General Debate 21 August 2024

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Yvette

Independent MP Darleen Tana ‘grasping at straws’ over resignation – law professor
… The Green Party co-leaders formally wrote to Tana last month, to indicate their [sic] staying on distorted Parliament’s proportionality.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/525730/independent-mp-darleen-tana-grasping-at-straws-over-resignation-law-professor.

For as long as it takes the Greens to solve this simple situation of distorted Parliament proportionality, is the time that the Greens are unsuited to make any democratic decision supposedly towards the wellbeing of any New Zealander through the Parliament that they fail to undistort.
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August 21, 2024 8:03am
Matt Long

Claims that RFK is close to pulling out and endorsing Trump to avoid the Kamala trainwreck.
https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1825928656453251552
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August 21, 2024 8:06am
- Simon
  
  They flushed 81 million vote Biden down the shitter. Just like that.
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:28am
- Grunter
  
  One theory is RFK Jnr may be offered the Attorney General role under Trump. That’s a far more powerful role than VC and would give Jnr a chance to have a real crack at the evil Dr Faccui and his gang of COVID crooks.
  
  The Deep State will be sharpening their knives as we speak…..
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:42am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    He would be a catastrophic appointment.
    
    He is an anti vaxxer and conspiracy theorist. His views on vaccines reflect a lack of cognitive and reasoning ability. Inevitably, those thought processes would contaminate everything he touches.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:59am
    - wsk12345
      
      Putting aside his views on vaccines in general, do you not want to see Dr Fauci taken to task over his handling of covid19!?
      
      I certainly do, and if he can bring truth on other vaccines too, I’m happy with that as well. I’m 100% sure that while they may not be killing children or causing autism (or they may), very few of them are as safe and effective as we have been assured.
      
      I’ve had all the vaccines up to covid, including ones I’d rather not such as yellow fever. But interestingly I know 3 elderly people (80s and 70s) who have never had a vaccine in their lives and have also never had a flu or any other illness we vaccinate for. One has never even had a cold and had no symptoms with covid. In fact they are the healthiest people I know. Yes it’s anecdotal, but I’m not convinced it’s coincidental. I would like to know. And this is how we would get to a truth we can trust.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:14am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “I’m 100% sure that while they may not be killing children or causing autism (or they may), very few of them are as safe and effective as we have been assured.”
        
        Well you would be wrong.
        
        RFK is despicable and he has no place in public life.
        
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        August 21, 2024 12:02pm
      - p5
        
        Dr Fauci gave bad advice, but criminalising that is incredibly problematic. The premise that an supporting a bad policy is illegal would not and should not fly in the courts.
        
        The buck should stop with the politicians who appointed him and took his advice, including Donald Trump.
        
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        August 21, 2024 1:36pm
      - wsk12345
        
        Well Benedict, fortunately we are all entitled to our own opinions bc it appears that many disagree with you on that point.
        
        And it’s not up to your personal opinion and cherry picked studies to tell me I’m wrong.[Mod – don’t make it personal, thanks]
        
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        August 21, 2024 6:26pm
    - Damocles11
      
      This is the guy that said a worm ate part of his brain, and stashed a dead bear cub that he found in upstate New York under some bushes in Central Park. He makes the chronically weird look normal.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:18am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Indeed. Yet he is worshipped by the fools who think that COVID vaccines are killing everyone. As we saw on this blog yesterday, there are still people who believe that the MMR vaccine causes autism.
        
        Sadly, the madness spawned by RFK has infected previously rational forums, including the comments section of Kiwiblog. While I continue to enjoy the posts by DPF, sadly the blog has become a magnet for climate change deniers and antivaxxers. There is also a sprinkling of homophobia, which the moderators do a good job of stamping out.
        
        Hopefully with the passagge of time, rationality will return. However it will not be soon.
        
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        August 21, 2024 12:16pm
      - imalwaysright
        
        “There is also a sprinkling of homophobia, which the moderators do a good job of stamping out.”
        
        How would you know that?
        
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        August 21, 2024 4:06pm
      - Ghost
        
        Ummm, because if you watch this blog long enough you see the posts get deleted
        
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        August 21, 2024 4:15pm
      - mawm
        
        Benedict – Have you read Wakefield’s paper yet? Or are you just going to keep on rubbishing him despite all the evidence that is coming out in peer reviewed papers in reputable journals that show that most of the facts in his paper are correct? I gave you some links. There are many more. And stop calling me an anti-vaxxer. I know far more about immunology and vaccines than you do.
        
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        August 21, 2024 5:23pm
    - Bridgenag
      
      More evidence that the COVID shots did NOT reduce mortality
      The Lancet paper claimed 20M lives have been saved by the COVID shots. Two data sources (both in public view for years) show the shots were all downside risk.
      
      https://open.substack.com/pub/stevekirsch/p/more-evidence-that-the-covid-shots?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:36am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I laughed when I saw the author Steve Kirsch. A criminally stupid anti vaxxer. Everything that he has written has been destroyed by scientists. It is alarming that anyone would promote his views on this blog.
        
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        August 21, 2024 10:50am
    - Anthony Melchett
      
      Yea, much better to keep having people under the control of big pharma running things aye…
      
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      August 21, 2024 12:09pm
    - Ghost
      
      Watch his interview with Dr Phil, he isn’t an anti vaxxer and his answers on those questions even had Phil agreeing is he wants vaccines to be properly vetted.
      
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      August 21, 2024 12:19pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Properly vetted? 🙄
        
        What does that mean?
        
        The guy is a lunatic. I would rather see Kamala Harris in charge than him.
        
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        August 21, 2024 12:30pm
      - Ghost
        
        Go watch the interview. Start from 22 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IoiG9O1GicI
        
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        August 21, 2024 1:05pm
      - mawm
        
        Benedict – I challenge you to produce any peer reviewed RCT trials on modern vaccines with long term follow up studies. It’s time to put your money where your mouth is!
        
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        August 21, 2024 5:38pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      His views on vaccines reflect a lack of cognitive and reasoning ability.
      
      Mirror, Mirror on the wall…
      
      From my viewpoint, you have just summed up my view of you.
      
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      August 21, 2024 12:59pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Please feel free to share your analysis of peer reviewed analysis and data. I have been doing that (on and off) for four years. I am waiting.
        
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        August 21, 2024 2:00pm
      - Grunter
        
        Bene – are you still clinging to that Jan’23 Cumulated excess deaths chart as your sole evidence??
        
        You do realise that one chart shows how flimsy your argument in favour of Covid jabs is??
        
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        August 21, 2024 2:47pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        @Benedict
        
        My science history goes back 50+ years. My interest in analytics goes back further. And I have had an strong interest in respiratory diseases about as long. Triggered by several near death experiences from respiratory disease, and a decision at age 17 that I did not want to spent the rest of my life dependent on an inhaler.
        
        And that is just me. Let alone colleagues.
        
        I don’t base much on peer reviewed analysis because it is still their opinion.
        
        I place far more importance in understanding the underlying science and principles involved.
        
        Plus I never ignore what is within grasp or in front of me. And I ask the hard questions.
        
        I do not need some “expert’s” peer reviewed articles saying there are no vaccine side effects when I know (i.e. directly, not hearsay) a couple of dozen people with VERIFIED vaccine injuries. And several people who lost friends, family members, and vaccine recipients after the vaccine.
        
        Some who were healthy but left the vaccine clinic feeling unwell and who dropped dead within hours or days. Some left work to go get vaxxed and never came back, and next day they get told by the boss that “Sam” (33) died and his funeral is on Friday.
        
        And those figures are staggering considering a large portion of most of the people closest to me are unvaccinated.
        
        I have coached people how to ask the hard questions of GPs and specialists. If these medical professionals trust they are not going to be dobbed in, or it is off the record, many will share.
        
        I would take a bet that like everyone in NZ, you will know or know of people who are vaccine injured. But they have not shared that information with you because either they are uncertain or they don’t trust you. The media is bought and paid for.
        
        I suggest you start listening to RCR, or join a VFF group, and start to connect to real people. There is an enormous amount of documentaries all over the world.
        
        It is time to leave Truman Show “Seahaven Island” and see the real world. You’ve been conned.
        
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        August 21, 2024 8:32pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Ridiculous.
      Google searches are a comfort to some.
      
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      August 21, 2024 1:33pm
  - Grunter
    
    *VP not VC
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:10am
- slightlyrighty
  
  Kennedy is a Pro Choice Environmentalist who’s numbers dropped from 14% to 5% following the withdrawl of Biden.
  
  It would be interesting to see where his remaining 5% came from, and where that vote goes.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:48am
- p5
  
  Also reports he was asking for Kamala for a cabinet position in exchange for an endorsement. Seems he is in it for himself, the Winston Peters of America.
  
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  August 21, 2024 1:37pm
Chuck Bird

Not premium.

People convicted of road rage should lose their licence. I bet he would not have tried such as thing if a gang member was in the car. I hope he gets named and also sued.

North Shore pensioner injured in alleged road rage attack involving Ponsonby CEO and high-performance European sports car

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/north-shore-pensioner-injured-in-alleged-road-rage-attack-involving-ponsonby-ceo-and-high-performance-european-sports-car/4VKOYETWFZFMXBOKQUGVER7RBE/
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August 21, 2024 8:07am
- Biscuit
  
  Chuk, stories like that get my male mammaries in all sorts of twistedness.
  
  Every Ponsonby CEO with a high-performance European sports car is now fielding ‘Was that YOU?” queries from his friends/neighbours/work colleagues.
  
  The same thing happens when the story is ‘Former All Black involved in (some rort of other)’
  
  It’s all clickbait … and if you are daft enough to take the bait you learn nothing concrete about the so-and-so involved…
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:13am
  - pdm
    
    Biscuit you forgot the unnamed former Politician before an Auckland Court at present in relation to accusations from about 30 years ago.
    
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    August 21, 2024 8:26am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    “high-performance European sports car”
    
    I’m putting my money on it being an SUV. These people generally act like they are an elite class of royalty on the road. I observe their obnoxious and dangerous wankery nearly every day on the roads.
    
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    August 21, 2024 3:31pm
- pdm
  
  I read that a few minutes ago Chuck.
  
  If true the guy is a thug, no better than a gang member. He needs to be named and shamed as well as being before the courts for assault!!!
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:16am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I agree he should be named but only after being found guilty.
    
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    August 21, 2024 8:19am
  - MCōs
    
    If what’s true?
    Do you know the details?
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:59am
    - graham
      
      You could always read the article and find out what the details are. They are covered quite well.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:07am
    - pdm
      
      No I do not know the details – hence the `if it is true’ disclaimer.
      
      Are you not aware that the media is prone to blowing things up out of all proportion.
      
      Having said that it sounds to me like the `flash car driver’ is in all probablity a thug.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:39am
- Close Hen Counters
  
  CEO’s car is a 1/4 of value of his house ?in Ponsonby
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:16am
- peterwn
  
  As far as I know a judge can disqualify a driver for any offence that involves a vehicle. Soon after this was enacted years ago a driver who trespassed on a private forestry road was disqualified from driving. However this does not seem to be happening in recent times.
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:21am
- All_on_Red
  
  Let me guess
  The old guy was in the right hand lane doing 80kmh and wouldnt move to the left, then he did and then brake checked the other driver who then lost his temper?
  Not trying to justify assault- there should be charges- but too many people drive too slowly and dont move out of the right lane.
  – I suspect this wont be a popular take on this… 😉
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:38am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Also, nobody likes entitled rich pricks in flash cars, eh.
    
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    August 21, 2024 8:52am
    - pdm
      
      Depends on their attitude Gravel.
      
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      August 21, 2024 8:54am
  - rouppe
    
    Should have read the article.
    
    Old guy was in the right hand lane, speed unknown.
    Was about to move over, but sports car overtook on the left.
    Sports car then in front of old guy, slowed to about 60kph, was a touch.
    Sports car then goes ballistic.
    
    Balance of fault on the sports car in my opinion.
    
    Sure he might have been rightly frustrated if old guy taking up the passing lane (which it is, even on a motorway).
    But once he had passed, he should have just carried on. He created the conditions for the contact, he followed the old guy, he initiated the assault.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:00am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Ah yes, I see, the brake checking was the other way around
      Still what’s with the accusation of trying to run him off the road?
      But agree the guy should have just carried on
      Brake checking is dumb
      And so is being an inconsiderate arse driving slowly in the right lane and not moving over
      
      Note to self- am driving that road shortly- look out for old farts driving slowly
      
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      August 21, 2024 9:19am
  - cmm
    
    According to what is written, the old bloke didn’t brake check the CEO, but did give him the finger.
    The CEO then did brake check the old guy, leading to a collision.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:07am
    - Local Miller
      
      No, the article has left out some details. After the CEO overtook the old guy and slowed to 60km, he must have got behind him again because the article says the old guy “realised the sports car was following him”
      
      The whole quote in: “He then felt a “bump” as the two vehicles collided before he exited the motorway at Millwater, but realised the sports car was following him”.
      As I read this, it sounds like the CEO deliberately tail ended him. If so, this is reckless driving on top of the assault. Plus deliberately driving at 60km on the motorway could be dangerous driving.
      If everything is as the old guy says, the CEO should be in front of the courts. Based on the CEO’s responses to the press, my money’s on the old guy telling the truth.
      
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      August 21, 2024 9:43am
      - jacthecat
        
        Tail-end someone using your $400K car as the weapon … I don’t think so.
        
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        August 21, 2024 12:54pm
    - kevn
      
      cmm… Plenty of eye witnesses apparently.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:04am
    - Close Hen Counters
      
      Would love to be a fly on the wall when it comes to insurance claims! Youngest son sitting exam same morning pulled out onto residential road 30km/hr speed limit, pulling out he would have barely scraped 2km/hr – checked numerous times before pulling out and hit another car ‘that came out of nowhere’ clearly doing well above speed limit for that area. The other driver (young Asian woman) was incredibly aggressive towards my son who was devastated .. still had to sit his exam :(. Insurance company not remotely interested in hearing son’s recount of events
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:27am
  - John Loveridge
    
    I’m with you on that. Far too many people drive slowly in the outer lane, blithely ignorant of the frustrated queue building behind them. They first get a polite toot from me, then a toot and flashing lights.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:12am
  - David Garrett
    
    All on: I agree – with both points.
    
    My son and used to play a game when we encountered a car in the middle lane of the motorway doing 75 or 80ks. The trick was to guess whether the driver was: 1) Asian; or 2) an old geezer.
    
    It was one of those two 95% of the time. Hard to say which of the two categories causes the most hazard, the Asians or the geezers.
    
    By the way my excellent dentist – a lovely man – is a Hong Kong Chinese. Every time I see him he has an Asian driver story to tell me.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:13am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Might be the same dentist as mine. Phil Ling ?
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:34am
    - Swifty
      
      I’m currently seeing a NZ-born Chinese lass.
      
      We were driving the other day and I blurted out at a driving misdemeanour we witnessed ‘Asian drivers, no survivors’ and she laughed her head off.
      
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      August 21, 2024 11:00am
  - peterwn
    
    Also the older gent should have kept both hands on the steering wheel and not flipped the bird to the other driver.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:37am
- kowtow
  
  Factories closing due to Labour’s self declared , non existent climate emergency policies and yet the front page with screaming headlines is about a relatively minor assault due to two dicks on the road .
  
  FFS !
  
  ps If you really want to be enraged read today’s ridiculous ( again) pro division ,racist editorial.
  Who the hell is making the editorial decisions at that rag.
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:41am
  - Damocles11
    
    I saw a copy at the local cafe. An Editorial celebrating Tainui speakers delivering a ‘one two punch’ to the government at Turangawaewae. Outrageous. Simply outrageous. The cartoon is Seymour (and Brooke) sitting in a rusted out ‘Treaty Principles’ car , saying it has no engine. And the lead ‘letter to the editor’ is….an attack on the government. Of course.
    And there are Kiwiblog members quite happy to fund this continuous barrage of hate and abuse.
    
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    August 21, 2024 12:12pm
    - Paulus
      
      It makes copy for the so called media they have nothing else to print, or say, except condemn the Coalition in everything, and try and break it.
      
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      August 21, 2024 1:48pm
    - kowtow
      
      It was quite a strangely crafted piece of writing too .
      Deliberately.
      Almost every paragraph containing a Maori word and fighting/violent rhetoric ,evocations.
      
      Weird.
      
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      August 21, 2024 2:34pm
- MCōs
  
  Who among us know what actually happened?
  I once saw observed a road rage incident right outside my house in Ngaio
  An older guy was waiting for a car park to came available, but a young guy sneaked in first. The old guy was furious and instigating fisticuffs, but came off second best. I was initially sympathetic towards the old guy, but he shouldn’t have hit the other bloke.
  Next day the young guy came to my house looking for witnesses. Sorry, didn’t see a thing.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:35am
- kowtow
  
  The “pensioner” is a dick head . Sitting in the o/s lane holding up traffic , forcing the other guy to undertake and then giving him the fingers.
  
  The old guy is a menace .
  
  And the media is dog whistling against the “moneyed ” classes . And it’s worked .
  
  Pitch forks and burning faggots for the rich guy.
  
  The article is actually neo Marxist propaganda .
  
  As is their editorial today .
  
  Meanwhile the country , with plenty of assistance from the same neo Marxists in te media is going down the shitter.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:08am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Urban commuting/shopping etc in a supersized, lethal and annoying wank tank, contrary to the delusions of the self important, moronic and ghastly ***kers buying them, does not buy the owner any special rights on the road. You have zero rights to harass or intimidate other drivers in your nasty dickhead transport.
    
    The moronic rush to buy super sized bully vehicles is making society increasingly nasty, uncaring and selfish. It is also the reason why it’s impossible to get the road toll down.
    
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    August 21, 2024 3:15pm
Matt Long

That the Chair of the Commerce Commission should be reposting ANYTHING from marxists.org should be grounds for instant dismissal, but as many people have assured me there are no communists in our government, or the previous one.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/nicola-willis-calls-in-public-service-commission-following-commerce-commission-tweets-on-joe-bidens-gaza-genocide/4UXHTHV4MND23ODXLMQ6QQU4NY/
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August 21, 2024 8:10am
- Gravelroad
  
  Is it too much to expect that top level public servants (If this guy actually is one) on big money keep their personal opinions to themselves?
  How professional is it for a person in such a position to be indulging in activism on a public platform – unless he/she has a dispensation in their employment contract?
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:32am
- kowtow
  
  Six bodies of hostages kidnapped and then murdered in Gaza rescued . Four of them were old men.
  
  Where’s the outrage .
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:43am
  - Don Beckett
    
    I would suggest that the bodies were recovered – not rescued, which implies they were still alive.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:51am
- RoboRob
  
  This guy should be gone burger. He is totally unsuited to be running the commerce commission if the a) cant keep is private views to himself and b) would actually go to a marxist site. Marxists shouldn’t in charge of anything related to commerce.
  
  I assume this guy is a Labour appointee.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:39am
  - peterwn
    
    You need a strong communist to run the Commerce Commission – having a strong capitalist running it is like a fox in a henhouse.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:39am
    - Matt Long
      
      I’m not sure of that, the biggest rorts take place where there’s a government monopoly on goods or services, a good capitalist will aim to break up monopolies and nurture efficient free enterprise.
      Like trucks versus rail.
      
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      August 21, 2024 1:23pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

From last night.
The Treaty for Dummies Article 1 Part 4.

https://stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/the-treaty-for-dummies-article-1-part-4/?

Video 14.38.
Did Maori Cede Sovereignty or not?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyMM1YIGhYA
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August 21, 2024 8:12am
Maggy Wassilieff

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Can the Minister please explain why there are 790 Māori tamariki who have entered Oranga Tamariki in the last eight months, a record amount of tamariki?

Hon Shane Jones: Ask the whānau.

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: I’m asking the Minister. It’s her role.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: Ask your cousins.

https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/combined/HansDeb_20240820_20240820_28

An exchange during Question time yesterday
(Q 9)
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August 21, 2024 8:12am
- pdm
  
  Good to see Speaker Brownlee take a more pragmatic view on this yesterday.
  
  Instead of siding with Ngarewa-Packer he closed her down and moved on to the next question.
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:28am
- rouppe
  
  About bloody time somebody said it
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:38am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    And wouldn’t it be good if some of our intrepid journos did a check on the families that have had 790 children “taken” from them.
    
    Are they the families that iwi don’t want to know about?
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:54am
    - Notsofast
      
      This is 3 to 4 children every day for 8 months.
      It does not sound credible, but if so there has been no progress in decades towards a better cultural path.
      The new race relations Commissioner is a specialist in structured literacy. This is profoundly linked to a solution, I guarantee it. And it will have nothing to do with the craven deifying of Te Reo.
      
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      August 21, 2024 11:09am
- nathie
  
  And good on Shane Jones and Winston Peters for supporting Karen Chhour in Parliament (with the added bonus of making the bully Debbie Ngarewa-Packer being forced to accept some home truths)!
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:16am
peterwn

So a law professor thinks Darleen Tana is grasping at straws if Darleen thinks that being booted out of Parliament can be successfully fought through the courts.
While going to court is unlikely to save the day for Darleen, I would not be surprised if the Green Party membership does not support her removal as the Greens leadership are wanting. It was the same membership who effectively prevented Greens talking with National in 2017 which would have greatly weakened Winston’s bargaining position.
So it is most likely that the Green leadership and MP’s will have to get used to the idea of seeing her in Parliament until 2026.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/525730/independent-mp-darleen-tana-grasping-at-straws-over-resignation-law-professor
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August 21, 2024 8:16am
- Bobba Fret
  
  Here is Darleen’s interview with Mike Hosking. Such an entitled person. No one voted for her to be in parliament, no one wants her there now, but she is staying as she reckons a few people have said they would like her to. Democracy not at work.
  What an entitled so and so. I know why she is staying. It’s the $$$$.
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/darleen-tana-former-green-mp-on-their-decision-to-remain-in-parliament-the-situation-with-the-migrant-workers/
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:39am
  - David Garrett
    
    Bobba: Of course it’s the bloody $$ !!
    
    And her claiming that her – sorry “their” – staying (what ridiculous nonsense that is) is a matter of principle is literally laughable.
    
    She is in exactly the same position I was in in September 2010 – I was no longer welcome in the party whose List had led to my becoming an MP, and therefore the only principled decision was to resign as an MP.
    
    This woman must have the hide of a rhino – she will not be having an easy time of it.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:30am
    - Bridgenag
      
      they’re
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:42am
      - David Garrett
        
        Bridge: Ah, no. Ms Tana, despite being clearly a woman, has now adopted the they/them pronouns. And the dopey woke media is playing along with it.
        
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        August 21, 2024 11:19am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        David G. is correct.
        
        staying is being employed as a noun (gerund?) in the sentence that was published in Stuff.
        
        It is not being used aa a verb (present participle).
        
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        August 21, 2024 12:28pm
    - peterwn
      
      And if Darleen decides to fight removal in the courts I doubt that she would sit down first, breathe deeply, count ten, then do a dollar and emotional cost benefit study on suing.
      Oh golly, it is tricky writing comments that avoid pronouns.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:45am
      - David Garrett
        
        Peter: Who’s she going to sue? I have never heard of it, but I suppose a Judicial Review of the process the Greens undertook to expel her might theoretically be possible? Can’t think of anything else off the top of my head.
        
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        August 21, 2024 11:52am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I think she is doing enuf to raise her profile in the eyes of certain activist factions.
        
        What’s the betting she soon accepts a nice sinecure with a Northern iwi, or a “Charitable” Trust, or a Tertiary Education provider?
        
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        August 21, 2024 12:33pm
      - peterwn
        
        DG – Darleen would seem to be trying to hang her hat on a minority comment by one of the Supreme Court judges in Huata v Prebble/Shirley/Hide/Newman 2004.
        
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        August 21, 2024 6:25pm
    - cmm
      
      DG: “she will not be having an easy time of it.”
      
      If she just turns up sufficiently often and just sits there reflecting that she is pulling in $500 per hour, or whatever, I am sure she will have a very easy time of it.
      
      Situations like these are only uncomfortable if you have alternatives.
      
      What else could she do? Pull the dole?
      
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      August 21, 2024 12:22pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        What else could she do?
        
        She’s got a B. Tech (Chem), an MBA, had a Rotary Foundation Scholarship, and speaks 5 languages.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darleen_Tana
        
        She’s multi-talented…. She could do lots…..
        
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        August 21, 2024 12:40pm
      - cmm
        
        A BTech Chem will allow you you run rote tests in a chemical lab. $60k per year. Maybe.
        
        MBA? I suppose that could be worth something if accompanied by experience. Does she have any experience anyone would want? The bike shop is probably not something for her CV. I don’t think that can be turned into money.
        
        5 languages? Fluent in how many? Got translation skills to go with it? Hard to see that turning over more than $50k a year.
        
        Talents are only going to turn into $ if they are useful.
        
        It looks like that $200k or so for occasionally parking her arse in parliament is the sweetest deal she can find for a very long time.
        
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        August 21, 2024 2:59pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Wikipedia.
        “They” “Them.”
        Really? on Wikipedia?
        
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        August 21, 2024 3:25pm
      - peterwn
        
        MW – one would think with these qualifications she would know how not to dig holes for herself.
        
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        August 21, 2024 8:38pm
  - peterwn
    
    Those who accepted her as an electorate candidate for Tāmaki Makaurau and gave her a winnable list position of 13 effectively elected her to Parliament. people cannot now turn around and try and argue that no one ‘elected’ her to Parliament. If voters did not want her in Parliament they should have cast their list votes elsewhere. Having her hanging around like a bad smell for the next two years should be a good incentive to up the game when selecting candidates, just as National had to do after the 2020 election.
    
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    August 21, 2024 11:42am
- mw
  
  The greens should just get rid of her, because she deserves it and for my entertainment.
  There will be no court process by Darleen, we know she is there for the money and ultimately will not flush away money with lawyers for something that will not succeed. IMO a bark with no bite as she has done the $$ numbers.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:12am
  - Paulus
    
    Who will pay her legal costs ?
    – Legal Aid I suspect.
    
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    August 21, 2024 1:54pm
- gravedodger
  
  Perhaps Ms Tana is being very honest in knowing exactly what her replacement is in terms of ability and showing a little bit of “True Patriotism” here.
  
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  August 21, 2024 1:33pm
Matt Long

Regarding autism and yesterday’s debate, I came across this article, there’s fairly strong evidence that ASDs are largely diet related and can be treated by moving to a diet of unprocessed food high in grassfed red meat, but it’s interesting that there’s a possible correlation between the level of umbilical cord polyunsaturated fat metabolites and autism severity in the child.
https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2024/08/20/modern-diets-autism.aspx?ui=ab34ffc849b5aecfdc97a6462373395af2e5bee9a6849f1d5735764da8c6ba1a&sd=20160727&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1ReadMore&cid=20240820_HL2&foDate=false&mid=DM1614327&rid=100831528
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August 21, 2024 8:27am
Grunter

Another very good article by Don Brash. He articulates how I see the world perfectly.

I imagine this will get the usual downticks, but at least have a read and consider an alternative view to the usual “USA knows best” approach that MSM constantly push.

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/don-brash-independent-foreign-policy-gone-by-lunch-time
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August 21, 2024 8:37am
- Cassandra
  
  Foreign policy should reflect the national interest. It’s not a matter of supporting or opposing the US, it’s “What is in NZ’s interests?”. While we should and will try to keep our trading relationship with China intact, if the push comes to shove it is Australia that we’ll need on side, and therefore AUKUS Tier 2. Ask the Philippines. Brash is totally wrong. In any conflict NZ could not keep its sea lanes open. We would starve – nothing coming in or out. Brash says we should reduce our armed forces to fisheries protection in our EEZ. Ridiculous. He should stick to the ToW.
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:28am
  - Grunter
    
    I totally agree with your first 2 sentences. The question is what is in NZ’s best interests?
    
    Blowing up our trading relationship with China is clearly not in our best interests – we would literally go bust within a month or so. China has never threatened NZ. And we have a Free Trade Agreement. The USA is threatening even more Tariffs on our exports to them – how is that ‘Friendly’ and in our best interests???
    
    BTW – joining AUKUS2 does not mean we keep our sea lanes open. Any major kinetic war involving China and the USA means sea lanes would be massively disrupted and NZ could do nothing about it. Just look at the Red Sea – a handful of sandal-wearing Houthis are still flying drones at boats and causing global shipping disruptions.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:25pm
pdm

National strikes again against ACT – this time it is legislation Nicole McKee is working on.

Mark Mitchell tells Mike Hosking the `Gun Register is going nowhere’.

Sorry my limited talents do not extend to links from radio programmes.
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August 21, 2024 8:38am
- kowtow
  
  Another barely commented on data breach story yesterday .Competenz .
  
  https://www.competenz.org.nz/updates/cyber-incident
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:53am
- rouppe
  
  Ginny complaining about Nicole McKee, a gun lobbyist, working on gun law is rich when her government made James Shaw, an environmental lobbyist, a minister working on environmental law.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:13am
  - kowtow
    
    A couple of weeks ago te media paahti’s Hate Target was their daily rage was karen Chhour , this week it’s been Nicole McKee .
    
    Just remember that , folks , when te media paahti blither on about successful “wahine Maori’ who should be celebrated .
    
    They are such nasty hypocrites.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:19am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      But but but not the right sort of Māori
      
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      August 21, 2024 12:28pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Well, I heard McKee in Q time yesterday using the register as part of the policy, she suggested that will help keep the guns from gangs, but as usual Nats are shafting Act. Well not the way she spoke yesterday, looks like the register will be part of her bill, perhaps go and listen to her answers yesterday, if the register is staying, then what was Mitchell to say?
  
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  August 21, 2024 12:27pm
Yvette

One down, two to go …

Act’s three proposed treaty principles are that the government has the right to govern, that the authority and ownership of land and property of all of us is protected, and that all of us are equal under the law.

The real question is not whether that’s what our tīpuna established in 1840, it’s whether that’s what we want for Aotearoa New Zealand now. August 21, 2024 7:00AM David Farrar, Hehir on Treaty principles

The first sentence above contains ACT’s three points. The act which expresses them could be even shorter than that. It does not need to involve the Treaty except to point out the current and historic arguments necessitate the assertion in law of the three points –

‘The Crown is sovereign’, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says
During Question Time, Green Co-Leader Chloe Swarbrick pushed him on the issue multiple times, asking “does the prime minister believe that Māori ceded sovereignty?”
Luxon responded saying “our position is the Crown is sovereign.”

One down, two to go …
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August 21, 2024 8:45am
- trout
  
  Chris Luxon also said that ‘Maori had ceded sovereignty’. I guess Chloe will follow this up in Question time today.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:58am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    She is trying to get him to recite the treaty, he simply laughs at her and says I know exactly what it says, then she asks another stupid question and he laughs and jokes with them as if to say [deleted], he is getting better and better at answering questions, and he has Hipkins slapping himself in the face also with stupidity
    
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    August 21, 2024 12:31pm
    - Grunter
      
      Yep, it’s one big joke to Luxon.
      
      In the meantime bugger all changes.
      
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      August 21, 2024 2:14pm
- Grunter
  
  So Mr Luxon, do you also agree that private property is protected? (Yes or No?) – I think he will say Yes to that one as well.
  
  And finally Mr Luxon, do you agree that we all have the same rights and responsibilities under law – ALL laws that is, not just some…..? (Yes or No)
  And that is where I think Luxon will go all slippery woke and deceptive…..
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:17am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He has stated many times all people in NZ are equal, no squish squash any bloody thing
    
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    August 21, 2024 12:33pm
    - Grunter
      
      See, there you go, twisting words….
      
      “He has stated many times all people in NZ are equal….” That is very different to “we all have the same rights and responsibilities under law”
      
      BTW – we are NOT all equal – that is a mathematical impossibility. We are all UNEQUAL – now that is obviously true.
      
      This is about having all laws being completely ‘colourblind’ when it comes to different races. Luxon and all the Labour-Lite supporters just don’t get it. We have racist laws now. We have racist Government Depts now. These need to be abolished, but Luxon will never do that.
      
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      August 21, 2024 2:12pm
- Paulus
  
  When did New Zealand or rather Nui Tirana become Aotearoa ?
  
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  August 21, 2024 1:59pm
newview

Saw Ardern speaking on Breakfast. I can’t tell you what she said as I muted her. To see her BS self promoting made me sick.
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August 21, 2024 8:48am
- John Loveridge
  
  Why were you watching Breakfast anyway? I’d consider that punishment enough for ALL my past sins, and that’s without Ardern making an appearance.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:39am
  - newview
    
    I like to see what the MSM is dishing up. Like the interview with Hipkins who was blaming National for the energy crisis.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:09am
    - John Loveridge
      
      Well, you’re a braver masochist than me! Besides, I prefer to keep my breakfast down once I’ve eaten it.
      
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      August 21, 2024 11:06am
Rusty

*News flash* Jacinda Ardern might be making a speech at the Democratic convention in Chicago.
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August 21, 2024 8:49am
- Flossie
  
  Not exactly at The Convention. Some side panel discussion I believe.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:23am
  - bjools
    
    Offering advice? As to how to screw up the economy of a small country?
    I think Kamala has got this.
    Lends itself to the old gag,
    How do Labour/ Dems, create a successful small country (paraphrase)?
    They start with a large one and work down from there.
    Related
    Note how Biden etc keep on about the USA being the largest economy in the world,
    Mr Biden
    The USA has been the largest economy since
    WW 2.
    At one point I believe they were estimated to be one HALF of the entire worlds economy.
    Not anymore, and BTW YOU can’t take ANY credit for that.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:42am
  - Paulus
    
    Look the Democrats have discovered the Ardern Factor and is going flat tack for the women’s votes,
    Good article by Prebble this morning on the subject.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:02pm
- kowtow
  
  The Democrats have erected fences and insist on ID checks for admission to their convention.
  
  Pity they refuse to enforce their national borders in similar vein.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:25am
- NothingLeft
  
  “Comrades, ….”
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:13am
Maggy Wassilieff

Martyn Bradbury seems to grasp the internal rot of identity politics:

No where is the power of identity politics more apparent than in Darleen Tana’s extraordinary refusal to leave and instead stay on in Parliament.

Darleen’s argument is that despite quitting the Greens and despite being a list candidate, she is a Māori woman who understands Māori science and as such, has a right to remain in Parliament – DESPITE quitting and DESPITE being a Party List MP.

Darleen believes her identity matters more than her actual political affiliation.

https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2024/08/21/darleen-tana-the-influence-of-identity-politics-on-the-left-and-the-prism-of-marginalization/
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August 21, 2024 8:56am
- cmm
  
  … and despite there being no such thing as Maori science.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:05am
- John Loveridge
  
  Darleen has no moral compass, and the hide of a particularly thick-skinned rhinoceros, along with its intellectual ability. We all know why she’s hanging on.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:38am
  - Paulus
    
    Money !!!!!!!!!
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:02pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Carrr-ching!!!
      
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      August 21, 2024 9:49pm
Tauhei Notts

MacCulloch’s Down To Earth blog site has had some good pieces over the years but today’s is the best.
Could somebody please provide a link of it to this site. My information technology skills do not stretch that far.
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August 21, 2024 8:57am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  This one?:
  
  https://www.downtoearth.kiwi/post/how-to-break-nz-s-bank-oligopoly-in-three-lines-and-at-no-taxpayer-cost-unlike-the-commerce-commiss
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:08am
  - rouppe
    
    Apart from conflating Kiwisaver with Kiwi Bank, i don’t see how his suggestion solves anything.
    
    You’ll still get pinged paywave costs no matter who you bank with because they are a third party cost to all banks from Mastercard, Visa, and Paymark
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:27am
    - Grunter
      
      His point is we need to encourage more competition. I’m not entirely convinced he has the solution to that, but it is a step in the right direction.
      
      With more competition, silly annoying fees would gradually reduce.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:21am
    - Swifty
      
      Yeah, that didn’t make sense to me either.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:30am
    - peterwn
      
      And outfits like Windcave sit between the merchant and card company.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:52am
    - Local Miller
      
      Why do people say you get pinged with Paywave costs? The Paywave fee is charged to the Merchant, that is the shop you are buying from, not to your card. UNLESS the merchant specifically tells you there’s a surcharge on Paywave transactions. For these merchants, typically dairies, they have an agreement with the card provider to charge the cost to the card and not to the merchant. Technically the merchant is still being charged, but they are offsetting the cost with a surcharge to the client.
      I don’t use Paywave if there’s a surcharge warning on the EFTPOS device. From my reading there’s a legal obligation on the vendor to let you know if you are being charged the surcharge.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:55am
  - Mr Nobody NZ
    
    It surprised me when my kids/neices/nephews started school (12 years ago) that none of the schools had a banking programing.
    
    It wasn’t THAT long ago when I was at school we all had an account at the local bank and each dutifully brought 20c, 50c (or if you were a rich kid a paper $1 note) each Wednesday.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:29am
    - Grunter
      
      Saving money (capital) just encourages capitalism. That clearly does not fit the socialist indoctrination programs now enforced at all NZ schools.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:22am
    - kowtow
      
      Are there any “local branches” left to bank at .
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:26am
    - peterwn
      
      I suspect educationalists did not like the displays of inequality and thrift. Also these schemes were run by the Trustee Savings Banks and possibly the Post Office Savings Bank and when these were taken over by Westpac/CBA subsidiary ASB and ANZ the main banks would not have been interested in continuing these schemes.
      
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      August 21, 2024 11:01am
    - OlderChas
      
      Yes but those were the days when there were actually banks (or a Post Office (Bank)) in every town. Also those banks had tellers, one of whom could be spared to go to the school and collect the money and stamp the little hand-written savings account book. (Oh and the children had learned enough reading and writing to fill out the deposit slip!)
      
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      August 21, 2024 11:25am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Maggy, thanks for putting that link here.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:51am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      This might help:
      https://www.wikihow.com/Copy-and-Paste-a-Link
      
      Better still: kidnap a teenager and don’t release them until they show you how
      
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      August 21, 2024 12:47pm
- Burtland
  
  its difficult to swap banks, so
  
  manipulate all Year 8 kids to open a Kiwi Bank account
  – easy job using social media TikToc, influencers etc
  thats 100,000 a year – in 10 years you have 1M customers
  re-capitalization done
  
  👏 Robert MacCulloch
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:45am
  - Taieri
    
    I don’t see anything innovative or competitive in the Kiwi Bank. Exactly the same as all other banks, just smaller. Even the small banks like SBS, TSB, Cooperative or Heartland do not offer much in the way of service differentiation and such like.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:14am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Burtland, the simplicity involved in that suggestion of Robert MacCulloch is breathtaking.
    I imagine the four thieving Aussie bastards would go ballistic and call upon all sorts of international conventions, in an attempt to stop it.
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:55am
    - Taieri
      
      the four thieving Aussie bastards would go ballistic
      ——–
      
      And if they were owned locally they would operate without making any profit, just out of the goodness of their heart?
      
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      August 21, 2024 12:31pm
      - Paulus
        
        I like my savings with a bank whose security I can see and trust, and it is large enough.
        
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        August 21, 2024 2:05pm
- RoboRob
  
  Absolutely the best way to help kids and capitalise Kiwi Bank. It’s a total no brainer.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:53am
  - Paulus
    
    Yes, but how much capital, and who is going to pay that to a second tier bank ?
    And Government 51% (Taxpayers money) owned – no way, Jim Anderton.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:07pm
- Cassandra
  
  Brilliant article. Bright idea: let’s sack Parliament and appoint Robert McCulloch as the Commissioner. Lester can be his Deputy. I’d add DG as a Deputy too. Happy to help too, of course.
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:41am
artemisia

Jordan Peterson’s new Academy – 25,000 pre-enrolments in 2 weeks.
Peterson Academy promise:
@petersonacademy
First we’ll fix the universities
Then we’ll turn to K-12
And end this madness
This woke insanity
Foisted on children
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August 21, 2024 8:59am
- cmm
  
  Sure they will talk about all these things, but unfortunately that won’t fix them.
  Fixing education in particular is something that would take decades. It needs a complete rout of the schools, the teachers’ training colleges, ministry of education (or international equivalents),…
  
  Universities are a lot easier to fix. Just make them user pays with no state funding and that would immediately sort out a lot of the mess. Not everything, but a lot.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:10am
  - artemisia
    
    Seems the idea is to offer alternatives that attract students away from other providers. Early days.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:15am
  - Grunter
    
    Make Universities AND Schools user pays with zero State funding – that would sort education overnight.
    
    Provide a massive tax cut to families with kids so that they can then pay for their kids education. Those that choose to spend their tax cut on other stuff and ignore their kids education – that’s their choice……good luck with that, have a good life!
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:26am
  - Paulus
    
    A young modern perhaps better educated Teacher out of Training College will be sidekicked by her new colleagues, and will go overseas in the circumstances.
    Teachers are part of a Mafia Unit of the Teachers Union here in what was New Zealand.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:11pm
rouppe

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will deliver a stern message for councillors and mayors gathered in Wellington for the annual Local Government NZ (LGNZ) conference today: tighten your own belt before asking central government for help.

Chris, when the councils come anyway, who is going to fact check their budget? Who is going to look at how much is spent on cultural activities, raised crossings, new council cars, consultants, media, all the stuff that can be, even temporarily, stopped?
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August 21, 2024 9:09am
- Damocles11
  
  It’s a kind of ‘virtue signalling’ from Luxon I guess. Winston excels at it as well, many words and fine ones, with little supporting action. We want action: reign in these profligate councils!
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:26am
  - cmm
    
    No, I think you have this the wrong way around.
    
    “reign in these profligate councils!”
    You only get what people vote for.
    
    If the people vote for councils that spend up at the expense of the taxpayer, then that is what they will get.
    
    As we see in Wellington etc, people will vote for more spending when they can force other people to pay for it.
    
    The solution is to not say: “tighten your own belt before asking central government for help.” because they will just say they tried, then come for the hand out.
    
    It is to say “live within your means. There is no more council burden on taxpayers”.
    
    Just cut them off at the knees. No more hand outs.
    
    Then the councils are forced to increase rates to support their increased spending.
    
    If the people that live in an area vote for huge spend ups as well as the rates rises to go with it, then that’s their choosing.
    
    However most will likely realise that they want to pay less rates, so will vote for more modest spending.
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:38am
    - Taieri
      
      If the people vote for councils that spend up at the expense of the taxpayer, then that is what they will get.
      ————
      
      The thing is, councillors have very little real power. Basically, they serve as a rubber stamp for decisions made by council employees. If a council CEO is, as often is the case, determined and savvy, he/she can wrap the entire council around his/her little finger. And the voters can do sweet FA about it. The Local Government Act as it stands now, needs an urgent attention and revision. This can only be done by the Parliament.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:20am
    - Paulus
      
      Councillors are only there to whitewash the Council Staff, and their hidden cadre of wanter’s and cyclists.
      
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      August 21, 2024 2:13pm
    - cmm
      
      This whole rort is only there because they can access “free” taxpayer money.
      
      If the ratepayers paid their way from their own rates they’d start getting a bit more tight fisted.
      
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      August 21, 2024 3:01pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Brown suggested councils better start pulling their heads in, just maybe Luxon will cut off any funding
    
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    August 21, 2024 12:37pm
  - greybeard
    
    Rein, not reign.
    
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    August 21, 2024 1:24pm
    - Damocles11
      
      ‘Reign over’?
      
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      August 21, 2024 1:55pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        That’s “rain” over 😉
        
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        August 21, 2024 3:08pm
      - MCōs
        
        On the plain in Spain
        
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        August 21, 2024 3:34pm
- Yabster
  
  Petition on taxpayer union re council spending- have signed it.
  https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/email_cap_rates?utm_campaign=20240820_rates_cap&utm_medium=email&utm_source=taxpayers
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:28am
  - Eastlander
    
    That one is good, but I disagree with the idea of allowing councils to ratify spending over that limit by referenda – they will abuse this as they abuse any power given to them. They will spend away and then try to present it as a done deal. Councils cannot be allowed any form of discretion, they must be forced by law and funding constraints to provide core services only.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:05pm
- Gravelroad
  
  And the reply from the Councils should be:
  Stop with all the arbitrary laws, rules and regulations raining down from central government and demanding they be actioned and that local ratepayers should pay for them.
  Government should tighten their own belts and let local ratepayers fund the services they want.
  Not a whole lot of stuff they don’t want or require.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:56am
- Southtop2
  
  NOTHING will happen (apologies for the yelling but it was needed). Helen Clark changed the local government act in 2002 to enable councils to focus on just about anything and put their core business wherever they wanted on the budgetary order – often behind conference center’s, climate change and giving money to things that are effectively sea anchors for rate payers. Unless Luxon changes the 2002 Local Government Act (and he wont have the testicular fortitude to do so) the councils will carry on and continue to beg.
  
  Example of sea anchor: Tasman – a pool built in Richmond was losing $1000/day (possibly not so much now as the population has grown) however some people in Motueka (20-30 minutes away) with a much smaller population want an indoor heated pool and there are councilors backing this. Yes they need to be voted out but under current legislation the TDC can go with the pool and not fix Motueka’s struggling sewage system.
  
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  August 21, 2024 12:13pm
  - Taieri
    
    Example of sea anchor
    ———-
    
    Another example, this time from Otago, a $54.5 million regional council palace:
    
    https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/whare-rūnaka-taking-shape
    
    There are many more examples of profligate spending by Otago councils, but this one is exceptionally extravagant.
    
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    August 21, 2024 5:01pm
- John Loveridge
  
  The reported moans and groans from the assembled councillors epitomise their utter contempt for their ratepayers.
  
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  August 21, 2024 6:48pm
  - Eastlander
    
    Every single one of these people needs to be pushed out of local government and sent to wait tables.
    
    Ten years of that may teach them that their lot is to serve the public and not to rule over them.
    
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    August 21, 2024 7:17pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Well, it is very late in the day….. (perhaps 80 years too late) but are some folks on the left finally waking up to where race-identity politics lead?

https://theconversation.com/outdated-and-imprecise-why-its-time-we-retired-the-term-race-relations-236776
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August 21, 2024 9:13am
John Loveridge

Yesterday DPF tells us of an $84,000 bike rack in Wellington. Today the media is reporting a massive leak from a burst mains.

Way to go, WCC.
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August 21, 2024 9:14am
- cmm
  
  Bike rack: $84000
  Darleen Tana: $200,000
  At least the bike racks can park a few bikes…
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:20am
  - 3-coil
    
    …. 2.4 bikes on one bikerack! (source: RNZ)
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:16am
- David Garrett
  
  John L: I have done a bit of engineering in my time…and when I was at school the bike racks were huge, as just about every kid rode to school.
  
  I simply can’t imagine how you could possibly build a bike rack that cost $84,000….how big is it FFS? Has anyone got a pic? (it’s outside the Freyberg pool in Oriental Bay I believe)
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:42am
  - Local Miller
    
    You can see them in this article: https://wellington.govt.nz/news-and-events/news-and-information/our-wellington/2023/07/new-style-bike-shelters-for-park-and-pool-goers
    
    Stupid thing has two layers. How are you supposed to get your bike up onto the 2nd layer of racks? And why do you need such a fancy box? Do bikes need to be kept dry now? They could have built racks that hold the bikes vertically, which would have taken up the same or less space for the same number of bikes, and just put a simple polycarbonate roof over it all. It would have cost a fraction of the amount.
    I remember several years ago they put in a lockable bike rack at the Birkenhead Ferry Terminal. At the time I was taking the ferry to town every day, and I never saw more than 2 or 3 bikes in the thing. About 2 years later it was gone. Another waste of rate payers money.
    
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    August 21, 2024 11:09am
    - zulumonster
      
      “Stupid thing has two layers. How are you supposed to get your bike up onto the 2nd layer of racks?”
      As per the article … the upper racks pull out and down.
      To be clear, my comment should in no way be viewed in any way as an endorsement of this latest colossal waste of money by my dear WCC.
      
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      August 21, 2024 2:33pm
  - John Loveridge
    
    I’m younger than you by about 15 years, David, but the bike racks were still the same when I was at school. Great big galvanised things, very well made, and I bet they cost just a fraction of what WCC has spent (inflation adjusted, etc).
    
    Then I look at the ridiculous, complicated, over-engineered monstrosity in Local Miller’s link and it all becomes clear. I wonder how much of the $84K went in dreaming up the Maori name for it?
    
    No wonder WCC’s finances are in the ol’ Gary Glitter and the city’s ratepayers are being bent over and violated.
    
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    August 21, 2024 11:16am
cmm

Cindy is going to speak at the DNC. Hoo boy!
I can’t see how that aids their cause.
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August 21, 2024 9:15am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Seem to recall that those endorsed by Cindy usually got thrashed at the real poll!
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:48am
- Burtland
  
  more gurl power 💪
  – Hillary, Alexandria, Jill, Michelle, Nancy, Jacinda
  
  its starting to feel like Reichsparteitag – “turn down the temperature ” Key™ needs to attend
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:15am
- Paulus
  
  She is part of the now Women’s cause in the USA election.
  Called Jacindamania !
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:15pm
Gussy Fink-Nottle

Re the Royal Society’s Marsden Fund post yesterday (and relativism generally)…
– GK Chesterton nailed it over 100 years ago:

“Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless.
Thus some humanitarians only care for pity and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”
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August 21, 2024 9:19am
- cmm
  
  Worst are half way between: political scientists.
  
  They pretend to use scientific principles to justify tyranny.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:40am
Pope Punctilious II

Glad tidings! RNZ thinks the answer to plummeting ratings is to double up on woke. Mihingarangi Forbes to join Susie Ferguson on RNZ National’s popular Saturday Morning show

Scoatland the Woake meets Aotearoa! The article describes Forbes as an “award-winning journalist”. Surely this is misinformation – Forbes is not a journalist, she’s an activist masquerading as a journalist.
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August 21, 2024 9:36am
- Burtland
  
  quite a pickle replacing Kim Hill – Suzie Ferguson, Joanna Forbes, Colin Peacock … maybe Patti Gower or perhaps John Campbell next
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:23am
  - Damocles11
    
    Gower has joined ‘Stuffed’.
    
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    August 21, 2024 1:57pm
    - Burtland
      
      he was on RNZ 9-to-Noon all last week
      
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      August 21, 2024 4:55pm
  - John Loveridge
    
    I was under the impression that ol’ Howdy Doody had washed up at RNZ, but it appears he’s managed to grasp hold of a lifebuoy attached to the sinking ship Stuff.
    
    Most of the comments read like they’ve been added by Stuff staffers.
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350384269/paddy-gower-has-finally-got-job-doing-fing-news
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:42pm
- Swifty
  
  You should listen to her in her RNZ piece last night – just full on Maori wonderfulness pushing for more Maori power and control advocacy, with many people interviewed in support and with not one single person interviewed with any dissenting opinions.
  
  Completely, totally and utterly one-sided.
  
  I’m just at a loss as to why the RNZ poobahs allow her to get away with it week after week after week. I can only presume they have completely abandoned the notion that as a state-owned and taxpayer-funded public broadcaster they have a responsibility to be neutral, impartial and to look at issues from all sides – and are perfectly happy to use their public positions to further their personal and political interests.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:26am
- Aquarius
  
  And pidgin
  I could screen out the woke leftie rubbish
  But the pidgin drove me away
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:35am
- Swifty
  
  Last night’s Forbes RNZ piece I mentioned:
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/mata-with-mihingarangi-forbes/story/2018944161/mata-season-2-episode-15-pera-paniora-on-the-kaipara-council-and-maori-wards
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:39am
- RoboRob
  
  Well why would RNZ give a flying fuck about ratings. Being 100% tax payer funded with the uni-party (Labour and Labour lite) guaranteeing funding for the foreseeable future. There only interest is to peddle their views.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:57am
- John Loveridge
  
  “Award-winning journalist” is about as meaningless as “best-selling book”. For all we know, little Mihi might have got a gold star from her Mum for cleaning up her bedroom back in 1981. That’s enough to qualify her for the description, and possibly worthier than the gongs journalists in this country incestuously hand out to each other.
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:23am
- Damocles11
  
  Sell Red Radio, now! We are all paying for a taxpayer funded perpetual far left propaganda broadcast. This is utter madness. WTF is the government doing?! Get on and sell it.
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:24am
  - Burtland
    
    its actually got worse since the change in government
    
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    August 21, 2024 4:19pm
- NothingLeft
  
  FFS, the govt needs to stop funding the extreme left ‘journalistic’ 5th columnists intent upon destroying NZ as a functioning prosperous democracy (also the academic, NGO and treaty gravy train variants that taxpayers are forced to pay for). It is insane that National continues to feed these cancerous tumors.
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:53am
Pope Punctilious II

Well said Mr. Luxon! “The crown is sovereign.”
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August 21, 2024 9:38am
- RightFirstTime
  
  That is what Luxon said. It is what Luxon DOES that matters. Given Luxon’s stated position of not supporting the Treaty Principle’s Bill (even though it has not yet been finalised), I am not optimistic about him acting in accordance with his statement.
  
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  August 21, 2024 9:59am
  - Ghost
    
    National are doing what they agreed to with act, go to the first reading. Act are completely to blame for only signing a deal that got it to the first reading. Meanwhile national and NZ first agreed to remove any mention of the Principle’s
    
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    August 21, 2024 10:06am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      I think that removing any mention of “treaty principles” from legislation is the better solution – if that’s what you mean.
      
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      August 21, 2024 10:28am
      - Grunter
        
        Until the next lot get in and change it back.
        
        We need a full on Referendum. Anything less just gets changed by the racists on the Left
        
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        August 21, 2024 1:55pm
      - Ghost
        
        No
        
        A referendum in these circumstances is binding only to the extent that a law, which has already been passed, is automatically triggered—or not—by the outcome. The referendum itself does not otherwise bind Parliament, though of course its result is of political, and potentially constitutional, importance. Any change to the law that results from a binding referendum is not protected from subsequent change or repeal by Parliament, unless that law, as amended, is entrenched as a reserved provision (see 52.4 and 38.13.2).
        
        Article
        
        The government will never have the votes to entrench it.
        
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        August 21, 2024 2:09pm
    - RoboRob
      
      Sure, that’s all that was agreed. Support the bill to first reading.
      
      However I suspect when Act signed up to that they didn’t expect National to rule out support after that before the bill was even written. They also didn’t expect National to mobilise a disinformation campaign against it. This really shows Nationals true colours.
      
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      August 21, 2024 11:02am
      - MCōs
        
        National should never have agreed to support its first reading and put the ball in Act’s court. Surely the Nats must have realized it’s a can of worms to show even a modicum of support
        What would 8% Act have done? As it happens their support is static , well behind their mortal enemies the Greens who have have had all sorts of personnel problems
        
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        August 21, 2024 2:12pm
    - Damocles11
      
      Cool, and have National and NZ First removed all mention of these ‘Principles’? 🤦🏻‍♂️
      
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      August 21, 2024 11:29am
  - RoboRob
    
    Luxons stated belief is the treaty is a partnership. I am not seeing how the crown can be sovereign and in partnership at the same time. Perhaps his vision is a crown lead country of Maori and everyone else, a nice separatist state.
    
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    August 21, 2024 11:00am
    - Grunter
      
      If The Treaty identifies as ‘A Partnership’ then I identify as ‘A Maori’ …….unless it’s better to be a “Non-Maori” and then I will change my identity again….
      
      Is that what Key meant when he said that The Treaty has to keep up with the times and evolve….?
      
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      August 21, 2024 1:59pm
- Damocles11
  
  Why did it take him so long to say it? This should have been his first answer to that question: “Yes Maori ceded sovereignty and yes we have one government in country, a government for all citizens of New Zealand. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Chloe.” Sorry, having to be forced to eventually speak a fundamental truth is weak. Luxon looked weak and no doubt is weak.
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:28am
- Paulus
  
  Not until Maori appoint a new Sovereign, like the truck Driver one at Ngaruawahia.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:20pm
cmm

It is interesting seeing Kamala Harris promising a bright new future comparing it to the last few terrible years – during which she was VP.

Painting the past that you helped create would seem to be an insane strategy as it only underlines your own failings thus far.

But it has been used before – sometimes with reasonable success.

In South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa replaced Jacob Zuma using this strategy. All the corruption and failing was blamed on Zuma and Ramaphosa walked away clean even though Ramaphosa had been deputy president and must have known what was going on.

Here Hipkins tried the same strategy – dumping all the Labour Party failings on Cindy. And that almost worked.

It will be interesting to see if Kamala is able to dump all the failings of the last 4 years on Joe and walk away clean. I doubt it, but time will tell.
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August 21, 2024 9:48am
SpencerArnold

Apparently Tama Potaka does not know where the families previously living in emergency accommodation are now living (according to the headline) but reading the article, it’s 1 in 5 children that can’t be accounted for. Aside from the misleading headline, it is not the state’s job to play parent to everyone and count where they are! Sheesh!
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August 21, 2024 10:17am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Besides RFKj probably pulling out of the race another is throwing her support behind Trump.

https://patriotpulse.net/this-former-ally-just-agreed-to-help-trump-beat-kamala-harris/?

Trump pulls in Tulsi Gabbard for debate prep. Alway thought she was in the wrong Party.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/16/us/politics/trump-debate-tulsi-gabbard.html
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August 21, 2024 10:19am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Biden-Obama relationship fractures over coup.
Obama never called Biden to tell him he could not win and needed to get out of the race. Nasty, nasty Democrats.

https://patriotpulse.net/joe-biden-holds-this-ugly-grudge-against-barack-obama/?
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August 21, 2024 10:25am
- cmm
  
  “Obama never called Biden to tell him he could not win and needed to get out of the race.”
  
  Seems to be a bold claim. How can anyone be sure a call never happened?
  
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  August 21, 2024 12:10pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    POLITICO, but yes there is no proof.
    Fake News? Making News? I’m not sure.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:13pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Voter fraud. Immigrants lining up to get licences and they had a tent and table outside the front door of the DMV registering them to vote!
Maria Bartiromo report.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/texas-officials-totally-debunk-fox-news-host-s-voter-fraud-conspiracy-theory-kind-of-racist/ar-AA1p8OV9?
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August 21, 2024 10:31am
I remember when

Fatherless Children:
In the June 2022 quarter the proportion of Maori babies born with married parents was only 20%.
At the same time the percentage of unemployed young Maori was roughly double that of non-Maori.
However, this is simplifying the problem of both the total number of babies being born and those out of marriage.
The following are some of the reasons –
* Effects of the behaviour during WW2 and of Hollywood celebrities.
* Movement away from religion.
* In recent years, less stable long-term employment options when previous generations would have been getting married.
* Unemployment made marriage less likely.
* Young women becoming more interested in their career prospects.
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August 21, 2024 10:41am
kevn

Just a change in subject..
Has anyone else noticed the gold kiwifruit type is becoming more light green?
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August 21, 2024 10:54am
- Cassandra
  
  Possibly cataracts. Getting old is better than not but there is a downside. (Voice of experience).
  
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  August 21, 2024 11:34am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Do kiwifruit get cataracts?
    
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    August 21, 2024 1:19pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Only the “Gold” ones. The Golden Oldie ones.
      Sometimes just in one eye……
      
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      August 21, 2024 3:31pm
  - kevn
    
    Cass…. Interesting, but the green kiwifruit still look green. I was thinking that maybe the GE/GM has waned.
    
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    August 21, 2024 7:24pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  You might have got a batch that is showing “greening”
  
  Gold-fleshed kiwifruit can develop ‘greening’ of the flesh under the skin, making them unacceptable to consumers.
  
  https://www.plantandfood.com/en-nz/article/how-green-is-your-gold
  
  and if you really want to figure out what is happening… read the bottom half of this blog:
  
  https://botanistinthekitchen.blog/2018/06/12/kiwifruit-2-why-are-they-green/
  
  or this paper:
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690984/
  
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  August 21, 2024 3:34pm
Pope Punctilious II

Some other gems from last year’s list of Marsden grants funded by RSNZ:
23-AUT-011 EHB $870,000 Networks of power: Gender, race and class in workplace violence
23-MAU-062 SOC $861,000 Misogyny, rhetorical violence and the invisibilised entwining of digital and embodied social worlds
23-UOA-164 SOC $360,000 Co-designing and Decolonising Gender Education: Exploring What It Means for Gender Diverse Students to Thrive in Schools
But those are the usual sort of nonsense that gets funded by the social “sciences” panel. It’s even more worrying the way STEM panels are being hijacked by woke nonsense. For example:
23-UOA-056 EIS $360,000 Merging ancient Roman knowledge and Te Ao Māori to create self-healing and sustainable concrete using natural materials
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August 21, 2024 10:59am
- John Loveridge
  
  Dear fucking God, and I apologise for using that expression in reply to a man of the cloth, but I mean, dear fucking God!
  
  Sure, let these halfwits spend all the time they want figuring out how to decolonise the patriarchy, or whatever the fuck, but give them public money for it? The amounts are insane. As I said yesterday, there’s fuck all science here, just social justice bilge.
  
  It makes me want to spew.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:46pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350383517/southland-whitebaiters-stung-65-fee-increase
I suspect that the Environment Southland staff have had a large salary increase and that is the real reason for the annual fees going up.
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August 21, 2024 11:31am
- cmm
  
  Or some Climate Change slush fund…
  
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  August 21, 2024 12:06pm
NothingLeft

Entertaining recorded phone call to Konstantine Kisin from a ~~left wing activist~~ journalist attempting to manufacture ammunition for what is clearly a planned hit piece against Elon Musk over tweets about his expression of concern about Europe’s seeming trajectory towards immigration caused civil war.
https://youtu.be/pObVw7z6hog
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August 21, 2024 11:51am
Sparrow

Let’s accept all politicians are hypocrites. I see David Seymours new Ministry for deregulation is carrying on just like all the others. Huge salaries, a lot of seat warmers and comms staff. They get rid of public servants in one area to replace in another. Three head honchos on over $300,000 won’t divulge the top top honcho salary. Name rings a bell was she not in charge of OT. Its a total f….farce they are all the f..same just different snouts in the trough of OUR money. We should all get real and just ignore the f..lot. Sickles and scythes can be got at Bunnings !!!
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August 21, 2024 12:06pm
- noonetovotefor
  
  Interestingly crickets from the ACT bootlickers in this blog. Anyone going to call out the hypocrisy??
  
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  August 21, 2024 12:10pm
  - Grunter
    
    See below……(ex-ACT….)
    
    NOONETOVOTEFOR – I’m with you, but what is your call?
    
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    August 21, 2024 1:44pm
  - Damocles11
    
    Bootlickers? What an idiotic comment.
    If the new ministry is busy scrapping onerous Leftist regulations then what’s the problem? The Minister of Finance Nicola Willis is telling us that the government is reining in wasteful spending, whereas Sparrow is saying all the public servants have been moved from one place to another. So who is telling the truth, Sparrow or Willis?
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:04pm
    - Grunter
      
      I’d say Sparrow! When has a politician been trustworthy and told the truth? And Willis is spending more than ever!
      
      They haven’t scrapped anything yet. Early days but this Blob smells like all the others…..
      
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      August 21, 2024 3:03pm
    - noonetovotefor
      
      Guess we have to spell it out for you. New government: we will cut wasteful government spending
      
      also new government: we will set up a new ministry that has 3 Deputy CE’s each earning over $300k for 90 odd staff.
      
      you either call out their hypocrisy or you lick their boots. its quite simple
      
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      August 21, 2024 4:13pm
- Burtland
  
  more likely deep rot in the Public Service than Seymour setting the salaries
  
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  August 21, 2024 1:12pm
- Grunter
  
  Thanks Sparrow – I had missed this. MSM link below (assuming it’s all accurate….??)
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-ministry-for-regulation-paying-staff-average-salary-of-150000-despite-public-sector-job-cuts/QASF3VBOF5AF7B2HWKRF4A5TPI/
  
  90 Staff….!!! FFS
  
  I have voted ACT in most elections. I am now “Undecided”. I will never vote Left (TPM, Greens, Labour, NZ 1st, Labour-Lite)…..so I am currently left stranded!
  
  Seymour – the Minister of School Lunches and ‘The New Blob”…. so demoralising!
  
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  August 21, 2024 1:41pm
  - Damocles11
    
    Have you heard we have a Coalition government, not an ACT one, and moreover decisions are made by the Cabinet, which includes ministers from all 3 parties in government? The idea that retaining school lunches in some shape or form was all Seymours doing shows you don’t have a very good grasp on how these decisions are made.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:07pm
    - Grunter
      
      So you’re saying Seymour had no choice but to swallow a rat and lead the announcement on School Lunches? He could have ‘opted out’ as he is allowed to do as a coalition partner (agree to disagree).
      
      But no, run debts, borrow money, provide more free lunches
      
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      August 21, 2024 3:09pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “90 Staff….!!! FFS”
    
    How many did you expect? – at 90 it must be the smallest government Ministry, or close to it.
    
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    August 21, 2024 3:44pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “Seymour – the Minister of School Lunches..”
    
    You seem to have no idea how Executive Government works in New Zealand.
    
    You could start with the Cabinet Manual.
    
    https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/our-business-units/cabinet-office/supporting-work-cabinet/cabinet-manual
    
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    August 21, 2024 3:46pm
- MCōs
  
  What does that ministry do?
  I’d have thought it was up to specific ministries to cast an eye over their own regulations where they have expertise
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:19pm
  - Ghost
    
    It only gives advice, holds no power to have the advice implemented, so a waste of time and money
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:21pm
    - Dudley Quaffquaff
      
      How could it have “the power to have the advice implemented”? No Department has that power, which rests with Ministers, subject to Cabinet and then Parliamentary agreement, alone.
      
      The best we can hope for is that those decisions are informed by high-quality analysis, and that’s what these people are there for.
      
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      August 21, 2024 4:29pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “I’d have thought it was up to specific ministries to cast an eye over their own regulations where they have expertise”
    
    I assume that is sarcasm?
    
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    August 21, 2024 3:43pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  The salaries look quite reasonable. There is no story here.
  
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  August 21, 2024 3:41pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  If advice from these people can stop, overturn or correct costly and ineffective regulation they will have paid for themselves many times over
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:31pm
  - Mike
    
    There will need to be another agency to research and report on the effectiveness of the regulation ministry’s reviews.
    
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    August 21, 2024 5:09pm
- Mike
  
  And four times the staff required for the previous Seymour-birthed organization it replaced.
  All back-office staff, of course.
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:35pm
NothingLeft

US polling bias responsible for Harris’s lead:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/internal-harris-polling-much-less-rosy-public-polls-super-pac-founder

I’d guess we won’t truly see who was wearing togs until the tide goes out in November.
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August 21, 2024 12:16pm
cmm

Bloody hell… $33/hr median earnings? That’s not much.

$453 per week median koha from the taxpayer. Wow that’s huge! That’s equivalent to $20/hr of hand outs.

It seems that the basic goal seems to be:
*Everyone “works” for the government.
* Everyone is a beneficiary.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/money/350385856/are-you-earning-average-pay-new-zealanders
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August 21, 2024 1:39pm
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350386118/child-abuser-who-left-toddler-victim-injuries-worse-some-fatalities-we-see-jailed

There is absolutely no excuse for this sustained and excessive abuse of a young child.
None.
He should be imprisoned for a very long time.
And the other “adults” who were in the house at the same time should be charged as accessories to the assaults.
But, as usual, there will be all sorts of excuses made and the so called whanau will run for cover.
Despicable.
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August 21, 2024 1:44pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  And surprise, surprise….
  Not the fault of our current government or Minister for Children/ Prevention of Family violence.
  
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  August 21, 2024 1:58pm
  - Gravelroad
    
    And I bet this person had a group of simpering family admirers in the court ready to yell out “we love you, bro” , “Stand tall” and so on as he was led away.
    I don’t know of any actual animals that treat their young in this depraved fashion.
    
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    August 21, 2024 2:11pm
    - John Loveridge
      
      And the saintly Ms Ngarewa-Packer will be calling out Minister Chhour for her complicity in this crime.
      
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      August 21, 2024 2:55pm
- Swifty
  
  Check out his FB page – where he posts all sorts of ‘loving dad’ pics.
  
  Shame too on all the other adults who knew this was happening over months and did nothing to stop it.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:05pm
- cmm
  
  “Bridjid Tamihana”
  
  HTF is a bloke named “Bridjid” meant to go through his formative years in a (I am guessing here) tough neighbourhood/school and not come out the other side a complete psycho.
  
  “Bridjid eh? You’s a girl bro?” How many times did he hear that?
  
  No, it doesn’t condone his offending, but it might explain some of it.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:20pm
  - Swifty
    
    I work closely with a bloke named Carmen – he doesn’t bash his kids.
    
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    August 21, 2024 4:18pm
- cmm
  
  If they charges blind-eyed accessories, as they should, then we’d have at least double the prison population.
  
  And it would be a bit more difficult to blame colonialism.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:22pm
- AndyW
  
  C’mon, we all know it’s Whitey’s fault – bloody colonialism and the RTDs.
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:47pm
SmokerGuy

Tv one news frame poll results on government as ‘almost half think race relations are worsening due to the government policies’ yet the majority think race relations are the same or better. Sometimes I think the mainstream media want violence on the streets. What other conclusion could we possibly come to from them reporting this way?
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August 21, 2024 1:45pm
- Keith White
  
  “If it bleeds it leads.”
  
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  August 21, 2024 1:58pm
- Damocles11
  
  I am reaching that conclusion too.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:08pm
- Gravelroad
  
  That the “majority think race relations are the same or better” is not the news that is going to sell the paper.
  The “news” is that ‘“almost half think relations are worsening due to the government policies”.
  Simple.
  First lesson in news reporting from way back:
  Dog bites man: not news.
  Man bites dog: news.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:19pm
- cmm
  
  The phrasing of the questions is poor too.
  
  Do I think race relations are worse? Certainly.
  Due to the current government’s policies? Not so much.
  
  Unfortunately from where we are now it is likely one of those cases where it has to get worse before it gets better.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:25pm
- MCōs
  
  You could say 83% say race relations are the same are worse.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:37pm
surfing

Word is the average salary for the new Regulations department is 150k… this is just average.

Fairly mind blowing, for a job that doesn’t carry much responsibility or technical difficulty.
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August 21, 2024 1:52pm
- NothingLeft
  
  I would say that it requires far above average intelligence to be able to assess the cost/benefit of any particular regulation and all the likely intended and unintended consequences of their removal.
  
  As proof of this witness the entirety of the Labour+Greens+Te Racists caucuses and understand that not a single one of them would be competent to do this as proven by their track record in govt and the creation and support for their various party’s destructive policy platforms.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:17pm
- Dudley Quaffquaff
  
  What makes you think it’s not technically difficult to assess the expected costs and benefits of a proposed new regulation, or even the actual costs and benefits of an existing regulation?
  
  If these people can produce the analysis that will stop, improve or abolish costly and ineffective regulation, they will pay for themselves many times over.
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:21pm
- Mike
  
  Still to come will be the expenditure on the consultants required for specific reviews.
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:37pm
Swifty

“The panel, chaired by esteemed legal experts Tā (Sir) Kim Workman and Professor Khylee Quince…..”

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/sir-kim-workmans-major-police-investigation-released-what-the-seven-reports-reveal/ICNE2KDWBBFYNOVTLEF62MATSU/

Snigger…..
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August 21, 2024 2:18pm
- cmm
  
  Lies, damn lies and statistics.
  
  “A major report into unconscious bias among the police has found being Māori increases the chance of being prosecuted by 11% compared with Pākehā.”
  
  OK, maybe.
  
  But Maori are prosecuted at around 3x the rate, or 200% more.
  
  So what accounts for the other 189% then? Maori offending maybe?
  
  How about this:
  It is far more important to focus on the 189% than the 11%.
  
  Then there’s this schoolboy statistics error:
  
  “Although Māori made up 16.5% of the population, they were involved in 42% of taser discharge events.”
  
  That sounds bad, it sounds like the cops are deliberately out to zap Maori.
  
  But how about reframing it in a better context: “Despite Maori making up over 50% of violent offending they were only involved in 42% of taser discharge events”.
  
  So clearly police are extremely cautious about tazing Maori vs the general population.
  
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  August 21, 2024 2:35pm
  - kowtow
    
    ‘So clearly police are extremely cautious about tazing Maori vs the general population.’
    
    One interpret that as front line Cops might be afraid to Zap maoris , I wonder if their ‘senior management’ takes an extra keen interest in Maori Zapping as opposed to zapping everyone else and thus frightens the Taser operators into inaction , depending on the colour of the crime.
    Policing by current , rather than consent.
    
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    August 21, 2024 3:36pm
    - cmm
      
      Yup, what other conclusion can you draw if one population (non Maori) has a far higher zaps-per-violent-offender ratio than another population (Maori)?
      
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      August 21, 2024 4:15pm
  - Burtland
    
    is this the same as breath testing outside the pub?
    
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    August 21, 2024 4:38pm
- Handyman
  
  I recall a relevant panel discussion on TV where a woman stated that 80% of prisoners being Maori proved the justice system was racist.
  When asked why 80% of prisoners are men (compared to women) she said with a straight face “because they commit more crime”.
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:17pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Nicely spotted. Believers in social constructivism (non-STEM left wing academics and the weak minded fools they indoctrinate) believe men are definitely different to women but all men are definitely the same but there is no difference between male and female brains, and a hundred other mutually contradictory and clearly falsified by real-world evidence things.
    
    It’s all faith based (or mendacious) belief decoupled from reality and clear evidence of a derangement, a lack of critical thinking, or a corrupt willingness to deny reality and lie in service of political agendas and power.
    
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    August 21, 2024 5:20pm
- Aquarius
  
  50% of Police call outs for family violence…….
  Go figure……..
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:40pm
  - kowtow
    
    And do they provide the race stats for those particular attendances ……..
    
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    August 21, 2024 4:50pm
- Swifty
  
  This whole area has been extensively studied in the States and for decades – in their case as to why African-Americans are over represented in these sorts of stats.
  
  Time and time and time again the studies have conclusively proved that the number one factor in determining how a police/potential offender interaction is going to go is the behaviour of the subject immediately preceding the altercation.
  
  It’s not race, it’s not age, it’s not geography, it’s not gender – it’s whether a person complies or whether they nut off and become combative, argumentative, resistant and violent.
  
  Have a look at the same stats for the Japanese, the Filipinos, the Nepalese New Zealanders and they will almost never be tasered. Why? Because they almost never nut off.
  
  If the authors of this study or the news media want to concoct a police racism narrative we should understand what’s going on. They’re either absolutely crap researchers or they are deliberately lying to us.
  
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  August 21, 2024 6:10pm
Inandout

I heard from a panelist on a US site that 70% of American Jews vote Democrat. Even after the spate of anti semetism at universities and at demos outside the Chicago convention, I have now come to the conclusion legacy loyalty is fixed and immovable.
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August 21, 2024 3:02pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Intelligent culturally Jewish people tend to be high achievers, and get a lot of their economic success from being embedded within the dominant socio-political power structure. They are urban-elite and establishment stalwarts getting rich off the rent seeking enabled by the power centralized in the grip of that urban elite. In this era that means Democrat all the way baby if you care about looking after your own elitist interests.
  
  Push against the system at your peril.
  
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  August 21, 2024 5:24pm
ecco

Fascinating reading about the web of financial transactions of ‘doc/Polky’ after the police forensic lady has gone through his affairs (excuse the pun…) with a fine tooth comb. It appears that Polky was certainly going to live it up with hookers in his retirement. Multiple hookers. What is very sad is that the wife was prepared to turn a blind eye to such abuse. Will be interesting to see how the defence handles this aspect. I suspect the next stage of these proceedings will be the poor wife’s reputation getting dragged through the mud by Polkinghorne’s defence.

Even though the [deleted] KC – Mr Mansfield – Polky has acting for him, Polky kind of blew his case early on with the bald faced lie of a statement that ‘his marriage wasn’t fine – it was perfect’. Yeah right.
And also the ensuing recorded conversations with his wife and relatives revealing how miserable she really was in that marriage.

Let’s hope other women trapped in loveless marriages like that just because the husband is the principal breadwinner have the courage to get out of their situation. I do feel that Hanna did like the lifestyle and trappings of being married to a specialist doctor and was prepared to put up with a shipload of bad treatment. Very sad indeed.
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August 21, 2024 3:30pm
- BeaB
  
  Always so easy to judge other people’s marriages. We usually have little idea what is really going on.
  Your last paragraph read like the blurb for a piece of mediocre chick lit.
  
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  August 21, 2024 3:59pm
  - ecco
    
    She could have taken him to the cleaners with the dirt she had on him and come away with $5m.
    
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    August 21, 2024 4:54pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Paying hookers was not a crime, the last time I looked. Not sure why the judge allowed this as evidence.
  
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  August 21, 2024 10:07pm
BeaB

Aren’t we lucky to have news from outlets like X. Otherwise, if we relied 0n RNZ, we would be as shocked as they are that Trump visited a town once associated with the KKK. Of course RNZ didn’t tell us that Biden also made a campaign stop there when he was running for the presidency. That would murky their partisan waters.
And they wonder why we don’t trust them.
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August 21, 2024 3:57pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Ashburton was, once upon a time, made sister city to Pulaski, Tennessee – no doubt as an opportunity for a junket to some bored local politicians. Then someone pointed out that the KKK was founded there and it was quietly dropped and never mentioned again.
  
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  August 21, 2024 5:30pm
  - Ghost
    
    Their sister city is Pulaski, Virginia.
    
    https://www.ashburtondc.govt.nz/ashburton-district/about-ashburton-district/investing-in-ashburton/sister-cities
    
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    August 21, 2024 5:39pm
    - NothingLeft
      
      I sit corrected.
      
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      August 21, 2024 9:16pm
Damocles11

The absolute idiocy of the Leftist mainstream media continues unabated –

https://x.com/adnanbelushi/status/1826037893766459395
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August 21, 2024 4:02pm
Ghost

Hmmmm, hope Luis Isn’t suicidal…..

Former Pentagon insider Luis Elizondo says the Department of Defense has a spacecraft crash retrieval program and has recovered nonhuman bones. In a NewsNation special, Elizondo reveals more than any Pentagon official has done before, naming the government agencies and aerospace companies he says possess these alleged spacecraft.

YouTube
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August 21, 2024 4:17pm
- Mike
  
  Complete rubbish from a grifter who’s already made pile from this bullshit.
  
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  August 21, 2024 4:46pm
  - Ghost
    
    Don’t be so harsh on yourself Mike.
    
    As for Luis Elizondo, well, let’s look at his career
    
    former U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent former employee of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence.
    director of the now defunct Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program
    
    Certainly someone who hasn’t been a grifter or a troll
    
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    August 21, 2024 7:16pm
- Inandout
  
  host, gone, zapped.
  
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  August 21, 2024 5:20pm
Steve Todd

“[…] she understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward; we will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If, if we bankrupt a business, if we bankrupt a business, or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No! We don’t get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect to see an escalator waiting to take us to the top. […].”

[…].

“Wait, I, I wanna know, I wanna know, who’s gonna tell him, who’s gonna tell him that the job he’s currently seeking might just be one of those black jobs?”

—Michelle Obama, Tuesday 20 August 2024

So good. As she said at the start of her speech, “[…], something wonderfully magical is in the air, isn’t it?” That’s akin to what I’ve said a couple of times recently: something’s going on out there.

And as for Barack!! Wow! What … a … speech!

“If you want to know who someone cares about, look who they fight for.”

“A new way forward”

“We’re not going back!”

“When we fight, we win”

“Mind your own damn business”

“We can sleep when we’re dead”.

Great stuff. Roll on the election, I say.
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August 21, 2024 5:19pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Obama TEARS Trump to TINY PIECES in BEST DNC Speech
  
  For those of you who missed Barack Obama’s speech this afternoon, here are some snippets, for your delectation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2T1TCPu4aA [18 minutes].
  
  It’s great stuff. Enjoy.
  
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  August 21, 2024 7:48pm
  - Inandout
    
    ST, after watching Tucker interviewing Obama’s apparent ex male lover I have changed my mind on that politician. His marital life must be a ball of fun.
    
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    August 21, 2024 8:39pm
Ghost

This annoys me. Police haven’t given any information yet, but the media run breaking news 3 dead because a resident has told them that. They show photos of the cars. I hope the families have been informed and aren’t finding out from an article

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350386569/three-people-believed-have-died-geraldine-car-crash
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August 21, 2024 5:50pm
Swifty

What a bloody disaster!

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/525747/ridiculously-high-power-prices-threatening-manufacturers-shane-jones

I hope I’m not alone in observing that as the Left drives bigger and bigger government, costing us more and more and controlling more and more of our lives and businesses, the outcomes we need for a functioning society become poorer and poorer.

Health. Education. Infrastructure. Crime. Energy.

FFS.
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August 21, 2024 6:23pm
- Damocles11
  
  We imported 1 million people over 17 years. Property developers and real estate agents are happy about it but where is all the supporting infrastructure, the extra hospitals, schools, power stations etc?
  
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  August 21, 2024 6:44pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  Solar is getting cheaper while electric power is getting more expensive.
  
  Huge increases in electric power prices will increase the uptake of solar. Once installed they will not be uninstalled so power companies may be creating a situation where their future income will permanently decrease.
  
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  August 21, 2024 7:28pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Heh! Quotes from “Right-Wing” government Ministers:
  
  Manufacturing and industrial companies are being put “in a perilous situation” by ‘gentailers’ who show no regard for the country’s interests, Associate Energy Minister Shane Jones says.
  
  The announcement that Winstone Pulp International was shutting was “hideous news” that came in the same week as the “stupendously high energy dividends” were being announced by the power generating companies, he said.
  
  Lynn Prentice and “Bomber” Bradbury have entered the chat.
  
  Energy Minister Simeon Brown says the government is ensuring that power companies aren’t price gouging by making them publish data on power margins.
  
  Let me introduce you to Kamala Harris: “price gouging” has a flexible definition and ultimately only one government solution.
  
  And while the Left will complain that all this is as result of the private-sector marketplace that your RW predecessors created in the 1990’s, the fact is that when markets are restricted from applying certain solutions via Net Zero the market is going to produce predictable results like this.
  
  The gas industry had collapsed and legislation would be passed shortly to overturn the ban, accelerate some drilling and encourage more gas into the market.
  
  This is so sad. Build three LNG import terminals – Auckland, Tauranga and either Lyttleton or Dunedin. The oil and gas industry is not coming back following Jacinda’s Captain’s Call.
  
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  August 21, 2024 8:30pm
  - Taieri
    
    either Lyttleton or Dunedin.
    ———
    
    No room for expansion in either of these places. Timaru!
    
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    August 21, 2024 9:25pm
Swifty

The king of Huntly reckons Maori are respected more overseas than they are in NZ.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/350386567/kiingi-tuheitia-says-maori-are-more-respected-overseas-aotearoa

So was Ardern.

What does that tell you?
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August 21, 2024 6:36pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  People believe and trust the media way more than they should.
  
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  August 21, 2024 7:22pm
Ghost

I agree, this has to stop. Not just the abuse of female, but also the abuse of male politicians

Female politicians fear a normalised “toxic environment” of gendered abuse is stopping women from wanting a seat at the decision-making table.

Now, National Party deputy leader and Finance Minister Nicola Willis is calling for people to join her in “belittling the trolls”.

Article
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August 21, 2024 6:57pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Is it only “gendered abuse” when women are abused? Or if some troll accuses a male public figure of being a “soft-cock”, or tells him to “grow a pair”, is that gendered abuse too?
  
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  August 21, 2024 7:08pm
Pope Punctilious II

Somehow this 2-month old good news item escaped my attention. The government has cut 65% of the funding for Joanna Kidman’s centre for “research” into violent extremismlink text. Just look at Kidman’s sourpuss face! Of course I’d have preferred to see the centre done away with completely, but the massive funding cut might be a savvy move. It can be justified under the general rationale of “belt-tightening”, and will effectively neuter the centre, as well as saving $825K per annum.
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August 21, 2024 7:04pm
Steve Todd

Oh, dear, it’s getting worse by the day.

Trump Flushes More Votes Down The Toilet With VILE Video

“Former President Donald Trump shared a baseless and sexist video about Vice President Kamala Harris. Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian discuss on The Young Turks”, the best of the Lefty independent media outlets out there, which has 6.02M subscribers.

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVL4EilvBeo [10 minutes].

This is why Trump’s handlers are in despair. Not only is he old; completely out of touch; unaware that the electorate is not the same as it was in 2016; still whining about the opportunity to get his revenge on Joe being snatched away from him; but he is clearly unable to adapt to the new realities.

I can’t wait for September 10.
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August 21, 2024 7:09pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Your hypocrisy about accusing Trump of vile comments whilst promoting the sexist pig Cenk Uygur who has made far worse comments about women shows us who you really are.
  Keep it up
  Heres a taste of the sort of thing Steve Todd thinks is ok
  https://www.thewrap.com/young-turks-cenk-uygur-blog-breasts-women-flawed/
  Pretty sick stuff
  Edit- its actually pretty pathetic that Todd keeps doing this
  Its like a childish version of last word
  
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  August 21, 2024 7:27pm
  - Mike
    
    You and Todd need to get a room. He keeps linking to commentary on Trump’s obvious loathsomeness, and you harp on about the commentator’s dodgy background.
    
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    August 21, 2024 8:14pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  Chuckle.
  
  Sweetie, I know you’re enjoying this and want to have more fun and get responses but…. you’re trying too hard.
  
  Kick back and learn from your bestie on this blog: keep the snark short, sweet and not too revealing of what you don’t know. 🙂
  
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  August 21, 2024 7:44pm

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