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October 22, 2020 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 October 2020

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General Debate

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mikenmildagain

Happy International Stuttering Awareness Day!
18 27
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October 22, 2020 8:02am
- greybeard
  
  Th-th-th-th-thanks.
  
  31 7
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  October 22, 2020 8:47am
- Dave Mann
  
  Ss s s same t t tuh to you Mmmike….
  
  17 6
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  October 22, 2020 8:51am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  At least it’s not Tourette’s Awareness day.
  
  8 3
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  October 22, 2020 9:27am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Can’t fing wait for that!
    
    13 2
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    October 22, 2020 10:12am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  I thought it was International History Day.
  
  //
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:43am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    An excellent idea, but, alas, not one that the has taken up by UNESCO.
    
    3 8
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    October 22, 2020 10:40am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Are you an ISIS history society member?
      
      4 2
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      October 22, 2020 1:04pm
- Jimmy White
  
  Mike I thought you would be banding together with your like minds to celebrate the other day being held on the 22nd ‘ National Nut Day’
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:12am
- Manu-Rau
  
  [Mod: mocking personal afflictions which people have no control over is against blog rules. Final warning, a repeat will get a fortnight ban]
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:13am
  - IC5000
    
    Exactly. Maggie Pie got her wings clipped for the same thing.
    
    2 2
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    October 22, 2020 11:55am
  - lifesgood
    
    I watched the series on people suffering with Tourettes and I felt so incredibly sorry for them. What an absolute torment to have to live with that condition. It is certainly no laughing matter, it makes their lives a misery. There is no cure so it can be very long term. I am grateful not to be so afflicted.
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:33pm
- Fletch
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cia_v4vxfE
  
  ^^ the artist originally recorded the song as a lighthearted poke at his brother who stuttered, but the song became a hit and is even recognized by the Stuttering Foundation.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:14am
  - Tall Man
    
    One of the comments ….
    
    “This song is the 2020 slogan at this point”.
    
    Oh how accurate……
    
    “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet”.
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:30pm
iMP

The links Sasha Cohen (Borat) went to back in July to try and trap Rudy Giuliani is absolutely despicable with video manipulations and audio edits during what was an organised interview. Giuliana called the police at the time. But this will not stop Cohen launching the film before the US election to affect that outcome and obviously try and discredit Giuliani’s credible evidence against Joe Biden for Ukrainian and Chinese corruption take backs. Hollywood is now a political party.
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October 22, 2020 8:09am
- tf78
  
  The truth is out already, it’s too late for the film now.
  
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  October 22, 2020 8:26am
- MCos
  
  How coincidental you might say.
  A lot of coincidences coming to light over there; secret bank account, lost hard drive, flash house (albeit sold thirty years ago) . . . .
  Expect lot more over the next couple of weeks.
  
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  October 22, 2020 8:54am
- mikenmildagain
  
  I think people might have more sympathy if Rudy had any reputation to damage.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:41am
  - Batman
    
    And not fallen for literally the oldest trick in the book!
    
    The movie wouldn’t work if the people in it didn’t play to the stereotypes of being dirty corrupt old soaks.
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:55am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    He will take out Biden.
    
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    October 22, 2020 1:05pm
I remember when

Outside in garden yesterday and a Fletcher top-dressing plane flew over.
They are an increasingly rare sight. I remember when the spring sky often seemed to be alive with the buzz of plane heading into the hills, even the converted Dakotas.
Is the clean water legislation the final nail in the fixed wing top-dressing industry?
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October 22, 2020 8:10am
- mark15
  
  Theres a DC3 or similar at Napier airport.I heard rumours it was going to do charter flights.
  
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  October 22, 2020 8:49am
  - Paulus
    
    Flys from Ardmore to Tauranga for Sunday flights, and Cruise Liners when we get them.
    
    4 1
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    October 22, 2020 11:21am
- cmm
  
  The main difference is far better soil analysis and “precision farming”.
  
  Instead of just getting into seasonal pattern – it’s spring, so topdress – farmers now know much more about their soil state and know when what nutrients should be applied where.
  
  This is radically reducing the costs of inputs as well as reducing run off of excess nutrients etc.
  
  In some places they’re even using GPS controlled planters to plant different seed strains in different parts of the field based on soil analysis.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:33am
- BAM
  
  It should be.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:08pm
peterwn

No fresh news about Eric Watson. Presumably they put him in prison and he is still there. If he got bail pending appeal I would not be surprised if he got out of the UK.
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October 22, 2020 8:16am
- KiwiSapper
  
  Then go and hide in ” a rat hole country” (apologies to POTUS ) with which the U.K has no extradition rights? Hmmmmmmmmm I doubt it,
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:32am
- sharont
  
  Proves they’ve got some real judges in the UK, unlike here, who won’t tolerate the likes of Eric Watson.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:12pm
Yvette

Mike Hosking’s Minute: Govt sucked us all in with expensive Covid spin – back July 22, 2020
Some got $400 an hour, so $3200 a day. But what’s remarkable about the new numbers is that of the $16 million, about $15 million went on spin.
They use other words in the industry like “marketing” and “communications.” But essentially all the hype you heard from Prime Minister, the likes of “the team of five million,” “the stay safe stay home,” the “be kind,” we paid for that and it came from advertising agencies. One got $3 million, another got $12 million.

So, touching on the whole question of what an PM or MP says, or whether a script-writer does the thinking for them – contract, or on staff, like in the Prime Minister’s office – the question is: did Kelvin Davis write his own rhyming presentation, or did some staff member / contractee?

FTD
An extremely rare white tūī has been photographed within sight of Wellington’s CBD.
Local photographer Sean Gillespie lucked out when he was wandering around Mt Victoria the other day and happened to catch it on camera.
In an extraordinary turn of events, the same tūī was spotted by Seven Sharp cameras while filming a story on the sighting today. to the delight of reporter Julian Lee, but leading co-host Hilary Barry to note:
Julian goes searching for things so often he comes back to the office and its an FTD – Failed To Deliver
And there in three letters is Labour: FTD – Failed To Deliver

Hence the headline –
• Gotta deliver: NZ’s re-elected Ardern to ‘crack on’ with ‘slow’ reforms after landslide victory.
• “Today we crack on with the mahi,” Ardern told her caucus.
• “We can just crack on now with getting that rolled out.”
• Labour’s Phil Twyford wants to “get cracking” with light rail now that New Zealand First isn’t in the picture

Merde – how much did “crack on” cost us?
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October 22, 2020 8:19am
- freethinker
  
  Yvette – you miss the subtle code word to Richie – the coast is clear – business as usual.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:54am
- crikey
  
  “Today we crack on with the mahi…”.
  
  Enough with this pigeon English. Was that lunch, half a mahi mahi?
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:10am
- Hard Cheese
  
  More like on crack than crack on.
  
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  October 22, 2020 12:31pm
I remember when

A final point about the size of the Labour election win.
Do the polls shape the result. If they consistently show a probable outcome, does this eventually guarantee it will happen.
Nobody wants to be a loser. Nobody wants to support a loser. Everybody likes to be on the winner’s side.
This meant National voters could –
Vote for the best performing right wing party – Act.
Vote for the obvious winners – convince yourself you are teaching National a lesson.
Split your vote – at least you are a part winner. Or, at least not so much of a loser.
Take your money out of one pocket and put it in the other – the old betting trick – don’t vote.
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October 22, 2020 8:26am
- DeepBlue
  
  Auckland Central would have definitely been influenced by polls.
  
  I believe there should not be any public polling once voting starts.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:03am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Can’t let people have information. Who knows what they might do with it.
    
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    October 22, 2020 9:30am
    - The Proper Ghandi
      
      How is “knowing” how other people will cast their vote in any way relevant to how any individual themselves will vote?
      
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      October 22, 2020 11:27am
      - Nigel Kearney
        
        There are various ways it could be relevant. Knowing who the top two are means you don’t waste your vote on someone who can’t win. National voters could have used polling to tell them to vote for the Labour candidate and keep Chloe out.
        
        Very dangerous to suggest the government should make it illegal to share information just because they decide people will make ‘better’ decisions without it.
        
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        October 22, 2020 12:46pm
- Raphael
  
  I think they do.
  
  From what I am seeing, when farmers saw the polls were predicting a complete loss for NZF, and a win for Labour (and possibly needing the Greens to get that win) the Farmers voted Labour to ensure that they could govern without the Greens.
  
  The farmers are terrified of the Greens. and would rather have to deal with Labour governing alone than the Greens having power
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:53am
  - freethinker
    
    Farmers need to research David Parker, and be afraid.
    
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    October 22, 2020 9:56am
    - Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
      
      I agree with Cactus Kate, they voted for labour so they need to STFU for next 3 years and take their medicine.
      
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      October 22, 2020 10:13am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Agreed.
        
        Farmers survived 1985/86; they’ll survive 2021/22.
        
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        October 22, 2020 10:50am
      - lifesgood
        
        Yep, idiots.
        
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        October 22, 2020 11:03am
    - Paulus
      
      Hear rumour from the corridors that Parker is taking over as Finance Minister so be very very afraid – remember Dunedin as his history shows.
      Robertson as Dep PM and Foreign Affairs so he can duck the shit he caused.
      
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      October 22, 2020 11:26am
  - Classic Liberal
    
    Very small percentage of the vote tho.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:09am
  - Paulus
    
    The stupid Farmers will have to lump it as she will get Greens in /out somewhere just to piss you off.
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:24am
  - jon
    
    The farmers need to remember that David Parker Labour MP hasnt always shown much sympathy for the farmers in the past.
    
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    October 22, 2020 2:29pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Labour lost. The size of their majority requires them to make decisions. Previously Winston squashed those, now they have to stand on their own feet.
  They will have a fractious bunch of new amateur MP’s with little to do, and he will be done. The old MP’s are going to have their work cut out as caretakers. As for decision making it’s sufficient for Ardern R. to say something is done and it happens until it is discovered it never materialised so she needs a second go. (When did they actually close our borders?)
  The Grrrrns will be pushing but have no backside to put into it.
  Meanwhile festering sores like Ihumatao pus away.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:19pm
  - Faroffsound
    
    Yep – once many of those new MPs realise that they are only there to make up the numbers the fun will start. If they have efficient whips they may keep disruption to a minimum but I wouldn’t bet on it. Interesting times …
    
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    October 22, 2020 1:50pm
JibberJabber

https://gbdeclaration.org/
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October 22, 2020 8:27am
Maggy Wassilieff

Taiwan’s Covid-19 strategy…

By the end of August, Taiwan – population 23 million – had reported 488 cases and seven deaths, while New Zealand’s team of five million reported 1397 confirmed cases and 22 fatalities.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/123144103/what-nz-can-learn-from-taiwan-about-pandemic-preparedness
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October 22, 2020 8:28am
- Benedict Yu
  
  Taiwan had been planning for such an event for a very long time. It had the plan, the tracking systems, and the right people to deploy. The plan requires immediate action to the threat, and in a reasoned, planned way.
  
  I have said it before – New Zealand did not go “hard and early”. It was total propaganda. Also known as lies. New Zealand did nothing, then the wrong things, then panicked and we ended up in a Level 4 lockdown.
  
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  October 22, 2020 8:40am
  - hullkiwi
    
    …..”It was total propaganda. Also known as lies”. Yes Benedict, and do you know how many thousands of people believed the lies and are all eternally grateful to Jacinda “for saving their lives” and they all trooped off to the polling booths and voted Labour?
    
    If ever, there was proof that people should do an IQ test before being granted the right to vote, it was last Saturday’s result.
    
    Now, what is that line about lying to the people some of the time, but not all the time?
    
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    October 22, 2020 9:00am
    - Jack5
      
      We lost, they won … but only three years to the next election.
      
      Blaming the voters isn’t going to get National back into power.
      
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      October 22, 2020 10:46am
      - hullkiwi
        
        I am not blaming voters, per se. What last Satueday highlighted, is that the world is exactly as SCS has been posting about for the past 3 years and the National Party and its MPs need to recognise it.
        
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        October 22, 2020 11:11am
- Swifty
  
  Thanks Maggy.
  
  I’d like to make a quick point on this.
  
  I have never posted here on Covid and the lockdowns, our response, what we should be doing different etc. Not once, from memory.
  
  The reason is that I never thought myself qualified to.
  
  What was obvious from the very early days though was the fact that our response should take a balanced approach between minimising the direct effects of the virus against the economic consequences of doing so – and by the very nature of this balance the virtue of any particular country’s response was going to take time to evaluate.
  
  This is what bugged me about much of the reaction on here, nationally and internationally to Labour’s Covid response as ‘the world’s best’, ‘world-leading’, ‘excellent’ etc – when all I could think of is that “isn’t it too early to tell?” – in that it will take 6-12 months for the economic impacts to show themselves and only then will any country be in a position to evaluate their response against any other.
  
  If, as it now appears to be, other comparable countries have indeed got through to this point with similar or better health outcomes AND with better economic outcomes then it is now clear that we have done WORSE then them.
  
  And, even more importantly, will our government learn from this and adjust their response in light of these lessons so that we can get out of this mess quicker, cheaper, stronger and faster?
  
  (PS I won’t be holding my breath waiting from the Labour fan-bois and grrls to take back their cheerleading over our response as being the best in the world – because they never admit to being wrong in my experience. It’s just not in their character.)
  
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  October 22, 2020 8:59am
  - Faroffsound
    
    “And, even more importantly, will our government learn from this and adjust their response in light of these lessons so that we can get out of this mess quicker, cheaper, stronger and faster?”
    
    Probably not
    
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    October 22, 2020 1:54pm
- Deagle
  
  Yeah the difference is that Taiwan doesn’t trust China.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:00am
  - oldfella
    
    Taiwan realised that, ‘China is asshole.’ And they should know!
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:20am
  - freethinker
    
    Farmers need to research David Parker, and be afraid.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:55am
  - freethinker
    
    China has reported only – 3,345 deaths out of 1.3 Billion if you believe that I have several bridges and towers for sale at very reasonable prices.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:57am
    - Batman
      
      I have to assumed that they left a zero off the end?
      
      Their crackdown was so brutal that it’s likely it was effective… And in the process added a few hundred to the death toll.
      
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      October 22, 2020 11:05am
      - Engelbert Humperdink
        
        They exported literally millions of the infected from Wuhan for Chinese New Year. While denying Wuhan people the right to travel domestically. Look at the figures – and ethnicities – for the early hospital admissions and deaths in Lombardy after the Chinese NY diaspora to Italy, and you’ll maybe understand just one of the many ways the ChiCommies transferred both the costs and risks of caring for sick people from Wuhan to literally the rest of the world, starting with Italy.
        
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        October 22, 2020 12:31pm
  - tf78
    
    Or belong to the WHO.
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:25pm
- MCos
  
  Look at any of those Far East Asian countries and they have much fewer cases/capita than Europe, America, us, Oz . . . . Also much lower testing rate.
  Here in NZ once the borders were closed the rate of infection fell right away. Same thing in Thailand. The trouble there lack of international tourism is really killing off the industry because domestic tourism isn’t taking up the slack to anything like the degree it is here.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:18am
- KevO'Brien
  
  NZ would never have tolerated the Taiwan preparedness. They dealt with SARS and kept that regime in place. Also we are not ethnic Chinese and not tolerant of the discipline of such societies.
  
  Taiwan did well according to their customs but we cannot emulate them no matter how many socialist bullies we get running NZ. Even Ardern R. cannot make it happen: she’s a hollow pipe not a bazooka. Her thoughts don’t materialise.
  
  That’s going to leave her in an awful position of having the responsibility of actually having a functioning executive Government without any understanding of how to do it. I suspect she will be overwhelmed within 12 months particularly as the international economy will impact NZ in ways not yet forecastable. Ideology cannot work as a support in those circumstances. National did well to avoid the disaster of the next year.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:33pm
Simon

Just relax TDS Russian truther types. Biden is 10 pts ahead of Trump. The polls are just good science.

In other good science news anything about Biden corruption is disinformation.

Polls and disinformation. Hold tight on these TDS types. It cant get any worse. You will be fine.
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October 22, 2020 8:29am
Stu2

President Donald Trump taped a town hall with Sinclair Broadcasting Group’s Eric Bolling. In it, Bolling asked the President a simple question

Bolling: “With Covid, is there anything that you think you could have done differently, if you had a mulligan or a do-over on one aspect of the way you handled it, what would it be?”

Trump: “Not much.”
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October 22, 2020 8:36am
- Fletch
  
  A more apt question – what would the Democrats have done differently? They keep harping on about Trump’s response but none of them seem to have had any other ideas about what to do apart from hand out money. We know how Biden would have handled it – badly – just like he did with himself and Obama’s response to the Swine flu in 2009. They failed and 60 million Americans got infected.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:18am
  - Batman
    
    Here you go, Fletch, enjoy!
    
    https://joebiden.com/beat-covid19/
    
    This stuff is not hard to find, as long as one actually wants to find it…
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:07pm
    - Tall Man
      
      “as long as one actually wants to find it” or is sad enough to care.
      
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      October 22, 2020 12:21pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  the very stable genius is also not much given to self-reflection.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:43am
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    So you have something in common with him then mm.
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:33pm
graham

Vodafone AOTEAROA goes more woke.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/sponsored-stories/dialling-up-aotearoa/AROUCHRTNUCVKNEMPM2BY27LM4/
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October 22, 2020 8:37am
- sooty
  
  Yep, a good reason to use someone elses services.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:01am
- Nickc2
  
  That does it for me, I’m looking for a new ISP. Vodafone have lost me forever.
  
  21 3
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  October 22, 2020 9:02am
  - Jimmy White
    
    Go for it Nick, pay more for a lesser service because of a line on the top of your screen you never notice 99% of the time
    
    1 14
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    October 22, 2020 10:20am
    - Saks
      
      I think you will struggle to find a “lesser” service than Vodafone.
      
      Regardless of whether they add some sort of bastardised English/Maori hybrid language to their offerings…
      
      They would be better off to concentrate on improving coverage across NZ and customer service.
      
      17 2
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      October 22, 2020 11:42am
      - Nickc2
        
        I agree Sacks. I’m pleased I didn’t take their TV offer and stuck to terrestrial TV. My broadband must be the worst in NZ, despite my complaints.
        
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        October 22, 2020 1:22pm
  - RJ
    
    Good luck, they all embrace Maori language week, it’s part of their scheme to shine a light on who the stupid people are that get butt hurt over a little message on their phone for a few days.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:51am
- Benedict Yu
  
  What does this mean?
  
  “The point of the work [by Vodafone] is to unleash the strength and multi-faceted outcomes that cultural unity brings, building a situation where the sum becomes larger than the individual components.”
  
  English is my second language but I am very proficient. But no idea what that means 🙁
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:47am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    ‘The sum becomes more than larger than the individual components’
    
    Is this new maths because that was not what I was taught sixty years ago. Did I miss something?
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:22am
  - hmmokrightitis
    
    And my qualifications and upbringing have provided me with very strong English skills. Its meaningless twaddle.
    
    Someone from the VF marketing department – and there’s many of them – shoved a crayon up their butt and scrawled on a piece of paper.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:29am
    - Tall Man
      
      “Scrawled”……. defacated more like.
      
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      October 22, 2020 12:19pm
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    “Cultural unity”? I thought the aim was the opposite, i.e. multiculturalism?
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:32am
  - Pharmachick
    
    Its a rip off of a saying usually attributed to Aristotle “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”, but they obv. didn’t want to get be accused of direct plagiarism –> word salad. BTW Aristotle didn’t actually say it.
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:42am
    - gump
      
      Anybody who thinks that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts has never had to buy replacement car parts from the authorised dealer.
      
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      October 22, 2020 12:10pm
  - Jack5
    
    The words quoted Benedict suggest Vodafone is going for monoculturism, homogeneity and assimilation!
    
    The new gummint will not be happy.
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:37pm
    - artemisia
      
      Well Jack5, I believe you are correct. What else could ‘cultural unity’ mean? Either Vodafone are taking the piss or they need to change their word salad suppliers.
      
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      October 22, 2020 4:18pm
- Raphael
  
  My first language is English.
  
  My second language is Afrikaans (although not having spoken it much for the last 15 years, I butcher it even more than I used to, and I used to do some fairly atrocious things to the language before that).
  
  I can say hello and goodbye in isiZulu.
  
  I can speak a couple of Te Reo words, probably as worse than I speak badly as Afrikaans ….. but it’s never going to become part daily vocabulary.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:15am
  - graham
    
    I can speak a couple of Te Reo words, probably as worse than I speak badly as Afrikaans ….. but it’s never going to become part daily vocabulary.
    
    This.
    
    The massive push to increase the use of the Maori Language and virtually force it on the population at large seems to be driven by some form of under-lying guilt about ‘colonialism’, along with the belief that it’s a precious artefact that EVERYBODY has to protect and maintain to make sure it doesn’t die out.
    
    Well I’m sorry, but count me out of the team of 5 million on this one too. I have no objection if people want to learn and use Maori – good on them, at least they’re doing SOMETHING – but why must we all be forced into it? The Maori language is of no practical use to me, and never will be. So why should I waste my time learning it if I (a) have no need to, and (b) have no desire to?
    
    If people NEED to learn Maori, or if they simply WANT to learn Maori, go for it – but I neither need or want to, so why should I have to?
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:40am
    - Libertysparks
      
      Then you need to be talking to your child’s school. A much higher emphasis is placed on Te Reo Maori than placed on English. Pakeha teachers now refer to themsleves as ‘whaea’ and ‘matua’, and greet each other in Maori. Words like ‘mahi’ and ‘whanau’ are thrown around liberally in the staffrooms and classrooms. Class lessons, staff meetings and assemblies are begun with a Maori prayer. But worse still, the expectation of achievement in schools has been dumbed down so that Maori students are seen to be achieving. ERO school inspections focus solely on how accommodating are the Pakeha teachers being for Maori and Maori culture and achievement. The most recent inspection at the school I led was more interested in the Kapa Haka group than our reading and writing data.
      
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      October 22, 2020 1:22pm
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Wallabies talking of ‘taking the knee’
  
  I like Australians because they are a small continent to one side acting as a buffer against 220 million angry muslims, but this is just wankish.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:20am
  - jon
    
    And i thought the Aussies had more GRUNT/MONGREL than to get caught up in that NONSENSE!
    
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    October 22, 2020 3:19pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Improving race relations in NZ-not!
  We have paid enough already for (at least shared) naming rights.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:37pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Critical Race theory attacked..

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/20/teaching-white-privilege-is-a-fact-breaks-the-law-minister-says

“The problem with critical race theory that is pushed by the left is that it rehabilitates racial thinking, it rehabilitates the racial imagination when we’re supposed to judge people by their character rather than their colour.”
https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6203432623001
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October 22, 2020 8:40am
- Raphael
  
  It’s because of things like this California recently pushed through their “Affirmative Action Bill”.
  
  This Bill only removes anti-discrimination from Californian law.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:00am
- Jack5
  
  Critical race theory is a Woke conspiracy theory.
  Here it’s summarised by Brittanica:
  
  Critical race theory (CRT), the view that the law and legal institutions are inherently racist and that race itself, instead of being biologically grounded and natural, is a socially constructed concept that is used by white people to further their economic and political interests at the expense of people of colour.
  
  This from Wikipedia, is enough to put people off CRT: “As a movement that draws heavily from critical theory, critical race theory shares many intellectual commitments with critical theory, critical legal studies, feminist jurisprudence, and postcolonial theory.”
  
  And what is “critical theory”?
  
  Critical theory is a social philosophy pertaining to the reflective assessment and critique of society and culture in order to reveal and challenge power structures. With origins in sociology, as well as in literary criticism, it argues that social problems are influenced and created more by societal structures and cultural assumptions than by individual and psychological factors. Maintaining that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation, critical theory was established as a school of thought primarily by the Frankfurt School theoreticians Herbert Marcuse, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Erich Fromm, and Max Horkheimer. The latter sociologist described a theory as critical insofar as it seeks “to liberate human beings from the circumstances that enslave them.” -Wikipedia.
  
  What gobbledygook! This is also the intellectual origin of “multiculturism”, widely pushed by the pedlars of Woke.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:01am
  - Jimmy White
    
    Does this mean I can change the colour of my skin by changing my politics, ethics or thought processes.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:23am
    - Tall Man
      
      Changing the surname may help as well 🙂
      
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      October 22, 2020 12:16pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      We could all turn into chameleons by thinking our colours.
      I would be much more impressed if someone stood up for tolerance. Other people have intrinsic dignity and worth and we all have to live together. If we foster each other what have we to lose? There are always differences among groups. Skin colour is irrelevant except for melanin.
      
      Not everyone can do the same job nor have the ability to earn as much as some others. It is not possible to remake the mould or to force someone to act as though they were from a different mould. Tolerance and co-operation strengthens respect and harmony. If others need support do we lose if we oblige? What happens if misfortune befalls us and we are left friendless?
      
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      October 22, 2020 1:51pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    There is really no need to be afraid of intellectual challenges to your prejudices, Jack.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:35am
    - Tall Man
      
      “Intellectual”…… You’re a funny guy.
      
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      October 22, 2020 12:17pm
    - Jack5
      
      Give up making ad hominem troll posts, Milky. Join the debate – if you feel up to it. ?
      
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      October 22, 2020 12:29pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Don’t you believe there are such things as ‘power structures’ or ‘social problems’?
        As for debate, I couldn’t see you making any argument that critical theory is inherently flawed.
        
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        October 22, 2020 1:37pm
      - Jack5
        
        “Don’t you believe …” asks Milky.
        
        Believe…There’s the problem. Like religion, it requires faith.
        
        It’s just airy theory from the Frankfurt School, of which Wikipedia says:
        
        The Frankfurt School perspective of critical investigation (open-ended and self-critical) is based upon Freudian, Marxist and Hegelian premises of idealist philosophy. To fill the omissions of 19th-century classical Marxism, which did not address 20th-century social problems, they applied the methods of antipositivist sociology, of psychoanalysis, and of existentialism.
        
        Flaky tools, flaky methods, flaky techniques, flaky heritage. In fact, flaky, from go to whoa!
        
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        October 22, 2020 9:53pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Again, you are not making a debating point, Jack. Is there anything wrong with academic methodologies to investigate power structure in society?
        Using terms such as critical theory or the Frankfurt School as snarl words does not make an argument.
        
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        October 23, 2020 7:27am
  - Raphael
    
    And most of the proponents of CRT are some of the worst racists projecting their racism onto everyone else. (the author of White Fragility literally does this. She assumes because she is a horribly racist person, all white people are. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVKgl8ZlHZs)
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:13am
Benedict Yu

As far as I know, the Government is totally silent and inactive on this looming disaster for our horticulture industry:

“Palmer says the horticulture sector might not be able to pick 30 per cent of its harvest this year, a shortfall which could see it lose $1.25 billion in export earnings. The fruit industry says it will be thousands of workers short when the season begins. The first cherries are due to be picked next month.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion-analysis/300138256/fruitpicking-jobs-going-begging-who-is-really-to-blame

Fixing this is a core role for the Government because it is causing the problem. It is ludicrous to conclude that there is no safe way to bring in the necessary willing workers from pacific island countries that are already COVID free.

New Zealanders won’t do this work (or at least not many). And it is not the pay. If they won’t do it for $20 per hour they are not going to do it for $30. My son used to do harvest work in Australia. I asked him about it. Hard work but he enjoyed it. If you have been sitting on the couch for 2 years smoking dope, you will not be able to do this work. For any money.
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October 22, 2020 8:45am
- fisho
  
  The growers should load all the unsellable fruit into trucks and dump a pile of it in front of Cindy’s house and the rest on the steps of parliament.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:41am
- Jack5
  
  Bullshit, Benedict. It is the pay. And the solution is coming over the horizon. It will be here sooner than you think.
  
  https://www.theland.com.au/story/6961435/nz-apple-orchard-uses-worlds-first-commercial-robot-picker/?cs=4932
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:02am
  - notreadyet
    
    And grape harvesters have been around for a while, may take a little while for orchards to be reconfigured to be machine friendly but it will happen
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:09am
  - artemisia
    
    The robotic apple harvester does need trees grown in a specific way so will take a while to be used widely. Meantime, however, NZ is producing and exporting robotic apple sorting and packing, labour intensive, and that’s only going to get cheaper to buy or rent.
    
    Breakeven point will be reached sooner rather than later, especially if the cost of leaving harvests to rot is factored in.
    
    Robotic kiwifruit harvesting has been here for a while now.
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:56am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Maybe we need to close the schools and get the kids out harvesting?
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:53pm
Saks

But when I say that I’m a racist apparently.

I give up…
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October 22, 2020 9:00am
hullkiwi

Covid in Greenhithe, chances of a lockdown after the long weekend?
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October 22, 2020 9:02am
- skyblue
  
  Sitting in my car waiting for a test in Greenhithe as I write.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:35am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Good luck. I had a test last weekend of August Level 3.
    
    Taking the test is an interesting exercise….
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:00am
    - skyblue
      
      Still waiting. Looking forward to the test not. Newshub are here too. Never know, might get on TV.
      
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      October 22, 2020 10:15am
      - Batman
        
        All good skyblue, the test isn’t that bad. Kinda tingles a bit and your nose runs a bit afterwards.
        
        It’s honestly better than anticipated.
        
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        October 22, 2020 12:11pm
      - RJ
        
        And you tear up. Laughed when I had it done, eyes teared up and the nurse said thats great I know I got it in the right place.
        
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        October 22, 2020 2:08pm
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Greenhithe! I had heard that people from Greenhithe are Westies with jobs.
    And what about Takapuna? They are Westies with very good jobs.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:06am
- NoFax
  
  Election is over so I doubt that there will be one. No need to put anymore fear into the populace. Even this government knows it has to get the economy going. A case here and there isn’t anything to worry about.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:18am
- sharont
  
  For what it’s worth, I read a comment on Facebook in June that there would be a lockdown in August, which did happen and we were locked down in August. Coincidence?
  
  I also read a comment on Facebook a few weeks ago that we will be in lockdown for Christmas. Since then we have had (by our standards) quite an outbreak of Covid, so I am now wondering if we are headed for a lockdown for Christmas. Hoping I won’t be sitting in front of the telly watching Midnight Mass rather than being there.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:27pm
BeaB

I know only a certain type of person wants to enter politics but I hope National can find people who don’t want politics as a career but as an opportunity to make a contribution to society and then return to normal life.
The present line-up looks uninspiring and colourless.
We need fewer dickheads and more people of real substance.
Sadly, you have to be a bit odd to want that kind of ghastly life and successful enough outside it not to need it. And that probably means it doesn’t pay enough to attract the brightest and best.
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October 22, 2020 9:08am
- MCos
  
  How many dickhead MPs have you met?
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:26am
  - Jimmy White
    
    Every time I look right from the speakers point of view
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:25am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    I met McCully, so too many .. .
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:26am
  - Tall Man
    
    I’ve met half a dozen give or take from both major parties and indirectly worked for 2 and none were dickheads.
    
    Even recently, the past 10 years, the ones I met weren’t.
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:13pm
- [email protected]
  
  Lee Iacocca ( ex Ford Motor CEO, who later revived Chrysler Corp) was asked to run for POTUS but refused saying he didn’t want the pay cut.
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:37am
- Albert_Ross
  
  People who’ve had actual lives, have made mistakes. Become an MP and you can guarantee that those mistakes will be dug up and gleefully laid bare, every time you attempt to say or do anything.
  
  This is why MPs these days are either entirely insipid and devoid of any understanding of what actual people’s chaotic, messy lives are like – or short-lived and full of anguish for their families before coming to an ignominious end.
  
  Why would anybody of any calibre want to put themselves and their families through that?
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:43am
I remember when

Points about the future direction for National.
In the 2018 Census the percentage of Maori in the population was 16.5% and Polynesian 9%. More than a quarter of the population.
National did not stand a candidate in any of the Maori seats. The major opposition in the Maori seats was the Maori Party – Labour lite.
While it is recognised that 53% of Maori are on the General Roll there is no reason to think most, or indeed many, vote National.
How does the National Party attract these voters and at the same time improve their life outcomes?
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October 22, 2020 9:10am
- RJ
  
  Judith has said she would like to have candidates for the Maori seats.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300058752/judith-collins-keen-to-run-candidates-in-the-mori-seats-tear-up-the-rma-but-not-cut-benefits
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:35am
  - Unity
    
    I know I will get downticks but I firmly believe we should dispense with the Maori seats post haste. This country is becoming more and more racially divisive and as we have lived together seemingly forever, we should just be New Zealanders and stop distinguishing ourselves racially. The Maori seats in themselves are racist.
    
    Also, as National will never get the Maori vote they should actively start promoting an end to anything based on race and delete it all from legislation. It’s actually demeaning to Maori, surely, because it is insinuating they can’t get ahead unless they get special treatment. We all know this is garbage because there are many decent Maori getting ahead on their own efforts and are indistinguishable from the rest of us.
    
    Let’s just all be New Zealanders and stop being so racist because that’s what it is. The gravy trainers will squeal blue murder if they see their cash cow disappearing but they are getting more and more grasping and inventive as time passes, not to mention rewriting history to suit their agenda. Surely they can learn to live in the real world with the rest of us and without special handouts. They’ve all got ‘other’ ethnicity so if their Maori side isn’t working perhaps they should elevate their ‘other’ side?!!
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:02am
    - cmm
      
      The rationale behind adding Maori seats was that Maori did not traditionally own land and therefore the land ownership requirement for voting was unfair and special Maori seats were created.
      
      When non-land owners were given the vote (aka universal male suffrage) there was no further need for Maori seats and it should have been dispensed with.
      
      That was in 1879.
      
      So why do we continue to have it? It’s a trough and nobody has had the balls in the last 140 years to address the issue.
      
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      October 22, 2020 10:45am
      - gump
        
        James Carroll (Timi Kara) was the only Māori MP to successfully win a general electorate seat in New Zealand prior to the 1975 election (when Ben Couch and Rex Austin entered Parliament).
        
        Your idiotic counterfactual argument would have seen a single Māori MP elected into Parliament for the first 121 years of its existence.
        
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        October 22, 2020 12:29pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      There’s no point in continuing to bang that tired old drum here, Unity. We can’t give you what you want.
      
      You need to set up an organisation to campaign to have the Māori seats disbanded. But prepare yourself for a very hard fight, over many years.
      
      For example, in the ‘Conclusion’ to their paper, “THEORISING REPRESENTATION IN THE MĀORI SEATS – The crucial role of accountability” (published in Mai Journal, Volume 6, Issue 2 (2017)), the authors, Sylvia Nissen [and] Lindsey Te Ata o Tu MacDonald (Ngai Tahu) (both at the University of Canterbury), stated the paper highlighted—
      
      “two key justifications for the Māori seats in particular. First, the Māori seats provide an important avenue for representation given the historical treatment and dispossession of Māori, the continuance of contemporary inequality among Māori, a shared memory of the discrimination, and a conviction of shared political interests in the present. Second, this paper discredited arguments that the seats are not ‘needed’ now that there is proportional representation, as the Māori seats also provide crucial mechanisms of accountability that ensure the fidelity of Māori representatives to their constituencies.”
      
      As I said back on Monday, 10 August, at ‘Stuff wrong on Maori seats’, in my view, the Māori electoral districts should go when Māori say they should go. For me, that would be when, in calculating the number of Māori seats, the quotient obtained by dividing the Māori electoral population by the South Island quota falls to 3.5, or less. (The fraction is disregarded unless it exceeds a half.) That would give just three seats. (Currently, the quotient is 7.23.)
      
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      October 22, 2020 12:17pm
      - Unity
        
        Steve Todd, but what I want is the truth. Did you know that the Treaty is not our founding document, for instance? We were still run from NSW when it was signed. It was only to bring the natives under the same laws as the rest of us. Our true founding is Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter which annexed us from NSW and gave us our own legal system, Government, Constitution etc. It used to be on view for all to see until those favouring the gravy trainers realised and it has now been ‘hidden’ in the Archives where many do not even know of its existence. The Government spent millions on creating the new exhibition centre where they have on display the Treaty, the Declaration of Independence which was a complete failure because they couldn’t get enough signatures, and something to do with Women’s Suffrage. Surely our true founding document Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter should be considered more important than all of those and on display for all to see.
        
        I will not stop beating my drum until our true history is acknowledged because there is an enormous wrong being perpetuated upon the rest of us and billions being paid out that shouldn’t be. It should be spent on many urgent problems that will benefit all of us.
        
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        October 22, 2020 1:22pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        I’m very aware of our history, Unity – I’m older than you might think I am, meaning I’ve done a lot of reading in my time. I just happen to disagree with you regarding the place of Te Tiriti o Waitangi in this country, and of the Māori seats.
        
        Beat your drum all you like, but you will get nowhere unless you take your points of view beyond Kiwiblog. For example, if you disagree with the Ministry of Culture and Heritage – see this: https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/treaty/the-treaty-in-brief, believing the Royal Charter is our founding document (that being just your opinion), then write to them, ring them up, tell them why you think they’re wrong. Get the ball rolling.
        
        You and I will never agree, so I’ll leave it that.
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:04pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Many would take issue with that the 1839 Letters Patent (not a ‘royal charter’) as being our ‘founding document’. While that had some legal effect, mainly in extending British jurisdiction over subjects in New Zealand, at the same time Capt Hobson was instructed to persuade Maori to cede sovereignty to the Crown, which was effected via the Treaty of Waitangi. Following the treaty signing, Hobson proclaimed British sovereignty over the country, for the North Island by cessions, and for the South Island by ‘discovery’.
        No serious historian would regard the extension of the boundaries of the colony of New South Wales as the ‘founding’ of New Zealand.
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:08pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Thank you for that clarification, mikenmildagain.
        
        I couldn’t be bothered spending more than minimal time on a response to an assertion that was only her opinion (which she has put up here before), so I just blasted out a reply, and included a link I had in my Favourites.
        
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        October 22, 2020 4:01pm
      - Unity
        
        Steve Todd, at the risk of getting another sneer from you I can’t believe that you actually believe a version of our history which was written by our Government. They are the problem!! And yes, I have written to many about their reinvention and tried to put them on the right path. No-one wants to know.
        
        As you are so widely read, perhaps you might like to read the following at the link I have given. I hope it goes through okay but if not you could Google One NZ Foundation and you will find that document. http:/onenzfoundation.co.nz/Government destroys one law for all . This has been widely researched right back to the times .
        
        Don’t believe anything the Government writes. And for your information the Chiefs re-confirmed their belief that Queen Victoria was above them at the Kohimarama Conference in 1860 -20 years later. Also the Maori Treaty was word for word as far as could be in a different language, as the final draft of 4 February which was found in the 1980’s. There was no difference at all unlike the current earlier draft in legislation which includes Forests and Fisheries and does not mention ‘and all the people of NZ’. The final draft and the Maori version both omit ‘Forests and Fisheries’ but include ‘and all the people of NZ’.
        
        Happy reading. I do hope you will take the trouble to read it. It is irrefutable unlike the sanitised Government version.
        
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        October 22, 2020 5:06pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I don’t expect the nutters to stop nutting on about ‘reinvented’, ‘sanitised’ or ‘true’ history – at least it easily identifies them as nutters.
        The idea that there is one historical ‘truth’ that can only be revealed by scholars of a particular ideology is a particularly pernicious one.
        ‘History is an argument without end’ – Pieter Geyl
        
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        October 22, 2020 5:33pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Oh, dear. All is revealed.
        
        I have set you off a couple of times before, Unity. I will think twice before doing so again.
        
        I offer this article as a response to you: https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/28-11-2017/treaty-of-waitangi-denialism-a-long-dark-and-absurd-history/.
        
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        October 22, 2020 6:25pm
- Steve Todd
  
  In actual fact, following the 2018 Māori Electoral Option, 48% of Māori are on the General Roll.
  
  (See https://elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/historical-events/2018-maori-electoral-option/, then click on ‘Final Results for the 2018 Māori Electoral Option’.)
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:37am
- MCos
  
  I should imagine the members of the Maori Party and those who voted for them would resent being referred to as Labour Lite.
  Similarly ACT is not National Lite. Maybe the other way round.
  
  The Maori Party want to work with Labour because that’s their best chance of being heard. Continuing with the Nats is a dead end street while they’re out of power. Even having Rawiri Waititi in parliament is a reminder to Labour that they’ve taken Māori for granted and that alone is a win for the Māori Party.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:40am
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    Just about everyone wants free-to-us stuff. The difference for Maoris is they can get what they want under cover of both law and threat.
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:40pm
- Steve Todd
  
  While it is recognised that 53% of Maori are on the General Roll there is no reason to think most, or indeed many, vote National.
  
  And there is no reason to think a significant number don’t vote National.
  
  As at September 2019, there were 240,155 Māori enrolled – 197,553 in the North Island (/49, an average of 4,032 per electorate) and 42,602 in the South Island (/16, an average of 2,663 per electorate).
  
  (See https://www.stats.govt.nz/methods/the-mathematics-of-electorate-allocation-in-new-zealand-based-on-the-outcome-of-the-2018-census-and-maori-electoral-option-2018.)
  
  It is quite possible that one reason why about half of all Māori enrol on the General Roll (the actual figure is 47.23%, as at September 2019), is so they can vote for a National candidate with an expectation of helping to elect that candidate; because they want to be represented by a National MP?
  
  In other words, who’s to say the National Party hasn’t already attracted a significant proportion of those 240,155 voters, but that it is not readily apparent, because a) we all vote in secret, and b) they are spread out over 65 electorates?
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:31am
  - Steve Todd
    
    […], there were 240,155 Māori enrolled on the General Electoral Roll – […].
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:44am
DeepBlue

Labour’s solution will be to bring in an industry hort fair pay agreement of $35 per hour (not per volumn picked), max 7 hrs work per day, with removal of 90 day trial period. Plus minimum accommodation standards, transport and breaks.

Now the above is lovely and kind to the worker, but it won’t get fruit picked nor pruning done.

The fruit will rot this year, summer fruit price will escalate, people will complain about food inflation. Export earnings and tax way down. Export reputation in tatters.

This is the new government’s first big, public test. Open the borders to essential RSE workers now.
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October 22, 2020 9:13am
- Inandout
  
  DB, or perhaps tell benniies no work, no dole.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:23am
  - DeepBlue
    
    I will be waiting a long time before Jacinda says this.
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:09am
- Swifty
  
  That is my biggest complaint against Labour and the Greens – their policy settings frequently work AGAINST their stated outcomes.
  
  And that they almost always refuse to change their policy views against real-world experience.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:28am
lastmanstanding

I see any outbreak of Covid this time near me at the Greenhithe Tavern last Friday night. I suspect Auckland will go into lockdown between now and Xmas and could well be in lockdown over that period.

WHO say lockdowns dont work and indeed if you google you will find lockdowns have no impact on infection and death rates.

From the get I believed the old and vulnerable should be protected and everyone else left to get on with their live.

Im 68 and reasonably health for my age. I would rather take my chance than see my children and grandchildren condemned to a standard of living less than I have enjoyed.

They deserve better than they have got decades of paying interest and debt caused by Government that either panicit and or saw the opportunity to command and control their citizens.

In addition WHO say minimum tine to develop a vaccine for this type of condition is 4 years average time is 10 and some like HIV Ebola no vaccine after 40 years.
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October 22, 2020 9:14am
- Inandout
  
  lasty, the election is over so just accept it is here.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:21am
- MCos
  
  Let’s put your idea to the vote.
  
  Oh! We just did.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:45am
  - Tall Man
    
    We used to select our leaders based on what skills they brought to the table, now stupidity is the desired quality.
    
    9 3
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    October 22, 2020 12:07pm
  - Engelbert Humperdink
    
    So MCos, you think our voters made the right choice for the Covid election?
    
    Well, are we that different from the UK? Unless we are, the worst is, literally, yet to come thanks to the Soft’n’Late Stupidity of the Pestilential Princess’s cult-followers.
    
    UK figures just in:
    
    Delays in treatment are set to cause a 20% rise in deaths among newly diagnosed cancer patients in England – 6,270 excess deaths this year
    
    Treatment for strokes fell by 45% during lockdown and there were more than 2,000 excess deaths from heart disease
    
    More than 50,000 operations for children were cancelled.
    
    Organ transplants fell by two thirds, with the number of those who died on the transplant waiting list almost doubling.
    
    Total waiting lists for routine orthopedic and eye operations are at record levels.
    
    Calls to child abuse helplines rocketed.
    
    As rates of depression and anxiety doubled, thousands of recovering alcoholics have relapsed.
    
    Now, I’d like to be able to quote NZ not UK figures but guess what – the MOH won’t provide them even under the OIA.
    
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    October 22, 2020 1:46pm
    - Batman
      
      Have you asked for them from MoH?
      
      Or relying on a third party?
      
      2 3
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      October 22, 2020 2:25pm
      - Engelbert Humperdink
        
        Asked for them, troll.
        
        2 2
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        October 22, 2020 2:30pm
      - Batman
        
        Oh diddums. Given the amount of hyperbolic claims on here it is reasonable to check where the info comes from
        
        Under what ground did they refuse? I am genuinely interested.
        
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        October 22, 2020 2:39pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        ‘Given the amount of hyperbolic claims on here it is reasonable to check where the info comes from’
        
        Oh child, you’re such a hypocrite
        You never back up your bullshit.
        Reeeeeee Russia Russia Russia
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:22pm
- Pharmachick
  
  Regeneron have a good neutralizing antibody approved for Ebola, but yes – there’s no vaccine. My money is also on their cocktail for COVID, but last I heard they were talking $US40K per course.
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:52am
  - Pharmachick
    
    NYT has a new article (paywall, but 12 free articles/month) supply side looks iffy:
    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/20/health/covid-antibody-regeneron.html?surface=home-discovery-vi-prg&fellback=false&req_id=516461808&algo=identity&imp_id=767040881&action=click&module=Science%20%20Technology&pgtype=Homepage
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:39pm
- Engelbert Humperdink
  
  Lockdowns push up overall death rates.
  
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  October 22, 2020 12:41pm
Inandout

Peter Williams seems to have broken the mould and mentioned the Biden emails, guardedly for sure, but some people will be saying ‘what emails?’ because of the media blackout.
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October 22, 2020 9:20am
- fernglas
  
  Like this blackout?
  https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/world/fbi-probing-if-russia-involved-in-hunter-biden-email-story
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:07am
  - Fletch
    
    That is taking a stance suggesting the emails have something to do with the Russians. That’s their spin. But Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Monday said the information contained on Hunter Biden’s laptop revealed by The Post last week “is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign. It’s simply not true”
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woGyMvqLV5o
    
    Now the FBI and DOJ are saying the same thing. Schiff and the Democrats are bald-faced liars. Ratcliffe basically accuses Schiff of lying and says he “won’t allow it”.
    
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    October 22, 2020 10:24am
    - Batman
      
      You can say it a thousand times but the facts will always be against you.
      
      4 9
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      October 22, 2020 12:14pm
      - Fletch
        
        I’ll tell you what the facts are.
        
        Hunter Biden took his laptop in to be repaired in his home town of Delaware. We know because he signed a receipt for the laptop. Despite repeated phone calls from the owner, Biden never came in to pick it up so under the state law, the laptop became property of the store owner after 90 days. The store owner gave copies of the drive to the FBI and to Giuliani. Hunter’s lawyers contacted the store via phone and email to ask for it back. It has thousands of photos and emails, some of compromising pictures of Hunter with a crack pipe and sex photos. It’s him – no doubt about it. And the drive is filled with emails he sent and received. We know they are legitimate because some of the recipients of those emails corroborate the dates and times. Email server data is very hard to fake. It can be checked up on, etc.
        
        Joe Biden has brushed off the claims as not being “legitimate” but hasn’t gone into specifics. He hasn’t been asked flat out (or hasn’t denied) that the laptop is his son’s. Of course it is.
        
        Those are the facts. As I posted above, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has appeared on a TV interview saying that is has nothing to do with the Russians. And also that neither he nor anyone else has briefed Congress saying that it had to do with the Russians. The person interviewing Ratcliffe asked how Schiff can get away with his outright lying, and Ratcliffe explained that members of Congress aren’t bound by the same laws and can basically say anything they want.
        And the ‘Times vs. Sullivan’ ruling in 1964 basically made it impossible for those in govt to sue the media for libel. The media can pretty much get away with saying whatever they can make up.
        
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        October 22, 2020 12:56pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Fletch
        The DOJ and the FBI have both said there is no Russian ‘disinformation’ on it.
        Many of the arranged meetings mentioned in the emails have now been corroborated by Secret Service records confirming those meetings took place.
        Many of the emails have also been corroborated by Hunters business partner (who is now in Jail) from his own Gmail account he gave Peter Schweitzer access to.
        Lastly, no Biden has yet said the emails are fake.
        Just that its a smear.
        
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        October 22, 2020 2:11pm
      - Batman
        
        It’s a very good little fiction short story, Fletch.
        
        Rudy has really got you all convinced!
        
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        October 22, 2020 2:29pm
    - Inandout
      
      Fletch, a bit of background on the Biden saga.
      https://thehill.com/homenews/media/521896-greenwald-slams-schiff-over-biden-emails-on-fox
      
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      October 22, 2020 3:25pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    No, he means reporting ‘Butt Hunter’ as if it were a real scandal rather than a smear campaign.
    
    7 15
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    October 22, 2020 10:45am
    - oldfella
      
      What’s the best way to push back against a genuine scandal? Call is a smear campaign. (I think the lefty media got the memo on this MMA and are now implementing it).
      
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      October 22, 2020 11:28am
  - theoldbloke
    
    It also helped that Taiwans VP is a well recognised epidemiologist!
    
    So no faffingv around. They had leadership that knew what they were doing, rather than a populist leader who kept thinking about votes/PR
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:23am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    That’s more of a “nothing to see here” rather than an actual article about the allegations.
    “Russian Involvement” has become the new “Racist” (AKA it’s used to shut down the line of argument).
    
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    October 22, 2020 11:37am
fightingtemeraire

Labour have been put on notice by the Maori Party that they are going to have to deliver. Labour have treated the Maori vote the same way that the Dems have treated the Afro American and Latino vote.

Now if the Maori Party said that they would work with any party to immprove the lot of the ordinary Maori then they will get somewhere.
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October 22, 2020 9:24am
- Yabster
  
  who cares about a minor race based party?
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:34am
Jack5

Taiwan and New Zealand’s responses to Covid-19 are measured in a Lancet study. Both are held up as leaders, but Taiwan wins, and lessons are offered to New Zealand.

The island republic, population 23.6 million, reported 488 cases and seven deaths, while New Zealand reported 1397 confirmed cases and 22 fatalities. Taiwan held incidence to 20.7 cases per million people compared with NZ’s 278 per million.

The Stuff report linked to below could have added:

– The Taiwan response was led by the country’s vice-president, Chen Chien-jen, is an internationally recognised epidemiologist and an expert on viruses. Chen, who must by now being ending his term as vice-president was Taiwan’s top medical authority during the SARS outbreak of 2003.

– Taiwan, with strong information sources in Wuhan, in the last days of 2019 alerted the World Health Organisation of the Covid-19, but was ignored, because Beijing-friendly WHO does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state.

The Lancet study conclusions include:

[Taiwan’s] This positive outcome reflected pre-Covid-19 preparation for disease outbreaks with a dedicated national public health agency and infrastructure including integrated manual and digital solutions to support the co-ordination of key functions. This pro-active response to Covid-19 in Taiwan is in contrast to the more reactive pandemic reponse in New Zealand.

? Saw this in the (NZ-written) report:

Translations of covid-19 related materials on the main New Zealand covid-19 related site (https://covid19.govt.nz) were also made available in Te Reo Maori (along side other Te Reo Maori broadcasts), New Zealand Sign Language, and 26 plus other languages.

At least we beat the Taiwanese in Woke-speak. Twenty-nine languages! We are clever buggers.

You can go right to the Lancet report:

https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanwpc/PIIS2666-6065(20)30044-4.pdf

The Stuff report:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/123144103/what-nz-can-learn-from-taiwan-about-pandemic-preparedness
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October 22, 2020 9:37am
- Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes
  
  And brilliant that testing stations have been closed, and those who were at the Malt on Saturday were told to go home and only get tested if they have symptoms – lockdown coming…….
  
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  October 22, 2020 10:15am
Manu-Rau

I heard yesterday from two MFAT colleagues that Andrew Little is pushing for the the Foreign Affairs portfolio.
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October 22, 2020 10:17am
- Libertarians are right
  
  To be fair, I think they all are.
  It’s the plumb role.
  Jacinda probably wants it too.
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:35am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I’m all for that as long as it involves a one-way flight to some shithole.
  
  5 1
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  October 22, 2020 12:01pm
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    In 12 months, she won’t have to fly anywhere, we will be Shitholeasatn
    
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    October 22, 2020 12:40pm
- Paulus
  
  Not so expected Grant has got it and Dep PM with Parker as Finance.
  If so will need careful watching as has Dunedin history in Finance.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:40pm
Jack5

I seem to have missed this in the NZ media: Taiwan and China in stoush in Fiji after Beijing diplomatic staff crash Taiwanese function and photograph guests.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3106301/taiwan-looks-legal-action-against-mainland-china-get-justice
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October 22, 2020 10:21am
cmm

#Metoobin

har har
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October 22, 2020 10:48am
hullkiwi

I see our serial down tickers can’t leave us alone even after the thumping that was handed out last Saturday.

Question, is this evidence of what is to come in the future, if Angry follows through on his hate speech
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October 22, 2020 10:57am
- mandk
  
  You must be referring to Scunthorpe United 0 Cambridge United 5, in League 2.
  
  It was a real thumping, I agree.
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:16am
- KevO'Brien
  
  My latent Irish anarchist is on standby for belittling.
  
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  October 22, 2020 2:02pm
oldfella

‘Vive’ the French resistance…
Heavily armed police officers stood guard Wednesday evening as a French city defied Islamist terrorism by projecting huge images of Charlie Hebdo cartoons on a local government building.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/10/21/pics-defying-islamists-giant-image-of-mohammed-projected-onto-french-government-building-after-beheading/
Anything similar would probably be banned in NZ under Angry Andy’s hate speech legislation.
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October 22, 2020 11:06am
- sooty
  
  Cindy wouldn’t stand for it either and stamps her foot!
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:50am
RW Capitalist

Our wondrous health “service”.
9 long years of National while the waiting list for elective surgery came down.
I received this today after receiving a diagnosis of “Severe Osteoarthritis “, my Dr referred me to the specialist.
Here’s the response…names redacted.

Dear XXXX (me)
Dr XXXX referred you to be assessed by a specialist in the Orthopedic Outpatient Department.

Public hospitals have limited resources including funding. Currently we receive more requests for specialist appointments than we are able to provide. Therefore, we have to limit referrals to those that are most urgent.

A specialist has received your referral and based on the information in your referral we are unable to offer you an appointment.

While we understand that this is not the outcome you were expecting amd may cause you some distress, we also it is important to be honest with our community about the services we can and cannot provide.
We suggest you discuss with your referrer what other options are available to you. If your condition gets worse please see them for re-assessment.

If you have any questions, please phone…XXX on XXX
etc etc

Dated 15/10/2020 (Thursday before the election)

What is gutting is, in 2002 my wife received a similar letter for a much more serious opp., which we maxed out the mortgage for to go private.
Talk about Back to the future.
“Lets keep moving” back to the clark years.
Thank you to all those cowards that voted for Jacinda, “to keep the Greens out”
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October 22, 2020 11:14am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Key words
  ………including funding
  …….. most urgent (yes it is painful and limits my ability to work on some days)
  ……… honest with our community..when did they start that?
  ………other options????????????????????????
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:37am
  - gump
    
    Here’s an option – have a think about why you’re voting for the political party which systematically underfunded the health system during its last nine years in Government.
    
    Because you saved a couple of dollars while you were well and now you can’t get the healthcare that you need. I believe that’s called an “own goal”. You’re eating the bitter fruit from the tree you refused to water.
    
    Can you really not see the connection between your opposition to Government spending and the resulting under-funding of the public health system?
    
    2 10
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    October 22, 2020 1:14pm
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Bullshit
      The outcomes under National were finitely higher than under either of the last 2 labour govt.s!!!!
      Increased spending under these 2 useless labour govt.s was put into bribing the unions with higher wages, ignoring anything to do with patient outcomes and efficiency.
      Latest example….where is the promised Dunedin hospital?
      
      8 2
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      October 22, 2020 1:32pm
      - RW Capitalist
        
        After 6 yrs waiting for her 2nd spinal surgery being told every 6 months..NO.
        My wife finally had a yes in April 2009, just 6 months after the election. Funny that.
        The surgery was very complex and required months of prep….then the 1st Chch. earthquake…..then the 2nd Chch. earthquake (bit of bad luck), then finally it happened. 2 yrs recovery.
        Last yr Jan. 2019 she was diagnosed with PH and chronic heart failure….given 6 months/1 yr…maybe 2yrs…she’s still here but can’t walk to the front door, barely get to the toilet…and getting worse. No nurse visits during covid, 1 doctor appointment, no covid test, no matter how often we asked.
        I paid $40 for a flu shot (very early on), then they ran out, so my wife had to wait 4 weeks.
        I still blame the clark govt. for her current condition, if they had given the 2nd (reconstruction) opp 3 yrs after the 1st one, her diaphragm and heart would not have been under this pressure for an extra 4 yrs, preventing the damage caused.
        
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        October 22, 2020 1:46pm
      - RW Capitalist
        
        Infinitely better…..oops.
        
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        October 22, 2020 1:58pm
      - gump
        
        >Latest example….where is the promised Dunedin hospital?
        
        I’m a Dunedin resident and I drive past the hospital site regularly. The old Cadbury factory is in the process of being demolished – the demolition is projected to take several more months because of the large amounts of asbestos and the complexity of removing the remaining plant and machinery.
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:00pm
      - gump
        
        >Funny that.
        
        What’s funny is that you don’t understand the difference between correlation and causation.
        
        Labour increased per capita healthcare spending by 73% over the period 1999-2008.
        
        National who increased it by 30% over the period 2008-2017 which meant that healthcare spending dropped as a proportion of our total GDP.
        
        It amazes me that you can’t join the dots. Your wife is reaping the consequences of your short-sighted selfishness.
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:05pm
      - Batman
        
        This is the faultiest logic I’ve seen in hours.
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:31pm
      - RW Capitalist
        
        So Gump…..Dunedin hospital was supposed to be FINISHED by now, not just a land clearance.
        What’s funny is that you don’t understand the difference between correlation and causation.
        No again gump…it is you who fail to understand, that it is OUTCOME for patients that counts.
        That’s what we have a health ministry for.
        Spending is just spending, unless there is a positive outcome for patients.
        IF there is a positive outcome for patients…it’s called investing and doesn’t matter how much money you put in…if that positive outcome is achieved…for PATIENTS, which under National it was and under both Labour govt.s….it wasn’t.
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:45pm
      - gump
        
        @RW Capitalist
        
        The decision to rebuild Dunedin Hospital was only announced in May 2018. Nobody said that it was going to be completed by 2020.
        
        The Government made a commitment to start building by 2020. A target which they are going to miss by a couple of months due to the longer than expected process to acquire a neighbouring block of land, and the complexity of the demolition.
        
        And yes – health outcomes do matter. But outcomes can’t be achieved without spending money, especially when the population of NZ has increased by over a million people in the last seventeen years.
        
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        October 22, 2020 4:31pm
      - RW Capitalist
        
        Gump
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/10/labours_failures_part_8_dunedin_hospital.html
        It was an election promise of 2017, to start BUILDING in their first term…not demolition.
        
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        October 22, 2020 5:54pm
      - gump
        
        @RW Capitalist
        
        The new Dunedin Hospital will start construction early next year after the final plans have been signed off by Cabinet.
        
        The Government promised to start building it within their first term. They’re going to miss that deadline by around 3-4 months.
        
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        October 22, 2020 7:45pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      ‘which systematically underfunded the health system’
      Thats not true and its been well covered in many discussions
      
      7 3
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      October 22, 2020 2:05pm
      - gump
        
        Healthcare spending as a proportion of GDP decreased over the period 2008-2017.
        
        Those tax cuts weren’t free. They came at the cost of cuts to core spending programs like healthcare
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:07pm
      - Batman
        
        You assume there’s a direct relationship between the tax cuts and the health spending?
        
        How very quaint.
        
        The tax changes were fiscally neutral. Remember that GST raise which the left still bangs on about?
        
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        October 22, 2020 3:30pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        gump. That is tortured spin. GDP was grown exceptionally fast under National, so you are just trying to impune National for high growth (~4% per annum during it’s last term). Nominal spending increased 44% from 2008 to 2017
        Real spending increased 23% from 2008 to 2017
        Real per capita spending increased 10% from 2008 to 2017.
        
        Labour has put growth into the shitter, so their health spending as percent of GDP will be increasing precisely because they are doing a shit job economically.
        
        But what about this spending as a percentage of GDP. Well this statistic punishes you for having strong economic growth. Take 2016.
        
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        October 22, 2020 9:02pm
- Tall Man
  
  Before we dug into our money for my last knee op the surgeon basically said if you aren’t in a wheelchair or ethnically correct you are wasting your time with the public health system at the moment.
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:59am
- RJ
  
  I could understand because of covid, but our orthopaedic surgeons are going flat stick at the private hospitals to clear the public backlog, I think they have it almost back to a 3 month wait. But before covid the current bunch of bleepers put up the points system for all procedure.
  
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  October 22, 2020 12:31pm
- Engelbert Humperdink
  
  Could you try identifying as a bi-confused homeless Maori lesbian and jump all the way up the queue? That’s the incentive these days courtesy of the DHBs’ management.
  
  7 2
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  October 22, 2020 12:43pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    “Could you try identifying as a bi-confused homeless Maori lesbian and jump all the way up the queue?”
    I could, but I need a knee replacement, not a sex change, even then I would probably have to be in Jail to stand a chance.
    
    2 2
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    October 22, 2020 1:35pm
Suze Wainwright

Hardly a fan of John Minto, but it’s interesting to read what a genuine leftie thinks of Ardern (in The Daily Blog). He clearly can’t stand her and thinks she’s nothing more than a piece of lightweight, meaningless Blairite PR fluff. No one on here thinks that, do they?

“She reached the top without touching the sides” (I actually quite like that quote).

Again makes me think we should criticize NZ media from a different tack – they are actually not left, as the vast bulk of them simply wouldn’t understand hardline academic left wing political theory. They understand glossy futile celebrity worship in spades though.

What would you rely best on Tova for? Knowing where Khloe Kardashian and Piers Morgan went for dinner last night, or an essay critiquing historical Marxism from a Green feminist perspective?
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October 22, 2020 11:16am
- Suze Wainwright
  
  And that’s not just Tova of course, Jack Tame, Hilary Barry…
  
  To be fair to John Campbell, he might scrape a C+ (But can’t hide his biases)
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:21am
  - sooty
    
    Yes, shit floats!
    
    4 0
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    October 22, 2020 11:52am
- Inandout
  
  Suze, John Minto is old school socialist and I recall he blasted the current South African regime for letting that country be the lawless place it has become. He said something like ‘this is not what I marched and demonstrated for’.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:13pm
  - kowtow
    
    Then he’s a dick head.
    
    How many countries there have turned out well since the late ’50’s.
    
    Nigerian police/military just shot 20 in protests there . Any takers for the US and world media losing their shit over black lives ?
    
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    October 22, 2020 2:18pm
mandk

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2020/10/coronavirus-infected-kiwi-at-pub-shows-importance-of-covid-app-to-avoid-wide-infection-chris-hipkins.html

Hipkins is a real numskull if he thinks the current COVID contact tracing app will be truly useful. He’s letting NZers down.

It’s an inferior technology that will never work properly because it requires effort on the part of potential users.
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October 22, 2020 11:49am
- lifesgood
  
  I never downloaded it and don’t intend to. Most people aren’t using it and signing in anywhere seems a thing of the past too.
  
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  October 22, 2020 12:38pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  Hipkins is a real numskull
  I have weatherboards on my house, with a higher IQ and work ethic.
  
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  October 22, 2020 2:01pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Inferior technology, Hipkins?
  
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  October 22, 2020 2:05pm
greybeard

And we are off ! It only took 4 days.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123171328/countdown-call-centre-staff-go-on-strike-demanding-more-pay
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October 22, 2020 12:31pm
RJ

NEW: The FBI will make an announcement tonight on what they are calling a “major Election Security” issue. More details to come…

https://twitter.com/PatrickHussion/status/1319057593680105474
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October 22, 2020 12:39pm
- RJ
  
  **UPDATE: Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe says Iran & Russia are taking “specific actions to influence public opinion” before the election and says they’ve obtained voter registration information.
  
  https://twitter.com/PatrickHussion/status/1319062459957743617
  
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  October 22, 2020 12:50pm
  - Fletch
    
    Russia has always tried to influence elections including the last one. Obama knew and did nothing about it. It must be pointed out that this has nothing whatsoever to do with Trump or the Hunter Biden laptop, which Ratcliffe says has nothing to do with the Russians.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woGyMvqLV5o
    
    Contrast this with Ratcliffe’s letter detailing how Hillary Clinton approved a plot to tie in Trump with the Russians and stirring up the scandal.
    
    https://bit.ly/2HsOxZ3
    
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    October 22, 2020 1:29pm
    - Batman
      
      Obama put in place sanctions, which old mate Mike Flynn then told them not to worry about because the new Trump Admin would roll them back!
      
      Should the FBI/Obama admin have gone public and hosed the Russians, Mike Flynn, Page, Manafort, and all the others in contact with the Russians? Yes.
      
      Meanwhile, Ratcliffe is hopelessly compromised as a trusted voice.
      
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      October 22, 2020 2:19pm
Jack5

New Zealand’s outlook doesn’t look great, the IMF’s World Economic Outlook figures suggest, writes Michael Reddell:

https://croakingcassandra.com/2020/10/22/coda/

Sadly, Michael’s health means posts on his Croaking Cassandra blog are going to be less frequent. Get well soon, Michael.
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October 22, 2020 12:44pm
Bobba Fret

So Judith has said National will be a strong opposition. Last time Nats were the largest opposition and were also going to be strong and that didn’t work out too well.
I hope Judith can re-build them. Any not 100% behind Judith need to get out now.
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October 22, 2020 12:57pm
cmm

Anyone who thinks “the science is settled” should consider this: https://www.stuff.co.nz/science/300139104/scientists-accidentally-discover-new-organ-in-human-head

Generation, millions, of medical students have sawed up cadaver heads documenting their findings.

Hundreds of thousands of 3D slice up examinations of human heads have been done.
Millions, perhaps hundreds of CAT scans, Xrays etc have been done of human heads.

And now we still have the discovery of a gland nearly 4cm long.

Even if this is a bullshit discovery, the mere fact that that something this size has been missed so long (or is even being considered) should make anyone doubt what is going on in science.
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October 22, 2020 12:59pm
- gump
  
  The concept of anatomical structures like organs is entirely subjective.
  
  A ‘new’ organ doesn’t get discovered, it simply gets differentiated from its surrounding tissue.
  
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  October 22, 2020 1:16pm
I remember when

Steve Todd @9.37
I just quoted the percentage mentioned on the Marae programme on Sunday.
Don’t think many Kiwibloggers would have watched the entire show.
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October 22, 2020 1:48pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Fair enough, but it was corrected, to 53% of Māori being on the Māori Roll (September 2019 figure; see my post @ 11:31AM), by another panellist later in that segment.
  
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  October 22, 2020 3:39pm
RW Capitalist

My wife received, today, a DEMAND that she apply for an entitlement to a UK pension.
She is a NZ citizen since 1986.
She has not had a job in the UK since April 1985.
The “form” the send you to fill out is about 40 pages (I didn’t actually count them) requiring you to remember ALL the jobs you had in the UK….going back to your first job.
This requirement dates back to 2018.
I believe this has the lingering stench of Winston Peters, so readily agreed to by dear old jacinda.
The worst case I have heard is a 75yr old, who left the UK at age 17.
All to save a few penny’s, which are used up trying to help people like this to fill out the form, advising them that “I can’t remember”is a valid answer.
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October 22, 2020 1:55pm
- ex-golfer
  
  Unfortunately your blame is misplaced,
  While it may refer to the Social Security Act 2018 (which was an amending Act not something entirely new), this requirement has been around for many, many years and has nothing to do with Winston or Jacinda.
  
  Quote below from MSD, which administers NZ Superannuation:
  
  “Overseas pensions and benefits are benefits, pensions and periodical allowances paid under a programme that:
  
  – provides benefits, pensions and periodical allowances for the same circumstances for which New Zealand benefits or pensions would be paid (e.g. old age/retirement, survivor’s and disability pensions); and
  – is administered by, or on behalf of, an overseas government.
  
  You and your spouse/partner are legally obliged to apply for any overseas benefit or pension to which you may be entitled if you want to receive New Zealand benefits and pensions.”
  
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  October 22, 2020 3:18pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    I am informed that ” legally obliged to apply “is the change.
    Before it was “IF” you applied for a foreign pension, you had to notify the govt. and you NZ pension would be changed.
    That is my understanding. and
    That it is only recently that people have been receiving these FORCED applications.
    
    2 1
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    October 22, 2020 3:50pm
    - ex-golfer
      
      Testing the right to an overseas pension that people may be entitled to was entrenched in legislation before the 2018 refresh.
      And the applications have been sent out to people for many, many years.
      I was in a related part of the process under the last National Government.
      MSD has info sharing arrangements with DIA and anyone that applies for NZ Super that is recorded as previously living overseas is sent applications relating to the country that records indicated they had lived in.
      The Australian system was the worst to deal with due to their means-tested pension regime. Their form was almost 60 pages long – and they are not very forgiving.
      Failure to apply can result in NZ Super being suspended.
      
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      October 22, 2020 5:18pm
RJ

UPDATE: Multiple
@OANN
reporters have now viewed the emails, photos, and videos on the #HunterBiden hard drive.

We can confirm:

There appear to be not one but several images of a minor that justify immediate attention.

We have reason to believe the minor is a US citizen.

https://twitter.com/ChanelRion/status/1318931828481400833
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October 22, 2020 2:47pm
- Batman
  
  There is no way in any universe that the FBI would allow media to see any evidence of an investigation, if such an investigation is underway, let alone the topics being smeared here.
  
  So the obvious conclusion is that Chanel Rion is lying or has been shown illegal content or evidence of a crime.
  
  The money has to be on option A, given this is OANN, the most crackhead news outlet.
  
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  October 22, 2020 2:59pm
  - RJ
    
    Of course as we know the fbi aren’t the only ones with the hard drive so the journalists aren’t seeing these from the fbi.
    
    Obviously the conclusion is she saw the hard drive while she was interviewing Rudy.
    
    6 3
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    October 22, 2020 3:08pm
    - Batman
      
      So Rudy is potentially disseminating evidence of a crime and CSA material?* Making himself a holder and distributor of such material?
      
      *If the smear is believed correct.
      
      How very Deep State QAnon conspiracy of him!
      
      3 7
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      October 22, 2020 3:28pm
      - RJ
        
        So again Batman because you seem incapable of actually doing it, show us where the Biden’s have stated any of this is false.
        
        And Rudy is doing everything by the law.
        
        Always got to bring q into it don’t you to try and distract from the facts that are released. Next you’re claim the photos are not hunter. Who knew Batman was no longer the caped crusader fighting for justice but just someone standing up for corruption and so much more
        
        4 3
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        October 22, 2020 5:36pm
      - Batman
        
        Because some need to be lead to water…
        
        https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/10/14/joe-biden-denies-meeting-burisma-official-purported-hunter-biden/
        
        https://www.foxnews.com/politics/joe-biden-hunter-laptop-emails-ny-post
        
        Well given QAnon is a big part of the Trump base now, and they think they’re fighting a mythical pedophile ring, it is rather amusing!
        
        There are no facts, on delusion in Trumpland. Well, there’s a shitload of projection too I suppose.
        
        3 4
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        October 22, 2020 5:42pm
      - RJ
        
        Nothing to do with q and anyone with a brain knows that. I guess you will pretend it isn’t hunter in the photos but Q. Yeah there are stupid people out there, and right now they are trying to defend a pedophile who law enforcement now have photos of and worse refusing to report on it.
        
        There are no facts just delusions in Batmanland
        
        Don’t worry I have my popcorn ready for when you realise you’ve been defending a pedophile and a family that is as corrupt as hell.
        
        https://www.newsmax.com/politics/photo-hunter-biden-laptop-criminal/2020/10/20/id/992958/
        
        Giuliani also claimed there were numerous pictures of underage girls on the Hunter Biden hard drive.
        
        So disturbing was the content, Giuliani said he and former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik met Monday with Delaware State Police and turned over their evidence.
        
        Newsmax has not reviewed the hard drive, laptop, or related materials alleged to be Hunter Biden’s. Newsmax has made no conclusion as to the authenticity of the evidence or the accuracy of the allegations made.
        
        “We’re very uncomfortable with this,” Giuliani said. “We’re very uncomfortable with the fact that these underage girls were not protected.
        
        “If you were to look at the photographs on this hard drive and didn’t report it to the police — well, if you were a law enforcement officer, you’d be guilty of a felony.
        
        “If you were just a normal citizen, you’d be a horrible human being,” the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said.
        
        4 3
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        October 22, 2020 6:12pm
      - Batman
        
        I’m not saying it’s directly related. Nice try.
        
        I’m saying there are parallels that are hard not to notice.
        
        Again, you cite newsmax which cites Giuliani as fact. He is making claims which have not been verified, and he is Trump’s personal lawyer. Hardly an unbiased source, no?
        
        All Giuliani has is noise, no substance as yet. As much as you all REALLY want to believe it.
        
        3 5
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        October 22, 2020 6:17pm
- fernglas
  
  Assuming that Hunter Biden has been up to all manner of naughtiness, how does this affect his father in the absence of evidence linking him to this behaviour?
  
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  October 22, 2020 3:29pm
  - RJ
    
    Evidence has already linked the father including the text messages to the father about the 14 year old girl.
    
    4 3
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    October 22, 2020 5:30pm
Jack5

Could 3D-printed houses help New Zealand’s housing shortage?

The Telegraph reports 3D printed houses, already being built in Mexico and Texas, could help Britain provide more homes.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2020/10/20/3d-printed-homes-could-solve-britains-housing-crisis/

Meanwhile an American builder is talking of 3D-constructed homes, of 600 to 800 sq ft, each put up in 24 hours for a cost as little as $US4000 (about $NZ6075):

https://www2.baylor.edu/baylorproud/2020/10/3d-printing-a-house-in-24-hours-sounds-crazy-but-a-baylor-alum-has-made-it-reality/
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October 22, 2020 2:56pm
curry4me

Wot! No more New Zealand First? Oh dear, how sad, never mind. -:)

New Zealand First

16 October at 22:36 ·
We’re about to unpublish our page to comply with electoral law. When we kick back up we will have an idea of what decisions New Zealanders have made this election.
We want to thank our supporters for all of their dedication and efforts and our candidates for the supreme job they’ve done.
We’ve done our best to Back Your Future.
If you haven’t voted, party vote New Zealand First.
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October 22, 2020 2:56pm
- RJ
  
  That’s right, they unpublished their page to Follow the law, then they publish it again after the polls close. Not sure what you think your post shows.
  
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  October 22, 2020 5:29pm
  - curry4me
    
    RJ: A heaping helping of schadenfreude at the fact they’re out of parliament.
    
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    October 22, 2020 7:19pm
RW Capitalist

The difference between the right and left on taxation.
The right believe the economy is produced by the citizen and the govt. takes tax to cover the costs, the citizens (individually) can’t. (police, military etc)
The “failing” of this is unequal outcomes proportional to work levels (across a lifetime, ie better education and harder work produce more wealth)
The left believe the economy is produced and the sole property of, the govt., therefore all money is theirs from which they allow you to keep some.
Aim is to produce equal outcomes, which always means…lowest common denominator ie equal poverty.
or
‘The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of blessings. The inherent virtue of Socialism is the equal sharing of miseries. ‘
Winston Churchill
He said it better than me.
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October 22, 2020 5:42pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300139458/wr-peters-loans-60k-to-nz-first
What ?
Surely this should be “wr peters LENDS 60k to nz first”?
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October 22, 2020 6:59pm
RJ

Gee must be more Q stuff for the stupid people that can’t handle facts and just run and claim it is all Q

My name is Tony Bobulinski. The facts set forth below are true and accurate; they are not any form of domestic or foreign disinformation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive. I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine.

This afternoon I received a request from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance requesting all documents relating to my business affairs with the Biden family as well as various foreign entities and individuals. I have extensive relevant records and communications and I intend to produce those items to both Committees in the immediate future.

https://nypost.com/2020/10/22/hunter-biz-partner-confirms-e-mail-details-joe-bidens-push-to-make-millions-from-china/
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October 22, 2020 8:05pm
Brian McDonald

What do the herders say now?
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-coronavirus-swedens-strategy-takes-a-turn-as-cases-spike/KP3SUPMIC7YZ5NQXEPTSIL63B4/
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October 22, 2020 8:26pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/sweden/
  Sweden is just fine. Swedish deaths have been, and continue to be at about 2 per day for last 3 months, regardless of spike in cases (only notices as a result of more testing). for comparison about 7 people per day die of flu and pneumonia in Sweden in a normal year, so at this point it is basically less serious than flu in its ongoing impact.
  
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  October 22, 2020 9:15pm
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Do the months. 5930 deaths approx 231 days = 25.6 deaths a day. You’re dreaming.
    
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    October 23, 2020 8:53am
- JamesP
  
  Best not to brag about dodging the bullet until:
  1) You know it can be dodged.
  and more importantly…
  2) You’ve actually dodged it.
  
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  October 22, 2020 11:35pm
Jack5

A New Plymouth nurse has been deregistered for comments about Maori nurses and for practising while suspended.

The NZ Health Practitioners’ Disciplinary Tribunal deregistered Deborah Kathryn Hugill (a.k.a. Debbie Newport) on three charges:

– Inappropriate behaviour.

– Inappropriate or inadequate communication.

– Practising while suspended from practising.

The tribunal says that, on or around 4 May 2019, Hugill posted offensive and/or inappropriate and/or derogatory comments about Maori on the New Zealand Nurses Organisation’s Facebook page after a link to a news article from an online news website was posted to the site. She accused Maori nurses in Taranaki of being lazy, dishonest and unprofessional.

Hugill already had conditions imposed on her practice after she made similar social media posts in 2018. She failed to undertake cultural competence training required of her at that time.

The nurse admitted admitted her social media posts on 4 May 2019 were inappropriate and offensive.

The tribunal reports: “At the hearing she expressed some regret for this conduct, albeit in a halting fashion. She said that the posts were impulsive and a knee jerk reaction to a media article.

“However, the nurse went on to post further similar comments on her Facebook page in October 2019, shortly after she attended a Professional Conduct Committee hearing regarding the May 2019 Facebook posts at which she apologised for her conduct.”

The other charge related to Hugill working at two aged-care facilities for a month after the Nursing Council had suspended her from practice in the interim.

Radio NZ reports that some of Hugill’s posts to her Facebook page included: “Maori are by far the laziest and cunning underhanded I have worked with”; and, “Maori predominantly get more hand outs and freebies in Nursing Education”.

These comments were in response to an online news article posted to the page.

RNZ reports Hugill said the article raised memories for her. She said the comments posted were true, as they were taken from her own experiences and things she had witnessed during her career as a registered nurse.

“She denied being racist or making racist comments. However, under cross-examination she accepted that some of her comments were ‘awful and atrocious’.”

Tribunal’s finding:

https://www.hpdt.org.nz/Charge-Details/keyword/Hugill?file=Nur20/468P

RNZ report:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/428938/nurse-has-registration-cancelled-following-racist-social-media-posts
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October 22, 2020 8:27pm

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