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June 14, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 14 June 2024

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General Debate

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Swifty

Labour’s policies have an entirely predictable effect and now the very proponents of those policies say “interventions are needed”.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/519496/unemployed-not-in-school-young-people-bearing-brunt-of-economic-downturn

Labour, Robertson and Renney etc should be hanging their heads in shame, but they won’t. They lack the integrity to do that.
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June 14, 2024 8:07am
- Damocles11
  
  Someone on a benefit for 3 years is a ‘sign of slack emerging in the labour market’….righto. It’s a sign of the slack attitude of a young person, and a sign of a really slack, really terrible minister in Carmel Sepuloni.
  Renney is an oily customer alright, moves between Labour and the CTU and the media as an ‘economist’, policy director, advisor, and spin doctor. His influence has been a disaster for our country.
  
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  June 14, 2024 9:18am
  - Swifty
    
    Yep, they are now proposing a new set of solutions for try to address the problems caused by their last set of solutions…..
    
    See a pattern here?
    
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    June 14, 2024 12:44pm
artemisia

Boot camps coming very soon, followed by support. History of people saying evidence is boot camps don’t work, maybe short term but then back to the old ways.

The way I see it is that these young people are given an opportunity to take a different path. Some will, some will not. Those that choose to re-offend don’t get sentence discounts they otherwise might.

Consequences.
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June 14, 2024 8:12am
- Simon
  
  “History of people saying evidence is boot camps don’t work”
  
  History of people on meds to control their mental illnesses more like. This is the left. What mental illness do you have? Because you are mentally ill why should your opinions dictate how society should operate.
  
  For reference see the gweens.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:18am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  About 5 years ago my Grandson went on a LSV Limited Service Volunteer 6 week course just to see what the Army was like. He didn’t need ant straightening out, just interested. He thoroughly enjoyed it, as did the others with him. Some did need some discipline but they came right. Some just couldn’t handle it a quit – losers. That was about 15% of them. I would like to see that number lower.
  So yeah, it is good. No phones, no radio etc. Up at six, make your own breakfast. The day dotted with bed making, training, gym exercise, team tasks, marching, washing clothes, the whole 9 yards. Not sure if they did firearms safety – they should.
  For some it changed their lives. No drugs or alcohol was a big thing. Those misbehaving were punished with extra tasks. No maccas or KFC, you do the cooking.
  I see boot camps as a good thing. The name sounds tough for the snowflakes. Suitable for all generations but we know gen Z will be the biggest moaners.
  Go for it and fuck the bleeding hearts.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:33am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Should add to that. I avoided Compulsory Military Training (It should be brought back,) It was Labour who cancelled it. The one and only time I voted for them. Quite different from today’s commie Labour.
    I had just turned 18 and it was my first vote. Knew nothing about Politics or economy, how the Country was running etc.
    I was just too busy for Army stuff. Messing with shitbox cars to keep them running, drinking lots of beer, and chasing sheilas. Beaches, BBQs, SCUBA diving, fishing! Petrol was 10 cents a liter!
    
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    June 14, 2024 8:48am
    - OTGO
      
      Boys school I went to in Otago had a thing called “barracks” where the army took over the senior school for a month or six weeks (can’t remember) and taught the stroppy little shits, me included, some well meaning discipline.
      Taught us map reading, weapons handling (got to fire a .303 and bren gun at targets in the shape of humans), how to march straight and in time, and battle strategy.
      Hats off to my form teacher who realised I never took orders easily and I was made a sergeant of my own platoon and that got me a ride in an Iroquois.
      Get the school attendance back up and get “barracks” back I say.
      
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      June 14, 2024 12:28pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Yes, we had ‘Barracks week’ at my school in the 1950’s – the first week back from Christmas holidays. No schoolwork, learning to march, weapons instruction as OTGO says. Quite a bit of fun.
        
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        June 14, 2024 1:29pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Must have been fun OTGO.
        Sometimes I wish I did that Compulsory Military Training. I think it was a one time 3 weeks. It would not have done me any harm. Like you, I did not like taking orders, but I can give them LOL!
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:46pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      @Steve Otto(North Shore) @ 8:48AM
      
      From past comments you have made, you turned 72 about three weeks ago. That means the first general election you could vote in was in November 1972, when you were 20, not 18 — the voting age had been lowered to 20 the year before. You voted for Labour rather than for a fifth term National government.
      
      One of the first acts of the new (Third) Labour government, in December 1972, in addition to recognising China, was indeed to abolish compulsory military training (CMT).
      
      I was 21 in November 1972, and consequently, like you, I, too, avoided CMT, even though I had volunteered for it when fulfilling my legal requirement to register for it three years earlier (upon turning 18).
      
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      June 14, 2024 4:11pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Think it was my first vote. Does it matter?
        All I know is Labour stopped it.
        
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        June 14, 2024 6:13pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Yes, Steve Otto(North Shore), of course it matters. Accuracy, in all things, is very important.
        
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        June 14, 2024 9:36pm
  - cmm
    
    SO: The difference is that those are volunteers. They all chose to be there and thus are more motivated.
    
    Imagine the quitting rate if they had been forced to go against there will and there was the option to quit.
    
    The “bootcamp” name is wrong. I doubt these people will be getting anything like the military experience.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:00am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Some volunteered with heavy persuasion. Bit like doing a defensive driving course before you appear in Court facing DIC.
      My Grandson did it all by himself, his own motivation. As I said there were some dropouts. They are the ones who need a compulsory course as part of their upcoming jail sentence.
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:21am
    - jkt
      
      That is correct.
      
      I have seen many young men straightened out by time spent in the military. (National service in SA at that time was “the ultimate” boot camp)
      
      National service even helped me to develop skills that I would not otherwise have acquired.
      
      I am proud to say that even I influenced others positively while doing national service. (I was a bit of a maverick in the army, generally fighting for the rights of individuals but also focussing on my own wants. Having said that I was always motivated to work in the best interest of the group and even volunteered on occasion.)
      
      So, I am supportive of boot camps and national service.
      
      My preference would be that there should always be an element of draftees and volunteers in the group. Correction and direction from inside the group plays and important role in motivating and encouraging the slackers and unmotivated.
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:25am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Let’s get the Boot Camps up and going, but also come down hard on the wimpy snowflake anti lot.
        So many moaning sooks from Gen Z.
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:49pm
  - Handyman
    
    Most of what you listed sounded familiar to anyone with a job.
    Get up early, make breakfast, make your bed.
    Go to work, get told what to do. Come home, go for a run,
    Cook dinner. Can’t afford takeaway every night. Wash clothes.
    No point of hours on socials – going to see mates on the weekend anyway.
    
    All this without stealing any cars, doing ramraids or assaulting anyone.
    
    People who call bootcamps cruel and unusual punishment have never had a proper job.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:01am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      As I said above “fuck the bleeding hearts” They are part of the overall attitude problem of today’s kids.
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:22am
    - cmm
      
      The main advantage is taking them out of mummy’s care.
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:23am
      - jkt
        
        Removing them from the influence of those that participated in corrupting them (or allowed them the be corrupted) in the first place.
        
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        June 14, 2024 9:31am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Yep, 25 years old and still has helicopter parents.
        
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        June 14, 2024 9:35am
  - Mummy
    
    My 16 yo grandson in Australia has joined the Army Cadets. Goes once a week for 3 hours. He absolutely loves it. Plays the drum on parade, went on a weekend camp recently where they did all sorts of fun things, obstacle courses, shooting air guns. If these proposed boot camps are seen as a fun place to go rather than punishment, people might change their minds about them.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:49am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      They are fun places to go according to my Grandson. Those who don’t like it are just losers.
      
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      June 14, 2024 10:26am
      - jkt
        
        They loose out on a great opportunity!
        It is sad that so many parents fail to identify these opportunities for their kids.
        
        The influence of a good coach on the life of anyone is such a blessing.
        
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        June 14, 2024 10:45am
      - Stellaboxer
        
        I joined the Coldstream Guards at 17. When first assembled after arrival our Lance Sargent told us that if we had a sense of humour we would survive and even enjoy ourselves but if we didn’t it was our last chance to get back on the bus. I had the greatest adventure of my life and sometimes laughed till I cried. The British army in those days had a time honoured approach to straightening out issues, if you hanged a man and he died you kept hanging him until he got used to it. We were the best soldiers in the world.
        
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        June 14, 2024 1:54pm
    - MCōs
      
      We did something like that half a day a week at school
      I don’t know what for.
      I remember we went out to some army camp at West Melton and the toilet was a long board with a series of holes where you sat for a shit.
      Everybody bottled up their poo until they got back to civilization
      I think we ran around with ex WWII bolt action.303s that didn’t work
      
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      June 14, 2024 10:32am
      - jkt
        
        That will not only discourage anyone, it will destroy all hope.
        
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        June 14, 2024 10:47am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        “We did something like that half a day a week at school
        I don’t know what for.”
        
        Learning personal discipline? Learning personal responsibility? Understanding the chain of authority? Understanding teamwork?
        
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        June 14, 2024 6:49pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Any young people fit and well will always thrive on doing the tough stuff, it’s simply attitude to say you can’t make me do that, most health young people will like the out doors if they are shown the way
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:12am
- cmm
  
  The devil is in the details.
  
  A real bootcamp – run under military law could work.
  
  Watered down nonsense called a bootcamp won’t.
  
  What will happen if someone goes AWOL? WIll they just get a cuddle? Or will they get what we would have got as conscripts in the South African Army: two weeks of DB and perpetual “opvok”.
  
  The NZ bootcamps seem to be run by people who think they don’t work and have a vested interest in them failing.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:56am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    A far better idea would be to have a military / disaster response force that offers great careers in everything from catering to earthquake recovery. A force that has respect and status in the community. Those that were that way motivated could enroll in the more martial defence side whilst others could join rescue and disaster intervention. Become world class and world leaders and our youth would flock to it. They are screaming out for purpose.
    
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    June 14, 2024 2:05pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They say they work in WA and Queensland, tell a leftie that they t have glazed eyes.
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:09am
- Stellaboxer
  
  The solution to absentee fathers and solo mother lifestyle isn’t boot camp it’s good families. So the effort needs to go into putting the Genie back into the bottle and calling bullshit on the lefts attempts to tear up the traditional family. A good starting point would be an end to the DPB for anything much else than escaping an abusive relationship where the abused partner is financially dependant on the abuser. Its only bold action that can turn back decades of incremental attacks on society.
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:10am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The left want solo mothers and fatherless homes. Keeps them welfare dependent.
    See “Blackout” by Candace Owens. Brilliant book – I have it.
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:35am
    - Stellaboxer
      
      Exactly my point Steve
      
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      June 14, 2024 2:07pm
  - Ghost
    
    So your solution would be for couples to stay together for the children when the relationship is over?
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:39am
    - jkt
      
      No.
      
      But the well-being of their kids should the primary focus of parents. That is what MOST decent, caring parents do.
      
      The idea that someone else is to blame for your shit life is the problem, not the solution to the problem.
      
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      June 14, 2024 10:52am
      - Ghost
        
        The well being of the children is not in parents staying together for the kids. It’s not in seeing the parents arguing pr cheating on each other. Relationships end, it’s best people move on when it does
        
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        June 14, 2024 11:02am
      - Taieri
        
        Relationships end, it’s best people move on when it does
        ————
        
        And the taxpayer picks up the tab…
        
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        June 14, 2024 11:49am
      - ISeeRed
        
        @Ghost If parents sometimes argue, the family should be split apart? WTF? Statistically, children do MUCH worse in single parent households than dual parent. You’re not helping the kids supporting the break-up of families because a couple are too lazy to go to counselling.
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:04pm
      - jkt
        
        No-one is arguing with you.
        
        It is just never in the best interest of kids to end up in a bad family situation.
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:19pm
      - MCōs
        
        My first marriage fell apart, rather distressingly, but you’ll be pleased to know that no taxes were required to help anyone if that’s all you’re worried about.
        
        On the other hand I have a sister who stuck with her useless husband even though he wasted all their money on a long string of poor decisions.
        He point blank refused to take any advice and died leaving nothing behind
        My point is you can be all righteous about other people situations, but every relationship is different
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:24pm
    - Stellaboxer
      
      No Ghost my point is that if we stopped wiping everybody’s arse they might make damn sure they were doing the right thing before the kids started arriving. It’s called responsibility and it’s something the left has been trying to convince us isn’t a personal thing it’s a collective thing just like everything else they push. It’s why they like buses rather than cars.
      
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      June 14, 2024 2:12pm
      - Ghost
        
        Marriages break up, it happens.
        
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        June 14, 2024 2:36pm
      - jkt
        
        Bad decisions are made.
        But, you are right, shit happens.
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:23pm
      - MCōs
        
        Can confirm
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:25pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        “Marriages break up, it happens.”
        
        Especially when one party decides “I just don’t have that wonderful butterfly feeling in my stomach any more”. Fairly common these days in clown world.
        
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        June 14, 2024 6:39pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Apparently contempt creeping into communication is the number one reason for breakups.
        
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        June 14, 2024 6:51pm
  - gravedodger
    
    Great idea Stella then will follow an exponential ballooning of reported abuse to qualify.
    Free (taxpayer funded) opportunity largess is as attractive to the idler as excrement is to blowflies.
    All Welfare needs to have caps and limits to avoid lifestyle choices becoming preferred options.
    Sir Aparima Ngata foresaw that very problem when Savage and co introduced universal welfare in the 1930s saying it will be a real problem for “My People” , how prescient!
    
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    June 14, 2024 11:13am
    - Stellaboxer
      
      A fair point gravedodger that I confess I hadn’t given thought to but the abuse needs to be proved. I guess we would then have an industry growing around that. Maybe we just cut the benefit.
      
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      June 14, 2024 2:42pm
    - MCōs
      
      He had to say that. He was a National Party MP and they were opposed to the Social Security Act.
      
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      June 14, 2024 3:32pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Julian Batchelor holds Sir Aparima Ngata in high regard. You all should know where to find out.
      
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      June 14, 2024 4:24pm
- Paulus
  
  The comments in today’s Herald etc are by a group of people who only thrive on their so called expertise.
  As usual they are writing like University people whose financial interests are being questioned by the elected Government.
  Typical Herald !
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:23am
Simon

Screwdriver, rattan stick or claw hammer? For DEI NZ. For orderly retreat and situational awareness.

Perhaps the Taxpayer Union can do a survey on what self-defence weapons people are using.
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June 14, 2024 8:15am
Gravelroad

The Rust Caps
With the Olympics coming up – how many professional athletes will blame being rusty/sleepy/not enough practising or training opps/coach no good/plane seat too small/ground too bumpy etc etc for poor performances on the days?
Most of these cricketers have been paid professional players for years.
But they came across as jaded and careless.
When the drive has gone, time to get a new bus.
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June 14, 2024 8:15am
- MCōs
  
  I haven’t heard the Blackcaps themselves grizzling about lack of games, poor pitchs, because they know us pundits don’t want to hear excuses
  On the other hand us pundits blame lack of games, poor pitches . . . . .
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:34am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I am sure the Black Caps were to play Afghanistan in 3 practice games, they never occurred, but I am sure they were mentioned as the next games after they played last time
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:15am
    - Mike
      
      NZ cricket said it wanted later practice matches bit weren’t allocared such by the organizers.
      
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      June 14, 2024 12:13pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        It was on their itinerary after they played their last games, I kept looking to see the results but they never arrived, 3 games against Afghanistan. I hope they didn’t weasel out like Aussie and refuse to go to Afghanistan like activist Aussie on some grounds of human rights or some shit
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:25pm
      - Mike
        
        Afghanistan has not hosted any international cricket matches. All their matches are played outside the country.
        
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        June 14, 2024 3:52pm
      - MCōs
        
        Afghanistan play their home games in Sharjah
        The use the pre Taliban flag and anthem
        Pakistan played their home games in the UAE for quite a number of years too, but they are back in Pakistan again
        The Pakistan and Indian players get on just fine, as do all the cricketers, but I think the governments make it awkward for them to get visas
        
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        June 14, 2024 4:16pm
- pdm
  
  Hard to argue with that Gravel.
  
  I assume Stead has emailed his resignation and the NZ Board should be looking in that mirror too.
  
  A stuff up from day one.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:38am
  - MCōs
    
    Clearly Kane Williamson gambled and lost with the bowling order yesterday.
    Gary Stead must have been fuming
    
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    June 14, 2024 8:58am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      He should not have bowled Mitchel, why would they not use the Indian guy, he is no mug. And the WI spin bowlers bowled well
      
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      June 14, 2024 10:19am
      - MCōs
        
        What Indian guy?
        They’re all Kiwis
        I never hear Trent Boult referred to as ‘that Māori guy’ or Shaun Johnson as ‘that Laotian’
        
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        June 14, 2024 4:21pm
- I remember when
  
  We don’t seem to be able to bridge the gap between having a bit of a ‘slog’ and ‘steadying the ship’ when things go wrong.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:45am
  - pdm
    
    Fortunately it is only T20 `hit and giggle’ cricket.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:56am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    We don’t seem to be able to hit the ball off the square, and that’s all the bloody players
    
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    June 14, 2024 3:26pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Neither the Black Caps nor Joe Biden could beat the Taliban.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:52am
  - Mike
    
    No one has beaten the Taliban.
    
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    June 14, 2024 12:21pm
- Paulus
  
  Don’t mention the Cricket !
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:24am
plc

And this, more than anything explains why the Conservatives will get a bath:

“There was one moment in last night’s election interview of Rishi Sunak which stood out. It was when host Beth Rigby asked the prime minister what the net migration figures for the last three years were. He couldn’t say. The answer is 1.9 million people. Then she asked what the net migration figures for the three years before the 2016 Brexit referendum were. He didn’t know that either. It was 836,000 people.” [Source: Telegraph]

The British people gave their political masters a clear instruction in 2016 and it was ignored.

The flow-on effects have been calamitous for services in the UK.
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June 14, 2024 8:23am
- cmm
  
  The sad part for us is that you could largely replace UK->NZ and Sunak->Luxon.
  
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  June 14, 2024 9:28am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Baaaaaa!
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:42am
- Geri Sjovik
  
  There is one question that must be asked on that immigration.
  
  Are those people wanting to be part of British society or do they want to change Britain to suit their beliefs?
  
  If they want to be part of Britian then they are migrants.
  
  If they want to change Britain then they are invaders.
  
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  June 14, 2024 2:10pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Why have you not got more upticks?
    
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    June 14, 2024 5:15pm
Bridgenag

Massive fraud revealed in fake Chinese climate projects subsidised by the German fossil fuel industry in service of meeting arbitrary and deeply stupid emissions quotas
Of 75 Chinese projects related to “upstream emissions reductions” schemes funded indirectly by German consumers, 62 have been revealed as clearly fraudulent, and only one is above suspicion.

https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/massive-fraud-revealed-in-fake-chinese?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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June 14, 2024 8:25am
- Benedict Yu
  
  In the last 3 hears, the New Zealand government has dished out $1.3 billion for such projects. IIRC none of them are in China. Unless the Paris Accord collapses, that is just the beginning.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:42am
  - cmm
    
    I don’t think it really matters where they are. The outcomes are very poorly audited.
    
    So many of these schemes only exist to absorb funding that is sloshing around. Those with the funds to throw at them are not too motivated to look too hard since their major interest is getting rid of the money.
    
    A bit like Maori (and to be fair, other) NGOs in NZ.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:03am
    - jkt
      
      Earth Day ……. Tokyo protocol ….. Paris Accord ….. change the climate …… save the planet …… save humanity ……
      
      Coke could not have come up with a better marketing strategy ….
      
      At least Coke gave is a product that many enjoyed and did not drive every user and non user nuts.
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:45am
  - Damocles11
    
    That money could have done a lot of good funding mental health services or more cancer drugs. What a terrible waste.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:20am
- kowtow
  
  Talking of China does anyone else get the feeling that the latest bigly feature from $1uffed is a deliberately timed beat up designed to try to embarass the govt during the China PM visit .
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:53am
  - greybeard
    
    I thought it was astonishingly honest and reflected what many of us on the “right” think about China.
    We should be very wary of them.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:13am
    - kowtow
      
      Couldn’t agree more about wary .
      
      Some lonely voices have been warning of this for a long time .
      
      I’m having a go at $1uffed , for using this , not to hold China to account , but to embarras the govt .
      
      ie why now ?
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:25am
  - sirknz
    
    I think it is hilarious that $1 media thinks that this is an amazing revelation.
    
    Anybody paying even the slightest bit of attention should know that China has people in just about every government, every local govt, every organisation of influence, and every company in key industries.
    
    We even had a spymaster get in as a list MP for National not too long ago. Did anyone else find it strange that the Chinese MP in the Labour Party resigned at the same time after the National MP was found out?
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:24am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Raymond Hao Labour was a life member of the CCP, the Nat guy taught English at a uni, Hao was the spy, People keep saying Nats and CCP spy, but it was Hao who was a member of the ccp
      
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      June 14, 2024 10:24am
      - Mike
        
        Labour and National made a deal for both to resign, hoping the scrutiny would die down and they could keep soaking up CCP cash on the quiet.
        
        4 3
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        June 14, 2024 11:59am
      - kowtow
        
        Yep the both dropped them like hot potatoes or should I say dumplings .
        
        And I read somewhere that both parties’ replacements were also, cough cough, similarly aligned, but as the deed was seen to have been done the controversy was killed and te media paahti was able to move on , to important things like ………squirrels and crickets.
        
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        June 14, 2024 12:59pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Chinese are everywhere! Right next door to us. Sometimes they leave 3 month old little Leo with us if they have something important to do – say Lawyers. Not the place for crying baby.
      
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      June 14, 2024 10:47am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  I wonder how much global warming any of them has prevented.
  I suspect that my prediction of absolutely nothing will be as close as any other prediction.
  
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  June 14, 2024 2:21pm
Chuck Bird

Keynote speaker and Act

“I think this country is deeply in the sh*t.” | Paul Henry at Change Makers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KloEyO5TYjw
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June 14, 2024 8:36am
- pdm
  
  Chuck I have never been a fan of Paul Henry but he nailed it with that speech.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:40am
- Kiwiguy
  
  I was about to post this speech too.
  He hits the nail on the head perfectly.
  Doesn’t mince his words, says it like it is.
  An excellent speech.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:52am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Happy Birthday Donald J Trump – 78.
Tomorrow 14th really in the US.
MAGA. TRUMP 2024.
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June 14, 2024 8:39am
- slightlyrighty
  
  78 is too old to be President.
  
  How do I know this? Because that’s what Trump was telling us 4 years ago about Biden.
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:14am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Depends if you have all of the marbles or if there is a hole in the bag.
    Joe’s bag is MT.
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:49am
  - NothingLeft
    
    Yep. But we live in this world not the one we wish for. Hope for a good VP pick.
    
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    June 14, 2024 11:27am
I remember when

Quarrel over solar farm in Waipara wine country:
Northern Outlook.
Far North Solar Farm Ltd wants to build a 140-megawatt solar farm with 250,000 panels that would cover about 180 ha of sheep paddock just outside Waipara, North Canterbury, along 4 km of State Highway 7.
Elizabeth Kelsey of Save Waiupara Valley – a band of locals opposing the farm – said the “industrial” project would be a “body blow” to tourism in Waipara and the local economy.
The company has two solar farms under construction in the North Island, consent granted for 5 others, and applications under way for several others.
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June 14, 2024 8:40am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Farmers are still able to farm sheep on those sola farms, a couple of farms down this way suggest they won’t need to cut any stock numbers, yes I understand the grass won’t grow, in parts, but apparently it doesn’t cut stock too badly, and farmers can use the land
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:29am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Grass grows on the service walkways, so a paddock grass production will be down by about half imo. Saves mowing it, and the time mowing.
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:53am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Well the farms down here they said 90% of stock would stay, you will be right about 50% grass broth, but some of these large farms will only be using a couple of paddocks leaving some farms with 50 paddocks hardly effected
      
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      June 14, 2024 3:29pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Some of those stations are huge. City folk up here think a sheep farm is like 10 x 10 acre blocks! Serious, they have no idea.
        
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        June 14, 2024 5:22pm
emmess

Crossover has occurred in the UK polls
Reform is in second place now
https://youtu.be/kt33E_iOr40?si=cjuZ0nnShdhQurwR
“But”, I hear you say “they’ll only pick up a handful of seats, on those numbers”.

That’s true
But play with this site

https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html

A few percentage change from here puts Reform in second place in terms of seats.
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June 14, 2024 8:43am
- kowtow
  
  With FPP Labour will ,electorially ,wipe out the Tories .
  
  Britain will get one term of the wokest , looneyist regime they’ve ever seen .
  
  Reform might do well in the general election after that .
  
  One can only hope.
  
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  June 14, 2024 9:22am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Correct,
    Unfortunately Britain is going to see an increase in civil unrest. Still can’t believe that Starmer will be PM. Strange times indeed.
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:04am
  - Inandout
    
    kow, MPs fall off their perch like any humans and there will be by-elections to keep democracy afloat.
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:26am
- MCōs
  
  I saw yet another poll that had the Social Democrats only marginally behind Labour after they talked about reversing Brexit
  
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  June 14, 2024 11:36am
  - mogg
    
    ‘Yet another’ Which polls are they?
    Currently SD are 5 points below Reform in yesterdays Yougov polling.
    
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    June 14, 2024 2:06pm
- mogg
  
  It is still possible that reform as the second most popular party could get no seats in the Commons.
  
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  June 14, 2024 2:08pm
  - emmess
    
    Play around with this
    https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/userpoll.html
    
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    June 14, 2024 3:38pm
Kiwiguy

I was about to post this speech too.
He hits the nail on the head perfectly.
Doesn’t mince his words, says it like it is.
An excellent speech.
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June 14, 2024 8:53am
- kowtow
  
  I thought it was really silly .
  
  Even the audience was confused , laughing at the wrong times at his silly delivery on such deeply important and worrying trends.
  
  Paul Henry , another legend in his own lunch time.
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:48am
Chuck Bird

This is premium. It is worth $4 a week and you can comment.

Why mining is NZ’s last chance to avoid Third World status – Matthew Hooton

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/why-mining-is-nzs-last-chance-to-avoid-third-world-status-matthew-hooton/XUXB2IJUDJAELHABDUH5XWUXC4/?lid=twidonj6exzs
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June 14, 2024 8:57am
- kevn
  
  Chuck… Yes, there are a few crumbs of horrid content. I pay $1 per week.
  
  7 2
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  June 14, 2024 9:10am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    How do you get premium for $1 a week?
    
    6 2
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    June 14, 2024 9:25am
    - MCōs
      
      I think that could be a promotion to get people signed up
      
      9 1
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      June 14, 2024 9:36am
    - kevn
      
      Chuck… Every renewal ($1 pw) period, I phone and speak to ‘a real person’ (not on-line bot) and say ‘cancel’. Mostly they roll over. The odd promo comes along as well. This is year 3 of about 95% $1 pw deals. The other 5% is just not premium access. NP, the horrid is not a critical part of my news comms.
      All a bit time consuming, but there is enough premium stuff to justify $1 pw.
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:48am
  - Damocles11
    
    Every dollar they receive helps them maintain their leftist editorial stance and pays the wages of leftist propagandists like Emmerson and Simon Wilson. Plus they shop those ‘premium’ subscriber numbers around to attract advertisers to capture more revenue. Hooton is a gun-for-hire who bags out National any chance he gets. There was a great comment on Faceback the other day: “I could win lotto and I still wouldn’t subscribe to ‘premium’”. Good call. You might as well fund TPM or the Green Party….the Herald is probably worse as they are more influential. Disgusting to see people paying this outfit when they are fully aware if the damage the MSM do, whoch has recently included publicising the meeting points of racial separatist ‘protestors’ in order to ensure the biggest possible amount of disruption.
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:27am
    - kevn
      
      Damo… I would certainly say that about Stuff.
      
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      June 14, 2024 9:49am
      - Damocles11
        
        I’m saying it about the Herald. Simon Wilson and Emmerson don’t work for Stuff, Hooton could only be considered ‘Premium’ in the sense of sprinkling some glitter on a segment of human waste makes it ostensibly a worthy product. Braunias’ c-rap is apparently deemed to be ‘Premium’ as well, as is other hogwash opinion, cartoons, & various ‘how to’ articles – the substance of which can be found for free on any number of internet sites. Paying the MSM and allowing them to add you to their ‘subscriber’ numbers is simply your financial endorsement of their left wing bias, meaning they will continue on their merry way. Thankfully there are many principled people who have ceased to fund and support the MSM.
        
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        June 14, 2024 10:05am
I remember when

GM trims 2024 EV forecast amid slower-than-expected demand: CNBC
GM Chief Financial Officer Paul Jacobson said the company now expects production of 200,000-250,000 EVs this year.
Down from previously announced range of 200,000 – 300,000.
Jacobson said GM expects EVs to make up 8% of US sales industrywide.
Many other auto analyst forecasts expect EVs to represent around 10% of industry sales in 2024.
GM expects its EVs to be profitable on a production, or contribution-margin basis, once it reaches production of 200,000 units.
During the first quarter the automaker’s sales of all of GM’s all-electric vehicles remained miniscule at 16,475 units, or 2.8% of their overall sales during the period.

Hardly electrifying!
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June 14, 2024 9:09am
- kevn
  
  Damo… The 4 persons you mention don’t get looked at by moi. But I do look at Richard Prebble, Steven Joyce and misc news items.
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:23am
  - Damocles11
    
    It matters not who you look at or how you justify it, the editorial direction of the paper is clearly rabid leftist and you are funding that. You are paying the salaries of Wilson, Emmerson, Parton and all the rest so they can continue to churn out harmful propaganda. The Herald was once a decent publication but that is certainly not the case these days. I consider we are in an existential struggle with the Left, and our nations decline due to the depredations of the Left is seriously distressing to me, therefore it is against my moral principles to directly fund propaganda instruments of the Left.
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:47am
    - kevn
      
      Damo… No justification needed but thanks for an opinion. Considering your moral principles, I trust you don’t ‘do’ fakebook or any of those other social media harvesting sites.
      There is even the odd posting here on KB that you might deem an issue? $1 pw horrid sub?
      
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      June 14, 2024 1:45pm
      - Damocles11
        
        I’m not paying any money to the MSM, and you literally are. You are a ‘subscriber’ and therefore useful for attracting advertisers to the MSM.
        
        2 1
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        June 14, 2024 3:03pm
- Grunter
  
  The Ev scam bubble is popping!
  
  We’ll soon start reading about the come back of the horse & buggy.
  
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  June 14, 2024 11:09am
  - Don Beckett
    
    The Greens would love that – all that horse shit for manure to grow the veges.
    
    2 2
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    June 14, 2024 1:32pm
    - Geri Sjovik
      
      Right up to the point they realise just how much shit all those horses will produce on a daily basis.
      
      Google how much shit, filth, and disease was coming out of New York when it was all horse transport.
      
      The automobile was a leap forward in the standards of civilisation.
      
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      June 14, 2024 2:16pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Chloe agrees! No she fucking doesn’t!//
        
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        June 14, 2024 5:42pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Fossil fuels are THE reason why human prosperity and well-being has leaped ahead like never before. Net zero loons are going to learn that the hard way.
        
        1 0
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        June 14, 2024 7:18pm
Yvette

NYT – BREAKING NEWS
The [US] Supreme Court unanimously upheld access to a widely available abortion pill, rejecting a challenge from anti-abortion groups.

So what can be the uptake of the whole Supreme Court exercise –
JUST THAT “ABORTION” IS NOT IN THE US CONSTITUTION, their Founding Document

Can we get them to look at what is in, and not in, the Treaty?

Can anybody?
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June 14, 2024 9:39am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Treaty is 3 short Articles. How the Waitangi Tribunal can make up so much shit from that is just ridiculous.
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:03am
  - imalwaysright
    
    That’s right, the treaty was written by people with a command of the language which is rare today.
    It is a concisely written document that was intended to be read and interpreted literally.
    There is no subtext nor intention to create one.
    Anyone who tries to promote intentions different from the ones written are being fraudulent .
    
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    June 14, 2024 11:53am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      We are at the stage of being commanded to understand a different language from English. A language that 17% of the population can not speak – just say 3% are totally fluent.
      
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      June 14, 2024 6:21pm
- MCōs
  
  The GOP blocked a vote in the Senate to protect to right to IVF
  Why would they do that?
  Do they want to leave the way open for a future localized ban?
  I have a granddaughter who was an IVF baby because there was no alternative and there’s about 20k in Australasian annually
  Some people are religiously opposed, but their private business
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:16am
  - Ghost
    
    And democrats voted down the republicans bill protecting ivf last week. Just tit for tat….
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:21am
    - MCōs
      
      Those bills over there always seem to have a bit of pork chucked in.
      Vote for this and you’ll get a new bridge or whatever
      
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      June 14, 2024 11:40am
kevn

Yvette… A one in 25 chance of hospital ED admission with this mail order abortion pill. Awful odds.
Never any talk of (generally free) contraception.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/supreme-court-rules-abortion-medication-case-finds-group-lacked-standing-challenge-fda-approval
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June 14, 2024 9:52am
- Yvette
  
  Kevn, after pondering your comment, I still think the point is that the US Supreme Court has said the question of abortion is not in the Founding Document as some groups claim, but the related questions are in other thinking and solutions, likely in state legislation or what people elect beyond the Constitution.
  Whether the Constitution, or in our case the Treaty, needs revision or updating another question.
  And here there are groups who will not accept the Treaty is the Founding Document – it, itself, does not even say it is – so we are not even at square one.
  
  I am waiting for any “national conversation”, as was promised but never happened, possibly because Jackson and Ardern screwed up in that too.
  
  When is Seymour going to deliver his Law?
  When will Batchelor stop believing it is a Billy Graham crusade, with little study groups hiding in coffee bars each Friday afternoon to pour over the Gospel according to Julian?
  While Morgan and the King plot a coup as soon as they unify the Les Miserables Maori masses?
  And Luxon balances on the barricades.
  
  Joke of the month: May the Farce be with you?
  
  Maybe I am just getting shitty because some older people are that way – they would like to see some things sorted out before they step off the planet
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:27am
  - kevn
    
    Yvette… Older people just care more.
    
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    June 14, 2024 10:54am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    ” or in our case the Treaty, needs revision or updating.”
    Updating yes. Replacing with the Littlewood Draft would be better. The rogue James Freeman version it what the Tribunal uses. If the Treaty was changed to the Littlewood Draft, the Gravy Train would come to a grinding halt.
    
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    June 14, 2024 11:11am
- virtualmark
  
  No, not true.
  
  https://www.arhp.org/mifepristone-safety-overview/
  
  Safer than Paracetamol or Viagra.
  
  Fox. News. Lies. And you guys lap it up like unquestioning little robots, while telling yourself what independent thinkers you are.
  
  I’m not all that enthused about abortion, but at least let’s have a truthful discussion.
  
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  June 14, 2024 11:31am
  - kevn
    
    virt… FDA must be lying then…ok.
    
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    June 14, 2024 2:16pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Question 4 on https://www.fda.gov/drugs/postmarket-drug-safety-information-patients-and-providers/questions-and-answers-mifepristone-medical-termination-pregnancy-through-ten-weeks-gestation
      
      And https://www.fda.gov/media/164331/download?attachment
      
      Interesting to see that they show 32 deaths over 22 years for recent users of Mifepristone, but then when you read the footnote you see that includes 2 murders, 2 suicides, a drug overdose etc etc. So this is a “died in the vicinity of” rather than “died from”.
      
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      June 14, 2024 3:38pm
      - kevn
        
        virt… Well, I stand corrected it would seem.
        Taking a pill to cause abortion of an unborn child of any age, can’t be a process that is fraught with potential medical problems.
        Unprepared mothers, unborn baby stuck, placenta not coming, bleeding etc etc.
        Take a pill and have a coffee, sorted?
        Not a word about (generally free) contraception.
        
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        June 14, 2024 6:18pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    VM,
    Abortion has always been a touchy subject. Abortion is something that is needed and we know the reasons – rape, incest, mother’s health danger of birth etc.
    In the US it is touchy because abortion has now become a contraceptive. Get pregnant? Get rid of it. Then the religious come in – a living thing.
    That is where I draw the line. It is not a contraceptive for those who just don’t give a fuck – and they want the State to fund it!!!!
    
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    June 14, 2024 5:53pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Serious complications with mifepristone (RU486) are rare with about 0.04%–0.09% requiring hospitalization and 0.05% requiring blood transfusion.
  
  Probably not much different to what happens in the 10-20% of pregnancies that end in miscarriage.
  
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  June 14, 2024 1:17pm
  - MCōs
    
    My daughter in law had two miscarriages well on in the pregnancies and they were very awful both physically and emotionally
    I looked up the figures and found the most pregnancies self abort within a month before anyone is aware of what’s happening
    So who knows? Being a bloke kind of makes me reticent about saying too much
    
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    June 14, 2024 5:52pm
jkt

Minto. (Marx, Lenin, Stalin …….. I apologise to anyone offended for omitting their names)

Once a revolutionary always a revolutionary.

Thirty years of ANC rule in South Africa …… and they still call for The Revolution! The same enemy! Really!

The ANC had majority rule for 30years …. Thank goodness we only experienced three years of the same by Labour. …. Mind you, outcomes were very similar.

Look what is going on in Russia!
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June 14, 2024 9:53am
- MCōs
  
  Prior to MMP we always had majority rule. Some weren’t too flash
  
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  June 14, 2024 5:56pm
Chuck Bird

I went to Field Days yesterday and visited the Rural Advocacy Hub where Barbara Kuriger, David Seymour and others spoke.

https://www.facebook.com/GroundswellNZ

There will be more speakers today and Saturday. If you cannot make it Groundswell be on The Country with Jamie Mckay today at midday.
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June 14, 2024 10:09am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Today Chris Hipkins will speak for 1 1/2 hours. 90 minutes of Ardern style waffle? Please, boo him offstage.
  
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  June 14, 2024 11:16am
  - Damocles11
    
    Four Left wingers want the odious Hipkins to be treated with kid gloves.
    
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    June 14, 2024 12:07pm
  - Ian
    
    Maybe we can have a report of how many turn up – like 12 at his meeting just recently
    
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    June 14, 2024 3:16pm
Chuck Bird

I asked David Seymour about Rod Carr’s replacement. He told me and the audience that a group of people were going to be selected to pick Carr’s replacement and presumably some other commissioners.

This seems to be a wasteful and time-consuming way to pick his replacement. It could be a sneaky way for Luxon to get another alarmist to replace Carr.
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June 14, 2024 10:26am
- Damocles11
  
  A ‘working group’ in other words? I hope this isn’t an exercise in putting some separation between Luxon and James Shaw. If Shaw is selected by a ‘working group’ and ultimately parachuted into this role by the PM then I will be disgusted.
  
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  June 14, 2024 10:39am
- Grunter
  
  If the ‘science is settled’ why do we even need a commission? If the plan to net zero carbon is that compelling why do we need regs to take us there?
  
  Oh – that’s right, we need a commission to indoctrinate and force the scam down our throats!
  
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  June 14, 2024 11:14am
I remember when

NY Times.
“Scientists have struggled for decades to explain reproductive-health racial disparities in the US.
Hair relaxers, which are widely used by Black women, may offer an answer.
They contain many substances that are prohibited in other countries and have been ‘linked to reproductive disorders and cancer.”

The perils of beauty treatments.
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June 14, 2024 10:53am
- lifesgood
  
  Oh er….Meghan Markle uses them all the time. Look at photos of her when she was young. She had big Afro hair.
  
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  June 14, 2024 11:48am
  - kevn
    
    life… She looks hair straightened. Fake in all ways.
    
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    June 14, 2024 12:29pm
imalwaysright

This is interesting.
Could Joe be a body double?

https://youtu.be/LQ8G296E4iM?si=3svoNCZw8MnegCx1

He may have reached his expiration date.
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June 14, 2024 11:43am
- Mike
  
  Whoops Apocalypse.
  
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  June 14, 2024 11:50am
  - imalwaysright
    
    July 4 would be a great day, publicity wise, to have a state funeral.
    
    If only they had a cadaver….hmmm
    
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    June 14, 2024 1:48pm
Taieri

A gem from Chris Trotter:

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/06/chris-trotter-illusion-of-power-how.html

But, is any government going to do anything to change it? I very much doubt it…
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June 14, 2024 11:55am
- Jack5
  
  Trotter is spot on.
  
  The old days of “town clerks” and career engineers for water, power, roading, kept councils focused on their core purposes.
  
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  June 14, 2024 1:33pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    If the current coalition wants to “unf*ck” NZ, it will have to put local councils on a short leash of core duties only.
    
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    June 14, 2024 7:20pm
Jack5

Will the possibility of a China-financed container port for Marsden Point be raised in talks with Chinese Premier Li Qiang while he’s in NZ?

With the Coalition hot for new ways of financing infrastructure, it might be an easy target for a Beijing sales pitch. A rail link is being built to Marsden Point, and NZ First seems keen for development of the port, especially since the closing of the refinery.

There is mumbling in Auckland about moving the city’s port to give Aucklanders back beaches, and there have been suggestions that NZ could fit into a “southern trade link” between China and South America. The idea seemed to include air routes as well as sea links.

China has raising eyebrows in America with its latest international “mega port” development, Chancay, 80km north of Lima, Peru. It will be the first on the South American Pacific coast to handle “mega ships”.

The major partner in Chanacy development is the Chinese shipping group, Cosco.

An attraction of Chancay is its deep water, which NZ’s Marsden Point has on a lesser scale.

China financed nearly $NZ50 billion of overseas port development in 2000-2001, and Chinese companies control or operate terminals at more than 100 foreign ports, reports the Wall Street Journal. China’s domestic law requires its companies to consider national defence needs in their operations, the newspaper says.

Examples of China foreign port developments include Hambantota in Sri Lanka. When the Sri Lanka couldn’t meet payment on the development loan Sri Lanka handed over the port and 15,000 acres around it to the Chinese for 99 years.

The New York Times says it is in a strategic position, a few hundred kilometres from India.

Closter to home, China has invested in Vanuatu with a wharf that the Australians point out is the biggest in the South Pacific and big enough to dock an aircraft-carrier. This is in a harbour that was US Navy base in World War 2.
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June 14, 2024 12:26pm
- kevn
  
  Jach5…. Chuck in the sabotaged Marsden Point refinery at the same time. The Chinese would fire it up again.
  
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  June 14, 2024 2:18pm
  - MCōs
    
    Why would anyone want to restart the refinery?
    
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    June 14, 2024 6:16pm
Ghost

If only there was a world leader to stand up and start cooling this down.

The U.S. Navy has sent a nuclear-powered submarine to Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, after a fleet of Russian warships and a submarine reached the island Wednesday ahead of planned military exercises.

Article

Serbia president, last days of stopping this
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June 14, 2024 12:45pm
- Gravelroad
  
  JFK.
  He might have been a “womaniser” but he sorted the Cuban missive crisis.
  
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  June 14, 2024 1:04pm
- virtualmark
  
  The US stresses Freedom of Navigation, so I’m not sure what grounds they would have to interfere with the Russian ships travelling in international waters.
  
  If I were to be cynical I’d suggest the Russians are sending ships to Cuba because it keeps those ships safe from the Ukrainians. So far the Russians have lost over 20 ships to a country that doesn’t really have a navy. Vladimir Putin is a master strategist!
  
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  June 14, 2024 2:16pm
- rangitoto
  
  It’s routine. Nothing needs cooling down.
  
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  June 14, 2024 3:54pm
Jack5

Latest Woke insanity …

Woke academics are pushing a “toolkit” for British universities that would sideline philosphers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, to decolonise classrooms of “dead white men”.

A toolkit for schools and universities produced by SOAS University of London, formerly the School of Oriental and African Studies, recommends that, instead, “new age” thinkers be taught, including, says the Daily Mail, an Indian-American feminist, a Nigerian “gender theorist,” and a Japanese zen expert.

Dr Paul Giladi, one of the co-creators, is reported as saying: “Thinking back to my own years at university, I saw that my philosophical training had been blind to, even uninterested in, the wealth of wisdom from Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and indigenous communities.”

Watch out for courses at Massey and Otago!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13527805/Plan-woke-academics-decolonise-philosophy-sidelining-Aristotle-Socrates-favour-new-age-thinkers-erasing-extraordinary-achievements-Western-civilisation-say-campaigners.html
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June 14, 2024 1:19pm
- Swifty
  
  I am not remotely interested in the views of anyone who uses the phrase ‘dead white men’ to refer to such luminaries.
  
  You can just tell it will be all downhill from there….
  
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  June 14, 2024 2:19pm
- virtualmark
  
  To be fair this is the “School of Oriental and African Studies” so given that I figure it is reasonable for them to teach about Nigerians and Japanese etc rather than ancient Greeks.
  
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  June 14, 2024 3:41pm
Ghost

Sigh

Ali’s father, Mukzameel Ali, 22, earlier told Stuff that when Mustafa was 3-months-old the pair fell down the stairs together after he tripped. Mustafa suffered fractures to his collarbone and ribs as well as bleeding on the head and neck.

Article

On Wednesday, Ali admitted to Stuff he was responsible for some of the injuries that his son suffered on the day of his death, but said he believed the baby had suffered other injuries before that day from “someone else”.
“There must be someone else… like behind my back or something.”
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June 14, 2024 1:41pm
- Swifty
  
  I see the family now blaming ‘the system’ too…..
  
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  June 14, 2024 2:16pm
  - greybeard
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350307932/man-charged-murder-baby-mustafa
    Bloody good.
    
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    June 14, 2024 3:22pm
- Damocles11
  
  Latest news –
  
  ‘A man has been charged with murdering baby Mustafa.
  Mustafa Maheir Mukzameel Ali was taken to Te Kūiti Hospital on Saturday afternoon, but was unable to be revived. Police then launched a homicide investigation and allege the baby’s injuries were “non-accidental” and the result of “violent, blunt-force trauma”.
  On Friday, police investigating the 10-month-old’s death announced they had charged a 22-year-old man with murder.’
  
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  June 14, 2024 3:22pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    Two days ago his photo was in the paper holding the baby.
    
    Now same photo in the press with his face pixelated out!!!
    
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    June 14, 2024 6:48pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Now reported that an unnamed 22 year old has been arrested ….
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:39pm
Jack5

For horse lovers …

The last breed of horse before the species was domesticated, has returned to the Central Asia plains, from a Czech zoo.

The first time these horses have been on their native home for at least 200 years.

The seven seven Przewalski’s horses were flown in from Prague Zoo to Kzahkastan.

You can see a picture of the stocky, undomesticated horses at the link below.

(Przewalski is pronounced “shev-al-ski,” a mouthful for us English speakers).

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cljj0y15nnko
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June 14, 2024 3:56pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  What beautiful animals.
  
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  June 14, 2024 4:40pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Gosh. They look like Zebras without the stripes.
    
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    June 14, 2024 7:22pm
rjay

Things are looking hairy for the Conservatives in Britain
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-polls-overtake-tory-first-time-reform-b2562311.html
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June 14, 2024 4:13pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Let’s hope Farage kicks arse. Heaven help the UK if the loony left take charge.
  
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  June 14, 2024 7:23pm
Albie

Our name is changing – introducing Awanui Labs

14 September 23
We are communicating to provide notice of the upcoming name change of our organisation from Labtests to Awanui Labs.

Moving to become Awanui Labs is a significant milestone for our organisation and represents the nationwide network we are part of. Our new name brings all eight laboratory brands from in our network, from Northland to Southland, together under a unified Aotearoa New Zealand name for the first time. All our human laboratory brands throughout the motu (country) will change to Awanui Labs over the next few months.

As background, Awanui translates to ‘big river’ and was chosen to represent the coming together of our services nationwide and speaks to the proud history and strong connection to the communities we support.

We’re also proud of how we came to choose Awanui as our name. Alongside the 2,000+ strong team across our network who contributed to this mahi (work), we were privileged to have partnered with Te Reo Māori and Mātauranga Māori experts in health who offered their perspectives to guide and shape the final decision of our name and design.

Throughout the end of September and early October, you will see Awanui Labs and our new branding replacing Labtests on the signage at our collection centres and our Mt Wellington Laboratory, along with vehicles and staff clothing.

This will also show in our correspondence with you, for example, emails, laboratory results, request forms, and all other documentation. Our current website will automatically redirect you to the right place. Everything will be in the same place, just with a new logo and colour.

We look forward to continuing to provide the same great service, by the same people, at the same places, under our new name, Awanui Labs.

Ka tū mātou i muri ki te hauora o Aotearoa
We stand behind the health of Aotearoa New Zealand

Ngā mihi nui,
Chris Davey
General Manager, Awanui Labs – Northern Region

Barf! Just been to the Australian company formerly known as Lab Test NZ.
They have gone full woke Maori wonderfullness.
I asked the nice lady taking my blood how their long standing wage dispute was getting on. Not surprisingly she said there has been no settlement and was not particularly pleased.
Like St John, plenty of money to rebrand, but still putting their hands out for donations.
With Lab Test, Mr Davy apparently is hitting up the government (us) for funding according to his employee.
If I was Ms Willis I would be grilling Mr Davy on why he needs tax payer assistance when they obviously have a few mill sloshing around to throw at a virtue signalling rebrand, meanwhile holding out on a pay increase for their most valuable asset, their staff.
Awanui Labs need to be added to the corporate woke list of shame.
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June 14, 2024 5:30pm
- Ghost
  
  Strange. I was in for a blood test a few weeks ago, the nurse said that they had reached a settlement, but will be renegotiating again in December. I don’t really think they are very woke if at all, they just rebranded after buying all the labs. They have no woke policies that I have noticed apart from the name change.
  
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  June 14, 2024 5:43pm
Albie

Ghost, a name change as you put it involves sign writing cars, outside building signs , repainting interiors, new uniforms, ID badges, stationery- this list goes on. And for what? A feel good exercise with no improvement on the service they provide.
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June 14, 2024 5:55pm
- Ghost
  
  That was going to happen no matter their name as medlab bought all the other labs.
  
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  June 14, 2024 6:03pm
Damocles11

The TVNZ chief political reporter Maiki Sherman continues to be absolutely obsessed with Maori issues, for some reason. Another hit piece on the government tonight on OneEwes. Apparently its the governments fault that Maori separatists are suing them & the Waitangi Tribunal are holding its endless meaningless inquiries; the bill to taxpayers for recent legal action is in excess of $900,000. Tuku Morgan made an appearance to laugh and gloat, as did Willie Jackson – boasting that the Maori legal action would end up costing taxpayers millions of dollars. Sherman then made the unproven claim that the government is using up political capital on its ‘Maori policies’.
Why on earth was an activist given this position?!
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June 14, 2024 6:20pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Taxpayer picks up the tab for both prosecution and defence.
  
  Perhaps the plaintiffs should have to pick up their own legal bill if the judgement goes against them.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:43pm
  - MCōs
    
    Who’s been picking up the cost of Scott Watson’s unsuccessful appeals down through the years?
    
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    June 14, 2024 9:29pm
Scooter

More digging into Manurewa Marae by Thomas Cranmer, link below. Why is there no accountability, they should be fully investigated.

Manurewa Marae Trust Board have outstanding annual returns, due 31 December 2022 and 31 December 2023. Apparently it’s due to auditor availability they told Charity Services, yeah right cough cough!

This is on the Charity Services website:
“The Charities Act 2005 requires all charities registered with Charities Services to file an annual return within 6 months of their balance date (financial year end).”

Will they pay a penalty for late returns, like the average person does for filing a late tax return. No of course not and we all know why.

https://x.com/CranmerWrites/status/1801444209406394844?t=LciNLRhjWzhHpE43c-6eAA&s=19
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June 14, 2024 6:26pm
Ghost

Police have arrested a 22-year-old man over the alleged murder of Te Kūiti baby Mustafa Ali.

The man is expected to appear in Hamilton District Court tomorrow, Saturday June 15.

Article
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June 14, 2024 6:36pm
- Inandout
  
  Ghost, police are supporting the ‘wider family’, not whanau.
  
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  June 14, 2024 8:21pm
  - Ghost
    
    Part of the family are Muslim
    
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    June 14, 2024 8:31pm

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