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January 4, 2025 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 04 January 2025

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General Debate

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CJames

Graeme Adams turns up the heat on Tamihere/ Waipareira/ Maori Party scandal. Looks like the wings will be clipped at the very least. The funding could even disappear.
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/graham-adams-storm-clouds-gather-over-tamihere-s-fiefdom
One wonders why these issues haven’t been raised in the House, though that may be because of the Inquiry and the Government not wanting to queer the pitch.
How long before it all breaks and a lot more information comes out. Hamiora Gray did his bit but that seems forgotten about. I suspect there will be a lot of damage to political and bureaucracy figures who currently outside the above grouping. For example, what are Willie Jackson’s links?
Whatever happens, it is time to get the popcorn out.
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January 4, 2025 8:01am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  How extraordinary that the Whanau Ora contracts with the Waipareira Trust haven’t been placed out to an open tender each year.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:08am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Buy Maori for Maori…
    
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    January 4, 2025 8:16am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    “after 10 years of no formal procurement process, we thought it was important to undertake an engagement and procurement process for Whānau Ora”
    
    10 years??? Public sector procurement documents I’m familiar with always have break points – say, 3 years plus 1 year plus 1 year, with a mandatory retendering after the 5 years at the latest. And, the lifetime value estimates for these type of contracts is less than 1/100th of the $180m+ pa finding its way to the Whanau Ora providers.
    
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    January 4, 2025 8:27am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Who was government 6 years after your 3plus 1 year, and I suggest it may well have been Jackson who had the say as Māori development minister
      
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      January 4, 2025 12:10pm
  - PurplePen
    
    Maori tikanga.
    
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    January 4, 2025 9:29am
    - pdm
      
      Koha/entitlement.
      
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      January 4, 2025 10:17am
      - John Loveridge
        
        Corruption.
        
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        January 4, 2025 12:11pm
  - Grumpy Silver Top
    
    Extraordinary, hell yes. Surprising? No.
    
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    January 4, 2025 10:29am
  - artemisia
    
    It is reasonable for some contracts to span a few years. Mr Tamihere is quoted in the BBH article – “You have to give your people out on the street [the] knowledge they can contract with their employees for consecutive years. You’ve got to give confidence to the people you are contracting with that they can take leaseholds, buy cars, buy devices, buy laptops to make their work work in communities, and you’ve got to give them certainty.”
    
    But results along with accurate reporting are also critical, and we have seen during 2024 some service providers having taxpayer funding cut or reduced. More taxpayer hosepipes to come under scrutiny for sure.
    
    Reasons might not be publicly released, but there will be reasons.
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:10am
    - Keith White
      
      “Mr Tamihere is quoted in the BBH article – “You have to give your people out on the street [the] knowledge they can contract with their employees for consecutive years. You’ve got to give confidence to the people you are contracting with that they can take leaseholds, buy cars, buy devices, buy laptops to make their work work in communities, and you’ve got to give them certainty.”
      
      Mr Tamihere is full of it. Average people do not have any certainty about continued employment. I guess in T’s world though, serial troughing on the basis of race provides him with certain money-teats to suck from.
      
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      January 4, 2025 3:12pm
- kowtow
  
  For real change te meedia paahti has to be on the case ( to give the pollies the backbone they clearly require) and we all know the media suffer from maoriwonderfulnessvirus , so there’ll never be any meaningful change or reform.
  Unless we get a disruptor govt , and that isn’t happening either.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Well, the government can not do anything until the results of the inquiry is announced. What you could keep in your memory is that the loop hole with tax on so called fund raised entities is being looked into, and it’s quite strange that this is happening now the inquiry is over.
    
    You can rubbish the Nats as much as you like, but if this government is not a disruptive government with Peters and Act in cabinet then you will not get one. Surely you don’t want heavy handed knee jerk reactions before the inquiry is announced, riding tough shod over the voter is what got the last lot booted out
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:16pm
    - kowtow
      
      Whoooosh
      
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      January 4, 2025 4:24pm
- Michael Sommerville
  
  The real concern I have is, why did it take this long to bring any action. The issue I see is the inaction of those within government who should have acted strongly and decisively. The conflicts within the Manurewa marae were glaringly obvious. The Electoral Commission and Police have been missing in action on the Waipareira Trust and Tamahere.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:09am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The election results and any corruption findings was only completed about mid last year, the inquiry is going to open all avenues, why people on here hated the previous Marxist commies and now want to do similar is beyond me
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:19pm
- peterwn
  
  No hurry – plenty of time. Like the Headmaster who leaves the brat stewing outside his study contemplating the traditional treatment awaiting him.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:17am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Any escape route for JT will already have been thought of.
    Corruption will be involved.
    
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    January 4, 2025 8:47am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      King’s Birthday knighthood for services to Maori
      
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      January 4, 2025 9:13am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Rubbish.
        
        Oh you mean (sarc)
        
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        January 4, 2025 12:24pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I suggest the leaving the findings till just before Ratana is planned, and may well show JT for the crock he is. No wonder Luxon isn’t going to Waitangi, he will know what is coming, Peter’s seemed to know something in the house last month.
      
      Note TPM keep saying they have never been contacted, they won’t because the police or SFO have not yet been brought in, they protest too much
      
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      January 4, 2025 12:23pm
    - AitchW
      
      Is there an Ecuadorian embassy in Wellington?
      
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      January 4, 2025 3:57pm
- kowtow
  
  “after 10 years of no formal procurement process, ”
  
  If that happened in the third world what would we be calling it, but then again our race politics has rapidly taken us that way and there’s only one party in parliament not tainted and the media are fully on board with the race agenda politics.
  
  New Babwe here we come.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:42am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Who was in government the last 6 years? I bet after the findings of the inquiry they won’t be getting funding
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:27pm
- Philview
  
  ‘It all breaks’ In another country that would imply a massive media story. In NZ the role of the media will be containment of the story.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:45am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Oh I bet if it is bad for Tamahere after the inquiry they will rave, as they won’t want to be seen on the wrong side of this. Can’t wait for all government parties to constantly ask Hipkins if he now rules out TPM from any coalition
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:28pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  Im afraid I dont believe JT WJ or anyone else will suffer any consequences. The reason. The Elites all of them stick together like shit to a blanket. They see the citizens the great unwashed as their enemy so will protect each other at all costs. Nothing will happen. It will all be swept under the carpet like the Wine Box and numerous other examples where the Elites should have been punished.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:23am
  - nathie
    
    “It will all be swept under the carpet like” ….
    
    You mean like Metiria Turei’s fraud punishment, Helen Clark’s pledge card scandal, James Shaw’s qualifications, Grant Robertson’s profligate spending spree which helped to wreck the economy and the untold absolute lies of NZ’s most inexperienced and incompetent PM?
    
    If so the common denominator appears that they are from the hard-Left and the MSM “approved” them! It will therefore surely be the same for the likes of JT and his enablers!
    
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    January 4, 2025 9:34am
    - Paulus
      
      Are you suggesting the the New Zealand Media are corrupt too ?
      Not the Aotearoa Media though !
      
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      January 4, 2025 10:56am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Tire had nothing to sweep under the carpet when she was talking about something from 20 years earlier, she was forced to resign, a certain MP will have huge pressure applied if it turns out that ballot box was fiddled with, I suggest a bye-election before mid year
      
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      January 4, 2025 12:33pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    The inquiry spokesman stated they are announcing findings later in January, and then said this will then go to other agencies, that can only mean police or SFO or both, how can you read that means nothing into that, what other agencies could be involved?
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:31pm
- nathie
  
  So in essence is the taxpayer funding the radical racist Te Pāti Māori?
  
  Well that’s the implication as it appears the Waipareira Trust has multi-million net surpluses. If that is the case can surplus funds be used for political type funding?
  
  Sorry (if this has been explained before), I’m not up to play on this issue (and probably ditto 99.99% of the population due to MSM indifference)!
  
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  January 4, 2025 10:43am
  - CJames
    
    In simple terms, Yes for the first and No for the second. Add to that using Government information collected for one purpose for their own political benefit.
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:29am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  I’m pretty sure the govt won’t want to queer the pitch. I’m not even sure that TPM has a credible and coherent Rainbow policy – even for Takatapui (and much to the consternation of the Greens).
  
  Oh, sorry, you’re talking about genuine, serious political and legal matters that might actually affect the country…
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:03pm
  - Keith White
    
    Their Rainbow policy is that every Pot of Gold at the end of every Rainbow is theirs by Racial Right.
    
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    January 4, 2025 3:14pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Peters has pointed to it in parliament, he and the government have to be very careful what they say about this, as apparently this is getting sent to other authorities, I suggest police and SFO, clearly the announcement of the inquiry being delayed is a sign that it’s bad for the crocked party
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:03pm
  - Keith White
    
    Parliamentary privilege protects MPs for what they say in the House. Why won’t they use it on this?
    
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    January 4, 2025 3:15pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      It does not stop him from ruining an inquiry
      
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      January 4, 2025 7:44pm
Biscuit

Why is it that every time – EVERY time – some (alleged) lowlife appears in Court after (allegedly) perping some (alleged) crime, his/her/its lawyer leaps up and implores His/Her/Its Honour to suppress publication of the (alleged) lowlife’s name on the grounds that someone, invariably conveniently overseas, hasn’t heard about the case as yet and time will be needed so that that person can be informed lest he/she/it be shocked at finding out.
‘No, Lawyer, you’ve had (x) hours to get the family to so inform their absent relly. I’d suggest you get them all on their cellphones pronto cos I’m naming your client in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…’
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January 4, 2025 8:02am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Doesn’t every family have a WotsUp group?
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:10am
  - Flossie
    
    No
    
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    January 4, 2025 10:23am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Some people refuse to use privacy-raping shit platforms. Most people sadly are gormless convenience-whores.
    
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    January 4, 2025 2:33pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Don’t pull your punches, NZer. Say what you really mean.
      
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      January 4, 2025 4:14pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Pretty much all of big tech, the advertising industry, govt agencies and more are in on the invasive privacy raping game. It’s a huge interconnected matrix. It’s been built up under government noses with very little regulation to make sure citizens can meaningfully have their privacy protected as a default position. Clicking “agree” (or be cut off from friends and essential services) is not a meaningful protection. My experience is most people would rather put their heads in the sand and pretend the above entities have their best interests at heart. Lest they have to face the reality they are now living in a dystopian wild west where their privacy has mostly been destroyed. And lest they might have to pull finger and make some behavioral changes to protect their and others’ (people they communicate with) privacy.
        
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        January 4, 2025 8:11pm
- Chuck Bird
  
  If the accused has a long record it would make a fair trial more difficult. I think the verdict is clear in this case but name suppression until the verdict makes no difference.
  
  I know this may sound silly in this case but the presumption of innocence must always be the case.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:20am
  - Simon
    
    Got National’s “prisons are a moral & fiscal failure” written all over it.
    
    When his name released you can check if he has form or not.
    
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    January 4, 2025 8:42am
  - Biscuit
    
    Okay, Chuck, I get that…
    But I tire of lawyers’ antics in – to my mind – simply protracting proceedings and, doubtless, reaping a few more taxpayers’ funds in Legal Aid.
    And what is worse the media are allowed to issue descriptions of the accused along the lines of ‘a 30 year old male, can’t tell you his ethnicity, from the northern South Island’ that does nothing except besmirch the honour(s) of anyone else who fits that description.
    
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    January 4, 2025 8:49am
    - H. Upmann
      
      Compare with common USA situations where the perp’s full name and photograph are published while the bodies are still warm, for example, the situation in New Orleans this week.
      
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      January 4, 2025 9:00am
    - Chris R
      
      I practised law for almost 50 years and refused to do work paid through Legal Aid. There was a common attitude amongst my fellow practitioners that if a lawyer needed Legal Aid to survive they were hopeless lawyers. Legal Aid pay rates are very modest, if not, minimal. Lawyers do not extend the Court’s process to get more of it, this is a common and absurd suggestion as the rates are more or less commensurate with a sickness benefit.
      
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      January 4, 2025 9:38am
  - Cassandra
    
    I don’t buy that. That’d mean name suppression until sentencing. Remember the 1970s Labour policy to that effect? Perp should be named immediately, modern comms means family notification is almost instant. “Mum, I’ve been arrested again. Can you tell the whanau?”
    
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    January 4, 2025 8:58am
    - CJames
      
      Remember just after the law came in, Gerald O’Brien was arrested for some homosexual offence – in ChCh IIRC. When the papers reported it was a politician, almost all the Labour male MPs came out and said it wasn’t them. Made it very easy to identify who it was by lack of denial. Unintended consequences?
      The law changed back soon after Muldoon came in.
      
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      January 4, 2025 9:05am
      - pdm
        
        CJ speaking of Muldoon one of his Cabinet Ministers Jim? Allen was publicly known as `The Minister For Silly Walks’.
        
        AFAIK he was never before the Courts, let alone convicted, for anything so his only misdemeanour was being `drunk and disorderly’.
        
        Yet he was publicly shamed.
        
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        January 4, 2025 9:18am
      - gravedodger
        
        Keith Allen c1983, pdm here because there is no reply for your comment
        
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        January 4, 2025 9:50am
      - pdm
        
        Thanks GD – I should have known that because I worked and played rugby with his son-in-law. Never met Keith Allen though.
        
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        January 4, 2025 9:55am
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Keith Allen was found in a gutter one evening. He claimed to have been beaten up by three men. Wags named them as John Walker, James Beam and Jack Daniels.
        
        It later transpired that Allen had a poorly managed diabetic condition and should not have been drinking at all.
        
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/barry-soper-attacks-on-mps-are-rare-in-new-zealand/C4BQDBWXACCXNC7UMCJKBUR4FQ/
        
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        January 4, 2025 10:31am
      - godruelf
        
        I believe Lange referred to Allen at the time as beign “As Hypoglycemic as a Newt”. 🙂
        
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        January 4, 2025 3:11pm
  - Local Miller
    
    It would be handy if there were a link to the case that raised the original comment.
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:28pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  I almost feel sorry watching the death of the legacy media. Of course it began when the internet arrived and ramped up as social media took hold. The legacy media did themselves no favours by aligning with the Left and moving from their traditional position of reporting the news factually and offering OpEds from all angles and all points on the spectrum. Some have retained a tame centre right opinion provider to give a veneer of balance but most dont even bother doing that.
  I predict the legacy media has another 10 years at most. Even if it reads the room on Woke which it hasnt so far and dramatically changes it offeringsn it will be too late. Too many now get their news and opinions from the well established alternatives. RIP.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:19am
  - imalwaysright
    
    The media formally relinquished any credibility they may have had when they compliantly signed up to be censored by the government during the proposed Tarrant trial.
    They then obediently stood to attention when the covid propaganda needed to be distributed.
    They aren’t media, they are paid liars.
    
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    January 4, 2025 9:34am
  - sungsamning
    
    I don’t. They’ve made their bed. Now they have to lie in it. With the rise of AI; it’s probably too late for the ‘journalists’ to enrol in coding courses.
    
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    January 4, 2025 9:38am
  - hookerphil
    
    “The legacy media did themselves no favours by aligning with the Left and moving from their traditional position of reporting the news factually and offering OpEds from all angles and all points on the spectrum.”
    Quite correct – so why feel sorry for them. I get an email form The Press every day giving about 5/6 items of the day – all paywalled and their so called cartoon. That is almost always consistently anti the current Coalition Governmemt. There is no way I will ever feel sorry for them.
    
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    January 4, 2025 9:56am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Sadly the bastards were rubbishing the opposition before the election, never before have we seen that arrogance
      
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      January 4, 2025 1:31pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    For me the moment I knew was when Stuff said that the science of climate change was settled and that they were no longer going to be offering balancing articles on the topic.
    
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    January 4, 2025 10:33am
    - John Loveridge
      
      Their grovelling, craven apology to Maori was a signal moment for me.
      
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      January 4, 2025 12:17pm
  - Skippytony
    
    I worked for the largest printing company in Aus and NZ. During the late 90s and early 2000s the writing was on the wall, but nobody wanted to see it. For 20 years people like nzpost, fairfax, yellow pages (remember them?) advertising agencies all refused to face reality, not just tv networks. The simple reality is that it’s a very rare organisation that can do substantial surgery to itsself, it almost always has do be done by external entities. Of course, the shareholders get fucked over well and truly on the way.
    
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    January 4, 2025 2:17pm
- Scooter
  
  If what I read on X is true and it’s the person charged then they have acted in the same way before. If so then his previous actions should put him away for life.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:38am
- Surely Knott
  
  Agree. As if overseas relative has to wait for a telegram by ship. Give them an hour for name suppression so they can make the phone call. Not sure how hearing that your kid is a murderer is any easier if you hear it from the kid themselves.
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:16pm
Grunter

Ian Proud, former UK Diplomat to Russia writes interesting articles. His latest below outlines the challenges Trump has in stopping the war in Ukraine.

Apart from total capitulation, I can not see how Trump will stop the war as he has promised. And more ‘peace talks’ that don’t involve Russia are obviously just PR stunts.

https://www.prouddiplomat.com/post/6-key-challenges-trump-needs-to-address-to-bring-peace-to-ukraine
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January 4, 2025 8:07am
- JackRabbit
  
  I can not see how Trump will stop the war as he has promised.
  
  Trump could easily stop the Ukraine war by stopping the flow of weapons and money from the USA.
  
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  January 4, 2025 10:30am
  - gorse
    
    The war won’t stop if the USA stops helping. It is now acknowledged by many that the help from Europe and Ukraine’s own production lines will be enough to continue.
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:43am
    - JackRabbit
      
      Data please. Acknowledged by whom?
      
      Blackrock? Rockefellers? JP Morigan? Both of whom have been lending Ukraine money flat out in order to get their claws onto the precious minerals.
      
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      January 4, 2025 12:56pm
  - Grunter
    
    That’s true, which is basically capitulation.
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:49pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Well it looks like both parties are prepared to talk a resolution now, before the election that was never going to happen, I think the war will end this year and it had no hope before the election
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:38pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

So, I was looking at booking an AirBnB the other day. I hadn’t used that platform for a couple of years. The platform told me that I would now need to have my identity verified, which meant providing both a selfie and a photo of a Govt-issued ID.

Sod that, thought I. AirBnB are asking me to trust them with my biometric data, which is permanent. Frankly, I don’t. If (when) they are hacked, I would be sanguine about having to change a password; but I can’t change my face.

Massive overreach by a foreign corporate. I took my business elsewhere.
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January 4, 2025 8:08am
- peterwn
  
  Hotels commonly want guest ID and take a copy of it (although there is no legal requirement for them to do this unlike various other countries). The practice may have come about when people were renting motel units to use as a clan P lab.
  
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  January 4, 2025 11:08am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    I have visited hotels in quite a few countries, and several at home, I have never ever been asked for any sort of ID, only proof of booking, and even then they don’t bother.
    
    One thing was in HK they take your passport off you, they suggest it’s for security, but is also remember using my passport to get to different attractions, do not sure how they kept our passports and we used them as well, perhaps we got them each day and handed them in at night.
    
    We also decided to go to Macau one day and needed passports. We only decided that day so must have already had our passports, again maybe we handed them in at night for security
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:43pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      No-one except law enforcement can take you passport – & even then they need a valid reason. A hotel certainly does not have the right to hold it.
      
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      January 4, 2025 4:55pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Well you are talking nz, but the hotel demanded our pass, and they were placed in the large safe, you can racecourse as much as you like, but that is fact. From the previous my post was aimed at the poster saying hotels expect ID, my post is saying after going to many many hotels in other parts of the world I have never been asked for ID
        
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        January 4, 2025 7:55pm
- imalwaysright
  
  I was asked for a $150 cleaning fee for a three night stay at a $300/night Airbnb property.
  They were also good enough to instruct me to leave the place as I found it!
  Went to a hotel instead.
  
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  January 4, 2025 11:19am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    If it’s $300 a night you are better at the hotel anyway
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:44pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      Correct. Airbnb are pricing themselves out of the market.
      
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      January 4, 2025 2:13pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Listening to Radio NZ this morning, the announcer commented that Susie & co are off until Feb, but in the meantime, here’s an interview first broadcast back in 2024.

I wish my boss would let me dredge up a piece of 2024 work so that I could stay on holiday until February.
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January 4, 2025 8:16am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  Much more interesting would be an article from 10, or 20 years ago. Plus ca change etc.
  
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  January 4, 2025 10:36am
- peterwn
  
  A good personality who can draw in the listeners can generally negotiate favourable contracts with broadcasters with such leave provisions. That is unless things go haywire as happened to Brian Edwards in 2000. He and his missus (chief negotiator) met with Radio NZ thinking he could get his usual pay increase. RNZ said that there would be no increase and furthermore he would need to meet the cost of dealing with defamation suits (previously met by RNZ ie the taxpayer) – that was tantamount to ‘Don’t Come Saturday’ (when his show was). He asked his old mate Helen Clark to intervene but wisely she refused to.
  
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  January 4, 2025 11:19am
- alwyn.a
  
  I would be quite happy if Susie et al remained on holiday permanently.
  my day starts with the Weather forecast after the 6am news bulletin.
  I can understand it at the moment when the give the main center forecasts. They give forecasts for Auckland, Tauranga, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin instead of for seven pseudo Maori names. Long may it continue.
  
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  January 4, 2025 11:23am
- GazzaW
  
  It’s much the same on ZB. The A team are all away on extended breaks and the B team are totally inadequate in their temporary positions. With the exception of Tim Beveridge who is filling in for Hosking the remainder of the team consists of a couple of second rate Christchurch hosts, the graveyard shift character who came complete with his inarticulate talkback audience, a converted sports jock, converted political reporter and the bloke that regularly does the handyman show.
  
  The listeners and your advertisers deserve better Newstalk ZB!
  
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  January 4, 2025 11:45am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    One of the arrogant assholes was asking people to ring in about their struggles, and had the audacity to suggest under the coalition of chaos, not one person rang mentioned that
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:47pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Pfizer immune from prosecution of intentionally misleading the public? Free reign during emergencies?
Stinks.
So Ardern could say “safe and effective” as much as she liked, knowing she was lying?

https://centrist.nz/us-judge-tosses-texas-lawsuit-accusing-pfizer-of-lying-about-covid-vaccine/?
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January 4, 2025 8:16am
- imalwaysright
  
  Article: “Judge Sam R. Cummings ruled that Pfizer is protected by the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act), granting immunity to vaccine makers during emergencies like the pandemic. ”
  
  It was never a vaccine.
  
  It was called a vaccine in order to bypass more strict regulations and enable the granting of an Emergency Use Authorisation.
  
  Bent judge perhaps.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:24am
- Yvette
  
  Steve – intentionally misleading the public?
  
  “One of our critical advisers through this, who’s from the science community, mentioned to me the other day that on their calculation, give or take possibly 5000 people have been saved by what we had done.
  So in those moments I think of that. Now those 5000 people, they don’t know who they are. They don’t know that it was them that has been potentially protected by these measures. But I just keep that in my mind.” – Dame Jacinda Ardern
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-response-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-interview-on-what-government-got-right-and-wrong/PKKLCAAF6DCTUCH3AIRIP4W6TU/
  
  From fiction to fact in about three sentences.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:32am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    She was always good at that!!
    
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    January 4, 2025 4:53pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Yeah that’s bullshit
  
  Yes the lawsuit failed because of the immunity granted to Pfizer
  
  However the lawsuit was idiotic. It effectively blamed Pfizer for making the pandemic worse because the vaccine was ineffective. Yes the pandemic in Texas was a disaster, killing many. They died because stupid Texas politicians persuaded them to not get vaccinated.
  
  The death rates for vaccinated Texans were orders of magnitude lower than for those who were unvaccinated. That should be the beginning and end of the argument. A good analysis here. (Behind paywall but you should get one free article.)
  
  https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2023-12-06/new-attack-on-covid-vaccination-from-a-discredited-adversary
  
  If you want the truth, the last place to look is a lawsuit instigated by paranoid Texan politicians.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:19am
  - imalwaysright
    
    “They died because stupid Texas politicians persuaded them to not get vaccinated.”
    
    Any evidence for your conspiracy theory?
    
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    January 4, 2025 9:38am
  - Sacha
    
    Your comment on the survival rate of Texans reminds me of an article (’22/early’23). on the manufacture of the COVID19 vaccines and the safety thereof. According to the article there were several factories involved internationally (they could be identified by the batch numbers on the packing/ampoules).
    There was speculation that certain batches were associated with higher numbers of reactions to the injections.
    If this were so, it could be claimed that the Texans got a ‘good batch’ while other regions weren’t so lucky.
    Given the continual release of dodgy statistics I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that were the case.
    
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    January 4, 2025 10:09am
  - Inandout
    
    BY, of the countless millions who flowed across the southern border is it not possible they contributed to the infections you speak of? In this small nation at the bottom of the world, isolated and easily locked up, we cannot for a moment imagine what 12 million mainly illegal people can do to a nation.
    
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    January 4, 2025 10:22am
  - rouppe
    
    I go back to Sweden and the experience there.
    
    They didn’t do mandates, and their vaccine rollout was governed by “eligibility” which usually meant old or immunocompromised. Later, eligibility was extended to the general population.
    
    https://www.pathogens.se/dashboards/vaccines/
    
    This report shows uptake of vaccines in Sweden. Later doses (four and five mostly) have a limited eligibility, again usually age. Less than 20% of the overall Swedish population has had a fifth dose.
    
    No one is highlighting Sweden as a place where people unnecessarily died.
    
    I’m just cautious about ascribing covid deaths entirely to uptake of the vaccine, and not other behaviours.
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:24am
  - Pavel
    
    What a load of rubbish BY. The vast majority of people I know (aged newborn to 77 years old) are all unvaccinated and we’ve all had covid and nobody even went to the doctor. You’re in denial because you’ve been jabbed. Here’s some sound scientific evidence for you to check over what you’ve actually put into your body.
    https://jhss.scholasticahq.com/article/127890-a-rapid-detection-method-of-replication-competent-plasmid-dna-from-covid-19-mrna-vaccines-for-quality-control
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:31am
  - judith8409121
    
    no evidence just propaganda – to think people still rolling out that propaganda to this day
    next minute – they will say it stopped the spread
    all rubbish
    
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    January 4, 2025 7:22pm
- sungsamning
  
  It looks like Pfizer won this one. I bet they’re not thrilled at what RFK has in store for them.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:40am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    RFK will do nothing, people seem to have forgotten it was Trump who brought in Warpspeed, I am now in Trumps dude as I seen how he improved the US economy, but he was the man who gave the world warp speed
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:51pm
    - sungsamning
      
      Maybe nothing about ‘Warp speed’. He’ll be active on other fronts though. Such as shutting the revolving door between the NIH and drug companies.
      
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      January 4, 2025 8:11pm
Steve Otto N Shore

A police intelligence report reveals young offenders in New Zealand are forming youth gangs within Oranga Tamariki facilities, with cultural and community factors driving recruitment.
Justice needs a very serious overhaul.

https://centrist.nz/how-kiwi-kids-are-being-lured-into-gangs-and-crime/?
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January 4, 2025 8:20am
- Damocles11
  
  The State is never the answer to any problem. The ‘young offenders’ Whanau, Hapu, and Iwi are letting them down badly, with an absence of love, respect, dignity, and decent values. Gang culture is celebrated, and activist rent-seekers promote negative regressive pathways towards bitterness and anger. Many of these ‘young offenders’ are simply tools of the adults around them, they are the dupes used to commit crimes on behalf of others who would get serious jail time were they to be caught and tried as adults. There is also an agenda to get the youth to act up in order to embarrass the current government.
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:53am
  - Paulus
    
    If only, but too late !
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:02am
- kowtow
  
  Society needs a serious overhaul.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:27am
- pdm
  
  No surprises there SO.
  
  Any kid going to one of those outfits over the years has to be a real ratbag,
  
  Hopefully what Karen Chhour is trying to do will sort it out to some extent if she is left alone to get things done.
  
  If not the only option is to isolate them at even greater cost and with no certainty of success.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:29am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Plus ca change. The Mongrel Mob emerged from youth custody facilities in the 1950s – 60s.
  
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  January 4, 2025 10:36am
  - peterwn
    
    Someone printed tee-shirts ‘Borstal Old Boys’ as youth custody facilities were once called. Borstals were named as such after an English village where the first such facility was set up.
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:34am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not sure if that’s what happened at all, a group of thugs in the 50s were constantly in courts, and he called them a pack of mongrels, it has often been mentioned, so no the youth thing is not where the gang started from, yes recruitment latter on maybe, but the gang was started from adults not youth
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:53pm
Bridgenag

Friday Funnies: The Wreaking Ball Cometh
AI versus AI

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/friday-funnies-the-wreaking-ball?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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January 4, 2025 8:26am
- Grumpy Silver Top
  
  So, is this titled The Wreaking Ball as a pun to highlight the chaos that will be wreaked, or an unintentional misuse of wrecking ball, ie a demolition ball. Just asking? Very clever, possibly.
  
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  January 4, 2025 10:42am
Bridgenag

old media vs new model mockery
a friday funny

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/old-media-vs-new-model-mockery?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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January 4, 2025 8:26am
Steve Otto N Shore

Tesla gave no consideration to how the Cybertruck would do when fashioned into a weapon of mass destruction,

https://babylonbee.com/news/tesla-cybertruck-voted-worst-vehicle-by-national-association-of-terrorist-car-bombers?
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January 4, 2025 8:36am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They were able to use computers to we park out a huge amount of data of the perp. Musk was able to personally get info from HQ
  
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  January 4, 2025 8:03pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Wife makes New Year Resolutions for husband so he doesn’t have to.

https://babylonbee.com/news/wife-announces-new-year-resolutions-for-husband?
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January 4, 2025 8:41am
pdm

Don Brash strikes again at the BBH Blog with this para in his latest post:

`The constitution of the National Party commits it to “equal citizenship”, and over the years various National Party leaders have strongly endorsed that principle. And yet the Prime Minister, responding to a question at a post-Cabinet press conference, said that there is “nothing” in the Treaty Principles Bill with which he agrees.’

Link to the full post is here:
https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/don-brash-1

Link to my take on it at No Minister Blog is here:
https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/01/04/is-prime-minister-luxon-in-breach-of-the-national-party-constitution/
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January 4, 2025 8:52am
- Yvette
  
  Pdm, the problem with the Treaty Principles Bill is that it mentions the Treaty.
  
  Had it been legislation which said two consecutive Prime Ministers (Luxon and Hipkins) – two of the top constitutional leaders of our nation – emphatically claim the opposite to each other as to whether Maori ceded sovereignity in 1840 – so such a situation, among the Hikoi claims and stance of the Waitangi Tribunal, require law which asserts certainty.
  
  But then a Treaty Principles Bill which doesn’t mention the Treaty, except as a context for its necessity to remove uncertainty over sovereignty, property and equal rights and responsibilities, probably requires the current bill to reveal the need for the subsequent simple constitutional assertion, that a bill without the Treaty would give, and that would likely then have full support of Luxon and all those perched on the fence of political correctness.
  
  All that we can hope, as I have written before, is that this is the fall-back position of ACT, and that Seymour will stick around long enough to see through this eventual action to restore proper democracy – the long game.
  
  Unfortunately it may need to go through the process where Willie and John make it worse, before a clean up.
  Sadly that may take a while yet.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:52am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That is not true at all, Luxon has time and time again stated people in this country are equal in society, Brash is going down the lines of Labour twisting exactly what Luxon says
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:55pm
Cassandra

National party leaders have ignored Party policy for years. Simon Bridges on Maori seats: “Doing away with them would be too divisive” in speech at the Northern Club 8 years ago.
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January 4, 2025 9:01am
- kowtow
  
  “Divisive” is just an excuse to do nothing.
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:34am
- peterwn
  
  A whole lot of critics telling National how to run its affairs. They probably have no idea of actual National Party policy but waffle on about ‘founding principles’ etc.
  If members think the party is inappropriately straying, they can raise it at the next round of branch and electorate meetings in the new year.
  If people think they can male a positive contribution to National Party politics they can stand for office or seek nomination as a candidate. The candidate nomination and selection process will kick off in the first part of 2025 and one of the objectives is to attract people who have not quite thought of aiming for Parliament.
  
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  January 4, 2025 11:44am
  - Cassandra
    
    I’m a bit old for membership of Parliament but I am a donor and I think that gives me the right to tell MPs and the Party where they’re going wrong. Daily.
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:10pm
    - pdm
      
      I like the way you think Cass.
      
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      January 4, 2025 12:33pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      You appear to have forgotten MMP, they had to move and you know it
      
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      January 4, 2025 12:58pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    That’s correct, and one thing people have forgotten is, since those founding principles we were given MMP, meaning move to the centre or die
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:57pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

In this report of the newly discovered site of a 19th century volcanic eruption, my eye was drawn to this paragraph

“Along with Zavaritskii, three other volcanoes blew their tops between 1808 and 1835. They marked the waning of the Little Ice Age, a climate anomaly that lasted from the early 1400s to around 1850. During this time, annual temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere dropped by 0.6 degrees Celsius on average. In some places, temperatures were 2 degrees Celsius cooler than normal, and the cooling persisted for decades.”

Perhaps the Greenies should be praying for Mt St Helens or similar to blow its top. Do you think we’d be off the hook for the Jacinda-promised $ billions of climate change funding if so?

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/538130/mystery-volcano-that-erupted-and-cooled-earth-in-1831-has-finally-been-identified
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January 4, 2025 9:13am
Tauhei Notts

I cannot recall whether I have ever recommended a movie on TVOne but tonight at 7.30 they are screening The Castle.
I think it is the funniest and also poignant movie to ever come out of Aussie.
28 years old, so it is a bit dated. Good to put on My Sky, otherwise the constant advertisements will destroy it.
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January 4, 2025 9:25am
- imalwaysright
  
  Great film.
  I’ll watch it in the pool room!
  
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  January 4, 2025 9:47am
  - MCōs
    
    Damn
    I haven’t got a pool room
    
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    January 4, 2025 10:22am
    - Biscuit
      
      You and me both, MCōs.
      
      Shame neither of us is a beneficiary under some shady Trust, eh?
      
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      January 4, 2025 2:43pm
- fredonas
  
  I watched it in 1999 on a rented VHS video player in a room at a boarding house in Kirribilli soon after I landed in Sydney.
  “Tell ‘im he’s dreaming”
  “How’s the serenity?”
  “It’s the vibe of the thing, your Honour.”
  Great film. The Dennis Denuto scenes were filmed in the office of Santo Cilauro’s (aka Snato Gauro) Dad’s accountancy firm.
  
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  January 4, 2025 1:54pm
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=addLlKDIC1U
Can The Coalition Win The 2025 Federal Election?
In this video, we examine the prospects of the Liberal-National Coalition ahead of the 2025 Australian Federal Election. We explore their political origins, key policy platforms, and the challenges they face as they seek to reclaim government.
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January 4, 2025 9:32am
sungsamning

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsEgcmwuDx0
Oops! White House wired $1 trillion to wrong people!
The Biden administration is under fire for nearly $1 trillion in improper federal payments over the past four years—equivalent to $7,000 per U.S. household. Improper payments, which often stem from unverified claims and agency inefficiencies, expose deeper issues in government spending. Health insurance programs and the SBA are among the biggest offenders. With Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s DOGE poised to address fraud and inefficiency, can the federal government finally rein in its wasteful spending?
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January 4, 2025 9:33am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  10% for the Big Guy?
  
  9 3
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  January 4, 2025 10:57am
  - imalwaysright
    
    What’s he going to spend it on?
    You can almost hear God laughing.
    
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    January 4, 2025 11:36am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      imalwaysright: “What’s he going to spend it on?”
      
      Ice-cream (Pelosi style)?
      
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      January 4, 2025 2:38pm
  - sungsamning
    
    That wouldn’t surprise me.
    
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    January 4, 2025 8:14pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  DOGE then is half way to their $2 trillion in savings, they should chase some of that mis placed money as well
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:59pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Trump to have another rally on day before inauguration.
Hope the security is up to scratch considering the violence of the past two attempts. That is two attempts that we know about. Good thing the arena is enclosed, so those attending can be vetted. DC is full of crazy lefties.

https://americanvoterpolls.com/trump-returns-to-dc-for-triumphant-rally-day-before-inauguration/
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January 4, 2025 9:40am
- Yvette
  
  Considering the two previous attempts and it being a rally just prior Inauguration Day, all audience members will be provided with bullet-proof helmets, body armour and Kevlar vests. What could go wrong?
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:14pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Isn’t it funny we are not hearing about the drones anymore, it could quite well have been what people were saying, a terrorist being either followed or looked for
  
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  January 4, 2025 1:01pm
  - kowtow
    
    It was mass hysteria ,whipped up by thicko media types .
    
    Same as the balloon caper.
    
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    January 4, 2025 4:31pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Are you saying the fact they filmed these things plus the noise was not true?
      
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      January 4, 2025 8:05pm
Steve Otto N Shore

How Tax Exemption for Seniors Can Boost the Economy. This is US.
“It’s a win-win situation: retirees gain financial freedom, and the economy gets a boost.”
The usual anti superannuation lefties will refute this. They have a distorted view of where working life Taxes have been spent.

https://politicalactionalerts.com/how-tax-exemption-for-seniors-can-boost-the-economy/?
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January 4, 2025 9:49am
Steve Otto N Shore

“The automotive industry is hurtling towards a disaster of epic proportions, and it goes by the name of electric vehicles (EVs). These supposed marvels of modern technology are nothing more than a misguided attempt to fix a problem that doesn’t exist.”
EVs will die a natural death, and sooner than we think. The planet simply does not have enough minerals. Strange that drilling for oil, franking, and mining coal is bad, but mining rare earth minerals is good.

https://conservativeadvocacy.com/unmasking-the-ev-myth-why-gasoline-cars-still-rule/?
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January 4, 2025 10:04am
- kowtow
  
  Talking of EV’s …….
  
  …….the with it ecoknobs all praise China’s drive toward EV’s , without realising ( I read recently) it has nothing to do with the environment, ( coal is king in electrification , and nukes) it’s all to do with planning for future war and possible US blockade whereby no oil could get to China .
  
  The lessons of history are there. That’s why Japan went to war with the US , they wanted Asia’s oil for their war effort in China and the US stood in their way.
  
  Think about it , every Chinese EV the west buys is simply helping them in a future conflict .
  
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  January 4, 2025 10:43am
  - nz_aj
    
    The same holds true for NZ, as we don’t have local oil fields, petrol or diesel production. Energy independence could be very largely achieved by adopting EV’s.
    We can’t magic up oil fields, but we could build more electricty production. Our current system does not incentivise lower cost power delivery, or an excess of capacity, rather dividends to shareholders, largely the govt. This needs to change.
    
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    January 4, 2025 4:33pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Steve,
  
  And while the Greenies are waffling on about EVs to reduce CO2, and ignoring mining, planet Earth is about to have it’s O2 production capability severely inhibited, and the Greenies are saying nothing.
  
  Of all O2 produced for planet earth, it has been estimated that between 50% and 80% of O2 comes from the Ocean, created by phytoplankton.
  
  https://earthsky.org/earth/how-much-oxygen-comes-from-ocean/
  
  Now, they have discovered high levels of O2 on the Ocean bed – Dark Oxygen – created by rare minerals acting as Geo-Batteries. Minerals that mining companies will seize and mine, to produce among other things EVs, and in doing so, destroy a major source of O2, and life forms both aquatic and land based, that depend on that 02.
  
  https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-discover-dark-oxygen-on-the-ocean-floor-generated-surprisingly-by-lumps-of-metal-180984778/
  
  https://www.forbes.com/sites/lesliekatz/2024/07/23/scientists-discover-deep-sea-geobatteries-that-make-oxygen-in-the-dark/
  
  https://www.azernews.az/region/229029.html
  
  https://edition.cnn.com/2024/07/22/science/dark-oxygen-discovery-deep-sea-mining/index.html
  
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  January 4, 2025 10:57am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Now, they have discovered high levels of O2 on the Ocean bed
    
    Perhaps not.
    
    But now, independent scientists and deep-sea mining companies are voicing their skepticism about the study, which was published in Nature Geoscience. “There is a high possibility that the paper is wrong,” says Kentaro Nakamura, a geochemist at the University of Tokyo who notes there’s no sign of elevated oxygen in the waters above the nodule region.
    
    https://www.science.org/content/article/claim-seafloor-dark-oxygen-faces-doubts
    
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    January 4, 2025 12:56pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      Maggy
      
      If you read the original articles from Andrew Sweetman, he also dismissed his findings in 2013 as instrument error.
      
      But in 2021 he got the opportunity to go back and check. It has taken 3 years to verify the readings.
      
      And to me it makes sense.
      
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      January 4, 2025 1:00pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        And to me it makes sense.
        
        That’s not the point… The point is whether or not his
        findings can be independently verified…and the Jury is out on that one.
        
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        January 4, 2025 2:25pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        @Maggy Wassilieff
        
        [1] No-one has independently verified the results because no-one has been back down there.
        
        [2] I note the opposition has come from mining companies, including the one he was working with. Mining companies that would lose out if the findings are correct.
        
        What are the chance that companies that would lose from such a discovery would contest those findings?
        
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        January 4, 2025 4:24pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        [ Mod : all cut/paste with no comment or discussion. You posted the link … ]
        
        https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/deep-sea-oxygen-raises-questions-about-extraterrestrial-life/
        
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        January 4, 2025 4:33pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    Without reading; this sounds like utter doomster horse-shite. Makes no sense from an energy standpoint (tiny energy fluxes into or out of sea floor environment), and given incredible slow ocean circulation (residence times of water in deep ocean is up to thousands of years), while animals and plants can handle huge variation in oxygen levels, it is of anyway trivial impact.
    
    3 2
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    January 4, 2025 3:26pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      Why don’t you research the articles and the multiple background sciences and then come back and comment?
      
      0 3
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      January 4, 2025 4:26pm
- PurplePen
  
  An EU law will require all new cars sold to have zero CO2 emissions from 2035. Note that it’s zero co2 emissions, not EVs. If a manufacturer can produce ICE vehicles and capture any co2 then ICE’s are still in business. The whole ‘EV good, ICE bad’ theme is overdone by the dumbed down MSM. As is the ‘fossil fuel bad’ theme.
  
  Assume burning fossil fuels and putting carbon into the atmosphere is bad. If you can burn the fuel and capture the carbon ‘fossil fuel bad’ is incorrect. The green parties and woke will never even consider this as a future.
  
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  January 4, 2025 1:11pm
  - Cassandra
    
    PP’s acronyms are all in common usage and only URDs will not understand them. Under Rock Dwellers.
    
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    January 4, 2025 1:51pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Per today’s Telegraph (Press Reader, no link), in 2024 at least 22% of new cars sold in Britain had to be EVs. Only 19.6% were EVs, and a majority of those were sold to fleet buyers. For 2025 the target is 28%, ramping up to 80% by 2030, after which new ICE vehicle sales will be banned.
    
    The Poms are completely nuts. There’s no way they’ll hit 28% this year, and 2030 is just 5 years away.
    
    Watch for rioting in the streets, not to mention mass emigration.
    
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    January 4, 2025 4:26pm
  - kowtow
    
    The scam is coming to an end .
    
    Electorates are coming to their senses and pushing back.
    
    Taken far too long though.
    
    3 0
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    January 4, 2025 4:34pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  EV’s are here to stay.
  
  Lithium in not really rare but harvesting it can be expensive.
  
  Technology for EV batteries is improving at a great rate. I believe that new battery chemistries will be discovered that minimize or eliminate the use of Lithium and other exotic elements.
  
  History has proven that where there is a need, someone will figure out how to solve the problem.
  
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  January 4, 2025 7:50pm
Grumpy Silver Top

What’s with the text messaging acronyms? Please, use the language so that we can all easily read posts. Acronyms are the tool of faceless bureaucrats, creating confusion in mere mortals who are not familiar. Yes, I am a mere mortal. I also abhor misuse of our common language. (English, if you were wondering)
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January 4, 2025 10:28am
- Jethrod
  
  Um…..
  EV means Electric Vehicle
  O2 means oxygen with 2 atoms
  DOGE means Department of Government Efficency
  
  Just a few from the last several dozen posts.
  
  3 0
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  January 4, 2025 1:21pm
  - Grumpy Silver Top
    
    But what do IMHO, IIRC and AFAIK mean? (Irony back at you! )😉
    
    4 1
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    January 4, 2025 1:42pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      As far as I know, if I remember correctly and in my honest opinion, nothing at all.
      
      1 0
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      January 4, 2025 4:28pm
    - Jethrod
      
      Hahaha
      FIIK
      
      2 0
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      January 4, 2025 5:20pm
- MCōs
  
  It’s the new woke lingo
  
  1 1
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  January 4, 2025 2:49pm
Ghost

Sam Shoemate is an intelligence officer and Chief Warrant Officer 2 (US Army, Retired). On December 31st, Sam received an email allegedly from Matthew Livelsberger – who would be named as the perpetrator in the detonation of a Tesla Cybertruck at Trump Tower the following day. In this episode of the Shawn Ryan Show, Shoemate brings forward critical information and allegations that cast doubt on the “mainstream” narratives surrounding this event – and many others – if true.

YouTube
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January 4, 2025 10:46am
Steve Otto N Shore

Trump sentencing on Jan 10th.
“a sentence of unconditional discharge” Does this mean acquittal?
Does the Judge have cold feet now? Trump did say he was coming for those who crossed his path. Merchan is as dodgy as they come. Then there are the prosecutors in the crosshairs.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/judge-orders-trump-to-be-sentenced-on-jan-10-in-hush-money-case/ar-AA1wVwLq?
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January 4, 2025 11:17am
- Cassandra
  
  It’s not acquittal but it does finalise the case for that court. There is an appeal scheduled.
  
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  January 4, 2025 1:47pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  Pretty sure this singling out of a political opponent over a document-filing misdemeanor is going to fall over pretty soon.
  
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  January 4, 2025 2:47pm
- fernglas
  
  Is he also going to go after the jurors who convicted him? Twelve of his fellow Americans who were satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that he committed the offences with which he was charged? Or were they all treacherous far-left democrats too?
  
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  January 4, 2025 6:48pm
Chuck Bird

David Seymour commented on his FB and some scumbags abused him.

“Dame Tariana Turia was a warm, gracious woman and a brave, principled leader. My thoughts are with her family as she passes on from a life well lived, Ngā mihi nui.”
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January 4, 2025 11:40am
- David Garrett
  
  Chuck: Perhaps I also am a “scumbag”? I don’t give a fuck how “warm and gracious” the late dame was; the fact that repeatedly – but sotto voce so Hansard could not report her – claimed that gangs were just another form of whanau was for me strike one. The second – and arguably far worse – was that she thought it was not only OK but desirable for 13 year old Maori girls to get pregnant in the greater cause of increasing the Maori population.
  
  So in other words, she endorsed the vile criminal behaviour of gangs, and thought illegal sex with minor children was not only OK but desirable.
  
  If the above makes me a “scumbag”, so be it. I will wear that label with pride.
  
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  January 4, 2025 12:33pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    I was referring to the person who abused David Seymour.
    
    13 0
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    January 4, 2025 12:43pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Chuck: Well, I have not read the abuse, so can’t comment on that. However, I suspect those persons hold similar views as mine on the late Dame and her legacy, which must logically make me a scumbag too.
      
      8 2
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      January 4, 2025 1:00pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Rubbish, they will be leftie loyalists that stated that, nothing to do with the same and you bloody know it
        
        1 5
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        January 4, 2025 1:07pm
      - Cassandra
        
        I think that there’s a lot “for public consumption only” going on. Sure she was a nice person in some respects but the fact remains that she was a Maori separatist, totally ignoring her 50% American. But then perhaps her father ignored her? Her only interest seemed to be “our people”. IMO we either have no race or every race. So, only Maori surgeons for Maori people, for example. Then see how things work out. Tax paid by Europeans only spent on Europeans. Maori taxes fund Maori benefits. Don’t think it’d work too well for Maori.
        
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        January 4, 2025 1:41pm
      - Chuck Bird
        
        Below was the comment referring to Seymour.
        
        “Rick Johnson
        Yes she was awesome unlike you pedophile cunt”
        
        7 0
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        January 4, 2025 1:46pm
  - KH
    
    She was not a nice person. From personal experience in our family. ie: nasty to the serving staff.
    
    10 1
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    January 4, 2025 3:12pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  That just proves as I suspected the attackers are bots or a gang of bum feeders, Simeon Brown never use to get bad posts in opposition apart from the mongrel mob woman after he called them out. But go look what has happened since, weasel, and things like that started over night
  
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  January 4, 2025 1:05pm
Chuck Bird

Someone should be held to account.

McBLOG: Paedophiles portrayed as ‘victims’ by Victoria Uni

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSEIuFGyJMA
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January 4, 2025 12:08pm
Sparrow

A totally totally different subject. Just recieved renewal for house insurance. Just paid it every year regarding it as a necessary evil only looked at what increase the evil insurance company had laid on me. Naively never looked any further. This year I looked at the charges which the Insurers have no control over namely the Fire and Emergency Levy, Natural Hazards Insurance Levy and GST. F…this added up to 43.5% of my premium. We grumble about Insurance Companies and Banks but with these government charges along with a multitude of others like fuel tax, income tax the greatest gobbler is the government. What do we get for this thieving, failing services. I know this will come as no surprise to kiwi bloggers. I have been woken out of my lethargy.
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January 4, 2025 12:08pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  “What do we get for this thieving, failing services?”
  
  You get to watch your safety and well-being systematically being torn apart by the expansion of batshit-crazy loony left policy (with a bit of conservative/rational window dressing thrown in of course).
  
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  January 4, 2025 2:51pm
- mogg
  
  The next Labour govt also want a capital gains tax and if the Greens hold the balance in Parliament expect their wealth tax to go with it.
  The unelected Marxist blob in Wgtn will be living the high life.
  
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  January 4, 2025 3:06pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Wealth tax will have no option but to count the family home. It will as CGT also effect kiwisavver every-time a share is sold
    
    1 0
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    January 4, 2025 8:10pm
- fredonas
  
  Between council rates and electricity prices doubling in 5 years for apparently no good reason, the Gambino family would be impressed by the level of extortion being inflicted on the long-suffering NZ ratepayers and taxpayers 🙂
  
  7 0
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  January 4, 2025 3:16pm
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    Don’t know what we can do about council rate increases except let current councilors know that excessive rate increases jeopardizes their chances of re-election.
    
    As far as electricity price increases go, hopefully more people will buy solar panels and make electric companies realize they will permanently lose more revenue than they can gain through price increases.
    
    We installed 5.3Kw of solar on our roof six years ago. Back then solar was much more expensive but in just six years we got our investment back and now have profited by almost $6000 ( cost $13,500, savings $19,413). One of the better investments we have ever made.
    
    1 0
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    January 4, 2025 7:26pm
    - fredonas
      
      I admire your ingenuity but I don’t even want the extra maintenance of a heat pump and I qualify for the subsidised installation given that I live in a low socio-economic status suburb and apparently deserve government largesse 🙂
      
      1 0
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      January 4, 2025 9:42pm
- MCōs
  
  You don’t have to insure your house if, like a box of muesli at the supermarket, you think it’s over priced.
  
  0 3
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  January 4, 2025 8:31pm
  - marcw
    
    Sorry but if you have a mortgage, then yes, yes you do have to have insurance.
    
    3 0
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    January 4, 2025 8:47pm
imalwaysright

Scumbag charged with murdering a baby and trying to murder two other people.
Apparently tried to kill himself afterwards.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/hamilton-baby-murder-details-of-accused-suppressed-after-hospital-bedside-court-hearing/TDBTIJSDF5HCRL7S475VJ2TERY/
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January 4, 2025 12:46pm
Sparrow

Congratulations to Luke Littler becoming the World Darts Champion at only 17. Amazing and to beat the 3 time Champion. I wonder if Netflix will make a doco about darts to go along with its Polo doco would make a nice comparison. Warrington to Los Angeles.
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January 4, 2025 1:11pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Not a bad day’s effort .
Half a million quid payout for a 17 year old winner.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/darts/articles/clyx7403y9ko
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January 4, 2025 1:16pm
- Biscuit
  
  Unfortunately for The Nuke, he won’t be seeing almost half of that cash.
  
  HMRC laws mean he will have to forfeit a whopping £223,213.60 in tax, as well as £12,010.60 in National Insurance.
  
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  January 4, 2025 3:01pm
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    But he can probably reduce his taxes by claiming some expense payments. Dart lessons, travel expenses, room and board, cost of practice darts, etc.
    
    Lesson 1: Get a really good accountant.
    
    3 0
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    January 4, 2025 7:11pm
  - MCōs
    
    Not to mention support staff, grasping relatives, personal trainer team . . . . .
    
    2 1
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    January 4, 2025 8:22pm
- mogg
  
  At today’s rates that’s over $NZ 1.1 M.
  
  6 0
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  January 4, 2025 3:02pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Trump spitting the dummy (binky!) over Merchan.
‘Rigged Charade’: Trump unloads on ‘corrupt’ judge after he’s ordered to face sentencing.
Popcorn time!

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/politics/government/rigged-charade-trump-unloads-on-corrupt-judge-after-he-s-ordered-to-face-sentencing/ar-AA1wWdAi?
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January 4, 2025 5:00pm
- fernglas
  
  Trump was convicted by a jury of his peers. He is not able to appeal until after sentencing. He cannot be sentenced while he is a sitting President, so either the sentencing happens now or in four years time. A four year delay is not good for justice, nor is it good for the convicted person. If he is so sure that he will be exonerated, whether because he is innocent, or because he is guilty but unfairly prosecuted, or because he has some sort of immunity, he should welcome the slap on the wrist that the judge is offering, and get on with it. He’s currently a convicted criminal. Surely he should be busting to clear his name?
  
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  January 4, 2025 6:56pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Peers? Yeah right!
    
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    January 5, 2025 8:49am
Steve Otto N Shore

How Equity For Maori Is Causing Apartheid, Racism, And Racial Division.
Another video from Julian Batchelor posted just over 1 hour ago.
The NZ media will never post this.
Video 17 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI7YMnKcn40
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January 4, 2025 5:05pm

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