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March 10, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 10 March 2021

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General Debate

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Scott

Lord Sumption, a retired UK Supreme Court Judge reflects on Lockdown TV about the covid virus lockdown.
The point he makes is about freedom and liberty which are not guaranteed by laws or constitution but by convention.

Our conventions over many years is that there are some things government should not do. They should not confine healthy people to their homes. They should not put the entire population under virtual house arrest.

Now with the covid lockdown that convention has been shattered. Given enough fear people will submit, they will comply.

Could the government, now they have done this for covid do it again? Governments remember what they can do and what they can get away with. China locked down everyone. Italy followed their example. Britain followed because they saw they could get away with it.

NZ politicians saw they can get away with it. Enough messaging, enough fear and people will submit.

We have lost something in the China virus. Our freedom and liberty is up for grabs. And I would suggest every day we are getting a bit less free. Hate speech laws and Maori wards are two examples of the government making major social impositions with no consultation. Because they know they can.
One day the people of NZ will wake up and bitterly regret these lockdowns and their submission to them.
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March 10, 2021 8:00am
- Batman
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  No we won’t. They worked at stamping out the virus so we could have normal lives.
  
  The freedoms argument is not really relevant given the restrictions apply to very specific public health circumstances and orders in law.
  
  If you think it’s all so horrible, move to one of the US states with high transmission and hospitalisation rates, because after all, they’re oh so free and you’ll have the ‘liberty’ to catch the virus. Heaven!
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:26am
  - Debsta
    
    Batman, you prove Scott’s point beautifully.
    
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    March 10, 2021 8:37am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Batman has drunk the koolaid and has submitted his freedom for protection from the state.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:20am
  - cmm
    
    “They worked at stamping out the virus so we could have normal lives.”
    
    Sounds a bit like fighting for peace or fucking for virginity.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:02am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Don’t forget that Batman’s normal is very different to normal peoples’ normal.
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:07am
  - Apropos of the Wet Snow
    
    “Make us your slaves, but keep us safe!”
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:14am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Slave owners always protect their property.
      
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      March 10, 2021 8:28pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    No we won’t.
    
    Of course we won’t.
    
    By suggesting that “every day we are getting a bit less free”, Scott is simply perpetuating a right-wing trope. Not at all surprising, of course, given that he is a (Trump-loving) right-wing Evangelical — https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/12/general_debate_10_december_2020.html#comment-2856274.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:17am
    - Crisplion
      
      “right-wing trope” … blah, blah, blah … “Trump-loving” … blah, blah.
      
      How about you advance an actual argument instead of tossing out ad hominem? Presumably it’s because you don’t have one. After all it’s pretty hard to defend the proposition that lockdowns don’t involve a loss of freedom, even if you think they’re justified.
      
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      March 10, 2021 9:46am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
        Read Scott’s comment again.
        
        He is suggesting that we are being conditioned to accept future lockdowns (and, consequently, reduced freedoms) for whatever reason the government deems necessary, not just pandemics.
        
        I say that is nonsense; certainly, ridiculously over-dramatic. If the People don’t like the way the government is governing, they will have another opportunity to do something about it in just 30 months’ time.
        
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        March 10, 2021 10:12am
      - Apropos of the Wet Snow
        
        I’m with you, Steve. Of course people already in power would not want to increase their own power, and construct a mechanism for doing so. Just because politics tends to attract people who seek the intoxication of exerting power and control over others, it does not follow that they would want more of it. It’s like when people become wealthy: they just draw a line under it, and say “I’m good now.” And besides, there is no historical precedent for the encroachment of power and losses of liberty, and even if there was, we have progressed and perfected ourselves since “the old days.” So just relax you right-wing nuts, and let the government do as it choses.
        
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        March 10, 2021 10:36am
      - trout
        
        @AOTWS at 10.36
        Delicious irony. Says it all.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:31am
    - Don Beckett
      
      Steve has joined Batman’s camp/enclosure.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:22am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Allow me to assure you, Don, like you, I, too, am an independent commenter here.
        
        As you well know, agreeing with a comment does not imply continued agreement with the commenter.
        
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        March 10, 2021 6:00pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    Oh, so move to those states worst affected by the Virus, like NY, NJ, and CA ? All imposed mask mandates and had extensive lockdowns, and all did worse overall than states without those like TX and FL.
    
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    March 10, 2021 11:44am
- Sacha
  
  I appreciated the twists and turns of the legal mind as Lord Sumption argued (with himself) the Covid situation.
  Bur by the end I was left with a definite suspicion that he had cleverly managed a circular argument without committing to any opinion of his own.
  Just like any Supreme Court judge worth his salt.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:46am
  - Master Mariner
    
    I do not believe there are many who can break this argument down to most simplistic terms as lord Sumpton so as all can understand it.
    “any Supreme Court judge worth his salt.”
    
    I wish we had someone of his calibre in NZ and redefine hate speech, NZ history, Gender quality and even define poverty.
    
    Unfortunately we do not.
    
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    March 10, 2021 1:12pm
    - Sacha
      
      I’d LOVE to hear a ‘hate speech’ argument –
      there would be many spinning heads after 40 minutes, lol.
      
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      March 10, 2021 5:55pm
      - Master Mariner
        
        Bit like Poverty, I looked up 10 definitions and guess what.
        Out of the 10 I only got 3.
        Did I live in poverty, Obsolutely not. Best upbringing imaginable. The Chathams as young kid.
        Been round places in the world and boy do you see real poverty.
        
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        March 10, 2021 8:11pm
- MCos
  
  “One day the people of NZ will wake up and bitterly regret these lockdowns”
  
  I doubt it
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:51am
  - Apropos of the Wet Snow
    
    “I doubt it” – the third most common set of recorded last words, after “It’s all perfectly safe” and “Shut up, I know what I’m doing.”
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:18am
    - Ed Snack
      
      And of course that favourite “hold my beer” !
      
      An in a minor point of interest, some morbid person has done the research and found that the commonest last word on aircraft voice tapes before a fatal crash is “shit” or it’s local language equivalent.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:46am
      - Phronesis
        
        It’s not an expletive usually so much as an observation, as attested to by all those who had near misses and needed to change their pants afterwards..
        
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        March 10, 2021 3:24pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    LOL – little Aotearoans have enjoyed the lockdowns immensely. Every few days I get one proudly stating they love it when everything gets locked down.
    
    They get quite angry when I show them it’s cultish like behaviour.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:24am
  - Frank Thomas
    
    You sound like a petulant teenager saying “whatever”.
    You really need to come up with a better argument than that….. just saying….
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:29am
  - ISeeRed
    
    Not sure why you were downticked so much knowing the more sceptical types that tend to opine here. I also very much doubt “the people of NZ” or at least enough of them will ever wake up. Be woke, yes. Wake up, no.
    
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    March 10, 2021 2:18pm
- peterwn
  
  People in UK, NZ, etc had five years of limitations of freedom during WW2 and some lasted well beyond WW2 like import controls, compulsory military service etc.
  “Our conventions over many years is that there are some things government should not do. They should not confine healthy people to their homes. They should not put the entire population under virtual house arrest.” NZ has been in the lucky situation that such conventions have been adhered to from 1946 to 2000. This does not mean that they must be adhered to even in times of national difficulties or emergencies.
  If people in NZ had considered that the Government’s actions in response to Covid seriously and unnecessarily breached conventions and peoples liberty, then the present government would have been voted out last year. But instead the government was returned by a landslide with the major reason being its response to Covid.
  By contrast a rigid Constitution may have inadvertently bestowed excessive power on vocal minorities and thus made dealing with Covid much more difficult.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:56am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Import/currency controls were introduced in the late 30’s by the first Labour government. The country was stony broke and export revenues were down the toilet.
    
    Nothing to do with the war which had not yet happened.
    
    CMT had been around since before WW1.
    
    If you want to know about human rights in NZ going down the gurgler read a bit about life in Kiwiland during WW1.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:11am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    You make a good point. It isn’t that the government’s actions in response to COVID did not seriously and unnecessarily breach conventions and people’s liberty – which they clearly, egregiously and repeatedly did, and continue to do to this day – it’s that enough people believed the government’s actions were just fine and dandy.
    
    I made the comment a couple of weeks ago, before Auckland went back into the most recent Level 3 lockdown (and the rest of the country went into Level 2 – completely unnecessarily) that many Aucklanders welcomed being put into lockdown “just to be on the safe side”.
    
    Like the climate change hoax, this series of hysterical (and I use the word advisedly) over-reactions by Ardern has paradoxically handed her an unprecedented mandate to do whatever the hell she likes. Shame on us.
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:14am
  - oldfella
    
    Peter, the present govt was returned with a landslide because of fear: the country was terrified of what would happen if they didn’t vote for the woman who claimed she was the only one who could keep them safe.
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:43am
  - Bob
    
    Our media made sure that only an Adern government was promoted during the 3 years leading up to the 2020 election.
    
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    March 10, 2021 11:25am
- kowtow
  
  The Media Pardy and politicians have scared people , literally witless over this Chinese virus.
  
  As to vaccines ;
  
  Pfizer ; 95% effective
  
  Natural spread immunity : 99 % effective. And a lot cheaper than lockdowns.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:21am
- Thought Criminal
  
  No they won’t. Too many people are too afraid to be rational. Politicians and media will never admit they are wrong.
  
  It’ll be like socialism. No matter how bad the pain and failure, they’ll never admit they got it wrong.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:53am
- Master Mariner
  
  Absolutely,
  As for myself, I can not return to NZ because of impossible MIQ voucher at short notice, Hereby ( potentially) making me stateless.
  
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Zealand_Bill_of_Rights_Act_1990
  
  It is the right of every citizen to return home under NZ Bill of rights and UN declaration of Human rights.
  https://nzhistory.govt.nz/politics/universal-declaration-of-human-rights
  
  The PM on interview said the government controls access to NZ by MIQ spots. ie reducing people returning. This is dancing very close / and if not infringing on NZ BOR.
  
  I honestly do not think they understand one of the basic principles and documents of the country.
  There is push back already and I believe the country is getting very tired of inconsistant Lock downs and fear mongering.
  
  Disobedience is the next natural step.
  
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  March 10, 2021 12:52pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Yes, civil disobedience may well be the only answer. However, don’t forget it’s the Gangs that have all the guns and given their easily obtained ‘get out of jail free’ cards it’s highly unlikely that they will countenance any civil disobedience against a Govt that has their best interests at heart. Remember, the Govt approved of Maori Malitia roadblocks even though they were illegal.
    
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    March 10, 2021 2:24pm
    - Master Mariner
      
      Answered my question Nick2,
      
      Maori Militia was the first form of disobedience.
      refusing to scan Covid card, Social gatherings. A rolling stone gathers no moss.
      All for one and one for all.
      Whats next,
      
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      March 10, 2021 3:51pm
- theoldbloke
  
  Its interesting to see the comparison with General lockdown Jacinda and selective lockdown by the strongman leader of Cambodia.
  
  1 community case in NZ. Lockdown 1.5 million people in Auckland.
  
  many community cases in Cambodia (started by a group of Chinese bribing their way out of quarantine hotel) selective lockdowns of hot spots.
  
  The Cambodian community spread is now 600+ cases. mainly chinese. Mainly younger people ie under 35ish.
  
  Some 15,000? in stay at home orders/hotspots patrolled by police.
  
  As I say, interesting!!!
  
  PS. Life continues. But the streets and markets are not so busy.
  
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  March 10, 2021 3:17pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Interesting as well TOB, Is what will be Myanmars COVID details after protesting / Coup etc.
    To be honest I think testing will be last thing on their minds.
    Be interesting if reliable facts on Morbity are released,
    If so , How reliable will these be.
    
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    March 10, 2021 3:54pm
Benedict Yu

Dr John Campbell (PhD not medical doctor) has been posting daily videos about covid since the start of the pandemic. He is a retired nurse educator.

I find him great. He presents the science and evidence and mostly stays away from the politics.

Today he did a selected international summary about vaccine roll out. He briefly comments on the inaction by the New Zealand government in getting the vaccine out. It is not a political comment. He simply expresses surprise and puzzlement. See time 13:29 in the video.

We may have been “at the front of the queue” but you would never know it.

https://youtu.be/e40EYxdIflk
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March 10, 2021 8:01am
- Sacha
  
  Dr John was one of the first to offer a steady, unsensational report on the progress of the pandemic. When other news outlets were screaming doom, he continued a balanced report which appealed to the logical minds of his thousands of viewers.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:51am
- Loddenthinks
  
  We were never at the front of the queue, just like we never went “early and hard”. Ardern and Hipkins couldn’t find the queue to join it if it were signposted in 100-foot high letters with a big arrow and a sign saying QUEUE HERE with spotlights shining on it.
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:17am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Anything those two say should be taken with a 40 ft container load of salt. They don’t even care that we know they lie
    
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    March 10, 2021 2:36pm
- SB2
  
  The retired nurse educator has been advocating Ivermectin ( an anti-parasitic drug) for treating Covid 19.
  
  Fact check: Ivermectin is neither a proven nor safe treatment for Covid-19
  
  “FACT CHECK: Last year, headlines briefly praised an anti-parasitic compound, ivermectin, known for treating head lice in humans and worms in livestock, as a potential cure for Covid-19.
  It wasn’t the first time repurposed drugs had been suggested as a possible way of slowing the replication of the virus. Hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug, was promoted as a possible cure by former United States president Donald Trump, based on anecdotal findings…”
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:40am
  - NoFax
    
    There are a lot better sources than Stuff for facts SB2. There is a lot of evidence in support of ivermectin been very effective against COVID-19. But if you don’t want to take no one is forcing you – I just ask you extend the same grace to others who want to take it.
    
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    March 10, 2021 11:32am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Just more propaganda from SB. In fact both Ivermectin and HCQ have been shown in peer reviewed and repeatable studies to be effective treatments for reducing the severity of symptoms from the Covid virus. They’re not cures but amelioration treatments that reduce by over 80% the need for hospitalisation and more intensive treatment.
    
    Trump’s HCQ comment wasn’t out of nowhere, it was in fact taken from briefings he was given where HCQ was used in the previous SARS epidemic and it appeared to be effective but the epidemic was over before formal studies could be carried out.
    
    In fact all those such as you SB have tens to hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of deaths on your conscience because the early use of HCQ would have prevented a significant fraction of the deaths from COVID. And it was purely political pressure to prevent Trump gaining some sort of victory that made HCQ a pariah drug in many places.
    
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    March 10, 2021 11:56am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    You are really going to take me on regarding science?
    
    Dr Tess Lawrie has been undertaking meta-analysis of Ivermectin. And you are going to offer a “stuff” news article as a source? Empirical evidence from multiple randomised controlled trials and observational studies is now clear. The drug reduces COVID mortality by 83 percent. This evidence is a synthesis of multiple trials globally. This is very recent and it is gold standard research by Dr Lawrie.
    
    Further the randomised trials showed a staggering 88 percent reduction in infection and viral loads.
    
    In fact, some of the randomised trials were stopped early. This is because the evidence for the efficacy of the drug was so compelling that the physicians considered it unethical to leave half the participants on the placebo!
    
    I have watched hundreds of hours of videos by Dr Campbell. He is not an “advocate” for anything, including Ivermectin. He was simply reporting on the latest evidence for its efficacy.
    
    I think I have crushed your rebuttal.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9wKESYC7Y4
    
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    March 10, 2021 12:08pm
- oldfella
  
  BY, seems the govt is planning to give us the jabs in large vaccination centres, demonstrated last night on the TV news.
  Imagine, huge queues of Kiwis, playing what looks like musical chairs, shuffling up to get the jab. Great for the elderly and disabled. Nah.
  And then needing to do it again a few weeks later for the booster.
  Maybe we should have waited for a less complicated, one shot vaccine, that could have been stored in our regular doctor’s fridges and administered by local nurses.
  Like our annual flu jabs.
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:58am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I did not know that. The UK is rolling it out through GPs.
    
    And there may never be a one dose vaccine.
    
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    March 10, 2021 11:52am
    - rererangihirihiri
      
      Johnson & Johnson have a one dose vaccine.
      
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      March 10, 2021 2:54pm
hullkiwi

Judith this morning having to front interviews about the National Party Election report. As many are aware the report had been described as “challenging” and will remain under wraps. So, someone has already leaked to media Goodfellow’s letter, and Dann asks Judith way MPs will not get a copy of the report (to leak to the media).

Yes, National has a handful of MPs, one of whom has decided their future lies with leaking disunity to the media. That person has to decide whether they want a future in a National caucus or get out!
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March 10, 2021 8:09am
- Martin Williams
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  It is being reported that MPs will only be allowed to read a hard copy one at a time and under watch in a special reading room.
  
  https://twitter.com/JB_H14/status/1369174149596205056
  
  How’s that for freedom!
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:36am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The lack of trust is not in National MP’s but in the parasites seeking their downfall fed by the $50M periodic bribes.
    
    Incompetency except at skulduggery is the Labour hallmark.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:24am
    - Martin Williams
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Incompetency except at skulduggery is the Labour hallmark.
      
      Clearly not. It is the National hallmark. [confused emoticon]
      
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      March 10, 2021 9:33am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        The Pot calling the Kettle ~~black~~ seriously x000000000.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:12am
      - Bea Rossini
        
        Kev – have you not read “Dirty Politics”, and did you not hear Carrick’s apology? We’re you blind to Boag’s machinations (she’s getting her comeuppance right about now though). Do you know where Jason Ede is? Did you never feel sorry for Matt Bloomfield? Do you think Jordan Williams is a peach? etc etc. Hallmarks of National every one. There’s more …….. oh what stories David could tell you.
        
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        March 10, 2021 2:18pm
    - Swifty
      
      Martin thinks we’ve forgotten the absolute shambles that was the Labour caucus during 2008-17.
      
      First Key knocked Helen for six, then showed how out of touch Goff was (“Show me the money, son…”), then Shearer was churned up and spat out quickly followed by “The Game Changer” Lord Cunners of Herne Bay who got his arse handed to him in the 2014 election; then we had Angry Andy who lurched from one crisis to another before pulling the pin as another electoral defeat loomed……
      
      Oh how we laughed!
      
      Then of course came along Malibu Cindy who, so they say, is a master communicator who is also a great emoter (whatever that is…).
      
      Well, she’ll bloody need to be won’t she – with all the non-delivery going on. They need someone to paper over all the cracks that are growing wider by the day.
      
      And let’s not forget that without ‘The Great Communicator’ they’re the same ineffective, unskilled, useless rabble they’ve always been.
      
      Once she goes they’ll be out in the wilderness for eons.
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:17am
      - Martin Williams
        
        Wow. That is some spectacular denial.
        
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        March 10, 2021 12:32pm
      - Swifty
        
        It hurt being reminded of that, didn’t it Martin?
        
        Hurt deep.
        
        We know don’t we. Without Cindy plugging the holes in the dyke, it’ll all come crashing down and deservedly so.
        
        Without her, who’s next? Kelvin? Robbo? Sepuloni? Chippie? Woods? Willie Jackson? Salasea (oh no, she got the boot), Twyford? Mega Fightery? Angry, Round II?
        
        Hahahahaha! The cupboard’s bare!
        
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        March 10, 2021 1:37pm
  - SmokerGuy
    
    When there is a rat within the ranks what are they supposed to do? I hope the POS who is leaking is outed and their name released to the media. That asshole is partially responsible for the train wreck government we have to endure now.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:52am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      What makes you think it is only one leaker?
      
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      March 10, 2021 9:58am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      There is no proof that their is any Nat MP feeding the media. My view is that a mole or more has been inserted for their excreta to be reported.
      That happened throughout the whole of the election campaign and the tactic has been caught.
      
      The enthusiasm for the media to magnify any suggestion contrary to National is well apparent. Look at their corresponding treatment of Act. This campaign is deeply orchestrated but Labour only play dirty.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:19am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    It’s not the MPs’ report. It was commissioned by the Board, and remains the property of the Board, and they decide under what conditions people can view it.
    
    As a party member and office-holder at branch and electorate level, I have been invited to a couple of meetings next week where Board members will discuss the findings with members. Given that members provided significant feedback to the Board after the election (much of which was blunt and honest), it’s good that the party membership gets the opportunity to digest and deduct the report’s conclusions.
    
    It’s a matter for the National Party and its membership to deal with, not for the media or those who want to bring the party down.
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:03am
    - Martin Williams
      
      Then a continuation of opacity, infighting, mistrust, scheming, and blame. This is what the voting public sees.
      
      Good luck with that.
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:18am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Its the muck the media throw around to obfuscate. They can’t afford to do that on the Labour Party and allies. Note the lack of attribution to nearly every item. We know who presents but not who starts the issues. The underground PR team keep well hidden and issues can be put out there months in advance.
        
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        March 10, 2021 4:00pm
    - Martin Williams
      
      I see, you are simply parroting the spin from the National Party.
      
      ‘Nothing to do with us MPs, your honour!’
      
      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/438037/a-national-party-board-document-judith-collins-trying-to-distance-mps-from-review
      
      Might pay to get your head out of the sand, Tony.
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:41am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Exactly.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:21am
    - Tricati
      
      Well put Tony, and for those trying to create further deflection from the current ever-increasing government shambles, maybe they could get the Labour Party reports on the Youth Camp and Prime Minister’s office sex scandals released publicly, as they are of far greater ‘public interest’ than that goings on within National.
      
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      March 10, 2021 12:48pm
  - kloyd0306
    
    Free to read, not leak.
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:04am
- MCos
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  What did she say?
  Because she can’t trust them – is that what you’re saying?
  
  Sounds like a fine way to run a government in waiting.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:55am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Heh, careful, what goes around has a habit of coming around.
    
    Although I’m confident a large, competent & united caucus in the face of any headwinds will be a piece of cake for our current leaders to manage…
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:47am
    - MCos
      
      Labour has had far more trouble keeping its caucus on the straight and narrow over the years than National. They either get speed wobbles when it’s too big or general disarray when it’s small and the leadership is constantly changing.
      The trouble with both is its very hard to delete unwanted MPs short of kicking them out of the party.
      It seems there could be some Nats who are flys in the ointment.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:17am
- peterwn
  
  Even in the best of times such a document would be in the ‘top secret’ category with it being distributed on a ‘need to know’ basis. The only two National Party people presumed to be loyal are Peter Goodfellow and Judith Collins. They are the ones who decide who else should access the information. An important art of being party leader is to know who to trust and who might be disloyal. She will view things more cynically than leaders have in recent times.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:18am
  - Martin Williams
    
    Wake up. Collins and Goodfellow are the problem!
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:43am
    - Bob
      
      Williams…. the MEDIA are the problem.
      There is no credible journalist within the NZ media framework, who can be relied upon to report factually, un-sensationalised facts accurately and honestly.
      A sad reflection upon our tertiary media training institutions.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:32am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Have you considered labour activists seeking every opportunity to scream disaffection. That makes news, fake or implied, it sells and seriously disrupts.
  With $50M chunks the media will not support any other than their caregiver.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:20am
  - hullkiwi
    
    I have, and probably so has the Board, hence why they are not making the report public. I was at a party workshop last month and the report was referred to by Goodfellow and Judith as “confronting and challenging”. Discussion with those more experienced confirmed that the the report will never be made available for public consumption, because it would give everybody (including
    Labour and the media) an opportunity to continue attacks against the party and key people. A distraction and as such instead of the report being as intended, which is a document to identify party failings and put in place what is required to move on.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:54am
    - Bob
      
      The Report is for inhouse consideration, not public consumption.
      Post election reviews are the norm.
      Two FACTS which are probably beyond the comprehension of our media.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:35am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Precisely hullkiwi. The state of the party is a matter for the Board and the party membership first and foremost. The MP’s in the caucus might represent the National Party in Parliament, but they are NOT the party itself. That’s where people like you and I come in, who have no aspiration to be MP’s, but still support the party because they/we believe that National has the best overall plan for New Zealand.
      
      That doesn’t mean we have to agree with every policy that is advanced, and we also have the freedom to be critical of policies we disagree with. There’s also a mechanism by which we can bring our ideas to the party in the form of remits, which, if they gain sufficient support, can become party policy. It’s called grassroots democracy.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:38am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Tony well put. The Party is the “broad church that is the membership. The MPs are just that, MPs selected, elected and representing the support for National in Parliament.
        
        After the disasters of the last 3 years, the Board conducted the review of what culminated in political disaster last year. The report belongs to the Board on behalf of the Party. Only someone who does not have the interests of the party to heart, would want the report released to MPs and membership at large.
        
        What comes from this process must be recommendations and mechanisms that ensures that the party as a whole moves forward together reflecting the values of the party (which should be common to all, else you need to belong to some other organisation).
        
        As you say, when it comes to policy, the party is well aware of its failings, and there are mechanisms to address this. For my part I’ve reached out to Chris Penk to acquaint him of those issues /matters that are reality in a rural /urban seat such as Kaipara ki (Mahurangi). I’ve also reached out to Andrew Bayly about assisting to evolve the party’s infrastructure policy (one of my professional areas of experience/expertise).
        
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        March 10, 2021 1:50pm
- Frank the tank
  
  I think we all know who it is. It’s not hard to work out. In a safe seat as well so hopefully the individual gets the message rather than hanging on in the vain belief that Simon will regain the leadership.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:28am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Of course we know who it is: the swamp creature from the Fraser house basement who is kept as a pet by the PR mob. Swims through all the muck and for $50M will set up any other Nat. MP.
    
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    March 10, 2021 4:05pm
- Martin Williams
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  This is John Key’s legacy. He set the tone for, and nurtured, this toxicity.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:35am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Bollocks. Political parties have been toxic places for longer than I have walked on God’s earth; remember John A Lee?
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:04am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Tony, he can’t remember what he had for breakfast.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:13am
    - igm
      
      Don’t forget that funny fella Savage.
      
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      March 11, 2021 8:05am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Is it not the basement dwellers in Fraser House who are the real problem?
    
    Once we had a Labour Party we could respect. Now they are hopeless and useless except at spending with dubious authority and making their own rules.
    
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    March 10, 2021 11:27am
    - Master Mariner
      
      “Take away the common enemy all you get is Chaos.”
      
      The “common enemy” comes thick and fast with this lot.
      Once dust settles back to “Climate Change” or whats the latest Fad of the day.
      
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      March 10, 2021 4:03pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Good, the ticks have returned.
    
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    March 10, 2021 11:28am
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    It’s John Key’s fault.
    I blame John Key.
    9 Years of neglect.
    {repeat}.
    
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    March 10, 2021 1:42pm
- DeepBlue
  
  The Goodfellow letter went to all paid up members of National. It was hardly leaked, there must be members of the National Party who are also media.
  
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  March 10, 2021 11:42am
  - Southtop2
    
    Personally I don’t care about the report. The National Parties starting point must be getting back to this quote “We believe in the maximum degree of personal freedom and the maximum degree of individual choice for our people. We believe in the least interference necessary with individual rights, and the least possible degree of state interference.” Sir Keith Holyoake 1959. Build everything from there. If the candidates do not live and breath this then do not put them forward!
    
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    March 10, 2021 1:55pm
Frank the tank

Added to the ‘cancellation’ epidemic:

Piers Morgan
Pepe le pew
Speedy Gonzales
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March 10, 2021 8:10am
- MCos
  
  Piers Morgan lost his job, I would suggest, because he’s toxic to the brand.
  That channel he works for survives, not on donations from Morgan fans, but on money from advertisers.
  Having a bloke like him fronting your show is always risky if it’s a mainstream mass appeal outlet.
  Turns out Morgan, like millions of males before him, was cast aside in favour of someone else and he hasn’t got over it.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:08am
  - Frank the tank
    
    1 of the 40,000 complaints were you?
    
    What a weak civilization we are when we can’t handle an alternative forceful argument particularly when it is the more logical and fact driven argument.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:31am
    - MCos
      
      Of course I wasn’t, I don’t live in the UK.
      
      The only time I’ve ever grizzled was when some TVNZ reporter hounded a wee school girl getting out of a car outside her home.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:28am
  - Apropos of the Wet Snow
    
    “… he’s toxic to the brand.” Good lord.
    
    “Having a bloke like him fronting your show is always risky if it’s a mainstream mass appeal outlet.”
    
    Is the view of the typically Twitter-driven advertisers really the “mainstream” view? Who says, the Twitter-driven advertisers?
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:45am
    - Surely Knott
      
      “Can’t handle an alternative forceful argument” which is why Ardern cancelled Hoskings. I heard Kerre Mcgivor saying that she could understand why Jacinda wouldn’t front on Hoskings. She reckoned they were just talking from two different points of view and not having “a conversation.” Is that the definition of an interview now?. But seriously, check out J. Campbell spitting out hard questions bias and vile in old Simon Bridges interviews. In the new world order do politicians only give conversational interviews to media they like and who share the same ideology. And if the questions get too tough the journalists lose their access? Personally I’m not interested in the medias conversations or opinions. I want interviews. Tough questions on relevant issues of the day being delivered from both sides of the media spectrum.
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:31am
RockyJ

Sending your children to a state funded school in New Zealand should come with a mental health warning. The climate change curriculum (all wrong) will make them anxious about the future. The twisted NZ history curriculum will make the Maori kids bitter and the rest of our children guilty.
This is the thing that makes me the most angry. When our government psychologically manipulates our own children it is disgusting. We are now at the point the Manic Street Preachers sang about “if we tolerate this then our children will be next”.
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March 10, 2021 8:11am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  Can you tell me what is ‘twisted’ about the NZ history curriculum?
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:28am
  - RockyJ
    
    Sure. It’s shaped by three “big ideas”. Maori history is the history of NZ, colonisation continues to this day and it’s all about the exercise of power.
    Not the growth of NZ economically and as a democracy. No mention, I am sure, of the musket wars nor the Chatham Islanders experience of Maori colonisation. The English language version of the content had Maori words I did not understand so it was Pidgeon English. You get the picture.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:13am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      That’s simply incorrect. The curriculum is based on seven themes:
      1. The arrival and settlement of Māori to Aotearoa
      2. First encounters and early colonial history of Aotearoa New Zealand
      3. Te Tiriti o Waitangi / Treaty of Waitangi and its history
      4. Colonisation of, and immigration to, Aotearoa New Zealand, including the New Zealand Wars
      5. Evolving national identity of Aotearoa New Zealand in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries
      6. Aotearoa New Zealand’s role in the Pacific
      7. Aotearoa New Zealand in the late 20th century and evolution of a national identity with cultural plurality
      So far as I can see, there is no suggestion that specific events need to be included or excluded. It’s not about creating one state-approved version of history to be memorised by every child.
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:05am
      - RockyJ
        
        Yeah right. I don’t know which Ministry of Education site you are looking at.
        Your statement “cultural plurality” (point 7) reveals the bias. Who says NZ is a plural culture? Surely today we are multi-cultural.
        
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        March 10, 2021 10:27am
      - kowtow
        
        1.Prehistoric New Zealand.aka paradise.
        2.Things start to go wrong.
        3-6 .Things get worse
        7. Things get better.
        
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        March 10, 2021 10:30am
      - SB2
        
        What’s missing is the settlement of NZ by a pre celtic white civilization.
        
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        March 10, 2021 10:45am
      - Local Miller
        
        Where is this Aotearoa New Zealand place you keep referring to?
        And when did the Māori ever arrive in Aotearoa? There never was such a place.
        Regardless of the “themes”, the curriculum can still be based on those three “big ideas”, since the way the themes are presented is influenced by the world view of the authors.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:04am
      - David George
        
        I’m afraid you’re wrong, it is about indoctrinating our kids with one version.
        The clearly stated motivation is that there’s not enough centralised control at present and the worry that the the kids might learn some truths unapproved by the wokelets putting this bullshit together.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:12am
      - David George
        
        Dr Michael Bassett, one of our most respected historians was scathing:
        
        Ministry of Education officials have spent millions of dollars devising a curriculum. They got advice from a very narrow range of the woke and well-meaning, and some serious barrow-pushers. They then seem to have sought a fig-leaf of respectability by asking for approval from the once highly reputable Royal Society of New Zealand. The results of all this were published yesterday. A finer assemblage of mumbo-jumbo it would be hard to find. A careful reader examining the underlying intention behind it all will conclude it is to re-name the country Aotearoa, eventually dropping any mention of New Zealand, making Te Reo compulsory for everyone, and handing control of the country’s identity and intellectual life to the Maori Council.
        
        Along the way, our modern Ministry of Education reveals that it is woefully ignorant of historical facts. For example, far from rushing to add New Zealand to the British Empire, Britain was extremely cautious before dispatching William Hobson; the Colonial Office was seriously worried that the Musket Wars between Maori had reached the stage where nothing short of military intervention would protect Maori. The Ministry’s paper makes elementary grammatical mistakes with its presentation, failing sometimes to get its nouns and verbs in agreement. I have only a few words of Te Reo. I wonder if all the Maori explanations that will be understood by only 2 to 3% of the population are more accurately expressed?
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:13am
      - septic skeptic
        
        I see the country has been re-named already.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:29am
      - Clyde
        
        So the Musket Wars are excluded? Is cannabalism excluded? Is the raping and pillaging of the natural environment excluded? I know enough of the woke driven racist attitudes endemic within the education system at all levels to realise that history is in the act of being re-written.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:34am
      - Bob
        
        The Report is for inhouse consideration, not public consumption.
        Post election reviews are the norm.
        Two FACTS which are probably beyond the comprehension of our media.
        
        5 1
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        March 10, 2021 11:38am
      - Bob
        
        This proposed Curriculum change by the Labour government is ALL ABOUT “creating one state-approved version of history to be memorised by every child”.
        I doubt that there will be any references to the History text books used in schools during the 1940 -50 period. Books authored by people who were actually present in NZ during the late 1890 -1940 period.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:45am
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        SB2, troll gotta troll.
        
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        March 10, 2021 1:46pm
      - SB2
        
        “Dr Michael Bassett, one of our most respected historians ” ???
        
        Scott Hamilton on Bassett’s bad history,
        
        https://thespinoff.co.nz/society/06-03-2021/all-the-things-michael-bassett-got-wrong-in-his-terrible-article/
        
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        March 10, 2021 2:14pm
  - Frank the tank
    
    Quite simply it will be one side of the story – a ‘brainwashed’ journey of storytelling how ‘white man bad’ is the reason for all of NZ’s social ills.
    
    I had the displeasure of enduring all of Moana Jackson and Annette Sykes’ cargo cult mentality of blame colonialism in my first year of law at Auckland Law. I’d say the curriculum will follow the same tried and sad practice as this.
    
    This at the same time as NZ is rated bottom of the OECD in regards to mathematics and (I’m educated guessing) similar results in other core subjects such as English.
    
    The dumbing down and brainwashing of (little) Aotearoa’s youth.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:16am
    - David George
      
      My daughter pulled her son from school over this – dumbed down educational standards and the declared intention to “de-colonise and re-indigenise” the school – AKA fill the kids heads with Maori woo-woo and hatred for whitey and western civilisation .
      
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      March 10, 2021 9:37am
      - David George
        
        “Now I bid you farewell, I don’t know when I’ll be back
        They’re moving us to where spirits are slipping through the cracks
        Speaking through our TVs, radios, computers too
        The sign says no exit
        From the tower of woo.”
        Bob Carroll
        
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        March 10, 2021 10:51am
    - oldfella
      
      Where exactly is ‘Aotearoa’ New Zealand?
      Not where I’ve lived for more than seven decades. And not the country my father went to war to protect, and who died much too young from what he endured.
      Nope. New Zealand is my country.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:13am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Aotearoa is a fictional place where strange people live. They think that the Country named New Zealand owes them a living, and if you don’t want to pay up, you must be racist
        
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        March 10, 2021 2:56pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Too much Maori angst. Did they write anything down?
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:26am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    When it doesn’t include Edmund Hillary, Ernest Rutherford, Charles Upham, or Gallipoli, that can only be explained by the existence of a political agenda.
    
    On my daughter’s very first day at intermediate, they had a powhiri and the person leading it announced that anyone was allowed to speak as long as they spoke Te Reo and they were a male. This was actually a good thing because we talked about it at home and she understands that when I say the people running her school are full of shit, it’s not just my opinion.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:59am
    - Clyde
      
      In your place, I would have laid a formal complaint to the school and depending on the outcome would have withdrawn my child from this cesspit of racist crap. Difficulty is that very few schools will choose to stand outside the racial nonsense.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:36am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Hear hear, what that man said
      
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      March 10, 2021 2:57pm
- MCos
  
  I’m still scarred from the horrors of being taught about the Potato Famine, the Crucufixion, Bill Andersen and the ever present danger of the non catholic church up the road.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:17am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Sounds like you require a couple of cans of “harden the f’ up” there champ.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:33am
    - MCos
      
      The irony is obviously lost on you.
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:34am
      - Frank the tank
        
        Not at all. Just calling out a poor example of moral equivalence that reflects poorly on you.
        
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        March 10, 2021 3:08pm
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    You should be. What the English did to our Irish ancestors makes the NZ wars look like a five year old’s birthday party.
    
    But somehow we’ve put that in the past and got on with our lives, instead of crying like babies, nurturing grievances, and demanding compensation paid for by people who did nothing wrong and were not even born until many years later.
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:26am
    - kowtow
      
      ‘What the English did to our Irish ancestors’
      
      Such as ………
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:47am
      - MCos
        
        Read a book.
        
        You could start with this one
        The Great Hunger: Ireland 1845–1849
        by Cecil Woodham-Smith
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:33am
      - RockyJ
        
        One society screwing another was par for the course back in the old days. A mark of a mature person is that we get over what our great great grandparents did and look to the future.
        As Mark Twain said in his book “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc” (his best book ever); “in order to make a fair assessment of a man of a man of renown we must judge him by the standards of his day, not ours”.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:52am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Leon Uris and Trinity would be a good read.
        
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        March 10, 2021 1:57pm
      - kowtow
        
        Master Mariner
        
        Leon Uris writes a good yarn and I’ve read many of his including Trinity .
        
        His problem is he sees too much through a political/idealogical version of the world. He is particularly anti British ( Exodus ) and I think that colours his very pro irish republican stance
        The irony for Uris is in todays’ Ireland the republicans are virulently anti Israel , while the “hated” Unionists are very strongly pro Israel.
        
        If anyone wanted to read a serious work of history then go to Robert Kee ,the Green Flag also available televised on you tube or some such .
        
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        March 10, 2021 3:09pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      The irony was of course was that WWI was supposedly about Britain coming to the aid of a little country (Belgium) while doing much the same to another little country (Ireland) ….
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:27am
      - kowtow
        
        The irony is that practically every last Irish MP , Nationalist or Unionist was in favour of an armed Ireland either defending Ireland from the Hun at Home or actively while in the British Army in France ,Flanders or further afield .
        
        Ironically too ireland was about to get a Home Rule Parliament , via democratic means which was forestalled by said Hun invasion of Belgium.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:50am
      - Ed Snack
        
        In the lead up to WW1 independence for Ireland was being negotiated. In fact a few months before WW1 started there was a military crisis when the question of whether the army would support the government if it moved against Ulster’s Protestant majority if they took arms to oppose an independent Ireland.
        
        The head of the Army ultimately resigned over it, and a number of senior offices threatened to resign their commissions rather than be forced to act against their countrymen (many were ulstermen). Smoothed over, but a nervous moment for the then administration.
        
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        March 10, 2021 12:07pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @kowtow
        
        OTOH views had changed a bit by 1916 ….. but the Army and the Black and Tans more or less dealt to that.
        
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        March 10, 2021 12:08pm
      - kowtow
        
        IB
        
        1916 was driven by a very small , secret , undemocratic body of violent extremists whose agenda was very different to that of the majority.
        
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        March 10, 2021 12:48pm
      - kowtow
        
        Ed Snack
        It wasn’t independence , it was the passage of the third reading of the home rule bill .Which did pass , was royally assented but shelved for the duration of the war.
        
        The fact is the UVF had armed themselves in 1914 to oppose the will of parliament , ironically with guns from Germany .
        
        The war overtook events and the vast majority of armed Unionists , and Nationalists flocked to the Colours to fight the Hun.
        
        The Unionists in the 36th Division ( they were allowed their own artillery) and the nationalists in the 10th and 16th ( they weren’t trusted with their own artillery)
        
        BTW the 10th served at Gallipoli and the 16th alongside the 36th at Messines 1917.
        
        The memory of the tens of thousands of nationalist irish soldiers ( and sailors and airmen) is vilified in today’s south , contrary to what Nigel kearney says above , about forgive and forget.
        
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        March 10, 2021 1:41pm
- curry4me
  
  RockyJ: You’re right. My year 12 cousin thought Greta was a saint. So, I sent her some links to WattsUpWith That. And a copy of Animal Farm. She’s pretty well de-programmed now.
  
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  March 10, 2021 5:30pm
Maggy Wassilieff

The tipping point has arrived:

“I am concerned. A lot of the industry will not last another lockdown. It’s just untenable … The tipping point has come,”
https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/124487115/its-untenable-hospitality-nz-warns-more-closures-soon-to-come
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March 10, 2021 8:13am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Small business’ should band together and write a book for the unemployed.
  “How to live on less than the minimum wage”
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:16am
  - Sacha
    
    But who would buy it?
    Good idea though.
    
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    March 10, 2021 8:53am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      True and may be a case of…leave Ardern where she is for too much longer and they won’t need to read about it, they’ll be living it.
      
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      March 10, 2021 10:59am
      - Bob
        
        Those who are capable of reading by then.
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:47am
- Antoine
  
  This is the new world, we will have less support business in the central city
  
  A.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:17am
- RW Capitalist
  
  and of the associated industries/
  Supply
  service
  transport
  etc
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:17am
- alex Masterley
  
  Stock is also being turned away from meat processers in the Hawkes Bay due to a worker shortage. There will be effects both upstream and downstream for producers and exporters alike if this continues and none of them good.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:21am
  - I remember when
    
    To be fair it is not unusual for farmers to be on a waiting list to get stock processed at certain times during the season.
    
    15 4
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    March 10, 2021 8:39am
    - igm
      
      I remember days when stock had to be trucked home because unions went on strike and there was no idea when killing would resume.
      The days of Middlemass, McNulty, et al. Real nice bastards, not unlike the communists in power here currently.
      
      24 3
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      March 10, 2021 9:59am
  - Ed Snack
    
    There aren’t any major meat processors in HB, unless you mean Takapau and perhaps Dannevirke. Wairoa could also be HB I guess, but all the major plants in the Napier/Hastings area closed years ago. Just a few smaller mainly contract processors in that area.
    
    There’s been a shortage of willing workers in the industry for some years, exacerbated by the H&S rules around drug use; and it’s not just in HB either.
    
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    March 10, 2021 12:11pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Which is why we need the vaccine rolled out.
  
  For doses delivered per capita we now rank #98 of all nations.
  
  https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/
  
  So why doesn’t a journalist ask “Prime Minister, do you know how New Zealand ranks against all other nations in terms of doses of vaccine administered?”
  
  Prime Minister waves arms furiously and tilts head one way then another. Then waves arms again.
  
  53 2
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  March 10, 2021 8:25am
  - alex Masterley
    
    You forgot the frowny face and the classic statement “I refute that”.
    
    45 2
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    March 10, 2021 8:43am
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Refude
      
      26 2
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      March 10, 2021 8:47am
    - herb1
      
      Ardern says “I refute that” quite a lot, but never actually uses facts or argument to refute that.
      Perhaps a reporter needs to follow with “Please PM go ahead and refute that” then wait silently
      
      34 1
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      March 10, 2021 9:27am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        If she was such a great debater as Wayne Mapp contends, then surely she’d understand how to refute a proposition.
        
        29 2
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        March 10, 2021 9:59am
      - SB2
        
        MW, can you give examples of Mike Hosking’s “so-called “propositions”?
        
        This?
        
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/98084186/how-mike-hosking-handled-the-election-result
        
        Or this,
        
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/96349925/will-mike-hosking-ask-bill-english-about-his-outfit-choices-too?rm=m
        
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        March 10, 2021 11:08am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        What the dickens has that got to do with Jacinda Ardern not knowing the meaning of the word refute, stephieboy?
        
        Are you unable to follow a thread?
        
        17 1
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        March 10, 2021 11:50am
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        SB2, whataboutism.
        Troll gotta deflect.
        
        10 0
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        March 10, 2021 1:53pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        It is “I refute that, next question” She ducks for cover without ANY explanation
        
        6 1
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        March 10, 2021 3:01pm
  - cmm
    
    She will spin it as a virtue.
    
    We have the awesome Cindy. It would be greedy to also want vaccinations. Let the others have it first.
    
    Typical overcompensation for a stuff up: we have now purchased far more vaccines than we need – no doubt at inflated prices.
    
    28 2
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    March 10, 2021 9:06am
    - Paulus
      
      53% voted for her so she can do whatever she wants and will do.
      
      15 1
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      March 10, 2021 9:36am
    - oldfella
      
      There’s something going on here with Cindy not jumping up and having the jab.
      Maybe it isn’t safe for women of child bearing age?
      Other world leaders – Boris, Slow Joe – have had the jab – in front of the cameras – to try and convince people there’s nothing to fear.
      Why not Glorious Leader?
      
      7 0
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      March 10, 2021 11:21am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    She will spin it that due to the government doing such an amazing job, that we do not need it as urgently as other countries. ie. being the kind person she is, others in greater need should be vaccinated before NZ.
    
    7 0
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    March 10, 2021 10:48am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    I’ve got it, she/they remind me of:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YN1hL9cn7s0
    
    4 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:03am
- Inandout
  
  Obviously relying on Wellington’s public servants and office workers for trade was bound to end in Covid tears. MPs are catered for by Bellamys so that leaves slim pickings for food outlets. The well heeled wives will continue to chatter in the suburban malls or the upmarket cafes. Were it not for the Beehive MPs and the army of ‘support staff’ I assume Wellington would die.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:43am
  - peterwn
    
    There used to be a fish and chips shop at the bottom end of Molesworth St which was frequented by some MP’s disenchanted with Bellamy’s.
    
    16 1
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    March 10, 2021 9:23am
    - oldfella
      
      Peter, is that where David Lange and the Fish and Chip Brigade bought their meals back in the 80s?
      
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      March 10, 2021 11:25am
- Swifty
  
  My good deed for the day – I’ll write what Martin Williams would write; therefore saving him the trouble:
  
  “If these businesses can’t survive a few short pesky lockdowns then they weren’t sustainable businesses to begin with and deserve to die! Either that or they have been badly managed.”
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:07am
- Master Mariner
  
  We are starting to come through the “phoney war” period and realisation is starting to sink in.
  
  Things will not go back to Normal.
  
  The question is what is the new normal going to look like?
  
  The ones that will get through this are the ones who have adapted, Retrained,re schooled basically prepared themselves with a bit of foresight.
  Wait till price Fuel goes up and the costs to businesses then.
  In all honesty, NZ should of been the most flexiable to change and I believe we missed this opportunity,
  Just splashing money around.
  The costs of goods and services will arrive with further supply chain issues. A continuous instability in the world and regions,
  
  Protectionism between supplies and goods. Just look at EU as one example.
  This is where we truely needed a “transformational” government.
  
  Alas this will never happen till we rise from the ashes just like the Phoenix.
  
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  March 10, 2021 1:31pm
I remember when

Could a/some member/s of the Royal Family be capable of making a ‘racist’ remark.
The Royal Family comes from the feudal system which is based on class.
Lords and Ladies, Dukes and Duchesses, Earls, and eventually serfs.
They don’t think the rest of the population is equal.
They don’t seem unlikely to make remarks that could be thoughtless at best.
However, the problem is that the only racism that ever seems to be highlighted and discussed is that of the European nations.
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March 10, 2021 8:15am
- Fletch
  
  To be honest, the racism thing doesn’t make much sense to me. Megan has mixed race parentage and looks white herself. Maybe a bit tanner than usual. Any child of Harry and Megan is hardly going to come out looking like they are from Zimbabwe. As an argument is a non starter. It sounds made up to me
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:01am
  - DeepBlue
    
    My thought was the Palace could easily research this and find their answer, if it was so important. But feuding brothers can say nasty things to each other when they are falling out.
    
    7 2
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    March 10, 2021 11:49am
  - Close Hen Counters
    
    They would have their heads loped off for less hundreds of years ago! I couldn’t see the point of the interview- we strive for privacy from the media yet run to Oprah about someone’s curiosity about the possible appearance of a new baby to the family … mountain/molehill much – I thought they were both poor little rich people incredibly disrespectful of their family, the public the pretend to enjoy meeting .. disgusting
    
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    March 10, 2021 12:31pm
Inandout

I am sure Kiwiblog will surely have a story on Joe Biden’s appalling memory. It just goes on and on.

‘Biden seems to have a spotty memory when it comes to names and details.
On Monday, the president appeared to forget Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name during a White House event, calling the Pentagon chief “the guy who runs that outfit over there.”
“And I want to thank the sec — the, the, ah former general. I keep calling him general, but my, my — the guy who runs that outfit over there,” Biden said’.

This guy runs the most powerful nation on earth and amazingly hasn’t yet made a speech for the nation.
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March 10, 2021 8:15am
- Maggie Pie
  
  My partner reckons he can understand Ozzy Osbourne better than he can Joe.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:52am
  - Apropos of the Wet Snow
    
    Maggs, as one wag says in the comments “sharp as a marble.”
    
    https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1369044328807596036
    
    The country is currently being run by committee, a la the USSR. It’s interesting that they are planting the seeds and being open about what we all can see with our own eyes, leaking details about his f-ups. They need to get to the midterms before they can get Harris in and still have her eligible for two further (no doubt rigged) election cycles, but they won’t make it.
    
    Edit: Inandout, didn’t initially see your comment, but this is what you reference I believe.
    
    12 3
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    March 10, 2021 9:55am
    - Ed Snack
      
      If Biden hasn’t completely lost his marbles, there is for sure a hole in the bag.
      
      8 3
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      March 10, 2021 12:16pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    Ozzy, at least, has/had a talent.
    
    9 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:09am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Ouch!
    
    3 1
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    March 10, 2021 3:05pm
- redeye
  
  Who is really running the USA at the moment? It can’t be the old guy. He can’t remember what he had for dinner last night.
  And I doubt it’s the fake woman of colour. She was picked by someone and you can bet that also wasn’t the old guy. So presumably that same person that is running the country. Who is it?
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:56am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Obama?
    
    11 3
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    March 10, 2021 9:29am
  - Thought Criminal
    
    The same Washington insiders and powerful lobbies that have always run it.
    
    Do you really think changing the president changes who runs America?
    
    24 2
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    March 10, 2021 9:57am
    - Apropos of the Wet Snow
      
      It’s the election fortifiers who are in charge, that “well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information.” Even TIME magazine says so.
      
      7 1
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      March 10, 2021 12:46pm
      - SB2
        
        Even TIME magazine says so?
        
        Really?
        
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        March 10, 2021 2:19pm
      - Apropos of the Wet Snow
        
        Absolutely. TIME is the source of my “cabal” quote:
        
        https://time.com/5936036/secret-2020-election-campaign/?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=editorial&utm_term=politics_2020-election&linkId=110717147
        
        5 1
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        March 10, 2021 3:08pm
  - Raphael
    
    Pelosi? in that stream that they cut him off, just before the feed cuts he says “I’ll do whatever you want me to Nancy”
    
    17 2
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    March 10, 2021 10:02am
  - DeepBlue
    
    Clintons
    
    3 0
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    March 10, 2021 11:51am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Susan Rice ?
    
    3 0
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    March 10, 2021 12:17pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    I dont think any president in near terms ever has run the country,
    All except for Trump in recent terms and possibly JFK in earlier terms.
    Thats my unsubstantiated opinion for good or bad.
    
    7 1
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    March 10, 2021 2:03pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Have to agree about JFK. He was the last true Democrat and look at what the bastards did to him
      
      7 2
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      March 10, 2021 3:07pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        You have commented similarly several times before, Steve.
        
        What exactly do you mean when you say, “and look at what the bastards did to him[.]”
        
        You do realise “the bastards” were not obvious Democrats, don’t you? I mean, without going into any detail, we’re talking primarily about the CIA, here.
        
        Please explain what you’re trying to tell us.
        
        2 0
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        March 10, 2021 6:37pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Obama and Killary – under the guidance of Soros
    
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    March 10, 2021 3:06pm
- kowtow
  
  Had that been Trump it would have led the “news” last night . Not the Oprah farce , which shouldn’t have led any serious news broadcast.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:19am
Benedict Yu

I think this has been suggested before but I will repeat it. It would be great if DPF would consider a “gold” rating for commenters who have not had any moderated comments for say, 12 months. These folk could post comments without moderation.

Of course it is not zero risk but it is low risk. It would significantly reduce the workload of the moderators. And I thank you for your work moderators. ?

It is simply impossible for most people to post under their own names because there is the risk of major adverse consequences. There are many examples of that happening and the risk is higher than ever.
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March 10, 2021 8:17am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I don’t know if you were around when SB2 was doxxed on this blog. Quite nasty.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:30am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Link?
    
    20 2
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    March 10, 2021 8:57am
  - Swifty
    
    People eventually get fed up with being slurred, abused, falsely labelled with appalling names, and falsely accused of appalling behaviour. Quite normal.
    
    19 1
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    March 10, 2021 9:12am
    - Bobba Fret
      
      If you want abuse etc. just go over to The Standard. I once made a comment there …..never again. (I think it may have been about David Clark riding his bike and driving to the beach in level 4 lockdown). I basically said he was wrong to do that and set a bad example. I got heaps of abuse along with them defending the indefensible. Whereas if a National MP even farts they are calling for a resignation.
      
      14 2
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      March 10, 2021 10:57am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        I commented on the Strandard for about 4 days.
        I now have a badge of honour – lifetime ban. Fuck them
        
        4 2
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        March 10, 2021 3:10pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    I thought he doxxed himself.
    
    26 2
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    March 10, 2021 9:25am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Yes,
      he told us all one Christmas Eve that was doing a reading at his Church.
      
      It appears his name was on the duty roster.
      
      21 3
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      March 10, 2021 10:03am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        In your opinion, Maggy, did that justify Kiwibloggers publishing his personal details on this blog?
        
        2 19
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        March 10, 2021 10:08am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Where were personal details published?
        
        Strikes me folks had to tell stephieboy that he had exposed himself.
        
        Here’s All-on-red stating that stephieboy was an idiot, but still deserved his privacy.
        
        He’s so dumb skiting about giving the reading. Hes made himself easy to identify.
        That’s all I’m going to say. As much as I think he’s a complete fuckwit he is entitled to his privacy.
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2017/12/general_debate_28_december_2017.html#comment-2107634
        
        17 3
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        March 10, 2021 10:31am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I’m surprised you don’t recall his name and church being published on the blog.
        
        3 9
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        March 10, 2021 10:38am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I am happy to abide by the rules of this blog, mikenmildagain.
        
        I do not believe in invading the life of private individuals.
        I do not believe in telling lies about folks or posting abuse about them.
        I have never been censured for posting anything on this blog.
        Perhaps you could explain why you indulge in such behaviour here.
        
        18 3
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        March 10, 2021 11:56am
      - SB2
        
        MW,
        
        And who has invaded your private life on KB exactly?
        
        And when did I tell lies about you?
        
        Most of your reaction to criticism is what is known as super, super sensitivity
        
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        March 10, 2021 2:22pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        And when did I tell lies about you?
        
        Did you forget to read the link I put up yesterday when you stated that I was on the alt-right bandwagon?
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/03/general_debate_09_march_2021.html#comment-2903644
        
        Have you forgotten that you labelled me – an Alt-right Trumpeter?
        
        Where is the evidence that I am a member of any Alt-right group?
        
        Do you really think accusing a person with my surname – (which is represented by only ONE family in NZ )- of belonging to the Alt-Right, after you had spent a year or so on this blog linking to White supremacist crap and neo-Nazi mutterings was an acceptable way to behave?
        
        Do you really think that I should stop being so sensitive and just up with questions on this blog as to whether I’m menopausal, or whether my tits are saggy?
        
        I have asked you repeatedly why you have singled me out for your abuse, lies and obsessive stalking of my posts. …. but you never proffer an answer, just deny that you have written the stuff which I easily locate in the KB archives.
        
        9 2
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        March 10, 2021 3:18pm
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    Like someone else said (with admirable wit) to Martin, when he accused DPF of ‘doxxing’.
    
    “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” -Inigo Montoya
    
    If someone blabs about themselves, and can easily be worked out by a check of public Facebook profile or the like, it is not doxxing.
    It is called being an incautious fool.
    Think about what you put on the world wide web, under your own name, address or birth date.
    Unless you want marketeers or nigerian princes knocking on your door – don’t.
    It aint doxxing, son.
    
    7 1
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    March 10, 2021 2:01pm
- Apropos of the Wet Snow
  
  “It is simply impossible for most people to post under their own names because there is the risk of major adverse consequences.”
  
  And some people still refuse to accept that we live in a Totalitarian society, albeit a soft version. I guess they wouldn’t realise this if they had nothing interesting or heterodox to say. Goldfish don’t realise they live in a glass bowl either, until they bang their heads up against the limits.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:36am
- Tony Stuart
  
  I thought that for a long time too. But after two years of posting under my own name, I’ve had no “major adverse consequences”, probably because I think more now before I hit the “Post Comment” button, as I have to own any comment I make.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:57am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Good point. Me, I’m happy to remain anonymous. Kiwiblog is not a safe space for sharing any personal information, like one’s occupation or even whether one is a moderator.
    
    8 8
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    March 10, 2021 10:09am
    - Paulus
      
      As a result of not using my name since this blog started I eventually have everything I say moderated.
      
      4 2
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      March 10, 2021 1:50pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Depends what is happening in your life.
    
    When SB2/stephieboy tried to link my name with neo-Nazis, I didn’t appreciate it.
    My husband’s auntie was still alive in Palmerston North at the time.
    She was born in Germany and lived through the Nazi era… At the age of 90 she didn’t need folks enquiring as to her background.
    
    Similarly, when mikenmildagain wrote on this blog that I don’t care for the Environment, how could that affect companies/projects that had been seeking my advice on Restoration projects?
    
    What effect could it have on volunteer groups if they were to believe that I’m a racist and a member of the Alt-right.
    
    Clearly, these labels have been biffed at me to make sure some mud sticks and my private life beyond KB is stuffed up.
    
    27 3
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    March 10, 2021 10:20am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Same with a surname like mine, even though my Grandfather came to NZ from South Africa in 1913. Somehow that makes me a Japie (Yarpie)
      
      3 2
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      March 10, 2021 3:18pm
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    No adverse consequences for me either, and I’ve been commenting under my own name since 2004 and working in Wellington the whole time. If I have failed to offend anyone, please accept my apologies. That was never my intention.
    
    13 0
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    March 10, 2021 11:16am
    - Ian Boag
      
      I just collect downticks 🙂
      
      9 4
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      March 10, 2021 11:30am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Happy to assist !
        
        5 1
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        March 10, 2021 12:20pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    I say to my kids and hopefully one day they will understand.
    
    “A clear conscience is a marvellous thing, Hold your head high.”
    
    4 1
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    March 10, 2021 2:08pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    Completely agree, Tony.
    
    I have commented here, under my real name, for seven-and-a-half years, with no consequences, adverse or otherwise, whatsoever.
    
    1 0
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    March 10, 2021 6:48pm
- Raphael
  
  There is nothing that says you have to post under your own name (I don’t because I work a LOT with Local Govt) but you have to provide DPF with your real name to post without hitting the queue)
  
  15 0
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  March 10, 2021 10:06am
  - Local Miller
    
    *** HOLD FOR MOD ****
    My real name is in my profile, and I still have to be moderated. I’ve also never had a commented [moded] because I’ve posted something unacceptable. I think extending the “no mod” list to include users with a clean record is more than reasonable and would have three positive results:
    1) Comments would flow more freely
    2) People would be more careful knowing they could lose their status and go back to being moderated
    3) The load on the moderators would be reduced.
    
    It would be simple enough to put a condition in that you lose your status if you post a comment that needs to be moderated. Since the moderators read most of the posts any way, it would be simple for them to pick up on anyone who “breaks the rules”
    
    5 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:25am
    - David Farrar
      
      I’ve added you to the autocomment list.
      
      4 0
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      March 10, 2021 4:01pm
- curry4me
  
  Benedict Yu: Sounds like a good idea. I hope it gets implemented.
  
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  March 10, 2021 5:44pm
Maggie Pie

Home for Easter 🙁

I wonder on what basis MBIE will consider a waiver of MIQ costs – financial hardship or compassionate grounds ?

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1369354836618190850
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March 10, 2021 8:20am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Well, assuming he is deported, he won’t pay MIQ costs, as he is a NZ citizen returning permanently.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:32am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    OK. Thnx mike. So we’ll be paying for it then?
    
    16 2
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    March 10, 2021 8:55am
    - Frank the tank
      
      Relax Grunter just purchased some new Zimbabwean money printing presses.
      
      18 2
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      March 10, 2021 9:35am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Maybe I will send him my 100 trillion dollar note from Zimbabwe for design ideas. It is worth NZ$3.85
        
        4 2
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        March 10, 2021 3:23pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Yes, the government is paying for the vast majority of MIQ costs. People who don’t qualify, are issued with an invoice, but I don’t know what the success rate is in collecting that debt.
      
      12 0
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      March 10, 2021 10:11am
      - Charmaine Hawke
        
        I believe it is not high Mike but then again what do you expect when they are not sent out until 90 days after MIQ stay.
        
        9 1
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        March 10, 2021 10:38am
- doublehappy
  
  Most frightening is to scroll down to “more Comments” and read what look like normal people are saying about their hatred for MikeHoskins and their love for Cindy. Unbelievable!
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:04am
Maggy Wassilieff

Trans Tasman bubble – just a mirage?

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2103/S00051/nz-cant-wait-any-longer-for-a-trans-tasman-bubble.htm
25 2
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March 10, 2021 8:30am
- canfel
  
  NSW a state with 50+ days free community transmission , Making passengers do 14days in Auckland ??… they should be flying into Christchurch with dedicated transtasman planes and crews…
  
  https://www.wslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/covid-19-ce-messages/ce-covid-19-staff-update-08-mar-2021
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:22am
Kiwi_in_Paris

Interesting video explaining the Covid vaccines: https://rumble.com/ve9nen-the-so-called-covid-19-vaccine.html
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March 10, 2021 8:35am
Maggy Wassilieff

Why just the one vaccine for NZ?

Barely three months ago, the government was priding itself on cannily spreading its vaccine bets between Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novovaxx and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine being produced by its subsidiary, Janssen.

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL2103/S00032/on-some-of-the-moral-objections-being-levelled-at-covid-vaccines.htm
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March 10, 2021 8:36am
- rangitoto
  
  We are probably getting some of the batch that was intended for India. Pfizer withdrew their application for approval as the Indian Government wanted more proof of safety than Pfizer had.
  
  25 2
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  March 10, 2021 8:52am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    I don’t want the Indian castoff’s either.
    
    12 4
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    March 10, 2021 9:31am
    - kowtow
      
      The Indians might have realised they couldn’t keep it cold enough for a proper roll out .
      
      This is a country that lacks basic electric infrastructure .
      
      9 2
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      March 10, 2021 10:42am
      - sooty
        
        It’s all ok, we are just going to give those vaccines we don’t want on to the pacific islands, so we can go for holidays!
        
        3 1
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        March 10, 2021 1:11pm
      - SB2
        
        kowtow,
        
        “This is a country that lacks basic electric infrastructure”
        
        BS!
        
        1 5
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        March 10, 2021 2:38pm
  - MCos
    
    From this article
    “Local company Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd is running trials for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, which is expected to be approved this month or next.”
    https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-india-pfizer-idUSKBN2A50GE
    
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    March 10, 2021 1:18pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Not 100% sure but most vaccines are made there.
    
    More protectionism than outcomes i’m guessing as I believe Pfeizer not made there?
    
    Other will know.?
    
    2 1
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    March 10, 2021 2:12pm
- Bill Felt
  
  Oh Maggie. Have you not learnt yet the perpetual gap between the announcement and actual delivery!
  
  18 2
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  March 10, 2021 10:03am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Was that the real announcement, or the announcement about making an announcement?
    
    5 2
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    March 10, 2021 3:26pm
  - RW Capitalist
    
    the perpetual gap between the announcement and actual delivery!
    The very definition of ASPIRATION.
    
    1 0
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    March 10, 2021 8:50pm
- SB2
  
  MW, you obviously need some assurance to allay your concerns.
  
  I’ve received my first jab with the second one later in the month.
  
  Helpful?
  
  1 5
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  March 10, 2021 2:37pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Still stalking my posts, stephieboy.
    
    It’s not about you…
    
    Different vaccines have different protocols… some folks may not be able to take the Pfizer vaccine…
    read the link.
    
    5 2
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    March 10, 2021 3:44pm
Maggie Pie

Just speaking with one of the girls from tennis.
She reminded me that this time last year, we were still walking around with our faces naked like a bunch of sluts.
29 3
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March 10, 2021 8:43am
- Antoine
  
  Is anyone else developing a bit of a ‘thing’ about masks on ladies?
  
  A.
  
  10 6
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  March 10, 2021 8:46am
  - Frank the tank
    
    No
    
    21 0
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    March 10, 2021 9:19am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Women should be obscene but not heard?
    
    20 1
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    March 10, 2021 9:26am
  - Apropos of the Wet Snow
    
    Not in the slightest, but perhaps the boyfriends of the ugly ones might be.
    
    8 3
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    March 10, 2021 10:03am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Is that the reason we went back to paper bags over plastic?
      
      0 0
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      March 10, 2021 8:52pm
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Switzerland is!
    
    9 1
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    March 10, 2021 10:09am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Indeed…
      https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-56314173
      
      6 1
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      March 10, 2021 10:38am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    If you want abuse etc. just go over to The Standard. I once made a comment there …..never again. (I think it may have been about David Clark riding his bike and driving to the beach in level 4 lockdown). I basically said he was wrong to do that and set a bad example. I got heaps of abuse along with them defending the indefensible. Whereas if a National MP even farts they are calling for a resignation.
    
    13 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:06am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    Perhaps only ugly people should wear masks?
    
    7 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:15am
    - sooty
      
      But are they all called Karen?
      
      5 1
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      March 10, 2021 1:13pm
Maggy Wassilieff

NZ aiding USA’s military machine

https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/09-03-2021/nz-rocket-launches-may-breach-nuclear-free-laws-say-peace-groups/
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March 10, 2021 8:45am
- mikenmildagain
  
  They are drawing a long bow. MBIE has already determined that launching the satellite from NZ does not contribute to nuclear weapons programmes or capabilities.
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:50am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The Minister had no idea as to what the satellite was carrying.
    
    13 3
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    March 10, 2021 10:38am
    - Bob
      
      The Minister has no idea…..
      there, fixed it for you.
      
      13 1
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      March 10, 2021 12:14pm
    - SB2
      
      MW, nor do you!
      
      0 7
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      March 10, 2021 2:43pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Of course I don’t
        
        No one in NZ is allowed to know.
        
        Check our Government’s agreement with the US Government for them to run the
        rocket launch station on Mahia Peninsula.
        
        But I reckon the CCP knows
        
        The ultimate customer for the satellite may be GMS Zhaopin, a Chinese company planning a satellite constellation. It has been linked to a German company, KLEO Connect, that has announced plans for a constellation to provide internet of things services.
        
        https://spacenews.com/rocket-lab-launches-secretive-communications-satellite-for-ohb/
        
        4 1
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        March 10, 2021 3:41pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    The Green Party is not too impressed
    
    “The launch of a satellite that enables weapons of war to more precisely target people does not comply with the principle for authorising New Zealand space activity,
    
    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2103/S00056/greens-say-rocket-lab-launch-breaches-national-security.htm
    
    5 1
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    March 10, 2021 2:48pm
    - curry4me
      
      Maggy Wassilieff: It must be good if the ‘Greens’ don’t like it.
      
      2 0
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      March 10, 2021 5:50pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        I’m with the Greens on this one.
        
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        March 10, 2021 7:53pm
- Nickc2
  
  Oh FFS, these nutters can’t help themselves when there is an opportunity to bag the US. They don’t say anything when the Russians or Chinese do anything to enhance their nuclear profile.
  Do they consider the peaceful purposes of satellites? No, thought not.
  
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  March 10, 2021 11:37am
WaynelSexton

You know the Pfizer Not-Vaccine is safe when the CEO won’t even take it.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9333157/Pfizer-CEO-Albert-Bourla-cancels-trip-Israel-hes-not-fully-vaccinated.html
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March 10, 2021 8:47am
Kiwi_in_Paris

I am in Europe, but I just received a text from my UK doctor, inviting me to come on in to START my Covid “vaccineS”. I sent them back an Amy Winehouse music vid, “They tried to get me to take the vaccines, I said No No NO!” haha.
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March 10, 2021 8:47am
I remember when

Was Chris Hipkins drawing a rather long bow when mentioning yellow fever as example for covid vaccine passport.
Yellow fever has approx 200,000 cases and 30,000 deaths every year.
Of those who develop severe cases 20% to 50% die.
So in total 15% of cases are fatal.
Okay you need a mosquito!
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March 10, 2021 8:54am
- cmm
  
  He should rather mention Spanish Flu which was many times worse than CV19 (over 100 times worse, depending on how you count).
  
  And that all just went away by itself.
  
  Sure Spanish Flu lives, but in the background and we don’t disrupt our lives for it.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:34am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    That is not correct. Spanish flu did not “go away”. It stopped being transmitted because everyone was either dead or so many had caught it and recovered that herd immunity was established.
    
    I guess that is one way to end a pandemic, but there are these things called vaccines now which are kind of better.
    
    Also Spanish flu is “not there in the background”. It does not work like that. All flu viruses today are descendents of thousands of preceding viruses. And one day another deadly and contagious flu virus will hit. Or a contagious corona virus with a 3o percent mortality rate like MERS.
    
    We got off lightly with COVID but in the next century our luck will run out.
    
    11 2
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    March 10, 2021 10:32am
    - Local Miller
      
      In case you weren’t aware, “COVID” is a flu virus, it’s part of the same group of viruses, hence the name designation of COVID-19. While there are differences, they are in symptoms, demographics impacted (age, co-morbidities, etc.) and infection/transmition rates and vectors. Based on this, we could say COVID 19 is the that “one day another deadly and contagious flu virus”. The only problem is it isn’t actually as deadly as they are telling us. Yes, if you are over 65, and particularly over 75 you are at a higher risk, and if you have any co-morbidities even higher, but for the rest the risks are miniscule, and even for the at risk patients, the risks are still not massive.
      And vaccines are not actually better. Natural immunization is much better and longer lasting than vaccines, the benefits of GOOD vaccines is the death rate is lower and we have control over who gets the vaccine. It’s a pity we don’t have a good vaccine given the ones out now only have a 95% success rate vs 99.9% recovery rate for the virus, and we still don’t know if you’ll need another vaccine in a year’s time.
      
      6 5
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      March 10, 2021 11:42am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “Natural immunization is much better and longer lasting than vaccines,”
        
        Good grief. NO NO NO.
        
        I am but going to respond. As pharmachick said “it is like crying into a void”
        
        And no SARS-COV-2 is a coronavirus. NOT an influenza virus.
        
        11 0
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        March 10, 2021 1:06pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Covid-19 is not caused by a flu virus
        
        The Virus causing Covid-19 is a completely different organism from the Influenza viruses responsible for the flu.
        
        https://asm.org/Articles/2020/July/COVID-19-and-the-Flu
        
        7 2
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        March 10, 2021 1:40pm
    - oldfella
      
      Benedict, climate change will destroy the planet in the next dozen or so years so maybe we won’t have to worry about any pesky future virus getting us. /s
      
      11 1
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      March 10, 2021 11:46am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        No. The climate change thing will eventually end. Technology and markets will transition us away from fossil fuels and politicians will stop their idiocy ineffective rantings.
        
        The biggest future threat is a contagious highly lethal virus. Imagine a virus as contagious as measles but with a 30 percent mortality rate.
        
        7 1
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        March 10, 2021 1:10pm
    - cmm
      
      You are correct that the virus itself did not “go away” but lives on
      
      But the pandemic did go away. The pandemic ended and normal life returned.
      
      “I guess that is one way to end a pandemic, but there are these things called vaccines now which are kind of better.”
      
      Well we keep hearing that we need 75% vaccination rates to achieve herd immunity. That will never happen with the current restrictions on vaccine use.
      
      4 2
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      March 10, 2021 1:07pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        No no no. The UK is well on track to achieving 90 percent vaccination rates and 99 percent for over 75s.
        
        All of the evidence about the vaccines is in the public domain.
        
        3 1
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        March 10, 2021 1:12pm
    - Master Mariner
      
      Out of interest and Im sure many on here have done the same , Iwas watching about the Spanish Flu ,
      2 x things immediately stood out as too why it targeted the young and active,
      
      1. The elderly were partially immune due to an earlier virus from Russia and therefore had some immunity.
      2. The fittest that succumbed was because there Immunity system over reacted and because of extra fitness and health they were more prone. So in effect it was there own bodies immunity that killed them.
      
      Kind of makes sense ?
      
      Pharmachick , Love to hear your thoughts?
      
      1 1
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      March 10, 2021 2:23pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Labour can’t count – we already know that
    
    4 2
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    March 10, 2021 3:32pm
  - curry4me
    
    cmm: Spanish Flu killed my great, great grandmother in 1918.
    
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    March 10, 2021 5:53pm
- Wayne Mapp
  
  He was using it as an example. Plenty of us still remember the yellow vaccination cards.
  
  It is almost certain that airlines will require proof of vaccination, or a good medical reason why you don’t have one if you want to travel. Same for cruise ships.
  
  So Kiwi_in_Paris might be stuck there for quite some time.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:43am
  - I remember when
    
    Let’s be honest Wayne they would only need vaccination cards for people with co-morbidities and 65+.
    Problem solved.
    
    10 3
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    March 10, 2021 10:45am
  - NoFax
    
    I think Air NZ made it clear that they were not requiring anything. Rather it is governments making the requirement. Air NZ just wants an easy way for their customers to follow the regulations.
    
    3 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:50am
- Master Mariner
  
  The natural solution, And have said many times on here.
  Why reinvent the wheel.
  A lot of countries you have to have a Yellow Fever Card.
  I do as a Mariner and have all vaccinations in it and updated.
  Why is NZ and Air NZ dabbling in Vaccination Passports is any ones guess as Yellow fever is recognised by WHO and allows travel.
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:15pm
Kiwi_in_Paris

Seems Nicola Sturgeon was a naughty girl when she was a lawyer too:

https://petercherbi.blogspot.com/2021/03/first-interests-judge-recommended-for_8.html
18 2
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March 10, 2021 9:01am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Wow!!!!!
  
  Might be difficult to sweep all this under the carpet.
  
  14 2
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  March 10, 2021 10:50am
  - sooty
    
    Wonder if her carpet is as lumpy as Cindy’s?
    
    5 1
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    March 10, 2021 1:18pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Ask the maid/cleaner. Jaspinda does not work full stop. Oh wait, she wrapped some chips for a short time
      
      4 2
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      March 10, 2021 3:56pm
Captain Mainwaring

Apparently a majority of New Zealanders want the Govt. to keep the borders closed.
Obviously a majority of New Zealanders think a functioning economy is unimportant.
No wonder we’re in the shit and have the Government we deserve.
45 3
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March 10, 2021 9:04am
- burt
  
  That’s what happens when more people are reliant on welfare than are paying taxes. We know how this ends, welcome to New Venezealand.
  
  36 3
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  March 10, 2021 9:10am
  - oldfella
    
    Nah, burt, welcome to ayoteearower.
    
    6 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:48am
  - SB2
    
    burt, zzzzzzz,,
    
    2 6
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    March 10, 2021 2:44pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Closed means NZ’s spending money here. My work can’t keep up now, but last year was shit
  
  3 3
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  March 10, 2021 4:01pm
Maggie Pie

TWITTER TRENDING…

Meghan tells Oprah off camera, “We had to leave the UK, we felt our Family may be in danger. Prince Andrew kept offering to babysit for us”

https://twitter.com/TheJeremieFern/status/1369060110136471552
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March 10, 2021 9:15am
Nickc2

Dictatorship rears its ugly head again.

Of much concern to me is that our Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) has taken it upon themselves what WE WILL have our daily dose of Te Reo whether we like it or not. THEY HAVE SPOKEN!

The BSA has stated they will no longer entertain complaints relating to TV’s talking heads dropping Te Reo words/phrases into their shows because Te Reo is an official language. That, it may be but surely if there are sufficient complaints about it, consideration must be given to its furtherance in NZ Newscasts. What they fail to consider is that should viewer numbers decline even further, their advertisers may choose to move their advertising dollars elsewhere.

Don’t we have a Maori TV channel where one of its aims presumably is the furtherance of Te Reo for those who choose to do so?
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March 10, 2021 9:21am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Te Reo which is not properly used cannot be an official language. Peppering English with Maori words, many of which are themselves transliterations from English, does not make them Maori or English or authorised. It just makes them very irritating in context and destroys both languages.
  
  Unlike other Pacific nations our Maori ceded authority to the Crown else they be wiped out by their brethren. They came close to self extinction. Their language was frozen at that time too. It may have developed on the marae for respect matters but that is not the public language.
  
  Others like Samoa developed their language but not to the extent that it would work alone in the developed world. They teach both in their homogenous society. We cannot profitably do that as their are too few Maori root words and many of those are already borrowed.
  
  Teaching Maori leads to other complications. The grammar is vastly different and Polynesian societies are quietly switching to English forms. Pronouns are a headache as they have vastly more describing different interpersonal relationships. It would be difficult to teach English to a child brought up in Maori.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:50am
  - Jack5
    
    Maori language will continue to slip to being a cultural language of a small remote country.
    
    The current mad push to ram it down citizens’ throats via our now Stalin-scale State media monopoly, will fail.
    
    It’s astonishing that this tiny, remote country is trying to replace English, the world language of business, diplomacy, science, technology, the internet with a Polynesian language in which fewer than 10 per cent of the citizens are fluent.
    
    Now, c’mon Milky, say no-one’s trying to replace English in New Zealand. Oh yeah?
    
    36 3
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    March 10, 2021 10:01am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      No one is trying to replace English in New Zealand.
      
      3 26
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      March 10, 2021 10:14am
      - lifesgood
        
        LOL! What an idiot, but we all knew that already, didn’t we?
        
        11 3
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        March 10, 2021 11:28am
      - Odakyu-sen
        
        Te Reo is not some chorizo sausage to be chopped up and thrown into an English stew to “give it more flavor.”
        
        12 1
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        March 10, 2021 2:02pm
      - rockape
        
        Isn’t language about communication. If most of your audience don’t understand what’s the point other than virtual signalling.
        
        6 2
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        March 10, 2021 3:16pm
    - Bluegrass
      
      On this English language theme – back in the day I lived in Japan for a total of 6 years ( two 3-year stints) – taught myself street-Japanese then did a formal course as I like the language and the culture.
      
      My Japanese buddies appreciated it (and of course it made daily life in Japan easier), but the official in-office language of the well-known Japanese engineering contractor we project managed during the engineering phase of a $15B gas-to-liquid train was English.
      
      As they say in English (don’t know what it is in Maori) – go figure.
      
      14 1
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      March 10, 2021 11:04am
  - Nickc2
    
    Agree. All the more reason that the BSA should pull their heads in and do what they were employed to do. IMO, they were not employed to play racial politics with taxpayer-funded Public Broadcasters.
    
    Chris Faafoi must step in and put the BSA and TV Stations in their place.
    
    12 1
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    March 10, 2021 10:16am
    - Local Miller
      
      LOL, like Cris Faafoi is going to go against party policy and discourage the BSA from ensuring that Te Reo Māori is forced upon the sheeple.
      
      9 3
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      March 10, 2021 11:53am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        The Hon Kris Fa’afoi is not Maori, his parentage is Tokelauan so he is not attached to any NZ tribe.
        
        5 2
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        March 10, 2021 4:12pm
- Fletch
  
  Language is all about communicating. Why force us to learn this language that so few speak? What’s the aim? At least if you’re learning a programming language you have something useful from it. Why have the country speaking Maori? So we can all feel woke? Or is it for something more sinister?
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:10am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Who is forcing you to learn it?
    
    3 21
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    March 10, 2021 10:14am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Why force us to learn this language that so few speak? What’s the aim?
    
    To create an elite corps in the NZ Public Service.
    
    24 2
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    March 10, 2021 11:02am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      But what use is it to those Public Servants? They already have a more developed language and unless they are actual tribal members or, say, at a tangi have no rights to participate in tribal customary ritual.
      Public servants are mangling Te Reo using it poorly in posters.
      
      6 3
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      March 10, 2021 4:18pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Fletch, what does it matter if some people choose to learn Maori? And speak it?
    
    No one – including you – is being forced to learn it. No one – including you – is being forced to use it.
    
    I thought the ethos of Kiwiblog is to support individual freedoms? I’m not learning Te Reo, but I have no problem with those that want to. I respect their freedom to make their own choices.
    
    3 2
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    March 10, 2021 2:21pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Our children are in danger of having Maori language invade their schools.
      
      5 2
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      March 10, 2021 4:19pm
- doublehappy
  
  Do we need English-speaking channels, where people who only speak English can understand everything that is spoken? Much like the Chinese and Indian channels have. Crazy; but it seems we are headed in that direction.
  
  16 1
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  March 10, 2021 11:01am
- crikey
  
  “ Te Reo is an official language.”
  
  But pidgin English is not!
  
  18 1
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  March 10, 2021 11:24am
  - kowtow
    
    Looking at those Cop shows it appears to be mandatory for our Woke Force , they all seem to speak with a pidgin accent these days.
    
    They probably have a “Street Cred” 101 course up at the “college” .
    
    5 2
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    March 10, 2021 2:28pm
- graham
  
  The Government and some big corporations have stated that the Maori language is a national treasure, and must be nurtured, protected, encouraged, etc etc. They have all these ambitious plans to get 85 per cent of New Zealanders valuing Maori, one million New Zealanders able to speak basic Maori by 2040, etc.
  
  They call it “normalisation”; that it becomes perfectly normal to hear Maori being spoken at work, on the streets, in shops, hospitals, and so on. But the reality is, it’s just not going to happen.
  
  The news reporters will continue saying the exact same four or six words as they go to a commercial break, and all the Government departments can continue to rename themselves, with the sole impact being that when anyone wants to find out what department they need to contact for anything they’ll have to use Google to find out because there’s no way you’ll be able to work out that first home grants, for example, are administered by something called Kainga Ora.
  
  But none of this is “normalising” the speaking of Maori. It may now be “normal” to hear the EXACT SAME six to ten words in Maori on the news night after night, but that’s just virtue signalling, plain and simple. It is nothing more than a very superficial attempt to introduce Maori, and that’s all it will remain. It is not now, nor will it ever be, normal to hear Maori being spoken in New Zealand, because the vast majority of people simply don’t understand it. Which is why, for all the proud announcements that NZTA is now called Waka Kotahi, we all still talk about NZTA and you still go to a website where 99.9% of everything that is written on there is in English.
  
  It’ll never be more than that, because as Fletch says language is all about communicating. And if nobody understands you, then what’s the point?
  
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  March 10, 2021 11:45am
- SB2
  
  Nicke2 , we will believe you when the PM issues a decree shutting down Kiwiblog and its host is sent off to a Gulag. FEMA camp
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:46pm
- Jack5
  
  The Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) comprises three women (one of them a former Radio NZ journo) and a man who was formerly the chief film censor.
  
  https://www.bsa.govt.nz/about-us/who-we-are/
  
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  March 10, 2021 3:07pm
Tony Stuart

Another flagship Labour policy isn’t delivering:

Almost a year after the Government announced that ‘shovel-ready’ construction projects would be a major plank in its economic recovery plan, barely any shovels have actually made it into the ground.

National’s Infrastructure spokesperson Andrew Bayly says the whole point of the Government’s flagship programme was speed.

“These were supposed to be projects that would be up and running in six to 12 months to help offset job losses elsewhere in the economy,” Mr Bayly says.

“Instead the Government has shown its typical lack of urgency when it comes to delivery, today revealing under questioning that of the 205 projects that are part of the scheme, construction has only started on 49.

“A further 15 projects that the Government announced are now being reviewed or re-evaluated, meaning they may not actually go ahead. This is despite the fact they were approved and announced only a matter of months ago.

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2103/S00049/govts-shovel-ready-project-scheme-fails-to-launch.htm

I guess this raises the question; were the projects actually shovel-ready, or were they merely press release-ready?
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March 10, 2021 9:26am
- alex Masterley
  
  This sort of story makes you wonder if (a) the vacines will turn up as announced and (b) if there will be an ability to administer the vacines in sufficient volumes even if they do turn up.
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:47am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Indeed Alex. I note they are scheduled for delivery in the “second half of 2021”, which could end up being as late as November or December.
    
    I guess the only positive with a delayed roll-out is that if any long-term problems crop up with the Pfizer vaccine, we will be in a better position to make an informed decision as to whether or not we get vaccinated.
    
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    March 10, 2021 9:52am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      Didn’t the EU just suspend delivery of vaccine to Australia…they had ordered them too.
      Could be next year.
      
      5 1
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      March 10, 2021 12:54pm
    - Master Mariner
      
      Probably by that time the vaccine will not be fit for purpose due to mutation.
      
      The reply will be we have to wait for it to be upgraded for new “dangerous” variant.
      
      And so the merry round goes.
      
      3 1
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      March 10, 2021 2:38pm
      - Benedict Yu
        
        No. That is probably NOT going to happen.
        
        0 0
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        March 10, 2021 4:30pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    There is no guarantee with this do-nothing administration.
    Could the task be subcontracted to Biden?
    
    13 3
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    March 10, 2021 9:53am
    - mandk
      
      Nah, give the job to the Israelis. They are way ahead of the game.
      
      14 3
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      March 10, 2021 10:10am
      - kowtow
        
        nah , don’t get herded into the vaccination agenda.
        
        Protect the vulnerable , but let the rest of us get on with life.
        
        3 2
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        March 10, 2021 2:26pm
  - fernglas
    
    Even if they do keep to that timeline, it will be too late. The winter is almost upon us (flu vaccine time), and there seems no reason why it should not also be Covid that becomes more virulent. One leakage into South Auckland in winter could be catastrophic, and yet on the best accounts (Hipkins’), the vaccination process will take about a year. And given the high percentage of refuseniks, we may never reach herd immunity, in which case the borders will be permanently shut.
    
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    March 10, 2021 10:29am
    - Local Miller
      
      “on the best accounts (Hipkins’), the vaccination process will take about a year”
      This is crazy, Israel has a population a bit over 9 million, and they have vaccinated about 95% of their at risk population (over 50 years old) and over 50% of their total population.
      This gubernment couldn’t organize a piss up in a brewery.
      
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      March 10, 2021 12:01pm
      - virtualmark
        
        When vaccine manufacturers were making their decisions on which countries would get priority for deliveries Israel was being overwhelmed by a “second wave” of Covid. Hence why they got prioritised.
        
        Meanwhile New Zealand had no community transmission. Hence we got triaged down the list.
        
        I know those truths don’t fit neatly with your emotional outrage, but that’s what happened.
        
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        March 10, 2021 2:49pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    Don’t fear, MoH opened the first dedicated vaccine centre in South Auckland for family of port workers. Day one approx 150 vaccinated….. They had 10 vaccinators working
    
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    March 10, 2021 12:00pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    Yep, I’ve been saying that as well.
    
    No confidence from me.
    
    Easy just announce another 8 mill vaccines and country will be in raptures.
    
    Geez no wonder the Tamakis are raking it in.
    
    Time for change of job .
    
    5 1
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    March 10, 2021 2:32pm
    - RW Capitalist
      
      They seem to be bringing in 40000 doses in each plane load. per month.
      so we need another 200 plane loads.
      to get it done this year that’s about one plane load a day for the rest of the year.
      Can you still see them achieving it before say, Christmas?
      
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      March 10, 2021 8:59pm
  - Master Mariner
    
    From Media about last Air crew virius.
    
    “Before the flight attendant’s results had been returned, the woman’s partner had played a round of golf at an Auckland golf course. As a precaution it was closed for a day for deep cleaning.”
    
    How the hell do you deep clean a $%^^ golf course.
    
    I’d pay to go down and watch it.
    
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    March 10, 2021 2:35pm
- Ruahine
  
  Press Release Ready.
  That is brilliant Tony.
  
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  March 10, 2021 12:27pm
Greg Ettridge

When I was a little boy, I was given a Golly Wog.
I loved that doll more than anything.
Does that make me and my parents racists?
I think not.
My sister was the real racist, told my mother at 3 years old, she wanted the baby to be a black boy and was going to call me Honeybee.
She was banging on about Meghan yesterday, I just laughed and told her to reflect on her early life.
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March 10, 2021 9:31am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Personally, I’d be more concerned about it being a ginger 🙁
  
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  March 10, 2021 9:43am
  - crikey
    
    Now, now, be kind. Ginger lives matter too.
    
    11 1
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    March 10, 2021 11:27am
- Apropos of the Wet Snow
  
  There was a “Negro” cast metal item lying around my house when I was a kid. It was a money box. You’d place the money in the Negro’s outstretched hand, activate a lever, and it would gobble up the loot. It was quite a life-like representation.
  
  Not quite the same, but a bit like this one:
  
  https://www.thomaswatson.com/lot/metal-negro-money-box/
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:08am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    YUP – my partner has got one of these in mint condition.
    
    On the back it’s stamped… ‘Greedy Nigger Boy’ Made in Christchurch.
    
    Who knew that?
    
    15 2
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    March 10, 2021 10:34am
    - Apropos of the Wet Snow
      
      Would it substitute for a teddy bear in your window if necessary?
      
      13 2
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      March 10, 2021 10:44am
  - SB2
    
    Apropos of the Wet Snow, so would it be Ok to have an equivalent “Jube” money box adorned with this,
    
    https://www.ushmm.org/information/press/press-kits/traveling-exhibitions/state-of-deception/der-ewige-jude-the-eternal-or-wandering-jew
    
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    March 10, 2021 2:49pm
    - Apropos of the Wet Snow
      
      Certainly. Why not?
      
      6 2
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      March 10, 2021 3:11pm
- Fletch
  
  My sister and I had gollys as well. Knitted by a relative. Never made us racist.
  
  13 2
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  March 10, 2021 11:02am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I was never into dollies, but I had a topsy-turvy doll
  https://thumbs.worthpoint.com/zoom/images1/1/1016/03/vintage-antique-faces-black-white_1_853c7daa4ed53287f12df5b5e3db1467.jpg
  
  Probably be worth a few quid now, but I have no idea what happened to it.
  
  8 2
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  March 10, 2021 11:08am
  - Sacha
    
    Hah! 404!
    I knit Topsy Turvy dolls for favoured babies and they seem to be well loved. Haven’t done a black- face one though.
    Maybe this winter, when there’s nothing to watch on TV –
    
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    March 10, 2021 6:54pm
Jack5

Woke bulletin!

Disney has cancelled, for young kids, several classics from its TV/Net streaming service. They include: Peter Pan, Swiss Family Robinson, Dumbo, and The Aristocats.

Children under seven will be forbidden from watching these.

Disney says it axed Peter Pan and Swiss Family Robinson for having negative portrayals of native Americans and foreigners, respectively.

The 1941 film Dumbo features singing crows. Disney says the crows “pay homage to racist minstrel shows, where white performers with blackened faces and tattered clothing imitated and ridiculed enslaved Africans on Southern plantations.”

In Aristocats, a Siamese cat had “exaggerated stereotypical traits” such as “slanted eyes and buck teeth,” said Disney.

It added the cat “sings in poorly accented English voiced by a white actor and plays the piano with chopsticks.”

https://nypost.com/2021/03/09/disney-forbids-kids-from-watching-racist-classics/
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March 10, 2021 9:32am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Cripes!
  I am going to have my work cut out removing Disney.
  
  12 2
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  March 10, 2021 9:56am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Oh, Disney ‘forbids’ people watching those movies? Alternative headline: ‘Disney withdraws ancient movies that no longer fit its brand’.
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:22am
  - Local Miller
    
    Actually I think this comment deserves an uptick, well put MMA
    
    1 8
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    March 10, 2021 12:03pm
    - Jack5
      
      Milky, you haven’t got a third pseudonym, have you?
      
      Milky attacked the words of the internet link, rather than words in the New York post article.
      
      The word used in the NY Post headline was “prevents” rather than forbids. The reasons it gives are plausible.
      
      Look before you leap in, Milky.
      
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      March 10, 2021 1:40pm
  - Ed Snack
    
    The muppets come with an “offensive content” warning too ! Disney’s on to it (but tries not to mention that it shoots movies in places where an effective genocide is happening – China)
    
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    March 10, 2021 12:28pm
- SB2
  
  All they’ve done apprently is provide a parental guidence warning for under 7s
  
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  March 10, 2021 3:02pm
WaynelSexton

The woman gave away both the British empire and British sovereignty on her watch. So it shouldn’t be any surprise that the Queen of England’s greatest priority is not being called racist.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9343383/Queen-breaks-silence-Harry-Meghan.html
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March 10, 2021 9:45am
- kowtow
  
  you show a very poor understanding of the constitution
  
  The question of the monarchs’ power was settled on the scaffold by Cromwell and his cronies and subsequently agreed to by James II’s daughter Mary, and her Dutch husband long before the Saxe Coburg Gothas were imported to continue to keep the institution under the control of parliament.
  
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  March 10, 2021 10:37am
- SB2
  
  Successive PM’s “gave ” away the Empire that was neither longer affordable or sustainablele.
  
  1 4
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  March 10, 2021 3:04pm
Kiwi_in_Paris

“All the hippies know what is going on.” LOl.

https://gab.com/BeachMilk/posts/105858798413708896
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March 10, 2021 10:05am
- doublehappy
  
  It may be a light-hearted approach but it does bring up a lot of relevant points. Yes; Covid has done away with the dying of old age, lung disease, and flu. Yes, it has been politicized to the Nth degree, no more so than in NZ. The United Nations has even called for it to be carried on after it dies down and used to start the push for worldwide Marxism and “The Great Reset”. The “Cancel Culture” is being pushed ahead at an ever-increasing speed, largely hidden by people’s fear of Covid. Cindy’s greatest fear is losing the power Covid gives her and her inept Marxist group.
  
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  March 10, 2021 11:21am
oldfella

Stuffed puts out the begging bowl this morning without mentioning ayoteearower.
++
Momentous news, right on time
When the earth shakes or big news breaks, there’s a very good reason Kiwis turn quickly to Stuff: we deliver accurate, timely coverage you can rely on. Our journalists work around the country (and around the clock) to report trustworthy news for all New Zealanders. If Stuff is an important part of your day, please join other loyal readers in supporting our independent journalism.
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March 10, 2021 10:10am
I remember when

The article in HB Today is behind a paywall but the headline ‘”Unprecedented” Worker shortage: Livestock trucks turned away from HB Meatworks’ conjures up mixed thoughts.
If Livestock trucks are being turned away from HB Meatworks it would suggest several possible problems.
The first is a logistical problem caused by failures in communication between the works and their livestock agents.
In the bit of the article visible it suggests workers are out picking fruit instead. Is the minimum wage now making fruit picking more equitable compared with freezing works wages.
What is driving the lack of killing space.
Is it the lack of available workers.
Are farmers reducing stock being held over winter because of drought fears.
Is it an increase in the schedule. A source I was speaking to last week suggested the schedule was down but there was a lack of space.
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March 10, 2021 10:19am
I remember when

NZ Farmers Weekly. 8-3-21:
“Disruptions hit Processors:
Disrupted shipping schedules, labour shortages and dry conditions in parts of the country are starting to hamper meat processing capacity.
Shortage of labour and a squeeze on cold storage space is limiting ability of companies to work overtime and also forcing further reduced processing cuts.
“In recent weeks we have seen multiple Ports closed for periods of time, refusing container deliveries until vessels discharge and they have the opportunity to load out.”
Eighty five percent (85%) of ships calling at NZ Ports are off-schedule and delays of up to a week are common, prompting vessels to miss ports as they try to catch up.’
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March 10, 2021 10:40am
- kowtow
  
  It would appear 75 % of us are happy enough for this to continue.
  
  3 2
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  March 10, 2021 12:57pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Exactly,
  Wheres the minister for Transport the last 2 years.
  No surprises and getting worse.
  The biggest crime in all this is the total mismanagement of Ports with Political meddling.
  
  This definately not the time to have Ports operating at 60% capacity.
  Cranes not working, Lack of foresight in handling Covid in ports and shortage of trained stevedores.
  
  On top of all this is the Shipping Crisis,
  
  Liner vessels lose money daily if they cannot discharge on time.
  NZ is getting on the “too costly” to come here with a lot of vessel pulling out.
  Result skyrocket freight costs.
  This is been going on over 12 months.
  Political economical sabotage of NZ and producers.
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:47pm
- virtualmark
  
  Much of the off-schedule problem, which leads to delayed shipments or even just vessels missing ports completely, is due to delays in the Australian ports. Sure, Ports of Auckland is a clusterf#*k. But the other ports are also facing big delays and slowdowns and much of it is due to Aussie.
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:52pm
Philview

The Government’s Vision 2040 he puapua working group has provided an enlightening report.
All New Zealanders should be aware of what the Government is working on relating to future co-governance.

https://www.tpk.govt.nz/docs/undrip/tpk-undrip-he-puapua.pdf
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March 10, 2021 11:02am
- JerJer
  
  No wonder no-one wanted that released. Thats full of stuff that will never happen. These clowns can’t build houses with unlimited resources. Imagine them trying to implement this.
  
  Even if they start, it will be cancelled before they get 5% through it. Next government will abandon it.
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:14pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Thanks. We have to stop this runaway incompetent gobblement now. They are operating under Ardern’s regality.
  
  Maori are making claims for a take-back. We are going to have to get our Treaty monies back too.
  Next it will be utu. That’s what nearly got them all killed off before the implored the English Queen to step in.
  
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  March 10, 2021 4:33pm
Maggie Pie

One of the girls from tennis was just saying “… think of the shit it would cause if Hazza and Megs name their baby girl Diana”

BoL!!
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March 10, 2021 11:20am
- oldfella
  
  Maggie, being a black(ish) baby girl, Megs would probably spell Diana as Dyyanna, or Dyanarh, or some such which no one would ever get right.
  
  11 3
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  March 10, 2021 12:01pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Or, what about – ‘DINAH’
    
    https://images.app.goo.gl/usTMafxjM6s46L6z7
    
    7 2
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    March 10, 2021 1:37pm
RW Capitalist

Dear Jacinda
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9AbeALNVkk

“If that’s your best, your best won’t do”
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March 10, 2021 11:36am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOfWRM-fmig

Le Pen v Teacher’s Pet.

0:00 Le Pen Close To French Presidency 8:57 Macron Loses Control Of European Parliament 10:09 City Of London Moves Against EU. [ Looks like Teacher’s Pet could do better. TBF, he has done alright on foreign policy in Africa, and the Indo-Pacific.]
4 3
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March 10, 2021 11:49am
- Jack5
  
  The French Presidential election is in April next year.
  
  3 0
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  March 10, 2021 1:53pm
  - curry4me
    
    Jack5: Hopefully Le Pen will win it.
    
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    March 10, 2021 6:13pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7aSmH_C4kE

NSW and the ACT Rolling Out the AstraZeneca CCP Virus Vaccine Today.

New South Wales and the ACT will today begin the rollout of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. Frontline workers will be the first to receive the jabs at St George and Hornsby hospitals in Sydney. The vaccine will also be administered at the Garran Surge Centre in Canberra. Thousands of Australians have already received the jab in South Australia, Victoria, Western Australia, and Queensland. Australian-made AstraZeneca doses are expected to be available by the end of the month. [This is how a COMPETENT government does things. A total contrast to Socialist Cindy, and the no-hopers.]
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March 10, 2021 11:50am
- burt
  
  Spindy is a good name for someone who spins a lot.
  
  10 2
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  March 10, 2021 12:46pm
- virtualmark
  
  The AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine is seen as being the weakest of the five major vaccines medically – albeit it seems good enough.
  
  For Australia the important thing was that it was the one Covid vaccine that CSL could easily manufacture at their plant in Broadmeadows. So they went large on the vaccine option that allowed domestic manufacture.
  
  For NZ we have no plant that is able, let alone certified, to manufacture human vaccines. So we could/did make a different set of choices.
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:56pm
oldfella

THE LOVE GUV STRIKES AGAIN
But, but.. didn’t Slow Joe do something like this to a woman? And the MSM covered for him, so why is Cuomo getting such a hard time? /s
++
A 6th woman has come forward accusing Governor Cuomo of sexual harassment, and these latest accusations could be the worst yet.
According to the victim, a member of the governor’s Executive Chamber staff, Cuomo touched her inappropriately last year inside the governor’s mansion. She’d been summoned there on official business.
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2021/03/09/sixth-cuomo-accuser-comes-forward-alleges-governor-touched-her-inappropriately-n1431256
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March 10, 2021 12:25pm
Maggie Pie

PREIST: Do you take this man for….
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?
Better or Worse?

– an optometrists wedding.
10 4
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March 10, 2021 12:27pm
cmm

Woman calls for more regulations after huffing nox screws her up.

No agency – it’s always someone else’s fault.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124483074/woman-paralysed-after-addiction-to-nitrous-oxide-calls-for-regulation-review
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March 10, 2021 12:46pm
- burt
  
  To be fair, it is very pleasant (sometimes particularly so for females) and it is very addictive.
  
  7 1
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  March 10, 2021 12:53pm
- BananaLlama
  
  Millennials.
  
  4 1
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  March 10, 2021 12:58pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  My partner’s got hundreds of these laying around the place.
  Uses them in his air-pistols – or so he told me 🙁
  
  7 2
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  March 10, 2021 1:06pm
RW Capitalist

Is
A transtasman bubble
the same as a trans sexual West Ham fan, named Tasman?

Go on tell me you get it.
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March 10, 2021 12:56pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvuOtlpSAeY
  
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  March 10, 2021 12:57pm
Tony Stuart

Scott Morrison says that it’s not his government holding up the establishment of a trans-Tasman bubble, and that if New Zealand doesn’t want Australians spending their money in Queenstown, Wellington and elsewhere “that’s on them”.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1369437563581325325

Coincidentally, National has launched a campaign today calling for the immediate establishment of a trans-Tasman bubble, on the basis that all travelers must have a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours of travelling. Will the Government adopt ANOTHER National Covid-19 policy? Here’s hoping…
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March 10, 2021 1:28pm
- Maxx
  
  And this after Nash on ZB this morning boldly stated that it was waiting on working this out with the federal government. I guess to be fair to Nash he has no interest in supporting the tourism sector in NZ.
  
  Could it be Labour is misleading us again? How many times have we heard since July last year that they are working on this, and time and again we’ve had the aussies say they’re good to go.
  
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  March 10, 2021 3:17pm
tavita

Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, added: “One year into the global pandemic, it’s an outrage that vaccine factories are lying idle, unable to produce COVID-19 vaccines because rich countries are prioritising the patents of pharmaceutical companies ahead of the lives of people across the world. A global suspension of patents is needed to speed up the production of these vaccines everywhere.”

Yes suspend the patents. Force the drug companies to provide vaccines for free. But don’t expect any research into vaccines next time.
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March 10, 2021 1:42pm
zulumonster

“Ardern explained that messages from young people are the only ones she always makes sure to read.”
Is that because they are the only ones she understands?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/kea-kids-news/300248110/kea-kids-news-letters-from-children-prompted-jacinda-ardern-to-help-mui-dolphin
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March 10, 2021 1:59pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  So…..she is less likely to read correspondence if it is written by an adult?
  How is that something to be proud of, if her role is representing a voting population, or even society as a whole?
  Why would children, who don’t have fully developed perspectives, or accountabilities, be the primary group to seek council or input from?
  
  Also sounds like a lie in any case, since not everyone starts a letter with “Dear Miss, I am 8 years old”.
  How does she know?
  Only reads letters in coloured pencil?
  
  Fluff, mixed with illogical thinking and lacking in literal truth.
  
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  March 10, 2021 3:34pm
- cmm
  
  She’s probably just lying again anyway.
  
  As for the poor Maui dolphins. They’re probably shit scared it is going to turn into KiwiDolphin. Just leave the poor sods alone.
  
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  March 10, 2021 5:21pm
MCos

An interesting comparison between Penn Station in New York and the Atlanta airport.
https://twitter.com/mbradle3/status/1369336070639386626?s=21
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March 10, 2021 2:05pm
Fisiani

I was asked if I could name three good things that this Government has done. I answered that I was unable to name even one without some qualification. Can you help me name three good things in four years.
12 1
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March 10, 2021 2:08pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  They handed out a lot of money.
  It might have been to mitigate their own actions, but does that count as a positive thing?
  
  I am honestly trying here, and stumped.
  They banned several things, then set laws around rentals/tenancies. Ummm. Made announcements. Closed the borders to visitors, but Winston told kiwis to rush home , but only isolate rather than quarantine (i,e they made sure to import Covid, before MIQ existed).
  I actually can’t think of anything that might redeem them even though I would really like to think of something positive.
  
  They are kind?
  
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  March 10, 2021 3:41pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Boys should be taught in school about the need for mutual respect in relationships and mutual consent in sex, WHO officials said.

Don’t suppose it is worth arguing that they should learn this at home…

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/9/one-in-three-women-globally-endure-violence-who
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March 10, 2021 2:28pm
- cmm
  
  “Boys should be…” yeah well they won’t be.
  
  What teacher in (enter shitholistan of your choice) is going to go against cultural norms?
  
  In sub-Saharan Africa, rape is normal. It is pretty much expected. I’d wager that 90% or more women have been raped and 99% seriously sexually assaulted.
  
  When I say raped I don’t mean a wolf whistle or “he raped me with his eyes”. I mean actual unwelcome penetrative sex through forcing or extreme coercion.
  
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  March 10, 2021 5:31pm
Old.Mickey.Blue.Eyes

Why is it that the news of the vaccine plan on facebook is coming teh NZ labour party page, not the Government or Ministry of Health ? IS there no level too low for this government to stoop in order to bask in sme sort of glory? Or, is this the offical start of the next re-election campaign?
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March 10, 2021 2:41pm
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Politcising Covid is bad, M’kay?
  This was said from the Podium of Truth.
  By the Blessed Mother of the Pestilence herself.
  
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  March 10, 2021 3:43pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Every year I put in a few tomato plants….come harvest time, I wonder why I bothered.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124495196/tomatoes-selling-for-9c-a-kilo-at-hawkes-bay-supermarket
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March 10, 2021 2:41pm
- Swifty
  
  I stopped last year.
  
  Finally woke up.
  
  Just buy the bloody things in season when they’re as cheap as chips – and never, ever, put them in the fridge.
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:48pm
- [email protected]
  
  But they are so juicy and tasty when picked ripe and fresh out of the garden! Harvesting them is only one of the pleasures. You have to enjoy the exercise of planting them and the pride of watching them grow. Also, you know the tomatoes were not sprayed.
  
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  March 10, 2021 6:47pm
  - Swifty
    
    All good points – but, for me, it’s the constant battle against blight and birds that does my head in.
    
    If you’re like me growing in warm and humid Auckland you’ve got to be liberal with the copper spray (and even that’s no guarantee) which defeats the purpose in many ways.
    
    I’ve given them away in favour of other veges that I am more sure of success with.
    
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    March 10, 2021 8:25pm
lifesgood

Good lord. Jim Bolger just now on red radio, more left than the left. Lost his marbles? Or was he always woolly?
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March 10, 2021 2:43pm
- SB2
  
  lifesgood, rich irony alert award for you today.
  
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  March 10, 2021 2:59pm
- Cobolt24
  
  Bolger joined the Nats at the time of Muldoon if I remember correctly. He was always that sort of politician but was too spineless to stand up to Richardson and others like her.
  From Wikipedia:
  The Fourth National Government was elected on the promise of delivering a “Decent Society” following the previous Labour government’s economic reforms, known as “Rogernomics”, which Bolger criticised
  
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  March 10, 2021 5:57pm
- Gravelroad
  
  @lifesgood: he was always left wing and “woolly” – although that is unfairly maligning wool.
  Have been to a few meetings in years past when he was in a position of “power” where he spoke to the mainly farmers and rural people present as if they were know-nothing yokels.
  I recall at one meeting he called the then Labour government “evil” but went on to do exactly the same thing.
  Not a trustworthy man.
  And he didn’t do Mr Todd Muller, or the National Party any favours last year when he allegedly connived to oust Simon Bridges either.
  
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  March 10, 2021 6:02pm
Jack5

Will the Covid-19 pandemic end in time for Jacindarella to have a big wedding before the next general election?
12 3
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March 10, 2021 3:10pm
Jack5

The US-NZ satellite launcher, Rocket Lab, was touched on when an American space journalist was interviewed on Radio NZ this morning.

Eric Berger, space editor at Ars Technica, has written a book on Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

If you just want the bit of the interview about Rocket Lab, start the playback at 21:00. It gives an idea of the relative scale of SpaceX and Rocket Lab at present.

The NZ company, Rocket Lab Ltd, is owned by the US entity Rocket Lab Inc, which is to launch on Nasdaq by merging with Vector Acquisitions, which itself was launched in a $US300 million IPO in September.

Vector Acquisitions is one of hundreds of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) that have an initial public offering then look for a business or businesses to merge with.

The Wall Street Journal describes Rocket Lab as one of the front runners of the more than 100 new “small rocket” ventures compting in the world.

The interview:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2018786911
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March 10, 2021 3:45pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Reporter, “Harry, do you feel dominated by your Wife?”
Meghan “No he doesn’t”
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March 10, 2021 3:52pm
NeverMindTheBollocks

Apologies in advance if I’ve missed the discussion (it’s been a busy day); but:

National Radio this morning led with a story regarding a sharp uptick in cot deaths since a Labour Govt led change in approach to parents at risk. Great journalism, I thought, although I must have missed the excoriating interview with the Minister concerned.

Flicking through Stuff & NewsHub just now – not a mention could I find.

Does this mean National Radio have it wrong? Or have the other MSM sites turned a deaf ear?

Either way, I am simply appalled.

And please – SKS & others – no “53% voted for this shower” or “your $105m investment hard at work” – facile repetition just detracts from the seriousness of babies dying due to rank bad policy.
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March 10, 2021 3:54pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  It hasn’t been discussed here today.
  I have only found the RNZ article on this story
  
  https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/438025/unexpected-infant-deaths-on-the-rise-ministry-to-review-5m-programme
  
  RNZ doesn’t have it wrong… the other media are useless and haven’t got their A into G.
  
  This is the first time that I’ve seen folks admitting that a programme isn’t working … often researchers bluster and demand more money/more research to see if they can find out more…
  
  Related to this rise in Cot deaths are the appalling statistics and treatment of some new mums in NZ – highlighted today by Gemma McCaw’s address to parliament
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/maternal-suicide-gemma-mccaw-shares-heartbreaking-story-of-solo-mum-with-no-support/PTYWUT5QFXK2ZG4LG4YAJJR6KI/
  
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  March 10, 2021 4:27pm
  - Mike
    
    It looks like the RNZ story is based on OIA releases. So no real surprise that it isn’t widespread news yet.
    
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    March 10, 2021 5:18pm
Maggy Wassilieff

We had a fair bit of earthquake activity last week… but I don’t think we got anywhere near 25,000 quakes in that time…

That’s how many the Reykjanes peninsula has recorded in the last week…
https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/reykjanespeninsula/#view=map
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March 10, 2021 4:37pm
Gravelroad

America’s Cup yacht racing:
I know next to nothing about yacht racing but have been watching it.
It seems that unless you win the start, you have little (or no) show of winning the race.
In fact, I don’t think I have seen a race this time when a boat has been overtaken unless due to some accident.
Anyone one on here who can shed some light?
Makes for a boring competition.
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March 10, 2021 5:51pm
- James Stephenson
  
  I recall a lot of blather about “Formula 1 on the water”, I didn’t realise at the time that they meant a boring procession with no overtaking.
  
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  March 10, 2021 7:05pm
70andstilllearning

Uhm!
Have watched many races as a rescue boat skip. Don’t think I’ve ever seen two races where the size of lead or trail appeared to be controlled at will. Even an extra turn to ensure ITA don’t lose face totally.

Very evident in first race ( legs 1 & 6).
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March 10, 2021 6:35pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Aussie wants a two-way Trans-Tasman bubble.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/438099/australian-pm-scott-morrison-urges-two-way-trans-tasman-travel-bubble

What’s the hold-up Ms Ardern?
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March 10, 2021 7:12pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  The Government stipulated that 28 days without a community case would be the benchmark. Neither NSW or Queensland has had a community case for more than 50 days, but Ardern is so risk-averse that she is not prepared to open the border to those two states. That’s even with the proviso that they could close the border again at a moment’s notice, as Australia did when we had community outbreaks in Auckland.
  
  Sadly, the PM’s continued conservative approach is going to cost dozens of businesses and thousands of jobs. We really do need Australians coming over here and opening their wallets; it’s that simple
  
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  March 10, 2021 8:41pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Basically the PM is admitting that she has no faith in our system being able to detect and isolate infected folk in a timely manner.
    
    11 1
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    March 10, 2021 9:07pm
lazza

Try reading and understanding this brief, turgid and problematic excerpt from today’s NZ Herald Editorial.

Quote: “New Zealand’s main opposition party scraped back into Parliament last year due to a vacumn where miscreants gambolled”. Huh?

Further on, the tenses are scrambled, hanging phrases abound, and overall, the thing is a difficult to read grammatical and syntactic “Dogs Breakfast”.

A far cry from John Roughan et al, Editorial writers of lucid, grammatical and intelligent prose.

Maybe Granny is on her way out … after all.?
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March 11, 2021 6:26am

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