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March 7, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 07 March 2024

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General Debate

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peterwn

An interesting trans Tasman law and order issue. A Kiwi guy was allegedly involved in a violent incident in Perth (WA) in 2014 and a warrant for his arrest (for assault with grievous bodily harm) was issued in 2015. He had returned to NZ by that time and was unaware of any proceedings until extradition proceedings were filed in NZ in 2022 and he was arrested late 2022. Various reasons and excuses were proffered for the delay. He had visited Australia several times since but Australian immigration did not seem to have a ‘red flag’ on his name. Since 2015 he has not committed any crime and is now in a stable relationship with a young child. District Court granted the extradition request but the High Court recently overturned it (link to case below) saying that extradition would be ‘oppressive’. Australians have appealed the appeal ground being on a point of law concerning what is meant by ‘oppressive’ in this instance. If he was returned to Australia he would probably have to wait in prison for a number of years awaiting trial and if found guilty sentenced to prison then 501’d out of Australia in due course. He would be cut off from his young child during that time.
Reading the judgment it is easy to have sympathy with the guy especially because of the serious delays that have occurred. However a hypothetical SwanBlog (WA version of KiwiBlog) could in its main piece and comments see the situation in a completely different light. The victim of the assault and the family want ‘justice’ and perhaps have had to keep pressure on the WA Police, prosecutor and politicians to pursue the case. They would have been relieved at an arrest being made but would be highly disappointed that some Kiwi judge has blocked extradition, so the WA authorities would be prepared to take it all the way to the NZ Supreme Court if need be. Ministerial approval would still be needed but would probably be a formality with the present government.
Because of the serious nature of the charge involving a real victim I think in this instance that it is more important that the victim and family in WA receive ‘justice’ than the accused’s family be held together.
https://www.justice.govt.nz/jdo_documents/workspace___SpacesStore_79f1853c_b512_4ae3_9400_d447a726101c.pdf
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March 7, 2024 8:00am
- Skippytony
  
  So, not statute of limitations on assault?
  
  How could you possibly defend yourself 10 years later?
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:01am
  - peterwn
    
    There is no ‘statute of limitation’ for crimes specified in the Crimes Act and assault causing grievous bodily harm is a Crimes Act matter. Western Australia would be unlikely to have such a ‘limitation’. People have been charged with sexual offences many years after the offences were allegedly committed.
    
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    March 7, 2024 1:26pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Nobody should be ‘in prison for a number of years awaiting trial’. If that is really the case it is a good enough reason on its own to refuse extradition. But I agree with the rest.
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:45am
  - peterwn
    
    The judge commented that he would be unlikely to receive bail in WA which would have left his partner and child completely high and dry. He was initially on bail in NZ until the High Court judgment but then released from bail. It is possible now the second appeal was lodged he is back on bail. Anyway the probability he would not receive bail in WA was one of the factors influencing the judge’s decision.
    
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    March 7, 2024 12:03pm
- Paulus
  
  A reverse 501 ?
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:18am
- James Stephenson
  
  Seems like a helluva palaver just to end up at the current end point – bloke removed from Australia back to NZ. In the process two new victims, his partner and child, are created.
  
  Leave him be and the WA authorities can pay compo for their incompetence, which will probably total less than the costs of dragging this all the way to the Supreme court, imprisonment yada yada yada.
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:46am
- nzgoose
  
  Perhaps he should apply to be tried and sentenced in nz so he can at least be near his family. Why does he have to be in aus to be prosecuted. Same as here why do we spend time and money sending people to courts for sentencing if they are in custody. They can just be
  
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  March 8, 2024 9:51am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Nikki Haley steamrolled. No more money from the Democrats for her.

https://www.redvoicemedia.com/2024/03/nikki-haley-quitting-after-trump-train-steamrolls-her-campaign-on-super-tuesday-videos/?
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March 7, 2024 8:04am
- Rich Prick
  
  That was a spanking. Being quite the Democrat, she hung in there believing the Democrat lawfare against Trump would wipe him out and leave her with a clear run. She is such an unlikable person, and could never have made it under her own steam.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:23am
  - Simon
    
    Haley didnt believe anything she was just following orders from her far left billionaire & establishment RINO donors.
    
    Haley is pure GOPe garbage. An exhibit for why Trump found it so easy to take over the Republican party and make it viable.
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:29am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Amazing what dirty Democrat money can do.
      Mitch McConnel was never going to stop Haley.
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:42pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    When she worked for Trump as ambassador to the UN, she was very strong, had a very clear voice from Trumps plans, if she had played it right she may well have been a great vice prez, I remember she had no time for trump to start with, but when she finished with the UN she praised his work, his ability to make decisions, and his charm, she never needed to do that, do it does make you wonder where her vile has actually come from
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:36am
    - Matt Long
      
      She started the criticism of Trump long before she announced her intention to run, now having lost, like a certain type of female, she isn’t endorsing Trump.
      Mitch is, he’s sure lost weight and looks very frail.
      https://www.foxnews.com/politics/mcconnell-endorses-trump-president-super-tuesday-he-will-have-my-support
      
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      March 7, 2024 9:54am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        I am talking about her when Trump was president, I clearly remember her remarks when she finished at the un, Trump was still president at the time
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:10am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Good thing is McConnell will be gone at the election
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:11am
      - Matt Long
        
        I wasn’t disagreeing with you G, just nothing she turned on him pretty quick when it seemed politically expedient.
        
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        March 7, 2024 12:32pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      UN gave her a bit of control that she did not want to lose.
      Her nastyness was always there
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:44pm
    - leoj
      
      After a promising start she became infected by the lefties at the totally useless UN.
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:45pm
- Matt Long
  
  Raytheon drops its flag to half mast as Haley drops out of presidential race. The Bee.
  https://x.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1765406696459960414?s=20
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:37am
- Paulus
  
  Trump, in a while should talk her into VP job despite what she called him – that’s politics anyway.
  I still believe Biden will not be able to stand but hey are leaving it too late for a YOUNGER person.
  But that is the stupidity of the Democrats (Socialists), too late to change Trump similarly but should have been done sometime ago.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:40am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I still say Hillary will make a move when Joe’s medical condition worsens.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:00am
    - nigel2010
      
      i don’t know why you have been down tick Big Mike has ruled out running, perhaps someone has taken her aside and explained that outside of DC everyone loathes her, which only leaves the evil one to run which i think will be great news for the Republicans as she is almost as hated as big Mike
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:35am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Yeah, but Hillary has a record of almost getting what she wants.
        2016 she thought it was in the bag even with the cheating.Still spitting tacks over that!
        
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        March 7, 2024 1:46pm
    - Rich Prick
      
      The garlic and wooden stake seem to be holding her down for the time being.
      
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      March 7, 2024 11:18am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    If it happens, it will happen at the Democrat convention. After that it’s too late
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:18am
  - NothingLeft
    
    This US election is a clear declaration by the electorate that they want leaders who represent citizens not deep state corporate interests and oligarchs. Trump will likely pick a female centrist VP, brown if possible to pick up swing votes.
    
    Weird thing with Trump is that while he spouts a lot of relatively extreme rhetoric, in practice he is quite moderate.
    
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    March 7, 2024 12:49pm
- royce987
  
  I see the socialists turned out for Democrat Donald. The myriad of radical leftists, on here who support Trump the lifelong Democrat, must be glad that it looks like it will be Democrat vs Democrat for the third presidential election in a row.
  
  Donald Trump is an American Jacinda Arden, both promised the sun, the moon and the stars and both were unable to deliver anywhere near. the US federal Govt has huge financial issues. One of Tumps thousands of lies was he would balance the budget, unsurprisingly Trump did not even try, Trump broke records with how much money the Federal budget spent.
  
  Trump is a man with no principals, I guess that is why the lefties on this site like him. Since he has no principals he would never try to make hard decision’s, for example, social security will be insolvent in a few years, to compare Trump to NZ politics, Labour are quite happy to dump a problem down the road a few years, for National to eventually fix.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:56am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Royce,
    
    I think you may be talking about a different Donald Trump.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:33am
  - Its only I
    
    Trump isnt Republican or Democrat.
    
    He has just told the moderate republicans and independents to F O, its MAGA and Qanon all the way baby! so just like those of us who didn’t like the opposition parties position with Jacinda’s covid response, moderate republicans have no political home.
    Many will not vote for the destruction of their GOP so will go to the democratic party.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:47am
    - Matt Long
      
      The smart ones will vote for the least worst candidate.
      
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      March 7, 2024 9:56am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Dems won’t vote at all, many of Bidens primary wins have only 10% of Dems voting
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:21am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      You do understand what MAGA means right? The way the left portrays that nsme is utterly reprehensible.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:20am
  - Taieri
    
    Trump is a man with no principals
    ———–
    
    No American president has/had “principals”. He is/was a principal.
    Some might have had principles though…
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:54am
    - Happy1
      
      I think you mean principles.
      
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      March 7, 2024 12:55pm
  - Lee C
    
    You keep forgetting to put the word ‘allegedly’ in your posts, about Trump, royce….
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:59am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    What a load of tripe.
    Do you have and example of one of those thousands of lies?
    CNN must have corrupted you.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:04am
    - Lee C
      
      The vast majority of anti-Trump diatribes are just feckless repetitions of the CNN Narrative:
      “He is an insurrectionist”
      “He is a rapist”
      “He is a felon”
      “He is corrupt”
      “He welches his deals”
      “He lied about property values”
      “He is guilty of Assault”
      “He is a Dictator”
      “He is a predator”
      “He said drink bleach”
      
      All passed off as if they are fact.
      
      Mind you, he did in a locker room, use the word ‘pussy’.
      
      Never about whether the US economy was doing well, whether he took out Isis, whether he took out Bin Laden, whether he upheld a promise about Jerusalem, or whther African American and Hispanic employment rose under his watch, or whther there was a cessation of warefare, whether his increased diversity in his administration, or set in place the means to stem illegal immigration or secured oil reserves and lil supplies and was set to increase US self-sufficiency in those areas.
      
      No, all we get is ad hominen attacks passed off as ‘facts’ by sock-puppets who can’t read be bothered to read for themselves.
      
      If you simply don;t like the guy, just own it, admit it, and stop making shit up.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:19am
      - gravedodger
        
        No, Obama sat in the Washington bunker while the Navy Seals took Bin laden down
        
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        March 7, 2024 11:11am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Grab en by the pussy!
        
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        March 7, 2024 2:08pm
      - Its only I
        
        They are fact. That’s the truly interesting part. Trump can hold up an orange and easily convince you its an apple because you desperately want it to be an apple.
        Grown-ass old men groveling on their knees over one man is f*cking sad….expected, but sad, especially kiwis.
        
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        March 7, 2024 2:09pm
  - Grunter
    
    Dead right Royce. Trump is no free market guy. He loves tariffs and spending OPM (no one can refute that).
    
    The US has a lot of pain to go through before they return to their true bearings of liberty and free markets. Probably won’t get a true free market President until 2032 or later. And a lot is going to happen on the way there!
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:09am
  - PurplePen
    
    I’m thinking the Veep candidates for both Dem and GOP are going to be the most important they’ve ever been considering not just the physical health of both presidential candidates but also the mental health, certainly looking out 2 to 4 years from now.
    
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    March 7, 2024 11:12am
    - leoj
      
      No one in their right mind can put Trump’s and Biden’s physical and metal health in the same basket.
      
      TDS has got you.
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:50pm
  - leoj
    
    You’ve been watching too much CNN.
    
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    March 7, 2024 1:48pm
artemisia

Emergency housing. Chris Bishop on the wireless this morning. A million bucks a day. Average stay 6 months.

New emergency housing rules coming. Over 1300 of the households in emergency housing (December 2023) are single people, almost all working age though not necessarily working. Another 80 or so are couples, no children. There is little incentive for them to move out of the transitional housing. It is cheap, not the usual power and water bills to pay.

Boarding houses used to commonly provide accommodation for single people. There are a lot more rules and compliance around boarding houses (and all tenancies actually) these days, and while that is a good thing it does mean that landlords are a lot more risk averse, thus selective. I don’t know for sure but would not be surprised if there are fewer boarding houses now.

Some of these folk aren’t going to be top of any list for private rentals, and under the new priority proposal for those with children they will be even further down the list. Half of the social housing waiting list households have no children (eligible for a 1 beddie).

About risk assessment. Mainly due to changes under the last Labour government, landlords are a lot more careful about tenant selection with ECON101 on their side.

Detailed reports about occupiers in emergency housing, and also the social housing waiting list, are published. Let’s just say ethnicity numbers do not reflect the wider population.
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March 7, 2024 8:04am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  If some wish to move to private rentals they need to change their attitudes and behaviour. A private renter is not going to take on ferals.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:18am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    True, but as Bishop said the 90 day trial applies to anyone that takes on one of these people, I guess as usual it’s only a few that are ferals
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:39am
  - artemisia
    
    True, of course. But in a risk assessment perception also counts. And some of that perception might not be real.
    
    Anecdotal, but some landlords and property managers are reporting large numbers of vacancy applications and enquiries, few turn up to view. Unspoken suspicion is that some are in motels and have to produce evidence of applying for vacancies. EZ.
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:59am
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    Well, yeah. I mean, duh. Isn’t the whole point here that they DON’T wish to move to private rentals?
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:19am
- lifesgood
  
  The government should build accommodation like pensioner villages for single, childless people on the list. That’s all they need and all they should be given. To be fair they shouldn’t even be on the list.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:19am
  - rouppe
    
    And how long do you think it will be before several of those “single, childless people” become a “single, pregnant person”.
    
    Around 2 months I reckon.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:58am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Life,
    
    The government doesn’t have to build anything.
    
    However, if they allowed some incentive such as five years tax breaks on income from new build low rent rentals, then the private sector would have the problem solved within the year.
    
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    March 7, 2024 12:45pm
- mandk
  
  Emergency housing was a boon for shonky motel owners.
  
  I remember a story about adverts throughout the Bay of Plenty offering free housing in Rotorua.
  
  Free accommodation, free heat and lighting, and free sky tv. What’s not to like?
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:19am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    The neighbours?
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:01pm
- kowtow
  
  Why was the Ardern regime so keen to increase the refugee intake when we couldn’t/can’t house NZers in distress .
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:31am
  - Lee C
    
    “Why was the Ardern regime so keen to increase the refugee intake when we couldn’t/can’t house NZers in distress?”
    
    Err, because it would ensure a nice cushy little job when the electorate see through her vacuous self-aggrandising image-building?
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:02am
    - Jack5
      
      Advice from the Governor of the Reserve Bank had something to do with it.
      
      That’s what a National MP told Jack Tame in a recent TVNZ interview.
      
      Orr, of the Reserve Bank, thought we were going to run out of workers.
      
      Labour agreed. The result was the biggest immigration surge in NZ’s history, and of migrants heavily tilted towards unskilled and lower-skilled people.
      
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      March 7, 2024 7:59pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Future Labour voters, just like the illegals crossing the US southern border are future Democrat voters.
    Bloody socialists.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:08am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Steve,
      
      Don’t forget also that the US military are considering letting illegal immigrants enlist.
      It won’t end well.
      
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      March 7, 2024 12:48pm
      - Jack5
        
        I thought military service had long been a path towards citizenship in the US. Or was that only a path for legal, temporary immigrants, or applicant migrants?
        
        But it follows the path of the decline of the Roman Empire. This was paralleled by the shift from Roman citizen soldiery to using, and then relying on, foreign recruits, often, and at first mainly, Germans.
        
        The American change seems to have been hurried by the Woke drive for ultra-equality of race, sexual preference, and gender.
        
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        March 7, 2024 8:03pm
- Paulus
  
  Why are we not told why the private rental market collapsed and owner sold out – ask Robertson as Ardern’s Marxist idea of destroying that market was stupid, as now can be seen, and not recoverable ?
  Not sure it will return as once bitten twice shy,
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:44am
  - artemisia
    
    Well with the numbers waiting for (cheap) social housing or in motels etc, it is clear there is a housing crisis. And IMO that crisis can largely be pinned directly on tenants that private landlords don’t want.
    
    Bringing back 90 day no cause required terminations will give some of those folk a chance they won’t get under the current (old) rules. Still risks though, and the costs and hassles of terminating tenancies will still be there. Even with taxpayer funding – Accommodation Supplement, TAS and the Tenancy Costs Cover (ha, look it up).
    
    Rules around rentals are seriously overcooked, very very complex. Stupidly so.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:13am
    - leoj
      
      Government telling private enterprise how to run their business. Result: Landlords bailed.
      
      Meddle with market forces – pay the price.
      
      What a landlord does with his own private business is none of the govt’s business.
      
      Substandard rentals will attract low returns, maybe none. When landlords have to compete for tenants, rents will drop.
      
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      March 7, 2024 2:00pm
  - rouppe
    
    I won’t return. In any case I’m very very close to pulling the pin on working and I wanted to release the value so I could travel overseas for extended periods
    
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    March 7, 2024 11:00am
- Skippytony
  
  Have a family member moving into the rental market at the moment. The last government has deliberately attempted to move the dial to support the tenant and of course in doing so has substantially changed the risk profile and business model for the landlord.
  As a consequence of these brilliant innovations landlords now look at the engagement model much more like an employment contract than a commercial contract. Every employer now knows it is horrendously expensive to unravel a bad hire.
  Being rational actors, they have say three applicants. One is a business couple relocating for work, one is three 20 year olds just leaving home and one is a “tenant” in emergency housing.
  
  Honestly, in which order would you expect the landlord to prioritise the applicants? **hint** at least one application goes straight into the bin.
  
  Thats what happens when a) you distort the contract in favour of one party and b) drive a significant number of investors out of the game completely.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:53am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Coverup leads straight to Joe Biden. He and Hunter need to be charged and sentenced jail time.

https://conservativeundergroundnews.com/jim-jordan-discovered-one-massive-cover-up-that-led-straight-to-joe-biden/?
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March 7, 2024 8:06am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Tick tick, more and more stuff coming about them, Hunter is becoming more arrogant by the day in public and on the stand in Washington, something will stick very soon
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:40am
Chuck Bird

Should the PM or future PMs have a plane to fly functions?

Should the PM or future PMs have a plane big enough to tale a lot of NZ media to fly to these functions?

Should a business jet costing about $10 million be considered as an option?
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March 7, 2024 8:08am
- Matt Long
  
  Should government officials show some financial prudence and fly commercial and let the chooks find their own way.
  Or should the government pretend they believe in climate change and hold their meetings via Zoom?
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:14am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The chooks won’t go and snub the meetings, even though they appear to have a correspondent in every area of the world
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:45am
- cmm
  
  As I wrote yesterday, the total NZ population is smaller than that of many cities, including Sydney and Cape Town.
  
  How many city mayors have planes to fly them around?
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:17am
  - Im Right
    
    We are talking of PMs here not local mayors, I’m sure there are designated (reliable) planes for PMs in most countries….yes NZ has a small population, but it’s Air Force hurricane planes should be scrapped. (Or just used for pilot training only)
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:22am
    - cmm
      
      Why is a PM so special? At the end of the day the tax base that has to pay for this is only 5M people.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:27am
      - James Stephenson
        
        As I keep saying, we should take up the option of becoming a State of Australia. Think of the savings! We could send maybe three politicians to Canberra rather than supporting 120 of the useless buggers in Wellington. All those public service drones can learn to code…
        
        Wellington would become the Picton of the North Island but that seems like a feature not a bug.
        
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        March 7, 2024 11:55am
      - Jack5
        
        The President and Prime Minister of Singapore and government officials use commercial flights.
        
        Population: Singapore 5.09 million, NZ, 5.3 million.
        
        Economic size (real GDP, 2021): Singapore $US578.25 billion; NZ $US219.8 billion.
        
        Wealth (real GDP per capita,2021): Singapore fourth in the world, NZ forty-second.
        
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        March 7, 2024 8:21pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    You may well be surprised
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:46am
  - Terry Dalee
    
    Queensland government has a fleet of Gulfstream 250s.
    I used to fly a business jet as a pilot.
    
    You use a business jet or charter to save time. That’s what it’s primary purpose is. It’s a time machine. Most of the general public don’t understand that. They think it’s all about “the luxury”. Most business people I flew around were working the entire time onboard or sleeping in preparation to work on arrival.
    
    Lease vs Buying? Depends on usage and fixed overhead costs.
    
    It’s roughly $200,000-$300,000 USD a month to lease an aircraft such as a B737-800. The ones you see with Qantas / Jet connect across the Tasman. No, it’s not the MAX…
    
    You could probably pick up a B737-800 for $40 million. Plus conversion costs to a Combi. There is one mod available for B737-800s to convert to combi.
    The reason why they need a combi is because of the multi purpose requirement of the aircraft for long range transportation. Need to be able to take pallets. The Hercules don’t have the same range or speed as a 757/737.
    The other advantage of going 737 is that you already have commonality of parts and engineering with the P8, which is essentially a 737. Plus there are many operators of the 737-800 here in NZ making parts easier to get. There are bugger all operators of the 757 left making getting parts difficult.
    
    Charter.
    Viable option if you can get availability. Most jets are busy so availability becomes a issue. If you use commercial most of the time, which they do here domestically and supplement with some charter, you’ll fill some of the gaps. But you still need coverage for the Pacific where airline schedules aren’t great.
    Try work out a trip to Christmas Island in Kiribati and tell me how long it’ll take, or Tuvalu… But as said, availability becomes an issue. Sorry, can’t do emergency response, aircraft is on a charter for someone else.
    
    Charter varies but $10,000-15000 an hour NZD depending on aircraft is usual. You also pay to position the aircraft too if it’s out of position for you to use it.
    
    The best option is for the RNZAF to dry lease B757 replacements with a common type of aircraft with plenty of spares around. Allows flexibility of replacement later on if capability requirements change as well with a smaller capital up front cost.
    
    The Air NZ option is not viable. They don’t have spare aircraft sitting around for drop of a hat stuff on a permanent basis. They are even more short of aircraft with the PW1000 engine debacle plaguing the A320 NEOs. Hence why they are wet leasing aircraft from WAMOS to service their network.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:59am
- All_on_Red
  
  We would need something with a good range and $10m will only buy something old.
  Better to buy near new and take advantage of the Warranties
  So more like over $40m+ for something around 5 years old
  https://www.avbuyer.com/aircraft/private-jets/dassault-falcon/8x/366275
  Or just hire one
  Only $6-8000 per hour
  //
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:26am
  - Rich Prick
    
    The Government already owns just a touch under half an airline with 108 planes in its fleet. Use that.
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:30am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Quite right
      https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/global-affairs/javier-milei-flies-commercial-and-greets-passengers-one-by-one/video/074e4338fd8635d6f5ce49e5eb14926f
      
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      March 7, 2024 8:40am
      - Grunter
        
        Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t see Luxon doing that….?
        
        Milei is doing exactly what any ‘normal’ person would do in his position. Act with common sense and be friendly to people.
        
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        March 7, 2024 9:19am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They haven’t got enough planes now, don’t think we could simply take one off them, actually that’s a Labour tactic I would have thought, taking a plan by stealth excuse the pun
      
      9 2
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      March 7, 2024 8:43am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    1997 Gulfstream IV/SP for sale
    Price: $5,895,000
    
    https://www.globalair.com/aircraft-for-sale/listingdetail/gulfstream-iv-sp?adid=129618
    
    3 8
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    March 7, 2024 8:39am
    - All_on_Red
      
      I’m not saying they cant be bought but at 11,620 Hours its too old
      We already have issues with old aircraft breaking down
      Why continue to make the same mistake?
      Also lower hours hold their value more
      
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      March 7, 2024 8:41am
    - Kiwiguy
      
      That’s USD, so nearly $10m in NZD
      
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      March 7, 2024 9:13am
    - Jethrod
      
      Nearly the same age as the 757’s
      
      3 0
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      March 7, 2024 10:56am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Which are either broken or having maintenance…
        
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        March 7, 2024 2:49pm
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    Old saying: ” if it floats, flies or ********** you’re better off renting than buying”
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:48am
    - Keith White
      
      If it has wheels, wings or a skirt it will cause you trouble. And many things that don’t, will also.
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:21pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    This could be a backup. It could not take media and is a lot slower than a jet.
    
    Boeing P-8A Poseidon
    
    https://www.nzdf.mil.nz/nzdf/our-equipment/aircraft/boeing-p-8a-poseidon/
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:51am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Now you’re just being silly
      The P8 is full of Military Tech.
      Its not a passenger aircraft and you cant strip the tech out to change it to suit passengers
      Australia uses the 7X
      https://www.airforce.gov.au/aircraft/dassault-falcon-7x
      And the Boeing BBJ
      https://www.airforce.gov.au/aircraft/737-boeing-business-jet
      Good mix
      CMM and RP are right- just fly Commercial
      
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      March 7, 2024 8:57am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        It could take the PM and 1 or 2 more. This would be an emergency backup.
        
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        March 7, 2024 9:08am
      - Kiwiguy
        
        I’m not against the idea of the PM flying commercial, but I’m also trying to understand the logistics side….
        There’s little chance his schedule would dovetail with the airlines schedule, so who alters their schedule to fit? Air NZ, or the PM?
        And when he and his team need short notice trips, does Air NZ just cancel the flight for a bunch of other passengers so PM & co can fly instead?
        Also, from my experience Air NZ aren’t exactly shining lights when it comes to keeping to schedule; usually because of technical issues.
        Interesting discussion.
        
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        March 7, 2024 9:18am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Sill cheaper to hire one
        
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        March 7, 2024 9:27am
      - cmm
        
        “There’s little chance his schedule would dovetail with the airlines schedule”
        
        Ummm, there are flights every day. The PM can fit in.
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:34am
    - Terry Dalee
      
      How is it slower than a jet when the P8 is a jet? (737)
      Still flies at 0.79 M
      
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      March 7, 2024 9:38am
      - john1234
        
        People, enough of nonsense about using the P8 for VIP transport. It’s a ridiculous idea.
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:03am
      - Paulus
        
        A P8 is actually basically a B737 with modifications like larger wings, plus of course electronic surveillance equipment etc.
        
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        March 7, 2024 11:23am
    - Bevan
      
      We only have 4 of those extremely expensive specialist aircraft in the fleet and you want to use 1 to fly VIPs? Now that is a waste of resources.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:22am
  - cmm
    
    How often does an NZ PM fly anywhere that is not serviced by Air NZ?
    
    Just let him fly pointy-end on commercial.
    
    In the extremely rare occasion that the PM flies to somewhere that is not on an Air NZ route, then rent a Gulfstream or such.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:27am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Exactly
      https://www.pacificjets.co.nz/challenger604
      The advantage with Private over Commercial is that you can continue to work, have meetings etc and you avoid delays (time cost!) boarding etc and have more flexibility.
      Our Company has looked at it a couple of times.
      But we just wouldnt use it enough
      
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      March 7, 2024 9:28am
    - Cantabrian
      
      Canberra is a prime example of a destination not serviced by ANY international airline. You either fly direct in your own aircraft or you have to transfer from international to domestic at Sydney or Melbourne.
      
      One of the biggest issued around the RNZAF 757 fleet is that they do not get enough airtime. Commercial airlines push their aircraft hard to make money. An airforce can only fly as often as funds allow – and when a modern aircraft isn’t flying its systems and equipment are not kept alive and functional.
      
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      March 7, 2024 9:41am
      - Matt Long
        
        Put in an advance request to Air NZ for their flight to Sydney to continue on to Canberra after disembarking passengers.
        Got to be cheaper and more reliable than the current embarrassment.
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:02am
      - Gjc
        
        Good comment Cantab ” One of the biggest issues around the RNZAF 757 fleet is that they do not get enough airtime.”
        I am Ex RNZAF Avionics Tech. and can attest to the fact that aircraft that are flown almost daily are prepared and maintained better with less faults and down time. Including Combat, Helicopters and passenger aircraft.
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:13am
- Biscuit
  
  Chuck, how about requiring the NZ Media to pay their own way in those trips?
  
  Now that the big giants like Meta/Google/Facebook/Whatever have caved to Little Willie’s proposed bill and are over the moon at sinking megamillions into the New Zealand market, aren’t our mob flush with funds?
  
  Oh, wait, Newshub is going, Stuff is on its last legs and, tee hee, I hear that one proposal TVNZ is considering to save costs is to reduce Te News from an hour to 30 minutes.
  
  Can you imagine it?:
  
  Simon: Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena,,,
  TVNZ bosses: You’re down to 29 minutes 50 seconds, Si. Get the bloody hell on with it.
  Simon: Coming up on tonight’s progr…
  TVNZ bosses: 29 minutes 45 seconds. Get on with it. And none of those lame, time-consuming crosses to Savs, Dan and what’s left of the Seven Sharp team for promos.
  Simon: We’ll be back after these…
  TVNZ bosses: Stop taking the piss, Dallow. No advertisers use us anymore.
  Simon: We cross now to our Senior Political Reporter, our Deputy Political Reporter and our Political Repo…
  TVNZ bosses: That’s one person now, Simon. Well, it will be after the shootout we’ve got planned…
  Simon: But but my job is safe, right?
  TVNZ bosses: Heard of AI, Si?
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:41am
  - MCōs
    
    If the current PM goes to the UN or APEC or ASEAN nobody is going to even know he’s there if our media don’t go along and report back that he talked to the Singapore PM or whoever except by way of a press release
    I’m guessing here, but I’d say the last thing the PM of this country would want is no publicity back home when they rub shoulders with the big boys
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:35am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Our Media copies/publishes overseas Journalists work frequently and based on the last six years just cut and paste Govt PR
      They can continue to do that
      
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      March 7, 2024 9:44am
  - PurplePen
    
    The few times I’ve tuned into TVNZ news in the last 5 years, if they reduce it to 30 … after 15 minutes on whatever is the lead article then 10 minutes of weather, what .. 5 minutes for ads that leaves 5 minutes for what?
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:18am
  - Paulus
    
    But will they leave Maiki Sherman to vitriolise the Government, now that ANZ have inherited Jessica’s job.
    
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    March 7, 2024 11:27am
  - Deadly pony
    
    Kia ora Biscuit, thanks for that!
    
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    March 7, 2024 5:28pm
  - Nobby2
    
    If the press want to follow the PM around when he goes overseas they can, by looking up his overseas schedule and paying for a seat on a commercial flight to get them there at the time the PM is there. It’s called user pays.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:54pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Once again, what’s wrong with leasing? Even chartering, I know it’s expensive, but who pays for maintenance and up keep when you lease or charter
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:42am
  - john1234
    
    Chartering would be far cheaper than owning those 757s.
    The NZDF does have a legitimate use for them, which is unfulfilled because they are ancient, worn-out junk barely kept flyable due to unflagging efforts of RNZAF engineers.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:07am
  - Bevan
    
    Can’t see a security concern there…. /sarc
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:23am
- Paulus
  
  A number sizes of Exec jets from Ardmore are daily available – why take the media for free ?
  They only want to criticise what this Government because despite them they lost.
  After TVNZ today and Newshub, with Stuff to follow there will only be a few on any fight for free.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:48am
- MCōs
  
  New Zealand is unique in its location a long way from anywhere and within the country the only two cities linked by motorway are Hamilton and Auckland
  Almost all domestic travel by politicians is done by commercial airlines, and on the odd occasion when the PM and/or Trade Minister are out of the country they don’t travel alone and they should have appropriate transport, which is what the Airforce is supposed to provide. There’s the necessary media, officials, and trade delegations otherwise what’s the point of going?
  When Winston goes to some international conference he needs official to give him a précis of what happened when he wakes up.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:08am
  - cmm
    
    “and they should have appropriate transport,”
    Appropriate for a population of 5 million people.
    
    Let’s remember we don’t have a population of 50 million people to fund massive luxury.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:29am
    - MCōs
      
      With that sort of thinking half the roads around the interior of Canterbury would never have been built.
      I remember in 1972 driving from Twizel to Timaru and passing not one car coming the other way.
      A few people use those roads of course, but at what expense to the rest of us?
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:29am
      - cmm
        
        With the other sort of thinking we’re just well on a debt spiral.
        
        Champaign tastes, beer budget.
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:41am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I think the media have to pay to fly with the PM. I don’t know if it’s still true, or whether it’s at a commercial rate.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:19am
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    They do. But cheaper than commercial.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:33am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Article in Stuff by Brooke Sabin on this.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:33am
- igm
  
  I take umbrage at the little weasel Hipkins slagging off our PM for embarrassing us in the eyes of the world with our archaic Air Force. Hang about, this snivelling wimp was integral in the bunch of fiscally illiterate scum that ran our finances into the gutter (where he belongs) and National have only just started to rectify many Labour-created problems.
  Hipkins, Ardern, Robertson, Parker, et al, should be brought to trial for economic treason.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:42am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    And let’s not forget the weasel Hipkins flying to Malaysia with two planes incase one broke down on the way to Britain
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:45am
- Skippytony
  
  Where is the MBIE modelling on this?
  
  How often does the PM fly in the Airforce plane? Whats its actual flying hours for its intended use?
  
  Whats the true cost per Kilometer flown?
  
  Id imaging the vast majority of these flights are planned weeks/months in advance. So how much would it have cost to do the same travel in a hired learjet or gulfstream.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:59am
- Bevan
  
  The problem with your post and a lot of the reply is you all seem to assume the only role of the 757s is to ferry politicians around the world. The Herc’s can’t do everything and strategic transport aircraft are needed, and yes one of their secondary roles can be flying VIPs – time replace them with decent capable aircraft when funds can be found.
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:18am
- gravedodger
  
  Bulldoze Premier House and buy two of them?
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:15am
  - jon
    
    Gravedigger, to think if the Lange govt hadnt decided we needed a priministerial residence closer to parliament, we would still have the stately, gifted to the nation, Vogel House as the PM residence and at a lot less cost of maintenance to the taxpayers.
    
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    March 7, 2024 1:03pm
- Handyman
  
  Think like a civil servant…
  A plane owned and operated by the state does cost any money, but leasing a or chartering a plane from Air New Zealand for a business trip to say Europe costs money. Even buying a ticket to Australia wastes money which could have gone to employing civil servants.
  
  In the same way spending $31m on a house for the PM costs nothing but $51,000 is horrendous waste of taxpayer money.
  
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  March 7, 2024 7:57pm
slightlyrighty

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/officials-respond-to-anti-extremism-centre-director-s-death-cult-comments-on-govt/ar-BB1joTMe?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=HCTS&cvid=5ddc84a48406412e8cae6ed5e6ba7053&ei=21

Leaving aside the irony of the head of an organisation set up to combat extremism using such extreme language to describe the Government (Death Cult? Really??), I have become deeply concerned at just how polarised the public service has become.

Professor Kidman describes herself in her Twitter Bio thus….”Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa Rangatira. Settler-colonial racism researcher. Sociologist doing stuff on political violence.”

The dangerous thinking here is that she is beginning to regard the measures taken by the coalition Government as Violence, and in this, she is not alone. This begs the question, what might happen in response?

This also begs the question, how can a so called academic in a position established to study and to prevent political extremism engage in public invective that may well encourage extremist behavior…or is it OK when the left do it?
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March 7, 2024 8:09am
- Grunter
  
  She really is a piece of siht. But this is why free speech is so important and should be encouraged. These extremists can’t help but ‘think out loud’. Now we all know what a nut job she is!
  
  There is always consequences to free speech. Say whatever you want, but that doesn’t mean it is reaction free. See should now be defunded, and any future employer will go broke.
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:22am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Her husband has leapt to her defence
  
  https://twitter.com/vomalley/status/1765239604653826261?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
  
  Trouble is, this University academic is also representing activities of the DPMC.
  
  If you want to bite the hand that feeds you, be prepared for some pushback.
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:56am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Vincent O’Malleable.
    
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    March 7, 2024 12:17pm
- Notsofast
  
  I think what we see here is how much more effective English is than te reo.
  Everyone understood what she said, and it is very typical of Maori rhetoric escaping from their language of limited functionality.
  Some of these fractionally Maori academics are vile.
  
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  March 7, 2024 4:01pm
Opie

Apparently the tvnz cuts today are going to include shortland street.

Not a show I watch but it makes sense when you hear they have been forcing Maori language into the script and even changed the opening song to maori.

Now I can’t confirm if that’s the case but if they even did it once it would have turned a lot of viewers off.

The new tvnz cricket coverage is the same. I don’t need my cricket maorified and hope they are for the chop as well today.

For the simple ones out there that will call me racist let me make it easy for you to understand. It’s not about race, it’s about forcing people how to think and act. We need to be able to not like something without being called names.

Speak Maori all you want, read it and write it as you see fit but do not force it on people. Do not use tax payers money to pointlessly add it into English sentences and pretend that doing so will lift kids out of poverty. If there is an appetite for something it will succeed, we don’t need it forced on us.

The country sees through it and has had enough. They voted in October and have voted with their feet.

It shows how dependent our media were on government handouts that as soon as they stop they are folding.

It’s not hard. Provide unbiased news and local shows without opinion and forced agenda in a language that 99% of people expect to speak in this country and people will watch.

Go woke, go broke.
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March 7, 2024 8:11am
- Ghost
  
  It’s obvious you don’t watch it. The theme song is not in Maori. Maori language week is when they put a bit of Māori in the script.
  
  Always puzzled me why people claim to not watch or read something, but always give a big opinion on what they haven’t read or seen and they are typically full of shit with what they say.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:49am
  - Lee C
    
    Yes, You are 100% correct there, Ghost, it is tedious.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:05am
  - Beach Haven expat
    
    Relatively recently, when the hospital was being evacuated, the ‘leave the building’ message alternated between English and Maori. Not living in NZ, I’d be interested to know if it was Shortland Street virtue signalling or is a thing in real life, which seems a tad on the dangerous side.
    
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    March 7, 2024 11:17am
  - Opie
    
    Looks like there is another 68 people lined up to prove that I am not “full of shit” as you so eloquently put it.
    
    Until people understand and accept that forced maorification is the cause of loss of viewers/customers/advertising then places will continue to go under.
    
    Just report the facts in English. Is that too much to ask? If you want to do it Maori that’s fine, but self fund it and run both options.
    
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    March 7, 2024 12:22pm
- Close Hen Counters
  
  Our lovely kiwi blog Yvette is an avid Shortland street fan I believe from previous posts 😢
  
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  March 7, 2024 7:24pm
BarryB

Zelenskyy is sent a message…..
A Russian missile lands close to a vehicle that contained Zelenskyy and a visiting dignitary.

I suspect that is was a message from the Russians to say that not only do we know what the Germans are saying, but we also know where you are and if we want to get you we can. Its also a warning to foreign dignitaries that being with Zelenskyy is dangerous to your health.
I doubt that the Russians do want him gone because hes making so many mistakes.
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March 7, 2024 8:12am
- All_on_Red
  
  Meanwhile, the Russian Navy has been forced out of Sevastopol
  https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/03/05/ukraine-claims-to-have-sunk-another-russian-warship/
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:18am
  - Grunter
    
    Yeah, Ukraine has made a real mess of the Russian Black Sea navy, no doubt about that.
    
    So now what happens? Me thinks the dirty Ruskies might like their boats. Sinking them probably makes them a bit grumpy.
    
    I wonder if Zelensky has a plan for the Russian reaction? There sure as hell will be one.
    
    All wars end at some point. It’s either negotiated peace (that won’t happen with this one), capitulation/total surrender by one side, or annihilation.
    
    In all cases the side with the most people, AirPower and artillery wins. Ukraine can only do that by having NATO go in ‘no holds barred’. But then we literally have WW3.
    
    And then we all lose.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:39am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Oh noes, Russia is ‘grumpy’
      You seem to have this naive view that Ukraine should just give up and the West should do nothing – because Russia is grumpy and Nukes or something.
      The Russian Air Force is pretty crap too.
      They don’t have the capability to do complex attacks like the Americans (Iraq!)
      In Syria they operated in groups of 2 or 4 only (SU25s) as they are too vulnerable to anti air missiles. As are their Attack Helicopters (KA 52s?)
      The Russian Airforce doesnt seem to be doing much in Ukraine either for the same reason.
      https://www.businessinsider.com/javelins-stingers-nlaws-help-ukraine-destroy-russian-tanks-aircraft-2022-3?op=1
      Here’s a thought, stop watching your shit You Tube commentators
      
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      March 7, 2024 2:43pm
      - Grunter
        
        Wow! Having a bad day…..? (YOUR LAST COMMENT)
        
        Once again (this is getting boring, but…..)
        
        I am simply pointing out that Ukraine isn’t winning and can not win unless NATO dives in big time. Even your beloved Zelensky is now saying that.
        
        But if NATO comes in as most of their leaders have threatened in the past week (NATO boots on the ground, NATO missile strikes on the Kerch Bridge & inside Russia, F-16s flying out of a NATO country, etc), then it is no longer a proxy war – it is WW3.
        
        So take your pick – which scenario do you want? You seem to be voting for WW3???!!
        
        The scenarios haven’t changed since March 2022. But now Ukraine has zero bargaining power. They are completely buggered no matter what. They can not win. They have no ability to win, never have.
        
        And, no, that does not make me a ‘Putin Fanboy’. Just (again) being realistic…..
        
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        March 7, 2024 3:37pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Zelenskys only job is to iron the olive drab t shirt and put it on the right way round.
  
  The missile was probably one of the expired stock that the west are supplying Ukraine with.
  
  Baghdad Bob will soon be gone.
  
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  March 7, 2024 1:04pm
- rangitoto
  
  They’ve been trying to get Zelensksi for at least two years.
  
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  March 7, 2024 4:43pm
Warren

Anyone believe that TV One would have learnt anything from Newshubs disaster because I believe that the the radicals have seen a opportunity to hold New Zealander to ransom with their one eyed views and racial beliefs that they want others to believe this Coalition Government is.
I have no sympathy for any Journalist or TV host as they are to stupid to change their ways so let’s hope that those in charge of who goes and who stays at TV one drain the swamp and use creditable staff to relay truthful news instead of what happens now.
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March 7, 2024 8:16am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The news reader maybe shafted, only to bring girly Tame in, I think the news may also drop to half an hour
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:51am
Matt Long

A tripling of seatbelt fines to adjust for inflation?
I knew inflation has been high but this seems excessive.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/not-buckling-up-could-cost-450-as-government-policy-statement-targets-seatbelt-use/N2GHBFK57JFEBLAYOOYROVME3Q/#:~:text=Fines%20for%20road%20users%20not,the%20UK%2C%20Australia%20and%20Canada.
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March 7, 2024 8:17am
- slightlyrighty
  
  This Government has a better approach to a lower road toll. it’s only inflationary if you don’t buckle up!
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:22am
- pdm
  
  Matt – no mention of cellphones.
  
  Someone driving round on their phone is a bigger danger to me than if they just have their seat belt undone.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:27am
  - JC60
    
    Absolutely agree. Cell phone use is the biggest danger to other vehicles. The fines for using these while driving should be well over a $1000. Can’t understand why they haven’t done anything about this.
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:37am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      The amount of truck drivers using cells while driving is amazing, you would think those large trucking companies would have phone connectivity inside the truck for safety reasons if nothing else H&S and all that
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:53am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  $450 is not enough, make it $1500 and no excuses. Arm in plaster or severe sunburn then someone else should drive.
  Same with cellphones. Most newer vehicles have onboard hands-free. If not then hands-free kits are available – I have one. It clips to the sun visor. I even has an earpiece that can be taken from the unit.
  NZ seems to prefer texting, and that is where the danger is.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:31am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    My Holden reads texts out.
    
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    March 7, 2024 8:54am
    - Jethrod
      
      Why can’t our intelligent cars tell us then to?
      “PUT YOUR BLOODY SEATBELT ON. ”
      On my humble Toyota Corona there is beeping if you sit in a seat with no belt on. It gets more and more insistent until you do. With dog in backseat I need to buckle it up to stop it.
      
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      March 7, 2024 11:12am
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      Like what chuck … I hate Ford!! My Holden has Tourette’s on the Auckland motorways haha!!! Have a great Holden day ☺️🚗
      
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      March 7, 2024 7:29pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    S.O
    Make seatbelts voluntary. No point trying to save stupid people.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:39am
    - john1234
      
      We all bear a massive cost when stupid people crash into other people.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:10am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Good idea. Improves the gene pool.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:22am
- kowtow
  
  Fines only apply to the honest and compliant .
  
  The usual suspects who’re probably unlicensed or suspended ,won’t bother and when fined will simply ‘ave a larf , as the vehicle they’re in is unlikely to be registered or warranted anyway .
  
  And if stopped Plod will also provide the taxpayer funded patrol car as a taxi service to take miscreat ‘home” to his taxpayer provided accomodation.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:42am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Cripes, who doesn’t wear their seat belt?
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:32am
  - lifesgood
    
    Princess Diana
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:53am
  - john1234
    
    Stupid people.
    It amazes me every time some scrote and his friends are killed running from police – almost every single time those that died were not wearing seatbelts. Those that were, lived.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:12am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Hshahaha, I went home from work the other day, I did something in the car thrn drove off without putting the belt on, when I got home, I automatically reached to take the belt off, I felt naked for a second 😃
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:55am
    - Matt Long
      
      No bells and warninga?
      
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      March 7, 2024 12:48pm
Simon

RWC rant

Good tournament but too long. Should be 16 teams.

RWC is attrition sport. Teams with biggest depth of players will win. Combined with All Blacks getting too many yellow and red cards (at the wrong time) meant SA were ok winners. SA also kicked their goals NZ didn’t.

The referring was substandard Having all good sides in one side of draw stupid. It was the Labo party running the draw.

If expand to 32 teams insane. Can see why but should be 16 teams. The tournament will last 3 mths. The only teams that cam win now are NZ & SA. Which has been the case since 2007. 32 teams mean say a very good French, Ireland or England team will never win due to attrition.
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March 7, 2024 8:18am
Bridgenag

Net Zero climate change broadside
By Doug Brodie

“The gist of my prior emails is that the man-made global warming hypothesis is a decades-old hoax and that it is pointless for the UK to self-harm by striving to reduce CO2 emissions, never mind trying to eliminate them completely and especially not unilaterally when the non-Western world is not paying a blind bit of notice to the West’s “climate change” ideology, bar humouring lip service.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/metatron/p/net-zero-climate-change-broadside?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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March 7, 2024 8:20am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Net zero cannot happen, therefore it will not happen. Any government that gets close to getting their citizens to live like stone-age Africans (because that’s what is required) will get voted out.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:34am
Simon

The importation and the supply of cocaine is very terrible. Terrible people. Lets hope those arrested for dealing of cocaine don’t just get name suppression are not just fined and discharged without conviction which well may have happened. Then of course drug dealing its just an economic calculation.

Perhaps a line had been drawn with the incoming govt? Who can say?
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March 7, 2024 8:23am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Laws in Singapore permit the death penalty for people convicted of trafficking more than 15 grams of heroin, 30 grams of cocaine, 250 grams of meth, or 500 grams of cannabis.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:57am
- MCōs
  
  What’s a terrible about cocaine in comparison with whiskey, for example?
  I presume you’ve tried some so you know what you’re talking about?
  
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  March 7, 2024 1:44pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  “The importation and the supply of cocaine is very terrible”.
  
  Hopefully the government can add something to the next 100 day plan to improve this 😉
  
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  March 7, 2024 3:45pm
Maggie Pie

Here’s “PRIME MINISTER CHRIS LUXON” doing what he does best.
Out there promoting New Zealand to the world.

Yet the nasty left-wing-MSM continue to try and undermine his success at every chance they get. Refusing to show any respect for the man or his role.

https://twitter.com/chrisluxonmp/status/1765251535465033864

It’s “Prime Minister” or “Mister Luxon” to all you f-ing losers!!
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March 7, 2024 8:25am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Oh remember the outrage when someone called Cindy Ardern
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:49am
  - Ghost
    
    What outrage, she was called Ardern by the media
    
    Radio nz. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/482757/ardern-s-resignation-as-prime-minister-is-a-game-changer-for-the-2023-election
    
    https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/113218/labour-loses-its-shine-bleeding-couple-points-national-latest-political-poll
    
    Can’t be arsed sitting here all day bring up multiple articles for you, but she and other pm’s were called by their last name.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:33am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      No she was not, she was always called Prime-minister Ardern, or Jacinda Ardern
      
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      March 7, 2024 11:00am
      - riffer
        
        Quite clearly Ghost has provided at least two articles, so your comment is a nonsense.
        
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        March 7, 2024 2:08pm
- Che Guava
  
  New Zealand “under new management” and “open for business”? Sounds like he thinks he’s still selling deodorant, not leading a country. I get the importance of an ecomony, but the idea that a country is, above all, an economic zone wherein the principal endeavour is making a buck and getting more stuff is just cringe. We’ve heard it all before for the last 50 years and look where it’s got us. Neo-liberalism and materialism have led us into the general malaise that permeates so much of society .
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:11am
  - Inandout
    
    CG, a profitable country earns money to pay for services. An unprofitable country borrows money. This is why Robbos spending has thrown NZ under the bus.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:37am
    - Che Guava
      
      No shit. My point is that no great leader of the past (when we actually had great leaders) talked like Luxon talks, albeit he is far from alone in this bland rhetoric. Look up quotes of the Great Men and none of them talk about the economy, they talk about the deep things of life and transcendent ideas.
      
      It’s really a contemporary phenomenon for politicians to ground everything in the economy as a first principle. I’m not blind to its importance, but the economy should serve society, not society serve the economy.
      
      The people who talk like this are the hired Managerial Class politicians who do the bidding of the oligarch class who always profit the most, and the latter spend a great deal of effort making people believe the aphorism “all that glitters is not gold” is a falsity.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:44am
      - newview
        
        CG you can talk like he does when he has taken over a run down economy after six years of labour and indebtedness that means every man woman and child in NZ owes $ 151000. Not much money to serve society there.
        
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        March 7, 2024 1:48pm
  - mogg
    
    Capitalism has given you everything that you have got.
    
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    March 7, 2024 9:53am
    - MCōs
      
      Capitalism hasn’t ‘given’ anybody anything
      Work has.
      If not by oneself then by someone else
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:54pm
      - Jack5
        
        Cossie, that’s pretty much Marx’s “labour theory of value”.
        
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        March 7, 2024 8:26pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I give him a thumbs up for that short speech.
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:27am
G152

The Chinese dont appear to worried about global warming.
In fact in the far northern climes they would rather invite such a climate change.
Its all relative
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March 7, 2024 8:25am
TripeWryter

I suffered a serious lapse of judgment last evening and watched the 6pm TVNZ News.
It was tea time, and the flatmates switched to it.
The Government is making changes to emergency housing.
It aims to get families out of motels, which has been shown to be not good for children.
The authorities are going to be taking a harder look at people wanting state help for housing.
Outrage.
It eems to be with the Press Gallery hacks that when this Government proposes a measure they scurry about looking for Someone(s) to be Outraged and Offended and who will Prophesie Doomfully that the World Will End.
Cue the sanctimonious Salvation Army.
Cue Rawiri and Debbie. When will the Maori tribes be asked if they will look after their Maori homeless – which some Maori I know assert should be done.
Cue Dr Megan Woods – who as Labour Minster of Housing couldn’t build the fucking houses!
I suppose Maiki and Benedict think they’re Providing Balance.
Well, there’s balance and there’s balance.
They have only to look at their soon-to-be-jobless Newshub colleagues to see where their idea of Balance can lead.
It means losing the audience and becoming irrelevant.
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March 7, 2024 8:29am
- Ian Boag
  
  Just out of curiosity … are there enough empty private rentals to shuffle the motel tenants into?
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:57am
  - kiwikidsnz
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350197334/blood-faeces-vomit-and-cockroaches-inside-emergency-housing-crisis
    
    Bishop said “..Emergency housing will always be there for people who need it.”
    
    People who abuse the privilege don’t need it.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:00am
  - All_on_Red
    
    They’re in the Motel because Private Rentals dont want them
    What would you do?
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:20am
    - Keith White
      
      Barracks.
      
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      March 7, 2024 11:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I think he said 1100 families, if you got that 1100 families of the waiting list, it would put a huge dent in the numbers
    
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    March 7, 2024 11:03am
  - artemisia
    
    Well there are some 1300 1 beddie rentals and 2500 flatmates wanted ads just on Trademe. Plus taxpayer subsidies. That provides a room for 3 x the number of single people currently in emergency motels. Then of course there are their families no doubt willing to take them in.
    
    All good then.
    
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    March 7, 2024 1:29pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Correction, they scurry to Labour to find out how to stick the knife in
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:02am
cmm

Oooh, goody, goody, a new Covid vax is available.

The dumbed-down-for-preschool explanation they give of how these vaccines work really explains why they are such a bad idea:

“It means the immune system is solely focused on responding to this slightly morphed variant,” University of Auckland vaccinologist Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris said.

Why the hell would you ever want your immune system to be completely dedicated to attacking one pathogen, a relatively mild pathogen at that – especially one which is going to be obsolete in a few months?

Basically your whole body’s defences are told to be on high alert for a very specific spike protein. Ignore everything else. A slight change to that spike protein and it is no longer recognised.

Natural vaccines, on the other hand attack via a wider set of vectors. They look out for manbe 20 or more identifying features. Change one feature and the rest still work.

Sorry it is only available to over 30s. The die hard fans will have to wait a bit before they can have their kids shot up.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nzs-new-covid-19-vaccine-rolls-out-today-heres-what-you-need-to-know/4KUSJQXXB5DZHAICME5O4DHJ44/
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March 7, 2024 8:35am
- imalwaysright
  
  This is their mentality:
  
  Make a vaccine to combat pathogen “A”.
  
  Vaccine worked.
  
  Unfortunately patient died from pathogens “B,C,D….Z”.
  
  But they didn’t die from “A”!
  
  Success!
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:26am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Correction:
    
    This is their mentality:
    Make a vaccine to combat pathogen “A”.
    
    To insert the vaccine for pathogen “A”, they first have to destroy the anti-bodies for pathogens B through to Z, which are similar to pathogen “A” and that will target Vaccine “A” as it looks very much like a pathogen.
    
    The process of first destroying existing Anti-bodies that in the normal course of events would block the new vaccine because it looks like a pathogen, has been going on for decades.
    
    However with the discovery / advancement of the electrically charged Spike Protein, and the use of Graphene Oxide in the last decade to intensify the electrical charge, new vaccines are able to punch their way directly into cell walls, has changed the game, and overriding the bodies natural defenses.
    
    This electrical charge punching its way into the inside of cells, has come about from 100 years of research and modification of bacteriophages, which play a very important part in protecting the human body from bacterial infections.
    
    Bacteriophages, by natural design, are designed to penetrate the cells of bacterial pathogens and destroy from the inside out.
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacteriophage
    
    Bacteriophages are a significant part of our immune response. This mechanism was hijacked by big pharma, a long time ago.
    
    What most people don’t know, and what is not made known, is that the manipulation of bacteriophages has given rise to what most people think as viruses. It is not co-incidental that what are referred to as ‘viruses’, was discovered at the same time as bacteriophages.
    
    It was first assumed that bacteriophages was something other than bacterial, hence the use of the name virus. A virus strictly speaking, is a colony of rapidly re-producing bacteriophages that seek out and destroy bacterial pathogens.
    
    Once there task is complete, they die/break up, in the call they conquered, i.e. Their life is over. Think of them as one use nanobots that the body’s immune system manufactured to kill bacteria.
    
    Which is why with “viruses”, and especially Covid-19, no lab has ever been able to get a complete sample of the virus, only dead fragments of expired bacteriophages.
    
    The spike protein IS derived from bacteriophages.
    
    Big Pharma is trying to play God in order to create an ongoing race of sick people that keep paying money, or govt health systems keep paying. i.e. eternal cash-flow.
    
    Other than those people that would have died anyway from the annual flu, mild or strong, the only people that died from Covid and therefore part of the excess mortality rates, died after vaccination programs started.
    
    Getting vaccinated with mRNA/Spike protein/modified bacteriophages is a recipe for death. As is being observed in our excess mortality rates.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:59am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Jack,
      Very interesting.
      There are still a large element in society who are frightened to acknowledge the magnitude of the harm that big pharma and government are willing and able to do to us.
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:21pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        Most of that large part of society figure that if it was a scam, that someone would say something about.
        
        That part of society are indoctrinated to believe consensus, rather than ask questions. The Lemmings factor:
        
        “Oh look Bert, all our mates are running to the cliff and jumping off. Must be a new game or something.”
        
        “Nah Ernie. Stay right here. The guy that jumped first was Jim Jones, and I don’t think he was right in the head.”
        
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        March 7, 2024 5:56pm
- Keith White
  
  Maybe we just need more boosters…?*
  
  “A German man who voluntarily received 217 coronavirus jabs over 29 months showed “no signs” of having been infected with the virus that causes Covid-19 and had not suffered from any vaccine-related side effects, according to a study published in the medical journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.”
  
  *yeah, /sarc.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:34am
  - Lee C
    
    … we are just waiting for the psych report… before we clear him fully though.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:07am
  - cmm
    
    Sure, I knew a guy who smoked and drank his whole life and got run over at age 95 while crossing the road.
    
    Anecdotes are not science.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:37am
    - Keith White
      
      And yet… anecdotes about milkmaids not getting cowpox started vaccination.
      
      And a one-off observation started antibiotics.
      
      “In 1928 Dr Alexander Fleming returned from a holiday to find mould growing on a Petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria. He noticed the mould seemed to be preventing the bacteria around it from growing. He soon identified that the mould produced a self-defence chemical that could kill bacteria.”
      
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      March 7, 2024 11:10am
- JackRabbit
  
  That vaccine is not a vaccine. Anything other than dead cell material from a bacterial infection, is not a vaccine.
  
  If big Pharma was in drink sales, they would be trying to sell Coca Cola and energy drinks to make up for a bad diet and a lack of clean water. No wait….
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:28am
- newview
  
  CMM. Your distain for the COVID vaccines are obvious and you have supporters on this platform. If your comments are designed to influence them you don’t have to as they already agree with your sentiments. Those who want to continue to receive COVID vaccines will do so because they have weighed up the same information you have, and have interpreted it differently as have the hundreds of millions who have had COVID injections world wide. In fact 5.5billion plus. The few that have had issues are minuscule compared with any death and sickness because of the vaccine. There’s plenty of misinformation out there and I’m sure you don’t want to be part of that. Do you.
  
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  March 7, 2024 3:40pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    …Those who want to continue to receive COVID vaccines will do so because they have weighed up the same information you have, and have interpreted it differently…
    
    I would debate that those people have the same information as CMM, or for that matter myself.
    
    From the raw data I have, the number of people I know with serious side effects, including death, and the number of medical professionals, including ex vaccinators that have left medicine over the vaccines and have dozens of accounts of deaths and injuries, it is implicit those people have done no digging.
    
    The few that have had issues are minuscule compared with any death and sickness because of the vaccine.
    
    A Freudian slip that suggests death and sickness because of the vaccine. Hmmm.
    
    I suspect you meant Covid. I do not know anyone that got that sick from Covid that would not have got sick from the flu. I do not know of any excess deaths from Covid. I know plenty of deaths and ongoing disability from the vaccine. Dozens.
    
    There’s plenty of misinformation out there… And uninformed people like you continue to spread it. It is misinformation because it is contrary to what is public knowledge through OIA requests, not just here but globally.
    
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    March 7, 2024 6:06pm
    - newview
      
      JR “I do not know anyone that got that sick from Covid that would not have got sick from the flu. “
      That’s got to be the most ignorant statement about this subject I’ve heard. You have no scientific facts to back that up. You talk of your raw data. Let’s see some. Let’s see how the figures of the large numbers of people with serious side effects figures you say you have, stack up against the 73% of the worlds population who have had a Covid injection. There was no Freudian slip from me. I aren’t disagreeing that there is a percentage of people out there that have had serious side affects, it may be thousands worldwide, but put alongside 5.5 billion people the percentage will be minuscule. As for your raw material, there will be literature on the subject to suit everyone’s point of view. The internet is a big place. I’ll start taking you seriously when I see your raw data and see how reliable your source is. Then maybe we can sort out opinion from fact.
      
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      March 8, 2024 8:05am
      - JackRabbit
        
        IF you were into research, and it is a big IF, you would already have access to the raw data. Raw data does not lie. I am not about to provide you with raw data, so that you can pour cold water on that data.
        
        Do some research.
        
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        March 8, 2024 11:45am
      - newview
        
        No Jack. You comment here and expect others to take your word for it. Some maybe happy to do that but not me. If you add IMO that’s different.
        
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        March 8, 2024 3:26pm
Sparrow

I fail to understand why the PM can’t fly on a commercial airline such as Air New Zealand. Which I believe we own. These political meetings are set up months in advance so make early bookings. The media can sort out their own travel arrangements they are commercial entities. Would have thought more comfortable than some Air Force crap and probably cheaper at the end of the day.
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March 7, 2024 8:44am
- Cantabrian
  
  By flying direct using an RNZAZF aircraft the PM can get to Canberra and back in a day. Try doing that commercially.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:47am
  - cmm
    
    Is flying to Canberra and back in one day really worth the millions it costs us?
    
    I bet you could do it commercially:
    * Fly commercial red eye to Sydney.
    * Private jet hop to Canberra.
    * Private jet back to Sydney.
    * Last plane home to Auckland.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:40am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “Is flying to Canberra and back in one day really worth the millions it costs us?”
      
      Yes, efficient use of time isn’t exactly ingrained in New Zealanders and our government.
      Remember they suspended Parliament of a country facing multiple crises because a list MP of a minor activist Marxist party managed to die.
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:29pm
Maggie Pie

This sooo cracked me up 😀 😀 😀

“In the event of a Civil War,
I am not afraid of the 81 million Biden voters.
Half are dead and don’t exist.
And the rest don’t even know what gender they are”

– FoxNews contributor.
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March 7, 2024 8:46am
- Yvette
  
  “And the rest don’t even know what gender they are”
  
  But Maggie “What gender you are” is such a click-bait topic, articles encourage everyone to make up their minds before they decide that eating crayons, or soil from the garden, is not such a good idea.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:17am
kowtow

Today te media paahti will make the “news” all about themselves ,again.

Yesterday on the wireless Nicloa Willis talking about debt servicing so massive and yet across te media can I find a reference .

Nope it’s all about Jones and tobacco or Seymour hating children. A spirited defence of the racist Wellington Amazons and an NZME editorial saying the economy ain’t that bad afterall.

And yes it’s almost as if they’re colluding to censor the PM’s visit to Oz ( and we know they’ve got form for that) .

They bleat about healthy democracy ,while actively undermining democratic principles daily and behaving like petulant children.
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March 7, 2024 8:50am
- All_on_Red
  
  She’s right to be concerned about Debt Servicing
  Consider the US where Debt is growing by $1 trillion every 100 days…
  Our Media will ignore it because increased Debt was down to Labour…
  They lurve Labour
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:53am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, debt servicing in USA is almost at $ 1trillion per year.
    But, hey, just throw more debt at the problem…
    
    It has now got to the point where it is almost impossible to real back.
    
    To stop increasing the debt, Americans would be about $10k out of pocket per year per person.
    
    If they were to try to pay the debt back over 50 years then they would be about $20k out pocket per year per person.
    
    That would be accompanied with a massive down turn in the jobs market as government spending shrinks, so that $20k per person would be harder to find. That would cause a depression far worse, deeper and longer than the Great Depression.
    
    So their only way forward is to shut their eyes and continue spending up.
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:03am
    - cmm
      
      reel back. Bah!
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:26am
    - kevn
      
      cmm… NZ’s interest on ‘our’ debt is mere 10 billion a year.
      
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      March 7, 2024 10:35am
      - cmm
        
        Yeah we are not stuck in the same black hole yet, but it beckons.
        
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        March 7, 2024 10:48am
Bridgenag

World’s Biggest Study on COVID ‘Vaccine’ Side Effects Has Been Published.
‘Anti-Vaxxers’ and ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ vs People Who Believe Anything. Guess Who Wins (Again)?

“A recent GCoVS paper and continuing excess mortality are confirmation of what should already be common knowledge. The COVID gene therapies, fraudulently promoted as vaccines, established a reputation early on for causing heart damage and clot-bombing people’s blood vessels. The stories about ‘turbo cancers’ look to be more than just anecdotal tales going by the post-vax elevations in cancer deaths. Trusting people who are known to lie for a living, and taking drugs with a penchant for causing heart damage and life-threatening blood clots, in the hope of avoiding a re-badged flu whose ‘victims’ outlived the average national life expectancy, is the epitome of reckless irrationality. They really do think we are stupid. It’s a pity so much of humanity seems hellbent on proving them correct.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/anthonycolpo/p/worlds-biggest-study-on-covid-vaccine?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 7, 2024 8:54am
Scooter

Toxic Tova at it again. Why shouldn’t Luxon host his family at Premier House for Xmas, after all don’t we all love peering through other people’s open homes.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350203582/premier-house-suitable-big-luxon-family-xmas-bash
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March 7, 2024 9:16am
- fernglas
  
  There’s a big difference between where you have Christmas lunch and where you live for the rest of the year. My family lunches were either under canvas or under pohutukawa, but I certainly didn’t want to live there.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:40am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Ardern was never there for Christmas lunch, and neither would Luxon be, does he not own a home on Waiheki? Was that not we the drugged up leftie that infiltrated his property while he and his family were sleeping?
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:11am
- DeepBlue
  
  So we learned that….
  
  PM Luxon went camping with his family for Christmas
  
  … and it wasn’t even glamping.
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:22am
greybeard

I see Tova O’Brien has managed to get another one of her daily anti-Luxon pieces published.
I thank God every day that she is (a) not related to me and (b) is not a next-door neighbour.
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March 7, 2024 9:19am
- MCōs
  
  You never know she might compartmentalize her life and be a perfectly agreeable person away from work
  It’s the sad sacks who stew over how unfair everyone is that can be annoying
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:02am
Swifty

Some background on the delightful Joanna Kidman:

http://karldufresne.blogspot.com/2022/07/the-intriguing-circumstances-in-which.html?m=1

Charming.
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March 7, 2024 9:45am
- Maggie Pie
  
  WOW!! Deserves a seperate post all of it’s own.
  
  Wonder if she’s gone from Vic?
  Click on her bio and now all you get is a ‘404’
  
  Hmmm.
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:23am
  - Keith White
    
    Is that a step down from a 501?
    
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    March 7, 2024 11:11am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Daughter of Fiona Kidman, apparently.
  
  How embarrassing.
  
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  March 7, 2024 8:24pm
cmm

Stuff: “NZ politics live: TVNZ faces up to 68 job losses across business”

Business? Has TVNZ ever been a business?
If it was a business it would have gone broke decades ago.
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March 7, 2024 9:54am
- mandk
  
  If it had been sold years ago, it might actaully be a business now.
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:43am
  - MCōs
    
    Like Newshub?
    
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    March 7, 2024 1:58pm
- Prince
  
  Why is this classified as ‘Politics’ ? If, say, Bunnings announced 68 jobs cut would that be ‘Politics’?
  The self-absorbed kiddies in the media really need a decent shake up.
  Given the vastly different way they treat ‘Luxon’ and the rest of the Govt, to the simpering treatment of ‘Jacinda, Chippie and the team’, do they really expect the Govt to come to their aid ?
  
  If you only target 35% of your potential audience, and abuse the other 65%, you will not succeed. You deserve everything you are getting.
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:59am
- riffer
  
  Crown entity companies are established and owned by the Crown to further certain policy objectives.
  
  The Treasury provides performance advice on Radio New Zealand Ltd, Television New Zealand Ltd, and Crown Irrigation Investments Ltd.
  
  Crown entity companies are registered as companies and are subject to the Companies Act 1993. They are also subject to relevant provisions of the Crown Entities Act 2004.
  
  source: treasury.govt.nz
  
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  March 7, 2024 2:15pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

TVNZ cleanout?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/511018/tvnz-to-make-announcement-about-future-tomorrow-staff-told?
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March 7, 2024 9:56am
- lifesgood
  
  Popcorn at the ready. So few of their staff worth saving, sadly.
  
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  March 7, 2024 9:57am
- cmm
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-3Iq3XQkAw
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:49am
Maggie Pie

Imagine having this retard for a neighbor 😀

Hosk was saying this morning that the cause of the fire under the Newton off-ramp, which resulted in hundreds of people being evacuated from the area, was some homeless derro living under the Motorway and using a Supermarket Tolley as a BBQ!
Even had an old projector, which he was able to screen movies on the bottom of the bridge above his head. LOL!!

https://twitter.com/WakaKotahiAkNth/status/1765445763432116654
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March 7, 2024 10:00am
- imalwaysright
  
  Probably an EV, scooter maybe.
  Eight fire appliances for an overhead projector and some tussock doesn’t add up.
  Folks are saying smoke was unusual and the online camera covering the area was turned off.
  https://www.reddit.com/r/auckland/comments/1b7xg4u/burning_smell_sirens_cbd/
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:13am
- MCōs
  
  If the guy was living under a bridge it would be difficult to imagine him as my neighbour!
  
  Having said that we took a shortcut under a bridge in Bangkok once and their was a whole village of resourceful people setup under there
  Kitchens, lounges with the tv going, bedrooms, kids running round
  
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  March 7, 2024 10:15am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “If the guy was living under a bridge it would be difficult to imagine him as my neighbour!”
    
    No it wouldn’t .
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:23am
    - MCōs
      
      Thoughts and prayers
      
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      March 7, 2024 4:45pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Maybe he’s got a boy at Grammar. Certainly ‘in-zone’ 😀
    
    Actually thort of you last nite Cossie when this popped up.
    Do you know the area?
    
    https://twitter.com/RT_com/status/1765074800060313973
    
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    March 7, 2024 10:30am
    - Jethrod
      
      Hahaha haha…… looks like a girl brawl at one of those West Auckland schools!
      
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      March 7, 2024 11:30am
    - MCōs
      
      I do as it happens
      I don’t recognize the street from that clip, but elsewhere it’s said to be Sukhumvit soi 8 which crosses Sukhumvit Rd proper and becomes soi 11. Along there is a tailor who made all my suits and shirts. Next door is an expat supermarket where I parked the car and there’s an alleyway back out to the street with a couple of dubious massage joints.
      I knew they were dubious because ladies sat outside trying to entice one inside for a quickie lunchtime special
      
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      March 7, 2024 12:15pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Ladies – lol!
        
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        March 7, 2024 8:26pm
slightlyrighty

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/07/appointing_an_extremist_to_fight_extremism.html

This has aged like fine wine!
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March 7, 2024 10:34am
- Swifty
  
  “And here she rails against a system which put her through school, maintained her as a solo mother, put her through Uni and STILL supports her ample arse both in Wellington and, as she herself describes in her other columns, jetting her all around the world in conferences and ‘research’.
  
  https://inabrownstudy.nz/im-still-a-mum-arent-i/
  
  Looks like her entire adult life has been spent living off the very system she professes to hate, despise and reckons is so fundamentally evil.
  
  She is a stinking steaming hypocrite.
  
  Pre-contact Maori wouldn’t have put up with her shit. No bloody sitting on a rock by the sea dreaming about stuff. Pull your weight in the gardens, the boats or getting kai ready or piss off.”
  
  That was well put, even if I do say so myself.
  
  🤣
  
  Thanks slightly.
  
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  March 7, 2024 2:35pm
Surely Knott

Director Professor Joanna Williams of He Whenua Taurikura, the Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing Violent Extremism, calls the govt a Death Cult

Questions:
Is He Whenua Taurikura really a CORE?

The Centres of Research Excellence (CoREs) are defined as “interorganisational research networks in New Zealand funded through the Centres of Research Excellence scheme, which is administered by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC).”

But He Whenua Taurikura isn’t funded through TEC. It was funded by the Prime Ministers office?

And The Tertiary Education (TEC) doesn’t name them as one of the 10 organisations its funding.

While Professor Kidman Co-Director is on Vic Universities staff page. The link to her page is broken and missing. My question being if you recieve over a mill from the PM for research. Are you a public servant working for the PM with the obligations of a public servant, an employee of the charity, or are you a University employee? I guess this question could be answered in the courts with the Siouxie Wiles case but I’m not sure the public will ever be told the outcome of that case.

So what does He Whenua Taurikura do? They were set up to fund Masters scholarships of $15,000 each. So they are more like the TEC (the body that chooses and distributes the money) than a CORE (who are the recipients).

RNZ said “Scholarships were being offered of at least $15,000 each to master’s students researching ways of countering and preventing terrorism, including issues like social cohesion and social equality”

While no completed research is on the website. The current project Titles have been funded. Note the name of the recipient scholars is not given.

“THE WAY WE NEVER WERE: POLITICISING NOSTALGIA AND RACIAL PURITY
This seeding project on ‘toxic nostalgia’ is led by Co-Directors Paul Spoonley and Joanna Kidman, with Research Fellow Max Soar. The project aims to establish a community of researchers interested in exploring the centrality of a politics of nostalgia to extremist ideologies. ” (Um the only one declaring racial specialness or purity is the academic/socioligists)
Here is a few funded $15k each.
1. “Empowering Youth for Civic Engagement: A Student-Led Documenting System to Counter Misinformation and Hate on Social Media (PhD research project)” (So govt funded activism?)
2. Exploring the Psychosocial Dimensions of Hate Crimes Directed towards Muslim Women in Aotearoa (PhD research project)
3. “Māori experiences of Misinformation and Disinformation on Social Media (PhD research project)”
4. Extremist theology in Aotearoa: Are New Zealand Christians at risk of radicalisation? (Masters research project)
5. Understanding Contemporary Political Discontent, Dissent and Anti Government Extremism in Aotearoa (2020-2023) (PhD project) (Um this ended in 2023, where is it?)

The organisation received $1.4 million in revenue.
And expenses ” A grant totaling $1,325,000 paid to Victoria University of Wellington for
the hosting and funding of the
centre.” Because it was paid as a big grant to Vic. You can’t see the breakdown in detail as required by the charities commission.

I don’t like it. We need more transparency and separation between these organisations. These quango’s use the shield and reputation of the University eg Disinfo project, Te Punaha Matatini (Siouxie Wiles, Sean Hendy and our covid experts) and then appear as University experts in the media while they are actually part of a govt funded special organisations .

The Projects
https://hwt.ac.nz/projects/

Their Accounts
https://register.charities.govt.nz/CharitiesRegister/ViewCharity?accountId=79dcb1c3-9f79-ed11-bb1a-0022480ffcd1&searchId=0105b478-b473-470f-ac6a-808c2fc94a83

TEC’s current funded CORE’s
https://www.tec.govt.nz/funding/funding-and-performance/funding/fund-finder/centres-of-research-excellence/cores-funded-in-201920-round/
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March 7, 2024 10:55am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

Comic Part 9.
“Maori did not give permission for the British to rule over Maori. They only gave permission for the British to rule over the British.” Meaning British Citizenship which Maori gained.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/analysis-treaty-of-waitangi-comic-for-high-school-students-has-been-quietly-brainwashing-away-since-2018-part-9/
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March 7, 2024 11:05am
- MCōs
  
  “Māori were guaranteed British citizenship by the Treaty of Waitangi, and this was confirmed by the Native Rights Act 1865 (though the act was primarily concerned to bring Māori under British law).”
  As it happens I was subsequently British citizen for a few months before the law was changed on 1-January 1949
  My first passport had downgraded this to British Subject
  Presumably pre 1949 there were no NZ passports
  
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  March 7, 2024 4:41pm
Rusty

Auckland Grammar can’t fit in one more student even though he lives in the zone and his brother goes there?

David Seymour is an old boy and is the MP for Epsom.

He should say something.
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March 7, 2024 11:09am
- MCōs
  
  Section 11D(1) of the Education Act 1989 provides that, subject to the provisions of that Act, a person who lives in the home zone of a school that has an enrolment scheme [such as Auckland Grammar School] is entitled to enrol at any time at that school.
  
  Seems clear although the ‘lives in the home zone of a school’ part needs to be strictly adhered to.
  
  Apart from that the kid still has to do the work.
  
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  March 7, 2024 2:18pm
  - MCōs
    
    As it happens AGS has a ballot each year for non zone students to fill vacancies
    
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    March 7, 2024 4:44pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Secede. Texas, but Alaska is louder.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/report-a-quarter-of-us-adults-want-their-state-to-secede/ss-BB1jrL1c#image=2
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March 7, 2024 11:10am
- MCōs
  
  What percentage of North Islanders want the South Island to secede and take the Manawatu with them?
  
  Smxit
  
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  March 7, 2024 2:25pm
JackRabbit

They would have all been the saline solution batch (Batch C), one of the three different types of Covid vaccines, which was part of the control placebo group, and as taken by celebrities on TV.

The other two batches A, B, contained the mRNA spike protein and one of those two batches, Batch A, contained extra experimental goodies.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13998

217 over 29 months is a jab every 4 days.
An injection every 4 days of any normal vaccine, polio, small pox, flue, will make you very sick.

217 doses of Batch B, would kill you, over time. Batch A would definitely kill you, and very quickly.
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March 7, 2024 11:14am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Trump says his Super Tuesday rout is the most ‘conclusive’
Maine, Oklahoma, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas, Tennessee, Minnesota and Massachusetts.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/trump-says-his-super-tuesday-rout-is-the-most-conclusive/ss-BB1jqbxH#image=1
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March 7, 2024 11:17am
Jack5

NZ’s refugee policy seems strange.

According to the UN, there are a hundred million or so refugees in the world. That is refugees, not just the billions who want to “migrate” to the developed world.

Stuff features a disabled refugee from Sudan, who came to New Zealand in 2008 (first link below), and must have gained NZ citizenship.

In 2019 he went overseas for what Stuff describes as a holiday, apparently in his troubled, violent homeland of South Sudan.

When he came back two years later, he “had nowhere to go,” and was living in a garage “while awaiting housing”.

Perhaps the UN that we allow to select our refugees, should ask potential refugees about how long they plan to stay.

2008: Refugee arrives –

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/brave-new-kiwi-makes-most-of-life/UB7WHFZ6GYMZPPF2MIH6774JV4/

2024: He’s back –

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350202884/i-wanted-cry-amputee-no-longer-homeless-thanks-stuff-reader
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March 7, 2024 11:25am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Yep – refugees go home for weddings and family events.
  Talk to people who work with refugees, and the return home journeys show what a soft touch we are.
  
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  March 7, 2024 4:02pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    Yep – refugees go home for weddings and family events.
    
    “It was so bad we had to flee the country for our lives. But we go back for birthdays, weddings, Christmas and other family events.”
    
    Doesn’t sound like a refugee to me.
    
    “Bert died a horrible and unfortunate death. He fell into a vat of beer, at the brewery, and drowned.”
    “Oh how ghastly. Was it a quick death?”
    “No it took four days, poor bugger. He got out 17 times to go to the toilet, before he finally drowned.”
    
    Doesn’t sound like a drowning to me.
    
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    March 7, 2024 6:13pm
Chuck Bird

Peter Williams: The Nats are locking in co-governance of fresh water

https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/the_nats_are_locking
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March 7, 2024 11:32am
- kevn
  
  Chuck… Great, now we can bill ‘them’ for flooding.
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:40am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Add to that Maui lassoing the sun with flax and pulling it closer to extend the sunlight hours. So we can also bill them for the imagined climate change.
    
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    March 7, 2024 6:15pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Yep, I was just going to post that.
  Taxpayers Union are going to give the coalition Govt a wakeup call – especially Luxon.
  Repealing anything is not good enough, hit it for six!
  I gave the Taxpayers Union a small donation. I want to see this 3 waters and co-governance gone forever.
  
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  March 7, 2024 2:15pm
- Observer of Life
  
  G The Giant … I’d like to hear your defense of the Nats on this one (locking in co-governance of fresh water). I cannot be bothered sending emails to Luxon or any other National MP, as I know I will be ignored. And YES Ghost, I do send them to the ‘correct’ email addresses!
  
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  March 7, 2024 2:41pm
Maggie Pie

Is Tangi Utikere actually Robbo’s doppelganger?

https://vimeo.com/919851064

😀 😀 😀
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March 7, 2024 11:44am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Peas in a pod..
  
  Perhaps Labour has a Clone machine
  
  (But Tangi is a snappier dresser, doncha think?)
  
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  March 7, 2024 11:58am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Yes, but what I have noticed, ever since I started posting here about the obvious differences between the dress-standards of ‘Left & Right’ during Question Time, there’s no doubt Labor MP’s have taken note and upped their game in the style stakes.
    
    Only yesterday, I spotted Megan Woods wearing a 4 stand string of Pearls.
    
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    March 7, 2024 12:21pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      M.p
      That was her neck
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:37pm
- greybeard
  
  Sounds very similar.
  
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  March 7, 2024 2:46pm
David Garrett

I wonder if it has occurred to anyone at TVNZ that the dramatic loss of advertising revenue is not so much competition from “other platforms”, but a collective realization from advertisers that the vast majority of potential viewers are sick and tired of: 1) having the news partially in “Manglish”; and 2) having what is supposedly “the Maori world view” – as if all Maori think the same – thrust down their throats at every opportunity.

(As an aside, I have a few Maori friends who think the ethnic gangs are total [insert banned noun] and NOT “just another form of whanau” as idiots claim.)

Not to mention the utter dross that now crowds the TVNZ programming schedule – endless cooking and house renovation shows, with the very rare currant of some decent current affairs in an increasingly bland and tasteless bun.
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March 7, 2024 12:04pm
- mandk
  
  The gangs are not just another form of whanau, but I wonder how many gang members came from dysfunctional families.
  
  As the late lamented Celia Lashley said: a boy without a father is drawn like a magnet to the gangs.
  
  I also heard a talk by Andrew Becroft when he was Principal Youth Court Judge. One of the things he recounted was that he had just finished a circuit in the Taranaki/Whanganui area in which around 50 young males appeared before him. The shocking fact was that only one of the fifty had a father playing an active role in his life.
  
  Gangs are in part the result of the undermining of the family unit, with the welfare state aiding and abetting irresponsible parenting or non-parenting.
  
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  March 7, 2024 12:16pm
  - Hollyfield
    
    Or as Denzel Washington said “If the father is not in the home, the boy will find a father in the streets. I saw it in my generation and every generation before me and every one since. If the streets raise you, then the judge becomes your mother and prison becomes your home.”
    
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    March 7, 2024 3:50pm
- Biscuit
  
  Exactly, David.
  
  One of my best mates, as full-blooded a Maori as you can get, is a squillionaire because he:
  Took full advantage of the education system that ALL New Zealanders (Maori included) could/can access
  Worked hard
  Availed himself of what is still a very good health system
  Didn’t hide behind ‘colonialism’ for not being able to work out what – smoking, eg – might make him ill
  Raised 3 kids to be models of society
  Didn’t give even the slightest thought to ever voting for Willie and his ilk’s policies that, surprise!, seem only to benefit Willie and his ilk.
  
  Oh I agree re the TVNZ programming dross. I looked at today’s programming. It includes Dog Squad and The Great Kiwi Bake Off, programmes that – unless they’re too embarrassed to admit it – nary a one of my contemporaries (or my Maori pal, ha) would dream of watching…
  
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  March 7, 2024 12:57pm
  - David Garrett
    
    Biscuit: Yes…Boy do I miss “The great kiwi bake off” up here in the kingdom.
    
    More than 20 years ago – probably closer to 30 now – Lindsay Perigo declared TVNZ to be “braindead” – God knows how he would describe it now.
    
    An on Perigo…until he resigned and it became known that he was a rabid right winger – far to the right of me – I had no idea what his personal politics were – he was as hard on the righties as he was on the lefties.
    
    I have advised Tova O’Brien to find a couple of Perigo’s old interviews of politicians of the day and learn how real independent interviewing of a politician is done. I doubt she could, no matter how many old interviews she watched
    
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    March 7, 2024 1:16pm
    - Biscuit
      
      Again, exactly, DG…
      
      I think of old timers like Ian Johnstone, Ian Fraser, Brian Edwards, Paul Holmes and Paul Henry.
      
      I SUSPECTED at the time which way their political leniencies were but they were pro enough to go after politicos from both sides with equal lack(s) of favour.
      
      I watched that smirking clown Benedict Colins the other day and thought ‘Surely a TVNZ boss will murmur ‘Don’t..’ but this arvo, a TVNZ boss reckoned ‘he is only doing his job’…
      
      And they wonder why (soz here, David) even POLITICIANS outrank journos in public ratings, ha!
      
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      March 7, 2024 1:36pm
    - Matt Long
      
      I actually thought Perrigo was a lefty the way he went after the Nats. 🤣🤣🤣
      
      6 0
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      March 7, 2024 1:49pm
      - David Garrett
        
        Matt: He certainly gave no quarter in his interviews – no matter who he was interviewing. And all without raising his voice, facial contortions, or snorting expressions of disbelief.
        
        Once again, I don’t believe O’Brien could do it, no matter how hard she tried. And of course she wouldn’t even try.
        
        Seymour made some very good comments today on the TVNZ contraction. He pointed out – correctly – that the MSM are mainly concerned with “claiming scalps” of polis who have slipped up in one way or another.
        
        When my career inploded, the press gallery at parliament apparently had a dartboard made up with my picture. The work of that sniveling little shit Guyon Espiner as I understand it.
        
        11 1
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        March 7, 2024 2:01pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    The Great Kiwi Bake-off is an embarrassment of considerable proportions.
    Time for the parent bake-off franchise in Britain to pull the plug.
    The NZ version is cringeworthy.
    
    3 0
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    March 7, 2024 2:37pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The Manglish is really getting quite childish. At the beginning and end of an abused English sentence the speaker has that silly “gotcha” look on their clocks.
  “See? I did it!” they gloat.
  
  7 2
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  March 7, 2024 2:35pm
Swifty

“Dire implications for our democracy…..”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350194489/nz-politics-live-tvnz-faces-68-job-losses-across-business

Oh, I think we’ll cope Miriama.
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March 7, 2024 12:20pm
graham

* sigh *

I see that Helen Clark has offered her opinion on Twitter:

Increasingly hard for free to air public broadcasters to survive commercially. Time to bite bullet & accept that as with BBC & Oz ABC, public broadcasting needs 2 be publicly funded?

Uhh … she DOES realise the difference in population (and therefore, funds that can be extracted from said public) between NZ, England and Australia, right?

Here’s another idea … why don’t we just leave TVNZ to get on with their restructure? Most large companies go through periodic restructures – why should the media be any different? Trim things down, slash the salary bill, get rid of the shows that are costing too much or maybe consolidate some of them.

(I mean, do we REALLY need all these current affairs/news/watchdog programmes?)

• 20/20
• Breakfast
• Fair Go
• Marae
• One News
• Q+A
• Seven Sharp
• Sunday
• Tagata Pasifika
• Waka Huia
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March 7, 2024 12:38pm
Biscuit

Sure as eggs is eggs, out trundles Auntie Helen – Prime Minister back in the 1820s or do – with a demand that public broadcasting must now surely be publicly funded.

No, you daft old irrelevant biddy, that the media are in the strife they are in – falling advertising, falling viewers, trust in the industry at an all-time low – does NOT require me to bail them out so they can continue with their declining status.

Why not a more useful suggestion from you that ‘the industry’ takes steps to reposition itself in the public’s eye? That they find out from their lost audience/viewership just why things have gotten the way they are? That they find out from advertisers why they’ve moved on. Nope, just the standard trite Labour solution of ‘let’s use
Joe Public’s moolah. Again…’
25 1
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March 7, 2024 12:39pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  It’s the socialist way for her.
  
  9 2
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  March 7, 2024 2:38pm
- MCōs
  
  Public broadcasting means funded by the public
  That is RNZ
  TVNZ is currently self funding and obviously it’s no longer working
  From memory there’s never been non-commercial TV in NZ. Maybe right back at the start.
  The problem now is the government has the beleaguered TVNZ by the balls. They can’t interfere with the content, but they can strangle the network by refusing to restructure the funding, which suits more opinionated outlets such as The Platform just fine.
  Winston, whose base is a more elderly demographic, must be real happy.
  
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  March 7, 2024 3:10pm
  - Grunter
    
    TVNZ is no longer “self-funding”. They are a loss-making SOE.
    
    They last paid a dividend of only $15m in 2021 after the Ardern Govt paid them approx $50m to run the COVID propaganda campaign. Plus they get NZ on Air freebies.
    
    So, take away all the Govt funding above, and the free capital (no dividend) and they fall over very fast.
    
    So, Yes, they are a publically funded media entity.
    
    9 1
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    March 7, 2024 3:49pm
- Swifty
  
  That’s exactly her view on political parties too – that they be fully taxpayer funded.
  
  No pesky fundraising for them, no siree.
  
  It would also be a godsend for the Left and their wish to bring in more extreme policies knowing it won’t be able to affect their donations base – as there won’t need to be one.
  
  I think she’s right about one thing though. We do need to bite the bullet. Let’s bite the bullet and get rid of the forced taxpayer-funding of lefty propaganda factories altogether.
  
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  March 7, 2024 3:34pm
- Keith White
  
  Helena Handbasket.
  
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  March 7, 2024 5:35pm
Maggie Pie

And here’s a little something for all those suffering from TDS ….

https://twitter.com/historyinmemes/status/1765432405429543224
9 1
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March 7, 2024 1:00pm
- Biscuit
  
  He was quite the looker back then, right, Maggie!
  
  I’ll admit to suffering from TDS but, really, I’m a bit of a BBIJAB…
  
  (But Biden Is Just As Bad)
  
  8 0
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  March 7, 2024 1:44pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Biden doesn’t know what planet he is on, what Country, State, City, or house he is in.
    I find it quite disgusting the the Democrats use a very sick man in this way.
    Sure Trump make phopars, and not lost many marbles, but there is a hole in the bag.
    I just don’t like seeing Joe abused like this. I have seen the decline of my partner’s father – to the extent that I was the only one he could recognise and talk to. He did not know his wife or daughter (my partner)
    
    6 2
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    March 7, 2024 3:10pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  It was with Rona Barrett. Repeated so much the sound has gone way down.
  It is a dam good interview.
  
  3 2
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  March 7, 2024 2:55pm
PurplePen

What happened to Simeon Brown’s request for information to Mare Hooray Whanau about water infrastructure. Does anyone know?
4 1
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March 7, 2024 1:54pm
lifesgood

I, for one, am not the least bit sad about a shake up at TVNZ. The idiots have no idea that viewers and advertisers, clearly, are fed up to the back teeth with all their Maori wonderfulness, their constant manglish, their avid anti coalition stance on every single subject, their childishness, their wokeness. I could go on. The only programme I watch, and would grieve the loss of if it came to that, is Country Calendar, the rest are just dross.
20 1
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March 7, 2024 2:35pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Country Calendar and Rural Delivery.
  When using the google machine to search for best TV1 programs, I get the impression that there are a lot of brainwashed stupid people in NZ. Fuck they are thick!
  
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  March 7, 2024 3:19pm
  - MCōs
    
    Got those Trump boots yet?
    
    4 1
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    March 7, 2024 4:03pm
Swifty

Catherine Tate – The Offensive Translator:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XY66ZJ0TFUI
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March 7, 2024 3:03pm
Maggie Pie

How pathetic is this 😀

OMG…Biden’s acting Chief of the ATF’s Firearms Ammunition Technology Division,
can’t even take the slide off a Glock! LOL.

https://twitter.com/Dapper_Det/status/1764497600449818834

(Even I can rack & raise my partner’s Mossberg in under 2 seconds.)
7 1
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March 7, 2024 3:21pm
- Keith White
  
  “When you care enough to send the very best.”
  
  1 0
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  March 7, 2024 5:37pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Our newest MP affirms his allegiance to King Charles in Te Reo and Mandarin.

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20240307_20240307_08/tab/video?page=2

From about 2:14 in
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March 7, 2024 3:21pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Good God.
  Once that clown Shaw goes, will there be ANY New Zealanders in the Greens?
  
  9 3
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  March 7, 2024 5:36pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    At keast he was smartly dressed, collar and tie.
    
    Why didn’t he speak in English, the Language of 98% of us or Ancient Egyptian his specialty subject.
    
    1 0
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    March 7, 2024 5:40pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    You have to be a NZ citizen to be an MP.
    
    Plus Dr Xu-Nan has verifiable qualifications.
    
    6 0
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    March 7, 2024 5:45pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Yes, I see he has a doctorate in ‘Egyptology’.
      That should come in reeeeal hany.
      
      Also a pal of the Member-for-Tijuana.
      And a supprter of the Rainbow Greens who said in a tweet…
      “he likes living in other people heads”
      
      Just saying.
      
      9 1
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      March 7, 2024 6:00pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Well it is rather shocking that the Greens have been so late to select an MP of Asian descent.
        
        Now, it’s just Te Maori Pati that needs to reflect our multicultural nation.
        
        8 0
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        March 7, 2024 6:19pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        We can tell you are not a Green supporter. Same goes for any KBer I guess.
        
        So clever/original though to call Menendez “the member for Tijuana”. That is sure to turn off a whole lot of Green voters.
        
        Some might say you are just blowing smoke into an echo chamber … unfortunately he is as Kiwi as thee and me …
        
        One has to assume that it makes you feel better …
        
        2 9
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        March 7, 2024 6:21pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Hey Ian… who’s this ‘WE’ kemosabe? 😎
        
        9 0
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        March 7, 2024 8:11pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Menendez as kiwi as you and me, Ian?
        
        Nope, don’t think so.
        
        For starters, there are serious questions about gaps in the stories he told to Immigration that helped him gain NZ citizenship. I think that an investigative journalist (if any still exist) would unearth material of interest to the public.
        
        1 0
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        March 7, 2024 8:35pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘unfortunately he is as Kiwi as thee and me …’
        No he’s not
        He might be a New Zealander but he just doesnt have the connection to the land and the culture which built this country and the experience that imbues.
        He’s an import who got a Passport
        
        2 0
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        March 7, 2024 10:16pm
nathie

With the MSM TV Newsrooms imploding, could this be an opportunity to provide news and current affairs programme funding to the likes of TVNZ and Newshub on the condition that they deliver impartial and balanced news?

No opinions, no “gotchas” and no activist or biased reporters (out they go – bye bye)!

According to Karl du Fresne reporters are no longer taught about objectivity. Hence thr John Campbell types.

https://karldufresne.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-case-for-objectivity-in-journalism.html

If doable, suggest the Govt bring in some old school impartial journalists (like Karl du Fresne) to set the guidelines!
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March 7, 2024 4:24pm
PurplePen

I’ve joined https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/ because it appears to be very left leaning with a view to comment on issues there that they all have the wrong end of the stick. And try to do it to educate them with facts rather than calling them names. It’s my new hobby. There are some very very ill-informed emotional lefty woke comments there, so will have to be a bit subtle me thinks.
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March 7, 2024 6:00pm
gorse

Don’t know how to comment on Stuff, but if I could it would be “ you guys next?”
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March 8, 2024 6:47pm

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