General Debate 4 December 2017

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Brito

I wonder which issues will be dragged into the headlights to encourage us to focus on anything other than the lying Persian Princess.
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December 4, 2017 8:09am
- Muttonbird
  
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  Still obsessed?
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:17am
  - Lance
    
    Hey Muttonbird;
    Why are the left obsessing over Todd and ignoring Metu on the same deal who broke-the-law?
    
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    December 4, 2017 8:19am
    - softail 1450
      
      muttonturd. we are waiting for that answer.
      
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      December 4, 2017 8:30am
    - Muttonbird
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      I guess because Turei hasn’t refused to talk to the police (the police never involved in her case as far as I know), and she isn’t in laughing it up in Europe on the taxpayer.
      
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      December 4, 2017 8:38am
      - VicParking
        
        What he does with his time is his business. You would be happy if he stayed in NZ and spend his severence pay in Queenstown. I think not…… pull your head in.
        
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        December 4, 2017 8:41am
      - ztev
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        You dont know what the word ‘news’ means.
        
        I’ll give an example , ex MP spending time in Caroline bay, Timaru – not news
        ex Mp spending time in various exotic european locations – news.
        
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        December 4, 2017 8:51am
      - Muttonbird
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        Perhaps he might have waited till next year to swan about Europe instead of doing it while being paid by you and me. He’s going to be living there then anyway.
        
        That’s part of his problem – zero self awareness.
        
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        December 4, 2017 8:52am
      - waikatosinger
        
        That’s part of his problem – zero self awareness.
        
        Maybe, but it is his problem. Not our problem. The world is full of useless pricks. This is not news.
        
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        December 4, 2017 9:14am
      - waikatogirl
        
        Ah ztev, what was the name of that ex Liarbor MP who was caught travelling on the taxpayer dime while still a Minister, Chris someone? Took his boyfriend/partner travelling around the world. The msm chased him up and down Parliament stairways. Finally disappeared only to turn up working at the UN with his friend Hulun.
        Makes Todd’s trip to Italy look downright ordinarly. Top that Big Boy. ?
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:26am
      - ztev
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        No one was caught travelling on the taxpayer dime waikatosinger.
        
        Ministers travel often on official business, some occasions their partner goes with them.
        
        What is a problem is when they are ‘caught out’ using taxpayers funds on travel that are really for their partners benefit.
        
        Mr Kaiser was a primary school principal, the national Ministers has business interests overseas and in Hides case it was his girlfriends brothers wedding.
        
        I have no problem with spouses or partners travelling, as the minister is often away from home, but lets not use a flimsy excuse for overseas travel, when the real benefit is a personal one.
        Wong
        Collins
        Hide
        all used their taxpayer ministerial travel for their partners benefit
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:52am
  - Brito
    
    Well, muttonhead, watch the week and see. The smoke will thicken and you’ll be encouraged to ‘LOOK OVER-HERE’.
    
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    December 4, 2017 8:26am
    - tf78
      
      Vic Parking
      Sorry I pressed report instead of reply (as it wasn’t there and I didn’t read it properly).
      Anyway I was going to say -you are right, good on Todd he went and secured a good job and then went on holiday. That is what most normal, employable people do between jobs.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:43am
  - flipper
    
    Guano.. bird …. still more Guano
    
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    December 4, 2017 8:28am
- realityczech
  
  Brittle, Plastic Bags is the number one issue facing NZ according to fake news outlets.
  
  This fake news campaign gives the rabid socialists of the Greens something to virtue signal about and distract from their moral bankruptcy.
  
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  December 4, 2017 12:28pm
  - Brito
    
    Yip, you’re right…again…however, plastic bags are like endangered skinks. Not sexy and not really newsworthy! They’ll have to come up with a decent piece of deception to take the spot like off the little Persian Liar.
    
    Shane Jones did a good job this morning blithering about something and leaving Cindy a bit full in the cheeks. But…no mention of the Persian Liar in the media so far…so I guess it works.
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:23pm
holysheet

Well blow me over with a feather. A Salvation army policy wonk, says we need more aged care workers in the industry than we are at present training. His answer was we need to import workers from overseas.His reason?
The equity pay settlement that Bill English touted and settled at a cost to the taxpayer of over a billion dollars, is not having the desired affect. In other words the work is not driven by higher wages.
What a bunch of fuckwits, (including English) for not doing their homework first. Obviously, money is not everything in life.
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December 4, 2017 8:10am
- Inandout
  
  I thought when the Sallies went all Maori their problems would disappear, but sadly no.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:16am
  - sooty
    
    Sallies political arm of Labour. Tossers.
    
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    December 4, 2017 8:30am
    - Muttonbird
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      ‘The Salvation Army are tossers.’
      
      Staggering.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:05am
      - Prince
        
        Not staggering tossers. Just tossers.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:09am
      - lifesgood
        
        I used to really admire the Sallies, even used to go door to door collecting for them. Not any more. They are no better than all the other lefty half wits who think being poor is never your own fault and being maori makes you more worthwhile than anyone else. Wouldn’t give them a cent now.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:16am
- flipper
  
  Salvation Army ?
  Money making machine,
  How about the glitzy new Palace built by them in CHCH???>???
  
  True: I once gave all the furniture from an Estate that I inherited to the Salvation Army on the understanding that it was to be given in whole or in party to folks in need.
  Two weeks later my wife and I spotted our gift for sale in the Salvation Army shop.
  When my wife finished with the SA wallah in charge he had been skinned alive, the furniture was removed and handed to a real charity ( ST V de P, even though we are not Roman Catholic).
  
  So the sooner the SA disappears the bette,. The organisation is many respects no better than Tamaki’s scam !
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:09am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    Seriously?
    
    Consider the time and effort it would take for the Sallies to identify appropriate “folks in need” and then to transport those bits of furniture to them. Assuming of course that there even were folks whose most urgent need just happened, at that particular point in time, and in that neighbourhood, to be not food, not transport, not heating, not shoes or clothing for their children, not advice on job hunting – but those particular bits of furniture. Which would fit perfectly into their houses, of course.
    
    Then consider the good the Sallies could have done, for the folks whose needs were different from furniture, with the time and resource they could have saved, and the money they could have raised, by selling the furniture and using the money to fund the folks in need’s actual needs.
    
    Your gift would still have helped poor people. But it would almost certainly have provided more help, to more people, in ways that more closely matched their actual needs, than your insistence that the Sallies, rather than the market, match the demand for second hand furniture to your supply of it.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:26am
    - Kimbo
      
      Yep. is no different to selling of some state houses – like say in a big section in Glen Innes – and using the funds to build more in another location where they are needed. Most churches, Sallies or not will try to honour requests that gifts go to needs designated/requested by the donor, but they can’t guarantee it – and it can cut into their valuable administration time thereby diminishing the value of the gift.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:50am
      - Brito
        
        Many, many years ago a group of us was involved in an ‘incident’. The organisation we worked for should have provided food and water to assist.
        
        When I was leaving we saw a SA caravan had been set up just outside the cordon giving out water, food, cups of tea and any help some of these people needed. No money involved in it for them, just arrived, fed everybody, and left.
        
        Still get a few bucks from me when they rattle their plate at the pub.
        
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        December 4, 2017 3:59pm
  - ztev
    
    What a jumped up prick.
    Thinks the sallies are there to do his bidding.
    
    Did you give a few bucks from said estate to help their running costs. $500 wouldnt go amiss.
    Every one else gets paid for dealing with your estate but no the Sallies are expected to take it away at their expense and then foist it on ‘deserving people’.
    Charities are generally deluged with peoples castoffs when what they are short of is ‘the moolah’
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:00am
- Morrissey
  
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  Obviously, money is not everything in life.
  
  It is for this bloke, who made his money gambling against our dollar….
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/sites/default/files/story/2016/04/prime_minister_john_key_at_millbrook_yesterday_bef_2090763998.JPG
  
  “Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.” —Honoré de Balzac
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:30am
  - Peter
    
    who made his money gambling against our dollar….
    
    Our dollar
    So nationalistic
    Such pride in…
    “Our” dollar
    
    And “gambling”, too. So pejorative
    
    There is this idiotic notion held by some that “our dollar” is some sacred thing one would never exchange – to do so would be treasonous.
    
    Here’s a thought. Currency is a reflection of value and will fluctuate up and down. As all currencies do.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:32am
    - ztev
      
      ‘Gambling against the dollar’ doesnt have the nice ring that ‘investment banker’ does ( he had nothing to do with the ‘investment side’ of Merrill Lynch)
      
      Its a bit like one MP who was pinged for misleading biography- prosecuting war criminals !!!
      has a much better impression than saying being on the defence side.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:04am
      - Peter
        
        ‘investment banker’
        
        Religion never goes away, really. The god/devil archetype. Makes passing judgement so easy, doesn’t it.
        
        You’re a really good person if you abuse “bankers”.
        
        However, I can only assume you’ve never run a business in which you needed to hedge against currency risk. You do actually benefit from the service of traders like Key, even though you don’t appear to realise it, as your costs are reduced.
        
        But, like all ideologies, religion has problems with nuance. And therefore truth.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:26am
      - Lance
        
        zetv; you should get up a petition to make JK resign from parliament.
        Your onto a winner there
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:29pm
      - double d
        
        HAHAHAHAHA
        so which is the bad bet – is selling kiwi treasonous or buying kiwi. So let us know so we can pass judgment.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:44pm
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Uptick for the quote in french. Tres amusant!
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:24am
- KevOB
  
  The “settlement” had the effect expected:
  Hourly rates — up
  Work hours — down
  Work load/hr — up
  Takehome pay/worker — down.
  
  Unhappiness.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:33am
  - nasska
    
    We have a granddaughter who has worked in aged care for a few years. Amazingly she enjoys the work & appreciated the pay rise.
    
    BUT her employment contract only guarantees her seven eight hour shifts per fortnight at any time between 7am & 11pm seven days/week. Per week that is 28 x $23 = $644 or $550 nett. To get close to a living wage means being on call to cover extra shifts with as little as an hours notice.
    
    Then they seriously wonder why people aren’t breaking down the front door to apply for aged care positions……their ignorance is breathtaking.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:54am
    - sam green
      
      Meanwhile – Rymans, Bupa, Oceania etc are posting record profits.
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:22pm
      - Brito
        
        Sammy, leave my caregivers alone. You’ve got one more week of school and then the whole summer is yours. Crickets chirping, bees buzzing, fish splashing the clear cool pools, while you and your mates swing from a rope tied to an old willow tree…by the neck.
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:26pm
  - Digmen1
    
    Just wait till Labours $20 an hour kicks in
    Employers will just give up
    Our exporters and tourist business will be priced off the market.
    
    Most of our competitors pay $10 an hour or under.
    Its only Australia that has very high wages (and they have minerals)
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:01pm
JIV

The witch-hunt going on in Hollywood, identifying men with inappropriate behaviour, feels familiar.

It feels a lot like the witch-hunt that successfully got all male teachers out of primary schools. Then, kids were encouraged to embellish or even make up stories to get their teachers fired or locked up.
Now, actresses are suddenly remembering moments that scarred them for life and even though it may have been 30 years ago, it still made them weep uncontrollably.

Its begs the question, why does Hollywood want to get rid of all their men. Is it just to create a vacuum for women to fill?
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December 4, 2017 8:14am
- Inandout
  
  Hollywood dykes seem to be bypassed.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:17am
- MrLovebucket
  
  “He said if I slept with him, he would make me famous”, said a bunch of famous women about Harvey Weinstein.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:27am
  - sooty
    
    The dykes are all pissed off, they missed out.
    
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    December 4, 2017 8:31am
    - ztev
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Were you turned down by the local bike in your younger days ?
      No need to get all bitter now
      
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      December 4, 2017 8:53am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Now now ztev, Sooty’s boy is your brother, how can you be so nasty?
        
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        December 4, 2017 8:59am
      - flipper
        
        Quack, quack, quack little silly duckling…
        
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        December 4, 2017 9:13am
      - Lance
        
        Now now ztev
        The sisters will not approve of talk like that.
        You will be demoted
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:19am
      - ztev
        
        Silly boys.
        Im not paid for this. What a strange idea
        
        Look to DPF as an example , all the work in puts in for his unpaid blog.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:07am
  - G152
    
    Seems to have worked 🙂
    
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    December 4, 2017 8:53am
  - VicParking
    
    It Worked and thirty later as has-beens they moan.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:44am
  - Digmen1
    
    One of which was Gwnyth Paltrow.
    She would not have got the job otherwise.
    When she lived in England no one would date her until Chris Martin came along.
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:03pm
  - Shaun the Sheep
    
    Plenty of wannabes haggling over the price of a purchase made years ago.
    
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    December 4, 2017 2:02pm
- DifferentPerspective
  
  It’s about pay equity
  
  As there is such a problem in Hollywood whereby audiences don’t really care much for female leads and big box office paydays are brought in by male stars – the libtards have found the perfect solution!
  
  Make sure there are no big box office male leads!
  That way the proof that male stars bring in the big bucks can be hidden (kind of like how in Sweden they’ve stopped recorded ethnicity of crims to hide the muslim rape epidemic).
  
  Teaching was the pilot programme to see if you could drive males out of a profession – it was successful and now it’s being extended.
  
  As the top box office earner – you have to ask how long before Mark Wahlberg is found out to have been a serial sexual abuser?
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:47am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  “Is it just to create a vacuum for women to fill?”
  What JIV? a vacuum created cant be filled with another vacuum……
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:57am
- tom hunter
  
  While I’m enjoying the takedown of various Hollywood “Liberal” icons I have little time for the preening of that community (or the political and MSM worlds that are equally infested), because they helped to create this shit decades ago. Why Liberals Have Such A Hard Time With ‘Monstrous Men’ And Their Art:
  
  Dederer is not wrong that “Manhattan” is shocking to watch, but she doesn’t began to wrestle with the most shocking thing about it: A movie about a grown man having sex with a teenager wasn’t shocking 40 years ago, and not only that, it was the height of “culture.” Allen and Hemingway were both nominated for Oscars, and the film won a Golden Globe for Best Drama.
  
  Back then anybody who objected to such was laughingly dismissed as an old, conservative fuddy-duddy. Objecting to adult men chasing teenage girls was the very definition of “conservative”.
  
  And now the wheel turns? Led by the same sort of virtue-signalling, morally superior Left-wing assholes who glamourised all this and even celebrated it? There really should be only one response to the Hollywood/Manhattan feminists now on a roll.
  
  Go fuck yourselves.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:04am
  - JibberJabber
    
    Lefty arseholes are the new Puritans.
    Hair-trigger outrage on behalf of issues no-one gives a fuck about.
    A veritable minefield if you are a Liberal, LoL, do you support Free the Nipple or do you protest every advertisement that shows side boob? Oh, the dilemma, better sit down and have another soy, 1/2 cafe chai latte`.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:57am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Absolute minefield: must support muslims, because they’re minorities or some such reason, especially if they are immigrants, but just ignore islam’s misogyny and homophobia.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:31am
- lifesgood
  
  What is now considered outrageous and actionable used to be called flirting and most girls, when I was a teenager, either loved it or at least just thought “that’s boys being boys”. Please note I am not talking full on sexual assault here, but the odd pat on the back, pinch on the bum, wolf whistle, slightly risque remark, all good fun and lapped up by girls. The women’s lib movement has seriously damaged all the fun there used to be between young men and women. It’s now far worse, it’s all about hooking up, having sex, and gone by the morning. Where’s the joy in that?
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:22am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    “pinch on the bum, ” no, not acceptable at all, unless she’s actually your girlfriend/wife and you know she enjoys it.
    
    Risque remarks maybe to someone you know well and who you know is happy to flirt.
    
    A pat on the back is different again – should just be acceptable between people who know and like each other in a non-sexual way for praise and support.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:37am
    - lifesgood
      
      Your name says it all. You do sound very snowflakey. I’m talking about friends and colleagues here, not strangers. I do not know of any woman in my generation who objected to anything I mentioned. All taken in good fun and for many women, rather flattering. But there you go “generational change” as the precious princess says.
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:47pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        Thanks, my name does say it all: in matters of equal rights, sexual consent and gay rights I’m a classic liberal, what you may call ‘snowflake’. I’m in my 50s, btw, and have lived in NZ and Europe. Pinching people on the bum would not have been acceptable in any of my social circles.
        
        In matters of trade and industry, I’m also a classic liberal: not a leftie. I want people to keep more of their hard earned money, pay fewer taxes and property tax (‘rates’) and thus support more trade.
        
        This combination, which I consider ‘classic liberal’ is unusual these days. Neither lefties nor conservatives generally share all my viewpoints.
        
        Btw, Kimbo keeps telling me I’m not a classic liberal.
        
        Whatever, it’s a good sign that there’s a variety of opinions here.
        
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        December 4, 2017 3:01pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        I do not know of any woman in my generation who objected to anything I mentioned. All taken in good fun and for many women, rather flattering.
        
        I’m 58, and I don’t know any women of my generation who would think being pinched on the bum was good fun or flattery.
        
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        December 4, 2017 3:20pm
  - lastmanstanding
    
    And it happened to guys. I started work as a teller in a well known bank in my late teens. The female employees in their 20s/30s used to delight in sending me to the strong room to sort the ledger cards. One of them would then come into the strong room and squeeze past me rubbing herself up and down against me. In the summer the girls wore thing smocks with just a bra and knickers. Said girl would then leave the strong room with the other giggling waiting for me red faced and blushing to make an appearance.
    
    No doubt the Hollywood bitches would dismiss the embarrassment I felt and tell me I should have hardened up ( which I did at the time that added to my problem).
    
    So surprise surprise this issue goes both ways.
    
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    December 4, 2017 12:47pm
    - MCos
      
      You been swapping yarns with Shane Jones?
      
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      December 4, 2017 2:01pm
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Now I’m confused. Sounds like you were sexually harassed, even sexually abused and didn’t like it. How does that equate with ‘all taken in good fun’?
      
      You were treated badly and it shouldn’t have happened. Nobody had the right to sexually touch you without consent. And that applies to bum pinching, too.
      
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      December 4, 2017 3:06pm
      - lifesgood
        
        Oh dear.
        
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        December 4, 2017 4:13pm
      - Classic Liberal
        
        “No doubt the Hollywood bitches would dismiss the embarrassment I felt ”
        
        That sounded like you weren’t happy. Getting an erection, btw, doesn’t automatically mean it’s not sexual harassment or that the man is happy with the situation.
        
        Anyway, thank you for telling us the story: it does help show how confusing and ambivalent these issues can be and why many people think thus it’s safer not to touch anyone sexually without consent.
        
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        December 5, 2017 8:40am
Manolo

Moving away from the UN:
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/12/03/politics/us-global-compact-migration/index.html

The United States notified the United Nations that it will no longer take part in the global compact on migration, saying it undermines the nation’s sovereignty.
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December 4, 2017 8:16am
- holysheet
  
  Go Trump, drain that swamp and all it’s side shows, including the UN.
  The pigs at the trough that squeal the loudest are the first that need to go.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:20am
Paulus

Looks as though the sh..t is beginning to hit the fan for our wonderful Government.
From what we can assume today from somebody on Radio Left Wing called Richard Wankstaff of the TUC that Shane Jones did not consult him (the Unions) about his prognostications on people having to work for the dole. The Unions had not been told this and he was going to consult the Government that this is not agreed by the Unions who are categorically making out of work people do this.
The second STUFU is the Kermadecs – Smith has said that he will on behalf of National put forward a Bill to create the sanctuary as they had done before the election. This had been supported by the Greens (and I expect NZFirst) so there will be no problem with the numbers.
The Greens appear to be prevaricating as they are part of the Labour coalition and can d nothing without Cinderella’s approval. This for some reason as at today does not appear to be forthcoming as it is not her (Labour – but that is her and Heather’s) approval.
It is believed that she will play her usual lying silly buggers until she convinces everybody (the media) it is her brilliant idea.
Green supporters were one of the original organisations who pushed this forward initially so they cannot realistically say no.
Heather will sort them out on Helen and Cindy’s behalf.
The Greens cannot do what they think is right and was part of their policy.
Can hear the creaking already.
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December 4, 2017 8:20am
- peterwn
  
  NZF no longer supports the Kermadecs reserve since as pointed out on Kiwiblog ‘Big Fish’ (who oppose the proposal) allegedly helped finance NZF’s campaign. Labour has to abide as part of the coalition agreement and the Greens had no option but to fall in line, since the Green Party key people have determined that the party is not a real green party but is merely an ancillary add-on to Labour.
  Nick’s bill if drawn will show up the Greens for what they really are since they will oppose it to keep in sweet with Labour who will oppose it to keep in sweet with NZF. The Greens cannot even abstain (a let-out sometimes used to ease such embarassments) since that would give National the numbers.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:38am
  - ztev
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    labour had dropped out of the sanctuary long before last election.
    Their own caucus MPs had raised concerns in Jul 2016
    https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/309261/maori-still-overlooked-in-kermadec-proposal-labour
    Even ACT was against it in principle without the property rights protections.
    
    Its not like you peter to make a stuff up like that !
    
    Arent you concerned that national was for the sanctuary and they pulled support ( stopped the bill proceeding) and now are back in favour.
    
    Its one thing to flip- flop, but then flop again ?
    Flip-Flop-Flop
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:00am
    - flipper
      
      Bollocks ….
      just like the tax cuts for superans eh duckling ?
      
      Bugger off back to the enabler in chief’s office, after first stopping at Fraser House for your instructions, and then into the Dyke’s office for confirmation.
      Mutto0n bird = Guano
      Zetev = Duck Guano.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:20am
      - sam green
        
        My – what an angry young man you are flipper.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:27pm
    - peterwn
      
      Makes no substantive difference whether it was Labour policy pre-coalition or not – the Green Party has to follow Labour.
      Since the pre-election over-arching objective of the Green Party was to get the Nats out of power rather than enhance environmental protection, it is somewhat not surprising that the Greens did not embrace the sanctuary idea. Presumably the Greens’ over-arching objective remains to keep the Nats out of power so the influence the Green Party has on NZF and Labour is zilch. NZF offered the Greens (via Labour since Winnie would not even talk with the Greens) just enough to stop the Greens being a loose cannon.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:12am
      - Ruahine
        
        For the ‘Greens’ it is not about the Sanctuary it is about being in Power and just Power.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:47am
      - peterwn
        
        Ruahine – if it was about “Power”, the Greens would have far more power if they would even have some dialogue with National. There was no way that they would let James even have a chat with Bill and this handed the Power to Winston. Silly Greens.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:58am
    - VicParking
      
      A Flip calling the flop a flip.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:47am
  - KevOB
    
    Pity it isn’t a money Bill too.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:37am
- GazzaW
  
  It’s going to take more than Heather Simpson to keep this mishmash together – Winston in particular who’s just as likely to tell her to get f****d if she crosses him. Gone by next Christmas.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:45am
  - flipper
    
    ” ….. more than Heather Simpson …..”
    
    Is there not ( I no longer have my copies of Standing Orders) something about instructing MPs ?
    Is the dyke Simpson in breech of Standing Orders ????????
    Breech of Parliamentary Privilege ????
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:26am
    - peterwn
      
      H2 can always let her views be known to other coalition MPs’ staffers and there is a ‘general expectation’ that they will fall in line (I have not used the term ‘general expectation’ for some years now).
      For example in H1’s days, she need not tell the driver to push the pedal hard, there was just a ‘general expectation’ that she would be delivered to her next appointment on time even though she did not take the cue to leave on time.
      
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      December 4, 2017 1:45pm
- RF
  
  Panic stations over at the greens. Remember that Shaw’s balls are carried around by the females in a silk purse, well it’s been mislaid.
  
  Until they are found no decisions can be made by the Greens.
  
  That could be a problem for Nick Smith.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:53am
  - ztev
    
    hes got to have his private members bill selected from the ballot first.
    Tough ask
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:02am
- hullkiwi
  
  The Greens are no longer supporting the Kermadecs sanctuary. Their reason is that the Maori iwi will not be considered under Smith’s bill.
  
  What BS, Maori never fished around the Kermadecs, so trying to claim sovereignty on this issue is risible. As for NZ Last, they have sold out to big fish as was obvious a month ago. NZ Last putting the interests of their funders ahead of the interests of the NZ environment, makes the accusations levelled against National about selling NZ’s environment down the drain look hollow.
  
  So, zdivvy, Morris minor, Mcostic, Muttonbrain, and Treadless, what do you say now that you have in the midst of your government a group who has sold out NZ’s environment to their business backers? And in addition, another group who have talked big about protecting NZ’s environment, but when pressured by Liarbore in government, have buckled and turned their backs on policies and platforms they have previously supported?
  
  Please don’t bore us with platitudes about what National did in the past, this is about the here and now and the hypocrisy of Liarbore, NZ Last and the Red Melons.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:42pm
Manolo

Isn’t he the voice of reason?
https://www.wsj.com/articles/pope-francis-calls-nuclear-arms-race-irrational-and-immoral-1512264821
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December 4, 2017 8:22am
- Kimbo
  
  Um, not wanting to put words in your mouth, but you think, given the current geopolitical situation, more nuclear weapons in the hands of more nations will improve the prospects for peace? 😉
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:54am
  - Manolo
    
    Very kind of you, dear Kimbo. However, a small one in the centre of Pyongyang would not be out of place. 😀
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:01am
    - Kimbo
      
      Don’t know why people think North Korea is going to be a long-term problem. In the same way the Berlin Wall collapsed seemingly out of nowhere, their nation is going to implode under the weight of its own self-inflicted economic inefficiency and starvation, sooner rather than later. But yeah, in its death throes the regime may try to divert attention like the Argentinians did with the Falklands in 1982.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:04am
      - treadingthemill
        
        I’m inclined to agree with that. The NK regime looks, from the outside, impervious to any challenge to it’s rule, but totalitarian regimes with an apparent iron grip can fall fast with the right spark.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:14am
Victor Omega

Whatever has afflicted the family who ate wild pork, it sure doesn’t look like any known strain of botulism.

Compare this Stuff article:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/99477949/final-member-of-waikato-family-poisoned-with-botulism-wakes

and this Botulism fact sheet from the WHO:

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs270/en/

Kiwiblog readers are smart enough to notice the glaring differences for themselves, but if I may highlight botulism has;
“no loss of consciousness”?
“Symptoms usually appearing within 12 to 36 hours; MINIMUM 4 HOURS“?
“Early symptoms include marked fatigue, weakness and vertigo”?

How does that compare to the Stuff article describing severe vomiting + loss of conciousness within MINUTES? No test results on the family have shown Botulism.

The media keep saying “botulism”with absolutely ZERO evidence. It’s FAKE NEWS. Unless we’re dealing with a new very aggressive strain of botulism nobody has ever heard of, and even then it would only be a lucky guess on their part.

ABC news just suspended reporter Brian Ross for making shit up about Flynn. Let’s hope Stuff and the Herald have the same level of integrity and we can get to the bottom of what’s really happened.
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December 4, 2017 8:22am
- VicParking
  
  Dont call it wild Pork…no no. Its wild boar. You might upset our Muslim freeloaders by talking about Pork.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:49am
- James Stephenson
  
  Go look at the symptoms of 1080 poisoning.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:57am
  - Victor Omega
    
    One reason (I can think of many) why it’s SO important to get to the bottom of this is because if it was caused by, say, 1080, then the family might get help from ACC under the “no fault/accident” insurance policy.
    If it’s botulism then there’s been no “fault/accident” so most likely no ACC.
    This is touched on in the article.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:14am
- insider
  
  I’m going to assume the doctors have toxicological results that indicated botulism. Thing is, it I incredibly rare – 1000 cases annually in the world.
  
  When first reported I wondered if it might be a mycotoxin from contaminated spices
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:13am
  - Victor Omega
    
    “I’m going to assume the doctors have toxicological results that indicated botulism.”
    – There is no such tox report, never has been. With assumptions like that, a job at Fairfax awaits you 🙂
    
    “1000 cases annually in the world”
    – Botulism cases presenting with the symptoms described in this case are even rarer!
    Zero cases. Anywhere. Ever.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:16am
- Jaywalk
  
  Consider that they may have eaten that food or an affected food prior to the events of them becoming ill. The common practice is to associate food poisoning with the thing last eaten, but with some of them it can be what was eaten three or four days before.
  
  Unless you have access to their medical records, you’d have to accept that the descriptions in media are unlikely to be accurate and they often are running off initial reports to fill in later ones as the hospital and/or the doctors are generally not available to stand by the phone for reporters. As an example, a child got knocked over by a car in my area, this was reported as a male about 13. I was in ED at the time working and can verify it was a girl of 15. They got it completely wrong.
  
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  December 4, 2017 2:32pm
Brito

The Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve proposal is being reignited by National. Years ago (RNZAF) days we used to drop mail to the teams who lived on Raoul. The area around it was meant to be a reserve of some type or another and you weren’t allowed to land on the islands or fish.

Our role was to patrol the ocean area around New Zealand looking for Soviet vessels. They were the enemy, if you remember that far back, and liked to ‘fish’ in various parts of the world.

Back in those days I never heard anything from anyone about Maori connections with these islands. I did hear later that they released rats on Raoul so they could get some protein while they were sailing between Tonga/Samoa/wherever. Raoul was a stop over place rather than a permanent place to live (it does have a smoking volcano).

We did see whales and large schools of dolphin cruising around the area and navy mates told me that the diving was unbelievable.

You would assume that the Greens will be right behind this concept. This is a true green issue and would be a huge tick in their ‘we stand for the environment’ box.

But…I think they won’t. I think they will go with the Maori fishing groups. The drunken dwarf is funded by this cartel and he has made promises to them to keep their spurious claims for this pristine environment in front of this government.

The greens will not have the testicular fortitude to stand up and be counted.
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December 4, 2017 8:22am
- VicParking
  
  As they only have one man and his mother each have one of his balls. The greens cannot have any ‘testicular fortitude’ even if they tried.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:54am
- ztev
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  It was well known that Soviet submarines were never in this part of the world.
  Surely the RNZAF knew that was the case through the whole Cold War.
  Any understanding of the Soviet navys submarines role was
  1) protect their own missile submarines
  2) find and track western missile submarines
  
  With their long periods tied up at the wharf that didnt leave much time for those at sea to come to the south pacific.
  
  Even Australias subs ( and for a time the UK stationed subs in Sydney) would head directly north to the South China sea and NW pacific. They might do training cruises to NZ
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:11am
  - flipper
    
    More Zetev bollocks.
    The US Nucs played games (hide and seek among the under water mountains) with Soviet Nucs right through Cook Strait.
    And they also played with them in the deep trenches leading up to Mayor Island.
    Of course we never placed those hydrophones around Mayor Island. The whales spat them out after eating too much.
    It is clear that you know nothing about anything duckling .
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:37am
    - G152
      
      He should look up such visitors as the USS Bream and HMS Telemachus.
      And some of the lesser known intercepts of ‘unidentified targets’ by the Royal New Zealand Navy in the late 50s
      
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      December 4, 2017 1:08pm
  - Komata
    
    Ztev: ‘well-known’huh??
    
    Nuts!! In respect of the presence (or otherwise) of Soviet submarines off the NZ coast, you have absolutely NO idea what you’re talking about old chap; absolutely no idea, but if you misguidedly choose to believe what you’ve just stated, then who are we to disagree?
    
    Enjoy the fantasy, since that’s all it is.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:08am
  - Brito
    
    Well ztev, that’s interesting.
    
    “It was well known that Soviet submarines were never in this part of the world.”
    
    Breath-taking observation! Nobody told us that they didn’t come our way for a visit. And, if you go back to what I actually wrote I said, “vessels”.
    
    See if you can find “sub” anywhere in the post.
    
    Having said that, #flipper is spot on. The presense of ‘Sovs’, as they were affectionately called, was well known. They tailed the Americans wherever they went. We found them on the surface and we found their “fishing” vessels, all over the Pacific. And these vessels bristled with more antennae than some of the aliens who currently sit on the front bench of the govt.
    
    Check your facts my son.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:17am
  - Kimbo
    
    It was well known that Soviet submarines were never in this part of the world.
    Surely the RNZAF knew that was the case through the whole Cold War.
    
    Not according to Rob Muldoon when he took on Simon Walker! 😉
    
    https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/tonight-muldoon-interview-1976
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:23am
    - Brito
      
      I miss Rob. Much admired (feared), just don’t let him near the Treasury.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:45am
      - Kimbo
        
        Not so, IMHO. Muldoon governed at a time of difficult transition (new exports and markets required after the Brits went into Europe, the oil shocks, worldwide stagflation), and was the best administrator of the 1935-84 “fortress economy” which was our economic paradigm, and was orthodoxy throughout the world in the 1950s and 1960s. Also, he was effecting change, and even with the much-maligned wage and price freeze NZ had the highest growth in the OECD in his last year in office. Plus all the social ills that we complain about are what he predicted and tried to protect us from, including a low-wage economy, and low per-capita income growth. Put it this way….even Jim Bolger thinks “neo-liberalism has failed to deliver what it promised”.
        
        Not saying Muldoon’s way was necessarily right…but the time is long overdue to do some revisionism on Mulddon. But because it suits both the left (because they hated Muldoon’s moderate social conservatism at a time of great change – Richard Nixon suffered the same fate) and the right (because of his economic interventionism) he is a bogey man.
        
        Oh yes, and the great canard – he did not leave the incoming 1984 Labour government with a “debt” crisis. It was a currency crisis, caused in part because Roger Douglas has inadvertently leaked his plans to devalue if Labour won. And if Lange had taken Muldoon’s advise, and refused to revalue, maybe the speculators would have had nowhere to go but to sell their NZ dollars. Instead, we had our national debt increase overnight by 20% courtesy of the devaluation.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:02pm
      - Brito
        
        And some of what he faced was too difficult for him to manage and/or comprehend. But the ad hoc approach to fiscal management meant he was doomed to fighting fires as they arose.
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:30pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Muldoon was a thorough pragmatist, true. And tended to have a short term approach. As before he wanted to defend the existing economic/social/political paradigm. He was principled (hence the things you admired about him standing up to unrepresentative radical left pressure groups) but had no philosophy, and being entirely pragmatic was sometimes sterile in his thinking. But no, it wasn’t that he couldn’t “comprehend” Freidmanite alternatives – he knew better than anyone what it would mean, who would win, who would lose, what would change – he wasn’t prepared to impelment them. Call it courage, call it foolishness. Depends if you agreed with him, or it was your livelihood and way of life on the line.
        
        But when needed, Muldoon could be bold with his attempts to reform. Whether you agreed or not – and it was neither the success he promised, nor the failure Roger Douglas portrayed it as – “Think Big” was a bold initiative/reform. And also a number of now key export industries – wine, kiwifruit, film – received significant impetus during the Muldoon years.
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:38pm
      - MCos
        
        ‘He was principled’
        The opposite is corrupt and however else you might describe our parliamentarians they are rarely corrupt.
        On the other hand some of them ain’t been too competent.
        
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        December 4, 2017 2:28pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        Call it courage, call it foolishness.
        
        Courage.
        
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        December 4, 2017 2:38pm
      - Kimbo
        
        @ MCos
        
        Yes, but I was defining principled in distinction to “philosophy”. Muldoon had none of that.
        
        And – within the 1935-84 economic paradigm bequesthed by the first Labour government, he was supremely (justified adverb!) competent, perhaps the best manager of that model we ever had.
        
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        December 4, 2017 2:38pm
- Psycho Milt
  
  Back in those days I never heard anything from anyone about Maori connections with these islands.
  
  The problem Maori have with National’s Kermadec sanctuary proposals has nothing to do with any “connection” they might or might not have with the islands. It’s a straightforward property rights issue about the government attempting to take back part of a Treaty settlement. Of course the Green Party isn’t going to take National’s side in that dispute, no matter what infantile insults are thrown their way.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:51am
  - marcw
    
    When a marine sanctuary is created, EVERYONE gives up a little of their rights in the better interests of preservation. Except Maori apparently – oh no, they must get their pound of flesh and suitable Koha. They have made minimal use of their fishing rights in this area, and only their selfish money grabbing attitude has prevented the creation of what will be a magnificent world beating sanctuary – created for all our futures.
    
    I have no respect for their pathetic posturing.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:39am
    - VicParking
      
      Agreed, they are all for protecting nature until they can make a quid out of it then their principles go out the window. No change for the last 200 years.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:53am
    - waikatogirl
      
      Maori, guardians of the environment = an oxymoron.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:15am
    - Psycho Milt
      
      When a marine sanctuary is created, EVERYONE gives up a little of their rights in the better interests of preservation. Except Maori apparently…
      
      Yes, exactly. National were expecting Maori to give up the same rights that everyone else would be, and to suffer the removal of something that was provided to them as compensation for past injustice. Maori were not just being made an exception, it was an exception that added insult to injury.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:20am
      - Peter
        
        It’s hardly “giving it up”, is it. Calling it “compensation” misrepresents it.
        
        The over-riding theme is “we all lose a little” (I’d be surprised if anyone really noticed a change in their lives in the slightest) to do something significant and benefit future generations, Maori included.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:46am
      - Jack5
        
        Psycho says of the Kermadecs, “…something that was provided to them as compensation for past injustice.”
        
        OR, something they and smart lawyers could rort from the whole people of New Zealand.
        
        Like a slice of the radio spectrum. Oh that’s right, that was because Maori co-invented radio.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:28pm
      - starboard
        
        Maardi..mouldy…moodie..whatever the term du jour..are fucking thieves and scoundrels. Turn off the tap, they have had more than enough.
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:35pm
      - Psycho Milt
        
        So, what exactly? The Green are supposed to share your racist outlook on Treaty settlements or something? How do you picture that happening?
        
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        December 4, 2017 4:47pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        Maardi..mouldy…moodie..whatever the term du jour..are fucking thieves and scoundrels.
        
        All of them? Every last one? I’m not one to make this accusation lightly, but that really is racism at it’s most blatant.
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:01pm
Simon

Trump tax cuts. The jobs and capital will pour into America. He puts to shame all the so called centre right parties of the west including the joke National
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December 4, 2017 8:24am
- cmm
  
  The NZ economy had a lot of extra investment/$$$ flowing in during the Obama years as Americans looked around the world for safe havens for their money.
  
  Until the Clusterparty came to power, NZ was a safe haven. I listened to one US analyst talking about how NZ really screwed up in the 1980s but learned from that and built a new shining economy.
  
  Unfortunately we now have a PM who does not remember the 1980s because she was in nappies. If half her election rhetoric comes to pass we’ll be looking at the 1980s again.
  
  Combine that with improved investment outlooks in USA and all that money’s going to flow out again.
  
  People like myself will benefit. I largely work internationally and a low NZD benefits me.
  
  The people that will hurt the most are the very people Cindy is “helping”.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:50am
  - kevn
    
    cmm…. JA helping? Yep, helping them with more financial hurt. Low business confidence, no-one quite knows which way the triad of loser and liars (TOLL) will lurch next. Exchange rate down, fuel costs up, landlords getting out, rental shortage worsening. Help? Nah A dismal failure at this stage with internal quabbling, Jones v/s JA=unions now.
    I think most folk were prepared to give them (TOLL) a go but what a flop show. Appalling. Wastrels.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:31am
- VicParking
  
  Explain please. National cut taxes, jobs are still, Labour aside, at a records high, captital investment, only stalled when Labour came to power, was at an all time high?????
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:57am
Maggy Wassilieff

Any kwaussies out there?
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-04/kwaussie-named-word-of-the-year-by-andc/9216992
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December 4, 2017 8:28am
- waikatogirl
  
  Also the well known “Muzzie”, or Maori/Aussie as our Maori folk who headed for a better life in Aussie named themselves.?
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:37am
  - sooty
    
    What do they call themsevles when they come back? Deportee!
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:06pm
slightlyrighty

Does Trump seriously expect us to believe his lawyer wrote a tweet on Trumps personal twitter account at 9:15 on a Saturday morning which potentially incriminates his client?

This is the sort of excuse you would expect from an 8 year old caught red handed. If a moron like this was in charge of a party I supported, I’d be working my butt off to get rid of him.
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December 4, 2017 8:28am
- DifferentPerspective
  
  When you have a special prosecutor who was the head of the FBI that failed to stop 9/11 attacks, and was part of the intelligence community that assured the world WMD existed in Iraq
  who
  … has an FBI investigator working on the case who sent such blatantly anti-Trump txts to a co-worker – that he had to be fired
  and
  … Mueller is refusing to provide the papers relating to this to the Senate Intelligence committee
  and
  …. it turns out (the now) fired blatantly anti-Trump FBI agent was also the guy that led the Clinton email probe finding “nothing to see here”
  
  then yes! Absolutely anything is believable.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:57am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Even more, look at the documents recently released by the FBI regarding the Lynch/Clinton meeting.
    
    First they flat out lied about not having any documents. Lying to the FBI is what Flynn is charged with, the same penalty surely should apply when the FBI lies to the public.
    
    Second, the documents show that this highly improper and arguably definitive obstruction of justice meeting was so important to the FBI that they absessed about finding and stopping the person who “leaked” the information about the meeting. But interested in knowing about the meeting and what deal was stitched up to ensure that HRC was not found indictable, no interest at all.
    
    Thoroughly corrupt and surely deserving of a special counsel to investigate. Comey has a lot to answer for. His self serving little tweet about justice flowing should be made to come back to haunt him – he shows an interest only in the justice that suited his political favourites.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:14am
    - ztev
      
      Clinton ? What has he got to do with 9/11.
      Oh you Hillary !
      
      The whole Benghazi thing was looked into deeply- nothing came of it.
      The whole email server was looked into deeply, nothing came of it ( not like the guilty pleas so far on Trump Collusion)
      
      And anyway , Clintons husband had a meeting with an official who wasnt the head of the FBI. Lynch had no role in the FBIs investigation, just like the head of Justice now has no role in the Trump situation.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:29am
      - softail 1450
        
        Trev, the deaf ,dumb,and blind cretin , and the only fool I know of that’s still backing the clintons ,very stupid .
        are you in your 90s Trev? or are you Maxine waters?
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:34am
  - ztev
    
    Mueller took over the FBI on Sept 4 2001, ie 7 days before 9/11
    So it was all his fault and not the president who was in office at the time and indeed got the ‘hair on fire’ memo .
    
    Throughout that summer, we now well know, Tenet, Richard Clarke, and several other officials were running around with their “hair on fire,” warning that al-Qaida was about to unleash a monumental attack. On Aug. 6, Bush was given the now-famous President’s Daily Brief (by one of Tenet’s underlings), warning that this attack might take place “inside the United States.” For the previous few years—as Philip Zelikow, the commission’s staff director, revealed this morning—the CIA had issued several warnings that terrorists might fly commercial airplanes into buildings or cities…
    
    Warnings warnings, yet Bush did nothing, going to his ranch with no cattle for the whole month of August
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:17am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Squirrel !
      
      Anyway, it is Comey in the gun, or should be, over the Lynch/Clinton meeting.
      
      I bet you can’t even see anything improper about Lynch meeting with Bill (in secret, and the fact that they met only escaped via a “leaker”) just before the FBI is due to report to Lynch about the culpability of HRC regarding storing classified information on her home-brew server.
      
      This saga is as corrupt as it gets, and shows that the FBI under Comey was not at all interested in “Justice” but in serving his political masters by ensuring that any illegal behaviour on the part was properly covered up.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:53am
- VicParking
  
  Trumps tweets are not a spare of the moment thing.
  They are calculated to get to the biggest audence before they can be attacked by the MSM. 9:15 on Saturday, misses the morning shows, no lunch time shows on Saturday and light weight ones on Saturday night. Saturday is all Football, Baseball and other testosterone activities.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:08am
- flipper
  
  Did Trump say that? When? Where?
  MSM said says Trump says that.
  BUT it doesn’t matter: the Flynn thing is a load of bollocks and much a do about nothing. What the MSM, especially the children, forget is that all of what is now said was said before, when Flynn was fired..
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:44am
  - ztev
    
    he uses twitter- its there for all to see, fool
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:23am
Notsofast

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
It is amusing to hear that Andrew Little wants to reduce the prison population, but is silent on the matter of Mark Lundy. The political and chattering classes have been well informed that Mark Lundy and the others are innocent of the crimes done by savages on P with machetes. Crocodile tears again. Deplorable and a waste of air time.
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December 4, 2017 8:32am
- JibberJabber
  
  Speaking of Crocodile tears.
  Are you the one with 2 kills to your name ?
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:41am
  - Notsofast
    
    No
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:06am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Notsofast chairs yet another meeting of the Mark Lundy fan club.
  In a phone box.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:54am
  - Notsofast
    
    Every day is $365 plus inflation, but since you nats love spending on incarceration keep it rolling.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:07am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Far rather spend $365 Notsofast, than having them out raping and murdering people. So yeah, lets keep it rolling. Bang them up, reduce their conditions and throw away the key.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:44am
      - tf78
        
        Shane Jones suggests dole bludgers (people) get paid for planting forests/ working on the railways. Maybe he could work with Andrew Little and the prisoners can join a chain gang and work on the railways (just like the good old days) and that would reduce the incarceration rate. Two birds one stoned.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:12am
    - Dave Mann
      
      Don’t be silly. The point of prisons is both to punish criminals and keep them off the streets and safeguard the public.
      
      If the cost is a problem, the answer is not to release scum into society to prey on us. The answer is to shut down all private contacts for companies to run our prisons and at the same time cut down on the luxuries (like TV, heating, games etc) which make life inside little more than a holiday camp.
      
      $365 per day is the cost of a decent hotel and, frankly, there’s no way that this is the real cost of running any prison efficiently. Either your figure is bullshit, or there’s some very serious corruption or incompetence going on which needs investigation. But sure as hell, the answer is NOT to stop looking up criminals.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:57am
      - Notsofast
        
        It’s actually about 300 plus inflation per day in compensation.
        We are talking at least 3 million. And while learned judges Xmas holiday, knowing their minds are made up to release, it just keeps costing.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:44am
      - GoVege
        
        Dave: I don’t believe the prisons are full of violent criminals who pose a danger to the public.
        I have visited a prison once, to see a relative who got 6 months for driving repeatedly without a licence.
        (He drove very slowly and carefully and mostly to take his kids to school.)
        He was also violent to his family…but he never got done for that.
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:02pm
- peterwn
  
  I think Andrew realises he cannot comment off the hip about the genre of prisoners whose ‘followers’ think are innocent.
  I cannot see how Andrew (and Kelvin) can significantly reduce the prison population without raising the ire of the populous. It will just take a few high profile cases of reoffending to upset many voters.
  In particular trying to reduce the number of people remanded in custody will backfire – bail laws were eased some time back but had to be tightened again as the re-offending by those on bail was excessive and unacceptable.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:55am
  - fernglas
    
    I think they are talking about reduction by both reducing recidivism and looking at consistency. The brilliant idea of a Sentencing Council to set guidelines was well down the track under the guidance of Justice until about a decade ago when it was suddenly halted on the basis that it would probably wind up putting more people away. Instead word went out to the judiciary to stop locking so many people up and to the cops to warn rather than charge.
    New Zealand is very good at following other peoples’ bad ideas in the criminal justice field, but even better at repeating its own.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:03am
    - Notsofast
      
      Sane, forbidden here though fernglas.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:13am
  - Notsofast
    
    Andrew Little is a politician who is all talk so far. Lundy is the litmus test for this bureaucrat. He should be compensated within days of being released in february. Any delay is a black mark for Ardern and Little.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:10am
    - starboard
      
      Why would you compensate a murderer? He should be given the same treatment he dished out to his wife and daughter.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:26am
      - Notsofast
        
        Except he didn’t, and proof exists to name people who should be investigated. The killer is a bit player of course.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:08am
    - lifesgood
      
      Are you all there, Notsofast? or are you related to Lundy, the murderous scum bag?
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:29am
      - Notsofast
        
        Of course I’m not related. I have studied the evidence. Prosecutor Philip Morgan QC will give up. He will concede. Ask him. Email him. Phone him. Challenge him. Place your bets. I have.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:49am
  - ztev
    
    There is a misconception that too many people are in jail for minor crimes.
    That may have been the case years ago but not really anymore.
    
    What happens is seemingly minor crimes are committed by those with long criminal records, which are seen by the judges as a reason not to give home detention etc
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:22am
    - sooty
      
      Labour, are they going to give special bail provisions to maori? They are allready having a catch and release program and they do not even tag them.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:40am
    - Ambergris
      
      What you say is probably correct ztev. So how is Minister Little going to reduce the prison population?
      Are you suggesting a different way of handling recidivist offenders with a long history of small offences?
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:44am
      - waikatogirl
        
        Angry, the Justice Minister and PM, Cindy will make a joint announcement that CoL MP’s are each going to house 5 recidivist offenders under their own roof. That will cut the number sufficiently to satisfy the electorate. ?
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:34am
    - flipper
      
      Good Lord, for once the duck is sensible.
      Take driving while disqualified. That is widely regarded as “Criminal Conduct 1” – the introduction to drugs, gangs, burglaries and more.
      It is a stupid bureaucratic “offence” that should never have been enacted.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:50am
      - Dave Mann
        
        No its not a stupid bureaucratic offence. Its an offence against the law and it puts the public (other road users in danger). What’s wrong with you?
        
        If you don’t like criminals coming into contact with gang members inside, the answer is to crush the gangs’ influence and power, both inside and outside jails. Crushing them inside would be easy for any government with the balls to act (but no government seems yet to have had the courage).
        
        If you think the answer to disqualified driving is to cut out jail time for offenders, then you’re part of the problem, not part of the solution.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:12am
      - Notsofast
        
        Dave Mann, you are completely missing the point. Laws must be made to be followed. If you punish people who are completely unable to afford a driving licence you get your prisoners. I bet you never added the cost mummy and daddy spent gifting you a licence.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:02am
      - Dave Mann
        
        @Notsofast: I generally try to resist calling people fuckwits on this blog…. but in your case I think an exception is definitely called for.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:15am
      - Notsofast
        
        Did you pay to get a licence by saving your own money? That is what the Maori kids have to do. First buy car. Of course they don’t and everything follows like dominos.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:53am
      - calendar girl
        
        Oh, now I begin to understand. Driving while disqualified / unlicensed is a Maori problem, so it requires its own (illogical) solution.
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:06pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      What a sensible comment from ztev ! I am really surprised.
      
      Would you (ztev) then not support not jailing people for “minor” crimes where their criminal history suggests that such treatment would be unwise or inadequate ? If so, do you have any ideas how the prison population might be reduced ?
      
      The easiest way I can think of would be to legalize some or all drugs, then that class of prisoners will cease to be an issue. Not so sure that legalizing “P” as an example, is a good idea though.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:58am
- VicParking
  
  Notsofast: Did your teachers give you that name at school.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:09am
  - Notsofast
    
    No, I made it up, to suggest that people study evidence before assuming authority is infallible.
    Study after study demonstrates the action of prosecuting seals the reputation and fate of innocent people.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:12am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      And exponentially more guilty people Notsofast. So what is your point?
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:50am
      - Notsofast
        
        There is irreduceable evidence in many case, and the police fight like fury to cover their mistakes. Private investigators expose the truth.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:04am
Huevon

Jacinda’s performance this morning in her interview with Guyon Espiner was atrocious. The obfuscation and bullshit was flying all over the place. She even deflected criticism over not releasing the secret agreement with Winston by saying “but we are talking openly about the secret document”. How dumb does she think we Are? This woman is so plainly out of her depth I feel sorry for her. It’s going to be a long 3 years Jacinda, if you make it that far.
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December 4, 2017 8:34am
- RalphT
  
  “This woman is so plainly out of her depth I feel sorry for her.”
  
  No, that is a step too far. She took on the top job; no one forced her to. She was clearly not ready or up to it and deserves every bit of criticism that comes her way.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:39am
  - cmm
    
    She is used to people fawning all over her and writing easy-going Wimmins Weekly articles about her.
    
    It must come as a huge shock that there is more to the job than selfies.
    
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    December 4, 2017 8:52am
    - ztev
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Its all straight out of the John Key playbook- minus the prison rape scenes and the secret offshore trusts
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:24am
      - sooty
        
        Makes a differance when you can not go and get the feelz with the kiddies. It’s different playing in the big kids sandpit.
        
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        December 4, 2017 9:42am
      - cmm
        
        ztev: Let’s see if that Cindy vs Key comparison still holds out when there’s a huge issue to deal with along the lines of a GFC or an eaathquake.
        
        You know, shit she can’t just bullshit and selfie her way out of.
        
        House prices falling in Auckland… hmmm… maybe there are going to be a few people upside down on their mortgages, coupled with Labour themselves talking down the economy and predicting job losses and increased mortgage costs. Smells like a few foreclosures etc…
        
        Perhaps her first crisis is coming soon.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:11am
      - JibberJabber
        
        Just curious, but what makes you think you should be privy to other persons financial arrangements.
        And in the interests of transparency, are you going to post all of your financial papers, so we can all have a laugh?
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:03am
  - lifesgood
    
    Pride comes before a fall.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:31am
- dai
  
  Tea anyone?
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:09am
- VicParking
  
  Shw will be right. The Guy licked her all over so she cant be that sore.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:12am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Huevon, Ardern is without a shadow of a doubt the most vapid, shallow PM this country has ever had. She (laughably along with the excruciatingly inept Robertson) are finding out that real world politics are light years away from student politics.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:55am
  - kevn
    
    IVV… Agree completely. The whole TOLL mob are just a charade of pretenders. I struggle find even one who inspires any confidence. If it wasn’t so wasteful and tragic for NZ as a whole, it would be funny… but it isn’t funny, at all.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:37am
- Psycho Milt
  
  How dumb does she think we Are?
  
  I doubt she could picture just how dumb some are…
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:57am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Not so sure, just send her a selfie you took…
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:59am
- dime
  
  i dont. just think of the 50 stacks a year she will get for the rest of her life and the free travel. sweet gig!
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:03am
- Komata
  
  Huevon
  
  Re: ‘…But we are talking openly about the secret document”
  
  Really??? Have I missed something here or does she actually ‘really-truly’ believe what she is saying and finds no contradiction in the statement??
  
  And all this while holding a Degree in ‘Communications’?
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:16am
  - Huevon
    
    Twice I heard Guyon refer to the secret document/agreement and both times Jacinda retorted “the document that we are openly talking about”, as if that somehow made it ok. (facepalm).
    
    I can’t believe this rank amateur is our PM.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:53am
    - JibberJabber
      
      It`s the kind of smartarse remark a Gaylord would come up with, deflect, deflect.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:05am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      “the document that we are openly talking about” and she said it while giggling at Guyon’s ‘stupidity’. One could hear her insulting gummy grin. She insults the interviewer and thus the whole country for wanting to see the bloody document!
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:53am
      - RF
        
        Did you hear the gulping slurping sound with teeth smacking together when she was making her smart arsed answers. She really needs to consult an orthodontist before she does herself some mischief.
        
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        December 4, 2017 8:39pm
  - waikatogirl
    
    “Really??? Have I missed something here or does she actually ‘really-truly’ believe what she is saying and finds no contradiction in the statement?? ”
    
    Cindy is stunningly arrogant or stupid.
    I’m thinking both. ?
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:47am
    - Classic Liberal
      
      Arrogant. She’s been so beloved in her political efforts until now (including as Socialist Youth leader), that she can’t imagine anyone not approving of her.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:55am
- Digmen1
  
  I don’t feel sorry for her.
  Once she realised she had a chance she was all in for it.
  It is just teaching her that the real world is a lot harder than her namby pampy left wing, socialist, apologist argenda thinks it is.
  Labour were toast until she got the job from Andy.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:14pm
Sofia

If the trees that the Coalition Government propose planting are put into the ground about three metres apart, it will apparently take land equivalent to a strip one kilometre from one side to the other, and reaching from Wellington Airport at one end, via Highway 1, to Auckland Airport but two km north of Taupo increasing the width of the strip to two kilometres all the way through to the Auckland end.

Consider then basic clearing of the land and its preparation for planting while seeds are sown in nurseries, transport for everything required everywhere, but mainly workers, their training, drug testing, (the work will be more dangerous than worm farming), outfitting and equipping, in some cases accomodating, then pruning and general forest husbandry.
With people who are currently on the dole.

Only a New Zealand First / Labour / Green Coalition Government could think of promising to do this, and before their first basic announcement just in principle, fall 10.56 million trees behind target already.
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December 4, 2017 8:37am
- ztev
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Dont be silly… most will be replantings. Thats a problem now as the trees are cut and nothing happens , the land is owned separately to cutting rights.
  Its expensive to put in logging roads and bases, it makes sense to replant and reuse them for the next harvest, saving a lot of money.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:26am
  - Ambergris
    
    In all seriousness the public perception, which the parties now in government encouraged, was one hundred million new trees a year wasn’t it?
    
    Do you dispute that ztev?
    
    So the 100 million new trees will be mostly on land which has recently been used for forestry is your claim?
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:34am
    - Digmen1
      
      No I thought it was a billion trees in total over 10 years.
      And I’m a two ticks blue man.
      
      To me it should be doable as we plant half of that now. But it will take a few years to ramp up to that, finding the land and the seedlings etc.
      
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      December 4, 2017 1:16pm
  - Sofia
    
    Just three random sources suggest they are new trees and new land.
    
    • According to the Associated Press, Arden said the goal of doubling the amount of trees the country plants each year is “absolutely achievable” by using land that was marginal for farming animals.
    
    • It is understood that about 50 million trees are already planted in New Zealand each year, meaning the new Government’s planting will double that.
    The plan will require 1000 stems per hectare, over 100,000 hectares.
    
    • The government has announced a new Forestry Service that will plant a billion trees over the next 10 years.
    The service, which will be headed by New Zealand First’s Shane Jones, aims to plant 100 million trees a year – doubling the current number being planted.
    The plan will require 1000 stems to be planted per hectare over 100,000, which will create jobs particularly in Northland and the East Coast.
    
    [1 square kilometre is 100 hectare, so 100,000 hectares is equal to 1 km wide by 1000 kilometres long – right?]
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:59am
    - KevOB
      
      1 km² = 10² ha.
      Your are correct: 100,000 hectares is equal to 1 km wide by 1,000 kilometres long.
      
      That’s crudely the length of the North or South Islands.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:22am
  - Ed Snack
    
    That’s a clueless response. If it is worth replanting, then it will be replanted even if the current owner does not do so. The current owner on leased land may well not retain the rights to the land to enable replanting.
    
    Forests are also often sold as “cutting rights” giving the owner the right to harvest. Those rights do not extend to replanting.
    
    If it isn’t worth replanting (the future value of the wood being less than the expected costs), then it is highly likely that trees won’t be replanted, and why would we want to ?
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:02am
    - rangitoto
      
      No doubt the CoL will force land owners to have trees planted on their land
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:18pm
  - waikatogirl
    
    ztev “Its expensive to put in logging roads and bases, it makes sense to replant and reuse them for the next harvest, saving a lot of money.”
    
    What if the land owner no longer wants trees planted all over his newly grassed dairy farm?
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:49am
  - Rachael Membery
    
    Replanting amongst the remaining stumps and branches and logs after they have been harveted would be even harder than through cleared brush I would imagine, they leave a huge mess.
    
    We aren’t allowed to cut down native bush to plant pine trees I assume. 😉
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:38pm
    - RF
      
      To clear the land so planting can commence in the large scale proposed by Shane will involve an army of forestry workers. In experienced labourers working in that environment will be dog tucker.
      
      No one has thought this one out as the terrain is not nice flat farm paddocks.
      
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      December 4, 2017 8:51pm
- KevOB
  
  I like their capacity for imagining outcomes like graphic artists without any knowledge of how these things can come about. Well suited for the back end of a think tank but not actual players.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:10am
DifferentPerspective

Local authority mayors – so it’s not just NZ that has the nutters

This utterly cringeworthy video shows Mayor Val Johnson of New Brighton, Minnesota having an emotional meltdown because a fellow female councillor doesn’t accept that (the made-up Orwellian thought crime) white privilege is real and has the insano Mayor on for calling her a racist.

Also observe the body language of the other councillors, they’re all sitting well back from the table signalling retreat from the mad woman’s words.

In some ways this is re-assuring as it proves how widespread the mental health issues are for left wing Mayors the world over and that it’s not just in NZ where only the biggest twats sit at the council table.

Also, it shows the way of the future – where the utter bollox discussed in council meetings is televised for the world to see how completely insane left wing thinking is. If teeny weeny New Brighton with 21000 pop can afford to do this ‘completely open and transparent’ local government – surely NZ’s councils can!
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December 4, 2017 8:49am
In Vino Veritas

So we have a Labour candidate in Fleur Fitzsimons of Wellington complaining about a Nazi sign put up on her fence beside her Labour sign.
She has come out with “Totally respect right to protest, have been on hundreds myself but this is a real low” and “At first I was quite shaken, and I didn’t want my children to see it and to need to explain to them what it was about, though my daughter asked questions about what it meant”.
And I recall her being vocal in the media when National Party signs around the country copped the same treatment. Oh wait…………..
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December 4, 2017 8:53am
- DifferentPerspective
  
  I’m sure it was perfectly innocent use of the swastika by one of those scandinavian liberals from Finland where the swastika has been a symbol of national pride (and diversity no doubt) for generations.
  
  Frankly I find the woman’s reaction to be quite WAYSHIST, maybe really her concern was that her neighbours might mistake it for a sign that she is from the sub-continent where the swastika has long been a religious symbol. This was merely her white privilege showing itself!
  
  Although with the candidate being a socialist, it’s perfectly logical to make the link with national socialism – I mean, the modus operandi is identical:
  – mass use of propaganda to lie to the electorate
  – demonisation of a segment of society to distract from evil practices
  – lack of transparency and openness about political objectives
  – enlisting the cult of a single charismatic personality to distract from evil political objectives
  – cronyism
  – sympathy for the evil cult of Islam
  
  How could you not conflate the two?
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:04am
  - JibberJabber
    
    Except, there was no swastika.
    I took the sign to be accusing her of being a nazi, but it`s not like the media to deliberately mislead its readers….is it?
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:10am
    - sooty
      
      I bet she wil have lots of swastikas on the fence now. Snowflake.
      
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      December 4, 2017 9:46am
Manolo

About “peaceful” Iran:
https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/1.826483
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December 4, 2017 8:58am
Morrissey

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GROPERS
No. 15: Matt Lauer

…fired from the “Today” show this week amidst accusations of serial sexual harassment and molestation, including one woman’s account that he used a “lock button” to trap her in his office and sexually assault her in 2001.
https://jezebel.com/matt-lauers-wife-annette-roque-has-reportedly-left-the-1820943044

Like another highly controversial American, the anti-free speech zealot Peter Thiel, this creep was given specially favorable treatment by the (thankfully defunct) National government….
https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/99395517/disgraced-us-tv-host-matt-lauer-irks-kiwis-who-cannot-pass-through-his-land-to-huge-park

“GROPERS” is presented by GroperWatch, a division of Daisycutter Sports Inc.

No.1 George Herbert Walker Bush; No. 2 Bill O’Reilly; No. 3 Al Franken; No. 4 Robin Brooke; No. 5 Lester Beck; No. 6 Arnold Schwarzenegger; No. 7 Joe Biden; No. 8 Rolf Harris; No. 9 Harold Bloom; No. 10 Sir Jimmy Savile; No. 11 Dr Morgan Fahey; No.12 Prince Harry; No. 13 Bill Clinton; No.14 Judge Roy Moore
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December 4, 2017 9:25am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Lol Morrisey, you mean the lock button that is often installed on high flying TV personalities offices in the States? And you mean the woman that has said that Lauer asked her to undo her blouse (and she did), and who, without yelling, screaming or fighting, (should we read voluntarily?) bent over a piece of furniture while he had sex with her? That woman?
  And I think we can safely ignore your Groper watch when it has Clinton at No.13!
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:37am
  - Manolo
    
    Poor Morrissey has been either smoking or imbibing too much.
    
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    December 4, 2017 9:53am
    - Morrissey
      
      Certainly imbibing too much. Thanks for your kind thoughts, Manolo.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:11am
  - Morrissey
    
    They’re not in any order of merit, my friend. Otherwise, as you rightly point out, Clinton would be possibly No. 1.
    
    And…if it was voluntary, why did he lock the door? Oh, of course—in case his wife happened to walk in.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:10am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Perhaps he knew she would be up for consensual sex, locking the door would be a sensible thing to do I would have thought. As would fighting, screaming etc if she was being raped.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:36am
- Harkman
  
  You are not credible with George HW Bush at #1.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:53am
Inandout

Ryan Bridge occupies Radio Live slot on a Sunday night, and as usual he has an American import guy as a guest. Said guest normally runs Trump down and he gets more excited as his half hour slot continues. Last night said guest was in helicopter mode and his language was ripe even for Radio Live, he was so livid with Trump. I thought to myself, Trump must be doing something right to cause this import so much angst.

Here is Bridge’s twitter; say no more.
https://twitter.com/reporter__ryan
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December 4, 2017 9:31am
- Harkman
  
  Graham Hill had a slot with John Dybvig on his show and it was just an anti-Trump rant. I stopped listening sadly.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:58am
  - Inandout
    
    You could be right on that one, Graeme Hill is 8pm to midnight. The twitter man is in the morning. Yes Dybvig was the one and here is the rant:
    
    http://www.radiolive.co.nz/home/audio/2017/12/dybvig—letter-from-america.html
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:12am
Jack5

Attention techies!

Can someone help with a quick way to get the NZ broadband Glimp popup off my screen for good please?
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December 4, 2017 9:33am
- Jack5
  
  Whoops! Have smoked out Glimp.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:46am
- Lucia Maria
  
  Glimp popped up for me when I clicked on a quick link from the Google home page. And I use an ad-blocker. Never again will I click on those links.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:01am
Jack5

Barely Sober blames Judith Collins for the appointment of Dame Devoid.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11952064
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December 4, 2017 9:48am
- Manolo
  
  And the hack Soper is right. Crusher Collins is solely responsible for appointing the utterly useless Devoy.
  
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  December 4, 2017 9:55am
  - dime
    
    a very strange appointment.
    
    we pay her 200k a year to tell white people they are assholes.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:04am
    - Lance
      
      Hell, I could call everyone assholes for $150K
      A bargain
      
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      December 4, 2017 5:14pm
  - Kimbo
    
    Yep. Mind you, the problem is the position, not the person or the one who appoints them. Would be almost impossible to do the job without departmental ‘capture’ (although Chris Laidlaw was independent IMHO), and it remains a lightening rod for stupid complaints by left and right wing extremists, and a source of endless stupid media stories.
    
    I mean, FFS, our race relations may not be perfect and we may have our at-times less than glorious past…but we are still one of the better nations in the world for race relations. We live together, go to school together, work together, play sport together, intermarry…so why the hell do we need a government department to tell us how to get along?!
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:07am
    - Brito
      
      Is there an uptick function which gives you lots of 10.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:33am
    - pdm
      
      As I recall Hiwi Tauroa was good – he may well have been the last decent one.
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:44pm
  - Paulus
    
    Nobody applied for the job so finally Devoy was persuaded to be the “preferred” Candidate.
    She is ruled by her long standing staff who have been there for a long time irrespective of who is in the top job.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:04am
Hugh Pavletich

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Sydney has become the bane of Australia’s property market | Your Mortgage Australia

https://www.yourmortgage.com.au/mortgage-news/sydney-has-become-the-bane-of-australias-property-market/244377/

The nursery rhyme is for London Bridge, but Sydney’s housing prices are falling down, falling down, falling down… and the city might drag Australia’s property market down with it.

The newest report from CoreLogic showed that Sydney’s 1.3% fall over the past three months is the greatest decline over a three month period since 2016. Tim Lawless, head of research at CoreLogic, agreed that the city’s housing market had moved past its recent peak in July 2017, with dwelling values trending lower each month since – home prices in November are 0.7% down compared to the previous month. … read more via hyperlink above …
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Western Sydney hit hard by mortgage stress | Your Mortgage Australia

https://www.yourmortgage.com.au/mortgage-news/western-sydney-hit-hard-by-mortgage-stress/244332/

Western Sydney is among Australia’s hardest hit areas for mortgage stress, with one in 10 households struggling to make their repayments, according to new figures from the National Cities Performance Dashboard, which is part of the National Cities Performance Framework. … read more via hyperlink above …
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December 4, 2017 9:55am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Who gives a fuck about the shithole that is Western Sydney?
  Hugh, get a real job or make your own blogsite more attractive so you don’t have to pollute this one.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:16am
  - JibberJabber
    
    He`s so Ronery over at his own blog,
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEaKX9YYHiQ
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:09am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  So what Hugh? You’ve lost 7.5k off your $2m place in Sydney. Big deal. Oh wait. It isnt.
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:38am
  - Hugh Pavletich
    
    … Seems the days of Keys playtime ponzi economic governance nonsense are coming to a crunching halt …
    
    Roger J Kerr says businesses have sent an inflation signal to the Reserve Bank with their intentions to increase prices | interest.co.nz
    
    https://www.interest.co.nz/bonds/91210/roger-j-kerr-says-businesses-have-sent-inflation-signal-reserve-bank-their-intentions
    
    How New Zealand inflation measures track over the next six months will determine the direction of interest rates in 2018.
    
    The RBNZ are already on the back foot with forecasting inflation in the economy with a full 1.00% increase to their March 2018 annual inflation forecast from their August projection to their revised November number.
    
    Any reading of likely inflation trends in the economy has to take note of the ANZ Survey of Business Confidence result for the month of November released last week. … read more via hyperlink above …
    .
    .
    NEW ZEALAND BUSINESS CONFIDENCE PLUMMETS … NZ HERALD / KIWIBLOG
    
    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/12/business_confidence_plummets.html
    .
    .
    … NZ Herald August report …
    
    NZ in ‘productivity recession’, JBWere says – NZ Herald
    
    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11901846
    
    Expect big changes early in the New Year.
    
    The Ponzi playtime days are thankfully over.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:47am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Lol Hugh, and the demise of the NZD against most currencies, increasing the cost of imports has nothing to do with NZ companies indicating that they are increasing prices.
      And why did that happen? Election. Labour\Communist\NZF coalition. That’s why. So to claim that it was anything to do with mismanagement by National is just nonsense. Labour handed over a country in recession in 2008, and are causing one in 2017. End of story.
      
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      December 4, 2017 2:01pm
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        SYDNEY AUSTRALIA: Cottage sells for $7.5 million in new record but number of pre-Christmas auctions decline … nine com au
        
        https://finance.nine.com.au/2017/12/04/11/45/cottage-sells-for-over-7-million-but-number-of-auctions-track-lower
        
        … Almost unchanged since it was builtin the 1920s, the modest home on Hastings Parade was sold for $7.55 million after bidding opened at $6.1 million.
        
        (photo)
        
        (159 Hastings Parade, North Bondi. Image: McGrath – Edgecliff)
        
        The New Daily reports that three bidders fought for the property, and opening bids jumped up by $200,000 at a time … read more via hyperlink above …
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:06pm
      - Hugh Pavletich
        
        Australian opinions divided over home prices | Your Mortgage Australia
        
        https://www.yourmortgage.com.au/mortgage-news/australian-opinions-divided-over-home-prices/244379/
        
        … extract …
        
        … Looking at age groups revealed a surprising finding, as 51% of Millenials are reliant on housing prices continuing to increase, compared to just 30% of Baby Boomers.
        
        However, more Australians claim they would benefit from falling property prices. Only 28% indicated they would benefit by selling if prices continue to rise, compared to 47% who said they would benefit by buying in if property prices decline.
        
        As property owners traditionally want prices to go up, ME home loan expert Patrick Nolan said it is surprising that 20% of those with an investment property and 24% of those who already own a home actually wanted the prices to fall.
        
        “But with high prices disrupting the dream of home ownership and the benefits that brings, views are changing.” Nolan said, “That property owners were willing to see asset values fall is a sure sign house prices had reached heights many think are unfair.”
        
        Fifty-seven percent of those who want prices to fall believe this would address the housing affordability issue, a sentiment expressed by 97% of those with a property. … read more via hyperlink above …
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:40pm
Lucia Maria

Kiwi spies knew of Donald Trump’s ‘collusion’ with Russia as it unfolded – book

It was the evidence of European spy agencies and, according to one source, the Australians, that helped nudge an initially reticent FBI into investigating the Trump-Russia ties that continue to unfold.

Five Eyes intelligence partners, including the New Zealand Government Communications Security Bureau, were monitoring the meetings between Trump associates and “known and suspected” Russian agents in the year preceding the US election, Harding says.

“This information would have been shared with New Zealand’s spooks, and they will have a clearer picture, privately, of what degree Trump colluded,” Harding says.

The GCSB issued a carefully-phrased denial of the suggestion it might spy on America: “New Zealand does not use its position in the Five Eyes to monitor US domestic political matters,” Director General Andrew Hampton said.

Harding, a Guardian investigative journalist, has put together a “real-life thriller” underpinned by a dossier prepared by former MI6 Russia intelligence officer Christopher Steele.

I’m not surprised that no one here has put this link up to yesterday’s story in Stuff given the high population of Trump Trolls that inhabit this space now.
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December 4, 2017 9:58am
- Ed Snack
  
  As we know, the Democrats including the Clinton campaign and the Obama campaign, paid Russian officials via a law firm and Steele to produce apparently fake data on Trump. That’s outright collusion, when are we likely to see prosecutions for this proven case ?
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:07am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    There is a lot of noise and obfuscation in an attempt to play down the significance of the Steele dossier, some of which has been vindicated since it was released publically.
    
    This new book goes into a lot of detail, far beyond what is possible in blog comments and links to articles.
    
    Looks like a good read.
    
    Spy who wrote infamous dossier on Trump’s links to Russia breaks cover to insist it’s ’70-90% accurate’
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:19am
- Lucia Maria
  
  Links to the book on Book Depository and Amazon.
  Pity there is no kindle version yet.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:10am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    I spoke too soon, there is a Kindle Edition!
    
    Collusion: How Russia helped Trump win the White House
    
    Just had to look for it.
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:16pm
- tom hunter
  
  Gosh – I’m one of the Trump Trolls now eh, Lucia? Guess I’d better ask DPF to scrub all my scathing comments about the man on Kiwiblog from 2015-16.
  
  As Spock would say: Fascinating. 🙄
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:17am
  - Kimbo
    
    Yeah, but as Lucia Maria is Polish, encircled and/or annexed as they have been during their history by such..benevolent neighbours as the Austrian Empire, Prussia/Germany, Russia/The USSR
    
    ….she’s earned the right to be paranoid. 😉 Same with the Koreans. The ones in the South, anyway. 😉
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:21am
    - Lucia Maria
      
      Thanks Kimbo for pointing that out to the readers (Tom already knows).
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:36am
      - Kimbo
        
        Was sort of rhetorical. I realise the Russians are paranoid about their neighbours:
        
        Sweden is dangerous
        Finland is dangerous
        Poland is dangerous
        Germany is dangerous
        NATO is dangerous
        Serbia is ~~dangerous~~ friendly
        Turkey is dangerous
        Iran is dangerous
        Afghanistan is dangerous
        China is dangerous
        Japan is dangerous
        
        …but as I said, Polish paranoia is justified. 🙂
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:45am
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Kimbo,
        
        It’s not paranoia if they really are out to get you!!
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:49am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    I wasn’t thinking of you, Tom.
    
    There are some very, very obvious trolls here. You haven’t been around much over the last year to notice the large exodus of anti-Trump voices, whom I’m guessing, just can’t be bothered anymore.
    
    That’s where I’m at on this as well, most of the time.
    
    I can only imagine that DPF continues to allow them to exist either because he’s just not paying attention, or this is a great forum to monitor them from. Must be keeping the GCSB very busy, if that is the case.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:24am
    - tom hunter
      
      Must be keeping the GCSB very busy.
      
      Ok, now that made me laugh.
      
      But seriously, I’m sure you weren’t thinking of me when you wrote that but here’s the thing: I’m going to defend Trump on this one.
      
      I think this is just one component of an endless Democrat Party inspired beatup to try and re-write the 2016 Presidential election results.
      
      Frankly I think the US Left – not just many of the Democrat activists but also their enablers in the MSM and various NGO’s – have been driven almost completely insane by Trump’s election and presidency. I don’t recall anything like it in all my years following US politics, not even during the GW era a few years ago, let alone with Reagan. Batshit insane.
      
      And I think this whole thing – including that supposed Dudley DooRight, Mueller – is a crime in itself. Hardly the opinion of Trump-worshippers either, as the following link points out, FBI Stonewalls Corruption Probe:
      
      House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes has issued an angry demand to the FBI and Department of Justice to explain why they kept the committee in the dark over the reason Special Counsel Robert Mueller kicked a key supervising FBI agent off the Trump-Russia investigation.
      …
      “By hiding from Congress, and from the American people, documented political bias by a key FBI head investigator for both the Russia collusion probe and the Clinton email investigation, the FBI and DOJ engaged in a willful attempt to thwart Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibility,” Nunes said in a statement Saturday afternoon. “This is part of a months-long pattern by the DOJ and FBI of stonewalling and obstructing this committee’s oversight work, particularly oversight of their use of the Steele dossier. At this point, these agencies should be investigating themselves.”
      
      I did like the piece of sarcasm at the end:
      
      One thing I don’t understand, however. Why doesn’t President Trump simply appoint a strong conservative with an undoubted commitment to the rule of law–like, say, Jeff Sessions–Attorney General? If we had someone like Jeff Sessions as Attorney General, he could simply order the FBI to respond completely and promptly to Congressional subpoenas, and fire anyone who fails to follow that directive.
      
      Heh!
      
      You should be glad I’m not POTUS, Lucia: I’d have pardoned Flynn by now and launched another “Special Prosecuting Investigation” – into Mueller and his whole team of Democrat-contributing lawyers, not to mention the things that happened on his watch as FBI director. I wonder how he’d cope with a SWAT team smashing into his family home at 3am?
      
      Clean hands? He’d have to fucking pray for that if I was in charge. As the saying goes, I’d have gone medieval on his ass by now.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:40am
      - Paulus
        
        I would expect that the Greens would insist with Labour to shut down the SIS and GCSB asap.
        Or make Golriz G their head as she knows all about everything, along with Cinderella.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:14am
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Tom,
        
        Glad to know you didn’t really think that I thought that you were a “Trump Troll”.
        
        I think this is just one component of an endless Democrat Party inspired beatup to try and re-write the 2016 Presidential election results.
        
        And I think you are dead-wrong there. The Democrats may be beating this along as well, but that does not automatically mean that there isn’t something there.
        
        Frankly I think the US Left – not just many of the Democrat activists but also their enablers in the MSM and various NGO’s – have been driven almost completely insane by Trump’s election and presidency. I don’t recall anything like it in all my years following US politics, not even during the GW era a few years ago, let alone with Reagan. Batshit insane.
        
        Yeah, that insanity is proportional to Trump’s total unfitness to be President of the US.
        
        Only a country that has never before experienced truly awful leaders would be so bewildered at Trump and thus unable to cope.
        
        I wouldn’t get distracted by the reaction to him, though, as you seem to be.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:47am
      - waripori
        
        The whole Mueller investigation is wide ranging and hard to follow, especially as Mueller has made no statements at al and his team has not leaked anything. Any information has come from court documents or from people interviewed.
        
        Easiest to follow one thread at a time and Flynn’s bit is the most straight forward as he asked for immunity at the beginning of the year having obviously broken the law. All of the following is factual as far as I know.
        
        Flynn is not just a retired General. He had a thirty year career in intelligence specialising in electronic surveillance. He has been described as erratic but no one has said he is stupid. He was fired by Obama and became an enthusiastic Trump supporter, very visible through the campaigns and convention.
        
        Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats because of Russian interference in the US election. Flynn then had extensive contacts with ambassador Kislyak over the xmas period in late 2016. When questioned about this by the FBI among others he stated those conversations never involved sanctions. Putin did not react to the expulsions which was a surprise.
        
        Flynn must have known his conversations with Kislyak would be monitored because of his own background in surveillance. Why did he lie and how could he have expected to get away with it?
        
        The FBI had transcripts which made the discussion around Trump lifting sanctions explicit and Sally Yates as acting head of the Justice Department advised the Whitehouse as by then Flynn was National Security advisor and Justice were worried he could be blackmailed by the Russians because of his false statements. Trump did nothing until Mike Pence did the rounds defending Flynn when large numbers of people were aware of the truth.
        It has since emerged Flynn received significant sums from Russia and Turkey which were undisclosed and perhaps his son is also culpable although I am a bit hazy as to how Mueller could have charged Flynn with a number of crimes but he chose a low level one in exchange for cooperation.
        The big question is how Flynn thought he could get away with his lies. One explanation is that he was acting under instructions from someone senior in the campaign and he was told he would be looked after.
        We might find out at some stage who that was.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:31pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Why would Flynn be instructed to lie since what he did was legal.
        And already approved by the Obama administration.
        
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        December 4, 2017 3:53pm
    - treadingthemill
      
      I can only imagine that DPF continues to allow them to exist either because he’s just not paying attention, or this is a great forum to monitor them from. Must be keeping the GCSB very busy, if that is the case.
      
      That’s taking paranoid to a pretty disturbing level.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:48am
      - tom hunter
        
        I’ve been debating Lucia for over a decade now TTM. I’m pretty sure that was said tongue-in-cheek. 🙂
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:57am
      - treadingthemill
        
        Oh ok, that’s a relief!
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:02am
      - All_on_Red
        
        Oh, I think paranoid is right. Or as Tom put it ‘Batshit insane’
        Especially when these facts belie any idea of Trump actually colluding with Russia.
        Firstly here’s the NYT (hardly a Trump supporter) on the ‘Dossier’
        ‘How much of the dossier has been substantiated?
        There has been no public corroboration of the salacious allegations against Mr. Trump, nor of the specific claims about coordination between his associates and the Russians. In fact, some of those claims have been challenged with supporting evidence. For instance, Mr. Trump’s longtime personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, produced his passport to rebut the dossier’s claim that he had secret meetings in Prague with a Russian official last year.’
        https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/25/us/politics/steele-dossier-trump-expained.html
        
        Then there’s Trumps ACTIONS which most certainly prove he isn’t colluding with Putin because the very nature of those actions would have annoyed Putin very much.
        ‘Beginning in early January 2017, the U.S. Army’s 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team of the 4th Infantry Division (3/4 ABCT) will deploy to Poland and establish its brigade headquarters in Żagań. The brigade will also deploy to NATO’s other eastern member countries in order to enhance deterrence, increase interoperability, and meet U.S. commitments to NATO Allies. The 3/4 ABCT will first assemble in Poland and then units will spread out to other Allied countries throughout the region. The full 3/4 ABCT deployment in the region amounts to over 4,000 troops and 2,000 vehicles, including tanks, armored personnel carriers, supply trucks, and trailers. ‘
        https://pl.usembassy.gov/abct/
        
        Yeah, Putin is reaaaal happy about all those M1 Abrams being there
        Then there’s this;
        ‘Poland just took a symbolic step forward in wresting itself from Russia’s energy dominance.
        On Thursday, the first ever liquefied natural gas shipment from the United States arrived in Poland, a landmark of sorts in Europe’s continuing drive to diversify the sources of its energy imports.
        For Warsaw, the first delivery is fruit of new energy infrastructure that allows it to reduce near total dependence on Russian imports, following closely in step with neighboring Lithuania’s move to open its own floating LNG terminal.
        http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/08/first-u-s-natural-gas-shipped-to-poland/
        
        Poland energy independent from Russia! Out from under the thumb!
        Oh yeah
        Trump is really colluding with Putin now/ sarc.
        These are FACTS, including Trump getting NATO spending up, the THAD anti missile system in Estonia etc etc,yet all Lucia can come up with is ‘there must be something there’
        And despite all the investigations showing nothing, she’s being trying that for over a year…
        But we are the trolls, meh.
        
        What.a.nutter.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:12pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Here’s a link to Trumps speech in Warsaw.
        Very Reaganesque and frankly you would think it would appeal very much to Catholic Poland
        http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/donald-trumps-speech-in-poland-full-transcript/news-story/c7f9b430379451434606dd823aef9908
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:28pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        All_on_Red,
        
        I have never identified you as a troll before and yet you are self-identifying as one. Getting confused as to which persona I’ve said what to already?
        
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        December 4, 2017 6:05pm
- Komata
  
  Umm, Lucia
  
  A small point, which might be of interest: The ‘Guardian’ that you quote so carefully, is internationally well-known as being a left-wing publication, and is assiduously ‘Anti-Trump’ and ‘anti-Republican’, despite being published in the UK.
  
  On that basis, might I suggest that the article might be ever so slightly biased against the current US president?
  
  It’s a small detail, but one which may be just a little bit important…
  
  Thank you.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:24am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    Komata,
    
    Everyone is biased. Including you and me.
    
    The question really has to be whether or not the bias gets in the way.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:31am
    - All_on_Red
      
      No, some of us try to be objective and look at the facts.
      
      4 1
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      December 4, 2017 12:25pm
  - Paulus
    
    The Guardian is joined by the Economist who are anti Trump and anti Brexit.
    Pathetic really but with some other good articles
    – but I am given, so do not pay for it.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:17am
- treadingthemill
  
  One of the odd things I have noticed about this blog, a New Zealand blog, called KIWIblog no less, is the amount of attention paid to US politics. Far less than Austrialian poltics, our closest neighbour, and even less than UK politics, a country to which we have historic connections. That alone would be fascinating, but people here also seem to take very passionate sides. How can anyone really understand a countrie’s politics or what that countrie’s issues are unless they have lived there?
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:32am
  - Lucia Maria
    
    US foreign politics affects us.
    
    We are a very, small fish in a large sea, and therefore have to pay attention to the world.
    
    4 2
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    December 4, 2017 10:40am
    - treadingthemill
      
      It affects us sometimes, and usually when it involves the the eastern Pacific area. It doesn’t affect us all the time. And anyway, most of the commentary here is about US domestic politics, which doesn’t really affect us at all, or at least rarely.
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:45am
  - tom hunter
    
    One of the odd things I have noticed about this blog, a New Zealand blog, called KIWIblog no less, is the amount of attention paid to US politics.
    
    A question that’s been asked many times. The answers are many.
    
    It’s just flat-out more interesting / fascinating / lurid. But seriously, there are arguments and fights happening in the USA that are merely dismissed as having been “settled” in NZ – a smug, complacent sense of “consensus”. That in itself makes the place interesting.
    
    It has far more effect on us than most of what happens even in Australia (I confess I know little about what happens there). Almost everything cultural that cooks up in the USA eventually lands here – the whole sexual harrassment/abuse thing being merely the most recent example.
    
    Our contacts with Britain, down to music, language – culture in general – have been largely overwhelmed by the US in the last thirty years, even more so now in the age of the Internet. For example, check out young people’s use of the word “pissed” in NZ nowadays.
    
    As I occassionally tease people with Matt’s lyrics…This is the 51st state of ….
    
    And in my case I did live there, in the 80’s and 90’s, and may well have to move back so….
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:51am
    - All_on_Red
      
      I have many friends in the US, most of whom are Democrats actually…
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:26pm
  - Paulus
    
    Because the dreadful Herald copies from the Washington Post, CNN and the New York Times so it must be right.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:18am
  - Digmen1
    
    Yes I agree.
    I was thinking of suggesting that there be 2 General debates.
    One for US/World and one for NZ.
    
    (plus one for Hugh and one for Jewish topics)
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:19pm
Manolo

Comrade Ardern lying left, right and centre:
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/pm-on-secret-documents-we-dont-consider-it-to-be-official-information/ar-BBG77nW?li=BBqdg4K&ocid=mailsignout

Speaking to Morning Report today, Ms Ardern defended the new government’s reluctance to reveal the details of its coalition agreement.

“We’ve said we don’t consider it to be official information.”
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December 4, 2017 9:58am
- Sofia
  
  Speaking to Morning Report today, Ms Ardern defended the new government’s reluctance to reveal the details of its coalition agreement.
  “We’ve said we don’t consider it to be official information.”
  
  I would have thought that to govern, a coalition would have to be able to indicate to the Governor General an official document that is a complete and signed agreement forming the coalition.
  Anything outside that by definite is not part of the agreement, if the parties involved themselves say it is not official information.
  Ideas arising later or ideas revisited have to be treated as new policy and I would expect to be announced as such, but can’t be official in the themselves because they are in “notes” Ardern has but says is unofficial information.
  
  Either there is now an official agreement and a coalition government in place, or
  NZF, Labour and the Greens are still negotiating a coalition – not both, surely
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:26am
  - KevOB
    
    Winston appoints: he does not negotiate.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:22am
Morrissey

Tame and Faitaua: Language Enforcers on the Job!
TVNZ1 Breakfast, Monday 4 December 2017, 8:05 a.m.

The sports news features a remarkable clip of an Italian goalie rushing up during a corner kick and heading in the winner. The goal engenders delight and approval in the studio. Then this happens….

HILLARY BARRY: [enthusiastically] I LOVE soccer when it’s like that!

DANIEL FAITAUA: [playfully stern] Football.

JACK TAME: [smiling, apologetic] Football.

Hillary Barry, bullied into silence, obviously wants to respond but thinks better of it.

…The programme limps on in its uninspired way….

Now, you could safely bet Bill O’Reilly’s monthly whoring budget that neither Faitaua nor Tame actually calls soccer “football” in their normal off-camera conversations, and you could also safely bet that virtually none of their acquaintances does either. Yet this enforced charade continues on TVNZ, the result of a management decree from 2005 that soccer must henceforth be called “football”, in spite of what the plebs in the audience think. This decree is being increasingly abandoned and disrespected—for example, nearly all RNZ National commentators, including newsreaders, call it “soccer” in line with common usage when they are not actually required to read from a script. As Jim Mora complained in 2010: “Do we HAVE to call it ‘football’ now?”

Of one thing we can all be certain: during his time as a U.S. correspondent based in New York, Tame never, ever, ever admonished (playfully or otherwise) any of his American colleagues for saying “soccer”. And you can bet he dutifully called that game “played” with helmets, where most “players” are not allowed to kick the ball, or indeed to even TOUCH it, “football”.

More Jack Tame idiocy…
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-26082015/#comment-1062913

And Daniel Faitaua, that vacuous lump, should be doing some reading instead of badgering Hillary Barry about nothing….
https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-13102016/#comment-1244029
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December 4, 2017 10:02am
- Kimbo
  
  What’s the problem? It’s their sport, so they get the privilege of calling it what they want. Is a matter of basic courtesy and respect to use the designated term, at least I would expect that of…media professionals. “Association Football” if you want to distinguish it from “American” “Canadian” or “Australian” football. I could have said “Rugby football” too, but the “football” part was abandoned by the NZR(F)U a number of years ago…
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:13am
  - Morrissey
    
    I agree with you Kimbo. It’s interesting that Tame should upbraid Hillary Barry for talking like everybody talks, but would not have dared to do the same to an American colleague.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:16am
    - Kimbo
      
      Not really. “Soccer” is part of the official title of the sport…in the USA:
      
      https://www.ussoccer.com/
      
      Plus the word has taken on a life of its own there not entirely descriptive of the sport, e.g., “Soccer mom”. Plus Americans already call their major winter code “football” (sometimes incorrectly called “gridiron” by Kiwis. Not so, that is the marked field on which it is played)
      
      …so in America it is a valid designation. Not so in NZ, or at least not by those who administer the game here.
      
      http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:28am
      - Morrissey
        
        Soccer New Zealand changed its name to New Zealand Football in 2005, following the Australian Soccer Federation’s change of its name. This came about as a result of a practical joke by John “Possumhead” O’Neill, who had just been made CEO of Australian Soccer, and posited the name as a wicked joke to antagonize his old Rugby mates, who had fired him not long before.
        
        The fact that hardly anyone actually calls soccer “football”, either here or in Australia, seems to have made no difference with the slaves of the media. Murdoch’s ridiculous Fox Sports smilers are perhaps the most outrageous abusers—they’ve even downgraded Australian Rules Football to the puerile “footy”, and (almost as bad) refer to the game incorrectly as “AFL”.
        
        During a Waratahs home game in 2005, Fox commentator Greg Clark decided to broach the topic when he unwisely said in a jocular fashion: “What do you think about this new Football Australia?” His co-commentator Phil Kearns brusquely put him in his place: “We’re watching football now.” Clark lapsed into an embarrassed silence.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:41am
      - Kimbo
        
        Murdoch’s ridiculous Fox Sports smilers are perhaps the most outrageous abusers—they’ve even downgraded Australian Rules Football to the puerile “footy”, and (almost as bad) refer to the game incorrectly as “AFL”.
        
        I’ve lived in Victoria and they refer to it continually as “footy”. And only outsiders call it “Australian Rules Football”. When distinguishing their code from others, they self-describe it as “Australian Football”. Hence, the major professional competition is…the AFL.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:55am
      - SGA
        
        The fact that hardly anyone actually calls soccer “football”, either here …
        
        More than you would think, Morrissey, and increasingly so (speaking as parent from a rugby background who had football-playing children).
        Anyhow –
        
        DANIEL FAITAUA: [playfully stern] Football.
        JACK TAME: [smiling, apologetic] Football.
        
        That’s “bullying” and “upbraiding”? Really? You are setting the bar rather low, aren’t you?
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:56am
  - Morrissey
    
    The NZRFU in its wisdom dropped it, but the general population has not.
    
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    December 4, 2017 10:22am
    - Kimbo
      
      Um, I think the last person who described it as “Rugby Football” was TP McLean and he died some 15 years ago, and he was in his prime some 50 years before that! used to appear in a sentence such as “George Nepia demonstrated his prowess as a rugby footballer by mastering the skill of checking the dribbling rush, when forwards in concert with the ball at toe would assail the great Maori fullback’s goal line”. Was back in the days of 3 point tries and 4 point drop goals
      
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      December 4, 2017 10:34am
      - Morrissey
        
        Just “rugby” or “football” is acceptable. The puerile “footy” is not. Leave that to dimwits and lunkheads like Sam Cane.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:43am
      - Kimbo
        
        Um, the British who invented it call it by the colloquialism, “rugger”. So why not “footy”? Used to call it a “footy ball” when I was a kid.
        
        But. hey, if you get to be an All Black, and say otherwise, I’ll give some deference to your opinion.
        
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        December 4, 2017 10:47am
      - SGA
        
        Just “rugby” or “football” is acceptable. The puerile “footy” is not.
        
        Puerile or not, people freely spoke of the going to the “footy” where I grew up.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:00am
Victor Omega

Watching that “nineties” series on TV and I’m pretty sure that Sarah Jessica Parker, Sheryl Crow and Jacinda Ardern are all characters played by the same horse.
12 1
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December 4, 2017 10:05am
- Harkman
  
  Yeah Mr Ed’s daughter.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:11am
- Morrissey
  
  Ha ha ha ha ha! How the Labour government must be trembling at such principled and clever opposition tactics!
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:15am
  - sam green
    
    They’re pretty damned good at those tactics.
    
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    December 4, 2017 3:43pm
Harkman

I was in the car before and I flicked on Mark Sainsbury and he was going on and on about Todd Barclay, like he was a sponge. Trevor Mallard is a sponge. Barclay has a job now. What about Dunne or Turei? And I’m not even a Barclay fan but for goodness sakes get over it. This is just a smoke screen for the Iranian liar.
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December 4, 2017 10:15am
- Morrissey
  
  Todd Barclay is a sponge? That’s not fair to sponges.
  
  http://thewireless.co.nz/articles/what-todd-barclay-did
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:20am
- Dave Mann
  
  My god, is that drongo Sainsbury still on Radio Live? I used to listen to Sean Plunket avidly and was a caller at times too, but a couple of weeks of that idiot Sainsbury’s mindless droning was too much for me and I stopped listening.
  
  I’m surprised he’s still employed by them. Their listenership figures must be through the floor by now, surely?
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:40am
  - Harkman
    
    Yeah, me too.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:01am
    - Dave Mann
      
      Michael Laws was great too. I don’t listen to any radio now, more’s the pity. I listened to ZB in that slot a couple of times but their guy keeps drifting off and forgetting what he’s talking about and the show is 90% ads.
      
      Morning talkback is dead, which is a shame because as a medium it has so much potential.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:09am
      - Harkman
        
        Yes, I miss Laws’s “feral underclass” and “sickly white liberals” comments. In the US the right wing talk back guys are making a killing and there are so many of them. As for Laws, I am 95% sure I saw him walking through suburban Chch back in August (Northern cbd) he looked like he was at a conference.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:29pm
      - Morrissey
        
        Michael Laws is utterly incapable of arguing his point, even when he enjoys the safety and power of the bully pulpit….
        https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-22022012/#comment-439366
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:05pm
  - waikatogirl
    
    Same here.
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:24pm
- ztev
  
  Yes the travel stuff is just a distraction much better to talk about this
  
  “In one instance, Dickson says her phone rang late at night. A man at the other end of the line told her not to go to a National Party meeting, [Newsroom reported.] The caller followed up, saying, “your son’s partner is a pretty little girl.”
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:14am
  - Paulus
    
    ztev
    Twinkle Twinkle Little Star – How I wonder who you are !
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:21am
    - lifesgood
      
      Yes, I’d love to know who this moron called ztev is. Many think it’s Mallard but isn’t he meant to be working as speaker now…….oh, right.
      
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      December 4, 2017 11:39am
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Why would you want to know lifesgood? Its not like you’d cross the road to pee on him if he was on fire.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:42am
      - sooty
        
        I think there is about three of them.
        
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        December 4, 2017 9:15pm
GoVege

Shane Jones was on the box yesterday telling Maori youth they can get ready to work for the dole.
Instead of sitting on the couch or joining gangs, they can expect to earn their living from now on.
Hallelujah! !
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December 4, 2017 10:33am
- softail 1450
  
  go vege ,and you believe him ? ha,ha,ha,ha.
  would you like to purchase lake pupuke ?ive got a good price for you.
  
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  December 4, 2017 10:42am
  - GoVege
    
    Give him a chance, Softail.
    Better than his predecessors in the racist party declaring that gangs are “an acceptable lifestyle choice” and 13 to 17 year olds having babies = “our fertility “.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:08am
- Paulus
  
  But this morning Cinderella and the FOL have said that Jones is wrong.
  Could be fun.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:10pm
  - waikatogirl
    
    Yesterday Cindy was all for supporting Shane’s work for the dole scheme.
    
    Earlier today I heard it referred to as “Working for the Country”.
    How socialistic does that sound!?
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:29pm
- Prince
  
  Great idea from Jones. Don’t know why nobody thought of it before. Such a creative brain he has.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:47pm
- MCos
  
  Small point.
  It’s not ‘working for the dole’ at all.
  The renumeration is by way of wages not the unemployment benefit.
  
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  December 5, 2017 4:02am
Longknives

Stuff are having a crack at Kiwiblog this morning! Special mention to David Garrett-

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/league/99435570/was-racism-behind-overreaction-to-tongan-league-fans-passion

Who knew that the only reason there were multiple arrests during the League World Cup was that the Police are ‘Racist’?
I wonder what that female Officer who got king-hit and knocked unconscious by one of these ‘Passionate Fans’ thinks of this article?…
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December 4, 2017 11:09am
- ztev
  
  Yes the flag poles were being used violently, a serious assault and one used to smash police car rear window.
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:20am
- Prince
  
  Its only Dave Armstrong doing his ‘Four Legs Good’ socialist rant.
  We used to gasp at stories of Indian cricket fans burning down stands when their team was in trouble, or Spanish football fans rioting when their club team lost. What strange cultures they were.
  Apparently that is now ‘passionate’ behavior to be applauded, and we are to be ashamed of the polite, introverted sportsfan in NZ.
  Just another form of cultural cringe.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:44pm
KevOB

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Government’s work scheme to help young people into jobs will not be a work-for-the-dole scheme because they will be paid at least the minimum wage. ODT today.

That will mess up all the relativitie; particularly as the”living wage” is becoming the minimum wage. Is Revd. Charles now to set all NZ’s minimum pay rates in perpetuity?

Are those incapable of seeking work to be paid less than those in training or youths? Are pensioners to be further downgraded?

Stand by for a wage price spiral possibly in the midst of an economic downturn from a GFC and rising interest rates.

This government is going to wished they had never taken on the job.
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December 4, 2017 11:13am
- ztev
  
  A GFC ?
  
  is Trumps actions going to cause a global economic crisis ?
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:22am
  - KevOB
    
    Nothing to do with Trump. If you cannot see that prices are out of line with values and that we have massive, even leveraged funds, piled to into markets go on put your money into Bitcoin. It’s a casino not a market and were neither isolated or insulated from the global monetary flows. The world cannot continue with negative interest rate or near zero interest rates–why save?
    
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    December 4, 2017 12:56pm
- kevn
  
  KevOB… It wasn’t that broken, it didn’t need much fixing. labour have just slashed and burned their way onwards. Half baked policies and now huge reduction in business confidence plus low exchange rate. All that such a short time. Triad of losers and liars =TOLL= wreckers.
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:25am
Swifty

Well I’m sorry, Taine Polkinghorne, Laurel Hubbard is not a woman and if ‘she’ cleans up at the Games I will feel nothing but sorrow for the female competitors who were vanquished by this bloke.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/99294375/human-rights-commission-nz-backs-transgender-weightlifter-laurel-hubbard-for-commonwealth-games

I bear no ill-will towards Laurel Hubbard whatsoever, ‘she’ can live as a woman till the cows come home (it’s none of my business) and I hope ‘she’ lives a long and fulfilling life.

But I do not accept this view from the HRC and I suspect that, if this goes on, it’ll be the ruination of a lot of women’s sport.
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December 4, 2017 11:21am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Laurel Hubbard is a guy who had his pecker cut off. He isn’t a woman, he’s just a guy with no pecker.
  As with you, I couldn’t care less. But I do care that he has a grossly unfair advantage lifting weights against women.
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:40am
  - Swifty
    
    That makes two ‘blokes’ with no pecker….
    
    https://www.ry.org.nz/our-team/
    
    …scroll down a bit.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:50am
    - Longknives
      
      Christ it’s like the cast of Fraggle Rock…
      
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      December 4, 2017 2:48pm
- KevOB
  
  The rules should not permit Laurel Hubbard to compete others who have have different basic hormones.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:01pm
- Brito
  
  This guy, apart from bing a mensch, sums it up beautifully. ‘I like Ben’ stickers need to start appearing.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkONHNXGfaM
  
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  December 4, 2017 5:10pm
- softail 1450
  
  swifty,I’m not as PC as you ,that is one ugly fricking woman ,she’s balding ffs .
  we are the laughing stock of the entire planet,this has been widely reported on international MSM .
  she’s a fucking cheating bastard and it shouldn’t be allowed .
  one US media sight was asking “is this your typical NZ female”.
  
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  December 5, 2017 4:28am
Ed Snack

Interesting note; early this year Tesla was projecting “Our Model 3 program is on track to start limited vehicle production in July and to steadily ramp production to exceed 5,000 vehicles per week at some point in the fourth quarter and 10,000 vehicles per week at some point in 2018”

So, 5,000 vehicles per week in the fourth quarter of 2017. Let’s see what their actual production looks like shall we, hmmm, estimated weekly output – 345 vehicles. Dear me, that does look, shall we say, a little light ?
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December 4, 2017 11:22am
- ztev
  
  You are right Ed, its a scam
  But it works as the value of their stock exceeds that of GM and is 4th largest by value.
  They have to keep bumping out the guff and promises to keep it there.
  
  Then again there is Amazon, lost billions per year on its warehouse delivery scheme but now makes billions from its cloud computer service.
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:26am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Tesla’s vehicle delivery promises are about as credible as Labour’s house building and tree planting plans.
    But Tesla’s share price is based on it being a ponzi scheme.
    Maybe Labour needs to list on the stock market.
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:24pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    I think you’re incorrect about Amazon. In their early years they rarely made a profit but largely kept a positive cashflow whilst building out scale in their operations. Which they now have. As a company they still don’t make a lot of profit though, based on either assets or sales.
    
    Never did take government subsidies either, just a relentless concentration on delivery excellence and very competitive pricing.
    
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    December 4, 2017 2:35pm
Stars And Stripes

Santa’s helpers unite for children of Ōtara
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/345356/santa-s-helpers-unite-for-children-of-otara
“Volunteers from across Auckland united over the weekend to prepare Christmas presents for thousands of children in the Auckland suburb of Ōtara.
The project, believed to be a first for Ōtara, aimed for 10,000 presents to serve the cause”.

Just to prove to KB’ers that I am not the heartless bastard that some of you think I am I can dutifully inform you that I offered to be a major donor to this project but my offer of 5000 golliwog dolls was politely declined.
Undeterred I will be helping out at the Otara Xmas Lunch instead which this year which consists of brisket with a selection of tree fruit.
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December 4, 2017 11:23am
- Kimbo
  
  Good to see “Postcards from Stars and Stripes” ( Kimbo Enterprises, 2017) has recommenced. Enjoyed your effort last week too…
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:27am
- labrator
  
  … I offered to be a major donor to this project …
  
  Have you considered donating to Radi-aid? Every year Norway suffers silently…
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:41am
- Left Right and Centre
  
  10 000 boxes of condoms for the parents.
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:48pm
Paulus Gnome

Leighton Smith is going within twelve months to be replaced by the muppet head Kerry McIvor!

Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeit!
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December 4, 2017 11:59am
- Surely Knott
  
  Sheeeeeit indeed. Kerre McIvor is dreadful. Self proclaimed socialist, but had a mega rant about the outrageousness when she brings an expensive bottle of wine to a party and then someone else brings a cheap one but then drinks all the good stuff. I guess her socialism doesn’t apply to the good plonk. Anyways, that is really a blow for the right. I hope that Leighton Smith is going somewhere else. Maybe RNZ is looking to get more balance.
  
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  December 4, 2017 12:39pm
  - Paulus
    
    Shut up – Kerre is a women and that replacing a man whatever is the only way ro go.
    The fact that she is a plonker is irrelevant.
    She is not a man.
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:14pm
  - Left Right and Centre
    
    They’re looking for another hoe ?
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:46pm
- Morrissey
  
  Leighton Smith is a fool, and even worse, he’s a bore….
  
  https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-18122013/#comment-746897
  
  https://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-21112013/#comment-732422
  
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  December 4, 2017 5:02pm
  - softail 1450
    
    moronissey ,perhaps with those flaws you point out he may be your long lost twin brother .
    get out more often moronissey you are without doubt the most negative contributor on KB ,it’s bad for your health .
    
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    December 5, 2017 4:38am
Gravelroad

She will be a good mate for Heather DPA who is “taking over” newstalkzb in Wellington next month.
Might be worse I suppose – could have been the resident experts on everything here- ztev and muttonbird.
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December 4, 2017 12:05pm
jp_1983

Yes well at least Simon Barnett in the afternoon will be good
3 1
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December 4, 2017 12:07pm
- Harkman
  
  Simon was one of the few celebrities to come out against the anti-smacking bill. For that reason alone he deserves a listen.
  
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  December 4, 2017 12:33pm
Rachael Membery

Anyone for halal KFC?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/western-leader/99432776/new-zealand-muslims-campaign-for-kfc-to-serve-halal-food
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December 4, 2017 12:20pm
- Kimbo
  
  Seems fair enough. Someone made a request on behalf of potential customers…and KFC declined based on the difficulties in implementing/supplying. Is how a non-sectarian nation and culture works – religion is not banished from the public square, but your rights end where my nose begins.
  
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  December 4, 2017 12:28pm
  - Rachael Membery
    
    46,000 Muslims in NZ, if the economics made sense, they would I am sure.
    
    Clearly we need more not fewer Muslims then.
    
    Why don’t Muslims buy a store to provide it, as there are businesses overseas they can make the model work as easily if not more so than other store owners.
    
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    December 4, 2017 12:39pm
    - Kimbo
      
      Depends who is making money out of catering to their needs.
      
      But then I prefer to think of it as “people who happen to be Muslim”, rather then “Muslims”. Contrary to what one hears from some of the more…excited commentators around here, it is not our nation’s immigration policy to “flood” the country with Muslims. 😉
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:42pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        it is not our nation’s immigration policy to “flood” the country with Muslims.
        
        No, obviously, yet it seems to be an article of faith here that it is, or that it’s going to be any day now.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:53pm
      - GoVege
        
        When they let these chauvinists commit bigamy trigamy and quadrigamy…..at OUR expense…then the end result is flooding our country with Muslims.
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:16pm
      - Kimbo
        
        @ GoVege
        
        When they let these chauvinists commit bigamy trigamy and quadrigamy…..at OUR expense…then the end result is flooding our country with Muslims
        
        Too late!! Already let the contraception-rejecting Roman Catholics flood the place a century and a half ago!
        
        Plus you can’t trust the…Mormons. Polygamy according to Joseph Smith and Brigham Young in “Doctrines and Covenants” (one of the four canonical books for Mormons, btw) is an “unchangeable” decree for Latter day Saints. Yeah, I know, not all Mormons do it…but
        
        1. It is the irrevocable commandment of the founders no matter what the current LDS leadership says, and you are not a faithful Mormon unless you practise polygamy, and
        
        2. some Mormons overseas do, maybe even here, which means those here (especially the younger second generation) are liable to be radicalised
        
        3….and how many don’t commit polygamy isn’t important – some do! You know, like you only need a bit of poison to make a whole batch of otherwise healthy food…deadly!
        
        /sarc
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:26pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        When they let these chauvinists commit bigamy trigamy and quadrigamy…..at OUR expense…then the end result is flooding our country with Muslims.
        
        For that to happen the Muslim percentage of the population would have to be much higher than it is, and the practice your describing would have to be widespread. Neither of those is the case. Immigrant birth rates tend to drop off after time anyway, which is why we are not a majority Roman Catholic country.
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:33pm
      - Longknives
        
        “..Already let the contraception-rejecting Roman Catholics flood the place a century and a half ago!”
        
        Every Sperm is Sacred Kimbo!
        
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        December 4, 2017 4:27pm
      - GoVege
        
        Treading the Mill: if immigrant birth rates tend to drop off after time, then how do you explain the fact that European countries like the Netherlands have at least 10% Muslims now.
        (And why political candidates who dare to oppose the Islamification of their nation have to wear bullet-proof vests and have armed bodyguards.)
        
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        December 4, 2017 6:27pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Treading the Mill: if immigrant birth rates tend to drop off after time, then how do you explain the fact that European countries like the Netherlands have at least 10% Muslims now.
        
        Um, being the one-time coloniser of what is now the most populous Muslim nation in the world – Indonesia (the former Dutch East Indies) might have something to do with it. Plus rely on cheap Turkish and Moroccan labour in the 1960s – like we did with Pacific Islanders – who also have high birth rates albeit dropping – will do it.
        
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        December 4, 2017 6:59pm
    - Kimbo
      
      Why don’t Muslims buy a store to provide it, as there are businesses overseas they can make the model work as easily if not more so than other store owners.
      
      Er, they do. But also they, or more exactly one Muslim asked by means of a social media campaign for an existing business to do so…which is usually publicity any restaurant chain/franchise such as KFC cultivates and values. Which is fair enough…anyone is allowed to request anything of a goods and service provider, including highlighting the potential economic gain. Is done by various food businesses for those with allergies or aversions to gluten, diabetics, those who choose to be vegetarians/vegans, etc. And in this case it was done politely and respectfully. Just as the response was a polite and respectful… “no”.
      
      So what’s the problem?
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:59pm
    - Kimbo
      
      …also you do know KFC is a franchise, where individual store owners have to follow the rules set by the head office, and have to stick to the secret recipe of 14 herbs and spices? So, no, no one wanting to provide halal KFC can just “buy a store to provide it”.
      
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      December 4, 2017 1:06pm
      - Rachael Membery
        
        Far easier to lobby from within. Or are Muslims not allowed to handle un-halal food, not just eat it?
        
        Actually now I come to think of it i think I read somewhere about a supermarket worker that couldn’t do all of the job description because of that.
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:36pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Seems earning ones income in a workplace that food that is haram is permissable, and also touching it in those circumstances:
        
        http://seekershub.org/ans-blog/2010/09/18/can-i-work-at-a-supermarket-checkout-that-sells-pork-and-alcohol/
        
        Seems some of the Muslims who work in my local super market don’t have a problem. But then, that is between them and…their employer.
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:08pm
    - Digmen1
      
      That’s 46,000 too many in NZ.
      Muslims belong is their own muslim hell holes which they are creating all over the muslim world.
      
      I cant wait till their car bombs start hitting Kuwait, Quatar and Saudia Arabia etc and all their nice palaces and golden shopping centres.
      
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      December 4, 2017 1:25pm
  - Stars And Stripes
    
    KFC only declined this because obviously they are a racist Islamophobic organisation with ties to the far right.
    Next they will be refusing to sell chicken legs to homosexuals on the basis that they could be used in an act of sodomy at a later date.?
    
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    December 4, 2017 12:42pm
    - Kimbo
      
      Not sure I know of any mind-bleach that can remove that image from my mind by this afternoon. 😉
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:44pm
      - realityczech
        
        Bimbo, bleach won’t work in a vacuum.
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:12pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Is that an uncodified or unwritten vacuum, bird shit brains?
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:23pm
      - realityczech
        
        Bimbo, you dipshit, our constitution is codified but not in one single document. At least google the definition you lazy know nothing.
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:32pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Dipshit it is…uncodified:
        
        The following states can be considered to have an uncodified constitution:…
        
        New Zealand: see Constitution of New Zealand.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncodified_constitution
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:37pm
      - realityczech
        
        Constitution Act 1986
        Public Act 1986 No 114
        Date of assent 13 December 1986
        Commencement see section 1(2)
        
        http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0114/latest/DLM94204.html
        
        One of our constitutional codified documents.
        
        Oh you like Wiki dickhead ?
        
        The Constitution of New Zealand is the sum of laws and principles that make up the body politic of the realm. It concerns the relationship between the individual and the state, and the functioning of government. Unlike many other nations, New Zealand has no single constitutional document.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_New_Zealand
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:41pm
      - Kimbo
        
        One of our constitutional ~~codified~~ documents.
        
        ..that functions, with other acts and legal precedents in our written, yet uncodified constitution. There! Fixed that for ya, thickee.
        
        So when are you going to confess to that golden shower fetish?
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:45pm
      - realityczech
        
        Hey look a blank “Act” with nothing written down.
        
        http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0114/latest/DLM94204.html
        
        What an epic fail even by the standard of pompous dimwits. ⛐
        
        Please tell me you are being extra thick on purpose Bimbo ?
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:55pm
      - Left Right and Centre
        
        Get a room people. And some chicken legs.
        
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        December 4, 2017 11:41pm
  - Paulus
    
    To be a Muslim is not a religion – it is a way of life that we must all follow.
    So as usual in New Zealand the minor minority’s will prevails.
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:17pm
    - treadingthemill
      
      Islam is a religion, and all religions are a way of life.
      
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      December 4, 2017 1:26pm
    - Kimbo
      
      To be a Muslim is not a religion – it is a way of life that we must all follow.
      
      False dichotomy. Is is “both” and religion “and” a way of life…Muslims are expected to follow in the first instance. Not either/or.
      
      So as usual in New Zealand the minor minority’s will prevails.
      
      …and yet KFC declined to provide hahal KFC, thus falsifying your claim of impending takeover.
      
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      December 4, 2017 1:30pm
- realityczech
  
  Great but first lets cater to the needs of Pork eaters with huge servings of Pork on offer. Pacific Islanders like their roast Pig and we need to do more to cater for their tastes. We also need an area for people to let their dogs run around at KFC. We can also have pet pigs there for the kids to play with while their Pork is prepared. The Pork needs to be cooked with the chicken to add flavour.
  
  These people need to be told in very clear words to fuck off. This is the thin edge of a very big wedge. There does not need to be a fuss or any insult to them. Just a simple NO will do.
  
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  December 4, 2017 12:40pm
  - Kimbo
    
    There does not need to be a fuss or any insult to them.
    
    Someone got hold of Kea’s login today?! Fuck, that sums up your entire MO! That’s an abbreviation for modus operandi, btw. Need me to clarify what that means, like, say I did with that distinction/remedial training I recently gave to you between “uncodified” and “unwritten”?
    
    Is my gift to the Kiwiblog community – helping out the dumb shits.
    
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    December 4, 2017 12:48pm
    - realityczech
      
      “uncodified” and “unwritten”
      
      Bimbo yeah you fucked that up too in your usual verbose way.
      
      I am against religious bullshit. Unlike many others here on KB I do not make exceptions for certain religious groups. At the same time I am against religious persecution.
      
      This is a very simple position, but clearly not simple enough for a pompous know-it-all to grasp.
      
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      December 4, 2017 12:53pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        yeah you fucked that up too in your usual verbose way.
        
        No, he didn’t. I followed that debate and Kimbo was right about our constitutional arrangements.
        
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        December 4, 2017 12:57pm
      - Kimbo
        
        I am against religious bullshit. Unlike many others here on KB I do not make exceptions for certain religious groups. At the same time I am against religious persecution.
        
        I figured, like most here that was more your excuse/occasion/jumping off point to act like an arse hole continually. BTW, how come you never answered that question about whether receiving golden showers is your perversion of choice?
        Speak the truth and free yourself!!! 😉
        
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        December 4, 2017 1:03pm
      - Ed Snack
        
        Maybe, but correct about the pompous etc.
        
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        December 4, 2017 2:37pm
      - realityczech
        
        Trodden there was no debate. Facts don’t require belief, that is why they are called facts.
        
        Bimbo is unable to grasp the fact our constitution is spread across various Acts and documents that collectively make up our constitution. We don’t have it written down like a shopping list as they do in the USA.
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:32pm
      - realityczech
        
        “I figured, like most here that was more your excuse/occasion/jumping off point to act like an arse hole continually.”
        
        Oh really Bimbo ?
        
        Where have you seen me condoning religious persecution of anyone ? You haven’t but its about your feelz, not facts.
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:40pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        Where have you seen me condoning religious persecution of anyone ?
        
        Several times you have claimed that, and I’m using your words here, “the Jew” brings persecution like pogroms and the Holocaust on themselves because of their “bad behaviour.”
        
        That’s condoning religous persecution.
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:46pm
      - Kimbo
        
        @ realityczech
        
        Where have you seen me condoning religious persecution of anyone ?
        
        Fuck, you are thick. As per my quote of your words
        
        There does not need to be a fuss or any insult to them.
        
        I was highlighting that that, not religious persecution – is your MO. Take it away and, what have you got? Nothing other than you are still confusing the meaning of uncodified – “Bimbo is unable to grasp the fact our constitution is spread across various Acts and documents that collectively make up our constitution” – um, that is the definition of…uncodified you thick piece of dried parrot shit. Or is it because that is what you eat that your brains are bird shit?
        
        But on a more important note…when did you start indulging in golden showers, and who did you get to administer it?
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:18pm
      - realityczech
        
        Bimbo, where have I condoned religious persecution and violence you lying sleaze ?
        
        Do try and elevate yourself out of the gutter.
        
        “that is the definition of…uncodified you thick piece of dried parrot shit.”
        
        Another epic fail 🙂
        
        codify
        ˈkəʊdɪfʌɪ/Submit
        verb
        past tense: codified; past participle: codified
        arrange (laws or rules) into a systematic code.
        
        “the statutes have codified certain branches of common law”
        synonyms: systematize, systemize, organize, arrange, order, marshal, set out, chart, structure, tabulate, catalogue, list, sort, dispose, index, classify, class, categorize, compile, group, range, file, log, grade, rate, assort
        
        “the bill codified these standards for the first time”
        arrange according to a plan or system.
        
        “this would codify existing intergovernmental cooperation on drugs”
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:25pm
      - Kimbo
        
        So to clarify…you are trying to change the subject from the fact that you have a fetish for golden showers, and you have never denied it.
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:28pm
      - Kimbo
        
        “that is the definition of…uncodified you thick piece of dried parrot shit.”
        
        Another epic fail ?
        
        codify
        ˈkəʊdɪfʌɪ/Submit
        verb…
        
        So in what world do “uncodified” and “codify” mean the same thing?! I’ll give you a hint – if a word has “un-” on the front, it usually means the opposite of what follows.
        
        Yep. Another epic fail alright. So is it the accumulation of bird shit or golden showers that have addled your brain, and made you habitually aggressive towards others? Or were you just born…thick?
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:33pm
      - realityczech
        
        According to the pompous verbose smart arse Bimbo this is not codified LOL 🙂
        
        Note to dipshits: This is NOT the constitution by itself.
        
        Constitution Act 1986
        Public Act 1986 No 114
        Date of assent 13 December 1986
        Commencement see section 1(2)
        
        http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0114/latest/DLM94204.html
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:39pm
  - GoVege
    
    Wish they’d put up “no begging” signs outside the South Auckland KFCs.
    Better still “no begging. WINZ is that way —-“
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:10pm
    - softail 1450
      
      govege , come on govege chuck the poor bastards a couple of chicken wings ,actually I find KFC fricking disgusting although their zinger burgers are good….
      
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      December 4, 2017 6:50pm
- KevOB
  
  No.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:03pm
mandk

There should be no dole for anyone who is fit and able, and who does not have sole care of dependants:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11952703

Giving benefits to people who could and should work is against the interests of everyone; including the person seeking benefits.
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December 4, 2017 12:24pm
- GoVege
  
  Totally right on, mandk.
  It is senseless for any society to expect it’s working citizens to pay for the support of able-bodied citizens perfectly capable of supporting themselves.
  It used to be the job of parents to encourage and support their kids to get work.
  Now the state has taken over the job of dad to thousands of kids, not only does it /us pay for their support through childhood, when they get to what used to be “working age”, they have never had an example of a working dad or even mum to emulate.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:25pm
  - Digmen1
    
    Imagine living in tribal times.
    Leader – OK guys we are all going hunting today.
    Women you stay home and get the hut ready.
    Can you imagine what would happen if some guys said Ah No, I cant come hunting today as i’m tired. Can you give me some food?
    
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    December 4, 2017 1:30pm
    - GoVege
      
      I think they’d BE the food…. 🙂
      
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      December 4, 2017 6:02pm
realityczech

The fake news outlet Stuff is running a campaign to spread misinformation about plastic bags to low information virtue signalling luddites.

As usual the culprit is Western White Capitalists. In reality most of us do not dump our plastic bags in the sea. However that is a common in less developed countries.

Like this one:
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSpi-H4E-jQOUkWLXrGIrQATBLOA1X_F5dgzxiw17Nk-zyKGv_N

This is very simple. Developed countries are not dumping bags in the ocean so targeting them will do nothing to improve pollution levels. This is campaign is based on lies.

Here is the truth: http://www.allaboutbags.ca/myths.html
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December 4, 2017 12:24pm
- Digmen1
  
  Yes I note that article showed lots of rubbish in third world countries!
  We have proper land fills here in NZ.
  
  And have you ever left a plastic bag outside in the sun for a few weeks. It soon breaks down.
  
  Fake News / Liars
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:28pm
  - Left Right and Centre
    
    Sunlight is the best disinfectant for snowflakes.
    They soon break down too.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:35pm
- Prince
  
  Exactly. There are not enough plastic bags to contain the rubbish being spouted on Stuff. We use our bags as bin liners before putting them in our wheelie bin to be collected weekly. The total area of compacted plastic bags in NZ landfills is less than the space taken up by one car.
  But science is anathema to these zealots.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:34pm
  - Digmen1
    
    One car!
    That is so funny
    And shows how stupid they are.
    What about butter containers, shaver blister packs, household cleaner plastic bottles. All much thicker.
    
    3 1
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    December 4, 2017 1:49pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  Seems to me you saw that Stuff was running articles about plastic bags and assumed that, because it was Stuff, it must be all about misinformation aimed at making Western White Capitalists the bad guys.
  
  But if you’d actually read the articles, you would have found them in fact to be much more nuanced and informative than that; notably setting out the evidence based on proper full life cycle analysis and how that concludes that if you dispose of a plastic bag responsibly and particularly if you re-use first, the total environmental damage is less than almost any of the potential alternatives.
  
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  December 4, 2017 1:53pm
  - treadingthemill
    
    But if you’d actually read the articles
    
    Actually reading the articles would get in the way of hysteria driven, paranoid ranting. Can’t have that. I’m just surprised to nobody claimed Stuff was participating in a communist plot personally directed by the PM to overthrow the free market.
    
    http://app.dumpark.com/seas-of-plastic-2/
    
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    December 4, 2017 2:06pm
    - Prince
      
      Haven’t seen any positive articles.
      This is the sort of article I’ve been seeing.
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/97785555/four-complaints-about-giving-up-plastic-bags-that-you-can-definitely-get-over
      Just a nobody trying to be witty.
      
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      December 4, 2017 2:14pm
- Ed Snack
  
  Something over 90% of all the plastics in the oceans comes from a few major rivers; Niger and Nile in Africa, Indus and Ganges in SW Asia, Mekong, and in China, the Yangtze, Yellow, Hai He Yellow, Pearl, and Amur.
  
  Funny that…
  
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  December 4, 2017 2:42pm
  - KevOB
    
    That’s very helpful for our shopping decisions.
    
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    December 4, 2017 4:12pm
  - Left Right and Centre
    
    You can take my re-usable bag that says ‘be the difference’ out of my cold dead planet saving hands.
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:34pm
JasonJohns

The hate campaign against Allan Titford continues with this evil rant in The Spinoff
https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/28-11-2017/treaty-of-waitangi-denialism-a-long-dark-and-absurd-history/

It is said that Titford claimed he was insane at the time of his trial in 2013, and appealed for the verdict to be annulled on that basis. But Titford only pleaded insanity in a tactical move. He is still secretly sane. And anyway in an insane society aren’t the sane insane and the insane sane????
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December 4, 2017 12:41pm
Surely Knott

New article from the Herald quoting issues raised by Warren Flaunty, who they describe as Pharmacist
and Local Board Member, about fill dumping on private land in Taupaki. Isn’t he still the director of Norsga Properties and owns many properties including in Taupaki? Is it not fair to say he’s a property investor/developer in the area as well. And head of the TTCF. Surely the Golriz debacle showed a lack of judgement from Golriz but also poor form on the part of our media. I’d like to see more complete reporting from our reporters. Maybe he has no interest in the fill dumping but with property interests up that way I hope the reporter asked those questions.
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December 4, 2017 1:20pm
- softail 1450
  
  flaunty is the very same man that pulled out of an intersection a few years back without thinking and killed a fellow motorcyclist who was out for a first ride on his newly restored motorcycle .
  he got off with very little censure.
  
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  December 5, 2017 6:37am
JibberJabber

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11952737

Ardern said in a Facebook Live video last night that she wanted to be more transparent and release Cabinet papers and official advice that lead to a decision.

“We’re doing work on that now so we can improve transparency around that decision-making, whilst at the same time making sure that we still get really free and frank advice from our public servants,” Ardern said.

The woman most certainly graduated with honours with her PhD in Doublespeak, the Politburo will be very proud.
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December 4, 2017 1:59pm
- Prince
  
  Yep. We can’t release sensitive info like coalition agreements now, but we’re ‘working on’ improving transparency around decision making down the track about free and frank advice transparency zzzzzz
  
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  December 4, 2017 2:16pm
- KevOB
  
  Yes Minister–free and frank advice.
  The more devious JA is the more her advisors will be too. How will she straight from bent advice?
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:10pm
- Left Right and Centre
  
  Someone show that dick a clear pane of glass.
  That’s transparency.
  
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  December 4, 2017 11:32pm
Stars And Stripes

NZ city that has the most sex revealed
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2017/12/nz-city-that-has-the-most-sex-revealed.html
“The sex lives of Kiwis are the focus of a new survey by a sex toy retailer – which shows where in New Zealand people are having the best sex.
People living in Hamilton are having the most sex (three or more times a week on average), while people living in Tasman, Nelson and Marlborough are having the least sex – three times a year or less on average”.

Fascinating about Hamilton officially being the horny capital of NZ as from my completely unscientific research I would tend to agree as on one visit I rustled a guy giving head to another bloke in the Botanic Gardens and then on a different visit disturbed a guy having a minge sandwich by the river so it definitely seems like a hotbed of fornication to me.
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December 4, 2017 2:08pm
- Kimbo
  
  Is still NZ’s chlamydia capital isn’t it? Or is that now Rotorua?
  
  http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/76088358/New-Zealands-worst-regions-for-STIs
  
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  December 4, 2017 2:12pm
  - Stars And Stripes
    
    Rotorua only took the lead for chlamydia infections however as they started hosting more reggae concerts.
    
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    December 4, 2017 2:20pm
    - kevn
      
      Stars… Rotorua has been dropped by the Reggae concert promoters for a while now, but replaced this year by a council run MudTopia Festival…. well, they have one in South Korea so why not Vegas? They used Rotorua mud rather than the planned South Korean mud, due to a very low possibility of foot and mouth disease on the imported goo. The disease prospect was uncovered by an alert ratepayer not council.
      
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      December 4, 2017 2:46pm
- RalphT
  
  Probably because there’s nothing much else to do.
  
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  December 4, 2017 2:58pm
- lifesgood
  
  Well what else would you do in Hamilton?
  
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  December 4, 2017 5:08pm
Ross12

This is simply straightout child abuse

http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/12/03/british-nursery-age-toddlers-given-picture-books-encouraging-transgender-questioning-gender/
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December 4, 2017 2:27pm
- Inandout
  
  These dumb parents play right into the hands of the Muslim community.
  
  “A person is forbidden to change what Allah created. If the Lord created him male he will never have children,” responded the sheikh. “Indeed, there are doctors who violate this rule to appease the deviants and to deceive them into thinking they can become women. But such a man will never really be a woman. If a person feels inside that he is of another sex, that’s not a reason to change sex he must be satisfied with the will of God and treat his soul with faith and obedience.”
  
  Liberals of course think everyone is happy with gender bending, except the faith which must never be mentioned..
  
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  December 4, 2017 3:31pm
- Harriet
  
  “….This is simply straightout child abuse…”
  
  …..and later the hormone treatment………and the castration of them when they become a teenager…….is proof again.
  
  Liberals are sick people and they don’t base anything in reality.
  At the end of the day it’s the adults involved who decide what path the child follows as most young children go through a short stage of pretending or copying the opposite sex……adults then affirm the natural sex into the child, like all adults have done in the past, boys are boys and girls are girls…….liberal ‘adults’ instead let the child decide…….or decide for them.
  Putin has it right, you can be gay but you can’t promote it.
  
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  December 4, 2017 3:56pm
- Longknives
  
  I read a gushing article a while back on a little kid (7 or 8 years old) who was starting the wonderful ‘Transition/Journey’ (whatever the Rainbow Crowd call it) to change sex.
  
  By a quite remarkable coincidence the kid’s parents were a couple of angry looking Lesbians…
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:23pm
rightoverlabour

Hmm, the truth will eventually prevail. Winny and the COL do nothing compared to these guys….

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/12/03/new-documents-reveal-fbis-clinton-cover-up.html

So glad that BITCH lost.
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December 4, 2017 3:03pm
kevn

The Ombudsman has given JA, 5 days to respond on ‘the 33 page missing bit’ of the coalition agreement between her and winnie. The Ombudsman has read the doco and formed his opinion.
Cringe time for both JA and winnie when it rachets up like this. Shows NZers what clowns are running the show.
Be interesting to see the response.
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December 4, 2017 3:30pm
- Inandout
  
  We must have a working party to look into this.
  
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  December 4, 2017 3:32pm
  - RalphT
    
    And then a conversation; that should spin it out for a few months.
    
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    December 4, 2017 3:40pm
    - Inandout
      
      At $500 a day, each.
      
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      December 4, 2017 6:08pm
- Tricati
  
  JA will get H2 to have a word with Ombudsman as he clearly hasn’t read the script. The CoL must be hanging out for the Christmas recess to get their stories straight.
  
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  December 4, 2017 3:59pm
  - sooty
    
    BBQ season has started. It’s no summer!
    
    3 0
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    December 4, 2017 5:51pm
- lifesgood
  
  Oh, exciting! Popcorn time!
  
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  December 4, 2017 5:10pm
- Piniwi
  
  Strange kevn that he did not want the original 38 page version and the edited version? This will be a festering scab for the COL. Few Kiwi’s will appreciate the country being run with a “secret aggreement” as it casts so mudh doubt about every action. Or inaction.
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:49pm
SPC

Why of all the nations in the world are there sanctions against Venezuela (by USA and the EU)?

This nation holds elections, so what is it about this nation that leads to it being singled out?
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December 4, 2017 3:53pm
- All_on_Red
  
  You really have to ask?
  Lol
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:08pm
  - SPC
    
    There is no good answer, and you know it.
    
    Moving from Cuba to Venezuela, suggests that there will always be a nation used as an example to warn others against choosing socialist economics.
    
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    December 4, 2017 4:24pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Wow, just wow.
      
      5 3
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      December 4, 2017 4:42pm
- treadingthemill
  
  ‘Marco Rubio target of possible Venezuelan assassination plot’
  
  https://www.cbsnews.com/news/marco-rubio-diosdado-cabello-possible-assassination-plot/
  
  ‘Student Shot and Killed at ‘Mother of All Protests’ in Venezuela. Neighboring countries called for citizens to be allowed to protest peacefully. Those calls went unanswered.’
  
  http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/04/19/student-shot-and-killed-at-mother-of-all-protests-in-venezuela/
  
  ‘Venezuelan 14-year-old shot dead during anti-government protest ‘
  
  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/24/venezuelan-14-year-old-shot-dead-anti-government-protest
  
  ‘Venezuela poll was rigged, says voting company’
  
  https://www.ft.com/content/2df422b8-779d-11e7-90c0-90a9d1bc9691
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:09pm
  - Digmen1
    
    People are protesting all over the world against what they see is corrupt electoral commisions.
    Kenya
    Venezuela
    Honduras
    And in all these case an oppressive government controls the people and commits abuses.
    
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    December 4, 2017 4:16pm
  - SPC
    
    Correct answer, Venezuela nationalised their oil industry (formerly Cuba nationalised industry and were under US sanctions for decades). For the USA this is the only unforgiveable offence – offence to capitalist ownership.
    
    The USA cares nothing about democracy, they trade freely with China, there are nations with much worse human rights abuses that USA and the EU. Neither had sanctions against military dictatorships in South America in past decades.
    
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    December 4, 2017 4:20pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      ‘For the USA this is the only unforgiveable offence – offence to capitalist ownership’
      You’re a parody account- right?
      
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      December 4, 2017 4:45pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        I think SPC’s account has been hacked by Morrissey.
        
        8 0
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        December 4, 2017 4:57pm
      - SPC
        
        Whereas I think you arrived as a free thinker and in a few short weeks have succumbed to Stockholm syndrome, going along to get along.
        
        A sad parody of what partisan blogs do to “media” and public debate.
        
        That few dare to resist the prevailing mob opinion is why blogs end up where they end up.
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:08pm
      - treadingthemill
        
        and in a few short weeks have succumbed to Stockholm syndrome, going along to get along.
        
        I never go along to get along. I say exactly what I think or believe, always. I just had a go at starboard for his anti-Maori racism, the opposite of going along to get along, especially on this blog. On this issue I just don’t think the facts support your claim. The US has imposed sanctions against Russia, which does not have a socialist economy. And if the pattern you’re claiming were true, the US would have imposed snactions on China. There are just too many obvious exceptions for the “socialism = sanctions” claim to be a viable theory.
        
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        December 4, 2017 6:04pm
      - SPC
        
        So have we (Crimea, Ukraine), but not against Venezuela. And nothing to do with matters inside Russia.
        
        The Venezuela offence, was nationalisation, this was no action against lack of democracy – thus free trade with China, manifestly not a democracy.
        
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        December 4, 2017 6:12pm
    - tom hunter
      
      Correct answer, Venezuela nationalised their oil industry (formerly Cuba nationalised industry and were under US sanctions for decades). For the USA this is the only unforgiveable offence – offence to capitalist ownership.
      
      Ah! I guess that explains all the sanctions against Arab countries after they nationalised their oil industries through the 1950’s and 60’s.
      
      Actually you could have a lot of fun setting up the global oil companies as conspiring to have idiot socialists take over Venezuela and nationalising it’s oil industry as a way of slowly removing that supply from the global market to increase prices and profits. 🙂
      
      Oh – and this:
      
      Which brings us to why they’ve not banned the oil trade. Venezuela’s oil is very heavy, thick stuff, so much so that they actually import lighter crude from the US to mix into it to get it up to a standard that refineries can take it.
      
      However, it still means that a refinery has to be adjusted to be able to take it and those along the Gulf Coast of the US are those able to do so. If the US refused to take it, outlawed it, then that would cause a shortage in the US market–why hurt yourself when you’re trying to hurt someone else?
      
      Perhaps more importantly it would immediately collapse the Venezuelan economy. There’s no one else who can take that oil, not without months of reforms and adjustments to their refineries, a disruption that the people of Venezuela simply couldn’t handle.
      
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      December 4, 2017 5:07pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Oh stop it Tom.
        You and your conspiracy destroying inconvenient facts!
        
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        December 4, 2017 5:57pm
      - SPC
        
        The 1950’s removal of the Iranian regime and restoration of the Shah, was not doing nothing – and look where that has led today.
        
        One suspects the reason why the Americans do not force the Venezuela government to find another economic partner for the refining work industry is profit to American companies and the ability to find an alternative.
        
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        December 4, 2017 6:08pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘One suspects’ huh
        Sure, yeah sure.
        (Queue the Twilight Zone music)
        ?
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:25pm
- SPC
  
  There is a clear trend.
  
  Economic isolation of Cuba, then onto Venezuela – for the same thing, nationalisation.
  
  Onto regime change in Iraq and Libya – like Venezeuela, oil exporters with socialist economics.
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:44pm
Digmen1

I just saw Jack Tame questioing Jacinda again.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99507985/jacinda-ardern-backs-off-workfordole-scheme-but-doesnt-rule-it-out

He just not let go, and she just does not answer.
Its great fun.

I can see her turning downs interviews with him soon.

Go Jack!
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December 4, 2017 4:01pm
- SPC
  
  The Herald has had as lead story all day, a phone call from an employer to ZB talk radio saying two new workers he hired did not turn up for work this morning. It referenced the Shane Jones proposed work for the dole programme (not really linked most of the younger unemployed do not have the ability to do the driving required for the job in question, and those that do and have the muscle for lifting the water coolers etc can find better paid work in other jobs).
  
  http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11952703
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:30pm
- Psycho Milt
  
  I can see her turning downs interviews with him soon.
  
  Worked for Key – find some sympathetic dim-bulb radio DJs or crawling sycophants like Hosking and make them your only interviewers. I personally would find Key’s ethical standards a depressingly low bar for Ardern to clear, but I’d be able to understand it if she didn’t aim higher.
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:55pm
  - SPC
    
    She might simply reverse Key’s approach do more RNZ and less ZB.
    
    ZB has already moved on this when they replaced Smith – so she might still do ZB, just after MH.
    
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    December 4, 2017 5:13pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      ‘ ZB has already moved on this when they replaced Smith ‘
      Replaced huh. Thought he’s retiring.
      Now you see, reading that, some would think you’re a deluded fool.
      But no, I know you’re a parody.
      It’s very good. Funny.
      #Poes Law
      
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      December 4, 2017 6:13pm
    - SPC
      
      Ardern will do McIvor, cannot see her doing Hosking for long.
      
      If you apply your molecular sized intellect more “conshe-enshiously” you can think it through without me having to spell everything out for you.
      
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      December 4, 2017 6:28pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Haha, I was just amused at you inferring Smith had been replaced, as though ZB deliberately did that so they could get Taxcinda.
        Hey, does S.P.C stand for Sanctiminious Pontificating Cock?
        Because you write such total shit.
        Lol
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:15pm
- lifesgood
  
  I’m starting to change my opinion on Jack. Maybe he has grown up now. He didn’t give her any joy and, boy, oh, boy is she annoying with her teeth and hair, poor diction and hands all over the place. I can’t bear watching her
  
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  December 4, 2017 8:41pm
flipper

CHIEF OMBUDSMAN STEPS IN . ARDERN GETS 5 DAYS TO PERSUADE HIM NOT TO RELEASE THE 38/33 PAGE SECRET AGREEMENT

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has written to Jacinda Ardern in relation to the 33-page coalition document that she has refused to release, asking her to respond within five days.
He has also made a general plea for advisers to ministers and top officials to stop “dumbing down” advice in an effort to spare them from potential embarrassment.
Ardern has been under pressure from the Opposition to release the 33-page document, which she describes as an unofficial “record of some of our [coalition] conversations”.
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters described it as a “document of precision on various areas of policy commitment and development” and “directives to ministers with accountability and media strategies”.
……….. Ardern’s refusal to release the document is now the subject of a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman.
Boshier told Radio New Zealand’s Nine to Noon that he had read the document.
“I’ve written to the Prime Minister and my expectation is a five-day time turnaround for a reply.”
He said he could not talk about this individual case, but described the general process.
“I set my own timelines as to what’s appropriate. I see the document. I go through it. I form my own view. I then take that provisional view to each side and say, ‘This is what my view is. What do you say in relation to my view?’

[Does this not mean that, having read the document, he has told Ardern and Dyke Simpson that he intends to release it. He has given them five (5) days to persuade him otherwise. Oh Dear, what a pity. ]

“And then I release my decision. It’s very rare that my decision is not complied with.”
Boshier was encouraged by the Government’s approach, saying that a culture of transparent Government had to start with strong leadership.
But there had been a risk-averse approach that had seen officials shy away from provocative advice that might cause political embarrassment.
“I would like briefings to ministers to be more robust and to be able to be much more provocative than has occurred because of a dumbing down of advice in the event that it might be released.”
There had also been occasions when officials had wanted to release information, but minister’s offices had “frustrated that process”, as well as unjustified redactions from documents that had been released.
He said it was wrong to characterise the Office of the Ombudsman’s sanctioning powers as a slap on the wrist with a wet bus ticket.
“In my two years, I’ve not had any decision that’s not been complied with … People hate being reprimanded by the Ombudsman. In my experience, they’ll do anything to avoid public criticism.”

– NZ H ex red radio
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December 4, 2017 4:28pm
- Psycho Milt
  
  [Does this not mean that, having read the document, he has told Ardern and Dyke Simpson that he intends to release it. He has given them five (5) days to persuade him otherwise. Oh Dear, what a pity. ]
  
  Well, it might. Or it might not. That’s the thing about jumping to unfounded conclusions.
  
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  December 4, 2017 4:51pm
  - starboard
    
    Arderns toast. Lets see her dig herself out of this one.
    Hahahahahaha!
    
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    December 4, 2017 5:12pm
  - kevn
    
    pm…. No winnie in the loop?
    
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    December 4, 2017 5:30pm
- SPC
  
  Labour was trying to delay transparency to the new year, till parliament closed up for the year.
  
  Release the document in the summer break and respond to written questions once the next parliament was up and running.
  
  Wonder what they can do … it’s not a big issue ..
  it was really about payback for the first day in parliament ambush.
  
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  December 4, 2017 5:26pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    ‘It’s not a big issue.’
    Nah, just Campaign on transperancy and honesty and then refuse to release documents which detail the Agreement between the two major coalition Parties.
    Hahahahahahaha
    You’re such a laugh.
    Next you’ll be telling us she doesn’t lie!
    Hilarious.
    
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    December 4, 2017 7:21pm
  - Kimbo
    
    it was really about payback for the first day in parliament ambush
    
    OK, so that’s an acknowledgement “relentless positivity” has been flushed? 😉 As always the first casualty of war is…the truth. 😉
    
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    December 4, 2017 7:26pm
    - SPC
      
      There was also a reluctance to have their office answering written questions all day while Ministers were trying to get through briefings and up to speed with their portfolios.
      
      The word inconvenience comes to mind, transparency can wait till the new year was the realpolitic in action.
      
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      December 4, 2017 7:30pm
      - Kimbo
        
        Yes, how nasty and inconvenient that the Westminster system of government doesn’t allow for scrutiny of government by…Her Majesty’s most loyal Opposition! 😉 Oh, no, hold on…looks like the in-coming government didn’t get the memo to the contrary. 😉
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:41pm
      - SPC
        
        To what standard, the one recommended (reform of the OIA) to National and which they rejected?
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:50pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Bwhahahahahahahahaah (like that?)
        You can be pedantic to your hearts content about what the Legislation may say but this is politics.
        It’s about her word and her integrity.
        Taxcinda said she would be transparent and now she’s not. She’s trying to cover it up.
        She’s a deceptive liar.
        
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        December 4, 2017 7:59pm
kevn

Beware The Stockholme Syndrome from bloggers on here. Expectations are now so low with the Triad of losers and liars (TOLL) actually being straight-up about anything.
Their behaviour has become a source of amusement.
I for one, am pissed off at the cavalier response we continually see.
NZers deserve better.
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December 4, 2017 4:28pm
Stars And Stripes

Microbeads ban announced by Government
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11952956
“The Government will ban the sale and manufacture of plastic microbeads, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced today”.

Could be some rebellion by Labour MP’s around this as the use of plastic anal beads has some devoted practitioners with one famous case springing to mind.
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December 4, 2017 4:38pm
- nasska
  
  …..”rebellion by Labour MP’s around this as the use of plastic anal beads has some devoted practitioners”…..
  
  Plastic anal beads wouldn’t touch the sides of their well worn arses. Ditto probably for soccer balls!
  
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  December 4, 2017 5:12pm
  - sooty
    
    Thats why Darren Hughes was into swiss balls at the old trouts place.
    
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    December 4, 2017 5:47pm
    - Manolo
      
      Do not speak ill of Ginga Hughes. He could well make a comeback working for Labour in London before coming home with his partner. It is all possible.
      
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      December 4, 2017 6:22pm
      - sooty
        
        Especially with his aunty back
        
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        December 4, 2017 9:22pm
  - Left Right and Centre
    
    Plastic anal beads wouldn’t touch the sides of their well worn arses. Ditto probably for soccer balls!
    
    G-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O-A-A-L !!
    
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    December 4, 2017 11:21pm
sooty

Hey, Angry. The Pike River Mine starts with your arse if it turns to custard, and someone gets hurt. You can not fob responsibilty off on to some else. At the sametime we go after Bernie Monks arse! Angry, you have one pissed off person, meeting you in court. Do you want more and drumed out of politics.
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December 4, 2017 5:25pm
Shaun the Sheep

What kind of third world country are we living in when there is no notice from Napier City Council that they’ve let the reservoirs empty out.
House tap water now looks like weak coffee and there is no water left at the local shop.
Bloody muppets
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December 4, 2017 5:58pm
- kevn
  
  Local councils seem to forget who is there for who… Very poor for Napier’ites.
  
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  December 4, 2017 6:10pm
  - Shaun the Sheep
    
    There’s plenty of wonderful new cycle ways, but you can’t drink them.
    We’ve got Art this and Deco that but you can’t drink a deco-style street sign.
    We’re throwing up houses at an astonishing rate, but where’s the increased capacity in infrastructure?
    Probably has more to do with reservoirs needing cleaning to get rid of e-Coli that has our water chlorinated. The residents would understand that and plan accordingly, but this attempt at pulling the wool by NCC is seriously amateur.
    
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    December 4, 2017 6:39pm
sooty

Ztevs last post was just before lunch. Must have gone in for retraining or a sleep. It must be hard been a troll.
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December 4, 2017 6:00pm
- kevn
  
  Sooty… psycho milt takes up the slack for ztev when he needs a break. Being in the same room makes it easy, lol
  
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  December 4, 2017 6:08pm
realityczech

‘Orgy of Murder’: The Poles Who ‘Hunted’ Jews and Turned Them Over to the Nazis

More than 200,000 Jews were killed, directly or indirectly, by Poles in World War II, says historian Jan Grabowski, who studied the brutal persecution of the victims. His conclusion: There were no bystanders in the Holocaust.

read more: https://www.haaretz.com/world-news/europe/.premium-1.770707
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December 4, 2017 6:13pm
realityczech

Why are Poles such murderous nut jobs and why are they so quick to create conspiracy theories ?

11/12/17

POLAND NATIONALIST RALLY WITH NEO-NAZI SLOGANS, CALLS FOR ‘ISLAMIC HOLOCAUST’ DRAWS BIGGEST CROWD EVER

http://www.newsweek.com/poland-nationalist-rally-neo-nazi-slogans-calls-islamic-holocaust-draws-708984
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December 4, 2017 6:17pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Thank you for confirming that you and All_on_Red are the same person.
  
  For those wondering how I came to this conclusion, realityczech had his spaz attack after I posted this comment just a little while ago.
  
  Another Kea identity burned …
  
  1 3
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  December 4, 2017 6:25pm
  - realityczech
    
    Oh look a conspiracy nut ^^^
    
    Let me guess… it’s those Russian Jews again ?
    
    2 2
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    December 4, 2017 6:26pm
    - realityczech
      
      Chilling study blames Catholic Church for the Holocaust
      
      this book carefully sketches the long history of anti-Semitism in the church, based on the false premise that the Jews killed Jesus — himself a Jew. It runs through the centuries of numerous pogroms, persecutions, enforced exiles, down to the systematic attempt to wipe out the Jewish “race” as part of Hitler’s Final Solution. Although the pope had to know the details of the Jewish massacres in Poland, Eastern Europe and Russia — from the very start — he failed to speak out to Catholics who were busily exterminating the Jews, Goldhagen maintains.
      
      http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/Chilling-study-blames-Catholic-Church-for-the-2749074.php
      
      2 2
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      December 4, 2017 6:29pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Trying to cover your tracks with noise is not a good idea. People are attracted to noise, just to see what it is. It’s like pointing a giant red arrow at what you don’t what anyone to see.
        
        3 2
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        December 4, 2017 6:35pm
      - realityczech
        
        You can tell a lot about people by the company they keep:
        
        Evil Catholic priest raped young boy until ‘he prayed he would die’ during months of sickening sexual abuse
        
        http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/evil-catholic-priest-raped-young-10220240
        
        4 1
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        December 4, 2017 6:43pm
realityczech

Thank you for confirming that you and All_on_Red are the same person.

For those wondering how I came to this conclusion, realityczech had his spaz attack after I posted this comment just a little while ago.

No fooling you Loopy.

So everyone who posts a comment on the countries most commented on blog, after you write one of your brain farts, has to be the same person. I mean what other explanation could there possibly be! LOL 🙂
3 3
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December 4, 2017 6:34pm
- Lucia Maria
  
  Awww. RC. I’ve only ever seen you go bonkers on Poles to get at me.
  
  Are you saying there is someone else!!
  
  4 3
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  December 4, 2017 6:38pm
  - nasska
    
    You go girl! The slimy two timing arsehole has been unfaithful. 🙂
    
    4 0
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    December 4, 2017 6:43pm
    - Lucia Maria
      
      nasska,
      
      Only pretending to be unfaithful!
      
      To cover up his multiple personality disorder. Which, I knew about. Just some of the personalities have taken a while to uncover.
      
      Three years for All_on_Red. I mean, look at this thread where he quotes himself.
      
      As Kea said, not many have what it takes to rule such a place
      
      I was so naive back then!
      
      3 5
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      December 4, 2017 6:55pm
      - realityczech
        
        Loopy keeps a scrapbook of imaginary links to support her conspiracy theories and delusions.
        
        Isn’t she priceless 🙂
        
        3 4
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        December 4, 2017 6:58pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        no scrapbook. It’s memory, intuition, and Google Advanced Search.
        
        2 5
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        December 4, 2017 7:03pm
      - realityczech
        
        Recovered memories, imagination and links that cant be found more like it.
        
        3 2
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        December 4, 2017 7:06pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Here is that link again. Not sure what went wrong with it before.
        
        1 4
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        December 4, 2017 7:17pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        WTF?
        What are you imagining now?
        That I’m Kea?
        Bwhahahahahahahaha
        Get some help
        Please.
        
        4 4
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        December 4, 2017 7:28pm
      - SPC
        
        The Bwhahahahahahahaha is more reid than kea.
        
        4 3
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        December 4, 2017 7:38pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Yeah, because NO ONE has ever used that before.
        You really are a parody eh.
        How about Sanctimonious. Pontificating. Cock?
        Been used before?
        
        4 4
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        December 4, 2017 7:42pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Don’t try and deny it, All_on_Red. The more you talk, the more obvious it is. That scrapbook just isn’t working for you.
        
        Though, I must admit, if it wasn’t for your over the top attacks on me even though we didn’t really have any history that I could remember, I would never have twigged.
        
        1 6
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        December 4, 2017 7:58pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Hahaha
        You got me
        I give up
        I have multiple identities
        Here they are;
        Father, husband, friend, lover, boss, worker, owner, advisor, commentator, adventurer, sportsman. Not bad at fishing too.
        And probably a few more
        Gosh KB is so much fun.
        
        ‘Isn’t she priceless ?’
        Oh yes. Verrry special.
        
        4 3
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        December 4, 2017 8:07pm
      - SPC
        
        AOR is a tribal zealot, going over the top with attacks is his thing.
        
        3 4
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        December 4, 2017 8:11pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Nah, just like showing up moronic arguments
        You’re a top performer with your nonsense
        And calling me a tribal zealot shows a distinct lack of self awareness on your part.
        But hey tell us more about how Golriz Ghahraman is going to be a Supreme Court Judge! No wait, Governor General wasn’t it!
        Sooo funny.
        
        4 1
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        December 4, 2017 8:13pm
      - realityczech
        
        AoR, for a special treat I invite you to check out Loopy’s conspiracy website. Just click on its name.
        
        You will learn the evil Russkies are behind everything, even Muslim terrorists ! 🙂
        
        3 2
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        December 4, 2017 8:13pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        And then there are the repetitive arguments as if he can’t remember from one day to the next what he’s said to whom.
        
        Not really that noticeable until you start Advanced Searching.
        
        2 4
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        December 4, 2017 8:17pm
      - itstricky
        
        And to think, RRM said I was badly behaved.
        
        1 0
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        December 4, 2017 8:22pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Love the link!
        To an article in February
        Sad!
        Hey Lucia, tell us more about this Dossier.Is it true?
        
        You just know Trump would call her Loopy Lucia.
        
        3 2
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        December 4, 2017 8:22pm
      - SPC
        
        Tribal zealots are the ones easily triggered by differing opinion to “go over the top” with their attacks.
        
        They are alike others who do the same, but are still different posters.
        
        1 3
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        December 4, 2017 8:25pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Actually Tricky I think RRM said you’re also a low cal intellectual lightweight who really contributes nothing but one liners and nothing substantial.
        True?
        
        3 4
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        December 4, 2017 8:25pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        Love the link!
        To an article in February
        
        *snort*
        
        December 3 years ago. Wonder how many more personas have been lying around for that long.
        
        1 5
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        December 4, 2017 8:28pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Sanctimonious Pontificating Cock
        It’s a blog.
        Ffs.
        There’s differing opinions. That’s the point.If you’re going to start blubbing after being shown up as a joke then leave.
        I’d be sad though. I’d miss the laugh.
        
        4 3
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        December 4, 2017 8:29pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Actually Loopy, the link goes to an article dated Feb 2017 but I don’t really like being pedantic.
        Just the facts ma’am.
        Like no evidence of collusion.
        
        3 2
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        December 4, 2017 8:31pm
      - SPC
        
        AOR, sounds like you have a problem with those who disagree with you. Sad.
        
        1 4
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        December 4, 2017 8:33pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Awwww, cute.,nice try.
        What’s the point of arguing with a parody?
        Better to just laugh at their nonsense.
        And you’re funny.
        
        Edit- I’m curious. How do you manage to keep a straight face when you take yourself so seriously?
        
        3 1
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        December 4, 2017 8:37pm
      - SPC
        
        Having trouble staying with a consistent line of thought throughout a blog post? Sad.
        
        2 3
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        December 4, 2017 8:45pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        BOO!
        Tell us more about that evil capitalism Sanctimonious.Pontificating.Cock
        
        Hey, Golriz claimed to be bombed in Mashhad but the truth is, it wasn’t until she got to NZ that the real bombing began!
        Booom
        Lol
        
        5 2
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        December 4, 2017 8:54pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        All_on_Red
        
        Actually Loopy, the link goes to an article dated Feb 2017 but I don’t really like being pedantic.
        
        No chance at all of you being pedantic as the link I gave goes to a post dated December 17 2014.
        
        And I note that “loopy” in reference to me has so far been used 6 times in this thread. The first 4 by your alter ego, realityczech, and then you pick the term and carry it on.
        
        Very sloppy.
        
        2 4
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        December 4, 2017 8:55pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘AoR, for a special treat I invite you to check out Loopy’s conspiracy website. Just click on its name.’
        
        The link on your name fool
        feb 2017
        Dear dear.
        
        3 1
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        December 4, 2017 8:59pm
      - realityczech
        
        Loopy maybe this can be explained by Russian hackers, like everything else ?
        
        What motivates you Loopy ? Why are you so lost and restless, doesn’t Geeesus help you ?
        
        3 3
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        December 4, 2017 9:00pm
      - itstricky
        
        Actually Tricky I think RRM said
        
        Sure thing. Maybe he did. I didn’t catch it but what’s another insult to me? What I do think is that line is wonderfully rich coming from the one who has delivered nothing but one liners and insults here.
        
        Now do you see what I mean when I said the other day you constantly deliver insults? Here it all is, in its multicolour glory for you to read over and over again to yourself.
        
        3 3
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        December 4, 2017 9:04pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Meh thicky
        You seem to have missed my more substantive comments elsewhere
        Like I pointed out to you the other day when you tried this argument and there above that were over five posts.
        As for you well….
        All you can say is ‘Keeping Stock!’ amongst other vacuous one liners.
        It’s pretty pathetic.
        And hey, just cause I have little tolerance for morons.
        Sue me.
        They deserve all the shit they get. Especially those like you who come on here, spray your own shit everywhere, then blub like a baby when you get it back.
        Pussy!
        Lol
        
        4 3
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        December 4, 2017 9:10pm
      - Lucia Maria
        
        All_on_Red,
        
        The link on your name fool
        feb 2017
        Dear dear.
        
        Riiight… a response to yourself before you referred to me.
        
        Okay, then. Carry on…
        
        2 3
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        December 4, 2017 9:16pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Actually Loopy, I was talking to RC
        Who referred me to that link.
        So it is Feb 2017 huh
        You’re easily confused.
        Who would have thought!
        
        3 3
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        December 4, 2017 9:21pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        All run away?
        AoR3:Loopy/Sanctimonious.Pontificating.Cock/
        Thicky 0
        Poor snowflakes
        Hey, what’s the bet one sneaks back later?
        I’d wager Sanctimonious. He’s like that. Lol
        
        2 0
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        December 4, 2017 10:40pm
  - realityczech
    
    “Awww. RC. I’ve only ever seen you go bonkers on Poles to get at me.”
    
    Loopy I will give you a pole to bonk on. Might shut you up for a few minutes if nothing else.
    
    2 4
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    December 4, 2017 6:52pm
Digmen1

Do they have this mindless drivel on the Jews on Whale Oil?
Why does it have to be discussed in EVERY General debate?
7 2
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December 4, 2017 6:44pm
- realityczech
  
  The putrid fat slob of WO got a free trip to Israel for his efforts in promoting zionist propaganda and hatred against Muslims.
  
  I hope you washed after going there.
  
  3 4
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  December 4, 2017 6:49pm
  - Digmen1
    
    I was tempted. But I have never been there.
    
    2 2
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    December 4, 2017 8:10pm
    - realityczech
      
      Its pretty hideous and trashy. The comment censorship makes The Standard look laid back.
      
      3 2
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      December 4, 2017 8:17pm
V

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/99520850/pike-river-recovery-agency-chief-executive-liable-if-reentry-goes-wrong-not-andrew-little

Wonder how many applicants they’ll get?
9 0
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December 4, 2017 6:50pm
- nasska
  
  …..”Wonder how many applicants they’ll get”…..
  
  Plenty if they canvas gang members about to be released from prison, who have no assets & no prospects.
  
  This initiative is low even by Labour standards.
  
  7 0
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  December 4, 2017 6:59pm
  - V
    
    It’s a sick joke. The cynic in me says they pull this out to show how ‘caring’ they are every time the government is under pressure on other issues.
    
    Andrew Little standing there at the announcement looking like the penis he is.
    
    8 0
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    December 4, 2017 7:05pm
  - Happychappy
    
    So big brave Andrew Little makes a noise over how disgraceful National treated the families of Pike River gets to make the final discission on whether to go into the mine but has no legal responsibility if anyone gets injured or their is loss of life. Labour and NZ First made this a political issue over the Election and now want to pass the buck if their discission turns out to be the wrong choice and another catastrophe happens.
    
    10 0
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    December 4, 2017 7:15pm
    - Digmen1
      
      And they lied to get votes!
      
      5 0
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      December 4, 2017 8:54pm
- mandk
  
  Little is being especially cowardly and dishonest on this issue.
  
  I believe that he campaigned on a re-entry ticket, knowing full well that there is not the remotest chance that the agency chief will give the go-ahead.
  
  Dump the agency now and save $10 for every single income tax payer in the country.
  
  7 0
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  December 4, 2017 7:12pm
V

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11952064

Who abducted Barry Soper?
2 0
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December 4, 2017 7:00pm
nasska

RC @ 6.43pm linked to http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/evil-catholic-priest-raped-young-10220240

At the sentencing the judge said:

…..“He was in a Catholic seminary being abused by a Catholic priest, with parents who were devoted Catholics, who would scarcely believe such abuse was possible.”…..

Surely this must strike a chord with parents of kids being educated by strange people in strange places. Your belief in a magic man in the sky is far less important than the duty of care you owe your children.

Listen to them, encourage them to confide in you & give credit to what they have to say.
8 0
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December 4, 2017 7:52pm
- realityczech
  
  Sadly in many cases the parents turn on their raped child to protect the church and safe face. It is very common.
  
  4 2
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  December 4, 2017 8:00pm
  - nasska
    
    It’s tragic RC. Home, parents & family should be a refuge for a kid.
    
    No wonder we see screwed up adults.
    
    6 0
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    December 4, 2017 8:05pm
    - realityczech
      
      The details of these cases are rarely reported as they are just too awful. These pedos would be have been outed if not for the religious bullshit infecting the minds of those around them.
      
      2 0
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      December 4, 2017 8:55pm
nasska

Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit are like men who are so afraid of being murdered that they commit suicide to avoid assassination.

Harry S Truman
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December 4, 2017 9:01pm
Digmen1

It would be great if the daily General Debate was started about 6 or 7 am
Thanks
1 0
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December 5, 2017 7:51am

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