General Debate 05 March 2025

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NeverMindTheBollocks

Today is the 72nd anniversary of the death of Josef Stalin, God rot his bones. It should be a day of parades in Russia, in celebration of liberation from a tyrant. But it won’t be, because Putin is an admirer.

Incidentally Prokofiev, the great Russian composer, died on the same day. His funeral could not be held for three days due to crowds in Red Square, and were no flowers available for his cortège as the shops had been emptied for Stalin.
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March 5, 2025 8:01am
- David Garrett
  
  “Putin is an admirer”. That is all that needs to be said about that bastard with regard to the Ukraine conflict.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:10am
  - Ra Henare
    
    I have always been a supporter/admirer for rational thought. Well done Nevermindthebollocks.
    
    Unfortunately Social Media and KB, has spread the curse of emotional thought. No facts or logic. Just generally irrational emotive outbursts.
    
    It seems that follow the crowd is an overpowering force for emotional thought.
    
    I am reminded of A.A Milne’s observation.
    
    “When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.”
    Winnie-the-Pooh
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:01pm
- NothingLeft
  
  2nd or 3rd worst mass murderer in history. (After Mao and perhaps Chingis Khan).
  
  Xi is an admirer of Stalin too, quoting him unattributed in speeches
  
  Humans are becoming too technologically powerful for it to be safe to allow unaccountable autocrats to rule us. AI, Nukes and Genetic Engineering in the hands of tyrants are all existential risks.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:12am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Timur the Lame will also be pretty high on the list of mass murderers. A descendant of Ghengis Khan, I think.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:46pm
- Jules99
  
  “The positives that undoubtedly existed were achieved at an unacceptable price. Repressions did take place. This is a fact. Millions of our fellow citizens suffered from them,” Putin said.
  
  “Such a way of running a state, of achieving results is unacceptable, this is impossible. We have not only lived through the personality cult but also witnessed mass crimes against our own nation.”
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:11am
Chuck Bird

I put this up late yesterday. It is worth repeating. Would Maureen Pugh be a good replacement?

Rodney Hide: Chris Luxon is done

https://breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2025/03/rodney-hide-chris-luxon-is-done.html#more
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March 5, 2025 8:06am
- pdm
  
  I have a slightly wider view on it over at No Minister.
  https://nominister.wordpress.com/2025/03/04/will-this-save-christopher-luxon-i-just-say-to-parents-that-may-be-listening-to-this-feel-free-to-prepare-a-marmite-sandwich/
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:10am
  - DimChappie
    
    In resigning from the Waitangi Tribunal, Richard Prebble has challenged Luxon to fix it. A big win like that could save him, hehe.
    
    (Article paywalled): `[ Mod : that says it ]
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:16am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Prebble said the Tribunal, as well as investigating complaints, are actively looking for issues to litigate.
      
      That makes them activists.
      
      (Public funded activists)
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:35am
    - KH
      
      Paywalled sadly. I would love to read Richard Prebbles piece. Even when I disagree with him he does have views well put and worth thinking about. And he has great humour.
      But I do understand he thinks the Tribunal is in need of review.
      I think it a could be a joke but it’s actually a nasty threat to our democracy.
      
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      March 5, 2025 11:38am
      - James Stephenson
        
        Key (closing) quote: “Ignoring the issue is not the answer. It is time for the Prime Minister to lead and uphold that there is one Treaty, one country and one citizenship.”
        
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        March 5, 2025 1:21pm
      - Observer of Life
        
        https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/richard-prebble-letter-of-resignation-from-the-waitangi-tribunal
        
        Sorry Mods, I don’t know where to start in trying to clean it up. [Mod – don’t worry about it. Cleaned link]
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:37pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Good on him for saying that
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:22am
  - igm
    
    At least he came out with a truthful solution. Parents that cannot feed their kids best stop buying booze, cigs, meth , takeaways and make a vegemite sandwich. Actually, if you can’t fed them, do not breed them. Get a job, earn a dollar, and look after yourselves breeders, do not leech off taxpayers.
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:31am
    - Damocles11
      
      So if the ‘truthful solution’ is that parents provide marmite sandwiches, why didn’t he scrap the ‘free’ school lunch programme when he became PM?
      
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      March 5, 2025 11:21am
  - JackRabbit
    
    What he should have said is: “You are a parent. It is your responsibility to care for, feed, and protect your child. Sending your child to school hungry is abuse.”
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:19am
    - RichardF
      
      You can’t get a dog from the SPCA unless you have a fenced section and can care for the animal, have a plan for when you’re at work etc. But any muppet can have a baby with no means to provide for it, and the tax payer picks up the tab and the social ills that come with unplanned and unwanted children. Unbelievable.
      
      Maybe we need a child licensing system.
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:47pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        A puppy is for life, not just Christmas.
        
        A child is for life, not just a Winz payment increase.
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:12pm
- Colville
  
  Luxon is safe.
  The Nats know that swapping him out would mean a beating next year, at this point its Luxons game to win or lose depending on his performance from here.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:20am
  - Damocles11
    
    Because there’s nobody but Luxon and ‘everybody loves Luxon’. Get someone better in that job and the poll numbers go up, surely.
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:23am
    - Colville
      
      Damo..
      
      Who?
      
      Who would take the chance of stepping in and burning their career to the ground?
      
      Who wants to be the person that knifed Luxon?
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:01pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      What like exactly the same thing people were saying about Bridges, what could bloody go wrong, if Luxon is rolled its back to the left, unbelievable people want to go down this road again
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:57pm
      - pdm
        
        Pleased you mentioned Bridges G because hindsight suggests it is a shame he was shafted and lost the leadership.
        
        Covid has even more to answer for.
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:14pm
    - Paulus
      
      Do you think that Erica Stanford who is both very vocal and competent, is setting herself slighty higher towards the future in the National Party, that she is tackling David Seymour to take over Lunches ?
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:47pm
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        Hell I hope not. Her voting record and Pride March antics show her to be a progressive. She’s a business-friendly version of Ardern, with a couple of points more IQ and better teeth. “Competent” at what?
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:49pm
- Simon
  
  Luxon appalling beliefs – which are core left – directed towards vulnerable young children is unsurvivable for a normal party. Quite disgusting. However because it’s National Luxon will get a pass from the party.
  
  But it’s not just Luxon. National are covid left. Luxon got to the top of National because of what he stands for. National are ruining for NZ.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:28am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Covid left? the very first thing Luxon did when becoming leader was boot everything covid, and stated we will never ever go back to that carry on, but you know better
    
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    March 5, 2025 12:59pm
- Gravelroad
  
  I don’t know of any pre-school child, past or present, who would have a clue about what they have been told to say about their gender identity.
  If the original email is aboveboard and not some hit job on National, then the person in the PM’s office needs to be called to account for their stupid and irresponsible response.
  Using kids this way in a political context is reprehensible.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:29am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    What email?
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:11am
    - Gravelroad
      
      See Chuck Bird @ 8.06am.
      If the email contained in the attachment is for real, then as a parent and a grandparent, I expect better from the office of the Prime Minister.
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:34am
      - pdm
        
        Gravel I have the same in my link above.
        
        I worked on the basis that Rodney Hyde is experienced and a careful man and would have verified the truth of the communications.
        
        Can you confirm here or at No Minister please Rodney.
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:33am
      - Rodney Hide
        
        here we go:
        
        https://x.com/bobmccoskrienz/status/1896410858290594226?s=51&t=x6B2DqV-goj1jeX5z9enfA
        
        I double-checked with Bob yesterday to see if the PM had cancelled the email to replace it with a more considered one. He had not.
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:56am
      - imalwaysright
        
        It seems that Luxon will listen only to people who agree with him.
        That’s how the Ardern régime operated. And its looking like their policies are very similar also.
        
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        March 5, 2025 11:28am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Looks like bullshit to me, for a start when he sends out emails or an letter to supporters from his office, he never ever uses maori, dont say he does, because i get them weekly and have been glad to see not one utterance of maori
        
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        March 5, 2025 1:03pm
    - Souvlaki
      
      Since Luxon is as useful as ‘tits on a bull ‘…perhaps it’s time we queried other potential aspirants to his position, to find out EXACTLY where they stand on this issue…….
      
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      March 5, 2025 11:32am
      - Pope Punctilious II
        
        Let’s not go there. All the most likely contenders (Willis, Bishop, Stanford) would be worse than Luxon, as they’re all progressives. You’re trying to drink whisky from a bottle of kombucha. Better off voting for ACT or NZF, as long as the “liberal” faction remains in control of the Nats.
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:52pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  So an Act ex mp is tying to tell us Luxon is done. this is just a continuation of the same bullshit being fed by Act supporters who have been given sound bites to try and weaken Nats, (dont say the party did not send these points out because i received them as well)
  Yes Luxon should have straight out said he would have sacked Bayly but he didn’t. the damage once again to this government is being done by Seymour, great way to guarantee Hipkins greens and TPM in the next term.
  
  I seem to remember Hide having issues when in parliament as well, oh by the hypocrisy of an Act supporter knows no bounds
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:11am
  - Scott
    
    G the giant, Mark Hanley and me are some of the very few who defend Chris Luxon on this blog. Every day others go on about Luxon being weak and woke.
    
    The truth of the matter is that Luxon is very similar to previous National prime Ministers in his moderate social views. Jim Bolger was a liberal Irish Catholic. John Key was better with the media than Luxon. He had a winning smile and a knack to make himself agreeable in any company, from a Christian music festival to a gay pride parade.
    
    But John Key was more liberal than Luxon and never once stood up for centre right voters on social issues. Quite the reverse. He championed the anti smacking bill which criminalised parents for physically disciplining their own children, a measure that at the time was opposed by 85% of the electorate.
    Gay marriage came in during his tenure. Gay marriage was the precursor to transgender and the consequent debacle we have about gender confused children.
    I would say Luxon has done a lot about racial issues and as promised 3 waters has gone, Maori health authority has gone and compulsory Maori wards has gone.
    
    I understood Erica Stanford was against transgender in schools but she is meeting a lot of institutional resistance from the education establishment.
    
    Here’s the bottom line. You roll Luxon then you can guarantee the next election will see Labour back in power. Then instead of getting 50% of what you want, you’ll get 100% of what you don’t want.
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:45am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      I agree. Luxon is hopeless, but he is entirely typical as a National leader and nobody who voted for him has any reason to be surprised or disappointed. Nor should they expect a replacement would be any better.
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:28am
    - Philview
      
      The disappointment about Luxon is that he has previously alluded to being an evangelical Christian but seems happy to bin any reference to this if pressured by the media. It gives the impression that there are stronger voices in National that Chris doesn’t want to get offside with. If he is forced out he will be replaced with a similar point of view.
      
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      March 5, 2025 11:14am
    - RoboRob
      
      The problem with some of the Luxon defence force, is that they are unwilling to acknowledge any fault in the man. I voted ACT but I have criticised Seymour on this blog, he is far from perfect. I also support Luxon when he does good things, as I did just yesterday.
      
      The defence of Luxon, when he does something undefendable, resorts to one of the following.
      
      1. I dont believe he said that. Its disinformation.
      2. You are just an Actoid who criticises Luxon all the time.
      3. If you dont support Luxon Labour will win next election.
      4. There is nobody better then Luxon in National. So just support him.
      
      I see all of the above in posts today. These are like rote lines from a PR team. None of these points are true but the defenders just keep stating them like a cult.
      
      Re 1. We have multiple sources of the email that appear verified.
      Re 2. No I, and others, dont. Why would someone who likes Act constantly bash their only real coalition partner (NZF is often left of National) for no reason?
      
      Re 3 & 4
      We have no idea if National has better options as their members are locked to support the leader in all he says and does. If we are not critical of anything National do we provide the incentive for them to just do whatever they want, knowing they will still get the support and votes. If Luxon is a poor performer, Labour will win the next exlection, encouraging a leadership change might help National and keep Labour out.
      We criticise the Left for being ‘Always Labour regardless’ yet people here are doing the very same thing.
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:03pm
      - Damocles11
        
        ACT voters are in the main ex National voters who became frustrated with the ‘do nothing’ National party who seem to represent bland corporate management and little else. But as sad as I have been about the increasing spinelessness of a party that aims to be all things to all people and in the process has ended up representing no-one, I continued to give my electorate vote to National. But now that I can see that Luxon and the National brains trust just aren’t listening, and the whole outfit is determined to ignore any criticism and just attack the critics, I’ll follow a new course of action.
        
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        March 5, 2025 12:55pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Agreed, the thought of Hipkins and Labours financial illiteracy, along with whack job greens and corrupt TPM in cabinet is one of the most frightening political outlook i have seen. The haters on here better be ready for what is coming because CGT and wealth tax will see their money frittered away to the weak.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:07pm
      - RoboRob
        
        Well done G. Thats a well disguieed point 3 from my post above Thanks for proving my point.
        
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        March 5, 2025 1:22pm
  - Allan
    
    I never repeat my mistakes.
    
    My first vote over 50 years ago was for Labour per Jim Anderton.
    
    I have never voted Labour since.
    
    I have voted for National every election since then.
    
    Last election I voted for Luxon and what I believed he was going to do.
    
    I never make the same mistake twice.
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:49am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      I know where you should go Allan.
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:22am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Anderton was not an MP 50 years ago, he was the head of the labour party, and i dont think he got in as an mp till 87, it may have been 84
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:10pm
      - Allan
        
        Well there ya go. Looks like I might have voted for Kirk Jr.
        
        I feel better already.
        
        Imagine thinking for all my recent years that I had voter for Anderton.
        
        Still not voting for National next round.
        
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        March 5, 2025 6:01pm
      - Ghost
        
        Very possible. Anderton Entered politics when elected on the labour ticket to the Manukau City in 1965. 1971 in the labour ticket he ran for Auckland council. 1974 and 1977 he ran for Auckland mayor on the labour ticket.
        
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        March 5, 2025 6:09pm
  - nathie
    
    Actually I thought I heard commentary a few days ago that the Bayley incident wasn’t a sackable offence, that’s why Luxon wasn’t prepared to say anything one way or another (and nevermind that it was an employment issue as well).
    
    To prevent a Leftie/media circus … and their weapon grade whinging demanding to explain “why not”.
    
    Instead we got weapon grade whinging from the Right … sheesh.
    
    Meanwhile Chris Hipkins continues to enjoy barking at cars …
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:54am
    - Damocles11
      
      Well Luxon ended up saying “yeah” to Hoskings persistent questions on whether or not he would have sacked Bayley, so that’s a head scratcher if someone else thinks it ‘wasn’t a sackable offence’. The other point is that often the person in line for the high jump will be told they can resign to save a bit of face, or have the ignominy of being sacked. So maybe Luxon was trying to spare Bayley some of those blushes.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:00pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      If Bayly put his hand on the person complaining then that assault, this is the second time his attitude to people have come under the microscope, how many times to they let this crap happen
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:12pm
  - Grunter
    
    “Yes Luxon should have straight out said he would have sacked Bayly but he didn’t. the damage once again to this government is being done by Seymour…..”
    Huh? Your logical thinking seems to once again be on overdrive G.
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:57am
    - thirteenstars
      
      You’ve been around long enough to know G believes there’s only one legitimate right-leaning party, and that’s National, every vote going to ACT is a vote stolen from its rightful owner, National.
      
      I guess that applies to NZF, too. Even more so perhaps because Winston Peters was once a hot young acolyte of Muldoon who had a very public bust-up with the party, held National’s feet to the fire in coalition talks, especially after the 2017 election when National’s loathing for him, in the form of Bill English, sent Peters into the dank arms of Ardern’s Labour.
      
      But still, he reserves a special loathing for David Seymour. Treaty Principles Bill, school lunches, driving up Parliament’s hallowed steps, my God!, Seymour’s single-handedly responsible for all that troubles the Coalition, don’t ya know?
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:27am
      - JackRabbit
        
        I loathe David Seymour as well, because I’m not sure whose side he is on.
        
        [1] The Treaty principles bill is a creep crawly slippery way of avoiding stating the obvious to the Maori Party and others: “Maori ceded sovereignty, suck it up Buttercup”, and providing the 1000+ pieces of evidence of that fact.
        
        And sooner rather than later, as the evidence in books and digital form have been disappearing on a Fahrenheit 451 bonfire since the 1970s and increasing in rate in the last 20 years.
        
        [2] Seymour has never apologised or retracted his stance of vaccine injuries and deaths. Which means he has no integrity.
        
        And as Rodney has pointed out, Luxon is toast.
        
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        March 5, 2025 12:51pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Worry about your own opinion, i use to vote Act for the party vote, but never again, anyone thinking there is ever going to be a strong party is utterly deluded, but the problem is if you weaken Nats, then Peters simply has a reasion to go left and he will
        
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        March 5, 2025 1:14pm
      - JackRabbit
        
        Typo
        
        [2] Seymour has never apologised or retracted his stance of denial of vaccine injuries and deaths. Which means he has no integrity.
        
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        March 5, 2025 1:31pm
  - Rodney Hide
    
    Hi G
    
    I am a sinner and a hypocrite.
    
    I haven’t received any “talking points”.
    
    However, it is my opinion that a leader of a nominally conservative party and Prime Minister can’t survive supporting and celebrating pre schoolers “changing” their sex.
    
    I am often wrong. But we have big problems if I am wrong!
    
    Quick question: do you support a Prime Minister supporting and celebrating pre schoolers chaning their sex?
    
    Rodney Hide
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:09am
    - Gravelroad
      
      My attitude to Mr Luxon is similar to my attitude to Mr Trump : I don’t love him, but I don’t hate him either.
      They both have a job to do and will do that job according to their policies – supposedly.
      However, Mr Luxon needs to take responsibility for some of his statements and those of his back office staff.
      The person who spoke up concerned about the pre- school children telling teachers that their gender preferences must be noted, is a case in point.
      The reply she received on behalf of the Prime Minister of New Zealand is troubling.
      The Prime Minister should sometimes take into account the views and expectations of the majority of citizens not just issue a throwaway statement in support of a manipulating and demanding minority.
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:39pm
    - JackRabbit
      
      You are not wrong Rodney.
      
      Luxon’s response should have been:
      
      “We cannot teach generic sex education until a child is 15 or 16, or close to. Prior to that it is a parent’s responsibility.
      
      Any discussion about sexual identity is with parents. A school has no place in becoming in a counseling service, and certainly not without parent consultation.
      
      And engaging children in discussion about sexual identity or genital surgery, is a matter for a registered counselor and parents. Teachers are not counselors and cannot give advice, in the same way that a teacher is not the student’s GP and cannot and should not advise or coerce the student into taking medication.
      
      Engaging any young child in sexual discussion, no matter how well intentioned, is inappropriate and in most cases would be considered grooming, which is a crime.”
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:03pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I simply do not believe it, i see his emails weekly, and never has he headed it with Kiora, and never ever finished with Nga Mihi, something stinks with this email
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:16pm
      - DimChappie
        
        Sonya Ford, one of his comms team wrote the email. See a sample of her emails on this page, begins and ends with Maori as in the response to the teacher.
        
        https://fyi.org.nz/request/26527-information-held-by-the-prime-minister-comparing-house-building-rate-between-2017-2023-with-2008-2017
        
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        March 5, 2025 3:15pm
  - Paulus
    
    The most damage to the elected Coaltion Government is the scum media !
    
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    March 5, 2025 1:48pm
- David Garrett
  
  Jesus H! Everyone must read that link to Rodney’s piece – and the breathtaking response to an email from an ECE teacher disturbed at kids of three and a half saying they don’t know if they are boys or girls.
  
  Luxon’s response – for those who can’t be bothered following the link – is that he “supports and celebrates diversity and is a strong supporter of the LGBT+ community”
  
  God help us. (I am an agnostic, so don’t really expect and divine assistance)
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:17am
  - Rodney Hide
    
    Hi David
    
    Not entirely accurate. Mr Luxon “supports and celebrates …. LGBTQI+”.
    
    Rodney
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:21am
    - JackRabbit
      
      I wonder if a child of his was bullied at school, with the bully taking his child’s packed lunch every day, whether he would “support and celebrate” bullies stealing lunches?
      
      Hitting on eight year olds, and brainwashing them into believing bullshit about genital mutilation, is far worse than just stealing a child’s Marmite sandwich.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:44pm
- Sir Henry Morgan
  
  It’s just more evidence of the deeply unserious nature of those pretending to run things.
  
  I can’t help asking myself:
  
  1. Why must a PM “celebrate” any particular “community”?
  
  2. What is the term “LGBTQI+” bandied around as though all these things were a single entity? What even is the “QI+” about?
  
  3. After so many years of this trans issue, why are those responsible for making laws still so vacuously ignorant of the nature of what ‘trans’ actually is? They’ve now had at least a decade to work this out. ‘Trans” is not a single thing. “Trans” is more related to autism than sexuality. Medicalization is completely unnecessary in most cases. Years ago I sent a list of reading materials on this stuff to all of NZ’s political parties. Got zero response except from a newly established fringe party with no seats in Parliament.
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:34pm
  - Notsofast
    
    Medicalisation is completely unnecessary in all cases, and it degrades the body in all cases. It should be treated as criminal enterprise.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:08pm
Morry45

Great to see Richard Prebble say it how it is!!
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March 5, 2025 8:09am
- nathie
  
  Sure but he should have stayed on and have a place at the table.
  
  Shouting now from outside of the tent won’t achieve change from within.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:00am
  - David Garrett
    
    Nathie: There will be no “change from within” in the Waitangi Tribunal. I imagine Richard would have been in a minority of one – the token right winger on the panel – as Michael Bassett once was, before he too had had enough of the bullshit.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:18am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Hard to imagine he has only learned since October last year that the Waitangi Tribunal has a socialist agenda. Why take the job at all, if that is your reason for quitting?
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:31am
    - KH
      
      I guess Richard knew it was terrible. But only once inside he realised just how awsomely terrible it has become.
      
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      March 5, 2025 11:40am
      - pdm
        
        Richard Prebble is almost certainly an optimist so when he took the position would have been of the view that he could effect some change.
        
        Once in the hot seat he obviously quickly saw how dire and entrenched the bias of the Tribunal is.
        
        Perhaps `collective responsibility’ limited his ability to publicly expose the situation so he stepped aside in order to make the situation clearer to the Government and New Zealand public.
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:46pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Nathie,
    I also thought he should stay on.
    However, one of his reasons for leaving is that he saw his participation was being used to give the Tribunal an element of legitimacy with conservatives. (My paraphrase)
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:47am
    - muzled
      
      He’s also 77.
      
      He could see the writing on the wall and no doubt thought – I’m not going to spend the later years of my life wasting my time fighting this battle.
      
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      March 5, 2025 2:41pm
Damocles11

Apparently we need a ‘manager’ in the PM’s chair. Somebody to manage the coalition partners and keep them in line, somebody to manage the new status quo that Labour has bequeathed us, someone to manage the relationship with the media and keep them onside, someone to manage the public expectations of the government, someone to manage the minister of finance and ensure the money keeps being spent and the lenders keep lending to us, someone to manage the PR campaigns that tell us how interest rates are falling and it’s all thanks to the government ‘cutting wasteful spending’, someone to be a cheerleader for state and corporate endorsed DEI, maorification, and ‘honouring our climate commitments’.
You begin to understand why people such as Robert MacCulloch are so scathing about the quality of corporate managers in this country. Leadership, conviction, and integrity are foreign concepts to these types. They speak in incomprehensible buzzwords and jargon, they exude a kind of bloodless generalised enthusiasm, and their mantra is that you ‘swim with the tide’ rather than stand up and speak from the heart and say what must be said. It’s the reason why Luxon will fail – even if he makes a belated pivot towards a more direct and authentic communication style – and why his erstwhile corporate compadres will turn on him if electoral defeat starts to become a looming reality; the corporate world is ‘dog eat dog’ after all.
Phoney Keyism has had its day.
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March 5, 2025 8:16am
- Paulus
  
  Since when have Managers become Leaders ?
  Managers, as we have in New Zealand, go to lessons and are then called Managers, with a paper hanging up to say so.
  
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  March 5, 2025 1:51pm
Steve Otto N Shore

Chris Finlayson Proudly Displays His History Ignorance For All To See (Part 1)
More and more Kiwis are waking up to the fact that NZ is in big trouble right now.

Video 26.42.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjitBzGaZE4
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March 5, 2025 8:16am
- Damocles11
  
  I think we are past the tipping point though Steve. The time for waking up was quite a while ago: the frogs are now in the boiling pot and the lid has been firmly placed on top
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:19am
  - Scooter
    
    Even Richard Pebble has given up. A shame as he could have fought from within the Waitangi Tribunal.
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:42am
    - David Garrett
      
      Scooter: I am sure he would have … but sooner or later everyone gets tired of banging their head on a brick wall.
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:20am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      I think Prebble was stonewalled every time he made a moved.
      Shouted down.
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:28am
    - Damocles11
      
      Prebble has effectively acted as a whistleblower: ‘this is what I’ve seen and it will make your hair curl, I’m appalled and I’m getting out’. That’s the nutshell version.
      Of course corporate manager Luxon and his offsider Potaka expected Prebble to take the cushy appointment and the hefty salary and ‘swim with the tide’, keep his mouth shut and clip the ticket. ‘Another one on the gravy train’. Except Prebble has too much integrity. Luxon will be utterly bemused right now, incorruptible people like Prebble are incomprehensible to him.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:05pm
    - Paulus
      
      They would not have given Prebs a chance to do anything.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:52pm
    - trout
      
      Any chance of pasting Preb’s letter on this blog. Others would appreciate it. It is very well written;’ a breath of fresh air ‘.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:59pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  From the comments:
  “It’s hard to make someone agree with something if their livelihood depends on them not agreeing with it.”
  The Public Sector is infested with these parasites.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:52am
RockyJ

Great honesty here from J D Vance on how Trump is the best option to negotiate a peace. Trump is the only western leader to have a positive relationship with Putin who has every reason to distrust the west. Zelensky is not prepared to discuss a settlement. The European leaders posture but in private know that an endless war will be unsustainable and tragic. The Biden administration had no plan. The minerals deal was as much about putting a US non military buffer into Ukraine as about money.
https://youtu.be/HOJS3qQlVjE?si=Pb67qS782KkYUVcb
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March 5, 2025 8:19am
- Don Beckett
  
  I hear news reports that Zelensky has admitted his error & is going back to Trump with his begging bowl – as I have been saying since the White House bust up.
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:30am
- JackRabbit
  
  Zelenskyy’s puppeteers don’t want peace. Peace means no war. No war means the war machine cashflow dries up. And the pocket pissing income and back handers dry up as well.
  
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  March 5, 2025 1:08pm
Maggy Wassilieff

RNZ quick off the mark to warn us that a marmite sandwich and an apple is NOT an adequate lunch.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/543726/is-a-marmite-sandwich-and-an-apple-good-enough-for-a-child-s-lunch
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March 5, 2025 8:19am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Half the school use to have that for lunch when I was a kid, especially with the chips in it
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:23am
  - MCōs
    
    Is that why most of NZ’s serial killers and mass murderers came from Dunedin?
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:39am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Is that really called for
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:18pm
    - Dougal10
      
      Shouldn’t that be cereal killers
      
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      March 5, 2025 5:33pm
- lifesgood
  
  Wot!!!! You mean to say I was a deprived child? That’s pretty much all I ever got and now, as a retired person I’m fit and healthy, funny that.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:24am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    And you still have the same sandwich? I do.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:34am
    - MCōs
      
      Oh
      
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      March 5, 2025 11:40am
- alex Masterley
  
  Marmite on its own in a sandwich? nope. Add plastic cheese (preferably Cheesdale) and now you are talking.
  Regularly served up when yours truly was at school.
  Sometimes jam sandwiches made an appearance, but only infrequently.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:26am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Add slices of lettuce and tomatoes – all the colours represented.
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:32am
    - Don Beckett
      
      What about Peanut Butter sandwiches – I still have them 75 years later.
      
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      March 5, 2025 11:32am
  - pdm
    
    Growing up on a farm cold mutton sandwiches were a regular.
    
    When I started school though it was tomato sandwiches which became smelly and soggy. Put me off them for life.
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:33am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      More butter pdm. Insulate the bread from tomato juice with lots of butter.
      
      12 3
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      March 5, 2025 8:36am
      - pdm
        
        74/75 years too late with that advice SO.
        
        My grandmother was the sandwich maker and she was not going to be listening to my advice anyway. lol.
        
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        March 5, 2025 8:41am
      - David Garrett
        
        pdm: Of topic, but it’s great to see a man in his 80’s here, embracing the best that the internet has to offer.
        
        I look forward to reading your insightful comments for many years to come.
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:23am
    - igm
      
      Egg smelling like a septic tank, banana went black, the skins stunk; there were some real vile smells in the little lunch shed at our country school. But we did get cocoa.
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:25am
      - pdm
        
        igm we had cocoa at Mangaorapa School too. Only 7 of us on the roll and two standard 5 and 6 girls made it every day in winter.
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:53pm
    - pdm
      
      DG not quite 80 but, nudging it.
      
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      March 5, 2025 2:55pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Plastic cheese is just that, plastic. Hold normal cheese over a flame, it melts. Plastic cheese just burns, no melting, and people eat the shit.
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:35am
    - hookerphil
      
      Have not had the candle out but my wife says that it melts in the microwave ok. And that is the end of that subject.
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:13am
    - john1234
      
      Soft cheeses have high moisture content and resist burning but hard cheeses have low moisture and burn more readily.
      But we digress!
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:13am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        I have tried it. Mild cheese I eat melts. Processed cheese my partner has just burns. I did not believe it at first so I tested with an LPG gun I have for using on shrink tube (electric wiring)
        
        7 1
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        March 5, 2025 10:38am
      - Colville
        
        Steve.
        
        Try getting 4 days into a hunting trip and get a slice of processed cheese out of the bag and putting it in a tortilla… its about as close to heaven as you will ever get to your flavour and fat starved body!!
        
        Earlier in the trip you would have had cooked bacon to put with it but alas…that is all gone!!
        
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        March 5, 2025 11:12am
      - Don Beckett
        
        Hard bloody cheese.
        
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        March 5, 2025 11:34am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    He said with potato chips like half the kids had when we went to school
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:37am
    - I remember when
      
      Fish and Chips or a pie on Mondays, when the bread had either been eaten or was too stale.
      Ordered through and delivered to the school.
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:43am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        They never made bread in the weekend back then, virtually everyone bought lunch, the bread would go mouldy in a short time back then
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:38am
  - cmm
    
    We had a massive avocado tree when I was growing up that yielded about 150kg of avos a year (it was planted right next to the septic tank – so well fed).
    
    My sandwiches of choice were avo – mashed with a bit of vinegar to prevent them going brown as well as giving them that extra zip.
    
    Fantastic.
    
    One one time they were not fantastic was when my grandmother found a bottle of kerosene when she was looking for vinegar. I have a tough stomach, but even I couldn’t eat those.
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:00am
    - Paulus
      
      Like wise our sole Avocado tree produced on a good year about 1,000 + top Avocado but slowed down when we were forced to go on the mains as such, away from the septic tank.
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:40am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  It was good enough for my school lunches in the late 50s early 60s.
  We did not have sliced bread then so you cut it to the thickness you want. Good dollop of butter and good dollop of marmite.
  I still have may marmite sandwiches using thicker toast bread.
  Parents are lazy, and kids are lazy. The cost is minimal, but many expect a 3 course meal from a 5 star hotel!
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:32am
  - I remember when
    
    Heaven forbid even mentioning the other alternative Peanut Butter sandwiches.
    
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    March 5, 2025 8:51am
    - lifesgood
      
      How come we all had peanut butter sandwiches occasionally when I was at school and I never once saw a kid keeling over with anaphylaxis. Peanut butter is now banned from schools. What the hell? Why?
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:41am
      - NothingLeft
        
        Chronic safetyism imposed by nanny statists. Possibly in past those kids just died young.
        
        Peanut allergies are now fixable with oral immunotherapy (slowly build tolerance to prevent anaphylaxis) – which would be the sensible policy for schools and health system in NZ rather than banning peanuts.
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:23am
      - David Garrett
        
        lifes: There are many theories on why allergies have sky rocketed since we were kids, but I particularly recall one study that suggests the answer.
        
        It looked at allergy rates in kids brought up on dairy farms, ordinary farms, and those brought up in the city. The kids with the fewest allergies were those brought up on dairy farms, followed closely by those brought up on sheep and beef farms. The city kids had allergy rates 10 times the farm kids – exposed as such kids are to cowshit and mud.
        
        My children were brought up on a lifestyle block, and we raised steers for sale and for meat. One of my children is allergic to penicillin – but that’s it. She has no other allergies, and her brother has none at all.
        
        Today, concerned mothers buy hospital grade cleaners in the belief that they are thereby protecting their kids from harm. Studies such as the above mentioned suggests they are doing the opposite.
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:30am
      - sirknz
        
        Too many cleaning products killing the beneficial bacteria and sterile environments with no pets mixed with nervous parents reading too many blogs avoiding anything with allergens on the chance that their wee one might be afflicted with something not understanding that exposure to these things early in life sets them up to be severe allergy free.
        
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        March 5, 2025 10:41am
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        I have never seen anaphylaxis from peanut butter when I was young. Maybe these days it is the additives and preservatives. I don’t like it anyway.
        Anaphylaxis is not nice. It nearly killed me a couple of years ago. 40 min surgery turned into 7 1/2 hours.
        
        7 1
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        March 5, 2025 10:43am
    - artemisia
      
      Aflatoxins are common in peanut skins, including in peanut butter. An allergic reaction is not uncommon.
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:28pm
- artemisia
  
  School lunch headlines – not going away while there are points to be scored.
  
  Time to make the point that cold food can be just as nutritious as hot food, and a whole lot less complex. If principals, unions and pupils don’t like the current offerings, what’s wrong with providing a lunch that meets the nutritional requirements without the fuss. In a brown paper bag with a sticker for the vegans etc. Based on sammie and fruit.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:32am
  - KH
    
    Excellent. The hot lunch is a dumb idea. Just creates problems for no benefit.
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:45am
- Rich Prick
  
  If the taxpayer funded freebies aren’t good enough, parents are free to provide more adequate lunches for their little darlings. The same goes for the halal bullshit last week. Just saying.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:39am
  - alex Masterley
    
    I can only give but one uptick.
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:42am
    - David Garrett
      
      Mine added too Alex.
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:31am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    “Little darlings” with socialist helicopter parents.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:46am
- rouppe
  
  Similar hit job on Stuff.
  
  Buried in this story is the nugget:
  
  “One of our vegan students was given a beef lunch last week.
  
  We then had to provide [a vegan] lunch for that child because the family has an expectation that the Government is providing lunches.”
  
  On the first sentence, the lunches aren’t named, are they? You get a bunch of what you ordered. So if you didn’t order enough vegan meals for the entitled little prick that’s on you.
  
  The second sentence says it all.” The family has an expectation… “.
  
  I’ve got some expectations too, shall I share them with this family?
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:56am
  - David Garrett
    
    rouppe: I would like to know how old the vegan “student” is. IMO – and admittedly I am a grumpy old man – vegans are mentally ill. We have canine teeth for a reason, and it’s not to make eating tofu easier.
    
    If the kid is under 16 then God help the poor bugger.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:34am
  - sirknz
    
    Is there an expectation then that someone on the carnivore diet will be given only meat?
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:44am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    So the food is too hot and some get burnt. How the hell do they deal with a cup of hot milo?
    This is the reason there are warning labels on shampoo bottles.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:54am
    - Bobba Fret
      
      Not sure if its true, but the one that made me laugh was the stick deoderant instructions. “Push up bottom”.
      I don’t believe any now have these instructions.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:46pm
  - Rich Prick
    
    When we provide something for free, it’s never good enough. When we take it away, they squeal like little pigs. We would be better not providing “it” in the first place, whether it’s lunches or housing, unless there is true need. The truly needy never seem to complain (even though the media believe it is their duty to be uninvited proxies).
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:36am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Anything “free” was taken from someone else.
      
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      March 5, 2025 3:21pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  According to health and education “experts”. Well, I am proof that they are wrong. For a lot of my time at school, that’s pretty much what I got for lunch. So these experts are full of shit. The other pertinent thing is, a fat kid was the exception when I was at school.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:57am
  - Paulus
    
    We had cooked school lunches in the UK, after the War, and we ate whatever we were given, or starved.
    G’ees hasn’t life changed ?
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:42am
    - Jethrod
      
      The little darlings have to have their carbs so that they can be big and fat in their teens.
      
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      March 5, 2025 9:46am
- Scooter
  
  School lunch in the 70’s was buying filled rolls or less healthy pies, sausage rolls etc. My mother wasn’t big on making sandwiches but I guess bought lunch was cheap in those days. Maybe not what you would call the “healthy’ meals they are providing today but in my class there was only one fat girl.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:11am
  - Jethrod
    
    Oh the snowy rivers (Sally Lunns) were to die for!
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:48am
    - David Garrett
      
      Jethrod: Sally Lunns were “coffee buns” in Gisborne in the 1970’s. No idea why, since neither the bun nor the icing was flavoured with coffee.
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:36am
      - OlderChas
        
        Same in Lower Hutt DG right back to the 50’s
        
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        March 5, 2025 12:23pm
      - rouppe
        
        Because you had them with coffee? Perhaps…
        
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        March 6, 2025 6:57am
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Dam, now I am going to have to go to the bakery and buy one.
      Guess I better buy four, or the family will be eying up my one!
      
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      March 5, 2025 10:57am
    - pdm
      
      Buns of many names – Sally Lunns, Coffee Buns, Boston Buns – all the same.
      
      Twenty years ago we had buns in Sally Lunns shop in Bath (England). Totally different as I recall.
      
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      March 5, 2025 3:03pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I had very routine sandwiches: peanut butter/or vegemite/ or cheese/ or tomato/ or cold roast..
  but my best mate at secondary school had much more exciting fare and I can still recall the cold whitebait fritters full of little eyes she’d regularly scoff down .
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:41am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Potato chips were a luxury for mum and dad when I was at primary school. But if they got a packet, and there were any left the next day, mum would crumble them up and put them on the marmite sandwiches for my sisters and I! Delicious!
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:03am
  - Gravelroad
    
    Re the controversy over the burnt plastic on the supplied lunches:
    I have seen the packed lunches that my grandkids take to school.
    There is no plastic packaging or clingfilm allowed.
    The sandwiches are packed into those waxy wrap things that their parent has to wash out every night.
    All the little packs of chips, biscuits etc have to be pre-opened and the contents put directly into the lunch box. This is partly because some of the younger children can’t open the packets and run to the teacher to get out the scissors to cut them.
    This no plastic rule is not the choice of the parent, it is a directive from the school.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:10am
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Did you ever swap with your mate? A cheese sammy and a cold roast one for just half of a whitebait one?
    
    11 2
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    March 5, 2025 10:59am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I’m not too keen on eating food that looks at you..
      
      I did go whitebaiting with her family, but left her with the goodies.
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:19pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        I guess you mash your potatoes
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:04pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Whitebait fritter in Hokitika is to die for. It is the size of a dinner plate.
        Just a little lemon juice – do not spoil it.
        They don’t even gut them you know.
        
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        March 5, 2025 3:25pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Most kids seem to be over fed.
  A hungry kid would devour a slice of bread and butter and enjoy it.
  Many of these kids are used to a high sugar, salt, carb, and fat diet, and in large amounts.
  I don’t think they are hungry, rather they are more than likely experiencing withdrawal symptoms and are craving the next hit of the sugar, salt etc.
  Junk food junkies.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:56am
  - Flossie
    
    As kids my siblings and I would often plead “I’m hungry” to mum. She would say that we could have some bread and butter, and when we said no thanks to that she always said “Well you’re not hungry then are you!”
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:43am
Sparrow

Can somebody tell ex Unilever exec Luxon that in this part of the world its Vegimite mate, not that pommy shit.
9 15
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March 5, 2025 8:19am
- lifesgood
  
  I’m a vegemite person, can slightly tolerate marmite, but that English shit is revolting.
  
  8 5
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  March 5, 2025 9:32am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Not sure why we are saying it’s English, because the stuff here is made by Sanatorium is it not?
    
    5 2
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    March 5, 2025 10:36am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Yes, Marmite is a Kiwi response to Vegemite from Oz. The English stuff came later.
      
      7 1
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      March 5, 2025 11:42am
      - Ghost
        
        No, marmite was invented in the uk in 1902, vegemite 1922. Nz marmite began production in 1919, until then British marmite was imported here from 1908
        
        7 0
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        March 5, 2025 11:53am
      - Bridgenag
        
        My Grandmother also has a great grainy tasting “oxo?”
        
        3 1
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        March 5, 2025 12:38pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        So the post above was rubbish then
        
        1 1
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        March 5, 2025 1:19pm
    - Allan
      
      NZ made marmite is loaded with sugar.
      
      Aussies invented Vegemite when they couldn’t get Marmite from the UK during the war.
      
      The history of Marmite;
      
      https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=wtf+is+vegemite
      
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      March 5, 2025 6:11pm
- Jethrod
  
  Oh, you could start a never-ending battle of
  M vs V which would have David holding his head in his hands
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:50am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Speak for ya self ffs, , it was always marmite and chip sandwiches in the 70s, ffs Luxon went to school in CHCH
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:57am
- Allan
  
  Nope, marmite is better.
  
  for historical background check out the You Tube vide ‘WTF is Vegemite’.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:58am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Marmite wins in this house.
  Incidentally, years ago I took some to Alaska. Our friends hated it, but I did see two of them have another go!
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:04am
  - artemisia
    
    Had a couple of kids staying straight off the plane from the US. Introduced them to Vegemite. One hated it. The other asked for ‘more of that chocolate stuff’. (They are siblings.)
    
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    March 5, 2025 12:16pm
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I always have a jar of each…
      One daughter eats only marmite
      The other only vegemite
      
      (I prefer V, but will eat M).
      
      5 0
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      March 5, 2025 1:22pm
      - Sparrow
        
        Forget about Russia v Ukraine that’s nothing. Its all about what’s in that sarni.
        MARMITE V VEGEMITE
        Take up your bread boards !!
        
        2 1
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        March 5, 2025 2:35pm
      - Steve Otto N Shore
        
        Sparrow, Russians don’t eat either.
        Ukrainians eat Marmite only.//
        
        2 3
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        March 5, 2025 3:33pm
    - Steve Otto N Shore
      
      Has anyone tested blindfolded people on Marmite and Vegemite? Asked them to identify which it is when tasting?
      
      2 2
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      March 5, 2025 3:31pm
      - Allan
        
        Eezy peezy. Can do it every time.
        
        They taste different and have distinct texture.
        
        And NZ Marmite is different to either.
        
        1 0
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        March 5, 2025 6:14pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  I down ticked you because we prefer marmite. You can now downtick me!
  
  3 0
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  March 5, 2025 1:50pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Ma mite agree with you.
    
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    March 5, 2025 7:30pm
artemisia

Shout out to Katharine Moody, a senior tutor at Massey University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She has come up with a brilliant idea to make renting more affordable for tenants. Rent controls.

But was ECON101 taken into account?

The NZ Property Investors Federation, admittedly having rather a large dog in the fight, writes in this week’s newsletter – “Kate’s idea is for a weekly rent maximum based on the formula RV/1000) – x%, where RV is rateable value and x is a variable based on 30% of the median weekly household income. For Auckland, the variable is 0.6.”

The writer of the newsletter has done the calc for their Auckland rental – rent would be $315pw less than currently – and suggests that plenty of rental owners would take their ball and go home. While their existing rentals may still be there, new builds for rentals not so much.

https://www.interest.co.nz/property/132074/katharine-moody-suggests-regulation-private-rental-market-could-be-only-way-avoid
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March 5, 2025 8:21am
- Eastlander
  
  Rents should in fact go up – if you can afford weed your rent is too low.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:32am
- sungsamning
  
  Great! After all it has worked so well everywhere else it has been tried. Just do it! Reason #958 to close half the universities.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:34am
- Matt Long
  
  Humanities and Social Science lecturing on rent controls. Next we’ll be asking corporate staff to lecture us on climate change and preschoolers’ sexuality, maybe we’ll ask them to be prime minister.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:21am
- NothingLeft
  
  “rent control appears to be the most efficient technique presently known to destroy a city—except for bombing.” Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:26am
- imalwaysright
  
  I wonder if Katharine Moody can come up with a similar formula to make senior tutors more affordable for Massey University’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences ???
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:04am
- Pope Punctilious II
  
  Maybe Dr. Moody should submit a research proposal on the topic to the Marsden Fund social sciences panel! Oh wait ….
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:58pm
- muzled
  
  Is that the same interest.co.nz that just changed their comments to a paywall?
  
  And hence the comments looked to have dropped 50-80%?
  
  I’ve read the site for years but and thoroughly enjoyed the articles and mostly excellent comment section.
  
  Unfortunately it’s turned into another left wing rag.
  
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  March 5, 2025 3:12pm
imalwaysright

Watched Seymour getting grilled over school lunches.
I thought the problem was hungry kids, but after seeing the good variety of tasty looking food on offer its starting to resemble a series of Masterchef where each episode the dishes become more extravagant and the judges become more picky.
Are we trying to satisfy hunger or are we trying to pander to people who are just fussy eaters?
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March 5, 2025 8:21am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Green Party MP Teanau Tuiono wants visa waivers for Pacific Islanders because he thinks it’s unfair for “distant countries” to be granted visa waivers but not Islanders.

Tuiono does not comment on the rate of overstaying by Pacific Islanders; nor does he reflect on the effect on the Islands of the undoubted rush to migrate of many of their young people.

For me, this sums up so many of the ethnic MPs; they see their role as representing the interests of the community and by extension the country they come from, rather than the interests of New Zealand.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/543711/green-party-mp-advocates-for-visa-waiver-access-for-pacific-nations
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March 5, 2025 8:27am
- David Garrett
  
  Nevermind: Here in Tonga there is already an acute labour shortage because of the RSE schemes which import Islanders to pick the fruit our lazy dole bludgers and their Australian counterparts won’t.
  
  It is said that even doctors here have resigned and gone to pick apples in Australia – for AUD30 an hour. Even if half of that goes in rent and food, it is still about three times the average age here.
  
  If there was visa free entry, the place would literally become half empty, and unable to function.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:44am
  - MCōs
    
    I’m three times the average age of a male Russian
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:52am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  by extension the country they come from,
  
  Teanau Tuiono was born in Auckland….. He comes from NZ….. His paternal grandfather came from the Cook Is.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:52am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    And yet he’s speaking in favour of the Pacific Island states and against, I would suggest, the interest of New Zealand.
    
    Makes my point, eh.
    
    5 1
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    March 5, 2025 2:07pm
sungsamning

https://nypost.com/2025/03/04/world-news/zelensky-tells-trump-time-to-make-things-right-after-us-pauses-ukraine-military-aid/
Zelensky tells Trump ‘time to make things right’ after US pauses Ukraine military aid.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told President Trump on Tuesday that the time had come to “make things right” after the US paused all military aid to Ukraine, but stopped short of apologizing for his role in a dramatic Oval Office dispute the previous Friday.

“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive,” Zelensky, 47, wrote on X. [Did he buy a suit in the interim?]
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March 5, 2025 8:28am
- Gravelroad
  
  Mr Zelenskyy has little need to worry, surely?
  Havn’t lots of leaders in Europe got together under the expert guidance of Sir Keir Starmer to sort the Ukraine troubles?
  And put their hands in the pockets of their own taxpayers to pay for a solution – Presumably?
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:44am
  - NothingLeft
    
    There has been a very strong international reaction to Trump’s games. Europe ‘s spine is stiffening visibly, and there is now a broad understanding that US politics mean it is no longer a reliable ally or weapons supplier – so other countries will look more to indigenous weapons programs and buy less from US.
    
    Ukraine will get a lot more European support, in a sense it doesn’t matter too much as most effective weapons tech have moved hugely down-scale to mass produced drones and other autonomous systems that don’t put soldiers at risk rather than hundred million dollar legacy weapons systems, but a lot more civilians are going to die in Ukraine (to no one other than Putin’s benefit) as US has cut off supplies of defensive missiles. And Ukraine will struggle a bit without Himars or Atacms to take out time sensitive targets beyond the 30-40km range of drones (though they do now have a large-scale-production medium range drone option for slower response)
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:36am
    - Matt Long
      
      Europe is like the bludging middle age son finally being told to pay his own way.
      They’ve sucked aid from the USA at an unbelievably high level and given America the middle finger on trade.
      
      7 2
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      March 5, 2025 11:47am
      - MCōs
        
        Which EU countries rely on USAID?
        
        2 6
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        March 5, 2025 11:55am
      - Matt Long
        
        I suggest you take a look at the contributions to NATO from the US versus Canada and Europe. I don’t believe my post mentioned USAID.
        
        6 0
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        March 5, 2025 2:13pm
  - sungsamning
    
    If I posted my response to his “Americans will have to fight and die in Ukraine”; I’d cop a life ban. I just want the war to stop. For those who want to help; they can enlist. There is a process.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:54pm
sungsamning

https://nypost.com/2025/03/04/us-news/trump-vows-to-yank-federal-funding-from-all-us-schools-that-allow-illegal-protests/
Trump vows to yank federal funding from all US schools that allow ‘illegal protests’ — and imprison agitators.
President Trump announced plans early Tuesday to halt all federal funds for any educational institute that allows “illegal protests” — and to unmask and even imprison agitators.
The commander-in-chief issued the warning as disruptive anti-Israel and pro-Hamas demonstrations have rocked college campuses across the country.
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March 5, 2025 8:31am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Trump has also threatened to deport foreign student protesters.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:45am
  - sungsamning
    
    Works for me. Pity Luxon doesn’t say the same.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:55pm
- CrazyIvan
  
  I wonder what the test for illegal protests would be? Students demonstrating about stuff is a common occurrence and first amendment provided for. If they mean occupation of space, anti-Semitic racism etc then definitely, but now clear who will be the judge of when a protest tips from legal to illegal?
  
  A thought is whether a protest that results in smashed windows, occupation of an official building, attacking police and security and threatening occupants with hanging with the aim of preventing them undertaking official business would be something to meet that test. //
  
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  March 5, 2025 12:51pm
peterwn

There is currently a three week jury trial where climate protesters have been charged with ‘endangerment’ for hanging signs from overhead road structures. They must be facing >3 months jail since it is a jury trial. They are calling ‘climate’ witnesses whose evidence would be extraneous to the case. However I think that jury ‘nullification’ (as the Yanks call it) is a possibility since sufficient jurors could be persuaded that they should be acquitted because of climate concerns.
Now the Government is considering a move so that an accused can only get a jury trial if facing more than two years jail. I am personally unhappy with that proposal as it infringes traditional rights. However this case reinforces the arguments for the government proposal.
A possible alternative could be a law change that a prosecutor can choose to lay a charge but on the basis that the sentence would be no more than three months in jail in order to avoid a jury trial in less serious cases.
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March 5, 2025 8:32am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  If the judge is allowing those witnesses, then the jury is entitled to assume that the evidence given by them is relevant.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:50am
  - peterwn
    
    Not sure the reasoning here. Perhaps pragmatism on the Judge’s part for example to avoid a possible appeal. The prosecutor in closing address would spell out that climate matters are extraneous to the case in hand. The judge would also be very careful in summing up on this aspect again to help avoid a possible appeal especially as the judge would recognise that would fall on deaf ears with some jurors.
    I am reminded of the Timaru case where a father was charged with assault of a child for caning him (before physical punishment was completely outlawed). He faced jail time (an Auckland judge had earlier warned of this consequence) which was all the more reason to elect trial by jury. The Timaru community seems to be rather conservative so he was acquitted whereas he would have been convicted by a judge without jury.
    
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    March 5, 2025 9:29am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Excellent. Climate change goes on trial. When the offenders are found guilty, as they must be given the facts are undisputed, then perhaps that’s the last we’ll see of the “Gaia made me” line of defence.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:57am
  - peterwn
    
    I suspect there will be a hung jury with 2 or more jurors obsessed with climate change, This theoretically means a retrial. However there would seem to be nothing to stop the charges being downgraded so the retrial can be judge alone.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:53am
Bridgenag

Why aren’t people interested in facts anymore?
Has it always this way? Lessons from the Tower of Babel, and an open thread…

https://open.substack.com/pub/rebekahbarnett/p/why-arent-people-interested-in-facts?r=5aqwv0&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 5, 2025 8:35am
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  Facts don’t matter when you are doing a hit job on Trump and Vance.
  Facts and Truth are at opposite ends of the galvanic table for the left.
  
  18 8
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  March 5, 2025 8:50am
  - Hard Cheese
    
    Of course Trump would never use “facts” like the $350 billion the US supposedly gave Ukraine.
    
    1 5
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    March 5, 2025 11:05am
    - Don Beckett
      
      You are listening to the wrong sources. I have seen a chart where the total cost is over $700 billion – and the US has put up nearly half of that – $350 billion.
      
      6 2
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      March 5, 2025 11:52am
      - Colville
        
        ….and I saw something yesterday saying it was under $100bil and most of that outdated military shit that was really worthless.
        
        So believe what you want to fit with your preconceived notions!
        
        3 4
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        March 5, 2025 12:10pm
      - MCōs
        
        If we still had them we could have chucked in our old Skyhawks and nominated any bloated value we liked
        
        And told Ukraine where to pick them up
        
        2 2
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        March 5, 2025 2:19pm
- cmm
  
  Facts are hard to work with. They require thinking and processing. Often the information from those facts seems in conflict and that needs further processing.
  
  That is why we developed emotions. Emotions give us a canned response without having to process the facts.
  
  This is what makes feelz so easy to exploit. They can be abused as a way to get us to act or think in desired ways – bypassing reality.
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:51am
Bridgenag

In which the United States suspends military aid to Ukraine and impotent childish Eurotards lose their minds and say a lot of foolish things

https://open.substack.com/pub/eugyppius/p/in-which-the-united-states-suspends?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 5, 2025 8:37am
- imalwaysright
  
  Good article
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:37am
I remember when

What is the point of continuing the Russia/Ukraine war?
Don’t we all know that Donald Trump is right but behaving badly while showing it?
Russia has a population of 143,000,000+ while the UK/France/Germany/Ukraine alone have 257m+.
Is the Ukraine going to be in a better position at any time in the foreseeable future?
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March 5, 2025 8:44am
- Stu2
  
  Depends how it is ended.
  
  Putin has attacked the Ukraine twice, both times breaking previous agreements. A peace treaty with Russia seems to put you in a holding pattern until they are ready to attack again.
  
  Hence the Ukraine looking for more from the West than just a treaty. And Trump does not have that on the table.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:08am
  - I remember when
    
    Isn’t this the problem?
    “Russia seems to put you in a holding pattern until they are ready to attack again.”
    It is the failure to react immediately to the attacks,
    until the answer is found the problem remains.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:40am
    - Colville
      
      An attack will be political destabilisation… followed by an invitation for Russin troops to add security after some ethnic cleansing..
      
      All been done before.
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:12pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    Only looking at one side of the equation tends to lead to false results.
    
    “”both times breaking previous agreements.””
    
    Which had also been broken, previous to his invasions, by the West.
    
    Think no expansion of NATO!!
    
    Think Minsk agreements that Merkel admits were a ploy to give Ukraine time to rearm, and were not supported. ie the East Ukraine(Donbass etc) becoming an Autonomous state etc etc
    
    Standing by to be called a Russian Shill by the emotionally challenged.
    
    Facts and rational thinking are your friend. Much better than slavishly regurgitation of the wests misinformation machine.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:25pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Ukraine with western support has a significant technological edge over poorly educated and technologically backwards russian military.
  
  Their drone tech is ever improving in quality and quantity and means less and less casualties for Ukrainians as they inflict more and more damage. Over time this is delivering an increasing tactical advantage to Ukraine that makes continueing the conflict to their advantage.
  
  The war only stops in a meaningful way when Russia sees no hope of making gains in the field, and there are Nato-backed security guarantees otherwise Putin will just keep on breaking ceasefires as he has always done in the past.
  
  Least bloody way to end the war would be for Europe to do a crash program to 10x long-range drone production in Ukraine to 1000 a day. Would cost $10-20million a day, but for a few $billion would wreck Russian economy and their ability to fight within 6-12 months with relatively low casualties on either side.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:47am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Pipe dreams. Europe is broke, and simply doesn’t have the will to confront Russia in any way other than words.
    
    5 2
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    March 5, 2025 11:57am
    - NothingLeft
      
      Europe has 100’s of billions of frozen Russian assets that they will confiscate if they feel threatened by Russia – which they do in absence of US backing.
      
      EU now floating an 800 Billion plan to rearm Europe – and a huge amount is to be directed towards Ukraine that is fighting the actual war that matters. One of the good things about the drone tech used in Ukraine is that it can be scaled rapidly, and plays into hands of technologically advanced Europe and it’s existing industrial capacity.
      
      Europeans are really pissed off with US, they are showing stronger resolve that they will not let Ukraine lose.
      
      5 6
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      March 5, 2025 12:44pm
    - nz_aj
      
      Europe gives more money to russia than ukraine. In 2024, Europe is estimated to have bought €22bn of fossil fuels from Russia but gave only €19bn to support to support Ukraine.
      
      7 1
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      March 5, 2025 1:22pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        Fossil Fuels are fungible. So long as there are willing customers for Russian fossil fuels it doesn’t make any difference if Europe buys them or not – because in effect all it does is move the oil around from one market to another. Only impactful things are preventing the sale (and India+China and Ickistans ignore them), wrecking Russian oil infrastructure internal to Russia, or bringing the price down.
        
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        March 5, 2025 2:44pm
  - Ra Henare
    
    I am amazed at where you source this information??
    Or is it just your opinion.
    
    3 1
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    March 5, 2025 2:26pm
    - Dougal10
      
      Very mike like isn’t it.
      
      1 1
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      March 5, 2025 6:44pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

$41m+ spent on an IT solution for which no business case was done and for which an annual $1m “financial disbenefit” has been estimated.

The CEO’s head needs to roll, along with those of the entire Governance Group.

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/543767/acc-s-botched-it-project-needed-overseas-expertise-to-help
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March 5, 2025 8:54am
imalwaysright

I think Luxon’s biggest weakness is that he can’t control the public service.

They seem to openly defy him now and that affects us all.
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March 5, 2025 8:59am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  It takes time. Brian Roche is now the Public Service Commissioner; he employs Govt Dept CEOs. I expect Brian has made his expectations of CEOs crystal clear. CEOs then have to reset KPIs for their managers and give them time to execute, and so on.
  
  The danger is that CEOs and their managers simply give lip service and hang on until the next election in hope of a different government resulting.
  
  That’s one reason why Luxon should bite the bullet and simply abolish entire Agencies.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:51am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It’s not the CEO’s it’s the unionist underlings creating the problem
    
    7 4
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    March 5, 2025 10:34am
    - Don Beckett
      
      With the CEO’s in agreement with the unions – Leftys and DEI hires.
      
      8 2
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      March 5, 2025 11:59am
  - Jules99
    
    The general theory is give them the opportunity to do the right thing. If they don’t, then load the metaphorical guns and start shooting. As you say, this takes time.
    
    10 1
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    March 5, 2025 11:22am
  - Paulus
    
    It is not necessarily the CEO now who are the problems now maybe !
    – it is for them to go their next two or three senior layer peole and convince them of what they should be doing now.
    It is there where the dificulty lies as many of these positions are the effect of Helen Clark and Dame Adern’s move to promote as many as possible women into top jobs.
    And, by the heck, in the short term they are not going to change or reconsider what they are, and have been given.
    Remember it is said that the Public Service wages and salaries are some 24% higher that the Private sector.
    It is sad to dream that there will be any changes in the Public Services andss they await another left wing Government.
    Damage has been done under our noses for some years.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:12pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  They always openly defied him, filthy rotten unionists are behind it
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:00am
  - Paulus
    
    Not just Unionists but the overall system now pervading that will not change.
    Too late it has happened and it is costing us dearly now and for the future.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:15pm
- sungsamning
  
  Yes, there is no Schedule F here. Plan B would be for Seymour’s ministry to take a leaf out of the DOGE book.
  
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  March 5, 2025 3:02pm
Yvette

What happens now we’ve discussed the Treaty Principles
300,000 submissions, 500 voices, 80 hours of hearings – David Seymour has delivered on his promise of a national conversation about the place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in modern-day NZ, but it’s not clear what happens next
https://newsroom.co.nz/2025/03/04/what-happens-now-weve-discussed-the-treaty-principles/?

So that was it?
Nothing was learnt from the last “national conversation” – the Ardern shambles of the Capital Gains Tax.

Luxon, there is nothing I like about it, we do not support it and the only explanation given is that it is not nuanced or complex enough
And Labour, Greens and Maori Party: it destroys the Treaty, alienates te reo and Maori did not cede sovereignty.

So what is plan B, David Seymour?

Or, to use the word for anything that is supposed to move:
is the nation again a “waka” without a rudder?
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March 5, 2025 9:00am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Nats and NZF stated before the election they roiled not support the bill, end of story
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:04am
  - Yvette
    
    G the Giant, everyone I’d think is fully aware of their position.
    What is missing is any real reason why.
    NZ First seems to sit of the fence with the cop-out that the Treaty has no Principles, so any discussion of Principles is nonsense, and I have outlined just above what I understand National’s position to be, again with no explanation.
    
    A rational “national conversation” is non-existent.
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:58am
    - Colville
      
      Seymour was upfront about the fact that this wasnt expected to be a 5 minute process and he was starting something that could take a long time to finish.
      
      National and ACT need at least 3 terms to get it done IMHO.
      
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      March 5, 2025 12:25pm
      - Paulus
        
        Present move there will not be a second term of the existing coalition which many wish for, particularly the Public Service.
        And working from home rorts.
        
        2 0
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        March 5, 2025 2:17pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      It does not matter what the reason, its their policy and they have stuck with it, if it changes it will be at the election
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:22pm
I remember when

Ele Lundemann: Is test or ability the problem: Breaking News.
“After two rounds of reading, writing and maths test last year, the failure ratefor teens from low-income schools was through the roof.
They warn the online tests will create a generation of school-leavers with no qualifications and most will be Maori and Pacifica.”
“Jim Hay-MacKenzie from Flaxmere College
“Many of our students aren’t very good at tests and exams, and our data’s shown that students that have met the requirements through our testing have not been able to handle the pressure of a 60-minute test.”

Does the ’60-minute’ identify part of the problem?
Is it the inability to concentrate for 60 minutes?
Has the problem become more apparent because of the disruption caused by covid interruption and subsequent increases in lack of attendance?
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March 5, 2025 9:05am
- Phronesis
  
  The reason the tests exist is because we had a generation of school leavers with completely meaningless qualifications. Giving everyone a certificate has already been tried. At some point these schools are actually going to have to either teach students to read or acknowledge that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.
  
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  March 5, 2025 9:51am
  - David Garrett
    
    Phron: My very smart daughter has just had to confront the consequences of being allowed to “study” crap subjects at sixth form level – against Dad’s advice of course. Six years on, she finds herself ready for some serious study – and has encountered the results of her poor choices at school.
    
    Fortunately it has ended well, and she has got into law school – albeit a second rate one.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:54am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Another lawyer – gawd help us!
      
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      March 5, 2025 2:12pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The mandatory literacy & Numeracy tests for NCEA were announced in Dec 2020 – when Chris Hipkins was Min of Education
  
  As part of the wider NCEA Change Programme, mandatory literacy and numeracy standards will be introduced from 2023 to help ensure everyone who has an NCEA qualification has a good level of foundational literacy and numeracy. The standards will be externally assessed and students will need to achieve them in order to be awarded any level of NCEA qualification.
  
  https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/ncea-level-1-changes-give-students-broader-foundation
  
  Secondary schools have had 4 years to prepare their pupils for the Literacy and Numeracy exam…
  
  Schools should be alerting their pupils to the fact that they are expected to reach a standard before they’re awarded a qualification.
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:03am
- Eastlander
  
  ‘Yes our students meet the literacy and numeracy requirements, they just can’t show it in a piss-easy 60 minute test’
  
  How does someone assert this with a straight face? Either his school is unfit for purpose or his students are mentally impaired.
  
  Actually, given that this is Flaxmere college the latter is quite likely – Marijuana use from an early age does a fine job of destroying whatever promise a child might have had.
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:26am
- Ehlana
  
  How do you get to NCEA level 1 without being comfortable with 60 minute tests? Surely they would have started doing those at intermediate level?
  
  What is it about online testing that is so hard for them to do?
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:29am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  If the students can accumulate enough credits to pass NCEA when doing work internally assessed by the school, but cannot pass a couple of short tests of less than year 11 level of difficulty, when those tests are assessed externally outside of the school’s control, I think there is a conclusion that overwhelmingly suggests itself.
  
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  March 5, 2025 1:58pm
- Paulus
  
  No, failure is by the standard of Teachers and children from genetically unsupported homes.
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:19pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Another bunch of self entitled wankers decide they know better have vandalised a pedestrian crossing in Berhampore. RNZ interviews two Americans (one of them a mad woman from Vermont) and a student who are predictably in favour, but not any regular, contributing New Zealanders.

WCC spokesman Richard McLean says that the cost of paint removal will have to be added to the rates. To hell with that, Richard! These people have identified themselves. Send them the bill!

http://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/543777/group-behind-pride-colours-on-wellington-crossing-comes-forward
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March 5, 2025 9:13am
Master Mariner

Interesting development.

“NordStream 2 Re-Launch: US and Russia in Talks to Restart Gas Transit, US to “Own” the Pipeline”/

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

Meantime US is providing LNG at 4 x cost to Europe. I can only think that US knows Europe cannot survive without cheap Energy.
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March 5, 2025 9:17am
- cmm
  
  Repeat after me: there was no incentive for US to blow up the pipeline.
  
  I wonder whether the Nordstream 2 pipeliine can be recovered. The pressures involved are immense – higher than SCUBA tank pressures. Having the pipeline filled with sea water can’t have done it any good – even though it is epoxy lined internally.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:27am
  - NothingLeft
    
    I’d guess probably OK Weld it shut, and send robot inspection and remediation through it (well developed tech), likely much of it has been backfilled with gas from higher elevation at each end anyway to reduce corrosion, and there may have been some mothballing-effort made to make it cheaper to re-commission.
    
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    March 5, 2025 10:53am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Whether they actually ordered it or not, They however were in full complience. Watch video with Bidens statements and V.Nuland stating the obvious.
    
    During Bidens presidency it was thought the Europeans would stop support for Ukraine and the destruction of Nordstream 2 ensured they would not go back and use Russian Gas.
    
    If this is to go ahead then it is a hell of a warning shot to the non elected EU.
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:03am
  - Colville
    
    cmm.
    USA is the only country that benefits from Nord being out.
    It cripples German industry and hurts Russin bank balances.
    
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    March 5, 2025 12:46pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Master Mariner, thank you for bringing that to our attention.
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:03am
hookerphil

Asked a 10yo niece about school lunches. Invercargill. They are rubbish, she said, Mum makes mine..
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March 5, 2025 9:17am
Matt Long

I drove to the Northland Feildays at Dargaville on Saturday from Whangarei, as I have for most of my life. Another farm planted in pines since last year. It’s fairly clear that if current policies continue there will only be horticulture and silviculture on that road in a relatively short time.
Because of the unmeasurable methane emissions from agriculture.
https://centrist.nz/satellites-reveal-worlds-worst-methane-emitters-new-zealand-doesnt-even-register/?_kx=Oox1WWwZATD1CbvFmWbTDIboPDaHgcM_8NTziR5TjwYlJ7PHVfw96iRiMni5lGCn.VYfxNg
https://x.com/investigatemag/status/1896360158676345167
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March 5, 2025 9:26am
- nathie
  
  I understand that the halting of farm conversions will come into effect at a date sometime this year … in the meantime scumbag investors are taking advantage of this or perhaps had applications for conversion already in the system?
  
  Can someone with knowledge please enlighten us here with an explanation?
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:09am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Oh here we go, pine planting to foreigners has stopped, existing farm sales will still be planted, Mt Islay in South Otago was sold 3 years ago to foreigners wanting to plant pines, but you can not buy a farm from off shore to plant pines on anymore ( note the lag time, 3 years) soils have been put into 6 classes, the better classes can only be diversified by existing farmer to 25%, marginal lands can be planted.
  
  This policy was started at the end of last year, but as I have said it’s taking some farms 3 years before planting, no point saying I don’t know what I am talking about, I work in agriculture and I well remember the announcement late last year
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:18am
  - Colville
    
    Still allowed to plant as far as I know (I own trees) but cant plant permanent carbon sinks so trees have to be tended and harvested.
    
    Marginal farm land halved in value after that announcement.
    
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    March 5, 2025 12:48pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Go read the announcement made in December. if you are on highly productive land then your land comes into 6 categories, i think 4 categories rules out any more than 25% when a farmer is planting, but they can not plant the whole farm, and foreigners are blocked, as i said farms being planted now are 3 years after purchase down here, i suspect its similar in the one in Northland
      
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      March 5, 2025 1:26pm
      - Dougal10
        
        Check your categories carefully , most land that will continue to go into trees will easily pass tests. The thing that is crippling farming is it is the ewe/lamb and the cow/calf farms that are going trees . I live near the bloody things and there is no real stopping it with stupid regional councils still allowing this as fast as they can .
        
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        March 5, 2025 7:14pm
  - Dougal10
    
    Yet your geography is shit.
    
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    March 5, 2025 7:08pm
NoCash

Is the rumoured withdrawal of the US from NATO a black swan event?
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March 5, 2025 9:28am
- NothingLeft
  
  No. Russia is a Potemkin superpower and does not present a significant threat to the world anymore – other than minor regional conflict in eastern Europe. Nato would absolutely crush it in days in a conventional conflict – nuclear is basically irrelevant as noone will ever press the button, and there is nothing you can do to mitigate that risk other than using geopolitical maneuvering to remove despots from power.
  
  What would happen if a huge bounty was placed on Putin, oligarchs and their families? Eg end war or you and all your oligarch mates and their families will be targetted for assassination. Crowd fund it.
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:00am
- Master Mariner
  
  Great book, I always think it should called white swan in NZ as all swans are Black.
  Back to your question, Nope EU has been out manouvered yet again.
  The “rare earths” Deal was just a smoke screen to show how you can not deal with Zelensky’s Ukraine .
  Interesting how he signed up extra Billions from the UK the very next day.
  It does seem rather premeditated ?
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:10am
Matt Long

NZ government policy wonks, ” Let’s see, would we like economic growth and prosperity? Here’s this guy Melei going to get 7.1% growth, his economy will double in size every ten years, should we look at that?”
“Nah, waste of time , in our country we do racial separatism and immigration for growth. It’s our poverty and strife solution.”
https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1895936958670782469
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March 5, 2025 9:36am
- Phronesis
  
  “We don’t want any of your horrible capitalist prosperity that is at the root of inequality and eats up natural resources and destroys the environment.”
  
  No sarc tags, this is what public servants believe.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:01am
  - Ehlana
    
    Is that the same horrible capitalist prosperity that pays the income taxes that fund public sector jobs, health, education and social welfare?
    
    I have seen the light. As a taxpayer, I’m willing to stop inflicting my horrible capitalist prosperity on the government, secure in the knowledge that without my contributions, all of those sectors will be trouble free, thriving and giving more to everyone.
    Who will join me?
    
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    March 5, 2025 11:11am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Yep. Paying tax just encourages them.
      
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      March 5, 2025 2:15pm
Tauhei Notts

I watched half an hour of Joe Rogan interviewing Elon Musk.
I think our Auditor General would be wise to have a few of his top staff watch the podcast. Just to make sure that our country is not repeating the Americans’ mistakes.
Hopefully our government’s computer systems are in much better shape than the shambles in Washington D.C.
And, talking about auditors, did the Maori Party deliver AUDITED financial statements to The Speaker’s Office?
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March 5, 2025 10:07am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  The police warned TPM late last week to get the job done properly, they tried at Christmas time but the results were inadequate.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:31am
I remember when

Before 1870 no foreign national could own land in the UK unless it was given by the monarch.
Under English law an alien (someone not owing allegiance to the King of England/Britain) was not allowed to own freehold property.
Does this explain why Maori became British subjects under the Treaty?
As Sir Apirana Ngata states of Article Three of the Treaty –
“This article states that the Maori and Pakeha are equal before the Law, that is, they are to share the rights and privileges of British subjects.”

Does this mean that Articles 1 and 2 of the Treaty were to secondary to article 3?
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March 5, 2025 10:21am
- cmm
  
  “they are to share the rights and privileges of British subjects”
  
  And, the flip side, take on the duties and obligations of being British too.
  
  The latter include behaving in a British-like way (aka “acting white”) and relegating mythology etc to be inferior to westernism.
  
  Far too often we end up silently dropping the other half of a statement.
  
  For instance half of the communist principle is often deleted: “From each according to his means, to each according to his needs” has become just “to each according to his needs (well wants now)”.
  
  Thus we get zero obligation welfare hand outs.
  
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  March 5, 2025 10:53am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Reciprocity is the basis of all successful relationships.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:16pm
cmm

Oh dear, Stuff didn’t get the memo that gangs are cultural organisations.

Here they are saying that gangs are criminals running the prisons. That’s not very progressive.

BTW: Why didn’t they also put the Rotary and Lions club badges up there? Seems they’re being racist and picking on gangs.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360602083/gangs-exerting-informal-control-inside-prisons
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March 5, 2025 10:23am
Ehlana

Found this online this morning:
https://www.thepost.co.nz/nz-news/360599593/send-army-auckland-boost-military

Lots of good reasons given for why it might be a good idea to locate a good portion of our Army in the part of the country where half the people live.

Oddly, while there was acknowledgement of needing to be with Auckland family as a reason for people leaving, the idea that soldiers might want to marry and their marriage partners might want to have jobs and Auckland provides many job opportunities didn’t make the list.
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March 5, 2025 10:26am
- herb1
  
  Not many places in Auckland to fire the weapons that soldiers need to be proficient in.
  
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  March 5, 2025 11:16am
- cmm
  
  Heaps of jobs in Christchurch too and Burham camp is pretty close to Chch.
  
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  March 5, 2025 12:35pm
cmm

The media, including $1uff, seem to not play on a level playing field when it comes to interference in cases under investigation, before the courts etc.

When it is something they don’t want to talk about then they trot out excuses about not compromising the case etc etc.

But when it is something they do want to talk about nothing holds them back.

Paddy “I am the news” Gower is making a pitch for the Green Fairy.

Now don’t get me wrong, I think it is time NZ had a big think about cannabis. It seems crazy to be pursuing Green Fairies at a time when real crime is out of control and police have not got time to pursue real criminals.

Still, it does seem that the policies that the MSM use are rather asymmetric. But, I guess, that’s what activists to – use the rules when it suits them.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360601673/paddy-gower-how-gandalf-and-medical-weed-changed-my-life
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March 5, 2025 10:45am
- Eastlander
  
  Marijuana is extremely harmful and should be dealt with extremely harshly. ‘Real criminals’ are often habitual users of the stuff so this would be one more way of correcting New Zealand’s under-incarceration problem.
  
  11 3
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  March 5, 2025 11:18am
  - Paulus
    
    Marijuana is a precursor to much worse Drugs !
    
    5 0
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    March 5, 2025 2:25pm
    - Colville
      
      Like alcohol?
      
      2 3
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      March 5, 2025 3:16pm
Swifty

Good on ya Prebs:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/543785/waitangi-tribunal-member-richard-prebble-resigns
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March 5, 2025 10:51am
Bridgenag

how billy became becky (and parents weren’t told)
and other adventures in “the state owns your kids.”

“you cannot ask schools if they are keeping secrets from you because you cannot know for sure if they are keeping secrets from you.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/how-billy-became-becky-and-parents?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
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March 5, 2025 11:02am
NothingLeft

Unitree robot doing martial arts: https://packaged-media.redd.it/rg36r0nnomme1/pb/m2-res_1280p.mp4?m=DASHPlaylist.mpd&v=1&e=1741132800&s=12f997156d30a82f02317f392636254c87c6840b

It’s amazing how rapidly agility, dexterity and environmental comprehension is increasing. Some companies putting home-servant robots in homes this year.
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March 5, 2025 11:05am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Send me one that does the weeding
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:18pm
Steve Otto N Shore

As Donald Trump upends geopolitics what happens to Five Eyes and AUKUS?
Apparently other Countries want to join. Is NZ paying their way?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/chinese/543540/as-donald-trump-upends-geopolitics-what-happens-to-five-eyes-and-aukus?
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March 5, 2025 11:27am
Steve Otto N Shore

Police warn Te Pāti Māori over audit delay.
Warn? When are the Police going to put some heat on them? The Maori Party are just delaying. Are Police scared of being branded “Racist”?

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/national/police-warn-te-p%C4%81ti-m%C4%81ori-over-audit-delay?
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March 5, 2025 11:32am
kglm

The Government has unnecessarily dug itself into a hole over school lunches. Restaurant-quality lunches for all, regardless of need, is now seen as an entitlement. Failure to delivery this entitlement is making the Government a target for the leftist media and leftist teachers. What problem is it supposed to solve? That some parents cant afford to provide their kids with a home-made school lunch of a couple of sandwiches and a piece of fruit at a cost of about $3? That is rubbish. The real problem is bad and lazy parenting. The school lunch entitlement is just facilitating bad parenting. The scheme should have been canned not tinkered with.
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March 5, 2025 12:11pm
- imalwaysright
  
  It could be that Luxon is setting Seymour up as the fall guy for a project that is clearly unnecessary and doomed for failure.
  I can see, once the farce becomes apparent to the majority of people, Luxon will pull rank and cancel the scheme, thereby appearing logical and decisive while at the same time putting a nice big stain on Seymour’s CV .
  He has already effectively sidelined Simeon Brown by curtailing his successful run with the hospital pass of a no-win portfolio.
  
  If Luxon put the same effort into his job as he seems to be putting into ensuring his political future, we, and he, would all be a lot better off.
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:44pm
kglm

I see Luxon as the Neville Chamberlain of New Zealand politics. He is trying to appease every group and achieve peace in our time. We know what happened as a result of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policies.
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March 5, 2025 12:14pm
- MCōs
  
  The stakes aren’t quite the same. WWII can hardly be compared to dithering over Bayley
  
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  March 5, 2025 12:51pm
Fender

Theres a part of me that wonders how bad life would be here if the Chinese did take us as a base for their antartica pillaging
Ive read they want a direct corridor south.
Might be some restrictions on free speech and internet but it would get a rid of alot of wokeness and govt tape
Hastings council planning for cyclone repair is 5-6 years for some bridges, one big one is not even being rebuilt
State highways would be upspecced immediately
Possible downsides of being able to bribe and pay for documents would mean some dodgy building practices but would life actually be much worse I wonder.
I don’t think we would get treated as badly as some of their own citizens do currently
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March 5, 2025 1:21pm
- NothingLeft
  
  You do not want to be ruled by people who have risen to top in PRC politics. It selects for the worst sort of sociopaths, and Han supremacism is very real.
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:49pm
- Dougal10
  
  Similarly if a certain tribe finished taking over all the south island councils would us commoners notice , no not really .
  
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  March 5, 2025 7:26pm
PaulP

Ding dong the witch is dead!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/360603059/reserve-bank-governor-adrian-orr-resigns
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March 5, 2025 1:53pm
- Yabster
  
  thats made my day- what an inept governor- he has made the whole joint woke, he was out of his depth, cost the country billions and massively increased the ftes- the RB needs a massive reset.
  
  Good riddance to bad rubbish.
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:03pm
  - Paulus
    
    Marijuana is a precursor to much worse Drugs !
    
    1 0
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    March 5, 2025 2:29pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      So is breast milk
      
      4 7
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      March 5, 2025 2:54pm
      - Don Beckett
        
        Which one – Irish Cream ?
        
        1 0
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        March 5, 2025 7:37pm
- AitchW
  
  Best news this year.
  I suspect he jumped before he was pushed.
  
  21 0
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  March 5, 2025 2:03pm
  - Paulus
    
    Perhaps we should also blame the so called system.
    Previous RBNZ Governors were people of strong character, and not run by Committee, set up by Grant Robertson, who reappointed him for five years just before the election.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:32pm
- sirknz
  
  Go off and make a coffee, then com back to this news.
  
  What a great day.
  
  19 0
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  March 5, 2025 2:11pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Help ya self to a nice marmite sandwich
    
    11 0
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    March 5, 2025 2:43pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Go make yourself another coffee…perhaps another one will go! Never know your luck.
    
    6 0
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    March 5, 2025 3:24pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  “My work here is done”. Not!!!
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:21pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    He calls work “mahi”, but insists on being paid for it in NZ dollars.
    Pre European Maori “currency” is a step too far for him, maybe?
    
    Where would he house them all…?
    
    12 2
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    March 5, 2025 3:02pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  Does this mean we can kiss goodbye to the Tane Mahuta woo woo nonsense, and maybe a sizeable chunk of the staff they’ve accumulated over the last few years?
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:24pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Great result, I am led more of Arderns hires will be gone by the end of the month, that’s 2 this week after the Pharmac head was booted
  
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  March 5, 2025 2:40pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Hope your right! I wonder what wasa done behind the scenes to get him out? My understanding was that a forced exit would be very expensive (thanks GR).
    
    Anyway, good progress from the Nats. I wonder if complaints to Seymour from members of this blog re a Pharmac job addvert were the strow that broke the camels back re the Pharmax heads surprise exit.
    
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    March 5, 2025 2:55pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      complaints to Seymour from members of this blog
      
      I’m sure that Seymour gets all sorts of moans from all sorts of nutters …. 8% of the vote puts him in the box seat
      
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      March 5, 2025 8:11pm
- Rumblestrip
  
  Effing hallelujah.
  
  The idiotic oaf should have resigned the day the new government was sworn in.
  
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  March 5, 2025 3:15pm
- Steve Otto N Shore
  
  “The Reserve Bank is an Independent Organisation? Luxon.
  So why was Orr sacked? Wait for the excuses!
  On the other hand his DCM was years overdue. A dumbarse welder could do a better job.
  
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  March 5, 2025 4:33pm
Steve Otto N Shore

NZCPR. Dr Muriel Newman.
The demise of the Paris Agreement.
Cow farts, cow farts!

https://www.nzcpr.com/category/weekly-column/

Low Watt-age. Owen Jennings.

https://www.nzcpr.com/low-watt-age/#more-40497
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March 5, 2025 5:02pm
Ghost

the 4 year parliament legalisation is now online to read. Won’t be something I will support in its current form. Voters deserve to know when voting the government has a set term, not one that can be changed after the election

Term of Parliament (Enabling 4-year Term) Legislation Amendment Bill

They will have 3 months after the first sitting of parliament to decide if they want to extend their term to 4 years.
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March 5, 2025 5:49pm
- MCōs
  
  Taking your word without doing some back checking that does seem an odd situation
  Of course governments have always had the option of going to the Governor General with a request to call an early election, but contriving to extend the term up to a year after the election has been held would be a hard sell to a skeptical public
  
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  March 6, 2025 1:12am
Swifty

Notice Sykes refers to the Waitangi Tribunal as a ‘court’.

She also completely misrepresents Prebble’s stance on the Treaty Principles Bill, she says he supports it whereas he says he doesn’t. I’ve heard him twice today say so (that he doesn’t).

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/543854/prebble-s-resignation-from-waitangi-tribunal-leaves-lawyer-with-a-sour-taste-in-my-mouth

Notice she also completely evades Prebbles main charge – that the tribunal has taken stances on sovereignty and of equity completely unsupported by history. And, I’d add, that they have completely invented certain ‘principles’, not present in treaty articles, and now seek to label the Crown in breach those ‘principles’ – creating grievance out of thin air.

Sykes speaks with a forked tongue.
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March 5, 2025 6:51pm
- Swifty
  
  Ngarewa-Packer drives more New Zealanders into the hands of her opponents:
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360603545/richard-prebble-why-i-joined-waitangi-tribunal-and-why-i-quit
  
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  March 5, 2025 8:04pm
Ghost

NSW Police have charged a second Bankstown Hospital nurse over a video posted online that made threats against Israeli patients.

Police said 27-year-old Ahmad Rashad Nadir was arrested at Sutherland Police Station on Tuesday.

He has been charged with using a carriage service to menace, harass and offend and possessing a prohibited drug.

Article

Good to see.
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March 5, 2025 7:47pm

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