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December 14, 2023 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 14 December 2023

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General Debate

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mikenmildagain

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Happy Monkey Day!
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December 14, 2023 8:01am
- Random T Person
  
  Look up Travis the chimp, and St. James Davis.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:14am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Have aotearoa’s opposition parties organized a tea party on the Parliamentary steps yet…?
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:21am
  - imalwaysright
    
    They prefer the Debating chamber.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:53am
- cmm
  
  Somehow Pox springs to mind.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:31am
- Lee C
  
  Thankyou!
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:43am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hahahaga, are you going to swing in the trees😃👍🏻
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:50am
Benedict Yu

Well this ferrry situation is a complete cluster ****😭.

Yesterday I commented that the contract with Hyundai would not be cancelled. I was wrong. 😳 It will be interesting to see what the penalties are. 😕

I was astounded to discover that 80 percent of the costs of this project are not the ferries but rather the port facilities at Wellington and Picton. These facilities are enormous in scope. The existing facilities would have been demolished and replaced with state of the art facilties, new road interchanges and new rail marshaling yards.

https://www.irex.co.nz/new-ferries

I can’t help wondering whether this gold plated scheme was encouraged by the last government. The culture of limitless spending contaminated the KiwiRail Board. The entire Board should now resign.

What happens now? Can the available budget be redirected to purchase replacement ferries that can be accommodated by the existing infrastructure? Something needs to happen because the current ferries are apparently approaching the end of the line.

The Board needs to be replaced because there is risk that they will just throw their hands in the air and run the existing ferries until there is a major safety incident. Of course they will then gleefully blame the government. Another scenario is that the ferries could be grounded by Maritime New Zealand.

It is an utter mess. The aspirations of a government owned company exceeded what the country could afford. Aspirations encouraged by a reckless government that saw no limits to what was affordable.

BTW just to illustrate the scale of this disaster, the Picton terminal has already been demolished and a temporary shed provided while the, now canceled, new terminal is built. 😭 To complicate matters further, Kiwi Rail signed up to an agreement with the local Iwi so that it was extensively involved in the decisions on the construction of the port facilties.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300250249/kiwirail-signs-first-kawenata-agreement-with-iwi-ahead-of-picton-terminal-work

I can guarantee one thing. The Iwi will now claim that the cancellation of the project constitutes a breach of the Treaty requiring compensation. 😯
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December 14, 2023 8:01am
- Michael Johnston
  
  The answer is fairly simple – privatise the operation. Bluebridge runs at a handsome profit.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:06am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Because that worked so well last time?
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:31am
    - bjools
      
      Thank you for recognizing that.
      It only started to fail when
      1. Cullen bought it for nearly 4 times it’s value and hamstrung it with post sale benefits to Toll NZ.
      2. Under investment in maintenance.
      3. Poor profitability structure
      4. political interference in it’s initial management.
      
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      December 14, 2023 9:39am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        2. and 4. were features of the private owners. Plus the asset stripping.
        
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        December 14, 2023 11:15am
      - bjools
        
        Mikie mikie mikie
        Thanks for proving my argument.
        It means that Cullen should have avoided buying it, like the plague. NOT gone in and paid 4 times what it’s estimated worth was.
        
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        December 14, 2023 1:05pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        To mike. What asset stripping are you referring to mike? And before you start making more stuff up, even though the Government regulated road carriage of freight in 1936, NZ Railways lost money nearly every single year from the early 1940’s. Capital underinvestment didn’t just magically start in 1993. Freight rail has been a dog since 1940 and even passenger rail only survives on taxpayer subsidies.
        
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        December 14, 2023 1:47pm
  - septic skeptic
    
    Yeah, unfortunately that will just be an easy target for the next Cullen to spend trillions buying back!
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:32am
    - pdm
      
      SS – be even worse if the Greens start out muscleing Labour.
      
      Not beyond the bounds of possibility either given the current Labour lot.
      
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      December 14, 2023 10:13am
- ClanMcleod
  
  It’s getting long past time to go to war on the ‘woke’, useless chair polishers and bureaucrats who are a cancer on this whole country.
  
  They need to be called out at every single turn, NEVER indulged. They are leading this country to destruction, we are already barely functioning and all they do is continue to throw sand in the gears of all that is good.
  
  The recent example of shutting down the Harry Potter exhibition is just one tiny example.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:07am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “The recent example of shutting down the Harry Potter exhibition is just one tiny example..”
    
    Thanks – I had missed that – what a disgrace.
    
    “After Parker’s Auckland event was cut short due to large protests, JK Rowling – who describes herself as being “gender critical” – tweeted that she viewed the protest as “repellent” and “a mob”.”
    
    https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/13-12-2023/why-auckland-museum-pulled-the-pin-on-hosting-a-hit-harry-potter-exhibition
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:14am
    - pdm
      
      BY – If my interpretation of what Heather du Plessis-Allen said yesterday is right ONE PERSON working at Auckland Museum effectively closed the Rowling (Harry Potter) exhibition down.
      
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      December 14, 2023 8:58am
      - Notsofast
        
        That is the hallmark of the movement correctly described by Posie Parker. These people are a virus and own the corporations. Remember the Spark Vodafone girls who threatened their customers who pay them.
        No terfs, no talent like Rowling, just witches.
        
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        December 14, 2023 9:18am
    - trout
      
      So a tiny group of delicate petals in the Museum staff managed to put the wind up the management because they (the petals) cannot accept that J.K. Rowling does not believe men can claim to be women. To cover their butts the administrators had multiple meetings and surveyed 500 people as to their response to the holding of the event of which TWO had some objection. (a third person worried about witchcraft). So now the ‘Fantastic Creatures’ display (a hit in Melbourne) will not appear in Auckland and thus thousands of Aucklanders are deprived of experiencing the show. And, of course, having deprived themselves of a profitable venture, the museum folk will go back to the ratepayers for funds to compensate for their loss.
      
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      December 14, 2023 9:43am
  - Littletramp
    
    Similar to the Starship Hospital turning down the $570,000 donation offer last year, due to ideology – senseless virtue signalling.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:05am
- Michael Sommerville
  
  This is a link to the Directors of Kiwirail. I spy the odd political appointment and professional director. No obvious director with rail operations experience.
  
  https://www.kiwirail.co.nz/who-we-are/our-leadership/governance-board/
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:08am
  - jedmo
    
    Thanks for that, seems like some woke wombles and has-been political hacks there.
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:21am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Apart from one political hack, the board members seem to be appropriately qualified.
      
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      December 14, 2023 9:34am
      - rouppe
        
        Are you kidding me?!
        
        About the Chair, Dave McLean (I wondered where he’d gone). None of his experience is in rail, or transport, or logistics. The best things they can come up with for him are:
        
        …David promoted a number of diversity and inclusion initiatives. David is a member of the National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women, and is a … former co-Chair of Champions for Change
        
        I worked at Westpac for 13 years, well before he arrived and until shortly before he left, after he presided over a huge clusterfuck of a reorganisation, 90% of which has been unwound now.
        
        He did nothing to achieve pay parity within Westpac, and the diversity initiatives were setting up the equivalent of working groups where those of the approved identity groups got to prance around doing not much at all.
        
        I’ve no time for that twat at all.
        
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        December 14, 2023 4:48pm
  - BeaB
    
    Maryann Street!!
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:36am
  - nathie
    
    Woah there are at least a couple of non-expert troughers in there – get rid of them asap! So did this Board try and pull a fast one (seeking piecemeal funding without the final costs being known)?
    
    Anyway looking at the issue objectively, NZ does need to update its “third-world” 1960’s-80’s infrastructure.
    
    Could the new coalition govt’s proposed Infrastructure body re-assess this in time as part of an overall strategic infrastructure plan for the nation? Eg so maybe in a few years time more modern and resilient (earthquake wise) port terminals could be built to cater for the larger population we have now/will have (compared to the 1960’s when NZ’s population was around 2M)?
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:50am
- Paulus
  
  Understand that there are hundreds of ferries around the world that can be chartered -with or without crew.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:12am
  - DeepBlue
    
    The limiting issue is the rail. This will be a discussion between National and NZFirst.
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:15am
    - WaveyDavey
      
      Why?
      
      Step 1. Get off train
      Step 2. Board ferry
      Step 3. Disembark from ferry
      Step 4. Board train
      
      On what planet does anyone imagine that a train passenger is going to remain on the train once it is loaded onto the ferry?
      
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      December 14, 2023 9:53am
      - Flossie
        
        Probably talking about rail freight rather than rail passengers.
        
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        December 14, 2023 10:05am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        The rail issue is rail freight wagons go on the ferry, then trucks and cars.
        
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        December 14, 2023 10:16am
      - pdm
        
        WD – they only carry freight.
        
        Remember the tree trunk that did about 10 crossings of the strait in the early 80’s.
        
        Started as a joke in the Picton rail yards and escalated to a full blown fiasco.
        
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        December 14, 2023 10:19am
      - DeepBlue
        
        WaveyDavey I can’t imagine any planet where someone thinks a rail wagon shunting ferry is the same design as a regular passenger/ vehicle ferry.
        
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        December 14, 2023 1:44pm
      - Jack5
        
        One of the seafarers who regularly post on Kiwiblog would be able to tell us about rail on NZ ferries, but in the meantime here’s a European example worth a look at (link below).
        
        The Skane, which plies between Germany and Sweden, carries up to 600 passengers, 2,600 tonnes of road vehicles, and 3,330 tonnes of rail vehicles.
        
        https://www.ship-technology.com/projects/skane/?cf-view
        
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        December 14, 2023 3:16pm
- slightlyrighty
  
  The commercial incompetence that has allowed this to happen is astounding.
  
  This, from the same side of the political spectrum that gave us the Wellington Town hall!
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:16am
- rouppe
  
  We could pay Hyundai the same money to build the same number of ferries but smaller, and that would still be a win, since they are only $280-300 million (21% of 1.4B).
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:21am
  - nz_aj
    
    $551M for the two hybrid ferries with 300% more rail capacity
    
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    December 14, 2023 3:13pm
- Master Mariner
  
  My understanding an agreement with Hyundai has been signed. 550 Mill.
  
  In the process of cutting steel. So this would mean 30% of purchase agreement would be gone. ?
  
  Same as Move Logistics, Even though on a far smaller scale, Millions have been squandered.
  
  I mean, If purchasing a Bus, You would ensure the Bus fits the shelter.
  
  Sack the lot. !
  
  There was no way you would make a commercial decision based on pricing / Infrastructure etc.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:24am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Same with rail in Wellington. New engines that did not fit through the tunnels. Had to dig and lower the tracks.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:19am
    - peterwn
      
      Are you referring to the DA diesel locos purchased in the 1960’s? General Motors designed a bog standard narrow gauge diesel electric locomotive. The NZR could either buy these ‘off the shelf’ or could have purchased bespoke locomotives that would fit through the tunnels north of Pukerua Bay. The bespoke locos would have been vastly more expensive. So it was better to purchase these standard DA locomotives and accept changing to electric locos for the final run into Wellington. Several years later NZR lowered the floors of the tunnels so the DA’s could run right into Wellington. Then soon after containers became common and because the floors of the tunnels had already been lowered the containers could pass through the tunnels.
      
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      December 14, 2023 1:12pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        More recent. Brother lives down there. I will find out.
        Not DAs
        
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        December 14, 2023 5:37pm
      - rouppe
        
        No he’s referring to the Johnsonville line. They bought new – I can’t remember whether it was the carriages or the engines – and they didn’t fit through the tunnels on that line, and they did indeed have to dig out the tunnels to make them fit.
        
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        December 14, 2023 5:45pm
    - KiwiSapper
      
      Another, the new “Rotorua Travel Centre’ back in 1970’s, Bus height was greater than the height of the covered pedestrian walk ways to the platforms, buss’s unable to access all platforms..
      
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      December 14, 2023 2:05pm
  - OlderChas
    
    Master Mariner your comment re buses reminded me of a fiasco when I was serving in the Navy. Navy needed some new buses, so the experts (all ex-army transport guys!) were tasked with recommending the best buses. In the end, 2 or 3 large, flash, 45-50 seater buses JUST LIKE THE NEW ARMY ONES!) were ordered and purchased.
    The transport park in the Naval base is (was?) on the Shoal Bay part of the base, accessed by a tunnel (built in horse and cart days) from the Navy Dockyard and Accomodation/Training area. Unless proceeding south via the Shoal Bay gate, all transport squeezed through the narrow, one-way tunnel to the main base to uplift passengers from the Base.
    First trip for the brand spanking new buses, it was discovered that they would not fit through the tunnel – so these new buses had to exit at Shoal Bay, drive 2.8km up into and down through Devonport to get to the Navy Base.
    At least with the new ferries, they acknowledged early that they wouldn’t fit in Picton in its current guise so – an improvement of sorts? lol
    
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    December 14, 2023 12:39pm
- DeepBlue
  
  A few years ago I was told by a KiwiRail employee that KW had signed up to the contract for the ferries before having approval from government. They did it because the deal was so good because they had locked in the steel cost at that time and a steel escalation clause was looming if they didn’t sign. This was their rational. Port costs were not even a consideration. I wouldn’t be surprised if Hyundai are releaved at not having to go ahead now.
  
  If there is a benefit, the new temporary ferry building in Picton is much nicer than the old monstrosity.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:27am
- Scott
  
  Regarding the arrangements with the local Iwi who were extensively involved in decision making about the ferry and the port facilities, we find many troubling features.
  
  They are referred to as manu whenua which means they have rights over the territory. They are described in the newspaper article as guardians of the Tory channel.
  
  Here’s my question? Did the local Iwi put any money to the partnership? Did they incur any risk?
  I think I know the answers to those questions.
  
  I’d like to see us move back to one nation with one set of rules for all. Not extensive involvement in planning and decision making if you are part of the local tribe. And no involvement in planning and decision making if you are not.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:32am
  - pdm
    
    `They are referred to as manu whenua which means they have rights over the territory.’
    
    Better send Winston and Shane down there to explain to them how this is a commercial decision and the only rights they have are the same as every other individual New Zealander.
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:05am
  - cas
    
    But are they really mana whenua. James Belich says Ngati Toa had migrated to Wellington during the musket Wars accompanied by parts of their allies of Te Atiawa and Ngati Raukawa. The original inhabitants were Muaupoko, Rangitane and Ngati Apa.
    
    I had a feeling it’s Te Atiawa ( migrants) who calls all the shots in Wellington these days but may be wrong.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:16am
- Ipanema69
  
  Agree, I posted the other day that the only thing you needed to know about IREX was that the project director Dave Warburton was a former CEO of Auckland Transport.
  
  It is a complete charlie foxtrot.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:37am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Apparently Jack Tame, Tova O’Brian, John Campbell, Jessica Mutch-Mackay, Mihinirangi Forbes and Katie Bradford are running an expose on this on TV this weekend. Linda Clark’s just checking the legals.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:38am
  - kevn
    
    Suze… labours hierachy will be shaking in their boots.
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:23am
    - NothingLeft
      
      Suze… labours hierachy will be ~~shaking in their boots.~~ writing the script and doing the final edit.
      
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      December 14, 2023 10:02am
  - Philview
    
    You almost had me for a second. Good use of sarcasm in your post.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:34am
- Grunter
  
  Well done Nicola Willis on stopping this.
  
  The proposed new ferries were hybrid electric/diesel requiring a sihtload of new infrastructure to operate. None of it made any financial sense of course. Any the ‘reduced carbon’ claim was simply bollocks using the usual narrow window of emissions (green washing).
  
  Time to sell off Kiwi Rail (again) and get the State out of transport. They just phark it up all the time.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:44am
  - septic skeptic
    
    Not that it was beyond the capabilities of Toll to phark it up! But at least it SHOULD have cost them, not the taxpayer.
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:40am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Anger is one of the stages of grief 🙂
  
  The KiwiRail Board oversees a disaster. So the transport unions call on Nicola Willis to resign.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/504678/finance-minister-should-resign-over-scrapping-of-interislander-upgrade-funding-unions
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:45am
  - JerJer
    
    She has done exactly the right thing. Ministry of transport and treasury both told the Labour idiots that this was a bad idea. They didn’t listen. Nicola did, and that is the difference. Who on earth would spend that much money on ferry terminals versus the actual ships. New ships should have been purchased and maintenance done on the terminals. Now they have wasted a bunch of money and can afford nothing. Standard Labour practice. It’s happened to most of their supporters too, they have run their personal lives like this and many are now seeing the same results. Boo hoo.
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:54am
    - Ian Boag
      
      If you want to put 2-3x the number of cars/wagons on/off a much bigger boat (compared to present ones) you need a whole lot more marshalling area …..
      
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      December 15, 2023 9:38am
  - Swifty
    
    When you view taxpayer money as a bottomless pit, and all you care about is to be seen to be representing your members’ interests, irrespective of the cost to others, then the union’s demand for a resignation makes perfect sense.
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:55am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Why can’t they lease ferries? Why does KiwiRail have to go to the tax payer for this, any other transport company is able to buy or lease their own, no buying blue bridge ferries by the tax payer. It’s simply again the expectation of a Marxist regime
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:53am
  - PeeJay
    
    Problem is the trains – very difficult to lease a ferry with that capability – especially considering rail gauge issues.
    
    A proper business case would have considered all options – do nothing, do minimal, rank various options, and at least one or two ‘out there’ options like no through train option, sell of the rail business, privatise, or some other radical option. Each option should then have been backed up with robust financial analysis, including robust cost benefit analysis, risk management and detailed timeframes. Would seem that they could not do this – obviously too much for the executive and board to comprehend, let alone something the simpletons in the Labour government could understand.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:04am
    - rangitoto
      
      How hard can it be to accommodate different gauge. Just restore at end of lease. This kind of thing happens all the time.
      
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      December 14, 2023 12:29pm
      - Taieri
        
        Quite hard and very expensive. A whole rail deck has to be modified. This would need Classification Society approval, both before the modification and second time, when restoring it to the original state. Far easier to ditch the carriage of rail wagons altogether. At the moment there’s only one ferry capable of carrying rail that is Aratere, which can carry about 30 rail wagons. Which is bugger all when compared to the total volume of cargo carried across the Strait.
        The whole Interislander outfit needs a good shake down, some of their decisions are simply incomprehensible. A prime example: the purchase of Valentine, a ship ideal for the coastal run, say from Auckland to Lyttelton, but totally unsuitable for the short Cook Strait run. A ship, which spent most of her time in NZ at anchor.
        The just cancelled proposed new ferries were, despite the hype, a gross overkill. Too big, too complex, too expensive and too few of them.
        
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        December 14, 2023 4:13pm
    - Dougal10
      
      They didn’t use rail after the earthquake for a long time. Most rail is containerized now days so no need to cart big heavy rail wagons over the piece of water.
      
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      December 14, 2023 4:54pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Labour like to spend our money on fuckups.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:32am
    - mawm
      
      That’s because they have no real world experience and still believe in fairies and unicorns. The NZ electorate are just as bad in that they keep on re-electing incompetent politicians.
      
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      December 14, 2023 11:01am
    - KiwiSapper
      
      Labour like to spend our money.
      .
      Fixed it for you.
      
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      December 14, 2023 2:11pm
- Harro104
  
  Good call by Willis. Kiwi rail needs major reform. It should be split between the land holdings and the business. The business could be partly sold/floated to raise $ for the boats. NZ Super or ACC or private capital could take a stake in the landslide developments to help fund those.
  
  If the economics don’t stack then what are we doing this for anyway? If we can’t afford nice boats and world class infrastructure- then maybe we shouldn’t do it? Of course if we were a wealthy country like Australia or Norway and, say, continued to be an oil and gas exporter and didn’t knee cap the economy with Covid restrictions then we probably wouldn’t be having to cut our cloth.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:54am
- RoboRob
  
  I am impressed with Willis, it was a ballsy and correct decision. This was never going to happen under Labour either. They were just going to pretend it was and let it drag on until they were gone.
  
  With regards to solutions, whilst I a no maratime expert, it seems a total rethink might be in order. Not led by kiwi Rail, as they are invested in a rail solution.
  
  Perhaps we end up with …
  a) More smaller ferries, with more departures. Meaning that if one breaks down there are plenty to keep the service going.
  b) The primary use for the ferries becomes passenger and car transport (allowing for the smaller ferries)
  c) The transport of the container goods could shift to coastal freight. Goods could be shipped between AK, Tauranga, Picton and Christchurch.
  
  The idea that the bulk of goods come into Auckland and then go on a slow train all the way to wellington, pop on a ferry, pop onto a truck or train to finally arrive in Christchurch seems more like an excuse for rail to exist and less like a sensible system.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:59am
  - Pavel
    
    I have traveled on the ferries many times in the last five years and can tell you that of all the trucks on board very few are carrying containers. If the law was changed so containers can’t be shipped via the ferries it would make very little difference. Even if Kiwirail didn’t move freight through the ferries you would be the laughing stock of the world if you couldn’t move trains and rolling stock between the North and South islands to areas where they are needed.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:54am
- mikenmildagain
  
  I think a lot more is still to be made clear about this.
  A need was identified for much larger, more efficient ferries to handle the increased freight volumes. The larger ferries required new port infrastructure.
  What doesn’t seem to be happening, and is obviously required urgently, is an examination of the alternatives. Cancelling the whole project, and foregoing the considerable sunk costs, seems premature. What if further examination supports the cancelled approach, or some modified version of it?
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:11am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Are you having a laugh mike? Surely the alternatives were examined by Labour and those alternative are with National now? (but then, Labour were the most inept Government in NZ’s history, so maybe we should not be surprised that they didn’t undertake any research into this). And here’s a tip for you. When there is a sink hole to fill up with money, and no one can tell you how deep the hole is, and where the money will come from, you cut your losses instantly. Yesterday if possible. There is no “premature”. There is decisive action.
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:36am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “The larger ferries required new port infrastructure…”
    
    yes but at a cost 4 x that of the ferries?
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:51am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Thank you for your expertise on the cost of port infrastructure. I recall yesterday you commented that you had driven through the current Wellimgton terminal, and it looks adequate. Perhaps you should be appointed to the KiwiRail board.
      
      2 26
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      December 14, 2023 11:00am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “I recall yesterday you commented that you had driven through the current Wellimgton terminal, and it looks adequate. ”
        
        I do not recall saying that. Of course the existing infrastructure was not adequate for the new ferries. However I have studied the plans fore the new terminals. Have you? I do not need to be a ports expert to understand that building new road interchanges is not essential to provide for new ferries.
        
        13 1
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        December 14, 2023 11:04am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Benedict yesterday: “I have navigated that ferry terminal. It is fine as it is.”
        
        2 21
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        December 14, 2023 11:26am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        You are being deceptive. Surprise.
        
        You are quoting me out of context. The reference to ‘navigation’ was a reference to the proposal to construct new roading interchanges.
        
        Critically, you only quote one of two sentences. the second sentence was:
        
        “The sole focus of any work should be that the new ferries can safely dock.”
        
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        December 14, 2023 12:26pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Bene,
      why do you assume there is a link between NZ based infrastructure costs (expensive due to Regulations and inefficiencies/Local Companies/Iwi) and the cost of ferries built offshore in a highly efficient shipyard.
      
      Chalk and cheese springs to mind.
      
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      December 14, 2023 2:18pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I don’t.
        
        2 1
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        December 14, 2023 4:58pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        So why did you link the two?????
        
        “The larger ferries required new port infrastructure…”
        
        yes but at a cost 4 x that of the ferries?
        
        1 3
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        December 14, 2023 6:24pm
  - RoboRob
    
    A need was identified for much larger, more efficient ferries to handle the increased freight volumes
    
    See my earlier post. There are many other options to handle freight then larger ferries.
    
    10 1
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    December 14, 2023 10:14am
  - Grunter
    
    Mike – you have (once again) just proven why a central state govt should NOT own and run a transport business. If this was your money (and by the way some of it is if you are a net taxpayer…??) then you wouldn’t get to this stage. It is obviously a complete financial shambles created by your socialist mates.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:40am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    “Cancelling the whole project, and foregoing the considerable sunk costs, seems premature. What if further examination supports the cancelled approach, or some modified version of it?”
    
    Gosh, you almost sound reasonable there. Keep up the good work!
    
    I’m pretty sure the adults now in charge wouldn’t just cancel it out of spite or ideological malice. They would have done the maths and decided it’s not a good use of taxpayer funds in this very shaky economic time. There’s also the sunk cost fallacy (IE continuing to throw money at a counterproductive project because big bucks have already been wasted on it).
    
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    December 15, 2023 8:52pm
- Philip Hart
  
  I was told by someone while recently travelling on the ferry that the new ferries were so long, they couldn’t turn around in the vicinity of the Picton terminal like they do now and would have to turn around out in the sound and reverse in from quite some distance.
  
  The ferries I was on (both ways) were only half full. I think smaller ferries with more sailings would cope more with the issues of breakdowns/maintenance and weather
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:26am
  - wsk12345
    
    That’s my understanding too.
    They are also too long to safely use the Tory channel route and will need to go around the top to the northern entrance. The harbourmaster has held out on this despite pressure to approve the Tory route.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:04am
  - krazykiwi
    
    IIRC the new designs were 25% longer and with a massive 50% increased beam. Given the width of Tory heads is was going to be a tight fit.
    
    18 2
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    December 14, 2023 10:39am
    - jedmo
      
      Unbelievable
      Just as a lay person, when 2 flash new ships were announced to replace the existing (3 or is it 4?), this gave me a small worry, as in less flexibility, frequency.
      But now, you’re telling me that school kid basics, like backing into Picton; uncertainty about if they are safe in Tory Channel; hadn’t been considered adequately?
      Unbelievable.
      
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      December 14, 2023 1:33pm
    - nova
      
      The size of the new ferries will also cause more issues with the already inadequate tug boat fleet in Wellington, a point that appears to have been overlooked by the following report from the NZ Herald:
      
      A passenger who was on board Interislander’s Kaitaki ferry when it lost power in Cook Strait earlier this year is shocked by the Government’s decision.
      
      Lorna Johnson said the case for the new ferries was obvious.
      
      ”I would characterise the incident that I was involved in earlier this year as a near-miss.
      
      ”Just from a health and safety perspective, it became clear that had the ferry drifted any closer to the rocks, the tug boats weren’t strong enough to hold it and we were in trouble.
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/finance-minister-nicola-willis-defends-decision-to-not-fund-cook-strait-mega-ferries-project/JA5T6EKVYJASNAIVQJOKD5H6CI/
      
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      December 14, 2023 1:48pm
- kowtow
  
  Perhaps some of the answers are in Sean Sweeney’s view on how NZ infrastructure building is among the most expensive in the world.
  This was covered by NZME a month or so ago.
  Can’t find the link but this covers it.
  
  https://tuesdayclub.nz/infrastructure-costs-in-new-zealand/
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:08am
- NothingLeft
  
  If there is to be any new terminal infrastructure they should build a breakwater and terminal in Clifford bay (as proposed decades back) to cut an hour and a half off sailing time plus road travel time.
  
  A catamaran fast-ferry would then make a lot more sense (shorter trip and not speed constrained as in sounds). Such a ferry can do a lot more sailings every day (a bit over an hour each way).
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:14am
  - Taieri
    
    A catamaran fast-ferry would then make a lot more sense
    —————-
    
    Very expensive to operate and very sensitive to the weather…
    
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    December 14, 2023 4:18pm
  - rouppe
    
    A catamaran fast-ferry would then make a lot more sense (shorter trip and not speed constrained as in sounds). Such a ferry can do a lot more sailings every day (a bit over an hour each way).
    
    The last time they tried that, it was called the vomit comet. As soon as the sea got over 2m (I think) it had to slow down and the advantage was lost.
    
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    December 14, 2023 6:01pm
- crikey
  
  BY: Iwi may claim that but the reality is it is a matter of contract law and whatever redress is legally available. The Treaty of Waitangi is (unsurprisingly) silent on this. As was said many years ago, the ToW is a legal nullity.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:02am
- cmm
  
  According to their website: “Each year, the Interislander makes 3,500 trips and carries 825,000 passengers, 52,000 rail wagons, 21,000 trucks and 250,000 cars.”
  
  Let’s say half of the costs can be assigned to the 825k passengers and their 250k cars. We can basically ignore the cars because people will be buying tickets for both.
  
  If they need a top up of $3bn (which we will amortise over 15 years), then thats $200M a year. Half that is $100M.
  
  So we’re basically subsidising those 825k passengers with $100M a year of taxpayer cash.
  
  That is a subsidy of $120 per passenger!
  
  A Dover to Calais ferry trip for 1 person + a car costs around $NZ200 for a trip of half the distance. Here we charge $NZ50 ($20 per person + $30 per car).
  
  Based on the Dover to Calais prices it would seem we could charge $100 per passenger and $100 per car. If we did that there would be no need for subsidies and it would still be half the cost of the Dover to Calais ferry (per distance).
  
  Why the hell do we always think the taxpayer should subsidise everything?
  
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  December 14, 2023 4:46pm
  - rouppe
    
    $20 per person and $30 per car?
    
    Don’t think so. Just did a trial booking for tomorrow and the cheapest for person and car was $239, going up to $378
    
    Dunno where you’re getting $50 from
    
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    December 14, 2023 6:07pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

The ultimate irony: COP greenwashing of the first order.

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Final-COP28-Deal-References-Transition-Away-From-Fossil-Fuels.html
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December 14, 2023 8:01am
NeverMindTheBollocks

How hard can it be to just swap out the PM’s name as a short term measure?

“There’s not much to look forward to when you’re in a retirement village, every day’s the same … It’s important to her.”

http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/133437182/insulting-57-people-left-waiting-for-100th-birthday-congratulatory-letters-due-to-government-delays
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December 14, 2023 8:02am
- mikenmildagain
  
  I thought this was appalling. Stopping sending the letters until DIA can brief ministers and draft letters according to their preferences?
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:28am
  - MCōs
    
    Years ago when Muldoon was PM an old auntie in our whanau turned 90
    For the occasion someone arranged for the PM to send her a card
    Look, she said, a birthday card from Muldoon and I don’t even like the bastard.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:59am
  - rouppe
    
    DIA is pretty useless at everything
    
    1 0
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    December 14, 2023 6:10pm
Chris Nisbet

My nomination for MP quote of the week goes to Shane Jones…
“if there is a mining opportunity and it’s impeded by a blind frog, goodbye, Freddy.”
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December 14, 2023 8:03am
- Vinicius
  
  Very entertaining and forceful speech.
  
  Full speech is at: https://youtu.be/_nj46a8IRl8
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:57am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  What about Peters telling Megan Wood on the Marae you say nothing
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:18am
- Grunter
  
  It was a good speech by Jones – apart from his gloat about how well his $1 billion Provincial Growth Fund worked back in 2017-2020. Which just proves again that he is fundamentally a socialist.
  
  I still don’t trust NZ1st, but they are proving useful idiots in this coalition. And I will never forgive them for putting a former youth socialist president in as our PM.
  
  NZ1st is still the reason we had 6 years of corrupt hell and wokeism that will never go away.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:21am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I’m sure Winston lays awake at night hoping for your forgiveness .
    
    7 15
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    December 14, 2023 9:51am
  - MCōs
    
    ‘useful idiots’
    
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    December 14, 2023 1:50pm
- oldfella
  
  I loved Jone’s sounding off about ‘climate change hysteria’. And he’s said it a couple of times this week Luxon must be fuming.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:34am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Luxon says the climate is in “crisis”.
    
    Not sure how he works that one out.
    
    There is nothing unprecedented about today’s temps, temp rates of change or climate related disasters. It’s all happened before over and over and over across many many millennia. The proxy records do not show any evidence that Co2 is the control knob for the climate. It stops the planet from freezing but runs out of puff beyond that (the absorption bands become saturated and adding more Co2 doesn’t do much beyond that point). The alarmism industry cranks out constant lies and exaggerations. Their predictions constantly fall flat. Mostly I think they are watermelons having a bet both ways. Even if the alarmism is BS they think that it’s a great opportunity to force green/red Utopianism on everyone.
    
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    December 15, 2023 8:42pm
cas

I am really worried about the general and mental health of members of the Greens and the Maori Party.

All that anger inside can’t be good for them.
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December 14, 2023 8:08am
- Philview
  
  In other countries they would be called extremists but in our weird parallel universe it is moderates like Chris Luxon who are demonised by the media.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:39am
  - Paulus
    
    From the point of having been a business man for many years, like Luxon, in the same circumstances I would not take any notice of the so called media soothsayers.
    I have better things to think about too, so they can rant as they like !
    
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    December 14, 2023 1:34pm
- MCōs
  
  I don’t believe for one moment you are worried
  Well
  Not about their health anyway
  
  4 4
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  December 14, 2023 10:54am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Worried for the safety of his friends and family with people like this going off?
    
    0 0
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    December 15, 2023 8:45pm
- krazykiwi
  
  The negative physiological impacts of sustained anger are well understood. They include increased cardiovascular risk, increased stoke risk, decreased immune function, increased depression and anxiety, and shortened lifespan.
  
  Scientific research aside, I came to this conclusion a few years ago on seeing John Minto wandering around our office having out union flyers. He looked to be a bitter 80 year old when he was, by my calculation at the time mid-40s.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:54am
- Benedict Yu
  
  The appearance of Chloe Swarbrick is alarming. It is like she has aged 10 years. She is only 29 years old 🙁
  
  http://tinyurl.com/35rfynvu
  
  17 3
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  December 14, 2023 11:01am
  - MCōs
    
    Sort of comment I would expect from Maggie Pie, who thinks appearance is everything, not you
    
    2 11
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    December 14, 2023 1:40pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Yes I take your point. I do not generally indulge in Maggie Pie type antics. However, in the case of Chloe Swarbrick, she has significantly aged in the last 12 months. I am simply making that point, because it is alarming in a 29 year old woman.
      
      I also think that it is appropriate to criticise the terrible dress sense of many Opposition MPs.
      
      That being said, I agree that there are more important things to be concerned about. I agree that Maggie Pie is frequently a disgrace.
      
      1 1
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      December 14, 2023 5:04pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Is she a vegan? That tends to suck the life out of people after a few years.
        
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        December 15, 2023 8:57pm
  - alloytoo
    
    Yet she behaves like a spoilt 13 year old
    
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    December 14, 2023 4:14pm
ClanMcleod

I’m not going to explain the full story. The headline is self explanatory. Those that are interested will read it, those that aren’t will move on.

Peer-Reviewed Study Finds Massive Safety Signal for Deaths Associated With mRNA Vaccination

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/12/12/peer-reviewed-study-finds-massive-safety-signal-for-deaths-associated-with-mrna-vaccination/
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December 14, 2023 8:09am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I do not have time to read the whole study to understand the methodology. However, the author does make this conclusion:
  
  “The results indicate that the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination may influence the occurrence of death during the risk period. In a cohort study in Japan, there was no significant increase in all-cause mortality owing to vaccination. This does not contradict the results of the present study. The results of a cohort study provide support for vaccine safety. However, this does not indicate that vaccine-related deaths are nonexistent; it only indicates that their number is not large enough to make a significant difference. ”
  
  https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38077667/
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:20am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    BY – I skim read it. Pretty much ALL medical literature that goes close to remotely criticising the official position has such a disclaimer attached.
    
    My position is simple and has been for a very long time, there are way more than enough concerning signals around this ‘vaccine’ showing that the whole exercise should be suspended immediately, pending a proper and thorough investigation. It should never have begun in the first place.
    
    I don’t know what the whistleblower data says, I’m not an expert and anyway, I don’t have access to it. But what is clear from the numerous expert analysts I’ve seen is that although incomplete, there are many concerning signals.
    
    This data, if released in full would likely give us the definitive answer as to whether at one extreme of claims, they are ‘amazing’ and totally ‘safe and effective’ – to the other extreme, that they are a deadly poison designed to depopulate the problem. The answer is somewhere on that spectrum.
    
    The response of the authorities around the globe in shutting down and censoring anything resembling criticism of the ‘official’ narrative tells me all I need to know.
    
    If the NZ data in any way vindicated the Ardern government’s response, it would have been headline news around the globe. Instead, the leaker is treated like a rapist or murderer and the full force of the government machinery is set into operation to shut down anything to do with the date.
    
    We need the full data released and investigated by many who are qualified to do this research. While suppression and censorship continues, there can only be one answer and we all know what it is.
    
    Release the data.
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:04am
    - Grunter
      
      Clan – this, I suspect, will never be resolved. We will never see the Staists across the globe admitting to their scam. Even as the avalanche of new data makes it clear that they lied, they will deny and continue to cover up.
      
      Meanwhile, in the real world…. Pfizer’s share price has now dropped 44% in 2023 and they are projecting ongoing sales declines for 2024. Always follow the money. Pfizer is buggered.
      
      Also, next time (and there will be a next time) – who the hell is going to follow the advice of big Pharma and Govt? Sure you will get the brainwashed 25%-30% to take a new jab, but the rest of us will “do an Elon”…..”GFY!!”
      
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      December 14, 2023 9:31am
  - mawm
    
    BY – the graphs in that article contradict that statement.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:09am
slightlyrighty

I see that a small number of LBGTQ Activists have persuaded the Auckland Museum not tgo host the “Harry Potter-Fantastic Beasts” exhibition.

I imagine that this is not so much the LBG part, but certainly the T part that’s been agitating again.

Trying to get my head around how such a small part of the community has now dictated how things should go in this sphere, when I had a moment of clarity.

Being Transgender is about being born in the ‘Wrong’ body. You will be called out if you use the ‘Wrong’ pronoun. They were raised as the ‘wrong’ gender, or assigned the ‘wrong’ gender. the idea of Gender being determined by Biology is ‘wrong’. Sport being seperated by Biology and not identity is ‘wrong’. Biology is ‘wrong’

Essentially, being transgender is about the World being ‘wrong’, and the whole concept of Gender has to be changed to fit their own beleifs.

The conceit required to claim the world is wrong and I am right is mind boggling.
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December 14, 2023 8:14am
- kowtow
  
  It appears to me that it was their own staff who sabotaged bringing the display.
  
  Employers take note.
  
  Be careful when hiring.
  
  18 2
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  December 14, 2023 10:17am
  - Tricati
    
    Thank goodness the 90 day trail is back.
    
    9 1
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    December 14, 2023 12:27pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Quite a long walk.
      
      7 4
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      December 14, 2023 1:28pm
  - Paulus
    
    Not when the boss employer is one of them !
    
    4 0
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    December 14, 2023 1:35pm
Opie

https://twitter.com/2ETEKA/status/1734499530245390689

10 minutes of Winston not suffering fools during question time this week.

It’s absolutely gold and so good to see someone stand up to the madness.

I like this winston. It’s like he knows it’s his last dance and he going out with bang
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December 14, 2023 8:17am
- MCōs
  
  How many last dances is that now?
  It’s obvious from the way him and his sidekick, Kid Jones, are carrying on they have started the 2026 campaign already.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:30am
- Grunter
  
  I agree but…..
  
  He gave us Ardern!!!!!!!!!!!!
  
  Never forget. Never forgive. Never trust.
  
  28 3
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  December 14, 2023 9:33am
  - kowtow
    
    Yep , there’s a lot of folk seem to take some delight in Shane Jones’s buffoonery in the house .
    
    Here’s a prime example of running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds .
    
    How easily so many are fooled.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:15am
  - Opie
    
    I don’t trust him one iota, but happy he is there because without him there would be a chance of the media climbing all over luxon and causing back downs everywhere.
    
    Him and Jones playing up takes the heat off the actual work being done behind the scenes
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:34am
  - MCōs
    
    The problem with Winston is he’s a gun for hire and it’s hard/impossible to discern where NZF sits on the political spectrum
    As I recall he’s made up the numbers to tilt the balance for Jim Bolger, Helen Clark, Jacinda Ardern and Christopher Luxon. Two Nats & two Labour
    Tellingly Winston has eventually got offside with the first three & already Jones is picking a fight with the Nats.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:48am
Warren

It shows what morons we have running our media outlet’s when they have to drag Hone Harawira out to preach his vile opinion on The Coalition and tax cuts.
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December 14, 2023 8:19am
- MCōs
  
  I don’t think anyone had to drag him out.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:21am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    He popped out like a Jack in the Box?
    
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    December 15, 2023 8:59pm
Maggie Pie

Just heard somebody on RNZ describe Grant Robertson as an…. ‘Economic Vandal’

Looked it up but can’t find it in the Dictionary.
Would that be a fair description?
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December 14, 2023 8:28am
- cmm
  
  Economic vandal only scratches the surface.
  To think this prick still got rewarded with a junket to France.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:35am
  - pdm
    
    cmm – that may have been good tactics by Luxon.
    
    Imagine the uproar if Chris Bishop had gone.
    
    26 1
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    December 14, 2023 8:46am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  A vandal destroys things on a small scale, and for fun. A left-wing politician destroys things on a large scale, usually with the end goal of buying votes. They are not really the same.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:43am
  - mawm
    
    Nigel – I thought “wrecker” would have been better as it probably indicates more intention than “vandal”.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:13am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Yes
  
  12 1
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  December 14, 2023 8:43am
- pdm
  
  Maggie – how about:
  
  Economic Imbecile!!!
  
  20 1
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  December 14, 2023 8:44am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Haha, most vandals are imbeciles
    
    9 2
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    December 14, 2023 8:59am
- Grunter
  
  The guy is clearly corrupt. He is not a dumb person, he knew what he was doing. Simply evil. Time to check his personal bank balance.
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:48am
  - mawm
    
    They all knew what they were doing as NZ, Canada, Australia, UK, and the US wasted billion attempting to hobble our economies in the name of covid. It’s almost as if they had some supranational game plan.
    
    6 1
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    December 14, 2023 11:21am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That was Chris Bishop, he said Robertson had been found guilty of economic vandalism, or words to that effect, this was after the rogering the government received yesterday over the 15 billion shovel ready projects
  
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  December 14, 2023 8:58am
- Libertarians are right
  
  Economic Terrorist.
  He did a huge amount of damage intentionally to push his ideological beliefs.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:10am
- krazykiwi
  
  He was a economic vandal throughout his tenure. The difference was RNZ would not permit it to be said on air. Which makes RNZ an ethical vandal.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:22am
oldpark

Can’t help but wonder watching Parliament question time . There are a group of women sitting on tax payer funded seats making all sorts of controversial open ended questions . Of which are quickly refuted .
The group I am referring to and about. They all seem to be wearing what looks like Tea Towels around their necks. Wonder is this a new dress code for some women. Can anyone enlighten the question and explain . Asking for so many Democratic Loving NZs who got hammered by the jokes that keep giving from the previous control Freaks who Masqueraded as a Government . Labour/ Green/ .Maori Political Parties who ran roughshod over NZs Democracies from 2020/2023.
That lot of no hopers including NZ so called MainStream Media can’t believe they lost and are continuing to act as if they won on 14 October 2023 .Check them out in Parliament and most so called News outlets, Picture, Print, and Word .
What an Indictment of how Control Freak people are continuing to operate and perform .
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December 14, 2023 8:29am
- RoboRob
  
  The thing that confuses me is that these woman wearing tea towels claim to be supporting Palestinians and not the crimes commited by Hamas, yet the twea towels are the Hamas uniform? Are they just stupid or do they support Hamas?
  
  To be fair one would have to go with stupid 🙂
  
  Was unfortunate enough to be around the pro Palestine march and had to laugh that the organisers spent most of their time attacking the US and a terrorist group. Seems its less about the Palestinians and more about the usual lefty ‘we hate the Americans and the Jew, becuase they are powerful’.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:07am
  - Matt Long
    
    Hamas wears green, it’s the PLO wears the tea towels. (Fatah)
    
    10 1
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    December 14, 2023 9:36am
    - RoboRob
      
      My mistake, I thought the PLO uniform was worn by Hamas. My bad.
      
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      December 14, 2023 11:04am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Hamas has a uniform?
    
    1 14
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    December 14, 2023 9:36am
    - Libertarians are right
      
      Nah, that’s ridiculous.
      Hamas terrorists deliberately wear civilian clothes so that when they die Hamas (and their useless idiots) can claim they were “innocent civilians”.
      
      19 1
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      December 14, 2023 9:48am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I agree with you that RoboRob’s comment was ridiculous.
        
        1 9
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        December 14, 2023 11:02am
      - RoboRob
        
        @Mike
        
        Yes my comment was ridiculous as I made the mistake of confusing the PLO outfit with the Hamas outfit.
        
        At least I am willing to admit it when I mistake a mistake and conceed when others prove my view wrong. When was the last time you did that Mike?
        
        10 2
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        December 14, 2023 11:08am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I always acknowledge mistakes. you might have missed, such acknowledgements, as I don’t make mistakes very often.
        
        1 23
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        December 14, 2023 11:17am
      - Swifty
        
        It’s very easy not to make mistakes when all one does is make snide slurs at what other people post.
        
        4 2
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        December 14, 2023 2:22pm
      - Jack5
        
        Milky’s biggest mistake yet is in his 11.17am post:
        
        ” … I don’t make mistakes very often.”
        
        His second biggest mistake is in the same post:
        
        “I always acknowledge mistakes.”
        
        Not so much a dazzling Matrushka-doll cluster of troll quips, as a troll disappearing up his own bum.
        
        7 1
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        December 14, 2023 3:36pm
      - Dave
        
        Here’s an opportunity to practise acknowledging mistakes, mma.
        
        mikenmildagain
        
        It was the usual incoherent mess. He’d incapable of succent statements.
        Thumb up 1 Thumb down 9 REPLY REPORT DECEMBER 14, 2023 11:08AM
        
        FWIW:
        1) my writing inaccuracy on the internet is embarrassing for a former, punctilious English teacher;
        2) Alwyn should ruthlessly edit his posts for readers who neither fully share his interests, nor are sufficiently aware of the context of his posts.
        
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        December 14, 2023 5:28pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    Of course they are stupid
    
    “Queers for Palestine” rooftop party at 7!
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:25pm
Flossie

If the board of any non government outfit made reckless financial decisions a la the previous government wouldn’t someone be charged?
Worst case scenario for some of those heading government departments is resignation. And probably with a golden handshake.
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December 14, 2023 8:46am
Maggy Wassilieff

Richard Prebble has a thought:

The government will win the 6 o’clock news when it is making the news.

Ministers must set the narrative or others will do it for them. The government has an advantage. What ministers do is news, what critics say, even dressed up as a survey, is commentary. Reporters are news junkies. The media will always report news rather than views.

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/richard-prebble-the-honeymoon-was-over-before-the-marriage-certificate-was-signed
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December 14, 2023 8:51am
- RoboRob
  
  Unusually, I think Prebble is totally wrong on this. The media much prefer opinion becuase they lead it and it is much less effort to make. I expect the current trend of attack opinion pieces to continue for the tenure of this government.
  
  What does the media have to gain by reporting on GR financial mischeif. Thats work and it makes Labour look bad. Neigther are things the bulk of the media want to do.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:10am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Agree Robo
    The media aren’t in the news business.
    They are in the views business.
    Their views.
    
    14 2
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    December 14, 2023 9:56am
- Tom Hunter
  
  I don’t want the government to win the ^ o’clock news.
  
  I want them to let it die.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:12am
kevn

A reminder of what 1 billion is…
The number has been bandied about so much in recent years.
Say coffee was $5 a cup, it would take a thousand coffees a day for 500 years, to make the 1 billion dollars. A big number.
and think how many billion the last lot of wasters blew on what?
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December 14, 2023 8:53am
- MCōs
  
  I’d probably agree if you itemized that which you have a problem with, but it’s probably not much compared to what Elon Musk has wasted on Twitter, for example.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:07am
  - kevn
    
    mcos… Even the Horrid is reporting on the waste. Paywalled but headline says it all.
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/former-governments-infrastructure-budget-blowouts-criticised-in-auditor-generals-report/XEI2A3UOWNDGRFBAA4ZCNA6S5I/
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:26am
    - MCōs
      
      So is Richard Harman who, unlike Thomas Couglan, points out the parts Winston & Shane Jones, Ministers in the current government, had in decision making when they were ministers in the previous government.
      
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      December 14, 2023 9:40am
      - MCōs
        
        https://www.politik.co.nz/the-covid-showpiece-billions-spent-records-missing-advice-ignored-a-damning-report/
        
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        December 14, 2023 10:09am
  - Flossie
    
    What Musk does with his own money is his concern. What a government does with tax payers’ money is our concern.
    
    23 2
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    December 14, 2023 10:11am
  - crikey
    
    If Elon Musk chooses to ‘waste’ his own money that is his choice. He is not squandering the public purse.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:28am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    But Musk wasted his own money – not yours.
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:26pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The difference between a million and a billion is three zeros, and as zeros have no value there is no extra cost.
  AOC.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:07am
Chuck Bird

I heard Helen Clark talk about COP28 and science. What does Clark know about science?
30 2
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December 14, 2023 8:53am
- imalwaysright
  
  Chuck,
  There is no science in the climate scam.
  If there were, the scam wouldn’t exist.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:04am
- RoboRob
  
  Nothing, she cant even identify when a vehicle is travelling fast.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:11am
- I remember when
  
  Helen knows all about the science of GE!
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:15am
- NothingLeft
  
  She’ll be able to parrot whatever Lysenkoism will profit her politics.
  
  9 0
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  December 14, 2023 10:21am
- crikey
  
  Chuck: You don’t get it. Clark is a lefty. By definition she knows everything about everything.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:30am
Maggie Pie

I see where Nicola is in the running for Quote-of-the-Year, when she asked Robbo….. “How big his hole is” 😀

And for good reason by the sound of it.
I was just made aware that ‘Te Whatu Ora’ owes thousands of doctors, nurses and other health workers, in excess of $3 BILLION for leave and holiday pay!!

People with knowledge of the situation, are saying the sooner they revert this useless outfit to its English name, the sooner this sh*t is likely to be sorted out.
Here’s hoping.
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December 14, 2023 9:02am
- MCōs
  
  Are you saying if the name is changed they can wipe the slate clean because Te Whatu Ora no longer exists?
  Tell that to the judge!
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:17am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    No silly!
    Just some people were saying thay could get rid of the ‘Chief of Tikanga’
    for a start.
    
    20 4
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    December 14, 2023 9:27am
- mikenmildagain
  
  This holidays act problems has been reported on for years.
  
  7 14
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  December 14, 2023 9:25am
  - mandk
    
    You are correct on that one.
    
    The last government had a review going, but didn’t complete it.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:27am
- Ghost
  
  The health boards have known since 2013 of this breach so can’t blame the name.
  
  9 1
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  December 14, 2023 9:43am
  - MCōs
    
    The Titanic still would have sunk if had an English name.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:20am
Yvette

He Puapua already dead says Jackson
Labour’s Māori spokesperson Willie Jackson says the new coalition’s instruction for work to stop on He Puapua is trying to make something of nothing.
…
“I mean how stupid are they. The work on He Puapua stopped two or three years ago.
…
Mr Jackson says the actions taken by the coalition to dismantle Labour’s Maori initiatives are causing worry and anger within Maoridom, and could spark major protests.
https://waateanews.com/2023/12/01/he-puapua-already-dead-says-jackson/

“Anger within Maoridom, and could spark major protests” – over “nothing”?
And perhaps more importantly, Jackson says “The work on He Puapua stopped two or three years ago”
So it was, according to him, Labour who stopped it, not National
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December 14, 2023 9:13am
- Rusty
  
  @Yvette
  
  I wouldn’t believe a single word Willie Jackson says.
  
  If the work on He Puapua stopped 2-3 years ago then why should it bother him if the coalition does their own investigations into it?
  
  What hes really saying is that he doesn’t want the coalition being involved in any Maori initiatives like He Puapua/ 3 waters etc, that might make it it impossible to be revived by a future Labour govt.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:49am
- PeeJay
  
  How much fun would it be if Seymour, Peters or Jones managed to get the document out to the public?
  
  The document that even the Labour /Greens cabinet thought was too extreme to be shared with the public?
  
  They could release it as part of background information on the treaty referendum for instance – just to inform people prior to submissions what the Māori elite truly want under the guise of ‘partnership’ and ‘co-governance’.
  
  I suspect normal Kiwi’s (and I include in that the overwhelming percentage of Maori who don’t vote for the racist TPM), would be horrified at what would be in that document – after all, if it was considered too extreme by the Labour / Green cabinet, then it must have been pretty crazy!
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:28am
  - Philview
    
    I have read it (as most readers here probably have) and the most significant points are that there were stepping stones in the document such as Maori Health Authority, RMA, Co-Governance of water etc. These were separatist building blocks to various scenarios such as a two state solution or even full control of the country. The scale of this is immense and how many New Zealanders actually know about it. While Maori are free to aspire to whatever they want, the way the last Government went about this reaks of corruption. I would like a full investigation into possible corruption by the last Government. The next left wing government is going to be even worse and we need the public to be educated on the risks of voting that government in.
    
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    December 14, 2023 10:58am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Jones gone ‘full Trump’ said ex Minister for Mars Catherine Delahunty.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/jones-gone-full-trump-declared-war-on-nature-with-latest-comments-conservation-group-says/ar-AA1lpUUZ?

Poor Greens going full retard.
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December 14, 2023 9:33am
- Tom Hunter
  
  “Trump, Trump, Trump”….
  
  And far away
  Across the field
  The tolling on the iron bell
  Calls the faithful to their knees
  To hear the softly spoken magic spells
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:18am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Exactly. Adoration of Trump is a prime example of widespread belief in magic.
    
    4 11
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    December 14, 2023 11:04am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Come and talk to me after Nov 5th next year.
      Unless he is assassinated before then.
      
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      December 14, 2023 11:41am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Yep, Time will tell.
    
    4 2
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    December 14, 2023 11:45am
- Chuck Bird
  
  He does not buy into the climate change hysteria. I wonder how Luxon will deal with that.
  
  First Full Speech in The House This Term by Shane Jones
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nj46a8IRl8
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:56am
- Swifty
  
  I presume Delahunty never uses modern communications, IT of any description, no mechanised transportation, no modern household appliances of any description, is not connected to the electricity grid etc etc?
  
  Because if she does isn’t she just New Zealand’s biggest hypocrite? Happy that other countries mine to support her lifestyle, but won’t allow it here.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:01am
- NZer In Exile
  
  As David Bowie used to sing “Poor little Greenie!”
  
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  December 15, 2023 9:08pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Here comes the next Y2K.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/a-solar-flare-could-leave-the-world-without-internet-in-2024/ss-AA1lrqzo?
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December 14, 2023 9:38am
- NothingLeft
  
  It’s a little interesting – 3 huge solar flares in last 150 years, ie about every 50 years on average. But impacts will (at worst ) be minor. A small chance of induction based over voltages in grids with large geographic loops penetrated by earth’s magnetic field. But grids also handle lightening strikes, so probably no biggy.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:27am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Will make the aurora dance.
    
    4 0
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    December 14, 2023 11:56am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    A Carrington class solar flare would fluck things up hugely.
    
    https://www.space.com/the-carrington-event
    
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    December 15, 2023 9:15pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  NASA.gov
  
  “On March 13, 1989 the entire province of Quebec, Canada suffered an electrical power blackout caused by a solar storm.”
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:02pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    kinda proves the point – nobody likes the Quebecois other than the Quebecois. They are closer to the north magnetic pole where variation in field strength during a major solar storm will be greater than for anyone else on the planet, countries further away have little to fear. So in short merchants of doom are trying to manufacture a global scare about a fairly minor geographically confined issue that appears to mostly affect a few wanna-be frenchies.
    
    And with about 1500km movement of north magnetic pole towards russia in the last 40 years even the canadians have little to worry about.
    
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    December 14, 2023 3:21pm
Maggie Pie

Had to larf.
We happened to catch HDPA talking to the Grocery Commissioner last nite.
Heather asked him if he’d made any progress with his investigation into Sanitarium withdrawing Weetbix from The Warhouse.
Turns out he’s STILL waiting for more information…. and is no further ahead than he was months ago.

What I didn’t know till my partner mentioned it, was that Pierre had previously worked for Sanitarium for 20 years, the last nine as Head of the New Zealand operation.

God only knows what this outfit must be costing taxpayers. Wonder if it falls under the new Minister-for-Regulation’s portfolio?
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December 14, 2023 10:01am
- Grunter
  
  Maggie – me thinks that this all ‘smells a bit stinky’….
  
  Labour and their newly appointed Grocery Commissioner discover a major anti-competitive issue with our favourite breakfast cereal – Weetbix???!!!
  
  The company where the Grocery Commissioner was previously the CEO????!!
  
  During election time???!!!
  
  With the retailer that will gain the most from government intervention to the evil supermarket duopoly (The Warehouse)????!!!
  
  And a storyline from Sanitarium that made zero sense and from my many years of experience in the grocery trade you would never go there (“we had supply issues so we stopped supplying only one retailer….”)
  
  And then, magically, the newly appointed Commissioner resolves the issue with his old company and The Warehouse????!!!
  
  Really?????
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:18am
I remember when

Henry and Edward Williams:
Henry Williams came to New Zealand as a missionary in 1823.
Edward Williams who was five at the time grew up amongst Ngapuhi.
So at the time they translated the Treaty from English to Maori had been in regular contact with Maori, and the Maori language, for over sixteen years.
William Williams, with Robert Maunsell, was a member of the Church Missionary Society translation syndicate.
William’s detailed account of the signing which was transcribed several days afterwards was published fifty years later.
A recent analysis found that while it was a useful record, they were influenced by his personal views and biases.

However, 183 years later their translation and accounts are found to be lacking.
It has been suggested that Henry used Missionary Maori a simpler source of the language.
There is never any suggestion that, perhaps the meaning of some of the terms used may not be the same as our current definition.
They may have evolved over time.
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December 14, 2023 10:08am
- cmm
  
  There are two big problems:
  
  1) Maori is an unwritten language. Unwritten languages lack precision and nobody is used to trying to use language to capture details. Unwritten languages tend to have very mushy definitions with massive regional variety.
  
  Consider the word “mana”. It conveys a very vague bunch of ideas spanning pride, tradition, influence, status, spirituality, charisma etc.
  
  2) When a language and a culture as a whole lacks certain concepts, then how can you record them effectively? At best you get a very vague translation.
  
  How do you really translate “British subject” into Maori?
  
  Note, I am not having a slag at Maori here. This translation issue exists between any languages, but unwritten languages, and those from cultures lacking complex international trade, will lack precise concepts required in effective international treaty making.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:26am
xasperated

When people were all concerned about James Shaw’s Linkedin profile, has anyone looked at Jacinda Ardern’s? Not all that recently updated

Still says PM, MP for Mt Albert etc etc.
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December 14, 2023 10:08am
- Swifty
  
  I’ve noticed that with a lot of MPs – social media accounts, websites etc all left up and/or not updated to reflect reality.
  
  I’m always surprised. For just a few minutes work they leave themselves open to the impression that they just don’t give a rats, or they’re happy to convey an impression they’re still in a hot seat when they’re not, or that they just can’t be bothered with such detail – especially now they haven’t the staff to do this sort of stuff for them.
  
  It’s just sloppy. Careless. Makes them look like they’re trading on past glories.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:51am
  - Ghost
    
    What’s the bet their staff maintained it and they don’t know the password
    
    9 0
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    December 14, 2023 12:03pm
    - Swifty
      
      Yes, good point.
      
      So should have taken care of it before staff scattered.
      
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      December 14, 2023 12:25pm
- cmm
  
  I’ll bet it was updated within 30 seconds when she became PM though.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:49am
Chuck Bird

Denmark Declares War on Multiculturalism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFZjSwzdFyM
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December 14, 2023 10:25am
MCōs

The ‘high paid’ Sir Collin Tukuitonga was actually a volunteer
https://x.com/richardhills_/status/1734850793952682270?s=61&t=yFkzCNMWRCaVt1p5eRxUog
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December 14, 2023 10:46am
- Nukuleka
  
  Were this esteemed knight to be truly committed to the welfare of Maori and PI he’d have continued his work and doubled down on his endeavours, not thrown his toys out of the cot. Another leftie activist with a political are to grind.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:00am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    I guess he stood for his principles. Unlike those from a certain political party that made a song and dance about not swearing an oath and then doing for the cash anyway….lol on them.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:25am
  - MCōs
    
    You may well be correct, but the point of my comment was he, and the other members of the senate are/were not highly paid as initially claimed by Act MP Todd Stephenson.
    Not just paid, but highly paid.
    
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    December 14, 2023 12:27pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      The quote I’ve seen from Todd Stephenson was generalised so still relevant:
      “”public advisors in high-paid positions” should “get with the programme or get out””
      
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      December 14, 2023 1:30pm
Benedict Yu

Here is a great example of why the Greens are retarded when it comes to economics.

Julie Anne Genter is wailing about the tragedy of axing the EV subsidy. She claims that to date the scheme has reduced New Zealand emissions by 2 MT of CO2e. (It has not because the freed up permits in the ETS would just have been used by other emitters. It may have reduced passenger motor vehicle emissions by 2 MT of CO2e, but total New Zealand emissions would have remained unchanged. The only way to reduce New Zealand emissions is to reduce the ETS cap.)

However, let us pretend that she is correct. In the 9 months from 1 April to the end of 2022, the Government paid out $203 million in subsidies. Let us be conservative and assume that in 2023 it was about the same. So that is $400 million in EV subsidies.

The current New Zealand Unit price is $69. So the market price of reducing emissions by 2 MT of CO2e is $138 million. Yet the EV subsidies to reduce transport emissions cost $400 million. Thanks a bunch 🙁
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December 14, 2023 10:51am
- Swifty
  
  Pesky details, it’s the emotion and outrage that really count to the Greens.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:57am
- Chuck Bird
  
  Does she know how many EVs are charged by coal at Huntly?
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:59am
- Grunter
  
  Absolutely correct.
  
  I’ve put similar numbers to Rod Carr the Climate Change Commissioner and he doesn’t disagree with the numbers but still maintains we need both the ETS & “other interventions”.
  
  Scam, scam, scam – it is such an obvious crock of siht it beggars belief that anyone thinks its real.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:29am
- Burtland
  
  to be truly virtuous, when buying an EV you have to crush your old ICE car – this way the ICE car pool is reduced in number, otherwise it saves nothing
  
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  December 14, 2023 3:18pm
PeterB

GDP down 0.3% in Sep wuarter.
Thanks Labour.
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December 14, 2023 10:57am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Negative 0.3% for quarter, negative 0.6% for the YoY. What happened to Robbo’s economy turning the corner – apart from it only being in his head.
  
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/strong-export-boost-nz-economy-turns-corner#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20economy%20is%20continuing%20to,receipts%2C%E2%80%9D%20Grant%20Robertson%20said.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:08am
  - Vinicius
    
    Robertson’s economic miracle turned a corner and went down a giant pothole on the road to nowhere.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:15am
    - PeterB
      
      Maybe Nicola underestimated the size of his hole.
      
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      December 14, 2023 11:20am
- cmm
  
  GDP down in a debt-fueled economy is bad.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:12am
  - Matt Long
    
    Exactly, progressive socialism is one of the world’s wonders, along with compounding inflation destroying wealth faster than your KiwiSaver shrinks.
    
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    December 14, 2023 3:01pm
- Grunter
  
  As expected, the ‘real economy’ has absolutely tanked.
  
  GDP includes Govt spending (up about +20%) which is all funded by debt. If you look at the sectors that are “growing” (healthcare, social services) they are all on a short-term sugar rush that is about to be stopped by Nicola Willis and Seymour….
  
  “Despite the overall fall in GDP, 8 of the 11 service industries grew this quarter. The strongest rises were seen in healthcare and social assistance; and rental, hiring, and real estate services.”
  
  The 120,000 new immigrants obviously boosting rentals, hiring and real estate services.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:46am
  - cmm
    
    Well it’s worse in many ways.
    
    All that government debt-fueled expenditure results in “trickle down” spending as government trough feeders spend up on EVs and such. All of that is consumptive spending – none of it is productive (ie. makes the country money).
    
    “The strongest rises were seen in healthcare and social assistance”
    
    Unfortuately all that is consumptive too. I take it that “social assistence” means more taxpayer-funded NGOs as well as spending on Motels for the previously-housed.
    
    It’s far too easy to burn through our natioanl credit card and leave the mess for our great grand kids to pay off.
    
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    December 14, 2023 1:03pm
- Phronesis
  
  The remarkable thing is that figure includes all of the pointless government spending on public servants doing nothing and “investment” in projects that probably don’t exist.
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:49pm
  - peterwn
    
    Like the tractor maintenance depot in USSR. Project was put forward and approved and regular progress reports came through. The local fire chief certified that it met fire regulations since it was merely bare land. The final report stated that it had been completed and an instruction was issued to close down the old facility. The collective farm workers then had nowhere to take their tractors for servicing.
    
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    December 14, 2023 1:37pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Looks like our Police need some training in crowd control:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/504715/ipca-finds-6-cases-of-excessive-force-during-parliament-occupation
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December 14, 2023 10:57am
- mawm
  
  I think that there was probably a directive to be as rough as possible as in Melbourne and Ottawa. The difference between us and them is that it is likely that both Australia and Canada had imported some thugs to do the dirty work. There was a noticeable similarity in their dress and behaviour and reports of a foreign language being spoken.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:44am
- Matt Long
  
  Members of the police vandalised a women’s car, and used excessive force on an elderly man, who was coming to the aid of a woman the IPCA says was also subject to excessive force.
  Is the response of police now to issue an apology or will individuals face sanctions? Will there be compensation?
  
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  December 14, 2023 3:06pm
nova

There was an intesting exchange in question time yesterday:

Rt Hon CHRISTOPHER LUXON: We’re not weakening our actions on climate change; we’re just going about it a different way.

Chlöe Swarbrick: That’s a demonstrable lie.

This intejection was clearly audible, and David Seymour pulled her up on this, and discussion ensued. But the unusual aspect was that she doubled down on this, instead of withdrawing and apologising:

Chlöe Swarbrick: Speaking to the point of order. I was speaking to the content of the policies as put forward by this Government and the fact that the content of those policies is a lie. If the inference is that therefore the Minister or the Prime Minister is a liar, that wasn’t the statement that I was making, but I was pointing out that it is demonstrable on the evidence that the undertakings from this Government are completely contrary to our climate commitments.

The full exchange is captured in Hansard:

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20231212_122460000/1-question-no-1-prime-minister

It seems very tenuous to me to claim that you are not calling someone a liar if you state that what they said is a demonstrable lie.
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December 14, 2023 11:01am
- mikenmildagain
  
  She’s just trying to get around the convention that MPs must be taken at their word. That’s a debating rule designed to ensure orderly discussion. MPS lie routinely, of course; it’s just against the rules to point it out.
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:21am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Seems like a bad rule. How can you have a debate if you are not allowed to question the truth of what the other person is saying?
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:12pm
  - cmm
    
    You’re supposed to use more subtle wordplay.
    
    eg.
    “The member for codswallop seems misinformed about …”
    
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    December 14, 2023 1:07pm
    - peterwn
      
      or ‘misled the House’.
      
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      December 14, 2023 1:31pm
- Prince
  
  Quite remarkable. We can now expect the ‘lying’ accusation to be hurled across the house regularly. I hope the Speaker knows what he is doing.
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:31pm
- Hard Cheese
  
  It’s not even a demonstrable lie – taken as a set of actions to produce an outcome Luxon is correct, you can’t point to one component of the plan appearing to be weaker as evidence that they all are.
  
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  December 14, 2023 3:23pm
Maggie Pie

Thort worth sharing…

Just overheard my partner saying that Tesla are having to recall over 2 million vehicles world-wide due to a ‘steering issue’

O.M.G.
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December 14, 2023 11:10am
- mikenmildagain
  
  It’s all turning to shit for Musk, isn’t it?
  
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  December 14, 2023 11:19am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    yip sounds like it.
    He’s down to his last 800 billion 😀
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:32am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      About half that guess. Twitter: paid $44 billion; now worth half that.
      
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      December 14, 2023 12:04pm
      - Littletramp
        
        Old school thinking M & M -get on the pace.
        Twitter value is in the database, which is growing exponentially each hour, and not available elsewhere. The crowdsourcing of data from all over the globe is churn for AI. Information is the new gold, and X/Twitter is the new South Deep Gold Mine.
        
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        December 14, 2023 1:35pm
  - Grunter
    
    Mike – First time I’ve up ticked you! Let me explain…
    
    Telsa is all part of the obvious Global Boiling scam. Fraud by an entrepreneur is just as bad as fraud by the global governments and idiot socialists.
    
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    December 14, 2023 11:56am
  - kevn
    
    mma… More excitement than the keyboard in Petone.
    
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    December 14, 2023 12:35pm
  - cmm
    
    I’ve personally never had much time for Musk. He has rewritten the Tesla history to claim himself as a founder (which he wasn’t). He’s made a bundle out of Tesla because of the massive incentives handed out for EVs.
    
    It’s quite funny seeing Musk turned from being a leftie darling coz climate change and all to now being Mr Nastie because he fired the fuckwittery from Twitter/X.
    
    I knew one of the very high up guys in charge of research purse strings at the American DOE during Obama’s time. He was a huge Obama fan and a big buddy with Musk (eg. connected enough to get his newly graduated son a job in Tesla R&D). But then Musk “went rogue” and now Musk is worse than shark shit. They sold their Tesla , etc etc.
    
    The general feeling seems to be that after all the handouts Musk got from Obama, he should have stayed on the reservation.
    
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    December 14, 2023 1:16pm
    - Paul
      
      Musk evolves, many can not. Yesterdays Musk will not be tomorrows Musk. How can he do what he does? He does it for himself. Other people are worn as our fashion, when we make opinions. That is a mistake. Sit back and enjoy the ride.
      
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      December 14, 2023 9:27pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Its a software update
  My neighbour said it took 30 minutes
  
  Poor Mikey is quite triggered by Elon Musk
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:15pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, reminds me of Takata air bag recalls but in this case Musk is sitting pretty with his many ventures.
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:16pm
- Ghost
  
  Car recalls seem to be common. Ford recalled their ranger not long ago.
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:19pm
- kevn
  
  Maggie… Don’t see Tesla on the list of worst.
  https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/electriccars/article-12837223/The-30-used-EVs-plunged-value-2023-year-old-cars-worth-half-much.html?ico=mol_desktop_home
  
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  December 14, 2023 3:26pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    No surprise their kevie. Even some of the Rolex models have dropped 30%.
    Only ever invest in 18k Gold and never buy retail.
    
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    December 14, 2023 4:10pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Tesla have just demoed what looks like a production-ready humanoid robot. They (and others) will be selling 10’s of millions of them a year within 5 years at car-like prices to do all the tedious housework, gardening and other boring shit.
  
  https://youtu.be/cpraXaw7dyc
  
  It’ll be many times the size of their car business. There is going to be a massive rush from all the big players getting into this.
  
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  December 14, 2023 7:27pm
Fisiani2

Celtic 2 Feyenoord 1
YES
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December 14, 2023 11:18am
- Dairy Flat
  
  Noooooo! I have studiously been avoiding any sites with that info so I could watch it this evening and be ignorant of the result.
  Great result though, finally! Wife is Dutch and won’t be quite as chuffed.
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:20pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Don’t forget:
  Sevilla – 4th (and out of Europe)
  ManU – 4th (and out of Europe)
  
  So good.
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:35pm
Maggie Pie

“SHOCK”….. as GDP falls 0.3%

– NZHorrid

You’ll own nothing
And you’ll be happy.

😀
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December 14, 2023 11:30am
- Bobba Fret
  
  This must be wrong. Grant Robertson said the economy had turned the corner. Surely he wouldn’t lie//
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:40pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.
Really for Te Papa to display the James Freeman rogue version is fraud.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/te-papa-must-display-the-littlewood-draft-alongside-the-treaty-in-maori/?
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December 14, 2023 12:21pm
Swifty

Everything is everyone else’s fault!

Walking, talking, breathing permanent victims. Perfect Labour and Green fodder.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/133443156/wanted-man-likely-died-of-exposure-while-hiding-from-police

See vid.
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December 14, 2023 12:23pm
- RRM
  
  LOL I was just about to post that. If only he had had some kind of FREE government provided tracking and location device on him, that could have led police searchers directly to his location eh?
  
  > Be a gang associate and general dirt bag who does zero good in the world.
  > Have a court date.
  > Cut off your ankle bracelet.
  > Steal a ute.
  > Go on the run.
  > Crash the ute.
  > Hide.
  > Evade police dog.
  > Evade police helicopter.
  > Die of exposure because it’s the south island in winter time.
  > How sad.
  > Too bad.
  
  > His mum:
  > “He didn’t trust police!”
  > “Police should have done more to find him!”
  > “I want answers and I’m not getting them!”
  
  I’m sorry but I just can’t get upset about any of this. Everything that happened to him was natural consequences of his own actions and choices.
  
  And let’s be honest, absolutely nothing of value was lost here. Don’t be a gang member, don’t hurt people, don’t take from people.
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:55pm
  - sungsamning
    
    One way to clean the gene pool a little.
    
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    December 14, 2023 6:31pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  https://youtube.com/watch?v=z4uivPpzCGo
  
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  December 14, 2023 12:55pm
- Inandout
  
  Swifty, does mother work in or is near a coal mine?
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:20pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Thanks for that. Sounds like Darwinism to me. The world is now a better place. And the human race is stronger.
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:49pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YIP….. like adding chlorine to the jean pool.
    
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    December 14, 2023 2:25pm
MCōs

Usman Khawaja https://x.com/uz_khawaja/status/1734830493890404372?s=61&t=yFkzCNMWRCaVt1p5eRxUog
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December 14, 2023 1:05pm
- Inandout
  
  MC, is he gay?
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:25pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Where is his calls for Hamas to surrender totally (including the thieves in Qatar)?
  Hamas and the other Iranian proxies haven’t stopped indiscriminately (literal, not figurative meaning) attacking Israel throughout this whole tragedy apart from a small period during the ceasefires (which Hamas broke).
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:41pm
  - MCōs
    
    Another person might say why doesn’t he single out Israel or America or whatever else is involved in that particular area?
    Or Myanmar or Sudan or Yemen or Ukraine or Russia or anywhere else where innocent people are being slaughtered?
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:05pm
- Paul
  
  In a filmed testimonial played at the event, a survivor said she watched a terrorist who had cut off a woman’s breasts and played with them – after he had raped her.
  https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-776654
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:35pm
Maggie Pie

A bestie points out…

“It’s I before E except after C”

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1734755325130035372
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December 14, 2023 1:38pm
- Inandout
  
  ‘Science’?
  
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  December 14, 2023 1:51pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Thier are exceptions.
    
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    December 14, 2023 2:26pm
Jack5

Surging immigration may hurt Biden’s re-election chances more than inflation will, the Wall Street Journal says today.

In latest WSJ polls, American respondents were asked the biggest issue in next year’s election. Twice as many named immigration as named inflation.

Disapproval of Biden’s border controls exceeded approval by 37 percentage points, compared with 36 points for inflation.

The newspaper describes surging inflation as an issue for all Western nations.

The WSJ describes the position in Australia:

Australia initially projected a net 235,000 migrants would arrive in the year through June. More than 500,000 did, many through what the Aussies call “rorting,” or working the system: students and other temporary workers finding ways to overstay their visas.

And in Canada:

Canada’s annual immigration target is under half a million, but in the year through June 2023, 1.1 million migrants entered. Most came under temporary visas, some issued by those “puppy mill” schools to foreign students seeking a work permit and a chance to immigrate permanently.

The WSJ adds that many Australians and Canadians blame immigration for aggravating the shortage of housing, and “New Zealand’s central bank has said it may raise interest rates because of the pressure immigration is putting on housing prices.”
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December 14, 2023 2:53pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Biden’s Warmongers are up to no good.
“And Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin allegedly threatened Congress by telling them that American boots on the ground were next”
Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson gobsmacked.
To me the Biden admin would rather send billions to Ukraine and forget the homeless and mentally it Americans. And the Dems expect to win 2024! Fuck!

https://unmuzzlednews.com/a-top-biden-official-just-spat-a-ghoulish-ultimatum-in-americans-faces-that-even-tucker-carlson-was-dumbstruck/?
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December 14, 2023 3:12pm
- virtualmark
  
  Sigh.
  
  No, that’s not what Lloyd Austin said. What he did say is that if Russia is not defeated in Ukraine then the next Russian step will be to attack a NATO member (presumably the Baltics), and that *that* will lead to American boots on the ground.
  
  But the media you’re reading just wants to make you angry, rather than make you smart. And it’s working.
  
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  December 14, 2023 4:18pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    “allegedly” Did you miss that?
    
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    December 15, 2023 8:12am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Melania is whispering one name in Trump’s ear about a Vice President:

https://unmuzzlednews.com/melania-trump-is-reportedly-whispering-one-name-in-donald-trumps-ear-for-2024-and-it-will-have-every-conservative-cheering/?

Malwarebytes say this may contain blah blah.
It is safe.
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December 14, 2023 3:18pm
Maggie Pie

Found a bit of time to watch ‘Question Time’ earlier.
Jerry probably needs to harden-up a bit and keep those rowdy lefties under control.
And I think he needs to look a bit ‘sterner’, rather than sit there with a permanent smirk on his dial. Well that’s what I reckon anyway.

Also happened to see that Robbo and Megan are now sitting side-by-side in the Chamber. Actually, thort they looked for all the world to me like Twins. Just saying.
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December 14, 2023 3:58pm
- greybeard
  
  Or Bunsen Honeydew and Miss Piggy
  
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  December 14, 2023 5:49pm
- Ceepar
  
  Makes me think back.
  “Hugo said you go, and I said no you go, and soon we were back ……..”
  
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  December 14, 2023 6:36pm
- Paul
  
  Why do we never talk about Pies and Women?
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:42pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Who would risk being a bus-driver these days?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2023/12/witness-terrified-for-bus-driver-after-irate-passenger-screams-abuse-threatens-to-bash-him-over-fare.html

I wonder if Green MPs have travelled by bus lately.
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December 14, 2023 4:27pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Think of how much safer he would have felt, if he happened to have a can of
  ‘Heavy Duty Easy-Off’ handy that he’d just bort to take home for his wife.
  
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  December 14, 2023 4:47pm
- mandk
  
  Kevin Bridges tells a hilarious story about a man who didn’t have enough for his bus fare:
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwELepvBAVY&pp=ygUNa2V2aW4gYnJpZGdlcw%3D%3D
  
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  December 14, 2023 4:52pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggy, in Sydney you are supposed to ‘tap on’ and ‘tap off” using your travel or credit card so the fare can be charged. I read a number of commuters just hop on and hop off by either feigning a card or simply don’t bother even doing that. The drivers are not there to monitor fares and the chances of being caught are minimal.
  
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  December 14, 2023 5:05pm
  - mogg
    
    They do have random inspections.
    
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    December 14, 2023 5:51pm
    - Inandout
      
      Very random, and have they powers of arrest?
      
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      December 14, 2023 7:58pm
- MCōs
  
  I’ve only ever been on a bus once when a female passenger screamed and yelled at the driver
  The bus was full and none of the passengers said a word. I was standing near the front of the bus so told her to shut up, which she did
  That was about forty years ago.
  
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  December 14, 2023 5:07pm
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    That’s commendable. I suspect that bus drivers today are more abused than they were 40 years ago.
    
    I’m 76 years old and would probably not intervene if some angry customer only verbally abused a bus driver. If the customer started to physically abuse the bus driver I would seriously consider trying to help the bus driver. It would sort of depend if I thought that the bus driver, along with my help, had a reasonable chance of success. Would also ask others to help.
    
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    December 14, 2023 5:33pm
    - MCōs
      
      From that experience I get the impression most people would rather pretend nothing was happening
      
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      December 14, 2023 7:45pm
  - Paul
    
    Who takes a Bus?
    
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    December 14, 2023 9:43pm
goNZ1

And Chippy does his Thursday begging bowl email blast to his fellow-losers

”Kia ora Friend, ( ed. just hello is fine)
As we approach the end of what has been a (abortion of a ) difficult year, I wanted to send a quick note to say Meri Kirihimete (groan) and Merry Christmas to you all.
I also wanted to ask a small favour (ie desperately scraping bottom of losers barrel) . The new government has already shown they’re going to serve up windfalls to vested interests like tobacco companies, mega landlords, and large companies. And they don’t seem to care that these come at the expense of good jobs and healthy lives for everyday Kiwis. ( Ho wat? coming From !! your govt has wrecked the economy such that GDP is going backwards and the current a/c deficit is $30 billion !!
”I’m appalled by this, and I know so many others are, too. ( yes the Coalition are really shocked at how bad the books are)
”In the face of this government’s agenda of looking our for vested interests, (like the Unions you mean) Kiwis need s strong Labour opposition more than ever. ( that will be a challenge after losing 50% of my MPs) ” Friend, can you chip in to help Labour be the strongest opposition we can possibly be?
DONATE NOW ( get off the grass – ask your union mates)
I know that not everyone will be in a position to donate this Christmas, ( due to our appalling management of the economy causing inflation and interest rate hikes) but if you can, even a few dollars can make a huge difference, and will help ensure Labour is ready for the interests of ordinary Kiwis. ( which we have got soooooo out of touch with)
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December 14, 2023 4:47pm
- imalwaysright
  
  What he really means is if you are reading this that means you really are dumber than I thought you were and so here’s some more bullshit in exchange for your hard earned lucre.
  
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  December 14, 2023 5:11pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Let’s hope Bob Jones and his mate don’t haul them out of the shit again as they did in 2017.
  
  I hope that Jones has realised they’re not the Labour of old, even in terms of coming up with fresh ideas, and not worth $1, let alone the $50,000 he and his mate gave the bastards.
  
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  December 14, 2023 6:25pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Jones got huge payback from massive govt growth leading to a commercial tenancy bonanza in Wellington
    
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    December 14, 2023 7:32pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

So if we run out of oxygen:
So this photosynthesis thing creates oxygen, and we plant more trees to get rid of that nasty CO2?
Page 6. The sun is brighter. That must mean more heat. Global Boiling anyone?
Page 10. Get rid of CO2 and the plants can’t produce oxygen. CO2 is 0.04% and they want to reduce it?
Page 11. Free radicals? I thought they were the rent-a-mob.
Page 25. Move the Earth away from the Sun. Yeah right!
There are some serious brain farts going on here. Thing is, we pay for this shit!

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/what-might-happen-when-earth-runs-out-of-oxygen/ss-AA1lonpl?
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December 14, 2023 5:02pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Spark have done it again. I meant to do this earlier.
Internet crapped out last night. Not all of it, just no Wifi.
Spark say to enter the name and password on the back of the modem. So I get up and switch on my desktop. All working. But can not do the name and password thing.
By this time I was on a callback from Spark. There was a problem.
So I try else ware, enter the modem IP. Hello, the SSID is wrong (same as the tab on the back of the modem) Down further the password is the modem password.(LovelyBuffalo and some numbers)
Enter the correct details and hello, it works, Phones and all.
Ring ring, it is Spark wanting to help. All is good.
The problem? Spark had an update and installed it last night. It reset Wifi to factory settings. Thing is, if something is not broken, it does not need fixing!
When Spark/Telecom/Extra works, it works fine. When they screw up it becomes a major. How many people had to get a techo to come around and fix it?
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December 14, 2023 5:29pm
Steve Todd

I cannot believe that the Rt Hon Winston Peters did not give Tanya Unkovich a hug, following her very moving Maiden Speech just now, during which she acknowledged both he and the Hon Shane Jones as mentors.

I suspect she wasn’t expecting a hug, because, immediately following her speech, they approached each other with hands out, just for a handshake.

What’s going on there, I wonder?
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December 14, 2023 5:49pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  1. Respect for each person’s personal space
  
  2. Winston isn’t a touchy feely gropey old man
  
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  December 14, 2023 6:07pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    Maybe, who knows?
    
    But why on earth couldn’t he have just given her a one-off hug, even though it appeared she wasn’t expecting it? It would have been a lovely gesture.
    
    For me, the optics are not good.
    
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    December 14, 2023 6:17pm
    - Ghost
      
      Nothing wrong with a handshake. The optics are simply your judgement, nothing else.
      
      7 0
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      December 14, 2023 6:26pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Did you see her speech, Ghost?
        
        From memory (now) everyone hugged her except Winston, the one person who should have given her an affectionate, collegial, hug.
        
        I’m just saying, I’m disappointed. The lack of a hug, jarred – simple as.
        
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        December 14, 2023 6:33pm
      - Ghost
        
        Yeah I did. I can’t speak for Winston but if someone invades my personal space I get extremely uncomfortable. A handshake, fine, a hug is a no with me.
        
        7 0
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        December 14, 2023 6:42pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Invasion of personal space?? Oh, for goodness’ sake, Ghost, that is just nonsense.
        
        We’re talking here about people who know each other, who are politically connected, and who are delighted to be where they are.
        
        I say no more.
        
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        December 14, 2023 6:59pm
      - Ghost
        
        It doesn’t matter if you know them. My relatives have known since I was a young child not to hug me.
        
        He got up, he shakes her hand, that is his way. Don’t judge someone because their way is not the same as you would like it to be.
        
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        December 14, 2023 7:09pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Oh, dear. Alright, one more comment.
        
        Your “issues” are not necessarily Mr Peters’ issues, or, indeed, Ms Unkovich’s issues.
        
        He is the party leader. It would have cost him nothing to give a brand new female parliamentary colleague a collegial hug, following her Maiden Speech.
        
        But for some reason, it didn’t happen. I just, idly, wonder what that reason is.
        
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        December 14, 2023 7:24pm
      - Ghost
        
        And your issues aren’t Winston’s, so don’t project on to him how you believe he should act and then judge him for not doing what you want him to do.
        
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        December 14, 2023 7:31pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Ghost at 7.09pm.
        Not a lot of the modern world can understand the ‘handshake.’
        My ‘handshake’ is as good as a Gentleman’s word – as good as my signature.
        That understanding seems to be lost these days.
        Sorry but the lack of respect pisses me off!
        
        3 1
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        December 14, 2023 7:40pm
      - Ghost
        
        You are judging the man based on what you think he should do and that is wrong.
        
        3 0
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        December 14, 2023 8:29pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Be grateful he didn’t do a “Biden” and sniff her hair.
  
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  December 14, 2023 6:29pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Or a full-on grope like Trump?
    
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    December 15, 2023 3:55pm
- Inandout
  
  My grandmother used to hug me into her generous breasts so closely that I could barely breathe. Not something most 5 yr olds cherished.
  
  4 1
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  December 14, 2023 8:08pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    Oh, stop it, Inny. I was trying to be serious.
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:28pm
Swifty

Maori ruthlessly murdering other Maori:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/rotoruas-dane-pukepuke-sentenced-for-murder-of-david-kuka-in-tauranga/73R2LW6AIJGCNBTIFNXUPTMX6A/

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/301026804/gangstress-sentenced-to-life-imprisonment-for-murder-of-rangiwhero-ngaronoa

Both Maori murderers. Both Mongrel Mob. Both for revenge. Utu. Both victims defenceless.

For a significant proportion of Maori today this is their values in action. This is how they choose to live their lives. They know there are alternatives but this is the road they willingly and voluntarily go down.

And those that blame colonisation for events in 2023 should be ashamed of themselves.

This is what you get when you make excuses for people’s behaviour. This is what you get when your whole philosophy is to absolve people of personal responsibility. This is what you get when you raise whole generations of people to believe they are victims with no agency. This is what you get when the state incentivises people to be shit parents.

This is what the left want more of.
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December 14, 2023 6:15pm
- MCōs
  
  According to this report by the police Maori accounted for about 18 murders per annum on average between 2007-20 per in NZ.
  The other 36 murders per annum are perpetrated by non Māori
  Maybe that’s not as significant a proportion of Māori or any other group as you’d like us to believe
  https://www.police.govt.nz/about-us/publication/homicide-victims-report-2021-and-historic-nz-murder-rate-report-1926-2021
  
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  December 14, 2023 7:27pm
  - Swifty
    
    To be fair to you MCos, I just dashed that note off while doing other things so could have phrased it better.
    
    I’m not making any point about Maori homicide rates, of their murderousness versus anyone else.
    
    I’m making two points:
    
    1. We’re constantly lectured these days by certain elites as to what constitute Maori values. We are never told however, how these values were chosen nor do we ever see any ‘negative’ values – they’re always rainbows and unicorns. Funny that.
    
    In determining the values of a group of people, what methodology should we use and why? Do we just passively accept the judgements of people from our Universities Maori Studies departments? Or do we look at the way people around us act and behave?
    
    I argue the latter.
    
    (Just as an aside, I tend to think it complete nonsense that a ‘race’ of people all share the same values. To pakeha all have the same values? Do Chinese? Do the Scots? No of course they don’t. So why do we think Maori do?)
    
    2. In my view, and I believe supported by what’s right in front of our faces, in recent decades our society’s push to infantilise people, to make them all out to be victims, to deny they’ve personal responsibilities to live up to, we have created a group of people who just don’t give a shit about anyone or anything around them. To them blame events of 180 years ago is one of the greatest deceits currently being perpetrated against the New Zealand public.
    
    Those are my points.
    
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    December 14, 2023 8:36pm
- Paul
  
  Sentencing discounts for being a a Loser. We have fallen far.
  
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  December 14, 2023 9:46pm
freemark

To the young Policeman who gave me a ticket yesterday, I’m still hoping you’ll drop 4 km/h off the detected speed before I get “the letter in the mail” & was so pissed off at the time that I didn’t raise some of these points… I was also concerned that you were standing on the side of the highway without placing 200 road cones & wearing a hard hat.
– if we can’t exceed 100kmh while passing (vax induced?) brain-fogged drivers doing 80 wtf are we coming to?
– instead of you plods getting Desert Road open within 8 hrs thousands of vehicles were sent north via National Park, with no passing lanes, atrocious driving conditions & drivers – yet you had 5 radar equipped revenue gatherers instead of having a chat to the actually dangerous ones.
– what kind of men are you to not challenge this insanity, and actually work at keeping the roads safe instead of fining drivers wanting to get to their destination and create a clear road around them?
– drive with your fucking radar on- that way we won’t hit an apparently “unsafe speed” because we know you are coming our way.
– man up in the cop smoko room, get some discretion, some reality. The kid killers, the rapists, the meth dealers are the real enemy, the pricks who told you to beat women, children & old people because they didn’t want a pointless jab.
Get some guts.
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December 14, 2023 6:27pm
- Taieri
  
  Easy to avoid. Don’t press the pedal that deep. The cop is only doing his job.
  
  4 2
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  December 14, 2023 6:33pm
  - freemark
    
    Yeah, like the Nazi prison guards.
    
    4 2
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    December 14, 2023 8:20pm
- septic skeptic
  
  Last ticket I got was at 114, in a passing lane, getting past a halfwit who was now driving 25 km/h faster than over the previous 10 kms.
  These f***wit cops should rebrand their cars with the IRD logo. It has nothing to do with safety.
  
  9 4
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  December 14, 2023 6:42pm
- Paul
  
  The injustice is that when Cops do the same thing, they get let off. Witness Area Commander Graeme Thomas being reported for being slumped over the wheel a a Johnsonville Service Station after drinking at the Police Bar, when the Constables arrived a few minutes later at his house, he said he was drinking at home. He was not charged.
  
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  December 14, 2023 10:02pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/301026800/customers-of-size-to-get-free-extra-seats-on-us-airline
This should be a relief to the many NZ Labour MPs who lost their seats in the election and who have decided to take a holiday.
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December 14, 2023 6:35pm
Swifty

Sack this woman. Immediately.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/he-whakamana-tangata-a-life-of-dignity-for-all-karanina-sumeo-equal-employment-opportunities-commissioner/67HQGVVPHNDATJIGEUBRUGJZG4/

She’s not a sober, neutral, reasoned public servant – she a very well paid ($240,000 per annum) lobbyist for the Labour, Green and Maori parties and their policies.

And, just as worse, she clearly operates under the delusion that businesses have blossoming money trees sitting unharvested and that ramping up pay and conditions, with no commensurate productivity increases, will have no downstream implications or consequences.

She is a menace. She doesn’t know what she’s talking about and is grossly overstepping her brief.

Get rid of her before she does more damage.
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December 14, 2023 8:51pm

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