General Debate 26 March 2025

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Cassandra

Well I never! News has arrived that senior officials from China, South Korea and Japan will soon meet in Tokyo to try to establish a more formal relationship, replete with security and economic benefits.

Beijing is in a dangerous geopolitical position. The emerging U.S.-Russia entente leaves China in an isolated position at a time when its economy has weakened dramatically. Contrary to appearances Russia and China have never been truly aligned. Russia has been a threat to China throughout history, and several wars have been fought between them. Not even the commonality of communism could unite them. Under Mao, China was outright hostile to Russia, which it accused of betraying communism during the Khrushchev era. The split even led to two communist parties in New Zealand.

The new strategic alliance between best friend Xi and Putin is a fiction (remember Lord Palmerston’s dictum about friends and interests). China is waiting patiently to take back the Amur Basin, purloined by Russia in the 1890s and who knows what else of the Russian Far East (what we mistakenly call Siberia). Note that the 20 million population of Russia east of the Urals is less than that of Shanghai.
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March 26, 2025 8:01am
- cmm
  
  “Contrary to appearances Russia and China have never been truly aligned.”
  
  Who was ever under the impression that they were aligned?
  Sure, there was some communist-era ideological cooperation and there has also been some pragmatic cooperation through BRICS, but other than that they’ve never really been friendly.
  
  Heck, in the 1970s they even fought a proxy war in Rhodesia.
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:30am
  - Cassandra
    
    China’s recent support of Russia has been interpreted in some quarters as a major change. The North Koreans are in Ukraine with China’s permission.
    
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    March 26, 2025 8:34am
    - cmm
      
      I suppose some could see it that way and, as you point out, they would be off the mark.
      
      The recent stuff is more a BRICS-like relationship rather than real hugs and kisses.
      
      ie. the enemy of my enemy is my friend style thinking.
      
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      March 26, 2025 8:41am
      - cmm
        
        I think it is wrong to characterise China as some out of control rogue nation. I think they want stability and prosperity as well as a bit of prestige. Ok, a lot of prestige – why not – everyone wants that.
        
        They get more of that from interacting with Japan and S. Korea. Having a crazy man in the middle with a starving population and nukes serves none of their interests.
        
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        March 26, 2025 8:58am
      - David Garrett
        
        ccm: What is a BRICS relationship??
        
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        March 26, 2025 10:23am
      - cmm
        
        DG: You know what BRICS is right?
        
        Countries who are members of BRICS are not necessarily bosom buddies, but they do have some common interests – especially building trading etc relationships that do not requiring them to go cap in hand to the West.
        
        That is what I meant by a BRICS relationship.
        
        BRICS nations are not aligned to the extent where they would form a 5-eyes-like intelligence collaboration or such.
        
        While BRICS has had joint military exercises, I would think it incorrect to consider this as BRICS forming a NATO-like alliance.
        
        Rather consider it a bit of dick-waving – especially for home consumption.
        
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        March 26, 2025 11:06am
      - Tauhei Notts
        
        The biggest threat of the BRICs alliance is that they will sort a CREDIBLE international trade banking system.
        If that happens the threat to the United States is huge.
        As The Donald says..”it would worse than losing a war…
        
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        March 26, 2025 12:37pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        The world would probably be a safer place if China took over NK. NK people would probably find improvement in that. Not the most ideal outcome but an improvement.
        
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        March 26, 2025 8:48pm
  - Allan
    
    Russia and China have been directly shooting at each other for a long time.
    
    In one such flare-up China captured a Russian T-62 tank that was reverse engineered to kickstart their armoured development.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:12am
- kowtow
  
  What goes round comes round.
  
  Nixon Kissinger brought China in from the cold to counter Russia . Now Trump cosies up to Russia cos China too powerful.
  
  Si vis pacem parabellum.
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:39am
  - Cassandra
    
    The striking aspect of this for me is the involvement of Japan and South Korea. One of their aims, apparently, is to denuclearise North Korea.
    
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    March 26, 2025 8:53am
    - kowtow
      
      That could happen right now . If China wanted it. Simple. So clearly they don’t want stability there.
      
      China probably happy to have the Crazy Cousin there to keep the rest of the region on edge .Like Iran operating through proxies.
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:08am
      - Colville
        
        Yip China is happy to have North Korea annoying USA…
        
        If China wanted to bring NK to heel they just need to stop supplying fuel and food.
        
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        March 26, 2025 10:05am
      - Cassandra
        
        It’s Japan and South Korea that want it. An agenda item; if China wanted it it would have happened already.
        
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        March 26, 2025 11:10am
      - cmm
        
        Colville: Sure, it is useful to some extent for China to have the Norks there to bait/irritate the Americans, but the flip side is that having a loose canon in your back yard isn’t always a good thing either.
        
        Your comparison to Iran is good. However if the crazy cousins do go a bit too crazy you worry about yourself.
        
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        March 26, 2025 11:10am
    - NothingLeft
      
      Interesting video from a few days back about Chinese-Korea border. China has long supported the awful murderous, slave-owning Kim regime (illustrating their total lack of morality) as a cats-paw for annoying USA and allies , but there are some tensions there:
      https://youtu.be/OyYvo-SPVPM
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:56am
  - peterwn
    
    “Si vis pacem parabellum”
    Helen Clark does not think that is necessary. But then she is irrelevant desperately spending money on think tanks trying to be relevant in today’s world.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:58am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  China wants Vladivostok back.
  
  Here is a thought!!!! All China’s sabre rattling over Taiwan might be shadow boxing. They know that if they invade, they will take over a smoking ruin and they will sustain high casualty rates on the voyage across.
  
  How about China invading the Russian Far East whilst Vlad is busy in the Ukraine and they know that the Russian Army is rubbish???
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:41am
  - Cassandra
    
    Yes but not just yet. Although there’s a huge Chinese population in the Amur, across the river. A takeover by stealth?
    
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    March 26, 2025 8:56am
    - Simon
      
      Question for the anti China war monger nut jobs.
      
      Where are the camps being built to imprison all the Chinese here? In preparation of course.
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:50am
  - kowtow
    
    FT
    
    It’s “face” , national pride .
    
    Taiwan is seen as an integral part of the Motherland , which is not whole till re unification.
    
    But they are pragmatic so most likely wouldn’t do anything totally reckless . The leadership is probably as fearful of their own masses rising up as they are of anythng else and given their history they are very aware of that possibility . That’s why the country is so tightly screwed down.
    
    But with dictators I suppose anything is possible.
    
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    March 26, 2025 9:15am
  - cmm
    
    Look at it is terms of prestige.
    Having a large, and prosperous, part of what they consider part of China isolated is somewhat humiliating.
    
    Making noises about taking it back will no doubt make them feel better about things – whether they do so or not.
    
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    March 26, 2025 9:41am
    - Keith White
      
      Xi gotta worry that someone from Taiwan has a plan for the Three Gorges Dam if Xi implements his plan to take Taiwan.
      
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      March 26, 2025 1:40pm
  - Allan
    
    Schaenfreude if China gets its special forces as little green (yellow) men to initiate a popular uprising and then there is a special military operation to protect the citizens.
    
    Putin’s playbook right back at him.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:15am
  - peterwn
    
    Next thing Russia will want Alaska back saying those in power had no business selling it to William Seaward for USA. So Canada will have to make do with being the 50th state.
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:02am
  - Sacha
    
    Pity Mongolia, sandwiched between them –
    
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    March 26, 2025 1:08pm
- Simon
  
  Madness. China is the rising power, GAE is in steady decline.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:48am
  - NothingLeft
    
    China is shrinking, economically as rest of world stops doing business with them, demographically – their pop is shrinking as there are 3x as many 50 year olds as 5 year olds, influence-wise (they are a shitty neighbour).
    
    India will be the next superpower.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:01am
  - Colville
    
    China is falling. More people over the age of 52 than under it.**
    
    **and that is the offical numbers…the real numbers are probably a lot worse than that.
    
    Who wouldda thunked it that only having one kid per couple for 30 years would upset demographics??
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:06am
  - kowtow
    
    You are not a “rising power” if you have to dedicate a huge proportion of your security apparatus to controlling your own populace .
    
    Think about it.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:41am
- lastmanstanding
  
  The Australia Labor Governments Budget yet again illustrates why citizens should have to pass an IQ test before being able to vote. Labor are offering $5 a week tax cut to get re-elected and the cost of this and their other promises mean Oz will have deficits for the next decade at least. The 25/26 will be A$42B with following deficits in the mid A$35B level. I mean how cynical can pollies be when they bribe voters with $5 a week knowing that they and future generations are going to have pay the cost. Gross Debt will pass A$1 Trillion this year. That means every Aussie owes A$270,000.
  
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  March 26, 2025 11:54am
  - AitchW
    
    Given its vast mineral resources, how the hell is Aus so broke?
    
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    March 26, 2025 1:09pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Brainwashed grifters in charge. A lot of Aus businesses are getting squeezed. Hopefully they’ll see the light and kick out the lefty losers.
      
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      March 26, 2025 8:54pm
  - Groggy
    
    So tax cut bribes are fine when National propose them but not when it’s Labour. But I do love that you admit National voters need an IQ test. they implemented the cuts … and we are in deficit, so doh National & the coalition and their low IQ voters according to you
    
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    March 26, 2025 6:19pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

A TVNZ story headlining NZ Fijians having excess heart disease then goes on to show only Indians.

From the video it’s clear that these people used to be Fijian Indians; no signs of intermarriage with indigenous Fijians to be seen. It calls into question how we term people. Put another way, their kids will have no connection with Fiji. How many generations will they need to be in NZ before they stop being called Fijian Kiwis?

Apart from anything else, classifying them as Fijians distorts our population statistics (2% of New Zealanders are Fijians, per the story, which is not insignificant); from my interactions, most “Fijians” are in fact Indian.

http://www.1news.co.nz/2025/03/25/study-to-begin-on-why-many-fijian-kiwis-develop-premature-heart-disease/
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March 26, 2025 8:01am
- cmm
  
  I wonder who is calling them Fijian?
  All the Fijian Indians I know (not many) identify as Indians – not Fijian.
  
  If those stats are gathered from census data then, quite possibly the “Fijians” really are “Fijian” and the Fijian Indians tick Indian.
  
  But I don’t know enough Fijian Indians to make a statistically valid claim.
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:54am
- kowtow
  
  When will the day come that we’re all just New Zealanders.
  No more of this deliberate Balkanisation .
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:57am
  - David Garrett
    
    kowtow: Don’t hold your breath mate…it’s going to get much worse, not better.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:24am
    - kowtow
      
      Yep . I say Balkanisation very deliberately.
      
      I just wonder what our Great and Good really think they’re about .
      
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      March 26, 2025 10:43am
      - Keith White
        
        They feel Good about themselves, and that’s Great.
        
        To the devil with everyone else.
        
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        March 26, 2025 1:41pm
rouppe

There’s a piece from Paddy Gower on Ashley Bloomfield and the last pandemic.

All Ashley did was justify what they did. No examination that the Swedish dealt with the same pandemic with similar outcomes without wrecking the country or resorting to authoritarianism. No acceptance that they went too far, that they didn’t make best use of the opportunities they had, and that they lied to us, time and time again.

When his and the former Prime Minister’s time comes, I hope and pray that they die screaming.
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March 26, 2025 8:04am
- kowtow
  
  The Swedes ( and everyone else) had a plan .They largely stuck to it.
  
  We had a plan and ignored it.
  
  What’s the point of a “plan”.
  
  ps in accordance with the UN , lockdowns were not part of the plan .
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:54am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  I don’t hope they die screaming rouppe. I don’t wish that on anyone. My hope is that they are held accountable while they are alive.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:43am
  - kowtow
    
    IVV
    
    Sorry but I hear on nzme radio “news” , that She Who Saved Us has picked up some teaching role at Oxford .
    
    Says it all about the supposed wonderment of Oxbridge , Ivy League .Etc.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:45am
    - peterwn
      
      She could not even lead her own Ministers, so how can she educate people about leadership. The dons at Oxford are thick. A former Vice Chancellor John Hood (graduated in engineering at Auckland) wanted to take Oxford into the 21st century but the conservative dons would not buy into that and John left tail between legs. Now they have fallen for Jacinda’s Kool Aid and taken her on board. Even Helen Clark would have been a better choice.
      
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      March 26, 2025 11:11am
      - Sacha
        
        They are of her generation, and just coming into their ‘professional maturity’. Of course they love her!
        There’s a lot more to come before they die off in the next 50 years.
        
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        March 26, 2025 1:10pm
    - marcw
      
      It’s always a nice feeling to wake up and hear jokes on the radio to make you laugh out loud. Ardern on some sort of governance teaching or leadership role … so funny. I hope we don’t pay anything towards their costs. The Great has long since fled from Britain.
      
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      March 26, 2025 11:34am
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      If that’s true, the average IQ of Oxford’s teaching staff has just taken a hit.
      
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      March 26, 2025 1:00pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      “She Who Saved Us has picked up some teaching role at Oxford.”
      
      Wow. Very sad that Oxford has become garbage.
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:00pm
      - Ghost
        
        You’re looking at it wrong. Oxford is doing us a service keeping the trash out of NZ. Keep NZ Beautiful, throw the trash in ~~a bin~~ a foreign university. Please everyone don’t throw used up politicians out the window, recycle them to a foreign country
        
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        March 26, 2025 9:14pm
  - rouppe
    
    There’s probably a similar chance of either happening
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:04am
  - wsk12345
    
    It’s tough as I do t [don’t] like to wish bad on anyone. But still…. I was at an event recently talking to friends (couple 60s I think) of the host who started lamenting the loss of “governing with kindness”. I had a visceral reaction, a massive anger but managed to leave before I said too much. I will probably never lose that, a kind of PTSD, so yes I do wish her and Bloomfield all the glories of hell.
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:11am
  - Keith White
    
    For the same reason as you, IVV, I do not wish them to die screaming.
    
    I do resolutely wish though they die the fate they decreed for my mother, and later my father-in-law – to die lonely, locked away, without visitors for many weeks, and none at all in their final illness.
    
    That likely won’t happen, but hey, dreams are free.
    
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    March 26, 2025 1:44pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Ashley loved the attention and would say anything that would appease his enablers. He did a deal with the devil. He even got a thrill when Adern immunised herself as she prefaced each of her diktats with “Acting on advice from the Director General of Helf….”
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:43am
- JackRabbit
  
  September 2021.
  
  [1] The month that Ardern announced that the interval between the first vaccine injection and second vaccine injection was being doubled from 3 weeks to 6 weeks.
  
  [2] Reason given: The increase from 3 to 6 weeks improved efficacy.
  
  [3] Reason Discovered through Official Information Requests: Bloomfield was aware of a very high number of incidents of Myocarditis, especially in double vaccinated, so the doubling of the interval was to try and allow people’s bodies to recover and reduce incidents of Myocarditis.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:44am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Sounds rather criminal to me.
    Anecdotal info from St Johns is that they are responding to an increasing number of young people with heart problems.
    That would be a useful database to analyse.
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:24am
    - kowtow
      
      Where did the open and transparent go .
      
      I know , it was never there , nothing but another lie .
      
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      March 26, 2025 11:51am
- Allan
  
  I hope that he and Ardern are brought to justice and jailed for their actions whilst they are alive. Evil is a word that springs to mind when I think of those 2 individuals. Never forget and never forgive them for what they inflicted on the public of NZ.
  
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  March 26, 2025 12:15pm
- Mike
  
  How to make a death threat without making a death threat.
  
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  March 26, 2025 2:32pm
  - Conservatarian
    
    Come on, he’s not driving a Tesla.
    
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    March 26, 2025 3:59pm
Gussy Fink-Nottle

UK vehicle tyres being shipped to India, driven 800 miles, and incinerated.
Globally polluting and locally deleterious.
They know it’s happening, but it ‘offshores’ the problem:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14jy2dd8jeo

Like ‘saucepans for spitfires’ and scrapping of cemetery railings in WW2 Britain, recycling is more a wasteful propaganda initiative than a serious solution.
Still, compared to the insanity of ‘offshoring’ carbon emissions, it’s relatively effective.
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March 26, 2025 8:06am
- cmm
  
  The best thing they could do is to burn those tyres in the biomass generators so that they don’t need to chop down trees in USA to fuel them.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:43am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Burn all that waste plastic too (at high temps with scrubbers) as it will mostly never really be recycled and will instead end up up as microplastics in people’s gonads and brains.
    
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    March 26, 2025 9:02pm
- NothingLeft
  
  Tyres can be burned without a lot of smoke if done in a hot incinerator. Sulphur can be condensed out of flue gases as is done for coal.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:05am
- peterwn
  
  Not just cemetery railings but railings in front of houses. There are probably still stone or brick walls about a metre high with steel stubs where the railings were gas cut off for recycling during WW2.
  
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  March 26, 2025 11:16am
David Garrett

Good morning from the Kingdom…a fine still morning…likely to become unpleasantly hot later… the wet season is dragging on … must be that climate change thingie
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March 26, 2025 8:09am
- Michael Sommerville
  
  Summer here is extending here. The seasons are getting later. But lovely to be out fishing on the Firth of Thames on Monday with no one else around.
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:13am
  - David Garrett
    
    Michael: Much as I enjoy living up here, I envy you…I hope you catch plenty!
    
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    March 26, 2025 8:51am
- pdm
  
  More likely it is just the weather DG.
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:22am
  - David Garrett
    
    Pdm: Whatever it is I wish it would bloody cool off! When the Tongans start complaining about the heat you know it’s hot.
    
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    March 26, 2025 8:28am
    - Yvette
      
      Remember DG … There’s no such thing as bad weather, just the wrong clothing — Billy Connolly
      
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      March 26, 2025 8:31am
      - David Garrett
        
        Yvette: That might apply in Billy’s frigid homeland…up here once you are naked there is nothing more to take off!
        
        (Of course nudity is strictly reserved for indoors here in the Kingdom)
        
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        March 26, 2025 9:47am
      - Colville
        
        Yvette.
        
        If you think there is no such thing as bad weather, try being on top of the ranges (Kawekas in this case) with lightning landing around you.
        
        Sphincter clench test time!
        
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        March 26, 2025 10:14am
      - Yvette
        
        DG – Billy’s frigid homeland …
        
        Depends if in –
        Nothing is worn beneath the kilt
        – ye mean ‘worn’ as in ‘over’ or ‘out’
        
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        March 26, 2025 10:20am
    - Cassandra
      
      Tauranga needs a new mayor, DG. Lovely here this morning.
      
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      March 26, 2025 8:32am
      - David Garrett
        
        Cass: Surely ur not suggesting that I become a mayoral candidate? No more “public life” for me.
        
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        March 26, 2025 8:42am
      - Cassandra
        
        Seymour is looking for quality candidates for Councils. Our present mayor lives in Cambridge so you’d get better weather and we’d get a quality mayor – win/win.
        
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        March 26, 2025 9:00am
      - David Garrett
        
        Cass: You are too kind.
        
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        March 26, 2025 9:17am
      - rjay
        
        Mahe has just bought a house in Papamoa
        
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        March 26, 2025 9:34am
      - cmm
        
        DG: Surely no more skeletons?
        
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        March 26, 2025 9:44am
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: One or two mate…and the jackals would also just gleefully recycle the old ones for a new audience.
        
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        March 26, 2025 9:48am
  - pdm
    
    I know a bit about it GD. Three years in Suva August 1974 to August 1977.
    
    Mind you the last year there I was wearing a jersey to work – May until we left to come home.
    
    You do acclimatise.
    
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    March 26, 2025 8:39am
- NZer In Exile
  
  Melbourne’s typically erratic hot flare ups appear to be coming to a close for the season. The only stable season here (winter) is coming. Actually Autumn is “generally” stable as well.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:05pm
kowtow

Yesterday we discussed “doxxing”.

Today in the Herald is a good , but disturbing example .

The photo accompanying the story is bigger than the text , and there’s a reason for that too.

It shows a man apparently remonstrating with some others who are wearing rape scarves and a Palestine flag is in evidence .

Anyway the Herald has sought to report by name and profession and his firm , a lawyer “repeatedly screaming at a small group of protesters , to the point spit flies from his mouth”.

This is a man standing up for peace and justice .His crime? Spit flies from his mouth .

The story comes to us via our own money .”Open Justice is an NZME initiative funded with help of NZ on Air”.

Mr Grenon , make the Herald decent again. At the moment it’s dirty .
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March 26, 2025 8:34am
- Matt Long
  
  The Herald also asks the opinion of “upstanding citizen” Shaneel Lal about the heroic conduct of the lawyer in question.
  Their sales people must cop an earful when they ask why people won’t subscribe.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:13am
  - Gravelroad
    
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/world-news/360628493/doctor-husband-allegedly-tried-shove-wife-cliff-inject-her-after-she-refused-take-photo
    And this on $tuff.
    This story is about a US doctor in Hawaii who allegedly killed his wife because she wouldn’t take a photo.
    Why would this be front page news here?
    
    13 1
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    March 26, 2025 9:19am
    - nova
      
      Allegedly _tried_ to kill his wife. So even less newsworthy.
      
      10 0
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      March 26, 2025 9:30am
    - David Garrett
      
      Gravel: It’s pure click bait…and I fell for it and clicked on it.
      
      10 0
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      March 26, 2025 9:49am
    - cmm
      
      Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V journalism.
      
      Cheap clickbait.
      
      9 0
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      March 26, 2025 10:01am
- cmm
  
  The best was Minto offering to have an informed discussion with the lawyer.
  
  Minto and “informed discussion” seem very hard to fit into the same sentence.
  
  34 2
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  March 26, 2025 9:46am
  - kowtow
    
    Indeed , the Herald presenting Minto as some form of rational educator !
    
    The article is pure propaganda and has no “news” value as such.
    
    It’s a disgrace.
    
    All the more so for the cause it is espousing.
    
    10 1
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    March 26, 2025 11:08am
- Philview
  
  A good example. Why is it even in the News? Was there a provocative chant preceding the angry outburst. What is clear is that the media is now represents such a distorted source of information we can’t trust any of it.
  
  9 2
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  March 26, 2025 11:05am
- NZer In Exile
  
  Doxxing needs to be made a serious crime. Would be nice to see the horrible little grubs behind that stuff getting their beans.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:08pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Shell Lane (The Terrace) bike rack report:

At 8.35am, just the one bike today.

A cool, calm, dry morning in the Capital, ideal for cycling.
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March 26, 2025 8:35am
- G152
  
  Make the Herald go away…. we do not need to see the examples it provides
  
  2 0
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  March 26, 2025 9:50am
- G152
  
  Frankton railway station bike rack report…. nothing nada not even a scrape
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:52am
- imalwaysright
  
  Who owns the bike?
  Schrödinger?
  One day its there and the next day its not…
  
  9 1
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  March 26, 2025 9:57am
  - Gussy Fink-Nottle
    
    Schrödinger’s Bike Rack!
    It is, at once, both essential and useless.
    
    4 0
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    March 26, 2025 5:08pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Essential to the juvenile and useless to those who have to pay for it?
      
      0 0
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      March 26, 2025 9:09pm
rouppe

Jacinda Ardern has joined Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government.

Their mission is “public policy education”, which simply makes me wonder whether it’s a way to learn how to establish Marxism in the Western world.
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March 26, 2025 8:41am
- Colville
  
  A leadership position.?
  St Jacinda of the Plague is a lot of things but a leader sure aint one of them.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:16am
- RoboRob
  
  Looked into this after hearing the excited leading news stories. Its a nothing burger. She is an unpaid former leader who meets once a year with other former leaders to gas bag. So its just a CV filling move, looks good for JA and looks good for Oxford.
  
  Why exactly is this headline news? Do the media cover Key when he gets a new board role? Nope.
  
  The actual organisation looks ‘crap’ and just scanning the staff list pictures on their web site, you can tell its a progressive think tank.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:38am
Prince

Quote from Ashley Bloomfield…
“the reason we did so well as a country is we grounded ourselves in the things that most Kiwis believe in, decency, looking after each other, kindness, respect for each other and trust.”

How does he reconcile his refusal to approve a father attending his own son’s funeral with ‘kindness, respect for each other’.
Hypocite..
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March 26, 2025 8:46am
- David Garrett
  
  Prince: I think we need to cut Sir Ashley some slack. His role – before Covid – was a strictly “behind the scenes” one. He would have had no media training and no idea how to handle himself in the glare of publicity. And certainly no clue regarding being used by politicians.
  
  But then I am just an old softie.
  
  7 11
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  March 26, 2025 10:28am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    You’d think a lack of media training would make it harder for someone to get in front of a camera and say a bunch of stuff they knew was not true.
    
    9 1
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    March 26, 2025 10:46am
  - Philview
    
    I have read he was getting paid more than the PM so would expect a fairly decent skillset for that money.
    
    13 0
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    March 26, 2025 11:13am
  - rouppe
    
    Your values are the same regardless of whether you are behind the scenes, or on the podium of truth
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:18am
  - wsk12345
    
    No. He lied repeatedly. He did nasty things like refusing exemptions to people who got myocarditis from the first jab or who had allergies to some things in the jabs.
    
    And what’s more he LOVED the fame and adoration.
    
    He is an evil person.
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:20am
  - peterwn
    
    Interesting. A former Director of Health gave a weekly health talk on radio in the 1960’s and his family listened to it. He caught one of his kids smoking and made it the topic of his next talk. His kids thought that was below the belt.
    So that one did have media experience.
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:23am
  - Phronesis
    
    He was a public health doctor. They literally sit around all day and talk about how they can coerce people into living healthier lives. It used to be understood that such coercion had to be subtle, ad campaigns, pricing and availability, education etc. There were always the psychopaths who wondered aloud why we didn’t just make life impossible for people who refused to do what they wanted. Wiser heads (including me at one time) would point out that that was not a road any sane person would go down.
    
    (I had moved on by the time of Covid and have never met Bloomfield.)
    
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    March 26, 2025 1:40pm
  - Keith White
    
    His speciality training pre the WuPox was in non-contagious illness. He should have stood aside and let someone knowledgeable run it. For that and may other misdeeds he will be cursed in history.
    
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    March 26, 2025 1:58pm
  - Dougal10
    
    He was working for the WHO in his previous job so he knew exactly what he was doing
    
    4 2
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    March 26, 2025 2:30pm
- kowtow
  
  Blofeld used a very long sentence when one word could have sufficed .
  
  Coercion .
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:49am
- Philview
  
  We burnt the country down to save some of the occupants. More nuanced leaders overseas had an eye on the future. Was the destruction of Public Health Services for a generation a price worth paying. Other leaders were being held accountable by their media.
  
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  March 26, 2025 11:12am
- judith8409121
  
  bloomfield, hipkins, ardern did some of the most abusive things to people when they could. The abuse of a woman who wanted back to NZ to give birth, the abuse of two women who had rights to drive to Auckland but they called them prostitutes. The abuse of human rights and dignity of many who were just trying to keep their businesses going. The were a vile combo and their sidekicks like wiles and cohorts were vile as well
  
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  March 26, 2025 1:56pm
Raphael

Random Impertinent Question: Why do NZ Greens support so many who hate women?
They support gangs, where it’s well documented that rape is part of their culture
They support Hamas and Palestine, where it is well documented that they oppress women and brutally raped women in the October 7 attack.
They openly support violence against Women’s Rights activists.
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March 26, 2025 8:50am
- David Garrett
  
  Raphael: You already know the answer- the Greens suffer from a form of mental illness compounded by wokery
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:57am
- kowtow
  
  They do hate women . Especially women who are happily for humanity ,assertive , sane and rational and say that men aren’t women.
  
  Stating a biological truth that young children and all creation recognises is, in the mind of the crazy Green , tantamount to a crime.
  
  That’s how crazy Green is.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:03am
- RoboRob
  
  It’s simple, its the lefts oppressed / oppressor mindset.
  
  Once a group is classified as oppressed (Palestinians, Hamas, Gangs, LGBT, Blacks, Illegal migrants, woman etc) then the people oppressing them are oppressors. They provide blind support for the oppressed who can do anything they want. Ever hear of the theory that you cant be racist if you are black?
  
  The reverse is true for oppressors. Regards of the issue, they are despised and hated (Jews, white people, old men etc).
  
  There is no need to think about conflicts, such as we support LGBT and Hamas who would kill a gay person. They are both oppressed and can do no wrong. If Hamas kill a gay that is because of ‘history’ and their oppression by the evil Jews.
  
  Like most progressive people, there is very limited thought about the outcomes of their policies. Witness a recent interview with Ben from Ben and Jerries where Pearce Morgan highlights all the contradictions of his views (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px7VL8Pa2bM well worth a watch). FWIW I think Bens views are quite simple, he is in favour of what is popular in California except where they might cost him some money. No number of left wing slogans can cover the fact the ideology is broken.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:21am
- cmm
  
  It is really just hate of the West and the associated self-hate.
  
  This drives them to follow the old adage of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Better to shut your eyes to the downsides and just wave that Palestinian flag.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:36am
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: Could anyone think of anything more absurd than “Queers for Palestine”? Surely they cannot be so ignorant as to not know what would happen to them if they became residents of Gaza?
    
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    March 26, 2025 9:51am
    - G152
      
      And they are not dying to find out
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:53am
    - cmm
      
      It’s a bit like the Swedish women apologising to their rapists.
      
      11 1
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      March 26, 2025 9:57am
      - David Garrett
        
        cmm: Please tell me you have no evidence for this… I have very fond memories of Sweden and its people.
        
        5 0
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        March 26, 2025 10:30am
      - Taieri
        
        Please tell me you have no evidence for this
        ————-
        
        Is evidence from Norway good enough?
        
        https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/norwegian-rape-victim-feels-guilty-the-man-who-raped-him-was-deported-a6975041.html
        
        8 0
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        March 26, 2025 12:12pm
    - imalwaysright
      
      “Uighurs for the CCP”
      
      6 0
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      March 26, 2025 10:01am
- NothingLeft
  
  Pathological empathy and purity spirals, aka ‘moral outbidding’ – where the more extreme your virtue signal the more you get to beat your chest as a ‘leader’ within the peer group. In the end it’s just a pathological status competition amongst people with nothing else to recommend them, and tends to be a more female than male vice.
  
  Same shit used to be seen in other theistic religions and led to various horrors like witch burnings and murders of those who didn’t go hard enough in following religious edict etc.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:15am
- judith8409121
  
  they have a victim hierarchy score board and women are low on that hierarchy.. These groups like the greens can manipulate womens empathy to do harm. They play this group like a fiddle to gain support while abusing them
  
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  March 26, 2025 1:57pm
G the giant from Dunedin

Man, I implore anyone to go watch Chloe Swarbrick try and question the pm on whether investors from the summit should be able to make a profit, what an absolute loser she is, Hipkins was his usual pathetic self still waffling about school lunches that the media appear to have realised they are damaging their selves even more, and then straight out lies again when Willis was able to fact check that under this government had built 5000 public houses, they hate it, but the dashboard shows again Labour as liars, I think this Hipkins is a liar thing is going to grow legs
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March 26, 2025 8:52am
artemisia

GRAHAM ADAMS: Auckland University has a death wish

A Centrist exclusive. Long but here is the elevator speech: Sometimes it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the University of Auckland is suicidal.

https://centrist.nz/graham-adams-auckland-university-has-a-death-wish/
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March 26, 2025 8:56am
- David Garrett
  
  Art: Thank God I graduated from uni more than 30 years ago. I dont envy my very bright daughter having to studying this woke crap.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:15am
  - cmm
    
    I was seriously considering going back to university in my 60s to do a PhD but I really, really, can’t stomach the thought of the modern university environment.
    
    I might still do so though s foreign university – esp. since U Nevada and U Georgia are the key players in the field I am interested in.
    
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    March 26, 2025 9:32am
    - RoboRob
      
      From what I hear, they are likely to be more woke then here.
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:35am
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      In the US they have opened the University of Austin in Texas and the money is rolling in. Niall Ferguson is one of the Founders. They have a website.
      
      Another one is Colegium Civitas in Poland who teach in English.
      
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      March 26, 2025 10:09am
      - Taieri
        
        Another one is Colegium Civitas in Poland who teach in English.
        ————-
        
        They do humanities only:
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collegium_Civitas
        
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        March 26, 2025 12:16pm
    - Gussy Fink-Nottle
      
      Go for it C.
      You – together with all the Asian/SE Asian students – simply ignore the woke crap on their way to the good stuff.
      
      Be prepared to accept that you’ll be smarter than most of your lecturers though.
      
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      March 26, 2025 5:23pm
  - RoboRob
    
    Was going to say ‘I dont think you need to worry. I suspect it only impacts the less intelligent’ but then I realised I needed to add, ‘or woman’. So worry
    
    My son at university ruthlessly mocks the woke paper he has to do.
    
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    March 26, 2025 9:34am
    - David Garrett
      
      Robo: I had an interesting call from my daughter last week. She said she had deliberately not told me anything about the Maori bullshit paper she has to do for fear of her being swayed by my opinions, which of course she knows very well.
      
      She called to tell me she had figured out for herself that it was just woke bullshit. I advised her to simply hold her nose and regurgitate in essays what they had fed her with. How sad that that should be good advice.
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:54am
      - imalwaysright
        
        DG
        I think the course fee is about $1000. I seriously doubt that they will be using any of that money actually monitoring students work or testing them at the end of the year.
        Getting the fee is the only objective, they couldn’t care less about anything else.
        
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        March 26, 2025 10:07am
      - NothingLeft
        
        Been the same through most of human history. Gatekeepers to various institutions required obeisance to various sacred cows of the dominant belief systems, no matter how stupid or destructive.
        
        If you wanted to be an academic prior to the 20th century you had to spend a lot of your time mouthing christian pieties.
        
        9 1
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        March 26, 2025 10:20am
      - wsk12345
        
        It’s not good advice. She should go to a uni that doesn’t force this shit on everyone. Stand up and put her money where her mouth is mouth is. Vote with her feet etc. I’m so sick of gutless people.
        
        Remember that she might pay $1k in fees for this course but that taxpayer tops that up by 3 or 4 times as much.
        
        9 2
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        March 26, 2025 11:34am
      - AitchW
        
        Does she need to pass that paper in order to graduate? Or, like all good wokery, does turning up earn her a certificate?
        
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        March 26, 2025 1:22pm
      - NothingLeft
        
        I’ll pay for my kids Uni educations, but only if it’s not in NZ.
        
        Why would anyone support parties that actively discriminate against their children – as (mostly white female supported) Te Racists, Green and Labour do? Just evil.
        
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        March 26, 2025 3:48pm
    - Interested Party
      
      It the states, young men have significantly moved “right” in their world view, as expected the fairer more emotional sex are still very woke. So changes are happening. I think one of the reasons is men on average are more logical, also men make up something like 80% of YouTube audiences – YouTube is dominated by long form more conservative viewpoints
      
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      March 26, 2025 11:20am
      - NothingLeft
        
        the short emote and preen videos that dominate the online content consumed by majority of women are destructive of intellect, sanity and pro-social behavior.
        
        I suspect that youtube and long-form podcasts has actually boosted the general levels of self awareness, education, and good-behaviour in men. Eg alcohol use has plummeted.
        
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        March 26, 2025 3:53pm
    - wsk12345
      
      So why do they do it? I would have – even at 18 – gone to a different university if that crap was forced on me.
      
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      March 26, 2025 11:32am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Lol David, my daughter knew what was happening, and gamed it. Wrote essays on Jacinda for the worshipping lecturer for instance. Said all the right things, made Maori references etc, got A’s and completed a double degree. She said it made a complete joke of University, and worse still, some of the students actually thought the woke stuff was real!!!
    
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    March 26, 2025 9:48am
    - David Garrett
      
      In vino: I was encouraged by the fact that my daughter found she was in fact not the lone ranger is seeing through the bullshit. So there is hope.
      
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      March 26, 2025 9:56am
    - cmm
      
      “my daughter knew what was happening, and gamed it.”
      
      Yes, sure you can game it and get a “degree”.
      But is that degree worth anything unless it is printed on Purex?
      
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      March 26, 2025 11:42am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Agree nearly whole heartedly cmm. But that’s been the way for 20 years now. So she got what she got. And hopefully it will help her in her career.
        I’ve commented here before about the dross you can get a degree in these days. So my eyes are wide open to the value of what you get.
        
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        March 26, 2025 5:50pm
  - Colville
    
    Seems that many parents sending young ones to Oz Unis if they can afford it.
    
    In my limited circle I know of 2 …
    
    I mean it would absolutely suck having to go to Uni in Brisbane rather than Massey in Palmerston North!!
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:21am
    - Taieri
      
      Seems that many parents sending young ones to Oz Unis if they can afford it.
      —————-
      
      Australian Universities have their own idiosyncrasies.
      
      This is just one example:
      
      “We acknowledge the Palawa/Pakana and Gadigal people, the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which we live and work. We honour their enduring culture and knowledges as vital to the self-determination, wellbeing and resilience of their communities.”
      
      https://www.utas.edu.au
      
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      March 26, 2025 12:20pm
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      The daughter of one of my mates got a 93 average in pre med. And didn’t make it. Of course there were others with significantly lower averages that made it…..
      
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      March 26, 2025 5:51pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  When the Uni finds that the overseas student gravy train dries up, local students say “Stuff this” then we will find that changes will be made.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:32am
- Swifty
  
  What an excellent column.
  
  Decolonisation is all about the seizure of power and control – nothing to do with student outcomes.
  
  And I note that there is no invitation to Te Ao Maori, which we can freely accept or reject and with no consequences, no, it will instead be forced upon us leaving us no choice in the matter.
  
  It’s totalitarianism.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:26am
Yvette

In the case of the 11-year-old girl mistakenly placed in mental health facility and given two doses of antipsychotics, why do reports (in my limited access) not include an answer to what seems an obvious question: what in any expert consideration might two doses of antipsychotics do to the girl, particularly as she is said to be autistic?
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March 26, 2025 9:07am
- Jethrod
  
  Also saw a report which said mother took 12 hours to report her missing.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:25am
  - Ghost
    
    And how long of that time do you know was she out searching for her child, ringing up people?
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:45am
    - Albie
      
      I would have thought a couple of hours calling friends, family and anyone likely to know of her whereabouts with no luck would start to ring alarm bells. Leaving it another ten hours to call the police?????
      I sure as hell wouldn’t leave it that long if it was my daughter.
      
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      March 26, 2025 4:09pm
      - Ghost
        
        You don’t know what was going on during that time. All you have is one sentence and you are prepared to judge a mother on that.
        
        At 6 years old I would walk into the bush for a hours at a time. My parents knew I would come out when hungry. All through school my friends and I would disappear every weekend from morning til dark. All parents knew we would be home for dinner.
        
        You have zero idea what this case involves except she was reported missing after 12 hours. Was she meant to be with another family member, a friend, etc etc, you have no idea, yet here you sit in judgement without facts of her.
        
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        March 26, 2025 6:52pm
- cmm
  
  Given 20/20 vision it is really easy to blame “the system” etc.
  
  But it is only fair to evaluate what happened based on the information available to the people at the time.
  
  Someone, likely highly trained, evaluated the situation and determined that antipsychotics were the right course of action.
  
  Mental treatment is far from simple. I unfortunately know that from my mother having been a mental patient and even after 40+ years of treatment they were still unsure as to what really pushed her buttons.
  
  The fact is that we have to accept that sometimes mistakes will happen in all systems – be those medical, driving cars or whatever. Basically “fog of war”.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:39am
  - Ian Boag
    
    I have a 16 year old autistic grandson. Non-verbal. When he decides to pack a crank it’s a bit hard to take. I can sympathise with the staff involved here.
    
    IMHO none of it was done from any sort of sadistic impulses – the whole thing appears to be a series of tragic mistakes.
    
    I don’t imagine that any of the medical folk involved feel real good about it. They should be left to get on with their (unenviable) jobs without having voyeurism fron anonymous KBers added to their troubles ….
    
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    March 26, 2025 10:58am
    - Cassandra
      
      Uptick for first two paras only. Why don’t you lay off the KB abuse? Or bugger off.
      
      13 5
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      March 26, 2025 11:20am
    - wsk12345
      
      What is tragic about it. She had two doses of a drug that I’m pretty sure must be safe or it wouldn’t be used. (Hahaha) And which presumably wears off. What’s the big deal?
      
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      March 26, 2025 11:38am
- rouppe
  
  I thought the obvious question was “why did it take 12 hours for the child’s mother to report her missing?”.
  
  A non verbal autistic 11 year old should never be alone or in a place from which they can abscond.
  
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  March 26, 2025 11:24am
  - Ian Boag
    
    … why did it take 12 hours ….
    
    I would guess you had to be there …..
    
    ….voyeurism from anonymous …
    
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    March 26, 2025 6:37pm
cmm

Another incident in BoP/Rotorua area. Who would have guessed?

Maggy, time to come back from your holidays and sort out your back yard!

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360628772/police-negotiation-team-responding-active-incident-murupara
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March 26, 2025 9:28am
- Cassandra
  
  Please don’t include Murupara in the BoP. It is a foreign country compared to what we think of as “The Bay”.
  
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  March 26, 2025 9:42am
- David Garrett
  
  cmm: Maggy lives in Gisborne. That is about 150 miles from Murupara, 35 of those miles being the Waioeka gorge.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:05am
  - cmm
    
    150 mines by car yes, it would seem much shorter as the crow flies.
    
    Maggy is a powerful woman. She has a big back yard.
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:37am
- Jethrod
  
  Very close to Te Whaiti which is deepest darkest Tuhoe country!
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:29am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  As dear old Captain Cook discovered, Poverty Bay is not the Bay of Plenty.
  
  (Who remembers when Tairawhiti, aka East Coast was Poverty Bay?)
  
  9 1
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  March 26, 2025 10:38am
Dudley Quaffquaff

Oh noes, it looks as if Fox News has succumbed to TDS. Wherever shall we get our accurate, unbiased news about the US from now?

Oh for God's sake, the administration has already confirmed the authenticity of the message. https://t.co/AxQGqqyux3— Brit Hume (@brithume) March 24, 2025
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March 26, 2025 9:33am
- Raphael
  
  Tim Pool has a theory about adding Goldberg to the chat. He thinks it was deliberate but the parties on the chat. The result is that Goldberg, who is not a friend of the Trump administration, has ended up reporting all their PR talking points where he would not have.
  * bailing out Europe again
  * keeping the Saudi’s on board
  * what they expect from Europe and Egypt etc.
  
  3 3
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  March 26, 2025 10:25am
  - James Stephenson
    
    I have a theory that the beanie has overheated his brain.
    
    Cockup >> conspiracy. Always.
    
    5 1
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    March 26, 2025 12:29pm
- RoboRob
  
  Or it could just be that Fox are presenting the actual news here and leaving the spin for others.
  
  Perhaps you need to watch more Fox to get more accurate news?
  
  4 2
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  March 26, 2025 10:32am
  - kowtow
    
    Amazing the TDS sufferers spend more time talking about the ‘slip up” than they do about an Iranian proxy firing ICBMs thousands of k’s at a sovereign state or the threat they pose to largely European shipping and the fact the Euros are doing just about bugger all and hiding , again , behind the might and power of the USA!
    
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    March 26, 2025 1:26pm
- pb
  
  The Houthi’s are the only nation on earth standing up. This is a glimpse into corrruption. Goldberg a prison guard, of Palestinians, during intifada. Lots of guilt and needs lots of words to extirpate. Not possible. Trump and his warmongers beholden to Epstein and Mossad. We thought Biden bad.
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:37pm
imalwaysright

Tama Potaka unaware that treaty principles clause is removed from RMA act.
He was at the cabinet meeting that made the decision. How did he not know?

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/rma-reform-tama-potaka-unaware-treaty-principles-removed-from-resource-management-act-replacement/YZRABN6D35EYXEE3IYZKIKAZUA/
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March 26, 2025 9:34am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Depends how it happened, if he thought it had not been made public yet then he may well have been correct, dirty filthy rotten media trying to shaft a minister again
  
  5 2
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  March 26, 2025 10:35am
  - Cassandra
    
    It looks like he was daydreaming when the Cabinet made its decision.
    
    3 0
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    March 26, 2025 11:23am
    - imalwaysright
      
      Or he’s being truculent.
      
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      March 26, 2025 1:00pm
- rouppe
  
  I thought having no treaty principles in legislation was national party policy.
  
  Some here are adamant that this is better than robustly defining what the principles are.
  
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  March 26, 2025 11:27am
- AitchW
  
  I’m begining to think that, perhaps, Mr Potaka isn’t the brightest mp in the government.
  Is his middle name Token perhaps?
  
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  March 26, 2025 1:26pm
  - Steve Otto N Shore
    
    Oh he is bright. He is also a Maori activist, alongside Luxon.
    I can’t mention my source as it will get deleted. You know where to go.
    
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    March 26, 2025 6:04pm
Mod88

Why is it that the Prime Minister is the only one calling for heads to roll over this misidentification and forcibly injecting drugs into this 11 year old autistic child.
8 1
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March 26, 2025 9:42am
- cmm
  
  Probably because others don’t want to ask the question as to why an 11 year old special needs person was walking around unattended for many hours.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:03am
- imalwaysright
  
  You would think a hospital would be able to tell the difference between a 20 yr old and an 11 yr old.
  I get a niggling feeling that this child is brown and measures of convenience may have been taken.
  Hoping I’m wrong.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:46am
  - rouppe
    
    That requires putting pieces of information together from disparate sources.
    
    The health system is incapable of original thought these days.
    
    4 0
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    March 26, 2025 11:29am
    - imalwaysright
      
      See your point rouppe, but could not a woman nurse see that this was a child?
      
      2 0
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      March 26, 2025 12:48pm
      - AitchW
        
        To be fair, some 11 year olds are massive! Take note next time you’re anywhere near a primary school at home time.
        
        1 0
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        March 26, 2025 1:28pm
      - Ghost
        
        The police supplied a photo to the woman’s caregiver, they confirmed it looked like the older woman. I’ve seen older people that look much younger than they are, and younger people that look much older than they are. You can’t guess someone’s age by how they look. This persons identity was confirmed by her caregiver, the police passed that info on to the hospital.
        
        3 0
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        March 26, 2025 1:32pm
      - peterwn
        
        Ghost – Some years ago cops found an under 18 girl who looked to be over 25. She will be great for liquor stings they thought. They hauled one shopkeeper up before the tribunal wanting his liquor licence to be suspended. Shopkeeper said she looked over 25 (valid legal excuse not to ask for age ID) and judge asked to see a photo of her. Case dismissed! and the anti liquor people were peeved.
        
        3 0
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        March 26, 2025 2:42pm
      - rouppe
        
        Yeah I know. It’s difficult to see where the mistake was really made.
        
        I heard that
        1. Police said it was “so and so”
        2. Nurses took that unchallenged, didn’t check anything else (including confirming age) and went ahead with the meds.
        
        No one coming out of this rosy…
        
        1 0
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        March 26, 2025 3:28pm
- kowtow
  
  I’d say he’s the PM and surely the buck as they used to say stops on his desk.
  
  If that’s true then, he is as usual, weakly responding to media pressure ,to their manufactured hype , trying to look like Mr Big Guy.
  
  Why not call for heads to roll every time there’s a fatal or serious traffic accident ……
  
  …….death in hospital .
  
  ……ram raid.
  
  ……..dog bite.
  
  …….shark bite.
  
  …….drug importation.
  
  …….murder .
  
  ……industrial accident .
  
  …….truant pupil .
  
  Etc
  
  The media are very good at playing him.
  
  7 2
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  March 26, 2025 11:00am
  - imalwaysright
    
    Saw him on the news, he didn’t look interested in the child. He looked like he was trying to deflect the whole situation to a later date. Dead eyes.
    
    3 2
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    March 26, 2025 12:56pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      There was two seperate hits by the media, and yesterday he said as a parent he found it outrageous, and he has called for heads to roll, while the rotten greens suggest this is another reason to shut down police
      
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      March 26, 2025 8:43pm
Matt Long

The governments RMA replacement will have no treaty references, congratulations to NZ First for getting this through and National for not stopping it.
I wonder how long it will last ?
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March 26, 2025 9:47am
- Scott
  
  Matt, that’s good news. It’s an example of the coalition under Luxon doing what they said they’d do.
  I hope they continue the work and get Treaty references out of all legislation, unless directly relevant. That’s what the coalition agreement between National and NZ First promised.
  
  So far this is looking very promising. Getting rid of Treaty references will hopefully stymie activist judges because treaty references won’t be in legislation? I would be interested to hear from people with legal backgrounds on this issue?
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:12am
- Colville
  
  Dont get too excited.
  You will apply for your resource consent and Council will still require sign off from iwi as affected parties.
  
  10 1
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  March 26, 2025 10:24am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Councils will no longer be involved
    
    1 0
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    March 26, 2025 8:44pm
- RoboRob
  
  I was very happy to hear that it didn’t feature. However I suspect the next prgressive govt will immediately whack it back in.
  
  You do what you can though, just becuase the others might reverse it isn’t reason to not do a thing.
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:34am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  All 3 parties wanted RMA reform, taking the treaty out of every single law was the answer to the TPB, this is easy now it’s going to be new, the remaining laws are still being worked through and dropping the treaty out of the law
  
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  March 26, 2025 10:37am
  - Interested Party
    
    That’s my understanding of Nationals approach, and has been stated by Luxon on a few occasions. It’s a harder slower approach than the treaty principles bill, but potentially longer lasting. Time will see if the Nats and NZ First follow this through
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:29am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Well, they started in November and Peter’s said after Christ that 2 laws had been changed, dropping RMA is forcing another one, and it is possible a couple of laws passed in the last few weeks have had the same treatment
      
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      March 26, 2025 8:47pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    It would make sense to pass an interim law that any law at present that refers to race is to be regarded as to apply to all citizens or, if not sensible, suspended.
    
    6 0
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    March 26, 2025 11:42am
  - RoboRob
    
    Two were removed in the first year. No idea how many this year so far. I guess the new RMA counts but it wont be in until next year. So overall I think we are at a minimum of three treaty principles references removed.
    
    As I have pointed out many times, it is easy to insert the references back and many non government orgs have also added the references.
    
    National have explictly stated they will remove the reference when it is not appropriate. This implies that the reference will remain in some law. It would be best to know what they mean right?
    
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    March 26, 2025 11:48am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Not sure about RMA taking a year, pretty sure I heard Bishop say legislation will be in the house by mid year
      
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      March 26, 2025 8:48pm
  - Quail
    
    No , it is not going to be easy!
    You have to realise that this act has enabled the embedding of a huge amount of Local Government Regulation .This regulation has largely been created by Council staff and their advisors.and pushed through electeds most of who don’t have a background in law making.
    The RMA is a huge NZ industry supported by a lawyers ,planners and Council staff.It is big business.
    I wait with interest to actually see any change.
    
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    March 26, 2025 1:27pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  That will not stop the courts from acting as if those references were there.
  
  12 0
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  March 26, 2025 10:49am
  - Colville
    
    yip…that mythical partnership!
    
    5 0
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    March 26, 2025 11:32am
    - NothingLeft
      
      Great make-work interpretation for teeming hoards of lawyerly friends of NZ judiciary.
      
      0 0
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      March 26, 2025 3:58pm
  - imalwaysright
    
    Correct, maybe we should make potential judges go before select committees, after undergoing psychiatric testing to ensure they are capable of rational thought.
    Maybe a yearly contract would also help them to focus.
    
    4 1
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    March 26, 2025 11:45am
- Chris Nisbet
  
  I wonder why the clause was in the replacement in the first place?
  
  1 0
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  March 26, 2025 3:02pm
Quail

If the Maori chapters and influence is removed from the RMA the whole act will have reduced in size by more than half!
Great news ! !
There is still the problem of Luxon refusing to change the Natural Environment sections.This is the bit of the RMA that has enabled Councils to regulate rural land use to a degree that destroyed property rights and the ability for land managers to manage!
7 1
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March 26, 2025 11:25am
cmm

Aotearoavlot has a new “moko inspired” uniform!

I suspect there must have been a lot of koha involved.

My knowledge of the Maori realm is limited, but I thought that the moko was supposed to be reserved for those that head earned it through bravery etc.

I thought it was too precious to just stamp it out onto fabric in some sweatshop in China.

But, likely, money talks and bullshit walks.

I wonder what Luxon will have to say when he is inevitably asked about it.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/360628698/air-new-zealand-reveals-feature-its-new-uniform
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March 26, 2025 11:35am
- imalwaysright
  
  Apparently the yellow leather clad behatted maori geezer who bravely relocated to the colonial UK in 2015 is writing the design himself.
  That’s true commitment…
  (is it me , or does the tiki look like a baby?)
  
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  March 26, 2025 1:35pm
NothingLeft

Easy money: https://polymarket.com/event/will-jesus-christ-return-in-2025

you can buy a bet for $0.97 against a $1 payout that Jesus won’t return in 2025
2 1
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March 26, 2025 11:36am
- MCōs
  
  That’s a 3% return
  Probably get better at the bank
  Much better to gamble on the gold market of late
  
  1 1
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  March 26, 2025 3:31pm
marcw

There is a lot of angst and woe-is-us talk this week after regular testing revealed that the amount of meth use in NZ has increased by 95%. How could this be, with all the education funding, drug testing, gang patch banning, increased police activity etc.?

Well maybe if the courts took dealing in class A drugs more seriously, there would not be so many opportunities to make personal fortune profits while wrecking the communities they target.

https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2024/11/home_detention_for_meth_dealing.html

The only sentence for class A drug manufacturing, importing or selling that will work is LWOP. The sooner that happens, the sooner the drugs will be gone. It will only take a few examples to be made.

To make it worse (if it could get worse), if you have been believing fentanyl is bad, the newest synthetic opioids have arrived, and they are 50 to 500 times as potent as heroin. We will sadly regularly be reading about young people overdosing with the nitazene class of synthetics.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-08-18/nitazene-drug-overdose-oxycodone-dark-web-australia/104183780
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March 26, 2025 12:29pm
- MCōs
  
  The most high profile meth user in recent times would undoubtedly be Dr Philip J Polkinghorne,
  which makes one suspect the drug use is not as confined to one particular to sector of society as you suggest
  He’s certainly not uneducated or a gang member
  
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  March 26, 2025 2:51pm
- rouppe
  
  Wastewater testing shows use had increased 95%
  
  Has the concentration in a given testing site doubled, or has the number of testing sites doubled, meaning twice as many people at the same concentration level, meaning the rate per 100,000 ppl the same
  
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  March 26, 2025 3:39pm
Jack5

One National Party Prime Minister is said to have branded the party’s southernmost stronghold “Solid, sensible Southland”.

Now the bonnie lads down south seem to be playing the sharemarket.

The Southland District Council invested $30 million over 24 months with two fund managers, and this presumably went into shares and bonds.

Now, Stuff reports, it’s invested another $5 million with them, after at least one councillor wanted to wait to “see perhaps where the bottom might end up.”

https://www.thepress.co.nz/nz-news/360626613/invest-or-not-sdc-forges-ahead-uncertain-times
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March 26, 2025 1:03pm
rockape

Good news on the Nursing front. Latest info from the Nursing Council .
Registered nurses +11% on year
Nurse Practitioners +14% on year.
I don’t recall figures that good for some time just need DHBs to have the funds to employ them now.
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March 26, 2025 1:21pm
- kowtow
  
  Ryan Bridge said on the tranny last night that this coalition has spent more on Health than labour ever did .
  
  One wouldn’t get that impression from the constant attacks in the rest of te msm.
  
  7 0
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  March 26, 2025 1:29pm
- MCōs
  
  The DHBs were replaced by HealthNZ almost three years ago. Same problems remains of course. Not enough money and greener pastures elsewhere once they obtain citizenship.
  
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  March 26, 2025 2:58pm
  - rockape
    
    Nurses can earn good money if they keep up with study. My wife’s an NP and her annual salary is aprox $190,000 with her penal rates for nights and weekends plus public holidays.
    
    4 0
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    March 26, 2025 3:28pm
  - rockape
    
    Correction that should be around $180,000.
    
    2 0
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    March 26, 2025 3:36pm
MCōs

We were watching Thai TV news
A woman was driving her ute out in the country with her 2yo on her lap. The kid grabbed the steering wheel causing the vehicle to swerve, hit a motorbike killing the two riders and plunging down a bank.
The TV reporters seemed to be almost the first on the scene interviewing the distressed ute driver with a crowd of onlookers standing around
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March 26, 2025 2:00pm
Chuck Bird

Did anyone hear Luxon on The Country today?

https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-the-country-28628176/episode/the-country-260325-christopher-luxon-talks-270992799/

When Jamie asked him about Peters and Seymour wanting to consider dumping Paris, he said he was looking out for farmers. If NZ dumped Paris, no one would buy our farm produce.

If that was the case, farmers would agree with him as farmers are not stupid people.

Luxon thinks he is smarter than everyone on every topic. This includes all his MPs. That is why many of his MPs are getting pissed off with him.
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March 26, 2025 2:24pm
- peterwn
  
  If these MP’s want to be on the Opposition benches or even out of the House, they are going the right way about it. In a work situation, you never quite like your boss. Jacinda was a likeable boss but that did not save her when the fairy dust had settled.
  
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  March 26, 2025 2:33pm
  - Chuck Bird
    
    If Luxon wants to be PM after the next election, he will have to stop being so arrogant. He knows SFA about climate change, and he act like he is an expert. Have you dealt with him personally? Do you know how he ended up as Leader?
    
    7 4
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    March 26, 2025 2:47pm
- Dougal10
  
  He has been suckered in by mfat officials and lazy management at the top of the farming co-ops , after all him and Willis are of the same breed as the aforementioned staff
  
  5 0
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  March 26, 2025 2:46pm
- Chris Nisbet
  
  No one? Not India, not USA, not China?
  Because we pull out of some impossible nightmare that will likely result in economic suicide (see Kemi Badenoch)?
  Really?
  
  6 0
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  March 26, 2025 3:05pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Well, there has been articles on farming weekly pleading for the agreement not to be dropped, if one product is dropped from one shelf it will crash like a card house, I think we wait till the accord falls and it is no longer worth carrying on, it is not costing anything to waiting
  
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  March 26, 2025 8:56pm
Diogenes

University of Waikato law professor Dr Juliet Chevalier-Watts says New Zealand churches do so much good for the country that they should pay even less tax—not more.

A long-time atheist and expert in charity law, she began her research intending to argue the opposite. But after more than a decade studying the economic and legal role of religious charities, she’s changed her mind.

“Without churches, New Zealand would plunge into irreversible poverty and chaos overnight,” she said this week. “If anything, churches should receive more government support.”

https://centrist.nz/atheist-academic-defends-churches-tax-free-status-calls-them-vital-to-nzs-social-fabric/
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March 26, 2025 2:26pm
- rouppe
  
  This whole ird examination of “how much tax should a charity pay” is designed to skirt around the real question which is “should every entity with charitable status retain it”.
  
  They’re just to scared to turn up and say “iwi trusts should not have charitable status”.
  
  12 1
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  March 26, 2025 3:32pm
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Rouppe,
    Succinct and brilliant.
    Thank you.
    
    3 1
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    March 26, 2025 4:54pm
Surely Knott

“The University of Sydney is allowing people to self-identify as Indigenous with a statutory declaration, despite planning to crack down on the practice two …”

So to be a woman you only need to self identify and the state will change your legal status. But self identify as indigenous and the woke freak out.
5 2
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March 26, 2025 2:59pm
- NothingLeft
  
  It would fix NZ if we just passed a law that made everyone Maori and able to self nominate which tribe they belonged to (or just randomly ascribe one and let people change if they wanted).
  
  Would nullify all the race based law and policy making of the last 30 years.
  
  6 1
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  March 26, 2025 4:04pm
Keith White

My iwi is Te Europaische. Sorted.
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March 26, 2025 6:37pm

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