust
  Answer No
  
  Also I wonder why one of her properties is blacked out and withheld from view.
  
  https://www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/ElectedMemberDeclaration/julie-fairey-albert-eden-puketapapa-22.pdf
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:30am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    technically she’s correct, in that she doesn’t own the shares in her own name. She owns them (along with Wood) in a family trust, the imaginatively named J. Fairey Trust.
    
    I think we’re being sold a fairey story….
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:04am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Oh, very good 👍
      
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      June 6, 2023 10:18am
    - slightlyrighty
      
      I think Question 8 covers that, and by answering no, it would appear that she has breached disclosure rules.
      
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      June 6, 2023 10:28am
    - peterwn
      
      But as far as I know if you are a trustee or beneficiary (if the beneficiary knew or ought to have known that he/she was a beneficiary of a trust) you still need to disclose the shares.
      Chris H must be very much on edge acting so quickly on this. He knows that Chris L and Nicola W would be on the warpath inflicting political damage. In many cases a leader could just stare down opponents and brazen it out especially given the relatively small value ($13k) of the shares.
      
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      June 6, 2023 3:22pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        I think he has it in for Wood. Shoring up his position methinks.
        
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        June 7, 2023 8:52pm
  - Surely Knott
    
    Also – i note that the Maori Statutory Board members who have 2 votes on all Council meetings don’t have declarations. What is the law here? Are they elected members or not? Aren’t they appointed by Iwi trust. Shouldn’t they still have to declare their interests? They do have voting rights. Do they have to stand down from a meeting if they have interests?
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:14am
    - tavita
      
      They are only there to look after their own interests so no need for them to declare them.
      
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      June 6, 2023 3:47pm
- RoboRob
  
  Sure its an obvious conflict of interest for both Mr and Mrs Woods. One that Labour apparently knew about for a year and a half as the trust attempted to sell its shares….. yeah right. For those not in the know, most people could sell their entire portfolio within 24 hrs (allowing time for waiting for markets to open).
  
  However as far as conflicts of interests go in NZ it this is so minor. Check the structure of the Tamaki trust. You will find that the Tamahere and the Jackson families are all responsible for funding each other and that the staff are peppered with Wives, children and relations, all on high pay. No wonder nobody in labour cared to much about a minister defecting to the Maori party, they are all tied together anyway.
  
  If the Maori can do it we need to let the old white guys have a crack too 🙂
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:35am
- Nickc2
  
  According to Hosking, NO. Strange that eh? Everything else is straight down the middle but not shares in trust.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:39am
  - RoboRob
    
    Actually it was NO if you are not a beneficiary of the trust. Since the trust bears her name its quite likely she is 🙂
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:57am
    - Matt Long
      
      She could hold the right to appoint new beneficiaries and leave her name off until it becomes more convenient.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:53am
artemisia

Brain drain to Australia is a concern, but only for New Zealand.

Good investigation and reporting by Geraden Cann in Stuff today .

“Traditionally, there has been a net migration loss from New Zealand to Australia. This averaged nearly 30,000 a year during 2004 to 2013, and about 3000 a year during 2014 to 2019,” Stats NZ reported.

Anything about those date ranges stand out?

The article has a list of the most common skills on incoming visa approvals. While they are no doubt workers needed here most are clearly not high skilled. Don’t know about skills of those moving across the ditch, but we can take it as read that they are at least aspirational and confident.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132109458/brain-drain-to-australia-increases-42-in-three-months
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June 6, 2023 8:18am
- Mike
  
  It’s well known that for the last 30 years or more the average skills level of new migrants has been lower than the average skill level of people already in NZ. The unwritten consensus for NZ governments over that time is that our immigration programme provides a GDP boost while our GDP per capita continues its steady decline. Also, immigrants with lower skill levels provide a handy way of keeping wages down for the ‘jobs Kiwis don’t want to do’, as employers generally prefer to pay less (though taxes shared by everyone) for working people to receive WFF subsidies rather than pay the higher labour costs directly.
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:47am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    It’s not well known, and I’m not sure it is true. I have been working in the IT and telecommunications sectors and there are so many highly skilled and capable (mostly Indian) immigrants now that those sectors could not function without them.
    
    Our GDP per capita is falling behind other countries due to lack of capital investment and an overly generous welfare system. Refusing to bring in skilled workers will not fix that.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:09am
  - RoboRob
    
    What party was it that introduced WFF again Mike?
    
    p.s. I agree with Nigel, its NOT well known that immigrants are lower skilled. It is however widely accepted that they are harder working.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:37am
    - Keith White
      
      When it comes to people who have a high IQ, and when it comes to people who have a high work ethic, I’d always go for the work ethic when I was interviewing. Doctor or Drain-digger, motivation matters most.
      
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      June 6, 2023 6:32pm
  - alloytoo
    
    What utter twadfle. In addition to being self selecting go getters, migrants have to jump through hoops to prove their experience and competency
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:27am
  - Matt Long
    
    Should we then shut out migrants who will do the low skilled unpleasant jobs Mike? Would it be a more efficient use of our resources to let industries disappear because kiwis want to be paid more than skilled workers or go on a benefit instead?
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:58am
    - Mike
      
      I just think we should be more clearsighted about the results. Economists regard NZ as being close to full employment. Can NZ businesses can only compete by using low-skilled labor to produce high-volume, low-value commodities?
      
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      June 6, 2023 12:23pm
      - Ehlana
        
        That might be true Mike. Development has not stood still in the rest of the world, which means higher skilled manufacturing, research and development and other service provision can now be successfully undertaken in an increasing number of other countries where the cost of production is lower than in New Zealand.
        
        One of the reasons those places are cheaper is that they often don’t have, for example, the employment and environmental regulatory controls and welfare state costs that New Zealand businesses and their employees have to pay. Unless international consumers are willing to pay more to support those costs, New Zealand will lose out as a supplier.
        
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        June 6, 2023 12:37pm
- peterwn
  
  Presumable Rob Muldoon’s supposition that Kiwis emigrating to Oz increases the average IQ of both nations no longer applies.
  
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  June 6, 2023 8:48am
  - thirteenstars
    
    A snide remark that Rob’s Mob loved but was as divisive as Ardern’s toothily-smiled admission that she was happy to divide Kiwis into two classes.
    
    Muldoon screwed the country (and received a knighthood) and then spat at those who left in their tens of thousands to make a better life in Australia, which in light of the current decline was the smartest move they could make for themselves and their children and grandchildren.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:15am
    - Simon
      
      “Muldoon screwed the country”
      
      OK boomer.
      
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      June 6, 2023 9:53am
- Opie
  
  Of the recent arrivals to this fine land, were 944 fast food cooks.
  
  Surely we could have got 944 people off the couch for this?
  
  I thought we were only letting in highly skilled immigrants?
  
  You can already see the result of the latest influx of immigrants, the majority doing a half assed job and giving shit service.
  
  Oh well, it will stop the property market decline and the need to pay high wages for the useless kiwis that don’t leave.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:07am
  - thirteenstars
    
    I don’t know.
    
    We’re I live–and it’s the same all over–the dairies are owned by Indians, likewise the liquor stores, and the bakeries by Asians, perhaps Chinese or Thais or similar.
    
    And they run tight ships and are super-friendly. You take people as you find them. These business people, who usually have strong family units, are simply after a better life, just like the disillusioned Kiwis who head for Australia or the US.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:31am
    - Opie
      
      The bakeries and fish and chip shops owned by Chinese – yes usually very friendly and happily provide the service or product for the stated price. Indian dairy owners mostly the same.
      
      Its the indians coming in and owning/running the petrol stations, subway, pizza hut etc franchises etc that are generally where you get the shit service. At least they have some drive to work and own a business, not like our mates sitting on the couch.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:39am
      - thirteenstars
        
        Yes, it’s true that Indian-owned shops have extremes of service. The true owner-operator stores will bend over backwards to be friendly but the ones where family are installed to be minders are often very matter-of-fact.
        
        Particularly liquor stores, which to me seemed a little counter-intuitive as so many Indians are religious and don’t drink, but the fact is, money is money, which might be why they seem to have little warmth in the service side of things.
        
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        June 6, 2023 12:06pm
  - Matt Long
    
    Opie, please tell us about your own experience getting people off the benefit, training them to present themselves to work, and to actually work and contribute to your bottom line.
    Tell us how you fit that in with actually running your own life and business.
    
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    June 6, 2023 12:03pm
  - Ghost
    
    Immigrants do half assed work?
    
    Knowing a few immigrants they are hard working. One friend works 9am to 7.30pm
    
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    June 6, 2023 12:11pm
  - Piniwi
    
    But Opie you may not have noticed but the Maori fisheries Sealords have had almost 200 unskilled workers migrate for fish prepossessing primarily for the short hoki season. They included 115 from Vietnam who will join 80 odd PI already arrived. Funny this since there are 2846 in that area on the Job Seeker benefit who we are frequently told are “work ready”. It also poses the question that if they are mainly here for the short hoki season why did they not use RSE workers who are always keen to work?
    
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    June 6, 2023 2:19pm
kevn

Wayne Brown must find wood as Minister for Auckland, such a comfort…
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June 6, 2023 8:23am
- Simon
  
  Wood isnt in charge of anything. He is just a figurehead. Got those airport shares so what. Gaslighting for the cattle to think elected officials are in charge.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:54am
- thirteenstars
  
  Why does a MfA even exist? Does Australia have a Minister for Sydney? Or the US a Secretary for New York City?
  
  But wouldn’t surprise me if the Brits have a Minister for London. Probably where we got such a silly idea from.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:34am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Like my partner said at the time…..comes as no surprise that Michael Woods was appointed MfA within a few weeks of Wayne Brown shitting in for Mayor.
    Imagine the pillow-talk between him and his missus 🙁
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:20am
  - peterwn
    
    In Australia the State Governments are more deeply involved in their respective capital cities than the case with Auckland or Wellington and the NZ Government. In Sydney the State Government runs the local trains, trams buses and ferries. It also looks after 3 waters (as far as I know) and electricity (having nationalised the former local electricity utilities (called ‘county councils’ for some odd reason).
    
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    June 6, 2023 8:53pm
alloytoo

Consultations on the draft recommendations on the design of electorial law.

**Caution***

If you go to complete the online survey the questions appear to have been drafted in a misleading fashion.

In a genuine consultation questions would merely ask your opinion, making “yes” “no” “approve” etc a relatively easy matter.

However the questions are drafted thus:

“Should we take another look at any of our draft recommendations on the design of electoral law?”

Answering “no” implies you approve or are happy with the draft, answering “Yes” means you want them to take another look.

I think the way the question is drafted creates a cognative dissonance in the person taking the survey, which will yield an unwitting approval response.

Perhaps @DPF can weigh in on this?
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June 6, 2023 8:31am
- nathie
  
  Do they also mention only the likes of countries like Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Ecuador, Cuba, Brazil, and Austria allow 16 year olds to vote and therefore “do you support NZ joining this exclusive club”??!!
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:42am
- RoboRob
  
  Heard the results on TV this morning. Funny how these Independent reviews always returns the results the government wants. Looked up the chair of the review and she is associate Lecturer for Maori studies at Vic university. Obviously highly qualified for this role and totally not a left wing hack.
  
  One might have though some mention about removing Maori seats might be forthcoming as a lecturer in maori studies would understand the history and relevance of said seats. But no, either it was specifically ruled out in the terms of reference or she was given a quiet word. Of all the changes discussed the removal of the Maori seats would be the one that would improve our electoral system the most. But no, voting for 16yr olds is once again top of the charts.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:44am
  - RoboRob
    
    Found the terms of reference, see below…
    
    The review does not include broader constitutional matters. Matters specifically out of scope are: online voting, alternatives to the MMP voting system, the retention of Māori electorate seats, re-establishing an Upper House, the role and functions of the Head of State, or the current size of Parliament. It also does not cover local electoral law.
    
    So they essentially ruled out anything more then tinkering with the age of voting, term and minor party cut off. All of which are now propsed changes. Total farce.
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:52am
- Simon
  
  “Perhaps @DPF can weigh in on this?”
  
  Where is that vaxx injury survey?
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:56am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    A successful pandemic policy would not result in roughly 25% excess mortality in the fourth year of the pandemic. The officials insist that Covid is not responsible for most of these deaths, leaving the actual cause an unspoken mystery.
    
    Most New Zealanders are unaware that their chances of dying increased by a quarter because their country’s press is silent on excess deaths. The silence and lack of public awareness are not accidental
    
    David Seymour? Crickets…….
    
    https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/jacinda-ardern-awarded-damehood-for
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:58am
- Grumpy Silver Haired Female
  
  Sadly, a well crafted ‘survey’ will obtain the answers required to prove the premise of the survey. I agree that survey questions are frequently written so that there is no answer available to express one’s true views. I choose not to complete that style of survey so my views are not misrepresented.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:22am
Hollyfield

It just adds to his overall incompetence.

He campaigned on light rail down Dominion Road to the airport in the 2017 by-election when Phil Goff stepped down and he became MP.
He is the local MP.
He is Transport Minister.
Now we learn he stands to benefit from the light rail to the airport.
And he STILL can’t get the light rail running as per his announcement that it would open in 2023.
(Not that anyone except a few diehards actually want the light rail in the middle of Dominion Road when there are so many better options. Keep him on, I say.)
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June 6, 2023 8:38am
- Simon
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Luxon owns dozen houses in Auckland and has promised open door immigration. Any conflict there?
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:57am
  - alloytoo
    
    Care to support your assertion of a dozen?
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:38am
  - Burtland
    
    what size is your dozen?
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:15am
  - RoboRob
    
    No one seemed to care when Helen Clarke had 9 homes.
    
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    June 6, 2023 4:58pm
- A deplorable
  
  Wood’s shareholding in Auckland Airport is reportedly worth around $13,000, so there surely isn’t any skullduggery here. What was he intending to do? Push light rail to inflate his shareholding by a few thousand? Wood has broken the rules, which warrants a rap over the knuckles, not much more.
  
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  June 6, 2023 2:18pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Sooo – if I understand you correctly, by his incompetence on building Light Rail, he has devalued his AIA investment.
  
  Hardly a cast iron case of corruption.
  
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  June 6, 2023 7:23pm
Bridgenag

Sure this applies here as well…………

National Digital ID System: It is Already Here
The only question is when, not if…

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/national-digital-id-system-it-is?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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June 6, 2023 8:41am
Rusty

Why is Hipkins so unprepared with the facts on the Mike Hosking show?

“I haven’t discussed this with that person” or “I’ll be having more conversations with them” etc,

Is it a deliberate deflection from Hipkins or does he not know or care what’s going on with his MPs indiscretions?
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June 6, 2023 8:54am
- Ruawai
  
  Hipkins will be getting Tinetti to take one for the team. He was education minister in the period the truancy data was withheld until he became PM, so he is donkey deep.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:22am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  It has been his standard response for 5 years when asked curly Questions in Parliament.
  
  Andrew Little is another who employs the same technique to great effect.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:25am
- Grumpy Silver Haired Female
  
  I have to assume you are being ironic.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:24am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Along with “no I haven’t read that in the weekend paper”. Denying knowledge of something means you don’t have to answer questions about it.
  
  “The most transparent government ever.” 🤡
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:21pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    That was Jacinda’s government and no longer applies
    
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    June 6, 2023 7:25pm
- Piniwi
  
  Perhaps Rusty he has in fact reached a level far and away above his level of competence he is fully occupied trying to sweat the small stuff. We know he can only handle questions he has been briefed on or provided scripted answers for by his own admission. He has left his mark on each of the portfolios he had before reaching the roll of Caretaker PM and has a reputation for creating problems he leaves in his wake while he is considered by Labour as their “Mr Fix It”. Doubt his replacement Ministers hold that view but are compelled to parrot the party line.
  
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  June 6, 2023 2:37pm
- Keith White
  
  “and”.
  
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  June 6, 2023 6:33pm
Maggy Wassilieff

“I know nuffin’ ” says the PM.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/06/michael-wood-in-hot-water-over-holding-auckland-airport-shares-national-alleges-breach-of-rules.html
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June 6, 2023 9:01am
- Swifty
  
  Open and transparent.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:25am
  - Ehlana
    
    “I know nuffin” would at least be honest.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:29am
- Grumpy Silver Haired Female
  
  It’s a good way of blocking the interviewer and while he looks ill-informed, that is the lesser of the two evils, based on the knowledge-base of left wing voters.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:26am
Surely Knott

NZ Census return in 2018 was only 83%.

NZ again has cenus results in the 80’s. With Maori and Pacific are only at 72 percent and 76 percent. But that is all based on *estimated population.* based on last years poor census numbers. So maybe there aren’t as many Maori and Pacific as they reckon.

Meanwhile, Australia individual response rate was 95%. How did they do it.

Australia’s policy: The census is mandatory. “Those who deliberately choose not to submit a Census risk being fined up to $222 a day”. With a one week grace period.
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June 6, 2023 9:10am
- nathie
  
  And/or just go back to pen and paper and hundreds of census workers knocking on one’s door with forms to fill in and then collect?
  
  Yes it is somewhat archaic in this modern age, but it works!
  
  Anyhoo imagine if we had electronic/online voting? Probably the same outcome … those that are tech savvy have no issues but those that are technologically illiterate or without decent access need “incentives” to vote.
  
  No doubt Labour/Greens/TPM would be happy to provide those ~~bribes~~ “incentives” because it secures guaranteed votes for them! 🙁
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:22am
  - Sacha
    
    Using the internet has proved to enable dishonesty in practically all its uses. I was struck when filling out the census on line, at the possibility for lying.
    If the census is to have any value at all, it should be conducted on the day, and the questions should be relevant to government activity/forward planning.
    It may be old-fashioned having door-to-door census-takers, but at least it provided a moment in time for government forward planning.
    (And I won’t mention the possibilities for manipulating the 3 yearly General Elections.)
    
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    June 6, 2023 9:57am
- Gaetano
  
  I suspect that there were two groups who did not complete the census.
  
  Firstly, a dysfunctional underclass, predominantly Maori. If they can’t feed their children or get them to school, they will hardly fill in a census form.
  
  Secondly, people who were alienated by the COVID vaccine mandates, and have hung up the phone on the Government.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:40am
  - Dougal10
    
    The second camp for me .
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:43am
  - Burtland
    
    illegal overstayers?
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:20am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Gaetano – yup, I’m in camp 2. If I was compelled to fill it in I would do so in such a way that the data would be meaningless at best.
    While the NZ government continues to operate like fascists as it currently does, while it advocates for full censorship of what people say online, I want as little to do with them as possible.
    They pushed me and others out of society, we weren’t welcome.
    
    We got the message.
    
    Hopefully the next government will take measures to heal the rift but it isn’t looking hopeful so far.
    
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    June 6, 2023 1:38pm
    - mawm
      
      Become ungovernable. Never comply. If enough do so we’ll win and the WEF/UN/who-ever will lose.
      
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      June 6, 2023 5:32pm
  - Piniwi
    
    Thirdly G the overstayers who need to stay under the radar.
    
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    June 6, 2023 2:41pm
    - Gaetano
      
      I can understand that but Stats NZ cannot share individual census information with any agency or person under any circumstances. For obvious reasons.
      
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      June 6, 2023 5:13pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Plenty of overstayers either won’t understand that or will come from countries where information sharing will be at the whim of the powerful.
        
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        June 6, 2023 7:27pm
- Wayne Mapp
  
  The census in New Zealand is a waste of money. Hundreds of millions up in smoke.
  The data from that level of returns is no better than just using surveys.
  A census is only worthwhile if it gets a high 90’s return rate. Then it would be better than surveys.
  I doubt whether we will ever see a census in New Zealand of that quality again. Scrap them.
  
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  June 6, 2023 9:45am
  - Simon
    
    WM knocking govt.nz , hell has frozen over.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:00am
  - Rusty
    
    @Wayne,
    
    Why cant the govt collate information and stats on Nzers from other govt sources rather than a 3 yearly census?
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:30am
  - Gaetano
    
    But isn’t that depressing? I am unaware of any developed country that does NOT run a 5 or 10 yearly census with return rates of well over 90 percent. (I have checked.)
    
    What does this say about what is happening to New Zealand society?
    
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    June 6, 2023 5:16pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  It’s also mandatory in New Zealand to complete a census form (just to be on the safe side I completed two).
  
  The difference is that the Aussie follow up with penalties, whereas in Outer-rower we hand out KFC vouchers and run cringey adverts non-stop for 2 months after “Census Day”.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:10am
  - Dougal10
    
    Its a bit tricky to hand out penalties when the govt is pretending it doesnt know stuff about you .
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:45am
  - Raphael
    
    don’t forget the newspaper articles gushing that even Ed Sheeran had to fill one out.
    
    (no slight to Ed Sheeran)
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:03am
- Jim
  
  This might be fixed if (instead of a potential fine – lol does that ever happen) the Government said it would ‘withdraw any State benefits and ability to vote’ for anyone that didn’t submit the census on time.
  
  Here’s a typical patronising advertising slogan for the bureaucracy to consider:
  “If you don’t play the game you don’t get the lollies bro”
  
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  June 7, 2023 6:50am
Maggie Pie

I failed my History exams because the questions they asked were always about things that happened before I was even born!
Nevertheless, found this interesting……

WHO WAS HERE BEFORE MAORI?

“Factions within Maoridom will be seen to have been deliberately obstructive, deceptive, and self-aggrandizing, in excluding any history that did not promote, solely, their people or present political stances.”

https://celticnz.co.nz/embargo_saga.html
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June 6, 2023 9:36am
- Simon
  
  No one was here in parts of NZ before Polynesians. Although there was successive waves of migration.
  
  Also there were not that many. So much so the indigenous people of most of the South Island were British settlers.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:04am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, it is said Maori Inc is worth about $40 billion which is roughly half of what Musk paid for Twitter in $US. Do you honestly think the Brown Table is going to endanger that amount of dosh by allowing alternative theories to the first canoes in 1300?
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:13am
  - Swifty
    
    $70 Billion apparently.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:03am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Ancient Celtic NZ – sigh.
  I worked with an archeologist of the old-school, who worked with Roger Duff in the 1970’s and the said that the embargo there was a silly thing to do, because the ‘ancient structures’ are just rock walls and pilings of Polynesian type.
  I have seen the pictures seen by people who go in to photograph the mystery site, and they are the same sorts of low stone walls that you see alongside gardens made in volcanic soils – i.e stones you pick and shift by hand.
  They are not remarkable.
  These are not megaliths, like Olmec heads or Inca ruins or even standing stones.
  Nothing Celtic about them.
  And the author Martin Doutre even tried to turn stone pilings beside old Maori gardens into ‘collapsed stone houses’.
  Pretty sad – being that these are just pilings around kumara plantations.
  They exist in many places around NZ.
  Actually – take a look at the Stonefields – Ihumatao!
  The idea that the ‘Celts’ of all people were here long ago is so silly as they were not seafarers like Phonencians or Vikings, and besides – look at the map of the world! Point out NZ. Now point out Europe.
  It is such a poor theory, and the evidence taken ‘full retard’, it is more like discussing religion that archeology or history.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:51am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Olmec heads – great, aren’t they!
    
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    June 6, 2023 7:30pm
BeaB

I hope all Māori signs with place names are going to be translated into English. Many of them are just as boring and banal as English ones, others contain historical info and some are amusing and even vulgar.
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June 6, 2023 10:00am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Marton = Tutaenui = Big Dung/Large Turd etc
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:24am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    Urewera – burnt penis ; sleeping too close and turned into the fireplace inside the punga whare.
    
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    June 6, 2023 10:53am
- Grumpy Silver Haired Female
  
  I wonder what Rotorua will translate to, and Waikaremoana, Kawerau, Kerikeri, and so on ad nauseum.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:32am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Rotorua – 2nd Lake (roto -lake; rua-2)
    
    Waikaremoana – The Sea of Rippling waters
    (wai- water, kare- to ripple, moana – sea, ocean)
    
    Kawerau – many (rau) carriers (kawe – to carry)
    
    Kerikeri – dig repeatedly (keri -to dig)
    
    etc….
    
    “A Dictionary of Maori Place Names” – A.W. Reed. 1972 ed.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:14am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      I’m not sure Arawa are going to like their lake being in second place.
      
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      June 6, 2023 7:31pm
- Dave
  
  Here’s a list of 1000 Māori place names and meanings plus about 20 common words used in place names.
  
  https://nzhistory.govt.nz/culture/maori-language-week/1000-maori-place-names
  
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  June 6, 2023 6:59pm
Scooter

Fairy Trust or Fairy Dust (A magical powder that would give the power of flight to whoever it was sprinkled on. (by extension) Any apparently magical ingredient or effect. Or maybe magical powers to lie.
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June 6, 2023 10:13am
Hugh Jarse

Labour sacked/sacrificed Jacinda as she was going to take them down this election, will they now sack Chippy and move him along with so many failures and badly behaved Ministers on his watch or wait for another fall in the polls for him or Labour ?. Is it time to give Carmel a go ?
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June 6, 2023 10:22am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Ooo, ooo! Pick Nanaia! Please!
  
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  June 6, 2023 7:32pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/nanaia-mahuta-receives-julians-booklet-you-should-hear-what-she-said-about-it/

Comments LOL!
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June 6, 2023 10:30am
- Blog-aholic
  
  The comments are the space between delusion and more delusion.
  
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  June 6, 2023 10:37am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Some comments are well worth reading. Some are just insults from those who have been programed since the 1975 Waitangi Tribunal and the rogue Treaty.
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:57am
Maggy Wassilieff

Sometimes I wonder if my car is the only one in Gisborne with an up-to-date wof.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/300897686/sovereign-citzen-argument-over-8yearold-warrant-of-fitness-falls-flat
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June 6, 2023 10:45am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Reminds me when my partner was invited up North last year to go duck shooting at a place called Tanoa. Reckoned his car was the only one that had doors! 😀
  
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  June 6, 2023 11:08am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    But were his doors still there when he came back from the maimai?
    
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    June 6, 2023 11:18am
    - Maggie Pie
      
      LOL!
      Went up there with one of the guys from the gun club and they stayed at his parents place. Reckoned it was a real eye opener but people were absolutely ‘salt-of-the-earth’.
      
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      June 6, 2023 11:30am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Sovereign Citizens have the same clout as the Flying Spaghetti Monsters – the Pastafarians.
  
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  June 6, 2023 12:05pm
- Jim
  
  Maggie, crime does indeed pay in NZ, based upon the Judges outcome, why does anyone bother?
  If you consider the cost of 8 years of rego and WoF plus the fuel and time to facilitate such things ($170 per year minimum equates to $1360).
  
  With total legal charges of only $830, I reckon he’s still about $500 in profit (even assuming clean WoF passes and that his car wasn’t a death trap) when compared to driving illegally for 8 years.
  
  # Go the judge that’ll learn ‘im! /s
  
  (see you again in 2031 judge)
  
  “The Magistrate found the charges proven, and convicted Te Pairi. He was fined $300 for failing to register his motor vehicle, and a further $400 for failing to have a valid warrant of fitness. He was also ordered to pay court costs of $130”
  
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  June 7, 2023 7:08am
Jack5

Woke bullshit continues about manuka honey.

Manuka – Leptospermum scoparium – is native to Australia as well as New Zealand. There are attempts to restrict to NZ output the use of “manuka honey” as a marketing and trade name.

At the Red Radio site we read:

Mānuka, as both kupu and plant, is regarded as a taonga by Māori. Significant mātauranga Māori exists in relation to manuka. Maori have long used the plant for various purposes, including in medical treatments, the fabrication of objects such as waka, and for cosmetic reasons.

Much of the knowledge about the unique characteristics of manuka is directly derived from matauranga Maori.

Maori did not produce any honey before colonists introduced honey bees.

Use of honey for wounds and general health goes back thousands of years.

Manuka honey is in international demand for its medicinal properties, but it isn’t alone. Tualang honey, from the jungles of Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand is also receiving world attention. It would be interesting to know if any ethnic groups are making intellectual property claims over Tualang honey.

This article rates honeys for medical use:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3609166/

And the Radio NZ original (reproduced from “the Conversation” – is the article part of the State subsidised information flow?):

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/491387/how-nz-s-own-law-helped-australia-win-the-manuka-honey-trademark-war
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June 6, 2023 10:53am
- Blog-aholic
  
  To call honey made from the manuka tree a toanga is a lie.
  
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  June 6, 2023 11:58am
  - Matt Long
    
    Of course it is, all those apiarists from pre colonial NZ knew all about the properties of Teatree honey.
    
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    June 6, 2023 12:39pm
- Ehlana
  
  If manuka is native to Australia as well as New Zealand, the Aboriginal tribes of the areas where it grows must have their own names for the tree.
  
  Do we know if they got honey from it before Europeans arrived? If so, perhaps Maori owe them for appropriation of their knowledge?
  
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  June 6, 2023 3:36pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The honey bee was taken to Australia in the 1820s
    https://www.honeybee.org.au/pdf/wonderfull01.pdf
    
    The Honeybee wasn’t brought to NZ until 1839.
    https://nzhistory.govt.nz/mary-bumby-brings-the-first-honey-bees-in-new-zealand#
    
    There are some tropical/semitropical native bees in Australia that make honey which was collected by Aborigines (sugarbag honey)
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-21/native-honeybees-provide-popular-bush-tucker/9333278
    
    (But these native bees have never been domesticated/managed)
    
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    June 6, 2023 7:18pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Crikey…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/waikato/300895199/university-of-waikato-proposing-staff-cuts-to-it-maths-departments

Aren’t there some socio-psychobabble departments that could be axed first?
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June 6, 2023 11:17am
- Burtland
  
  you dont need maths – we all have a calculator on our phones and never use it //
  
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  June 6, 2023 11:30am
- Taieri
  
  There’s no need for white supremacist mathematics…
  
  ‘A critical maths pedagogical approach uses maths to develop critical awareness about wider social, environmental, political, ideological, and economic issues. Critical maths recognises the importance of understanding, interpreting, and addressing issues of power, social justice and equity in the community and the wider world. Ākonga are encouraged to interrogate dominant discourses and assumptions, including that maths is benign, neutral, and culture-free.’
  
  https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2304/S00021/ideological-maths-teaching-a-cruel-distraction.htm
  
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  June 6, 2023 12:59pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  They will cull anything that has the actual science to disprove the mumbo jumbo and wokery. This group of ideologues can’t cope with open debate.
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:45pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Well, they’re hardly going to axe media studies given the success of a recent alumnus
  
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  June 6, 2023 7:37pm
oldfella

Rowan Atkinson is not just any old comic with an opinion. He’s got a university degree in electrical and electronic engineering, with a subsequent master’s in control systems. Worth a read…
I love electric vehicles – and was an early adopter. But increasingly I feel duped
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jun/03/electric-vehicles-early-adopter-petrol-car-ev-environment-rowan-atkinson
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June 6, 2023 11:24am
- kowtow
  
  yep , it’s a worthwhile read.
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:40pm
Yvette

That it is intended to place Maori language on road signage would seem to prove the guessed at $200–600 million taxpayer funding expended on revitalising and teaching Maori is an abject failure.

Let the appropriate government department trace and account for all annual expenditure on the language, the exact amount and establish its validity before destroying what safety function road signage supposedly has.

Put a Maori commentary option on traffic map apps for those who want it
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June 6, 2023 11:30am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

I had to copy this, from my email, could not make a link sorry.

A Litany of Labour Failure – 2023.
* Number of Kiwis living in cars has more than quadrupled since 2017.

• Gross debt figure is now $722.62 Billion, up 47% from 5 years ago.

1. Under Labour, tax take has gone from $86 billion per year when they took power to $118 billion – up 38%.

• Retail crime has doubled since Labour came to power in 2017, and 70% of the crimes are not even being reported.

1. Since 2017, when Labour took power, gang membership in Auckland has gone up 51%.

2. Labour has taken away all healthcare targets. Every single healthcare metric has gone backwards in the last five years.

3. Average weekly rent in 2017: $400, in 2023 up 50% to $600.

4. 37,000 more kids are in benefit dependant homes than when Labour’s government took power 5 years ago.

5. Labours fast track immigration processing: Only 20% processed with the 10 day timeframe promised by the minister. Setup to process 3500, only got through 169 with only 1 approved within the 4 weeks it has been open.

6. Labour government has increased consultant spending from $900 million the previous year to $1.24 billion this year – a massive 33% increase, even after Labour increased public service employees by 50,000 since Labour took office.

7. NZTA has increased staff by 60% in last 4 years (1000 extra bureaucrats).

8. More than 100,000 students were chronically absent from school. In certain areas up to 50% of students not attending school at all.

9. Government refuses COVID-19 inquiry, despite cross-party support.

10. 70% of NZ businesses have no confidence in this government to steer them through the economic down turn.

11. Stats NZ data showed a deficit of $10.5 billion between export earnings and import costs for the year ended June, the highest annual deficit since current records began in 1960.

12. Ram-raids on retailers have soared under Labour, with a more than 500 per cent increase within the first six months of 2022 compared to the same period in 2018.

13. Emergency Department wait times are now the worst in at least a decade, with more than one in five people waiting at least six hours for treatment.

14. Domestic inflation is up 7.3% and has a higher weighting than trade based inflation.

15. In a multi nation survey involving 12,000 people, NZ is now ranked 51st out of 52 countries for best place to live, no.52 was Kuwait.

16. This was a Government elected to make housing affordable, help those less well off, reduce child poverty, and give us a kinder, more united society. On every front, it could not have failed more profoundly.

17. 316 foreign entertainers, including 64 DJs, were fast-tracked through MIQ in 2021. Taxpayers have spent $1.2 billion on MIQ – $660 for every household in the country.

18. Stating that we will be front of the vaccine queue versus being the slowest in the OECD to roll it out.

19. Patients waiting for specialists for over a year has gone up 17 fold since 2019.

20. 25% drop in prisoners, just ‘let them out’ to do community sentences, while there has been an increase in offending against prisoner officers. Violent crime has increased 21%, gang membership increased 56%, record low number of offences resulting in prison sentences in last year representing an overall decrease of 44% under Labour.

21. Savings report from Finders that looks at savings data across all the OECD says NZ will record the second to lowest savings in the world at -0.2% (only Poland is lower) compared to the average of +7%, showing how bad the cost of living crisis is.

22. For more than three decades, the Swiss Institute for Management and Development (IMD) has compiled annual rankings of competitiveness for 63 of the world’s most important countries. Back in 2017 when Labour took power, New Zealand ranked #16 – ahead of Australia at #21. Five years on, New Zealand has fallen to #31, while Australia is now ranked #19. Over the past few years, we have plunged in economic performance, falling from 22nd to 47th place. Government efficiency has also deteriorated markedly from 7th to 17th place. Consumer confidence in New Zealand now stands at the lowest level since Westpac’s Consumer Confidence survey began in 1988. And, perhaps most damningly, for the first time, a majority has a negative 5-year outlook on the economy.

23. Jamie Ngatata Love – 3rd strike law removed by Labour resulting in his sentence for armed robbery reduced from 10 years to 18 months, with 138 previous convictions!

24. Sixty-four percent of Kiwis, across all ages, believe New Zealanders are more divided than ever.

25. The day Jacinda resigns, news pushed aside of food price inflation data released showing the highest rate of increase in more than 30 years.

26. Doctor GP waiting times are now 5th to bottom of OECD countries (38 countries). Access to GP’s is the first thing to go in a failing health system.

27. The government collected $78 million more tax than forecast for the five months ended November 2022 while its expenses were up $742m on forecast.

28. After 6 years of a Labour government, emissions have increased and the importing and burning of coal has more than doubled – all after Jacinda declared climate change is her ‘Nuclear free moment’.

29. Farm conversions into forestry in 2013 = 1, under Labour in 2022 = 31 due to carbon credits incentives, 2017 = 695 Hectares, under Labour 2022 = 18,000 Hectares. At the same time Labour calling foul on amount of slash washing away bridges etc & killing a child in East Cape.

30. Govt car fleet grown 16% for past 3 years and 1000 of them are petrol or Diesel, their stated ambition on being EV by 2025 is a joke.

31. New Zealand is now bottom of the OECD for access to modern medicines.

32. Retail crime increased 40% in 2022, with most police districts reporting twice as much as 4 years ago. There were 292 incidents a day last year, compared to 140 a day in 2018.

33. Ramping hours (Ambulances sitting outside ER waiting to get patients in) went from 3,000 hours in 2019 per quarter to 9,756 hours per quarter in 2023. Targets of 90% of patients should receive MRIs within 42 days – currently it is 36%, 95% for CT scans within 42 days – currently it is 57%.

34. Crime: 46% increase in victimisations, 140% increase in serious assaults, 551% increase in ram raids, number of people in prison for that has dropped 45%.

35. Public sector managers have been growing at nearly twice the rate of frontline workers since the current Government came to power.

36. Nearly 5000 New Zealand nurses have registered to work in Australia since August 2022, and as of March 4th 2022, only 1 nurse has arrived from overseas to NZ.!!

37. Burglaries crime stats: 49% under 18 years old, 51% of those did not face court action. 112 between 0-17 arrested received a family group conference – that’s it. Most was just a formal or informal warning. 94 didn’t receive any consequence whatsoever.

38. Much of the bad luck is the result of Government’s own actions. The Reserve Bank only agreed to the inflationary $100 billion money printing programme after the Labour Government gave a taxpayer guarantee. Labour is recklessly running a deficit at a time of over-full employment. Borrow and spend always results in bust. The bank has no doubt that Labour’s borrowing to spend is inflationary.

39. IMFs 2023 outlook forecasts New Zealand will have one of the lowest GDP growth rates and one of the highest inflation rates in the Asia Pacific region in the coming years. In their projections for GDP, NZ’s current account balance is reported as -8.6 percent of GDP, that’s worse than Greece’s at -8.0 percent, in 2023. NZ was one of the best GDP performing countries in the world after the GFC in 2088 (a Rock Star economy we were) under National and John Key, now we are at the bottom half of advanced countries in the world with the worst current account deficit of all of them. National always fixes Labours huge spending sprees until they get elected once again and another cycle of spend, spend, spend starts all over again. They always give the voters FREE things and buy the votes so watch out for this in September.

40. Frontline police told to ‘consider necessity’ of bail arrests as NZ’s largest prison nears capacity.

41. 2023: 19,000 nurses have left the profession in the last 5 years under this Labour government. In 2017 it was under 3000 leaving compared to 5000 leaving in last year – a 60% increase in nurses leaving.
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June 6, 2023 11:32am
- ClanMcleod
  
  That’s an impressive list, I knew Ardern and Labour were bad, but that’s next level crap!
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:46pm
  - ISeeRed
    
    The gross debt is astounding. I’m assuming it’s all public and private debt combined.
    
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    June 6, 2023 3:20pm
Chuck Bird

I hear Micheal Wood claim that he had the Airport shares since he was a teen. This is possible but unusual. He may have inherited them for example.

Has anyone on this blog owned shares before the turned 20?
9 1
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June 6, 2023 11:36am
- Hollyfield
  
  Possibly purchased by grandparents etc as a gift? I think it’s not unusual for grandparents to buy shares for children, seeing it as an investment for their future.
  
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  June 6, 2023 12:45pm
Chuck Bird

I have a share broker and have no problem selling shares, especially NZ shares.

Here have a minister who is not competent to do a simple thing let selling shares.

Anyone here who own shares bu has difficuty selling them?
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June 6, 2023 11:56am
rangitoto

AFU trying out new camouflage

https://twitter.com/Osinttechnical/status/1665867757550747649
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June 6, 2023 12:05pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Hmm, I doubt the targeting systems depend on bricks and mortar to lock on. More likely the onboard radar and their own targeting systems.
  
  It’s increasingly tech driven. Not so much about the ability of the driver or the gunner. Who’s got the best software.
  The US and the Russians to a lesser extent will be enjoying studying the capabilities of the various weapons systems being deployed.
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:52pm
leoj

Counter to the electoral commissions new suggestions:

Increase the voting age to 25.

Elections every two years, holding politicians to account.

Voters must pass an IQ test and score 95 or more.

Only tax payers and rate payers to vote.
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June 6, 2023 12:19pm
- Ghost
  
  Thank god no one is stupid enough but you to think that is a good idea
  
  Last election cost $160 million, which you want to waste every two years now.
  
  Shame you are against democracy and think democracy should be restricted to only a select few allowed to vote.
  
  5 8
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  June 6, 2023 12:32pm
  - Matt Long
    
    I don’t know any democracy where voting isn’t restricted; permanent residents, citizens, adults, people rather than other person’s like companies, mountains, lakes or rivers.
    
    5 2
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    June 6, 2023 12:45pm
    - Ghost
      
      Care to show me a democracy where people have to take an IQ test before they vote? No? Want to show me soldiers who have fought for their countries demanding that citizens be restricted in casting votes? Anyone who is so against democracy that they want to take away peoples right to vote should we ban them from voting?
      
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      June 6, 2023 1:08pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Larry Fink from Blackrock has decided to stop playing around a tell it like it is. Democracy is over, he and the Masters of the Universe are now in charge and there will be no more discussion, no more stupid talk about ‘freedom’, ‘human rights’, ‘democracy’ or ‘choice’.
        
        No, those are all quaint, old fashioned ideas. Our new masters will force us to do as then decide.
        
        Larry’s words, not mine.
        
        “You have to force behaviours and at Blackrock we are forcing behaviours.”
        
        https://twitter.com/JEM_Books/status/1521233035684761600?s=20
        
        Basically, any company that meet the ESG ‘requirements’ will not have access to capital. They will be forced out of business.
        As was reported in 2o2o, Blackrock are now the 4th arm of government, and probably the most powerful.
        
        In Fink We Trust: BlackRock Is Now ‘Fourth Branch of Government’
        
        https://archive.is/H9eXa#selection-3381.0-3381.64
        
        give me control of a nation’s money supply and I care not who makes the laws
        
        Mayer Amschel Rothschild.
        That the head of a private business is saying this in public without fear of censure from government regulators is astonishing.
        
        ‘Climate change’ and other social constructs like ‘gender’ will be forced onto us, there will no longer be any choice in matters. This is what is coming. This is the ‘Great Reset’ in motion.
        
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        June 6, 2023 2:10pm
      - Matt Long
        
        It’s a fanciful proposal Ghost, imagine if only those who paid their way or could think rationally could vote.
        It’s not a realistic proposal.
        
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        June 6, 2023 5:03pm
  - leoj
    
    Looks like I am winning – 87.5% to your 12.5%
    
    Fewer idiots standing and fewer idiots voting seems to be quite popular.
    
    6 4
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    June 6, 2023 1:30pm
    - Ghost
      
      Yes there are people here who do not believe in democracy, some of them would even have supported jacinda taking their rights away, just like you want to take people’s rights away
      
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      June 6, 2023 1:57pm
      - rangitoto
        
        The original democracy allowed only adult male citizens to vote. So an acceptable definition of democracy includes various restrictions on voting.
        
        3 1
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        June 6, 2023 3:03pm
      - Ghost
        
        And we have come a long way since then opening our democracy up, giving more people right to vote, Not restricting it because someone can’t cope with the fact people do not vote the same as he wants them too.
        
        If labour put forward the brain farts above every single person here would be screaming bloody murder
        
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        June 6, 2023 3:28pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  I would settle for candidates taking an IQ test.
  
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  June 6, 2023 12:44pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Or potential MPs answering a list of relevant policy questions while connected to a polygraph?
    
    There are some very dumb ‘smart’ people out there to be fair. Also plenty of very smart people who maybe wouldn’t manage the IQ thing, though I can see the appeal.
    
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    June 6, 2023 2:55pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    I would settle for candidates taking an IQ test.
    
    Voters too?
    
    1 2
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    June 6, 2023 5:47pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Cut voting off at 75?
  
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  June 6, 2023 5:16pm
  - Ghost
    
    Imagine having a leader of a party getting into parliament who is not allowed to vote….. poor winston
    
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    June 6, 2023 5:20pm
  - Mike
    
    If the proposal above to limit voting to taxpayers is for ‘net’ contributors only to have votes, as is sometimes advocated for here, then that would cut out most over 65s along with the other beneficiaries anyway.
    
    1 1
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    June 6, 2023 5:37pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      C’mon Mikey. A couple of mill in investments will return much more than Super. Just keep those KiwiSaver contributions up.
      
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      June 6, 2023 7:46pm
Ghost

Police have raided a Kaikohe home in the hunt for the alleged killer of an elderly woman during a burglary.

Detectives have been hunting a man as part of a homicide investigation relating to the death of 71-year-old pensioner Linda Woods in the small Far North District settlement. Police believe the burglary was sexually motivated.

Article
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June 6, 2023 12:28pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  IMO the burglary BECAME sexuality motivated.
  
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  June 6, 2023 12:34pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Told ya.
  
  3 1
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  June 6, 2023 12:38pm
- Jim
  
  Geez more terrible police work yet again……the perpetrator left clothes and shoes behind!
  
  Dohhh, a tracker dog would have found his location (5 doors away) in about 3 minutes.
  
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  June 7, 2023 7:20am
Taieri

How NZTA became Waka Kotahi:

“1. When did NZTA change its name to Waka Kotahi?

Waka Kotahi is the Te Reo Māori name for NZ Transport Agency.
Through the new Māori Language Act and the development of the Maihi Karauna (the Crown’s
Strategy for Māori Language Revitalisation 2019-2023), the government is committed to enhancing
support for Te Reo Māori revitalisation by all government agencies as a normal part of the way we do business. Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency has also signalled its commitment to this.
One way to achieve this is to ensure Te Reo Māori is more visible to the communities we work in. As
such, Waka Kotahi is giving more prominence to its Te Reo Māori name, by using it first.
In August 2019, its logo was rearranged to give more prominence to Waka Kotahi.
Waka Kotahi also updated its guidance to staff in March 2020 to use its full name “Waka Kotahi NZ
Transport Agency” initially and thereafter “Waka Kotahi” or “the Transport Agency”.

2. Was this a decision that was made by the Board?

No, this decision was made by the Interim Chief Executive, in consultation with the Executive
Leadership Team at Waka Kotahi.”

https://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/About-us/docs/oia2-2020/oia-6648-response.pdf
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June 6, 2023 12:48pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  “Strategy for Māori Language Revitalisation 2019-2023”
  
  Good to see it expires in 2023.
  
  Now perhaps we can revert Government departments and services into having primacy for language that more than 4% of the population understands, y’know, like if the intent was communication.
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:33pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  NZTA’s legal name remains NZTA.
  
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  June 6, 2023 7:47pm
kevn

@Maggie… Anyone else think the pic of the 2 strikes perp on the KB header, looks like the bod being sought by police?
9 1
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June 6, 2023 12:49pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Hmmm….wonder if they’re from the same tribe?
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:02pm
Yvette

English / Maori traffic signage
Actually is this entire “issue” a –

MAJOR
DIVERSION
9 2
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June 6, 2023 1:10pm
- Ghost
  
  You’d want to think it is, it is in part but it’s also part of their direction they are taking things, just as they have done in hospital now with Māori and English signs.
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:24pm
  - Mike
    
    It’s certainly diverted a lot of people like Yvette.
    
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    June 6, 2023 5:39pm
I remember when

Time to wave goodbye to the visit to the seaside and the salty dip.
“Climate Change’ has been blamed for more extreme waves in the Southern Ocean – an increase 5% over the past three decades.
A Mega wave of 23.8m (height of a seven storey building), was recorded by a buoy off Campbell Island in May last year.
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June 6, 2023 1:25pm
- kevn
  
  @I rem… Don’t tell the Antarctic cruise ship people.
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:56pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Waves up to 25m are occurring daily somewhere in our oceans….
  
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3917539.stm
  
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  June 6, 2023 3:47pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Yep. It was once thought that wave height was limited to about 7m due to the amount of energy required to push the water upward. More recent theories (that’s real science, folks) that are a bit too clever for me but that involve waves colliding & sharing energy demonstrate that much bigger waves occur.
  
  These waves are not new or the result of climate change. The MS München, a modern container ship, was lost with all hands in the Atlantic in 1978.
  
  “The subsequent investigation into the disappearance of München centred on the starboard lifeboat and in particular the forward block from which it had hung. The pins, which should have hung vertically, had been bent back from forward to aft, indicating the lifeboat hanging below it had been struck by a huge force, that had run from fore to aft of the ship, and had torn the lifeboat from its pins. The lifeboat normally hung 20 metres (66 ft) above the waterline”.
  
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_München
  
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  June 6, 2023 7:59pm
Maggie Pie

Now that Chippie has been stood down Woodsie, will Brownie do the same with Julie?
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June 6, 2023 1:27pm
- kevn
  
  wood might have been getting a bit ambitious. The media have been portraying him such.
  
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  June 6, 2023 1:53pm
  - kowtow
    
    Apparently he’s called “The Little General” .
    
    source NZME
    
    8 1
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    June 6, 2023 2:52pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YIP!
    Just heard word out of the Viaduct…Mikey had been doing the numbers.
    
    7 2
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    June 6, 2023 2:59pm
    - MCōs
      
      Just heard word out of the Viaduct.
      
      1 1
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      June 6, 2023 3:37pm
      - Mike
        
        I believe a commenter reported some time ago that Maggie’s partner has the contract to remove chewing gm from the pavements there, so overhears all sorts of rumors.
        
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        June 6, 2023 4:03pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Who’s your contact Cossie? My partner has his office located there.
        
        5 1
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        June 6, 2023 4:21pm
      - Ghost
        
        What happened mike for you to lose the contract, was the work too complicated?
        
        6 3
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        June 6, 2023 4:28pm
      - Mike
        
        I’m fully occupied with the dog shit contract here in Naenae atm, Ghost.
        
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        June 6, 2023 5:41pm
I remember when

Top scientist Mike Joy loses role at Victoria University: NZ Herald.
One of New Zealand’s best-known scientists says it’s gutting to be made redundant.
He told the Herald he was given three month’s notice on Monday, 29 May.
He said he’d achieved much over his 5 years at Victoria, including more than 100 public talks and all sorts of interactions.
Dairy farmers will remember his constant attacks on dairy farming and promotion of greatly reduced dairy cow numbers, when considering their sympathy.
For a scientist, he seemed to feel no need to correct misleading statements made by those who supported his causes.
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June 6, 2023 1:37pm
- Mike
  
  IIRC, he was up against people like a former PM who said he could always find other experts to say something different. This was for pointing out that our waterways were being increasingly damaged by the ongoing and unsustainable intensification of agriculture.
  
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  June 6, 2023 4:07pm
  - Keith White
    
    Quite right too. Curses upon people who intensify agriculture and feed more previously starving low income humans.
    
    /sarc.
    
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    June 6, 2023 6:37pm
I remember when

In the discussion about the cost rises in food item supplied by the two supermarket chains little, if any, mention was of the cost of theft.
One item said they noticed “a tendency for higher prices in poorer areas, often the people living locally cannot afford to travel to find cheaper goods.”
Naturally, there were no facts presented to confirm this fact.
No mention of the cost of security, declining police support when shoplifters are caught or the inability to hold offenders on the premises if they try to escape.
Surely a thorough, comprehensive study is not too much to expect.
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June 6, 2023 2:00pm
- Mike
  
  Perhaps the supermarket chains could conduct such a study. They would seem to have sufficient resources to do so, and if rising security costs were significant it might deflect some criticism of their business model.
  
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  June 6, 2023 4:10pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  New Zealand businesses in general are so scared about getting sued if an employee gets injured that many ( I dare say most) have instructed their employees not to attempt to stop a robber.
  
  Here is a suggestion… instruct employees to use their own judgment about what level of “interferrence” they should use to try to stop theft. Obviously trying to intervene if the thief has a weapon is a no-no but often it seems the thief(ves) just walk in without a weapon and walk out with the goods. Tell the employees that the employer will support the employee legally and financially if they choose to intervene.
  
  To simply allow anyone to go into a store and walk away with goods is not sustainable.
  
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  June 6, 2023 6:16pm
  - Ghost
    
    Employees are not legally allowed to stop a shoplifter
    
    What can a store do if they suspect me of shoplifting?
    
    Shoplifting is a form of theft which involves taking something from a shop without paying for it, or changing the price tag on goods in order to pay a lower price on them.
    
    If a shop staff member suspects that you may have shoplifted, they aren’t entitled to search your or your bags without your permission (even if they have a sign saying that they can).
    
    The store can ask you to stay, but are only allowed to actively prevent you from leaving the store (using reasonable force – this is called a citizen’s arrest) in limited circumstances:
    
    the goods that they think you have shoplifted are worth at least $1000
    it is between the hours of 9pm and 6am
    The store can call the Police, who can arrest you and search your bags. The store can also issue you with a trespass notice.
    
    If a shop staff member finds goods which you have taken without properly paying for them, they have the right to recover those goods.
    
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    June 6, 2023 6:28pm
mandk

Interesting poll in the Wellington section of Stuff.

Based on 3k responses, 71% of people think LGWM should be dumped.
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June 6, 2023 2:36pm
- artemisia
  
  When there were 6 of 16 councillors with LGWM issues, Mayor Whanau was quick to say there was a majority in favour so she has the votes. Now there are 7. She would be ill advised, or stupidly stubborn, to stick with ‘we have the votes’ rather than listening to all councillors.
  
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  June 6, 2023 3:58pm
kowtow

Obscure D Day story .

‘According to the memoirs of Scotsman James Stagg, the chief meteorologist for the Normandy Landings, by June 2, the Americans were optimistic for a ‘go’ on June 5, whilst the British were “unmitigatedly pessimistic.” An agreement could not be reached.

Then, in the early morning hours of June 3, Irish Coast Guardsman and lighthouse keeper Ted Sweeney sent his hourly weather observation report, containing a warning of “a Force 6 wind and a rapidly falling barometer” at Blacksod.

Group Captain Stagg, stationed at Southwick House outside Portsmouth, studied the Blacksod report and advised General Dwight D Eisenhower to postpone for 24 hours. Eisenhower postponed the invasion to Tuesday, June 6.’

https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/irish-lighthouse-d-day
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June 6, 2023 2:50pm
- Mike
  
  There might have been a few more data points in the information Stagg was reviewing.
  In an obscure campaign, for example, the Danes and Americans fought off German attempts to establish weather stations in Greenland. In another example form the ‘weather war’, an automatic German weather station was found in Labrador in 1977.
  But one Irishman in a lighthouse makes a good romantic story of the ‘for want of a shoe, the horse was lost’ variety.
  
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  June 6, 2023 4:19pm
ClanMcleod

The Daily Telegraph in the UK is doing the covid ‘jersey change’ in an attempt to get ahead of the rapidly coming tsunami of evidence that the whole thing was a scam.

An excerpt from the ‘Conservative Woman’ article.

It (Daily Telegraph) announces: ‘A secretive government unit worked with social media companies in an attempt to curtail discussion of controversial lockdown policies during the pandemic, the Telegraph can reveal.’

Shock! Perhaps the brave Telegraph could tell us how many of its journalists work on behalf of the CIA/77th Brigade.

Horror! Maybe it can give readers more information about the $3,445,801 donated to the Telegraph by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, reported in 2021.

Shock! Could this be the same newspaper that sacked the world’s greatest cartoonist and Covid truth-teller, Bob Moran, in October 2021?

Horror! Is this the same newspaper that had a constantly updated banner showing the number of alleged Covid deaths?

Shock! Perhaps the intrepid newspaper can reveal how much it received from the Government for terrifying Covid advertising.

Horror! Surely this can’t be the Telegraph that in June 2020 printed a Mick Brown article, headed ‘Is there any truth behind the Covid-19 conspiracy theories?’

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/hold-the-front-page-telegraph-discovers-government-curbed-covid-dissent/

A similar day will hopefully arrive in NZ, but right now, politicians of every hue and all mainstream media are still doing ostrich impersonations.

Tick tock…….
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June 6, 2023 3:18pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Here’s the guts to the link and article re ‘secretive government unit worked with social media companies in an attempt to curtail discussion of controversial lockdown’ – the original full article is paywalled.
  
  A secretive government unit worked with social media companies in an attempt to curtail discussion of controversial lockdown policies during the pandemic, The Telegraph can reveal.
  
  The Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) was set up by ministers to tackle supposed domestic “threats”, and was used to target those critical of lockdown and questioning the mass vaccination of children.
  
  Critics of lockdown had posts removed from social media. There is growing suspicion that social media firms used technology to stop the posts being promoted, circulated or widely shared after being flagged by the CDU or its counterpart in the Cabinet Office.
  
  Documents revealed under Freedom of Information (FoI) and data protection requests showed that the activities of prominent critics of the Government’s Covid policies were secretly monitored.
  
  An artificial intelligence firm (AI) was used by the Government to scour social media sites. The company flagged discussions opposing vaccine passports.
  
  Many of the issues being raised were valid at the time and have since been proven to be well-founded.
  
  The BBC also took part in secretive meetings of a government policy forum to address the so-called disinformation.
  
  On Friday, MPs and freedom of speech campaigners condemned the disclosures as “truly chilling” and “a tool for censoring British citizens” akin to those of the Chinese Communist Party.
  
  Chilling doesn’t begin to describe it.
  Don’t forget, the NZ government had a back door portal to access Facebook accounts and monitor content. It had a quaint name – ‘the takedown portal’.
  
  https://www.thedailyexaminer.co.nz/nz-government-confirms-access-to-facebook-censorship-portal/
  
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  June 6, 2023 3:41pm
Maggie Pie

The lawsuits against Doctors will be YUGE!

All that surgery and scarring to create a useless Phallus.

https://twitter.com/WokeArchive/status/1664044397183348743
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June 6, 2023 3:34pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Google phalloplasty surgery and go to images….I warn you they ARE NOT for the faint of heart.
  
  This has to be a mental disorder, the disfiguration is bordering on destructive….
  
  9 1
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  June 6, 2023 3:59pm
  - mawm
    
    A few years ago we were all up in arms about Somali genital mutilation that was performed to prevent women from having satisfying sex. Now it all okay to do the same to impressionable, mentally unstable kids. The world has gone mad/evil abounds.
    
    9 2
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    June 6, 2023 6:00pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  I wonder if that’s what Hunter Biden has????
  
  https://bidenlaptopmedia.com/
  
  🤡🤡🤡
  
  5 4
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  June 6, 2023 4:07pm
ClanMcleod

As an addendum to my last post re concerning censorship in the UK, undoubtedly matched and probably exceeded in NZ, here we had the creation of the ‘Disinformation Project’.

We have the government accessing our social media content with the ability to remove material from FB they deemed ‘disinformation’.

We have the DIA proposing even more draconian, North Korean style censorship and monitoring of citizens.

https://www.dia.govt.nz/media-and-online-content-regulation

Timely to read this article from the Brownstone Institute.

he policing of “information” is the stuff of Naziism, Stalinism, Maoism, and similar anti-liberal regimes. To repress criticism of their dicta and diktats, anti-liberals label criticism “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Those labels are instruments to crush dissent.

This paper offers an understanding of knowledge as involving three chief facets: information, interpretation, and judgment. Usually, what people argue fervently over is not information, but interpretation and judgment.

https://brownstone.org/articles/misinformation-a-word-used-to-shut-you-up/

It’s an excellent read. We need to stop this descent to totalitarianism in NZ.
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June 6, 2023 3:57pm
Blog-aholic

Wow they don’t even try and hide it now….Larry Fink CEO of Blackrock.
https://img-9gag-fun.9cache.com/photo/aKEeQyj_460svav1.mp4
Speaking to a packed audience about forcing control in corporates…..this is sociopathy on well healed steroids…..
9 2
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June 6, 2023 4:03pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Yup, I posted about the Masters of the Universe earlier today. They no longer try and even pretend there is democracy or representative government.
  They will ‘force’ behaviour on you. End of story.
  
  7 2
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  June 6, 2023 4:31pm
  - Mike
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Rulers_of_the_World
    
    2 7
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    June 6, 2023 5:42pm
Ghost

Thanks to the police for catching this “person”

Man charged with manslaughter in Kaikohe homicide investigation
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June 6, 2023 4:07pm
wreck1080

High school teachers are looking at striking two days a week until they get their pay rises.

At least, the daughter came home and told us this is their plan.

They can go to hell as far as I’m concerned. They’ve already ruined the education system, this is just the nail.
9 1
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June 6, 2023 4:15pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I wonder if the teachers have stopped voting Labour?
  
  6 1
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  June 6, 2023 5:03pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I shouldn’t think so…
    
    4 1
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    June 6, 2023 6:32pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      The lack of intelligence is worrying
      
      4 0
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      June 6, 2023 8:05pm
nathie

Was Labour’s youth vape clamp announcement scheduled or was it dumped today as a MSM distraction from the Michael Wood fiasco?
6 2
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June 6, 2023 4:31pm
- Ghost
  
  30 minutes ago
  
  Health Minister Ayesha Verrall clamps down on youth vaping
  
  8 0
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  June 6, 2023 4:33pm
  - kevn
    
    @Ghost… But let’s legalise cannabis they say. Came very close and will be tried on again.
    
    8 3
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    June 6, 2023 4:44pm
    - Mike
      
      A more sensible move would be to place all psychoactive recreational substances under a regime similar to the regulation of alcohol.
      
      6 4
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      June 6, 2023 5:47pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    But will still happily stick an experimental product known to cause harm into the same young peoples’ arms, and part of a government that deliberately hid the relevant information from these children and their parents.
    Stopping jabbing youth is far more important than stopping them vaping, but the vaping is better virtue signaling.
    
    10 3
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    June 6, 2023 5:44pm
Burtland

Ukraine
the russians have destroyed the Kakhovskaya HPP dam
– massive flooding expected on the left bank of the Dnipro
– dam reservoir cools the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant

https://t.me/Tsaplienko/33428?single
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June 6, 2023 4:57pm
- Ghost
  
  But was it the Russians, considering this will badly flood Russian held areas, as well as water supply to Crimea. It will also cause issues to the Russian held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. Seems the only one that benefits from this is Ukraine.
  
  6 3
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  June 6, 2023 5:12pm
  - Burtland
    
    Probably the same lot that fired 35 cruise missiles at Kiev last night – all 35 were destroyed by air defense
    
    2 5
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    June 6, 2023 5:21pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Source?
      
      3 2
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      June 6, 2023 5:50pm
      - Ghost
        
        I’d guess this isn’t the source
        
        Numerous explosions were heard in Kyiv early on June 6, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko.
        
        The mayor said via his official Telegram that first responders have been called to the Darnytskyi District of the city. There was no information about damage or casualties at the time of the publication.
        
        Article
        
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        June 6, 2023 5:58pm
      - Burtland
        
        login into Telegram you can follow it all live
        
        https://t.me/Tsaplienko/33439
        https://t.me/Tsaplienko/33385
        
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        June 6, 2023 7:31pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Yup, I’ll be waiting to form an opinion on this.
    I’ve found the New Atlas (Brian Berletic) and The Duran to do decent, balanced coverage.
    I’m basing that comment on the fact that to date, whatever they have reported has turned out to be true or a lot closer to the truth than the garbage propaganda coming via most msm channels.
    
    Even RT has been pretty accurate so far on their reporting. Some of the comments from the likes of the BBC are provably hysterical nonsense.
    
    6 3
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    June 6, 2023 5:47pm
  - Burtland
    
    Before destroying the Kakhovka dam today, the ᵣussians raised the water level to a record-high 17.5 meters by keeping the gates closed
    
    https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/1665974996311605250?t=Plz2WE89PuQEuuHmNbw_Qw&s=19
    
    1 4
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    June 6, 2023 7:43pm
    - Ghost
      
      And the Russians are blaming Ukraine, as I said the only side that benefits from flooding Russian held land and a Russian held nuclear power plant is Ukraine.
      
      But you likely still believe Russia blew up their own nord stream
      
      4 1
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      June 6, 2023 7:58pm
      - Burtland
        
        so the Ukrainians have been terrorizing themselves for a year now?
        
        1 3
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        June 6, 2023 8:21pm
      - Ghost
        
        Do tell us why the Russians would blow up a dam that would wipe out their defences down stream, that would leave the Russian held nuclear power station in danger, that would put the water supply to Crimea at risk? Also feel free to tell us the only way to raise the level of that lake before blowing the damn, I’ll give you a hint the only way to raise it is by releasing water from a Ukraine controlled area.
        
        3 1
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        June 6, 2023 8:35pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Reading more reports.
        My money is on Ukraine behind this, well, potentially NATO special ops people. I seriously doubt it’s Russia.
        
        4 2
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        June 6, 2023 8:45pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Sounds like the main body of the dam is intact. One of the gates had been damaged, possibly some other damage.
        As for responsibility, my money is on Ukraine. They have prior form.
        
        https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukraines-russian-held-nova-kakhovka-dam-damaged-shelling-russian-media-2022-11-06/
        
        Russia gains nothing positive doing this.
        
        3 2
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        June 6, 2023 8:59pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        This report on it is not verified, but it’s generally a good source of info. Though the owner is saying not to jump to conclusions about responsibility.
        Apparently at this stage, Ukraine is suffering more from this event then Russia.
        
        https://youtu.be/Kp1I55f-iHk
        
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        June 6, 2023 9:24pm
      - Ghost
        
        There is this as well clan, so perhaps a structural collapse
        
        https://twitter.com/evanhill/status/1665933276647772160
        
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        June 6, 2023 9:35pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Ghost – looking like it is connected to the Ukrainian counter offensive. Yes, the top of the dam is gone, I believe the main structure under water is still fine. Otherwise the whole valley to the south would be flooded. Reports talking about the peak of flooding coming in a few hours.
        
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        June 6, 2023 10:13pm
Gaetano

I heard the Justice Minister this morning. On radio interviewed about some “Review” of the electoral system. It has recommended voting for 16 year olds amongst other crap.

She waffled on, saying it was “independent”. Maybe. Then she said:

“We need to have these reviews of the electoral system every few years.”

I almost crashed the car 🙁

Which other developed countries review their electoral systems every few years? A stable electoral system over many decades would seem essential for a developed country. e.g. The Australian electoral system has had only a few minor changes over 120 years.
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June 6, 2023 5:26pm
Ghost

Timaru council buys more gang properties. One way to get rid of a gang

Three weeks after it purchased and bowled the gang pad at the centre of tensions between two rival gangs, the Timaru District Council has announced it has purchased three more gang-linked properties.

On Tuesday, the council issued a statement confirming the purchase of another three “gang-affiliated properties” in Washdyke, bringing the total spent to over $2 million.

Article
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June 6, 2023 5:33pm
Maggie Pie

WTF?

HDPA comes out IN SUPPORT of Nicky Hagar receving a knighthood!!

Ive never been out with someione old enuff to be my father….but it obvuiosly addles yur brain 🙁
7 3
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June 6, 2023 5:34pm
- Gaetano
  
  “someone” “enough” “obviously” “your”
  
  2 5
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  June 6, 2023 6:18pm
- Gaetano
  
  She is clearly in a successful long term relationship with him. They have a young child.
  
  3 3
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  June 6, 2023 6:20pm
kevn

@Maggie… Must have been the red. It can do that.
3 2
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June 6, 2023 6:02pm
Maggie Pie

RANOM IMPERTNENT QUESTION…

Dose milkey operate as a ‘mod’ on KB?
5 3
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June 6, 2023 6:16pm
- Gaetano
  
  No
  
  3 0
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  June 6, 2023 6:19pm
  - Mike
    
    Given the nastiness directed at Batman, any commenter who is also a moderator would be unwise to announce the fact.
    
    5 8
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    June 6, 2023 6:35pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Uptick Mike. I thought Batman was quite reasonable. He would point out when things were to strong. Having said that, some Mods here help, some just click – deleted, with no reason. With many comments per day, it is hard to pick up the reason – and the reason to not do it again.
      
      4 1
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      June 6, 2023 7:59pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Well how come i’m unable to repond to his personal abuse against my patner without it being immediatly taken down?
    
    And what would you no anyway??
    
    6 3
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    June 6, 2023 6:39pm
- Ghost
  
  RANOM IMPERTNENT QUESTION
  
  Is Maggie Pie really Clarke?
  
  Evidence to support this theory
  
  She goes to mass, every male fisherman’s code word for going fishing.
  
  Her partner has brought ducks home after hunting, code word for Trevor mallard is visiting
  
  7 1
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  June 6, 2023 6:42pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Amusing Ghost.
    
    3 2
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    June 6, 2023 6:55pm
kevn

Really? Multi moniker milkey/mike.
Google research master with plenty of inside detail pollie knowledge, almost full-time daily commenter.
Also post downtick King.
Awesome.
7 2
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June 6, 2023 6:39pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  And what have they done to Ross?
  
  5 3
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  June 6, 2023 7:10pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    You are just so thoughtful and caring about missing KBers, Maggie Pie.
    
    I’d forgotten him.
    
    6 0
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    June 6, 2023 8:00pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Now 8 pm. Unusual time for me. Just got my Grand Daughter and a shitload of thigs back to her Flat, along with a brand new baby – my Great Grandson.
So here we go for a short time.
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June 6, 2023 8:02pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Congratulations and good luck!
  
  4 0
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  June 6, 2023 8:42pm

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