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May 10, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 10 May 2024

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General Debate

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Matt Long

Therapeutic Products bill to be tossed out, Casey Costello announces that another Orwellian piece of legislation will be erased, hopefully they’ll replace it with something better.
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/therapeutic-products-act-be-repealed?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR3uikZ7J4UgXJG6CQ3x6xHV0XncyWTcgOlWltOwesPs6U4lNLiGuNC6OAU_aem_AdQJtAp5xk_sMUTaK2G-OzRKDjbPOovjH6b9bTvOAC6X5sFv20PaW8vNssulzjjDDSThPYsoy3R0S54X5iUWlLUT
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May 10, 2024 8:11am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Ah, a repeal. No detail, of course, on what the new regime will be and how it will regulate the hordes of ‘natural’ products masquerading as medicines.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:20am
  - Inandout
    
    m&m, of course drug companies wouldn’t dare produce products masquerading as medicines, would they?
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:24am
    - mandk
      
      Or gene therapies masquerading as vaccines.
      
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      May 10, 2024 8:34am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Gene therapy is used to treat diseases.
        
        https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/gene-therapy/about/pac-20384619
        
        Can you explain how the COVID vaccines alter out DNA?
        
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        May 10, 2024 8:49am
      - judith8409121
        
        Benedict, unable to reply to your question directly but will put it here – your question – Can you explain how the COVID vaccines alter out DNA? The mRna tech is the same – and as that being used here.. https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/pfizer-duchenne-patient-death-gene-therapy-trial/715450/
        https://www.drugtargetreview.com/article/145291/developing-an-mrna-therapy-for-duchenne-muscular-dystrophy/
        and its causing the same problems with heart attacks
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:06am
      - rangitoto
        
        Reverse transcription of the mRNA in the Covid vaccines is not out of the question. It has been demonstrated in vitro with liver cell lines:
        
        https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35723296/
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:49am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Benedict, I can’t explain how. Well above my pay grade. This article might help you understand a bit more: Worst Fears Realized: Pfizer mRNA Transcribes into DNA. The study in Molecular Biology is over two years old now, so hardly a new revelation.
        
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        May 10, 2024 1:53pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      “m&m, of course drug companies wouldn’t dare produce products masquerading as medicines, would they?”
      
      What are some examples?
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:06am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        Well the Astrazenica covid jab has been withdrawn because of “extremely rare side effects”
        
        Fortunately dropping dead from sudden heart attacks is vanishingly infrequent… just bad luck, poor lifestyle, correlation ain’t causation etc etc…
        
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        May 10, 2024 4:56pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Isolated incident
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:25pm
  - Kiwiguy
    
    That’s a bit rich considering the ‘safe’ covid jab from the official medical companies has now been found to cause serious side effects. Sounds like your description should apply to Pfizer, AstraZeneca et al.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:36am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      The Astravenica vaccine was withdrawn because the absolute risk of blood clots exceeded the absolute risks posed by the other covid vaccines. It was a commercial decision.
      
      However do not confuse absolute risk with relative risk. The absolute risk of dangerous blood clots from contracting covid is orders of magnitude greater than the risks posed by contracting covid.
      
      The people obsessed with the blood clot risks from the vaccines do not research the blood clots risks from Covid.
      
      https://www.bmj.com/company/newsroom/study-finds-increased-risk-of-serious-blood-clots-up-to-six-months-after-covid-19/
      
      Because they either cannot or will not do so.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:05am
      - judith8409121
        
        Not sure where you’re going with “The people obsessed with the blood clot risks from the vaccines” idea. If you are pointing out that there is also a blood clot risk from covid all you’re saying is that people who take a vaccine that doesn’t work (as was the property for these jabs) then they will get the chance of blood clot risks from the vaccine as well as from the illness. It’s amazing that there are still people that have some strange belief that getting a jab stops you from getting the illness – you just absolutely take one and then can get both. If you are rational you would only want the chance of covid rather than taking the jab and also the (now higher) chance of covid
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:24am
      - mawm
        
        Bene – There are no linked references and this is just an opinion piece and a very poor one at that. There are 2 glaring problems with it – 1) there is no reference to the vaccine status of the patients and if vaccinated how long prior to the development of a clot, and 2) hospitalised (immobilised) patients are more prone to developing DVT’s and PE’s, especially those with coexisting morbidity such as obesity.
        
        Is there any control group of hospitalised patients without covid?
        
        Do you have a link on the absolute risk of clotting from covid, especially in unvaccinated patients?
        
        Vaccine induced thrombocytopenia is real and particularly prevalent after the covid mRNA vaccines. The thrombocytopenia is consumptive – ie it is as a result of thrombi being formed and in such an extensive manner as to present clinically.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:08am
      - 2ic
        
        Cripes, Benedict – you couldn’t mount a weaker argument if you tried.
        
        There’s nothing in that article that compares vaccinated vs unvaccinated. It’s first wave data, patients with comorbidities, and absolute risk reductions in the order of a tiny fraction of a percent.
        
        Being on the wrong side of history with your early support of the Covid vaccines, I would have thought you would have let it go by now.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:56am
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        So the disease includes a risk of blood clots.
        
        The ineffective vaccine does too
        
        Hmmm. Doesn’t seem like a strong recommendation that the vaccine is either “safe or effective” does it?
        
        Fortunately no government would force its citizens to take dangerous and ineffective drugs eh?
        
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        May 10, 2024 4:58pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Hmmm. Doesn’t seem like a strong recommendation that the vaccine is either “safe or effective” does it?”
        
        Do you understand relative risk?
        
        In my life I have never seen such madness as the opposition to the COVID vaccines. I have had six pfizer shots and I am grateful.
        
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        May 10, 2024 6:22pm
  - cmm
    
    “hordes of ‘natural’ products masquerading as medicines.”
    
    Wash your mouth out. All that Maori science needs to be respected bro.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:38am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I think that Maori spiritual and lunar healing is a fraud. However like all indigenous people, Maori discovered products that could alleviate pain and cure some elements. They did not do so using science but rather through random luck or trial and error. At least they did not try homeopathy.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:09am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Maori are not indigenous Ben.
        
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        May 10, 2024 5:52pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Maori are not indigenous Ben”
        
        Yes they are. We could go on like this all day.
        
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        May 10, 2024 6:23pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Yes, we could go on like this all day, and they would still not be indigenous. Just because the UN decided they wanted to change the definition to justify a platform for certain people, doesn’t make those people indigenous. In my library, I still have Oxford, Collins, Cambridge and Merriam-Websters dictionaries of 35 years ago with the English definition of indigenous, and it cannot be interpreted to include Maori, as they did not originate or occur naturally in NZ.
        
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        May 10, 2024 8:27pm
      - julesnzuk
        
        In Vino Veritas – whether they are indigenous or not is irrelevant and a complete red herring. All NZ citizens have equal rights before the law.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:14pm
  - bennerg
    
    Mike, at least with natural medicines you have the freedom to research, and try out as you wish – in the spirit of a free society. They also do not have a history of harm.
    
    Unlike mandates for unproven and dangerous gene-therapy (the proper and original name) drugs that were masqueraded as “vaccines” and forced on us all. And now shown to kill some and harm many others. Hence Astra Zeneca recalled.
    
    I applaud the medical profession for all the magnificent advances made over the last century in particular, but the not the business model behind the pharmaceutical industry, that has totally distorted what health is really about. They come with pills for obesity (all with side effects), rather than the knowledge of how to live and eat healthier.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:39am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Natural medicines do immense harm. Stupid parents giving homeopathic medicines to babies to relieve teething pain for example. Or even worse idiots who give children “natural” medicines as a substitute for vaccines.
      
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      May 10, 2024 8:55am
      - Ghost
        
        Natural supplements also do good in many cases. A good GP will recommend them when suitable.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:01am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Can you give an example?
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:10am
      - bennerg
        
        Benedict, you have to acknowledge that if they work, then that’s good. I’m sure that if any parent with a teething baby is not getting results they WILL try something else.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:10am
      - amospicton
        
        Yes Ghost, doctors are well aware of the placebo effect. The ‘natural is good’ argument is bunkum -cancer is natural. There was an Olympic gold medalist who argued that butter couldn’t be bad for heart health because it was natural.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:11am
      - jkt
        
        Yes, indeed.
        Stupid is as stupid does.
        Their choice. They must carry the can.
        
        But forceable denial of choice, even by coercion, should never be allowed in a democratic society. Such actions by government demonstrate failure to live up to the ideals of liberty and democracy.
        
        Incentivising behaviour change that creates better social outcomes, by consent, can be tolerated.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:14am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Melatonin is good Bene.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:16am
      - bennerg
        
        “Can you give an example?”
        
        Eight years ago, after a few years of starting to get regular flu every year, my wife and I started a regime of Vitamin D and Zinc. In that time the only flu we have had was a ‘very’ light dose of Covid back in 2020 – had to take a test to confirm that it was that. Suspect that part of the engineering of the virus was to make it transmit easier. However once learned, my body “won’t get fooled again”.
        
        I now know of many doctors who are recommending Vit-D and Zinc more widely (they don’t have to prescribe it) with great results.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:24am
      - Ghost
        
        For myself I take losec when my acid is bad, it ends up causing Ectopic beats which we treat with magnesium supplements.
        
        I also have POTs which would see me often when I was undiagnosed at the ED with tachycardia. I take a supplement, parasym plus, from the USA that my GP found that has that under control.
        
        Another would be Macular degeneration. My mother’s specialist has her on clinicians visioncare with lutein for the past decade.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:40am
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        What do you call natural medicine that works?
        
        Medicine.
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:04am
      - Local Miller
        
        “regime of Vitamin D and Zinc” is NOT an example of “natural supplements”. If you were taking carrot extract and some plant that contained Zinc I’d give it to you, but the Vit-D is probably a synthetic product, and the Zinc is a synthetically formulated Zinc Compound.
        I’ve had the flu once in the past 30 years. I avoid it by eating a balanced diet, and making sure I eat fruit and vegetables along with my meats and starches. Now and then I’ll supplement my diet and I try with in reason to source “naturally derived vitamins and minerals, but only because generally they are easier for the body to absorb, not because their being “natural” has any special benefit.
        No doubt there are plants and natural substances that can benefit us health wise, but the idea that nature has everything we need for health and long life is a lie.
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:08am
      - MCōs
        
        Sometimes it’s a thin line between cure and coincidence
        I have a flu jab every year and never get the flu
        Is it the vaccine or coincidence?
        Religion is full of practices born out of coincidence
        We used to be full of dread if we missed Sunday Mass, ate meat on Friday, used contraceptives
        There’s no reason behind those things . . . . just coincidental that some Saint did it so it must be right
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:23am
      - mawm
        
        Bene – do homeopathic medicines given to babies for teething actually do harm? I don’t believe it. The only concern I have with homeopathy is that people are treated for diseases with their ineffective potions thus delaying medical care and presenting with more advanced disease.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:19am
      - wsk12345
        
        Bene – few examples – wild yam cream for progesterone. Ashwaganda and radiola for menopause symptoms. Magnesium supplements. Electrolytes. Tea teee oil. Thuja. Arnica. Green tea extract. Many of the spices such as turmeric, coriander, etc. I could go on all day. And yes, recommended by doctors.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:34am
      - rangitoto
        
        “If you were taking carrot extract and some plant that contained Zinc I’d give it to you”
        
        I’m pretty sure carrots are not a known source of vitamin D. Perhaps you were thinking of beta carotene which gets converted into vitamin A.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:57am
      - Matt Long
        
        The butter is bad for heart health is bunkum.
        
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        May 10, 2024 12:24pm
      - julesnzuk
        
        Amospicton- butter is not bad for heart health. That myth has long since been debunked.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:16pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        Just like you are not going to find an uncontested definition for “Indigenous” you are not going to find one for either “Medicine” or “Natural Medicine”
        But if you want to tally up the scorecard for Modern Medicine vs Natural Medicine/Traditional Remedies then you have to look honestly at both columns.
        Iatrogenic effects (caused by doctors and medical treatments) rack up a huge death toll every year.
        The journal of American medicine calculated 250,000 fatalities from iatrogenic causes in the US alone, including more that 100,000 fatalities from NON-ERROR side effects of drugs. Worldwide the figures have to be in the 10s of millions.
        So, what are you going to do when you are feeling stressed out and edgy after a hard day’s work?
        Maybe a cup of tea and take the dog for a walk in the park and then a glass of warm milk before bed?
        Hell no!
        What sort of a voodoo quack witchdoctor told you to do that? I want medicine not natural remedies! I’m not going to be taking herbal infusions like some sort of a goddamned barbarian caveman!
        Benzodiazepines and Dextromethorphan is what the REAL doctors have ordered!
        
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        May 11, 2024 12:14am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      They also do not have a history of harm.
      
      That’s not true.
      
      Perhaps this is an extreme example:
      https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/spiritual-retreat-s-leaders-ill-equipped-for-psychedelics-emergency-inquest-told-20240218-p5f5ua.html
      
      But there’s hoards of quacks trying to make a $$$$ out of natural medicines who don’t have a clue about
      toxicology or the physiology of the human body.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:51am
      - Ghost
        
        What idiots. But yes people do over do natural supplements or not know of their interactions.
        
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        May 10, 2024 12:14pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Do you know what they call natural medicines that work?
      
      Medicine.
      
      Watch Tim Minchin’s brilliant “Storm” to see that joke in it’s original context.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhGuXCuDb1U
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:23am
      - wsk12345
        
        No they only call them medicines if they can be patented.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:35am
      - Dudley Quaffquaff
        
        Didn’t you love the line about querying how water manages to retain the memory of the healing substances, but not the poo, that’s previously been in it
        
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        May 10, 2024 12:25pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    “…and how it will regulate the hordes of ~~‘natural’~~ mRNA gene therapy products masquerading as ~~medicines.~~ vaccines.”
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:32am
slightlyrighty

As I sit, wondering if our power grid will cope with morning demand, I find myself thinking about the abject failure of Ideological progressive governments that prioritise social engineering over civil engineering.

We laughed at the South Africans as their governments destroyed their infrastructure in a PC Fuelled orgy of socialist driven identity politics, while we remained blind to the fact that it was happening here, in much the same narratives.

Like South Africa, we see crime on the increase.

Our Mall security guards used to have a Red Polo shirt and a Walkie Talkie, they now wear Stab Proof vests because of the rampant crime with no consequences. In ’99 I was taken aback when in a shopping mall in Jo’burg, seeing security GUards with MP5 Sub-machine Guns, and now I sense that for the past 6 years, we have been headed in that direction.

Left Wing Progressive governments destroy the countries they lead.
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May 10, 2024 8:11am
- Ghost
  
  Crime has been out of control for more than the labour government. It was minister Paula Bennett that introduced smoke cannons in business being ram raided. It’s taken a long time to get here and a lot of governments ignoring the issue.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:24am
  - Homas
    
    In pre-2017 Christchurch, donning red and black meant a show of support for the local rugby franchise. Just sayin’.
    
    Christchurch! FFS!
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:43am
    - Ghost
      
      How about we have a real discussion about crime and stop pretending it only gets worse under labour
      2017 article on increase in crime
      
      Perhaps we should also talk about possibly poor justice. How about the comedian who got away with serially abusing his daughter because he makes people laugh
      
      It’s stupid to put your head in the sand and pretend we got where we are because of a labour government. Crime in nz has been out of control and getting worse for a long time. The justice system has been a joke for a long time.
      
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      May 10, 2024 8:57am
      - Homas
        
        How about you address my point?
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:33am
      - Ghost
        
        Gang crime is nothing new for christchurch
        
        Christchurch youth gang is terrorising shoppers
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:52am
      - Homas
        
        Ghost:
        
        Yoofs engaging in the tediously predictable behaviour of loitering at public transport facilities is nothing new.
        
        Serious looking middle-aged men with doggy facial tatts and MM attire loitering about the Church Corner Countdown, is, in case you’re unaware, an entirely novel development.
        
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        May 10, 2024 2:32pm
  - Handyman
    
    Just a general observation of language used in the media….
    When Labour took office every problem was due to “nine long years of neglect” whereas when National take office every problem is due to “successive governments”.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:43am
  - jkt
    
    No argument. Cause and effect. The experiment has gone on for long enough! …. ?
    Time that we turn this around?
    
    I think so!
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:21am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I have been and looked, no where can I find evidence of Bennet being minister of police, from what I remember a minister offered a fund to start fog cannons, but it was Labour that ramped them up and that was that useless minister from CHCH that was booted and Hipkins carried the job on.
    
    I would like too see where she was minister, she definitely was not in the last term too 17
    
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    May 10, 2024 12:32pm
    - Ghost
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/paula-bennett-announces-18-million-for-dairy-security-measures/JVI4C6F4B5WQBAXFXPULG5JLFY/
      
      High-risk convenience stores and dairies are in line for Government-funded fog cannons, DNA spray, panic alarms and time safes for cash and cigarettes to curb the rise in aggravated robberies.
      
      But the measures, part of a $1.8 million package Police Minister Paula Bennett announced in West Auckland today, are “too little, too late” according to a community leader.
      
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      May 10, 2024 12:42pm
    - MCōs
      
      38th Minister of Police
      In office
      20 December 2016 – 26 October 2017
      
      It’s in Wikipedia so it must be right
      
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      May 10, 2024 2:12pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Okay, 10 months, I wonder if she went in temporarily when Collins was stood aside from her positions, one was police
        
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        May 10, 2024 6:12pm
  - slightlyrighty
    
    I do acknowledge that Crime was getting worse before Ardern’s Government.
    
    However, I also think that reducing prison populations, removing three strikes and allowing cultural factors to be admitted into sentencing reports that were written by the same people who deal drugs while running state funded rehab programmes might not have been the correct way of addressing the issue.
    
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    May 10, 2024 1:24pm
    - Ghost
      
      Agree. But we were weak on crime before her, we just got weaker with her. 3 strikes needed to be stronger under Key. We had judges passing out wet bus tickets under key, Clark…
      
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      May 10, 2024 1:42pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  The white South African refugees from democracy have much to teach Kiwis, and also very much to learn.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:25am
  - cmm
    
    For you it is a game. For us “refugees” crime is very real.
    
    Just a few highlights for my immediate family:
    * My mother was robbed at gunpoint. Twice.
    * My parents’ (now my sister’s) house has steel gates on the inside sealing off the bedrooms. Pretty common. Probably saved their lives a few times.
    * My sister in law was robbed at gunpoint.
    * My sister in law’s family had a home invasion. They just pretended to be sleeping as people ransacked their house, including stealing stuff out of their kids’ rooms.
    * Three of my mother’s friends were murdered. Little old dears. Some of them brutally tortured in the process.
    * My sister & her husband had both cars stolen in one night.
    * Two of my childhood playmates got done for murder. One got hanged.
    * My cousin’s husband was kidnapped, beaten unconscious and then dumped in a ditch for dead. They took everything: car phone, wallet, shoes,…
    … and on and on…
    And that’s far from remarkable.
    And most black or coloured families could tell you much more hair raising tales.
    
    So yes, South African “refugees”, of any colour, have a lot of experience that could be very valuable to people who want to learn rather than be smug fucks.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:51am
    - Random T Person
      
      I’d say we understand better than most what we are dealing with here cmm. And you are absolutely spot on about smug fucks, too.
      
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      May 10, 2024 8:56am
    - Grunter
      
      Great reply cmm!
      
      Hopefully, a reality check for a few this morning regards what bad really looks like and the track we are on in NZ. And if you choose to dismiss that as a possibility then you aren’t paying enough attention to what is actually unfolding in NZ…..IMO
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:05am
    - jkt
      
      Ditto. Plus:
      Friends and colleagues killed while trying to make a living.
      
      I choose to be a foreigner in a foreign country over living as a foreigner in the country of my birth.
      
      The place I chose reminded me of the South Africa I grew up in. Unfortunately, as time passes I find that “warts and all” apply, more and more with every passing day.
      
      Initially, I loved the tolerant society but over time I became aware of racism, violence …. I would jokingly call Christchurch the racist capital of NZ ……..
      
      One can’t escape reality, but hell, I will not swap my new country, kiwi warts and all.
      
      I admire those who stayed behind who are trying to make South Africa a better place.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:39am
      - Red
        
        “I admire those who stayed behind who are trying to make South Africa a better place.”
        They aren’t. They are surviving. Are you genuine?
        
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        May 10, 2024 6:29pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I generally own up to being wrong
    20 years ago I thought that South African were leaving because they were opposed to democracy. However I was wrong. They are escaping murder and mayhem. And economic destruction.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:20am
    - Mike
      
      They are just like all other refugees. Fleeing to somewhere they can feel safer and find prosperity. And, for some of them, nostalgia for the good old days back in the homeland.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:40am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        How many south Africans have been admitted to New Zealand as refugees? None?
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:08am
      - Mike
        
        Semantics. People fleeing don’t care about legalistic definitions.
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:35am
      - jkt
        
        Not at all.
        
        Economic refugees choose their destination and base their decision on socio, cultural, economic, political, education, health services, foreign policy …… considerations.
        
        Economic refugees may well end up regretting their choices but they own their choices. Many return to their old stomping grounds or look for other stomping grounds and repeat the process ….. some even try counselling or hypnosis …. Most adapt and get on with life.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:27am
      - Ra Henare
        
        I chose to be a Kiwi refugee and come to a 3rd world country. Sure they have crime here and all that stuff. But mainly theft not getting beaten up for no real reason.
        
        I feel safer here.
        Try walking down the street at 11pm(as an old white guy) and walking past 3 or 4 teenagers. of a brown persuasion. In NZ Do you feel safe. I didnt and dont.
        Here, no problem.
        
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        May 10, 2024 1:44pm
      - Red
        
        Epic take-down of South Africans, Mike, “just like all the rest”, you say.
        Care to expand your definition of “all the rest” ?
        
        3 1
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        May 10, 2024 6:33pm
      - julesnzuk
        
        Ra “kiwi refugee”???
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:20pm
  - julesnzuk
    
    Mike – What the hell are they going to teach native birds? (There’s no capital K in “kiwis” either). A rather silly, smug and low brow comment in more ways than one.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:17pm
- G152
  
  Yup.
  All thanks to the touchee feelie greens and house renters have no capacity to power heat light cooking or entertainment.
  Gas is available in very few cities stand alone gas heaters are banned.
  No power no alarm…. to many late clock ins no job no way to afford rent until the dole appears on the horizon….
  And its all thanks to the shutting down of permitting new hydro power, shutting down coal fired power generating and pemitting windmills and solar panels that only work when its windy or in a clear day
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:34am
  - Random T Person
    
    Everybody green until they are hungry and cold.
    
    19 1
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    May 10, 2024 8:56am
    - Phronesis
      
      Then they blue.
      
      9 0
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      May 10, 2024 10:12am
      - Random T Person
        
        Little boy blue. Hey, he needed the money.
        
        3 0
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        May 10, 2024 11:48am
  - wsk12345
    
    They have created an impossible investment environment. You could try to consent hydro but why would you with the massive hurdles and cost for a small chance of success.
    
    With coal you might get consent (hahahaha) but you run the risk of the government of the day shutting them down.
    
    There’s a reason most of the companies are pursuing solar wind and geothermal.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:44am
  - MCōs
    
    My daughter in Onehunga has reticulated gas
    My son in epsom just up the road rented quite a nice house with gas. The day he moved in we were sitting around on the deck and straightaway smelted a gas leak
    My neighbors have gas via big bottles on the side of the house.
    The problem with portable gas heaters is condensation and ventilation. They can be a menace.
    
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    May 10, 2024 12:04pm
- mogg
  
  In 1970’s I lived in Hilbrow, very trendy and very safe, since white flight it is now a nightmare.
  Reputed to be the most dangerous place in Jo’burgh.
  
  14 1
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  May 10, 2024 8:47am
  - jkt
    
    It was a place of aspirations, then.
    
    A slum now, a leisurely stroll away from what used to be a great University and a fantastic CBD.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:46am
- cmm
  
  slightly: NZ is going to have to face reality soon.
  NZ is no longer the place where cops can walk around unarmed and just wave a notebook at you.
  
  Cops should be routinely armed. And, more importantly, they need to have the training to go with that.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:53am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    Given that a person can now be randomly shot in Ponsonby, I believe that Armed Cops is no longer an ‘if’ question, but a ‘when’ question.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:57am
    - cmm
      
      It seems you can even be shot in a hospital.
      This is completely incongruent with a the current unarmed cops.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:28am
      - oldfella
        
        Will this Coalition government finally arm our police? I’m not holding my breath.
        
        5 1
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        May 10, 2024 11:04am
      - jkt
        
        I for one think we need more visible policing but also believe that we have the balance about right when it comes to arming our police.
        
        Maybe, the police can incorporate “policemen and woman” who are employed and paid for by local communities and roll them out to police the locations identified by the specific community.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:35am
  - 7kiwi11
    
    I have come around to the idea of having armed police. I would also be up for reinstating fitness /strength requirements for front line police. I despair at seeing 55kg, 5 foot 2 police woman trying to deal with drunk yobbos twice their body weight. ( I’d also ban tatts on police but realise that would rule out 80% of potential recruits under 30)
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:17am
    - cmm
      
      Yup, pissed people tend to look at size to determine if they will be able to do what they want or whether they should comply.
      
      I saw this a lot when I did a small amount of bouncing at university.
      * I’m over 6ft 5 wearing size 14 shoes. They look me up and down and tend to listen even though I generally wouldn’t hurt a fly (unless highly provoked).
      * On the other hand, my 5 ft 6 (or so) mate who was ex-Rhodesian special forces really was a dangerous bugger, but he looks weedy so they’d give him a go. There were nights when he got into multiple scuffles and broke a few bones.
      
      A 5 ft nothing female cop weighing 52 kg has little chance of getting voluntary compliance.
      
      Sure have the small female cops around to talk to people and compliant people, but don’t expect them to be able to get control over large drunk/drugged people.
      
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      May 10, 2024 2:06pm
      - julesnzuk
        
        No, just get taller female coppers! Stumpies need not apply.
        
        1 0
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        May 10, 2024 9:27pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      Think you will find that many if not most police cars have a weapon in the boot.
      So one could argue that Police are already armed.
      
      Personally would not be a fan with all cops with guns on hips. When cops are taken to a range for proficiency training. Most cant hit a barn door at 25 paces.
      Imagine how Joe Public would be in an over eager cops shootout. Think wildly fired bullets.
      
      In Principle sounds good. IN practice not so hot. Unless cops have regular (Not annually but at least monthly) practice on the range.
      
      I used to be a hot shot with a pistol and could outshoot those that arrived for annual proficiency.
      Why? I was an armourer and shooting at least once a month when running the range and doing demos.
      
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      May 10, 2024 5:43pm
    - julesnzuk
      
      No need to ban tats (unless on the face) but I’d happily bring back the height requirement. I’m a 6’ woman and, whilst I can’t realistically claim to necessarily have any greater upper body strength than that of a short female, the reality is that physical presence matters. (I also have no shame in admitting I don’t give a damn about accusations of discrimination against short people!)
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:25pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  As far as I can see, the only way to achieve 100 percent renewables would be to build more hydro dams. Even then what happens in a drought?
  
  Surely Chris Luxon has access to expert advice? The unravelling of the fantasies of 100 percent renewables and net zero is going to be painful.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:15am
  - bennerg
    
    “Even then what happens in a drought?”
    
    Suggest new generation, smaller Nuclear (Thorium) reactors.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:33am
    - Quail
      
      Couple of suggestions re power generation in NZ?
      (1) Use of the tides.Being an island nation there are opportunities all around the country.Eg Motueka.
      Don’t know if there is sufficient rise and fall .There is in other parts of the world.
      (2) Nuclear powered ship supplying problem areas as a back up.
      Like to hear some feedback critical or otherwise!
      Thanks
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:24am
      - wsk12345
        
        I do t think large tidal Power has gone beyond prototype anywhere in the world.
        
        Small nuclear reactors are not commercially available.
        
        I believe some companies are looking at large batteries, maybe 200 MW?
        
        My pick would be high efficiency coal plant, gas even better but seems unlikely now. Or smaller additions to hydro that have storage. But that doesn’t address the dry year problem.
        
        I think we are unique in having no large interconnectors with other countries and an obsession w renewables.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:51am
      - jkt
        
        Small nuclear reactors are the way to go.
        The hold up is regulations.
        
        I think we will see commercial roll out in Africa, Brazil or Indonesia, next five years or so.
        
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        May 10, 2024 2:45pm
      - Red
        
        The Sea destroys everything, hence Tsunami warning buoys never being a viable option for more than just a few months. Tidal Power was dead in the water.
        
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        May 10, 2024 6:46pm
      - Jake Dee
        
        Thorium reactors are interesting but still very much in the development phase.
        Geothermal is the one big option New Zealand has a real chance at expanding in a reasonable time frame.
        
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        May 11, 2024 12:28am
  - mogg
    
    Yes Infratil specialise in giving that advice on renewables and connections to the grid, at a price of course and maybe with a subsidy in the future.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:44am
    - jkt
      
      The roll-out of modular nuclear is getting closer every day. Prototypes are already operational.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:01am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      So what does the energy division of MBIE do? Or the Electricity Authority?
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:10am
      - wsk12345
        
        The latter regulates the wholesale market plus the system ops part of Transpower and the retail sector. Ie set the rules for participation.
        
        The commerce commission regulates price and quality of lines cos and Transpower asset owner business.
        
        MBIE does some pretty charts of what fuels are used (energy not just electricity).
        
        1 1
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        May 10, 2024 11:54am
  - cmm
    
    “Surely Chris Luxon has access to expert advice?”
    
    The bigger question is whether he will do what is needed or just do what is popular and hope it doesn’t all fall apart on his watch.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:54am
  - jkt
    
    The previous lot did not have access to experts?
    They choose to ignore the advice received from experts?
    Relied on the wrong experts?
    
    Wilfully followed an ideology that they were told (thought? believed? felt?) would create equal outcomes for all. What does Utopia look like? Utopia is a delusion!
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:56am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    “Surely Chris Luxon has access to expert advice?”
    
    He does like DPF’s polling. There is no climate emergency. If there was we should support nuclear.
    
    9 2
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    May 10, 2024 10:09am
    - MCōs
      
      Propose one on Auckland where the power is needed and see how far you get
      Maybe at the disused Avondale racecourse
      Low seismic zone. Store the waste in a nearby volcano
      
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      May 10, 2024 12:11pm
  - oldfella
    
    Do we have any good sites left to build more hydro dams?
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:08am
    - jkt
      
      Yes.
      
      2 1
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      May 10, 2024 11:38am
  - Master Mariner
    
    “Surely Chris Luxon has access to expert advice? The unravelling of the fantasies of 100 percent renewables and net zero is going to be painful”.
    
    The Western World is playing a game ” Extend and Pretend”. Who is going to Blink First on there miraculous road too Net Zero.
    
    Luxon is no Different.
    By doing so, In my mind is showing how they conceive there citizens as being ” Of limited mental capacity”.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:19am
    - miltonF
      
      “…they conceive there (sic) citizens as being ” Of limited mental capacity”.”
      
      Yet hordes of kiwis came out to vote for them. Perhaps they don’t “conceive” citizens are of limited mental capacity. They “know” citizens are of limited mental capacity. They aren’t wrong,
      
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      May 10, 2024 3:05pm
  - Happy1
    
    Benedict, the great untold story about NZ’s renewables is geothermal power. It’s grown from Wairaki with 300 MWs to over 1000 today. In the next few weeks 250MW capacity will be added via Tauhara field. These are large chunks of base power slap bang where it’s needed most and in the distribution sweet spot. Two or three Tauhara’s problem solved
    
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    May 10, 2024 12:18pm
    - wsk12345
      
      The problem is how much “respect” you have to pay the local tribes. Billions across all the wind and geo sites built in recent years.
      
      2 1
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      May 10, 2024 3:31pm
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    near impossible I would say. Just listened to Megan Woods interviewed by HDPA. That woman will not admit labour got it wrong, and will argue black is white all day every day.
    
    Even claimed the reduction in gas usage was “proof” that NZers were successfully transitioning away from gas, rather than admit the previous government strangled supply…
    
    Scarier than David Parker on the ideologue spectrum.
    
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    May 10, 2024 5:19pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I do keep on saying, train and arm Police and Security. Give them a 00 licence.
  The mall stabbings will stop.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:16am
  - Handyman
    
    Shooting robbers is frowned on in these parts.
    
    It would be practical to allow suitably certified security guards (and police) more immunity for use of a taser. New tasers can fire 10 shots so a single guard can take out a bunch of robbers, long enough for the police to arrive and arrest them.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:23am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Yes, 1 or 2 ram raiders or ‘alahu akhbar’ yellers getting drilled with a .38 will slow a few down.
    
    4 2
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    May 10, 2024 11:51am
    - MCōs
      
      Muslin terrorists are not an issue in NZ compared to boy racers, for example and nobody suggests killing them
      Keep your eye on the ball
      I saw some bad tempered fool yelling racist obscenities at a Woolworths security guard the other day
      He stood there stifling a yawn and eventually she stamped off.
      
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      May 10, 2024 12:23pm
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        It wasn’t boy racers who tried to saw a woman’s head off in a supermarket and was stopped by armed police (which rather proves the truth of the assertion that firearms need to be available).
        There are jihadis in NZ: fact, caught with objectionable material and charged, or stopped in the act of planning, some in de-radicalisation projects – and not a few who travelled to Syria and thankfully died there {including from Al Noor}.
        Yes, we aren’t as f–ked as the UK, but that is not a reflection on Islam being OK but rather that we still have low %. The less the better.
        
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        May 10, 2024 12:53pm
- PeeJay
  
  I know several Saffers who emigrated to NZ. While they generally love the country and have, until recently, found the country very safe, a good many of them have a deep sense of unease about where the country is heading – a few even wonder if it’s beyond saving.
  
  An older couple that I am good friends with have started to see the similarities with when SA started to degenerate into chaos – the increasing violent crime, a police force that seems completely disinterested in solving burglaries, innocent people of all races being victims of thugs and the police seemingly unable or unwilling to protect them (for those who don’t know, it’s not just white people who are victims in SA – it’s just as bad if not worse for the blacks and coloreds, especially those decent folks just trying to get by living in the townships), people starting to consider weapons in the home and cars as essential ‘just in case’, complete incompetence in government, and an education system that is completely failing.
  
  Have to say, I’m struggling to disagree with them.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:19am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    This is how slippery slopes start…. then they accelerate. Gang shootings have moved out of gang suburbs and now happen every weekend in major thoroughfares in major cities. Move along, nothing to see here….
    
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    May 10, 2024 5:21pm
  - julesnzuk
    
    Coloureds. We can do without Americanisms creeping into our society – it’s also where this insane cultural Marxist garbage is coming from. (What’s the difference between the Southern States in the Jim Crowe era and the University of Auckland 2024? In the latter they spell coloured with a “u”).
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:30pm
- thetiedarch
  
  As someone who works in the civil engineering industry, I can tell you the industry itself seems far more interested in social engineering that actual engineering.
  
  The message I get as an employee is that the leaders in my business and industry think it’s the engineering profession’s job to address social ills. The result is so much waste on projects and money not being spent on the actual physical works we need.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:21am
  - jkt
    
    Follow the money.
    I tried to operate a business based on value for money and integrity, failed 😨, the intermediaries for clients insisted that I break the integrity rule and could always find money from the client to help me fund their and their client representative’s desires.
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:16am
Grunter

In listening to Nicola Willis and David Seymour this week I suspect that next weeks Budget will be a flop for financial conservatives. Despite the books being in a mess, it doesn’t sound like we are heading to balance the books anytime soon. It’s just a matter of how much more borrowing they will inflict on future taxpayers.

Maybe I’m wrong and Willis will announce a flurry of new spending cuts – but the school lunch stupidity convinced me that this lot will take us deeper into the red.
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May 10, 2024 8:14am
- Ghost
  
  Budget day is may 30th, not next week
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:20am
  - Grunter
    
    Thanks Ghost – you are correct, but then again that wasn’t my main point…..
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:08am
    - jkt
      
      When balancing the books is your only objective, (holy grail, silver bullet) you are doomed to fail.
      
      The economy is much more nuanced. Wastage is wastage. Black and white! Fact not fiction!
      
      Paying $8 for a school meal is stupid when one can serve up healthy school meals for half that cost! See the difference?
      
      Whether a government should serve up school meals is an entirely different matter.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:25am
      - Grunter
        
        “When balancing the books is your only objective, (holy grail, silver bullet) you are doomed to fail.”
        
        You get away with it for 1-3 years maybe, but not any longer than that. Borrowing money to provide $478m of school lunches each year is completely bonkers! Taking another 2-3 years to review this nonsense and decide if it is the Govt’s role to provide school lunches is another “Yes Minister” episode.
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:55am
      - jkt
        
        You confirmed the point I was trying to make.
        Thanks.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:39am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I believe they are administratively incapable of effecting actual change. It’s very difficult to make progress with such inexperienced ministers who, in most cases, don’t know what they don’t know.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:22am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Blue government + Red bureaucracy = Black future
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:27am
  - pdm
    
    Mikey – there is more experience there than Labour had in 2017.
    
    What is more overall the Coalition Ministers are very capable – not something that could be said of any of those in 2017.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:36am
    - Mr Nobody NZ
      
      But is the level of experience present capable enough of correcting the amount of damage that previous governments (not just the last one) have introduced to the system or do the systems need to be completely rebuilt?
      
      Take Justice for example, there are issues within the system starting with Frontline Policing, through to the Judiciary and into Corrections. While changes can me made to each of these indivdually I would argue that until the entire system is reviewed then the best we can hope for is minimal improvements.
      
      The same is true for Health, Education, Welfare etc.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:18am
  - Clyde
    
    Nope, what we are seeing is a public service intent on their own agenda and stifling any initiative put up by the new Government. A Sir Humphrey Appleton in every department.
    
    I agree that it is going to take some serious shifts in the public service to actually get rid of the entire expensive rort that is the maorification, the Marxist Ministries like Education and to deliver the Universities a clear message that unless they get back to quality tertiary education instead of being “treaty led organisations” then funding will be cut accordingly. Time for some Ministers to actually get rid of CEO’s that won’t toe the line.
    
    As the country shivers with the entire power system almost at breaking point, power companies are still paying maori to withdraw their objections to the continuation of hydro operations on “their rivers”. Time mikeymilksop or whatever other names you use, to open the eyes and see reality.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:42am
    - PurplePen
      
      Wrote to Minister Public Service and sent copy to leaders of ACT and NZ First suggested to accept our public service has shown themselves to be fully partisan and to implement fire-at-will of CEOs within 6 months following any election, maybe go down a management level as well. Appreciate it won’t fix the current lot immediately.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:52am
      - Mike
        
        Well I guess we could put you down as someone who thinks Washington DC operates more effectively than Wellington.
        
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        May 10, 2024 2:32pm
  - plc
    
    I agree with you.
    
    Making real change versus the Public Service monolith takes extraordinary politicians. In NZ, in my lifetime there was the Douglas/Prebble/Caygill troika, Ruth Richardson and the work English and Ryall were doing.
    
    Unfortunately people lose their bottle and the appeasers take over.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:02am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    I think inexperienced ministers is not as much of a roadblock as a hostile public service. With activist academia lining up for the enemedia to slur every proposal they make around cuts, repeals or closures.
    If the current government could just put a torch to a whole lot of things that would be great, but they have to deal with so many opposing forces who were ‘digging in’ even before the election.
    
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    May 10, 2024 12:56pm
  - softail 1450
    
    M&M has the cheek to infer Arderns ministers were experienced and effective 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤡🤡
    
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    May 10, 2024 1:40pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Wouldn’t it be nice if the masses didn’t expect taxpayers to look after them so much? I’m thinking of things like WFF, which must cost us a fricken fortune.
  There are ways that government could help, like reducing the cost of energy, which is a large percentage of our living costs.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:39am
  - kowtow
    
    Same with the old age pension .( it’s not superannuation)
    
    Stay in school ,get a job , stay off drugs and substance abuse ,save for the future.
    
    At the same time , small govt needed so not taking so much tax and might let more people save for their own retirement.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:19am
    - Phronesis
      
      You might as well just say “act white”.
      
      People today demand equality regardless of personal decisions made.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:18am
  - PeeJay
    
    While a reasonable comment, I’ve often pondered what is wrong with the country where a decent couple with a family, working hard in average jobs can’t even get by, never mind getting ahead, without government support. Small things like WFF can be a difference between breaking even and being in real trouble.
    
    Sure, high, and wasteful, tax and spend policies, and government meddling, is a major factor. And as anyone who travels overseas can attest, we do pay more for a lot of goods and services.
    
    But it just makes me wonder – surely your average couple working average jobs should be able to have a reasonable life without having the taxpayer top them up to just adequate. Surely this should be a given?
    
    If you have a system that sees the vast majority need some form of government support throughout their lives and not just at the beginning, end or as a safety net when things go wrong (which is what I think most reasonable people would agree is an excellent approach), then surely there is something fundamentally wrong about that system?
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:37am
    - Mike
      
      WFF is effectively a subsidy for employers to pay wages below a true market rate.
      
      5 13
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      May 10, 2024 9:44am
      - RoboRob
        
        It was initially sold as a tax break for working families. Instead of actually dropping the tax rate Labour would instead ‘refund’ the tax through working for families.
        
        Labour preferred that method because
        a) Labour hate tax cuts and never do them (in recent history)
        
        b) Labour like benefits, people on benefits become labour voters and Labour can use threats like ‘National will cut your benefit’ or bribes like ‘We will raise your WFF’
        
        c) The left know that once a benefit is created it is easy to expand. We often hear the Greens comment the single people and non working people should be eligible for WFF.
        
        d) Benefits are almost impossible for right wing governments to remove or reduce. The best that Key did was to stop rising the rates while National were in power.
        
        The outcome is a whole heap of people on benefits who should not be. WFF has been set in such a way as many people get more money from WFF then they ever pay in tax (It was like this right from the start despite Labours sales pitch).
        
        I liked Key as a PM but one of his biggest mistakes was not removing WFF and replacing it with a different tax bracket (if they wanted special support for families).
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:35am
      - jkt
        
        Yes, indeed.
        It is circular. WFF is our strategy of choice. The two main political parties have consensus on that much. The difference is in the detail. I prefer a targeted approach and cannot support those who aim for work towards equality of outcomes.
        
        How does one switch that within the constraints of a globalised economy?
        
        We are an island nation, so it appears that we have the potential to switch. We can control our population, our economy, our resources … but our politicians need the consent of voters.
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:37am
      - RoboRob
        
        To your point Mike. Yes in some ways it is.
        
        However blame Labour for that, they could have done it better but they chose, for political reasons, to make it a benefit.
        
        As you and Labour well know once a benefit is in it is near impossible to remove.
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:38am
      - wsk12345
        
        WFF is effectively giving back some of the over-taxation we are subjected to.
        
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        May 10, 2024 3:35pm
      - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
        
        and there was this Deity thinking it was Michael and Helen’s crowning glory.
        
        Who knew that pair of old socialists were really just catspaws for the evil capitalist machine?
        
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        May 10, 2024 5:23pm
    - Phronesis
      
      The world is a different place to what it was a generation or two ago. Fertility rates are well below replacement levels in every western country. With so many couples choosing not to have children, and competing for resources with those who do, it’s almost inevitable that the taxpayer has to subsidise children to some extent.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:26am
    - PurplePen
      
      WFF benefits the bureaucrats that are required to administer it as well?
      
      7 1
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      May 10, 2024 10:55am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I think that you are correct. The school lunch debacle has dented my opinion of David Seymour. A small dent, but a dent.
  
  I also wonder whether the Treasury now has the expertise and the leadership to effectively scare the government into serious action. 20 years ago they employed world class economists who stayed at the Treasury for decades, rising to leadership positions. That is all gone.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:28am
  - Mike
    
    Those people all started work before the ‘reforms’ of the 1980s destroyed the public service.
    
    3 10
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    May 10, 2024 9:46am
  - jkt
    
    For me he has grown in stature. The new approach is based on reality and practicality.
    
    Announcing a policy leading up to an election is very different from implementing a policy as part of a coalition government.
    
    The contrast between the Ardern government and the Luxon government is stark! Peters and David have grown in stature by association with Luxon. Like, a demonstration of symbiosis while the previous government demonstrated the principles of entropy.
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:44am
  - PurplePen
    
    Heard Seymour on Hosking or was it The Platform where he said instead of cancelling the school food thing immediately he decided to reduce cost and expand its coverage immediately and in the interim work out what is actually the right way to go about it. The expanded coverage to preschool was based on the quality of the first 3000 days of a small human’s life are most important for brain development or something. Minor problem I see is once you expand coverage and your interim analysis says you don’t need it for the older kids who’s going to reduce coverage? My guess if it’s Seymour, he will and will ignore all the expected wailing.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:01am
    - jkt
      
      You chose not follow his argument.
      Best return on investment is earlier in life.
      
      4 2
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      May 10, 2024 11:43am
- Damocles11
  
  Not much that can be done when the MSM, Academia, Unions, Councils, Public Service and anyone else with any actual power is all of a like mind & the MSM is screaming about how cruel and heartless (and racist) Seymour is, and how this government is all about ‘taking food out of the mouths of starving kids & giving tax cuts to their rich mates’. This capture of our society and populace could not happen with the acquiescence and complicity of people on the Right. I still read people saying they are continuing to buy newspapers, companies still advertise with the MSM, the property industry still fills the coffers of NZME – thus paying the salaries of people like Emmerson and Simon Wilson. And it will be these corporates and business people who will be badly impacted as New Zealand continues to drift leftwards and goes down the tubes.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:35am
  - PurplePen
    
    Not sure we’re going down the tubes too rapidly. Restaurant Brands posted record revenue Feb 2024. Their costs were up so not such a good profit. But it does indicate there’s a heck of a lot of people that can still afford KFC, Pizza Hut, Carls Junior, Taco Bell.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:05am
    - wsk12345
      
      But can the health system afford these people who live on garbage quality food?
      
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      May 10, 2024 3:39pm
- mogg
  
  Willis hasn’t said that the books will be back in balance anytime soon, she said ‘2027 at the earliest’.
  It was two bellies who said that ‘inflation is a temporary problem’.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:53am
- Paulus
  
  And you expect the elected Government to deal with all the social system left by the Labour Marxists in 6 months – it took Labour/Greens years to destroy our country.
  Personally I cannot see the current Government getting re elected next time as there will not have been enough time to try and undo the ills left.
  The various left wing and pro Maori parties, heavily assisted by the not tamed media, will continue daily to destroy the elected Government that they opposed.
  Who will take over leaves too much to the imagination.
  Sad really, as I will not probably be here for the next election due to my age and infirmities.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:30am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Did you really think they would balance the books in 6 months ffs? They have stated when they expect the books to balance
  
  2 2
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  May 10, 2024 12:36pm
  - Grunter
    
    You missed my point, I need to be clearer….
    
    1. The Govt books are a mess – in the last 9 months the deficit has ballooned up to -$5,000,000,000. That’s worse than the Dec Treasury forecast by $619,000,000
    
    2. The coalition Govt (our “most right wing ever!”) so far has reduced Govt Dept spend by 6.5%. That’s still 77.5% above 2017 levels.
    
    3. Seymour just committed to another 2-3 years of school lunches @ $478,000,000 pa
    
    4. All other pre-Budget announcements have been increases in spend (Defence, Prisons, Police, MP pays, Luxon’s new sofa, …..) arguably all good things??? – but all increases all the same.
    
    I hope I am wrong, but I sense there’s no major Budget Day big spending cuts coming. It’s all very softly softly so far.
    
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    May 10, 2024 2:58pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Okay, 10 months, I wonder if she went in temporarily when Collins was stood aside from her positions, one was police the budget is never about what will be cut, it’s about what will be spent, but you may choose to watch what is re-prioritised, Health , police, education are all in for large hikes in funding
      
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      May 10, 2024 6:20pm
NZL Fusion

Someone needs to coach Paul Goldsmith, Willy Jackson is talking rings around him.
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May 10, 2024 8:18am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Goldsmith and Jackson should both go back to their previous careers as hagiographer and talk show gabbler respectively.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:28am
  - PeeJay
    
    Rare uptick milky – if either Goldsmith or Jackson are the answers then it’s a f-ing stupid question.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:40am
- imalwaysright
  
  Nzl
  The two presenters earlier did an item about Nichola Willis using the term ” Its darkest before the dawn”.
  
  They could hardly contain their excitement as they informed us that Willis had used a song lyric from a Florence and the Machine song!
  
  They even cut and pasted Willis with the bands video as they giggled and smirked at catching Willis out.
  
  Unbelievable
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:36am
  - Prince
    
    That saying has been around for about 400 years.
    Not surprised those presenters thought it was just invented.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:53am
  - 7kiwi11
    
    Don’t worry, be happy.
    Here comes the sun.
    Its a beautiful day.
    Everything’s gonna be alright.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:58am
  - john1234
    
    What? It’s from a 1650 poem by Thomas Fuller.
    
    Florence and the Machine indeed! FFS didn’t any of these TV stuffed shirts attend school?
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:00am
  - Mike
    
    Surely the cliche is older than that.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:06am
    - Paulus
      
      Of course Maori invented it along with all music.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:32am
      - PurplePen
        
        Well actually The Waitangi Tribunal have raised a complaint that they’re investigating that their Maori music has been colonisationified and such songs should no longer be attributed to Maori.
        
        4 1
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        May 10, 2024 11:08am
  - rockape
    
    Florence pinched it from Mark Knofler. Theme from “ Local Hero”
    He pinched it from a 1650 theologian
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:08am
    - rockape
      
      It’s always darkest before dawn
      That’s when it gets to me ,sweet city symphonies of taxi horns
      That’s the way it always starts,right hear with the beating of my heard.
      Knopfler.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:19am
    - Mike
      
      Great soundtrack
      
      3 1
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      May 10, 2024 9:48am
    - Ra Henare
      
      https://poemanalysis.com/proverb/its-always-darkest-before-the-dawn/
      
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      May 10, 2024 6:27pm
  - Geri Sjovik
    
    What’s believeable is the utter ignorance and ‘gotcha mindset’ of the media sockpuppets in New Zealand.
    
    – There’s a poem written in 1650 by Thomas Fuller and in it he writes: “It is always darkest just before the day dawneth.”
    That’s the first record of this proverb that has now been used and said an untold but vast number of times. –
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:33am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Not a Poem…
      
      The quote is from his “travelogue” of Palestine
      
      https://shapero.com/products/fuller-pisgah-sight-palestine-1650-107038
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:47am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    We couldn’t have Robbo’s “light at the end of the tunnel” again.
    
    4 1
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    May 10, 2024 10:49am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Baby Face Nelson and Cochise
    
    4 2
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    May 10, 2024 11:21am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That how pathetic they are. The band would have named that song after something, I seem to remember words like this being read out at Gallipoli, might be wrong, but why would she choose a song to tell us facts?
    
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    May 10, 2024 12:38pm
- softail 1450
  
  NZL. Maybe Willie should try talking directly to Goldsmith instead of into a mirror at 2 am as he trains for his upcoming debate in the UK where he’s going to make our whole country look as stupid as he always appears in front of a camera, the man is a pathetic joke who has no business being an MP.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:50am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Hopefully someone in the Foreign Office will reexamine the Letters Patent.
    Billy Jackson might end up in the Tower of London.
    
    3 1
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    May 10, 2024 11:25am
NeverMindTheBollocks

What a beautiful morning up and down the motu!
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May 10, 2024 8:23am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Did you take a jet boat trip up that river in eastern Bay of Plenty?
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:34am
  - PurplePen
    
    I’ve lodged a complaint with the Human Rights Commission on behalf of the river a you haven’t respected it’s mana. I’d let the river make the complaint but he/she can’t find a pen and paper.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:10am
- Melbury
  
  The North motu or the South motu?
  
  6 1
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  May 10, 2024 8:37am
  - Mike
    
    Motu is singular or plural.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:27am
    - Dave
      
      Yes, and plenty of other languages don’t sharply distinguish between single and plural nouns, but English usually does.
      
      So, in a country consisting mainly of two large islands, Melbury’s question is quite reasonable, or has the meaning of ‘Motu’ (damn you to hell, auto-complete – when I deliberately use lower case in quotation marks, I don’t need your repeated corrections) evolved to mean ‘country’?
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:05am
      - Mike
        
        NZ English has always incorporated Maori words. Motu is hardly mysterious and most educated people undertand that a Maori noun used in English doesn’t need an ‘s’added to indicate a plural.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:25am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Te motu = the island
        Nga motu = the islands.
        
        4 1
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        May 10, 2024 12:11pm
      - kowtow
        
        “Motu” is regime new speak from the Jabcinda era .
        
        As such it should be shoved where the sun don’t shine.
        
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        May 10, 2024 12:40pm
      - julesnzuk
        
        Mike – it has incorporated the occasional Maori word maybe, but I grew up in NZ and left aged 24 (been back plenty of times since) and can honestly say I’ve never heard the word “motu”.
        
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        May 10, 2024 9:39pm
- Kiwiguy
  
  … up & down the what?
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:39am
- pdm
  
  Motu is a small area off the beaten track between Matawai and Opotiki.
  
  Bollocks I think you mean the Country or the Land.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:39am
  - softail 1450
    
    PDM yes ,Barry Crump lived there for years , done some hunting up there decades ago and the streams and rivers had a decent amount of trout ,not sure about now though.
    
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    May 10, 2024 8:55am
    - trout
      
      The Motu is still a world class trout fishery. The upper section through Matawai looks unimpressive; stream size between willow banks, holds big (5lb+) brown trout. Lower section for good fighting rainbow.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:50am
- mandk
  
  Which island are you talking about?
  
  Do tell us.
  
  Maybe post entirely in English, or entirely in Māori.
  
  8 2
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  May 10, 2024 8:43am
- Prince
  
  Which motu.
  
  1 2
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  May 10, 2024 8:53am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Which motu, there are quite a number.
  
  3 2
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  May 10, 2024 9:13am
- Paulus
  
  Where is that place as I still cannot find it on my Google Earth !
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:33am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Well, that was a lot of fun!
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:57pm
nathie

So Labour and Megan Woods continues to gaslight National and Simeon Brown over blame for the power generation crisis (caught some of her yesterday and just now on Morning Report).

She also reckons National and Simeon Brown don’t know what they are doing and then suggests they are essentially doing nothing, eg in terms of energy storage (by killing off the multi-billion Lake Onslow storage pipedream), or supposedly not doing anything else to provide resilience.

Hmmm …. gaslighting, mis/dis-information, refusing to accept any responsibility (and always changing the topic when challenged) and finally defending Labour’s idiotic and self-destructive energy policies.

When such criteria is met it can only mean one thing …. yes Megan Woods must surely be a worthy recipient of this week’s Vee Bees Award!

Take it away guys!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_vZTd4MHUKo
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May 10, 2024 8:33am
- cmm
  
  Megan Wood’s background as a Feminist Historian really has not equipped her in any way to understand energy.
  
  Energy is not a very complex concept to understand. The maths is pretty simple – needing not much past multiplication (ok, a square root if you want to get into the very technical stuff).
  
  But the biggest challenge is that it is unforgiving. You can’t bullshit your way through it.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:58am
  - Blog-aholic
    
    I think Megan understands energy but it is more in kilojoules and Megawatts…..
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:14am
    - Phronesis
      
      Calories
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:30am
  - Mike
    
    Good job that the energy minister is now a lawyer then.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:30am
  - Paulus
    
    Rubbish she can bullshit her way through anything !
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:34am
- plc
  
  I saw Woods on TV last night….has she joined The Addams Family or My Chemical Romance
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:04am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Preparing for CHCH mayoral run
    
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    May 10, 2024 6:23pm
- JackRabbit
  
  …by killing off the multi-billion Lake Onslow storage pipedream.
  
  By killing off the multi-billion Lake Onslow bottomless pit wet dream.
  
  We need more generation capacity and infrastructure, not storage that is less than 50% efficient. Put in 10MW, get 5MW out.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:37am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I’m sure it’s in the 70-80% range round-trip. Large pumps and turbines exceed 90% efficiency.
    
    Onslow would be good if the build costs were more reasonable. From memory it is up to $16 billion, but I’ll bet majority isn’t for strictly necessary features but rather to salve luxury greenie/maori agendas and other grasping hands.
    
    Construction of Manapouri cost $134 million in 1960s, equivalent to $2.7billion now, and was a far more complex and remote endeavour with far worse tools available
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:13am
- RoboRob
  
  Ive been saying for years that Megan Woods is the worst thing to happen to NZ. She knew there were generation issues, she coverred it in her maiden speech, and then totally ignored it and did nothing.
  
  The balls on this woman that she would criticize National for these issues when they have been in power for all of 6mths.
  
  Megan made it so only Wind and solar generation was possible (the RMA was buggered). When she knew that more base line energy was required she instead allowed fossil generation to close and did nothing for new sources.
  
  The worst is yet to come. Last winter the Transpower lady was saying ‘plenty of generation is coming later this year. This morning I heard her saying the same. The issue is that Wind, which is the only real generation being added, is intermittent and seems to generally supply around 20% of capacity. So when you have 1000MW of max generation, generally it produces around 200. So when Transpower says we have 1000MW coming on (~double current), she is really saying, ~200MW extra, about the same as a small hydro station.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:51am
  - wsk12345
    
    It’s worse than that – the 20% is its average contribution over 24 hours. In many places wind peaks in the afternoons (temperature effects) so at 7am I’d be surprised if it contributes much at all.
    
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    May 10, 2024 3:46pm
Maggie Pie

‘MOTHERS DAY’ under attack!

Wonder if we’ll see a similar move against ‘PRIDE MONTH’?

https://twitter.com/NewshubNZ/status/1788460667177230490
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May 10, 2024 8:34am
- PurplePen
  
  Just as the Council of Midwives wants to remove the term mother. And note that it was the Council that wanted to do this, not the midwives.
  
  Some guy on X writes there are those whose mother died early or abandoned them so Family is appropriate. Really?! This suggests that if there is one bad apple we shouldn’t celebrate apples, or we should cancel the concept of apples.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:21am
Tauhei Notts

Now that I have a heat pump I rarely use the space heaters, which are on ripple feed control.
But this morning, because of the fire and pestilence dire predictions by Transpower I turned one of the space heaters on. Just to see whether it would work.
It worked uninterrupted.
If there was any power shortage ripple feed controls would have come into play. They didn’t. Transpower; I have a lesson for you. Credibility, like virginity; you only lose it once. By your actions you have proven that you are bull shit artists.
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May 10, 2024 8:39am
- Clyde
  
  It might depend on where you are. If the Cook Strait cables are at capacity, the North Island cannot generate enough power to run the island without huge amounts of wind – which there isn’t at the moment. The other thing is that most gentailers have the ability to ripple control places like supermarket chains to turn off their chillers etc.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:45am
- softail 1450
  
  TN, it’ll only be days before Auckland Council staff start spending 100s of thousands of ratepayers dollars on water conservation to keep the dams full,bet your house on it.
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:59am
- colinm
  
  Tauhei,
  I think the credibility loss is for the media to wear. Transpower published a warning of low residual generation for one hour this morning. Meaning there was enough there to cover, but any loss of plant could cause problems. The generation and distribution companies worked at making plant available etc overnight. This morning was no drama. Transpower did the right thing, it was the media who created the sensation. BTW, I don’t work for Transpower.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:23am
- PurplePen
  
  I suspect it wouldn’t happen in South Island as there’s plenty of those electrons available in the island, residents have much lower temperatures for longer (it would be harsh to cut them off) and the main draw and shortage is the upper North Island.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:25am
- Tom Hunter
  
  I did my bit to help save power.
  
  And my gas boiler-radiator system makes the house warmer than when we had electric heaters.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:49am
mandk

Is this the New Zealand disease?

https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/policy/astronomical-infrastructure-cost-overruns-eroding-confidence?utm_source=Digest&utm_medium=email

It seems we are spending a lot on infrastructure but not getting a lot in return, by way of road kms completed, etc.
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May 10, 2024 8:40am
- Phronesis
  
  It’s a problem across the economy, low productivity. Everything in NZ comes back to low (and falling) productivity. If we can raise productivity everything else solves itself.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:33am
  - Mike
    
    Successive governments have ignored productivity. ACT even abolished its very own baby, the Productivity Commission.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:19am
    - mandk
      
      Yes, because the PC didn’t achieve anything.
      
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      May 10, 2024 11:47am
MCōs

The reason we’re being shamed into turning down the heating in the swimming pool isn’t because of lack gas exploration, but because whoever generates electricity makes more money when there’s a shortage
Furthermore
There’s no point in spending billions of dollars building generators if they are not needed except for a few hours here and there.
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May 10, 2024 8:44am
- cmm
  
  That is partially correct.
  
  Non-dispatchable renewables (solar, wind etc) are by their very nature unreliable. If you want a dispatchable system them you need to back all of those dispatchable generation that will stand idle most of the time.
  
  That means for every wind turbine you build, you also need to build a coal or whatever generator to back it up.
  
  That at least doubles the cost of any of these projects.
  
  The other alternative is to just live with the fact that non-dispatchable generation doesn’t work when you want and take the power cuts.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:04am
  - Mike
    
    You are partially correct. Solar and wind need some backup, but obviously nowhere near 100%.
    
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    May 10, 2024 9:33am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Solar and Wind power are supposed to the renewable backup to take the load off the unrenewables.
      
      Could be compared to employing a part timer to fill in when a full timer is sick, but them having to employ another full timer to sit around doing nothing but to fill in for the part timer because he chooses if he will turn up to work.
      
      Solar and Wind power without storage is inefficient and costly.
      
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      May 10, 2024 9:44am
      - cmm
        
        “Solar and Wind power without storage is inefficient and costly.” Solar and Wind with storage is also inefficient and costly.
        At best you will get around 75% of the power through a storage/regeneration cycle – with battery or pump storage.
        And it is also very costly to add that extra infrastructure. Pumped storage is likely a better option than batteries because batteries degrade while pump storage systems can last a long time.
        South Africa’s Drakensberg pump storage which was built in the 1970s is still going strong. It has undoubtedly had its turbines refurbished a few times in the 44 years of its operation, but it will likely operate for another 50 years.
        
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        May 10, 2024 10:05am
    - Phronesis
      
      Solar and wind obviously need 100% backup. They are the only common forms of power generation that have the remarkable ability to produce no power at all while online and fully operational. Under certain conditions they actually use power.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:37am
      - cmm
        
        “Under certain conditions they actually use power.”
        
        Fairly commonly actually.
        
        All the power electronics and steering gear in wind turbines consumes power while the wind turbines are spinning or not.
        
        Ditto photovoltaic arrays. For 50% of the time they will be consuming power, not generating it.
        
        However these loads are relatively small, so I would not be too worried about them.
        
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        May 10, 2024 11:35am
wilderbeast

Not much sign of catastrophic human induced atmospheric warming in Central Otago this morning. -5.9C says the thermometer outside. Meantime we’re told by the power authorities to not turn on the heater.
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May 10, 2024 8:50am
- Benedict Yu
  
  You are confusing weather and climate.
  
  This morning, at minus 7 degrees, may have been a record low May temperature for Christchurch. It is certainly the lowest temperature in some years.
  
  Does that mean that Christchurch is getting colder? Of course not. Like the rest of the country it is warming.
  
  Debating the causes of climate change fine. Debating stupid climate change policies fine. Saying that we had a cold morning so there is no climate change stupid.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:04am
  - Local Miller
    
    No more stupid than saying we had a hot day means there is climate change.
    
    13 2
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    May 10, 2024 10:39am
  - Phronesis
    
    You’re not wrong BY. But it falls rather flat when we have the distinguished high priests of climate change on the government funded news preaching apocalypse every time we get a hot day in summer.
    
    11 2
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    May 10, 2024 10:42am
    - jkt
      
      Yu’s problem is his bias towards his own opinions.
      
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      May 10, 2024 11:49am
      - Mike
        
        Unlike anyone else commenting here.
        
        5 1
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        May 10, 2024 4:51pm
Handyman

It is Friday morning, yet I haven’t seen any schoolkids marching in the frost to protest global warmimg demanding to ban the use of coal.
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May 10, 2024 8:51am
Inandout

If power companies cut the feed does the daily line fee for getting electricity to your house get reduced as well?
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May 10, 2024 8:55am
- wsk12345
  
  If you have controllable power eg hot water cylinder that is ripple controlled by the lines/retail companies, you already pay a lower per kWh rate for the controllable portion.
  
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  May 10, 2024 3:56pm
JimBobJoe

But the warnings caused a lot of people to change routines and shifted demand profile will be the reply….

The truth will only be shown by the data when available…
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May 10, 2024 9:00am
gravedodger

I am wondering MCōs if you are entering the growing demands for EV charging into your predictions of demand for power.
All generation needs shut downs for maintenance so at almost 0900 it could be that was avoided here having escaped.
Reminds me of Churchill asking Park “what reserves do we have” on September 1940 to hear the reply “None sir”.
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May 10, 2024 9:00am
- jkt
  
  It was bloody cold this morning.
  My wife called me and told me that the car must be broken.
  She travelled 12 km but the indicator dropped by 30km! I told her to check whether she was at the right destination.
  
  EV’s, computers and daylight saving …. Weird world we live in.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:54am
- MCōs
  
  Electricity demand is far from uniform throughout the 24hr day
  I would suggest EV vehicle owners who want to charge their car at home be compelled to install a smart power outlet that can be controlled from HQ so that it can’t at peak times such as we experienced this morning
  People who want to use public chargers could be incentivized by way of cost not to charge their automobiles at peak times
  So, to answer your question, I have no problem with the growing number of EVs, but I think someone needs to put some thought into the subsequent demand for electricity and I don’t see anyone preparing to tackle the problem
  
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  May 10, 2024 2:49pm
  - Burtland
    
    Seems that even if car charging is scheduled, network capacity will need to double
    – the clean green electric economy will need to be massively subsidised
    
    “If we have the ability to schedule, then we have to build – between now and 2050 – the size of the Auckland network again, and if we had to build it without these scheduling and everything, it would be three times the size. That’s billions. It’s basically on current day, well over $4 billion.” CEO Simon Mackenzie, Vector
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/516449/govt-must-regulate-to-smooth-evs-and-data-centres-demand-on-power-grids-vector
    
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    May 10, 2024 3:44pm
Maggie Pie

LABOR… The Nasty Party 🙁

“You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave”.

https://twitter.com/DarienFenton/status/1787998880199745611

No idea why she suddenly appeared in my ‘X’ feed. Never heard of her.

(A quick check on WIKI shows Darien was a Labor list MP from 2005-14.
Grew up in a State House down Palmy. Trade Union Secretary. Heroin addict.
Main claim to fame….worked as an extra in Bollywood movies in India.)

Who cares what she thinks. Just saying.
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May 10, 2024 9:08am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Jeepers. That has either a massive chip on each shoulder, shoulder pads or has very muscular shoulders………..
  
  8 2
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  May 10, 2024 9:20am
- cmm
  
  Labor = Australia’s muppets. Ours are Labour.
  It helps avoid confusion.
  
  6 1
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  May 10, 2024 10:07am
- nathie
  
  Darien Fenton 🙁
  Sadly, you would have heard of her … here are some unfortunate reminders:
  
  Labour MP Darien Fenton has publicly apologised for her comments about the Mad Butcher Sir Peter Leitch …
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/mp-apologises-for-butcher-attack/ZATIVFRQVK4YT64LZIHXXPZMBM/
  
  Former Labour MP Darien Fenton has been slammed for a tweet about a pregnant Kiwi journalist who was denied a MIQ spot.
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/01/covid-19-ex-labour-mp-darien-fenton-slammed-for-vile-tweet-about-pregnant-kiwi-reporter-denied-miq-spot.html
  
  Bullying claims: MP cops flak for ‘mouthing off in media’
  https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/bullying-claims-mp-cops-flak-mouthing-media
  
  DPF wasn’t impressed either!
  These were posted on Dr Sharma’s Facebook page. Former Labour MP Darien Fenton attacks him for daring to speak up in public, and he responds about how he has been complaining for 1.5 years and the bullying hasn’t stopped.
  https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2022/08/sharma_vs_fenton.html
  
  Finally, can’t quite remember the details now, but she used social media to criticise National I think (during Ardern’s rein?) by using a photo of someone’s house to make her point (and the home owner was aghast about being used like that)??? IIRC she then had to apologise!
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:22am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    OMG!! See what you mean 🙁
    
    https://twitter.com/AngryDarien/photo
    
    12 2
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    May 10, 2024 10:48am
    - Swifty
      
      Jesus.
      
      7 3
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      May 10, 2024 11:46am
      - Don Beckett
        
        No, Darien Fenton.
        
        5 2
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        May 10, 2024 12:29pm
- softail 1450
  
  MP ,Acts comment 750,000 views ,,Darien Fentanyl‘s comment 1200 ,enough said about that.
  I’m actually astonished that Acts X comment got that many views or have I read it wrong ? I’m not an X user.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:23am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YIP YIP…nearly 800k views in the last 2 days!!
    
    Darien would probably say they were Indian bots.
    Then again she was a Bollywood ‘star’ 😀 😀 😀
    
    9 2
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    May 10, 2024 10:54am
    - kevn
      
      Maggie… Must have been late last century.
      The petals have well dropped by now.
      
      6 2
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      May 10, 2024 11:04am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Awful woman. Was in the union, then in Labour and now back at the union I believe. I guess it is too late for her now to try having a real job.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:52am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  She was one of the worst MPs ever, she is a union hack and extremely vile, watch what you do, I questioned her several times and kept getting banned on FB, now she appears to have gone since tgd election I have never been banned once
  
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  May 10, 2024 6:27pm
- julesnzuk
  
  Labour. What’s with the dumbo Americanisation of our language? We really don’t need to import any more American shit.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:53pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Judge Engoron under investigation.
Wonder where this is going?

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/trump-fraud-trial-judge-arthur-engoron-under-investigation/ss-BB1m5Pjq?
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May 10, 2024 9:39am
- Its only I
  
  It’s interesting how this BS story rolls out of the Trump war room just as Judge Aileen Cannon has been exposed not declaring gifts from the alt right federalist society…nudge nudge, wink wink.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:18am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I guess all of the Judges involved are being investigated.
    Most would be Democrats – you know, the liars and cheaters.
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:51am
Grunter

Another wake-up call.

Here’s the head of the US Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Maya MacGuineas:

‘We’re less than a decade away from a massive solvency crisis that would slash benefits for over 67 million seniors and severely limit their access to health care soon after. But instead of running to fix this problem, our politicians are running away from it. Social Security’s retirement trust fund will be insolvent when today’s 58 year-olds reach the normal retirement age and today’s youngest retirees turn 71.’
https://www.foxnews.com/video/6352432935112

And don’t dismiss that as “It’s just the US with a problem” Most countries are in the same clown world, including NZ. The status quo of ‘Tax, Borrow and Spend’ comes unstuck at some point in the next few decades. For the US it seems it will happen within 10 years. They have an annual interest bill of over $1 Trillion already!
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May 10, 2024 9:40am
- Mike
  
  US nesd to urgently cut military spending and raise taxes. Socializing healthcare like the rest of the west would help too.
  PS. None of this will happen.
  
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  May 10, 2024 9:52am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Tax isn’t the problem – it’s how the money is spent (and not just on military).
    
    They spend twice as much per capita federally on health than we do. It’s a tragedy that it’s all wasted on bureaucracy.
    
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    May 10, 2024 10:02am
    - Mike
      
      That’s because any sensible federal healthcare policy proposal is denoinced as communistic. US voters are duped into believing almost anything in the name of ‘freedom’.
      
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      May 10, 2024 10:43am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I agree on healthcare, US spends twice as much on healthcare (17% of GDP) as oecd average (9%), yet has far worse average health than countries with govt supplied services.
    
    I expect an AI led revolution in health in next 5 years, LLMs are proving to be highly effective at accurate diagnosis etc, and could potentially offload a large fraction of doctors work – eg they can ingest patients whole medical history prior to exam), and run through a consult at home with video camera to address 90% of GP visit issues, more once home robots are ubiquitous in a decade. though expect entrenched interests to fight it tooth and nail.
    
    AI is also amazing for cheap diagnostic analysis; we could each be getting yearly MRIs (machine use costs < $100 per scan) and having them pored over by AIs looking for cancer and cardiovascular issues etc for next to nothing. Same with cardiograms etc.
    
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    May 10, 2024 1:10pm
    - Mike
      
      In the US, their f-ed system will see the new technology make healthcare more expensive as any efficiency gains will go to insurance companies and medical corporations.
      
      5 1
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      May 10, 2024 2:40pm
- cmm
  
  They’re printing about $3T a year (which is around $10k per person). This is driving very high levels of consumerism and entitlement.
  There is pretty much no ways that Americans will vote to support the belt-tightening they need to do to cut back to a balanced budget.
  And repaying the debt? That would need even more belt tightening. That really isn’t going to happen.
  
  It is all very well saying they need to do it. They won’t.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:15am
  - Grunter
    
    I agree – politically they have no alternative, therefore the money printing will continue (it has to).
    
    That just means inflation…..and at some point, the whole house of cards collapses as it has repeatedly every other time throughout history.
    
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    May 10, 2024 11:15am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhxu-gJFXSw
Jimonomics Flashback Friday | Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain.
With Labor set to deliver its 3rd budget and Australians still waiting for them to deliver on their promise to cut electricity bills by $275, we are rolling out this classic episode of Please Explain where Jim Chalmers discovers his true calling.
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May 10, 2024 10:04am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FWRJAzInaI
MIT Ends Diversity Statements for Hiring as Wokeness Crumbles.
There is a group of alums at MIT who have been pounding hard on the administration to end the wokeness. They got the DEI people fired and are probably responsible for this new development. [And there’s no money, or power to be had from it.]
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May 10, 2024 10:04am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Future POTUS?
In another 5 Elections he will be 34.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/barron-trump-chosen-as-one-of-florida-s-41-at-large-rnc-delegates/ss-BB1m5MUq?
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May 10, 2024 10:17am
- softail 1450
  
  Steve Otto ,isn’t he around 19 now ? That would make him 39.
  
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  May 10, 2024 10:29am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    He was 18 last March
    
    4 3
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    May 10, 2024 10:45am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Me and Baron’s SIL follow each other on ‘X’.
  
  Lara is amazing….. WATCH
  
  https://twitter.com/LaraLeeTrump/status/1788360391396876514
  
  Full screen/ Sound up 😀
  
  6 4
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  May 10, 2024 10:35am
- NothingLeft
  
  Ugh. Fuck dynasticism. It’s anathema to the ideals of democracy.
  
  No more Trump’s, Trudeaus, Clintons, Kennedys (though they seem good in current era), Obamas, Bushes etc. It mostly produces poor results. There are more than enough highly capable people to choose from.
  
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  May 10, 2024 1:16pm
  - kevn
    
    Nothing… meghan markle is in the wings.
    
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    May 10, 2024 2:15pm
    - MCōs
      
      Why on earth would M ² want the godforsaken job?
      She’s the victim of enough vitriol as it is without adding another layer the comes with even being a woman in American politics
      First thing would be the fools doubting she was even a woman
      
      4 2
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      May 10, 2024 2:58pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        For a time Kiwiblog had one or two commenters who seemed to genuinely believe that both Barack and Michelle Obama were transgender.
        
        4 4
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        May 10, 2024 3:32pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Steve Otto obviously thinks Trumpy’s older boys will never amount to anything.
  
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  May 10, 2024 3:30pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Have you ever bumped into the very odd online theory that Donald Trump is actually a time traveler?
  Is there any evidence? Kind of,
  The Baron Trump novels were written by American author and lawyer Ingersoll Lockwood in the late 19th century. These two children’s novels, “Travels and adventures of Little Baron Trump and his wonderful dog Bulger”, in 1889, and its sequel, “Baron Trump’s Marvellous Underground Journey”, in 1893, remained relatively obscure until they gained media attention in recent years due to perceived similarities between their protagonist and U.S. President Donald Trump and his son Baron Trump
  In the novels Baron Trump embarks on a series of adventures that include discovering strange underground civilizations, offending the natives, and navigating entanglements with local women. The story takes readers on a whimsical journey that eventually leads Baron Trump back home to Castle Trump
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Trump_novels
  In addition to the Baron Trump novels, Ingersoll Lockwood also wrote another book titled “The Last President”. This work features a president who resides in a tower on Fifth Avenue in New York. The novel describes a city riven by protests against a rigged presidential election.
  
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  May 11, 2024 1:04am
thirteenstars

Vector demands controls on when EVs can be charged:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/516449/govt-must-regulate-to-smooth-evs-and-data-centres-demand-on-power-grids-vector

I’m reminded of H.L. Mencken’s quote about democracy:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

EVs lack range and they take a long time to charge, even on fast charge, and now the times they can be charged might be regulated. See the trap, folks?

Well, the folks voted for it, little by little, over the years, indoctrinating their children in state schools, voting in more Green MPs, and elevating disciples of Net Zero into positions of enormous power.

Citizen, heal thyself.
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May 10, 2024 10:22am
- kevn
  
  13… Just pop a big diesel generator into the EV charge stations.
  Oh, they already do that, in the US especially.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:09am
- MCōs
  
  Heaven forbid we can’t do what we want when we want!
  
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  May 10, 2024 3:01pm
Chuck Bird

If we are having global warming that should mean fewer cold mornings like this in future which means less power problems.
10 3
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May 10, 2024 10:26am
- JimBobJoe
  
  Global Warming means what I say it means when I say it. Nothing more, Nothing less!!
  
  So Sayeth Greta of the Hot Day, and Jacinda of the Vax (yip, yip, thats what it is[tm]) agrees….
  
  Expecting models to forecast accurately over time Chuck is asking waaaaaay to much from the AGW crowd…..
  
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  May 10, 2024 5:09pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

Tikanga. Why it must be stopped from becoming NZ Law.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/tikanga-what-it-is-and-why-it-must-be-stopped-from-becoming-law-in-new-zealand-part-2/
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May 10, 2024 10:35am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Do you believe that the common law is part of NZ law?
  
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  May 10, 2024 4:03pm
Pope Punctilious II

Chris Trotter is branded a “turncoat” by the tribal left, and often mocked by the tribal right. But here he has a pretty good take on NZ’s plight after 40 years of “progressive neoliberalism”.

John Key gets a well-deserved kicking:

“reconstituting a responsible conservatism simply wasn’t in him, and so he smiled and waved for nine years, while everything that mattered in New Zealand rotted away beneath his feet.”

His old attachment to the left prevents from giving the Ardern government the full broadside it deserves, but she doesn’t escape some scathing criticism:

“If you can’t give working people simple human dignity, then give them some new pronouns. If the neoliberals won’t allow left-wing governments to build homeless Māori houses, then keep them warm with offers of “decolonisation” and “indigenisation”. Let them live under a 184-year-old piece of rat-eaten parchment, instead.”
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May 10, 2024 10:40am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Have all those turbines been going this morning?
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May 10, 2024 10:47am
Ghost

I’ve yet to hear Maggie Pie squeal in delight

Broadcasting legend Simon Barnett has a new job, returning to the More FM breakfast slot early next year.

Article
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May 10, 2024 10:57am
- Maggie Pie
  
  YIP! Saw that Ghost. He is soooo sickly to listen to.
  Reckons every guy he ever mentions are such ‘lovely blokes’.
  Whereas my partner reckons most of HIS mates are all “total c…..”
  
  Actually would have been even more ecstatic it was Roxblah or Row-maaaan.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:15am
Maggy Wassilieff

Our household didn’t rise until 8:45am this morning.

Did we miss anything?
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May 10, 2024 11:08am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Have you scrolled up to check all my posts?
  
  8 3
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  May 10, 2024 11:18am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    First thing…(well, after the pee and Tea, or was it T and P?).
    
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    May 10, 2024 12:45pm
DeepBlue

Bring back tuck shop Friday. Sandwiches Monday to Thursday. Hot meal on Friday. That’ll raise the lower Friday attendance.
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May 10, 2024 11:20am
cmm

A bus station brawl is planned and the solution is to just avoid the place?

Have we really given over any pretence of having control over the actions of school kids?

“New Lynn/Kelston Community Patrol said they will be adding extra patrols at the location as a precaution.”

And what are they going to do? What are they allowed to do?

After a good decade of inaction by police it is no wonder that the kids can run riot and think they are above the law.

There are solutions, but I really don’t think that the police, and society at large, has the stomach to do what is required. Therefore the situation will continue to get worse until it descends to a situation where society, and the police, are forced to act.

Ditto with gangs. Having shoot ups in gang neighbourhoods has expanded to now where we’re having shoot ups in the middle of Auckland and in hospitals.

Australian cops carry guns. They have a lower murder rate than we do. Draw the dots. Our cops will soon be carrying guns too.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-mass-brawl-planned-for-new-lynn-bus-station-students-told-to-keep-away-after-school/YEX2JR5YDVCM5KKJXWY5HXISKI/
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May 10, 2024 11:29am
- peterwn
  
  There would be plenty of guns in the police cars attending the area which can be rapidly deployed (two locks and a Bushmaster in each car). The SAS should be called out to assist to show the Police mean business.
  
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  May 10, 2024 11:50am
  - cmm
    
    Do the SAS have police training?
    
    Carrying guns in vehicles is a poor second place to carrying them on your body.
    
    5 2
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    May 10, 2024 11:59am
  - rouppe
    
    The SAS are a branch of the army.
    
    Are you sure that the army can be deployed for disorder control within NZ?
    
    And in any case that’s not what they’re trained for. They’re trained to kill people.
    
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    May 10, 2024 12:12pm
    - cmm
      
      SAS are primarily there for information gathering.
      Killing people is only a secondary function.
      
      3 3
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      May 10, 2024 2:21pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        They’ll kill you easily enough if given a lawful order to do so.
        
        5 1
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        May 10, 2024 4:05pm
- rouppe
  
  My thoughts exactly. What a bunch of ferals.
  
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  May 10, 2024 12:14pm
- MCōs
  
  Seems the proposed fracas came to nothing
  Brawls between rival students from poytechs are common in Bangkok with guns and knives involved
  Kids get killed when gun fights breakout on buses
  Police nowhere to be seen, but street vendors pop up out of nowhere
  
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  May 10, 2024 8:47pm
I remember when

‘Win some, lose some, wound some, kill some:’ Meth addict’s menacing threats: ODT 20 Aug 2021.
“A man on a “meth-fuelled bender” threatened to send gang members to his girlfriend’s home to rape her, a court has heard.
Kyle James Clarke (28) also vowed to kill the woman and her god-children, all of which followed a catalogue of violent incidents.”

‘Trial over death of Blenheim man while chasing Mercedes reported stolen from his house the day before:’ NZH 1 May 2024.
“When Allister Christie spotted his stolen Mercedes being driven by another man he decided to give chase – but soon after both men ended up in a river after a high-speed crash.
While Kyle James Clarke managed to escape from the stolen Mercedes and swim to safety, Christie was not so fortunate.
The 31-year-old has admitted entering Christie’s home, taking the keys and then taking the Mercedes on March 12, 2022, but has denied charges linked to the circumstances in which Christie died the following day.”

ODT article stated he had spent the majority of the last decade in prison.
9 2
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May 10, 2024 11:53am
- Bobba Fret
  
  I hope he spends all of this and the next decade in prison too.
  
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  May 10, 2024 2:15pm
I remember when

Fire department wants restrictions on EV parking and charging in big buildings.
The NSW Fire and Rescue has intervened in a crucial debate about Australian Building Standards, saying it does not approve of electric vehicles being charged, or even parked, in enclosed parking areas in buildings.
7 2
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May 10, 2024 12:06pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  Do you have a link for this claim as the NSW Fire and Rescue website doesn’t say that…..
  
  https://www.fire.nsw.gov.au/page.php?id=9391
  
  Not saying your wrong, their site maybe out of date…. Interested in the information source you have referenced…
  
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  May 10, 2024 4:11pm
  - Ghost
    
    https://thedriven.io/2024/05/06/fire-department-wants-restrictions-on-ev-parking-and-charging-in-big-buildings/
    
    4 0
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    May 10, 2024 4:15pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING…

Imagine needing a hundred police cars and a helicopter to protect Israeli Eurovision Song contestant Eden Golan in Sweden ?

The fab Katie Hopkins thinks it’s completely f**ked 😀

https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/1788712408300638687
8 4
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May 10, 2024 12:12pm
- mogg
  
  Katie Hopkins is a very rude lady;
  “Banged in a field”https://m.youtube.com/shorts/8MUhDp0gzao
  
  1 2
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  May 10, 2024 2:11pm
- cmm
  
  … and here in Aotearoa we’ve got hundreds of cop cars and a helicopter protecting a gang funeral.
  
  11 1
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  May 10, 2024 2:40pm
- Mike
  
  How is Israel part of Europe anyway?
  
  1 5
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  May 10, 2024 2:42pm
  - Ghost
    
    Closer than Aussie……
    
    https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/australia-has-been-knocked-out-of-eurovision-but-theres-still-reason-to-celebrate/ar-BB1m0au2?ocid=BingNewsSerp
    
    7 1
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    May 10, 2024 2:52pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Ah, that explains it, thanks. Some parts of Asia count, and they even had a North African country once.
      None from southern Africa or east Asia obviously. I’m surprised the US, Canada and the nicer parts of Latin America haven’t been ‘European’ enough.
      
      1 3
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      May 10, 2024 3:42pm
  - JimBobJoe
    
    1/ Eurovision is not about just Europe. Israel has participated in the Eurovision Song Contest 44 times since making its debut in 1973. Algeria are entered as are Australia…..
    
    2/ Football: Israel competes in UEFA competition because the pyschos in the middle east wont allow them to be part of the Asian Confederation
    
    3/ Israel competes in Track and Field at the European Champs and have even hosted some comps, e.g. “European Athletics U20 Championships, was held in Jerusalem, Israel from 7-10 August 2023”
    
    Bottom line: Its SAFER for Israel and the Europeans feel responsible for maintain safety. Can you imagine the Israeli football team playing against Saudi in Riyadh???? It would be a horror show that would make Munich 72 seem like a training exercise…
    
    3 2
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    May 10, 2024 3:46pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I thought Jared Kushner had made everything right between the Israelis and Saudis.
      
      3 2
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      May 10, 2024 4:07pm
- mogg
  
  There will be live Eurovision on YouTube. We can join the ‘Rest of the world voting’
  Hamas has ‘destruction of Israel and kill all Jews written into its constitution’, and they are accusing Israel of genocide!!
  The 20yr old girl representing Israel was booed off the stage in semifinals, but she still got through, so remember to vote Edan Golan on Saturday.
  Greta Goblin was demonstrating and booing with the useful idiots outside.
  
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  May 10, 2024 2:44pm
Chuck Bird

It is a long video but worth watching.

BREAKING NEWS: GOP Senators Unleash On Biden, Democrats Over Delay In Military Aid To Israel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGHW_3HX4nw
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May 10, 2024 1:36pm
cmm

I am the only one here thinking the cops need to be dealing to these Killer Bee scum a bit better than this?

20 of them loitering around the Rotorua hospital waiting for his body to be released. Woman going inside with a picture of him, etc etc.

No, move these scum on. They are interfering with the reasonable operation of the hospital and other people’s safety.

How many people have turned up to visit a patient or to seek medical treatment and have rather chosen to just go home instead?

There really is no reason for these criminals to have these convoys etc other than a “show of force”. The only force that should be shown here are the cops reasserting themselves as the apex of the pecking order.

Everything around this case shows holes in the way the cops, justice system and corrections handle criminals.

“A report in relation to the assault said that given it was his second conviction, the risk of reoffending was low.”

FFS: A person with TWO convictions, and no doubt several warnings etc, is NEVER going to have a low risk of reoffending.

One conviction followed with a Come To Jesus conversion maybe, but TWO convictions, along with ongoing membership of a criminal organisation, is not going to make the person have anything other than an extremely high likelihood of reoffending.

“Kay-Selwyn told a probation officer he regretted his wasted years and wished he could go back to primary school and make changes.”

Oh bullshit. Anyone believing this is a gullible sucker.
There are numerous opportunities in life for adults to get education later in life. Around the world missions complete their school education and then follow up with ongoing education if they so choose.
If he wanted to change his ways he could have. He chose not to. His choice.
The only good choice he seems to have made is his last.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ponsonby-shooting-hone-kay-selwyn-funeral-monitored-by-police-as-gang-heavy-farewell-expected/6QHQUA3ACZEGZB7IU55FXINH6A/
12 3
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May 10, 2024 2:33pm
- Ghost
  
  I was disappointed in the media treating him like a celebrity, broadcasting the haka being performed with him.
  
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  May 10, 2024 2:38pm
trout

Latest Curia poll (NZherald)
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/government-holds-on-in-latest-poll-christopher-luxons-favourability-surges/XNBVRE4KAJHFXBHGIU7CZ3XIEM/
Luxon and Willis are getting ‘cut through’.
8 2
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May 10, 2024 2:47pm
- mandk
  
  Labour up 4.3%, Greens down 4.4%.
  
  No overall change.
  
  8 0
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  May 10, 2024 3:12pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  CRASH! BOOM!
  Turbulence ahead!
  The Greens are in free fall!
  Sorry, thought I was Maiki Sherman for a second.
  I guess as this is not a good poll for the left, she wont say a word.
  
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  May 10, 2024 3:41pm
  - rockape
    
    Lots more egg forMaiki’s face. She never had much credibility and what little she had she has just thrown away.
    
    8 3
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    May 10, 2024 3:59pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Why does the Taxpayers’ ‘Union’ fund partisan political polling?
  
  3 10
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  May 10, 2024 3:45pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Please advise how it’s partisan?
    Or are you accusing our host of being dishonest?
    
    Also, I note the Herald article lied and stated that the last two poll saw the Government out but the Roy Morgan poll had them in easy – it was only TV One that didn’t..
    
    7 1
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    May 10, 2024 4:26pm
    - Ghost
      
      No they didn’t lie. They said it follows two other polls. The first one that showed labour leading was the one news poll. Then that was followed by a leaked labour internal poll, which don’t seem to be very accurate.
      
      1 1
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      May 10, 2024 4:34pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        The poll was not leaked, they simply said Labour said their polls show similar, Morgan mirrors this poll since Verian bullshit last Monday
        
        3 1
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        May 10, 2024 6:40pm
      - Ghost
        
        No, the Talbot Mills numbers were released
        
        1 1
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        May 10, 2024 6:54pm
      - MCōs
        
        As I recall prior to the last election Talbot Mills were most accurate.
        
        1 1
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        May 10, 2024 7:44pm
    - Mike
      
      It’s funding polling on partisan political preferences while pretending to represent taxpayers.
      
      1 4
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      May 10, 2024 4:45pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Why shouldn’t they? Rigged polls stopped a couple of years ago after Curia started doing this poll for NZTPU Verian Labours pollster shown to be bullshit, let’s not forget there has also been a Morgan poll saying the same, so only one poll oppose all others.
    
    I note also Luxons favorables have rocketed up
    
    4 1
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    May 10, 2024 6:38pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Yes, and on this poll NZF make it, but if they were below 5% Nats and ACT would govern.
  
  Bye bye Maiki and her bullshit
  
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  May 10, 2024 6:34pm
Ghost

10 years old. Bloody hell

A 10-year-old boy accused of sexually assaulting an Italian tourist on the streets of Cairns has been released from custody after being dealt with under the youth justice act.

Article
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May 10, 2024 3:01pm
- lifesgood
  
  It’s shocking but no doubt that kind of behaviour is what he has grown up with.
  
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  May 10, 2024 4:46pm
mandk

Hipkins says Defence budget increase is “just keeping the lights on.”

He really is completely useless. He can’t even think of an original metaphor.
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May 10, 2024 3:17pm
- Ghost
  
  I’d agree with him. Defence needs a larger investment but we cannot afford it.
  
  6 2
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  May 10, 2024 3:22pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Only a third is going towards pay, which needs to be the priority. Also needs a dramatic thinning of senior officer roles.
    
    5 4
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    May 10, 2024 3:51pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      Yes. Exactly.
      This is also true absolutely everywhere in Government departments right?
      
      4 0
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      May 10, 2024 4:22pm
      - Mike
        
        Won’t be true under this government, which asked agencies to make their own decisions about savings. Unsurprisingly, none of them have cut senior executive positions. NZDF and MFAT would just be the worst offenders among many.
        
        2 2
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        May 10, 2024 4:49pm
    - mandk
      
      Agreed.
      There seems to be a lot of Lt Cols and equivalent ranks around.
      
      3 0
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      May 10, 2024 4:40pm
      - Mike
        
        I believe at one stage the army had more majors than captains.
        
        1 3
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        May 10, 2024 5:28pm
kevn

Renewable energy. NZ has plenty…. But
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/turbine-milestone-reached-at-taupos-tauhara-power-station/NTHSDIDK3VEFZKYYELDO7BG5PQ/
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May 10, 2024 3:49pm
Maggie Pie

Anyone else had experience buying off ‘Temu’ ?

Finally got sucked in last week with one of their pop-up ads and ordered a pink Baseball Cap that had a sequined ‘M’ on the front.
Not sure how long it will take to arrive, but when this showed up on twitter earlier, not sure I should hold my breath. Just saying.

https://twitter.com/Xx17965797N/status/1788466318397587844
6 2
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May 10, 2024 4:29pm
- Ghost
  
  I use Temu every now and then, I prefer AliExpress. Just got a new electric cupper from temu today.
  
  1 1
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  May 10, 2024 4:41pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Prefer Ali. Haven’t used temu. have bought all my phones and tablets for years from Ali and no issues. only issue I’ve had is from clothing and linen. otherwise anything electronic has been fine.
    
    3 1
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    May 10, 2024 5:33pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    What is an electric cupper?
    Is it something to do with milking cows?
    
    3 0
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    May 10, 2024 7:11pm
    - Ghost
      
      Cupping, where you have cups put on you, a suction is created under them.
      
      https://www.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-Electric-cupping.html?spm=a2g0o.home.search.0
      
      3 0
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      May 10, 2024 7:41pm
- lifesgood
  
  I bought 5 items from Temu recently. They arrived on time but 4 of the 5 were crap and I binned them.
  
  4 1
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  May 10, 2024 4:44pm
- kevn
  
  Maggie… Sweat shop. But it works. For the buyers.
  
  4 1
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  May 10, 2024 4:54pm
Maggie Pie

Heard Meghan Woods on with HDPA ealirer.

Wonder if she’s related to that nasty Darien Fenton?
5 1
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May 10, 2024 6:18pm
- Ghost
  
  I watched parliament the other day. Haven’t really watched it since mallard became speaker. Saw Megan for the first time in years. She so pale I thought I was watching ghostbusters….
  
  4 1
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  May 10, 2024 6:24pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    OMG….we must have been watching the same QT.
    I actually thort Megs was wearing a Kabuki mask.
    
    What do you think of Gerr as Speaker?
    Hosk reckons at times he comes across as “vacant”.
    
    4 2
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    May 10, 2024 6:53pm
    - Ghost
      
      I think he needs to stamp his foot down a bit more. But I like that he told the opposition that when you ask if the pm stands by all their policies, a yes answer ends it. I’ve always found that to be the stupidest question.
      
      I was wondering if a give a little page could be set up for Megan. She needs a comb to make her hair look not so messy, and maybe a fake tan.
      
      5 1
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      May 10, 2024 6:59pm
    - Mike
      
      He looks more like Jonathan Hunt every day.
      
      3 1
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      May 10, 2024 7:04pm

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