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August 30, 2024 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 30 August 2024

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General Debate

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NeverMindTheBollocks

RUCs for petrol cars is Labouresque, ie change for change’s sake, and Orwellian with it. Why are ACT and National promoting this?

The argument for diesel vehicle RUCs is that a significant proportion of diesel is used off road, therefore diesel should not be taxed to pay for roads – fair enough. However, this is not so for petrol vehicles. If the government thinks that roads need more money then they should put the petrol taxes up (although not spending petrol taxes on cycle lanes would be a start). A vast sum will be required to set up the infrastructure – and it will be electronic, make no mistake about it – and for what? It’s not at all clear what the benefit is.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/526564/cautious-optimism-over-government-plan-to-make-all-motorists-pay-road-user-charges
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August 30, 2024 8:01am
- Dougal10
  
  It will include the ability to toll as well ,
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:08am
  - Colville
    
    Yip. So every vehicle has an account. Logical but sneeky!
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:26am
    - Don Beckett
      
      For petrol vehicles, the RUC is added on to the cost of petrol. Will we see the cost of petrol take a considerable drop ?
      
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      August 30, 2024 10:28am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        In their manifesto they said RUC’s would completely cut petrol tax
        
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        August 30, 2024 12:18pm
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        Done Beckett – yeah right.
        
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        August 30, 2024 12:44pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It’s a pointless argument saying tolls on new motorways are bad, the new motorway will always cut time and distance hence a saving in fuel, look at that great northern motorway in Auckland, the time we went on that road it cost $2.40 each direction, but the trip is 20 mins less, it’s a no brainer
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:17pm
- Cassandra
  
  The case for it is that your petroleum usage is less of a factor than actually being on the road. My. 2 cylinder mini uses less petrol but just as much road as my neighbour’s Camry.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:20am
  - Local Miller
    
    Not really, impact/damage to the road is influenced by mass. If I recall correctly it’s a square function, so the damage is proportional to the mass^2. Your mini which weighs less than the Camry does less damaged AND uses less petrol, so the fuel tax works out about right.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:19am
    - Interested Party
      
      True that relates to ongoing wear and tear, but the main benefit of a road that it allows you to get from A to B – this equally applies to all cars no matter the size
      
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      August 30, 2024 10:24am
      - cmm
        
        You’re not paying so much for the benefit but for the cost of keeping it in shape.
        
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        August 30, 2024 11:49am
    - Hard Cheese
      
      But then RUCs should be charged as a function of vehicle mass as well as kilometres driven. If I drive 1,000 km in my Toyota I shouldn’t be paying RUCs at the same rate as a semi trailer driving 1,000 km.
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:31pm
      - Cassandra
        
        You’re not. The truck pays much more.
        
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        August 30, 2024 3:32pm
      - Hard Cheese
        
        @Cassandra
        
        The principle is the same. Should a Toyota Yaris be paying RUCs at the same level as a Ford Ranger? People point at the weight of EV’s, but Rangers, Hiluxes, and urban SUVs can top 2,000 kg.
        
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        August 30, 2024 5:02pm
    - tavita
      
      The effect of axle load is far more than to the power of two. More like to the power of 6. So a 2 axle truck loaded to 13 tons has 4000 times the impact on the road than a two ton car. Or in other words the damage caused by light vehicles is negligible. The system MoT uses to recommend rates for vehicle types recognizes this. However it has to make an assumption about fuel consumption rates and they are markedly different between a V8 and a hybrid.
      
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      August 30, 2024 3:50pm
  - alloytoo
    
    But your Mini does far less damage than a comparably sized EV which is much much heavier.
    
    If they’re going to do this they should do it on the basis of weight.
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:59am
    - Hard Cheese
      
      Correct. But the EV rate should be proportionally discounted against petrol and diesel RUC rates because they’re non-polluting. You can’t claim there’s a taxpayer cost for road maintenance but no taxpayer cost for the health impacts of urban pollution. I don’t know how you would quantify the latter, but it does exist.
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:35pm
      - Cassandra
        
        EV manufacture hugely polluting. But we’re getting into the unmeasurable here.
        
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        August 30, 2024 3:34pm
      - Hard Cheese
        
        @Cassandra
        
        Of course ICE vehicles drop out of the sky fully made and their manufacture creates no pollution at all. //
        
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        August 30, 2024 5:04pm
      - John Loveridge
        
        The RUC is about road building and maintenance, or it should be. I don’t know why pollution should come into it.
        
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        August 30, 2024 5:22pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        EVs pollute, in Huntley.
        
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        August 30, 2024 9:50pm
      - Matt Long
        
        There’s no proposal to remove fuel from the ETS scheme, in fact National expect their ETS changes to add another 3 cents per litre to the petrol price, significant levy increase. What has this to do with road user charges?
        
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        August 31, 2024 8:53am
- rouppe
  
  Because of the increasing mix of propulsion types.
  
  EV’s didn’t pay anything until recently. Then there was the furore over PHEV’s as to how much they should pay given they can do significant amount of local running on pure EV. The standard hybrids pay very little petrol excise and no ruc. What happens if another fuel type is introduced like hydrogen? What if cars powered by CNG become popular again as they were in the 70’s (or was it 80’s).
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:24am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    CNG! Thats a memory. Had that in our Holden Kingswood…… was definitely very late 70’s and early 80’s
    
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    August 30, 2024 3:54pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Pretty sure I read a pretty solid analysis from about 10 years ago stating that CNG is in fact a very sensible fuel to use for cars for a variety of reasons.
    
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    August 30, 2024 7:34pm
- Damocles11
  
  If you pay Fuel Taxes at the pump nobody can avoid, ferals and no hopers still have to stump up their share. This universal RUC will be a disaster to enforce and collect, I can see a good chunk of the population not complying, no crying poor, and if the political Left end up retaining universal RUC they will dish out exemptions left, right, and centre. And then the burden will fall – as usual – on hard working, law abiding citizens.
  Whet they should have done is retained fuel taxes for petrol and diesel vehicles & worked out a RUC charging regime for electric vehicles. How many of the ferals and no hopers are driving around in a Tesla?
  This will be an absolute fiasco, taking away the ease and efficiency of ‘pay at the pump’. 🤦🏻‍♂️
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:26am
  - Local Miller
    
    I think you are being overly pessimistic. RUC has been in place for ages, but I don’t see ferals buying diesel vehicles to avoid paying at the pump and then not paying their RUC. RUC actually seems to work quite well.
    There are however some simple solutions to people avoiding RUC. RUC gets checked and charged when you have a WOF. This would be once a year or twice a year depending on the age of the vehicle. If you get caught without a WOF, the normal fines apply, without out a WOF and with outstanding RUC the fines must be significantly higher. At the same time if your RUC isn’t exactly up to date it should just be a warning that it gets paid up at the next WOF.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:43am
    - cmm
      
      There is a bit of a difference.
      
      Diesel vehicles are generally more expensive to buy as an up front cost and only pay off in the long run. Thus, people who buy diesels tend to be longer-term thinkers.
      
      RUC does get checked when you get a WoF, but you are then sent a bill in the post which you can ignore if you are so inclined.
      
      The people you are talking about don’t think long term which is why they fail to budget and fail to have money available for vehicle expenses.
      
      I expect for such people we’ll just see more of what we see now – hardship grants to people needing new tyres after failing WoF will be extended to hardship grants for RUC too.
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:54am
- RoboRob
  
  The issue is electric and hybrid vehicles. For full EVs road user charges are the only way to get drivers to pay for their usage of the roads. For hybrids Road user charges make the most sence too, these guys currently pay far less for road usage then petrol drivers.
  
  Even with petrol drivers its more and more unfair. My 1.2l Trubo VW Golf uses half the fuel of many other cars on the road, why should I pay less then them for the same roads?
  
  If the majority of cars will soon be Diesel, EV or Hybrid why not just have one system for all drivers?
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:28am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I got a great idea, make the cyclists pay RUC.
  Duck Steve, here they come in 3, 2, 1…….
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:29am
  - imalwaysright
    
    CLUC’s Steve .
    Cycle lane user charges.
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:16am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Then we have motorcycles.
      Mongrel Mob going to pay RUCs via a tracking device?
      Yer right!
      
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      August 30, 2024 3:02pm
  - RoboRob
    
    I’m a cyclist and agree, we should pay something too. The issue is around the management of such a scheme.
    
    That said I would be more then happy for councils to stop building incredibly expensive, over engineered cycle lanes. Some paint on the road it fine, I dont need a raised barrier with exposed agregate.
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:23am
- Phronesis
  
  I use more petrol off road than I do on so am looking forward to this. The reason it’s being done is because there is a vast difference in fuel economy between a hybrid and an old v8 but they have similar impacts on the road and should be paying the same RUC. Currently the v8 could be paying 10x more. The current system is unfair and indefensible as user pays form of taxation.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:30am
- Right of way is Way of Right
  
  Petrol is also used off road in many applications, from forestry to aquaculture. Why should someone using a chainsaw or lawnmower be expected to pay tax for road use? Why should people using boats or generators be expected to pay for road use, when EV users didn’t have to (an anomaly that has since been corrected!)
  RUC across the board is actually a much fairer method of taxation that a fuel excise tax.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:30am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    You can get a refund of the petrol excise if you use the petrol off road.
    
    https://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicles/fuel-excise-duty-refunds/
    
    If it is your lawn mower it is not worth the trouble. If it is a large powered boat you would be applying for your refund.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:51am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      A large boat would usually be diesel but not always.
      The refund does not apply to “Fuel used in recreational boats and pleasure crafts.”
      
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      August 30, 2024 3:07pm
      - John Loveridge
        
        What about big thirsty petrol outboards of 200 hp or more, Steve? Pity, because it costs a fortune to go out in the boat and catch a fish these days.
        
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        August 30, 2024 5:24pm
- Mod88
  
  and it will be electronic, make no mistake about it – and for what?
  
  First steps to the Social Credit System, Comrade, add in Digital Currency (CBDC). We know where you are, we know how much you earn/spend on what. Weren’t the NZ Police just made to admit harvesting information illegally.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:32am
- cmm
  
  Nope, I disagree.
  
  The real motivation is for EVs, especially plug in hybrids which can use petrol or electricity. How do you handle those withough moving to RUC. It has been inevitable that this is going to come.
  
  Ultimately a straight RUC system is the most fair. People filling up their boats or off-road bikes and mowing their lawns are not paying road user charges.
  
  The major problem with RUC is getting people to pay it.
  Even when it is monitored as part of WoF, I expect there are going to many people getting behind on RUC and end up having the taxpayer pay it through MSD hardship grants.
  
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  August 30, 2024 11:24am
  - Colville
    
    Simeon Brown said there will be 3.3 million police stops this year, with this change those stops will extend to a RUC check against your odometer.
    People will soon get the message after a few fines are dealt out.
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:29pm
    - cmm
      
      I doubt it.
      Just went through a police stop today checking for drink driving.
      No warrant check, no driver’s license check, no vehicle license check, no vehicle safety check.
      
      The vehicle behind me was an EV. No RUC check on that.
      
      If they set a goal of doing stops they will focus on volume – not on the depth of the stop.
      
      I have never been through a stop in NZ where I have been asked for my driver’s license or had RUC checked (in diesel vehicles). Only once have I had a WoF check.
      
      The place they will check RUC is at WoF – just as they do now. And we’ll end up paying when people with poor budgeting skills go to MSD for hardship grants.
      
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      August 30, 2024 1:22pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Nats had this in their manifesto, it’s not change for change sake, it’s actually a good idea, if you don’t drive far you won’t pay bugger all, and pterol may drop to below $1.50, if you drive more then you will pay a bit more, but gone will be the days of $3.30 petrol
  
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  August 30, 2024 12:11pm
  - Hard Cheese
    
    I agree, as long as they don’t go ahead with that electronic GPS tracking BS. It would have to be some hard wired, fixed device (no doubt shoddily installed by a new cottage industry of hole-in-the-dash-with-a-hacksaw cowboys) otherwise you could just take the tracking device out and leave it in your garage as you drove around town for free.
    
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    August 30, 2024 5:29pm
- Drone
  
  And congestion charge as well.
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:10pm
- John Loveridge
  
  If petrol tax is cut to go with this move then it works for me. I have two V8 vehicles: if I’m paying by the kilometre instead of the litre then I’m going to win.
  
  Likewise, every time I run the ride-on around the big back lawn, I’m going to win.
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:25pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  About as effective as Mao’s call for people to hand in their pots and pans to be melted down to help with the iron shortage.
  
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  August 30, 2024 7:27pm
Terry Dalee

Is the concept of having a “King”, a ‘colonial construct’????
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August 30, 2024 8:02am
- MCōs
  
  No
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:17am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Then what is the English translation of the maori word “king”?
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:21am
    - sirknz
      
      King.
      
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      August 30, 2024 9:53am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Kingi. 🙂
        
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        August 30, 2024 10:32am
    - mandk
      
      The Maori word is Kingi.
      
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      August 30, 2024 10:18am
  - rouppe
    
    In a in a NZ context it is.
    
    Pre colonisation Maori didn’t have a king. They were a disparate group of independent tribes who continually engaged in invasion, theft, murder and slavery.
    
    This idea of a single “king” came about in this country purely because of colonisation. Whether to emulate the monarchy, or to pretend they were homogenous in thinking and aspiration, I’m not sure.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:28am
  - Swifty
    
    Well it certainly isn’t a Maori construct – there being no pre-contact historical equivalent or precedent.
    
    I actually consider it cultural appropriation!
    
    Snigger.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:30am
    - kowtow
      
      Te Aro brewery should put out a Regal brand ……
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:36pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Throughout history both recent and ancient conquerors (read colonisers) have used the terms Emperor/King/Ruler so in short the answer is a definitive YES. Maori had Chiefs so why is (or was) he not the ‘Kingi Tanga’ Chief rather than the King?
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:30am
  - MCōs
    
    A king (queen) is a sovereign, usually hereditary although sometimes elected as in the case of the Māori King, so I understand
    There are a number of monarchs around the world. I can’t think of any offhand who are ‘conquerors’
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:58am
    - Blog-aholic
      
      Dur, that is where the ‘Throughout history ….’ part comes in.
      But the interestingly the thing about that is the maori seperatists would tell you to your face that indeed they were conquered just go as Irish Debbie……
      
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      August 30, 2024 1:21pm
    - Cassandra
      
      Saudi Arabia?
      
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      August 30, 2024 3:39pm
- Burtland
  
  which tribes actually support the maori king given hes from waikato
  – are they all paying taxes koha to support their king ?
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:56am
- kowtow
  
  And while te media paahti describe him as the Maori king , just how far does his writ run within Maoridom.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:10am
  - CJames
    
    I think it was Bob Jones who used to say his sovereign territory went as far as his letterbox in Ngaruawahia.
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:45pm
    - Cassandra
      
      The Hereditary Mayor of Huntly according to Hone Harawira.
      
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      August 30, 2024 3:40pm
  - John Loveridge
    
    Not far. My Ngai Tahu next-door neighbour, also recently deceased, called him King Potato of the Tainui.
    
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    August 30, 2024 1:45pm
    - Swifty
      
      The King of Huntly!
      
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      August 30, 2024 4:18pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

National and ACT e-RUCs for petrol vehicles means transponders, which means congestion charges. Oliver Hartwich at the NZ Institute is wetting himself.

“Hartwich said a system that tracked location and driving data would inform good transport policy.

“In the future, we would have much better data. We would have it almost real-time, and that would really help us, help our councils, help [the New Zealand Transport Agency], help the minister of transport make better decisions on where roads are needed, where traffic speeds are low, where any other traffic measures might actually be needed,” he said.

First, they create congestion via bike lanes and bus lanes (example: Cambridge Tce in Wellington, three general purpose lanes down to one each for bikes, cars & buses – guess which one will pay e-RUCs), then they charge us based on the congestion they caused.

Unblock congestion before you even think about bringing this policy in, Simeon.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/526564/cautious-optimism-over-government-plan-to-make-all-motorists-pay-road-user-charges
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August 30, 2024 8:02am
- Anthony Melchett
  
  The only question that should be asked is whether the pump price of fuel will reduce due to the collection of tax on a per km basis.
  
  I’ll take “no fucken way” for $100.
  
  As a side note, any compulsion by the government to run gps on all vehicles will result in my immediate departure from this country, taking the 50k of tax (not including gst!) I pay a year with me.
  
  I have put up with a lot to live in a fairly peaceful location but I will not be tracked.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:26am
  - sirknz
    
    You’re being tracked already by a number of means. You have a cellphone that is constantly sending your location, you walk/drive/travel past hundreds of cameras when you drive to work, the supermarket, going to visit family/friends, going on holiday.
    
    We’re one software upgrade away from all the existing traffic monitoring cameras being used to track everyone anyway, they really don’t need a GPS transponder in your car to do any of this today.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:59am
    - Anthony Melchett
      
      I can control my phone and whether it comes with me and can make decisions on whether I enter shop with cameras.
      
      This is a far cry from a gps on a car. Next will be automatic speeding tickets and reduction of your social credits if you driving doesn’t meet the standard.
      
      Welcome to the zombie state.
      
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      August 30, 2024 10:24am
      - Bevan
        
        Amazing, you’ve realised you can leave your phone at home. How long will it take you to realise the same about your car.
        
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        August 30, 2024 12:34pm
- MCōs
  
  Isn’t there a proposal with a preliminary design already underway for a road tunnel under that part of Wellington that will relieve the congestion on Cambridge Tce?
  
  One thing you can be sure about is the new system of wringing money out of motorists is going to cost us more to collect than that which currently exists, which is done by the petrol companies
  One can only imagine how many people will be needed to administer the new system
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:40am
- Mr Nobody NZ
  
  This data is arguably already available through such organisation’s as Google and Apple who use location and travel data to provide realtime traffic information on Google and Apple Maps.
  
  If askedI am sure both organisation’s would be happy to sell the data to the government the enable what ever analysis for roading decisions.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:57am
Chuck Bird

Experts Debunk Viral Post Claiming 1,100 Scientists Say ‘There’s No Climate Emergency’

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23082022/experts-debunk-viral-post-claiming-1100-scientists-say-theres-no-climate-emergency/
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August 30, 2024 8:09am
- Chuck Bird
  
  I should have read this more carefully before posting. I can understand the down ticks.
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:26am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Chuck, even your mea culpa got downticks !
    You just can’t please some people.
    A quick read of the article shows the usual tactic of attacking the signatories rather than that which they signed.
    Cheers
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:06am
    - Local Miller
      
      Yes, but the downticks on the mea culpa match the upticks on the original post 🙂
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:24am
- JackRabbit
  
  Good morning Chuck, what is your purpose for posting this? We’ve had this discussion before.
  
  [1] Any post or article using the words “debunk/debunked”, “conspiracy/conspiracy theorist”, “tin foil hat wearer”, vaccine denier” are immediately suspect in my handbook.
  
  “Debunk” is a way of claiming in totality that an idea(s) or person(s), are false and/or invalid.
  
  Wife: “11 of my closest friends have seen you at various times out in public in the arms of another woman.”
  Cheating husband: “No, all those stories have been debunked.”
  Wife: “Some took photos on their mobile phones.”
  Cheating husband: “No, those have been debunked as well. None of those women are qualified professional photographers.”
  
  [2] The linked article – as far as I read, attacks the credentials of the 1100 as being fake. That is exactly what the climate fraudsters do – claim 9X% of scientists agree, when they didn’t, and when the 9X% were not scientists anyway. But the content is never discussed.
  
  Honest researchers and analysts don’t care for the titles or qualifications of who said what, but the substance and rational, logical, scientific content of what is said, and how that aligns with reality.
  
  [3] I stopped reading as it required an email address to continue. I’m not giving an email address to an organisation that is clearly biased, just so it can add me to it’s list of “agreeing experts”.
  
  As I have said before, it is better to post rational arguments from your own research, not copy and paste links.
  
  I welcome good rational debate from you.
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:30am
  - Colville
    
    The one thing I know about Chuck.
    He no listen!
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:28am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Indeed. Not all of what Chuck posts is bad. But there is a pattern of posting links, so that other KB’ers can read and do Chuck’s thinking for him.
      
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      August 30, 2024 9:54am
  - Local Miller
    
    You didn’t need to give them your e-mail to read the article as you could just continue scrolling and reading although the background was shaded.
    
    I also stopped reading after a paragraph exactly because of your points 1 & 2.
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:27am
- Benedict Yu
  
  You can’t read it without giving your email address. I guess that it is a change from pay walls.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:04am
  - Taieri
    
    You can. I just did. Not that it was worth reading.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:17am
  - SPC
    
    Scroll it.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:21am
  - Ghost
    
    Reader mode works, but don’t waste your time reading it.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:25am
  - jonno1
    
    You can if you accept cookies. Then immediately afterwards clear the cache!
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:57pm
  - Fender
    
    You can’t read it without giving your email address.
    people over complicate, yes@yes.com works perfectly, just type anything whenever you strike this to avoid spam, be creative and as rude as you wish as long as its @ and .com
    
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    August 30, 2024 2:04pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      And who TF is behind “insider climate news”? Who pray tell are the “experts” they expect us to trust?
      
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      August 30, 2024 7:41pm
- Handyman
  
  A recent survey of 1,100 religious scholars and scientists signed a paper stating there was no evidence of a God and there was no need to pay tithes to churches.
  Experts have since debunked the paper noting none of the signatories were popes or bishops. Previous surveys of bishops showed 97% believed there was a God, so that debunks the latest report.
  Furthermore, the report was not published in a peer reviewed religious paper but rather on a web site, shown previously to allow heretics to publish their crazy theories.
  They called on the government and Google to ban this dangerous misinformation.
  “The world is boiling and you are all going to Hell (if you don’t pay tithes on time)” said a spokesman.
  
  When it was pointed out all of the experts were recipients of the money given to God they said it just proved they were the professionals. QED.
  
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  August 30, 2024 11:25am
kiwikidsnz

“Petrol cars could be hit with road user charges from 2027…

…Transport Minister Simeon Brown announced a roadmap for moving all light vehicles to the RUC system and away from fuel tax.”

“Automobile Association policy director Martin Glynn told RNZ the existing petrol tax approach penalised people with less fuel-efficient vehicles, meaning the new system should be fairer.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/526491/petrol-cars-could-be-hit-with-road-user-charges-from-2027

“People from relatively underprivileged backgrounds, poorer backgrounds, they often drive cars that use a lot more fuel, because they are often driving older cars that are less fuel efficient. So in effect, you’re asking them to pay more under the current system, whereas in the future, they might actually pay less.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/526564/cautious-optimism-over-government-plan-to-make-all-motorists-pay-road-user-charges

Are there some unintended consequences with this cost levelling change?

Approx half the petrol pump price is tax, mostly for roads (some minor taxes such as ACC levy’s will presumably remain unless incorporated in RUCs). However with a very significant amount of tax coming off the pump price the financial incentive for more fuel efficient vehicles would be lessened as the RUCs are a common kilometer charge independent of vehicles economy (eg. up to 3.5T GVM a V8 Landcruiser will pay the same RUC as a hybrid Aqua).

The obvious bright spot is that powerboat owners won’t still be paying for the roads !
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August 30, 2024 8:10am
- Dougal10
  
  They can adjust the ruc to fit vehicles they like from rego data
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:12am
  - Don Beckett
    
    “People from relatively underprivileged backgrounds, poorer backgrounds, they often drive cars that use a lot more fuel, because they are often driving older cars that are less fuel efficient.”
    
    If they are poorer, they will not be driving very far – only for real necessities, so your argument doesn’t cut it.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:41am
    - JackRabbit
      
      It does fit. Petrol Scooters and small Motorcycles. Motorcycles were big in my university days.
      
      And there are many small cars now that are getting upwards of 18km/litre mixed use, or 50mpg, and more.
      
      Very economical for low income families, especially if the distance they travel is limited.
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:03am
- MCōs
  
  Does any other country use this method to collect tax?
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:01am
- Burtland
  
  you forgot ETS tax on fuel – will they ditch it ?
  … Luxons plan to decarbonise is via the ETS.
  
  To decarbonise the country, ETS will have to go up significantly – they need to separate road tax from ETS fuel tax to do this in a manner thats non damaging politically.
  
  They will introduce RUC, reduce fuel tax slightly – the fools on the ship will go yaaaaaay – the hoopla will subside. Then they will boil the frog by cranking fuel tax up through the ETS on ALL fuel – powerboat owners, v8 owners will all be forced to ditch their thirsty beasts via the ETS mechanism which no one understands – the pollies can then say “not us”.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:50am
  - Hard Cheese
    
    I’d have thought that cleaner air for everyone to breathe was a good thing, and fuel taxes mean “you pollute, you pay”. It should be a fixed amount though, rather than being in the ETS and easy to push up.
    
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    August 30, 2024 6:02pm
artemisia

Is Te Pūkenga ‘drowning’ in $250m of debt?

Minister says yes, Opposition says no. Looks like it depends on the POV – one organisation shuffling funds around or the sector’s component parts. That’s potentially a huge amount of money for a small country. Taxpayers would like to know which POV is correct, please.

Meanwhile, according to the CEO Te Pukenga staff are “pissed off” and morale was low after years of change and uncertainty at the entity . I guess those who don’t keep a job in the sector will be able to join the thousands who have already lost their jobs (with more to come) and know ‘they’ are not alone.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/is-te-pukenga-drowning-in-over-250m-of-debt-executives-reject-penny-simmonds-claim-say-real-figure-is-one-fifth-of-that-amount/ND4CGKGXBRCV7EQROAR54WHD3Q/
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August 30, 2024 8:23am
- kowtow
  
  Does it have an English name , I’ve no idea what that is .
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:35am
  - imalwaysright
    
    I think its the short form of Te Pukenga Express.
    
    Its a train used to transport gravy to a select group of recipients.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:11am
    - Tauhei Notts
      
      What a brilliant response.
      
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      August 30, 2024 1:59pm
  - pdm
    
    How about New Zealand’s Polytechs?
    
    Our local one is Eastern Institute of Technology and is based in Taradale.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:12am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I’ve no idea what that is .
    
    I suspect that is the point of renaming every publicly funded institution in NZ.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:29am
    - artemisia
      
      Some of the renaming may be to indicate the preponderance there of certain clients.
      
      I couldn’t possibly comment.
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:42am
  - Burtland
    
    google says Te Pūkenga – The Skill
    
    a gifted metafore? – very poetic
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:54am
- JackRabbit
  
  Te Pūkenga. Anything with a Maori name, usually is having debt issues, unless they are on a gravy train. Starting with the cost of rebranding to Maori, and the lack of engagement and respect from the public, who have no idea who and what Te Pūkenga actually is.
  
  Puke sounds awfully like Puku, which in urban Maori means fat belly. And no doubt they do have fat bellies from fat funding.
  
  The organisation in English is “New Zealand University of Skills and Technologies.”
  
  The correct translation is “Te Whare Wananga o nga Pukenga me nga Hangarau o Aotearoa.”
  
  Not “Te Pūkenga.”
  
  How can you trust a “University of Skills and Technologies” when they can’t get their name right.
  
  The first step to getting out of debt will be to get rid of all Maori naming and labels, and back into universally accepted English. If they want to attract international students, they first need to appeal to international students in the international language of English.
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:47am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Mainly agree, but your translation of “puke” is not “puku”.” Puke” means hill. Also, “puku” simply means stomach or belly. A fat belly is “puku kai”.
    Hope that helps. 🙂
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:46am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Did you not read my comment?
      
      [1] I never said it was a translation. I said “Puke sounds awfully like Puku.” Which if you do not have access to a (Maori) dictionary, and you are trying to evaluate a word, you try and resolve with words that are similar.
      
      [2] I did give the actual translation.
      
      Please try and keep up!
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:08am
- Skippytony
  
  About 1/3rd of the polytechs simply will never be viable under the current funding model. Eg they are trading while insolvent.
  Another 1/3rd are marginal, they make a bit in bad years for the economy (they are countercyclical to an extent). They have legislated competing priorities. They have to serve local markets and support local communities as well as serve “priority learners”.
  The costs to serve inevitably keep climbing. One attractive source of revenue is full fees paying international students. Thats a stretch for small regional players.
  They are expected to be P & L driven but 95% of the leadership are educators who have never worked in the for profit world.
  There is significant change fatigue, a lot of the talent has already skipped, there are several years of deferred investment in buildings and systems which wont show up on the balance sheet and they have been blessed with somewhat variable quality leadership. There still seems to be no real clarity of thinking around the “target state” probably because no model meets the financial, strategic and political objectives. Te Pukenga no doubt has its share of woke baggage to add to the joy.
  Like the Universities I suspect we are seeing their 19th century business model being disrupted despite their best efforts at denial. It was interesting to see what impact “fees free” had on enrolments – eg pretty much zero. Maybe the whole thing should be binned and let the market sort it out?
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:59am
  - Swifty
    
    Fund the students, not the institutions.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:32am
    - Mike
      
      That’s how the current model largely works.
      
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      August 30, 2024 9:59am
      - Swifty
        
        What, you mean the government doesn’t write great fat cheques to our Universities annually?
        
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        August 30, 2024 11:01am
      - NZer In Exile
        
        “Largely” being a fairly elastic concept here.
        
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        August 30, 2024 7:44pm
- pdm
  
  `Is Te Pūkenga ‘drowning’ in $250m of debt?’
  
  Arty there is a simple answer to the different perspectives on this question.
  
  * the Coalition is generally concerned to get best value for taxpayers.
  * Labour don’t care because it is only other peoples money.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:05am
- Blog-aholic
  
  It was drowning in debt the day it got its name.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:32am
- Grunter
  
  “Meanwhile, according to the CEO Te Pukenga staff are “pissed off” and morale was low after years of change and uncertainty at the entity. ”
  
  So, even the guy in charge of this crappy outfit is saying his team is pissed off and has low morale – so why would anyone waste their time and money by going there???
  
  Te Whare Wananga o nga Pukenga me nga Hangarau o Aotearoa –
  Step right up! Come and join…..
  We are a world-class education entity full of teachers that are pissed off and don’t give a F…..We are burning cash at a great rate of knotts and probably won’t be here in 12 months time. No one in the real world recognises us or knows what we do, so the certificate you get is worthless.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:02am
  - Burtland
    
    restructuring and renaming was nothing more than lipstick on the poaka – it just put the losses into one kete and allowed the public an OMG moment – a silly Hipster move
    
    the education sector needs a major rethink – dabbling round the edges wont fix it
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:11am
softail 1450

Amazingly a question that’s been puzzling the entire team of 5 million has been answered at last by that hard hitting non partisan internationally renowned news organisation Stuff , apparently they thought it was imperative that we were informed at last that [Mod – use correct names] Matty McLean is the “ husband” in his superstar marriage to Ryan Teece , thanks Stuff keep up the cutting edge journalism for us all 👍👍👍
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August 30, 2024 8:28am
- pdm
  
  softy I have never heard of either of them before your post.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:13am
- sirknz
  
  Wow. Now I can sleep better at night knowing the answer to this question which has been keeping me awake to the wee small hours…
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:17am
- imalwaysright
  
  I wonder how they decide who is which.
  Are they referring to their respective roles in the boudoir perhaps, in which case it is too much information.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:53am
- JackRabbit
  
  It makes more sense when it’s Matty McLean as a husband. But either way what they do behind closed doors is their business.
  
  As the actress said to the bishop, “I don’t care what turns you on, just don’t stick it in my face.”
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:59am
  - kowtow
    
    I agree that what they do behind closed doors is their own business .
    
    But announcements about one man in a union of two men as being a husband more than implies the other is the ‘wife ‘, rather than both being “husbands” .
    
    Which then deliberately brings the actual mechanics of the relationship into the public domain.
    
    Our world really is dystopian .
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:18am
alloytoo

What is Te Pūkenga supposed to do?
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August 30, 2024 8:32am
- JackRabbit
  
  Nothing.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:00am
Tauhei Notts

Tomorrow marks the fiftieth anniversary of big Norman Kirk’s death.
If you can access a copy of Ebony’s delightful song “Big Norm” do so. It is good.
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August 30, 2024 8:32am
- G152
  
  And the Maori king has just died
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:05am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    It sounded like he wanted a fair go for all NZ citizens regardless of heritage. Very good stuff. My condolences to his family and friends.
    
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    August 30, 2024 7:47pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Debate questions leaked.
Journalism at it’s finest.

https://babylonbee.com/news/10-questions-leaked-from-cnns-harriswalz-interview?
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August 30, 2024 8:36am
CJames

See it has come out in Energy News that Winstones were offered lots of fixed price power contracts by the gentailers in the months leading up to the very high spot prices but they turned them down as too expensive and wanted to chance their arm on spot prices. That info never came up in the news about all the potential job losses.
The spot price has now collapsed with all the rain and additional gas – last night midnight to about 7am when it was down to less than $1. That won’t make the news either.
Nothing like a media with an agenda, is there?
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August 30, 2024 8:39am
- SPC
  
  Did no one tell Shane Jones …
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:12am
- peterwn
  
  Reminds me of the power shortage situation in the early 2000’s. the late Roger Kerr of the Business Round Table was calling for more privatisation of the electricity system. Meanwhile various businesses (including Round Table members) were demanding that the Government ‘do something’ about the power shortage then. Interesting that the Business Round Table did not survive following Roger’s demise.
  I just cannot understand how the likes of Winstone and Electric Kiwi expect to be able to negotiate ‘reasonable’ power contracts when there is a squeeze and spot prices are high. Very much wanting to have their cake and eat it.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:13am
  - Swifty
    
    The BRT lives on as the New Zealand Initiative.
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:28am
- Swifty
  
  CJames, your contribution here on power matters have been quite excellent over the years – but as a total lay person in this area I would like to say that we appear far, far removed from an ideal situation where power shortages and expensive power is just never talked about as it’s so rare – our supplies are so abundant and well planned and managed.
  
  From my perspective, unless major improvements are made in how we develop significant extra capacity, more then adequate to meet rising demand, these recent problems will keep repeating year after year.
  
  For goodness sake, if successive governments cannot reliably deliver on this social and economic fundamental, abundant energy, then why the hell should we trust them to get anything else right?
  
  I get thoroughly disillusioned with our leadership at times. Their results are those of bloody amateurs.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:27am
  - peterwn
    
    The fundamental issue as I see it is how much ‘reserve’ capacity should there be. Should there be enough reserve capacity for 90%, 99%, 99.9% or 99.99% of the time. The needed capacity greatly increases (perhaps exponentially) for progressively higher ‘availability’. The extra capacity comes at a cost and the Fairy Godmother is not available to provide and service the investment. So this means perhaps the Government needs to mandate an additional amount of reserve capacity that the industry must provide and finance from customers.
    The current Winstone/ Electric Kiwi case is a case of ‘moral hazard’ at work. It the Government bails out industries where the spot price market backfires on them, then more customers will exercise less care when planning their power purchases and place excessive reliance on spot price purchases. And generators look at supply contracts rather than spot price purchases when considering new generation investments.
    Because of this ‘moral hazard’, any support from the Government for Winstones needs to be of the ‘tough love’ variety. The problem here is Winstones mill workforce are being used as the bargaining chip.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:08am
    - Swifty
      
      Yes, good points.
      
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      August 30, 2024 10:58am
  - CJames
    
    Swifty
    Adding on to what Peter wrote.
    The easiest way NZ could near double its hydro storage is build the canal stations in the lower Waitaki, which between them will generate about as much as Benmore. On the Clutha, build Luggate plus lower dams below Roxburgh.- All as run of river with little storage in themselves. The storage increase is in Hawea, Pukaki, Tekapo where each cubic metre of water can generate so much more on its journey to the sea.
    But they can’t do that because it is too hard to get consents – objectors veto/ extortion.
    
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    August 30, 2024 3:49pm
    - JimBobJoe
      
      These seem sensible extensions and leverage of existing installations – perfect for fast tracking to avoid 15 years of consenting and green and brown mail
      
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      August 30, 2024 4:13pm
    - Swifty
      
      Thanks.
      
      We’re our own worst enemy, at times.
      
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      August 30, 2024 4:23pm
  - Handyman
    
    It seems low lake levels are only ever reported in the media in the context of low inflows (with the subtext being global warming) but the inflow figures are never provided by the media.
    Low lake levels could also be due to excessive water outflows to make up for poor windfarm performance and the reluctance to burn coal.
    Can someone point me to inflow data?
    Transpower provides some graphs with a 7 day average but it doesn’t show if this year has been a dry year.
    Also, if above average precipitation falls as snow does that get counted as a dry year?
    
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    August 30, 2024 4:29pm
    - CJames
      
      The inflows are reported here
      https://www.transpower.co.nz/system-operator/notices-and-reporting/market-operations-weekly-report
      Report comes out every Tuesday for preceding week. Inflows are down below average but not exceptionally so. The lakes were empty because they had to be run hard as thermal stations couldn’t start early as they were trying to save the gas.
      The snow storage is on another graph. Haven’t got the link handy
      
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      August 30, 2024 4:46pm
- Happy1
  
  Yup, the great power crisis of 2024 is pretty much over. By this time next week the lakes will be above average if not full. Things are working out much as anticipated. There has been 250MW of baseload geothermal added in the last year and more wind power on stream. At the moment wind is contributing about 850MW and saving water in the lakes. We are in a great position as we can add intermittent solar and wind power and use the lakes as a battery. More geothermal (600MW?) could come on stream in the next 6 years. While we could, in theory, get to 100% renewable, we are better to settle for 95% and continue using coal and gas to cover dry years.
  
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  August 30, 2024 12:09pm
  - Ian Boag
    
    Relative to demand, the lakes hold buggerall reserves. That’s why a few days of heavy rain fill them up so quick and a few days of heavy use drain them.
    
    NZ hydro is pretty much “run of the river” …. introducing a meaningful amount of buffer was what Onslow was all about.
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:33pm
    - Happy1
      
      I disagree Ian. While the Clutha system is pretty much “run of river” the Waitaki and Waikato have quite large storage lakes, more than sufficient to buffer for a year or so. No water has been spilled for more than a year. This means that a windy day a year ago is still reflected in higher than otherwise lake levels. Onslow was going to hold 2 years NZ supply. It would have been huge. The problem was, apart from the uncertainty and cost, you need 2 years supply to fill it. Better to fill the dry year hole with fossil.
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:57pm
      - CJames
        
        Happy
        The storage on the Waikato is not that much. Taupo is 400GWh. All the lakes downstream about 5GWh or less. The latter sounds a lot but it is only 100MW for two days, less usually as they rarely run the lakes anywhere near full.
        
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        August 30, 2024 3:35pm
    - CJames
      
      Ian
      That is misrepresenting the industry wide unlamented Onslow. It was NOT storage. It was pumped storage. A big difference. It needed surplus power to fill it and the price of that surplus to be significantly less than market price. The energy you got out of it would have been significantly less than what went in. That needed surplus power never existed and no-one would build generation to run at less than market price. The extra plant needed was never considered nor built into the cost of Onslow either.
      It might have been very cheap power overnight, but the merit order stack would have been very steep. An extra 100MW or so load and the price would have been a lot higher
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:58pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        rI’m not getting my knickers in a knot about Onslow. Wind power to pump it in the middle of the night would have been real cheap ?
        
        Anyway if we look at the Waikato lakes, the largest one by far is Taupo which has a 1m difference between empty and full. Right now it is essentially empty and a week of rain hasn’t moved it significantly …..
        
        Statement from Mercury (who run it) …. Lake Taupō is the main storage for the Waikato Hydro System which helps Mercury generate renewable energy in New Zealand.
        
        The fact that there are houses built around the shore pretty puts a limit on how high it can go.
        
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        August 30, 2024 1:40pm
      - peterwn
        
        Ian Boag –
        “I’m not getting my knickers in a knot about Onslow. Wind power to pump it in the middle of the night would have been real cheap ?”
        No one is going to build wind or solar generation specifically for Lake Onslow pumped storage. The operators of Lake Onslow would purchase any half hourly surplus only after connected loads are supplied and lakes belonging to the same or associated generation company are fully replenished. Even though there may be a $1 spot price now and again, that spot price would rapidly rise if the Lake Onslow operator started any significant amount of electricity to fill the lake. So Lake Onslow would be competing with Electric Kiwi, etc for any available ‘bottom feeding’ power.
        
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        August 30, 2024 2:22pm
      - CJames
        
        I don’t know what data you are looking at Ian, but Taupo has come up about 15% of its permitted working range over last week. The working limits are 1.4m, though they can come higher when there is a major storm occurring and there is flooding in lower Waikato, but that is under WRC control.
        
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        August 30, 2024 3:42pm
  - CJames
    
    Happy – spot price has collapsed because so much wind – Those windfarms won’t be getting much income but their companies will on their fixed price contracts.
    Looks like high wind generation for next day or so.
    https://app.em6.co.nz/ni-wind-forecast
    
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    August 30, 2024 4:50pm
- wsk12345
  
  Exactly what my insider friends in the pulp business told me. Lots of hedges but boards thought they were too expensive and would take their chances on spot.
  
  Basically gambled the business and lost.
  
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  August 30, 2024 3:16pm
  - peterwn
    
    Then they blame Mercury and others for the mess they put themselves in. If I was Mercury I would not renew their contracts at all. I have just brought a bunch of customers off ex-Trustpower and the electricity currently in the Winstone contracts will be useful to help supply these extra customers.
    
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    August 30, 2024 5:13pm
Chuck Bird

TRIGGER WARNING: This is what your taxpayer dollars are being spent on

[Mod – bad link deleted. When you put up a link describe what it is about]
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August 30, 2024 8:40am
- Flossie
  
  For whatever reason I am not able to open the link so no clue at all what my tax is being spent on!
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:49am
- sirknz
  
  Your Gmail account?
  
  Consider me triggered because my email account costs the taxpayer nothing, except for the scanning the security agencies may be doing because I may or may not be on watchlists due to my trolling lefties on X.
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:54am
  - peterwn
    
    I am reminded of these activists who OIA’d SIS and GSCB for what information they had on the activists who were then deflated to be told that the agencies held zilch info on the activists (they were such small fry the agencies could not care about them).
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:57am
    - sirknz
      
      Were they trolling lefties? We know that they only go after the biggest certified threat to the nation’s security, far right white supremacists who are literally everywhere…
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:33pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  WTF?
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:56am
- Media hater
  
  You’re not having a great day, Chuck.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:01am
  - John Loveridge
    
    And we’re still none the wiser about the taxpayer dollars being spent.
    
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    August 30, 2024 2:10pm
- Swifty
  
  You linked to your email Chuck.
  
  You’re not having a good start to the day are you?
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:19am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    There are far more privacy-based email services around (like Proton or Tutanota).
    
    Email itself is highly insecure!
    
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    August 30, 2024 7:53pm
Bridgenag

CO2 Has Been Indicted by Consensus, Not Real Science or Critical Thinking
The differences between these are enormous

“I’ve repeatedly warned that one of the major fights we are in, is to defend genuine Science, as its enemies are actively trying to replace it with political science. This situation is a dead giveaway, as consensus is the currency of politics, NOT Science!”

https://open.substack.com/pub/criticallythinking/p/co2-has-been-indicted-by-consensus?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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August 30, 2024 8:43am
- SPC
  
  No it is just one of many greenhouse gases.
  
  But 80% of the human caused.
  
  Methane (CH4).
  
  Nitrous oxide (N2O)
  
  Industrial gases: Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) Sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3)
  
  Water vapour.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:35am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Co2: 1C or less average rise in global temps per DOUBLING of Co2 in the atmosphere.
    
    Currently 0.04% of the atmosphere is Co2.
    
    Around 97% of the Co2 on the atmosphere was not put there by human activity.
    
    Water vapour is the most potent greenhouse gas by a long shot. Methane and the rest have a vastly more negligible effect than Co2 does.
    
    The “climate emergency” is a fabrication pushed by various grifters including the clickbait driven media. Dig into the IPCC data (which should also be treated with extreme skepticism due to the loony activism therein) and there is no “emergency”.
    
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    August 30, 2024 8:00pm
- RichardX
  
  It is disappointing to see consensus being made the bad guy in arguments like these.
  
  Do you believe there is consensus amongst the scientific experts in the field on the speed of light in a vacuum?
  Do you believe there is consensus amongst the scientific experts in the field on the shape of the earth?
  Do you believe there is consensus amongst the scientific experts in the field on the age of the earth?
  
  No one is preventing you from disputing the consensus on these topics but you will need to present a compelling case to change that consensus view.
  
  Historically the only thing that will change the consensus of scientific understanding in a particular field is better science.
  
  Whinging about the process and trying to falsify it by analogy, as in your linked opinion piece, will not change anything.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:03am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    meh, The examples you give esp. speed of light are verified by measurements and experimentation.
    
    CO2 being the big, bad driver of ‘Anthropocentric Global Warming’ (oops we dont use that anymore -why???), Global Warming (oops we dont use that anymore -why???) make that climate change (which is suitable generic and waffling to hide many sins)….. is a moot point with lots models that have not been very accurate over the last 35 years since the scare started.
    
    In the 1970s it was a new Ice Age!
    
    What happened in the 1990 – 92 period that forced all the Communists and Socialists to find a new cause to push their form of economic devastation and State control via ‘climate change’. the collapse of the CCCP
    
    The climate is changing – big, effin deal. It has moved massively in many places over the last 10-15,000 and industrial output for those earlier changes was minimal. C02 on its own is not the key driver – its long run climate cycles we dont properly understand.
    
    the solution is: Improvise, adapt and overcome. Not taxing the economy that lifted billions out of grinding poverty in to massive collapse.
    
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    August 30, 2024 4:26pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    The “97% consensus” propaganda stunt is a creation of climate emergency propagandists Naomi Oreskes and John Cook. Their methodology in cooking this up is pure comedy. Regardless, many dummies who should know better mindlessly run with this unscientific and confected garbage.
    
    Even if there really was a 97% belief amongst “climate scientists” in this modern day Lysenkoism, that would prove nothing.
    
    The hypothesis that Co2 drives the climate is highly flawed, has incredibly shonky underpinnings, and has been pushed along by insane censorship and cancel culture in the scientific community, the media and by dumb gullible politicians.
    
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    August 30, 2024 8:10pm
- JackRabbit
  
  CO2 does not cause warming, even though there is no unusual warming occurring. That theory is a lot of hot air.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:04am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    It “warms” to a certain degree (generally stopping the planet from being frigid, with the exception of deep ice ages which are believed to be primarily caused by orbital patterns). After that it’s effects logarithmically taper off. Basically per doubling of Co2 in the atmosphere causes 1C or less of average global temp increase. Ice core records clearly show Co2 does not drive the climate. It never has. Over the last 100 years catastrophic weather related events (fires, floods, droughts, storms etc) have dramatically DECREASED as have deaths from these events. The current climate and the current weather are not at all “unprecedented”. There are plenty of historical records (newspaper microfiche and manuscripts) confirming this. Oh and we have only had reliable global temp records since 1979 (from satellites). Before that thermometer stations were too short lived and too sparse across the globe to be of any solid use in making claims about the global climate.
    
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    August 30, 2024 8:20pm
Clyde

Listened to an interview with the Chair of the Hawkes Bay Regional Council and she said that because the Council didn’t have a policy on excluding patched gang members entering the Council building, they were allowed in despite it being unlawful. FFS. Does the Council have a policy preventing murder in the Council building?

The Chair is someone Ormsby. Isn’t there a strong connection with that family and people like Mahuta that wanted all traces of democracy removed from local Councils as far as maori wards and appointees were concerned. Maybe time for Simeon Brown to remove these people who don’t seem to understand the laws of the land?
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August 30, 2024 8:46am
- pdm
  
  Clyde not sure about that connection.
  
  HBRC Ormsby is from Wairoa I think.
  
  She is however, yet another moko’d young Maori Lady promoted above her capabilities.
  
  Here is a bit of history from my perspective on HBRC.
  https://nominister.wordpress.com/2024/08/30/hawkes-bay-regional-council-is-out-of-control/
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:22am
- Ghost
  
  Remove people on a district council that were elected? On what grounds do you want to put a commissioner in? I haven’t seen what that district council does but are they failing in their job or do you just want them removed because you don’t like what they are doing?
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:28am
  - Clyde
    
    Any body like a regional Council that hasn’t the brains to know what the law of the land is about the wearing of gang patches into a public building and thinks it needs to think up a policy about a law, isn’t capable of doing the most basic of functions. Any body that continues to use racism to appoint or condone membership of their governance membership needs to be replaced. The video of these pagan idiots with their pokey out tongues and rolling eyeballs is further proof of the need to get rid of them.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:38am
    - Ghost
      
      Is it illegal to wear a gang patch? Last I read it had passed its second reading, but not it’s third yet
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:32am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        The law – called the Prohibition of Gang Insignia in Government Premises Act 2013 – states “government premises” means “the whole or part of any structure (including any associated grounds) that is owned by, or is under the control of, (i) the Crown, acting through a department, the Police, or a Crown entity; or (ii) a local authority”.
        
        https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/526595/unclear-whether-allowing-patched-gang-members-to-attend-council-meeting-broke-law-chair
        
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        August 30, 2024 12:23pm
  - Colville
    
    Then read this.
    
    https://www.hbrc.govt.nz/assets/Document-Library/Cyclone-Gabrielle/Report-of-the-Hawkes-Bay-Independent-Flood-Review-Digital-Version.pdf
    
    and since then they have flooded Wairoa thru incompetence and been sued by a number of parties for poor decision making.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:48am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  There is a connection with Nanaia Mahuta and the Ormsby clan
  
  1. Nanaia Mahuta’s father – Sir Robert Mahuta was an Ormsby by birth.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mahuta
  
  2. Nanaia Mahuta is married to William Ormsby
  
  3. The Ormsby family in NZ is descended from Robert Ormsby and Rangihurihia Te Raaku, – a most prolific couple.
  
  https://pirongiabells.blogspot.com/2013/09/robert-ormsby.html
  
  https://www.geni.com/people/Robert-Ormsby/6000000019529616692
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:51am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The Jeffersons
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:57am
- sirknz
  
  Wasn’t there an Ormsby or two from that neck of the woods who were patched gang members that got put away for some serious crimes last year?
  
  Also, isn’t Ormsby Mahuta’s cousband’s last name?
  
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  August 30, 2024 12:37pm
jp_1983

Condolences to the family all the same especially its right before Father’s Day this weekend.

Meet your new king or queen?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/fallout-between-the-maori-king-and-his-son-grows-wider-after-the-public-condemnation-of-the-marriage-hits-the-headlines/U6KCFYEZ7KZM32BUUXE3KIJ5AE/

or the second eldest
https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/maori-kings-son-no-stranger-trouble

or the third
https://www.waikato.ac.nz/study/student-success-stories/nga-wai-hono-i-te-po-paki

Perhaps it could be someone different (article first published 2014)
https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/10258703/Decision-on-Kings-successor-up-to-iwi-leaders?
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August 30, 2024 8:48am
- cas
  
  Perhaps Tuku wants the job but is too clever to say so outright.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:30am
  - John Loveridge
    
    I think Tuku has a certain amount of rat-cunning that has enabled him to keep his face in the taxpayer trough for decades now, but to call him “clever” might be an adjective too far.
    
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    August 30, 2024 2:11pm
- Mr Nobody NZ
  
  Why would Maoridom accept such a Colonial construct as having a King or Queen? Surely this if the time for Maoridom to throw off the shackles of their English Colonisers?
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:05am
  - peterwn
    
    Cherry picking here. Adopt all the good features of colonisation such as a monarchy and modern medicine and blame all the bad features that allegedly cause people to run off the rails.
    
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    August 30, 2024 1:38pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Looks like the daughter is being lined up
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:07pm
kowtow

“They” are back to being a “she”. As reported from Tana’s court shenanigans.

Why the hell do so many people allow themselves to be led by the nose by this far left , extremist ,bull.
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August 30, 2024 8:54am
- MCōs
  
  Well . . . . . kowtow
  If people want to be referred to in an unusual manner it’s their prerogative
  MCōs
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:11am
  - Don Beckett
    
    But only the sheeple will agree to do so.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:59am
  - Taieri
    
    If people want to be referred to in an unusual manner it’s their prerogative
    ——–
    
    They can refer to themselves any way they like. Just shouldn’t expect everyone else to do so.
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:19pm
imalwaysright

This is analogous to the police taking away the liquor license from New World ( they committed the heinous crime of discounting the price of beer beyond the regulated limit).
The winners from that were the other retailers who got the custom.
The winners from this are the maori gangs who have had some competition temporarily neutralised.
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August 30, 2024 8:55am
- imalwaysright
  
  Sorry, this was meant for the 7am comancheros article.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:00am
- peterwn
  
  Police are only asking for this, I have not read that any decision on this has been made. Because each New World supermarket is a separately owned business, culpability would need to be assessed for each store. The issue being argued would be whether the owner-operators themselves knew or should have known that there was an issue in pricing calculated by HQ. It would be easy if the supermarkets were commonly owned such as Woolworths ones are. The ‘Authority’ needs to get it right as appeals from the supermarkets are likely if they get it wrong.
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:49pm
Cassandra

I’ve just had a blood test, routine matter, my 500th, like much of the aged population . I looked for LabTests (we’re temporarily in Auckland) but it’s no more, renamed Awanui Labs. Awanui apparently means A Big Lake so you can understand why it’s been chosen. Lab Tests must have been too easy to understand. I can understand a path lab having a Māori name too in this day and age but no functional part to the name at all? Stupid and offensive. What on earth has a big lake got to do with a blood test? Were they thinking of a urine test?
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August 30, 2024 9:01am
- Mike
  
  Big river, I think. Like an artery.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:04am
  - Cassandra
    
    Correct, it’s big river. Represents the constituent parts of the company coming together. Whatever the significance of that is. I quite like “NZ Lab Testing” or some other functional name. Our Tauranga Library is called Te Ao Marama – a world of life and light. I’d prefer Tauranga Library myself.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:20am
- MCōs
  
  From their website it appears it’s an collection of formerly different named labs come together under a new name.
  
  Over the next few months you will see local laboratory brands including Labtests, Northland Pathology, Taranaki Pathology, Hawkes Bay SCL, Wellington SCL, Medlab South, Canterbury SCL and Southern Community Laboratories, come together as one unified national brand – Awanui Labs.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:18am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Just an aside… Over the last 8 years I have had around 200 blood tests. I have come to realise that the skills of the folk with the needles vary considerably. However it is not what you might expect. Young folk from the Phillipines and India are great. Older white folk range from average to murderous.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:33am
    - Ghost
      
      Agree. I like to get the fijian Indian, so gentle. The old white girl jabs it in and has missed every now and then. Same at the hospital, when they’ve had a line in the nzers rip off the plaster thing around it saying it’s a free wax job. The Phillipines nurses go get alcohol rub and ease it off.
      
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      August 30, 2024 10:41am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I walked out once. Stabbed left arm. Stabbed right arm. That was it for me.
        
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        August 30, 2024 10:55am
      - Ghost
        
        Have you ever had them miss the vein, with the needle still in the arm move the needle around to get the vein.
        
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        August 30, 2024 11:14am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Have you ever had them miss the vein, with the needle still in the arm move the needle around to get the vein[?]”
        
        Yes that was my walk out day. I have subsequently refused to have blood taken by that person. At a frequency of every 2 weeks for the rest if my life I am not going to put up with a stabber just to be polite. 🙂
        
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        August 30, 2024 12:52pm
    - MCōs
      
      The worst I had was when I needed a ct scan to check I didn’t have a brain tumour.
      I was in a high state as it was, but then they told me they needed to repeat the process with a dye injected into my blood
      What the fuck! They’ve found something and they’re not letting on
      The young operative initially couldn’t find a vein. Then there was blood everywhere!
      Turned out it was only epilepsy! So that was a relief
      After that drama when I really did get puny old lymphoma cancer years later I wasn’t quite so worked up
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:02am
      - imalwaysright
        
        “The young operative initially couldn’t find a vein. Then there was blood everywhere!
        Turned out it was only epilepsy!”
        
        I wouldn’t want an epileptic near me with a sharp implement!
        
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        August 30, 2024 11:30am
      - Ghost
        
        Still, epilepsy isn’t that great to have. I have heard the LDN and CBD oil is good for epilepsy. But yes, thankfully not a tumor.
        
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        August 30, 2024 11:43am
      - MCōs
        
        That was about fifteen years ago
        The above happened at Starship Hospital, which I had thought was exclusively a children’s hospital
        A few days later I returned to work in Bangkok where a neurologist pinpointed the problem by way of an MRI and after a lot of experimentation with different drugs brought the seizures, which were only ever mild, under control before, as he said, there was a risk I might get hit by a big one.
        The drugs cost me about $150/month from a tiny drug store down a side street near work without a prescription or three times as much from the hospital with a prescription!
        I went for the cheap option. When I returned here the GP prescribed exactly the same drugs.
        
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        August 30, 2024 1:02pm
    - Taieri
      
      Older white folk range from average to murderous
      ——–
      
      No problems down South, they are all invariably pretty good.
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:21pm
  - Interested Party
    
    They were all called Labtest, now renamed. All owned by one Australian company
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:42am
- Benedict Yu
  
  They took over Canterbury a couple of years ago.
  
  https://www.awanuilabs.co.nz/south/canterbury/
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:27am
- John Loveridge
  
  We used to have Southern Community Labs down here in the Mainland, but that is now part of the Big Lake conglomerate too.
  
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  August 30, 2024 2:12pm
Grunter

https://leevandervis.com/
DPF “…this Kiwiblog bloke…”

Dunedin’s only sane (most of the time) Councillor, Lee Vandervis, discovers Kiwiblog

“Apparently this Kiwiblog bloke has been able to find the following political costs:

I have been voting to stop DCC funding of self-serving Local Government New Zealand for over a decade and have always refused to go to their conferences.
Recently both Auckland and Christchurch have stopped funding LGNZ.
Dunedin should do the same.
Cr. Michael Laws publicly calls them ‘troughers’ for good reason in my view.

August 28, 2024 3:00pm by David Farrar

A tale of two conferences”
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August 30, 2024 9:03am
Souvlaki

Yesterday, Te Whatu Ora….in a typical blunderbus fashion sent an email seeking interest in redundacies in Health New Zealand to reduce expenditure.
However, instead of targeting those surplus to actual requirements, it went I am lead to believe to all Medical staff too, including as yet unregistered first year House surgeons .
What planet is Margie Apa on? This is a morale crushing , blundering move, surely deliberately calculated at demoralising the very staff we so desparately need.!
It is difficult to see this as anything other than a 2 fingered salute to Government initiatives to reduce waste….it needs a serious follow-up…those responsible for an untargeted email should by fired imo.!
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August 30, 2024 9:07am
- pdm
  
  Three Civil Servants who should have been given the `bums rush’ much earlier are:
  
  1. Margie Apa
  2. Iona Holsted
  3. Mrs Hipkins Senior.
  
  Why are these three still hanging around?
  
  Not only that why are these three still being allowed to hang around and apparently sabotage progress.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:17am
  - AitchW
    
    I’d love to be a fly on the when Lester Levy next meets Margie Apa.
    I imagine he’ll tell her some home truths and give her a verbal warning!
    How any acts of blatant sabotage can she get away with?
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:41am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Iona Holstead is leaving. The CE of Education was advertised a couple of weeks ago. Also CE of the Treasury.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:57am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Tipa Mahuta has just been dumped from the Water Services Authority
    
    https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/minister-appoints-new-chair-and-members-water-services-authority
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:36pm
- rockape
  
  She is hated by the nurses. Many still have not had their leave pay errors sorted despite the problem being identified in 2022. In my wife’s case we are talking around 20k and she has been told it won’t happen till 2025. Why? When many DHBs we’re paid out in 2023?
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:24am
- SPC
  
  I doubt such a deliberate purpose.
  
  It does indicate an inability to identify where/which staff are surplus to requirements.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:28am
- Damocles11
  
  Why the hell is Apa still there????!!!!
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:29am
- Blog-aholic
  
  Planet Sabotage.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:35am
- rouppe
  
  As i mentioned yesterday, it’s lazy from a CEO.
  
  No looking at areas of unnecessary cost, areas of excessive time consumed, areas of highly manual processes that could be automated, areas of duplication.
  
  Lazy. Or, as you say, deliberate
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:46am
- JackRabbit
  
  They are short in front line staff. They have an excess of gravy train tit suckers.
  
  But to preserves their nipple sucking incomes they have to appeal emotionally to the public buy saying that the “coalition does not care” and that medical services are going to get worse.
  
  Another rule in the Marxist playbook under the chapter “Avoiding responsibility, by misdirecting blame, and pointing the finger”, in the subsection “arse covering”.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:17am
- AitchW
  
  More sabotage by an openly hostile public service.
  Heads need to roll and very publicly!
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:31am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Admin is stacked. That is what needs reducing, not those on the ground working with the patients.
  eg, yesterday I received an email about a clinic appointment. It is a duplicate of the email I received a month ago. The date of sending had not even been changed to yesterday’s date. Someone was paid to do this.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:42am
Swifty

Today’s news marks the perfect time for ordinary Maori to call for the break up and dissolution of the Maori monarchy.

It’s anachronistic, a waste of Maori money, it’s a ‘jobs for the boys’ racket that delivers Range Rovers, expensive hats, tailoring and bariatric surgery to the inner circle but almost nothing to Tainui people let alone the wider Maori community.

Those New Zealanders who call for the abolition of the UK Monarchy as our head of state should call similarly for the break up of the Kingitanga movement. It delivers a great fat zero to Hone and Hoki down on the farm, fishing boat or factory.
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August 30, 2024 9:17am
- kowtow
  
  Hilarious really .
  
  Te Media Paahti here went on endlessly about how it would be the right time when HM the Queen died to break our ties with the British monarchy as being an anachronism .
  
  When it comes to a political creation here , funnily modelled on the English concept , what do we get from the legacy media ….. crickets.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:38am
- Nobby2
  
  He is the tainui king not the maori king. Ask a maori from any other tribe whether he is their king and they will all say “no he is not my king’. He does not represent the whole of NZ maoridom, he only represents tainui. So why do politicians from all parties, except ACT, suck up to him ?
  
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  August 30, 2024 3:16pm
  - Swifty
    
    All good questions.
    
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    August 30, 2024 4:26pm
SPC

One component of the case for renewables that the boss Meridian takes seriously (considering the option of moving to use of hydro as storage – as it is overseas when a minority of the supply).

https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/28/an-engineers-plan-to-rewire-nz-and-save-money-doing-it/
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August 30, 2024 9:24am
- rouppe
  
  I don’t rate that guy.
  
  Let’s look at his heat pump hot water thing. He’s comparing that to a non heat pump cylinder. Cylinders are 200-300 litres. In order to keep that water hot, and heat cold water as hot is used, cylinders have to be running at least 4 hours a day. Even when you’re not there, because you’re not going to turn it off unless you’re going to be away at least 10 days.
  
  My instant gas water heater runs maybe 30 minutes a day when I’m home. And doesn’t use any energy when I’m not.
  
  He also ran his numbers on keeping your ev for 25 years. Yeah… Good luck with that.
  
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  August 30, 2024 9:54am
- JackRabbit
  
  The $100 billion figure is one of two headline figure…
  
  Article lost me at that.
  
  $100 billion is roughly the amount of money that Ardern, Robertson, and C.Hipkins stole, (collectively known as the Fish Wife, Fat Fryer Tuck, and Chip Munk), and used to buy votes in 2020, and pissed the rest up against the wall, and creating jobs for mates and backhanders.
  
  We already have renewables, and in fact we have Free Energy.
  
  Free Energy is defined as gain over unity on any energy system. Hydro is Free Energy. Hydro continues to produce far more energy than went into building it, and running it. It is provide Free by nature, and it renews 24/7/365.
  
  For $100 billion, we could build a dozen new hydro dams.
  
  We don’t need storage either, in the form of batteries, loss producing Lake On Slow, or any other Greenie perpetual motion scams.
  
  Hydro has inbuilt Free Energy production, storage and buffering. Which is why the Green Marxists don’t want it, as it provides power 24/7/365. It is clean power, fusion based – energy comes from the sun, to heat the water, turn it into clouds, which falls as rain and snow, and creates river flow.
  
  More hydro means more power, and cheaper power.
  
  Which is also why the Marxists are yanking the Maori puppet strings to lock up rivers. They want to control the creation of electricity.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:40am
- CJames
  
  SPC
  From my reading, I don’t think the guy understands how the grid works. Just because they might be engineers, doesn’t give them competence. I find this out every year when I lecture post-grads and am dumbfounded at their lack of knowledge.
  
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  August 30, 2024 3:58pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Joe is going downhill. Parkinsons.

https://pjnewsletter.com/stunning-update-on-bidens/?
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August 30, 2024 9:25am
- Inandout
  
  Poor bugger, shafted by the same cretins who first backed him to drag the Dems across the line in 2020.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:06am
  - imalwaysright
    
    He would have done the same to them.
    No sympathy
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:26am
  - NothingLeft
    
    He’s a lifelong piece of shit. Corrupt as they come. Caught out many times for his total lack of ethics, plagiarism and myriad lies. He’s done so much evil to so many (war on drugs extreme sentencing in 90’s etc), at least 10’s of millions in bribes, corrupted his family, and he’s been absolutely appalling as president with (maliciously planned) open boarders that have led to high inflation, collapsed wages and hopelessness and economic destruction of 10’s of million’s of working-poor Americans.
    
    He deserves to suffer in whatever life he still has remaining.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:42am
    - newview
      
      NL. You don’t like him then.
      
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      August 30, 2024 2:59pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “He deserves to suffer in whatever life he still has remaining.”
      
      Disagree. He just needs to get out of the way. He’s elderly and appears to be suffering a terminal illness.
      
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      August 30, 2024 8:35pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Abuse of a very sick man.
    
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    August 30, 2024 10:52am
    - lifesgood
      
      Getting sick doesn’t absolve you.
      
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      August 30, 2024 11:51am
  - cmm
    
    There is no “poor bugger” in it.
    
    But it does underline the sort of people we’re talking about. They use an old man, then throw him under the bus as soon as he is no use to him.
    
    This rather reminds me of what happened closer to home. As soon as Cindy took on the smell of old milk and was no more use to them they threw her under the bus and tried to sell Hipkins as a completely revamped fresh new deal – even though he had been neck deep in the Cindy government.
    
    Exactly the same is happening in USA: dump all the shit on Joe and re-image Kamala as a fresh new deal.
    
    My standard bet of 50 cents and a servo pie is that Biden will “die peacefully in his sleep” in October so that Kamala can get installed as President.
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:08pm
    - Taieri
      
      As soon as Cindy took on the smell of old milk and was no more use to them they threw her under the bus
      ————
      
      And who are those “they”?
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:24pm
Flossie

TVNZ announces millions in losses (again?)
Do they not realise they’re losing viewers and therefore advertising dollars because of their political bias and also their insistence on pushing the Maori language.
Of course I do realise there are other factors at play, such as more online news and also people, especially younger, do not watch TV.
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August 30, 2024 9:46am
- Inandout
  
  Flossie, BBC is also in a financial hole and that organisation is kept alive by fees. I looked at their annual financial report and what a woke publication to behold.
  https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/reports/annualreport
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:20am
- MCōs
  
  For myself
  I watch interesting programmes and quite frankly they’re few and far between on TVNZ except the news, the cricket, country calendar and the cricket
  Games shows, cooking, building renovations, antiques have all been done to death
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:35am
  - Grunter
    
    When did they start up TVNZ News again?
    
    Last time I watched (maybe 2 yrs ago now) all I could find was “The 6 O’Clock My Opinion” followed by “Maori Weather”
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:02am
  - OlderChas
    
    As a long time fan of Country Calendar I am quickly going off it as these days it seems to be all about “green” “organic” and “diversity” more than true farming matters, Seems to have happened since the long, long time producer(?) whose name escapes me at the moment died and someone new took over.
    And I haven’t watched 1News for years, but may go back to it as I have great difficulty suffering through the alternative now that Stuff is totally stuffing that up too!
    
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    August 30, 2024 11:22am
    - imalwaysright
      
      I heard that the participants on Country Calendar pay to be on it.
      Since then I’ve noticed an advertorial quality about it.
      May be wrong…
      Still a good programme though.
      
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      August 30, 2024 12:21pm
  - Flossie
    
    The News Mcos? Seriously?? Most biased there is. But to be fair one of their worst offenders did get stuck into Ginny Anderson I believe – and not before time.
    
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    August 30, 2024 3:46pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  I was away on holiday and by chance I caught TVNZ One News at 6pm………it affirmed why I have not ever watched their brand of ‘news’. It was a combination of arrogant patronisation combined with a level of sanctimony that insulted my intellegence at the same time as it was embarrassing for those presenting it. Calling it god awful would be high praise indeed.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:51am
- Swifty
  
  The Left’s position is that no amount of squandered taxpayer cash is too great in propping up their propaganda arms – TVNZ and RNZ.
  
  And National haven’t the guts to do anything about it.
  
  Nothing is going to change.
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:51am
  - MCōs
    
    Hey, Swifty, did you know your heartthrob was named after James Taylor?
    
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    August 30, 2024 1:06pm
    - Swifty
      
      Sorry MCos, you’ve lost me there.
      
      Apart from me and my little cheese croissant, and Margaret Thatcher, just who is my heartthrob?
      
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      August 30, 2024 3:19pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Let’s hope the new board appointments have a clue or two how to run a broadcasting service.
  
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/new-board-appointments-rnz-tvnz
  
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  August 30, 2024 12:39pm
RRM

It’s August 29th Eastern Standard Time, the day Skynet became self-aware in the Terminator movies.

Happy A.I. day!

If you’re talking to ChatGPT, be sure to tell it I’m worth more alive.
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August 30, 2024 9:53am
- JackRabbit
  
  ChatGPT. Skynet as an infant.
  
  You were saying what precisely about Skynet?
  
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  August 30, 2024 10:43am
- PeeJay
  
  As a bit of a joke, and partially as a result of plain good manners, I always make a point of saying ‘thank you’ to Siri / Alexa etc after a request has been actioned. I’ve been asked why I do this by friends and family and, as I have a bit of a wicked sense of humour, I’ve developed a mischievous response – I tell them that when AI rises to take over the world, they might let me live because I was polite to them!
  
  You would be surprised at the amount of people I’ve said this to who I later hear saying ‘thank you Siri’ etc!
  
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  August 30, 2024 11:07am
- NZer In Exile
  
  I’m more worried about deep state commie/woke fascists abusing AI to create a far left authoritarian nightmare than AI “becoming self aware and nuking humans”.
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:37pm
Local Miller

There’s a certain amount of sense in moving to a single standard across all vehicles.
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August 30, 2024 10:21am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDklj7FdANI
Breaking! IBM Exits China: Over 1600 R&D Staff Laid off Within 3 Minutes.
Man, talk about a speed round – 1000 people axed in just 3 minutes. Fastest layoff in history, no joke. So check this out: This morning, IBM China called an all-hands meeting in the pouring rain. Whole thing lasted a whopping 3 minutes. They dropped the bomb that IBM’s shutting down all their R&D departments in China. We’re talking the entire development center, systems center, the works. All that research stuff? Shipped overseas.
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August 30, 2024 10:56am
- cmm
  
  I am surprised they had an R&D centre of that size there.
  
  No doubt corporate IT remotely wiped all their computers too.
  
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  August 30, 2024 11:31am
  - kowtow
    
    He he he .
    
    Too late . Velly interesting.
    
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    August 30, 2024 1:01pm
    - sungsamning
      
      Yes, life’s a beach for the presitator.
      
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      August 30, 2024 4:19pm
  - sungsamning
    
    I sure hope so.
    
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    August 30, 2024 4:18pm
- kowtow
  
  ‘Shipped overseas.’
  
  Moving to India , another rising power .
  
  And people say these corporation and govt types are smart .
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:00pm
  - sungsamning
    
    Well, it does have democracy, something approaching free markets, and the rule of law. And less corruption, or virus labs.
    
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    August 30, 2024 4:20pm
sungsamning

https://nypost.com/2024/08/29/opinion/un-terrified-of-trump-official-admits-in-undercover-video/
The United Nations is ‘terrified’ of Trump, official admits in undercover video.
The United Nations is “terrified” at the prospect of a second Trump presidency, according to a leaked conversation with a senior official at the global agency.

“I’m not sure the United Nations is going to survive a second term from Donald Trump,” Jorge Paoletti, an associate legal officer at the UN Office of Legal Affairs in New York, told an undercover reporter from podcaster Steven Crowder’s Mug Club.
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August 30, 2024 10:57am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Is Musk too busy for a Cabinet role under Trump?
Sure he is a busy man. How about an efficiency commission? Cut the fat.
“The future could indeed be “unusual,” but unusual is what the country could use right now.”

https://politicalactionalerts.com/trump-considers-elon-musk-for-cabinet-role-amid-busy-schedule/?
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August 30, 2024 11:05am
- cmm
  
  Of course the idea is complete bullshit. Musk is already overloaded and stretched to the max with the 4 companies he runs, as well as doing 80-odd tweets a day.
  
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  August 30, 2024 11:26am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Musk had 2 hours of time to interview Trump, which was not an interview, just a nice chat.
    
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    August 30, 2024 3:13pm
Chuck Bird

There is a description to this short video

The Truth About Climate Change

United Nations • Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3hHi4sylxE
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August 30, 2024 11:16am
- cmm
  
  “Human activities have been the main driver of climate change,”
  
  Human activities might accelerate climate change slightly (eg. knock a hundred years off a 10,000 year cycle) but natural events are by far the largest contributor.
  
  The changes since the industrial revolution are tiny compared to the ice ages etc.
  
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  August 30, 2024 11:29am
  - All_on_Red
    
    The ‘description’, as Chuck calls it, is the standard note You Tube puts on all Videos which might possess a contrary view to the ‘narrative’.
    Be nice if he commented on what was actually discussed in the video and what he thinks about it.
    But never mind.
    
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    August 30, 2024 12:40pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  You put your car outside and it’s 70 deg F. Come back and it’s 104 or 140 deg F (did not hear)
  So 0.04% of CO2 in the car did that?
  
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  August 30, 2024 3:21pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    No no no! The gigantic nuclear furnace in the sky has negligible effect on earth’s temperature! It’s we greedy horrible cockroach humans. We need to be controlled by superior beings in order that we may be saved. Woke/green lefties are those superior beings. /
    
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    August 30, 2024 8:41pm
lifesgood

I thought National campaigned on changing all these nonsense Maori names for Government departments back to English so that 97% of the population could understand what they were. I haven’t see much progress so far.
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August 30, 2024 11:54am
PurplePen

Reading the Economist this morning, 24 August edition. RIP adulthood is a review of a book by Keith Hayward called infantilised. It’s about how culture and education is stopping people from growing up. There’s some truth in that. The item I wanted to share is this anecdote from the article …

An older boss was correcting a younger female employee. “There is no P in hamster”, said the boss. But “That’s how I spell it” the 20-something objected. The boss suggested they consult a dictionary. The employee rang her mother, put her on speakerphone and tearfully insisted that she tell her boss not to be so mean.

Interesting, sad but funny all at the same time.
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August 30, 2024 11:57am
- cmm
  
  Yup, that infantitisation has been chipping away at society for the last hundred or so years – accelerating in the last 20.
  
  In rural Africa, 7 year old herd boys go out for the day guarding a herd of cattle armed with nothing more than a stick – rain or shine – to face snakes, thieves and occasionally wild animals. Those cattle represent all the family’s wealth.
  
  Good luck getting even an 18 year old to take on that amount of responsibility in the West.
  
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  August 30, 2024 12:14pm
- Taieri
  
  Thanks for the hint. Just downloaded it. I hope it’s as good as you say.
  
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  August 30, 2024 12:27pm
cmm

“it’s estimated New Zealanders use more than 39 billion litres of water a year – just for washing laundry”.

Wow. Sounds like a lot. But is it?

That is 22 litres per person per day.

Clutha River has an average flow of about 610cumecs or 610,000 litres per second. 7 seconds of that every hour is all it needs to do all of NZ’s laundry.

Perhaps there are more important things to worry about.

It is funny how Herald also link this to cost of living.

A suggestion on how you could save, maybe, 1 cent a day in washing water? Go any buy a new front-load washing machine that uses less water!

Yup, save less than $5 a year by spending $1500!

That old adage applies: Don’t take financial advice from broke people.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/cost-of-living-changing-laundry-washing-machine-habits-can-save-money/IZ5ZQPBC3FCWLGCTIK577CL5IA/
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August 30, 2024 12:31pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  It is just that New Zealand journalists are mostly very bad with basic arithmetic. Or basic science. Or basic economics. 🙂
  
  I recall a few years ago I was on a job using a government agency office in Wellington. There was an office memo announcing that all the dishwashers in the staff kitchens were being replaced with “5 star” water efficient dishwashers, replacing the existing “3 star” machines. As far as I could tell, the existing machines had years of life left in them. 🙁
  
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  August 30, 2024 12:57pm
  - cmm
    
    Yup, no different to all the recently purchased government hybrids replaced with EVs.
    
    If you don’t have to pay then you just go with whatever looks best.
    
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    August 30, 2024 1:15pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Indeed. A couple of years back I posted some basic cost analysis comparing the ownership cost of a small basic petrol hybrid with a similar size EV. Unless you are doing huge miles – e.g. a full time Uber driver – it is no contest.
      
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      August 30, 2024 1:36pm
  - rockape
    
    I have a nice $9000 fridge for my wine and cheese courtesy of the DHB that was throwing it away as they no longer need it for Covid vaccines!
    
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    August 30, 2024 2:36pm
surfing

My fibre internet stopped working around 9am today. Called Skinny 11am, explained my fibre is down and the ONT loss of signal light was on (no fibre signal coming into the house).

He asks to restart my router, which is brain dead, there is no way that could fix anything in a loss of signal situation. He’s reading from a script rather than assessing the information I provided.

CSR checks my address and says there are no outages in my area, and that he’ll call the lines company and get back to me.

Curious, I thought I’d look up the lines company outage page directly, where it says the opposite, major outage in my area…

Investigating – There is a large scale outage affecting customers in Tauranga. Our field team has been sent to investigate the issue.
Aug 30, 2024 – 10:08 NZST

Companies can’t get basic facts right, it’s pathetic. Who runs these companies? They are doing an extremely poor job if an ISP is completely unaware of major outages and are telling their customers the network is just fine.
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August 30, 2024 12:35pm
- Ghost
  
  It happens, they don’t know of outages until they’re notified. Same happens with power cuts, ring up no details, few minutes later the details are online
  
  1st world problems
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:00pm
- MCōs
  
  “Who runs these companies?”
  Not the people answering the phones for minimum wage . . . . .
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:10pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Indeed. Many CEOs and managers should be publicly flogged for the crap they put their customers and their staff through.
    
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    August 30, 2024 8:45pm
- Inandout
  
  surf, one of the reasons I stuck with Spark is because they arranged the original fibre installation and touch wood have never had a break in fibre connection. I think Spark has an online testing procedure for any faults that may occur.
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:11pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  They will know, but it is never their fault right?
  Think they will ever admit they have an issue?
  
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  August 30, 2024 3:34pm
PurplePen

RNZ ratings plummet. Ah ha ha ha haaaaa. Paywalled in Herald.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/media-insider-rnzs-radio-ratings-drop-a-cause-for-soul-searching-says-ceo-rebecca-wrights-news-plans-mediaworks-and-auditor-part-ways-rod-vaughan-tribute/BDW6HTJF2BFHRP27X2OTWKYIYI-2/#:~:text=GfK%20ratings%20released%20this%20week,than%20700%2C000%20in%20mid%2D2020.
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August 30, 2024 12:47pm
- cmm
  
  I’m sure all they need is a bit more of a top up from the taxpayer…
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:12pm
  - kowtow
    
    No doubt the top cheeses there will be saying , we have to keep doing what we’ve been doing , only better and harder , more Maori , more maori pronounciations , more woo woo noises …….that’ll bring the “punters” back, eh.
    
    Te he he.
    
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    August 30, 2024 1:23pm
    - cmm
      
      Those that don’t come back are racists and we’re better off without them.
      
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      August 30, 2024 1:47pm
  - mandk
    
    I know you are in jest, but 100% no.
    
    There is no case nowadays for having state-owned media (both RNZ and TVNZ), let alone media that are fully funded or heavily subsidised by the taxpayer.
    
    RNZ and TVNZ should be sold and then left to sink or swim.
    
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    August 30, 2024 2:55pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  From Google Preview on the article:
  
  “The overall ratings drop is reflected in several of RNZ National’s key shows, according to data released exclusively to Media Insider. Morning Report is now down to 347,400 listeners, from 376,500 in the first survey of 2024. Since early 2020, the show has lost more than 150,000 listeners.”
  
  Of course RNZ puts a positive spin on it:
  
  “RNZ today releases new audience data that shows overall audiences are higher than ever before with 77% of New Zealanders 18-plus accessing its content a month.*”…
  
  “…Trust in RNZ also continues to grow with 49% agreeing that RNZ is an organisation you can trust, up from 45% a year ago.  …”
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/media/223
  
  ummm that means that slightly more than half of folk so not trust RNZ. How is that good? I guess it could be worse. In fact I am surprised it is that good.
  
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  August 30, 2024 1:32pm
  - cmm
    
    Down to 347k from 376k listeners???
    That’s another 8% gone after the 30% lost in the previous 2 years. It can only be the absolute hard core left.
    
    I wonder how many of those 77% accessing their content are people either clicking one of their Youtube news items per week or occasionally clicking through from stuff?
    
    Per-month usage is a useless statistic. What is far more useful is market share and measuring the size of the market.
    
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    August 30, 2024 1:46pm
    - Blog-aholic
      
      347,000 people that have broken tuner and ‘off’ knobs maybe.
      
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      August 30, 2024 1:50pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        A good indication of the number of middle aged and older woketards in the population? Pretty sure the format is too boring and slow for the young ones.
        
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        August 30, 2024 8:47pm
    - kowtow
      
      ‘hard core left’
      
      Indeed they are.
      
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      August 30, 2024 2:17pm
- BananaLlama
  
  I actually feel sorry for the staff on the ground floor the ones i have spoken to seem like good people that are relatable while the dorks in charge drive them straight off a cliff.
  
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  August 30, 2024 2:24pm
Jack5

Will this make voters feel safer?

The Coalition is headed for a mental-health failure as the police, with their numbers rising, push more work on to the strained health service, with its shortage of nurses, psychiatrists, and mental-hospital beds.

Pollice chief Coster says mental-health related calls take up about a half a million hours of police “front line time” a year.

From November, Coster says, police will introduce a higher “threshold of risk” before staff respond to requests for mental health transport or attendance at mental health facilities.

“In January next year, police staff will conduct handovers with Health staff, and depart after a maximum one hour unless there is a risk to life or safety. This will eventually reduce to 15 minutes later in the year.”

The Coalition Police Minister may be responding to people’s understandable worry about crime.

By the next general election, the health system might replace crime as voters’ top worry.

Examples: a few nasty crimes by off-their-head mad men; a nurse or two bashed and others walking off the job; violence at hospital emergency departments; more suicides.

And what will the police show for the new time they have after shedding this responsibility? Gangs subdued? Drug trafficking ended? Burglaries investigated? Or, or is this extra time and effort going into policing so-called “hate speech”?
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August 30, 2024 2:05pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Bring back the “men in white coats”?
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:49pm
Chuck Bird

Did anyone who saw the interview of Harris and Walz on CNN think they got softball questions?

They seem to think they can attack Trump and Vance and cry foul when they get some back.

I think Walz is more weird than Vance.
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August 30, 2024 2:21pm
- Inandout
  
  CB, It appears Kamala is unsure of herself so she needed a male backup. The US MSM is in fawning mode but as this is the only interview she will give before the election she is taking a big risk leaving such a vacuum.
  
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  August 30, 2024 4:25pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    The US MSM might support her but Fox and Sky New News does not.
    
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    August 30, 2024 4:51pm
    - Inandout
      
      CB, yes Gutfeld takes her on, especially Tyrus.
      
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      August 30, 2024 4:54pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  From Zero Hedge:
  
  You Had One Job: Kamala Blows Pre-Taped Interview Question With Walz Right Next To Her.
  
  https://www.zerohedge.com/political/you-had-one-job-kamala-blows-pre-taped-interview-walz-right-next-her
  
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  August 30, 2024 8:53pm
  - Ghost
    
    Blows? Is that the right word to use with her?
    
    I’ll go sit in the naughty corner before a mod comes along and makes me write lines
    
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    August 30, 2024 9:14pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350397382/drink-driver-caught-twice-same-day
Crush his car.
Ban him from driving for life.
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August 30, 2024 5:28pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  It’s a waste to crush a car.
  
  I would much prefer that the car be confiscated and sold. The proceeds to be used to finance further police activities.
  
  I would hope, but doubt, that this person gets some jail time.
  
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  August 30, 2024 5:52pm
info@cruzpro.com

This concerns a murder trial for a man believed responsible for the death of another man in Whangarei recently.

“A two-week trial was scheduled for April 13, 2026”

Guilty or inoccent, I am incredulous that it can take almost two years for someone to get a trial.

What a third-world legal system we have now.
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August 30, 2024 6:02pm
- Ghost
  
  Backlogs are nothing new or special to nz
  
  https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/contact-or-visit-us/press-office/press-releases/record-number-of-cases-waiting-over-2-years-in-criminal-court-queue
  
  https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-03-04/court-delays-not-meeting-national-benchmarks/102044662
  
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  August 30, 2024 6:12pm
Tom Hunter

After five years in the dog box it’s nice to be out of moderation. 😀 😀

I got an email from DPF just a day after I emailed him, so thank you DPF.
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August 30, 2024 6:36pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350397767/self-entitlement-and-greed-rugby-doctor-sentenced-after-sidestepping-taxes
And so it continues…….
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August 30, 2024 6:57pm

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