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January 27, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 27 January 2021

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Happychappy

This proves that Jacinda Ardern only thinks of herself and has no desire to fix the housing crisis and if she did she would have excepted Judith Collins Initiative of making all Parties working together to solve the housing crisis in NZ.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/01/judith-collins-gets-prime-ministerial-brush-off-from-jacinda-ardern-over-housing-crisis-solution.html
As soon as I heard the proposal that Judith came up with I commented to my family that Jacinda Ardern will show her true colors and arrogance with her answer because she has no will to fix it and lose votes and knows many in Labour and National will not be happy for their property to devalue by fixing the biggest problem facing NZer’s.
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January 27, 2021 8:01am
- DeepBlue
  
  If house values fall a bit this year, say 10%, which is only last quarter growth, who would lose?
  
  Not Jacinda as she has 2.5 years till next election and oodles of political capital to burn. Not long term owners as this is nothing in scale of past increases. Not first term recent buyers as the value will return when they come to sell in ten years. Not sellers if they can buy for comparatively less elsewhere. Not investors if they have planned well for the long term.
  
  My point is, maybe a little shock in housing to stop the run away pricing is the the better shock to have if you look at the cost of other options like increased interest rates, tanked NZ dollar.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:15am
  - Ian Boag
    
    increased interest rates, tanked NZ dollar
    
    Increased interest rates would certainly dent the housing price thing, but at a horrid cost. Over-geared FHBs would be toast. A 10% drop would put these FHBs into something close to negative equity.
    Repayments increased and capital buffer all gone. No responsible bank could ignore that forever. Possibly if you want to see this bubble pricked then there is no way to do it gently.
    
    As for tanking the $NZ – find me a farmer who would not be cheering …. 🙂
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:41am
    - Ian Boag
      
      Actually the litmus test for all these bright ideas about what to do re the housing screwup is …
      
      “will idea x/y/z do anything to get more (affordable?) houses built?”
      
      If the answer is “not really” then it’s just shuffling deck chairs. I say this as someone who favours a CGT. That’s irrelevant to this issue because it would not get more houses built.
      
      I have no sympathy for landlords who complain about having to fix/update houses that reliably generate them $30-50k of capital gain each year. It’s a business – there are risks – end of.
      
      Land is a good start, but that leaves roads, sewerage, water, power, public transport etc. So Judith (IMHO) could have been a bit more ambitious.
      
      FWIW I think Porirua was built back in the day when we had an MoW that bought the land, built the infrastructure, organised the (private) builders for the houses then passed the lot on to whatever Housing NZ was called then. I think most (all?) were rentals but that changed over time.
      
      A hopelessly outdated approach for today’s world. The only redeeming feature is that it worked.
      
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      December 27, 2020 9:56am
      - rouppe
        
        Porirua’s 3-water situation is a diabolical mess now
        
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        January 27, 2021 10:33am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Housing Corp created a ghetto there. The MoW were effective in their time as were its Ministers. Once Labour Ministers were able, now they are incompetent and their Depts not able to assist either.
        
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        January 27, 2021 1:58pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @Kev
        
        They created a whole lot of affordable basic housing. The tenants may not have all been your favourite people. Call that a ghettto if you like.
        
        Ex-state houses in Porirua East currently fetch something close to a million … Go figure
        
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        January 27, 2021 3:25pm
      - Happychappy
        
        I could be wrong Ianbut didn’t some Islanders that were given state housing in Porirua pull up the floor boards and put down Umukai as they didn’t know how to use Electric ovens.
        
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        January 27, 2021 3:53pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @HappyChappy
        
        The umukai thing sounds like a good urban legend. Did you hear about it from a mate of yours who heard it at the pub …. ?
        
        Let’s assume that it is true (these stories always are). There are a few thousand houses in Porirua. How many do you think suffered this fate? Ask your mate ..
        
        So what was your point anyway …. ?
        
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        January 27, 2021 5:18pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Westpac economist thinks house prices may drop………I can’t see it while there is such a shortage of supply. This came up when I googled.
  “Westpac chief economist Dominick Stephens said he expected house prices to fall 7 per cent between March 2020 and December 2020. “According to the REINZ House Price Index (seasonally adjusted), prices had already fallen 1.2 per cent by May.”Jun 28, 2020”
  
  I didn’t notice the dates were 2020! I thought he was referring to this year. Well he got that wrong.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:30am
  - kowtow
    
    Who was it said that astrology was invented to make economists look good ……..
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:07am
  - kloyd0306
    
    Time to ditch Google, the bastards….
    
    Use Brave instead.
    
    Google, Twitter and Facebook have become a sewer.
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:19pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      yeah, captured by ignorant woke neo-marxists intent on dragging the world into repressive orwellian darkness.
      
      Is there any way to repair the damage they are doing?
      
      One thought is to simply get enough non-woke to buy stock that they can take control of the tech oligopoly boardrooms and stop political agendas being pushed. Wouldn’t be that expensive (can get a decent ROI while saving the world from fuckwittery).
      
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      January 27, 2021 4:55pm
- Positan
  
  Other than Ardern showing just how weak, insecure and unconfident she really is – she has underlined her complete lack of any substance of leadership.
  
  With a crisis like housing, a real leader would grabbed the opportunity to put politics aside and go joint-handedly with National into seriously addressing the issue for the benefit of the people.
  
  But not our wiffely-waffler-in-chief !!!
  
  She, who is “going to fix housing personally,” shows she’s not only scared of National, but lacks any and all intellectual capacity to realise the problem is far, far greater than anything she/Labour would ever be able to achieve.
  
  Our housing crisis has many causes – but at the back of most of them lie the dictates and complications of Geoffrey Palmer’s many-times-amended Resource Management Act. Yet another enduring f***up occasioned by Labour types who had absolutely no practical understanding of [what] they were inflicting.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:32am
  - pdm
    
    `wiffely-waffler-in-chief !!!’
    
    Good but I still think `Part Time Prime Minister’ is better and more appropriate.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:56am
  - Unity
    
    Interesting to hear Geoffrey Palmer’s finger prints are negatively on the Resource Management Act. He was also responsible for re-writing our history and the Treaty saying it made ‘Maori’ partners when it most definitely did not. It seems he must be listed up there as one of the stand-out politicians who have ruined our country.
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:13am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    “Unity! (just not with the other lot, please).”
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:19am
- tui47
  
  Ardern is more concerned with her own popularity than she is with the housing needs of New Zealanders. It is extremely unlikely any of her ‘plans’ to tackle the housing crisis will succeed. The next few years will see the crisis worsening. Until New Zealander voters realise that they have elected a PM who is merely a PR person things will never improve. In fact after the next three years NZ will be in a worse state than ever for infrastructure such as housing, roads, schools and hospitals. When borders open we will see a massive increase in immigration as overseas Jacinda fans rush to apply to move to NZ. God help us if Jacinda gets a second term. Jacinda’s response to Judith’s offer was predictable. She will never acknowledge that she needs help even if New Zealanders suffer.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:29am
  - Unity
    
    Tui47 you said ‘God help us if Jacinda gets a second term.’ She is on her second term already. I think you meant to say ‘a third term’. And yes, heaven help us all if she does.
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:14am
    - tui47
      
      Quite right. I didn’t notice that before I posted! I certainly meant third term.
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:26am
    - Bob
      
      Adern is flying solo this time; we need to get some competent hands on the controls at the next election, otherwise our economy is going to stall and crash bigtime; if it doesn’t crash even more than it has before 2023.
      
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      January 27, 2021 3:13pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Bro – Cindy knows 2023 is in the bag. So she need not do anything. She will sleep walk to victory.
  
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  January 27, 2021 7:08pm
Benedict Yu

So I am in the Air New Zealand lounge at Christchurch Airport. Loud group of men and women. The men wearing shorts singlets and jandals. All with facial tattoos and shovelling food as fast as possible.

I guess keeping loud people out is hard but surely they can adopt some minimum dress code. There is no way you would get into a Qantas or Singapore lounge dressed like that.
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January 27, 2021 8:02am
- fernglas
  
  From the Air NZ website:
  
  “Attire and behaviour: We ask you to dress and act with consideration towards fellow lounge guests.”
  
  So I guess jandals, singlets and noise are acceptable to Air NZ. I will have to give it a try next time. It would at least save me from ruining a good suit by spilling red wine on it.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:03am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    If I had complained about this group the response would have been “racist”. Next thing John Campbell would be running a show about how someone tried to get 6 Maori thrown out of the Air New Zealand lounge.
    
    That’s exactly why these people can act as they choose.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:20am
    - pdm
      
      Benedict – next time wear your jock strap and jandals.
      
      Should be okay.
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:57am
      - Sacha
        
        And take your tattooed mate along with his bare chest, jandals and baggies.
        See how they deal with that!
        
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        January 27, 2021 10:59am
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        Wear a MAGA hat . . .
        
        Ask that Tauranga twat who was leader of National for five minutes if you can have his, he is ashamed of it . . .
        
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        January 27, 2021 11:31am
    - Ruahine
      
      Air NZ is a gov’t thing. Being and acting like a slob does have benefits if you are part of the Gov’t in crowd.
      
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      January 27, 2021 10:03am
    - Unity
      
      Because we treat them with kid gloves and let them do whatever they want, they now feel emboldened and continue to increasingly push the boundaries. It’s time for a push-back from the rest of us.
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:16am
    - Hard Cheese
      
      This would be closely followed by “outrage” and a “backlash” against you on social media, where you would be accused of being “tone deaf”, “not reading the room” and exhibiting “white privilege”. Stuff would have your picture on the front page, Jacinda would call you unkind, and Air New Zealand would give you a lifetime ban from the Koru Lounge.
      
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      January 27, 2021 12:52pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I agree with everything you said except the “white privilege” 🙂
        
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        January 27, 2021 2:55pm
- DeepBlue
  
  AirNZ are sending out Koru Club renewals after the Covid deferral. Now we live in the provinces with no Koru lounge and little chance of overseas travel there is no reason to keep up membership. Better to pay the extra start up fee at some point in the future.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:19am
  - Lance
    
    The international Koru lounges sucked pre-covid.
    I am entitled to use them but I won’t bother going forward. Just overcrowded and grossly under resourced.
    I wonder if the other lounges don’t suck so bad?
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:04am
- Biscuit
  
  I’m with you, Benedict…
  
  Years and years ago (well, late 2007) me and the boss woman were in South Africa, just as it was emerging from the Apartheid era.
  
  We went up to Sun City, a quite swish casino/golf resort north-west opf Jozi.
  
  I fancied me some gambling.
  
  The boss woman saw the joint’s dress code (‘Informal’) for same and made sure I was kitted out accordingly – brand new chinos, dress shoes, sexy shirt and fretted that, really, I should wear a tie too.
  
  To the casino…
  
  I sat a Blackjack table and had a good couple of hours playing alongside a group of (admirably-mixed) young Rugby players, all in Rugby shorts, tank tops that had seen far better days, and flipflops.
  
  I mention that to the boss woman OFTEN these days if she tries to get me to ‘frock up’ when an invitation arrives with a dress code, heh.
  
  One other memory from that day: the drink of choice for young South African rugby players that season was Red Wine … and Coke.
  
  Very nobly, I accepted a couple of glasses of said god-awful concoction as the lads ‘shouted’ and, just as nobly, even ‘shouted’ a couple back.
  
  Never again!
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:46am
  - pdm
    
    Biscuit reminds me of the first visit mrspdm and I made to Christchurch Casino about a year or so after it opened. Ours was an impulse drop in as we were walking past and while we were tidy (we don’t do scruffy when away from home) you could not call us in our sunday best.
    
    As we arrived at the entrance a guy pulled up in his Range Rover and beat us to the door. He was immaculate in his dress shirt and designer jeans which probably cost more than our whole joint ensembles. But because he was wearing jeans he was turned away and in we walked.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:04am
    - Biscuit
      
      Mmmm, pdm, I wonder about the jeans ban.
      
      Most of the youngsters I know look superb in their designer jeans (hell, even the guys!)…
      
      I suppose you have to draw the line SOMEWHERE, I guess…
      
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      January 27, 2021 12:03pm
  - tf78
    
    Biscuit, my mother used to say “better to be over-dressed than under-dressed – plus you always feel better.
    
    That Sun City looks to be an amazing place, my husband went there many years ago and took some amazing photos of it.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:06am
    - Biscuit
      
      tf78, oh it was.
      
      Fabulous golf course – one hole was in the shape of the African continent and another had a bunch of crocodiles eying you from a nearby pond.
      
      There were signs saying ‘CLOSE YOUR WINDOWS’, something we heeded, ha, but someone else on our floor ignored that and suffered the consequences of a monkey or two invading their room and removing any food items about, their chocolates-under-the-pillow included.
      
      Monkeys, I learned that day, have NO difficulties opening fridges!
      
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      January 27, 2021 12:01pm
      - chukar
        
        Dress to impress!
        Designer jeans, all with holes tears in them
        Fashionable but bloody horrible!
        
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        January 27, 2021 1:47pm
      - pdm
        
        chukar – these were real quality looking.
        
        Biscuit it was in the 1990’s – as I said the casino had been open about a year. Jeans are probably ok now.
        
        Back in the early 80’s in another life I sent a female staff member home to change when she wore jeans on a `mufti day’ at the BNZ branch I was at.
        
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        January 27, 2021 3:31pm
- Bob
  
  An indication of how low our dress and social behaviour standards have become in this third world country of ours/yours actually.
  
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  January 27, 2021 3:15pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Benedict bro – Shorts, singlets and jandals are standard dress code in NZ.
  
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  January 27, 2021 7:09pm
Scott

Well we have decided not to go to Northland due to the concerns about Covid lockdown. We are going to Nelson instead.

Another factor that put us off, a lesser factor but still a factor, was the decision by Tai Tokerau to bring back checkpoints in the far north. This means that we could have been stopped by Maori tribes people, who by their own statements are only concerned about “their own people”. What does this mean, “our own people”? Are we not all New Zealanders? It seems not.

In the minds of Hone Harawira and his band we are like foreigners travelling through their country. I thought in the 19th century we fought a war over this? I thought in 1840 we made an agreement about this? It seems that you cannot in the 21st century travel along the Queens Highway without being stopped by a band of tribespeople who are essentially a law unto themselves.

What is the Prime Minister doing about this? Well she is smiling nicely and speaking nicely and frowning and putting on that look of concern. But she is not going to do anything about it. Neither are the police it seems.

Are New Zealanders prepared to accept the return of tribalism? That there will be different tribes who will control different areas of this country and you can go to that area only under their sufferance? What happened to one law for all? What happened to the team of 5 million?

Obviously we are all a team of 5 million with equal rights. It is just some people are more equal than others.
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January 27, 2021 8:02am
- fernglas
  
  Northlanders need a bit of a reality check. From clogging up the testing stations without any good reason to trying to shut down parts of the North, it is clear that many of them have no idea of the true danger of Covid. Shouldn’t the D-G of Health be explaining that they don’t need to be scared out of their wits, or would that make it too hard to keep people in line when needed?
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:06am
  - igm
    
    Where in hell is this dork Coster?
    Too busy learning te reo!
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:04am
- Nickc2
  
  Wait till these militias start charging for passage through their illegal roadblocks. Will the police do anything? Of course not, they don’t have enough money for law enforcement these days.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:12am
  - kowtow
    
    They’ve plenty of money. It’s really a question of prioridies.
    
    Take their refusal to do the annual dope seizures . They claim it’s to put the resources into other drugs but in reality they’ve given a free pass to the gangs to grow and sell dope and to put the money raised from dope growing into whatever the gang choses to.(harder drugs perhaps, guns ,lawyers and accountants for money laundering)
    
    A police dog would have more intelligence than “senior management”
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:41am
    - Nickc2
      
      TKS kowtow. I was going to do a diatribe later today about police funding and denial but you have stolen my thunder (well done).
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:00am
    - Sacha
      
      I thought that the bottom had fallen out of the cannabis market – the chemical drugs are easier and cheaper, give that they don’t have to be cultivated or risk a bad year, or spray drift, or the cops noticing the area under cultivation. I read that there was a shortage of cannabis, but the supply of meth is not at risk –
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:07am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Small mistake there Scott, you’re overlooking that the war never finished.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:36am
- calendar girl
  
  Well said, Scott. But hoping that our Prime Minister will do something about this (e.g. instruct the Police to clear the highways of those who would obstruct free passage) is overly optimistic.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:50am
- graham
  
  Two thoughts occur to me:
  
  1. I wonder what would happen if I wanted to visit my very good friends who live around the Doubtless Bay area, and are WHITE? Do the road blocks courtesy of Hone the thug apply, as my friends are not “their people”? Furthermore, I would just be visiting my friends and not stopping on the way – you know, very much like Hone did back in April when he travelled to Auckland and visited his sister for breakfast. So that’s all ka pai, chur bro?
  
  2. How is it that all these checkpoint thugs have so much time on their hands to be able to do this? Do they not have jobs to go to?
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:07am
  - Batman
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    “have you been unwell over the last 14 days?”
    
    “No.”
    
    “Have you been in contact with anyone who’s been sick over the last 14 days?”
    
    “No.”
    
    “Have you come back from overseas?”
    
    “No.”
    
    “Okay have a great day!”
    
    I don’t agree with the checkpoints either, on principle, but let’s not pretend that they’re anything more than community volunteer health checks. At the end of the day they can’t actually stop you from continuing onwards unless a Police officer decides you are a risk or something.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:33am
    - Frank the tank
      
      I call bollocks to that – I’d argue that is they don’t like the cut of your ‘gib’ or are ‘unsatisfied’ with your answer then there is buckleys chance of progressing your journey. That was the evidence from last time around.
      
      Of course you would have to be onsite to confirm one’s suspicions. Calling any non partisan, non feckless Journalists.
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:32am
    - The Proper Ghandi
      
      What these roadblocks are is a manifest expression to the rest of the country that Hone and his crew consider this particular area of the country to be theirs, where seemingly they alone are sovereign as regards to who comes and goes. It is implicit in one’s act of pulling over a driver that one has the right to deny or prevent the other’s travel.
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:33am
      - kowtow
        
        It’s a lot more than that and something very sinister and rotten in our constitutional arrangements.
        
        Police HQ and the Cabinet are comfortable with the police overseeing the law being broken .
        
        That is an affront to our democratic values , and haha if you want to the articles of the Treaty of W
        
        ‘For this agreed arrangement therefore concerning the government of the Queen, the Queen of England will protect all the ordinary people of New Zealand and will give them the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England.’
        
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        January 27, 2021 1:44pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Are they possibly guarding a cannabis cropping region or other mischief?
        
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        January 27, 2021 2:09pm
    - graham
      
      Really? The story I read in Stuff made no mention of asking questions and waving you on. It merely said that Tai Tokerau Border Control (nice touch that – quoting the group’s self-appointed title, thereby lending an air of legitimacy) intended “standing up checkpoints in key points across the north to protect our old people and everyone else in the north.”
      
      The story on RNZ quotes Tai Tokerau Border Control regional co-ordinator as saying “If it’s already in the community we wanted it to stay still, we wanted to lock it down and isolated here. We don’t want to have traffic coming up here, having it back here and spreading it everywhere else.”
      
      If you have evidence to the contrary, I’d love to see it.
      
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      January 27, 2021 1:06pm
      - Yabster
        
        [Deleted – your “post” makes no sense. Mod.]
        
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        January 27, 2021 1:57pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    “Do they not have jobs to go to?” Thanks for that…really made me laugh.
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:33am
- tf78
  
  Scott – she will cook bacon and sausages, what’s your problem.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:13am
- Bob
  
  is just some people are more equal than others……. shades of animal farm me thinks
  
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  January 27, 2021 3:20pm
Jack5

A useful resource against the Woke.

This British web site is worth noting for the anti-Woke resistance movement.

Counterweight says its purpose is to oppose “Critical Social Justice”, and it is a store of resources for those being beset by the Woke’s social justice warriors.

https://counterweightsupport.com/

Or if you want to dive right in, here are its links to critiques of Woke-ism.

https://counterweightsupport.com/resource-bank/
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January 27, 2021 8:10am
Maggy Wassilieff

Cook Islands says “Stay home Kiwis”
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/travel/2021/01/cook-islands-cancels-nz-flight-over-northland-covid-19-case-concerns.html
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January 27, 2021 8:13am
- Inandout
  
  And they are still getting donations from us?
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:18am
- Jack5
  
  First Australia, now the tiddlers, turn their back on Ardernatearoa.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:25am
  - Biscuit
    
    Love that term, Jack5.
    
    Permission to borrow it for personal use!
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:48am
- burt
  
  Jacinda will respond to this by telling us how we need to shutdown visitors from other parts of the world to reduce the risk of importing the virus.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:33am
  - igm
    
    Bet there is a dispensation for those joining her Christchurch photo op in March.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:06am
- cmm
  
  … But we’ll still take the hand outs…
  
  We give the Cook Islanders enough to pay the mortgage on every house on the whole island.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:50am
  - Nickc2
    
    If you thought the Henry family of the Cook Islands were crooks, this lot have shot themselves in the foot.
    Having said that, perhaps they are playing us off against the Chinese?
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:21am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Maybe but don’t forget the fought for NZ in both World Wars.
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:40am
      - cmm
        
        They joined NZ in fighting for others. Hardly fighting for us.
        
        If anything, NZ fought for the Islanders (not the Cooks which were largely out of the way of the war, but others).
        
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        January 27, 2021 10:21am
      - Nickc2
        
        See cmm post below. Who paid, fed and kitted them out during such times? They entered into a self-governing reliance with NZ on August 4, 1965 and NZ Taxpayers have been paying their bills ever since.
        
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        January 27, 2021 11:10am
    - cmm
      
      Yeah, I doubt most of the money we give them really trickles down to the man in the street.
      
      14 2
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      January 27, 2021 10:22am
      - Brian McDonald
        
        What stupid nonsense, you put on a NZ uniform and you’re somehow fighting for others?
        
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        January 27, 2021 8:07pm
      - Brian McDonald
        
        It went where Britain goes we go. Same happened in South Africa.
        
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        January 27, 2021 8:10pm
    - Liberty
      
      If China wants to pay let them.
      
      5 0
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      January 27, 2021 12:48pm
  - tf78
    
    cmm – it’s always pay rises for the elites, nothing ever for the plebs.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:16am
Simon

“You will own nothing, and you will be happy”

We could find that out now about the happiness. Ask all the renters who, under the Cindy government, will be renting forever and will never own anything if this is true or not.
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January 27, 2021 8:15am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Would you be happy becoming a transhuman under the Great Reset? Your PM has signed up.
  
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  January 27, 2021 2:12pm
Maggie Pie

Can’t remember the last time I saw Jacinda post a live vid on Instagram.
Anyway, here’s the PM giving her reassurance in relation to the handling of the latest Covid-19 case in Northland.

https://twitter.com/therecount/status/1354135505844236289
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January 27, 2021 8:17am
- mandk
  
  My goodness, that footage is truly scary! All I could see were those teeth.
  
  Memo to PM – don’t record messages on your laptop or phone.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:47am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    I thought the Spitting Image sketches were made up of caricatures, obviously not in all cases then . . .
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:39am
- SB2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  This guest at Pullman’s had nothing but high praise for their quarantine procedures finding them both robust and secure ,
  
  Covid-19 isolation at the Pullman Hotel described
  
  A returnee in managed isolation at the Pullman Hotel believes the system is robust and well policed, with guest restricted to their rooms unless they’re sporting a wristband that shows they’ve tested negative for Covid-19.
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018780896/covid-19-isolation-at-the-pullman-hotel-described
  
  Titane Frech was in quarantine at the same time as the Northland case that some on KB are trying so desperaterly to make political capital out of.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:04am
  - NoFax
    
    So some guy says it is good then it must be – try the other way and see if you agree with the logic.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:35am
  - rangitoto
    
    So robust they let covid Mary out to spread disease all over Northland.
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:09am
  - Frank the tank
    
    So how did the returnee get the WuFlu? Magic?
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:35am
- Nickc2
  
  That video should contain a health warning Maggie.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:25am
- tf78
  
  Maggie, the scariest part of that post was what lay further down. The crazies have sure taken over the White House.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:21am
Maggy Wassilieff

Looks like it is Good luck not Good management that we’re not all in Lockdown 2,3, or 4 at the moment.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/124054735/poor-ppe-guests-mixing-and-lax-attitudes-couple-share-concerns-after-miq-stay
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January 27, 2021 8:17am
- Ruahine
  
  Ardern is becoming more and more Covid hysterical. I suspect the only reason we have not been bossed and bullied into more of her stupid lockdowns is that Waitangi Day is coming up shortly. O.K to shut down ANZAC Day but it would never do to shut down Waitangi Day. A Waitangi Day shutdown would be ignored up North anyway and that would be embarrasing.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:27am
  - Batman
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Can you show evidence of the Prime Minister becoming “hysterical” over Covid?
    
    adjective
    1.
    affected by or deriving from wildly uncontrolled emotion.
    “Janet became hysterical and began screaming”
    
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    January 27, 2021 8:54am
    - mandk
      
      Of course she’s becoming hysterical.
      
      COVID is the only political weapon she has. She’s completely useless at everything else, as her record of non-delivery demonstrates.
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:01am
      - Batman
        
        That’s not evidence. The word you’d use there is incompetence or useless.
        
        Hysterical is not that.
        
        7 34
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        January 27, 2021 9:16am
      - alloytoo
        
        To be fair Batman, incompetence, useless People tend to get hysterical when their luck runs out.
        
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        January 27, 2021 10:04am
      - Batman
        
        Still not applicable to the PM who is (sadly for me) sitting on the largest majority in modern history.
        
        Though of course I agree that the government is a paralysed shambles but that is also not hysterical.
        
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        January 27, 2021 10:25am
      - redflagged
        
        She did quote that 80,000 people would die if we didn’t lockdown.
        
        That could be acting on hysteria.
        
        Definitely not the informal use of hysterical as in she’s very funny.
        
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        January 27, 2021 1:31pm
    - Mike
      
      It’s about as rational as one of morons yesterday describing the government as ‘tyrannical’.
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:08am
      - Batman
        
        And no evidence provided by other replies, either.
        
        Feelz over fact.
        
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        January 27, 2021 9:14am
      - pdm
        
        Batman our Prime Minister is hysterically tyrannical, useless and incompetent.
        
        Fixed it for you.
        
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        January 27, 2021 10:09am
      - Batman
        
        Lol ok, now go and learn to use a dictionary properly.
        
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        January 27, 2021 10:29am
      - hmmokrightitis
        
        How true. Tyrannical would suggest they would threaten the populace with a visit to the Police if they didn’t comply with an illegal lock down.
        
        Oh, hang on…
        
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        January 27, 2021 11:03am
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        ‘Feelz over fact’; our incompetent in chiefs modus operandi . . .
        
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        January 27, 2021 11:41am
    - Frank the tank
      
      Indeed i’d argue the opposite.
      
      When all you have is WuFlu to fall back on you tend to look forward to discussing the subject as opposed to housing, the economy, welfare dependency, ‘poverdy’ and so on.
      
      I’d wager that the Blairite indeed enjoys discussing all things covid.
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:39am
  - Southtop2
    
    So how is the sweepstake going? Betting is on a Lockdown on 9 Feb to allow the photo op at Waitangi then back to level whatever on 13 March Cindy can get to Chch for the anniversary and the photo op for UN aspirations.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:52am
- Simon
  
  Covid19 is an endemic virus, 80,000 people will not die. This stupid fear porn of “lockdowns” should end. New knowledge new methods. Risks are known now.
  
  Vaccines look like they wont work due to mutation.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:37am
  - Batman
    
    “look like they won’t work”
    
    There is absolutely no evidence for this statement. It may be true in the future but at this point in time they work on the main strains and may be adjusted to work on the others too
    
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    January 27, 2021 8:59am
    - Nigel Kearney
      
      They will probably work the way flu vaccines work, i.e.:
      
      – Reduced chance of catching it as long as you get a new vaccination every year
      – Much less useful if you expose yourself to new strains by travelling overseas
      – If borders are opened, there will be plenty of cases regardless
      – The best defence is a strong natural immunity from having had it before
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:18am
      - Frank the tank
        
        The voice of sanity – can you lend it to our political class please.
        
        6 0
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        January 27, 2021 11:40am
    - Nickc2
      
      Where is the evidence that the vaccine has saved lives and if so, how many (facts only, not emotions)?
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:32am
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        NickC2, An antivaxxer are you?
        
        ‘The Vaccine”, presuming you mean the covid vaccine. By definition the vaccine stops people getting covid. They therefore don’t die of covid.
        The overall faulty [? fatality] rate of covid is 1 to 2% of those who contract it. It is much higher for older people depending on age, death rates of over 10%, but the fatality rate is much lower for younger people. In the UK, 1.5% of all people over 80 have died of covid, not just those who contact it, but of all the people over 80.
        Evidence is that the vaccines are between 75% and >95% effective, depending on which vaccine. So if you have the vaccine you are highly unlikely to get covid, and therefore won’t die of it.
        
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        January 27, 2021 11:19am
      - Nickc2
        
        Wayne Map @11:19AM
        What, me an anti-vaxxer? I was in the Military for 27 years and that makes me a human pin cushion FFS.
        
        You were Minister of Defence for some of that time if I remember correctly and you sent us to some god-forsaken shit-hole places. You know full well what shit they pumped into our bodies and you have the gall to accuse me/us of being an anti-vaxxer(s).
        … [Deleted – unnecessary abuse. Mod.]
        
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        January 27, 2021 11:43am
      - IC5000
        
        > Where is the evidence that the vaccine has saved lives and if so, how many
        
        They’ve just started rolling it out. Why not do the research yourself and report back to us?
        
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        January 27, 2021 12:01pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @Wayne Mapp
        NickC2, An antivaxxer are you?
        
        That type of smear places you in the same league as the anonymous trolls – SB2/stephieboy on this blog.
        
        It is unwarranted…
        
        Nickc2 is asking a valid question.
        
        Worldwide some folks have only been vaccinated for a few weeks… the stats for how this has reduced death rates has still to compiled… Presumably Israel will be first to reveal if their Covid-19 immunization programme has been successful.
        
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        January 27, 2021 12:09pm
      - Brian McDonald
        
        No Maggie, there is extensive testing before they are approved. If they don’t work or are not safe they are not on the market.
        
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        January 27, 2021 8:16pm
      - Brian McDonald
        
        How can be asking someone if they are an anti/vaxer be an insult?
        
        1 2
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        January 27, 2021 8:19pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        @brian McDonald…
        
        The fact that scientists are currently trying to model how many lives will be saved indicates that Nickc2 has asked an important scientific question.
        
        And as I posted later in the day… we wont have any indication of an answer (for the UK) before March at the earliest.
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/01/general_debate_27_january_2021.html/comment-page-1#comment-2880466
        
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        January 27, 2021 9:09pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    It seems strange to me that the latest case has the “more contagious” South African strain of Covid, and yet her close contacts including husband and hairdresser have tested negative? Perhaps they need a further test at later date.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:41am
    - virtualmark
      
      Not strange at all. You need to understand the k factor of COVID. Many people who have COVID do not pass it on to anyone, but others are super spreaders. It seems we are fortunate the Northland lady was in the first group.
      
      See https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/09/k-overlooked-variable-driving-pandemic/616548/
      
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      January 27, 2021 10:11pm
      - Debsta
        
        Thanks for sharing…long read but very good analysis of all the variables. We need these facts and realities to be understood, not just more spin by politicians and covid porn by the press. I won’t hold my breath :/
        
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        January 28, 2021 9:05am
  - tf78
    
    Simon, we need treatment for Covid not a vaccine. Ivermectin or Hydroxychloroquine would be my weapons of choice to fight this tricky virus.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:24am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Mmh, anonymous sources. Should we take it for gospel truth, Maggy?
  There are likely possible breaches every day, unfortunately.
  Baker has said those leaving quarantine should be asked to self-isolate at home for a week. An alternative to that would be a week’s isolation in another facility where only those with the consecutive negative results go. Certainly, that would have worked with the Northland woman who all said and done did the right thing under the existing rules.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:54am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Mmh, anonymous sources. Should we take it for gospel truth, Maggy?
    
    But you know and I know what happens to folks in this fair country when we put our names to our opinions.
    
    Someone comes along to try and foul up their earning prospects.
    
    Just bloody lucky that it doesn’t matter to thee & me.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:04am
  - Michael Duke
    
    I cannot understand why we do not have 15 or 16 facilities and have all day 1 arrivals into MIQ-1, Day 2 into MIQ-2 etc.
    
    Two day stand down to allow for deep cleaning and prep for the next batch.
    
    How hard would that have been?
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:44pm
    - [email protected]
      
      My suggesting that several days ago was largely ignored. Hope you get some traction with that idea!
      
      With 32 MIQ facilities your idea has possibilities.
      
      4 0
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      January 27, 2021 1:25pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Michael, your comment is far too grown up for Cindy’s mob to comprehend. Try explaining it with pictures.
      
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      January 27, 2021 1:36pm
Jack5

Another Chinese company has plans to make the world’s biggest initial public offering of shares, undeterred by Beijing’s reining in of Alibaba mogul Jack Ma’s float of Ant Financial.

Kuaishou Technology aims to raise about $US5 billion from a Hong Kong share sale as short-video and live-streaming apps surge in popularity in China.

Kuaishou competes with ByteDance Ltd., the rival Chinese company behind TikTok and its similar app Douyin. The offering could value Kuaishou Technology at more than $US60 billion.

Both Kuaishou and ByteDance meet surging demand from Chinese who watch and record short videos on their smartphones.

Talking of China, Jack Ma’s South China Morning Post is talking up the latest tuning up of the China-NZ free trade agreement.

https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3119318/china-new-zealand-relations-upgrade-free-trade-agreement
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January 27, 2021 8:20am
Captain Mainwaring

So Wellington’s 110 year old sewer pipe has burst again, just in a different place to last time.
Given all the apartment building that’s been going on, plus all the high-rise offices that have been built in the last 40 years, does anyone really think that this pipe isn’t going to keep busting and need total replacement very soon?
Time for Mayor Foster to convince the Socialist Council to spend the money now that should have been spent over the last 4 decades.
Good luck with that.
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January 27, 2021 8:25am
- burt
  
  Why would we replace old pipes when we can have rainbow crossings instead?
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:27am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    and cycle paths to nowhere.
    
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    January 27, 2021 8:29am
    - DeepBlue
      
      Mayor Foster could get it done by saying we will start at Railway Station work to Courtenay Place and stop all traffic and busses on the Golden Mile. He can lay a massive pipe interceptor all the way down one side while people cycle and walk the other. Once the pipe is laid swap over and put the tram in.
      
      Three green problems solved in one go, all under poo emergency. (never mind car owners and shop keepers).
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:30am
    - Biscuit
      
      Indeed, Maggy.
      
      When my littlie (he was due to wed in Toronto last year. Bloody Covid…) was really little, we biked one day from Petone to Wellington on the cycling track that ran alongside the railway lines.
      
      It was very poorly maintained in those days, quite dangerous in parts, debris everywhere, overgrown with weeds…
      
      I see they’ve done it up and it looks eminently suitabale for a nice gentle cycle with the boss.
      
      Not today, though – it’s so warm I sweated just putting the wheelie bin out!
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:54am
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        One of the two days in Wellington in the year when one is pleased to have a swimming pool or a convertible then?
        
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        January 27, 2021 11:45am
  - Scott
    
    Nice one Burt. LOL ☺️
    
    10 2
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    January 27, 2021 8:29am
  - Nickc2
    
    [Deleted – just no, try ysb. Mod.]
    
    1 6
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    January 27, 2021 9:39am
  - skyblue
    
    When the rainbow turns brown from the the burst sewerage pipe.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:11am
  - artemisia
    
    And be New Zealand’s first bilingual city, requiring huge amount of new signage and no doubt new documentation and processes as well. My last communication with Wellington City Council was liberally sprinkled with the reo (and included the writer’s pronouns).
    
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    January 27, 2021 7:07pm
- SB2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Captain Mainwaring, do remind us who on KB were supporting Foster’s Mayoral race?
  
  Wasn’t Sir Peter Jackson a supporter too?
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:31am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    If I was the kind of snivelling, excuse-making, never-taking-responsibility type of person, I’d probably be suggesting it’s was due to nine years of neglect and not Foster’s fault.
    
    24 1
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    January 27, 2021 9:23am
    - SB2
      
      Nigel Kearney, weak excuse, The buck has to stop somewhere?
      
      Or just perpetually pass it on?
      
      1 19
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      January 27, 2021 10:03am
- [email protected]
  
  If the government with a much smaller population 40 years ago could afford to have the sewer pipes put in then why can’t the current government with its much larger population and tax take afford to maintain it?
  
  Could it be that there are many more councilors with much higher salaries and pet projects draining the council coffers?
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:37am
- MCos
  
  Did any mayoral candidate ever say – vote for me we’re going to replace all those old pipes and your rates are going to go up by 10% or whatever to pay for it on top of the usual rises?
  No.
  They all promise minimal increases & stuff like this gets done when these no choice.
  BTW
  If business was disrupted while the roads were all dug up to replace apparently functional pipes in the CBD we’d be able to hear the whining in Auckland.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:44am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Quite a lot of pipe has been replaced over the years. Some time ago Willis Street was dug up and it was chaos for an extended period.
  The city grew along the shore line and the access ways are narrow. No Council would want to patch the old pipes and planning for that would have people up in arms over the foreseen distress. Parts of the city are possible but the CBD corridor almost impossible.
  I cannot blame any Council for the inaction. The whole life of that city needs rethinking.
  
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  January 27, 2021 2:27pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Perhaps we should start with the politicians. Less hot air, less affluent.
    
    1 0
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    January 27, 2021 8:50pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Oh dear, doesn’t look like our Dear PM and her colleagues will be getting many overseas junkets this coming year.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/26/new-zealand-borders-to-stay-closed-until-citizens-are-vaccinated-and-protected
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January 27, 2021 8:28am
- SB2
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  MW, thats right. Other than that you would have to agree what she says is pretty sound ,
  
  From the link,
  
  “Jacinda Ardern has said New Zealand and “the world” need to return to some semblance of normality before she opens the country’s borders to foreign nationals….
  
  ….The prime minister shut the border in mid-March and said on Tuesday she would not open it again until New Zealanders were “vaccinated and protected” – a process that will not start for the general population until the middle of this year…
  
  Ardern also cast doubt on the prospects for a travel bubble with Australia in the near future, and said she was “disappointed” with the Australian government’s decision to suspend quarantine-free access for New Zealanders for three days in the light of the case of community transition in Northland.
  
  “New Zealand will only truly feel like it returns to normal when there is a certain level of normality in the rest of the world, too,” Ardern said at her first post-cabinet press conference of the year.
  
  “But given the risks in the world around us and the uncertainty of the global rollout of the vaccine, we can expect our borders to be impacted for much of this year,” she said. ..”
  
  Hard to question the above.
  
  Or… ?
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:39am
  - edhunter
    
    “disappointed” with the Australian government’s decision to suspend quarantine-free access for New Zealanders.
    What a fucking hypocrite, where’s the reciprocating bubble for flights from W.A., S.A, QLD, Tasmania?
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:21am
  - tf78
    
    SB2 you have to be careful will Guardian articles, they’re usually written by one of Cindy’s mates (often from NZ).
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:32am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Sounds good to me. Time to get working, plenty of it out there.
  
  8 6
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  January 27, 2021 8:46am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    Close to the same link – economy picking up in Dunedin:
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-retailers-moving-into-dunedins-george-st/EBSNE66RICIVSRM5ZMNDJDH57Q/
    
    4 11
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    January 27, 2021 8:52am
- Frank the tank
  
  BMW Jimmy will be [ Mod: ideas not people. Or a holiday … ]
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:15am
- Nickc2
  
  What a fuckin hypocrite! Before Christmas, she was all talk about TRAVEL BUBBLES FFS. Now, it’s the exact opposite (if the Guardian is to be believed).
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:48am
Simon

By time the clown show rolls out the vaccines here the virus would have mutated making the vaccines here useless.

Anyone dont think it matters too much.

“This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities, and this virus may never go away,” said Dr. Ryan. Overall, Dr. Ryan said it’s important to be realistic regarding the course of the current coronavirus pandemic: “I don’t think anyone can predict when or if this disease will disappear,” he said.

https://www.health.com/condition/infectious-diseases/coronavirus/what-is-an-endemic-virus

Endemic virus. Look it up Comrades.

The vaccines work if there are enough given out – like UK, US etc and can overwhelm the existing virus before it mutates. But its already mutating.

Also look up “selective pressure”

Sorry Comrades Covid19 is an endemic virus. The fear porn must stop. New methods to deal with the virus that will never disappear. New methods such as the truth and the ending of the fear porn will be a good start.
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January 27, 2021 8:29am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The virus will be here for ever… even Ashley says so:
  
  https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/01/covid-19-dr-ashley-bloomfield-warns-the-coronavirus-will-likely-never-die-out.html
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:14am
- tf78
  
  Simon, the origins of the Spanish Flu are still with us so why would the New Flu be any different.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:34am
burt

Anyone know why the government is still holding back on releasing reports on the state of mental health in NZ? They reports are over two years late so we can’t blame covid – but I’m sure they will.
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January 27, 2021 8:37am
- [email protected]
  
  We really need binding referendums to wrest control back from the politicians and force them to perform.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:41am
  - IC5000
    
    > We really need binding referendums to wrest control back from the politicians and force them to perform
    
    Given that National is on about 30% support what do you think of the odds that the electorate will vote for something you support? Sounds like the stupidest idea from the right since the Auckland super city.
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:09pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      SuperCity was bequeathed by H1. Key and Hide merely implemented the recommendations. And yes, the end result has failed to deliver.
      
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      January 27, 2021 9:18pm
- Ehlana
  
  Do we know that the reports were actually done?
  Wasn’t two years ago their “year of delivery”? That could account for it.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:43am
- KevO'Brien
  
  They’re only reports–all you may expect from a No-Can-Do gobblement.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:16am
- kowtow
  
  Before Wuflu hit the scene the new health crisis that was de rigeur with the in crowd was mental health , and yes it is a big issue.
  
  I reckon gubmint’s responses to Wuflu has made the mental health crisis even worse . Time will tell.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:51am
  - The Proper Ghandi
    
    Yes, schools in Nevada oppose lockdowns due to the doubling of suicide numbers among teens.
    
    https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/24/us/politics/student-suicides-nevada-coronavirus.html
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:43am
- Bobba Fret
  
  People were worried about mental health being worse due to the lockdowns. But didn’t they say that mental health / suicides etc. had NOT got worse over the period. How would they know without the reporting?
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:53am
  - burt
    
    How would we know without the reporting – the most transparent government ever wouldn’t be hiding bad news from us would it.
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:49am
Frank the tank

Some topics for digestion:

1). If Italy head off to an early election and a far right government gets elected (likely) will Italy become the new hot spot for infections?
2). Likewise why aren’t we hearing more about socialist WuFlu hotspots like Portugal and Belgium? Just plain bad luck for left wing governments then?
3). Does anyone still believe we will get any vaccine before the end of the year and likewise there will be a travel bubble with the islands and Australia?

For shits and giggles go off to the standard and read the “Is New Zealand the best little economy in the world” post.

I’m so glad I took the red pill………
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January 27, 2021 8:42am
Maggy Wassilieff

No, I don’t know.. but Andrew Little was seeking more information.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300210298/health-minister-concerned-as-mental-health-annual-reports-are-two-years-behind-normal-schedule

The MSM has gone very quiet on the matter.
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January 27, 2021 8:43am
- SB2
  
  MW, the government formally responded to the report back on 11/ 12/ 2020 if it helps,
  
  https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/mental-health-and-addiction/he-ara-oranga-response
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:53am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The mental Health ANNUAL REPORTS are not the same thing as He ara oranga.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:28am
- Mike
  
  You link to Stuff’s report while claiming the ‘MSM’ is ignoring the issue?
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:11am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I didn’t write “ignoring”… I wrote “gone very quiet”.
    
    Henry Cooke’s article was posted late in the afternoon on Stuff and disappeared off the front page very quickly because of some News from the USA.
    
    https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/01/general_debate_20_january_2021.html#comment-2877111
    
    As far as I can tell, there’s been no MSM follow-up.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:26am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      ‘there’s been no MSM follow-up’
      
      Quelle surprise!
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:50am
SB2

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Just asking if anyone here has a MAGA hat they would like to part with?

I would like to have one as a keepsake a potent symbol of the one-term wonder’s Presidency and the mess he left behind.
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January 27, 2021 8:44am
- lilman
  
  Got three,wont be selling them as they look great in my car window,on my windowsill in the house and on my head.
  
  love the big guy.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:06am
- Maggie Pie
  
  What size are you Steph?
  
  I’m guessing a small….. 😛
  
  25 1
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  January 27, 2021 10:02am
  - SB2
    
    Medium not big headed size like maybe you?
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:05am
  - skyblue
    
    [Deleted – the discussion is about caps. Mod.]
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:14am
- Fletch
  
  He left America better than he found it, apart from the effects of the virus which wasn’t his fault.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:24am
  - Batman
    
    You mean abdicating responsibility during a time of crisis means you’re absolved from blame?
    
    Who knew….
    
    3 26
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    January 27, 2021 10:28am
    - sooty
      
      MAGA hats works aswell for,
      Make Ardern Go Away!
      So my advice is keep them!
      
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      January 27, 2021 10:41am
      - IC5000
        
        > Make Ardern Go Away!
        
        Might need a couple of batch runs given the polling is not looking too flash.
        
        MAGA 2023
        
        MAGA 2026
        
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        January 27, 2021 5:15pm
    - Don Beckett
      
      He didn’t abdicate any responsibility – it’s just that you usual sources of information, CNN, MSNBC, ABC and WAPO never reported it, or distorted the story.
      I seem to notice that the Biden administration is maintaining the plan he initiated, albeit at a reduced rate.
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:50am
- Frank the tank
  
  Like a heroin addict going cold turkey. The majority of posters on this site with TDS will be posting dribble like this for a few months.
  
  Sad.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:44am
- Paulus
  
  The mess has just started – see what Pres Jo has signed already – he does know what he actually signed.
  
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  January 27, 2021 2:02pm
- Fletch
  
  They could change the name of the hardware store here to, Mitre 10 MAGA, in tribute. 😉
  
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  January 27, 2021 5:07pm
Maggie Pie

My doubles partner is Dutch so I just retweeted this to her as well.
Looks like the Netherlands is on the brink of a civil war following the latest Covid-19 lockdown 🙁

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1354127251714015233

(graphic images)
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January 27, 2021 8:44am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Their Finance minister said” it’s Scum doing this”.
  
  Covid: Curfew stays despite ‘scum’ riots in Dutch cities
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55810229
  
  That’s not a very nice way to describe your fellow citizens, is it?
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:02am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    LOL! You should hear what I call Anouk when she nets.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:12am
  - kowtow
    
    They’d never dare describe rioting “youths” (cough cough) as scum .
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:54am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    ‘describe your fellow citizens’
    
    That’s right!
    
    Try ‘deplorables’ and get back to me . . .
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:52am
- Frank the tank
  
  Right through Europe there is civil unrest and further evidence lockdowns don’t work (unless you are gormless little Aotearoans).
  
  Much of Italy is directly ignoring government directives at present and the government is quickly learning these is very little you can do when civil disobedience reaches large numbers.
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:19am
  - IC5000
    
    > further evidence lockdowns don’t work
    
    Only if you also ignore the evidence from Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney’s Northern beaches. Easy when you’re not interested in reality.
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:20pm
- SB2
  
  A big reminder of the Capitol Hill riots that left five dead.
  
  Yes?
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:07am
  - Don Beckett
    
    Oh, you mean the ones when Trump was sworn in as President 4 years ago, when they rioted, burned building & businesses and police cars, you know, your mates Antifa & BLM.
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:54am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    How many dead in Portland?
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:54am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Last count I think was 17 – including a couple of police officers, one of them black.
      
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      January 27, 2021 12:38pm
Tomtoddy

Surprise, surprise, rents have gone up. Biggest increase for one month ever recorded. Who would have thought that would happen? The Govt will have to introduce more measures to help renters and protect them from greedy landlords.

Then they will sound all surprised again when rents go even higher. Crikey, we have a dumb lot running the show.
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January 27, 2021 8:48am
- cmm
  
  Someone needs to tell the Che-beret wearers: stop trying to help.
  
  You wouldn’t let a Cindy and Robbo under the bonnet of your car to help tune the engine so why let them try tune something far more complex: society and the economy (really two parts of the same thing).
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:54am
- Ehlana
  
  Stuff this morning is reporting that “Government didn’t look at value for money when weighing up $10b light rail decision”. Apparently, along with choosing a “delivery partner” before you decide what it is you want to build goes not considering whether it is a good use of money to actually build anything. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300214856/government-didnt-look-at-value-for-money-when-weighing-up-10b-light-rail-decision (there must be a cleverer way of linking – does anyone know one?)
  
  If this government really was dumb, they would not be able to talk. Which would actually solve their delivery problem, since if you can’t talk, you can’t make promises you then fail to deliver on.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:55am
  - sooty
    
    Yes, but at the end of the day they can blame,
    Phillip Stoner Twyford for the whole bloody lot!
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:44am
- Ian Boag
  
  Rents follow values. End of.
  
  Yields and all that, although given that provision of rental accommodation is a CG play rather than an income one, they can take a while to adjust.
  
  Regulation will (sort of) “work” for a while, but if I were a landlord I would rather see the accommodation supplement go up because that gets baked into the property value ….
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:07am
Ruahine

I read in the herald that Ardern has stamped her foot and has said no overseas travel for Kiwis this year. All this because someone has been travelling around Northland and no one has been infected with a virus that has not killed anyone and not even hospitalised anyone even though Bloomfield says that over 100,000 people have been through MIQ. I suspect that more sensible people who have been through the Quarantine system and then released who the may have found that they seem to have strange symptoms have used their brains kept away from people had a couple of Panadols until the virus passed. This instead of making a big song and dance about it and then been shoved back into quarantine to ‘mingle’ with other possible infected confinees.
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January 27, 2021 8:48am
- fernglas
  
  She didn’t say no overseas travel, she said the borders would remain closed. You are perfectly at liberty to go overseas whenever you like. It’s coming back that is the hard part
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:15am
- MCos
  
  I would suggest everything you write is wrong.
  Of course Kiwis can travel overseas.
  Of course the virus has killed people. Not lately in NZ. Read some newspapers.
  Sensible people get tested if they have covid-19 symptoms. Particularly in this lady’s circumstances.
  The symptoms are not ‘strange’.
  She didn’t make a song and dance, for example by rushing off to Stuff or whoever and complaining about the Pullman Hotel security or whatever.
  She could have avoided a test, as you would have apparently, and next minute 700 people are infected as happened in Melbourne with deaths, curfews and all the rest.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:11am
hullkiwi

From the diary of evidence that veganism is not good for the environment and that we need to harvest/use the honey produced.

A lifestyle block owner (a vegan) has some beehives on his property for planting purposes. Come the spring everything is looking good. But when he should have added more boxes and frames to his hive he didn’t. Last week, he noticed not much activity around his hive, so he inspected the hive at the weekend. To his joy he found frames full of wax and honey. To his dismay he found the queen dead and only a few weak drones. What had happened? Because he hadn’t managed his hive properly, the frames were too dense with honey and wax preventing the queen doing her job (laying eggs), and the bulk of the drones had either died or left. No bees on his property, also meant late season fruit trees and plants were not getting polenated. So the moral of the story is, vegan principles interfere with nature!
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January 27, 2021 8:52am
- Mike
  
  Vegans don’t eat honey
  
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  January 27, 2021 9:13am
  - kowtow
    
    In that case they shouldn’t eat fruit from trees that were bee polinated either .
    But then hypocrisy is very strong in virtue signallers.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:58am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That’s why hullkiwi wrote “for planting purposes”.
    
    and ” late season fruit trees and plants were not getting polenated.” (sic)
    
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    January 27, 2021 10:14am
- Steve Todd
  
  I can’t for the life of me see what “vegan principles” has to do with this story.
  
  Honey bees produce honey “as a way of storing food to eat over the cooler winter period, when they are unable to forage and there are fewer flowers from which to gather food.” See https://www.buzzaboutbees.net/why-do-bees-make-honey.html#:~:text=.
  
  Surely the moral of this story is, if you’re going to keep bees you must look after them (and their hives), otherwise they will die or fly away. The fact that the lifestyle block owner is a vegan doesn’t detract from that simple fact. After all, honey bees had no problem managing themselves in natural hives prior to humans coming along and cultivating them.
  
  If he didn’t want to sell the natural product of honey bees (or perhaps simply give it away), because of his “vegan principles”, why couldn’t he have gathered the excess honey, and disposed of it in a sustainable way, using “beekeeping principles”?
  
  hullkiwi, you well and truly grabbed the wrong end of the stick with this one.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:45am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Steve, you highlight what happens in nature. The point you missed was that a vegan set up the hive to support the polenating of trees/plants on his property. Because of his vegan “principles”:
    1. He didn’t avail himself of the experience of other locals (most of us keep livestock and many of us also have bee hives on our properties);
    2. He didn’t learn or bother attending to the management of the hive over the spring/summer. Consequently, the hive became over crowded with honey (which he did not plan to harvest), the queen had no space to lay eggs and the healthy drones moved on.
    
    It was a matter of his vegan arrogance, derived from his ignorance about beekeeping/management that result in the death of his hive. Further, as I wrote above his late polenating trees and plants have also suffered.
    
    Conversely, we are not having any issues on our property (other than wanting more rain), which is the case of the whole of Northland/North Auckland.
    
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    January 27, 2021 1:09pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      I understood all that, hullkiwi. From your story, and follow-up response, my conclusion was that it was not “vegan” arrogance that lead to the situation he found himself in; it was due solely to his ignorance about beekeeping.
      
      You read the story and came to one conclusion; I read your description of the situation, and came to an alternative conclusion.
      
      Kiwibloggers will decide for themselves which one of us has drawn the more accurate conclusion.
      
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      January 27, 2021 2:41pm
      - IC5000
        
        This Just shows you how vicious some NZers are over others who are just living their lives the way they want to without hurting anybody else. They are just Small minded and ignorant. Are they so scared that their own existence is invalidated and threatened by a bee keeping vegan they need to make up a fairy tale to make themselves feel better?
        
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        January 27, 2021 5:39pm
- ISeeRed
  
  Nature isn’t vegan.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:45am
- Ehlana
  
  Bees must have had hives before humans started building artificial homes for them. So presumably the drones who left have flown off to build their own hive. Somewhere else.
  
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  January 27, 2021 12:13pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    The strong drones do. They will have invaded another hive.
    
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    January 27, 2021 1:10pm
kevn

@burt… I’m sure it has worsened since covid. Hugely.
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January 27, 2021 9:05am
redeye

New Zealand’s climate change journal of record admits it was hotter 50 years ago.

“New Zealand’s hottest temperature of 42.3 degrees Celsius in Rangiora in February 1973 remains in place, but a few contenders got close to the mark on Tuesday.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/weather-news/124063202/hot-in-the-city-temperature-records-broken-across-canterbury
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January 27, 2021 9:13am
- mandk
  
  Nowhere got within 2 degrees of the record, so not particularly close.
  
  I blame global cooling.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:01am
  - Doc Holliday
    
    [Deleted, and a warning. https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/comments_policy
    Personal Abuse:
    Attack arguments, not people. It will generally be unacceptable to call someone a moron, but it will be acceptable to say their argument is moronic. That may seem a fine distinction, but an important one. Mod.]
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:52am
- Doc Holliday
  
  Does “mean global surface temperature” have any meaning for you?
  
  Only 7% of the energy retained due to human activity warms the surface/near surface.
  
  The other 93% is found in the oceans. Thousands of thermometers reporting back from Argo floats.
  
  The young people’s problem is the old people are ideologically incapable of accepting the science. Moral cowards.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:50am
  - redeye
    
    Selective use of scientific data is not science.
    
    17 2
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    January 27, 2021 12:28pm
  - alloytoo
    
    “Only 7% of the energy retained due to human activity warms the surface/near surface.”
    
    This statement is so vague to be meaningless.
    
    “The other 93% is found in the oceans.”
    
    The vast bulk of the energy arriving on earth lands up in the ocean, the only way to stop that is either stop the planet spinning or rearrange the continents.
    
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    January 27, 2021 6:05pm
    - Doc Holliday
      
      The “other” in the “other 93%” refers to the energy retained due to human activity that does not warm the surface/near surface.
      
      Can you not read English? Perhaps that explains your ignorance of the science.
      
      I’m sorry, clearly you are a foreigner, not a moron.
      
      1 6
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      January 27, 2021 8:40pm
    - Doc Holliday
      
      No surprise kiwibloggers don’t know what happens when you add heat to something.
      
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      January 28, 2021 2:55am
fredonas

High quality analysis from John C. Dvorak as always. https://dvorak.substack.com/p/how-trump-lost
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January 27, 2021 9:20am
- SB2
  
  Apparently no analysis of Trump’s mishandling of the Covid 19 Pandemic.
  
  Wonder why? I suspect like many Trump supporters John C. Dvorakis Covid 19 denie.
  
  Correct me if I’m wrong?
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:12am
  - alloytoo
    
    You’re wrong.
    
    Trump instituted travel bans months before St. Jacinda.
    
    He marshalled federal resources and made them available to individual states. Unfortunately NYS preferred to let covid in old age homes and leave a Hospital ship empty on the water.
    
    Trump told us a vaccine was weeks away and the like of you mocked him for making false promises.
    
    Yet some states like Florida are well along with their vaccination programs.
    
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    January 27, 2021 6:11pm
I remember when

‘BREAKING: Dominion Files $1.3 Billion Lawsuit against Rudy Giuliani.’
Just when I was starting to doubt there was any truth in the allegations.
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January 27, 2021 9:29am
- Biscuit
  
  Heh heh, and Giuliani’s response is that this will give him the opportunity to ‘prove’ his case.
  
  Something he’s been singularly UNable to do since November…
  
  Boy has HE fallen since his 9/11 days…
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:00am
  - Batman
    
    I enjoyed the Dominion CEO saying “I don’t care” when asked about Rudy’s response.
    
    Methinks Rudy is going to have a bad time.
    
    7 10
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    January 27, 2021 10:23am
    - Wayne Mapp
      
      This case will ultimately go to the Supreme Court, where the limits of free speech will be fully tested. The conservative majority will be super cautious and will not limit Article 1, especially in the political domain.
      
      My guess is that the law suit will fail. The Supreme Court will hold that so long as Giuliani has at least some evidence (however sketchy) and that he didn’t deliberately fabricate every part of what he said, then he will get Article 1 protection.
      
      The US defamation laws are relatively weak compared to NZ, especially for public corporations, who have access to the media. These things are supposed to be resolved in the public domain by argument and counter argument. And broadly speaking that is what actually happened. Otherwise it would be way too easy to use defamation to silence critics. Which is not the American way.
      
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      January 27, 2021 11:37am
      - Jim
        
        I don’t think it’ll go that way. This doesn’t look like a SLAPP case at all, and the legal commentary today seems to be of the consensus that Giuliani is going to have a hard time weaseling out of this.
        
        His key problems are the obvious falsity of his claims, and that he likely knew that because he only ever made them outside of court.
        
        Speculating, but it looks like discovery is going to be a b*tch for Rudy, while Dominion don’t have anything to hide.
        
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        January 27, 2021 12:00pm
      - Batman
        
        I think it’ll settle and Rudy will have to do a statement on Medium that he was wrong etc.
        
        The more interesting one will be Fox News tbh. Probably a prime time statement on Hannity or Carlson.
        
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        January 27, 2021 12:28pm
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        Jim,
        The obvious falsity of his claims is not the test. Rather it is whether he had some basis, albeit sketchy, to believe his claims. Article 1 protects false claims almost as much as true claims. In short people are entitled to believe what they want and that can make statements about their beliefs.
        Guiliani, and the others, will only be liable if they made statements that they knew to be untrue, and perhaps not even then.
        
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        January 27, 2021 7:52pm
      - Brian McDonald
        
        As an ex prosecutor and currently still a lawyer Giuliani is no ordinary punter. I think he will struggle. It’s been his job to test evidence.
        
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        January 27, 2021 8:36pm
- Fletch
  
  They must be confident now that the machines have been wiped of any evidence
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:27am
  - Batman
    
    The states hold the data and information and actually run the numbers.
    
    You’re chasing a ghost.
    
    6 18
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    January 27, 2021 10:41am
    - Fletch
      
      Actually, many states have been instructed to wipe the machines of all data. I’m on my phone so can’t post a link. They have data from the 2016 and the 2018 midterms but the 2020 has been ordered wiped completely by one of the governors
      
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      January 27, 2021 12:13pm
      - Batman
        
        Again, you’re chasing something that doesn’t exist.
        
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        January 27, 2021 12:29pm
      - hullkiwi
        
        Fletcher, with your detailed knowledge of what happened and has happened since, I recommend highly that you offer your services to both Trump and Rudy. As clearly, you know how the election was stolen.
        
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        January 27, 2021 9:33pm
- MCos
  
  I’m sure the full weight of the Trump Juggernaut will be be thrown in behind Giuliani’s defense, said nobody ever.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:04am
  - Biscuit
    
    Not sure there, MCos.
    
    The ex-POTUS is balking at paying Rudy’s legal bills run up in the Trump name.
    
    I hope Rudy has enough of the $US 20,000 per day stashed away as to at least see him have enough hair dye to see him through the lawsuit…
    
    4 4
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    January 27, 2021 12:12pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Why pay unless the case has been won? Go Donald, make him earn his pay.
      
      1 2
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      January 27, 2021 9:09pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Dominion have been very foolish to take on one of US’s best ever prosecutors. There is oodles of evidence about the nature and behaviour of the voting machines including their detailed manuals.
  Giuliani is not yet in his dotage. I have copious archives of the past few months and he is pleasure to watch in action.
  
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  January 27, 2021 2:47pm
Paulus

Lest we forget !
Holocaust Day Remembrance today.
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January 27, 2021 9:30am
I remember when

Rohenga Maori/Maori Wards: Gisborne District Council.
Council seeks community views on Maori wards.
Includes: ‘More than 50% of the population in Tairawhiti identifies as Maori.’
‘That is not reflected in the composition of elected members.’
Does anyone not see what the real problem is here.
Systemic racism? Or perhaps another answer.
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January 27, 2021 9:39am
- kowtow
  
  There’s systemic racism everywhere .
  
  I know this cos ;
  
  ‘Ministry of Education deputy secretary Rose Jamieson said there were inequities in the education system that set some people up to fail.
  
  “One of these inequities is racism,” Ms Jamieson said.’
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/regions/southland/plan-combat-racism-education
  
  $42 million in 2019 budget to tell children we’re racist.
  
  In addition to all the other crises /emergencies this gubmint has invented we must be facing a “racism emergency” if there’s that kind of moola to splash around in an education system that allows kids to be illiterate and innumerate (?) Instead of making sure every last one of them can read write and ‘rithmatic , instead we’re going to create even more social division and grief.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:04am
- Steve Todd
  
  The problem is very clear: to date, the Gisborne District Council has used FPP to elect its councillors. Fortunately, in 2022 and 2025, Gisborne will use PR/STV.
  
  The GDC comprises the mayor and 13 councillors. The councillors are elected from five wards, being the 9-seat Gisborne Ward (each elector has nine votes), and four single-seat wards. (Cr Pat Seymour (Tawhiti-Uawa Ward) was elected unopposed in both 2016 and 2019 – a common problem with FPP.)
  
  Looking at the GDC website, it seems to me that only two councillors (both elected in the Gisborne Ward) are Māori, but, also, of the total of 34 candidates who stood for election in the four wards that had an election, only seven were Māori (six of whom – of a total of 25 – stood in the Gisborne Ward).
  
  STV is a system of proportional representation. Providing the ward system is abolished for 2022 and 2025, then the 13 successful candidates would need only 7.14% of the votes each, to be elected.
  
  At the 2018 census, 51.6% of residents identified as Māori (but 58.8% identified as European). Assuming identification as Māori is dominant in 40% of the population, then, if they stand for election, and vote, they have the electoral power to elect five (and possibly six) of the 13 councillors.
  
  If Māori wards are introduced, Māori electors on the Māori roll would likely be corralled into just one three-seat ward, thereby halving their potential representation.
  
  With STV district-wide, Māori would be able to elect candidates on the basis of what is important to Māori, and help to elect Māori candidates generally, as well.
  
  Providing the council adopts district-wide voting (as is done in Dunedin and Palmerston North), then the solution to Māori representation on the GDC will be firmly in Māori hands.
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:49am
  - Unity
    
    Does anyone stop to think that all ‘Maori’ have more ‘other’ in their make-up, so why on earth are we having ‘Maori’ this and ‘Maori’ that?!! They are actually fighting more than half their own cultural make-up. Can no-one see how ridiculous this is? It needs to be knocked on the head post haste and for us all to move on as New Zealanders. The Maori who signed the Treaty no longer exist and those who identify as ‘Maori’ today are actually more ‘other’ in their make-up proving that we should no longer be looking in the past, but proceeding together into the future. Let’s rule a line under it all. Of course, there is little chance of that happening when they have all come to feed off the fat cow which flings money left right and centre for them to scramble after. We need politicians with some backbone to put an end to it all and to stop looking at their own re-election chances instead of doing what’s right for the country.
    
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    January 27, 2021 11:39am
  - Jack5
    
    Scotland’s local bodies use STV systems. Some Kiwiblog follower may have first-hand experience of how the system works for the Scots:
    
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zt4hv4j/revision/2
    
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    January 27, 2021 1:55pm
  - hullkiwi
    
    Steve, the problem is not the voting system. The problem is the engagement of the population who identify themselves as Maori.
    
    1. It is the number and proportion of Maori candidates standing for election in wards/seats they will get elected; and
    2. The Maori electorate being engaged and actually voting for “their candidates”.
    
    Everything else is just sour grapes.
    
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    January 27, 2021 9:51pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      There’s much more to it than that, hullkiwi. FPP is a majoritarian electoral system that, unsurprisingly, favours majorities.
      
      Take the Gisborne Ward, for example. About 12,000 people voted in that ward in 2019. They each had nine votes.
      
      In an extreme example, the (say) 60% non-Māori population (7,200 people) could use their nine votes to elect the nine candidates they want (each candidate receiving 7,200 votes), thereby completely shutting out the 40% Māori population (4,800 people), who, at best, could use their nine votes to try and elect the nine candidates they want, but who would fail to do so, because their candidates would each receive only 4,800 votes.
      
      Consequently, FPP contributed to the lower participation rate of Māori in GDC elections. They instinctively knew they were up against it; that the system worked against them.
      
      As I said in my comment, fortunately, STV will be used in 2022 and 2025. This will encourage Māori to participate, both as candidates and as voters. It will also ensure that a great many more votes will be effective in helping to elect at least one candidate.
      
      (If voting was district-wide, effective votes would be 92.80% of all votes cast. Under multi-seat FPP, effective votes are routinely less than 50%. For example, in Whanganui in 2016 (12 seats; voting district-wide), 60.28% of all votes cast did not contribute to the election of any candidate. In a nine-seat ward, ineffective / wasted votes would still exceed 50%.)
      
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      January 28, 2021 10:54am
- ISeeRed
  
  You know it’s a scam as soon as you read “identifies as”. No, you either are or aren’t something. “More than 50% of the population in Tairawhiti are part-Maori” would be more accurate.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:50am
DeepBlue

Two VAX companies are behind in production and distribution to EU, who are threatening legal action.

When UK and SA covid appeared the manufacturers said it would take 6 weeks to reconfigure VAX for new variant if required.

Has there been any definitive announcement from VAX manufacturers that the VAX works with new variants?

Why hasn’t there been an explanation for slowed production?

Reading between the lines it might be the better risk/legal position to stop selling a failed vaccine than to meet supply contracts.
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January 27, 2021 9:41am
I remember when

Isn’t it great that Medsafe are stopping the Government from having to find another explanation for the delay in vaccinations for covid.
Of course we haven’t got the urgent need many other countries have so have dropped down the queue.
So does being so successful in preventing spread mean we will be the last to see the advantages.
What freedoms do we have that Australia hasn’t got and are getting more of all the time.
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January 27, 2021 10:15am
Andrei

Rand Paul is on fire .
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January 27, 2021 10:15am
- doggone7
  
  Rand Paul is so onto it he is afraid his lips will burst into flames and he’ll be engulfed if the words “Joe Biden won the election in a legitimate election.”
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsFBpIDSYVQ
  
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  January 27, 2021 10:52am
I remember when

Two thoughts that may help with the housing crisis.
One, decide how relatively cheap housing can be built exclusively for the first home buyers.
Two, find the answer to the older home owner who is finding the increasing value of their property is of little or no help. Increasing rates, insurance and maintenance costs to name three.
Is it possible to find a system that allows the equivalent of retirement villages, with support services, for individual unit owners.
Thus their present homes come onto the market.
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January 27, 2021 10:28am
- kowtow
  
  Here’s another ;
  
  why are we (up to wuflu) flooding the country with tenants who have no where to live except converted garages etc .
  
  No 2 ways about it , both major parties used mass immigration to boost house values , to create a “wealth effect” . There was always going to be a limit to that policy and we seem to have reached it .
  
  Likewise the student visa scam , that’s another back door immigration rort .
  
  When we’ve learned to live with Wuflu and the borders reopen the pressure will ramp up again , evn worse ……..
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:20am
Maggie Pie

I was comparing our 2016 CV with the latest one.

It’s been like winning Powerball !!

😀
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January 27, 2021 10:39am
- Mike
  
  It’s really not, unless you sell up and buy a cheaper home.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:19am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Not necessarily Mike – Westpac have given us heaps more money on the mortgage.
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:25pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    I can’t imagine Maggie giving up the Remmers lifestyle for Gisborne or Masterton 😀
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:57pm
- Biscuit
  
  I shudder to think what your rates must be, Maggie, when even a run-of-the-mill Mangere house is averaging a mill in CV…
  
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  January 27, 2021 12:14pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    We don’t treat it as some sort of ‘competition’, but one of the girls at Tennis brought in their Rates demand to compare, and hers were just over $23k !
    She’s in the lead.
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:58pm
    - chukar
      
      Try in excess of$1000 per week for one ratepayer.
      And there are higher, much higher.
      
      Rates are a land tax, so Robbie ,we can’t afford any more.
      
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      January 27, 2021 2:06pm
    - Biscuit
      
      Yikes!
      
      I read a while back that 48 Super Shitty staff earn more than Mayor Phil Goff’s salary of $296,000.
      
      ‘Earn’, yeah.
      
      Even if all 49 of those staff were ‘earning’ $296,000, your girl’s hefty contribution only covers 2% of that elite group’s ‘wages’.
      
      Dunno if you do cake stalls at your Tennis Club but, really, you oughta run three or four to help cover Phil & Mates’ next salary increase!
      
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      January 27, 2021 2:17pm
Fletch

Rand Paul puts the snack down on the Dems over this stupid impeachment.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KTiGZeyZw3s
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January 27, 2021 10:52am
- alloytoo
  
  Ignoring the opinions of partisan politicans (with no disrespect to Mr Paul who appears more rational than most).
  
  I saw an interview with Professor Alan Dershowitz.
  
  His analysis of the circus was pretty damning.
  
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  January 27, 2021 6:20pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Rodney Hide dissects the latest messages from the podium:

There you have it. A seismic shift in government positioning, scarcely remarked upon.

Last year, any comparison of Covid to the ’flu was crazy conspiracy talk. But beginning 2021 the Prime Minister has made the comparison without so much as a peep. She’s also doing something else: she is telling us we need to learn to live with covid. Last year, such suggestions were treasonous. The covid was to be eliminated. Any attempt to live with the virus was a death sentence. But this year that’s exactly what the Prime Minister is telling us and has done so without a murmur of dissent.

https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/the-light-at-the-end-of-the-tunnel?postId=601086be03c05c002dc07545
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January 27, 2021 11:03am
- DeepBlue
  
  Labour policy: what National said last year.
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:20am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Usually it’s the other way around.
    
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    January 27, 2021 12:31pm
- SB2
  
  [Deleted, and a week ban for trolling and unwarranted abuse. Mod.]
  
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  January 27, 2021 11:45am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Trolling???
    
    I would suggest it is internet harassment.
    
    Checkout the timing of SB2’s posts practically every time I post a comment on KB…
    
    and it has been this way for years, now.
    
    Very easy to say ignore him… but then he or his associated enablers leave nasty smears or defamatory comments about me (and others) on this publicly available site.
    
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    January 27, 2021 2:58pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    Thanks Mod. Good to see him gone. I don’t often think like this, but this is/was a good decision. He can’t think for himself and trolls the web to get something to support his point, then abuses others – like Maggy – to pump his ego.
    Good riddance – pity its taken so long, and only for a brief period.
    
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    January 27, 2021 5:41pm
- tf78
  
  Six weeks of deep thinking will do that to people who haven’t worked for six weeks.
  
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  January 27, 2021 7:21pm
Fletch

Oops, didn’t see Andrei’s comment before posting.
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January 27, 2021 11:12am
Maggy Wassilieff

GPs realise they are in for a long wait..

The medical director, a former deputy medical director of Pharmac, the country’s state medicine buying agency, said “we are at the bottom of the supply chain”.

“It will be an issue; the problems with production will be major, major issues. It is a fluid situation.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/124064344/access-to-vaccines-will-be-threatened-by-production-issues-overseas-says-royal-new-zealand-college-of-gps
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January 27, 2021 11:13am
- V
  
  Anyone know how the vaccine is even going to get here in sizable quantity?
  
  There are dry ice quantity limits for aircraft, less if animals are also in the hold on the flight.
  
  https://www.anacargo.jp/en/int/regulations/dryice.html
  
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  January 28, 2021 3:56am
MCos

I’ve just started reading a book about the 2nd Boer War.
Depending on your point of view I don’t think this is going to end well.
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January 27, 2021 11:17am
cmm

Faucci (I don’t care if I spelled that right) is now endorsing the latest craze of double-masking saying it is “makes sense” that it works.

“makes sense” is not how we do science.

Clearly he has no clue about how filters, airflow and pressure work.

As has been well established, according to the theory of mask wearing it is much more important on the way out that the way in (ie. it works by having sick people wear masks and not by healthy people hiding behind masks). The breathed out air must travel through the mask for the droplets to be caught by the mask fibres.

Now if you wear two masks it just reduces the airflow through the actual mask and increases the airflow out the sides of the mask.

Therefore the mask does not perform its job any more of being a filter. Filters only work for stuff that goes through them – not stuff that goes around the side.

But, hey, it’s really just theatre for the muggles and wearing two gets you more fear factor.

I wonder low long before people are wearing 5 and those that only wear two are called granny killers?
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January 27, 2021 11:17am
- tf78
  
  cmm – commonly known as suffocation.
  
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  January 27, 2021 7:23pm
Maggie Pie

We haven’t really heard a lot from Ghislaine lately.

LMAO when I read this……

https://twitter.com/JayShams/status/1354129164794810369
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January 27, 2021 11:24am
- Frank the tank
  
  I’d be more worried about being knocked off in prison if I was her.
  
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  January 27, 2021 3:07pm
Andrei

[Deleted – I won’t be clicking random links for approval without some commentary or description. Mod.]
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January 27, 2021 11:43am
- Andrei
  
  … [Deleted – Any more abuse of moderators and I will be asking for your permanent ban. We’re not here to click on your random links, no matter how important you think you are. How hard was that to not do it properly the first time? And we’re volunteers, not paid. Mod.]
  
  TEXIT
  A Texas legislator has introduced a Bill into the Texas legislature proposing a referendum to seceed from the Union
  
  House Bill 1359
  
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  January 27, 2021 12:10pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    It was to be expected. No nation can exist under an electoral system as was recently demonstrated.
    
    Already the Dems have introduced H. R. 1 with a mouthwatering catalogue of changes which would ensure their perpetual succession.
    
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    January 27, 2021 2:58pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Here is the H.R. 1 Bill:
      https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22hr1%22%5D%7D&r=1&s=1
      
      As infamous a document as possible?
      
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      January 27, 2021 3:18pm
    - tf78
      
      Kev- There was a Democrat Congressman from Michigan named Bill Huizenga who posted from Washington today that the Democrat Government, through the Rules Committee wants to GIVE, through the IMF, 3 trillion dollars to countries around the world (no strings attached). They include 20 billion dollars for Iran, 17 billion to Assad in Syria, 170 billion to China and another 175 billions for Russia.
      He was going to read his statement today on the house floor but he was advised he was only allowed one minute so he read it outside of the steps of Parliament on a blog.
      
      The worms are turning on the swamp I hope.
      
      (I think this money was to be for American’s defense budget).
      
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      January 27, 2021 7:51pm
- Biscuit
  
  Someone downticked THAT?
  
  Sheesh, it must be hard enough for opur Mods to wade their way through normal text without having to click on links that may or may not ‘fit’ DPF’s tolerances and may or may not have any relevance.
  
  MODS LIVES MATTER!
  
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  January 27, 2021 12:17pm
Rusty

Wearing masks reduces chances of covid –really?

It is not human nature to wear masks and social distance with our fellow humans.

The way I see it, either you are susceptible to catching this flu virus or your not — just like any other flu.

Even then, getting sick or dying from catching it, is very low chances for the majority of people.

Just my opinion.
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January 27, 2021 11:44am
- MCos
  
  “It is not human nature to wear masks and social distance with our fellow humans.”
  That anthropology unit you did hasn’t been an entire waste of time.
  
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  January 27, 2021 1:52pm
  - Rusty
    
    Just read my answer again. What terrible grammar from me!
    
    “Its not in our human nature to wear masks and social distance from each other”
    
    The sounds better to me.
    
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    January 27, 2021 3:52pm
- Surely Knott
  
  Wearing masks has also correlated with increased riots and criminality.
  Many states including Canada had anti-mask laws.
  
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  January 27, 2021 3:30pm
Fletch

Biden had ordered a halt to deportation of illegals, but got sued by Texas and his order has been barred.

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-immigration-texas-barack-obama-51688033e490d50867e52ef9c8ec574f

Looks like two can play the game of getting a judge to countermand an executive decree.
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January 27, 2021 12:16pm
- sooty
  
  As one of the states with a border to Mexico, a wall would probably keep a lot out as long as it went past!
  If they have trouble getting in, probably few to chuck out!
  
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  January 27, 2021 2:50pm
kowtow

It would be nice to see the profs from the Peace and Conflict Dept at Otago Uni who are so quick to condemn anything ‘Trumpian” have a word with their dental colleagues over this violence…….

“Sorensen’s case for a discharge was significantly bolstered by support from academics, including Prof Joanne Baxter, who noted the defendant had been the “worthy recipient” of three scholarships.

Emeritus Prof John Broughton was similarly glowing.

He said Sorensen was a man of “very high moral and ethical principles” and had shown remarkable leadership qualities.

The defendant would “rise to a position of leadership in the New Zealand dental health sector”, Prof Broughton predicted.

The university’s Faculty of Dentistry dean Prof Michael Morgan wrote that a violence conviction to Sorensen’s name would create a high risk of him being shunned by the dental council.”

I can’t help but wonder would they have been so vocal in their support if it had been a woman who was the victim of this shocking attack .

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/crime/dental-student-who-headbutted-man-granted-discharge
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January 27, 2021 12:26pm
- Ehlana
  
  When he (accidentally?) knocked a drink out of someone’s hand, he did not offer an apology and buy a replacement drink. Instead he headbutted the man, causing severe oral injuries from which his victim has not yet recovered.
  His professors testify to his “very high moral and ethical principles”.
  So he acts one way towards those he perceives as more powerful than him, but another out of their sight, towards someone he sees as less powerful.
  I think there is a name for that.
  
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  January 27, 2021 1:42pm
Batman

So in the first call with Putin the Thug, Biden does more for US and democratic (the idea not the party) interests in one day than the compromised Benito Cheeto did in four years.

*Navalny poisoning
*Continued US support for Ukraine
*New START treaty
*The Solar Winds hack
*Russian bounties on US soldiers
*Interference in the 2020 election
*Treatment of peaceful protesters
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January 27, 2021 12:34pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  The Kremlin has come out and stated that Biden’s people are lying their asses off.
  
  Also, meanwhile, Biden has already weakened the US’s energy independence which will drive up the price of oil and significantly help the Russian economy.
  
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  January 27, 2021 2:52pm
  - Batman
    
    So you believe the Kremlin which routinely tells us that the sky is green?
    
    Sort of undermines anything else you have to say…
    
    EDIT: for clarity, the Kremlin said they discussed “topical issues” which basically means anything band a tacit admission. They also mentioned “the Ukraine domestic settlement” aka their invasion, which they wouldn’t have mentioned unless Biden raised it. The Kremlin also said it was “businesseslike and Frank” which is again another admission.
    
    So long story short, they didn’t say the Biden camp lying at all, and essentially admitted it was a spicy chat. However, “lying their ass off” seems to have come from an enthusiastic KB commenter ?
    
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    December 27, 2020 3:04pm
  - tf78
    
    Lar – not to mention them voting today to give Russia $175billion dollars – now why would that be?! Snigger, snigger.
    
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    January 27, 2021 7:57pm
- Batman
  
  Oh come on, you gotta admit that Benito Cheeto is a pretty hilarious nickname!
  
  Relatively harmless, a subtle nod to the wannabe flashy authoritarian, and a classic cheeto joke.
  
  Humour is lost on some people huh? ?
  
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  January 27, 2021 2:57pm
- Frank the tank
  
  FMD that’s like comparing a novel with a sentence and arguing the sentence is a better book. No in fact that resembles Twyford’s Kiwibuild in the first 12 months. All talk.
  
  I’m sure the Russians are shaking in their boots. What is the old coot going to do if Putin reinvades Ukraine or anywhere else in the former USSR?
  
  Also has the old coot had a gumption to call Xi and denounce the ‘work camps’ in the west? Or is it now China good; Russia bad?
  
  Let’s see if the world is a safer place in 4 years time shall we before starting praising someone’s skills shall we. You don’t want to pull a “Tywford” here Batty.
  
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  January 27, 2021 3:22pm
  - Batman
    
    Happy to see how it goes. Though I would say that I’m not so much giving praise to Biden as much as expecting the bare minimum from the leader of the western world, after four years of incoherent nonsense.
    
    Well if Putin is dumb enough to invade somewhere else (especially if it’s a NATO or NATO neighbour country) I am fairly sure they will face more consequence than they would under the ex-president. The themes seem to be squeezing his finances and their origins, squeeze his crony oligarch buddies (who we know have links to Trump Org) and squeeze the officials who benefit from Putin.
    
    Well I’m sure the China call will happen soon, as with all the other world leaders. Maybe even this week. I’m sure you’ll take it seriously and not immediately dismiss it as “the old coot” right? ?
    
    Well you guys would know about pulling a Twyford, having backed the only politician to fail more than Phil did! ?
    
    3 11
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    January 27, 2021 3:39pm
    - Frank the tank
      
      Yes we will see. Early indicators aren’t great though – flip flopping over covid, pissing the canuks off and behaving in a do as I say not as I do manner. Like 4 putting for a double on the first.
      
      But hey guys can compete in girls’ events now so everything is right with the world….
      
      4 1
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      January 27, 2021 9:00pm
- JackRabbit
  
  You mean threatening Putin not to spill the beans about Biden corruption and Hunter’s dodgy dealings.
  
  5 0
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  January 27, 2021 5:59pm
  - tf78
    
    Jack, see my earlier post (whenever it turns up). Li den is trying to give trillions of dollars to his friends, Put in gets a lot of money for the Crem Lin, as well as As Ad and Gee Pin and hey presto all the Demo’s debts will be paid.
    
    1 1
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    January 27, 2021 8:05pm
- Mrs_Right
  
  Lol, ‘Biden’ and ‘democratic’ in one sentence. How naive….
  
  6 0
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  January 27, 2021 6:16pm
Maggie Pie

Banksie was forced to apologise this morning for what he described as ‘racist comments’ about Maori made on his MagicTalk show yesterday.

He’s on again tomorrow and Friday.

Just saying.
8 3
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January 27, 2021 1:10pm
- septic skeptic
  
  I happened to hear part of the call in question. The guy was alleging a genetic predisposition to crimes such as robbery. One can only hope that Banksie was indeed distracted and the guys comments got past him at the time.
  
  10 0
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  January 27, 2021 1:44pm
  - MCos
    
    Maybe John Banks was having a wee nap.
    
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    January 27, 2021 2:01pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Pacific anthropology likely endorses it. (moe tolo) The spirit of Maui allows might is right–if you can get away with it it’s OK. That seems to apply to China also, through which the Polynesians transitted.
    I had a major trade incident–let the buyer really, really beware of cultural behaviour.
    
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    January 27, 2021 3:07pm
    - septic skeptic
      
      This is cultural, not genetic.
      
      3 1
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      January 27, 2021 3:10pm
    - cmm
      
      There’s a fine line between cultural and genetic. The two are very closely related.
      
      If a culture favours red haired people, then guess who’s going to get laid more? Yup read heads. Guess who will attract the most resources and the best providers? Yup read heads. So the culture and the genetics act in a feedback loop.
      
      If a culture favours losers over “nerds” then the losers win and the nerds lose. Pretty soon the culture loses its nerds.
      
      The same with any genetic factor: intelligence, skin colour and a whole lot more genetic factors.
      
      In Darwin talk the feedback is provided by the “fitness function” which says which traits are “fitter” (ie more likely to succeed into the next generation). That is all it means.
      
      7 1
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      January 27, 2021 6:44pm
- MCos
  
  John Banks has gone from Magic as have a number of advertisers.
  It’s one thing for some racist caller to be allowed to air his repugnant views, but quite another for the host to back him up.
  
  4 12
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  January 27, 2021 5:31pm
  - Couchpotatoe
    
    Well Banksie must have thought he was in a safe place just like KB to let his true beliefs come out.
    
    Can see why he is such a darling of the conservative set. Tells it like it was.
    
    1 4
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    January 27, 2021 10:17pm
Master Mariner

Yep, We need to control “Strategic” assets, Including Ports, Have a National Shipping company.
We pretty much have a “nationalised” Airline now.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/124066824/airlines-need-roughly-600m-in-government-support-to-keep-air-links-open-airline-group-says

Now they all want a hand out but in all truth thats looks like the Price we pay by having 3 ships on our coat of arms, An isolated Island in middle of No Where.
Only wish people would understand Supply Chains are only getting worse.
Really time to look at more manufacturing here.
Get rid of the Latte courses at universities and start bringing back manufacturing to NZ.
Covid has been a great leveller in this respect and NZ really needs to adapt sooner than later, starting with education would be my priority and proceed from there.
20 1
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January 27, 2021 1:15pm
- Nickc2
  
  STOP, STOP, STOP. We can’t have that. You are making too much sense. You will send all the NZ Labour party into a tizzy trying to form a Focus Group to sort out what you mean.
  Don’t forget post Focus Group, it has to go before the Union Movement and there it will probably come unstuck unless it’s laced with financial rewards.
  
  14 1
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  January 27, 2021 1:56pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Nieke2,
    
    My experience with Unions , Is they tend to be the first to fall when going gets really tough.
    
    Breaking through the “facade” is the first step.
    
    6 0
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    January 27, 2021 3:32pm
- cmm
  
  If they’re getting “Government support” then why is my wallet getting lighter?
  
  4 2
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  January 27, 2021 2:43pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    There was a PR campaign masquerading as MSM reporting during the break. Apparently once the Government sets the tax rate it becomes Government money, not the taxpayer’s money, for them to do with as they please. As a tax payer this is your obligation for participating in a democratic society.
    
    4 1
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    January 27, 2021 5:58pm
- Tall Man
  
  “Really time to look at more manufacturing here.
  Get rid of the Latte courses at universities and start bringing back manufacturing to NZ.”
  
  Seriously?
  
  Economies of scale, supply chains that are already inefficient plus a poorly motivated and unproductive workforce.
  
  One medium factory town in China would dwarf whatever enterprise NZ decided to persue and provide the output at a third of the price.
  
  NZ has consigned itself to being a medicore provider of primary produce with a significant number opf the populace living off the endeavours of others.
  
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  January 27, 2021 8:58pm
septic skeptic

I have some concerns about the plan to vaccinate front line staff at the border and MIQ. It is probable but not yet proven that the vaccines stop vaccinated people from being infected and spreading the virus to others. If the vaccines do prevent further infection then I am all for it. But if they don’t, this could cause a major problem. Front line staff (and their families?) will get vaccinated, thereby removing the risk to themselves directly. But we rely on these people strictly adhering to safety protocols to make the system work. If they have no skin in the game then there is a much reduced incentive to avoid getting slack.
The vaccines probably prevent ongoing transmission. So we are probably OK.
7 2
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January 27, 2021 1:40pm
- DeepBlue
  
  The vaccines have not yet been proven to prevent ongoing transmission via the vaccinated. This research is still outstanding.
  
  The vaccines have only been assessed as reducing the chance of illness in the vaccinated. It really is quite odd as it seems to be only half a solution.
  
  5 1
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  January 27, 2021 6:05pm
Maggy Wassilieff

When will we know if the Covid-19 vaccinations have been successful?

For the UK….possibly not until the end of March

Written by actuary John Roberts, it predicts that material reductions will be seen in hospitalisations starting from mid-February, and reported deaths in early March. In contrast, the impact on numbers of cases is likely to be seen sooner, according to the group’s analysis. However, the reduction there is likely to be smaller.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/17/first-fruits-of-vaccine-rollout-should-be-seen-in-weeks-experts-predict
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January 27, 2021 2:16pm
cmm

It’s run by the military. Give them bully beef and hard tack.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/covid-19-coronavirus-managed-isolation-guest-complains-about-breakfast-would-you-complain/L2ZZECBGK4NXIIVQUGME4TVGPM/
5 0
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January 27, 2021 2:42pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  If he is being forced to pay for isolation, the service should be better. If he is not paying, he can have bread and water
  
  10 2
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  January 27, 2021 3:00pm
  - Tall Man
    
    You can stay in a really nice room with DB&B for around $300 so $4200 for 2 weeks for 2 people. Not Pullman 5 star but a nice tidy room and above average food.
    
    Now surely to god these idiots in charge have sorted a bulk deal that has the cost below this but then again, they can’t run a quarantine facilty in a pub 🙂
    
    3 2
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    January 27, 2021 8:50pm
- david
  
  Bully Beef is so 20th Century. Today it would be past expiry MRE (Meal Ready to Eat). What’s not to like?
  
  3 0
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  January 27, 2021 3:26pm
Master Mariner

Interesting read.

“Also inevitably, there has been much talk of the “right” to return. While the government has granted special visas for entertainers, sportspeople, essential workers and students, those with citizenship or residency status expect to be allowed home.”

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/if-border-rules-tighten-what-rights-do-returning-new-zealanders-have/

Right thats it. Ill refuse to pay my ” Arbitrary” tax
then.
Surely thats my right.

On another note, How does he think things get here, Magically appear ? “Arbitrary” Pop up on shelves? Covid Vaccine “Arbitrary” pops into the country.

Some where, Some how, “Arbritrary ” some one brings it in, By Air or Sea.
The mind boggles.
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January 27, 2021 3:16pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Can peanuts be grown commercially in NZ?

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/435222/nelson-business-hopes-to-grow-peanut-economy

They sure can…as we have known for the last 50 years or more…
https://www.agronomysociety.org.nz/files/SP7_22._Peanut_potential_in_NZ.pdf
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January 27, 2021 3:24pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Sorry Maggy – thought you were taking the pi.. there for a moment as 1970’s parlance “peanut ” roughly = 2020’s parlance “sheeple”, so I thought we had been growing them for 50 years which is absolutely true……
  
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  January 27, 2021 5:12pm
- tf78
  
  Maggy, they should try making a decent peanut butter before they grow peanuts.
  
  Their smooth is so runny you have to hold your spoon horizontally to stop it dripping off.
  
  1 2
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  January 27, 2021 8:28pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Try their crunchy.
    
    Yum, yum, yum…..
    Tea, Toast with PB + marmalade…
    My breakfast sorted.
    
    2 1
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    January 27, 2021 9:27pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The voice inside Biden’s earpiece.
Apologies to you poor souls born without a sense of humour – go tell your Mum.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?fbclid=IwAR2ugRX2T0e91pNe9ymwlxSv2hACBLLF-WV_CbpgL_k9kc7WeKfDyCYIJi0&v=bfHV9BbWc6g&feature=youtu.be
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January 27, 2021 3:39pm
Sarkozygroupie

The international crisis hitting sea freight supply chains and shipping companies is reaching crisis point.

Master Mariner and Sealegs have commented on the fatigue and mental distress seafarers are suffering from being trapped out at sea for many months with no end in sight:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/123954177/the-seafarer-crisis–a-shipping-problem-being-passed-from-port-to-port
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January 27, 2021 3:55pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Its a huge problem.
  
  Suicide rates are through the roof.
  
  I had last trip a fellow seafarer whose wife had died leaving 3 young teenage kids all alone. He was beside himself as impossible to repatriate him.
  So far this trip we have had 2 crew members immediate family pass. Again impossible to repatriate in this location.
  
  http://www.gard.no/web/updates/content/29575007/seafarers-in-a-time-of-pandemic-strategies-for-maintaining-and-improving-mental-wellbeing
  
  https://www.amsa.gov.au/news
  community/campaigns/mental-health-guidance-seafarers-during-covid-19
  
  https://www.imo.org/en/MediaCentre/PressBriefings/pages/46-no-crew-change-clause-.aspx
  
  Its a very real issue, Numbering estimated
  500,000 well past there due date.
  
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  January 27, 2021 7:24pm
  - tf78
    
    Master, that is so sad to hear. Please send our condolences to your friends. I can’t imagine the anxiety the unheard of, everyday, necessary people that unknowingly make OUR lives better. God bless them and your good self.
    
    8 1
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    January 27, 2021 8:38pm
Inandout

Twitter have bought a paper business. I wonder if Revue print election forms? Also tweets can now be ‘altered’ by Twitter if they seem ‘incorrect’.
4 2
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January 27, 2021 4:32pm
Maggie Pie

Does ’46’ actually have to memorize…..the Nuclear Codes? 🙁

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1354171683133911042

SAD.
8 5
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January 27, 2021 4:35pm
Fletch

Overheard in the Warehouse today between a Maori women and her daughter, discussing a CD of Waiata.

” Good songs. All in Maori”.
“Nothing wrong with that”.
“Nothing wrong with that, but yeh…”
6 5
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January 27, 2021 4:48pm
Inandout

Canterbury tourist tales:
Was driving past Governors Pub and noticed the new Maori name, seemed quieter than used to be. Akaroa used to get up to 4 cruise ships a week, now of course none.
5 2
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January 27, 2021 5:47pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  yes it is an important Maori area given it’s history – as is much of New Zealand – but isn’t it’s uniqueness in this country more associated with the French influence ? Oh sorry – colonialism…. and a modern inability to recognise two beneficial influences.
  
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  January 27, 2021 6:22pm
Surely Knott

From Andy Ngo the Antifa whistleblower, “Prominent Democrats in North Dakota donated to the defense fund of a man recorded on CCTV attacking a Republican senator’s office with an axe. They stand by their support of the suspect.”
Article includes video of the man violently destroying the office with an axe. The women donated to his go fund me page.

https://thepostmillennial.com/democrat-leaders-in-north-dakota-donate-to-man-accused-of-axe-attack-on-republican-senators-office
9 4
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January 27, 2021 6:18pm
- tf78
  
  Surely, Kamala Harris organizes/supports those wonderful donations – she’s so kind and caring.
  
  5 2
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  January 27, 2021 8:52pm
New Zealander

Reason 153 why I won’t ever vote for National again. They’ve completely lost their principles. Who the hell is advising them?

https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/exclusive-national-party-contest-m-ori-electorate-seats
2 9
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January 27, 2021 6:57pm
greybeard

Name suppression is an abomination.
It favours criminals at the expense of the victims.
5 4
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January 27, 2021 7:23pm
- Couchpotatoe
  
  Not at the trial stage, only after a conviction has been entered after all appeals. Then again there can be some exceptions to that where identifying the Perp also identifies victim (usually a child)
  
  2 0
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  January 27, 2021 10:21pm
Brian McDonald

Judith obviously hasn’t been listening to Unity for the last 10 years. I wonder if she will get a moko?
3 11
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January 27, 2021 8:50pm
- Doc Holliday
  
  Moko?
  
  Covfefe?
  
  0 0
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  January 28, 2021 3:01am
Bobba Fret

So Hone Harawira announces to HDPA on ZB that there are two further community cases in Orewa that we have not been told about and surprise, surprise he is right!
Why do we hear it from him and not Bloomfield and Hipkins?
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January 28, 2021 12:13am

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