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August 15, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 15 August 2024

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artemisia

And another one, and seems blowing the budget has been going on for years …. Cutting / clothes / cloth clearly not the agenda. Scathing review finds Disabilities Ministry already on course to break budget again

Currently, Whaikaha commissions disability support services from third-party providers. This role will be split from Whaikaha and given to the Ministry of Social Development (MSD), leaving it focused on an advocacy role …. Wevers found the ministry “lacks many of the public sector disciplines and operational practices seen in other Government agencies”…. Financial controls are poor.

This suggests, once again, outcomes from third party service providers are not being delivered as contracted.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/revealed-no-controls-scathing-review-finds-disabilities-ministry-already-on-course-to-break-budget-again/52WG2V4DZ5GIFOVUUKX53BNFS4/
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August 15, 2024 8:04am
- I remember when
  
  artemisia:
  Is this really a surprise?
  Is there any Ministry more likely to be exposed to decisions made emotionally rather than logically?
  
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  August 15, 2024 8:43am
  - artemisia
    
    If it is a surprise to CEO Paula Tesoriero that would be a serious worry. And if not a surprise, that’s worse.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:01am
    - Burtland
      
      a surprise – not really …
      
      she ran up $29,000 in travel expenses last year 😳
      
      https://www.whaikaha.govt.nz/about-us/corporate-publications/chief-executive-gifts-benefits-and-expense-disclosures
      
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      August 15, 2024 10:32am
- Damocles11
  
  I believe many of the 3rd party agencies seem to have put themselves on some sort of self righteous pedestal and think they have the absolute moral and literal right to do whatever they please with taxpayer money. 6 years of Labour in power has allowed this attitude to take root. The same disease has infected KO service providers, the budgeting advice services, and the Whanau Ora service providers – and no doubt there are plenty of other examples – as well. When the new government attempts to restore financial discipline and proper oversight to stop the chronic waste, the guilty parties go racing to the MSM whingeing something fierce, and the MSM is only too happy to take up the cudgels on their behalf.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:17am
  - Burtland
    
    there’s a cue of them on RNZ every morning – ” its not fair”
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:36am
    - gravedodger
      
      Some might even Queue for such an opportunity, Where’s Garrett?
      
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      August 15, 2024 3:53pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        In a queue for a cue at Kew?
        
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        August 15, 2024 4:08pm
- rouppe
  
  Fire everybody with “chief” in their title
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:48am
  - James Stephenson
    
    Ditto for “communications”.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:56am
- cmm
  
  Wow, Disabilities Ministry has a budgeting disability.
  
  Who would have thunked that?
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:23am
- imalwaysright
  
  “And another one, and seems blowing the budget has been going on for years ….”
  
  That illustrates the problem with the public service.
  
  Budget is a misnomer, they go “over budget” but everyone still gets paid!
  Private sector, if you go over budget then work stops and you go bust.
  Public servants aren’t managers, they are free flow conduits for public money.
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:30am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The problem is Lsbour don’t give a shit as usual, it’s other people’s money it’s all good
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:34am
- Paulus
  
  But today the RNZ media are bitching at this being promulgated, despite some serious problematic derivation of where the money has been going, and to whom.
  Coalition Government’s fault of course as far as the media are concerned.
  
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  August 15, 2024 1:37pm
Grunter

The currency market reacted with surprise to yesterdays OCR cut with the NZD down 1c vs USD. That is a reasonably significant response.

Orr’s gobble-d-gook word salad is difficult to interpret.

Also, he has nothing to say about growing likelihood of an escalation of war in the Middle East and the obvious impact on oil prices. He seems to have war risk inflation at a zero chance. It’s not 100% risk but it must be higher than say 3 months ago.
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August 15, 2024 8:08am
- cmm
  
  You forget he has special insights from the Maori spirit world.
  
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  August 15, 2024 8:31am
  - G152
    
    Required nowadays by anything/any-one with access to media.
    Used to be called doublespeak
    
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    August 15, 2024 8:36am
    - kowtow
      
      I wonder too though how much of it was/is sucking up to their paymasters the Ardern/Robertson/Mahuta Gang .
      
      To show they were toe ing the pardy line .
      
      But yes the bureaucrat natural instinct to virtue signal is very powerful these days , serving the public , not so much.
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:01pm
  - Rusty
    
    @cmm right on. This is totally irrelevant but anyway an Aussie friend insisted that the song “Now is the Hour” was written by an Australian not a Maori woman.
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:25am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      “Now is the Hour” was written by an Australian not a Maori woman.
      
      Indeed
      
      HOUR OF RECKONING: A talented former Aussie bushman wrote a melody that became a worldwide hit and one of the most famous songs ever associated with New Zealand.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Now_Is_the_Hour_(song)
      
      [Mod – fixed link]
      
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      August 15, 2024 10:11am
      - Rusty
        
        @Maggy, thanks good old Max Cryer.
        
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        August 15, 2024 2:16pm
  - Phronesis
    
    He acts like he gets a fair bit of insight from the Scottish spirit world too.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:30pm
- RoboRob
  
  The rate needed to come down yesterday. The 6-12mth delay before the impact of a rate cut means they need to start earlier then the mid next year they were foolishly originally planning on.
  
  It is no surprise whatsoever the NZD fell against the USD. The ONLY reason not to drop NZ rates was that the US FED had not done so yet. Dropping our rates before the FED was going to make our dollar more worthless. As the NZ interest rates drop the flow of investment money into NZ slows or reverses (out). The US interest rates are now relatively more attractive compared to those in NZ, so money flows to the US (purchasing USD) out of NZ (selling NZD).
  
  Adrian Orr is a terrible RBNZ head. He likes to play games with surprise announcements, which isn’t the role of the RBNZ. He printed money far too long. He kept rates extremely low when they needed not be that low. He refused to criticise the Labour governments excessive borrowing and spending that was helping fuel inflation. Labours GR then went and re appointed him just before the election.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:11am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    National has continued Labour’s excessive borrowing and spending and it is still driving inflation. That’s why the rate should not have come down.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:51am
    - RoboRob
      
      Inflation is reducing regardless.
      
      Yes National are still borrowing way way too much. Although way more then Labour would be at this point. Nationals cuts have NOT been sufficient. They need to be far more clinical and cut entire agencies. The 6% accross the board cut is / was an emergency first move. They need to research and make more major changes.
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:07am
      - RoboRob
        
        That should be ‘way LESS then Labour would be at this point’
        
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        August 15, 2024 12:06pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      They have given funding for alternative years that will not be needed next budget, Willis has stated no new funding over what has been budgeted for
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:36am
  - Paulus
    
    Orr only printed Money because Ardern/Robertson told him to do so, and if he did not his Contract would not be renewed, as it was before the Election.
    New Zealand is still billions in wash Zealand but not to the people who voted Labour.
    Most remains to be spend now or the next inheritance generations from the older families, currently in such as Banks Term Deposits from the RBNZ Figures in the Billions of Dollars.
    
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    August 15, 2024 1:43pm
- pdm
  
  I reckon Orr should give this job away and join Maggie Apa on Erica Stanfords apple picking squad.
  
  Then again he and she would probably damage the fruit just like he has damaged the economy and she has damaged Health NZ.
  
  Go forth and multiply both of you I say.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:18am
  - imalwaysright
    
    They would cut down the apple tree to make picking easier.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:33am
    - pdm
      
      Trees are not that tall these days. Especially the apples contracted to Rockit for export to Japan and I think China.
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:03am
      - imalwaysright
        
        It was a comment on their mindsets, but thanks for the info on the foreign markets.
        
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        August 15, 2024 11:15am
- Damocles11
  
  I think Orr and his crew buckled to pressure from the property industry, retails banks, and MSM. He shouldn’t have cut before the Fed did. We are now out on a limb. Most of the inflation this year has come from increasing domestic charges such as Council rates. Orr has now opened the door for the consumer to become a factor again, and for a weakening NZD to allow for new imported inflation. He has gone a bit too early, and now needs luck to avoid being seen as incompetent should inflation pick up. If Iran were to attack Israel and close the Straits of Hormuz then the oil price is going up. “Not my fault” says Orr, but the public will only look at the bald inflation figures and will ignore the nuance.
  The other aspect of this is saying we must cut as construction companies and other related businesses will fold if we don’t. A certain amount of this is in the ‘it needs to happen if we are to rebalance our economy’ basket. Low interest rates allow for malinvestment, higher interest rates don’t. Recessions perform a clean up role in economies. Keeping the high immigration / house building paradigm going as our main growth engine succeeded for a while, but is now failing because we simply don’t have – and cannot afford – the supporting infrastructure. Rapid population growth is a massive exercise in shooting ourselves in the foot.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:28am
  - pdm
    
    `……….. and now needs luck to avoid being seen as incompetent……………………………
    
    He has been known to be incompetent from day one Damo. A man promoted well above his capabilities.
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:05am
    - Damocles11
      
      I should have phrased that better as ‘seen as having failed in achieving his objective’. The Reserve Bank only has one goal since the dual mandate was scrapped.
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:11am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Low interest rates allow for malinvestment, higher interest rates don’t. Recessions perform a clean up role in economies. Keeping the high immigration / house building paradigm going as our main growth engine succeeded for a while, but is now failing….
    
    I agree with the arguments in principle, but what I’m seeing is small service businesses going under or who will do so in the next year. In my case I have a backup for each but I’m dealing with outfits that are laying off people or reducing work hours, telling me that I’ll have to plan ahead with them because of this, and in some cases they’ve revealed to me the pressure they’re under on debt and interest payments from normal business borrowing – they didn’t go stupid and borrow when the rates were low, mainly because they were barely recovered from the C-19 lockdowns. I don’t think they count as malinvestments.
    
    And as others have said here, you have to be looking ahead 6-12 months. This rate cut won’t have much effect either way for 6-12 months. We’re likely to get the recession and cleanout anyway, but a 0.5% cut might just keep the wolf from the door for better businesses. Personally I’d like to have seen a 1-1.5% cut. I don’t think it would have resulted in a consumer spendup that pushed inflation; any surplus money is now going for debt reduction, such is the fright that people have had.
    
    It is possible that it’ll cause the NZ dollar to drop against the $US since we’ve jumped ahead of them in cutting rates, but given that we’re at $US 0.60 anyway I don’t see a 1999-type fall coming. I’d be more worried about our long-term problems of productivity gradually and endlessly pulling it down.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:31pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Holy shit! Robert MacCulloch (PhD Economics) has heard enough from Orr:
    
    The latest updated GDP growth numbers put NZ at around 183th position out of 190 nations, one of the slowest growing on the planet…Our GDP is now expected to barely change in 2024 – only by about +0.2% and to drop by -0.4% next year. By comparison, Global Economic Growth is running at 3.2% this year, and is expected to rise to 3.3% next year.
    
    Yep. That’s the reason for this cut and also the reason that inflation is soon going to be the least of our problems, even as it has caused many of them – although ultimately sourced back to Ardern, Robberson and Orr.
    
    How did it happen? The Reserve Bank stuffed up monetary policy on an industrial scale. It went berserk printing money from 2020 to 2022; then went berserk reversing itself and hiking rates in a scorched earth blitzkrieg until yesterday, over-reacting every time. Yet if you read the Monetary Policy Statement it just released, its sleazy, mealy-mouthed, deceptive commentary, using weasel words at every opportunity, makes it look like it has been doing a fine job, and that nearly every other country is experiencing the same issues. That’s a flat-out lie.
    
    Ouch.
    
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    August 15, 2024 3:23pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      183rd! Wahooo!
      
      Wait, what?
      
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      August 15, 2024 6:36pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Apparently his title is Governor of Te Putea Matua .
  Has he bought himself a country?!
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:31am
  - pdm
    
    Grandstander full of his own self importance.
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:06am
- Philview
  
  It doesn’t seem long ago that the media were screaming that the income tax cuts would be like pouring petrol on a fire. Now we have an interest rate cut. Perhaps the media should apologise for the hyperbolic headlines.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:23am
  - AitchW
    
    I find it hard to believe that the mostly hard left media would take every opportunity to undermine the government. ///
    
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    August 15, 2024 6:01pm
gravedodger

True artemisia, no matter, the DEI requirements achieved I will warrant, no worries the money is not ours?
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August 15, 2024 8:16am
nygr

The Clark government allowed fathers not to be named on their child’s birth certificate. Gangs celebrated this law change because the taxpaxer paid for their child support. Big gang families have become the norm. It’s about time the government shifted the responsibility of the cost of parenting back to the parents. I often wonder that if lineage is so important to Maori how come the elders don’t encourage a paper trail for heritage?
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August 15, 2024 8:30am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  i how come the elders don’t encourage a paper trail for heritage?
  
  Then the iwi would have hundreds/thousands more claimants to their Iwi Trust coffers.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:18am
  - AitchW
    
    You mean a whakapapa? Aren’t they always verbal?
    
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    August 15, 2024 6:02pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Except the introduction of the DPB and its enormous growth made having kids a career choice for tens of thousands of women, mostly younger, leading to a couple of generations of dysfunction and a new underclass..
  
  Men became targets of predatory women as “unwitting sperm donors” and were often misnamed as the father. It is unjust to accept a woman’s mere assertion that a man is the father and have him hounded by the state under pain of financial penalty. It is also unjust to force a man to take a DNA test on the basis of such an assertion. That is why women were put on the stand in paternity hearings and challenged as to their sexual history, and quite rightly.
  
  That kind of distasteful circus was a rarity before the rise of industrial single motherhood. In short, don’t blame the man. Blame the system that created such a disgusting incentive to make bad choices and claim victim status.
  
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  August 15, 2024 12:06pm
  - Debsta
    
    I do blame the man for not taking more care with where he puts it without protecting his seed
    
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    August 15, 2024 2:49pm
Scooter

I know the Olympics are over but as I was watching the women’s sprints, I wondered why so many have hair extensions (I assume they’re fake) and huge fake eyelashes. Surely all that hair would cause a significant amount of drag?
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August 15, 2024 8:45am
- imalwaysright
  
  Scooter
  
  You are correct, drag was a significant factor at the Olympics….
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:37am
  - PurplePen
    
    And in the opening ceremony by all accounts.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:55pm
- Philview
  
  Talking of sprinting, Zoe Hobbs is an outstanding athlete who could probably win gold for NZ in a different sport. I wonder if there is that possibility in her future of making a switch.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:28am
- thirteenstars
  
  Are you familiar with women at all?
  
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  August 15, 2024 12:08pm
cmm

WHO seems to be having another emergency – they’re worried that people forget about them.

How can Mpox be a global health emergency? It only impacts promiscuous people.

No wonder it impacts West Africa most – that’s a part of the world where the people are youngest and unprotected sex is rife. The average girl is pregnant with her first child before her 18th birthday (yes, that’s the average. So a very large % will be pregnant long before that) and no doubt there is rampant boy on boy action too.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/350379099/who-declares-mpox-outbreaks-africa-global-health-emergency-new-form-virus
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August 15, 2024 8:45am
- Grunter
  
  Keep the masses fearful….easier to indoctrinate and control.
  
  Does anyone with a brain actually believe or trust WHO?
  
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  August 15, 2024 8:52am
  - Yvette
    
    Grunter – Does anyone with a brain actually believe or trust WHO?
    
    They All Got Mysterious Brain Diseases. They’re Fighting to Learn Why.
    Doctors in Canada have identified dozens of patients with similar, unexplained symptoms — a scientific puzzle that has now become a political maelstrom.
    https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/14/magazine/canada-brain-disease-dementia.html?
    (subscription wall)
    
    It is coming … as well as Mpox – New Brunswick Syndrome
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:13am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “They All Got Mysterious Brain Diseases. They’re Fighting to Learn Why. Doctors in Canada have identified dozens of patients with similar, unexplained symptoms — a scientific puzzle that has now become a political maelstrom.”
      
      Trudeau supporters have this brain disease? Isn’t that brain disease called wokeism?
      
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      August 15, 2024 6:03pm
- I remember when
  
  A global-health-emergency confined to Africa?
  
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  August 15, 2024 8:53am
  - cmm
    
    The panic needs to spread world wide.
    
    Unless you are a promiscuous person having unprotected sex with random Africans you’re probably OK.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:00am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “Unless you are a promiscuous person having unprotected sex with random Africans you’re probably OK”
      
      Now you tell me!
      
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      August 15, 2024 10:39am
    - Burtland
      
      make your own conclusions
      
      https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350376606/muchirahondo-police-i-feel-targeted
      
      [paywalled]
      
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      August 15, 2024 10:55am
- kevn
  
  cmm… Meanwhile in NZ we have our own STD issue(s).
  https://dailytelegraph.co.nz/news/syphilis-cases-surge-by-45-concerns-of-a-larger-undetected-outbreak/
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:01am
  - cmm
    
    Again, wrap the chap and you’re going to be OK.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:26am
- Conservatarian
  
  This chap could shed some light on the issue – an Italian man returns from holiday in Spain with the “holy trinity” of Covid, monkeypox and HIV.
  
  https://gizmodo.com/man-tests-positive-covid-monkeypox-hiv-italy-1849458074
  
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  August 15, 2024 12:53pm
- p5
  
  Global health emergencies are declared fairly liberally, had one for Zika, an ongoing one for a Polio and another for mpox two years ago. Declaring a global health emergency doesn’t automatically lead to any mitigation measures. As long as they respond appropriately (e.g. sending condoms to West Africa), I don’t see it as a problem.
  
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  August 15, 2024 2:46pm
I remember when

Why is it that whenever riots like those in England occur they are always described as far-right?
A quick inspection of those participating suggests that very few, if any, have ever voted Conservative.
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August 15, 2024 8:51am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The far-left would never do such a thing.//
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:02am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  The riots in Ulster have done something that Bernadette Devlin (circa 1969) would never have dreamed of. They have brought the Prots and Fenians together.
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:18am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Multiculturalism has not only failed but is proving to be a disaster in many European countries. The answer from the politicians is to criminalise , silence and incarcerate anyone that notices. I do hope but don’t expect our crop of politicians to not try to show them how to do it properly. I also think we should be very wary of free trade agreements that allow free movement of people between the signatories especially the UK.
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:06am
    - PurplePen
      
      Depends on what is meant by multiculturalism. If it’s many cultures existing in the same country and not bothering anyone and also not requiring the dominant native culture to subvert themselves it works fine such as indian culture in NZ. But if an introduced culture wants to subvert aspects of the native culture then you have what’s happening in the UK.
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:59pm
      - Sir Henry Morgan
        
        Is Indian culture working so well in New Zealand? Indian business owners are regularly in the news for effectively importing slave labor, whether through physical coercion or practices like stealing passports and having employees effectively work for free in exchange for eventual PR. There are regular cases of Indian immigrants faking qualifications, and of Indian-run ‘schools’ offering fake courses to ‘students’ who are really in New Zealand for PR rather than education. When these education-themed immigration scams get exposed, the NZ media run sob-stories about how the ‘students’ are now in danger of not getting the PR that New Zealand apparently owes them (since when did overseas study have anything to do with immigration?). Indians also rarely seem to marry outside their race, which limits the possibilities for integration – this last may be changing but certainly used to be the case.
        
        You have cases of Indian immigrants who have been caught multiple times running criminal immigration scams involving slavery and such, criminal activity sometimes stretching over decades, and yet somehow they are not stripped of their New Zealand citizenship and sent home.
        
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        August 15, 2024 3:57pm
  - Phronesis
    
    Well the muslims don’t half have a go at each other over sectarian differences at home either. Nothing like a common enemy to unite the tribes. It is a strong indication that we are in fact at war.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:39pm
  - kowtow
    
    Last time that happened was 1798.
    
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    August 15, 2024 2:03pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Because the stories and headlines are all written by the extreme left.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:10am
  - Groggy
    
    LOL. have you ever read the UK media?? The Daily Mail and The Sun??
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:39pm
    - Conservatarian
      
      Are these outlets blaming the “far right” for noticing who commits certain crime, and generally who commits crime while being in the country illegally? “Noticing things” appears to have been added to the Crimes Act.
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:56pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        ‘The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.’ – Orwell
        
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        August 15, 2024 2:39pm
- p5
  
  The conservatives aren’t far-right. Far-right in the UK is the BNP, UKIP (in its current form) and perhaps a wing of Reform, not conservative.
  
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  August 15, 2024 2:48pm
  - Conservatarian
    
    The UK and world media don’t appear to be aware of your definition. In the context of the current situation in the UK, I’d say “far right” in their lexicon equals any person who has noticed that the UK is being colonised. This seems to have mysteriously co-incided with the Dark Lord Tony Blair’s policy to mass import the third world into the UK “to rub the working class man’s nose in diversity” but I guess correlation is never allowed to equal causation.
    
    Because GDP Line Go Up and You Can Get It By Uber Eats.
    
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    August 15, 2024 4:18pm
Chuck Bird

Is it Time for Nuclear?

https://goodoil.news/is-it-time-for-nuclear/

I say yes. Thumps Up for Yes. Thumps down for No.
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August 15, 2024 8:52am
- cmm
  
  It depends on the details.
  
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  August 15, 2024 8:53am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Please expand on the details.
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:19am
    - Omni Consumer Products
      
      You’re proposing it, shouldn’t you define the details?
      
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      August 15, 2024 9:45am
    - Grunter
      
      Cost-benefit vs all other options to start with.
      
      Nuclear energy can more than likely work well in NZ, but my understanding is that it is relatively expensive compared with hydro and geothermal.
      
      Also worth considering, uranium supply globally is projected to be well short of projected demand over the next 15 years at least. And there are only a handful of countries that do the enrichment of uranium. More than 50% of enriched uranium comes from China & Russia, 2 countries that our ‘Deciders’ seem to want to go to war with….
      
      So yes, detail is important
      
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      August 15, 2024 10:45am
      - Chuck Bird
        
        There is plenty of uranium in Oz.
        
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        August 15, 2024 11:13am
      - NothingLeft
        
        There is inexhaustible Uranium in seawater at prices low enough to be economic. Particularly if fast breeder reactors become standard (long term inevitable as ~1% of waste of current PWR tech)
        
        Nuclear is still too expensive, because we don’t have mass produced highly standardized designs – even though the tech is very straight forward (and old). They should be built and decommissioned in specialized ship yards and operated as ‘jack-up’ units just off coast to avoid any possibility of land contamination. The world needs about 1 a day to supplant fossil fuels over next few decades.
        
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        August 15, 2024 2:02pm
  - cmm
    
    Nuke is complicated because of the waste stream.
    
    The high level waste (stuff coming out of the reactors) is relatively small in volume. It is what most people focus on.
    
    There is also a low level waste stream which is often forgotten about. Every pair of overalls etc ends up becoming waste.
    
    All this ends up having to be stored somewhere.
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:52am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      I would suggest waiting till Oz uses nuclear when there is a change of government. Many other countries use nuclear. I believe there are 440 nuclear power generators now including some in Japan where there are earthquakes.
      
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      August 15, 2024 10:09am
      - rangitoto
        
        Japan are restarting some of those that were shut down after the Tōhoku earthquake.
        
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        August 15, 2024 12:01pm
    - Sparrow
      
      That is my question what happens to the waste?
      I hope there is a different way to that what happened in the late 60s. I was on a ship that loaded a lot of drums on the deck at a UK port (can’t remember where). Chippy built ramps. We were instructed to dump same in the Bay of Biscay. Any floaters to be axed to ensure they sunk. This is what happened. Stopped in the Bay lifeboat lowered and the Mate axed the floaters. A different time. Found out later it was nuclear waste. Always wondered what happened to the Mate ?
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:03am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Load it onto a rocket & fire it into the sun.
        
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        August 15, 2024 1:19pm
    - Burtland
      
      Bangladeshi Roopur Reactor …
      
      “All fuel for Rooppur is being provided by Rosatom. A contract between Rosatom’s fuel company TVEL and BAEC was finalized in August 2019. All used fuel is to be repatriated to Russia, in line with standard Russian practice for such countries. A draft agreement on used fuel was signed in March 2017, totalling about 22.5 t/yr from each reactor (42 fuel assemblies, each with 534 kg of fuel). A further agreement for repatriation of used fuel for reprocessing was signed in August 2017.”
      
      https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/bangladesh
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:04am
    - NothingLeft
      
      Use oil drilling tech to bore holes in Abyssal plains of Global Oceans, fill with waste and cap with a couple of hundred m of concrete. Fool proof forever storage, with no possibility of leakage owing to high pressure of water above and zero movement of water through strata.
      
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      August 15, 2024 2:05pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    One main detail is what happens when we just don’t go nuclear?
    Will the objectors just move to a nuclear powered Country? They will, because they are hypocrites.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:06am
- rouppe
  
  Yes, but…
  
  The biggest issue for nuclear is cooling. For that you need water.
  
  If you try and use a river, for example the Waikato River that runs beside the Huntly station, you will have iwi queuing up to be clipping the ticket since they “own” the river. If not that, Greenies wailing about how all the wildlife will be growing multiple heads.
  
  Which leaves the coasts. West coast of the south island is too risky near the Alpine fault. East coast of the north island is risky because of the Hikurangi subduction zone, and tsunami. Similarly east coat of the south island. Doesn’t leave much…
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:12am
  - PurplePen
    
    put it on a barge or oil rig like platform out at sea.
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:55am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Put it on a boat in the Waitemata. Sheltered, away from fault lines, close to demand. What’s not to like?
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:40pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Rangitoto erupted 700 years ago (5 seconds ago in geological time).
        
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        August 15, 2024 6:13pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        What’s your point, Exile?!
        
        Seriously, it’s hard to believe that Rangitoto will go bang without earlier rumblings. In which case, anchors aweigh & off it goes.
        
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        August 15, 2024 6:50pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        My point is Waitemata Harbour is seismically active, as is all of NZ. We also have a small economy (unlike say Japan) so handling a nuclear emergency would not be fun.
        
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        August 15, 2024 7:43pm
    - Ghost
      
      Good idea, makes it a very easy target for a terrorist.
      
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      August 15, 2024 6:52pm
  - cmm
    
    It is easy enough building quake-proof nuclear plants. You can essentially think of them as sitting on a concrete raft.
    
    The Japanese nukes failed because the tsunamis knocked out their back up generators. The earthquakes themselves didn’t cause any damage.
    
    Using the sea for cooling is pretty straight forward and has been done in many places. The impact on the local environment is not that large.
    
    In the 1980s I helped doing some research diving at Koeberg power station in South Africa. The water intake is in a small harbour created behind a breakwater and the discharge is a drain back into the sea.
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:58am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      There have been huge advances in nuclear technology in the last 40 years.
      
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      August 15, 2024 10:54am
    - PurplePen
      
      The Japanese one was also not built in the location that was preferred and advised by engineers. I’m assuming politics got in the way and it ended up being built where it is now.
      
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      August 15, 2024 1:02pm
  - Ghost
    
    Bill gates new project is different than traditional nuclear power plants
    
    https://www.terrapower.com/natrium/
    
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    August 15, 2024 1:17pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Sodium burns in air or water. So not great.
      
      Lots of low pressure molten salt solutions that look better with higher intrinsic safety.
      
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      August 15, 2024 2:08pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        The default position should be shut-down/cold, unless some self-limited proding mechanism keeps it going.
        
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        August 15, 2024 6:16pm
- Colville
  
  Significant public education/PR would be required before proposing it or it will get slammed out of ignorance.
  
  Are we big enough?
  Can they be placed to be seismically safe? (anything can be engineered IMHO)
  Who would own them? (possible private ownership? or Govt? Iwi??)
  Life span?
  Clean up?
  
  I believe NZ needs a Non Profit to start the education process and its 5 or 10 years before the question can be seriously proposed.
  
  If (and its a big IF) the Gweens are serious about carbon reduction…they should be fully behind Nuclear but I wouldnt be holding my breath on that one.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:24am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    “If (and its a big IF) the Gweens are serious about carbon reduction they should be fully behind Nuclear but I wouldnt be holding my breath on that one.”
    
    The Greens in the UK and Europe support nuclear.
    The ones here are focusing on Jew hating.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:17am
    - imalwaysright
      
      “The Greens in the UK and Europe support nuclear.
      The ones here are focusing on Jew hating”
      
      The ones here are as dim as a solar powered garden light from aliexpress. Just look at the Mexican and the coco leaders.
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:58am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    “Are we big enough?”
    
    Finland with about the same population has 3 nuclear power plants.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:33am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Taiwan has recently decommissioned 2 of their Nuclear plants and its 3rd one (and final) is about to cease in May 2025.
      
      They haven’t been able to solve the waste disposal problem.
      
      https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202407110017
      
      Taiwan looks to be heading for a bleak (black-out) energy future.
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:49am
      - Conservatarian
        
        Yes, it is their second biggest issue, after the obvious one.
        
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        August 15, 2024 12:58pm
    - wsk12345
      
      Finland also has large interconnectors with Sweden and Estonia, making it part of a much bigger entity. That means you can baseload the nuclear station, as there is a sink for Finland’s over supply.
      
      https://www.fingrid.fi/en/news/news/2022/high-voltage-direct-current-links-connecting-finland-to-sweden-and-estonia-reliable-and-extensively-utilised/
      
      here we have very low load overnight and quite a bit of that is supplied by “must run” plant (like nuclear is), eg min flow from hydro, geothermal, wind, amd some thermal. So the economics would depend on whether there is much capacity required overnight that isn’t already must-run.
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:55pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Easy – congestion charging will be set at a level to encourage you to commute to work in the wee small hours. Win-win!
        
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        August 15, 2024 6:53pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        One suggested use for “excess” nuclear power is to use it to make liquid fuels.
        
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        August 15, 2024 7:45pm
- Clyde
  
  Large ship based modern reactors moored close to shore. Water available, close to where energy is in demand. So, Auckland, Tauranga are good starting points. No earthquake risk. Lets fast track it.
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:42am
  - PurplePen
    
    And haven’t they finally gotten thorium reactors working now. Its impossible for them to melt-down and the waste only lasts about 500 years instead of 10,000 for current reactor waste.
    
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    August 15, 2024 1:05pm
- kowtow
  
  A thumping big thumbs up for coal. High five even.
  
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  August 15, 2024 12:11pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Imagine if tech was developed that stopped carbon from coal burning escaping into the atmosphere, some sort of catalytic converter. Greens would likely still be anti-coal.
    
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    August 15, 2024 1:06pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      I thought there was one already to capture emissions ??
      
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      August 15, 2024 3:08pm
Maggy Wassilieff

What the heck is going on in Te Whatu Ora – Health NZ?

Is it too difficult to carry out the instructions of the Government, or does the CEO have her own agenda?

“I have spoken to Margie as the chief executive making it very clear this is unacceptable and is not to be ever repeated.”

https://thespinoff.co.nz/the-bulletin/15-08-2024/is-the-latest-drama-at-health-nz-just-the-beginning?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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August 15, 2024 8:57am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Apa is clearly running interference. Levy will not tolerate her too long.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:05am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Margie Apa a diversity hire? Is she actually qualified to do the job?
  Probably irrelevant questions now as I think she will be leaving shortly to “pursue other opportunities”.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:06am
  - artemisia
    
    ‘Other opportunities’ would be a good move. Either that or accept unrelenting intense scrutiny. One option is more fun than the other.
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:58am
  - alex Masterley
    
    And preferably not in public service.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:37am
    - Conservatarian
      
      But that is exactly where she will end up. A generous payout to leave, she disappears for a year, and then she pops up again once most of us have forgotten her as the Commissioner / CEO of a smaller, lower profile government agency, or on the second or third tier at a large government agency. The level of consumption to which she is accustomed doesn’t just fund itself you know.
      
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      August 15, 2024 1:03pm
- peterwn
  
  As I mentioned elsewhere yesterday this sounds like a classic ‘Yes Minister’ scenario (remember the fully function hospital but no doctors, nurses or patients as there was insufficient budget for them).
  Seems to me some managers (who may be core Labour/ Green supporters) are more interested in keeping their and their associates’ jobs than to deliver as much real health as possible within budget. Top management is either blind to what is happening or have the wool pulled over their eyes. So the Minister and Commissioner have been very badly let down by management and it is little wonder they would not be at all happy.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:08am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    The public service is full of brown nosers who spend more of their time managing upwards than they do actually doing the job they were hired for.
    
    Thus, the outcomes we see.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:43pm
- gravedodger
  
  HI Maggy, Levy’s response to the Hosking inquiry was there to be any disciplinary response by Levy was a classic.
  “If every mistake was disciplined we may have nobody remaining”
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:11am
  - rouppe
    
    It wasn’t a mistake. Time and again it was said front line not impacted, targeting duplication and waste.
    
    Margie Apa did it deliberately
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:26pm
- kowtow
  
  Looks like sabotage , in intent .
  
  As someone said , these are the headwinds the elected govt faces from an entrenched bureaucracy .
  
  Very little in te legacy media . Some sports medal setting off an airport alarm gets more !
  
  Unbelievable.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:12am
- rouppe
  
  She should have been fired. It was plainly an attempt to undermine the minister and government
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:14am
  - pdm
    
    BTW is she Margie or Maggie?
    
    I have seen both used.
    
    Margie would be better because the two Maggie/Maggy that hover her are almost always good value.
    
    Apa is no value whatsoever.
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:19am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Her Christian name is Margie… It hasn’t been shortened from anything else.
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:53pm
      - Conservatarian
        
        Is this some sort of internecine tribal warfare between competing Margarets?
        
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        August 15, 2024 1:04pm
- Scooter
  
  Subterfuge, they are doing everything to undermine the govt. Levy needs to sack the lot of them. Same for the rest.
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/opinion/heather-du-plessis-allan-its-only-a-matter-of-time-until-health-nzs-boss-is-gone/
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:16am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Dr Levy is giving Dr Apa rope. She is doing the rest.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:45pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  What is happening is what the Public Service CE’s have been doing in a number of agencies. Ignoring direct instruction.
  
  This is no surprise.
  
  The top echelons of our Public Service are heavily left leaning, are carrying out political action without mandate and are pushing a Maori first agenda constantly.
  
  This is my view, based on having worked inside Government Agencies off and on over the last ten years and observing the outcomes the Public Service has served up in the last 10 years, but more significantly/openly under Labour.
  
  I say again, the Public Service leadership from the Public Services Commission down to the GM level across all Government Agencies needs to be removed and replaced with people who are actually neutrals with business management skill.
  
  The current top of our government standing bureaucracy are a disgrace – they are not delivering outcomes required, obstructing the will of the people as laid out in the 2023 election, they are allowing or leaking themselves to cause delay & embarrassment and their hiring practice is directed to reinforce their left leaning stance.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:21am
  - PurplePen
    
    Agree! Replace them all with equivalent from Singapore. i notice the Public Service Commissioner hasn’t yet been appointed.
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:59am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The Levy incident is symptomatic of a country at the mercy of a public service that has allegiance to the previous government.
    
    Until the top 10% of every ministry is asked to reapply for their jobs, this will continue to strangle New Zealand .
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:00am
    - PurplePen
      
      I’ve suggested this to the appropriate minister, create legislation that allows any incoming govt to fire the top layers at will within X months of the election.
      
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      August 15, 2024 1:09pm
  - Grunter
    
    I agree JimBobJ
    
    The only answer is replicating what Melei is doing in Argentina (and it is working there). He took his ‘chainsaw’ to 50,000 Public Servants and closed down entire Ministries.
    
    Seymour wants to do something similar here but NZ First & Labour-Lite won’t let him.
    
    So we are left with a half-hearted (at best) response and a whole lot of meaningless “tut-tutting”…..
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:53am
    - Conservatarian
      
      “Afuera!”
      
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      August 15, 2024 1:07pm
    - kiwi_chileno
      
      Most of the 50,000 were employees whose contracts were expiring. It’s common for state and private sector employees to be only employed on contract (the same in Chile).
      
      The Argentinian public sector is bloated, stuffed with political appointees from the Kirchner era and ñoqui – ñoqui is a derogatory term referring to state employees who collect a government paycheck without actually working.
      
      In more good news, Milei has abolished Argentina’s equivalent of the Human Rights Commission, the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Racism (INADI). The Ministry of Women, Genders, and Diversity was shut down in June.
      
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      August 15, 2024 3:51pm
      - Conservatarian
        
        We appreciate your localised knowledge. And your views are spot on.
        
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        August 15, 2024 9:18pm
- pdm
  
  Levy gave her another serve when interviewed by Mike Hosking this morning. He says she is on her last chance.
  
  I say he is being too lenient – she and a few others should have gone yesterday!!
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:22am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Indeed.
    
    “One of the things you always think about in this situation: is this reluctance, is this resistance, is this sabotage? It could be none, or any of the above. I don’t really care.”
    
    https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/14/commissioners-very-deep-disappointment-at-health-nz-boss/
    
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    August 15, 2024 9:40am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I think Levy will get rid of her but he will do it by the book / professionally. He will not announce it on Hosking’s show that she is toast.
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:06am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Sorry down ticked in error.
      
      Yes that was my thought. There is simply no way that this CE is going to survive.
      
      Of course, in contrast we have a CE of the Ministry of Education who has presided over arguably the worst problem facing the country. She is still there picking up $650k, with her leadership team of about 10 picking up at least $400k each.
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:19pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Addendum. Here they are. With photos. 😫
        
        https://www.education.govt.nz/our-work/our-role-and-our-people/our-leadership-team/
        
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        August 15, 2024 12:24pm
      - greybeard
        
        Sorry, reported in error.
        
        3 1
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        August 15, 2024 2:29pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Christ! There is a shit load of te reo Maori used by that crew at MinEd to describe themselves, when only two of them have any Maori heritage whatsoever.
        
        Example:
        “Ko Yr Wyddfa te maunga
        Ko Afon Conwy te awa
        Ko Ken tōku pāpā
        Ko Pauline tōku māmā
        Ko Michelle tōku hoa Rangatira
        He tangata pākehā ahau
        Nō Ingarani au
        Te Whetū Kairangi toku kainga
        Ko Andy Jackson tōku ingoa
        
        I’m Andy Jackson, Hautū – Kaupapahere | Deputy Secretary – Policy. I was born and brought up in the north of England, coming to Aotearoa when I was in my 20s. My tupuna have lived in north-west England and north-east Wales since written records began, and my love of the mountains and rivers of north Wales is reflected in my mihimihi.”
        
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        August 15, 2024 7:02pm
- RoboRob
  
  This is yet another example of the bureaucracy actively working against the government.
  
  It’s why Maori names still appear first on letterheads, why 30km speed signs are still going up, why Waka Kotahi is telling Wellington they still recommend 7 raised crossings but they are no longer allowed to fund them and why most of the job cuts are simply cancelled job vacancies that were rapidly created prior to the election.
  
  It’s also why some govt agencies are trying to cut front line staff and keep management, they want to hurt the government. They know the government promised no cuts at the front line.
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:38am
  - imalwaysright
    
    If Levy fires Apa and others it will set a valuable precedent.
    Any problem ministries can have a Commissioner appointed and he or she can do the cull.
    There is no point negotiating with people like Apa, sack them.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:05am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “why most of the job cuts are simply cancelled job vacancies that were rapidly created prior to the election.”
    
    I have seen other comments here like that. It is a myth. The government does not “cut staff”. It reduces the funding for the agencies to employ staff. The savings are real savings.
    
    As for the “Maori names” thing, it is happening because the government is not serious about issuing directions to the Public Service Commissioner under the Public Service Act. Blame the government.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:42am
    - RoboRob
      
      Oh I do blame the government. BUT departments happily complied with ‘suggestions’ from Labour but when its National they will wait until the law is passed.
      
      At my kids school, like others, they knew a cellphone ban was coming. They waited 6mths, until the very last day according to the law to actually implement it.
      
      Re the job cuts stuff. It’s not a myth. When departments say ‘we are cutting 700 staff’ it turns out they are cutting 200 staff and 500 vacancies. Yes the government is reducing budgets by 6% and the departments need to cut costs to match, and dropping real jobs is one way to do that, but have you missed the various stories of departments just blowing their budgets? Some of these departments are not serious about implementing government policy. Which was my point 🙂
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:24am
    - MCōs
      
      I received a letter from Health NZ earlier in the week.
      Whether Te Whatu Ora or Health NZ was given prominence I doubt if anyone is particularly bothered other than a few diehards
      It’s the gist of the narrative that matters and in my case it was written in my first language
      
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      August 15, 2024 5:22pm
  - kowtow
    
    And like the judges who deliberately ignore parliament’s intent when interpreting and applying the law , these overpaid and seemingly unaccountable heads of public service are literally acting out in an anti democratic and un constitutional way .
    
    Te legacy media who should also be holding power to account are also on side with this.
    
    Very dangerous for democratic principles , the principles that really matter.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:19pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Well I received my bowel screaming results in an envelope yesterday, in to find it headed up as Health NZ, but hard to understand what was in the first few sentences though
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:20pm
    - Phronesis
      
      I hope your bowel quiets down soon G.
      
      7 0
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      August 15, 2024 12:46pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Was it screaming in pain, or just like Mick Jagger with a rock ballad ?
        
        3 1
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        August 15, 2024 1:25pm
    - Swifty
      
      Lay off the curries.
      
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      August 15, 2024 1:14pm
- RightFirstTime
  
  And no doubt, as was the case with the CEO of Kainga Ora, Margie would exit with a payment in excess of $300,000. This would be a test of Levy’s negotiating skills. Isn’t it great that in the public service you are handsomely rewarded for stuffing up!
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:55am
slightlyrighty

Latest Polling from the US has Harris leading Trump in 5 of of 7 swing states. tied in 1 and behind Trump in Nevada (which only has 6 Electoral College votes)

Applying that to the national map, this would give Harris 297 Electoral College votes, well past the 270 required.

It is only August, and there is just over 12 weeks until polling day. I am keenly aware of the amount of Trump Supporters on here, but I’m saying now, I do not see any scenario where Trump can turn this trend around, particularly when the Democratic Convention hasn’t even taken place yet.

He’s using the same playbook, just Crossing out Biden and inserting ‘Kamabla’ (sic), and it’s not gaining traction.
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August 15, 2024 9:01am
- kowtow
  
  And Harris is using the Biden playbook , hiding in a basement and refusing to be tested or open to media scrutiny.
  
  Great example is Time mag putting her on cover and she wasn’t interviewed for the story , sorry hagiography .
  
  Be wary of the methodology of some of these polls . And as we all know there’s only one poll that counts .
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:01am
  - Biscuit
    
    Erm, kowtow, not necessarily.
    
    I seem to remember that the ‘loser’ in the ‘only poll that counts’ last time around went on an ‘It was all RIGGED!’ bender for years, four of them, thereafter.
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:11am
    - RoboRob
      
      Are you referring to Trump or Hillary or Gore? They all do it 🙂
      
      4 3
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      August 15, 2024 11:26am
      - Biscuit
        
        Exactly, Robo.
        
        Trump is (again) worrying me.
        
        His latest attempt at circumventing common logic is to proclaim that Harris taking over from Biden as the Democrats’ nominee “seems to me, actually, unconstitutional. Perhaps it’s not.”
        
        Which is it, you over-oranged bombast?
        
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        August 15, 2024 12:21pm
      - p5
        
        Hillary phoned Trump on election night conceding. Gore publicly conceded later in the year and personally, as vice president, certified W’s win.
        
        Still waiting for Trump.
        
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        August 15, 2024 2:51pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      Yes, and he was correct. There is so much evidence now available that it was obviously a stolen election, but the MSM don’t want to know about it ‘cos it doesn’t suit the narrative.
      
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      August 15, 2024 11:33am
      - Biscuit
        
        ‘Correct’, ‘much evidence’, ‘obviously’, ‘stolen’.
        
        Your opinion(s), Don…
        
        Even with a stacked-by-Trump Supreme Court I have yet to see a Court conclusively agree with any of your epithets!
        
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        August 15, 2024 12:23pm
      - kowtow
        
        Time Magazine , who’ve put Harris on their front cover , but who hasn’t given them an interview used the word “saved” the election, in a long and detailed article on how the scam was financed and executed. Saved being a euphemism for stolen.
        
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        August 15, 2024 12:29pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Well you are not looking hard enough.
        
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        August 15, 2024 1:26pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        I wish people would stop saying that the 2020 US election was “stolen”.
        
        “Fortified” is the word you’re looking for. The 2020 US election was fortified, at least according to Molly Ball writing for Time magazine – and with a “secret campaign” too.
        
        Think of it like the word, “Woke”.
        
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        August 15, 2024 3:56pm
  - JackRabbit
    
    The polls set the mood of the voting public, not the other way around. Also that way, when the steal the election, the election results and the polls will be similar.
    
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    August 15, 2024 1:42pm
- kevn
  
  sr… The US msm are helping her bigly.
  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/shiny-new-kamala-harris-propaganda-built
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Back in 2015 I remember the same thing with the Clinton Machine.
  Clinton was way ahead in the polls and the Electoral College count. The media was full steam ahead and Trump could not possibly win because he wasn’t even a Politician.
  Trump knew basically nothing about the Swamp, or the size of it.
  Hello, what happened? Hillary couldn’t even win an Election she rigged. In 2024 she is still making holes in the walls with empty vodka bottles!
  I see the same happening. Sure the Democrats are going to cheat, they always do. But their methods have been exposed.
  Trump landslide. He is even calling on the Christians who are known for not voting.
  The other day I saw a photo of a horse drawn Amish wagon with a Trump 2024 flag on it. They are also known for not voting.
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:39am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    the biggest factors in that last election were Clumsy campaigning by a less than vibrant candidate with a huge amount of Baggage, an unknown and less than exciting VP candidate in Tim Kaine, and the 11th hour FBI investigation into Clinton, which fed into the Crooked Hillary narrative.
    
    The fact that you have bought into the narrative that Trump will only win in a fair election and the Dems can only win by cheating does point to a bias on your part. One that I see often in your postings.
    
    Based on the current polling averages, Trump will lose. As I said, this might change, but I simply do not see how. I certainly do not see enough Amish people to turn the trend in Pennsylvania, and if anything, widespread fundamentalist religion based support for Trump might actually drive the center moderate vote to Harris.
    
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    August 15, 2024 11:20am
    - Biscuit
      
      slightly, Wikipedia says there’s only 300,000 Amish in the WORLD.
      
      A lot of that number are in PA, I will concede.
      
      But PA has 13,000,000 people…
      
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      August 15, 2024 12:28pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Of course I am biased, what is wrong with that?
      “Based on current polling averages” is just a media game. propaganda, just as it was in 2016 and 2020.
      The Dems do cheat, but the leftist media will never publish that, they doe their best to cover it up.
      The Amish thing was a photo on social media, on one of the sites I follow. It may have been staged sure, but the message gets out.
      Trump 2024.
      
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      August 15, 2024 1:37pm
      - slightlyrighty
        
        All I can say is if you are relying on the Amish to protect America’s future, given they live in the past, you really are grasping at straws…
        
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        August 15, 2024 2:04pm
      - Biscuit
        
        Nowt wrong with being biased, Steve.
        
        I’m still in your camp re Trump and the 2024 Election … I’m just a little less enamoured of him than you!
        
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        August 15, 2024 2:09pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        slightlyrighty,
        You missed to point by a country mile. The message got out.
        The Amish are not going to save the US. You got that right.
        Keep watching my comments – it is just less than 12 weeks until Nov 5th.
        
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        August 15, 2024 3:21pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Ask yourself how there can be such wide (9 point) divergence in polling between different polling companies for the same race when ‘margins of error’ are only around 3-4 for their sample sizes. Clearly there is fuckery in play.
  
  Polling is a tent-pole tool in pushing/manufacturing ‘popularity’ of a given candidate in news, and is easy to skew to suit preferences of their customers by biasing of samples. It’s a super cheap way to change winning/losing narratives in any race
  
  We know and see daily examples of how the bulk of legacy media have given themselves over entirely to being propagandists for the DNC and lie/spin about everything. So why would you trust them to produce honest polling results?
  
  https://www.realclearpolling.com/polls/president/general/2024/trump-vs-harris
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:24am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    If you check out https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/ you may find it quite useful.
    
    There is a lot of data, but they also publish sample size, and the leanings of the polling group and sponsor.
    
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    August 15, 2024 2:08pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      Yes, but 538 play games due to their partisan allegiances and have excluded/diminished weighting of pollsters that while historically accurate don’t suite their partisan politics (eg Rasmussen)
      
      Departed Nate Silver on 538’s partisan leanings: https://youtu.be/rpgjqxX1qko?t=306
      
      The last 10 years has seen media morph from feigned impartiality to full blown propagandizing. They blew their credibility in the 2016 cycle, then started trying to borrow/manufacture credibility using foul means of ‘fact checking’ and big-tech + DNC imposed censorship which is also now blown. The last resource they have which hasn’t been shown up as completely corrupted (though there are signs of it in wide divergence between pollsters) is polling.
      
      My guess is that this is that the coming US election that shows it up as similarly corrupted along partisan lines.
      
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      August 15, 2024 3:48pm
- RoboRob
  
  She is having her honey moon period. When the public gets to know her things may change.
  
  She has a massive advantage with the media. She also has the Jacina Ardern advantage, she is replacing a very unpopular candidate right before an election, nobody knows her (and she is working hard to keep it that way) and even though her policies are likely the same as her predecessor people are willing to give her a go.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:30am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They were refusing to vote Dems on cost of living and the border, I simply don’t believe it
  
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  August 15, 2024 12:22pm
In Vino Veritas

Rachel Gunn. Just had a lovely dinner at the Three Horseshoes pub in Madingley, outside Cambridge. Overheard a bunch of academics talking about Rachel Gunn (laughable breakdance woman). One woman said she is in the same field as Gunn “Cultural Studies”. I looked up her thesis to find out what that was. Unlucky me.
“This thesis critically interrogates how masculinist practices of breakdancing offers a site for the transgression of gendered norms. Drawing on my own experiences as a female within the male-dominated breakdancing scene in Sydney, first as a spectator, then as an active crew member, this thesis questions why so few female participants engage in this creative space, and how breakdancing might be the space to displace and deterritorialise gender. I use analytic autoetthnography and interviews with scene members in collaboration with theoretical frameworks offered by Deleuze and Guttari, Butler, Bourdieu and other feminist and post-structuralist philosophers, to critically examine how the capacities of bodies are constituted and shaped in Sydney’s breakdancing scene, and to also locate the potentiality for moments of transgression. In other words, I conceptualize the breaking body as not a ‘body’ constituted through regulations and assumptions, but as an assemblage open to new rhizomatic connections. Breaking is a space that embraces difference, whereby the rituals of the dance not only augment its capacity to deterritorialize the body, but also facilitate new possibilities for performativities beyond the confines of dominant modes of thought and normative gender construction. Consequently, this thesis attempts to contribute to what I perceive as a significant gap in scholarship on hip-hop, breakdancing, and autoethnographic explorations of Deleuze-Guattarian theory”.
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August 15, 2024 9:11am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  In Vino Veritas, thank you for taking one for team. That thesis reminded me of an old rhyme.
  “The bullshit flows from her lips
  Like barrells of molasses.
  If all the lies she told were gold
  She could buy and sell Onassis.”
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:29am
- cmm
  
  Tax dollars at work.
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:30am
- alex Masterley
  
  Dear lord IVV.
  Thats a word soup worthy of a michelin star!
  
  18 1
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  August 15, 2024 10:39am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Or indeed, a PhD
    
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    August 15, 2024 7:08pm
- NothingLeft
  
  This sort of ‘academic’ obfuscational excremental sophistry is entirely deserving of summary execution. It’s playing at intellectual ‘dress-ups’ for the entirely unworthy.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:43am
- I remember when
  
  Give us a break, she wasn’t even a dancer.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:59am
  - Ghost
    
    She is. An article I posted yesterday
    
    Article
    
    1) WDSF World Championships in Belgium 2023: The winner would qualify for Paris.
    Raygun was the first-ranked women breaker in 2021 and second-ranked breaker in 2022 and 2023, so she was selected to compete alongside her teammate Molly Chapman. Raygun finished 64th, while her teammate Molly Chapman finished 79th out of 80 contestants.
    
    2 ) WDSF Oceania Championships in Sydney 2023: Local qualify contest, open to the public.
    Regardless of Australian rankings, anyone eligible to compete at the Olympic games could enter this contest. There were 37 male and 15 female entrants. Contestants were judged by a 10-judge panel that included judges from other countries such as Japan and Korea. Raygun’s coach and husband was not listed on the judging panel. Through the two-day competition, Raygun defeated every other breakdancer and qualified for the Olympic games.
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:02pm
    - Biscuit
      
      I’m no Breakdancing judge, heh, but, hell, if Raygun finished 69th exactly how bad was Molly, who ran home 79th?
      
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      August 15, 2024 2:12pm
Chuck Bird

This is not premium.

New Zealand’s economy depends on the environment; and vice versa – Dr Jacqueline Rowarth

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-country/news/new-zealands-economy-depends-on-the-environment-and-vice-versa-dr-jacqueline-rowarth/QYKP3MC4QJFMRE4ESBX3WCGNPE/
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August 15, 2024 9:17am
All_on_Red

Perhaps Iran has got the message Israel has had enough. Maybe the Mullahs realise if Israel is prepared to assassinate someone in Teheran then they are also vulnerable.
‘Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has reportedly asked the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to refrain from attacking Israel, according to a report by Iran International on Wednesday.
The new Iranian president cautioned that an Israeli retaliatory attack could cripple Iran’s economy, infrastructure, and even lead to the country’s collapse.
Iran International said that sources familiar with the subject noted that Khamenei “remained noncommittal” during the session, “neither supporting nor opposing Pezeshkian’s concerns.”
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-813784
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/08/06/biden-mideast-iran-israel-war-danger/

Jordan is lining up its support for Israel too
‘The Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi informed Tehran that if it responds to Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Jordan will not allow it to enter its airspace, Sky News Arabia reported.

Riyadh has declared it will not allow Iranian missiles or drones to pass through its airspace en route to Israel, a senior member of the Saudi royal family told Kan News on Monday evening. The official emphasized, “Riyadh will not allow any foreign object to pass through.”

This statement was also sent directly to Iran. ‘
https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/article-813418

That said Israel is increasing its activity against Hezbollah with intensive military action to destroy missile supply sites and personal. I suspect they will eventually try to push them back across the River- and it looks like Iran wont help.
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August 15, 2024 9:46am
- kowtow
  
  AoR
  
  The problem with these types of fundamentalists , Iranian and other shiite mullahs of that ilk ,is they just don’t do “rational or reasonable”.
  These people are literal fanatics who believe in End Times , Messianic crazy stuff.And are acting it out.
  
  They are extremely dangerous .
  
  The only recent parallel( in a different context of course) I could suggest would be Berlin April 1945 .
  
  ps the extreme leftists and deluded marching on Saturdays or the parliamentarians wearing garb and screeching “river to sea” in support are in league with them and as such are collaborating , actively . They too are therefore extremely dangerous .
  
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  August 15, 2024 9:56am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  The Gulf States would LOVE to see the back of the Mad Mullahs in Tehran and that is why they are helping Israel.
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:12am
- Drone
  
  When will the Arab countries realise that the only way to defeat a bully (Israel) is to stand up to him rather than running away.. Basically Irael is the fifty first state of America (fifty third if you count Puerta Rico and Washington DC as some people do).
  
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  August 15, 2024 3:46pm
Damocles11

The leaks continue. We have seen a steady stream of leaks against the government since October last year. Correspondence involving Nicole McKee relating to gun reform has been leaked, once again with the objective of embarrassing the minister and the government.
The PSA is a trade union, affiliated to the CTU.
How close are unions and union members to the Labour party?

‘The unions have retained close institutional links with the party. In 2023 there were 11 affiliated unions, which paid a levy to the party based on the size of their own memberships. Generally, members of these unions are also affiliated members of the Labour Party. Affiliates receive a percentage of the vote in party leadership elections.
In addition, the president of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions continues to speak at the Labour Party Annual Conference.’

If you are a PSA member, you are an affiliated member of the Labour party. There is a clear conflict of interest here. How can you be agnostic towards politics when in the workplace – as public servants are required to be – when you are aligned to a movement that supports one particular political party?
What I have never understood is how – in 2024 – it continues to be acceptable that one of the main political parties can style itself as being for all New Zealanders and yet maintain such close links to the unions that union affiliates are Labour party members, affiliates vote on the leadership of the party, pay levies to the party. It’s outrageous.
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August 15, 2024 9:50am
- cmm
  
  If you’re a white collar public servant (especially “employed” in the last 18 months or so), then you are probably unemployable in the free market and your whole job , and therefore life, depends on Labour policies.
  
  Of course any potential cost cutting etc is going to look like an existential threat to your life. Of course people in that position will leak etc to preserve their worthless necks.
  
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  August 15, 2024 10:07am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    The irony of the Left’s anger over Project 2025 is that it’s entirely a response to the Left’s complete capture of almost all of the institutions.
    What they accuse Project 2025 of wanted to do is what they are already doing.
    I’m against anyone doing this for the record. It’s disgustingly anti-democratic.
    
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    August 15, 2024 10:52am
- Mike
  
  The PSA is not a labour party affiliate, never has been one, and does not donate to political parties.
  
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  August 15, 2024 3:37pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    LOL. “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky.”
    
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    August 15, 2024 6:07pm
greenfinger

Adrian [Mod – deleted] Orr said success in taming inflation has a thousand fathers. Geeweez, where do I start! He is definitely not one of the “fathers” of this success! So many business have failed and so many kiwis have lost their livelihoods because of [Mod – deleted] incompetency over the last six years! He clearly panic where his screeching u-turn to cut rates – from the comfort of his plush armchair behind the computer screen in his Wellington office – could be all the way in Invercargill. The pain he inflicted on the economy will be felt for some time yet. Many that have renewed their mortgages over the last twelve months are locked in at very high rate. This cut will not benefit many for at least another 6 months if not longer. Those that had locked in at lower rates will still be rolling into these very high rates still in the coming months. What does it tell you about a person when that person references success to just “fathers”? Misogyny comes to mind! Last I heard was that [Mod – deleted] is thinking about a career in politics. Yeah, right!

[Mod – use correct names]
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August 15, 2024 9:52am
- pdm
  
  `Last I heard was that [Mod – deleted] is thinking about a career in politics.’
  
  $1 to a pinch of goatshit that he will not be approaching ACT, National or even NZFirst for a place on their Party Lists!!!!!!
  
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  August 15, 2024 11:29am
  - kevn
    
    pdm… Worked for his pal robberson didn’t it?
    
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    August 15, 2024 3:43pm
  - John Loveridge
    
    Hasn’t he done enough damage to the country already?
    
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    August 15, 2024 7:11pm
kevn

green… Just another disappointment (for NZer’s) installed by labour, complete with a long contract.
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August 15, 2024 10:07am
lifesgood

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/gXock8cu8Sq5eDcr/
Did you ever see such unadulterated crap about a glass rain shelter.
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August 15, 2024 10:52am
- Burtland
  
  “In between the earth and sky elements of the Wellesley St entrance building at the new City Rail Link midtown Auckland Te Waihorotiu Station sits a large glass canopy or awning.
  
  Representing te whaiao (the daylight or mer of dawn), the canopy is a transitional element that provides layering, solidity and reflectivity to connect the earth with the sky. This glazed structure is also a physical reminder of the act of Tane pushing apart his parents – as part of the Māori creation story.
  Watch here the process of installing each panel into its frame by the hardworking #link alliance team.”
  
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  August 15, 2024 12:00pm
  - mandk
    
    “This glazed structure is also a physical reminder of the act of Tane pushing apart his parents – as part of the Māori creation story.”
    
    Wow! I was thinking exactly that as I watched the video //
    
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    August 15, 2024 12:57pm
  - Swifty
    
    Should good art have to be ‘explained’?
    
    6 2
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    August 15, 2024 1:12pm
  - greybeard
    
    And here is me thinking that it was a glass roof which would admit as much light as possible to help deter muggings.
    
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    August 15, 2024 2:34pm
- Dave
  
  Sounds okay to me.
  
  Every time I see the one square metre plastic canopy from Mitre 10 over the entrance to our sleepout or the corrugated plastic panels over the deck at the back of the house, I have exactly the same thoughts linking earth and sky; but to be inspired by Tane pushing apart Rangi and Papa, I need one of those assemble-yourself, mini-glasshouses for my garden.
  
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  August 15, 2024 4:52pm
Damocles11

The Taxpayers Union have let me know about the latest round of largesse being dished out by the ‘Marsden Fund’ for nonsense ‘research’ designed to keep leftist academics in clover. This outfit gave out $83.5 million of taxpayer money last year alone. What a rort this is.
An example of a ‘research project’ receiving funding in the latest round is as below. As usual, the myopic obsession with ‘colonisation’, ‘decolonising’, and ‘Pakeha privilege’ takes centre stage.

——

Grant ID: 22-VUW-021
Recipient: Dr M Zonjic, Victoria University of Wellington

‘Big Things, Complex Shadows: investigating intersecting stories of place, identity, and erasure through large roadside sculptures in Aotearoa’

‘”During the 1980s economic recession, struggling small towns across Aotearoa started building large roadside sculptures – or “Big Things” – to sell unique provincial identities and attract passing motorists. Currently, more than two dozen “Big Things” are peppered across the country’s landscape, contributing to the production, performance, and tourism marketing of particular places and identities.

[Mod – please just include a brief paragraph then link to the site]
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August 15, 2024 11:19am
- Conservatarian
  
  Zonjic? Sounds like a Croatian, Serbian or Bosnian communist who was disappointed when the Iron Curtain fell, and headed for Western academia where communism is the coin of the realm.
  
  I imagine the L&P bottle in Paeroa will be omitted from the list, as it was a shrine to a consumer brand and will trigger communists wanting the world to return to pre-modernism.
  
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  August 15, 2024 2:16pm
- greybeard
  
  There are several of these big things” on the hills of Transmission Gully. The garden seat is quite good.
  
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  August 15, 2024 2:36pm
  - Biscuit
    
    More info on access etc, greybeard, please.
    
    Me and the Boss are quite fond of the Wellington walkways!
    
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    August 15, 2024 2:43pm
    - Mike
      
      It’s on Gareth Morgan’s golf course. I don’t think the sculpture trail is open to the public yet.
      
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      August 15, 2024 3:41pm
    - greybeard
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/506161/gareth-morgan-leaves-his-mark-on-transmission-gully
      Here is some info.
      
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      August 15, 2024 3:49pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/350379383/stuff-chief-executive-laura-maxwell-leaving-role-australia
Well, my guess is that someone has seen the writing on the wall……
13 1
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August 15, 2024 11:28am
- pdm
  
  grey – that is one change that will have no effect on the Political Bias spewed out by stuff.
  
  9 1
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  August 15, 2024 11:33am
  - Biscuit
    
    Indeed, pdm.
    
    Look at Boucher’s statement on Maxwell’s departure:
    
    Boucher said Maxwell had supported Stuff’s executive team as it delivered significant change in the business.
    
    “Over this period we have restructured the organisation, completed a total technology re-platform, refined our print portfolio and shaped the group into two distinct businesses — Stuff Digital and Masthead Publishing — with separate content, product and revenue strategies.”
    
    Not a word of anything tangible … growth in revenue, growth in circulation, growth in ANYTHING….
    
    10 1
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    August 15, 2024 12:41pm
    - Swifty
      
      Just like Labour 2017-23.
      
      Did lots, spent lots, but no actual results.
      
      10 1
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      August 15, 2024 1:10pm
    - Conservatarian
      
      But there was growth – in the revenue line “Bribes from government for delivering propaganda”.
      
      The notes to the financial accounts give several more lines of detail on such revenue generating units as “Te Tiriti Good, Colonialism Bad”, “Jacinda is a genius”, “Robertson is an economic genius”, “Safe and Effective Vaccine”, “Masks work”, “Snitch on your neighbour” and “Obey the views of your 16 year old daughter.”
      
      8 3
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      August 15, 2024 2:28pm
- Damocles11
  
  Let us hope that the wheels are falling out. If Boucher wants a taxpayer bailout then I’m ok with her receiving $1, as that is what she bought the business for. Not more than $1 .
  
  8 2
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  August 15, 2024 12:08pm
  - Conservatarian
    
    If Boucher sells the “business” for $5 she can then become an Silicon Valley tech titan or angel investor boasting about her proven track record of 5X’ing her investment.
    
    10 1
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    August 15, 2024 2:31pm
  - John Loveridge
    
    My source inside Stuff says they’ve been on the ropes for ages. Given what he’s told me in the last couple of years I’m surprised to see them still standing. The whole organisation has been gutted from the ground up but they’re spending money on ex-Newshub “talent” to try and build their attractiveness to a potential bail-outer. It’s a kind of desperation I’ve personally seen in other organisations heading for the wall.
    
    6 1
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    August 15, 2024 7:17pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Rats and sinking ships spring to mind
  
  4 0
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  August 15, 2024 7:15pm
Hugh Pavletich

Households still doubt inflation will fall back under 3% … David Hargreaves … Interest Co NZ
https://www.interest.co.nz/personal-finance/129225/latest-quarterly-household-expectations-survey-reserve-bank-finds

How Much Is Your Council Planning To Hike Rates? … New Zealand Taxpayers Union
https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/rates_dashboard

To address inflation, something must be done about (local government) rates … Mike Yardley OPINION … The Press / Stuff NZ

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/350351219/address-inflation-something-must-be-done-about-rates

… Luke Malpass of Stuff clearly explained the governments housing reforms on Stuff NZ early July … reprint version from Canada’s Frontier Centre for Public Policy …

Like It Or Loathe It, The Coalition Is Cracking on … Luke Malpass Political Editor Stuff NZ OPINION … Reprint Canada’s Frontier Centre

https://fcpp.org/2024/07/10/like-it-or-loathe-it-the-coalition-is-cracking-on/
4 2
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August 15, 2024 11:28am
- kowtow
  
  I don’t believe a thing of this low inflation in groceries .
  
  All I see is constant and very steep price increases .
  
  I suspect someone is really clipping the ticket …….
  
  and it won’t be the producers .
  
  8 2
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  August 15, 2024 12:43pm
Chuck Bird

Leighton Smith

Robert MacCulloch has a resume to be envied.

He began his tertiary education at the University of Auckland, continued it at London School of Economics and Princeton University,

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-the-leighton-smith-podcas-30246213/episode/leighton-smith-podcast-251-august-205417440/
8 2
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August 15, 2024 11:31am
- Burtland
  
  not sure white colonizer credentials cut it in a pink penis, mud slinging cat fight
  
  5 1
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  August 15, 2024 11:46am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Want to walk us through that one Burtland?
    
    3 1
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    August 15, 2024 6:55pm
- Conservatarian
  
  MacCulloch gives Grant Robertson a scathing review in this interview. It’s a good listen.
  
  5 1
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  August 15, 2024 2:33pm
Chuck Bird

I learned something from Elon Musk when chatted to Trump. That is too high levels of CO2 can make breathing difficult. It starts around 1000 ppm. This is something that needs to be looked at. The rate of increase each year is accelerating.

Carbon Dioxide Levels Chart

https://www.co2meter.com/en-nz/blogs/news/carbon-dioxide-indoor-levels-chart
1 7
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August 15, 2024 11:41am
- NothingLeft
  
  It doesn’t. Humans can handle CO2 levels up to 10000ppm OK, 5000ppm for 8hours, with 40000ppm considered dangerous to life (100x normal air).
  
  But it does very slightly start to impact your mental acuity above about 800-1000ppm, though even up to 2000ppm you barely see any impact. Eg for drivers, pilots or surgeons you try to keep it lower than 1000ppm. ‘Good’ air quality is generally considered to be <1000ppm.
  
  6 1
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  August 15, 2024 11:52am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    It looks like I took too much notice of Elon Musk. In any case, we should not raise CO2 levels higher than necessary but not at the cost of our country’s income.
    
    However, there is definitely no climate emergency.
    
    6 1
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    August 15, 2024 2:22pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Several people who are actually scientists (as opposed to paid pushers of a deeply flawed alarmist hypothesis) have independently calculated that Co2 will cause approx 1C or less of warming per doubling of atmospheric Co2.
      
      Note also; around 96% of the Co2 in the atmosphere was NOT put there by human activity. No, there is no climate emergency. There is however a dire economic emergency developing as a result of grifters and the ignorant pushing alarmist climate BS.
      
      0 2
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      August 15, 2024 7:01pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  It can’t be that much more difficult – CO2 levels in submarines are often many times that level. Even in buildings the levels can be around 1000ppm.
  https://www.co2meter.com/en-nz/blogs/news/carbon-dioxide-indoor-levels-chart
  
  6 1
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  August 15, 2024 11:54am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  In the 70s MIG (Metal Inert Gas) welding was done with straight CO2. There was a heater to stop the regulator freezing up.
  But with 6 welders going the workshop CO2 level must have gone up. Never noticed any affect.
  
  7 3
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  August 15, 2024 12:03pm
- cmm
  
  “It starts around 1000 ppm”
  
  Absolute bullshit.
  
  When you exhale giving someone mouth to mouth resuscitation you are breathing out about 1% CO2. That is 10,000ppm.
  
  If you hold your breath for 10 seconds, the CO2 will build up to two or 3%. The trigger to breath is caused by CO2 build up in your body and fires at between 1% and 5% depending on your training and tolerance.
  
  All this is at way higher levels than 1000ppm – by at least a factor of 10.
  
  The average person exhales approximately 1 mol of CO2 per hour (22 litres per hour).
  
  If two people are in a typical bedroom (24cubic metres or so = 24000 litres) for 8 hours they will emit about 320 litres of CO2. That will create CO2 levels of around 1.3%.
  
  That is 13x as high as 1000ppm, yet many people do that every night with no discomfort. Sure, it might feel a bit stuffy, but that’s far from problematic.
  
  8 2
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  August 15, 2024 12:13pm
- kowtow
  
  Where’s Corporal Jones when you need him.
  
  5 2
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  August 15, 2024 12:45pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    It is set in. Just mention CO2 and they roll around on the floor making stupid noises and having anxiety attacks.
    Same as when someone yells out “NUCLEAR!!!!”
    
    2 3
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    August 15, 2024 3:39pm
- Mike
  
  Why would anyone believe anything said by those two bullshitters?
  
  4 5
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  August 15, 2024 3:44pm
  - Matt Long
    
    Glasshouses.
    
    5 1
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    August 15, 2024 6:40pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Under the document a comment:

“This is a very significant document. You’ll notice that they refer to ‘forests and fisheries’ so they were using a Rogue James Freeman version of the Treaty. This was because the final draft of the Treaty was lost. It was found in 1989 and since then hidden from public view by activists.”
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August 15, 2024 11:56am
cmm

They’re having a laugh aren’t they?

The new “Cheapest EV” is $35,000 for a Fiat 500, 2 door, bubble car.
Geez, why not put eBikes and mobility scooters on the list too?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/motoring/350379479/falling-dominoes-new-cheapest-ev-new-zealand-fiat
5 1
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August 15, 2024 12:24pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  You would need to be rich or stupid. 😫
  
  For less than that price you can buy a nice hybrid Toyota Yaris that will drive from Wellington to Auckland on a tank of petrol and give you many years of trouble free service.
  
  https://www.toyota.co.nz/new-car/yaris/YARIS-YHGXA-NM1/?skuCode=YARIS-YHGXA-NM1-1L6-20#
  
  Fiat cannot even make petrol cars that are reliable. After 100 years of practice. 😕
  
  9 2
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  August 15, 2024 2:14pm
  - thirteenstars
    
    Due to their propensity to rust the saying used to be that Italian cars came out to NZ as deck cargo on submarines.
    
    4 2
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    August 15, 2024 2:45pm
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      The cars to the Cook Is used to go as deck cargo, also Niue.
      
      2 0
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      August 15, 2024 6:23pm
  - Chris Nisbet
    
    “You would need to be rich or stupid”
    Why not both!?
    
    3 1
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    August 15, 2024 2:58pm
  - cmm
    
    Quite.
    
    Fiat is now owned by Stellantis that seems to have bought up all the worst car brands in the world (for reliability anyway): Crysler, Fiat, Alfa, …
    
    2 2
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    August 15, 2024 2:59pm
  - kevn
    
    BY… For 20% of that price ($35k) you could buy a nice ICE Toyota Yaris that would take you from Akld to Welly. The interest on the money saved would pay your fuel costs.
    
    4 2
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    August 15, 2024 3:47pm
    - greybeard
      
      You don’t need a hybrid Yaris: my 2020 Yaris GX CVT regularly gets under 4.0l/100km on short trips, and over 29.000km has recorded just over 4.2l/100km.
      Best so far is 5.6km, 9minutes, 3.3l/100km.
      Beat THAT !
      
      1 0
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      August 15, 2024 6:49pm
    - Hard Cheese
      
      Who the F wants to drive around in a Toyota Yaris, much less a 15 year old Yaris? LOL
      
      2 0
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      August 15, 2024 7:21pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I’ve driven a Yaris Hybrid. Yes it runs on the smell of an oily rag and will undoubtedly have that wonderful Toyota reliability. However on the open road at 100kmph it kind of felt like it had the stability of of a supermarket shopping trolly around steep sharp corners! I’d recommend a Prius instead for handling if your target is a “compact car”. A Corolla might also be good (have driven a late model non hybrid and it was also good on the open road).
    
    3 1
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    August 15, 2024 7:08pm
- Inandout
  
  You can pay $300,000 for some European EVs, pure madness. You would need to be a beyond help virtue signaller on a considerable salary.
  
  4 3
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  August 15, 2024 3:03pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Yep and then there are the servicing and parts costs. Yikes.
    
    1 2
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    August 15, 2024 7:09pm
    - Hard Cheese
      
      You must be joking. The maintenance costs on an EV are going to be far lower than an ICE vehicle. Owning a premium European brand ICE car you’re just asking for money to be hoovered out of your wallet every time you get it serviced.
      
      3 0
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      August 15, 2024 7:27pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    It’s only money, and a Taycan is a Taycan
    
    2 0
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    August 15, 2024 7:19pm
- Jake Dee
  
  Well exactly, why aren’t they included/
  A lot of the EV vs ICE calculations change once the smaller vehicles are included.
  How many journeys are 1 person, under ~10km and only require ~10kg of cargo capacity? How many such journeys are now taken with full sized (4 seat) vehicles that could be taken with a vehicle that costs a few thousand$ and can fit in a wardrobe?
  i can see the advantage in having a vehicle that can be used at any time to go pretty much anywhere and carry pretty much any load but there are always going to be tradeoffs, but the purpose of a vehicle is transport from A to B.
  The advantage will go to the society that can get more stuff done faster and for less.
  
  0 1
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  August 15, 2024 8:12pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Looks like there is a demand for setting up Charter schools

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/525244/78-applications-to-set-up-charter-schools-david-seymour-says
13 1
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August 15, 2024 1:06pm
- cmm
  
  What I don’t understand is Seymour saying there is insufficient funding to support them all. The $153M fund will only cover a few schools.
  
  I don’t understand why that should be.
  Is a charter school really more expensive to run?
  I’d have thought that anything that steps away from the typical government school model would be far cheaper to run.
  
  6 4
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  August 15, 2024 3:04pm
  - Mike
    
    Needs a profit margin.
    
    2 7
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    August 15, 2024 3:45pm
    - Swifty
      
      If people make an earn delivering excellent education outcomes, often for children struggling in the state system, then give me that any day rather than a decaying not-for-profit state monopoly which fails a large minority of children.
      
      9 1
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      August 15, 2024 4:02pm
      - cmm
        
        Of course the current state school system is for profit. Heaps of troughers profiting from it exactly the way it is.
        
        Why do you think the unions feel so threatened?
        
        7 2
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        August 15, 2024 4:55pm
      - MCōs
        
        That’s a big ‘if’
        You don’t even know who the 78 or 79 are
        Could be Gloriavale, Destiny or anyone
        
        2 5
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        August 15, 2024 5:28pm
David Garrett

Steve O: You pretty much need a magnifying glass to read the document in the second link, but what I notice about the Maori version is ZERO reference to Aotearoa, but several refernces to Niu Tireni, which I believe to be the Maori translation of New Zealand.
10 1
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August 15, 2024 2:10pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  David, the online document has a magnifying – to + slider. I usually click it half way. On a computer it is great, cellphone I’m not sure.
  ZERO reference to Aotearoa? Maybe that word had not been ‘invented’ in 1860.
  Many of Julian’s online things use the same issuu.com reader.
  
  2 3
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  August 15, 2024 3:35pm
kevn

https://www.downtoearth.kiwi/post/the-reserve-bank-throws-truth-out-the-window-its-monetary-policy-statement-would-make-a-propaganda
6 1
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August 15, 2024 2:13pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Ouch!
  
  5 1
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  August 15, 2024 3:02pm
MCōs

The results are in!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8UO45HKT_Z/?igsh=MWdmeWUxbGdtaHhjNQ==
0 3
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August 15, 2024 2:42pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Inflation, the truth.
I didn’t even know what Tictacs were.

https://rumble.com/v5azbil-trump-brilliantly-demonstrates-biden-kamala-inflation-with-tic-tacs.html?
2 7
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August 15, 2024 3:45pm
Ghost

This is a good video. Also shows how someone at the event invented a fake story of what happened

Investigating the Trump Assassination Conspiracies
3 0
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August 15, 2024 4:23pm
Swifty

Peter Dutton gets it right on Palestinian refugees:

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/heather-du-plessis-allan-drive/audio/murray-olds-australian-correspondent-on-opposition-leader-peter-dutton-saying-australia-shouldnt-accept-palestinian-refugees/

But here in NZ, Phil Twyford doesn’t give a rats, all he cares about is signalling his virtue using our hard-earned cash.
5 0
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August 15, 2024 5:48pm
kevn

Still no Maggie Pie… 🙁
6 0
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August 15, 2024 5:52pm
- Ghost
  
  I’m sure she will be back to start being the secret downticker again
  
  2 3
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  August 15, 2024 6:32pm
  - greybeard
    
    Crikey, I thought that I was the only one who knew that……
    
    3 0
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    August 15, 2024 6:46pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    She may be out of sorts after being given a 24 hours holiday by the moderators. 😀
    
    5 0
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    August 15, 2024 7:38pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350380271/justice-minister-signs-kim-dotcoms-extradition-order
So the fat German criminal finally meets his doom: bloody good.
What a corrupt piece of mediocrity. Entitled, selfish, cynical, and at the end of it all, irrelevant.
3 0
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August 15, 2024 7:01pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Yep. Remember the helicopter swoop? 2012. Kim has had 12 good years here since then.
  
  0 0
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  August 15, 2024 7:21pm
- John Loveridge
  
  Good riddance.
  
  0 0
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  August 15, 2024 7:33pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  The report says he can appeal. That might take awhile.
  
  If he ends up in the USA justice system he won’t be bailed to a high end home with his trophy wife. It will be an orange jumpsuit in a federal remand prison.
  
  3 1
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  August 15, 2024 7:42pm
Ghost

Good video, worth watching

You Can’t Believe Anything On The Internet After This…

This time we take a look at what appears to be a trending piece of software known as “Deep-Live-Cam” that now allows you to modify your face, completely live in a call. Truly a piece of science fiction now a reality thanks to modern computers, how is it possible?
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August 15, 2024 8:02pm

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