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February 23, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 23 February 2024

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Biscuit

Drat, it’s Australians who don’t put a ‘U’ in ‘Labour’:

‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ today:

‘Former Labor ministers to stand trial over alleged misconduct in public office’
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February 23, 2024 8:01am
- kowtow
  
  Australian politics appears to be very corrupt .
  I doubt it’s unique to them though.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:05am
  - imalwaysright
    
    New Zealand is corrupt.
    
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    February 23, 2024 8:41am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Corrupt and they don’t even have Democrats. How about that?
    
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    February 23, 2024 8:46am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Labor in Aussie are still infested by the rotten unions, look at that idiot here in NZ waffling about child poverty yesterday, the growth in child poverty was from the last 5 years till June, well before the election, just maybe some of his work for the pos Robertson had something to do with it
      
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      February 23, 2024 9:02am
  - PeeJay
    
    I remember reading a story from around 15 years ago about some staff at a reginal NSW council being jailed for fraud / corruption.
    
    An Australian friend at the time remarked that this kind of thing not too uncommon, and it happened very now and again. A mate who worked at a NZ council remarked to the Aussie that there was no such corruption in NZ. The Aussie laughed and said, yep – easy to not see corruption if you don’t talk about it, don’t open your eyes and refuse to hear anything – at least in Aussie we have cops, and media, who are only too happy to look into this shit and catch the buggers. When this happens, we usually do something. You guys play three monkeys.
    
    I suspect it was as true then as it is today.
    
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    February 23, 2024 8:55am
    - Paulus
      
      For many years ago I recited to my Aussie Senior Government person, Cousin in Canberra, that New Zealand was not corrupt, and he generally accepted that against Australia, but recently he asked me the same question, and I was unable to say that again, as over recent years it has been sadly very apparent that socialism brings its own rewards – even to as low as Otago University.
      
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      February 23, 2024 10:57am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Peter & Paulus, I am glad you are not deluding yourself, because corruption has occured and continues to occur both in local government & Central government.
        
        Despite all the hand wringing, the policies and procedures, and video/training sessions warning staff about corruption, there are those who preach
        
        “do as I say, not as I do”, or
        “there are rules for me, and there are rules for the rest of you”.
        
        ….and the corruption continues, because it is too dangerous to ones’ self not employ the “three monkeys’ behaviours”.
        
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        February 23, 2024 1:21pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  IMHO central and local Government pollies are like bad parents. Let me explain. You know the parents who buy their kids lollies at the supermarket checkout because they throw a tantrum or the parents who allow themselves to be dragged into the toy shop by a whinging kid. Pollies need to say NO to bad dumb wasteful ideas and policies and learn the sell the reasons why and to be able to sell good but unpopular ideas and policies. Over nearly 60 years the only pollies I have seen who could do that where Douglas Prebble Caygill and Lange in the 84/87 Government and Key English until Key came up with the change the flag idea.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:38am
  - JohnRidd
    
    I really like you bad parent analogy. I am going to use it.
    
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    February 23, 2024 3:19pm
slightlyrighty

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/realtor-janet-dickson-facing-5-year-ban-for-refusing-maori-values-course/RUVMVQWKFVBGZE43VH4YF6BL4M/

Take cultural re-education or face a 5 year ban from your work…..

How did we get here?
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February 23, 2024 8:02am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  How did we get here” The Coup, beginning in 1975 with the Waitangi Tribunal.
  Real Estate Agents are selling land, so they must understand the Maori view. Oh really? Says who? Some prick at Auckland University which is infested with activists.
  Time for this racist nonsense to stop. I hope Don Brash gets into it boots and all!
  
  More reading on Janet Dickson:
  
  https://www.hobsonspledge.nz/meetjanetdickson
  She has more than 30 years experience so does not need this propaganda rammed down her throat!!
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:02am
  - Dave
    
    On the plus side, it probably provides an income stream for a Maori values evaluator.
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:09am
  - Paulus
    
    But I did not vote for the Waitangi Tribunal – who did ?
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:59am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Matt Rata and Mana Motuhake and Labour (who else?)
      
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      February 23, 2024 11:58am
- Swifty
  
  “Do as we say or we will destroy you.”
  
  Of course, Bernie O’Donnell (Willie Jackson’s long time close collaborator) could have said “No, this is not right. We welcome people to understand the Maori worldview, but it must be voluntary, we stand firmly against it being compulsory and with your livelihood in peril. That is not the sort of relationship we want with our fellow citizens.”
  
  But no.
  
  And, while I’m at it – the ‘Maori worldview’ according to whom? How was that understanding of a Maori worldview arrived at? Were all Maori polled? Did they take a vote? Does the worldview include the idea that it is right to invade your neighbour, slaughter them and enslave the survivors? If not why not? Or is this worldview just a modern invention, created by the elites, capturing just the elements of Maori society and culture they deem advantageous to apply in modern times?
  
  And is there a European worldview? A Chinese worldview? Indian? Mexican?
  
  Like hell there is.
  
  And what of this claim of ‘Maori values’. Is there such a thing and are they unique to Maori? Or, are they in fact human values, some of which, some Maori place great importance on, over other human values. And again, according to whom? How was the list of ‘Maori values’ arrived at? Again, were people polled or is this an understanding arrived at by self-appointed academics and other assorted elites?
  
  And are there European values? Chinese? Russian? No, I argue that you assemble 100 people in a room, of any ethnicity, and you’ll get 100 different value sets and weightings.
  
  Actually observe people in their daily lives and look at the values they actually live by and demonstrate and the gulf will become even wider.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:07am
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men should do nothing.”
  
  To fight this injustice please click on the link above and make a donation to Janet’s legal fund. I’m semi-retired so only donated $25. Hope it helps.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:23am
  - Clyde
    
    I also urge as many people to contact the CEO of this Authority to voice their feelings about this woke BS. NZ has gone mad.
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:30am
- Grunter
  
  This is obviously wrong – very wrong in so many ways.
  
  This type of compulsory indoctrination of Maori “Values” just makes the majority of us strengthen our rejection of anything closely associated with ‘Maoriness’.
  
  Up until about 6 years ago, I was quite happy to use some Maori words whenever I felt like it (my choice of where, when, and why).
  
  But now? Nah thanks.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:28am
- Rich Prick
  
  I’ve always been ambivalent towards all things Maori, but this nonsense is turning me hostile. The woke need to be careful with what they wish for.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:29am
  - Swifty
    
    Yep.
    
    These acts of compulsion actively cause resentment and division.
    
    And needlessly so.
    
    But according to the anointed – it is those who oppose such developments who are causing the division. It is they who are doing the race-baiting. It is they who are the racists – the haters and wreckers.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:42am
  - Paulus
    
    The Media Party are the full time supporters of the Waitangi Tribunal and all its implications, as doing so is part of their policy to disturb, as much as possible, the Government they did not elect, albeit that the Electors did.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:02am
- Philview
  
  What sort of philosophy is at work here in New Zealand? Is it a strand of fascism or something else? It is race based, doesn’t like democracy, requires re-education, requires control of the media, it is against freedom of speech, it rails against perceived historical injustices and more.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:20am
  - Paulus
    
    James Cook statue nearly got himself fly chopped off recently because that is the level that we are reduced to – thanks Jacinda and Grant.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:04am
  - Jake Dee
    
    What sort of philosophy is at work here in New Zealand?
    It’s called “progressivism”
    To understand more, I can’t recommend better than this,
    “An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives” Curtis Yarvin
    https://www.unqualified-reservations.org/2008/04/open-letter-to-open-minded-progressives/
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:22pm
- leoj
  
  We got here because, as a society, we are too nice to tell the proponents of maori wonderfulness to get stuffed.
  
  Now that some of us are pointing this out and fighting back…… makes us RACISTS!
  
  Woke will kill us all if we don’t kick it in the guts.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:27am
- Muttonbird
  
  Dear, old Janet might’ve just gone to the 90 min seminar and saved some travellers $150K for the judicial review.
  
  That’s nearly $1700/min, or $28/sec!
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:52am
  - Nukuleka
    
    Ah, I see you subscribe to the appeasement school, Mutton. It’s easier and less costly in the short term to simply roll over and give in. That worked well for good old Neville Chamberlain, didn’t it? Proved somewhat expensive in the long term, though, eh! Grow a few principles, Mutton.
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:09pm
    - Swifty
      
      Put yourself ten, twenty or thirty years into the future.
      
      There is a prevailing orthodoxy, an ideology, that Muttonbird bitterly opposes, that is being gleefully adopted by the civil service and has filtered down to industry associations and regulatory bodies.
      
      It enters Muttonbird’s profession. He is now required to attend compulsory courses on the wonders and benefits of capitalism, the evil scourge of the 20th century that was communism, and he must attend lectures which remorselessly scorn, ridicule and lampoon the chronic hopelessness, haplessness and waste of the Ardern government – and if he doesn’t he can be kicked out of his profession and lose his livelihood.
      
      What does Muttonbird do?
      
      1. Just pay for the courses, keep his head down and suck it up – as he himself suggests for this lady.
      
      2. Scream, wail and moan that he is being oppressed by a fascist government and call for change?
      
      Well, we all know what Muttonbird would do don’t we?
      
      Muttonbird is nothing if not a hypocrite.
      
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      February 23, 2024 1:20pm
    - MCōs
      
      Prior to WWII when MJ Savage was PM he spoke out on behalf of NZ against appeasing Germany & Italy against the policies of the UK, Canada & Oz and the Opposition here
      
      “In 1938 Savage publicly criticised Britain’s acceptance of Hitler’s annexation of part of Czechoslovakia; this led to his being condemned by leading New Zealand newspapers such as the New Zealand Herald and Dominion for ‘this embarrassing and deplorable display of Empire disunity’.
      https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/4s9/savage-michael-joseph
      
      Maybe not the best example you could choose
      
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      February 23, 2024 1:23pm
  - leoj
    
    If a fight for our rights is needed, we won’t call on you then.
    
    Some of us have a spine.
    
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    February 23, 2024 1:06pm
    - Swifty
      
      Exactly.
      
      He’d fight if the shoe was on the other foot.
      
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      February 23, 2024 1:21pm
  - PurplePen
    
    If everyone followed Muttonbird’s approach women still wouldn’t be able to vote, nor could maori, gay sex would still be illegal, and any number of other freedoms.
    
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    February 23, 2024 3:18pm
- Homas
  
  You people don’t understand professional ethics.
  
  Look, if she doesn’t take the course, how’s she gonna know when it is or isn’t appropriate to “have a client for dinner”?
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:02am
- NothingLeft
  
  And of course in a 100 different ways this exact sort of bully pulpit behaviour is happening in schools and universities as well.
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:24am
- Close Hen Counters
  
  100% right? Unbelievable
  
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  February 23, 2024 4:58pm
- Scooter
  
  COVID and the ensuing mandates. They saw how compliant everyone was so will now be very hard to break the live of power those in charge have.
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:01pm
Opie

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/realtor-janet-dickson-facing-5-year-ban-for-refusing-maori-values-course/RUVMVQWKFVBGZE43VH4YF6BL4M/

Im no fan of real estate agents but good on her for fighting this.

People aren’t interested in this nonsense. Forcing them is not going to help.

What’s next, an electrician has to do the course because maoris also invented 3 phase power?
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February 23, 2024 8:03am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Toru phase power thankyou.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:07am
- General
  
  It’s already there for electrical stuff. I’m not making this up, it’s actually in the Electrical Code of Practice
  
  Maori terms
  
  From a Maori perspective, the term “earth” or Papatuanuku translates as Earth Mother – the source of all energy. When aligning this concept to the flow of electricity, a useful parallel can be made to the 3-pin plug.
  
  Active (phase): Spiritual element, active, tapu
  
  Neutral: Physical element, neutral, noa
  
  Earth: Mauri or life force derived from Papatuanuku or Earth Mother
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:07am
  - Swifty
    
    Good grief – we are devolving as a people.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Beyond ridiculous.
    Who will be the first to get a belt for not understanding? By that I mean the electricity give you a warning, I have had many. It says “If you are stupid enough to do that again, I will fucking kill you”
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:15am
  - Opie
    
    = zap
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:35pm
  - Close Hen Counters
    
    I have had to have a wee lie down
    
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    February 23, 2024 4:59pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Last zap one of the young guys comes running around.
      Are you OK Steve? How is your heart?
      Must be OK mate, I am still talking to you!
      I got thrown 2 meters, the screwdriver went about 6 meters.
      
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      February 23, 2024 5:47pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    I’ve mentioned this before, there is nothing wrong with getting terms for modern things from analogies to ancient concepts.
    English is full of them.
    Ever studied psychology? Ever heard of Titanium, Uranium, Thorium or Plutonium?
    I could go on.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:32pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘What’s next, an electrician has to do the course because maoris also invented 3 phase power?’
  
  Don’t laugh Comrade , when you see this justified by a “Maori advisor” with the marvellously indigenous, to Donegal Ireland , name of O’Donnell , along the lines of “important for people to understand the history of their country ” , then anything , anything is possible .
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:11am
Simon

Congresswoman Anna Paulina is introducing a bill to force members of Congress to fight on the frontline in Ukraine if they vote for $60 BILLION more Ukraine aid.

https://twitter.com/WallStreetSilv/status/1760590262974505216

This was the thing about the Ukraine Russia war. All those in NZ hot for Ukraine could have gone over there themselves to help. Work in a factory, drive a truck, work in logistics, dig trenches. A whole range of fighting roles that didn’t require serving in a front-line trench.

5,000 New Zealanders, Gweens, Labo & National types joined together in the fight against Putler in Ukraine. Then six months later another 5,000. Grass roots. What a powerful message. Then all the dripping wets, hundreds of thousands, from across the West in the Ukraine digging trenches, cooking food, moving the wounded. It would have been wonderful. But no. Paper tigers hot for war but will not fight. Fake & hollow.

Russia Ukraine war is a top down GAE vs Russia fight and real people are utterly indifferent.
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February 23, 2024 8:06am
- Matt Long
  
  Presumably the same arguments were advanced in regard to giving aid to Britain during WW2?
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:54am
  - Simon
    
    Ukraine is same as Britain as WW2? Why are you not driving a truck in the Ukraine now?
    
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    February 23, 2024 8:57am
  - Paulus
    
    At the early years of WWII the USA stayed away from offering any support to Britain until Pearl Harbour, December 1941 brought them into the war in Europe as well.
    Among other things what they did to Britain over Lend Lease, after the war was, as usual for the USA, a disgrace as was Suez.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:10am
- imalwaysright
  
  S,
  They are called keyboard warriors. They get excited when other people die.
  The same ilk get the endorphin rush watching the Israeli government eliminate Palestinians.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:08am
  - All_on_Red
    
    What a sick thing to say
    https://res.cloudinary.com/hb0stl6qx/image/upload/v1708517564/ARCCI_report_-_sexual_crimes_in_the_october_7_xsponl.pdf
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:44am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Send the unemployed.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:11am
  - kowtow
    
    Putin sends his convicts.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:13am
  - sirknz
    
    They will fail the drug test and have mental health issues. Pre TSD maybe?
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:20am
    - kowtow
      
      ‘fail the drug test and have mental health issues.’
      
      Solid preconditions for joining the Putin troll farm.
      
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      February 23, 2024 10:33am
- Grunter
  
  I read this morning that Ukraine has now opened up its entire armed forces to foreigners. Males and Females, or whatever you identify as. So anyone can now front up to be trained to shoot those Ruskies officially as part of the Ukraine army.
  
  This, of course, is because Ukraine has an estimated 500,000 dead and many more permanently injured and very few people left who want to fight or can fight.
  
  So there you go, if you truly believe in NATO = Good and Russia = Bad you now have the opportunity to fight. Doesn’t sound like you will have any ammo thou.
  
  What a nutty world we live in.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:37am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Ukraine cannot win this war – unless NATO gets dragged into it – WW III.
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:59am
    - Grunter
      
      I agree Don, and I have been commenting as such for a long time. There are many KBers holding the view of the MSM, which is opposite to what you and I think.
      
      Ukraine is an absolute mess of human catastrophe, and it was always going to be that way.
      
      Furthermore….
      If it ends up NATO vs Russia (WWIII) then any conventional war would be won by NATO (purely because of US air strength). But that conventional war would quickly turn to nuclear, and then, within hours, no one wins.
      
      The tactics and groupthink you read in the MSM on Ukraine, right from the ‘Zelensky-mania’ days of 2022, reminds me of the COVID hysteria and scare tactics used then. Europe and the UK are being whipped up into war hysteria this time around.
      
      IMO – most wars are bankers’ wars and the bankers desperately need a war right now. The central planners are now kicking in so expect to see some ‘false flags’ because they need to scare the crap out of everyone.
      
      Just like COVID – we need to question everything these buggers say!
      
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      February 23, 2024 12:12pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Europe appear to be gradually resolving that they are not going to let Russia take more land because Putin/Russia has signalling that they have designs on whole region, including Baltics. Europe is ramping up support accordingly, particularly as USA support is politically stalled (There will eventually be a work-around to Republican congressional resistance such as a Discharge Petition).
      
      It is the rate of increase in Ukrainian long range offensive capability that will decide when this war ends. There is huge cost asymmetry in offense vs defense. A few billion in low cost drone cruise missiles can do 100’s of billions in damage to Russia’s economy, particularly their critical oil infrastructure. But also Grid transformers, bridges, military factories and power stations that Russia will struggle to repair, as well as generally making politically dominant Muscovites scared. That is what will stop Russia. Maybe this year but more likely in 2025
      
      Consequently Ukraine are scaling up deep-strike capabilities (Russian refineries are burning all over the place). And Nato are supplying more long range cruise missiles (Taurus and Scalp/Storm Shadow). Iran and Korea supplying long range ballistics missiles has opened the door to the West supplying Ukraine with similar long range strike capabilities. The Kerch Bridge’s days are numbered (long range ATACMS will see to that), and Kherson-Crimea and other Zaphoresia bridges are now in range of cheap GLSDBs that Ukraine will be receiving in large numbers, which will make Russian logistics a nightmare. It’s almost inevitable that Crimea will be cut off from ground based resupply in next few months.
      
      And as always attrition of Russian equipment (evidenced by frequent spotting of 70year old T54’s tanks now being used by Russia) is getting more impactful to their continued war efforts, as well as drone lethality ramping up. Offense costs many times as much in losses as defense (old math was ~3x, but drones have made it far worse)
      
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      February 23, 2024 12:26pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        The saving grace is that with Trump being elected, he will get a truce – one like Boris Johnson scuttled on behalf of Biden about a year ago – so the fighting will end, & Russia will get a demilitarised zone. That is, if it’s not too late already.
        
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        February 23, 2024 1:16pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        NATO simply doesn’t have it.
        They don’t have the men, the equipment, the industrial base, the political willpower or the popular support for a war with Russia, or at least not any sort of war where they personally are likely to get killed. Those western weapons are only viable if they are shot from Ukraine by people who can at least plausibly be called Ukrainians. Once a missile fired from a third country kills a Russian then that country is fair game.
        I could go on but Crimea and the Kerch bridge?
        let’s look at that, I know I bang on about the prediction markets a lot but check this out.
        https://www.baseratetimes.com/#Russia_Ukraine
        
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        February 23, 2024 11:58pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    500k? LOL, straight from the Kremlin right?
    
    Back in reality there are closer to 100-120k dead Ukrainians, and several times that wounded (from US and UK estimates). Ie ~0.3% of their prewar population, or about 1 in 150 men.
    
    Russia has probably had 200k dead. (Assassinated Wagner head Prigozhin claimed 120k Russian dead up to June ’23) and of course several times that wounded.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:40am
  - Clown
    
    Maybe USA and their NATO shills should stay out of conflicts that do not concern them and keep their democratic lib ‘values’ to themselves. Maybe then – the conflict would have been resolved by now and less people would have died
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:30pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      It could have been resolved nearly a year ago, but Boris scuttled it on Biden’s instructions.
      
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      February 23, 2024 1:18pm
    - MCōs
      
      Two years ago Russia invaded Ukraine with the intention of absorbing the country into its orbit, at the very least.
      You, Clown, apparently believe the rest of the democratic world should have stood back and done nothing
      Meanwhile around the other side of the globe China is poised ready to gobble up Taiwan and North Korea may or may not fancy their chances if they invade the south in the name of reunification
      Without outside help Ukraine & Taiwan would be swallowed up
      
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      February 23, 2024 2:58pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Ukraine has underscored how vulnerable ships and aircraft are in the world of cheap drone tech, and how huge numerical superiority doesn’t translate to military dominance when there is a technology differential. The 180km wide taiwan strait would be a shooting gallery for an invading chinese force opposed by US subs and missiles. I think China is greatly chastened in their ambitions.
        
        The Chinese economy and demographics are also in the poo and enormously vulnerable to import and export restrictions. They wouldn’t be able to feed themselves if they went to war with the world (and their belligerence means they don’t have any allies int he region)
        
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        February 23, 2024 5:28pm
- Beach Haven expat
  
  And Ginny Andersen?
  
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  February 23, 2024 4:17pm
Im Right

I was chatting to a friend who lives in Wellington, he and another cpl he knows, are selling up and moving north (they all work in Wgt), they will go as far as the Porirua area ( they looking in Whitby area).
They know their rates will be hammered due to the water fixing costs….I gently reminded him that outside Wellington city, Porirua is the next highest rates rip off.
But he also has alot of equity in his current house, so will still be ahead of the game should he move.
Wonder how many living in Wgtn city are thinking the same as him?
I suggested Kapiti…..he says it’s too far from work, awwww diddums lol
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February 23, 2024 8:10am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Moving away was best thing this Deity’s whanau ever did. Why stay in a dying town when the same money gets you something nice an hour or so away. UFB and transmission gully makes it more than viable.
  
  The students and welfare bennies are welcome to squabble over the corpse.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:52am
- rouppe
  
  He’d still be within Greater Wellington Regional Council, which is the owner of Wellington Water
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:57am
  - RalphT
    
    But surely the Maori own Wellington water…
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:47am
Lee C

That’s because it’s never been about ‘U’ , Biscuit.

It’s mainly about ‘Them’.
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February 23, 2024 8:12am
- nova
  
  Reminds me the oft quoted saying “There’s no I in TEAM”. I have to bite my tongue to avoid saying back to the person that there is also “no U in TEAM”…
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:31am
  - sirknz
    
    The ‘I’ in Team can usually be found in the ‘A’ hole.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:21am
  - Omni Consumer Products
    
    Best come back I ever heard for the “I in Team” BS was, “no, but there is a U in cun….”
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:46am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    No, but there is ME
    
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    February 23, 2024 8:42pm
Biscuit

There was a ‘U’ in Chippie’s inane ‘We’re in it for you’ slogan, Lee!
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February 23, 2024 8:15am
- pdm
  
  Chippies problem was that ME was to hard for him to spell so he used the all encompassing U by mistake.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:22am
Cassandra

The media are full of tributes to Efeso Collins, an undistinguished politician and unsuccessful mayoral candidate. Certainly appears to have been a nice man but “tsunami of grief”? Sad for his family and friends and 48 is far too young but he doesn’t have a list of achievements or any history of making a difference. Why the OTT fuss? If Sam Uffindell dropped dead – also a nice man despite his youthful indiscretion, and young – would there be anything similar?
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February 23, 2024 8:18am
- kowtow
  
  I agree , it’s ott.
  
  I can only conclude that by doing this te media are proving their DEI credentials.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:51am
- the deity formerly known as nigel6888
  
  Yes, gravy trainer, failed in Labour, failed in council, failed mayoral candidate. Right at home in the Greens. In fact he probably improved their performance!
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:53am
  - lifesgood
    
    They are doing it to avoid having to call out the despicable Ginny Andersen for her loathsome comments. Can’t criticise a lefty, don’t you know.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:38am
- leoj
  
  There would have far less fuss if Collins was a whitey.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:23am
- Paulus
  
  But Sam Off is not a Pacific Island South Auckland ex Labour and then Green MP, person, so !
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:13am
- Beach Haven expat
  
  You only need to look at the responses to Seymour’s tribute tweet – majority saying no one would say the same if he dropped dead.
  
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  February 23, 2024 4:25pm
- Jake Dee
  
  I’m counting 4, no 5, no 6 tearful articles in tribute to Comrade Efeso Collins over at TDB.
  
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  February 24, 2024 12:07am
Alex13

Woke madness indeed:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/realtor-janet-dickson-facing-5-year-ban-for-refusing-maori-values-course/RUVMVQWKFVBGZE43VH4YF6BL4M/
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February 23, 2024 8:18am
- H. Upmann
  
  Donate now to Janet Dickson’s cause – https://www.hobsonspledge.nz/meetjanetdickson#donate-now
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:43am
- krazykiwi
  
  This is another instance of a regulatory body, one originally intended to root out member malfeasance, dodgy dealings so as to sustain public confidence, getting into woke overreach.
  
  No regulatory body should be permitted to deny a member their livelihood unless criminal charges result in a conviction.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:44am
  - Keith White
    
    The New Zealand Medical Council has entered the chat.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:12am
    - Souvlaki
      
      They “jumped the shark” a long time ago!!( akin to swallowing the Blarney Stone if you’re Irish!)
      
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      February 23, 2024 9:50am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Souv,
        
        The Blarney stone mythology is based on conferring the gift of verbal eloquence.
        I doubt that even the most able exponent would be able to make sense of the maori pseudo culture or the corruption of the medical council.
        
        7 0
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        February 23, 2024 10:23am
      - kowtow
        
        Funnily enough Blarney Castle was the seat of the MacCarthy clan.
        
        We’re now witnessing reverse MacCarthyism here with all this Marxist DEI compulsion.
        
        7 0
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        February 23, 2024 10:40am
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      Good luck with that
      
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      February 23, 2024 5:05pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    Only slightly disagree, there should be a way to suspend workers and professionals for incompetence, negligence, dereliction of duty, and malfeasance before an official conviction is handed down.
    None of which apply in this case of course.
    
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    February 24, 2024 12:11am
- krazykiwi
  
  Their email address is: info@reinz.co.nz.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:56am
  - krazykiwi
    
    My bad…. the address is info@rea.govt.nz
    
    Apologies to REINZ.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:06am
- Inandout
  
  Alex, will learning Maori stuff have an effect of paying their fees by installments, instead of being grabbed in conjunction with the legal conveyance charges. I admire this lady agent’s guts though even though the wise among us may well sell our own homes with a lawyer in tow.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:08am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  It’s a hot topic. You are the third to mention it.
  See others above.
  
  More reading:
  
  https://www.hobsonspledge.nz/meetjanetdickson
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:15am
Simon

With the boomers retiring, all the DEI hiring practices, vast increase in mickey mouse “compliance” roles the quality of the work force is in sharp decline.
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February 23, 2024 8:18am
- MCōs
  
  The quality of the workforce certainly didn’t decline when I retired
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:12am
  - General
    
    We are well aware
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:57am
- rouppe
  
  My employer is going to try and force all us IT contractors to go permanent. They’ve put out feelers and I’ve said “put an offer in front of me and if it’s attractive I’ll consider it”.
  
  But basically I doubt it’ll be competitive, I don’t want to deal with HR bull anymore so i’ll end up retiring as well.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:00am
- Jake Dee
  
  Seriously, this phenomenon has even had an effect on the ongoing military situation of NATO vs Russia.
  To expand the production lines the West needs technicians and skilled workers that are just not there anymore. Building them up again will take at least another generation.
  
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  February 24, 2024 12:19am
Southern Raider

Another Labour success story.

Labour closed down the immigration pipeline to businesses with critical skilled labour shortages while they did their great reset. Took businesses months again to reapply to get accredited under the new scheme, mountains of new process to follow and what did we get

Has to be many more examples like this. In this case multiple families from a remote Vietnamese fishing village who speak no English at all or have even the most basic trade skills cash up their lives and get Visas approved to work as painters in non existent jobs.

Although I feel for the families being duped they should have the visas cancelled and whoever at IMZ approved them fired.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/vietnamese-migrants-sold-everything-to-pay-for-work-visas-claim-promised-jobs-non-existent/3C2DSAN4DBCKFK2FABUKR4DTHI/
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February 23, 2024 8:19am
- 7kiwi11
  
  I thought an employer looking to bring in overseas labour had to prove there were no suitably qualified jobseekers in NZ who could take the position. Obviously I was wrong.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:59am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Oh they weee just weasel words
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:03am
  - I remember when
    
    “no suitably qualified jobseekers in NZ who could take the job”
    Or, was it, no suitably qualified NZer who would take the job.
    All of which extended the employment decision by several months.
    Then they had to be suitable, or really want the job, once they arrived if the were a suitably qualified jobseeker.
    
    Departmental suitability versus Employer suitaility!
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:45am
  - Ian
    
    So we know from the NewstalkZB site that Do, of Do Painters, said five from the group were sponsored to work for his company, which is an accredited employer, while the others were family members. Do claims to have been in business for 10 years, employ 54 staff and has a $1m turnover. So now we know he employs unskilled labour, who, as a customer, would want to use his services…..
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:29pm
- kowtow
  
  Can’t find it now but recently on interest.co.nz was a chart showing net migration.
  
  Apart from the usual big gains from China , India , Philipines , Fiji I was surprised at the big numbers coming in from Vietnam .
  
  It would appear that Labour in addition to all its other failings also lost control of the border.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:00am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The Ardern screwing over of NZ runs deep.
  Sure, Immigration NZ but she was the Prime Minister, the head Honcho.
  She ran before the lynch mob came for her.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:22am
- Swifty
  
  I just don’t get it.
  
  These people, it is said, have no education, no training, no skills relevant to a very low-skilled job, can’t speak English and are given work visas with one hundred and something thousand working age, healthy New Zealanders on the job seeker benefit.
  
  What the fuck is going on?
  
  Please don’t get me wrong, these people are likely good, honest, hard working people who have made great sacrifices to get here – but I’m sorry, we just don’t need them and we don’t suddenly owe overseas nationals a living just because they were ripped off by their countryfolk.
  
  FFS – this just makes no sense. Is this just another Labour shambles?
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:23am
  - Yabster
    
    yep- so dodegy painting company promises $50 an hour – reality is $29- but how is this skilled labour?- fucking labour fucking hopeless- they should never have been allowed in in the first place.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:48am
    - artemisia
      
      Basic painting skills can be developed quite quickly with the right attitude plus training and supervision.
      
      Recently I watched next door house being prepped and painted badly by an immigrant crew with minimal supervision. I got the owner to take a look, that crew gone next day. Not the fault of the crew really, they worked hard, but the boss was not checking the below standard work.
      
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      February 23, 2024 11:14am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    but I’m sorry, we just don’t need them
    
    I’m more than willing to support folks who work..
    
    I’m less than willing to support folks who are capable of working, but produce excuses as to why they don’t.
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:21am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Most of the NZ unemployed are unemployable.
    I have worked with them. 8am “drill a hole here” 10 am “I told you to drill a hole here”
    12pm gone.
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:24am
- Bobba Fret
  
  I’m a bit confused when I read this. Must be two sides to the story as the head of the painting company said they didn’t turn up for work so surely there are jobs for them?
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:23am
- Bobba Fret
  
  And this from the article:
  “They are fishermen and have no painting experience needed for the jobs that were offered.”
  No painting experience even!
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:27am
- Ghost
  
  Friend’s adult children and families moved here last year. They had to be sponsored by a business, and I think the business also had pay a fee to employ them
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:34am
rouppe

The public service cuts activity is starting to piss me off.

Over Labour’s tenure, massive increases in staff costs occurred. I’m pretty sure there was a news item a year or two ago about the (substantial) numbers of communications staff and media managers involved.

Now, “cutting wasteful spending” is a case of “cut 6.5%” and the same leaders that did that hiring are effecting it by voluntary redundancy and early retirement. No targeting at all. No examination of what is wasteful. No examination of what would make a more efficient and productive agency.

In my case they’ve hired dozens of managers and fired a whole bunch of engineers. Just stupid.

Nicola Willis, you need to do better.
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February 23, 2024 8:21am
- cmm
  
  “In my case they’ve hired dozens of managers and fired a whole bunch of engineers. Just stupid.”
  
  The task of making the reductions was given to the managers, not the engineers.
  
  Question: Who’s interests are the managers going to look after? The taxpayers’, the engineers’, or, maybe, just maybe, their own.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:57am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Natural attrition is the first step, 500 to go this morning, don’t forget we are still working from Robertsons bullshit budget from last year which finishes in June, let’s wait till the new budget and see the use of the money before rubbishing her, let’s give her a chance, she has already lifted the 6.5 to near read between 6.5- 7.5
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:08am
  - cmm
    
    Relying on attrition is the wrong and cowardly way to tackle the issue.
    
    If you rely on attrition then the good people leave and find better (and less toxic) jobs.. They are the ones you really want to keep, but they go.
    
    The people that stay are those that can’t get a better job. They’re the ones you really want to get rid of, but they stay.
    
    That’s a generalisation of course, but it is how these things play out.
    
    The only way to prevent this situation is by actively cutting the under performers. But in such organisations how do you know who they are?
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:27am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I said attrition would be the first step, as I said wait till after the budget, 500 going in today in just one ministry
      
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      February 23, 2024 11:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Those managers are not going to sack themselves right? So sack anyone except yourself.
  I don’t see it as Nicola Willis’s fault, just the leftover scum from Robertson and Ardern’s employment scheme.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:26am
  - rouppe
    
    Correct, though different managers.
    
    The CIO early last year got in Deloitte to advise on a restructure. There certainly were issues that needed to be resolved.
    But the end result was hire dozens of “technical product owners” for areas of the business that had little or no oversight, but not one technical person to effect any actual change like upgrades, consolidation, performance tuning. What are those TPO’s actually going to do?
    Then the budget crunch happened, and the quick and easy response was lose contractors. Who are the contractors? The technical people.
    Which has just made the job of doing more for less more difficult.
    
    The TPO’s don’t make that decision, it is other managers, but yes, take your point
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:28am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Back office managers will be sack eventually by heads of ministries when it’s pointed out many are not required
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:35am
  - cmm
    
    “I don’t see it as Nicola Willis’s fault”
    
    It is an entirely predictable consequence of the polices she is enacting.
    
    I can’t believe she is so naive that she would not understand that.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:50am
- PurplePen
  
  Yeah, I was in the Wellington botanic gardens Lady Norwood Rose garden yesterday showing a visitor around, sunny day and all that. Anyway, the roses were looking the worse for wear and no-one has been removing the dead heads .. as one does. Happened too speak with a gardener there and he said the number of workers in the garden keeps being decreased and the number of admin staff keeps increasing, presumably trying to keep up with all the emails they need to send each other. This is kind of how it must be across the whole local and central public service. Sad really.
  
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  February 23, 2024 3:28pm
Maggie Pie

MORE WORLD-CLASS-BULLSHIT from SIR BOB 😀 😀 😀

https://nopunchespulled.com/2024/02/22/world-class-bullshit/

My partner’s mum knew BJ from her time at Vic back in the early 70’s
She still calls him a “National Treasure”
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February 23, 2024 8:26am
- alwyn.a
  
  Are you sure it was Bob she knew?
  Bob was at Vic in the late 50’s. His younger brother, Novelist Lloyd was there in the early 70’s.
  It seems more likely it was Lloyd she knew.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:55am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Silly! It was Ma that was at Uni and flatting in Wello. Apparently they often met up with BJ and the other boys on the pub circuit. She’s about 6 or 7 years younger than Bobbie.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:01am
- Grunter
  
  Sir Bob has a brilliant way with words…””That verbiage is world class cock”
  
  Thx for the link Maggie – I didn’t realise he was back on his Blog. Very entertaining!
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:22am
- rouppe
  
  Thought he’d stopped blogging and taken off to somewhere nice
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:31am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Ha, he’s a life long sufferer of an itch he just can’t scratch any other way.
    
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    February 23, 2024 2:55pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Oh, Maggie Pie, this is at least the second time you have posted this nonsense.
  
  As Tom Hunter said to you here, https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/04/general_debate_11_april_2022.html#comment-3160431, back in April 2022, “The trick with online personas used as satire is that one must always remain in character.”
  
  One must also get dates and people’s ages correct. If ‘Ma’ is 77 or 78 (Sir Bob is 84), then she went to Vic from about 1964, well after Sir Bob was there. If she was at Vic in the early 70s, she must have been either a late-, or ‘Adult’, student. Was she? (I’m assuming she was not working and attending Uni part-time, although that’s a possibility, too.)
  
  If you’re going to put this “anecdote” up again, you really need to make sure you clarify the all-important details with ‘Ma’ before you do. Otherwise, you will continue to just look silly.
  
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  February 23, 2024 3:20pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I was at Vic in 1974 and recall Bob Jones (and a noisy bevvy of females and hanger-ons) sitting in the row behind me in the Memorial Theatre during a revue show.
    
    He wasn’t a student, but seemed to be well known to many folks in the university scene.
    
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    February 23, 2024 4:55pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Thanks, Maggy. Interesting additional information.
      
      Did the “noisy bevvy of females” primarily comprise women in their early 20s – clearly full-time students, just like yourself – do you recall? Regardless, we still don’t know what ‘Ma’ was doing there. Maggie says, “mum knew BJ from her time at Vic back in the early 70’s”, but, the question remains, was she an adult student, a part-time student, or just some sort of “BJ crowd” hanger-on?
      
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      February 23, 2024 5:31pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I’ve no real idea of the age/identity of the females with Bob Jones… but they were dressed in a manner well out of my budget and looked pretty glamorous.
        
        This was my first year at Vic… after having spent my undergrad years at Massey..a provincial backwater where folks dressed in jeans and sweaters on campus.
        
        Imagine my horror turning up to Vic and discovering male students in suit and ties, and females wearing full make-up and high heels to lectures.
        
        (Who can tell the age of a female between 14-50 in full warpaint?)
        
        5 1
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        February 23, 2024 5:50pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        @Maggy Wassilieff @ 5:50PM
        
        Thank you, Maggy. I’ll leave it at that now: I think I’ve made my point.
        
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        February 23, 2024 6:41pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Where is our Hercules?

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/amy-brooke-cleaning-out-the-augean-stables-is-it-too-late-for-new-zealand

“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”
– G. Orwell
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February 23, 2024 8:28am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Noone comes to mind, sadly but they must be out there. Either Erica Stamford has plans… or as a nation the education of our young people continues up sh## creek sans paddle.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:34am
  - krazykiwi
    
    I believe we’re seeing nice, well meaning, well presented on the campaign trail, inexperienced politicians coming face-to-face with the harsh realities of a intransigent, permanent state sector. Stanford and Willis are good examples.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:03am
    - cmm
      
      It is virtually impossible to fix the situation.
      
      You want to cut the dead wood and keep any productive staff that are there.
      
      But how the hell do you tell who is who?
      
      16 1
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      February 23, 2024 9:31am
      - Inandout
        
        cmm, our local Council CEO had all employees re-apply for their jobs. It can and is done in the private sector as well.
        
        6 0
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        February 23, 2024 10:05am
      - rockape
        
        Sack those who have taken the most sick days.
        
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        February 23, 2024 10:24am
      - imalwaysright
        
        Cmm,
        “But how the hell do you tell who is who?”
        
        Vivek Ramaswamy wanted to reduce the US public service by 50%.
        His plan was to tell those whose social security number was an odd number that they no longer have a job.
        It is the most effective and efficient way to get rid of the dead wood.
        
        Willis could ask that public servants whose IRD number ends in,say, 9 be dismissed.
        
        5 0
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        February 23, 2024 10:48am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        In and out
        That’s because those CEOs know the staff, you can’t expect new ministers to know everyone
        
        2 1
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        February 23, 2024 11:36am
      - cmm
        
        Inandout: Sack them all and let them reapply?
        
        Who is going to go through the CVs and decide who to hire back? It will end up with mates hiring mates and you’re back in the same hole again.
        
        3 0
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        February 23, 2024 11:52am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Start with HR, H&S, Procurement & the Kaiwakahaere
        
        2 0
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        February 23, 2024 8:52pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Thing is how to rid the Public Sector of the stagnant rot that has been there for decades. So far embedded they do not even need an exit plan.
      
      9 2
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      February 23, 2024 9:32am
- Yabster
  
  yep- the Min of Educ needs a clean out- I doubt it will happen though.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:35am
  - kowtow
    
    That was one ministry whose staff grew massively in the last 6 years , and what’s there to show for it.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:01am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Where will there 6.5% saving come from them? She said front line staff will not lose third jobs like teachers and heads,, wistful things like advisors to green and gender and diversity bullshit will come at huge cost, let’s see what happens with the new budget process
    
    7 1
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    February 23, 2024 9:12am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Sack the lot and re-employ on an ability to do the job basis. The rest, DCM.
    Not going to happen. Unions. 50,000+
    
    7 3
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    February 23, 2024 9:37am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Pretty sure that would lead to sorts of problems, not the least the cost of sacking them, only to hire most back
      
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      February 23, 2024 11:38am
    - Ghost
      
      So pay out redundancies to them all, then employ them. What a waste of money
      
      4 0
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      February 23, 2024 11:40am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        How else do you sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly?
        Only has to be done once.
        A lot of Labour jobs on contract are being terminated.
        
        3 0
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        February 23, 2024 12:04pm
      - Ghost
        
        So you are prepared to spend hundreds of millions on pay outs to sack them all.
        
        4 0
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        February 23, 2024 12:11pm
      - MCōs
        
        I worked for the MOW for a few years about fifty years ago
        In 1993 it was dissolved and some guys I knew who were still there picked up really big redundancy payments. Enough to pay off mortgages, for example
        The work still had to be done so after a relaxed few days off they’d resume work for a private company doing the same stuff.
        
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        February 23, 2024 3:18pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      I know for a fact (absolute, restructuring-related first-hand experience in the last 3 months) that the MoE is terrified of teacher and principal unions. The ministry requires compliance of school leadership in deference to union demands, where they would never adopt those same constraints for any internal ministry restructuring.
      
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      February 23, 2024 1:36pm
  - Paulus
    
    Something like 4,500 in the Min of Ed I understand, and no wonder they have made a cock of it as many of their top people appear to be ex Teachers.
    No they will only fight the Minister until Labour are reelected.
    Understand of all Departments they are the most virulent and aggressive.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:21am
- Tom Hunter
  
  It is absolutely not in the DNA of National MP’s to do radical things like firing the senior management of the MOE.
  
  I almost feel sorry for Sanford. She’ll find herself slowly getting hemmed over time in by these “experts” who will figure out ways of seeming to change the systems without really changing them.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:53am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Same with Karen Chhour. She’s keeping the existing organga tamariki board.
    She is either scared of them, or Seymour has told her to not rock the waka while he’s pissing about with a treaty.
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:58am
- cmm
  
  What chance of thinking then from a culture based using an unwritten language?
  
  Yes, this is true. A culture of writing stuff down and haggling over the details is what leads to precision of thought. Without precision in the definitions of concepts there is not going to be any precision in the discussion of concepts. The thinking muscle gets no exercise.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:01am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Cmm
    
    Tell that to the Supreme Court.
    They have already heard a case because of “tikanga”, a mythical concept.
    
    5 1
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    February 23, 2024 11:03am
    - Jake Dee
      
      It’s mythical concepts all the way down.
      “Supreme Court” is a mythical concept.
      The question is does it work or not?
      
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      February 24, 2024 12:37am
- Gravelroad
  
  There was a Hercules at the Woodbourne airbase just the other day………….
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:23am
  - Paulus
    
    Tauranga sees the Hercs regularly on calibration flights.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:22am
- Grunter
  
  The only way to fix the Education sector IMO is to scrap the lot and literally start again, it is that bad.
  
  Ban ‘The State’ from any involvement. They have clearly failed big time and they can’t resist the chance to indoctrinate our children. We do not need a “Ministry of Children’s Indoctrination”.
  
  A fully open education system would work much better. The private sector, plus charities, would step up immediately, and within 1-2 years most existing problems would be eliminated.
  
  Power and choice to the parents!
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:31am
- thirteenstars
  
  In reality the problem now rests at the feet of NZ parents, grandparents and those with a direct stake in sanity. Unless they educate themselves as to the true cause and depth of the problem they will continue to believe an hour of literacy per day and banning cellphones will do any good.
  
  Alwyn Poole posted an article here yesterday saying aspirational leadership needed to come from the top. I disagreed because a bureaucracy cannot be aspirational. It can however have an ideology and an agenda, and that is what we have long had, and it is always dangerous.
  
  In Brooke’s article she makes a interesting comment: “While it may be the government’s job to ensure that all children get an education, it is not the job of the government to supply one.”
  
  Indeed, and until the parents, et al. of this country demand direct control over the money allocated to the education of their children–call it vouchers, call it Student Education Accounts, whatever–in order that they might send their children to the school that suits them best, and until the government through specific legislation facilitates the establishment of low-cost, high-value community schools so parents have true choice in education, nothing will change.
  
  Do those things and a quiet but enormously powerful revolution will be unleashed upon this country where parents vote with their feet and their children thrive.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:59am
Cassandra

On Newsroom an academic (what else?) laments sanctions on welfare recipients who refuse to work – “it’s cruel to the poor”. Nonsense. It’s trying to motivate the lazy. Most beneficiaries will not be affected. Most make an attempt to get off and to follow the rules. Those that don’t need encouragement to get off the couch. Bleeding Heart academics might need a bit of motivation too from the look of it. They could sponsor a beneficiary perhaps?
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February 23, 2024 8:28am
- cmm
  
  It glosses over the worst cruelty to poor people: robbing them of their agency.
  
  What is worse?
  
  * A year or two of discomfort as you learn to get off the couch, turn up at work reliably and generally become employable. Then slowly climbing the ladder to some sort of career.
  
  * Just saying it is too hard and staying on the couch forever.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:05am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    In general most people do want to work, a previous post I mention many people losing their job get a new job before they even get their first payment, the sanctions National is talking about is too a relatively low number of people over the 190000 on job seekers benefit, why the stupid left can’t see that is beyond me.
    
    I love the way when Luxon is asked about bashing the poor he simply says I’m sorry, but I will not apologise for getting people back into work
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:18am
    - cmm
      
      When people are on Jobseekers for many years ON OVERAGE, then there is clearly a lot of rorting going on.
      
      Why should the taxpayer be putting up with any of it?
      
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      February 23, 2024 9:33am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      “back to work”?
      Some of them are the 2nd and 3rd generation of welfare dependents.
      The attitude is embedded.
      
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      February 23, 2024 9:44am
  - kevn
    
    cmm… Bit of crime on the side to topup the bene.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:54am
  - Paulus
    
    Years ago I worked in a Kiwi Fruit packhouse and it was obvious to see how easy it was to stuff the very fast production, and we saw this happen, so that the offender would get the sack and go back to Winz.
    More than one.
    QED
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:25am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Why do the left brush all people on the dole with the same filthy shit, many people go on the dole and get a new job before they even get their first payment, they show weakness and a real reason not to vote for these idiotic nutters
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:14am
- rouppe
  
  It’s not sanctions for being on the dole, it’s sanctions for not trying.
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:29am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The ones that are drug dealers that also sit on the dole are living a lavish lifestyle, they don’t want a job, they are not bloody poor, why are the left so weak minded
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:50am
kowtow

How did the country come to a state whereby a real estate agent could lose her job for reasonably refusing to attend what is a DEI woke brain washing ethnoracist statist style compulsory re education “course”.

Today’s Herald story says the course was designed by “Te Whare Wananga O Awauirangi” what ever or whoever that is.

I’m wondering if the Ardernista regime ,during its 6 long years of imposition quietly put pressure on any and everyone it could to adopt such nonsense ,or else.
The course is no longer compulsory , for some odd reason.Is that part of the relief many parts of the nation felt in the aftermath of the last general election.
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February 23, 2024 8:31am
- surfing
  
  This is outrageous, and a huge attack on the freedom of people. In the article…
  
  Poutaki Mātauranga Māori adviser at Waipapa Taumata Rau (the University of Auckland) Bernie O’Donnell says…
  “The next iteration of racism is ignorance,” he said.”
  
  He is calling her a racist , for refusing to take irrelevant and politically motivated courses on the wonderfulness of Maori. I bet they don’t mention the maori crime and child abuse in that course!
  
  You basically can’t get a government job now if you don’t believe in the modern reinterpretation of the treaty.
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:42am
- pdm
  
  kowtow – Hobson’s Choice have been supporting this lady on Facebook for the last 10 days or so.
  
  The question I have asked there is this:
  Where is the support from her Real Estate Colleagues and Peers?
  
  Did the rest of them just lie down and (dare I say) kowtow to the regulatory body?
  
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  February 23, 2024 8:43am
  - Debsta
    
    Yep that’s exactly what they would have done. Sadly, as covid years clearly showed, the vast majority of kiwis will happily forfeit their agency in order to not rock the boat. We used to be a strong proud nation of free thinkers for the most part, but appears we have squandered that. Makes me sad and angry.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:39am
    - Yabster
      
      yep her boss in the article- said something like “you must feel strongly on the issue to take a stand”– he has already done the course etc- what a fucking weak response- maybe start boycotting his agency- see if some economic motivation motivates him to take a stand…
      
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      February 23, 2024 9:54am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    “Where is the support from her Real Estate Colleagues and Peers?”
    
    “Dickson works for Harcourt’s International and its CEO Bryan Thomson told NZME that he had completed the compulsory course.”
    “I think you learn new, and often important, information from any training you do,” he said.
    
    “For someone to take a stand like this then they must have a very strong view about it.”
    Pretty obvious really
    
    If behaviours like this are to be changed then industry heads need to get the message about how their customer majority is feeling, which means boycotting those that do kowtow. Harcourt’s have just had a red line put through their name as a potential agent for an up coming sale despite their almost exclusive prior use over decades.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:57am
    - gravedodger
      
      In the RE industry over thirty years ago and in discussion over his company’s clear disregard for ethics with a branch manager for Harcourts who was quite a regular attendee defending his top sales person at hearings.
      
      His attitude clearly summed up with “We don’t make any money from ethics”?
      
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      February 23, 2024 10:52am
    - cmm
      
      “Where is the support ”
      
      Nobody wants to put their head up. Just lie low…
      
      That’s the way bullying works.
      
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      February 23, 2024 11:55am
    - andrew davies
      
      “I think you learn new, and often important, information from any training you do,” he said.
      
      Ok then Mr Thompson, please tell us what you learnt that you did not already know and how will it help you in your job.
      
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      February 23, 2024 12:21pm
  - kowtow
    
    Like the scene at the end of the movie The Last Emperor where the nasty prick Red Guard tells John Lone ( Pu Yi) “Join us comrade or fuck off”
    
    We’re witnessing , literally, our very own version of a Cultural Revolution . Sadly though a huge number of Useful Idiots don’t get that they are also Red Guards.
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:46am
- cmm
  
  What is kinda scary is that it means every stuffed suit that comes to give you real estate advice is a graduate of this DEI thinking.
  
  But in reality it doesn’t end there. You won’t graduate as an engineer or a doctor or anything else unless you submit to this woke think either.
  
  Why should real estate people get a free pass?
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    How many of them hate the fact they have wasted time snd money, and did it too get the woke off their backs,
    
    I bet Mike McColl
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:20am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Should have said I bet Mike McKool didn’t
      
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      February 23, 2024 11:52am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “The course is no longer compulsory”
  Now I did read that somewhere, but can’t find it.
  It seems existing Real Estate Agents have to do the course but new beginners do not have to do it. Or did I get that wrong?
  Sounds crazy.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:32am
  - kowtow
    
    You’re right . It’s in the Herald article.
    
    I’m wondering if this is cos we managed to give the Ardernistas the boot and a wee bit of spine is finding its way into these bullied civil institutions……
    
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    February 23, 2024 10:48am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Well I just got my sanity back – I was not dreaming!
      
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      February 23, 2024 12:12pm
  - rouppe
    
    Yes, that’s correct. But it’s not gone.
    
    There are (apparently) 2 mandatory courses, and 8 (I think) optional courses a year. Not sure of the number of options there are.
    
    The course in question was mandatory but has been moved to the optional list for the following year.
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:47am
Taieri

Where is our Hercules?
————-

Nec Hercules contra plures.
Even if there was one…
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February 23, 2024 8:35am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Modicae fidei quare dubitasti?
  
  7 0
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  February 23, 2024 8:56am
  - Cassandra
    
    Omnes impressi sumus.
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:07am
  - Keith White
    
    Sic transit gloria mundi.
    
    (Gloria threw up in the van on Monday…).
    
    14 0
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    February 23, 2024 9:14am
    - Bridgenag
      
      The Latin to English free translator is good
      
      6 0
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      February 23, 2024 9:43am
      - kowtow
        
        Romano ad britanicum gratis lingochango bono est.
        
        3 0
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        February 23, 2024 10:51am
    - greybeard
      
      I always thought that meant “School bus broke down, great start to the week”
      
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      February 23, 2024 9:53am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

American Red Cross wants you to donate if you have been vaccinated.
Red Cross has lied and given vaccinated blood to those who don’t wish to be vaccinated.

https://www.thepoliticalglobe.com/untold-impact-of-vaccine-discrimination-red-cross-revelation-alarms-citizens-02-22-2024/?
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February 23, 2024 8:42am
- wisteria
  
  The American Red Cross runs the blood service.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:00am
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

People with knowledge of the matter who have commented on the condition of anonymity, are saying Chief-Human-Rights-Commissioner Paul Hunt was blindsided by Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith’s announcement… “that he wouldn’t be reappointed”

Oh, and Paul… don’t let the door hit you in the arse on the way out 😀
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February 23, 2024 8:43am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Perhaps Mr Hunt should have been a bit more discerning about NZ History before he allowed rubbish to be published by HRC.
  
  https://media.realitycheck.radio/2024/02/Doctrine-of-Discovery-HRC-2024.pdf
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:06am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    A bestie asks…
    
    Should a person steeped in British left wing activism have been allowed to shape New Zealand’s human rights policy?
    
    People are saying another typical Ardern appointment of an idiot pom 🙁
    
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    February 23, 2024 9:23am
    - Paulus
      
      Was he not recruited by the Labour Party from the UK Labour Party – so go home Mr Hunt – your type is not required here.
      But if you speak Maori you might get the dole as a Job Seeker.
      
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      February 23, 2024 1:41pm
    - Beach Haven expat
      
      Peak colonialism
      
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      February 23, 2024 4:35pm
  - OlderChas
    
    Maggy he not only allowed it to be published – he copyrighted it to himself!
    
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    February 23, 2024 11:00am
- Cassandra
  
  Best news I’ve had for ages. Even better if the entire office was disbanded. What on earth do they all do which is useful?
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:09am
  - mandk
    
    Where was the HRC when people were being coerced into having the vaxx.
    
    There was no more flagrant breach of human rights than this.
    
    15 1
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    February 23, 2024 10:05am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Hiding under their rocks.
      Media kept them right out of it.
      
      11 2
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      February 23, 2024 10:36am
    - Keith White
      
      mandk: Right up there with denying well and healthy people entry to their own country, and locking them up without charges, a hearing / trial, and a conviction for minimum 2 weeks, often longer if a faux-test kept coming back faux-positive.
      
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      February 23, 2024 12:58pm
- surfing
  
  Possibly he can get a job at maccas.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:18am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, I feel he will get a job at Otago Uni and join the gaggle of Labour wokes already established there.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:13am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Looks like he would fit in with the rest of them as well 😀
    
    https://twitter.com/PaulHuntSRights/photo
    
    7 1
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    February 23, 2024 10:52am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

FFS. TV! idiot box has a male mermaid down at the Viaduct.
I just changed channel but the speaker of the house changed it back.
Aimed at 5 year olds. We are dumbed down.
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February 23, 2024 8:45am
- MCōs
  
  All the real mermaids I’ve ever seen are actually androgynous, which is a bit disappointing
  
  10 2
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  February 23, 2024 9:32am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I think you mixed them up with drag queens LOL!
    
    6 2
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    February 23, 2024 10:38am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  A mermanservant?
  
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  February 23, 2024 12:22pm
- Observer of Life
  
  Steve: I worry about your wife. What the hell is wrong with her that she insists on watching that channel (or any channel!!). 😂
  
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  February 23, 2024 2:33pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Observer,
    keep the queen bee happy and the whole hive is happy.
    I can put on ear muffs and a sleeping mask.
    That just makes her go apeshit!
    
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    February 23, 2024 5:53pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

If you just read the headline, you might reasonably conclude that WCC was increasing parking. Nope. What’s happening is that Council are changing coupon parking to metered parking.

What’s not stated is the reason metered parking dropped in the first place, which is those wretched cycleways. Add to that Council’s sale some years ago of its parking buildings, resulting in the usual monopolist carpark company stretches its pricing, means that car parking is more expensive and located further away from the city centre than before.

The headline should have read ‘Wellington’s war on cars continues apace’.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350189427/wellingtons-metered-parking-resurgence-numbers
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February 23, 2024 8:46am
- MCōs
  
  So you’re saying the parking buildings, like the Museum Hotel, have been moved from their previous locations?
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:37am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Wilson’s monopoly
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:44pm
Scooter

Just heard that friends of friends (European with freshly issued NZ passports are heading to Australia), apparently quite a few of them are doing it. I wonder if any agency here or in Oz are recording any of this, IE immigrants that come here to get an NZ pspt then head off.
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February 23, 2024 9:03am
- MCōs
  
  Back in the seventies a Jewish refugee engineer from the USSR came to work in our office as a draughtsman.
  He couldn’t speak, read or write English, which was a bit of a problem in that occupation, but he quickly figured it out. His wife, baby & parents came out too. His mother in law couldn’t handle the loneliness and killed herself.
  The rest of the family split for Oz as soon as they became NZers.
  
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  February 23, 2024 9:59am
  - Jack5
    
    Russian Jews have made a big impact on Western technology.
    
    For example, they include the founders of Google, WhatsApp, and PayPal – respectively Sergey Brin, Jan Koum, and Max Levchin.
    
    Between 1989 and 2006, almost a million Russian Jews migrated to Israel. They created thousands of technology start-ups in Israel, which, I think, has the world’s largest number of such ventures per head of population.
    
    The NZ Government even funded a study visit to Israel by 50 NZ business people in 2016. It included Simon Moutter, boss of Spark, and Sir Peter Gluckman, the Prime Minister’s chief science adviser.
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:04pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I worked for a short time with a newly arrived Russian Jewish immigrant. She had good English but her hubby didn’t. He had worked in a pretty high-up role in a nuclear power plant, but could only get a job as an Electrician’s assistant in NZ.
    
    They were shocked to discover we lived in an old wooden house (desirable Edwardian villa in Island Bay) when they came around for dinner and informed us that only peasants lived in wooden houses in Russia.
    
    They couldn’t wait to qualify for NZ citizenship and head to Brisbane….and a decent brick house.
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:35pm
I remember when

Pamu replaces quad bikes on all its farms after deaths: RNZ.
Pamu, also known as Landcorp, has made the call to remove 440 bikes off its 110 farms.
For dairy farms, it has plumped for two-wheel bikes and four wheel off-roaders.
In the hill country areas, it has gone for side-by-side off-roaders.
They estimate it will probably cost a million a year in capital expenditure.
Up to $700,000 a year in operational expenses.
There were 11 deaths involving four-wheel bikes in NZ in the 19 months to July 2023.

Hope there are some follow-up results in a couple of years.
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February 23, 2024 9:07am
Bridgenag

Why are Hispanics Mobilizing Around Trump?
“Food with Dignity”

“They recognize that the porous border is a danger to the American way of life. To being safe. That the urban centers in the USA are being overwhelmed with people who do not deserve to be here. They have not earned it. They have cheated to get here.

Furthermore, while this group of legal immigrants had to work and continue to work, the US government is putting the illegal immigrants in the front of the line, displacing people who are here legally and going through the proper channels.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/why-are-hispanics-mobilizing-around?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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February 23, 2024 9:08am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The illegals are taking the legal Hispanic jobs and accommodation. They came legally for the American Dream and it is being taken away from them. They know Trump will stop it and deport the illegals (or some of them anyway)
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:49am
Hugh Jarse

The child poverty stats released in the last couple of days were for the year ended 30 June 2023, before this current administration, not that the media announced that too loudly. I haven’t seen any member of the government of the time including the responsible Minister being asked by the media about this ongoing failure under their administration.

Acknowledge that a new administration is now in place but part of Labours legacy is that this issue is one of many that got worse under their reign making it much harder for the new government to address.
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February 23, 2024 9:10am
vand

“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well, and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.”
– G. Orwell
Indeed Maggie

Grandchild in year 13 tells me their activist female English teacher informed the class of an exemplar of one student who critiqued SpongBob from a Marxist perspective- -pleasing the teacher no end. The teacher didn’t read out the “exemplar” though.
Apparently the crab is the exploitative café owner and SpongBob is the exploited worker.

I told the dear grandchild to ask the teacher if she felt exploited . And wasn’t she privileged to be paid fortnightly by the State (tax payers) whether or not she performed well as a teacher.

To give her a chance of pass mark in English the dear grandchild will no doubt refrain from such a line of questioning!
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February 23, 2024 9:30am
Jack5

For those who missed the post in General Debate late last night …

Karl du Fresne, a former editor of the Dominion daily newspaper in Wellington, has had a final whack at TVNZ’s John Campbell.

In what du Fresne said was his last post on his blog , for the foreseeable future, he analyses the difference between opinion-based reporting and the older type which sought to be objective.

Du Fresne makes a good argument for the latter.

He’s had whacks at Campbell before.

Du Fresne will be supported by those who see and hear Campbell as a soppy, emotion-dripping Leftist pushing a Woke, Left world view via a taxpayer-owned medium.

The post is preceded by jousts with other second-rate Wokies.

Don’t stop blogging, Karl, NZ needs you!

https://karldufresne.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-case-for-objectivity-in-journalism.html
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February 23, 2024 9:40am
- cas
  
  I once did a paper in Media Studies from Massey many many moons ago before Massey went woke. In one of the books we had to read Brian Edwards was very strict on the need for objectivity. I suppose Campbell and Rose would say that’s old school.
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:56am
Matt Long

BP Otaki. It could be worse, the truck could have put petrol in the diesel tanks.
It also could have been better, they could have stopped selling the contaminated fuel immediately someone had a problem and notified victims it was diesel contamination. https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/contaminated-fuel-from-bp-otaki-connect-petrol-station-leaves-drivers-fuming/V4KVGFRTJVGRFC5BAYDZKNLKZY/
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February 23, 2024 9:42am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Turning off the pumps would be admitting a fault, which they did not want.
  In the end it was forced on them.
  Petrol motors don’t really like diesel. The rattling and hesitation problems come from pre-ignition. Used to be called ‘pinking.’ I have drained, flushed and filled a few.
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:05am
Matt Long

I wonder how the consents for the waste to power facility in Kaipara are going?
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/509870/plastics-recycling-was-a-green-washing-lie-all-along-report-author
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February 23, 2024 9:44am
I remember when

Why Is TED Scared of Colour Blindness: By Coleman Hughes. The Free Press.
(By line) The organisation’s tagline is “ideas worth spreading.” But it attempted to suppress mine.

Coleman Hughes is a Black Author who has recently released his book
‘The End of Race Politics: Arguments for a Colorblind America.’

The article is about the lengths a group of TED staff under “Black@TED” went to denigrate his talk and the extent to which this was taken.
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February 23, 2024 9:45am
Jack5

Canterbury University hasn’t gone as far down the Woke path as Otago, with its race-based medical courses, and Maori approval required for all research.

But it’s relationship with the South Island tribe, Ngai Tahu, is interesting.

It’s spelled out in this article in December by Philip Matthews, a Left-wing journalist at the Christchurch Press:

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350126799/how-ngai-tahu-had-push-university-canterbury-bicultural-relationship
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February 23, 2024 9:53am
- Yabster
  
  yep my old Uni- the lot are going down the woke hole- from 5 to 21 -you will be told what to think, what the Treaty is etc If you’re white, how privileged you are if you’re a Maori how special you are… It is a clear strategy by the left and to be frank a smart one. How do we fight back though?
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:49am
  - thirteenstars
    
    Defund education. Directly fund the parents of dependent children. Directly fund adult students.
    
    In one stroke you’ve eliminated the gatekeepers, those who through the power of the purse control what gets taught and who teaches it.
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:21pm
    - Paulus
      
      Sent our Children and helped only Granddaughter to Private Schools – cost us heaps but the best money we ever spent. We both worked hard to pay the fees and helped their Uni’s education.
      All done well for me, at 85 to be proud of them, and it was the right decision which we would we both worked for and would do again every time.
      
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      February 23, 2024 1:50pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        I believe the best thing grandparents can do is help their grandchildren to a better education. No point in dying with an extra $50k in the bank if your grandkids are gullible ideologues, or even just living way below their potential.
        
        Of course, the state should–and by right–allow parents to use their proportion of the education budget on their child’s education as they see fit.
        
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        February 23, 2024 3:00pm
Surely Knott

As numerous restaurants go to the wall the tone deaf media articles are running headlined should we be tipping.

But they don’t share the numbers between NZ and the USA.

In NZ the server gets paid at least minimum wage $23.15 minimum an hour, hospital care and medicines are funded by the state in NZ, and if they are low wage and have kids they get working for families. The server gets $23.15 + the tip , and emergency and surgical care is provided by the state.

But in the USA the USA department of labour says “A tipped employee engages in an occupation in which he or she customarily and regularly receives more than $30 per month in tips. An employer of a tipped employee is only required to pay $2.13 per hour in direct wages if that amount combined with the tips received at least equals the federal minimum wage. If the employee’s tips combined with the employer’s direct wages of at least $2.13 per hour do not equal the federal minimum hourly wage, the employer must make up the difference. Many states, however, require higher direct wage amounts for tipped employees.”

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Some states also have state minimum wage.

I imagine this doesn’t include health care etc in the USA.

So if you don’t tip in the USA the server gets a a very low minimum wage. And I would say significantly less state support.
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February 23, 2024 10:07am
- Ghost
  
  The media are reporting on the rollout of new eftpos machines that have tipping options in them.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:15am
- Maggie Pie
  
  There’s a Thai Restaurant we often get takeaways from that have just introduced a ‘tipping option’ when you order an online pickup …..$5 / $10 / $15.
  Pisses us off TBH. But we always tip 10 bucks to avoid someone spitting in the rice.
  
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  February 23, 2024 10:33am
  - thirteenstars
    
    But it’s that spit that provides the genuine flavour.
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:27pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Yet such service jobs are great entry-level positions with steady demand.
  
  My experience in the US is of very friendly and efficient service that by comparison often makes NZ hospitality staff look like they’re doing you a favour by serving you.
  
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  February 23, 2024 12:32pm
- Paulus
  
  Comparison is called Purchasing Power Parity – what you get for your money in local dollar terms.
  
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  February 23, 2024 1:51pm
- MCōs
  
  “In NZ the server gets paid at least minimum wage $23.15 minimum an hour”
  Maybe
  My wife heard about a job going in a Thai restaurant in Cuba Mall
  They offered her $5/hr when the minimum wage was probably $10-15 at the time
  I suspect they thought she didn’t have a visa that allowed her to work, which she did.
  I could have dropped them in the poo, but these people were all her mates & mates of mates etc . . . . . .
  
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  February 23, 2024 4:30pm
I remember when

‘Embarrassing scandal’: ABC axes lucrative contract with disgraced RMIT fact checking unit: Sky News.
“cutting ties after a seven year partnership.”
“Taxpayers forked out more than $670,000 to the university through the ABC.”

Meta was forced to cut it ties worth up to $740,000 a year.

Also Mark Zuckerberg admits they got covid wrong without quite saying so.

Where would we be without fact checking services?
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February 23, 2024 10:15am
surfing

Not that I usually read such things, but Taika Waititi is mentioned…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/entertainment/chelsea-winstanley-i-was-married-to-someone-who-was-on-their-own-buzz/NPZOFZGXUJHYJEIZIENO5YKAYA/

“most cinema distributors are “old white dudes” based mostly in Australia.””

With a comment like that, she is racist, ageist, and a bigot!

She seems to think it is perfectly OK to hold such views though, and they let her get away with it. Presumably because she is left!
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February 23, 2024 10:23am
Maggie Pie

I’ve seen tonnes of calls lately on ‘X’ for the government to cut funding to the ‘Auckland War Memorial Museum’…. either that, or sack the lefty woke administration currently infesting the board.

At least ACT is on the case….

https://twitter.com/actparty/status/1760409267553870144

(I was given my great-grandads WW2 Medals for safekeeping….. bet he’d be spewing if he was alive today about the way NZ has gone.)
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February 23, 2024 10:24am
- Surely Knott
  
  Looks like the Museum trust board is a 2 year appointment by council that happened in 2022. Current board includes Penny Hulse and Paul Spoonley. Must be coming up for new appointments soon. Hopefully Wayne Brown and the new councillors put some fresh new faces in. Why do all these sweet jobs go to political insiders. What about a History teacher or an Art Gallery owner.
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:47am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Nope. It will be a rogue TOW expert.
    Gotta keep the lies going.
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:23pm
  - Jack5
    
    The museum is already downgrading its traditional English name to second place.
    
    It is describing itself as Tamaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum.
    
    This is from its strategic plan (in the link below):
    
    The first shift sees us move from a colonial Museum to a Te Tiriti-led Museum. This builds upon our bicultural foundation, which in our context recognises Maori asTangata Whenua. The other strand is Tangata Tiriti – the people of the Treaty – which includes all other cultures and communities that now call Aotearoa New Zealand home by virtue of the Treaty. This approach includes everyone.
    
    It’s not so long since they were encouraging us to provided photos and information about family members who fought in two world wars.
    
    No surprise to see Massey sociologist Spoonley as part of the people running the museum. The second link below talks of Spoonley’s concept of “super diversity”.
    
    The museum’s Woke strategy is in the annual plan, which can be downloaded here:
    
    https://www.aucklandmuseum.com/getmedia/7743252d-9316-447c-9474-ff26ac8735a6/Draft-Annual-Plan-FY24-25.pdf
    
    Spoonley’s “super diversity”:
    
    https://www.mmg.mpg.de/64637/interview-with-paul-spoonley
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:30pm
Jack5

Are we off on a new financial bubble – AI?

Artificial intelligence is the buzz word everywhere, from NZ media looking for Government protection to the giant corporations of wall Street.

But look what it’s doing on Wall Street. Nvidia, founded by a Taiwanese-American electrical engineer, not so long ago was a relatively modest producer of graphics cards that hotted up the computers of home games players.

Soon it was found Nvidia’s powerful graphics chips were useful for more than games. The crypto-currency providers put racks of Nvidia’s powerful graphics cards into crypto-crunching computers.

Now Nvidia’s at the heart of the AI boom. Its chips power 80 per cent of equipment dedicated to AI.

The sharemarket currently values Nvidia at almost $US2 trillion.

This week it reported quarter-year sales of $US22.1 billion and said it expect these to rise to $24 billion in the present quarter.

The “Wall Street Journal” reports Nvidia shares rose 15 per cent yesterday, adding $US250 billion to the company’s market value.

The newspaper says, that after its profit report, Ben Reitzes, an analyst with Melius Research, raised his price target for Nvidia shares to $US1,000 from $US925.

For years, Nvidia’s share price chugged along around under $US10. In 1999 they were under $US1. The crypto-currency demand lifted them from the $US5 range about nine years ago, but the real surge, from AI use, has sent them into the financial stratosphere. The price as this is typed : $US785.38.
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February 23, 2024 10:36am
- Grunter
  
  It is a spectacular rise. NVDA now has a mkt cap bigger than the entire stocks on the Shanghai exchange
  
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  February 23, 2024 1:07pm
- NothingLeft
  
  NVDA is a bubble A short term spike to $80 Billion income doesn’t justify $1.8 trillion valuation. They don’t own the manufacturing process (that’s TMSC), they have huge short-term profit margins (something like 60% of sales), and there are lots of competitors that can soon match them to shrink their market share and drop profits.
  
  NVDA will have a couple of great years in the meantime, as their competitors catch up to cash in on the AI goldrush.
  
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  February 23, 2024 3:12pm
Ghost

If you are reading this Clan and Benedict, hope you both come back soon
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February 23, 2024 10:46am
- Gravelroad
  
  They might still be here just using different names…..has happened in the past with at least one of those two.
  
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  February 23, 2024 11:03am
  - H. Upmann
    
    Generally the writing style give away the true identity when attempting to go incognito. I don’t see any posters here who perhaps could be them.
    I enjoy reading and occasionally commenting on both of them.
    
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    February 23, 2024 12:18pm
goNZ1

newsflash from the Failed ex-Minister of Education –

”Hi Friend,
You may have seen the news this week that my good mate and colleague Grant Robertson announced his retirement from politics.
Grant (edit-what about Alf tho?) has made a huge contribution to New Zealand and will go down in history as an exemplary Minister of Finance. (worst one ever) He helped to lead us through the unprecedented challenges of a global pandemic – keeping people in jobs, businesses afloat and our economy moving. (and crippling the economy and Auckland in particular with draconian lockdowns)

He made some bold (reckless) and necessary decisions around infrastructure investment, helped to rebuild our public services, and leaves New Zealand with low levels of debt compared to the rest of the world.(so why are interest rates so high here then !!??)
I know he will continue fighting for a better, fairer New Zealand no matter what job he holds.

This week I also had the pleasure of announcing that Barbara Edmonds will take over the Finance portfolio. She is Labour’s first woman and Pacific finance spokesperson. (she will have years in opposition to get ready anyway so who cares)

Barb has a background as a specialist tax lawyer and extensive ministerial experience, so there’s no doubt she knows numbers. But more than that, she’s deeply rooted (like Labour is rooted too) in her communities. These qualities will make her outstanding in the finance role, because at the end of the day, our economy is about people.(and taxing the hell out of the voters where ever possible)

As a team, we’re energised and ready to go. (haha thats not what your MPs look like!) It’s clear that the new Coalition Government is scratching around for someone to blame as reality sets in that the promises they made during the campaign aren’t deliverable.( a bit early for big calls like that,mate)
We’ll continue holding them to account on behalf of people like you. (while we continue to have MPs leave our sinking ship)

Thanks,
Chris
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February 23, 2024 10:57am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

Showdown part 6.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/a-showdown-is-coming-part-5-2/?
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February 23, 2024 11:22am
70andstilllearning

“23 February 2024: We have enhanced the seasonal adjustment methodology for the Retail trade survey and resumed publication of trend series. This impacts seasonally adjusted data for quarters back to the September 2017 quarter.”

What the hell is Stats NZ up to now? From a quick look at this mornings data it appears that prior data looked a lot rosier than was real ( big negative revisions for previous data release). Have we had a change in government or something so lets be transparent now?
Last time they did this was for a certain PM who also held held the Minister for Child Poverty Reduction portfolio – except it took the figures the other way!!!

https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/retail-trade-survey-december-2023-quarter/
The explanation looks just as BS as in the Poverty stats case.

https://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/update-to-seasonal-adjustment-methodology-for-the-retail-trade-survey/
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February 23, 2024 11:25am
thirteenstars

Stats is woke. Their income page lists the “gender pay gap”:

https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/labour-market-statistics-income-june-2023-quarter

But they expose the stupidity of that stat by noting:

“A gender pay gap of 0 percent would imply no difference in earnings between men and women. This measure does not consider factors that could influence differences in earnings, such as occupation, qualifications gained, age, and hours worked.”

It’s almost as if men and women make different choices in life which is reflected in average earnings.
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February 23, 2024 12:42pm
Ghost

So why Willie did labour do nothing about this problem for the past few years? Why are you only interested in it now? Isn’t there a chocolate factory you could go work in and leave politics to people who actually don’t sit on their butt doing nothing for 6 years?

Labour MP Willie Jackson is suggesting political parties work together to address the flow of New Zealand nurses migrating to Australia.

It comes after it was reported earlier this week that more than 9000 New Zealand nurses have registered to work in Australia in the past 10 months.

Article
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February 23, 2024 12:50pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  The most reasonable man in NZ politics, you know, the one who railed against the tyranny of the majority, Willie Jackson, suddenly wants to work with the National Party on something.
  Snigger.
  
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  February 23, 2024 3:16pm
Yabster

Michael Laws re the state of Journalism/MSM and why alot are tuning out..

https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/michael-laws-on-the-state-of-journalism-mainstream-media-in-nz

I emailed Melissa Lee to ask what she is doing about TVNZ- I don’t think I will get a reply!
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February 23, 2024 1:03pm
- Paulus
  
  I had an acknowledgement from her office to a comment on the media.
  Would not have had that from Labour whoever office.
  
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  February 23, 2024 1:56pm
- thirteenstars
  
  To be fair, Lee & Co have a bit of a conundrum (of their own making) on their hands.
  
  A state-owned broadcaster must remain independent of the government of the day lest it simply become a propaganda tool. Which means the government cannot direct it to report on certain things in a certain way. Live by the sword, die by the sword is no way to run a country.
  
  The only solution is to sell it off. But National are True Believers in state-owned media. Ask any of them. If Luxon or Lee had the question put to them the answer would be a curt, nope.
  
  Sanction of the victim.
  
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  February 23, 2024 2:42pm
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    “lest it simply become a propaganda tool”
    Umm, that ship has sailed.
    
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    February 23, 2024 3:17pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      Which misses my bigger point:
      
      “Live by the sword, die by the sword is no way to run a country.”
      
      To make it your own such tool for the duration of your term is to perpetuate the cycle. Just sell it and be done with it.
      
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      February 23, 2024 5:42pm
rouppe

Newsroom: Scrapped cultural reports won’t save taxpayer dollars – officials

What a load of tripe.

Were counsel unable or unwilling to seek this material, this would result in more people being imprisoned, and for longer.

“The average cost of imprisonment is $193,000 per year. It can be as high as $4930 a day (just shy of 1.8 million a year) for those in the super-maxi PERU [Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit].”

Are you honestly telling me that significant time reductions are being made for people so bad they are designated Prisoners of Extreme Risk?

“We will have to engage cultural experts, psychologists, AOD [alcohol and other drugs] therapists as well and engage with family who may have literacy deficits and be intimidated by the courtroom. Counsel will need to spend more time obtaining data. The courts may be given raw data which is voluminous and time consuming to review.”

I haven’t seen anything that generally suggests that S27 reports include this information. Most of it isn’t cultural anyway and would actually more properly fall under existing S26.
If they aren’t doing it themselves then they aren’t doing their job.

Retired district court judge David Harvey agreed, saying judges had an obligation under the principles of the Sentencing Act to consider relevant background factors, so would have to source information previously found in a section 27 report in different ways.

Bollocks. S26(2)(a) provides for it.

“It could well be that a judge could say to Corrections, I need further information in detail about X, Y and Z and I would appreciate a full and detailed report to be prepared.

It could well be that an asteroid crashes through the roof that day as well. “Could” is the most abused word in the English language these days.

Harvey also said it left a question mark over the quality of rehabilitation, given that was a large focus of a section 27 report.

S27 is part of the Sentencing Act. Rehabilitation quality is part of probation hearings. The word rehabilitation never occurs in S27.
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February 23, 2024 1:05pm
- rouppe
  
  And actually I’ve just noticed: “Retired district court judge David Harvey agreed, saying judges had an obligation under the principles of the Sentencing Act”.
  
  The what now? The Sentencing Act is law. It has sections, and clauses, not effing principles
  
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  February 23, 2024 2:07pm
  - fernglas
    
    Perhaps you should read the Sentencing Act. To save you trouble, I suggest that you start at Section 8 which is headed “Principles of sentencing..”
    
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    February 23, 2024 2:58pm
    - rouppe
      
      Fair dues. Though it does show the general fuck- headedness of defining principles:
      In sentencing or otherwise dealing with an offender the court—
      (a) must take into account the gravity of the offending in the particular case, including the degree of culpability of the offender; and
      (b) must take into account the seriousness of the type of offence in comparison with other types of offences, as indicated by the maximum penalties prescribed for the offences; and
      (c) must impose the maximum penalty prescribed for the offence if the offending is within the most serious of cases for which that penalty is prescribed, unless circumstances relating to the offender make that inappropriate; and
      (d) must impose a penalty near to the maximum prescribed for the offence if the offending is near to the most serious of cases for which that penalty is prescribed, unless circumstances relating to the offender make that inappropriate; and
      (f) must take into account any information provided to the court concerning the effect of the offending on the victim;
      
      Then turned upside down by
      (g) must impose the least restrictive outcome that is appropriate in the circumstances, in accordance with the hierarchy of sentences and orders set out in section 10A; and
      (h) must take into account any particular circumstances of the offender that mean that a sentence or other means of dealing with the offender that would otherwise be appropriate would, in the particular instance, be disproportionately severe; and
      (i) must take into account the offender’s personal, family, whanau, community, and cultural background in imposing a sentence or other means of dealing with the offender with a partly or wholly rehabilitative purpose; and
      (j) must take into account any outcomes of restorative justice processes that have occurred, or that the court is satisfied are likely to occur, in relation to the particular case
      
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      February 23, 2024 7:53pm
- mandk
  
  “The average cost of imprisonment is $193,000 per year”
  
  This number is meaningless, unless it is compared with the cost of not putting people in prison.
  
  By this I mean the cost of the crimes, their investigation and their prosecution, committed by people who should rightfully not have been out of prison.
  
  I commented before that I was on a jury in a manslaughter trial, the cost of which alone I estimated to be around $100,000. This amount excluded the police investigations and the pre-trail preparations.
  
  The guilty party was a gang member with form, who undoubtedly committed offenses on a regular basis.
  
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  February 23, 2024 2:50pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The polls are in – and big Mike may be slipped in. Good meme.

https://www.thepoliticalglobe.com/resurgence-of-leadership-trump-commands-strong-lead-over-biden-in-latest-polls-02-22-2024/?
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February 23, 2024 1:31pm
CAKE FACE1

The experience since the election has been surreal. Although the centre-right won the election by a landslide, it feels as if they were actually defeated – completely crushed.

The reason for this is clear. Democracy now means nothing. The neo-Marxists have marched through the institutions, and control everything. Our institutions wilfully ignore the voters.

The mainstream media? They are a cabal of neo-Marxists that have you by the throat. The Universities? Controlled by the woke with an iron fist. The Courts? Mainly composed of extreme left fanatics. The public sector bureaucrats? Mostly terrorists. And so it goes on…

Eventually, this government will end. With it, all hope will be gone, drifting away on the breeze.

The coalition therefore has once last chance to change things for the better. If they fail to act decisively, all will be lost. They need to throw everything at it, and without mercy, purge neo-Marxists from every institution.

Sadly, I won’t be holding my breath, waiting for action.

Luxon, Willis, Stanford et al all seem like nice people. Alas, they don’t seem to appreciate the situation that we find ourselves in. They seem to believe that they can negotiate with neo-Marxist terrorists. Their policy seems to be one of appeasement. This won’t end well.

It is a tragedy.
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February 23, 2024 1:41pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350190135/watch-us-lands-moon-first-time-50-years
So does anyone still believe that the Americans first landed on the moon on 1969? Really ?
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February 23, 2024 2:03pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Saw a vid on YT recently….Prez Nixon was talking to Neil Armstrong on the moon from one of those old style green plastic Telecom phones in his office. LOL!!
  
  Beam me up Scotty 😎
  
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  February 23, 2024 3:02pm
- NothingLeft
  
  only sane people.
  
  All the photos from Apollo 11 in sequence;
  https://youtu.be/Kl7ZJZn36qg
  
  3 1
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  February 23, 2024 3:13pm
  - greybeard
    
    I am serious. ( Maybe deluded, but serious ).
    
    JFK said in his speech 12th September 1962 at Rice University in Houston:
    
    “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard,” The president promised to put a man on the moon before the end of the decade.
    
    During the 1960s “Space Race” between USA and USSR the USSR was well ahead, having been the first to do all sorts of things ( Sputnik 1957, dog in space 1957, man in space 1961, etc etc ) and this pissed-off the Americans no end. They were desperate for a victory of some sort. They had stolen most of the brilliant Nazi space scientists but were still trailing their arch-enemies.
    
    In 1963 JFK was assassinated and in the last year of the decade, 1969, the Americans were credited with the first moon landing, just as he had predicted.
    And promised.
    
    And at this point the doubts begin. To save time , from Wikipedia comes this summary:
    
    “After being sent to the Moon by the Saturn V’s third stage, the astronauts separated the spacecraft from it and traveled for three days until they entered lunar orbit. Armstrong and Aldrin then moved into Eagle and landed in the Sea of Tranquility on July 20. The astronauts used Eagle’s ascent stage to lift off from the lunar surface and rejoin Collins in the command module. They jettisoned Eagle before they performed the maneuvers that propelled Columbia out of the last of its 30 lunar orbits onto a trajectory back to Earth.[8] They returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space. “
    
    Perfect. No problems. Just a routine event. Saturn V worked fine, the three-day trip to moon orbit was uneventful, the Eagle had no problems landing, the Eagle’s return ascent stage worked perfectly, the reunion with the command module went without a hitch, Eagle was jettisoned in a routine fashion, Columbia command module was taken out of orbit perfectly and the well-publicised and recorded return to earth was the icing on the cake.
    Jolly good show.
    
    And total rubbish.
    
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    February 23, 2024 7:23pm
- MCōs
  
  Who do you think we’re first then, Greybeard?
  Icarus?
  
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  February 23, 2024 4:46pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Yes. I believe that the Americans really landed men on the moon.
  For one thing, how did the fool the Soviets?
  Also why fake it?
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M50Fd3gXvM
  
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  February 24, 2024 1:35am
Swifty

What the hell is this?

Has there been a rip in the space/time continuum? Has there been a total and complete suspension of the laws of nature?

Is this an example of Maori with a different worldview from each other? Does one group have different values from the other?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/leasing-of-harbourview-park-in-te-atatu-for-marae-divides-maori-groups/SJJ4SHDICBD5BLQCLN3XRQCEUE/

Or is this just another example of Maori holding different opinions from one another just like the goddam rest of us – and that the idea that ALL Maori hold the same views, values and outlooks is just a modern load of cobblers designed to hoodwink New Zealanders to handing over power and money to a privileged Maori elite?

I say again, for the hundredth time, we are being openly lied to. Openly misled.

We are giving away hard-fought for freedoms, rights and principles wit heh barely a whimper – and for very, very wrong reasons.
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February 23, 2024 2:53pm
Ghost

Damn, we’ve had a huge flare today

The X6.3 flare was the largest of the three X-class flares that occurred in the past 24 hours, and the strongest of this solar cycle. While impressive, this event still poses no significant threat to the general public. Stay up to date with the latest forecast discussions

Article
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February 23, 2024 3:06pm
sirknz

Hate crime or are people just sick of having this stuff shoved down their throats?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350190025/heartbreaking-rainbow-flag-hate-crime-pride-week
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February 23, 2024 3:07pm
- lifesgood
  
  Yep, an absolute gutsful. Why is being gay something to be proud of, anyway. I’m heterosexual and that’s just what I am. I don’t go round boasting how proud I am of it. Disclaimer, I have friends and family who are gay, they do not participate in any of this nonsense, in fact I know that some of them positively cringe when the “rainbow” community have their silly parades, flags etc.
  
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  February 23, 2024 3:57pm
- cmm
  
  It’s just a way to divide us and break down society to make more room for the state.
  
  I’d rather just associate with whomever I want to.
  
  I can see there historically being a need for “gay pride” or whatever when there was intolerance of gays (or whatever) and it took guts to come out. But I’d say the pendulum has pretty much swung to the extreme other end.
  
  Now being gay is not noteworthy. It’s meh.
  
  There is less tolerance towards Christians and whites. Time for Christian pride or White pride?
  
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  February 23, 2024 4:11pm
Maggie Pie

Tennis bestie tweets out timely reminder for Friday night…

“Never forget – the Jesse Kempsons are still out there” 🙁

https://twitter.com/AnjelikaPicklz/status/1760724257640698131
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February 23, 2024 3:49pm
Jack5

Up to $25,000 damage to a Captain Cook statue in Christchurch’s Victoria Square. This was done on the anniversary of Cook’s death in Hawaii.

The free Christchurch newspaper, the Star, reports four similar cases of damage to the statue.

The reporter acknowledges Cook’s contribution to science, but says the great explorer was ” a controversial figure in terms of enabling British colonialism.”

And that led to the creation of Christchurch.

https://starmedia.kiwi/newspapers/the-star/
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February 23, 2024 4:24pm
- MCōs
  
  The good old Star (aka StarSun for awhile)
  Coming up for 168yrs old
  Fallen on hard times these days
  Chch has been a city for the same length of time
  
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  February 23, 2024 4:54pm
mandk

Colonialism?

Isn’t that dreadful system that put an end to cannibalism, slavery and pillaging by Māori, and to the establishment of the rule of law?
15 0
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February 23, 2024 4:38pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Oh no. They were made “British Citizens”
  Maori do not only enjoy the rights of British Citizens, they have more rights according to the Treaty Partnership.//////////
  
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  February 23, 2024 6:10pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

This Endoron guy is going for a skate in 2025, so is James.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/judge-engoron-denies-trump-s-move-to-stall-enforcement-of-355m-fine/ss-BB1iJo5T?
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February 23, 2024 5:56pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

It has gone all quiet now that the Public Sector have had their craft beer shandy and then run for the train.
“Has that old guy with the broom gone?” (Fred Dagg)
Was Mike on that train?
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February 23, 2024 6:06pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Client list:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCvhz5_lb8
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February 23, 2024 6:19pm
NZer In Exile

Numbnuts woke clowns running Victoria Australia in action, again:

VICTORIA POLICE VICTIM BLAMING CAUGHT ON CAMERA
https://www.bitchute.com/video/BcBDZW_dnQ8/

Much like the idiocracies known as the UK and Canada (oh and NZ, given the Posie Parker debacle, amongst other glaring cases of leadership moral bankruptcy and cowardice).
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February 23, 2024 7:42pm
NZer In Exile

How about this for an idea:

A binding national referendum on banning minority driven woke propaganda (including especially any form of identity politics) from all businesses and institutions.

The cancer of uninvited woke fascism has spread to all spheres. My sense is most people hate it but are now too scared to speak out lest the uninvited machinery of woke fascism send them to outer darkness both socially and career/job wise.
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February 23, 2024 8:51pm

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