General Debate 15 February 2025

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Cassandra

Chris Trotter nails it: “The measures required to achieve this goal (the implementation of the Labour Party’s He Puapua Plan) in time for the bicentennial celebration of the Treaty’s signing in 2040 were deemed to necessitate a full-scale constitutional revolution. This was not to be attempted in one go, however, but piecemeal. Each step along the way was to be accomplished through stand-alone, apparently unconnected, legislative adjustments. Significantly, the plan included no provision for these cumulative, transformational, changes to be presented to the whole citizenry for ratification by referendum. Like the proverbial slow-cooked frog, Pakeha New Zealanders were to be kept in ignorance of their constitutional fate until it was too late to change it.” Judging by the hysterical language people Like Hekia Parata and Chris Finlayson use the National Party is infested by fellow travellers. Something has got to give. The National Party has for too long sat on the fence. Either its leaders change or the membership will get new leaders.
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February 15, 2025 8:00am
- kowtow
  
  Shipley’s another .
  
  But so is Luxon. On the campaign trail and even at Waitangi last year ; “One man one vote” . But the devil’s in the detail and the details we’re not privy to .He , and his wet wing of the Nats have a 2040 agenda and judging by his 2025 Waitangi speech it is “partnership” .
  So much for liberal democracy .
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:15am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    2040 agenda, are you listening to yourself? This is the shit that lefties spout, now they are spouting atlas group
    
    Luxon has stated from day one no separatist services, and he has gotten rid of what labour brought in. And one man one vote is about council separatist seats, we have a referendum on separatist council seat at the local body election, now tell me wheee he has erred
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:06am
    - Souvlaki
      
      With all due respect, you are speaking crap here G.
      Certainly the Maorification continues unabated in the public services.
      My younger sister holds a senior Nursing position in a major hospital in Auckland …to speak out against the continuing karakia’s is a professional death knell. It is nothing short of cultural bullying…but everyone is too afraid to ‘put the bell on the cat’, as the saying goes, for fear of ‘consequences’.
      And we wonder why qualified people are fleeing to Australia !
      
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      February 15, 2025 1:14pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Certainly the Maorification continues unabated in the public services….”
        
        No it has greatly deepened under this government. Contrary to all the expectations and all the spin. Yes refusing to learn karakia is a career death knell for many public servants.
        
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        February 15, 2025 1:53pm
      - Ghost
        
        And yet the example you provided yesterday with just transition was closed last year.
        
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        February 15, 2025 2:00pm
      - Scooter
        
        A prime example is what’s going on at the Pharmacy Council, this interview spells all the craziness out. And as Michael Laws says not 1 white male on the council.
        
        https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/free-speech-unions-nick-hanne-on-the-woke-pharmacy-council
        
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        February 15, 2025 7:58pm
    - kowtow
      
      have a read of this year’s speech , it’s quite a departure from last years .
      
      partnership mentioned 8 times.
      
      ‘The Treaty is central to the history of New Zealand, and it is central to our future.
      
      The Government’s role is to honour the Treaty, work in partnership with Māori, and ensure that the country continues in a spirit of Kotahitanga.’
      
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      February 15, 2025 1:15pm
      - pdm
        
        I emailed Nicola Willis on this last evening.
        
        I have given up on Luxon who obviously condones Co Governance by stealth.
        
        Jacinda Ardern mark2.
        
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        February 15, 2025 2:07pm
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Well at least you did not mention Dunedin hospital. I’m starting to wonder whether you read any comments that do not suit your narrative of defending Chris Luxon and the National Party.
      
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      February 15, 2025 1:51pm
    - Scooter
      
      Reply to G from D, Agenda 2040 is Luxon’s words.
      
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      February 15, 2025 8:00pm
- Albie
  
  Dear Christopher Luxon. I must congratulate you and your party for slowing down our countries slide from a prosperous first world nation to a bankrupt ethno- state. This was on track by the previous government to occur by 2040.
  With your management skills do you think we might be able to push this out another 5 years to 2045, in much the same way you skilfully negotiated our Paris Accord resigning from 2030 under Labour, to 2035 under your government?
  Apart from the opposition parties thwarting your plans next election, the only cloud I can see on the horizon for you may be a National Party conservative MP who may step up, take over the leadership,and steer the country back to the right. At the moment though it is looking pretty safe for you.
  
  Nga mihi, Albie.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:18am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He never negotiated any Paris accord, that was signed 15 years ago [Mod – tone your posts down]
    
    And treasury is picking we will be in surplus by 2028 under this government, snd under Labour possibly by 2032.
    
    The way farming exports have boomed of late then you may well be very surprised when stats for tax take comes, because Labour has gone up 50% so has beef, dairy payout at record highs, even wool is well ahead. One thing I have noticed is a definite lift in tourism since the beginning of Christmas, and that appears to have continued, I have been out for lunch every day while off with my hip, and still there was tourists in cafes everyday this week.
    
    I think tax returns will be well ahead of what was predicted, the extra in beef s as nd lamb alone should be huge
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:16am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      Sorry that is just gibberish. The 2035 nationally determined contribution of the Paris Accord was determined by this government. It is MORE stringent than the last government.
      
      Yes agricultural emissions are exempt from New Zealand emissions pricing. But they are NOT exempt from our emissions OBLIGATIONS. Can you see the problem? If farmers are exempt, that just means everyone else will pay more.
      
      Perhaps you could ask some questions rather than just ranting about issues that you clearly do not sufficiently comprehend.
      
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      February 15, 2025 1:59pm
- pdm
  
  Has anyone here seen the full text of He Puapua?
  
  At the moment as far as I am concerned it is a mythical document aligned with that mythical place Aotearoa.
  
  Does the full text exist somewhere? Or did wee Willie tear it into suitable sized strips to help out users of the Jackson family long drop?
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:24am
  - judith8409121
    
    excuse me? i would hope so – why not read this
    https://www.nzcpr.com/he-puapua/
    
    the 2-tier society is being pushed just as much by national as labour – the DOC bill is coming to hand DOC land to maori tribes. Maori businesses are tax rated 17.5% while silly whities pay 28% – none of this is challenged by National because none of that is concerning to National voters
    
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    February 15, 2025 8:43am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Those differential tax rates are reminiscent of Sharia law, under which Christians and Jews traditionally pay higher taxes than Muslims.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:36am
    - pdm
      
      Thank you Judith.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:56am
    - Quail
      
      J8.
      Those issues are concerning all right. NZ is not a happy place.
      But how can individuals change this ?
      As often posted .MMP means pre election party manifestos are thrown out in favour of a coalition agreenent. And some of those deals cut then are nothing like voters thought they were voting for.
      MMP has a lot to answer for.
      
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      February 15, 2025 10:35am
  - peterwn
    
    You probably need a ‘top secret’ security clearance to look at it.
    
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    February 15, 2025 8:49am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      The government should release all of the documents. The report. The Willie Jackson papers. All of it. I have no idea why they have not done so.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:10am
      - Suze Wainwright
        
        Did they say they were going to be the most open & transparent government, eva?
        
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        February 15, 2025 9:11am
  - Souvlaki
    
    Didn’t Muriel Newman get hold of it originally? Or was that just the ‘ nebulous concept’ rather than the whole document?
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:06am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      IIRC there was a leaked version to National in 2021.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:10am
  - Kurious Kiwi
    
    https://www.tpk.govt.nz/documents/download/documents-1732-A/Proactive%20release%20He%20Puapua.pdf
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:19am
  - Steve Todd
    
    @pdm @ 8:24AM
    
    As I pointed out to Burtland on 8 December, it has never been hidden, pdm. See the links, here, https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/12/indigenous_government.html/comment-page-1#comment-3654263.
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:24am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not a mythical document, it was a hidden document from Peter’s, they put Māori health authority in place, they put Maori ownership of water in, and this government booted both.
    
    Labour had started on separatism in police
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:18am
  - Mod88
    
    It exists(ed). I printed it off at work one night and it ran to 128 pages. The Boss was not pleased.
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:31pm
- Salacious Crumb
  
  Actually no. It will be too late for National (if it isn’t already) for like Labour, they will consigned to minor part status; witness what is happening in the UK with UKIP now leading the Conservatives and Labor in the polls.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:39am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  He Puapua.
  “Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the government wasn’t trying to keep the report under the radar.”
  She lied.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:15am
  - AitchW
    
    Noooooooooooooooo. How could you tell? Were her lips moving?
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:18am
  - Colville
    
    She lied
    
    Yip, about pretty much everything. She even lied about the fact that she didnt lie.
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:48am
    - JackRabbit
      
      One lie to rule them all.
      
      Of course she had to lie, didn’t she, NZ does not have Presidential pardons.
      
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      February 15, 2025 11:14am
- Steve Todd
  
  This is the link to the article that Cassandra has quoted from:
  https://democracyproject.nz/2025/02/14/chris-trotter-visitors-with-votes/.
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:21am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  He Puapua is gone, no separatist services, and He Puapua is all separatist services hidden by Labour from coalition partner NZF . Let’s hope Peter’s has not forgot he treachery. Remembering Peter’s went against the will of the people
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:02am
  - pdm
    
    No separate services?
    
    But, we already have Co Governance coming to Wanganui and Rotorua Councils and Ngai Tahu in Court so they can control SI water.
    
    G you are dreaming.
    
    What is worse National seems on board with it.
    
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    February 15, 2025 2:29pm
Yvette

A repository (or suppository) of questions politicians most avoid
When the Fourth Estate becomes the Fifth Column we need a Trojan Horse

Kiwiblog host David Farrar February 14, 2025 11:00AM –
A guest post by a reader:

Well I have a case for him [Luxon] to ponder.
Does he agree with the latest findings on the Whanau Ora data breach query that Maori had to be consulted due to obligations under the Treaty? And is giving them $100 food vouchers to bribe them to fill in the census acceptable in a democracy, where everyone else did it for free? ($1 million was put aside for the vouchers out of $5 million for ‘consultation’ and bribery).
[…]
And a thought for the new minister for economic growth. If she and Luxon addressed the enormous taxpayer funded rort of ‘consultation with Maori’ due to mythical ‘Treaty obligations’ there are millions to be saved.
Having a public mandate to do this through the Treaty Principles bill and/or a referendum seems pragmatic.
The PM seems to have forgotten his campaign cry:
NEED NOT RACE
https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2025/02/guest_post_social_justice_takes_precedence_over_law_in_census_investigation.html#google_vignette.

(NEED NOT RACE may have worked better as NEED NOT CREED, however –)

Another question is –
What exactly are the rights afforded to Maori, under the Treaty of Waitangi, which are rights not afforded to non-Maori New Zealanders, and how is a person defined as being Maori or not?

• One right may be to remove greenstone from anywhere in the South Island, or
• two: the right chainsaw the jaw out of anything big enough and dead enough that washes up on any of the nation’s beaches. when “who is Maori” may be decided by who is holding the chainsaw, or
• three, the right to take a case to the Waitangi Tribunal
and there are more …

And a third question –
Is there some way, perhaps related to the number of upticks a question receives, that at the end of a day can put the highest scoring question into a special sidebar question blog thread, which also continues to be tickable so the scoring tips lowest rating out, with the rest remaining as a source of questions for MPs or other notables to use for the House or on other occasions to strike fear into the hearts of other MPs or notables? –

The Kiwiblog Best As Yet Un-Answered Questions : that we do seek answers to – serious erudite questions, some of which politicians do not have the intestinal fortitude to address.

This Special Questions Side-Blog is advocated by one, who along with Penny, Phil, Johnboy and others, pressed one host David Farrar to start something called ‘General Debate’

A measure of such a “Kiwiblog Best As Yet Un-Answered Questions” would be if David Seymour, Winston or orator Shane Jones actually quote from it in the House – it will have made it … and may even get such a question answered!
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February 15, 2025 8:05am
Maggy Wassilieff

Robert MacCulloch takes a scathing look at a conference.

Waikato University’s conference on mapping out NZ’s future stands as a symbol of our economic decline. How come an establishment of well-connected types keep bobbing up again & again in the big jobs, blocking career paths of a talented young generation of Kiwis who were passed over for those positions & so decided to leave the country?

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/robert-macculloch-speakers-at-waikato-university-s-2025-economic-forum-unconstrained-thinking-for
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February 15, 2025 8:11am
- Cassandra
  
  It really sums up what’s wrong with the NZ Right. What’s billed as a major vision for the future is just same-old. Which is not to deny the benefits of wisdom and experience, daily reflected on this blog, but demonstrates Einstein’s aphorism defining insanity. We need some fresh thinking and the upper echelons of the public service need renewal and some outsiders. Sir Humphrey can no longer hack it.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:24am
  - Mark Hanley
    
    Whilst ACT and Labour supporters throw sticks and stones using generalized, unsubstantiated, untrue abuse. Luxon and his National Ministers wisely ignore the spin doctor concocted Luxon derrangement syndrome, and the rediculous demand for rushed Trumpesque changes which simply aren’t possible in nz….
    
    To keep quietly going about the business of fixing NZ.
    
    newstalk zb article:
    In another downfall for the health sector, the Director-General of Health Diana Sarfati has resigned.
    Sarfati will leave the role “promptly.”
    The news comes as the Director of Public Health stepped down on Monday, following in the footsteps of Health New Zealand’s Chief Executive resigned one week ago
    
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    February 15, 2025 8:36am
    - Paulus
      
      I am actually pleased to see Dr Sarfati leave as DG of Health.
      Why ?
      Because as one of our leading Research Scientists, and was at one time Head of the Cancer Control Agency, and many International science bodies, we will hopefully get back her skills and talent to serve New Zealand in particular Cancer Research best.
      We need the likes of her top research and medical skills in our search in Medical Science.
      – not Maori science of course.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:42am
    - Cassandra
      
      “Quietly going about” is part of what’s wrong. National needs to get on with it. And in the de-Maorification of NZ it is not making any progress at all. Too much talk and not enough action.
      
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      February 15, 2025 10:06am
      - westernScientist
        
        no its getting worse, see the gene tech bill for a current example
        
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        February 15, 2025 11:09am
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Cassandra. If your aim is civil war and genocide the your comments have gravitas?
        
        I prefer a civil society where strengths and weaknesses are assessed and tradeoffs made to allow everyone to live happily together.
        
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        February 15, 2025 1:21pm
      - Mark Hanley
        
        Iar. Your analogy isn’t a bad one.
        
        Luxon inherited a huge interest bill, a huge debt, a useless bloated hostile civil service, a dispirited national party and a multitude of fiscal cliffs.
        
        And luxons team already fixed education, fixed crime, fixed the fiscal mess, fixed inflation, and maintained majority support.
        
        Luxon is a genius.
        
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        February 15, 2025 1:27pm
      - rouppe
        
        See Benedict’s examples of government job descriptions to see it is getting worse
        
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        February 15, 2025 2:08pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      “To keep quietly going about the business of fixing NZ.”
      
      They are like a roof painter turning up with a half inch brush and a cup of paint.
      
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      February 15, 2025 11:22am
    - Quail
      
      MH,
      Really have not seen any abuse of National from ACT or NZ1.
      On the other hand the spike comments etc don’t resonate well in the electorate.
      Have seen any number of comments asking for positive action from National on this blog.
      Will leave it to you to specify those.
      
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      February 15, 2025 7:40pm
  - amospicton
    
    Yes, the kind interpretation is that National are trying not to scare the horses to ensure they get re-elected but the growing risk is that they achieve nothing substantial and lose – which would be an unmitigated disaster for the country.
    
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    February 15, 2025 10:27am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Another toad funded announced and starting this year, that’s right they are doing nothing
      
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      February 15, 2025 12:28pm
    - Mark Hanley
      
      Ram raids.. gone.
      Gangs taking over towns.. gone.
      Gangs wearing self promoting parltches. gone
      Cultural reports. gone
      Light sentences and home during to empty prisons. Gone
      Kids not turning up to school. Gone
      Ute tax. Gone
      Extra taxes for landlords. gone
      Rma infrastructure impediments. gone
      Oil and gas ban. Gone
      
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      February 15, 2025 3:03pm
      - goNZ1
        
        so why are record numbers of NZers leaving, Mark? what is the elephant in the room?
        
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        February 15, 2025 4:09pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  All just part of the mix isn’t it?
  
  Our msm presents findings from that authoritative think tank the CTU stating that the country is going in the wrong direction, as their lead story in news bulletins.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:29am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Morgan poll has the direction improving by 7% that is the most recent poll, the same poll that has Act dropping away
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:29pm
- Dougal10
  
  Is this like the failed dunedin council boss who is now at at agresearch and the failed ORC boss who is high up in some wellington council or govt job now . One was a DEI hire but can’t remember which one.
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:44am
Chuck Bird

NZ has complained loudly in the past to Oz sending Kiwi criminals born in NZ back to NZ. Like many here I have lived in Oz for a few years. The culture is much the same. I think it is wrong and will email the Minister of Immigration, Erica Stanford and the Associate Minister of Immigration, Chris Penk. Interested to see others views.

New Zealand-born teen facing deportation to India appeals to authorities to stay

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-zealand-born-teen-facing-deportation-to-india-appeals-to-authorities-to-stay/27YAI2D4XRD2BEQMESYQ357RX4/
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February 15, 2025 8:12am
- kowtow
  
  Nope . They are illegal and while mercy is all well and good there are literally billions in the world seeking the same across the west .
  Where do you draw the line .The law must count for something.
  
  btw 900,000 illegal Indians in USA , that’s nuts!
  
  I see there has just been a hand grenade attack on a crowded bar in France . Borders matter and stand as a symbol of culture as much as anything else.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:20am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    A car driven at speed into protesters yesterday, yes it has been stated he is a foreigner with a Muslim sounding name
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:31pm
- xasperated
  
  What was the point of changing the law if we don’t want to follow it? If the parents were breaking a law being here, the kid’s unfortunately party to it. Letting the kid stay will presumably mean then that we also let the parents stay, because “family”.
  
  And he and they clearly knew they were here on sufferance.
  
  I have sympathy for the kid, but it’s another example of shaming the government in the media to get a result.
  
  Just like the “we built a facility we couldn’t afford, and now it will close because mean government”, or the manufactured outrage about school food certification.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:31am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  So, mum and dad, here illegally, weren’t caught and deported, therefore the whole family gets to stay? Having kids negates wrong-doing? Effluxion of time negates wrongdoing? What message are we sending to others who might stay illegally?
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:45am
  - AitchW
    
    Oh wow, I had to google ‘effluxion’.
    Cool word, I must use it!
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:47am
  - artemisia
    
    What message? Stay under the radar for a couple of decades, income from cashies, stay out of trouble, keep schtum and make sure offspring do as well. Good chance of no early morning door knock.
    
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    February 15, 2025 10:48am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I read this last night. I would advocate for letting the 18 year old son stay, and grant him permanent residence. He did nothing wrong. However I would deport the parents who hid their overstaying for 20 years.
  
  The son is now an adult. He can make a life here and visit his parents in India.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:47am
  - peterwn
    
    The issue to me is why did not Immigration do something about it at the time.
    Incidentally this sort of thing is currently a big issue in USA. In USA the 14th Amendment would make such a deportation illegal. Donald Trump is trying to wheedle out of this (with respect to USA born children of illegal immigrants) and hoping that the 1898 Supreme Court judgment United States v. Wong Kim Ark can be overturned.
    
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    February 15, 2025 8:59am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      I do not think that anyone born in NZ is a NZ citizen automatically. However, it should be considered case by case.
      
      In a situation like this where the person is not a criminal and of good character, they should not be deported. I will email the appropriate ministers when I get back home.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:06am
      - Jack5
        
        NZ has a hyper-liberal appeal scheme for people ordered out of the country.
        
        The Immigration and Protection Tribunal, which often over-rules court deportations, is bound to be sympathetic in this case.
        
        https://www.justice.govt.nz/tribunals/immigration/immigration-and-protection/
        
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        February 15, 2025 9:13am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Not now but it used to be the case. The law was changed in 2006, a few weeks before this guy was born. In the article it notes that his slightly older sister is a citizen.
        
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        February 15, 2025 9:13am
      - alwyn.a
        
        He would have been a New Zealand citizen, like his sister, if he had been born here prior to Jan 1, 2006.
        After that date one of the parents had to be a New Zealand Citizen or a Permanent Resident. Neither of his parents qualifies so neither does he.
        
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        February 15, 2025 9:15am
      - peterwn
        
        AFAIK you are generally a NZ citizen if either parent is a NZ citizen or if either parent or if you were born in NZ and either parent was a permanent resident at the time. The current rule was intended to stop people coming to NZ on visitors visas so their child would be born in NZ an added bonus being that the NZ taxpayer met childbirth and related costs. The Government promised at the time of introduction that no one would be left ‘stateless’ by the rule.
        Another immigration ‘gap’ is children of immigrants at the time when young children could be included in passports. The immigrants would be granted residency (with its pathway to citizenship) but the status of their children was left undefined through bureaucratic oversight. These children were and as far as I know still in limbo. It only became a problem when they needed a passport (they could overcome this by getting a passport from country of birth) or if they broke the law and faced deportation 501 style. Whether this bureaucratic oversight has been resolved goodness knows. It would not help that parents’ passports (long since expired) would in many cases have been lost or thrown out unless the authorities kept a list of names of such children.
        
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        February 15, 2025 11:07am
      - peterwn
        
        Reply to Jack5. Yes, there are appeals but the old maxim “justice is open to all, like the Ritz Hotel” would apply.
        
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        February 15, 2025 11:10am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Jack5 IIRC they have exhausted all appeals.
        
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        February 15, 2025 12:28pm
    - thirteenstars
      
      “would make such a deportation illegal”
      
      But you can deport the parent/s and extended family. What kind of sicko would abandon their child to live in the US while they were returned to their country of origin?
      
      Regardless of the 14th, you seem to believe birthright citizenship is a good thing but not even NZ has it. I guess this country is being cruel.
      
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      February 15, 2025 11:07am
    - Matt Long
      
      Apparently one of the main authors of the 14th Amendment was concerned about people gaming the system, hence the key words, ” subject to the jurisdiction thereof” which is the area courts will review.
      Given that many (Islamist) terrorists are born in the country where they commit atrocities putting citizenship laws before the courts again makes sense.
      “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
      
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      February 15, 2025 11:47am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Simple answer is Labour love illegals ever since Clark had UN ambitions
      
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      February 15, 2025 12:34pm
    - Chuck Bird
      
      Peter, I assume that since you agree to support this young man, you are supportive of Oz sending back any Kiwis for any reason, such as bad character.
      
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      February 15, 2025 3:48pm
  - greybeard
    
    If the boy got married to a NZ citizen would he be able to stay here ?
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:09am
    - David Garrett
      
      Greybeard: In short, No. Gaining automatic citizenship by marriage was a loophole closed many years ago.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:12am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  His parents need to flush their passports down the toilet and demand asylum in NZ.
  
  (works for some folks)
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:28am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Golly!
    
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    February 15, 2025 5:30pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  The parents broke the law – they can go.
  If the 18 year old son has to go because of law changes, I don’ know. If he can stay how many others would be in the same position?
  Meanwhile the 22 year old sister has no problem. Can the brother not apply for residency?
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:31am
  - Matt Long
    
    Perhaps the sister who has NZ citizenship could marry the brother. It worked so well for Ilhan Omar, she got elected to Congress in America.
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:40am
- nz_aj
  
  Having likely paid for his birth and education, NZ may as well take the benefits of it, assuming he is of net benefit to NZ, i.e. pays tax and isn’t a criminal.
  Otherwise deport ASAP, and the same goes for all other non-citizens.
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:00am
AndyW

From a Herald article about rampant meth use in Northland: “People turn to meth when they feel they don’t have purpose, when they are suffering from trauma or when Māori are suffering the impacts of colonisation, she said.”….FFS. Enough of the colonisation bollocks.
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February 15, 2025 8:14am
- David Garrett
  
  Colonization…the only calamity the effects of which get worse the more time elapses since the said calamity occurred.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:52am
- Swifty
  
  “The impacts of colonisation….”
  
  What, like living twice as long, living free from the imminent threat of invasion and slaughter, abundant safe and healthy food, living free from superstition and fear of everything that moves, access to the vast benefits of science and medicines etc, the ability to become vastly more educated about the world and indeed to travel and explore it – that sort of thing?
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:54am
  - Matt Long
    
    If colonisation brought welfare dependence, that would be true, however the welfare state came long after colonisation.
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:49am
  - PurplePen
    
    And the flushing toilet, wheel and chimney. Most important.
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:00pm
  - slijmbal
    
    What have the romans ever done for us …..
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IigtaeP2B6k
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:18pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    It would make a great research project. What were ALL of the impacts of colonisation? I doubt it has ever been done. You would never get funding for it. Also good luck submitting it PhD thesis to a New Zealand University that concludes that there are positive impacts.
    
    IIRC I have pointed this out before a long time ago here but I’ll do it once more. Taiwan was colonised by Japan betwen 1895 and 1945. Thousands died. That was relatively recent compared to the colonisation of New Zealand. And I would submit far more horrifying.
    
    Of course this is not a perfect comparator to New Zealand. The Japanese were defeated and kicked out. Nevertheless they left behind an exploited economy with millions of traunitised people. Of course all that is literally history. Few Taiwanese dwell on it, yet it is only three or four generations back.
    
    In my opinion, and I am happy to be corrected if a reader is better informed, Maori seem to dwell on the past more than most cultures. They harbour grievances. They also apply ancient frameworks to modern economics and science. These are self defeating and frankly absurd. For example I have read serious claims that Maori “own” the radio spectrum and genetic technology because they are protected “taonga” under the Treaty.
    
    The only hope is for young Maori to say enough. I am sure many do. However thousands of others are being seduced by activists such as the Maori Party.
    
    It is worthy asking ourselves what kind of country would New Zealand be in 2050 if current ethnic conflict is combined with subpar economic performance for another 25 years. Let alone 50 years.
    
    On that note, I’m going for a walk on the beach.
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:50pm
    - Sir Henry Morgan
      
      One reason Taiwanese tend not to dwell on the Japanese colonization of Taiwan might be because it was succeeded by the post-war KMT colonization. Obviously the more recent colonization tends to be seen as more impactful.
      
      The KMT colonization was arguably as bad or worse than the earlier Japanese colonization, and continues to have negative impacts. For example, Taiwan’s lack of formal diplomatic recognition as a country results directly from the KMT colonization and Chiang Kai-shek’s intransigence – and indirectly from America failing to follow through on plans to allow ‘Formosans’/Taiwanese a referendum on independent statehood.
      
      Also, the Japanese were not exactly ‘kicked out’. Rather the victorious allied powers allowed the Republic of China to assume governance of Taiwan. The Americans even provided the ships to transport Chiang Kai-shek’s troops there.
      
      As for economic exploitation, in 50 years the Japanese transformed Taiwan into one of Asia’s most modern economies, building all kinds of infrastructure in the process. Contrast that with the systematic looting of the Taiwanese economy under Governor Chen Yi (installed by Generalissimo Cash-My-Cheque). The wholesale economic destruction saw corrupt KMT officials removing functional infrastructure to be sent to China and sold as scrap.
      
      Only after the Chinese Civil War was well and truly lost did the KMT start caring about Taiwan’s long-term interests, and to this today some of them remain pretty ambivalent and willing to undermine Taiwan for personal gain.
      
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      February 15, 2025 4:04pm
    - cmm
      
      “It would make a great research project.”
      
      So long as it isn’t taxpayer funded.
      
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      February 15, 2025 7:02pm
- AitchW
  
  Anything to avoid taking personal responsibility.
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:53am
- Handyman
  
  People can afford to buy meth since they no longer have to pay for a house, doctor, school or school lunches.
  
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  February 15, 2025 12:09pm
Yvette

A seer – able to know truths that even those who were involved in the events didn’t know.

Somethings are believed because they are demonstrated true, but many other things are believed simply because they have been asserted repeatedly, and repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence. ~ Thomas Sowell

Is not an example of this phenomenon the Treaty of Waitangi:
• that it is a nation’s founding document
• that it bestows certain rights or status to descendants of those to have taken over this kindergarten sand-pit first
• that it has Principles visible to only those of Maori descent, but not including the late Maori King Tūheitia Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, or Winston Peters {except, see below, where Winston has gone full Mana o te Wai on us, but that is not because he is a believer, but like “first into Pike River”, it suits him}
• and where the “Principles” become visible –

Legal recognition of its rights and interests which, it claims, are being constrained by laws and regulations. “The Crown ought to design and implement, in co-operation with Ngāi Tahu, a freshwater framework that accommodates Ngāi Tahu rangatiratanga entitlements.”
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/02/11/court-claim-seeks-to-force-water-co-management/

But in another Newsroom article “RFK Jr’s fluoride denial: … From the newly confirmed Secretary of Health Robert F Kennedy to Winston Peters, why are a few fringe political voices empowered to put the health of so many children at risk?’ –

Now he’s [Luxon is] in a coalition agreement with NZ First, and forced to swallow unfluoridated water, and countless dead rats. His Govt is standing by as Peters and his team push to repeal a public health law that Luxon once described as “brilliant” and a “win-win-win”.
… There is, says Peter Dennison, no psychiatric cure for delusion

“… no psychiatric cure for delusion” – which may be akin to Thomas Sowell saying “… repetition has been accepted as a substitute for evidence”
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February 15, 2025 8:20am
westernScientist

Can someone explain why National are producing a bill (regulation of gene tech) with this in it:
Māori Advisory Committee
105 The regulator will be required to consider relevant adverse effects to Māori
kaitiaki relationships with indigenous species and non-indigenous species of
significance (kaitiaki relationship) in its decision making. The process will be
modelled on the Plant Variety Rights Act 2022.
106 The Māori Advisory Committee will advise the regulator on these adverse
effects. It will have the following functions:
I N C O N F I D E N C E
16
I N C O N F I D E N C E
106.1 Issue engagement guidelines and provide advice to applicants and
kaitiaki.
106.2 Providing advice to the responsible Minister on proposals to exempt
certain organisms or technologies.
106.3 Consider applications referred to it by the regulator and advise whether
the application should proceed, including whether an adverse effect
could be mitigated by conditions imposed by the regulator or an
agreement between the applicant and kaitiaki.
106.4 Advise the regulator on the suspension, cancellation, variation or
reassessments of licenses where there are adverse effects on relevant
kaitiaki relationships.
106.5 Advise the regulator whether the use or approval of a proposed activity
is likely to be offensive to Māori

https://www.mbie.govt.nz/dmsdocument/29938-regulation-of-gene-technologies-policy-decisions-proactiverelease-pdf

Sorry about the formatting, I cant fix it in the tiny box
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February 15, 2025 8:21am
Bridgenag

Friday Funnies: You Make My Heart Stop
Outliving the warranty

https://open.substack.com/pub/rwmalonemd/p/friday-funnies-you-make-my-heart?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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February 15, 2025 8:32am
Swifty

One thing is missing in all the commentary, dismissal and abuse of those who support the Treaty Principles Bill.

(Note I mention abuse because it is legion on social media and it’s even present in the select committee hearings. Take a look at Whangarei Tim’s YouTube channel for example after example of submitters being abused, mocked and ridiculed by Labour, Green and TPM MPs as they make their submissions in support.)

What’s missing is any mention of what comes next.

When the Bill is smothered in its bed, as is almost certain, do people think the opposition to NZ becoming a racialised society will just disappear? That opponents will just return to their daily lives and never mention the subject again?

Do people think that the constant reinterpretation and invention of history, for example through the constant invention of new and improved treaty principles, and new (previously unheard of) crown treaty obligations, will just be accepted by New Zealanders? (That it’s now a treaty right to have your tangi slap up paid for by the rest of us). And who will not push back?

Do people think other New Zealanders have an endless and inexhaustible patience for the obvious and naked corruption that’s going on like Meridian’s $100 million payment to Ngāi Tahu for simply not opposing their resource consent application (a cost the whole of society will bear) or the political character tests now present in civil service job applications, or the total national embarrassments that are ‘scientific’ studies into whale song curing Kauri dieback?

If people think once the Treaty Principles Bill is euthanised then it’s all back to normal then I think they’re in for a rude awakening.

The opposition to the entrenching of racial privilege accompanied by fat sacks of taxpayer cash will not go away.

My pick is that it will continue to grow as it most surely and clearly has of late and especially compared to ten or twenty years ago – a time before many of us woke up to what’s actually going on.
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February 15, 2025 8:36am
- Yvette
  
  Swifty
  If a heinous outburst, after “building frustration and anger”, were to be called a Tarrantrum does that dishonour slain victims or add meaning to their deaths – to recognise the whole process before it happens again?
  
  (I had read the whole manifesto before I was told by the Censor’s media proclaimation that I shouldn’t have – like the German word for safe-sex, it could all be over before you finish saying it)
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:51am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Nothing will change except increased settlements and topups.
  Isn’t there something like 10,000 more claims? My great grandson will be paying for this when he is 80, and so will his children.
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:34am
  - Allan
    
    Only if they stay in this country.
    
    Get them out of here.
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:03am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      He is not even 2 yet.
      I want my grad daughter to stay for w while yet – until I clock out anyway.
      
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      February 15, 2025 2:57pm
  - Dougal10
    
    If hes smart he won’t be living here.
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:04am
  - imalwaysright
    
    At every Tribunal hearing they have a resident elephant in the room.
    The truth.
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:32am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      That elephant doesn’t like bright sunlight – the disinfectant.
      
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      February 15, 2025 2:59pm
- Swifty
  
  There’s another deafening silence in this country which is another thing totally unremarked upon, to my knowledge.
  
  Where is the comment or people standing up and defending the obvious rorts underway currently?
  
  Has anyone seen a single defence by a named individual in anything approaching mainstream media channels or broadcasters regarding:
  
  1. Ngai Tahu’s $100 million payola?
  
  2. The kauri dieback/whale song study?
  
  3. The individual completely unscientific, in my view horseshit, ‘studies’ being paid for by our premier science funding body like those highlighted by DPF recently. (Note, there has been much generalised comment and criticism of National and Collins for tightening the Marsden funding, but I’m talking about people defending the money spent on ‘studying’ large carrot fixtures in Ohakune or L&P bottles outside Paeroa or Treaty-centric tax systems.)
  
  4. The completely unheralded, non-mandated, never even remotely discussed, nor voted on forced insertion of tikanga into our legal system. (Here I have seen some defence, but only cursory and flimsy, and along the lines of “it’s the right thing to do” or unsubstantiated claims like “tikanga has always been here” (So too has disease and early death but we don’t want those to continue) but never even once have I ever seen any discussion whatsoever as to how the man and woman in the street is going to benefit from it. Nor what all this will cost I might add.
  
  I could go on but I hope you all get the picture.
  
  Isn’t it strange and remarkable that no-one and none of the usual suspects are standing up and defending this stuff. Nobody at all.
  
  It’s like they realise that this is indefensible so are prudently keeping their traps shut.
  
  Where for example is Verrall’s or Labour’s defence of the kauri dieback rort? They bloody approved the funding. It all happened under their watch. Why not the merest skerrick of defence? Are they now embarrassed by it? Do they have no defence to mount? Do they now realise it was totally indefensible and now wish it all to just go away? Or did they realise at the time it was funded it was indefensible but did it anyway to curry favour with Maori?
  
  And why are not our bloody news media relentlessly hounding them on it?
  
  The lack of defence of this stuff just compounds my suspicions that these aren’t innocent acts – they are deliberate and cynical misuses of taxpayer money and when the spotlight shines the rats all scurry for cover knowing they’ve been busted.
  
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  February 15, 2025 1:04pm
  - Quail
    
    Totally agree Swifty.
    There must be consequences !
    
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    February 15, 2025 8:41pm
kowtow

NZME print edition of Herald has today published the Steve Braunias article on the Liz Gunn appeal.It is listed as “opinion”

The arrest was “The nadir for law and order in NZ.They went about it with a great stubborn silliness at best and a vindictive desire for politically punishment at worst”
He says of all the parties Judge Forrest responded the most severely.

All of which I agree with .

However he fails to mention the media also reached a low ( what’s new) pillorying Gunn as nasty , racist , petty and remind us constantly she is a ‘conspiracy theorist’ .

In the history of this event there was zero compassion for an elderly woman brutally arrested by a pretty big cop.Including numerous of our media gliteratti jumping onto twatter , faithfully reported in rehashes by the legacy media into a huge anti Gunn conspiracy themselves.

Braunias’ own article gaslights her cameraman entirely who was also arrested and acquitted of trespass and “resisting” arrest .
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February 15, 2025 8:39am
- MCōs
  
  She’s hardly elderly being in her early sixties at the time.
  I think she claimed herself she was a conspiracy theorist as she is. Not exactly a winner for the NZ Loyal party with mainstream voters
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:49pm
artemisia

Not sure many voters will be switching allegiance due to free school lunches not being certified halal.

More likely a superabundance of eyerolls.
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February 15, 2025 8:46am
- Cassandra
  
  If parents want their children raised that way either do it yourself (the old Kiwi way) or settle n a halal country. Personally I’d boot the whole lunch programme. We pay parents to feed their children already.
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:56am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  How did muslims manage in NZ before Halal certified meat was common?
  
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  February 15, 2025 8:58am
  - Colville
    
    Specialised butchers. But NZ freezing works have been doing halal forever, its a huge market.
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:17am
    - artemisia
      
      I understand the meat is halal but the prep and kitchen areas are not certified.
      
      Maybe the unhappy schools and unrespected parents can get ready to put in an acceptable proposal next funding round. Bet they won’t.
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:48am
      - imalwaysright
        
        What the muslims need is a Treaty…
        
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        February 15, 2025 11:33am
    - pdm
      
      Colville change was in the early mid 70’s if my memory is still working properly.
      
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      February 15, 2025 10:56am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Halal food is a product of religious belief. The state has no obligation to support that. Each day in school there should be two choices with a vegetarian option.
  
  It annoys me because I have always thanked anyone who gives me food. I recall visiting someone years ago and getting cheese on toast and canned soup. She apologised that was all she had. I told her that I was grateful to receive her meal.
  
  My point is that the children should be grateful. If what is on offer does not work for any of the parents they can make other arrangements.
  
  This drama reinforces my point made a while back. New Zealand does not have the culture or systems to provide free school lunches at scale. David Seymour should have killed the program. With some of the money saved, schools could buy a limited supply of lunches each day for children with no lunch. If a child had no lunch three times in one term, that would trigger an investigation of the child’s welfare.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:01am
  - AitchW
    
    Correct me if I’m wrong, but do the religious food rules not say that Muslims should eat halal food if possible. However, if no halal food is available then it’s permissible to eat ordinary food.
    Was the food supplied by the last government prepared in halal certified kitchens?
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:13am
    - david
      
      An interesting side note from my experience in religious certification – Jewish people are well served by kosher certification and a very wide range of foodstuffs but will accept halal at a pinch as an alternative because the food handling principles of both are very similar. I know little of the attitude of moslems towards taking up kosher certified products in the absence of a halal alternative but would suspect that the idea would go down like a cup of cold sick regardless of the logic.
      
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      February 15, 2025 3:20pm
  - pdm
    
    `My point is that the children should be grateful. ‘
    
    BY the children’s parents should be even more grateful.
    
    I suspect most are but there are a bunch of whingers, probably manipulated by TVNZ and TV3, to front up and sound off each day.
    
    I say to these whingers feed your own children as you are supposed to – end of!!!
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:17am
    - Paulus
      
      New Zealand children with mothers like that “Grateful’.
      That no longer occurs – it is all about Me Me Me !
      
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      February 15, 2025 11:35am
    - PurplePen
      
      Odd how the Islamic parents can be outraged that the free food isn’t Halal certified yet they’re not outraged about they themselves not feeding their own kids.
      
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      February 15, 2025 12:11pm
      - Ghost
        
        Don’t blame the parents, the school provides the lunch for all students.
        
        Here is the page from the school on lunches, it’s from last year but it seems the provider last year was supplying lunches for students who had dietary requirements.
        
        https://papint.school.nz/information/#planning
        
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        February 15, 2025 12:23pm
      - AitchW
        
        Ghost, so free breakfast, lunch, fruit, jacket, raincoat, sanitary products and shoes.
        Do parents have to provide anything at this school?
        All provided by either the taxpayer or a charity.
        Schools are gradually removing all parental responsibility.
        
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        February 15, 2025 5:40pm
      - Ghost
        
        Well, at that school it appears parents are allowed to send their child to school with a bottle of water…..
        
        I think this is the new type of school that is being tested out. Once a day adults who want a child can turn up at the school gate and the school will provide them with a child. No obligations, no hidden costs, the school will cover it all.
        
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        February 15, 2025 5:52pm
  - Colville
    
    Wouldnt it make sense to make the vego meal halal?
    A carrot stick blessed by Allah?
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:18am
  - Flossie
    
    This is a religion that deems it okay to go a month without even water during daylight in some of the hottest countries on earth. We are constantly reminded to kept hydrated etc in hot weather particularly or our bodies suffer severe consequences. Some stuff done in the name of religion (and not just Islam) is just breathtakingly absurd.
    
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    February 15, 2025 10:22am
  - Prince
    
    As a catholic, I am appalled by my children being served meat on a Friday.
    
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    February 15, 2025 10:37am
    - Don Beckett
      
      As a Catholic, the “No meat on Friday” rule has not existed since around 1965 – the ending of the 2nd. Vatican Council – except for during Lent. And of course there are other conditions, like illness, travel etc.
      
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      February 15, 2025 5:54pm
      - cmm
        
        Still heaps of people keep it as a tradition of sorts.
        
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        February 15, 2025 7:06pm
      - MCōs
        
        The no meat on Friday restriction was no sacrifice in our family. Dad used to catch salmon which Mum bottled and we had salmon every Friday of the year plus fish and chips instead of sandwiches for school lunch. Not that there was meat in the sandwiches on the other days.
        Sacrificing, suffering, mortal sin, purgatory, misery in general was all part of the Catholic culture back then.
        
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        February 15, 2025 11:08pm
  - goNZ1
    
    it is creeping communism. Next the state schools will be expected to provide footwear and uniforms for free. Parental responsibility undermined every step of the way.
    Meanwhile the place is awash with drugs,tatts and tapes…
    
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    February 15, 2025 4:24pm
    - MCōs
      
      This year brings the revival of government funded charter schools
      I looked at the web site of The Busy School, which appears to be an Australian organization
      They provide a no-cost education (including supply of uniforms, meals and supplies).
      They will have a senior student campus in Auckland this year.
      Are charter schools wholly state funded?
      If so why is nobody on this forum questioning why the kids being provided with items regular state school pupils are not?
      https://thebusyschool.org.nz/
      
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      February 15, 2025 11:51pm
  - ISeeRed
    
    At my Pak ‘n Save, there’s a sign above the mince:
    
    KIWI TO THE BONE
    BEEF MINCE
    HALAL
    
    I kid you not. Nothing “Kiwi” about halal. Why this pandering to a tiny religious minority? Because the supplier is Affco, which must be halal for the expert market. Tegel and Ingham chicken – also halal.
    
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    February 17, 2025 2:37pm
- Gravelroad
  
  I don’t know why the government doesn’t just can the whole thing.
  As soon as Mr Seymour started signalling that the management of the new lunch programme was going to save a lot of money, it was doomed.
  If he had said the lunches were going to cost more than before, there would be few complaints, even if the food wasn’t better.
  Left wing parents, their kids, teachers, unions and media cheer leaders need to get a life.
  They are using this situation for political purposes. Most of them won’t care about children in genuine need.
  It is the well-off, entitled activists who are moaning the most and getting political profile at the expense of the poor.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:04am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    They had the option to say it would stop when funding for it stopped. This was the problem labour made.
    
    Or they could have said they would look at alternatives to ensure children are fed – but until these were worked through they would continue the provision with a lower cost model. Alternatives could include compulsory deductions from benefits to prioritise food where it is known households aren’t providing for their children ie spending money on other less important things like drugs and alcohol.
    
    All they have done now is entrench the entitlement and support the spread of the Marxist state.
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:22am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Marxist places like the USA …..
      
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      February 15, 2025 10:26am
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Marxism is a philosophy and yes the philosophy exists in the USA. Where is Critical Race Theory prevalent and spreading to the West? What is behind the divisiveness of the culture wars? Largely being driven by Marxism from the US.
        
        Anytime a government provides handouts not hand-ups, gives something to some for nothing creating entitlement and dependency, breaks down the power of individuals and families while enhancing the power of the state … is detrimental to our society and advances the Marxist cause.
        
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        February 15, 2025 10:50am
  - Quail
    
    If there is to be free lunches at school , the menu should be basic healthy food.
    Those who want special food or preparation should simply buy their own.
    The taxpayers, very dubious ,responsibility certainly does not extend to pandering to special religious diets or expensive luxury lunch’s.
    Given WFF and other subsidies NZ families receive they should not need this additional largesse..
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:37am
    - PurplePen
      
      It’s highly likely that parents that know about their kid’s unusual dietary requirements also actually feed them. Does anyone think the parents that don’t feed their kids know about their dietary requirements.
      
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      February 15, 2025 12:17pm
  - PurplePen
    
    I get the impression too that Islamic people when they immigrate to a western culture and government take advantage of the openess of their adoptive society and start making complaints to maximise grift from the goodwill of the open society.
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:14pm
- AitchW
  
  Pretty soon school lunch catastrophe tedium will set in. People (other than rusted on lefties and greens) will stop taking the click bait and the media branch of the Labour Party will move on to the next distraction.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:17am
  - Pineapple Lumps
    
    But we will still be paying for something that has reduced individual responsibility, and empowered a bigger state.
    
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    February 15, 2025 9:24am
  - Paulus
    
    And the Teachers will just to have whatever is left over, even if it not to their choice – or Halal.
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:37am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Why don’t these people leave their baggage behind?
  Why do they want to turn NZ into the same shithole they came from?
  Just say “no”, it is not happening. Take it or leave it.
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:42am
- JJ56
  
  Are they eating them in rolls these days?
  
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  February 15, 2025 12:19pm
G152

Should be an accommodation allowance for pensioners renting so they can afford food
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February 15, 2025 8:46am
- pb
  
  It wasnt 30 years ago that everyone grew a yard of vegetables. The old-wifes tales had hard won wisdom.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:52am
- artemisia
  
  There is, G152, if they meet the criteria.
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:27am
- Flossie
  
  Why should those who saved hard and went without stuff in order to buy their own homes get less than their renting contemporaries? Most pensioners I know who do rent had the same opportunities – full employment etc back in the day but chose to spend on cars and holidays, or just booze.
  And to be fair pb the days of having a yard big enough to plant a viable vegetable garden are pretty much gone.
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:42am
  - Taieri
    
    having a yard big enough to plant a viable vegetable garden are pretty much gone
    ————
    
    A viable vegetable garden doesn’t need much space. We have plants in 4 raised beds (1.2 x .09 m2), 5 small plastic hothouses and about 20 x 9 litre buckets. Covers all our vegie needs in the season.
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:22pm
  - Ghost
    
    We’ve had a garden where ever we have lived. We also have several fruit trees, grapevines, etc. space really doesn’t matter for the people buying shoeboxes. You can grow tomatoes in hanging baskets. You can buy a small garden pod to grow some food in. There are always solutions if you look
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:27pm
Jack5

If a big earthquake hits NZ right now, don’t expect the same American emergency help that came after the Christchurch quake.

An American rescue team complete with gear arrived. It was an American Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, comprising staff who mobilise within 24 to 48 hours of a disaster to lead the U.S. government’s humanitarian response on the ground.

This was part of overseas immediate help that included police on from various Australian states, and the Singapore Air Force helping fly tourists from Christchurch to the North Island.

DART teams are from USAID (United States Agency for International Development). Elon Musk has frozen USAID funds.

Reuters reports the Musk-Trump action has hit four DART operations in Afghanistan, Gaza, Sudan, and Ukraine. Some DART staff have been ordered back to Washington, while others have lost access to email and other electronic systems.

The Wall Street Journal reports that in less than two weeks, the Trump Administration has moved to dismantle the work of the 10,000-person USAID, a $US40 billion foreign-help agency and the thousands of people who work in non-profit organisations and other groups that partner with it.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-disaster-response-teams-unable-deploy-following-usaid-shutdown-sources-say-2025-02-14/
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February 15, 2025 8:55am
- artemisia
  
  Some USAID projects have been closed. Others being transferred to the State Department. Sounds like chaos, temporarily, perfect time to make decisions while opposition and media are scrambling and not multi processing.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:40am
  - Dr John
    
    This sums up some of the bizarre spending!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuOj9ohMCqc
    you would have to be seriously demented to oppose what happening in the US.
    Oh please can it happen in NZ?
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:05am
- Jake Dee
  
  Soon we are going to get a very good accounting of how much USAID funding went on legitimate programs like disaster relief and how much went on propaganda and social engineering.
  Don’t expect any of that to be covered fairly in the MSM.
  “sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.”
  This is one hand washing to other.
  Check out Frank Wisner and the “Mighty Wurlitzer”
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_influence_on_public_opinion
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:47am
  - Paulus
    
    Will we find out if any USAID arrived in the coffers of any New Zealand media ?
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:39am
    - Jake Dee
      
      Additional; There are reports that Auckland University have received $296 million from USAID.
      I’m not reporting that as true just noting that it’s been reported
      https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/02/07/usaids-small-doses-of-grift-and-corruption/
      https://x.com/HopeRising19/status/1887260309930582178
      This one looks more like weak snark
      https://chimpchronicles.substack.com/p/with-usaid-funding-ceased-auckland
      It’s worth noting that AUT does journalism and communications
      
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      February 15, 2025 10:08pm
  - Dudley Quaffquaff
    
    “Soon”?
    
    Not being US taxpayers, we here are not actually entitled to any of that. But people who are US taxpayers, are entitled to that information. Don’t you think they should have had it already?
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:45am
    - Jake Dee
      
      Do you really think that New Zealanders are not entitle to know if a foreign power has been spending money in New Zealand?
      That’s amazing.
      This is what really gets me, there are many people (I’m not saying you) who are disturbed that China has been spending money here through its Confucianist institutes, without any exact knowledge of what the money was actually spent on.
      There was an assumption, and a very natural one, that it was expanding Beijing’s influence, and that cannot automatically be assumed to be in New Zealand’s best interests.
      There have got to be rules and they have to be applied consistently.
      Any journalist, academic, think tanker or NGOer who has received foreign funding must make a public declaration of that fact loudly and clearly in ALL of their publications.
      Anyone who tries to evade that through cut-outs and middle men must be treated with EXTREME suspicion.
      As the good book says,
      ” The wicked flee when no man pursueth; But the righteous are bold as a lion.”
      Proverbs 28
      
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      February 15, 2025 9:51pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  I think that at that time there was a big Navy thing happening in NZ. Many overseas ships and crews here.
  Or was that the Kaikoura quake?
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:45am
  - Jack5
    
    Steve, you’re thinking of the Napier earthquake on 3 February 1931.
    
    In those days, NZ didn’t have a separate navy, but the New Zealand Division of the Royal Navy had three cruisers and two minesweepers stationed in NZ.
    
    One of the minesweepers, HMS Veronica, tied up at the Napier wharf an hour before the earthquake. Crew began relief work immediately the quake occurred.
    
    Two cruisers, sailing at 24 knots, arrived from Auckland next day with 15 doctors, nurses, medical supplies and marines and sailors for rescue work.
    
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    February 15, 2025 12:21pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      No, this was in recent years. Some Navy anniversary type thing I think. Even had Navy ships from South Korea.
      I saw them from my boat between the bridge and north head.
      
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      February 15, 2025 3:02pm
  - CrazyIvan
    
    It was the Kaikoura earthquake – there was a US destroyer – the USS Sampson – along with Australian and Canadian ships that diverted to provide and transport aid to Kaikoura. I remember the Sampson coming into Wellington harbour afterwards for a port visit.
    
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    February 15, 2025 1:38pm
- Handyman
  
  The USAID scam works like this:
  USAID gives $10 million to each of 100 left wing NGOs. Headline reads “US donates $1 Billion dollars in aid to vital relief, including DART and starving African children”.
  
  Each NGO uses $1million for the stated public purpose,
  A further $1 million telling everyone about their good works,
  A further $1 million for the CEO of the “not for profit”,
  A further $1 million for top staff – most staff are unpaid interns or volunteers,,
  A further $1 million to the Democrat Party.
  
  The remaining $5 million is donated to hundreds of other left wing NGOs. Records will show no link between the more radical NGOs and the US government. However, DOGE has uncovered the whole network thereby removing the funding source for thousands of far left denizens of the swamp.
  
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  February 15, 2025 12:36pm
  - Jake Dee
    
    This isn’t a left wing thing. The National Endowment for Democracy was founded by Reagan, the USAID was founded by JFK but the capacity and authorization to run world wide influence operations was developed under Truman.
    It’s just become left wing in the last generation or so because that’s the way the Washington bureaucracy has gone.
    
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    February 15, 2025 4:25pm
- ISeeRed
  
  “USAID.” It sounds nice. It reads like “US-AID”. Aid from the Unites States? Who could be against that? But what does “USAID” actually stand for?
  
  United States Agency for “International Development” (scare quotes mine)
  
  As Musk and his tween experts are finding out, it’s not just the name that’s a massive PsyOp.
  
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  February 18, 2025 12:38am
Steve Otto N Shore

Iranian-Backed Plot To Assassinate Trump Uncovered By Feds Shocking New Details Emerge.
I did not know about the drone being taken out.

https://politicalactionalerts.com/iranian-backed-plot-to-assassinate-trump-uncovered-by-feds-shocking-new-details-emerge/?

Trump faced even more assassination attempts than we were aware of.

https://trendingpoliticsnews.com/just-in-stunning-plot-to-attack-trumps-plane-is-revealed-mstef/?
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February 15, 2025 8:55am
- Paulus
  
  Sadly someone will soon get Trump and blame others.
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:40am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    If Iran is connected, they will be turned into glass.
    There are instructions. See the last paragraph in the second URL.
    
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    February 15, 2025 3:05pm
Steve Otto N Shore

How can ISE do their jobs with these ratbags working in the FBI?
Man there needs to be some serious sackings in the public service!

https://conservativeadvocacy.com/kristi-noem-slams-fbi-for-alleged-ice-raid-leaks-amid-sanctuary-city-chaos/?
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February 15, 2025 8:59am
AgainstTheFlow

VP J.D Vance’s speech to the Europeans makes some uncomfortable truths.
Makes me wish we had politicians of his abilities here.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/read-jd-vances-full-speech-on-ai-and-the-eu/
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February 15, 2025 9:05am
- pb
  
  Euro weenies are frightened bunnies. The trump shogunate in assured.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:50am
- Gussy Fink-Nottle
  
  That was good.
  
  This is excellent:
  ‘JD Vance attacks Europe over free speech and migration’
  https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ceve3wl21x1o
  
  “The address was met by silence in the hall”. I bet it was.
  
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  February 15, 2025 9:59am
  - PurplePen
    
    Brilliant speech. Here’s the speech in full.
    
    https://x.com/RitaPanahi/status/1890570782901682679
    
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    February 15, 2025 3:35pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  I also go along with what Elon Musk says about AI.
  It is new to the World and needs a safety switch, a circuit breaker, or some emergency stop button.
  Or maybe I have seen too much science fiction?
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:54am
- Northshoredoc
  
  Worthwhile listening to the speech in full rather than relying on 2nd hand media reporting.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCOsgfINdKg
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:59am
- thirteenstars
  
  Vance is proving himself a worthy successor to Trump. He’s extremely well-spoken, carries himself well and projects calm and authority.
  
  He’ll make a fantastic president. If the forces of destruction think they’ve got trouble with Trump 2.0 then wait until they have to deal with the next guy.
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:12am
  - kowtow
    
    You’ve probably read Hillbilly Elegy .I haven’t , but the movie is highly recommended.
    
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    February 15, 2025 1:39pm
Kurious Kiwi

On a different topic, there seems to be a heated battle on flouride between the central controllers vs the freedom lobby.
Old photos bones and records show that Maori and polynesians had excellent teeth before they changed to a western diet. Adding flouride to water to treat the side effects of processed food and excessive sugar intake really is adressing the symptom, not the cause.
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February 15, 2025 9:24am
- Jules99
  
  Weston Price was a dentist who travelled the world looking at the teeth of indigenous cultures. All had perfect teeth if they ate their traditional diet. Those who ate a Western diet had terrible teeth. Some interesting photos in his book including some Maori. Really is an eye opener. Nutrition is key.
  
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  February 15, 2025 12:10pm
- Jack5
  
  Kurious Kiwi’s …Maori and polynesians had excellent teeth before they changed to a western diet. ..
  
  Their diet was so low in protein they ate each other.
  
  As Don Brash writes of Maori longevity in another Kiwiblog thread today: “In 1891, the life expectancy for Māori was 25 for men and 23 for women. ”
  
  Without sugar Maori had good teeth — for their short lives.
  
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  February 15, 2025 12:31pm
  - Mod88
    
    No they didn’t. Their teeth were ground down eating fern root etc. The best thing that ever happened to Maori was the potato, their Tikanga meant slaves could tend/harvest potato unlike Kumara.
    
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    February 15, 2025 1:51pm
Swifty

It’s funny you know, when rightly politicians trip and stumble any future mention of them in the press is almost always prefaced by the word ‘disgraced’ – but when lefty politicians do the same within a short space of time they’re fully rehabilitated, get glowing inches in the press and soon pop up as a regular guest on our state broadcasters.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/ex-mp-kiri-allans-fresh-start-im-a-better-version-of-myself/4WFUDDD3FZG3BNTWFPGNH2CV54/

Funny that.
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February 15, 2025 9:46am
- Gravelroad
  
  The last politician I saw who talked about joy a lot was Kamala Harris.
  Don’t think that joy, and her offsider hope, as electoral campaign tools, actually worked out too well for Ms Harris in the end.
  But she gave them plenty of profile at the shamb0lic Democratic convention before the election.
  I wish Kiri Allen good health – but respectfully suggests that she stays clear of politic.
  No joy and hope there, as Ms Harris discovered.
  
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  February 15, 2025 10:51am
Ghost

Maybe the Rocky Horror Picture Show is in town

https://x.com/GlobalOutlook3/status/1890412533577621570
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February 15, 2025 9:48am
- Gravelroad
  
  I sometimes feel a bit sorry for people who feel the need to draw attention to themselves in a “look at me, I am so special” way.
  And black lacy underwear ain’t cheap.
  Which perhaps can’t be said for the person wearing it at the above work environment.
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:52am
Steve Otto N Shore

Nearly every major country ignored the UN’s February deadline to submit new emissions-reduction plans—except for New Zealand and a handful of others. ”
NZ must drop this scam.

https://centrist.nz/why-is-new-zealand-sticking-to-un-climate-rules-when-everyone-else-is-walking-away/?
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February 15, 2025 10:04am
- JackRabbit
  
  Why is New Zealand sticking to UN climate rules when everyone else is walking away?
  
  Why is NZ still buying into the UN sanctioned climate money scam when everyone else has woken up and is walking away, including UN members?
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:33am
  - Mod88
    
    Because successive NZ Govts would rather run to the UN than spend money on Defence and actually defend ourselves.
    
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    February 15, 2025 1:53pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      So true.
      
      And for all the money the last govt printed/loaned and pissed up against the wall could have paid for 2 Aircraft carriers and dozens of both land based and carrier based jets.
      
      And the extra interest NZ is paying would have easily paid to staff, train, and run said defense.
      
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      February 15, 2025 5:21pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360581154/speed-review-limbo-proves-costly

This is just another piece of anti-Coalition Govt muckraking, disguised as valid news.

The writer of this article is attributing the death of a cyclist to the inaction of local and central government departments in regard to speed limit changes.

The incident resulting in a person’s death was sad, but so far there has been no suggestion that excessive speed was a factor.

A motor vehicle collided with a 4-person quadricycle, that is all so far.
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February 15, 2025 10:20am
- mandk
  
  More likely to be driver inattention than anything else.
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:15am
  - JackRabbit
    
    Any fatality is a loss, but we don’t know anything and shouldn’t assume or speculate as to whether it is motorist or a cyclist error.
    
    It was a 4-person quadricycle, so the size of a car, and as with cyclists and scooters, always subject to the NZ rules of the road.
    
    And it doesn’t matter if it is trucks, cars, 4-person quadricycles, cycles or scooters, we all have to obey the rules of the road, including keeping to the left, no sudden movements, and looking and waiting before turning or changing direction, signal our intentions well before doing so, and be aware of other vehicles, their speed and direction.
    
    Regardless of who is at fault, I will never get on any such device with three other people, two steering wheels, and no rear vision mirrors, and definitely not on the open road.
    
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    February 15, 2025 11:56am
- Allan
  
  Rhetorical question; if Trump had campaigned on changes to the speed limits, would they have been done already?
  
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  February 15, 2025 11:33am
Paulus

Assume it was possible that the four person cyclists filled one side of the road, with two and two side by side, and the driver may not have realised.
On a long straight two lane road I believe.
Sad really.
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February 15, 2025 11:44am
- JackRabbit
  
  I think most drivers slow when they see something ahead, tractors, cycles, headers, a stray sheep, a stray cow, farm bike…
  
  What any driver cannot plan for is a sudden change in the oncoming path, such as stray sheep, stray bull, cyclist, scooter rider, darting out in front of them…
  All of the above are either animals, unaware of road rules, or think that road rules do not apply to them.
  
  However a good driver will anticipate / be aware of unpredictable factors.
  
  It is a question of not who is found “guilty”, but what trail of actions occurred that resulted in the accident, and who could have avoided the accident at what stage(s).
  
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  February 15, 2025 5:40pm
Steve Otto N Shore

NZCPR. Muriel Newman.

Parliamentary Sovereignty Hangs in the Balance.
Cooks and China, then:
“The problem is this: if the Coalition refuses to honour its election pledge to amend the Marine and Coast Area Act to deliver what Parliament intended instead of what activist judges have ruled, New Zealand’s coast will end up in the hands of hundreds of tribal groups, who, at the stroke of a pen, could sign lucrative deals with China to exploit the invaluable mineral wealth in our seabed.” The rest of NZ will possibly not be able to stop this if Coast and Seabed are in the hands of tribal elites.

https://www.nzcpr.com/parliamentary-sovereignty-hangs-in-the-balance/#more-40452
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February 15, 2025 11:56am
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  Yep. So far as I can see this UN promotion of indigenous sovereignty is just another front in the general push to undermine nation states.
  
  Just like the illegal migration/’asylum seekers’ scam, the global warming scam, the pandemic scam, and so on and so forth.
  
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  February 15, 2025 6:03pm
Graham Sharpe

I see Tau Maori remains a requisite skill for surgeons:

https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4096062451
You will Also Need

Competency with te ao Māori, tikanga, and te reo Māori or a commitment to starting your journey and taking ownership of your learning and growth
Experience in projects / initiatives which give effect to Te Tiriti principals and frameworks, and the application of Mātauranga Māori and Kaupapa Māori approaches, particularly as they apply in healthcare settings. s://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4096062451 ”
Any surgeon at this level would have spent the previous 15 or so years doing the “mahi” in clinical work, 60 or so hours a week including nights and weekends. Where would they find the time for the Tiriti workshops etc. And as for whanau, just ask their spouse – they were hardly ever home!
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February 15, 2025 12:03pm
- JackRabbit
  
  Surgeons and international rated airline pilots alike.
  
  The same time commitment, with a few I’ve met doing a physics or engineering degree on the side and possibly building or flying a small plane of their own, because they are passionate about flying and being good at their job.
  
  Imagine being told that to keep your job as a pilot you must learn Te Reo, in case you happen to see the ghost of Maul flying past the cockpit window over Cook strait.
  
  Or in case an engine catches fire because of offending some angry mythical Maori god, and you need to do a haka in the cockpit to put out the flames.
  
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  February 15, 2025 12:34pm
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  That is so f***ed up. I would have thought the key requisites for a surgeon were a consummate knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, superb fine motor skills, intense powers of concentration, and nerves of steel. But Maorification trumps all.
  
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  February 15, 2025 6:42pm
  - cmm
    
    “consummate knowledge of human anatomy”
    That must also include Maori knowledge of the subject to be complete. Surely?
    
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    February 15, 2025 7:13pm
thirteenstars

Trump hangs his mugshot outside Oval Office:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYFJ76XgK_I

Epic troll.
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February 15, 2025 12:30pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Classic. The man knows how to market himself.
  I have a Trump mug shot coffee cup on it’s way from the US (might be made in China.)
  It is very hard to get this sort of stuff because the domestic market can’t get enough of it.
  
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  February 15, 2025 3:23pm
slijmbal

Am I alone in thinking at some point Trump will come a cropper with his approach to international relations?

He makes legitimate points eg the US has lower average tariffs than many countries and the EU. However, he’s going further than addressing that. Applying punishing tariffs on aluminium and actions against (the corrupt) South African government are two examples of this not being about reciprocity while cosying up to Putin. The chances of Putin stopping his empire building ambitions are lessened by every success he has and Trump’s approach is dim there IMO.

He’s going to get push back once others catch their breath as he’s caught them by surprise, almost shock in some cases. The US is not big enough on its own to make the world do what Trump wants. Once the US ends up as nobody’s friend and kills its attraction as a market it loses a lot of influence. P##s off enough people and there will be consequences.

Hugely entertaining though.
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February 15, 2025 12:34pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Trump will do just fine.
  
  And it’s not “hugely entertaining”, it’s no less than the future of Western civilisation, which NZ seems to be abandoning at a rapid pace.
  
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  February 15, 2025 1:50pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    NZ is going third world ASAP right now.
    
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    February 15, 2025 3:26pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  You forget one important thing – Trump is a winner!
  
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  February 15, 2025 3:25pm
- cmm
  
  I am ex-South African, with family members there so I am somewhat interested in what is happening there.
  
  I think Trump has played his cards very well in South Africa in a couple of ways:
  * South Africa have violated the AGOA agreement. Biden just kept handing out the dosh. Trump has withheld money – thus likely getting SA back onto AGOA. This is especially important around property rights which the SA government wants to trample.
  
  * Trump has said he is considering giving refugee status to white farmers. Apparently over 17,000 have already shown interest (though that could be more than just farmers).
  
  Each farmer in SA feeds around 3000 people. Each 300 farmers that leave mean 1 million people without food.
  
  South African politicians will wake up to this quickly and will have to start treating whites, and farmers in particular, better than they have been in the last 30 years.
  
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  February 15, 2025 7:23pm
Quail

Nicole McKee has fast tracked legislation to nullify the recent court decision on Maori studies for real estate practitioners.
This is great work from the Act politician.I just hope that the others in the coalition support her.
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February 15, 2025 2:39pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Janet Dickson holder her own? She has Hobson’s Pledge and FSU behind her plus many others.
  
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  February 15, 2025 3:27pm
- Inandout
  
  Quail, if Luxon blocks this as well he will show his true colours.
  
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  February 15, 2025 5:36pm
Swifty

In my life I’ve seen decades of lefty protests over all manner of things in NZ – barracades, sit-ins, street marches, blockades of buildings and bridges etc, storming of places of business or conference facilities etc – all invariably accompanied by vile abuse and language etc.

For much of my life however, the ‘right’s’ idea of protest was a strongly-worded letter to the editor.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/541977/pride-and-rainbow-event-in-auckland-disrupted-by-destiny-church

Great to see.

I have no time whatsoever for that great charlatan Pope Brian but applaud his getting off his arse and protesting at what he doesn’t like.

And of course great to see the trans lobby getting some of it for a change.
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February 15, 2025 4:43pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Oh dear. The tranny mob and their children got scared of a ‘non violent’ protest group.
  I am not a man of faith but I support Brian Tamaki. “A group linked to Destiny Church.” So who is the group?
  I have no time for these sexual deviants forcing their rubbish on children. The parents should be ashamed of themselves. If my parents ever started that shit in the 60s I would have left home! Indoctrination to be trans and have fucking sex changes ffs.
  Back to stuff – a group linked to Destiny. Come on, how about naming the group and reporting the news? Just once, report ALL of the news.
  
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  February 15, 2025 5:21pm
marcw

More winning for “growth”.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/541973/australian-mining-giant-surrenders-15-nz-exploration-permits

The more the detail you read in the report, the more you realise the lack of future for young NZers here. Total anarchy by smug self entitled losers, who expect hard working real New Zealanders to pay their benefits and kid’s school lunches.
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February 15, 2025 5:18pm
- kowtow
  
  Well done to the ‘community’ who call all those things in nature “sacred” and allow no industry .
  
  Except the huge numbers of themselves who’re exempted from ‘sacredness” while they smash themselves stupid on meth big time.
  
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  February 15, 2025 6:56pm
Ghost

Oh frig off

Just got surveyed on earthquake strengthening of apartments. Which also detoured into private hospital and medical buildings, supermarkets and other private commercial buildings.

The questions. How much tax would I be prepared to pay, $15 or $65 a year for these privately opened buildings to be earthquake strengthen. Most of the questions only gave those two options. A couple of questions gave the option to say no.
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February 15, 2025 5:59pm

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