General Debate 16 April 2025

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Scott

Associate minister of health Casey Costello just wrote the following to the Ministry of Health:

“Recent documents that have reached my office from the Ministry of Health have referred to women as ‘pregnant people’, ‘people with a cervix’ or ‘individuals capable of childbearing’,” she said in the letter.
“Only women and people of the female sex can get pregnant and birth a child no matter how they identify.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360654102/coalition-directs-health-nz-stop-saying-pregnant-people

I know there are many on this blog who say the Coalition is Labour lite. But that’s not true and this is an important difference. This is an important cultural marker.

We must realise if Labour and the Greens and the Maori party were the government this madness would be official government policy.

And it is madness. Only women can give birth. I feel embarrassed for our society that I even have to argue this.

And I do have to argue this. Right on cue, one of our university elite argues against this policy:

Victoria University senior lecturer Dr George Parker, said the letter went against best practice:
“The memo is part of a broader push against equity initiatives in healthcare internationally and it is disappointing to see this picked up by politicians in Aotearoa.”

The government is doing its best. But they are opposed at every turn by the mainstream media, the universities and the liberal elite who on this issue have abandoned rational thought.
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April 16, 2025 8:04am
- Frank Hematuria
  
  A quick Google of Dr George may help put the good Dr’s comments in perspective.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:37am
  - muzled
    
    Michael Laws gave a good rundown on who she is.
    
    Another of the forever children family.
    
    https://theplatform.kiwi/podcasts/episode/michael-laws-is-saying-pregnant-women-now-controversial
    
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    April 16, 2025 9:29am
  - AitchW
    
    Oh god, a “non-binary trans person”.
    I cannot be the only straight white guy who is sick of being harangued by these smug freaks.
    If you can’t even work out that when you’re born with a penis you grow up to be a man, and when you’re born with a vagina you grow up to be a woman don’t lecture me about who can have babies.
    
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    April 16, 2025 9:45am
    - slightlyrighty
      
      The thinking that ends with the conclusion that “because this is how I identify, then this is how ALL people should treat identity” is so astoundingly self centred.
      
      It’s “I am right, you are all wrong and if you disagree, then you’re the bigot.” thinking and it should be called out for the BS it is.
      
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      April 16, 2025 10:50am
      - Don Beckett
        
        As with all this weird bunch, the narcissism is astounding.
        
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        April 16, 2025 11:25am
      - AitchW
        
        Dr George. “Don’t label me.”
        Same person. “I’m a proud trans-non binary woman”
        Also same person. “Don’t you dare use the wrong pronouns.”
        Is it just me or is a dichotomy?
        
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        April 16, 2025 1:08pm
    - MCōs
      
      Do you actually know any non binary people?
      I do. There’s one in our family and it’s a a shit existence. My brother and his wife are on constant suicidal watch
      I don’t understand everything, but I don’t think there’s been any transition. That’s just the way things are and nobody is smug about the situation
      
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      April 16, 2025 11:20am
      - Taieri
        
        Do you actually know any non binary people
        ———–
        
        Impossible to know any as they don’t exist. Mentally ill people do exist though. And it seems that their number is increasing in geometrical progression.
        
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        April 16, 2025 11:36am
      - MCōs
        
        Suit yourself
        
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        April 16, 2025 2:41pm
      - wsk12345
        
        Yes. Super smug boy child. Going g out with a girl who calls herself queer. Nobody gets it.
        
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        April 16, 2025 7:25pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Suicidal people need mental health solutions.
        
        Growing the number of suicidal people through ridiculous brainwashing isn’t a solution.
        
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        April 16, 2025 10:04pm
      - AC
        
        My nieces partner defines himself as gender neutral . Born a guy but hair style , clothes etc make it hard to tell what gender he is which I guess is his point. Apparently it’s a big part of his identity and made so much of a deal of it he got fired from a major company.
        Has a bunch of mental health issues as well . Makes for a pretty tough life.
        
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        April 17, 2025 12:54am
    - PurplePen
      
      Reminds me of this parody headline I saw the other day:
      
      Study finds that pregnant men are most at risk from heart attacks brought on by climate change.
      
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      April 16, 2025 12:02pm
- Nigel Kearney
  
  It must be nice having supporters like this. The government can completely fail on the economy, health, education, welfare, and race relations, but still keep people happy by throwing them some red meat on little stuff. Our country is in the shit and this government is shoveling more on top, but as long as they make someone on the left unhappy they will continue to have your full support.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:37am
- sungsamning
  
  Good point, they’re using gradualism to fly under the radar. Now its time to 86 the student loan scheme. see how many universities stay open; and how many ‘academics’ end up at Maccas.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:48am
  - alloytoo
    
    Not sure Maccas would hire them…..
    
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    April 16, 2025 12:26pm
    - sungsamning
      
      You’re right, a touch screen is smarter than a lot of ‘academics’.
      
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      April 16, 2025 5:15pm
- pdm
  
  Scott I am not sure any of the National Party members of the current Cabinet would have been as direct as Casey Costello has been.
  
  Good on her.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:54am
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    Rubbish, Simeone Brown did something virtually exactly the same as this over Health NZ going to public consultation over Macca’s in Wanaka, why do you Act know all’s stamp ya feet, you have even written in your first sentence you don’t think, that’s the problem with you ACT voters
    
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    April 16, 2025 8:59am
    - pdm
      
      That makes 1 G.
      
      I will give you Mark Mitchell as 2.
      
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      April 16, 2025 10:37am
    - leoj
      
      There is hardly a spine to be found in the National Party.
      
      I will be very happy next election when the Nats have their heads handed to them over the Treaty Principles Bill. This will bite them in the arse which they so richly deserve because they are so namby-pamby.
      
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      April 16, 2025 3:45pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        Hahahahaha, keep dreaming about the bullshit about the TPB, everyone knew the bill would never see the light of day well before the election, polls have not moved, if any that is losing support to NZF
        
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        April 16, 2025 10:47pm
- Blog-aholic
  
  Whose ‘best practice’?
  
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  April 16, 2025 9:20am
- Notsofast
  
  Yet Erica Stanford just said to Sean Plunket
  “Some children need puberty blockers”.
  This is more of the young generation knowing best.
  Well they don’t.
  See what happened with Ardern, see what’s happening with Chloe Swarbrick.
  The average age of a US senator is about 65 and congress 55.
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:20am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    Some kids do need puberty blockers for medical reasons such as early onset puberty. This is what these drugs were developed for.
    
    No kid needs it because they were “born in the wrong body” As far as I am concerned a body can’t be “wrong” so far as gender is concerned
    
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    April 16, 2025 10:53am
    - Notsofast
      
      Yes but this was not referring to precocious puberty.
      She is as dangerous as Doocey etc.
      
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      April 16, 2025 11:23am
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        She certainly stated clearly when I heard her this morning talking to Hosking she stated clearly that no one had the right to tell kids over parents about these issues with gender, and no f….n way was she talking about puberty blockers for gender assignment
        
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        April 16, 2025 10:51pm
    - Paulus
      
      Is this the reason that we are not told that our Mental Health problems are groeing exponentially –
      but we are not allowed to have any accurate analytical figures, but we know the exploding costs without qualification ?
      
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      April 16, 2025 2:52pm
  - pdm
    
    See what I meant at 10.37am G.
    
    I thought Erica Stanford might have been a straight shooter but, it seems not all of the time.
    
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    April 16, 2025 11:12am
    - kowtow
      
      Like the very strong constituency of ‘Blue Greens’ in the Nats .
      
      Seriously, they’re hopeless.
      
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      April 16, 2025 11:24am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      I heard her this morning, they out is utter bullshit
      
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      April 16, 2025 10:52pm
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Do I need to say it again? Erica Stanford is a progressive. And she’s in charge of education.
    
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    April 16, 2025 12:24pm
    - Paulus
      
      And has not a snowballs chance in hell of achieving anything.
      Teachers, Maori and the so called media will see to that.
      
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      April 16, 2025 2:54pm
      - G the giant from Dunedin
        
        She has made a better start than any other education minster for some years, just look at the mess Hipkins made ffs, and Stanford is never dictated you by media
        
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        April 16, 2025 10:53pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  to women as ‘pregnant people’, ‘people with a cervix’
  
  You would have thought that people in the Ministry of Health would have a bit more sensitivity to females who had undergone a radical trachelectomy.
  
  Just because they no longer have a cervix, they don’t stop being a woman, or even becoming pregnant.
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:36am
  - AitchW
    
    Don’t let your facts and common sense get in the way of their ideology.
    
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    April 16, 2025 10:41am
  - Pope Punctilious II
    
    Yes, that highlights what an idiotic label it is.
    
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    April 16, 2025 12:25pm
- Philview
  
  TVNZ ran the story last night which seemed like they thought Casey Costello was in the wrong. The person running that organisation should be shown the door.
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:54am
- Ian Boag
  
  Like this really matters? I was astounded at the weight given to it in the news.
  
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  April 16, 2025 12:39pm
  - Conservatarian
    
    It’s a simple and decisive victory in the culture wars over deluded academics and activists and sham science corrupted by gender ideology and ultimately fuelled by mental illness.
    
    The opponent here uses taxpayer funds and the shield of “academic freedom” to oppose common sense and are given oxygen by our far left media.
    
    The opponent is without ammunition but nonetheless talks as though it has a big army.
    
    Such wars National typically refuses to fight (though it allows Act and NZF to wage these wars). Note that it allowed Costello to front this one.
    
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    April 16, 2025 1:15pm
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      Brown did the bloody same with Min of health doing public consultations over not having Maccas in Wanaka, he has told them to get on yo helping people with their health issues
      
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      April 16, 2025 10:58pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    It does matter because even the head of midwives said she has fielded complaints about confusion from pregnant woman, especially woman with English as a second language
    
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    April 16, 2025 10:56pm
- R
  
  Clearly such a comment of biological ignorance gives the VicUni an opportunity to reduce there salary expenses by a factor of one senior lecturer
  
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  April 16, 2025 1:19pm
Monique Angel

Good morning everybody. Whats new other than Katy Perry beaming out live from her phizog from over the Karman Line with her Hoda Kotb buddies?
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April 16, 2025 8:06am
- kowtow
  
  It’s a measure of Big Business and their buddies in the media that they’re using total airheads to promote their doings .
  
  Meanwhile the Houthis are still firing rockets into Israel and the US is slowly taking them out .
  
  There is real news in Sudan and Nigeria too , but unless it’s a bunch of Cops doing their duty in the US , black lives really don’t matter.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:40am
  - AitchW
    
    To be fair they e always used people who can kick a ball or run really fast or walk and talk in front of a camera or sing in tune in public.
    Plus ca change….
    
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    April 16, 2025 1:11pm
    - Sponge
      
      “or sing in tune in public”
      
      I am not convinced that Perry can even do that.
      
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      April 16, 2025 6:23pm
  - MCōs
    
    Katy Perry didn’t get where she is today by being a total airhead
    Quite the contrary I would suggest.
    
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    April 16, 2025 2:50pm
- Lance
  
  I say good on her.
  Space craft are extremely expensive to design and build. More people paying for the ride will partially fund our expansion into space without fully relying on taxpayer funded programs. With the huge bonus of entrepreneurs finding lower cost and more efficient methods of achieving this goal.
  Our future development needs space craft (and robots) for extraterrestrial raw materials, energy and technological expansion.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:56am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Wendy’s Burger chain has rubbished her on social media, made a fool of her, and another musician woman who had been sued by her or her publishing company was in a photo liking the post and sitting in Wendys having a Wendys milkshake
  
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  April 16, 2025 9:01am
Cassandra

Having overseen waves of migration since the 1960s, Sweden has been held up by outsiders as an idyll of humanitarian care, peace and prosperity. Now, that vision lies in tatters. The country is in the grip of a deadly gang crime epidemic, fuelled by ethnic gangs who regularly hire teenagers to gun down their rivals.

The reality is that Sweden is no longer the socialist paradise of myth and its voters are rebelling. That situation is common in Europe. Yet the sense of failure is all the more acute in Sweden, long an open door compared to other European nations. Ever since the 1960s, when it first styled itself as a humanitarian superpower, it has taken in those fleeing trouble abroad, be it Americans fleeing the Vietnam war draft, Soviet dissidents, or Iraqis fleeing Saddam Hussein’s regime. In the 1990s came refugees from the Balkans, and in the last decade asylum seekers from Syria, Afghanistan and sub-Saharan Africa have arrived. Anxious not to create “parallel societies”, Swedish governments have long funded social integration programmes alongside the waves of migration. None of them have worked. Ghettos – no go zones – are common. The police have given up, often refusing to enter these areas unless in numbers and heavily armed.

So where to now? Firstly, there’s been a move to the right. Sweden joined the EU in 1995 and NATO last year. Second, there’s now a consensus that the problem has been a failure to integrate immigrants. We’ve seen that in NZ too. My UK forebears remained Scots for a few years but my NZ born (in 1879) grandfather was a Kiwi and his children (my father and his brothers) were totally New Zealanders. None of them ever went back to the UK or had any links with family back in Scotland. That’s not the case with lots of recent migrants. We have Moslems who are more closely affiliated with North Africa than their new country and Indians who culturally remain Indian. Who you support at cricket is perhaps not the most important matter but it is indicative.

The best solution would be to turn the clock back – listen to Enoch Powell – but that’s not all that realistic. Education is the answer but with our schools? I despair. Short of making every school a Charter Sandford has a very big task! But Europe’s appears to be bigger.

Australia is an interesting study. It has long had ethnic crime problems, aided and abetted by future 501s from here! Aussie crims are frequently of Middle Eastern or Asian extraction yet clearly Aussie culturally. Integration and assimilation work there, perhaps not quite in the way initially intended.
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April 16, 2025 8:09am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Read Johan Norberg. Sweden hasn’t been socialist since 1990 when they decided that socialism didn’t work. It literally screws the country up in the 20 years (1970-1990) that they tried it. Any welfare is payed by disproportionally taxing the low and middle class, you know, the people that use it most. The myth that Sweden is socialist is just another left wing lie.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:23am
  - Gussy Fink-Nottle
    
    Demark too – as a constitutional monarchy running a market economy it’s often touted by the left as a ‘socialist’ paradise.
    It’s ‘the big lie’ of course, because there are no examples of successful socialist countries.
    
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    April 16, 2025 10:34am
    - Jack5
      
      Agreed that socialism is more than flawed, Gussy Fink-Nottle, but of your statement “… there are no examples of successful socialist countries.”
      
      How about China? It seems to be going pretty well. Could become world No.1 economically. It’s going to be touch and go whether Trump can bring the US to head it off.
      
      And of poster In Vino Veritas’s Johan Norberg, of the Cato Institute. He’s an interesting Right-wing intellectual, and it’s true Sweden has a “mixed economy” like much of Europe (and NZ). However, it’s still a welfare state, even if welfare-ism has been reduced a little.
      
      Sweden’s tax rates, as spelled out on Wikipedia:
      
      “… personal income tax rates can range from about 29% to 60%, depending on income levels and local municipality rates. The corporate tax rate is set at 20.6%, while capital gains are taxed at a flat rate of 30%.”
      
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      April 16, 2025 11:34am
      - Ra Henare
        
        um err. China Socialist?
        
        Nope. Communist.
        
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        April 16, 2025 1:49pm
      - Gussy Fink-Nottle
        
        AFAIK Jack, China is now a ‘mixed economy’ (“Communism with Chinese characteristics”), rather than a pure ‘command economy’.
        The Party still has significant control, but their current growth trajectory really started when they moved away from collectivism toward a market economy-model.
        
        Perhaps I’ll rephrase – there are no examples of successful socialist countries that do not leverage market economies. Ergo, they are not socialist countries.
        
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        April 16, 2025 2:15pm
    - Pope Punctilious II
      
      Most successful 1st world democracies have mixed economies, including some socialist policies. ACC is an example of a good socialist policy, socializing the costs of accidents and sparing us from the USA’s ruinous culture of litigation. The DPB is an example of a more questionable socialist policy, to put it mildly.
      
      BTW, Denmark and Sweden still have top marginal tax rates of > 50 %. Another example of a socialist policy. But as I said, they have mixed economies, with strong private enterprise. What wrecked Sweden wasn’t socialism, it was multiculturalism and open borders.
      
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      April 16, 2025 12:40pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Socialism in NZ.
        Health care
        Hospital and GP & Pharmacy Subsidies
        Education to University level
        MSD with its
        Unemployment benefits
        Sickness Benefits
        Pensions
        Legal Aid
        and many more I am sure.
        
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        April 16, 2025 1:52pm
- imalwaysright
  
  Here’s the Enoch Powell speech for those interested. Its even more relevant today.
  https://youtu.be/NZ966pjvTTs?si=J87M00qfaFi4E0yO
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:24am
  - Jethrod
    
    One of the great speeches of the 60’s!!
    
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    April 16, 2025 9:42am
- cmm
  
  There seems to be a common thread in much of this: in the past the actual immigrants themselves are often not the problem – it has rather been the first generation born in the new land that have been the problem.
  
  ie. it was the waves of immigrants in the 1950s/60s that lead to the “wog wars” and other problems with Lebanese and similar.
  
  Now they might be calming down as they get older and the Somali wave is taking over.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:29am
  - PurplePen
    
    I wrote this before. Success in terms of immigrants integrating or just settling in and enjoying life is better guaranteed if they have the same values as the nation they are immigrating to.
    
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    April 16, 2025 1:04pm
Bridgenag

the conquest of the west
a conflict of irreconcilable visions

“a society that will not defend its own rights and mores will not long survive, especially if inundated with people who seek to take advantage of them and scream about “their rights” while trying to violate yours.”

https://open.substack.com/pub/boriquagato/p/the-conquest-of-the-west?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=false
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April 16, 2025 8:18am
- Bridgenag
  
  “in a high function society, repudiating the majority views in favor of minority views imported from low function societies is a road to ruin.”
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:26am
Dougal10

The Aussie criminal underworld used to be a Mediterranean one which had a rules based system , it has slowly shifted to being more a middle eastern one where the only rule is the religious one , of we are right and you are wrong .
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April 16, 2025 8:21am
- KiWombat
  
  So true. Essentially Italians and Greeks settling there after WW2.
  
  But they were masters of construction, dams, roads buildings etc – and their kids were Aussies thru and thru even though they often had “wog” names, and ultimately all made huge contributions to Australian society.
  
  Nowadays Aussie embraces Italian and Greek cuisine, often pioneered by Australians of Mediterranean heritage !
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:32am
  - pdm
    
    KW – Nino Culotta excelled as a Taxi Driver. lol.
    
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    April 16, 2025 8:56am
    - G152
      
      That takes me back
      
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      April 16, 2025 9:01am
      - Don Beckett
        
        “They’re a Weird Mob” – excellent book, & diagnoses Aussie society to a ‘T’.
        
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        April 16, 2025 11:35am
    - peterwn
      
      No. I thought it was a taxi driver who taught him bad English language habits and nearly got him in trouble with the cops. “Where do you want to go? – the Cross? ……. – Kings Bloody Cross?”.
      
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      April 16, 2025 9:07am
      - pdm
        
        You may well be right pw. It was a long time ago.
        
        I read a couple of his books and of course the radio programme was compulsory listening – just like Dad and Dave.
        
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        April 16, 2025 9:11am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Nino Culotta – the pseudonym of John Patrick O’Grady….about as Mediterranean as Con Dikaletus
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0Xmho2AuIA
      
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      April 16, 2025 9:10am
      - greybeard
        
        If he was still alive in 2025 he would probably have written a sequel: “They are a Queer Mob”.
        
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        April 16, 2025 8:14pm
  - Colville
    
    KiWombat
    
    Its a reason Greece is just a great place to holiday…you get all the beaches and food and every restaurant has staff who have done at least a couple of years in Oz, speak great English as they have extended family there.
    
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    April 16, 2025 9:08am
    - Paulus
      
      A few years ago having dinner in Italian Lygon Street Melbourne, the middle aged waiter came up with an absolute flourish in Italian welcoming us to his Restaurant.
      All went well when we eventually asked him what part of Italy was he from………………
      He answered Dunedin, and then you knew it.
      Great meal of course
      
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      April 16, 2025 3:01pm
- ChristopherW2
  
  The Mafia in Australia operated ‘rules-based’ organised crime!!??
  
  What an absurd suggestion – they were and remain a cancer. An attempt to romanticise them, to push a political viewpoint on immigration, is demented.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:52am
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Some of the main gutter TV media in Aus make big money romatisising the mafia (and other crims) for Australia’s large bogan cretin audience.
    
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    April 16, 2025 10:08pm
Jethrod

Angry Andy has announced he is standing for the Wellington mayoralty, Tory must be trembling.
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April 16, 2025 8:29am
- pdm
  
  Jethrod – would you trust Angry Andy to fix Wellington?
  
  I wouldn’t – not after the mess he made of Health.
  
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  April 16, 2025 11:16am
  - Jethrod
    
    Never , never, never, ad infinitum, nauseum etc.
    
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    April 16, 2025 3:50pm
- PurplePen
  
  Two words I say to that: Phil Goff.
  
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  April 16, 2025 1:08pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Fa’a Goff?
    
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    April 16, 2025 9:05pm
lifesgood

I went to Malmo in Sweden a couple of years ago. It was such a sad place to visit. Beautiful old buildings and cobbled streets but hardly a white face to be seen just groups of middle eastern migrants hanging around on street corners glaring and glowering at us. I felt really unsafe and was very happy to leave. What a disaster Sweden has made of their country
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April 16, 2025 8:37am
- nigel2010
  
  it’s not just Sweden that has f*cked up it’s cities I had a trip to the West coast of USA 2 yrs back, one of the highlights of a trip from 10 yrs earlier was the Santa Monica Pier and the shopping district it was alive and bustling with street buskers lined up for the best spots, now it’s dead the smell of pot lingers everywhere and the shopping district dead with every second shop closed I couldn’t even find a coffee shop open, thanks Democrats you have truly shown you version of progress
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:20am
cmm

Do we really need to import criminals from other ethnic cultures? It seems to me we’re doing pretty well with a combination of our Maori brothers and sisters combined with a soft-cocked justice system.

Maori commit crimes and are imprisoned at around 3x the rate as for whites (and even higher for Asians). Our wimpy judicial system creates conditions for the highest recidivism rates in the world.

NZ is second only to Jamaica for car theft and is pretty high for assault etc.
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April 16, 2025 8:38am
- imalwaysright
  
  The government approved, publically funded, and police enabled domestic terrorists are responsible for at least 20% of our crime.
  
  Low hanging fruit for a government with a pair.
  
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  April 16, 2025 8:59am
  - cmm
    
    “The government approved, publically funded, and police enabled domestic terrorists are responsible for at least 20% of our crime.”
    
    If you are referring to gangs, then it is likely higher than 20%.
    
    The cops seem incapable of realling getting control of them and only step in when it is absolutely unavoidable.
    
    For example, Herald is reporting there’s a Ferrari-driving, meth importing, Mob member who has just had $7M of assets impounded.
    
    Ummm, why did it have to wait this long? Why wasn’t this guy picked up years ago?
    Does anyone believe that a Mob member worth more than $50k has earned it legitimately?
    
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    April 16, 2025 11:16am
    - imalwaysright
      
      The 20% was put out by the police or the ministry a few months ago, so yes, very conservative.
      
      To deal with such a large and existential threat might require deputising the army or deploying the goon squad who beat up the brave Parliament protestors.
      
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      April 16, 2025 11:24am
      - NothingLeft
        
        Or just proscribing all gang membership and putting them and anyone who deals in meth away for life in a cheap prison (or sub-contract to a 3rd world country to provide that service for us)
        
        Think of the countless kids who would be saved by ending their predations on the poor and dumb excitable young women in NZ
        
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        April 16, 2025 12:31pm
imalwaysright

A High Court barrister’s 2023 letter to then PM about corruption in the NZ government, judiciary, police and bureaucracy.
https://waikanaewatch.org/2023/04/13/tatsuhiko-koyama-on-nz-institutional-corruption/

“The core of the problem is that basically New Zealand has no functional oversight on public administration and is the biggest legal blackhole in the Pacific.”
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April 16, 2025 8:40am
sungsamning

https://www.lucianne.com/2025/04/15/judge_blocks_trump_from_revoking_legal_status_for_530000_migrants_who_flew_into_us_via_biden_program_149672.html
Judge blocks Trump from revoking legal
status for 530,000+ migrants who flew
into US via Biden program.

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from revoking the legal status and work permits of the more than 530,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela who flew into the United States during former President Joe Biden’s time in office. The migrants came to the U.S. under Biden’s controversial controversial CHNV mass humanitarian parole program. In her order, Judge Indira Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote that each migrant needs to have an individualized, case-by-case review. [They were let in with an EO. An EO should be enough to deport them. None got an individual hearing to enter. Time to pull a Jackson.]
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April 16, 2025 8:45am
- RoboRob
  
  This, like other left wing federal Judge interference, will make its way to the Supreme court and likely be reversed.
  
  To be honest I feel for the immigrants. They came in through a legal program and were given flights and documentation. Yes the policy was stupid but nothing the immigrants did was illegal. Now a new president is reversing the policy and they are being kicked out. That sucks for them.
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:00am
  - KiWombat
    
    Here’s an interesting question. I wonder how many of the 530,000 appreciated the EO enough to apply for US citizenship?
    
    Those ones should be safe.
    
    But those decided to joina ghetto, or create their own, not so much !
    
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    April 16, 2025 11:02am
    - Mike
      
      Administration is claiming the right to deport US citizens too.
      
      4 8
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      April 16, 2025 12:57pm
      - rouppe
        
        Mohsen Mahdawi and Mahmoud Khalil are not US citizens.
        
        Who are the citizens you refer to?
        
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        April 16, 2025 2:01pm
      - Conservatarian
        
        The correct term for an illegal immigrant is a criminal alien.
        
        On one hand we have the people (represented by President Trump) who want criminal aliens (and especially those who have committed murder, rape and other serious crimes) out of the country forthwith.
        
        On the other hand we have the Democrats seeking the continuation of the globalist project who hide behind a critical mass of activist judges (represented by President Boasberg) who are willing to frustrate the will of the people .
        
        Whilst Democrats act like this, the people will continue to vote against Democrats, but the judges will continue to seek to impose the will of Democrats and oppose the will of the people.
        
        “This is our democracy”
        
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        April 16, 2025 2:27pm
      - Ghost
        
        https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/im-all-for-it-trump-says-he-wants-to-deport-us-citizens-to-el-salvador-prison/ar-AA1CU8Vv?ocid=BingNewsSerp
        
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        April 16, 2025 2:31pm
      - rouppe
        
        Ah. Imprisoning criminals who are us citizens in an offshore facility. Once their sentence is completed, they cannot be denied entry back into the USA.
        
        Which is different to the accepted meaning of “deport”.
        
        If I remember, Australia stripped citizenship from that Islamic state bride who held dual Australia / nz citizenship, and then deported her. A real deportation, where she can’t return to Australia.
        
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        April 16, 2025 2:47pm
      - Mike
        
        More sane washing of a presidential brainfart.
        
        During a White House briefing on Tuesday, Leavitt was asked whether it was legal to deport US citizens to Central American prisons. “It’s a legal question that the president is looking into,” she said
        
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        April 16, 2025 3:17pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Well, US citizens who are convicted criminals.
        He was musing about off-shoring prison facilities.
        
        5 5
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        April 16, 2025 3:42pm
      - rouppe
        
        Oh, so now it’s gone from “claiming the right” to “something being looked into”.
        
        Pretty desperate.
        
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        April 16, 2025 8:16pm
    - sungsamning
      
      Agreed. And now the scheme has been canned. A number have self deported.
      
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      April 16, 2025 5:28pm
  - sungsamning
    
    I guess the SC would nix it. They deserve sympathy. The people who have to put up with this invasion deserve more sympathy though.
    
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    April 16, 2025 5:27pm
- surfing
  
  It doesn’t matter, Trump is blatantly ignoring the law now.
  
  Banning journalists, setting the US government on people he doesn’t like. Very despotic.
  
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  April 16, 2025 11:47am
  - alloytoo
    
    Picked up a few tricks from the Biden administration has he?
    
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    April 16, 2025 12:32pm
  - RoboRob
    
    I think you will find that in almost all cases Trump has followed the federal judges rulings until they are overturned. The one instance where he didnt was when a plane was in the air over international waters and the judge ordered it tuned around.
    
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    April 16, 2025 1:05pm
    - surfing
      
      Almost?
      
      1 3
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      April 16, 2025 4:05pm
      - RoboRob
        
        Yeah, I mentioned the one that it can be argued they didn’t follow the judges ruling. There are technicalities they argue made it void.
        
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        April 16, 2025 4:37pm
  - Allan
    
    Which journalists? Do you mean the AP activists who have refused to call the Gulf of America by its name and have been banned from the White House and Airforce 1?
    
    Do tell, how many jounalists did Biden allow in those places?
    
    [Mod – debate the topics, not the person]
    
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    April 16, 2025 3:01pm
sungsamning

https://nypost.com/2025/04/15/us-news/fbi-collars-suspect-in-tesla-gop-office-firebombings-in-dramatic-new-mexico-raid/
Lipstick-wearing suspect in Tesla, GOP office firebombings hauled out shirtless in dramatic New Mexico raid.

WASHINGTON — The suspect accused of firebombing a Tesla showroom and a Republican Party office in New Mexico was hauled out into the street shirtless following an FBI raid early Saturday, photos obtained by The Post show.

Jamison Wagner, 40, was led away by FBI counterterrorism task force agents in a pair of shorts — and little else.
The lipstick-wearing Wagner, listed as a member of LGBT group 500 Queer Scientists, is charged with two counts of malicious damage or destruction of property and faces up to 20 years in prison on each count. [Good, now go after some of the high profile Epstein listers, and other real crooks who think they’re immune.]
9 2
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April 16, 2025 8:45am
- Don Beckett
  
  Another freak bites the dust.
  
  6 2
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  April 16, 2025 11:41am
  - sungsamning
    
    And more to come, hopefully.
    
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    April 16, 2025 5:30pm
I remember when

Just looking at a photo of the entrance to the admin at Massey University.
The feature that overpowers everything else is the fact about 50% of the steps up to the entrance have been painted ‘rainbow’.
Is this representative of those who attend Massey?
So members of the LGBTQ community are welcome, what about the rest?
Did anyone imagine that Massey University wouldn’t be welcoming to the LGBTQ community?
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April 16, 2025 8:48am
Hugh Jarse

Given the MSMs current desire to predict the outcome of the next election by running poll after poll at this time, have they asked Hipkins about his coalition partners he will need to form a government when this wonder event occurs ? .
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April 16, 2025 8:50am
Handyman

TVNZ news was on last night and the story was the Minister of education building a new school and upgrading many other buildings. ($100m allocation).
I wondered how TVNZ would (because I knew they would) turn this into a “mean National government” story. Sure enough they found a Maori school up north that was not going to get upgraded buildings.
The message was clear – Spending $100m on schools in growth areas means National does not care about Maori education.
18 2
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April 16, 2025 8:51am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Some of the new classes in the growth parts of the country receiving extra classes are Māori schools
  
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  April 16, 2025 11:01pm
kiwikidsnz

“This won’t be a significant impact on rates, we’re cutting our operational budget to provide for this purchase.”

Self serving unchallenged BS spin typical of bureaucrats spending other people’s money on their virtue signalling vanity projects. Obviously if they hadn’t bought the land (& above valuation) WRC could have cut their op budget AND rates.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/558316/wellington-regional-council-buys-large-block-of-bush-in-eastbourne
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April 16, 2025 9:10am
wisteria

I see that Andrew Little has announced he will stand for Mayor of Wellington. And we all thought it couldn’t get any worse. He couldn’t manage to get elected in New Plymouth = twice. He couldn.t stand the heat as the Labour Party leader and resigned rather than be dumped by the electors. so why would he think that the voters of Wellington would be any different.
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April 16, 2025 9:15am
- Hugh Jarse
  
  I may be wrong but I think it was worse than that, Labour realised six weeks out from the 2017 election he was unelectable and the “Angry Andrew” nickname was correct so he stepped down in favour of Jacinda.
  
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  April 16, 2025 9:37am
  - AitchW
    
    At least he had the self awareness to step down. The one time we needed a Labour MP to act in character (ie a clueless, self absorbed narcissist) he actually managed to read the room.
    Or was he pushed?
    
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    April 16, 2025 9:53am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      You seem to forgot English handed Ardern her ass on election night45% -35%, the hater Peters decided he knew better
      
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      April 16, 2025 11:04pm
- RoboRob
  
  He has one huge advantage this time. Tori Whanau!
  
  Andrew will get all the generic lefties and Tori will get the Green and woman vote. If the right was to produce a high profile candidate, they just might win Wellington with the vote split as above.
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:05am
  - AitchW
    
    Sadly I think Wellington is so infested by rabid Greens and lefties that either Tory or Little will be elected regardless of any right leaning candidate. Stick a fork in it, Wellington is done.
    
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    April 16, 2025 11:11am
    - pdm
      
      There is a fellow Chung running. He is said to be a Conservative.
      
      If he is he will be the pick of the bunch and probably the most likely to do any good for Wellington.
      
      12 1
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      April 16, 2025 11:21am
      - lifesgood
        
        Agree but Wellington is beyond saving now, I mean they also voted for Tamatha Paul and gave her a lead of 6000 votes. Beyong belief! Sorry Wellington but your city is infested with morons.
        
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        April 16, 2025 12:14pm
      - PurplePen
        
        At least with Chung and Little and STV voting you can vote preferences for anyone but Whanau.
        
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        April 16, 2025 1:14pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    @RoboRob @ 10:05AM
    
    RoboRob: The vote will not be split between Little and Whanau, anymore than it will be split between Ray Chung and Karl Tiefenbacher.
    
    Under single-vacancy STV, aka the majority-preferential vote, or PV, vote splitting does not occur. What will happen is that the votes cast by the Right will accumulate upon the most popular candidate of the Right, and the votes cast by the Left will accumulate upon the most popular candidate of the Left. Whichever candidate has the most votes will win.
    
    This is why it is important that people rank-order as many candidates as they reasonably can, to ensure, as much as possible, that their votes help determine who that winner is, rather than drop out of the count as their preferences are exhausted.
    
    Fortunately, it does look like the Right is getting organised. Ray Chung is leading a group called Independents Together, to contest the upcoming elections (see https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=169476 and https://wellington.scoop.co.nz/?p=169559).
    
    If the Right can also “get out the vote” in October, there could well be a Right majority on Council following the elections.
    
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    April 16, 2025 1:01pm
    - PurplePen
      
      They need to target students as I gather that’s where the Greens got a lot of their votes from, targeting them on campus, getting them to enrol. The students vote, then leave town when they drop out or graduate and Wellington is left with …
      
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      April 16, 2025 1:17pm
      - rouppe
        
        I remember reading that volunteers at an ACT tent (or was it FSU?) at Victoria University was berated by a sitting MP and volunteers from a neighbouring tent (Labour? Green?) to the point they packed up and left over safety concerns.
        
        That’s the level of student activity at Victoria.
        
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        April 16, 2025 1:51pm
      - artemisia
        
        Well over half of the advance votes in 2023 at Vic Uni were for the Green Party. 1246 out of total 1967. Clearly successful at getting out their vote.
        
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        April 16, 2025 4:04pm
- leoj
  
  In a city overrun by public servants, Angy Andy will likely win.
  
  Wellington will NEVER learn and will continue to vote left even if it can be proved that Wellington is now a leftist shithole.
  
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  April 16, 2025 3:52pm
Burtland

the BBC venture into ill informed commentary on the Treaty Principles Bill
– maori didnt cede sovereignty front and center
Completely missed all the nuances of the debate

https://www.bbc.com/audio/play/p0l4bdvn
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April 16, 2025 9:15am
Yvette

See, I read Dr Muriel Newman’s article “Cultural Apartheid” beginning –
King’s Counsel Gary Judd has been at the forefront of a battle to defend New Zealand from the actions of Maori tribal leaders attempting to force their cultural apartheid onto our country.

He’s defending the Rule of Law from attack by those pushing for ‘decolonisation’ by arguing that since ‘tikanga’ is an ‘amorphous spiritual culture’ and not law, it has no place in our Common Law. And he’s appealed to Parliament’s Regulations Review Committee to stop the compulsory teaching of ‘tikanga’ to new law students.

– and towards the end says –
Anthony Willy then asks whether we should surrender our democracy – or whether the majority should stand up and not only halt the separatists’ ambitions but reverse them: “This is not as difficult as it may first appear. All that it takes is common sense and political courage. Parliament should amend the Constitution Act and the various Courts’ legislation to provide that Tikanga and Maori spiritual values are not part of the common law of New Zealand. No more activist judicial legislation and no more bijural law experiments.”
https://www.nzcpr.com/cultural-apartheid/

But I needed to Google “bijural law” because buggered if I had come across the word before –

Bicultural, bilingual, bijural: A plan for a new model of legal education in Aotearoa

AI Overview
Bijuralism in New Zealand:

• Recognition of Māori Law:  New Zealand has a bijural legal system where Māori law (tikanga Māori) is recognized alongside the common law.
  
• Legal Education:  A bijural legal education, according to Maori Law Review, which is now compulsory for all law students, emphasizes the role of Māori law in the New Zealand legal system.

• Tikanga Māori:  Tikanga Māori is a system of customs, values, and beliefs that has influenced the development of New Zealand law, according to Maori Law Review.   

In essence, bijuralism represents a legal landscape where two or more distinct legal systems co-exist and interact, often requiring special mechanisms for interpretation and application of laws.

So, back to Dr Muriel Newman’s “Cultural Apartheid”

No more activist judicial legislation and no more bijural law experiments.”
Simple.
But does the Coalition have the courage to stop the rot and make the changes necessary to get New Zealand back on track?

While the signs are looking more positive, the demands by tribal leaders for New Zealanders to kowtow to their racist agenda have now spread throughout the country. It is socially destructive and cancerous. We must not let the bullies win.

The question is – Is Dr Muriel Newman warning of something in the process of happening, or is Google AI telling you it is already in place
or is it somewhere like because Google seems to say “It is” so “It is”
(like Dame Jacinda Ardern’s : “It is what it is”)
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April 16, 2025 9:56am
- cmm
  
  South Africa had, and maybe still has, a system of customary law with courts and such. This was introduced in the 1920s or so as a way to adjudicate cultural matters without it resorting to more typical remedies (ie. warfare between the parties).
  
  These courts were limited to cultural matters such as dealing with lobolo (bride’s price) arguments etc. eg. the parties agree that the bride is worth 10 cattle, but it turns out she arrives knocked up with someone else’s child so the husband’s family want to renegotiate it to 2 cattle.
  
  These laws had zero influence in criminal matters.
  
  Unfortunately I think the NZ version is likely to have tentacles into everything. ie. far worse than the apartheid judicial system.
  
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  April 16, 2025 11:25am
Bridgenag

TREMAIN IS BACK!
email itremain@icloud.com to get the posts
6 2
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April 16, 2025 10:01am
- Mike
  
  who?
  
  4 17
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  April 16, 2025 10:24am
- Ghost
  
  Or instead of pestering him just go to his website
  
  https://garricktremain.nz/
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:25am
  - Taieri
    
    Great to see that it has been resurrected. Up until a few days ago Tremain’s website was no longer.
    
    8 1
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    April 16, 2025 11:38am
trout

Just back from a pleasant visit to Wanaka. It feels like Nelson did in the 60’s, with an overlay of tourists. No grafitti,low crime (mainly rich kids playing up), no homeless people, cars and houses left unlocked, and a very low level off Maorification. Whole subdivisions without a Maori street name! A ‘Maori Point Winery’ and a taxi company called Wana Taxi were about it. Plenty to attract ‘white flight’ from Auckland and many are taking advantage.
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April 16, 2025 10:27am
- Sponge
  
  How, pray tell, do you know the cars and houses were unlocked?
  
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  April 16, 2025 10:31am
  - Mike
    
    LOL
    
    7 7
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    April 16, 2025 12:48pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Word of mouth with neighbours?
    
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    April 16, 2025 10:10pm
- MCōs
  
  I hear the Wanaka people are fed up with the place being overrun by Jaffas
  
  6 0
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  April 16, 2025 2:53pm
  - Sponge
    
    My family have owned a property down there for 20 odd years and you are correct. The whole “object to McDonalds” fiasco was, in the main, supported by people who don’t live in Wanaka.
    
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    April 16, 2025 5:29pm
cmm

Can anyone draw me a picture explaining how the Reserve Bank should ever have been given a $150M budget – let alone $200M?

That is an awfully huge amount of money that doesn’t really seem to generate any significant value for the taxpayers.

According to their website, their major activities are:
“Monetary Policy:
The RBNZ uses monetary policy, primarily through the official cash rate (OCR), to manage inflation and ensure price stability.
Financial System Stability:
The RBNZ monitors and regulates the financial system to ensure it remains healthy and can handle shocks.
Currency and Payments:
The RBNZ manages the supply of banknotes and coins, and also oversees and operates the national payments system.
Financial Literacy:
The RBNZ promotes financial literacy and understanding among New Zealanders.
Regulation and Supervision:
The RBNZ regulates and supervises banks, insurers, and other financial institutions to ensure their stability and compliance.
”

They’re getting a huge fail on some of those fronts – especially financial literacy. Surely this would be handled better by other agencies – maybe with some teaching skills.

As one of the shrinking pool of net taxpayers, I really don’t feel I am getting my money’s worth.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/reserve-bank-loses-millions-in-funding-under-new-deal-with-government/UY5PXFFIC5FLXMABFBCKEQXOPU/
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April 16, 2025 11:38am
Stu2

Seen the latest US tariff news? China was taking 20-25% of Boeing production. Not any more, now zero.

Airbus will be pleased.

Another wild success following three weeks of randomness.
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April 16, 2025 12:15pm
- Ian Boag
  
  Airbus will be pleased
  
  Not necessarily. Comac C909 and C919 have become serious contenders in the A32x and 737 space.
  
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  April 16, 2025 12:20pm
  - NothingLeft
    
    I won’t be flying in them until they’ve had 10 years in service to prove their reliability.
    
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    April 16, 2025 12:39pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      Dunno. Western certification requirements are pretty strict.
      
      Would you fly in a Boeing 737Max? Hasn’t been 10 years since the autopilot crashed a couple and one had a door blow off at 5000m in the sky.
      
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      April 16, 2025 12:48pm
      - Hard Cheese
        
        Firstly, what is the C909? Secondly, western certification is strict, correct – but neither of Comac’s aircraft have been FAA or EASA certified so I don’t know where you’re getting this “serious contenders” idea from. None of the large carriers will be flying them anytime soon, switching maintenance, operations and flight crew training away from their existing Airbus and Boeing fleets would be an exercise in losing money.
        
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        April 16, 2025 1:52pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        C909 looks a bit like an MD-80 knockoff. From Wikipedia ….
        
        Main article: List of Comac C909 operators
        
        TransNusa ARJ21, the first operator outside China
        As of April 2025, there were 146 aircraft in commercial service.[21]
        
        By April 2025, 176 aircraft had been delivered to customers.[47][48]
        
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        April 16, 2025 2:01pm
lifesgood

If I’m not misteaken one of National’s election promises was to get rid of Maori names for government departments. As far as I know only one department has reverted to what everyone understands. So come on National, what’s going on? Breaking election promises, eh?
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April 16, 2025 12:17pm
- Mike
  
  Wasn’t an explicit promise, IIRC. Might be a bit problematic when te reo is an official language.
  
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  April 16, 2025 12:50pm
  - mandk
    
    Te Reo might be an official language, but the Māori names are often poetic, rather than descriptive.
    
    For example, what would you expect to be the role of the Ministry with a Māori name that translates into as ‘Lifting Accomplishment’?
    
    10 2
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    April 16, 2025 2:09pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      An “official language” as dictated by unrepresentative swill.
      
      The vast majority (of both part-Maori and everyone else) can’t be arsed.
      
      2 1
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      April 16, 2025 10:13pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    Mike: “Wasn’t an explicit promise, IIRC. Might be a bit problematic when te reo is an official language.”
    
    Weasel words then?
    
    1 1
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    April 16, 2025 10:11pm
- leoj
  
  National were going to eliminate the maori seats too but didn’t.
  
  It’s National’s history. Make a promise before the elction then change their mind afterwards.
  
  Weak, woke, namby-pamby, gutless, spineless – the entire party.
  
  5 1
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  April 16, 2025 3:57pm
  - Ghost
    
    John key said they would only be abolished with agreement from Maori, to do so without would cause hikois from hell dividing the country
    
    3 1
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    April 16, 2025 4:19pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Right a vocal minority of vested interests marching should settle it.
      
      1 1
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      April 16, 2025 10:15pm
  - G the giant from Dunedin
    
    So was Peter’s
    
    1 0
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    April 16, 2025 11:09pm
All_on_Red

Oh look
NY AG Letitia James (remember her?) is being investigated.
‘The federal government’s main housing loan agency has referred New York Attorney General Letitia James,… to the U.S. Justice Department for possible prosecution over alleged mortgage fraud.
Ms. Letitia James has, in multiple instances, falsified bank documents and property records to acquire government-backed assistance and loans and more favorable loan terms,” the letter added. “This has potentially included 1) falsifying residence status for a Norfolk, Virginia-based home in order to secure a lower mortgage rate and 2) misrepresenting property descriptions to meet stringent requirements for government backed loans and government assistance.”
https://justthenews.com/accountability/political-ethics/federal-agency-refers-new-york-ag-letitia-james-doj-prosecution#dig-deeper

Gee, sounds familiar to what she accused others of doing.
You can always rely on the left to accuse others of what they are doing themselves.
The Declarations she made are pretty damning.
11 4
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April 16, 2025 12:57pm
Ghost

Good idea to stay silent on this labour. The longer you remain silent the longer people get to see labours agenda for when they are in govt next

Labour is staying tight-lipped, as Te Pāti Māori says Māori should receive New Zealand Superannuation seven to 10 years before everyone else.

Meanwhile, the Green Party supports lowering the age of eligibility for Super for some groups in society.

Article
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April 16, 2025 1:13pm
- mandk
  
  TPM justify this on the basis that Māori have a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population.
  
  However, the results of the NZ Health Survey suggest that much of the differential is likely to be the result of lifestyle choices.
  
  Compared to the rest of the population, Māori are:
  – Much more likely to smoke tobacco,
  – Much more likely to drink hazardously,
  – Much more likely to use methamphetamines and other drugs, and
  – More likely to be obese.
  
  It would be interesting to see life expectancy data adjusted for these factors, but I suspect this would be embarrassing.
  
  11 1
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  April 16, 2025 1:57pm
  - Mod88
    
    But, but Waititi said Maori have stronger genes and are superior, how can this be, by his reckoning they shouldn’t be eligible till they are 75 years old given this racial superiority he speaks of.
    
    9 0
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    April 16, 2025 2:42pm
  - sirknz
    
    I’m sure that their child mortality rates don’t help lift the average life expectancy much either…
    
    7 0
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    April 16, 2025 3:00pm
  - PurplePen
    
    “TPM justify this on the basis that Māori have a lower life expectancy than the rest of the population.” which is incorrect. Stats data from 2012 show that this is only for Maori from tribes in the top half of North Island. South Island it’s essentially the same. Lower North Island it can be as much as 3 to 5 years.
    
    4 0
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    April 16, 2025 3:50pm
    - Albie
      
      Apparently European New Zealanders have an average lower life expectancy than the Asian population. Does this mean we can have our eligibility lowered too?
      
      5 0
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      April 16, 2025 4:44pm
      - PurplePen
        
        7 years lower .. from the same 2012 Stats.
        
        1 0
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        April 16, 2025 10:12pm
- AitchW
  
  Has the Maori Party hijacked a Labour policy?
  Has Labour been talking about it in Caucus and one of the so called Maori caucus told their whanau in TMP, thereby allowing said Maori Party to beat Labour to the draw?
  Will the next election be an arms race of pork barrel policies between Labour and TMP as both attempt to buy the Maori vote?
  The only thing that is clear is that a vote for Labour is a vote for the Maori Party and vice versa. May as well chuck the Greens into that mix as well….
  
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  April 16, 2025 3:47pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I’m sure Ian Boag will be along soon to explain why this is a bad idea.
  
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  April 16, 2025 9:15pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  OK should men receive it 10 years before women?
  
  Should chain smokers receive it 20 years before everyone else? How about alcoholics and meth addicts?
  
  1 1
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  April 16, 2025 10:17pm
Keith White

Not what anyone affected wants to read, but that’s the problem with reality (quotes edited to keep it short).

“Repeated COVID-19 Vaccination as a Poor Prognostic Factor in Pancreatic Cancer.”

“We aimed to investigate the relationship between repeated vaccinations and pancreatic cancer (PC) prognosis. Additionally, we examined serum IgG4 levels, known to be an immune suppressor (and which increases w/repeated vaccinations).

“Methods: We retrospectively examined the effect of vaccination on survival in 272 PC patients diagnosed from January 2018 to November 2023… including IgG4 levels in 96 PC patients.

“Results: The overall survival (OS) of PC patients was shortened in those vaccinated three times or more, and the total serum IgG4 levels increased with the number of vaccinations.
6 2
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April 16, 2025 1:31pm
Sparrow

Had no interest on the Polkinghorn trial, but did watch the three part doco. Am mystified as to why this doco was screened which frankly was trying to rewrite the outcome of the trial.
Polkinghorn was found not guilty as there was insufficient evidence to convict.
6 3
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April 16, 2025 1:32pm
- MCōs
  
  When I say I have no interest in the Polkinghorne trial I don’t mean I don’t find it riveting
  
  3 1
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  April 16, 2025 3:03pm
  - NeonTeepee
    
    I once watched a documentary about how large steel ships are made.
    
    That was riveting.
    
    7 0
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    April 16, 2025 7:49pm
    - Mike
      
      And I watched one about making jam. It was stirring.
      
      1 1
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      April 17, 2025 7:07am
- lifesgood
  
  I didn’t watch it, couldn’t stomach it to be fair. Of course Not Guilty doesn’t mean innocent, it just means, as you say, insufficient evidence to convict.
  
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  April 16, 2025 3:04pm
kowtow

‘A Hato Hone St John spokesperson said it responded with one ambulance, one rapid response unit and an operations manger.’

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/e-scooter-rider-critical-after-dunedin-crash

I could understand if it were a mountain rescue in the Alps and they were using St Bernard dogs , but not in the middle of a city.
2 0
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April 16, 2025 2:32pm
- mandk
  
  No, it’s a perfectly normal response from Hato Hone.
  
  The rapid response unit was to say a karakia, and the manger (sic) was there to collect the koha.
  
  5 1
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  April 16, 2025 5:01pm
mandk

This op ed by Tom Pearce, Parliamentary Advocacy Coordinator for People Against Prisons Aotearoa (PAPA), is disgracefully disingenuous: https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/360656014/tom-pearce-heres-what-people-against-prisons-aotearoa-stands-and-why-tamatha-paul-has-been-unfairly

It should be clearly understood that PAPA want to abolish the police and abolish prisons. They want restorative justice for all crimes, even for sexual abuse of children.

Here’s what they say about offences of child sex abuse:

“In the case of child sexual abuse, for example,
the collective is called upon to consult with the perpetrator and victim, or a close family member to act as advocate if the victim is considered too
young. The collective proposes that the parties come together for mediation, using this initial contact with perpetrator and victim to gauge
the circumstances under which both parties would be comfortable doing so.
What follows is a process resembling restorative justice, in which perpetrator and victim are brought together by the collective. Similar to
restorative justice, this stage of the process involves a conversation in which the victim or their advocate explains to the perpetrator how their actions have affected them, and what the perpetrator needs to do to make amends.” (Source: Abolitionist Demands – Toward the end of Prisons in Aotearoa).

If that doesn’t make you sick to read it, I can’t know what will.
8 0
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April 16, 2025 2:48pm
- cmm
  
  I would expect that under such a system you’d see an increase in kangaroo court justice.
  
  The perpetrator would “slip while peeling a potato” and end up with a knife in his belly and nobody would see it happening.
  
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  April 16, 2025 5:08pm
Jack5

Woke justice?

Bail and nail suppression until June for three charged with gang rape, and two of them wore masks in court.

zherald.co.nz/nz/men-accused-of-gang-raping-german-backpacker-in-auckland-cbd-granted-interim-name-suppression/NHSUB6L2XJBMJG5TIXXJLY7HJU/
6 1
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April 16, 2025 5:21pm
Swifty

More new Sowell – this time on the factless crap the Left spout:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hk0HR9G37pI
2 3
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April 16, 2025 7:07pm
- Mike
  
  Has he taken apart Trump’s nonsense yet?
  
  1 5
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  April 16, 2025 8:08pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    He’s commented on Trump’s tariffs and doesn’t think as a general rule they are good (with some caveats). See recent Uncommon Knowledge podcast.
    
    4 0
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    April 16, 2025 10:20pm
  - Swifty
    
    Yes.
    
    NZer In Exile summarises it well.
    
    3 0
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    April 16, 2025 11:28pm
greybeard

Looks as though Andrew Little’s recent and short-lived private employment experience has proven to be inadequate as far as defraying his expenses, so he reverts to type and looks to the Public Tit to help him out. Again.
8 1
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April 16, 2025 8:00pm
Prince

The man who spent $2B on mental health to no effect, and $M’s on Pike River with no result, thinks he can solve Wgton’s financial issues !

Little as mayor would be the final blow to the Capital.
5 0
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April 16, 2025 9:28pm

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