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August 14, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 14 August 2023

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General Debate

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Warren

Act : Labours policy of removing GST off fruit and Vegetables is a ‘hugh own goal’.
Whilst Chris Hipkins our Prime Minister and Labour are trumpeting the Talbott Mills Polls telling them that removing GST off fruit and vegetables will be a election winner most of our population are laughing because all it will achieve is a $4 to $5 savings per week for those in desperate need of help to put food on the table for loved ones.
This has been followed up with comments that that’s the cost of a kumera or a cup of latte.
The $25 bonus a week to some for working for families will certainly help some but the $40 to working for families promised for others is a joke as it won’t be available until 2026.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/08/13/act-labours-gst-off-fruit-and-vege-a-huge-own-goal/
The one thing this Party Excell in is promises that very seldom become reality and don’t help those that it has targeted.
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August 14, 2023 8:01am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Everything Labour touches turn to shit – always.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:15am
- Rich Prick
  
  I wonder, has anyone told Chippy poor people don’t buy fruit and veg? They buy cigs, booze and KFC. Good luck with that GST rule change. Idiots.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:15am
  - Pavel
    
    If Labor were serious about reducing child poverty the one thing they could do that would make a serious difference is to halve the price of alcohol.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:19am
    - kowtow
      
      Labour have guaranteed endemic poverty with their crashing the education system .
      
      So too have the teachers unions etc
      
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      August 14, 2023 8:26am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Never a truer word said.
        
        Uneducated brown kids are great for gangs.
        
        Not so great for the brown kids or society.
        
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        August 14, 2023 6:08pm
    - Rich Prick
      
      That would be one way to reduce ram raids by Labour type crime families.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:01am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Um, Labour can’t think like that. The comprehension is not there. They can never see the big picture.
        It is the same with PAYE Taxcuts. Labour can not see that with working class will have more disposable income, which when spent results in a higher GST take.
        Tell me I am wrong. Think about your numbers first.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:06am
    - igm
      
      If they were to stop child poverty, they would stop paying their supporters to breed. But of course, they are future Labour voters and ram raiders, and their preferred people.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:05am
      - Keith White
        
        igm: I see the People Who Cannot Handle Facts are downticking you again.
        
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        August 14, 2023 11:55am
      - mawm
        
        Keith – It’s the swarm of new commenters on the board – probably “unemployed” Labour voters given a keyboard and a task.
        
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        August 14, 2023 2:06pm
    - Ruawai
      
      Heard that a New World in a provincial NZ town was worried when free lunches in schools came in that Sunday sales of school lunch items would affect their profit, but the opposite happened, they sold less lunch items but their alcohol sales went through the roof.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:06am
    - Paulus
      
      Supermarkets could reduce the price of Alcohol Zero drinks, such as Zero beers, as there is no Alcohol duty on them, like wise some wines now.
      Cashier has to to call supervisor over as over 21 or whatever.
      
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      August 14, 2023 1:51pm
    - softail 1450
      
      Pavel ,No ,going by some of the huge creatures I see waddling around West Auckland shopping centers I’d suggest halving the price of alcohol would only encourage their men to drink more and get themselves into a state where they’d actually mate with the monsters thereby producing even more poor children, it’s a classic catch 22 situation if I ever saw one..
      
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      August 14, 2023 2:08pm
      - John Loveridge
        
        There’s no amount of alcohol that could get me to mate with some of those monsters. Yet there they go, waddling by in their yoga pants and puffer jackets, leaning on pushchairs like they’re Zimmer frames. By their size you’d have to judge that they are unaffected by GST on fruit and vegetables.
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:11pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I was thinking along those lines myself. Perhaps it would have been better to say they were taking the GST off KFC and McDonalds so they would save more.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:21am
  - artemisia
    
    Surely you can’t be serious? Low income households that look longingly at $5 broccoli on the shelf but pass sadly by, will be ecstatic when it drops below $4.60.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:24am
    - Keith White
      
      We are serioussss, but we do not identify as Shirley 🙂
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:56am
    - John Loveridge
      
      If I’ve calculated it correctly, the $5 broccoli would be $4.35 with the GST removed. I’m wondering how low it’d have to go before a poor person would buy it.
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:14pm
      - Ghost
        
        Mike Hosking was saying today the gst is on the profit the supermarket makes. So if a supermarket buys broccoli for $5, sells it for $5.30. The gst that comes off that will only be calculated on the 30 cents profit. No idea if that is right or not.
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:21pm
      - John Loveridge
        
        That doesn’t sound right to me, Ghost, but I know nothing about nothing. But if so, it wouldn’t be worth the effort we’re expending here debating it.
        
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        August 14, 2023 5:47pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Ghost – the supermarket portion of the GST sums to its margin (not profit).
        
        They pay the supplier for the broccoli, including GST. They sell to the public, including GST. The increase in GST (sell – buy) is the supermarket’s contribution to the GST take.
        
        Applied to all retailers. That’s the way GST works.
        
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        August 14, 2023 6:13pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Maybe instead, cancel they school free lunches, cancel this GST tangle, and use the money saved from those to get people who know how to provide targeted assistance based on NEED (not identity tags)!!
    
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    August 14, 2023 1:24pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    How fucking ridiculous can you get.
    I know you probably meant to have a /sarc tag on your post.
    
    Humph, the quality of commenters in KB is trawling the bottom of the pond.
    
    I used to enjoy informed, serious comments. OK an occasional idiot.
    
    But know it seems the idiots have taken over.
    
    Yes, I have been poor, no we didnt eat KFC or drink booz and smoke.
    
    For fucks sake grow up and stop showing your ignorance
    
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    August 14, 2023 3:47pm
    - rockape
      
      So your saying poor people don’t eat junk food, smoke or drink. I have stats to prove you wrong !
      
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      August 14, 2023 4:47pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Ra Henare who are you replying to? I’m suggesting target the people in need directly. That seems to me like the best bang for buck. Giving everyone a (hideously complex to administer) handout (to help those who are struggling) seems wasteful to me.
      
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      August 14, 2023 8:57pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Oh and I possibly should have mentioned that I recalled listening to someone (either on Te Platform or RCR) involved in the free school lunches arena that in a lot of instances a large proportion of the food handouts are discarded by the children or simply not taken up. So there appears to be poor targeting of need there.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:31pm
      - Ghost
        
        The high school here puts the school lunches up on Facebook each day for people in the community that want them, teaches take them home, and a lot end up with the local pig farmers.
        
        One school here the parents were pissed, it’s a school whose parents are mainly farmers. They were sending their kids to school with their lunches, school got the school lunches and told the parents they were no longer allowed to send their kids to school with lunches, they were all expected to eat the school lunches. Parents were pissed, they don’t need a hand out, they pick their kids lunches not the school.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:40pm
- Frank the tank
  
  Universally, outside of Tova everyone has slammed it. When Seymour is talking and Chloe is nodding you get a picture how bad the policy is.
  
  Is Tova O’Brien dim or is she getting paid to shrill? She is starting to resemble that Iraqi General from the Gulf War.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:20am
  - cmm
    
    Tova, like most of these bubble-living journalists, thinks that everyone thinks like she does.
    To her, and her Greenie types, taking GST off vegetables is “obviously” the right thing to do.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:34am
    - Tricati
      
      Tova is like the Waimakariri River – Narrow at the head but wide at the mouth.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:07am
      - Warren
        
        Quote of the day, haven’t heard that one before very appropriate.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:42am
    - Paulus
      
      Read recently Tova is seen out with the Mayor of Wellington. Who pays ?
      After all didn’t she flat with Ardern ?
      
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      August 14, 2023 1:53pm
      - John Loveridge
        
        Impartial much?
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:15pm
  - Random T Person
    
    Dim. Loud mouth, the confidence of the arrogant ignorant, and the security of knowing it all.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:36am
  - pdm
    
    `PM Chris Hipkins tucks into a plate of hot chips and a bacon and chicken stick at Waitara’s Lunch Bar on Thursday.’
    
    In this photo he looks like the moron he really is.
    
    Who is pulling his strings???
    
    The photo is in Tova’s stuff puff piece this morning. I could not get a link to work.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:38am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      If they had done homework on that very cafe they would not have gone there, apparently Vietnamese, and breaks rules about Min wage, slavery, and also they bring people into the country and don’t pay, it has Ben reported to media and government, but they ignore the complaints, this comes from an angry lady who lives in Waitara and was aghast at them going there
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:08am
      - kowtow
        
        I’m not getting “celebrating diversity’ from that post.
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:41pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Who is pulling his strings? Well Ardern will be relaying hints from H1 and H2.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:08am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      No veges, eh
      
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      August 14, 2023 6:14pm
    - RdM
      
      `PM Chris Hipkins tucks into a plate of hot chips and a bacon and chicken stick at Waitara’s Lunch Bar on Thursday.’
      
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300949364/tova-obrien-chris-hipkins-shaking-off-jacinda-ardern-taking-labour-back-to-the-old-school
      
      Larger full window photo here:
      
      https://resources.stuff.co.nz/content/dam/images/4/z/6/c/v/9/image.related.StuffLandscapeSixteenByNine.1240×700.4z6e0k.png/1691972464937.jpg
      
      Looks like in blissful ignorance he’s eating his way to an early grave … deep fried food (in canola oil?) and some sort of cola?
      With a remarkably coffin like object behind him.
      
      As for Tova’s article, doesn’t she know that chips are cut, not mashed?
      
      “The examples given are fresh spinach, frozen spinach, mixed frozen veggies – all tax-free, but potatoes mashed into chips with canola oil and frozen – taxed. “
      
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      August 14, 2023 7:11pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    Ambitious chancers such as Tova O’Brien usually work to their own agenda.
    If Labour and Co win the election, look to see Tova heading up some well paid propaganda/ Prime Minister’s media unit deep inside the corridors of power.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:41am
  - RoboRob
    
    Haven’t read Tovas article, she is on my boycott list, but I wonder if she plans to stand for Labour once stuff makes her redundant?
    
    She obviously has ties within Labour and tends to agree with their policy. Having a career in media gets her the coverage she needs to switch into politics proper. Perhaps she sees herself as the next JA, rescuing Labour from defeat in 2026 or 2029?
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:00am
  - Inandout
    
    Frank, will she be renamed Comical Tova?
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:15am
    - Frank the tank
      
      She should – its suits her
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:43am
  - Keith White
    
    “Is Tova dim or is she getting paid to shrill?”
    
    Ah, the universal applicability of “and”.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:57am
  - John Loveridge
    
    I notice that Tova has resurfaced with her hubris intact.
    
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    August 14, 2023 3:19pm
- Vinicius
  
  The no GST on fruit and veg is not a good policy but it is designed to appeal to the voters who don’t take any interest in the nuisances of economics or good policies. Voters have fallen for blatant bad ideas like this before.
  
  Although it is a dud policy wise Luxon and Willis now have a chance when they release their tax policy. Luxon needs to nail this and stop looking and sounding so bland.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:20am
  - Matt Long
    
    It’s the perfect Labour policy,
    1, It gives the impression that they’re doing something to decrease poverty while they keep on pushing more and more people into absolute poverty.
    2, it makes taxation a lot more complicated which enables them to hire more Labour voting drones in Wellington.
    3. It excludes meat and dairy, so continues their vitally important class struggle against farmers.
    4, Makes life much harder for small businesses who have to somehow account for different GST rates in their Dairy or corner store.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:44am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Grass – vege? Cows eat grass and produce milk for dairy products.
      Oh, dairy is a processed product, like coleslaw!
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:12am
      - Flossie
        
        And wine. Wine is basically grapes – isn’t it?
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:40am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Flossie,
        Liquid grapes.
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:40pm
    - artemisia
      
      Life will actually be simple for the local greengrocer. As long as they don’t branch out into forbidden territory. It is possible there could be one or two purists among them who eschew anything not just as it emerged from the earth.
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:36am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Willis has been hitting this stupidity for a month, she is the finance spokesperson, she has pointed out the stupidity plenty of times.
    
    Labour really think this will move the polls, no one from ACT or Nats will go to Labour, they might gain a few votes from the greens
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:11am
    - Flossie
      
      I thought the greens had a policy to remove GST from ALL food? Oh it could be TPM policy.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:41am
  - peterwn
    
    Rather like the 100 pounds ($2000+ in today’s money) Labour offered every family in the 1957 election campaign. Some people who would not normally vote Labour said they just not pass up being given 100 pounds. They then got walloped in the Black Budget the following year – tax, petrol prices, beer prices and cigarette prices all up.
    This time round Robbo has ruled out tax increases or new taxes (are there loopholes?) presumably so Labour will not be reminded of that Black Budget.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:08am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      He’s feigning good sense on taxes to distract from the co governance monstrosity???
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:46pm
- Nickc2
  
  Now there’s a new business opportunity.
  Does anyone want to join me in a new enterprise selling Dead Rats to the NZ Labour Govt?
  I can just picture Robbo being first in the queue complete with napkin, knife, fork, and plate.
  Oh, the irony!
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:24am
  - Nickc2
    
    “GST has just been removed from Dead Rats in the interest of the Labour Govt,” Hipkins announced.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:00am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    How many rats to start with?
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:13am
    - Nickc2
      
      Dunno, it’s difficult to tell.
      However, Stats NZ data suggests the Black ones are more favoured by the Labour Govt. The White ones are less in demand because they are fed a diet of Logic in their formative years.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:29am
  - Random T Person
    
    You can truly now see how unprincipled Robertson is. At least Parker earns some respect for standing by his principles, all else aside.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:16am
    - rockape
      
      Do you ever think the game is over for Labour and Hipkins mates are setting him up for a bad fall?
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:49am
      - Drone
        
        Fall he may but, the perks of an ex prime minister are not to be sniffed at..
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:16pm
      - Ghost
        
        Won’t have been PM long enough to get perks
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:18pm
    - Bobba Fret
      
      I think Grant knows the writing is on the wall and will resign shortly after election night if they are going to be in opposition.
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:28am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        When, Bobba, when
        
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        August 14, 2023 6:19pm
  - Kiwisaint
    
    The only GST-exempt meat will be dead rat(s)
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:57am
  - Keith White
    
    What? A Black Budget? Denounce yourself! /sarc
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:58am
  - Keith White
    
    “These rats you see before you are not dead. They are resting. They are pining for the Beehive sewer.”
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:01pm
- alex Masterley
  
  Typical Labour- promises promises. And sod all in the way of delivery that benefits the country.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:39am
  - Rich Prick
    
    But they are all I on “co-governance” of the madness.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:09am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The left:
    Free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit free shit
    
    Did I mention Labour is giving away free shit?
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:20am
  - gravedodger
    
    In fact alex I have seen indications it could create a new multi billion dollar hole?
    How many of those can they dig in Bowen St before stability issues rear up?
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:33am
- all true
  
  All what is happened by removing GST from vegestables, it will definitable bolster the profit take of the grocers.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:55am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yep, we will hardly see a reduction, especially in the big supermarkets.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:22am
    - Flossie
      
      Do you think the likes of a popular sandwich chain will reduce any prices? Obviously their salad item purchases will be going down by 15% so even some of that should flow on to their retail products?
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:46am
      - dutyfree
        
        It seems you don’t understand how GST works. They already get to claim back the GST on their inputs and charge GST on their output. So the total GST exclusive input costs plus their markup get GST added. Hence value added tax. Their net contribution to the GST take is the delta between their GST paid and GST received.
        
        This is the beauty of GST. It is also why exemptions are problematic. Do the veges in their sandwiches count? If so what proportion of the sandwich cost? Do you then have to sell them in pieces etc.
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:19am
- igm
  
  Warren: See the current Labour shill downticks your excellent post.
  Even Malpass has kicked the policy in the guts via Stuff’s “Post” publication.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:57am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Downticks are a badge of honour. Go for it idiots!
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:25am
    - septic skeptic
      
      Happy to oblige
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:46am
  - Biscuit
    
    I saw that, igm.
    
    As of now (9.41am) there are 44 upticks for Warren’s comment and just the 1 downtick.
    
    Your shill must feel really friendless in here!
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:41am
- rockape
  
  The trouble is for Labour that they have to justify and defend this dumb policy all the way to the election. You can bet too that National have some smart people working on its failure elsewhere and the faults here in NZ. Good defendable policy wins elections. Dumb knee jerk policies like this cost elections. I am so looking forward to all the debates.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:13am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I would like National to work on their own positive Policies about what they will do, instead of working on Labour’s can’t do Policies.
    I know we have to wait otherwise desperate Labour will steal anything they can.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:34am
    - rockape
      
      I think they have been doing that for three years, just awaiting the best time to announce. However that GST subject will come up in the debates and the more Luxon is prepared with counters to Labours policy the better. I learned as a young soldier that time spent in recconaisance is never wasted. True in politics.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:02am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Grant Robertson on Hosking this morning was hilarious. Mike was actually quite soft on him as he had Grant over a barrel.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:32am
- bennerg
  
  Not considered is the impact and subsequents costs that will be incurred by breaking the simplicity of universal GST on the retail IT software systems, and their upkeep. Not to mention the legal issues (and their costs) that will arise as to it’s application.
  
  The savings of ~$5/week per household will be subsumed very quickly.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:40am
  - Observant Octagenarian
    
    So the costs to a retailer for modifying their IT systems will be passed on to the user as higher prices for fresh food?
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:46am
- NoCash
  
  It would be more beneficial to low income families by distributing the savings of admin and compliance costs by NOT introducing GST free for vegs and fruits.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:42am
- Warren Murray
  
  It’s reminiscent of Cullen’s chewing-gum tax cut promise, which is credited as almost costing Labour the 2005 election. In the face of criticism of how parsimonious it was, he reneged on the promise after that election.
  
  Why the media haven’t raised this – well everyone knows, but National, or better yet, Act should remind everyone how unreliable Labour is on such matters
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:51am
- Ra Henare
  
  Will also give rich pricks more money!!
  
  Like most Labour policies.
  Its emotive, feelz stuff.
  Same as the energy rebate. Given to rich pricks as as well.
  
  All this while bleating that the rich pricks should pay more tax.
  
  Idiots.
  
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  August 14, 2023 12:20pm
leoj

Two months until the election and I have decided that I have no one to vote for. Plenty to vote AGAINST but not much to vote FOR.

Labour, Greens, Maori: How anyone can vote for the worst government in New Zealand’s history is beyond me. All three parties are full of incompetent misfits, freaks and weirdos.

NZ First: Winston is a traitor. A vote for Winston means you have not only lost your mind but you have also lost your memory. He screwed the country big time in 2017.

National: I voted for them in 14 successive elections. In 2017 they achieved 44% of the vote. Bill English is far and away the best Finance Minister the country has ever had. Teflon Key would not have been nearly as successsful without him.

Under Luxon, the party cannot break 35%. The problem is piss-weak Luxon who is so woke he can’t stand up to someone like Tova O’Brien who did actually crash a radio station and cost 50 employees their jobs. That wasn’t Penk’s fault and not the first time Luxon has thrown one his own under the bus.

No, Luxon is just another corporate yes man with no fire in his belly and scared shitless that he might upset someone with words and be called a racist. Not for me. He is far too woke.

That leaves ACT: I’ll give Seymour his due. He is the only party leader to address the country’s biggest problem – the maorification of New Zealand. I hope he sticks by his intention to sit on the cross benches regarding a referendum on the treaty. Luxon is not interested in a referendum (see above). If Seymour does carry out his threat, my hat is off to him.

On the other hand, Seymour lost the plot by being in lock step with ALL the other parties during the protest. If he was serious about connecting with the 30% of the country that were supporters of the protest he would have commandered a dozen of the hundreds of police present and gone into the crowd to talk to the protesters. His excuse was pathetic. He blew it, big time.

His denial of the sudden and excess deaths since the pandemic plus associated vaccine harm is another blot on his cv. Plenty of potential but he fell at the last hurdle.

There you have it. They are ALL horrible so I have no one to vote for this time around. They can all get stuffed. No one will be able to blame me for the crap we will be in when woke National run the show and do precious little to turn the country back from the maori take over.
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August 14, 2023 8:03am
- Sparrow
  
  I could not have said it better. Spot on many many think the same. Could be a low turn out and votes for minor parties. What a sad commentary of our political system run by self serving arrogant incompetents. New Zealand is not alone look around the so called western world.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:18am
  - gravedodger
    
    Follow that at your peril Sparrow, think the last six years were a disaster? you aint seen nuthin yet.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:37am
    - barnacle bill
      
      And what fun it is going be to sit back and watch the stuff ups.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:51am
- Cassandra
  
  leoj: spot on – almost: ACT and Seymour are NOT horrible and your Party vote must go to ACT if you want this country to stop sliding towards a cold Fiji. The covid thing is 20:20 hindsight so get over it. Seymour and team will transform NZ for the better. Politics is not a zero sum game, you’ve got to go for the best option and ACT is surely it this time.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:21am
  - kowtow
    
    It may not be the best option but I think we must go for the least worst option.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:35am
    - RoboRob
      
      Voting normally is the selection of the least worst option 🙂
      
      If the only thing you have against a party is their stance on Covid I would argue thats pretty good. Normally I disagree with at least two or thee different policies.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:03am
      - Charmaine Hawke
        
        I met a young lady recently in Utah and we were talking about this and she said “They are all poisonous but you have to pick the level of poison you are comfortable with”
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:07am
      - Che Guava
        
        Don’t conflate Covid rules with something like tax policy or resource management legislation. They are not comparable at all. Covid was the most dramatic policy ever seen in this nation’s history, possibly in world history given how universal it was. Never before were people’s rights so drastically curtailed in the most cruel way. The worst part is that it was never justified in the slightest. They want you to memory hole what they did to us during Covid, but I will never forget or forgive them. They are scumbags.
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:10am
      - Ruawai
        
        Suspect NZ First are getting to 5% because of Winstons wal around the covid vaccine protest. He is very clever..
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:17am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Ruawai I think Winnie has earned his 5%. Whether it was a cunning plan or not, he put his head above the parapet in a time of great fear and loathing and went down and personally spoke with the outcasts!!
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:15pm
  - hmmokrightitis
    
    Actually, they can be both, and to my mind they are.
    
    Seymour had the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that he and they could walk the “we are the party of individual freedom” talk – but chose instead to go with the crowd. A truly defining moment.
    
    Ive been an ACT party voter since forever. Love that message of small government, better (overall lower), smarter taxes and…individual freedom. They had their moment, and Seymour not only blew it totally, he trampled on it. Telling the world that if you didn’t get vaxxed that you were an idiot AND telling us that kids should get the jab were moments of huge clarity.
    
    I will not darken ACT’s doorstep with my vote, ever again – or at least not until Seymour owns it or is replaced.
    
    He cant have it both ways.
    
    Yes, National did the same, but they aren’t the ones crowing about personal freedoms quite like ACT.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:42am
    - RoboRob
      
      Ok. So who you going to vote for; Labour, Green, Maori? You would shaft the country with more crap policy?
      
      Winston first, the man who bought us Labour in the first place and who cannot be trusted?
      
      No vote, essentially a vote for the left becuase you were otherwise a right wing voter?
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:07am
      - hmmokrightitis
        
        Sadly, I cant hold my nose enough to vote ACT, so it will be two ticks blue, and even thats only because the other options are what has screwed this country over the last 6 years, mostly thanks to the pensioner – and I still cant believe people have such short memories about him.
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:28am
      - RoboRob
        
        @hmmokrightitis
        
        Fair call and good on you for being up front. I understand how Acts stance on COVID was more of an issue for you then Nationals.
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:56am
  - Michael Johnston
    
    Dead right, Cassandra. Seymour backed very unlibertarian positions during the COVID hysteria. But ACT are the only party who might steer a government towards sanity. Leoj says he or she will not be to blame if ‘woke National’ continue our current, ruinous trajectory. Sorry Leoj, but anyone who can see that danger and doesn’t vote ACT will be partially to blame. It’s no time to hold a grudge.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:43am
    - Souvlaki
      
      Yes….as the old saying goes ” biting off ones nose to spite ones face”. Stupid( imo) to carry grudge to literal extent of self harm!
      
      No one is perfect….fact…so engage brain…ACT is the BEST on offer.!
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:00am
  - hookerphil
    
    “The covid thing is 20:20 hindsight so get over it.”
    Last time I was in Washington DC I went to the holocaust museum.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:43am
    - Che Guava
      
      Covidmania and associated privations are far more relevant to the vast majority of people than the holocaust, which happened thousands of miles away and was almost a century ago.
      
      And what’s up with all these holocaust museums anyway? They come across as kind of Orwellian, really: who controls the past controls the future; who controls the present controls the past. Are they there to educate people or to make them feel guilty for political reasons, despite nobody who goes to them having been involved?
      
      Instead Big Brother’s face bearing down on people everywhere they go, there’s a shrine to the holocaust.
      
      Not only in America, either. They are all over the place.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Holocaust_memorials_and_museums_in_the_United_States
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Holocaust_memorials_and_museums
      
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      August 14, 2023 1:58pm
      - Observer of Life
        
        Che: IMHO every human being on earth should visit a holocaust museum before they die. Preferably when they’re young to learn the trajectory. We took one of ours to one in his mid 20’s. He was moved and really appreciated going. He also admitted he now understood what the parents had banged on about during the Covid mandates period etc. The switch was flicked.
        Lest we forget .. and all that.
        
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        August 14, 2023 2:50pm
      - Che Guava
        
        If it’s about remembering victims, then why are there not “Killing Fields” museums all over the place to commemorate Pol Pot’s millions of victims? Or “Great Leap Forward” museums vis a vis Mao? Or “Holomodor Remembrance” for Stalin’s victims? These constitute many times the numbers popularly associated with the holocaust (which, btw, featured many other groups besides Jews).
        
        The holocaust is placed at the centre of the post 1945 “rules-based order.” It’s basically a quasi-religion that unifies the Jews and justifies a political order. I see these museums as not about remembering the past as such, but about constantly playing on the past to justify how the world is in 2023, and why it supposedly has to be this way. After all, we are told that we “need” things like multiculturalism, little national sovereignty, no majority white nations, and supranational governance structures “cos the Nazis.” Take that justification away, and what justifies these policies and the character of the system?
        
        To paraphrase John Lennon, “Imagine there’s no “Nazis” It’s easy if you try.”
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:52pm
    - I remember when
      
      Hindsight was the only kind of sight left for us with covid.
      Every other kind was ruled out either by the media, social media sites or the government.
      Now we are being subjected to the ‘great delay’ which is to ensure that even hindsight is diluted.
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:12pm
    - Clownworld
      
      The problem is WuHan flu has a very long sting in the tail. If people keep dying at unprecedented rates, (check NZ’s increase in excess mortality) then the flu and the tyrannical response will be felt fir generations.
      
      The reality is we are faced with loss of freedom, division still, no trust in govt in opposition, medical unnecessary induced injuries and death.
      
      There is no need to say 2020 hindsight, we knew it was wrong from a few weeks on and yet only today Aug 14th 2023 did NZ govt shrug shoulders and remove some restrictions.
      
      Act and Lab are lockstep that businesses can use health and safety building acts or own workplace OSH protocols to mandate something that is 100% against freedom and not a credible safety or health response. The mandates are still privately in place.
      
      Shame on them all.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:45pm
      - kisekiman
        
        I agree with a lot of what people have said about Seymour’s craven aquiescence to the diktats laid down by Labour over Covid but as Pfizer is now saying to the Senate hearing in Australia, no-one was forced to take the “vaccine”. People complied when they should have told their employers and the Government to get fucked. The general level of gutlessness in this country is a big part of the problem and now everyone wants someone to blame. Clan Mcleod has said it a million times. You cannot comply your way out of tyranny.
        
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        August 14, 2023 11:30pm
      - Clownworld
        
        Kisekiman agree once the majority did a French backwards march it was all over.
        
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        August 15, 2023 4:46am
- Frank the tank
  
  Hate to say it but man up and swallow a dead rat like the rest of us. Yep – no great choices although 3 are significantly worse than the other 3.
  
  For the record I am another that has voted National my whole life but won’t be this election.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:23am
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    I`m voting for Reti.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:04am
    - Matt Long
      
      Me too. I think Reti is the amongst the best of them going back a lot of years.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:13am
      - rockape
        
        I think he will e a great health minister. However as a leader of the country ,not so sure. I know him and like him a lot. But if he was a platoon leader ordered to charge the cannons I think rather than say” up and at them boys, for King and Country” I suspect he would spend time talking of the proportion of casualties. The medical effects on the body of grape shot and the likely hood of surviving those injuries. I suspect he would end up leading a charge of one. That said he is an outstanding bloke.
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:43pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Least worst option (to get the current mob and their caboodle of stupid/evil crap booted) to me seems to be ACT. There are some things they’ve done I disagree with a lot, but again it’s weighing up the least worst option.
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:19pm
    - I remember when
      
      So let’s all vote ACT to secure them at least 50% of the seats.
      
      What does their cabinet look like?
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:16pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I don’t know. I just got back from work and I’m feeling lazy. Do tell.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:00pm
      - Ghost
        
        A fantasy that will never happen
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:13pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Yeah probably more like 15 to 20% if the polls are accurate at this weird juncture in history. I’m sure if they got significantly more, Seymour would muster seriously good advisers to help with any experience deficiencies.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:50pm
- Scott
  
  leoj – I feel your pain. However I would say two things in response. First of all many New Zealanders are now incredibly woke. We have a radical middle-class that is all in on biculturalism and gender equality and climate change. They are generally university educated and those things are basically their substitute for a religion. The radicals now also include all of the public sector, all of the university educators, all of the teachers and all of the media. So resisting them takes a huge effort and you get so much flak on social media. If you make a comment deemed racist you can actually get your bank account closed down. Westpac did that to some poor fellow over the last few years.
  So people like Luxon and David Seymour have to be very careful on things like race relations and also things like climate change.
  
  Secondly the previous Prime Minister, despite her many failings, was a brilliant communicator. She was able to command the heights of social media and the mass media and have essentially all messaging on track during covid. So it was incredibly difficult to resist the juggernaut of mass communications all going the same way and the fear that was generated in response to covid 19.
  
  So maybe Seymour could have met with the protesters?? I know in your mind it would make him popular and a hero and stand out and get your vote. But it may also have been electoral death for him. Many many people were frightened and some still are frightened of covid. People at our church still wear masks, young people in the street by themselves still wear masks, at Masterton Hospital you are required to wear a mask, at Masterton medical Centre you are required to wear a mask. To this day the government is still advertising – get your booster for your whanau.
  
  I would say that you should still vote and vote for the one that most closely matches your own convictions. If you don’t vote then you open the way to 3 more years of the Labour and Greens and Maori government. And I think we can agree, that would be terrible.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:25am
  - Souvlaki
    
    In fact…Seymour and Nicole McKee..DID meet with protestors…not on site…but in ‘ neutral’ territory of Back Benchers pub close by!
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:03am
    - Tomtoddy
      
      What was the result of the meeting??
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:13am
    - Groggy
      
      pretty tricky since the Backbencher was closed for the duration of the protest. Did they have a standup in the loading bay?
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:21pm
      - artemisia
        
        That meeting did happen. IIRC it was at the rear of the Backbenchers, exactly where not sure. It was reported at the time.
        
        I took an interest, also attended and supported the protest.
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:45pm
    - artemisia
      
      That is correct and was reported at the time.
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:47pm
  - Debsta
    
    Perfect reply Scott, you are spot on!
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:10am
  - Sparrow
    
    Scott A very good explanation of the woke environment we are living in. I can vouch for that. Was a volunteer at a charity and saw how woke took over. If you were not onboard you got the cold shoulder. Being pushed by middle class uni types. Those old timers who had been doing the hard yakka for years pushed aside. I have solution for the future close the f…Universities. Do a Pol Pot send the academics to plant trees and work at the freezing works.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:55am
    - waikatosinger
      
      You have a point, although I hope you are not serious about sending us all to the killing fields.
      
      Older academics like myself worked at all sorts of things to pay our way as students. I dug sewers, did contract cleaning, laid concrete, worked in a factory, worked preparing food for a fast food chain, tutored school students and worked in a warehouse. The previous generation were usually picking fruit, down at the wharves or on the chain at the works.
      
      But the world changed. It became harder to get short term or part time work, and the next generation were given loans and scholarships and were able to pay their way by doing academic stuff inside the university. I don’t think that was a good thing. Many have never had a non-academic job.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:50am
      - Sparrow
        
        You are so right. I remember the seagulls on the wharves. Lots of students some were a danger to themselves. Containerisation changed all that. Even the Vestys sent their sons to work on the chains in OZ and NZ.
        
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        August 14, 2023 11:57am
  - waikatosinger
    
    How can fear and hysteria be resisted if everyone is too afraid to speak. We needed people like Seymour to take a public stand. And yes it probably would have hurt him at the time. But it would have helped the country resist the side into insanity. And today he would be in the position of having been right.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:55am
    - Che Guava
      
      It’s very easy to say you are for people’s right to choose in matters concerning their personal health when it doesn’t matter, but it’s much harder to stand by your position when it actually does matter. There is no point claiming to hold a particular principle when you wont defend it when the heat is on.
      
      Obviously, protecting his status and his career prospects were more important to Seymour, as well as to 99% of the others. Fair enough perhaps, but he has revealed this stark contradiction between his words and his deed to the world.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:38am
      - General
        
        Random question. You familiar with Ron Unz?
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:35pm
      - Che Guava
        
        Not the man himself, but his website is consistently an enlightening read.
        
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        August 14, 2023 2:53pm
      - General
        
        “Not the man himself, but his website is consistently an enlightening read.”
        
        Indeed it is. Not a fan of a lot of his Covid ‘analysis’ despite his clear intellectual capability but his website hosts plenty of dissenting views of that I am.
        
        I believed I had stumbled upon your comments on some of the posts there hence my query.
        
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        August 14, 2023 5:40pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I do agree. Seymour has matured Politically over the past Election.
  Now, if he was to say “sorry, I was wrong about the Vaccines” he would be on to a real winner. Everyone makes mistakes. Owning them is forgivable.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:25am
  - Bridgenag
    
    100 ticks I tell them that whenever they try and get campaign money
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:29am
  - mawm
    
    Steve – that is true but when one presents oneself as having principles, especially those of individual liberty, but do not stand up for those principles the very first time they are tested then unfortunately one stands for nothing at all.
    
    Everyone of those chosen by us to represent us to ensure a free, law-abiding, prosperous and harmonious society failed to protect our freedoms and bodily autonomy (Labour probably failed in all those measures). They sold us out and do not deserve my vote. If they want to worship the golden calf so be it but I will not give any of them a vote.
    
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    August 14, 2023 3:05pm
- 3-coil
  
  leoj (8.03am): it’s hard to argue with most of what you’re saying, but I still have a very strong sense of who I absolutely have a duty to vote AGAINST! I will definitely not waste my vote, so “no one will be able to blame me” if this current shit-show of a “government” with its toxic destructive trajectory somehow gets to continue in power. At least I will have tried.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:34am
- Random T Person
  
  Absolutely how I think. Though, after swearing off ACT, and being (probably petulantly) disgusted with the entire theatre of democracy, I will hold my nose and they will get my reluctant vote.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:40am
- Simon
  
  Reasonable summary. Except John Key & National were the bridge head from which the current terrible govt was able to advance from. Last National govt did nothing to protect society from the current lot.
  
  The govt books are a mess. The incoming National govt will punish the hard working and productive through over taxation to get the govt books in semi order. Just to hand it over to Labo again in 6 or 9 yrs.
  
  This is one of the many reasons National are utter garbage. They keep kicking the increasingly smaller number who hold NZ together. Luxon & National are harm.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:41am
  - rockape
    
    They were doing pretty well until the media picked up on Jacinda mania and the sheep followed. Remember polling like this?
    Roy Morgan Nat48 Lab26
    One News Nat48 Lab30
    That was the week before Jacinda became leader.
    They would have won post Key were it not for NZ First going for baubles rather than puttin NZ first !
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:23am
    - dutyfree
      
      And yet the short memory brigade trumpet Winston’s return including Slater. Winston gave us Ardern, COVID gave her an absolute majority and we all get the consequences.
      
      Never trust Winston. He is the cause.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:26am
      - Media hater
        
        Good old Slater. From memory, he was a Winston fan boy before the 2017 election.
        
        Has he bounced back from the stroke that apparently made it impossible for him to defend himself in that libel case from a few years ago?
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:27pm
- cmm
  
  leoj: I feel pretty much the same as you but I’ll be holding my nose and voting for ACT.
  
  What they did during CV19 was inexcusable and showed no leadership.
  
  I am not at all suggesting that we just “move on”, but I think we also have to consider other aspects too. Do you just walk away entirely over one issue (albeit a massive issue)?
  
  While ACT screwed up, and screwed up badly, over Covid, Covid is no longer really on the table and ACT look like the best to address the issues that are most important in the next 5 to 10 years.
  
  If you don’t vote then you’re basically giving them all a vote. There are some I would rather deny my vote to than others. So ACT is going to get my vote.
  
  So I encourage you to think of the bigger picture. Yes, I agree, “never forget”, but don’t throw the baby out with the bath water.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:43am
  - Don Beckett
    
    A center right vote not taken is one less center right vote – thus increasing the proportion to the left: effectively a vote FOR the LEFT.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:20am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Leoj, you seem to have answered your own question.
  
  Your vote will not undo what happened during Covid or prevent it happening again. Your vote will affect the future standard of living of NZers.
  
  You can vote for a higher standard of living, or not.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:45am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Utter bullshit, when ACT is on 12% where the f…. Do you think Nats will get to 45%, people have decided to go ACT and nothing Luxon can say or do will change that, I just can’t see how you party hoppers can want ACT at 20% but still think Nats should be 45% it’s utter crazy how intelligent people can be so bloody naive
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:14am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    I would rather ACT on 45% and Nats on 20%.
    
    “it’s utter crazy how intelligent people can be so bloody naive…” Right back at you.
    
    National keeps the seat warm for Labour.
    We dont need competent management, we need a complete unwinding of just about every public institution.
    That means a strength of conviction.
    I can pretty much picture your response to my post, about “FFS, National said they would scrap the Maori Health Authority, and Luxon said Blah Blah, Bloody this – FFS…”
    Don’t bother.
    ACT supports the individual character of the likes of schools, and some service can be provided along ethnic or non-ethnic lines, but the base principle has to be that Maori are not a people apart, that need to be handed masses of cash for reasons of genetics, nor should they be treated like a helpless people and paradoxically exalted at the same time.
    True statements around equality of all people, freedom of speech, responsibility, opportunity, and small government come stronger and much more sincere from ACT.
    Whinging about people voting for ACT doesn’t really help in itself. And if you look at leftie blogs you will seen that not all support from ACT comes from eating in to National’s vote.
    Some people can make rational decisions and are not purely tribal & welded onto either Blue or Red. 😉
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:18am
- BeaB
  
  But you will help Labour get back in.
  Luxon has to contend with a media hostile to him, eager for any misstep. A quick apology defuses the situation.
  Hipkins gets the gush Ardern used to get. The country should be laughing him out of town for his appalling record of mismanagement.
  I am prepared to give Luxon a go. He can’t be worse and may surprise us.
  I certainly don’t want the burden of knowing I didn’t try to get rid of Labour.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:18am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He will be far better when he gets the job, he has no ever failed before in business, why would he start now, what pisses me off about some people here is, they think Luxon is stupid, he is extremely intelligent unlike not knowing what a woman is Hipkins
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:23am
    - ISeeRed
      
      Luxon is hopelessly woke. Numerous posters have stated endless examples countless times. “He’ll be far better” is hardly a ringing endorsement.
      
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      August 14, 2023 8:31pm
- Yvette
  
  Surely then still vote four the least lowsome to sweep the worst crap out of parliament
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:19am
- kingerstinger
  
  In fact, yes, you will be to blame leoj, because you didn’t vote. Not voting is a cop out, and one that should be illegal.
  Blah blah blah ACT fell at the last hurdle blah blah blah….big picture thinking, it’s amazing how many of you can’t hack it.
  
  The only reasonable choice this election is ACT. Any minor party below 5% is a wasted vote, and one that no one can afford this time around.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:31am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Agreed, we could wipe Labour from power for a generation after the damage these crooks have done, but people got hurty feelings when life was a bit tough, but they refuse to blame the perpetrators
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:25am
  - Clownworld
    
    No vote is wasted.
    
    You could argue all votes for a compromised, least worst of a party likely to get 5% is a wasted vote.
    
    A wasted opportunity to not vote for anyone could be argued to be the least of a wasted vote. At least it is honest not a “lesser of many evils vote”.
    
    Not voting is an exercise of sending a message that no politicians or political parties deserve a vote.
    
    Others have said don’t vote it only encourages them.
    
    If the total voting population is less it demonstrates that the people are not represented by the current political parties.
    
    If a party does not get 5% it does not make them unworthy of any votes. It may send a message that the threshold will be crossed and may be where the future of politics may be.
    
    Am I advocating not voting or voting for lesser than the main parties? No. I believe in exercising your democratic right to vote which includes the freedom to vote for minor parties and not voting.
    
    In time there may be no Labour or National or Acts or Greens parties existing. Why on earth does any political party believe they have a right to simply exist. Surely voters should decide who to cast votes for and I am over people talking about “wasted” votes.
    
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    August 15, 2023 5:11am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  One problem if/when National win is will they be able to Govern after 6 years in the wilderness? There have been a lot of changes. Chris Luxon, do you know what to do?
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:39am
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    Could they do a worse job than the current bunch?
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:07am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Are you suggesting that he can’t see these idiots mistakes?
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:09am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Being the National Government is something he has not done. He can ‘manage’ but leadership of NZ?
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:52pm
- bennerg
  
  Seymour could mop up most of the protest vote currently going to the “no-win” parties such as NC, NNP, even NZ First (and get an extra 3-5 MPS) if he were to have an epiphany and promote a Royal Commission on the Pandemic Debacle and the huge increase in excess deaths. Sadly he’s stuck in a pharmaceutical paradigm.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:49am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Are you suggesting that he can’t see these idiots mistakes? So why aren’t they?
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:10am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  I totally get where you’re coming from wrt Act and their behaviour during covid. However, although they really dropped the ball there (to put it kindly), I’m trying to convince myself that they are really the only party that might reflect on their behaviour and compare that to what they tell us their core philosophies are. I’m hopeful that we might eventually get an admission from them that they could have at least tried to hold the government to account during a time when our most basic freedoms were being trampled over.
  Hold your nose and get rid of the most destructive government in living memory.
  Oh, while you’re holding your nose, realise that if Labour get back in it will only be with the Greens and possibly Maori, meaning that the destruction will only accelerate.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:06am
- Chris R
  
  What a load of self-important drivel! If the parties are all horrible as you claim does this mean that all New Zealanders are equally horrible? I don’t accept your dank analysis (if it is analysis at all) and suggest you curb your despondency and place your energies elsewhere.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:24am
- Ra Henare
  
  Leoj. You must wake up every morning expecting rain!
  
  Put on your positive hat for goodness sake.
  The sun will shine, babies will be born in to happy families, food will be on the table for the vast majority of the country.
  Politics will continue to piss of some and get ignored by many.
  
  Or are you having a “”poor me”” moment.
  
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  August 14, 2023 12:25pm
- ISeeRed
  
  Singling out Seymour for something all (as you put it) the other politicians are guilty of seems unfair and inconsistent. If we apply the same standards to everyone, Seymour still comes out on top.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:28pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Leoj – what about the Freedoms/Vision NZ Party – Tamaki etc?
  
  No argument that they stood up against the Covid tyranny. Tamaki went to jail for his protests.
  
  While they are largely unknown, I don’t think it would be bad for Nats and ACT to have to work with them.
  
  Big question – can they get 5% vote. If NO then it’s swallow a dead rat and vote Nat/ACT to prevent the Lab/Green/TPM demolition of NZ.
  
  Despite G’s from Dunner and Mark H I would probably vote ACT to signal a stronger departure from the co-gov, trans-activist, side of the spectrum.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:07pm
Sir Cullen's Sidekick

Labour’s GST off food policy according toxic Tova is a sure fire vote winner.
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August 14, 2023 8:04am
- ClanMcleod
  
  What an endorsement from someone with her track record…/s
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:21am
- Yabster
  
  Great the more Toxic endorses liebore the more votes will go to the right.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:36am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Tova, the destroyer of her career and radio stations.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:47am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yes she reckons 40% of Nat voters will simply flock to Hipkins, what utter bullshit, they promised big snd delivered nothing
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:11am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I’m thinking the higher paid feminist public servants will be having a hard time deciding who to turn to. Do they let their investments and lifestyle continue to whither away under Labour, or do they keep up the virtue signalling but face reality and quietly vote for people who will be more likely to provide them long term stability and safety. I’m thinking they will quietly vote centre right but nod and smile with the chorus of howling and sniping when the clown show finally bites the dust.
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:31pm
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  We’ve heard from Tova, now Jessica what would you say?
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:09pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Taxes! Here ya go Labour, fill your boots. 1000% Tax!
https://patriotsnewsstand.com/uniondailypost/looney-left-wants-1000-excise-tax-on-your-second-amendment/
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August 14, 2023 8:04am
- Hard Cheese
  
  Patriotsnewsstand.com again? LOL
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:15am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    It certainly did not come from play school TV1!
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:30am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Many of Labour candidates do come from the likes of play school
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:15am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        That is why Ardern liked visiting them.
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:55pm
      - Dougal10
        
        Glass houses and stones G . A retiring nat mp did come from playschool.
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:31pm
slightlyrighty

GIven that Fresh Fruit and Vegetables rose in price by 22% in the year ended April 2023, can Chippie explain how taking 15% gst off something that has gone up 22% results in $5 in your pocket?

Especially coming 6 weeks after making every tank of gas in your car cost $15 or more extra?
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August 14, 2023 8:04am
- Ehlana
  
  It’s simple, slightly. Your local suppliers are now going to have to rewrite pricing software and employ someone to determine whether an item does or does not have GST. The cost of this will be passed on to you in the form of higher food prices.
  
  I would not count on any actual savings if I was you.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:19am
- Rich Prick
  
  It’s magic I tell ya. Rusted on Labour loons will think it’s great … until they realise the people they say they support spend all of their money at KFC, good luck distinguishing between the”poor” and the restof us for the GST treatment.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:20am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Rusted on Labour loons are already cheering the loons on, no votes there.
    
    Yesterday at the pub this was not even discussed about f&f tax, all the previous Labour turncoats were spewing about the Māorifocation of street names and giving these totters our taxes
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:18am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Don’t question his numbers. It embarrasses him, and he will tell his Mum.
  
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  August 14, 2023 1:08pm
Mark Hanley

GOOD ON CHRISTOPHER LUXON FOR STAMPING ON PENK’S PERSONAL ATTACKS.

I’ve had a gutsful of the meaningless personal attacks in NZ politics over the last 6 years.

The Labour party, aided by the despicable NZ media, have used personal attacks to mask the spending of $120 billion dollars, with absolutely no intention to make our lives better, but with a (successful) plan to vastly improve the wealth and lives of Grant Robertson, Jacinda Adern, Chris Hipkins, the Maori King’s family, Ashley Bloomfield, and the gangs.

So many Kiwibloggers bemoan being labelled the river of filth but are then happy to go online and dish out unsubstantiated and unwarranted, nonsensical personal attacks on Christopher Luxon.

The hypocrisy is embarrassing.

Luxon is setting an example many could learn from.

Debate the issues, devise substantiated solutions, support your preferred party by informing us of their policies, their Leaders’ successes enacting long term change in large organisations, and the quality of their MPs and ministers.

For example:
Simeon Brown has shown he understands the detail of his portfolio. The roading investment announcement is not only a brilliant idea, Brown supplied National all the tools required to see off the flailing Labour attacks.

Brooke Van Elden’s recent media prominence has shown she is a female version of Seymour: bright, articulate, and calm.
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August 14, 2023 8:04am
- Ghost
  
  To win this election national and Act have to beat the Labour Party, Greens, Māori and the wealthiest party in politics, the media party. It was a stupid comment that gave a stupid woman oxygen, along with her friends and work mates, one who came out and likened it to the bullying that Aaron Gilmore did. This is not needed, national and act need to focus on winning, not making childish comments that will just earn them bad press. Win the election first
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:19am
  - Che Guava
    
    “…not making childish comments that will just earn them bad press.”
    
    First, was it a childish comment, or was it incisive and 100% correct? I think it was the latter. If it offends people, this is probably because it is correct. No one gets offended by untruths.
    
    Secondly, in case you or they hadn’t noticed, they are going to get bad press regardless, so basing a strategy on avoiding bad press is a sure loser.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:49am
    - Ghost
      
      Suggest you take it up with Dallas Gurney who has stated the comment is not true
      
      https://twitter.com/thetvnews/status/1690135144823492611
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:09am
      - Che Guava
        
        You mean Dallas (He/Him) Gurney? The guy probably sits down to pee.
        
        FFS. It doesn’t have to be true, it was brilliant rhetoric regardless, and good rhetoric is essential in politics. And let’s face it, the claim was likely partially true. Only one side cares about unwavering truth, and it ain’t Tova’s and Dallas Gurney’s side.
        
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        August 14, 2023 2:21pm
      - Ghost
        
        So you’ve gone from its correct to it doesn’t have to be true, partial true, you really never know what you are talking about do you. Reminds me of the other day when you were rabbiting on about Floyd, then claiming every time you were shown to be talking nonsense that you weren’t talking about Floyd.
        
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        August 14, 2023 2:31pm
      - Che Guava
        
        In both the Floyd case the other day, and the Tova case today, both Floyd and Tova themselves were subordinate and incidental to the central point I was making. I’m sure people with a higher thought process than yours can and could discern this.
        
        Besides, Floyd did in fact have a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, and Tova does in fact have a lethal sense of woke smugness, so both “Floyd OD’d” and “Tova killed Today FM” are both completely plausible propositions.
        
        High doses of both fentanyl and Tova are toxic enough to finish off a black gangsta and a radio station unassisted, even though other parties may have been on the scene at the time of their demise.
        
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        August 14, 2023 2:45pm
      - Ghost
        
        You should join the circus the amount of back flips you do
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:25pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Break it up boys and girls.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:52pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Glad you are able to note a “stupid woman”. 😝
    
    Actually I think most of these people aren’t stupid per se. It’s just that their thinking has been trained in a very blinkered way (and besides, most of them are too young to know enough anyway). Deconstructing and demonising the society they were incredibly blessed to be born in is their training.
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:40pm
- Cassandra
  
  Mark: there must be two Christopher Luxons. The one I see sits on the fence on every important issue. Or comes up with dopey policies such as bootcamps, saddling the Army with serious, disturbed criminals. I prefer your man but I’ve yet to,come across him.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:25am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Exactly. There is the one that completely one-eyed National supporters like to believe in, and the actual one.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:47am
    - BeaB
      
      Then vote Labour.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:20am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Yet you bitter and twisted one eyed ACT voters spit venom every day but like the left, it’s different when you bloody do it
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:21am
  - Mark Hanley
    
    Cassandra, if you think back to the National Party under Collins, through to the National party today, the difference Luxon’s influence has made is stark.
    
    Luxon has set high moral standards for National Ministers and MPs. Stamping out personal abuse is a clear example.
    
    Luxon has assessed National MPs and has given high performing MPs key ministerial positions.
    
    Luxon has identified key issues and set measurable goals for NZ and his MPs….
    
    Christopher Luxon and National will get our country back on track by:
    Fixing the economy to reduce the cost-of-living
    Restoring law and order, and
    Improving our schools and healthcare.
    
    Luxon will take the same approach in government. He’ll quietly fix NZ, putting the right talent into ministerial jobs (there are plenty of quality National candidates attracted by Luxon) , Luxon will set all ministers stretch goals then he’ll put the measures, reporting and structures in place to help ministers achieve their goals.
    
    Luxon will prove to be the best prime Minister NZ ever had!
    
    PS. I gave ACT my party vote last election
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:59am
    - rockape
      
      I agree and I know all his MPs are regularly one to one with them. They produce their own KPIs and have to report personally to him their progress. People say they don’t want a manager in charge. Well Luxon the manager is getting results and is very popular with his caucus because they know where they stand. That is good leadership Compare that the our PM and his sidekicks Robertson and Parker. Know one knows where they are going. They remind me of a former RAF Station commander. When I left the base I gave him a cap with two peaks and the message “ I am their leader, which way did they go “ Probably set my career back a year or two but worth it !
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:33am
      - mawm
        
        A leader does not publicly chastise his team. If he disagrees with them then take them aside and give them a quiet word. If he feels that he needs to claw back on an issue then do so, but never attack a team member in front of others. Leadership 101.
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:26pm
      - Ghost
        
        This is what luxon said
        
        “The comments were insensitive because people did lose their jobs and Chris [Penk] has apologised for those remarks this morning and I really commend him for doing so,” Luxon said.
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:36pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Mawn. If the team member defies the standards set by the leader in a public forum, the leader has no choice but to make is displeasure known publicly.
        
        Luxon was sending a message to Penk and 3.5 million voters, he will not tolerate personal attacks.
        
        What a breath of fresh air!
        
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        August 14, 2023 4:58pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Luxon: “The comments were insensitive because people did lose their jobs”
        
        So Tova didn’t cause the job losses? 🤨🧐
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:03pm
      - Ghost
        
        From readings news stories The businesses plan was to run the station for 5 years to gain a following, the running of it became toxic, they were limited to who would come in to run shows, people refusing, it appears covid dried up the advertising revenue for media works and they made several changes throughout their business. They’d already laid off 90 staff across their businesses 2 months prior.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:30pm
    - Handyman
      
      I too agree.
      It galls that the right must remain courteous while the left are allowed to rant and spew vile comments.
      The right has not got the equivalent of the left’s nutty greens. The right used to have the Young Nats to fly the occasional policy kite, but they have been muffled.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:43am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      #2ticksblue
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:32am
    - Observer of Life
      
      Che: IMHO every human being on earth should visit a holocaust museum before they die. Preferably when they’re young to learn the trajectory. We took one of ours to one in his mid 20’s. He was moved and really appreciated going. He also admitted he now understood what the parents had banged on about during the Covid mandates period etc. The switch was flicked.
      Lest we forget .. and all that.
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:15pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        I have no particular problem with that and I always go to see the memorials whenever I can, but the tricky bit is what particular prayers are due at which particular monument for which particular holocaust ?
        Have we now gotten to the point where THIS monument to this tribe massacring this tribe is highly relevant and enormously important, while THAT memorial to that tribe massacring some other tribe is totally irrelevant and should be ignored?
        The Motherland calls in Volgograd/Stalingrad is a massive statue and memorial built atop a battlefield full of corpses, atop another grave mound full of bones. God only knows how many layers of death and suffering that one goes.
        You should go to China, they also have memorials built on temples built on execution grounds and mass graves that go back thousands of years.
        What prayers and obeisance do any of those deserve? Don’t forget the modern museum is the direct descendant of the ancient temple, they got pilgrims, devotees, tribute and sacrifices back then and they still get them today.
        But a culture that imports temples from a foreign nation, dedicated to the massacre of one foreign tribe by yet another foreign tribe and then requires their own people to pay tribute to them is in a very odd place indeed.
        As Confucius said;
        “Just as to sacrifice to ancestors other than one’s own is presumption, so to see what is right and not do it is cowardice.”
        (No joke he really did say that, just in Chinese 🙂
        
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        August 14, 2023 11:03pm
    - Observer of Life
      
      Mark H: Best ever… time will tell.
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:16pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Bold call I know but Luxon has 2 great qualities.
        
        Luxon is a proven intellectual leader with an ability to connect with people (don’t believe the despicable nz media nonsense)
        
        Luxon has a strong moral underpinning.
        
        The only question left is will Luxon have the balls and motivation to take on the hard tasks John Key avoided. A few examples off the top of my head.
        
        1. Restructure, rationalize, replace, and downsize the public sector. 75% need to go and quality staff brought in. There is a signal Luxon is taking on this task with the introduction of the infrastructure commission.
        
        2. Restructure primary intermediate and high schools, reset the curriculum back to prelabour, remove raceial bias from all aspects of education, ratify the cirriculum with a referendum and require a referendum for major changes , bring back national standards, introduce results based pay for principals and teachers, report all schools performance to parents, give successful principals the ability to oversee multiple schools, reintroduce charter schools.
        
        3. Restructure universities, sack 75% of admin staff, concentrate the bulk of public funding into wealth generating engineering students, remove race based policies, expand medical schools, and make the humanities and communications departments self funding.
        
        4. Adopt the successful Guiliani law and order principles… arrest and punish all criminals, no matter how small the crime. Arrest rate is very strongly correlated with crime reduction.
        
        5. A full covid enquiry by a Swedish Judge including vaccine procurement and administration.
        
        6. Introduce binding citizens referenda to ensure any future changes to the excellent policies he implement will require re s the approval of voters.
        
        I’ve got more……
        
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        August 14, 2023 5:21pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Mark Hanley – good list of ideas.
        
        What we are all wondering is does Chris Luxon have a real backbone?
        
        Can he find a way to beat the media and get them to be fair and balanced?
        
        I believe that a leopard doesn’t change its spots.
        
        In his previous roles how did he demonstrate his backbone and his moral principals?
        
        What transformative change did he lead at Unilever and Air NZ?
        
        Has he got the team under him to take NZ a long way back from the cliff? A bit telling with Willis being promoted by Lal that Nats might not be as transformative as must would wish them to be.
        
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        August 14, 2023 9:57pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        The same questions and suggestions apply to David Seymour.
        
        Does Seymour have the ability and the balls to enact long term positive structural change? Except for the referendum backed end of life bill, Seymour hasn’t to date
        
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        August 15, 2023 7:19am
  - Warren
    
    Ha ha still fawning over Seymour the man that betrayed people with his deal with Winston Peter’s for the Euthanasia Referendum, but you still call others out for flip flops and mistakes then give Seymour free pass.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:09am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Bootcamps are not dopey. The young offenders come from disfunctional even fatherless homes. Not even homes really, just a place to sleep.
    Discipline will help them. Most but the criminally hardened will come out different people.
    A few years my Grandson on an LSV. Limited Service Volunteer. He just wanted to find out more, not pushed. He came back home with a big big smile. 6 weeks that he thoroughly enjoyed. He came close to joining the NZ Army. Now he works at and works out at a gym. 23 and strong as an ox.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:51am
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      I met a (young) Maori guy at a housewarming not long ago, and one of the first things he said to me when we first met was how he did a LSV course, and how good it was.
      Interesting thing to come into conversation, but must have made an impression on him.
      Volunteered, of course, but I expect there are some people who might benefit to see a different way of life from the boot camp form.
      And plus – it means they are away from the suburbs and glass shop frontages for 12 months!
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:36am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Grandson’s was 6 weeks. Discipline,, up early, make your lunch, teamwork, team leading, heaps of excercise, We watched the discharge of platoons at Whenuapai Air Base. They put on a show for us. Girls involved as well. Some did not last – some 1 week. I am sure they will be back. Lack of fitness was one problem. Getting up at 5am when they are used to staying in bed until lunch was another.
        I am quite proud of my Grandson, he lives in this house.
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:06pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Rubbish utter rubbish
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:20am
- Frank the tank
  
  And that response just sums up how within the next decade National becomes a sub 30% party.
  
  What Penk said was harmless banter and funny as shit.
  
  That is why National has lost me and about 250,000 like me, likely for good.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:35am
  - rockape
    
    Looks like it’s Labours vote about halved and Nationals up about half to me. You must be looking at different polls !
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:00am
    - Frank the tank
      
      In a normal electoral cycle at this time and factoring in the government’s performance National would be mid to high 40s. On an averaged basis they are barely on mid 30s.
      
      That is a significant change.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:47am
      - rockape
        
        Not with ACT up around 12%. It’s right block against left block.
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:37am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Yes, but he got the hit in, many will like it, he apologised for upsetting the sisterhood, and no harm has been done
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:33am
- The Redbaiter
  
  IMHO Chris Penk would make a far better leader than the hapless surrender monkey Christopher Luxon, who as every day passes, looks more and more as if he will betray us worse than Winston.
  
  I wrote about Penk a while ago and why he would be a better leader than Luxon.
  
  As leoj says above, there’s no one worth voting for. The ex-submariner Chris Penk could very well change that. He could be the warrior we so desperately need right now.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:38am
  - Observer of Life
    
    Red: “hapless surrender monkey Christopher Luxon” .. that has made my day!
    
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    August 14, 2023 3:20pm
- gravedodger
  
  Come on Mark, perspective?
  TO’B deserves much more from those she attacks on behalf of her beloved socialists.
  Struggling to think of any one in the NZ media Landscape who has diverted so far from the Fourth Estate principles of holding power to account than Tova O’Brien.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:46am
  - Mark Hanley
    
    Grave.
    
    Which would you rather?
    
    A team of highly skilled professionals focusing on fixing the many issues caused by Labour, a team which upholds high moral standards, a team which can rely on each other to not cause distractions with petty personal bitch sessions.
    
    Or a team which lashes out at individuals who they don’t agree with.
    
    Sounds a lot like a choice between National and…
    
    NZ First
    Labour
    Greens
    TPM
    
    I choose National.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:49am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      National (electorate/local vote) is the bus you take to get as many ACT(party vote) MPs into parliament as possible.
      
      Least worst option is the name of the game. Have to get the current idiot/Machiavellian(possibly a mixed bag of both) wreckers out. Don’t sit back and not vote!!! Your country needs you to take action like never before 🫵
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:49pm
- ISeeRed
  
  What a pantload.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:33pm
Tricati

Labour’s GST off fruit and vege’s seems like a last gasp attempt to fool the economically illiterate into voting for them.
The fact National was leaked the policy, and announced it a couple of weeks ago, would indicate the discourse within Labour over this widely discredited policy.
The article by Damien Grant is a good read on the ‘nuts & bolts’ of GST, and the likely consequences of Chippy’s latest brain fart.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/opinion/300943222/gst-is-the-governments-macguffin-moment
All National & ACT need to do is produce a table showing Labours GST removal value against the indexing of tax rates against inflation and show the benefit to the average punter.
There is plenty of ammo for National/ACT to show what to cut to pay for the tax rate indexing, and I suspect, most hard-working kiwis would be in support of cutting the waste.
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August 14, 2023 8:05am
- slightlyrighty
  
  Lets face it. Anyone unsophisticated or uneducated enough to fall for this policy was probably going to vote Green, Labour or Te Pati Maori anyway.
  
  Anyone on the fence with an understanding of this policy won’t be swayed into a Left Leaning vote because of it.
  
  Labour will point to it’s focus group results. Well, if you ask people if they want to pay less for food, of course they’re going to say yes. but the fact of the matter is, when you understand that the net result is not ‘what’s on the packet’, then you know what an absolute waste of time, energy and resources this policy actually is.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:19am
- crikey
  
  Here’s the essence of it: Labour themselves leaked the ‘policy’, Nicola Willis bought in to it and gave it air time, Labour then did their polling and decided it’s worth proceeding with it.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:39am
  - Colville
    
    I wonder if Labour’s polling said..”any publicity is good at this point” so they pushed on?
    
    To me the GST policy announcement seems like a desperate Hail Mary pass… 90% chance of failure…but they are desperate enough to take a 10% shot.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:38am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Not economically illiterate, call them dopey idiots and then the idiots may get that they are being conned.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:59am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  I think Willis already had something on fb about the little bit of money that they will keep, many cases &2 a week, but it will cost i lf d revenue snd businesses millions to account or chase for this, I thought it was a $2billion cost a year, but apparently it’s for 4 years, the cost to gain this money will double the loss to tax payers
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:40am
Bridgenag

Leading Economic Indicators
Why pay attention to national and global shipping patterns?
[Amazing video]

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/leading-economic-indicators?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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August 14, 2023 8:06am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Replace all of this ships with electric powered ones.//
  
  Really I had no idea of the number. A bit like Flightradar24. Shitloads.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:12am
Bridgenag

Oliver Anthony- Rich Man North of Richmond
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro
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August 14, 2023 8:07am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Guitar Mandolin. What is it really called?
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:17am
imalwaysright

Electoral Commission holds a hui with willie jackson for maori journalists on how to cover an election .

Why?
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August 14, 2023 8:09am
- Im Right
  
  Haaaa, well that will be a quick meeting, all he has to tell them is to Ctrl C on the word ‘racist’ and Ctrl V it as many times as they can on any piece they are writing reporting on….end of meeting!
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:39am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    Don’t forget there would have been karakia at both ends and some kai in between.
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:50am
- Matt Long
  
  For Willie, the answer is here.
  https://youtu.be/E-P2qL3qkzk
  The best things in life are free, but you can leave them to the birds and bees.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:52am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    That’s what he wants !
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:24am
  - Dodger
    
    There should be a referendum on the most useless maori.
    David Seymour or Willie Jackson.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:48am
BarryB

The Ukraine again…….

Zelenskyy calls in all his Military recruitment managers and fires them all. He says its because they are corrupt.
That’s not correct. Corruption is endemic in the Ukraine and Russia and Belarus and China and every communist country and many countries that are run by dictators.
The real reason is that the Ukraine military are not getting enough new man and women into the military to replace the injured and dead solders at the front.

These recruitment managers were taking bribes to enable people of military age to go across the border. If the people of Ukraine were all as gung-ho as Zelenskyy they would be queuing at the recruitment office.
They obviously are not prepared to risk their own lives to defend part of the Ukraine which has been fighting to leave the Ukraine since about 2012, where they all speak Russian and where most of them are ethnic Russians.
It doesn’t bode well for the Ukraine military. If Zelenskyy thinks new recruiters will solve the problem then hes nuts – they will do exactly the same as the ones hes just got rid of.
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August 14, 2023 8:10am
- All_on_Red
  
  You could say the same about Russia
  They’re not having much success recruiting either…
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:35am
  - Jake Dee
    
    Shoigu says he’s been getting ~40,000 volunteers a month which is something like a battalion a day. before you say ‘don’t believe everything the Russians say” I don’t, but I don’t disbelieve everything the Russians say either, without some independent confirmation I’m going to file that under “unproven but possible
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:10am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They were right about tgd US blowing the pipeline
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:42am
- Taieri
  
  If Zelenskyy thinks new recruiters will solve the problem then hes nuts – they will do exactly the same as the ones hes just got rid of.
  ————-
  
  To be fair, he’s also fighting for his own survival. If he was to back off now how long do you think he would last? And not just in the political sense…
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:39am
- NZer In Exile
  
  Trump is like the legendary drunken Kung Fu master. It turns out he gets a lot of things right! His point is a hell of a lot of people are being slaughtered on both sides and it needs to stop now.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:58pm
Benedict Yu

This is worth a read. Croaking Cassandra explores in some depth the scandal around the farewell and welcome events for the now CE of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage.

https://croakingcassandra.com/

This event should be fatal for this guy’s career. An incoming Minister cannot get rid of him directly. However such a Minister could make his position impossible.
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August 14, 2023 8:10am
Maggie Pie

The highlight of my evening last night was the response from ‘rockape’ after I posted on GD, that Winston Peters had announced to his rally in Invercargill….. “no one with a penis should be allowed into a women’s toilet”.

Rockape replied, “That might upset a certain All Black”
LOL!!

Here’s lookin’ at you Aaron 😛

https://twitter.com/MurfittTauranga/status/1690571631700414464
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August 14, 2023 8:11am
- Biscuit
  
  Me slow…
  
  I read Rockape’s comment and took it to be a sly dig at an All Black who might be, lemme be discreet, fond of the boys.
  
  Mr Smith’s tryst with a female fan has completely skipped my mind…
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:29am
- Frank the tank
  
  I initially thought of the other halfback, Jacinda’s mate.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:37am
  - pdm
    
    Frank I need a clue on that one.
    
    Is it the one with the short penis? Just in?
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:45am
    - Biscuit
      
      Groan, pdm!
      
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      August 14, 2023 8:59am
    - Frank the tank
      
      TJ Perenara.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:42am
- Gravelroad
  
  Except it wasn’t in a womens’ toilet that this incident took place.
  It was in a unisex disability facility at the Christchurch airport.
  Not to worry though, Mr Peters, I guess quite a few of your fans will still support you no matter how many inaccurate assertions you make.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:56am
  - Matt Long
    
    Gravel, Peters was talking about Trans people in women’s spaces, not sports person’s sexual adventures.
    That was Rockape.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:08am
    - Notsofast
      
      In principle Peters is saying no aoutogynephiles in women’s spaces.
      
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      August 14, 2023 9:57am
    - rockape
      
      Too much analyses of a joke kills it dead, thanks Matt. Maybe you should do the one about chickens crossing roads. Lol
      
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      August 14, 2023 4:01pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He never went to the women’s, he went to the para toilet, hahahahaha, he as handicapped a bit that year after that experience
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:45am
G152

Libor are desperate.
A simple tax system is going to get complicated if they actually get back into power and actually do what they say they will do.
I reckon it will disappear into the 200,000 promised houses folder.
And the greens want all householders to go for a $30000 debt to put insulation in the walls and photovoltaic look at me on the roof.
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August 14, 2023 8:12am
- artemisia
  
  G152 And the greens want all householders to go for a $30000 debt to put insulation in the walls and photovoltaic look at me on the roof.
  
  But but but it’s interest free, so nearly as good as free cash.
  
  The announcement did not AFAIK mention that the loan is to be repaid over 10 years via rates. So could be up to $3000 a year ….. How does that stack up against savings on the power bill? Enquiring minds ….
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:58am
Tomtoddy

Took a gander at the new Puhoi/Warkworth highway yesterday. It is a great job. Spectacular cuts and fills, easy contour and, so far, good surface. This road, the Hamilton bypass and Transmission Gully show what can be achieved.

There needs to be a steady flow of such upgrades to keep the construction industry viable providing full and timely maintenance is properly restored. It is not that hard, unless, of course, your main focus is changing place names with made up Māori names.
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August 14, 2023 8:13am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Talking of made-up Maori names, I was in a new library in Hamilton.
  Maori words larger and at the top of the front of the building and Te Reo for everything inside.
  Very nice premises, aside from the virtue signalling.
  
  I didn’t realise that the Maori word for a ‘self checkout’ (i.e. the scanner) was “Pae tuku pukapuka-maa kaitana”.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:50am
  - graham
    
    “Pae tuku pukapuka-maa kaitana”.
    
    Well that’s going to catch on.
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:53pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    It’s a wordy language, is that of the Maoris
    
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    August 14, 2023 7:58pm
Nukuleka

It seems that Julian Batchelor has replaced Kelly Jay Keene as the msm’s public enemy number one. The Herald, TVNZ etc have now been joined by government agencies such as the Electoral Commission and the Human Rights Commission in pursuing Batchelor, because they disagree with his views on co- governance. Public debate on contentious issues in New Zealand is under threat. We should all be very fearful.
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August 14, 2023 8:13am
- Tricati
  
  Clearly Mr Batchelor is getting traction, and that has pissed off those that promised to discus this with the nation.
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-confirms-public-consultation-on-m-ori-co-governance-will-happen-in-2022.html
  The fact those opposing Mr Batchelor are unable to put up a coherent arguement to oppose his position, only endorses and strengthens Julian’s position – I say good on him.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:43am
  - Bloody Dago
    
    He’s over the target of a dresden style ” fan the flames” of a self destructing ideology
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:25am
- The Redbaiter
  
  Nukuleka- “The Herald, TVNZ etc have now been joined by government agencies such as the Electoral Commission and the Human Rights Commission in pursuing Batchelor”
  
  Yes, this is third world stuff that is horrifying to observe in a country that once prided itself on being a world leading pluralistic democracy.
  
  Notice not a word from the National Party, who should be leading the charge on this kind of issue.
  
  Looking on the bright side, National’s cowardice leaves the door open for Winston and ACT. More votes to the minor parties will hopefully mean the green left cadre who presently control National will be kept from doing too much damage to the country.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:52am
  - ISeeRed
    
    An open door for Winston First is a bright side?!
    
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    August 14, 2023 8:35pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Offer him a good job. He’ll perform well in it.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:01pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Batchelor spoke to Sean Plunket this morning revealing that SCG are now live streaming meetings from private homes where small groups gather. That’s good but it’s also a step backwards. They’ve had to retreat from the public space.
  
  He also revealed that a second public meeting was held where they did not inform the police of the venue and no protestors turned up. If the Posie Parker disgrace in March was not enough to show how woke the cops are then this should dispel all doubt.
  
  Batchelor said they were still holding some public meetings.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:46am
Ghost

Special thanks to the Ardern government for ~~delivering us such a great health system~~, for wrecking our health system

A senior doctor has accused Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand of a “conspiracy” to avoid publicly disclosing unsafe radiology practices that harmed multiple patients, the Herald can reveal.

In an extraordinary step, Dr Bryan Wolf, a consultant radiologist in Hawke’s Bay, has asked the Ombudsman to investigate what he describes as the national health authority’s failure to inform the public about significant safety risks in the radiology service where he is a senior medical officer.

Article
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August 14, 2023 8:14am
- I remember when
  
  Does this story confirm the worry that existed about the number of qualified staff available to man the new radiology centres.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:50am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    They are panicking in radiology, the missus is getting scans at night as the backlog is showing to the likes of Reti, and they are doubling up the hours
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:47am
- cmm
  
  “In an extraordinary step,”
  And there is be biggest problem right there.
  
  This should not be an extraordinary step. Any time there is a problem in government departments that the public should be aware about, then the people with the knowledge SHOULD speak out.
  
  If there is a problem with radiological services then what is the best way to find out about it?
  * The radiologists who understand the system better than anyone else tell us.
  * A government minister gives us a sanitised version, hoping to keep it all under the radar until it is no longer their problem.
  
  We employ these experts. The government does not. Their loyalty should be to us, their employers, not the state.
  
  Scientists and medics have shot their credibility in recent years by playing political games and failing at their job of informing us – the people that pay their salaries.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:58am
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION…..

Anyone else find it a bit of coincidence that the word
“boondoggle” was first coined by a Scoutmaster ?
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August 14, 2023 8:20am
- Benedict Yu
  
  IIRC, the term, “boondoggle” was created by a boy scout to describe the braided leather cords made and worn by scouts on their uniform.
  
  Sometime in the 1930s the term, migrated to be used as a “wasteful project”. I do not recall the etymology. However its modern day usage has no connection to the Scouts.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:20am
  - rockape
    
    I think the thing you refer to was a Woggle. Maybe that term is not PC anymore. It was made with a Turks head knot, we are getting even less pc now. Maybe I should have left this alone !!!
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:54am
- thirteenstars
  
  What I find a little strange is that the word is apparently unknown to so many people, especially older types. I’ve been using it most of my life.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:51am
kowtow

These days te pahti media are all agog to use the Maori version of govt dept names .
Now there’s a negative story and it’s back to being ‘Health NZ’ in the screaming headline .

Funny that.
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August 14, 2023 8:21am
- Cassandra
  
  And appointments and prize winners get their tribes listed. Crims, thieves and perverts don’t. But same tribes. Perplexing. //
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:30am
- Notsofast
  
  And no tribal affiliations to the young man who shot the Polynesian foremen.
  I counted 8 after one individual the other day, in the NZH.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:14am
greybeard

So, when are they going to tell us: where did they find Willow ?
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August 14, 2023 8:22am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Apparently someone found her on the street and handed her in to the Henderson cop shop.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:45am
  - greybeard
    
    The kid was missing for 6 hours, and the woman who found her went to Facebook instead of ringing the police.
    She must have had the kid for ages.
    Something doesn’t sound right with this.
    
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    August 14, 2023 3:50pm
I remember when

Wind-Driven Wildfires on Maui: Cliff Mass.
Points –
* Hawaii is one of the most fire-prone states in the US.
* Wetter and cooler than normal conditions during last six months.
* There is sufficient precipitation on the lee side of the islands for substantial grasslands to develop.
* Grasslands increasing in past several decades as farming declined.
* Such grasses are highly flammable , with fire growth encouraged by strong winds.

Have the regular, fiery lava flows meant Hawaians accept fire more readily?
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August 14, 2023 8:29am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Yep,
  
  No-one managing the invasive grasses on abandoned sugar-cane and Pineapple farms.
  
  https://spectrumlocalnews.com/hi/hawaii/news/2023/08/11/uh-wildfire-expert–invasive-grasses-growing-in-the-abandoned-plantations-fueled-wildfires-on-maui-and-hawaii-island
  
  Increased fire frequency and problem of invasive grasses in Hawaii has been known about for decades.
  
  https://www.fs.usda.gov/rm/pubs/rmrs_gtr042_6/rmrs_gtr042_6_225_242.pdf
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:21am
  - gravedodger
    
    The same dangers accompany the mindless planning around those wishing for some space and peace of semi rural dwelling on urban fringes that end with a one size fits all.
    Such desires could be accommodated by allowing much smaller land areas than ubiquitous 4 HA by allowing pepperpot subdivisions of say 5000 sq mt and leaving the remainder for pastoral grazing to control vegetation that becomes a fire hazard. all protected by covenant until zone changes allow for full urbanisation.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:48am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Hundreds of Twitter posts that mantain it was started by a D.E.W.
  
  Interesting also, that a number of supporting videos contained in those tweets have now been taken down.
  
  Hmmm…
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:48am
  - gravedodger
    
    D E W ? Maggie
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:52am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Aah, so “Climate Change!” dunnit then.
  Case closed.
  /s
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:14am
oldpark

Back to the future . In 2007 the then Labour Government under Clark and Cullen came up with the “bright idea” of a so called Tax Cut of 67 cents per week for Taxpayers.
Cant help but wonder is the so called Tax Cuts of GST for Tutti Frutti just a resurrection inflation adjusted of the 67 cents known then as the “Chewing Gum” Tax that was the then cost of a packet of chewing gum in 2007. Lest we forgot or will fools rush in.
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August 14, 2023 8:30am
I remember when

Joshua had been set to face fellow British heavyweight Dillian Whyte until his rival had to be pulled from the show last weekend when “adverse analytical findings” were detected in his doping test.

PIJF style boxing report.
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August 14, 2023 8:36am
I remember when

“Home Detention” item on TV3 last night.
They interviewed a man who was at home with a bracelet attached.
One of the arguments he/they used to support “home detention” was that he was safe with his family, rather than in jail with associates who influenced his behaviour.

However, they failed to ask about how he was going to prevent those associations resuming
when his “home detention” ended.
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August 14, 2023 8:43am
- Blog-aholic
  
  That article was pure propogandist crap.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:53am
- cmm
  
  It is much more important that he associates with his kids and teaches them the family trade.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:59am
- Nukuleka
  
  Shame they didn’t interview the families of the poor guys killed by the Auckland gunman whilst on “home detention’. They might have a quite different perspective.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:00am
- rouppe
  
  Plus they used as an example a guy who was convicted of driving offences.
  
  Not someone who was convicted of accessory to murder, wounding with intent, partner violence, or who sent an innocent into a coma by getting drunk and picking a fight
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:26am
  - cmm
    
    You have to commit extremely serious driving offenses to get home D. Imprisonment for driving offenses is almost unheard of.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:49am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

You can bet your bottom dollar that the gangs know about this, and Labour have no clue. Weapon parts are not weapons.

https://redbloodedconservative.com/2023/08/10/guns-without-background-checks-scotus-is-ready-to-rule/

Hey Hard Cheese, I have done it again!
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August 14, 2023 8:52am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/more-people-needed-in-auckland-to-deliver-julians-book/

3pm today:
https://www.facebook.com/events/s/live-stream-queens-town/2292016067649201/?mibextid=RQdjqZ
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August 14, 2023 8:56am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The email from an immigrant tells it like it is. Maori are not ‘downtrodden.’
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:01am
Tony Stuart

Luke Malpas is rather more critical of Labour’s GST announcement yesterday than the once-over-lightly piece by Tova O’Brien. Malpas writes:

When Chris Hipkins finally announced the badly kept secret that Labour would do away with GST on fruit and vegetables – if Labour is re-elected – he confirmed what will be a contender for being the stupidest and most principle-free decision of a major party of this election campaign.

It will help the average household a mere $5 a week, according to Labour modelling.

When asked which economists or tax experts agreed with him, Hipkins couldn’t name one.

This proposed change – beloved by certain sections of the old-school political left – is really the idiot cousin of Labour’s craven desperation. The one that no-one pays much attention until panic sets in and the party casts around for cynical policies to get elected. It was taken to the 2011 election under Phil Goff, an election where Labour was in denial that Kiwis actually liked John Key and it had nothing else really … except that other renowned vote winner – a capital gains tax.

Even David Cunliffe thought it was a bad idea and ditched it in 2014.

If even David Cunliffe rejected removing the GST from fresh fruit and vegetables, it must have indeed been a stupid policy. That hasn’t stopped Hipkins from announcing it, despite it having been previously rejected by both Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Hipkins himself.

How did the dead rat taste Grant?
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August 14, 2023 8:57am
- Colville
  
  “GST off fruit and vege: The idiot cousin of Labour’s craven desperation”
  
  The headline was certainly eye catching!
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:47am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Let Chippie destroy himself and Labour.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:26am
- nathie
  
  “How did the dead rat taste Grant?”
  
  Well, you know all those, ahem, “sausage rolls” Labour MP’s are always seen quaffing down lately …. they must be really gooood 😉
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:14am
- gravedodger
  
  Plus their very own “Tax Inquiry” packed with socialist sympathisers, that august group were emphatic in rejecting such arrant nonsense that thinking minds everywhere see only being of benefit to richer people and supermarket operators.
  Only an utter idiot could believe a Commissioner will be able to prevent them profiting.
  Superman would struggle?
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:57am
ClanMcleod

Excellent commentary in this recent post on OffGuardian regarding the dangerous madness that has infected the modern political left.

It’s difficult to believe, but at one time left-wing politics involved serious discussion by serious people about serious topics such as the nationalisation of industry, union rights and working conditions, or the creation of new towns and transport links. Earnest people got into the complexities of big issues. Today woke left-wing politics seems to embody catastrophic reactions to every cause.

That first paragraph really resonates with me.

I’ve mentioned a number of times in other posts, I was a left voter for many years. I grew up in the cloth cap era in the UK where everyone’s dad I knew worked in factories and everyone’s mum was at home. Being left was about social class and fighting to improve conditions and rights of working class people.

It has been hijacked by university educated ideologues. Now it is all about insane ideology.

If you don’t think a woman can have a penis, you are murdering trans children. If you drive a petrol car, you are causing the oceans to boil. If you don’t want biological men to compete in women’s sports, you are participating in genocide. These may be crazy, but are reactions we have all witnessed in the media.

The post doesn’t give an answer to this problem, but it identifies it clearly for what it is, cult madness. An affliction that is impossible to reason with or debate logically.

Reason has fled and the woke brook no debate because all opposed to leftie woke campaigns are ipso facto wicked, hateful people who want to drown polar bears, put drag artists into zoos and re-establish apartheid. Every issue is an eleventh-hour conflict between the woke forces of good and the monstrous evil of normality.

https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-end-is-nigh/
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August 14, 2023 8:59am
- Jake Dee
  
  Selective memory. There’s always been dangerous madness and loony cults on the left and you don’t have to go all the way back to revolutionary Franch to find them. Bert Potter’s Centerpoint commune was a leftist cult. How long ago was that?
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:26am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    The left I knew weren’t hippies with enough money to set up a commune.
    
    The left I knew were specifically the working classes who rarely had a choice but to do jobs in shipyards and factories. The one’s who lived in the inner cities in crap houses without hot water or inside toilets.
    
    Potter belongs to the same breed that are destroying society today. These are the people who hijacked what my perception of political left is.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:56am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      There are quite a few lefties with money. On TV years ago I remember a leftie saying “Oh I think inflation is a wonderful thing, I could not survive without it”
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:29am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        SO – they were circles that I never moved in and didn’t even know existed for many years.
        
        Where we grew up, we’d have either laughed at a university educated ‘socialist’ trying to educate us about marxism or any other ideology or we’d have kicked them up the arse and told them to piss off.
        
        Our lives weren’t about ideology, our lives were doing what was needed to eat and pay the rent every week. Ours was based on reality.
        
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        August 14, 2023 10:51am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Me too. On a farm about 15km west of Te Kowhai.
        Feeding and collecting eggs from our 50+ chooks was my job.
        A highly educated person would never dare to enter with the hillbillies!
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:14pm
Maggie Pie

At least a couple of times a year we find ourselves being bombarded by Jehovah Witnesses activating the gate security-system asking to gain access to the property.
Eventhough my partner yells to me…. tell them to f-off, I just say “We’re Roman Catholic” and they’re immediately on their way.

Next time however, even I may not feel the need to be quite so polite 🙁

https://rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/495727/rnz-investigation-reveals-11-alleged-paedophiles-active-within-the-jehovah-s-witnesses

Would you want them anywhere near your family?
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August 14, 2023 9:03am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “Would you want them anywhere near your family?”
  
  No, but neither I would I let a Catholic priest anywhere near young children unsupervised.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:23am
  - Taieri
    
    neither I would I let a Catholic priest anywhere near young children unsupervised
    ————-
    
    You don’t usually generalize, why do it now? There’re 400K+ Catholic priests worldwide. Are they all potential pedophiles? What about the other occupations?
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:33am
  - Nukuleka
    
    That comment is well beneath you, Benedict. I wouldn’t have suspected you of such vile bigotry and generalization.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:50am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Ah no, it is not bigotry. It is reality. Across the world there have been many, many tens of thousands of child victims of Catholic priests, possibly hundreds of thousands in the last few decades. This is not myth. It is the result of very thorough investigations in several countries.
      
      Examples:
      
      Germany
      
      https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/13/europe/catholic-church-germany-muenster-report-intl/index.html
      
      Ireland
      
      https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2020/11/27/sins-of-the-fathers-ireland-s-sex-abuse-survivors
      
      USA
      
      Tens of thousands of children abused across the USA.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Jay_Report
      
      France is a horror story.
      
      “The French Catholic church has expressed “shame” and pleaded for forgiveness, after a devastating report found that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by clergy and lay members of church institutions over the past 70 years.
      
      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/05/french-catholic-priests-abused-children-report
      
      So no I am not being a bigot.
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:06am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie. I don’t mind the media exposing these offenders but their selectiveness is evident here because it makes us assume other religions are relatively clean. Perhaps they could delve into other areas such as politicians who favour the Phillipines.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:28am
  - Individual Responsibility
    
    Inandout – you’re naughty.
    
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    August 14, 2023 2:03pm
- Waipuk
  
  When I saw a piece yesterday from rnz about people who leave the Jehovah Witnesses lose contact with people (friends, family) who remain in the church I knew it was their turn.
  
  They had gotten bored with Gloriavale.
  
  Next on the list will be the Exclusive Brethren then the Mormons.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:02am
  - Inandout
    
    Wai, but NEVER Islam.
    
    15 1
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    August 14, 2023 10:36am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Bernard in Black Books shows what to do.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6TeDM-wlZ4&t=3s
  
  6 1
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  August 14, 2023 10:07am
  - Inandout
    
    CM, such a brilliant series that I bought all episodes on CD.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:38am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Inandout – yes, brilliant isn’t it! I went to see Bernard (Dylan Moran) for his standup show in Auckland around 15 years ago, it was outstanding.
      
      Also went to see Manny (Bill Bailey) a couple of years later in another stand up, equally brilliant and a superb musician to boot.
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:06am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Excellent
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:40am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  They are all over the place, not just the Churches.
  A certain motorcamp we used to go to they were parked outside watching the kids and doing their thing. Police would come and remove them but they can’t be charged for just being parked.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:36am
Tauhei Notts

Waipareira Trust.
Can anybody here update us on the interest free loan shenanigans going on with that Trust. The potential fringe benefit tax liability would be mouth watering.
I get the impression this is yet another dark rip off.
Comments, please.
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August 14, 2023 9:22am
- Blog-aholic
  
  If there is any news the medai and cohorts are burying it DEEEEP DEEEP DEEP.
  
  Not good for the narrative.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:43am
- Colville
  
  No way the SFO will take a look at them while Willie J is a Minister…
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:53am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    If Colville is correct, and at present there is absolutely nothing to suggest that Colville is wrong, then we have a deplorable state of affairs.
    A huge number of voters are completely unaware of how evil this Hipkins regime is.
    
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    August 14, 2023 2:26pm
- jon
  
  TN ive been wondering too, given the Charities group deadline seeking a response from Tamihere and the Trust was 12 noon last Monday. Of course the MSM wont be pursuing the matter given Tamihere’s presidency of TPM party and the likely affect any negative publicity might have on the overall left’s vote in October.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:41am
Benedict Yu

I had an odd experience yesterday. I had to full in an online form with a government agency, providing name, address, phone number etc. However the drop down menus were in Maori with the English translation following. For example the drop down menu for the address details had a box “tātai poutāpeta/post code”. So now I know that “tātai poutāpeta” means post code.

Surely they could simply ask “Would you like the English or Maori version of the form?” It would add very little to their coding effort.
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August 14, 2023 9:35am
- ClanMcleod
  
  No, they won’t do that. This is meant to be indoctrination from the people who brought us the covid scam indoctrination. Force fed narrative.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:09am
  - Jack5
    
    State department and media force-feeding of Maori language is wasteful, and the goal’s impossible: force people out of the world’s dominant language and into a tiny indigenous tongue.
    
    Meanwhile, news media mixing of Maori into English has sown the seeds of an NZ Pidgin.
    
    It’s near impossible that English will be replaced as the country’s main language, but if this were to happen, then NZ Pidgin, rather than Maori, would be the new tongue.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:29am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  What happens if you use google translate?
  Fun and Games I’ll bet.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:52am
- thirteenstars
  
  Best practice in such cases is to present just such a choice to the user and from then on everything is displayed in that language. In web browsers that choice is saved within the browser and upon returning to that site your previous choice is respected but can be changed at any time.
  
  This avoids the tortured mixing of terms which confuses and frustrates and is cognitively inefficient.
  
  But that’s the whole idea. The slow march through the culture requires that you be confronted at every turn by that which induces the most frustration, confusion and ultimately anger. There can be no relief and no escape from it. Drag Queen story time for children or multilingual government forms, it makes no difference. The goal is to foment widespread discontent and polarisation and thus the opportunity for revolution, which is well underway in NZ.
  
  The next government should instruct their IT people to present screens/forms in either English or Maori. I don’t hold out much hope.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:24am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Indeed. The purpose of that government form is not the efficient exchange of information. Instead it is to teach me (in vain) that “tātai poutāpeta” means “postcode”.
    
    I am confident that there is no country globally that is designing official government communications in this manner. Maybe PNG, but that is hardly a benchmark to aim for.
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:02pm
  - Taieri
    
    The goal is to foment widespread discontent and polarisation and thus the opportunity for revolution, which is well underway in NZ
    —————
    
    What would be the objective of such a revolution though?
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:03pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      The same objective of all revolutions: concentration of power.
      
      Power is the goal. It is the end in itself.
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:47pm
- Notsofast
  
  I think you know that cunning part Maori will stop at nothing to make idiots of their own people and all New Zealanders.
  These words are completely fake.
  
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  August 14, 2023 1:01pm
Maggie Pie

My partner’s mum txts:

I recall Roger Douglas saying….’GST exceptions are complex, poorly targeted, and generate large compliance costs. Furthermore, it is not clear whether the benefits of GST exceptions are passed on to consumers’

This current Labor mob would have Sir Roger spinning in his grave.
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August 14, 2023 9:40am
- Benedict Yu
  
  He is not dead.
  
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  August 14, 2023 9:46am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    yep, I talked with whim a few months ago.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:54am
  - mogg
    
    His political grave, Maggie does abstract all the time.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:23am
- kevn
  
  same story from Richard Prebble I would say.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:00am
- mogg
  
  The real story with gst, and Labour have the cheek to make a big deal out of giving us $5.00 back.
  
  “The Prime Minister promised no major new taxes in this Budget – and he didn’t need them.
  
  New Zealanders will pay nearly $80 billion more in tax over the next four years, according to Treasury projections.
  “Three-quarters of that will be GST paid on more expensive food and other goods and services, and income tax as workers’ pay rises move them up into higher income tax brackets. Another $12b will be corporate taxes.”
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:41am
  - Ghost
    
    Take the $5 and put it towards the extra taxes you’ll be paying…..
    
    I thought I read an article not long ago that the government lost a court case that will cost people $5 a week or month more for power and petrol
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:45am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      The Government was trying to keep a lid on the price of New Zealand Units in the ETS. The Court judgment was that this was unlawful because it was not consistent with the “Zero Carbon Act”. As I have commented previously the price of NZ Units will continue to increase relentlessly to meet the 2030 commitments. If you think petrol is expensive now, you aint seen nothing yet.
      
      If there is a National led Government, the costs of meeting the 2030 commitments in the Paris Accord will be a stern test of Luxon’s commitment to net zero.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:54am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Scrap it. Climate Change. Pull out of Paris Accord.
        All are a hoax.
        
        14 3
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        August 14, 2023 11:25am
      - Taieri
        
        Pull out of Paris Accord
        ————
        
        No can do. It would have to be started by much bigger and powerful players than NZ.
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:07pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Pull out of Paris Accord.”
        
        That would have severe adverse consequences.
        
        Iran, Libya and Yemen are the only countries that have not ratified the Paris Accord.
        
        Can you see the problem there?
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:26pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Donald Trump pulled US out. Biden put them back in.
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:18pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Labour still don’t get that Tax breaks give more disposable income and therefore more GST.
    Why are they so thick?
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:01am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      “Why are they so thick?”
      They have cornered the market for short planks.
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:36pm
- surfing
  
  It’s ok, they’re loading the cost onto commercial enterprise (rich pricks).
  
  Something about disallowing depreciation on commercial buildings. So , expect to see a slight dip in commercial building space!
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:50am
- Jack5
  
  Tax specialists among Kiwiblog followers please help …
  
  Who cops the loss of GST as proposed by on-the-way-out Labour?
  
  Does it mean a State subsidy by IRD to links higher up the supply chain?
  
  GST is levied at each point of the production of goods or services. This is a consumption tax, so those in the earlier stages of production are reimbursed by the subsequent buyer in the chain.
  
  Drop GST from, say, vegetables, and fruit, and what happens with suppliers, market gardeners, orchardists, farmers? Surely they can’t charge GST to supermarkets and grocers for GST-exempt goods.
  
  The suppliers pay net GST on value added: that is GST they charge less GST they pay.
  
  If GST is wiped on what they sell, does that mean, because of the consequent negative sum in their calculation for the IRD, that they will be due for payment from the IRD?
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:52am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Good questions. Labour are setting up another future failure.
    The only thing they are good at. The intelligence level is very shallow.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:29am
  - thirteenstars
    
    Well, good question.
    
    Take the example of a GST exempt thing: residential rents. Since no GST is added to the rent (the output tax), the landlord can’t claim back GST on the various costs of owning the property (the input tax).
    
    In effect the landlord becomes the end consumer and pays the GST, just as we all do as end consumers.
    
    Which would mean that the GST on the various costs of growing fruit and veges could not be claimed back by the grower because they are no longer charging GST on their goods. Which would inflate the cost of production since the purpose of the GST input/output tax calculation is to ensure the GST is passed on up the supply chain to the end consumer who can’t claim it back.
    
    That’s for exempt goods. I’m not sure if the same principle applies on zero rated goods.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:43am
    - GJM
      
      So what happens with mixed production? A fruit grower ( no gst) runs some animals to clean up the orchard and provide income.(charye gst) Some of the fruit is sold for stock food( charges gst).
      How are the overheads allocated? The tractor is used for all income streams, but some is gst exempt, and some is not.
      
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      August 19, 2023 11:37am
lifesgood

Remember this shit show of a government got rid of plastic bags at supermarkets causing great inconvenience to customers but providing a massive windfall to the supermarkets who no longer had to provide them? Did prices come down? Did they heck as like. Supermarkets just laughed their merry way to the bank. The same thing will happen with the removal of GST on fruit and vegetables. You are naïve to think prices will come down. Another windfall for the supermarkets and no earthly use to anyone else.
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August 14, 2023 9:46am
- Blog-aholic
  
  In point of fact when the first round of bags where excommunicated from the Supermarkets the in aisle sales of plastic bags went through the roof.
  
  The packing bags were costing Countdown (from memory) about $6K per store per week so that went straight back onto their bottom line and then they had the windfall of the in aisle purchase of plastic bags increasing too…..win/win.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:14am
- Taieri
  
  Did prices come down?
  ———–
  
  No, why should they?
  But they started to provide paper bags. And to charge for them.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:36am
  - lifesgood
    
    “No why should they?”
    Simple…because the cost of those plastic bags was built into everything you bought. You don’t think they were providing them for free, do you?
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:35am
    - Taieri
      
      You don’t think they were providing them for free, do you?
      ————–
      
      I don’t think they are in the business for entirely altruistic reasons, hence “why should they”.
      
      5 1
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      August 14, 2023 12:09pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  How many trees died making brown paper bags?
  Put in wet things like beans, carrots, lettuce, and they fall out the arse.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:33am
NK

A couple of weeks ago I stated on this blog that this year I would not cast a party vote. It would be the first time since 1996 that I have not voted.

I’ve changed my mind. The GST policy did it for me. These guys are vandals and nitwits. They must go.

Party Vote Act everyone.

Authorised by Grant Robertson and Chris Hipkins, Parliament Buildings, Wellington
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August 14, 2023 9:57am
- ClanMcleod
  
  I’ll vote Act the moment Seymour stops lying about excess all cause mortality and the safety /s of the vaccines.
  It’s a single issue, but for me, it dwarfs every other issue combined. People call Peters a liar and that is their reason for hating him and wanting him out of politics, this is absolutely no different for me with Seymour.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:15am
  - peterwn
    
    All those single issue vax voters who would shun ACT or National are effectively giving half to one vote to Labour. Even abstaining is effectively half a vote to Labour.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:27am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Maybe National/Act should mandate voting for them?
      
      Labour got away with it with the experimental
      vax. Nobody objected to it that I recall?
      
      Or adopt ‘get boosted’ Bishop’s idea, make it ‘door to door’ compulsory voting?
      
      Why do both parties find it impossible to simply acknowledge that things were done wrong? Seriously, what is their problem?
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:14am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        I say it again, Luxon is the only leader to saying he can not see the point of the mandates. He has also stated that there will never be an excuse for anything on covid again, I suggest to you that means mandates
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:19pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        G – I suggest to you that you are being very selective in what you want to hear re Luxon’s comments about mandates. Find me some evidence to support your belief please.
        
        The way I interpret it, he said that the mandates should be removed only, ONCE CERTAIN TRIGGER POINTS WERE REACHED.
        
        This was about managing the risk, he said. Passes and mandates had served “incredibly well” previously and they were “big fans”
        
        I follow most stuff that these politicians say in regards to the covid response. If I’ve missed something important that Luxon has said to indicate that he has change his mind regarding how “incredibly well” mandates and passes worked then please send me links. I haven’t heard anything to indicate that he would never be mandates again?
        
        I would hate to be judging him harshly if this is not true. Please show me what he has said.
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:39pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      And forget the ‘single issue’ trope, you will hammer Peters for being a liar. Fair enough too.
      
      On the issue of excess mortality and vaccine ‘safety’, Seymour is doing the same. He is refusing to retract or back down, even with clear evidence that he is lying. Why is Seymour different to Peters?
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:45pm
    - mawm
      
      Peter – well then ACT and National need to do something to get my vote. Telling me that if I don’t vote gives Labour half a vote then ACT/National are also getting half a vote they don’t deserve.
      
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      August 14, 2023 3:55pm
  - Yvette
    
    ClanMcleod – Was it David seymours fault or that Ministry of health chief who daily stood on the podium of truth to become more popular Jacinda aedern?
    
    Aspiration before intramuscular vaccines injection, should the debate continue?☆
    In conclusion, we must reopen the debate about the appropriateness of aspiration and the search for evidence should continue through robust research designs to determine the most appropriate technique, especially after the European Medicines Agency recognised a potential link of this technique to the severe thrombosis phenomena observed in some COVID-19 vaccines. Rigorous experimental studies are needed to study in depth the side effects of intravascular administration of vaccines and to compare the results and complications of both techniques, as well as prospective studies analysing the incidence of blood reflux in the aspiration technique. In short, to ensure that the safest and most effective technique is used to minimise the associated risks, specific protocols with solid scientific evidence must be agreed upon to allow standardisation of practice so that it is not left to the discretion of the individual professional.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8783631/#:~:text=Although%20aspiration%20prior%20to%20intramuscular,for%20Disease%20Control%20and%20Prevention.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:10am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Yvette – apparently it was every single MP in parliament at the time, because not one of them ever spoke out about what was happening.
      
      Even though there was evidence that at every level, measures taken would cause more harm than good. From vaccination – to lockdowns – to mandates – to aspiration – to masks – to vax passes – to contact tracing – to MIQ and everything else.
      
      I’m an uneducated semi retired tradie, I was asking questions from February 2020. Do you expect me to believe that not one out of 121 MPs had any concerns or questions?
      
      That isn’t possible, it can only mean there was a tacit, unwritten agreement made politically, to support Ardern and her totalitarian policies.
      That’s a huge concern and is the reason why I’m struggling to find somewhere worthy of my vote.
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:53pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Why 8 downticks for you?
    All Seymour has to do is say “sorry, I got it wrong”
    He must know it was all just a people control fantasy by Ardern and her liars!
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:37am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Steve Otto – if you read my repetitive comments on this subject you will see that I’ve never asked for an apology. I understand it is something politicians are loathe to do.
      
      All I ever ask is acknowledgment of harms done to many thousands of citizens who did nothing wrong.
      Also a promise that such policies will never be tried again would go down well I believe?
      
      I don’t think it is too much to ask.
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:56pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        A Clayton’s apology.
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:24pm
Flossie

Reading the commentary of GD lately it appears that quite a lot of people here would like a continuation of a Labour led government.
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August 14, 2023 9:58am
- ClanMcleod
  
  I haven’t seen a single comment advocating for Labour? If you’re implying that not voting at all is a vote for Labour, no it isn’t. A vote for Labour is the only thing that is a vote for Labour, and those who National/Act are struggling to attract will certainly NOT be voting Labour or any of their coalition parties.
  
  If National/Act want to grab the 12% undecided and 2% of the NZF supporters (likely enough to keep Peters out), they know EXACTLY what to do.
  
  Acknowledge the harms done to those voters by the current government with the full support of National and Act.
  
  It’s their job to show they represent these people and acknowledge the nightmare they’ve been subjected to. It’s also the right thing to do.
  
  To insist those who suffered should hold their nose, swallow a dead rat, and vote for National/Act while these parties and their MPs refuse to even speak about the last 3 years or acknowledge these voters even exist, is the ultimate insult.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:25am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Again, for the 200th time, if National or ACT did that their vote would disappear. The small number of votes they would gain would be dwarfed by the number they lose, believe me, they’ve done the math.
    
    They can’t fix the country if Labour are in power again.
    
    It’s like you people don’t remember the abuse Bridges got when he questioned Jacinda’s policy too “meanly”. Or the abuse Seymour got when he went to talk to the protestors outside Parliament?
    It’s unfair but it’s the world Labour have created. The only way to fix it is to kick those morons out. Every vote is important.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:42am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      “You people” – so we’re a different class now? That simply reinforces how many of us already feel in this country. Great to hear.
      
      Firstly, Bridges was the only one who asked any questions, maybe that’s part of the reason he got dumped? If so, that should make you understand how big this issue is. He was the only one who said anything.
      
      Seymour didn’t speak to the protesters “outside parliament” – he spoke to a hand picked couple of people in Backbenchers pub at the request of the owner. Where and when was he abused???
      
      Seymour also laid down impossible demands for any actual dialogue with the protesters.
      
      “What I’ve said to these protest organisers through their intermediary is that there is no chance of me and I suspect any other member of Parliament being out on those steps talking to that protest while Victoria University is occupied, while the streets around Wellington and Parliament are blockaded, and while there is any chance of the kind of abuse that an MP reported just last night.”
      
      Victoria University was not “occupied”
      
      He also said:
      
      There were people there that have views on vaccinology that I just think are just absolutely out to lunch…
      
      He still believes this.
      
      Yes it is “the world Labour have created” – but it was fully endorsed by all MPs in Parliament. The only criticism was that Labour were not doing this effectively enough.
      
      The point is, some of the positions taken by Seymour and other politicians MIGHT be understandable when viewed in context of the time.
      But it is 18 months later, we have absolute evidence now that the protesters were absolutely correct in what they were protesting against. The politicians got it wrong, not the protesters. Why do those who suffered most have to pretend nothing happened?
      
      It’s almost as though the vaccines were “safe and effective” and along with the mandates and lockdowns they “saved 80,000 lives.”
      
      Maybe if that was true there wouldn’t be such a large group of pissed off and disaffected people? They did nothing wrong. The MPs are the ones who were wrong and Seymour continues to lie which is unforgiveable with the evidence available proving this is not just a “mistake”.
      
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      August 14, 2023 11:59am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Yes, Bridges did stand up in his committee, but as usual, the same suspects, some people on here rubbished him for being weak, just like they are now retrying to do with Luxon, what happened to Bridges? That’s right, he stopped in one month the Nats from 46% to 25%, but thee fools the hurty feelings blame the Nats, how about they blame the brain washers for once?
        
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        August 14, 2023 2:03pm
      - Libertarians are right
        
        “You people” specifically is “people that demand apologies from National/ACT”. Not othering, just the easiest way to address the group.
        
        Seymour was also asking questions. They all were but the abuse Bridges got did quieten them down.
        
        Yes, Seymour only spoke to their “representatives”, but even then he copped a lot of abuse. Jacinda explicitly came out and told the media that what Seymour did was out of bounds and wrong.
        
        And it goes without saying that there were in fact a whole bunch of crazy anti-vaxxers at the protest (not anti-experimental MDR “treatment” but anti all vaccine people). Like always, there were a lot of people at that protest who were there for reasons outside the Covid Vax.
        
        Seymour has called for a full look into the whole thing. An apology would be appropriate and not political suicide after that.
        
        I agree that it was wrong and Labour broke the law on multiple occasions but let’s be very clear here – Labour will absolutely win the election if they can change the discussion from their corrupt incompetence to how National and ACT would have killed everyone. They literally got a one party majority last time based on that lie, despite there being no evidence.
        
        People really are that stupid.
        
        As for the people that were wrongly punished – you’re right, you should not be quiet and should be asking for accountability but surely the most important piece of accountability is ensuring Labour is out?
        
        I’m not saying don’t be angry, just don’t go after the people who called you mean names instead of the people who destroyed your lives. I’m not even against calling them out, but by not voting for the mean name people you’re actually helping the people that destroyed your lives.
        
        And Winston is a fraud who’s using your pain to try to get back into Government.
        
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        August 14, 2023 3:58pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Do you actually believe acknowledging that many people were unfairly punished, and shouldn’t have lost their jobs for their medical choices, will cost National enough votes to make a difference???? Really?
      If so, an awful lot of NZers are very petty and small minded people.
      
      Also, National and Act have said NOTHING to indicate that if another seasonal respiratory illness with a funny name was to turn up, that they wouldn’t implement similar policies, only more ‘efficiently’.
      
      They need to say this unequivocally.
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:24pm
      - Ghost
        
        I doubt it will cost any votes. To stand up and say, look, the last few years there have been a lot of mistakes made, we need to get to the bottom of all of this once in government, find out where the money went and why, find out why people were denied basic rights and make sure this does not happen again. Won’t cost a single vote.
        
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        August 14, 2023 12:33pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Ghost – cheers. That is exactly how I see it?
        
        I’m astonished at the level of fear/denial there seems to be among the staunch National/Act supporters.
        
        Other than the diehard 20% Labourites who’s votes are nailed on, every sane person must at least acknowledge that the whole response was a colossal FU? Why would cost votes to say out loud what everyone understands? Surreal.
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:04pm
  - surfing
    
    You are taking one vote away from the right by not voting. Essentially, you are helping labour out.
    
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    August 14, 2023 10:59am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      No I am not taking anything from the right. You are presuming that I automatically vote for the right. I don’t.
      
      My first vote for National was to get rid of Helen Clark’s government when she went troppo in her last two years. Also gave my electorate vote to Nikki Kaye who was honest and hard working for the people she represented.
      She got my respect when she spoke our against mining on conservation land on Great Barrier Island, a totally insane proposition. She was fully supported by John Banks at the time.
      John Key also supported her right to speak out.
      
      Now, other than Peters, not one single MP will speak out for those most negatively affected by the abuses meted out over the three nightmare years of covid. Yes, Peters is an opportunist. No, at this stage I don’t plan on voting for him. I still don’t trust him.
      
      I will vote on conscience and for what is right. I have had zero evidence from anyone that they will do what is right. No, I won’t ‘forgive and forget’.
      
      Also Luxon already stated publicly he doesn’t need these voters. He also stated he fully supported the mandates. He said they should be removed at “some point”, presumably when enough were jabbed.
      This would indicate he’d happily repeat the process the next time a bad flu comes along.
      
      Instead of wasting time berating me for not rolling over and begging to get rid of Labour, talk to your representatives and tell them to man up and do what’s right?
      I did nothing wrong. They did. I don’t need an apology. I need acknowledgment that I and thousands of other people were punished for no reason. I don’t think it is too much to ask.
      
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      August 14, 2023 12:17pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    They represent “WE THE PEOPLE” as Trump says.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:40am
- peterwn
  
  The ones who trash talk Chris Luxon and National are generally ACT supporters, not Labour supporters. However a few are going to let Winston pull the wool over their eyes.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:29am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    That is the dangerous thing. What has Petters done other than the Goldcard.
    He has been part of screwing NZ over every time he was an MP.
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:45am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Exactly, snd it’s pathetic
  
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  August 14, 2023 12:20pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/132737108/one-nz-cops-biggest-fair-trading-act-breach-fine-for-misleading-customers
Who gets the $3.675m when it is paid ?
Anyone enlighten me please ?
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August 14, 2023 10:08am
- peterwn
  
  The Consolidated Fund (the general Government money bin). There would be court and legal costs on top of this.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:22am
- Blog-aholic
  
  The budget hole slush fund.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:28am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I would like to know what is true fiber and what is not.
  Mine was put in by Chorus. I am with Spark. Do Chorus do cheaper versions for other Techos?
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:52am
  - Jack5
    
    Steve, I suspect this relates to earlier cable, non-fibre that was laid in some cities.
    
    It was certainly available in Christchurch, and was used to carry broadband and network TV. It was slower than cable, but I still much faster than the older Telecom system that used copper telephone lines.
    
    The non-fibre cable I was aware of, in the suburb of Spreydon, was networked above ground.
    
    Telecom itself had a comprehensive non-fibre cable network planned for Auckland, and perhaps begun. Then it had the nous to stop layout abruptly when it became apparent optical fibre was going to be superior economically as well as technically.
    
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    August 14, 2023 9:15pm
bjools

Question:
Is Kieran McAnulty MP, related to Brent McAnulty, new acting head of TVNZ?
Incestuous much?
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August 14, 2023 10:27am
- Ghost
  
  No idea, but he has been with tvnz for 14 years.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:39am
- Benedict Yu
  
  In a place the size of New Zealand, having someone in a media company related to an MP is not really an issue. It would only be an issue if the brother was active in the Labour Party.
  
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  August 14, 2023 10:49am
ClanMcleod

Interesting article in the Whoreald today. One of the few I ever actually read.

Doctor accuses Te Whatu Ora of ‘conspiracy’ to avoid public scrutiny of unsafe radiology practices

A senior doctor has accused Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand of a “conspiracy” to avoid publicly disclosing unsafe radiology practices that harmed multiple patients, the Herald can reveal.

In an extraordinary step, Dr Bryan Wolf, a consultant radiologist in Hawke’s Bay, has asked the Ombudsman to investigate what he describes as the national health authority’s failure to inform the public about significant safety risks in the radiology service where he is a senior medical officer.

The Herald has obtained two letters Wolf sent to Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier in July in which he alleged that Te Whatu Ora withheld important information despite his insistence it be made public and questioned its commitment to accountability.

“I believe this can now reasonably be labelled a conspiracy to defraud the general public of their knowledge and health,” he wrote in one of the letters, which have not previously been reported.

Meanwhile, many doctors in NZ were struck of by the medical council for daring speak out about the potential risks involved with the covid vaccine, risks which we now know were completely proven but are still ignored and the boosters still being promoted!

Late last year, Wolf alerted Te Whatu Ora’s board and national leadership to problems he alleged put patients and employees at risk of “permanent, life-altering physical, emotional, psychological, cultural and professional harm”, according to his letters to the Ombudsman.

In response, Health NZ (Te whata ora) conducted a review.

According to people who have seen their report, the reviewers found long-standing flaws in systems and a culture that endangered patients and left staff feeling isolated and helpless.

So, the system CAN work when permitted to?

Richard Sullivan, Te Whatu Ora’s chief clinical officer, told the Herald there had not been a deliberate attempt to conceal unsafe practices from the public and that Te Whatu Ora had followed legal advice on refusing RNZ’s OIA request.

“We’re not trying to hide anything,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan praised Wolf for alerting national leadership to the safety problems. “We should be thanking Bryan. He saw some clinical issues, he raised concerns. And that was taken seriously.”

This doctor is praised for highlighting a serious problem. As he should be. Yet doctors and other health professionals who raised concerns about the forced vaccination of the population with an experimental product, they were deplatformed, sacked and/or had their licence to practice removed?

This is proof that there WAS a conspiracy to push what was known to be an experiment and was known to be harmful to many sectors of society.
This is proof that it was NOT bumbling incompetence. The system CAN work when it is permitted. In the covid scam it was shut down at every turn.

The effort expended to attack those who spoke out was coordinated and it was ruthless and relentless. It still continues. This was about politicis and narrative control, it was nothing to do with health.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/doctor-accuses-te-whatu-ora-of-conspiracy-to-avoid-public-scrutiny-of-unsafe-radiology-practices/GAMWJF5UP5AWXPFOXSK7RPJLUA/
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August 14, 2023 10:44am
- cmm
  
  I see the media are doubling down with their stance on this. Today there’s a cartoon of a NZF “Make NZ great again” tinfoil hat – the insinuation that NZF supporters are conspiracy theory nut-jobs to be laughed at.
  
  (inaudibles) the bunch of them!
  
  Following the science (properly) is not about being right or wrong at the end. It is a matter of following the process.
  
  During Covid the process was not followed, therefore it was not deserving of the badge “science”. The gatekeepers of science (aka the scientists) let the people that pay them down severely.
  
  “Following the science” because a throw away phrase to shut up people that dissented.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:08am
  - Keith White
    
    We followed the science, and we found the trough that the scientists scarfed money from for confabulating the science.
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:03pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    cmm – true science was ruthlessly shut down. This can’t be put down to error.
    Sure, some useful idiots on good salaries happily nodded and believed the idiotic fear porn. But there are many who must have known all was not right, but went along anyway, too frightened to do what was right. I have nothing but contempt for such people.
    
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    August 14, 2023 1:12pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Radiology. It is very vague. Is it the system linking Health Services to GPs?
  What part of radiology? MRI, CAT, Ultrasound, X-Rays?
  
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  August 14, 2023 12:06pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Steve Otto – if you hold your nose and go to the article you’ll see that it talks about ‘scans’. These could be all of the areas you talk about?
    
    These included scan results not being sent to doctors who requested them, life-threatening conditions being missed because scans of different body parts were not linked, and radiology staff being so “jaded” by bad systems that they stopped reporting problems to their superiors.
    
    “In working through this paper, I have been alarmed at the clinical risk inherent in the system, the acceptance of such risk in the region and extremely laborious mitigation processes districts are willing to undertake to try to mitigate these,” the memo’s author said. “They are not raised anymore and simply accepted.”
    
    According to the memo, which was first reported by RNZ last September, these dangerous practices were common across the region and had a high chance of “patient death or life-changing delay to treatment”.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/doctor-accuses-te-whatu-ora-of-conspiracy-to-avoid-public-scrutiny-of-unsafe-radiology-practices/GAMWJF5UP5AWXPFOXSK7RPJLUA/
    
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    August 14, 2023 1:17pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Most of what I listed are scans. Is it about withholding results from your GP?
      My Doc sees all of my results. Chest X-Ray, left rotor cuff tear, prostate MRI.
      Geez, considering the prostate size (mine is small) the MRI takes a long time, almost 1 hour.
      I know it is in Hawkes Bay but all of everything is connected now with one DHB right?
      
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      August 14, 2023 1:32pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Steve – I would presume so? But my main point of concern is that when a doctor raised concerns, something actually happened.
        
        When MANY doctors raised concerns at the beginning of covid, they lost their practicing certificate. Something rotten in the State of NZ.
        
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        August 14, 2023 1:41pm
- NothingLeft
  
  It’s clear now that covid vaccines do significant damage to hearts of at least a few percent of recipients (1 in 35 in a swiss hospital staff study) – enough to raise their risk of death from heart attacks a lot (heart damage is cumulative, they don’t heal like other tissue).
  
  That is likely the reason we have seen ~5% increase in deaths above baseline in vaccinated populations since Omicron made covid low-risk over last 2 years. Where covid itself in 2023 is responsible for <0.5% of deaths.
  
  In NZ's case that means likely 5000 deaths from vaccine damage to date – proof is extremely clear in NZ's case as we had about 2000 excess deaths during '21 above '20 baseline that were clearly from vaccines because there was no significant covid until end of 2021. Vaccines have killed more than Omicron would have if there had been no vaccine.
  
  Excess mortality: Cumulative deaths from all causes compared to projection based on previous years
  
  [Mod – fixed link]
  
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  August 14, 2023 1:39pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Balanced discussion on vaccine harms on Triggernometry.
    https://youtu.be/zwXsQU-WrUg?t=1545
    
    Again very very clear that vaccines directly caused a lot of heart damage (Israeli study at time linked), outweighing any benefits for almost everyone in good health, and particularly for middle aged or younger.
    
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    August 14, 2023 6:46pm
surfing

This is a bizarre story, quite possibly a scam?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/maori-scientist-thanks-his-nanas-reo-revitalisation-stand-for-his-fusion-energy-interest/ZCI2H5U7CVDI7DVJ4RHTPMQALI/

A Māori scientist says the dedication of his grandmother, the late Kāterina Te Heikōkō Mataira, to reviving te reo Māori gave him his “no excuses” attitude to developing fusion energy.
Ratu Mataira’s OpenStar startup has secured more than $10 million in seed investment to work on creating a fusion reactor, which, if successful, would provide New Zealand with a zero-carbon-emission, dependable baseload power source.

I would love to know where the 10 million came from. I do hope it hasn’t come from the NZ taxpayer.

The cost of developing the first fusion reactor in France (ITER), is estimated to cost up to 65 billion dollars. The 10 million they have secured, won’t even cover the cost of the coffee! It looks like he is copying the concept used by ITER, he has not made any discoveries.
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August 14, 2023 10:48am
- Ghost
  
  Paywalled but the first line tells you who funded him
  
  https://www.nbr.co.nz/tech/kiwi-fusion-scientists-get-10m-to-solve-global-energy-question/
  
  Also
  
  https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/08/06/young-maori-physicist-seeking-to-harness-power-of-the-stars/
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:08am
  - surfing
    
    So possibly some taxpayer funding (via the tribe), some private funding, a bit difficult to know the exact mix though.
    
    Good luck to them, but quit the Maori sob story and start with the groundbreaking physics that this new venture is based on! There is a 99.99% chance this is money down the drain as modern physics is driven by large numbers of people. The low hanging Eureka fruit moment is mostly gone.
    
    Working reactor by the end of the year? What does that even mean?
    
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    August 14, 2023 11:29am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “Working reactor by the end of the year? ”
      
      Righto.
      
      The top big-brains have only been working on cracking this for about 50 years and spending many many billions trying, to no avail.
      
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      August 14, 2023 10:23pm
- cmm
  
  What the fuck has being Maori got to do with this?
  
  It certainly isn’t “Maori science”. So why did they decide to pick on the Maori-ness of this guy?
  
  Why not “Bloke who wears glasses” or “New Zalander” or the university he’s from.
  
  Nope. Instead bringing Maori-blaah into this opens up a nice trough and also sends a message that Western (aka real) scientists are not allowed to scrutinise his work because that would somehow be racist/colonialist/whatever.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:13am
- rangitoto
  
  The OpenStar concept isn’t based on the Tokamak system being used by ITER. They are trying a scheme that was tested by MIT and Columbia about fifteen years ago known as the Levitated Dipole Reactor. The concept was proposed by the Japanese Physicist Akira Hasegawa back in the 1980’s. It may be that advances in superconductors will make the Levitated Dipole reactor possible but a huge risk for your investment cash.
  
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  August 14, 2023 11:48am
  - surfing
    
    Same basic concept though? Using magnetic fields to suspend the reaction material.
    
    And, if the concept didn’t work 15 years ago, what breakthrough has he made that gives him the confidence to try again?
    
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    August 14, 2023 12:58pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Maori bush medicine.
      
      3 1
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      August 14, 2023 1:35pm
    - Drone
      
      Probs your money surfing curtesy of Meghan Woods.
      
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      August 14, 2023 4:03pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    From memory LDX (levitated dipole experiment) was slightly better than much studied tokmaks in achievable plasma pressure for a given magnetic field strength (so likely slightly cheaper if it works), but Tokmaks are dead-end anyway due to enormous cost of reactor compared to tiny power output.
    
    The people to watch are Helion https://www.helionenergy.com/, who smash little plasma donuts into each other at a million km/hr many times per second to heat them and ignite fusion in something called a Field-Reversed Configuration (FRC), and importantly, allow an extremely efficient 90%+ energy extraction process from the resulting fusion analogous to a piston in an IC engine. With a series of about 5 development machines over last decade they appear to have solved all the engineering problems, need no superconductors, and have a relatively compact, cheap and easy to build design. They’re now scaling up their machine to a final pre-commercial test reactor – which will be running in a year or two. They expect to be hooking their cheap house-sized fusion power plants up to the grid in about 5 years.
    
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    August 14, 2023 1:21pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  A fusion Reactor. What is the connection to Maori?
  Sounds flaky. Does it mean Taniwhas?
  
  5 1
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  August 14, 2023 12:13pm
  - greybeard
    
    Whusion, please.
    Or to be absolutely accurate, whurion.
    
    7 0
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    August 14, 2023 12:36pm
- Burtland
  
  Heres the link to the TVNZ program – https://youtu.be/9vHE7C5GppM
  
  Funded by what appears to be private VC money – Government bound to be involved in there somewhere. Doesnt appear to be any seasoned startup people involved – in fact he appears to have excluded them by choice.
  
  Nice website https://www.openstar.tech/
  
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  August 14, 2023 1:36pm
  - Drone
    
    Just remember the everlasting battery brought to you by an NZ inventor.. Didn’t happen..
    
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    August 14, 2023 3:59pm
Maggie Pie

I know a lot of people are concerned as to the whereabouts of ‘Marokopa Man’ Tom Phillips and his kids. It must be nearly 18 months now.

Equally of concern, to me anyway, is what’s happened to Clarke?
We both followed each other on Twitter for ages, but I haven’t heard from him for nearly 14 months!

His final tweet was back on June 25th last year . Admittedly some of the replies sounded a bit harsh….but since then, it’s been crickets 🙁

https://twitter.com/NZClarke/status/1540422658214731776

Anyone??
16 1
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August 14, 2023 11:26am
- surfing
  
  You are trying to imply that Jacinda’s husband is incarcerated?
  
  Check instagram, he isn’t!
  
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  August 14, 2023 12:59pm
Yvette

It favours the rich over the poor and tax cuts would be smarter, so said the 2019 Tax Working Group report. The report commissioned by the Labour cabinet in 2017 – a cabinet, you guessed it, Chippy [Hipkins] was a part of.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2023/08/ryan-bridge-prime-minister-chris-hipkins-shunning-advice-from-tax-experts.html

Naive question:
“It favours the rich over the poor” – do the rich eat more fruit and vegetables than the poor?
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August 14, 2023 11:58am
- Blog-aholic
  
  The ‘rich’ probably eat less KFC amd Maccas etc.
  
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  August 14, 2023 12:41pm
Keith White

If he has been eating crickets Maggie, he’s probably got airway obstruction from allergic anaphylaxis. Or maybe he’s just got Jacinditis and is extremely unwell as a consequence. He should go and see his GP.

Oh, wait – https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/why-does-it-take-so-long-to-see-your-gp#:~:text=Most%20people%20are%20waiting%20a,get%20it%2C%20according%20to%20HQSC.

(Mod: link is to a article in the consumer New Zealand about how long you have to wait and why you have to wait to see your GP. Unfortunately, Consumer missed out the primary diagnosis: TLI (Total Labour Incompetence).
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August 14, 2023 12:07pm
Ghost

Wtf, deport him, we don’t want creeps like this in the country

A Timaru man who admitted partially stripping a sleeping woman and intentionally making an intimate visual recording of her has been discharged without conviction to ensure he is not deported.

Shein Saena made the intimate recording after a night of socialising with the victim at her address on his 32nd birthday, March 11, 2022, before travelling to his address in the early hours of March 12.

Article
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August 14, 2023 12:40pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Terrible, and there is not even the excuse of emptying prisons or ‘special person’ status.
  
  The sad result of judges needing to apply the lowest possible sentences, rather than common sense suggesting this is a great chance for NZ to get someone ejected that we surely do not want/need here.
  
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  August 14, 2023 1:06pm
- Ghost
  
  This same judge has now given someone 5 months home detention for indecent assault on a girl aged 12-16 years.
  
  Home detention for indecent act on teenager
  
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  August 14, 2023 3:18pm
NZer In Exile

“discharged without conviction to ensure he is not deported.”

Sounds like they got their priorities right there! /
9 1
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August 14, 2023 1:21pm
Surely Knott

RNZ alleges there are 11 paedophiles at J.W Church.

“Most members of the religion appear to have no idea who the offenders are.”

“The identities of the men and the congregations they belong to are not being identified by RNZ in order to protect the victims.”

So the article is about the problem of convicted paedophiles having anonymity. And yet RNZ continues to give them anonymity. It doesn’t say it’s the courts that have given them name suppression.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/jehovah-s-witnesses-investigation-reveals-11-alleged-paedophiles-active-within-the-church/
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August 14, 2023 1:24pm
ClanMcleod

What a headline.

Immigration: Biggest loss of Kiwi citizens in a decade but Stats NZ says migrants still coming

So Kiwi citizens are upping sticks and getting out of dodge in the biggest numbers in a decade.
Without doubt, the worst government in NZ history and it would seem, nothing National or Act are saying is encouraging them to stay and see what happens.

It’s a worry…..
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August 14, 2023 1:28pm
- Jack5
  
  Many of the Woke would welcome decline of the country to Third World status.
  
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  August 14, 2023 4:23pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Jack5 – indeed, the problem for National is, Luxon seems to be comfortable with much of this insanity. Certainly the climate madness.
    
    2 3
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    August 14, 2023 6:34pm
mandk

Question for Hosking to ask Hipkins tomorrow morning:
“If you can’t agree a tax policy with your own Minister of Finance, how are voters to believe that you could lead a three- or four-way coalition after the election?”
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August 14, 2023 2:10pm
Maggie Pie

EXACTLY as I predicted on GD last month….

Zuck has chickened out!!
6 0
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August 14, 2023 2:51pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, Zuck is a humanoid.
  
  4 1
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  August 14, 2023 3:14pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    OMG…..I was just saying the other day, looks like he’s had more plastic surgery on his face than my partner’s mum has had on her entire Butt 😀
    
    5 1
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    August 14, 2023 3:32pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Your Mum should have realised that a Rainbow on her butt at 20 looks cute.
      But at 50, its an Octopus chasing a Starfish.
      
      HT to Robin Williams
      
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      August 14, 2023 4:04pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        LOL!! I was talking about her gluteal augmentation….not a Tattoo, silly!
        
        She’s 75 by the way – looks 50 from a distance.
        
        4 1
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        August 14, 2023 6:53pm
thirteenstars

Trans row over ‘females only’ lesbian speed dating after male with ‘erect penis’ attended

–Daily Express

https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1801686/lesbian-speed-dating-transphobia

No, not The Onion, or The Babylon Bee, but the reality of 2023 where a man can claim to be a lesbian because he chooses to identify as a female.

This is why so many lesbian women and gay men support the likes of Posie Parker, because they recognise the trans agenda does not simply deny the existence of men and women but by extension denies the existence of lesbians and gay men.

First they came for the older straight white men. Welcome to the party women, lesbians and gays. What took you so long?
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August 14, 2023 3:04pm
Beth

Following is a letter from myself to Taxpayers Union.

Please refer to the following paragraph, from your one Mission statement.:
Here at the Taxpayers’ Union, we are democrats – we value and promote democratic accountability. Those who are responsible for public services, levy taxes, or spend/allocate public money, should ultimately be accountable at the ballot box.

And this:
Campaigning with grassroots people-power
When we launched in 2013, the Union was little more than an idea that there was a need for a fiscally conservative lobby group in New Zealand. By 2016, we were pleased to have reached 4,000 supporters, by 2018 that was 14,700, 59,000 in 2020, and this year we hit 204,000*. Our growth has been rapid

Referring to this, please read the below comments and respond in reference to both the comments and your own organisation statements.

DemocracyNZ has consistently polled above 1.5% after less than 12 months of being registered – with the exception of the last poll the Taxpayers Union ran. This is unheard of and based on history, DemocracyNZ has been the fastest growing political party in New Zealand given the Curia poll in July 2023, only nine months after being registered and little or no MSM coverage. This is fact.

Given the high number of ‘undecided’ voters – including in polls run by the Taxpayers Union (30% in the last one from memory), it would be your responsibility to invite the wide range of candidates from registered political parties in order to show the options to voters who do not want to vote for those parties they have invited to present. In particular, in this case, at the meeting in Napier. Then obviously all meetings organised by Taxpayers Union. I am a member of taxpayers union and a believer in your work, however this blatant disregard for your own mission statement may change this.

This is their rote response, showing they have not even read the letter.
Thank you for your email.

We carefully consider a number of factors before issuing invitations to debates. We want to ensure that the debates allow all participants enough time to develop their policy positions while also ensuring a breadth of political opinions and candidates are represented.

Polling is a major factor in reaching a decision about whom to invite. In addition to our monthly polling, we shall be conducting electorate polling prior to each debate. Our Hamilton West poll was extremely accurate so they give a good indication of support.

Our policy is to limit the debates to those polling at or above 5%. You will understand that is not because we have any particular pony in the race, rather it is simply the practicalities of running an election debate where those with a likelihood of winning in the particular electorate have an opportunity to put their case forward.

A party that polls at 0.19 of the vote in our latest national voting intention poll ( a single respondent out of out of 1,000) does simply not justify inclusion.

Should Democracy NZ’s polling numbers improve or the party register strongly in our electorate poll, we will review this position.

Beware anything from them, they appear to give no regard to the democracy they purport to be for.
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August 14, 2023 3:44pm
- rockape
  
  Democracy NZ is a dead horse, time to stop flogging it !
  
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  August 14, 2023 4:40pm
  - Beth
    
    No so. Matt King will get in Northland and we will be in with several members. And face, everyone needs Matt to get Northland. You know full well Winnie will choose for Winnie first to go with Labour no matter his words now. Why would he start telling the truth now? When he never has before? Imagine the nightmare then if the only ally National has is ACT?
    
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    August 14, 2023 5:16pm
    - Ghost
      
      I’d suggest you look at the last poll for northland, he has no chance of getting in
      
      6 0
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      August 14, 2023 5:49pm
    - rockape
      
      How many percent will Matt Kings party need to get what you predict and which of the last four polls show he is near that. Nice bloke but blew his chances of being an MP when he left National. I have been making the same prediction for 3 years and still stand by it. Once the votes are counted, National 40%. And ACT. 15%.
      
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      August 14, 2023 6:27pm
    - rockape
      
      Are you his campaign manager, that must be a thankless job!
      
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      August 14, 2023 7:42pm
  - General
    
    As the nephew of one of their main candidates this is correct. It was over awhile ago.
    
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    August 14, 2023 5:47pm
rockape

latest poll is out tic toc !
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August 14, 2023 4:23pm
- rockape
  
  Talbot mills poll still showing that Nat ACT can form the Government. NZ First at 4.4% have work to do to be relevant.
  
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  August 14, 2023 4:34pm
  - General
    
    I think you’ll be surprised.
    7 to 8 % is my prediction after it’s counted. See ClanMcleod for explanation as to why.
    
    1 4
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    August 14, 2023 5:45pm
    - rockape
      
      I love surprises . But you need to show me evidence that. NZ First vote doubles from two months out. Lots of MMP elections to choose from.
      
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      August 14, 2023 6:24pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        12% undecided.
        
        I will bet that the vast majority of these are the disaffected anti mandate people, many who were in Wellington for the protest or who are family members of those who went to Wellington.
        
        I’m one of them, as is my wife and two of my very best friends who went to Wellington with me. They have friends and family in a similar position.
        
        We are all desperately looking to achieve two things. Get a political party that will acknowledge the nightmare we were put through and get rid of the existing bunch of morons who are destroying the country.
        The ideal situation would would be a party that achieves both. Act were high on the list.
        Except their leader is a coward and a liar re the covid shit and continues to abuse those who opposed the vaccination. He still denies that there is excess all cause mortality which correlates perfectly with the rollout of the experimental jabs.
        
        It’s a small group that I know of, I would bet money that most others who were punished by this NZ parliament, led by Ardern, are feeling the same way. I might be wrong. That’s Act and National’s call.
        
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        August 14, 2023 6:47pm
      - rockape
        
        Well clan you would lose the bet. The number of undecided two months out is not so different from pre covid elections.polling election 2020 in that august undecided were 10% so looks like 10% is the norm and just. 2% could be influenced by Covid but keep dreaming mate, your in a small minority.
        
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        August 14, 2023 7:11pm
info@cruzpro.com

I see the number of posts on kiwiblog daily but wonder how many people take the time to view kiwiblog but do not post or reply to a post.

I know that I read kiwiblog posts and uptick and occasionally downtick but don’t post very often.

Internet Service providers provide data that shows how many people have accessed a website. Unless the Editor thinks that is privileged data I respectfully request that information.

I think a lot of people like me read kiwiblog but don’t post very often. I am going to ask the same question on YSB.
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August 14, 2023 6:11pm
- Ghost
  
  https://www.similarweb.com/website/kiwiblog.co.nz/#overview
  
  4 0
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  August 14, 2023 6:32pm
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    Thank you Ghost.
    
    That shows that more than 90% of the people view kiwiblog but don’t reply to a post or make their own post.
    
    With kiwiblog often getting more than 400 posts a day that means more than 4000 people read kiwiblog a day. Great result.
    
    Hopefully the people reading kiwiblog also talk to others about how they feel about issues presented on kiwiblog.
    
    6 2
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    August 14, 2023 6:41pm
greybeard

Wow !
The Fat Controller just lost his rag with HDPA and called Nicola Willis a liar !
Finally we see the real Grant Robertson !
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August 14, 2023 6:15pm
Maggie Pie

My partner came home just in time to see Justice Mander summing up on 3Ewes in the Laurel Dickason trial.

We have both reached a majority verdict….
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August 14, 2023 6:36pm
Ghost

Well done Mark, but you cannot expect labour mp’s to resign if their portfolio’s don’t improve, they’d all have to resign

National’s Mark Mitchell accuses Chris Hipkins of personal responsibility for crime, will resign if it doesn’t improve under him
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August 14, 2023 7:10pm
Ghost

Looks like the idiots are out and about

Politicians urge vandals against defacing billboards after multiple damaged over weekend
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August 14, 2023 8:02pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Freedom of expression. They feel free to clutter up the berm with their inane slogans; others feel free to respond.
  
  They should be happy. The only unacceptable response is no response. Indifference is the killer.
  
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  August 14, 2023 8:39pm
NZer In Exile

So Maori groups (and the doc/govt) can and are designating PRIVATE LAND as “Sites and Areas Significant to Maori” without needing to first consult with owners and without needing to compensate for the loss of value, AND immediately putting owners in violation of this and that rule that they’ve decided now control other people’s property. Also these Maori groups don’t need to give an effing reason! Because “cultural sensitivity”. WTF? This puts private land owners through the bureaucratic wringer and to me appears to simply be theft. How TF is this allowed? Does either ACT or National have a plan to immediately squash this failed-state style insanity upon being voted in?

Reality Check Radio. Jamie McFadden On Why SNA’s And SASM’s Are A Costly, Uncompensated Impediment For Private Property Owners – 14 Aug 2023:

https://realitycheck.radio/jamie-mcfadden-on-why-snas-and-sasms-are-a-costly-uncompensated-impediment-for-private-property-owners/
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August 14, 2023 8:51pm

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