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April 21, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 21 April 2021

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General Debate

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Tony Stuart

From 20 DHB’s to just one central agency with four regional branches. Sheesh, that’s really going to help people out in the regions get access to healthcare!
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December 21, 2020 8:02am
- cmm
  
  Why? A DHB does not have just one hospital.
  
  Shutting down DHBs does not mean leaving only 4 hospitals open.
  
  NZ is a tiny country. Can we really afford 20 DHBs? Most of the population is in 4 main areas meaning most of the DHBs are serving less than 100,000 people each.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:14am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Agreed. I worked in the health sector a few years back. The non-clinical duplication and waste across 20+ DHBs was and remains breathtaking.
    
    There is only one problem with this proposal : It’s coming from Labour who have proven themselves incapable of even the most rudimentary planning and execution. Despite the noble intent, this will end in tears.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:28am
    - kevn
      
      @KK… Indeed. Noble plan but.
      If the Nats and Steven Joyce had wanted to roll it out, great. With the clown circus, we just KNOW it will be shambles. We all just KNOW that. Guaranteed.
      
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      April 21, 2021 8:34am
      - odysseus
        
        Like Transmission Gully then?
        
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        April 21, 2021 8:58am
      - EssenX
        
        TG is only one of many infrastructure projects Joyce and the Nats oversaw. Most of those projects were completed without major issues. Given that we are now into the current Labour administration’s second term, blaming Joyce and the Nats for current problems is pathetic.
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:56am
      - all true
        
        Well, a failure is programmed as it was with the Auckland Supercity.
        All what will happen is a more expensive Healthcare.
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:09am
      - Jack5
        
        And more neo-apartheid.
        
        There will be a new Maori Health Authority. It will “have the power to directly commission health services for Maori”.
        
        The RNZ report includes:
        
        And the Māori Health Authority is aimed at overcoming the huge health disparities for Maori as a whole, with lower life expectancy and higher rates of disease in many areas.
        
        Associate Health Minister (Maori Health) Peeni Henare says many Maori don’t like going to the doctor because their experiences of the health system is negative.
        
        “This authority will drive hauroa Maori and make real change.”
        
        It will represent Maori from all iwi, Henare says.
        
        “This is where we make a start.”
        
        Here’s how Wikipedia defines “hauroa Maori” as a Maori philosophy of health and well-being. It adds:
        
        There are four dimensions of Hauora; Taha Tinana (Physical Well-being – health), Taha Hinengaro (Mental and Emotional well-being – self-confidence), Taha Whanau (Social Well-being – self-esteem) and Taha Wairua (Spiritual well-being – personal beliefs) There is physical, emotional/mental, social and spiritual caring.
        
        The Whare Tapa Wha model represents aspects of Hauora as the four walls of a whare, each wall representing a different dimension. All four dimensions are necessary for strength and stability.
        
        Other models of Hauora have been designed. For example, in 1997, Moeau suggested that a fifth dimension, whenua (connection with the land), be added to the original model. In 2001, Hokowhitu also tried to have whenua added to the Tapawha model but again it was not added.
        
        Hot air …..
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:19am
    - WellingtonBFF
      
      Spot On – Labour only announces, never delivers. The year of announcements continues unabated and shamelessly!
      
      Predictions for the day:
      1. It will be called Kiwi-health (or maybe healthi-build?).
      2. The next stage will be a three year working group
      3. It will not have targets or measures.
      4. Success will be defined by how much funding is allocated not results achieved.
      5. Health stats will get worse over this time but Labour will spin it into good news with charts and graphs that have no underlying data.
      6. In 5 years time Labour will blame worsening health outcomes on 9 years of neglect and be unable to see the irony.
      7. This is one of the few things that Golriz Gharaman will not call racist – because it has a race based only element which discriminates solely on race.
      8. Light rail will be the new preferred method of accessing health services.
      
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      April 21, 2021 8:50am
      - doublehappy
        
        1/ I think it will start with an ‘A’.
        2/yes
        Hopefully, in 2½ years, we will have a new government and David Seymour leading it.
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:12am
      - kevn
        
        @ody… Yep, leave Welly with it’s one road in and one road out. Natural disasters? Tough you are virtually saying, unless you had a better idea of course….
        I think once TG is done it will be a boon and be very well used.
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:38am
    - covfefe
      
      I too work in the health sector, and I couldn’t agree more. It will be more virtue signaling and throwing $$ at their friends. Also, NZers need to take some responsibility for their own crappy health – eat better, exercise more, be less bogan, etc.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:53am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Oh, don’t get me wrong; I agree that there is unnecessary duplication of services, especially in non-clinical areas. However I worked in the health service for close to 20 years, and saw plenty of reforms. When Helen Clark abolished hospital boards and required amalgamations in 1989, larger centres (like Palmerston North) centralised a number of clinical services at Palmerston North, meaning those services ceased to exist or at best had far less availability in places like Whanganui and Levin.
    
    I presume that of the four regional branches of the national service, three will be in the North Island, and probably based around Auckland, Hamilton and Wellington. That can only mean that, over time, specialist services out in the regions will be significantly reduced, or centralised. And that will ultimately make healthcare LESS accessible for all those of us who don’t live in the major centre of the regional branch.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:30am
    - cmm
      
      Yup Tony I am in agreement there.
      
      Reducing from 20 to 4 is not the problem.
      
      The bigger problem is HOW they do it. Any restructuring by these muppets will break even if the basic idea is sound.
      
      As it is, we effectively have less DHBs anyway. Larger DHBs provide services for smaller DHBs. When I was in hospital last year we had two people from Dunners or Invercargille or somewhere on the ward.
      
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      April 21, 2021 8:36am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        Don’t worry; the Government, especially Andrew Little, has been receiving high quality, expensive advice from an army of E&Y consultants. For those unfamiliar with the abbreviation E&Y, it’s the trading name of Big Four accounting firm Ernst and Young, and their consultants come with a handsome hourly charge-out rate.
        
        https://www.newsroom.co.nz/cost-make-up-of-health-transition-unit-revealed
        
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        April 21, 2021 8:45am
      - hullkiwi
        
        Tony, I do not doubt that the govt has been getting advice from a big 4 firm (in this case E&Y). I saw it for 20 plus years working in the UK (there every govt depth hires KPMG irrespective of what depth and what the issue). However, the reality there advice is as relevant to any issue as the Sideswipe column on the back of the daily Horrid. This is because:
        1. The advice will always equate to what the minister or depth paying for the advice wants; and
        2. Very few of the people engaged as consultants have worked/been employed in the field of expertise they are advising on. In this case of E&Y advising on health sector reforms, I would be prepared to bet that actual numbers of E&Y consultants with experience of working as a manager in a NZ DHB will be close to zero. Yet here we have them advising on the future structure of NZ DHBs. What I would also be prepared to bet is that there will be ongoing work for E&Y advising on how to implement the reforms announced this morning.
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:05am
  - Prince
    
    Also it gets rid of that pesky democratic election of DHB’s every 3 years.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:48am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      That’s the one immediate positive of this decision. One avenue of apprenticeship for aspiring Labour and Green MP’s has been shut down.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:31am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The massive Health Dept didn’t make it work previously. That’s how we came to have the Regional Boards.
    This is a return to communist control. Gather everything up into the govt again.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:05am
- Inandout
  
  TS, Labour can do this because they can; like housing, mental health, energy, roading. Expect humungous stuff ups.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:18am
  - artemisia
    
    KiwiHealth
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:01am
    - Paulus
      
      Assume Heather Simpson and Brian Roche will be Chairperson and CEO.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:32am
  - Nickc2
    
    All stuff-ups will be eliminated this time, they’re putting that genius Twyford in charge.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:39am
- kowtow
  
  And no doubt all the administrators who should be culled in such an exercise will still get jobs in the new arrangement , like the many positions that were culled in the super city exercise …….
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:18am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Either that, or they will get handsome severance payments.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:46am
    - doublehappy
      
      Then re-employed.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:17am
- Simon
  
  Forerunner to closing down regional hospitals. Often better access in regional hospitals than main hospitals. Andrew Little is in charge. It will be a messy fuck up and people will die.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:26am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Often better access in regional hospitals than main hospitals
    
    A pretty vague generalisation. Postcode lottery … one of the things the reforms are aimed at.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:28am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      I take issue with that Ian, having worked in hospitals for a number of years earlier in my career. In 1989, Helen Clark’s reforms moved us from Hospital Boards to Area Health Boards. The Wanganui Hospital Board became part of the Manawatu-Wanganui Area Health Board, and there was never any doubt that the first-named in the partnership was in charge.
      
      Wanganui experienced a significant downgrading in services, which would have been far worse had Bolger not won the 1990 election, leading to Simon Upton’s White Paper on Health, and eventually to the establishment of Crown Health Enterprises, where Wanganui again became autonomous.
      
      But for areas like Marton, Taihape and Waimarino, the damage had already been done, and services disestablished by the M-WAHB were never reinstated, or at best, only offered on a very limited basis. My fear this time around is that this will happen all over again, and the post-code lottery will jackpot.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:40am
      - EssenX
        
        What?! Labour cut services!? I thought that was only a National thing!?
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:59am
      - artemisia
        
        Anyone who has been in around the beltway for more than 5 minutes has seen – centralise, decentralise, centralise, rinse and repeat.
        
        One is about control. One is about delegation.
        
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        April 21, 2021 12:02pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Poor Wanganui. I should expect that the changes in services reflect the declining importance of backwater urban areas like Whangnui. One would expect services there to have only marginally increased, or remained static, while faster growing cities like P North would have expanded services, and the largest urban areas would have greatly expanded services.
        One could imagine the inequities that would have resulted had small towns kept their mini hospitals at the expense of never improving services in the cities.
        
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        April 21, 2021 3:38pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  Q: As much as I have always agreed, there are far to many DHB’s (4 would be a better number).
  Why would we trust this clown car govt. to do anything other than run it into the ground, as they have done so far? ……With outcomes worsening for patients (as with the last time Labour were in)
  
  How was it that the 9 long years of National, managed to get better outcomes for patients,using this unwieldy leviathan, we currently have?
  Couldn’t be the incompetence of our current government (no capitalization for this misnomer)
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:36am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    Saw andrew little’s speech
    Q: why is it important to reduce the numbers of DHB’s for efficiency, but important to divide up Maori health for more local control?
    Contradictory arguments much?
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:17am
- Happychappy
  
  That’s what happens when you give the reins to a Politician and former Union Boss that has already fucked the Union membership and what they were supposed to stand for.
  Andrew Little is a habitual failure and you only have to look at his resume to understand .
  https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/300281545/mori-health-made-a-priority-in-a-raft-of-radical-changes-to-the-sector
  From his leadership of the Union, Pike River, Labour Presidency, Labour Party Leader to his time as a Minister in this Government all he has to show is ‘Failure’.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:14am
- thetiedarch
  
  The way this was developed also bothers me. The health review didn’t recommend creation of a central agency, yet Labour have done it.
  
  Seems to be a trend by this government of introducing changes they want under the guise of ‘changes recommended by a review’.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:55am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    What’s the point in reports which Ministers are not capable of understanding what they say, their meaning and their consequences.
    
    Who can advise Ministers?
    
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    April 21, 2021 12:52pm
- RockyJ
  
  This feels like Auckland Council déjà vue. From my work in the private sector I know that the best outcomes derive from small workgroups where decisions are made as close as possible to the workplace and where the KPI’s are clear.
  This is the exact opposite. To socialists the top down approach looks attractive but human nature screws it up.
  By the way the Health Boards did have KPI’s under National but the Ardern government dropped them. Their performance subsequently declined. There you are.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:35am
- KevO'Brien
  
  There will a miniumum three year wait while “re-organisation” occurs.
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:47pm
mikenmildagain

Happy Administrative Professionals Day!
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April 21, 2021 8:01am
- cmm
  
  Troughers need a special day? I thought they already had 365.25!
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:08am
  - Mike
    
    Perhaps you have never worked in an organization that needed administrative professionals (secretaries, receptionists, assistants, etc) to run things properly.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:23am
    - RoboRob
      
      Hi Mike
      
      Are you and mikenmildagain the same person? I have seen you reply to comments to mikenmildagain as if they were replying to you?
      
      p.s. Do one or both of you work in a government department, the same department? Just interested.
      
      [They are two different users – Mod]
      
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      April 21, 2021 8:55am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        [They are two different users – Mod]
        
        That’s not the answer Mike has previously given.
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/12/general_debate_27_december_2020.html#comment-2864822
        
        I think He told us that he uses one nom-de-plume when he logs on directly to KB and another when he logs on through Patreon….
        
        https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2020/12/general_debate_27_december_2020.html#comment-2864717
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:47am
      - SB2
        
        MW, you must have a remarkably extensive dossier tracking previous threads and posts going way back.
        
        What’s the motivation? Fear, insecurity, persecution complex etc
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:49am
      - kowtow
        
        More like ‘nom de troll’
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:52am
      - Jack5
        
        Maggy Wassilieff is correct.
        
        The poster Mikenmild has admitted on Kiwiblog more than once that he also uses the pseudonym “Mike”.
        
        I recall one saying the difference arises from whether he uses the usual log-on or logs on through Patreon.
        
        So either there is one person behind the two pseudonyms or one of them was lying.
        
        I wouldn’t be surprised that, as in the case of the SB squad, a pseudonym is shared. At times the style, grammar, spelling ,grasp of English punctuation, and even nationality of English varies among the SB posters.
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:30am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        MW, you must have a remarkably extensive dossier tracking previous threads and posts going way back.
        
        I’ll let you into a little secret SB2..
        
        I have a brain…and by some accounts it is a First-class brain..but I suspect it’s not too much different from anyone else’s. It’s just that I’ve learnt how to use it… I can remember things…..
        
        But….. here’s the clinger… I like to check detail…and
        astonishingly enough, that’s pretty easy to do nowadays.
        Even better, it’s damn easy to do on this site…..Tx DPF.
        
        What’s the motivation? Fear, insecurity, persecution complex
        
        Money, more sex, and drugs.
        
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        April 21, 2021 1:41pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        That moderator didn’t know, obviously. Possibly the moderators can’t see email details, etc.
        For those that care for some reason, and as I have explained before, on my mobile I log in as ‘Mike’, on my PC as ‘mikenmildagain’
        
        [Duly noted. They do appear different. – same Mod]
        
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        April 21, 2021 2:13pm
    - cmm
      
      Those are workers, not professionals.
      
      Administrative Professionals are the tiers of management that are initially installed to help a company operate smoothly but, with time, they tend to become bloated and self serving.
      
      HR is a classic case of this. It starts out with HR being one or two people handling CVsa for new hires and such and before you know it you end up with an HR department of 10 people with inch-thick employee manuals and decrees from them that nobody wants.
      
      One of my customers have now been told by their HR department that they can only engage new hires on the first of the month because that is HR policy. HR worked much better (ie served the organisation better) when they had 2 people.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:01am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Rarely, mikenmild, I agree with you. My wife’s PA is an absolute treasure, and the glue that holds our business together, especially when the boss is away.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:42am
    - Bluegrass
      
      A ‘professional’ is a fee earner – not support staff.
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:17am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        A professional is as they do not how they are paid.
        Professional in support staff is often highly desirable.
        
        If only our govt had a few professionals.
        
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        April 21, 2021 1:01pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        There are varying definitions of ‘professional’…
        
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        April 21, 2021 2:11pm
- Tall Man
  
  And therein lies the problem, the entitled thinking they need more.
  
  Pretty sure you left the word “incompetent” out of the headline mikey.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:24am
- Simon
  
  On reading list.
  
  Bullshit Jobs: A Theory
  by David Graeber
  
  From bestselling writer David Graeber, a powerful argument against the rise of meaningless, unfulfilling jobs, and their consequences.
  
  Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs.”
  
  There are millions of people—HR consultants, communication coordinators, telemarketing researchers, corporate lawyers—whose jobs are useless, and, tragically, they know it. These people are caught in bullshit jobs.
  
  the Essay here
  https://libcom.org/library/phenomenon-bullshit-jobs-david-graeber
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:32am
  - kowtow
    
    Diversity and justice educators .
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:41am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Makes one recall the scene in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy where all the useless people (hairdressers, telephone sanitisers, etc) were sent on a ship to another planet.
    
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    April 21, 2021 2:17pm
    - Nickc2
      
      32!
      
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      April 21, 2021 2:31pm
rouppe

Wow. Biden basically calls for a guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial.

Can you imagine if Trump had said something like that?
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April 21, 2021 8:02am
- G152
  
  If as the defence claim the strangle hold on the victim was not lethal why didn’t they demonstrate such in the court ???On the excop…
  Or, as those expert police trainers stated, they don’t teach that ‘technique’ as a restraint…
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:28am
  - rouppe
    
    I’m not making any comment on Chauvin’s guilt or innocence.
    
    Only on the POTUS publicly saying what the “right verdict” should be
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:47am
    - Paulus
      
      It is in the USA where sombody always has to Pay so irrespective of anything he is Guilty (as public opinion and Biden say so).
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:36am
    - SB2
      
      Did Joe actually say that?
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:50am
      - Shaun the Sheep
        
        Yes
        
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        April 21, 2021 5:10pm
      - SB2
        
        No, he did not!
        
        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56818953
        
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        April 22, 2021 3:53pm
  - tf78
    
    G152, there is another angle of his knee across Floyd’s back nowhere near his neck.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:07am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    That word “stranglehold” – it does not mean what you think it means.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:33am
  - alloytoo
    
    Steven Crowder submitted to being placed in that hold in a concrete carpark for that period of time.
    
    He verbally “sparred” with his studio crew for the duration.
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:16am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Tell you whatG152, a competition.
    
    I’ll take 8.5 minutes of someone weighing around 150lbs kneeling on my back and shoulder blade area (I’m allowed to struggle) to restrain me.
    
    You take 3 x the lethal dose of fentanyl mixed with methamphetamine all at once, with no immediate antagonist treatment.
    
    Let’s see if either of us can survive, OK ?
    
    Since you apparently believe that I’m undergoing the far more lethal treatment, should be easy to accept, no ?
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:38am
    - Batman
      
      Shoulder blade? More lies from the pro-murder MAGA clan.
      
      Everyone can see it was on his neck. His knee was by his ear.
      
      Maybe your ears are just by your shoulders and you don’t have a neck?
      
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      April 21, 2021 11:13am
- Nick R
  
  No. I really can’t imagine Trump demanding a guilty verdict. I can however easily imagine him demanding a not guilty verdict, and promising to pardon Chauvin if he was convicted. Regardless of whether the President has the power to do that.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:39am
  - Batman
    
    And the former guy wouldn’t have waited until the jury was sequestered, he would have been live tweeting the trial instead of doing any actual work, and turning the trial into a test of MAGA faith by saying things like “no true patriot could think Chauvin is guilty, he’s a great patriot to our country!”
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:50am
    - RoboRob
      
      Thats probably true, and would have been bad right? Why is it not bad when Biden does it? Why use what Trump would have done as an excuse for ‘better’ politicians?
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:01am
      - Batman
        
        Rob, see my other comment about the jury being sequestered before Biden called the family or said any thing in public.
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:03am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Nice bit of projection there Batman.
      
      Why is it every time that Biden fucks it up yet again you seem to need to leap in and run defence for him with some “whataboutism” ?
      
      A tad sensitive about the creepy senile old fool’s actions or what.
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:42am
      - Batman
        
        ERM, no Ed. You guys are looking for a fuck up where there is none.
        
        I know you’re desperate for a win but this ain’t it.
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:08am
  - RoboRob
    
    I can imagine that too Nick:)
    
    But I think the point rouppe is making is that this sort of comment is terrible (either way) and damages the integrity of the court system. If Trump had done as you say he would be heavily slammed by most of the legacy media. I am not seeing that in Bidens case, some media are actually pushing for him to be more definative. Crazy.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:00am
  - Bluegrass
    
    Of course you can.
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:19am
- Fletch
  
  Not to mention Maxine Waters calling for rioting in the streets if they don’t get their way…
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:50am
  - Paulus
    
    There will be rioting in the streets whatever the verdict.
    I understand one of the looting problems is that the larger modern Televisions are too heavy for one person.
    
    14 2
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    April 21, 2021 9:38am
- igm
  
  Is Biden related to Ardern in some way . . . they are as hopeless and dangerous as one another.
  
  16 5
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  April 21, 2021 9:06am
  - BeeJay
    
    Hardly a valid comparison, Arden mismanaging a pissant Government of 5 million sheeple, and Biden in control of a government of almost 350 million, whether you think he’s good enough or not! Arden wouldn’t even get a job working in the White House kitchen!
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:41am
    - doublehappy
      
      Beijing Biden did. More dangerous than Cindy, but both bloody awful.
      
      3 1
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      April 21, 2021 11:45am
  - redflagged
    
    The Americans are at least better off, Biden struggles to talk.
    
    8 1
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    April 21, 2021 10:26am
    - BeeJay
      
      You think having verbal diarrhoea beats making a few gaffes when speaking! I’d rather listen to Biden getting things done and stumbling occasionally than listening to the bullshit coming from Ardern every day!
      
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      April 21, 2021 11:05am
  - SB2
    
    Not nearly as dangerous as your relationship to Trump!
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:53am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Or the (Democratic, obviously) Congresswoman who said there must be guilty verdicts on all 3 counts, and that if there was a different outcome then people should become “more confrontational”.
  
  I can imagine all the useful idiots on this blog calling for her to be thrown in jail, and for Biden to be impeached, for these egregious interventions into the criminal justice system – not to mention the flagrant incitement to violence.
  
  Yep, any minute now….
  
  [Sound of crickets]
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:39am
Swifty

Do (Aussie) housewives lead dull or exciting lives (1961):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfgYIeYr27s

Includes a couple of responses from New Zealanders.
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April 21, 2021 8:03am
Maggie Pie

After only 10 hours deliberation expect a positive for the State.

With both ‘Mad Maxine’ & ‘China Joe’ calling for a guilty verdict – expect the judge to declare a mistrial.

Watch it live here around 8:30…..

https://twitter.com/DarthHegel/status/1384593281359753219
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April 21, 2021 8:05am
- Simon
  
  Will go to appeal based in part on these two tards. Chauvin will win on appeal.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:33am
  - RoboRob
    
    I suspect you are 100% correct, although was probably going to appeal either way.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:02am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      The prosecution can only appeal a jury’s verdict if they believe legal process has not been followed in the trial. They can’t appeal against the facts.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:05am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        The Trial Judge has given his warning.
        Biden is above the law so anything goes.
        
        11 4
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        April 21, 2021 9:08am
      - Bluegrass
        
        POTUS and a member of Congress have interfered in a matter which is sub judice, and have ridden rough-shod over the doctrine of separation of powers, thereby tainting that legal process [not just mistake per se in law] – which no matter which side of the aisle you sit, is very concerning.
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:30am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    The Judge has said the exact same thing: “I’ll give you that Congresswoman Waters may have given you something on appeal that may result in this whole trial being overturned,” Cahill said as arguments concluded and jury deliberations started.
    
    https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/democrats-defend-maxine-waters-gop-criticism-after-chauvin-trial-judge-n1264673
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:04am
- SB2
  
  The facts are that President Biden stated :
  
  “He was praying for the right verdict”
  
  Not a Guilty verdict
  
  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56818953
  
  But one can expect the flood of lies from the usual bunch on KB and elsewhere.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:59am
  - Shaun the Sheep
    
    Then you haven’t seen all of his comment.
    He said he wanted a guilty verdict, then said he was comfortable saying that because the jury was sequestered and would be distant from his comment.
    You need better sources.
    
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    April 21, 2021 5:12pm
Happychappy

Can someone please explain why cooking the books and deceiving the public by hiding what you have done is different to fraud and can just go back to Parliament for a opology and explain why it happened, then because you have the numbers fix it up without opposition, for a crime that should be punishable.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/04/housing-minister-megan-woods-promises-to-tidy-up-unlawful-purchase-of-ihum-tao.html
This was a orchestrated attempt to misled the public by Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister, Grant Robertson our Finance Minister and Megan Woods and when three of our Governments top echelon are found out cooking the books they just get smacked with a wet bus ticket is ridiculous.
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April 21, 2021 8:07am
- peterwn
  
  If the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister do or condone such actions, the only potential sanctions lie with Parliament (which would be toothless on this one) and the ballot box. Jacinda knows full well that this calling out by the AG will have virtually nil impact at the next election.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:28am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    The GG could intervene.
    The People need a way of bringing a rogue govt to heel. In the USA this would be an impeachable matter.
    
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    April 21, 2021 1:03pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      The governor-general has no power to intervene in the routine approval by parliament of pubic money.
      
      1 2
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      April 21, 2021 2:20pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Don’t you believe it.
        This spending was not routine either.
        Treasury had advised them of the illegality.
        
        Govt’s that cannot respect constitutional law or do not understand it lead to tyranny.
        Ardern plainly showed intention to find a work around. She was well outside her authority as servant of HM the Queen by virtue of her Oath as Member of the Executive Council. That is a good reason for immediate Vice-Regal intervention.
        
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        April 21, 2021 6:04pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  It was a indeed what would be called a commercial fraud and a conspiracy by multiple parties.
  
  This is not merely an error or misunderstanding. It is an attempt to avoid the authority of Parliament. Parliament alone is responsible for authorising the expenditure of tax monies.
  
  The annual Vote processis one where Depts work out what they need and that is put to Parliament. First Cabinet has to agree on Ministerial wishes then the “Estimates” are prepared. Parliament is then given formal required prior “notice” of their introduction into the house. The Minister of Finance on their intro will read his introductory speech, known as the “Budget”. There will be a debate on the Budget where by convention all members may speak.
  
  The Estimates give the expenditure under “Vote Items” which each give the amounts sought to be approved and their details. During the lengthy consideration of the Estimates there is a regulated debate on each vote item including its details. Each item in the Estimates is voted on in a Committee of the Whole for approval separately. The details in the Estimates effectively limit the expenditure to the amount allocated to them. So under the global item “Vote Health” Parliament approves the whole detailed expenditure of the Dept of Health for the year.
  Audit staff subsequently may check the Dept’s expenditure against the approved Vote Item.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:34am
  - Paulus
    
    She has the numbers so get stuffed !
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:40am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      That is contrary to a 1,000 years of warfare for our freedoms relative to the Monarchy.
      
      No tax without representation.
      Ardern is rebelling against the people.
      
      8 3
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      April 21, 2021 10:41am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        What a load of rubbish. The people’s representatives, elected only six months ago, will approve this spending. This has no constitutional significance.
        
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        April 21, 2021 2:24pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Surprise, surprise I have irritated someone.
        I have been a Head of a Dept of State, drafted tax and social security legislation, created public admin systems, been a forensic accountant, prosecutor and did my best work at Uni in law …more
        
        I have a high respect for the operation of law.
        Magna Carta and the Sovereignty of Parliament are not insignificant in NZ.
        
        The “peoples representative” has no authority over spending at all except approving Cabinet minutes and some miscellaneous papers.
        
        These were indirectly the issues that King Charles I got into trouble over. The taxes of the realm are the peoples money and the peoples Parliament has the final say over their being spent.
        Being Head of Government does not carry the power to spend taxes without the prior approval of the Parliament.
        We are not socialista niu tireni yet.
        
        5 3
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        April 21, 2021 6:23pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        It’s scary that you can claim all that knowledge and experience and yet write such completely ignorant rubbish.
        
        2 6
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        April 21, 2021 7:45pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Illegality over rules numbers.
      These constitutional rights go back to the Magna Carta times.
      
      5 3
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      April 21, 2021 1:04pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        You have no idea what you are talking about. Writing ‘Magna Carta’ does not magically validate your uninformed opinion.
        
        2 7
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        April 21, 2021 2:25pm
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        Nor does te treti, bro’ . . .
        
        1 1
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        April 21, 2021 11:15pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Copying a simple explanation of how government expenditure is approved does not make you an expert on public finance.
    Unappropriated expenditure is retrospectively approved by parliament every year.
    
    2 2
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    April 21, 2021 2:22pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      I am well familiar with that.
      This is way beyond mere unappropriated expenditure.
      Treasury advised of the need for the formal appropriation but Ardern R. & co chose to ignore it. Their agenda also include interfering in the requisite Police duties as befitted unlawful occupation.
      The land was illegally seized and the PM & ors. organised payment for it.
      Is that Government or Tyranny? In a private context it would also be a string of felonies.
      
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      April 21, 2021 6:31pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  Certainly, I can explain it for you.
  
  It’s different when the left do it.
  
  Any other questions?
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:41am
Wayne Mapp

Judge has already said he won’t declare a mistrial about Maxine Waters comments. Given the jury was sequestered, they are almost certainly unaware of Biden’s comments.
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April 21, 2021 8:09am
- kowtow
  
  Irrespective of the effect on the jury ,it still leaves more than an impression of legislators and a President who have little or no understanding of due process , you know the Constitution .
  
  Watters comments are very concerning and so is the reactions of the media and establishment .
  
  Basically she wants US cities to burn , along with the death and misery that will bring. And no one , including the Media seems to have a problem .
  
  But when Trump told his supporters to be peaceful ,everyone called it and still do an “insurrection” . What rot!
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:15am
  - Batman
    
    Kowtow, while Simon accused Waters and Biden of being “tards” I think the term is probably best suited to you for this comment / argument.
    
    Biden just specifically said he waited until the jury was sequestered before calling the family or commenting publicly on it, as referenced by Wayne.
    
    As for Waters, she’s naive to think that comment wasn’t going to be seized on by the white fright crowd, despite her full comment being in relation to how Dems approach these issues with Republican lawmakers. But she’s been in the congressional bubble too long at this point to be able to adapt to the current hyped up environment of white fear porn.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:56am
    - RoboRob
      
      I think thats a bit of a personal attack bat 🙂
      
      Agree that Biden was better than Waters, but not as good as I expected. Should have waited for a verdict.
      
      For consistancy Waters should be impeached for inciting violence in the same way Trump was. Her comments were worse and clearly targeted to trigger riots if a not guilty verdict was received.
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:05am
      - Batman
        
        They’re a big kid, I’m sure they can take it. Especially given the level of invective they dish out.
        
        That’s your personal belief re Waters, not a fact. And generally I understand that impeachment is a grey area that would be hard to make happen.
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:07am
      - Steve Todd
        
        @RoboRob @ 9:05AM
        
        Members of Congress are not “civil Officers of the United States”. Therefore, they are not subject to impeachment.
        
        See my replies to RW Capitalist back on Sunday, 14 February 2021, including this one: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/02/general_debate_14_february_2021.html/comment-page-1#comment-2889297.
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:20am
      - SB2
        
        My understanding is that the President stated he was praying for the right verdict. He never specifically said a Guilty verdict.
        
        His words,
        
        “I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict,” Mr Biden added. “I think it’s overwhelming in my view.”
        
        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56818953
        
        I have no doubts Trump would have brazenly said the very opposite
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:03am
      - Nickc2
        
        I’m waiting for the White Lives Matter (WLM) movement to start their burning, looting and shooting. Oh, that’s right, the Police and Troops have been bought in the prevent that. //
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:41am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      So Kowtow’s retarded, but your heroine Waters is “naive” – riiiiightt.
      
      17 1
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      April 21, 2021 9:57am
      - kowtow
        
        He’s pretty big for his boots innit ?
        
        I wonder where ‘tard fits in wth the rules of posting here ?
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:56am
      - mikenmildagain
        
        I’m looking forward to kowtow getting upset every time an insult is flung on Kiwiblog.
        Yes, personal insults are against the rules. Batman should have phrased as ‘Simon accused Waters and Biden of being “tards” I think the term is probably best suited to ~~you~~ your ~~or this~~ comment / argument.’ That particular rule is only rarely invoked by our very tolerant moderators.
        
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        April 21, 2021 2:28pm
- cmm
  
  The whole trial is a farce.
  
  Imagine the pressure on the jurors to “do the right thing”. If they don’t they can expect to be doxxed and firebombed in short order.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:16am
  - kowtow
    
    Defence witness’ former home attcked and smeared with pig’s blood .
    
    The message is very clear.
    
    27 2
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    April 21, 2021 8:43am
    - Batman
      
      Former home? Well they’re not very good vandals are they.
      
      And his testimony was smacked down by his former employer, so he’s not exactly making himself popular with current cops either.
      
      https://abcnews.go.com/amp/US/vandals-target-barry-brodds-home-testimony-derek-chauvins/story?id=77149729
      
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      April 21, 2021 9:00am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        They’re superb vandals, just pig-ignorant and stupid, much like anyone that dismisses these actions so lightly, and calls Maxine Waters “naive”. Shame on you.
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:00am
- Andrei
  
  What we have learned is the USA, and the Democrat Party has moved of from the days of the KKK to the time of BLM, same old race baiting politics in dressed in new clothes
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:20am
  - oldfella
    
    Andrei, the white hoods are now black. Apart from that, business as usual for the Dems.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:01am
  - SB2
    
    Andre, yes you’re right . The Democrats have moved a long, long way from Jim Crow and KKK . But not sure about Trump and his supporters.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:09am
- Simon
  
  Lol – Biden just green lit the rioting to go ahead.
  
  Biden & Waters know the case against Chauvin is very weak.
  
  Dont worry about this show trial though the jury will convict Chauvin for their own personal safety. Result out in about 40 mins.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:21am
  - Batman
    
    Simon can you point to where he green lights rioting?
    
    Agreeing with the family’s call for “peace and tranquility no matter the verdict” is not what you just claimed.
    
    Video:
    https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1384600278838689793?s=19
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:41am
    - Fletch
      
      ““I’m praying the verdict is the right verdict. Which is – I think it’s overwhelming in my view” – Joe Biden. And what verdict would that be, Joe?
      
      16 3
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      April 21, 2021 8:54am
      - Batman
        
        So? The jury is sequestered and he is expressing an opinion.
        
        Don’t be such a hand-wringer.
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:05am
      - RoboRob
        
        Batman – Its the message to the public, not the Jury. We aren’t talking about the Jury rioting 🙂
        
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        April 21, 2021 9:06am
- MCos
  
  That policeman was as guilty as sin. It was all there on HD video.
  And so it proved to be.
  If the roles were reversed the mob would have strung him up from the nearest tree.
  Metaphorically of course.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:05am
  - Ed Snack
    
    Which is complete balls MCos, and what’s more, you know it. If a black policeman killled a white suspect, there would be zero reaction. The MSM a would refuse to cover it, no members of Congress would go out (with a police bodyguard !) to specifically incite violence and riots against the police. There might be, at most, a few articles in largely censored publications about how the victim’s civil rights were trampled upon, and that would be about it.
    
    There’s plenty of examples, for a start Ashli Babbitt was murdered by a shot in the back by a senior black police officer, and not only are there no riots, he won’t be charged either.
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:49am
    - Batman
      
      Ashli Babbitt was shot in the left shoulder while trying to break through a door as part of the seditious mob.
      
      Why do you insist on producing such easily debunked lies?
      
      https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/pr/department-justice-closes-investigation-death-ashli-babbitt
      
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      April 21, 2021 11:17am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Debunked, not at all. You should try the coroner’s report. It found that Babbitt death was “homicide”. And it was the back part of the shoulder, she was facing away from the shooter at an angle, unarmed, and not threatening. Despite claims of warnings given, none are heard on any of the videos.
        
        It was an execution, but no doubt you are OK with that sort of treatment being handed out to people you disapprove of. Whereas you support people taking illegal drugs to the point of lethality and dying as a result, but the cause of death is a cop restraining them. I get it, the cop is white then he’s guilty of the “victim” is black. But if the cop is Black and the victim white, why, no charges will be even contemplated. Tell me again about white privilege ?
        
        Oh, and “justice” department report, why, of COURSE they are honest and never self serving, snort.
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:46am
    - MCos
      
      If the policeman was high & and the black guy put his knee on his neck to restrain him until he died would have had zilch sympathy.
      Least of all me.
      
      3 6
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      April 21, 2021 11:26am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Why do you lie, there was no knee to the neck at any stage. That’s a video artefact, and a prosecution lie. The knee is, as intended, on the back.
        
        4 2
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        April 21, 2021 11:48am
[email protected]

The government is creating law to allow them to steal the right to smoke from young people. So much for freedom and democracy.

I don’t like the idea of 18 year old kids smoking and the new proposal doesn’t personally affect me but am concerned what freedoms are going to dissappear next.
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April 21, 2021 8:10am
- The Housekeeper
  
  Dead right info. First they take my neighbour’s freedoms and when I don’t protest, then they come for mine.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:24am
  - kowtow
    
    Yep , the number of people who think govt intervention for smoking was a great idea on various grounds ; health ,cost , anti socialness ,or just plain old not my problem I don’t smoke .
    
    Well the anti smoking tactic has taught govts , activists and health nazis a lot .
    
    They’re coming for just about anything and everything that they don’t like , and there’s always a ‘good” in there somewhere to justify it .
    
    See the climate scam .
    
    I hope people who like cars , foreign travel, meat ,fish and poultry and indeed cheap and plentiful electricity are happy with allowing govts to attack smokers cos now they too are on the block .
    
    Our National Party are just as bad , they attacked private property rights with plain packaging etc .
    
    Establishment politics , very bad for individual freedom and property rights.
    
    Be careful what you wish for.
    
    16 3
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    April 21, 2021 8:49am
    - Ed Snack
      
      One specific result of the anti-smoking crusade is already causing a few issues. Because of the levels of tax imposed on tobacco products, smokers not only cover their abnormal health costs but also contribute a reasonable sum to the general taxation income. Plus they typically have lower than normal claims on superannuation due to shorter lifespans on average.
      
      The shortfall is already noticeable, and it will become worse as the last remaining people still buying and smoking legal products disappear.
      
      They’re going to have to increase taxes in some other area to compensate. I suspect that alcohol levies are about to be hiked; I doubt that taxes on dope would make up for the shortfall, at least not with the prevalence of the “grow your own” attitude that is around.
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:54am
    - SB2
      
      What climate scam?
      
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      April 21, 2021 11:10am
- Tall Man
  
  What a stupid statement …
  
  Of course they’ll be allowed to smoke ……….. Dope 😉
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:26am
- [email protected]
  
  The article in Stuff about the new proposed law prohibiting people born after 2004 from buying cigarettes drew a raft of negative comments similar to mine.
  
  I just now went back to see how the comments were running and guess what? The article seems to have disappeared.
  
  I even used the search function on Stuff to try to find the article to no avail.
  
  Think that Stuff decided to hide the article and the negative comments to protect their paymasters?
  
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  April 21, 2021 5:20pm
kowtow

Kings College London , published in BMJ Nutrition Prevention + Health and reported in the UK Daily Telegraph;

taking a probiotic lessened the risk of Wuflu infection by 14%, regular Omega 3 by 12% , vitamin D by 9 % .
Researchers looked at sex,age , BMI and the protective effects were observed in wimmin of all ages and weights but no clear association for men.
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April 21, 2021 8:11am
- Ed Snack
  
  That’s not a very strong effect actually kowtow, and the fact that it seems only to help women is also a marker of doubt.
  
  But there are treatments that reduce symptoms and the need for intensive treatment by around 85%, but for mainly political reasons these treatments are not used. Those treatments involve combinations of HCQ, Ivermectin, Zinc supplements, specific antibiotics (for opportunistic infections in mainly lung tissues) and specific anti-clotting agents again to deal with micro clotting in the lung area.
  
  These are not cures, and the trials that tested these with severely ill patients were misconstrued. These are prophylactic treatments that (for HCQ and Ivermectin) reduce initial viral replication thus reducing viral load and these give a person’s immune system more time to adapt and react. The Zinc supplements assist in that process, as apparently does the Vitamin D. As noted, the antibiotic and anti-clotting agent are not active against the virus itself, but assist in dealing with some of the side effects of the infection that lead to more severe symptoms, such as localised clotting and infections in the lung tissues.
  
  The lack of the use of such treatments has lead to the deaths of probably millions world wide. I do hope that those advocating against such treatments on political grounds are pleased with the death toll they have assisted in creating.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:01am
  - kowtow
    
    Yer I know , but thought I’d share that as it sure as hell won’t be in our “news”
    
    It’s also interesting as far as it goes.
    
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    April 21, 2021 3:19pm
- SB2
  
  kowtow, citation, please. Bleach included ?
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:11am
Benedict Yu

This blog from Croaking Cassandra is worth a read.

https://croakingcassandra.com/2021/04/20/just-dreadful/

It reports on a recent speech by the Foreign Minister on the China New Zealand relationship. As Michael notes it is dreadful.

Some excerpts.

“I invoke the inspiration and guidance of the universe and the gods, I bestow a life-force upon this gathering.“

“Sometimes we will therefore find it necessary to speak out publicly on issues, like we have on developments in Hong Kong, the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, and cyber incidents.”

Nothing about how these behaviours from China are reprehensible and unacceptable.

“When I think about this relationship … I liken it to the respect a Taniwha would have for a Dragon and vice versa.”

WTF?

“Taniwha are endemic to Aotearoa”. That is right not New Zealand, not Aotearoa New Zealand. Aotearoa.”

So the Foreign Minister changed the name of the country.

” As set out in my inaugural speech at Waitangi this year, I believe our foreign policy settings can be enhanced by te Tiriti.

The principles of partnership, active participation and protection can be called upon to enable equity and tino rangatiratanga (self-determination).”

_____

Who knows what the Chinese will make of all this. Or the Australians. BTW the Australian Foreign Minister is in Wellington today for her first meeting with Mahuta. Should be fascinating. She will no doubt get an ear bashing about deporting New Zealand criminals. And perhaps mythical Maori demons.
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April 21, 2021 8:11am
- I remember when
  
  Benedict you have explained the problem in a nutshell.
  There are no taniwha in New Zealand.
  Obviously, there are taniwha in Aotearoa.
  Problem solved.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:19am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I don’t think the Muslim Uiyghurs will be impressed with someone who invokes gods.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:23am
  - SB2
    
    I think the Muslim Uiyghurs have a lot better things on their minds
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:13am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I suggest you know nothing about Islam.
      
      https://www.islamic-relief.org.uk/islamic-resources/5-pillars-of-islam/shahada/
      
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      April 21, 2021 2:09pm
- Mike
  
  Another Aotearoa-phobic?
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:25am
- The Housekeeper
  
  Here’s The Bolt Report for an Aussie perspective.
  
  https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6249459429001
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:26am
- graham
  
  “Taniwha are endemic to Aotearoa”.
  
  Well, she’s in good company with Maori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer then. Talking about some America’s Cup partygoers who were revelling on a yacht after we won and decided to perform a mock haka (probably well lubricated by this time), Ms Ngarewa-Packer scolded them for “cultural appropriation” (of course) and said that she believes that “it’s our karakia that helped it win”.
  
  Taniwha roaming freely around the country, karakia helping our sailors to win the America’s Cup … I guess this can all be explained by Maori Science ™.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:31am
  - Ed Snack
    
    I would have thought that if the Maori karakia invoked in any way an Abrahamic deity figure, then the cultural appropriation lies on her as well.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:04am
- Local Miller
  
  “Taniwha are endemic to Aotearoa”
  LOL, I don’t have a problem with this, since I don’t believe there is either a Taniwha or a place called Aotearoa.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:33am
  - cmm
    
    So long as the Taniwha stay in the mythical land of Aoteroa and stay away from New Zealand I’m Ok with them.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:39am
  - Prince
    
    Try looking behind your wardrobe door.
    
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    April 21, 2021 8:55am
    - Albert_Ross
      
      I did. I found a lion there.
      
      “What are you doing in my wardrobe?” I cried.
      
      “Narnia business,” he said.
      
      Thank you ladies and gentlement, I’m here all week …
      
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      April 21, 2021 2:58pm
  - Hard Cheese
    
    They’re easy to find – just look at the plans for any infrastructure project, they’ll be right in the middle.
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:55am
- kowtow
  
  Cactus Kate’s was great too .As usual.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:51am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  The Foreign Language Schools attached to the Foreign Ministries around the world are opening new branches to interpret Maori Gobbledegook.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:52am
- redflagged
  
  Well, previous wackiness is a great indicator for future wackiness. Or should it be called Wokeness.
  
  So when she married her cousin in 2003, this kind of ridiculousness is to be expected.
  
  https://youtu.be/Nr71Mw7wD4E?t=152
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:35am
sooty

Why would you get the covid jab if it doesn’t work?
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April 21, 2021 8:13am
- MCos
  
  It depends what it’s supposed to do.
  Does it mean you’re not supposed to contract the bug, there’s a low chance you’ll contract the bug or if you do you will be protected from the effects of the disease?
  Conversely it may be a flop.
  
  This guy may be infected with a strand the vaccine isn’t so effective against. Similar to the flu jab.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:13am
  - Ed Snack
    
    All vaccines have a certain failure rate, that is no matter what vaccination you get, you can still “catch” the disease you are being vaccinated against.
    
    I don’t think the reasons are well understood but presumably are the result of some “defect” in how your immune system interacted with the vaccine resulting in an imperfect immune response against the actual pathogen.
    
    Normally the risks are pretty low, but people have caught polio after being vaccinated (very rare), and measles (also rare). Typically the vaccine gives only partial immunity in such cases so that although people do get the disease, it is typically a less serious case, though not always.
    
    These rapidly developed Covid vaccines do seem to have a higher failure rate, probably something that could have been improved by tweaking after several years of testing, had that been available. I’ve seen suggestions that the best current Covid vaccine is only 95% effective and that would suggest that 1 person in 20 would fail to develop an adequate immune response to prevent infection.
    
    For people under some definable age (I’ve seen 20, 30, and 40 suggested as break points) it may be actually safer and more effective to give those persons Covid, treat them prophylactically and let them recover. Having recovered from Covid does seem to offer a long lived complete immunity, and the risk of serious outcomes is possibly less with Covid for people in good health and young. That is NOT true for people over, say, 60-65 and anyone with a number of existing conditions.
    
    Worth analysing the data and finding out though.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:13am
Simon

NZ is fast becoming a banana republic. The slide into banana republic began a while ago but has accelerated with the utter shit show running the country. NZ now a client state of the vile CCP, massive social and economic inequality, economic stagnation, money printing, wasteful government spending, arbitrary powers to select narrow group of maori – at the expense of general population including maori, criminal gangs operating within a weak justice system, a badly broken media, climate change zealotry, ruined housing system etc etc

Solution: If young get some skills, training and experience and move to Australia. If you have these now move to Australia. Or if you can consider Japan or Red State America which are better options than Aust.

Sadly the trend is all bad for NZ and it will get worse and entirely attributable to the garbage in Wellington put in there by the sheep.
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April 21, 2021 8:15am
- Tall Man
  
  Sheep have more sense which is why they need a judas to lead them …….
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:30am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  NZ is fast becoming a banana republic.
  
  I think more accurate terms would be:
  
  a kumara kleptocracy
  or
  a kumara kakistocracy
  
  and probably about to devolve into a
  Narco nepotocracy
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:32am
  - SB2
    
    Are all the Bannana Repblic claimers implying we cease trading with China?
    
    https://www.worldstopexports.com/new-zealands-top-trade-partners/
    
    LOL
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:17am
    - Bevan
      
      The CCP are the new Nazi’s – all the signs are there. Time to call it what it is.
      
      Concentration camps.
      Arbitrarily declares lands and resources their own.
      Threatens to invade democratic neighbour constantly.
      1 party dictatorship.
      Massive military equipment and mobilisation.
      Popularity cult around leader.
      Grievances about historic wrongs.
      
      Also, might as well get used to it – once the CCP makes its move on the Sth China Sea and/or Taiwan, we ain’t getting no trade through to China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia. NZ is gonna be fubar’d.
      
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      April 21, 2021 1:05pm
- MCos
  
  ‘NZ is fast becoming a banana republic.’
  
  I think you mean ‘vassal state’, which one could argue we have been to some small degree since 1840; only now you seem to be suggesting instead of being obligated to the UK or USA it’s China that’s calling the shots.
  NZ has criticized China over various things, but were not in a position to introduce tariffs, ban imports/exports or break off diplomatic relations; that sort of stuff.
  Then we’d rapidly head towards ‘banana republic’ status.
  We’ve already temporarily banned their tourists & students. Imagine if the dairy, log and whatever else relied on exporting to China all collapsed?
  
  That’s what happens when China is your top trading partner, boys & girls.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:35am
  - Jack5
    
    Yep, but China still accounts for only about a quarter of our international trade, and Australia is more important to us over all.
    
    Australia: provides our banking, many of our biggest financial firms, lists some of our best companies (like Xero) on its stock exchange; is our second biggest trade partner; and is our biggest source of tourists.
    
    World shipping companies tack NZ on to Australia when servicing NZ. For example, Maersk, the container giant, has NZ under the control of its Sydney office.
    
    Many of our professional associations (I think now including accountants’) encompass Australia and New Zealand.
    
    Hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders live in Australia, and before long there will likely be more Maori in Australia than in NZ.
    
    The big conflict for NZ is not between the US and China, but between Australia and China.
    
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    April 21, 2021 12:51pm
    - MCos
      
      “China still accounts for only about a quarter of our international trade”
      Kind of rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it.
      They account for the same as Oz, US & Japan combined, the next three on the list.
      Well they did until we closed our borders.
      Furthermore we import a shit load of stuff from China too.
      
      The problem is we could take a noble stand, like the Black Knight, and be left with no arms or legs while China would ride off into the sunset, yawning.
      On the other hand we can use diplomacy to express outrage, but still be left standing.
      
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      April 21, 2021 2:40pm
      - Jack5
        
        I don’t see the relevance of your “rolls off the tongue” remark, MCos.
        
        The latest export figures I find at NZ Stats show for the 2020 year: 27.9 per cent of NZ’s exports went to China, while Australia, the United States, and Japan together took 30.8 per cent.
        
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        April 22, 2021 12:17am
I remember when

Ihumatao:
There appears to be a misconception that the Labour Government acted illegally with the land purchase at Ihumatao.
Just to put the record straight, the Honourable Megan has explained that, it was just the usual slip that governments of all colours are always making.
Don’t know why they didn’t just ask her in the first place.
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April 21, 2021 8:16am
- RW Capitalist
  
  Sarcasm is soon to be taxed.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:26am
- wreck1080
  
  I was kind of right yesterday, todays health announcement is all about maori.
  
  Combining DHB’s was always going to happen at some point.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:28am
  - tf78
    
    wreck1080 – A friend of mine who owns a (private) daycare centre has been told they can no longer call the children, children, they have to call them mukapoonas. (Or whatever Maori kids are called)
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:29am
    - alloytoo
      
      That’s hate speech that is.
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:37am
    - Ehlana
      
      Told by whom? Children is still good English and a word that children need to know and understand!
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:42am
      - tf78
        
        Ehlana by the early childhood department that makes the rules for childcare.
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:57am
- MCos
  
  Just by way of comparison. In the US various courts regularly reverse political decisions because they are unlawful.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:32am
- KevO'Brien
  
  When Treasury gives advice about the requirements for financial appropriations their deliberate work around can be seen as both saying we are going to put the Govt above the constitution and the tricky high crimes of conspiring to do that and the act itself.
  
  Time for HM’s Governor General to intervene and dissolve Parliament.
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:35pm
dave_c_

Hey – This decree is bollocks.
Where’s
– The Asian Health Authority
– The Indian Health Authority
– My Caucasian health Authority
– The (insert ethnicity) Authority

Mark my words – this segregation of the NZ population by ethnicity will be the undoing of New Zealand society (probably in line with the lefts agenda)
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April 21, 2021 8:24am
- kowtow
  
  A new law coming to make sure the measures aren’t questioned . They call it “hate’ speech .
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:53am
  - MCos
    
    I think you misunderstand the meaning of hate speech.
    Criticizing the Maori Health Authority it not the same as encouraging people to physically attack people who work there or bomb the building, which would be hate speech.
    People on this forum endlessly disparage authority figures with impunity, but nobody calls for their death.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:45am
    - kowtow
      
      No that would be inciting violence which is already a crime. (quite rightly)
      
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      April 21, 2021 12:58pm
- Odakyu-sen
  
  A race-fractured society is easier to control. You simply pit different races against each other.
  
  Simples.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:18am
  - SB2
    
    Much like Nazis and deutche volk vs the Jews ?
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:19am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Careful with that. The Tribes are not united so they can be easily stirred up against each other with us in their midst.
    That’s how we got our Treaty: we got land rights and they got peace.
    
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    April 21, 2021 12:41pm
- The Housekeeper
  
  What will be interesting is when everyone productive has fled, leaving all the spongers to turn on eachother for very limited funding. The halcyon days of never ending funds for perceived grievances will be over and NZ will be back in the 1800’s.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:45am
- rockape
  
  Just waiting for a new door to be fitted so we can have two entrances in our local ED. one marked “whites only” and one Marked “Maori” what could possibly go wrong.
  
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  April 21, 2021 2:33pm
I remember when

AstraZeneca/Valeria:
Is the AstraZeneca jab safe.
There is a problem with a very small number of cases of unusual dangerous clotting .
Many countries have halted delivery of vaccination programmes to investigate further. Most then resumed after weighing the benefits.
Is it dangerous.
Well the vaccine companies would have ceased production to await further test results, if they didn’t have immunity from prosecution.
That’s what the possibility of lawsuits running into the millions of dollars does.
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April 21, 2021 8:28am
- Ed Snack
  
  I’ve posted a comment on this, and the clotting issue does seem to affect all versions of the vaccine and not just the AZ (Oxford developed) version.
  
  In Norway they had 5 cases with 3 deaths from a specific type of clotting problem where the veins that drain the brain become blocked. That was from a recorded 135,000 doses administered. So an occurrence of around 1:26,000 and a death rate of 1:45,000. That was with the AZ vaccine specifically.
  
  Germany has also recorded similar incidents with at least 5 deaths, though I don’t have the figure on incidence to hand.
  
  Just worth noting, these were all in “younger” people (oldest was 50 I think), and as these occur at a relatively short time after the shots but not immediately, the incidence is almost certainly higher where the clotting was not fatal or very serious as to gain notice.
  
  Also worth noting that for people under 50, the fatalities from Covid itself are in the same range, and for people under 30, it does seem that the vaccines are potentially more dangerous than the disease though that does require further investigation.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:23am
- doublehappy
  
  Has anyone thought of giving a month’s supply of low-dose Aspirin with the AstraZeneca jab? This should guard against blood clots. It could save a few lives from strokes at the same time.
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:26pm
Yvette

Regarding Ihumātao – Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern was asked about the Auditor General’s letter.
“We’ve been confident on our side we were using funding that was from land for housing and that is exactly, ultimately, what all parties have determined we are working towards,” Ardern said.
“We were very clear, this was land… that will be utilised for housing.”

But the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development Cabinet paper that Ministers discussed on 14 December, 2020. in relation to Ihumātao, clearly states, paragraph 21 – “Funds received from the sale of the land for housing or support for housing, or any other uses which are deemed to be more suitable than housing, will be returned to the Crown.” [1]

Further, the Memorandum of Understanding (He Pūmautanga) under Background states –
F – “The Parties acknowledge and agree that He Puumautanga does not constitute a settlement of historic claims pursuant to the Treaty of Waitangi Act 1975 and that it is not the intention of the Crown to allow the Whenua to be made available for settlement of any treaty claims whether now existing or arising in the future.” [2]

– which simply raises the question: If the Government, in dealing with a matter involving Maori, states in a legal document dealing with a piece of land that has been disputed, that it does not constitute a settlement of a historic claim, is the Government acting outside the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi when they exclude particular aspects of the Treaty?”

Does this not involve the same principle as the State Owned Enterprises Act 1986. Section 9 – “Nothing in this Act shall permit the Crown to act in a manner that is inconsistent with the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi” or New Zealand Maori Council v Attorney General (1990) the case concerned FM radio frequencies and found that the Treaty could be relevant even concerning legislation which did not mention it and that even if references to the Treaty were removed from legislation, the Treaty may still be legally relevant – reference: Treaty of Waitangi, wikipedia

Also does purchase under the Kiwibuid housing pretext, and excluding certain aspects (dispute settlement) of the Treaty (paragraph F, above) offend the Memorandum of Understanding’s Ngā Mātāpono (principles) –
(e) Kia Pono – we will act honestly and fairly
(f) Kia Tika – we will conduct ourselves with integrity
(g) Kia Maarama – we will operate with understanding, ensuring clarity and transparency [2]

[1] https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2103/S00110/govt-tried-to-hide-ihumatao-link-to-treaty-settlements.htm
[2] https://www.scribd.com/document/488422610/Memorandum-of-Understanding-He-Pūmautanga-Ihumātao
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April 21, 2021 8:29am
- Yvette
  
  Moderator – please delete the following extra copy of this comment. “Delete” does not seem to work from this end.
  Thank you.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:39am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    My delete does not work either.
    
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    April 21, 2021 12:43pm
Lance

So according to Labour.
Maori health stats are poor.
Soooooooooooo
We make health care race based.
But actually anyone can go to the Maori facilities according to what was just said on television.
Oh… and no evil targets will be set.
How is that different from what we have now?
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April 21, 2021 8:31am
- cmm
  
  It is pretty much the same with the Brongos too.
  
  A few years ago, one of my kids wanted to go on a small business course and I opted to go with him. We ended up attending a course funded/run by a Maori NGO. They didn’t care that half the course were non Maori (a bunch of Indains, Chinese etc there too) because it helped their funding numbers.
  
  It is different because the administration and staffing will be able to be race based and nobody will look at the books and budget too carefully because that would be racist.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:21am
- Surely Knott
  
  Yip got called by the school in lockdown who offered me free cleaning and sanitary supplies because my child is recorded as having a Maori ancestor. What happens in mixed race families white parent unvaccinated while the rest of the family prioritised. How do they decide who is Maori? Will people be prioritised by the people with the most Maori blood first? I mean if being Maori is the cause of poor health and disease outcomes and being white was an inoculation then people who are mixed race will be protected based on how much pakeha race they have?
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:51am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Needles will be on back order–delivery 2040?
    
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    April 21, 2021 12:45pm
Durden

Covid vaccines ordered but no needles ?

This should be a joke. But is true according to Richard Prebble in his opinion piece in the NZ Herald today

Article is behind the paywall, but an extract below.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/richard-prebble-andrew-littles-health-reforms-will-achieve-little/XLBFPFOHAELMCVKQHNMHWKGOGQ/

“We urgently need health reform. Our hospitals could not handle a serious Covid outbreak.

One of the reasons we are not “at the front of the queue” for vaccination but second to last of the OECD countries is the shambles that is our health system. The Ministry of Health ordered vaccines but no needles!

Expenditure on health under successive governments has been rapidly rising but outcomes have not improved.

The real agenda behind Labour’s health reforms will be this Government’s answer to every issue: centralise command and control. Decision making by Wellington. But if central planning worked, the Soviet Union would have won the Cold War.”

Another Jacinda government non-delivery. Another example of chaos by “centralisation” .
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April 21, 2021 8:34am
- SB2
  
  I think Prebble would rather privatise the lot.Thus has nothing to contribute to the debate.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:20am
Maggie Pie

BREAKING

Jurors in Chauvin trial to read ‘Last Wills & Testaments’ prior to verdicts being delivered.

😀
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April 21, 2021 8:34am
I remember when

Auckland Airport frontline worker tests positive after having received his vaccination.
The good news is that, as it can be up to 95% effective, up to 94 vaccination recipients have already been exposed to covid and not caught it.
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April 21, 2021 8:34am
- Sofia
  
  I remember when, “up to 94 vaccination recipients have already been exposed to covid and not caught it.”
  
  Surely what you say would be true only if one hundred vaccinated workers cleaned the same portion of the plane as did the unfortunately worker who tested positive, or all were exposed in exactly the same way as he or she was? Bear in mind too, that after the first couple of workers, that portion of the plane would be clean.
  Not even this Government could organise such a screw-up.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:07am
Paulus

AS we have been told again this morning when is construction of something like 400 houses to start at Ihumatao.
It was fraudulently bought on the understanding that it was specifically for houses.
Do we no longer need more housing Woods (M) ?

En passant it appears that quite a number of homeless families from South Auckland have been shipped to Rotorua as they have plenty of empty Motels there.
Specific costs for Tauranga Motel accommodation was in today’s baby Herald. Good business for what would be empty otherwise and will be even once again if life becomes normal as people see what they have been paid by the taxpayers.
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April 21, 2021 8:35am
- Tony Stuart
  
  The irony is that Fletchers had plans to build homes for the kaumatua and kuia of the local iwi at Ihumatao. However younger Maori have come in, hijacked the process, and the elders were are told Maori revere and respect won’t end up in nice, new houses.
  
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  April 21, 2021 8:53am
  - Prince
    
    Fletchers were building 480 houses, providing skills , employment and shelter to thousands of NZ’ers. Three hundred would have been completed by now.
    Labour paid $30M to Fletchers and have built none, started none, and are paying benefits to those who would have been employed, and putting the would-be home owners up in motels.
    Let’s do this.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:03am
fernglas

So Chauvin is found guilty of all three charges. How many times did he kill the guy?
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April 21, 2021 9:10am
- Ehlana
  
  Good question. I always thought prosecutors in a case like this put a range of charges up to basically give the jury a choice – if they don’t think charge 1 has been met, they may still think charge 2 has been met. So are 2 & 3 redundant, or is it that if he is guilty on 1 he must also be guilty on 2 & 3?
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:38am
  - fernglas
    
    I suppose that each charge contains different ingredients, and if they are made out in respect of each charge, then a conviction can be entered. The one common thing is causing the victim’s death. The state of mind in doing so obviously varies between the charges. It does seem a bit pointless. He will hardly get sentenced to more than he will on the most serious charge.
    
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    April 21, 2021 9:59am
    - Ian Boag
      
      There is a “principle of totality” about this sort of thing. There is a Wikipedia page about it – I won’t clog the blog by quoting bits of it.
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:06am
      - Ehlana
        
        Thanks Ian, I’ll look it up.
        
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        April 21, 2021 10:51am
    - Libertarians are right
      
      They didn’t go back to the judge for definitions on causation during their deliberations which suggests they didn’t put much thought into that aspect of it.
      
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      April 21, 2021 1:11pm
    - Paulus
      
      Surely he will get sentenced on each of the charges so he will never come out of jail ?
      
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      April 21, 2021 2:22pm
- rangitoto
  
  Expected with the jurors under threat of violence to them and their families.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:41am
Wired-one

So we need a Maori health authority now? What a bunch of separatist nonsense. There’s a reason Maori dont live as long, they smoke more, are generally more overweight and less physically active. It’s the same rubbish we hear about Maori incarceration rates, there’s a reason for their over representation in our justice system, they disproportionately commit the most crime! Can we just stop talking about Maori and non Maori and just start talking about kiwis? This bullshit is divisive and needs to stop.
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April 21, 2021 9:19am
- Unity
  
  Yes, I agree Wired-one. I’m actually totally fed up with the word ‘Maori’. It sends my hackles and stress levels rising up and up. We are all New Zealanders. Let’s have an end to even mentioning the word ‘Maori’. It’s a health hazard. They are the authors of their own problems, by and large. So instead of insulting them by insinuating they are ‘special needs’ people, let’s start with getting tough and insisting they start changing their ways so as to be decent self-sufficient people otherwise hand-outs will be strictly monitored and limited.
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:29pm
  - Tall Man
    
    White privilege ….
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkGiFpJC9LM
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma_H48KLA2A
    
    The reality is more simple …
    
    “But it’s not race that shapes our health as much as it is place. Race isn’t a biological determinant of health. An identity isn’t what makes someone sick; rather, it’s the social factors that make their community what it is. It’s a person’s housing, food, health care and education all in one.”
    
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    April 21, 2021 3:19pm
- The Housekeeper
  
  Too true Wired. Effective parenting would do far more to improve Maori health outcomes and it’s free. Leading by example costs nothing. If you want happy, healthy kids just emulate the parents of happy, healthy kids. It’s not rocket science, get a job so you can give your children 3 square meals a day, a warm bed, financial security, education, a family doctor and dentist, don’t smoke or take drugs, don’t commit crimes or hang out with losers and provide love and attention within a caring family. Most other families manage this. No-one wants to say it but many Maori parents are utterly failing their kids while their representatives create blinds of colonialism for them to cower behind. It’s just not good enough. Has any race ever been given so much to come up with so little?
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:52pm
Waipuk

Is New Zealand leaving 5 Eyes or will 5 Eyes give up and kick New Zealand out?

https://youtu.be/wh8qYeiQgyc
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April 21, 2021 9:20am
- Paulus
  
  Understand that Japan will probably fill our role in the revised 5 Eyes.
  
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  April 21, 2021 2:24pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Not sure their constitution would allow it but maybe that’s an easy change …..
    
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    April 21, 2021 3:20pm
Fletch

Chauvin has been found guilty on all 3 counts. It was a foregone conclusion really, with the threat of violence hanging over the pronouncement of a “wrong” verdict. Shameful. The mob now rules America.
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April 21, 2021 9:22am
- RiP NZ
  
  Bang on Fletch,
  Love to see Batman hold the same view as below – had Trump issued even a remotely similar statement.
  What people will tolerate, and the staggering mental gymnastics they perform in support of ‘their side’ reflects the decline of society.
  ‘So? The jury is sequestered and he is expressing an opinion.Don’t be such a hand-wringer’
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:46am
  - Batman
    
    More rubbish, mate.
    
    I would be perfectly fine if Trump had said similar once the jury was sequestered and wouldn’t hear his comments. We all know he wouldn’t have done that because he is a loose unit who can’t let anyone else have the spotlight for five seconds.
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:12am
    - Ed Snack
      
      Balls, you being “perfectly fine” with anything Trump did or said. You’d be having a little conniption fit and banging on about Trump’s lack of respect for justice and demanding that he be impeached….again.
      
      Just like you did with every MSM lie about Trump, from Russian connections to “fine people” to Russian bounties to Suckers and Losers.
      
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      April 21, 2021 11:31am
- RiP NZ
  
  Anyone…who doesn’t care about the right to a fair trial – because it rendered the result they barracked for, are the problem.
  Anyone who willfully ignores or downplays the influence the highest leaders in the land had on this trial, are the problem.
  You or someone you care about might just be on the receiving end one day.
  Too late cowards.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:58am
  - Batman
    
    Bullshit sour grapes from you lot. You played a bad hand in defending the cop with a history of violent misconduct and now you want a scapegoat, which you’ve all been openly setting up for weeks with talk of riots no matter what.
    
    As a wise man once said, suffer in ya jocks.
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:10am
    - Tall Man
      
      Such an eloquent speaker Batman and so talented you were able to read, digest and understand all the evidence presented as well as do your “highly paid” job for us poor taxpayers.
      
      All that without a hint of bias or hatred directed at a policeman trying to do his job, albeit badly, in very trying circumstances.
      
      Your tolerance for those who you disagree with amazes me.
      
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      April 21, 2021 10:32am
      - Yabster
        
        what job do the humble taxpayer recompense the wokster for? Part of the trough swilling public service? (the service part is largely irony).
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:23am
      - SB2
        
        Tal Mann , of course your tolerance of others is legendary?
        
        Yeah right!
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:23am
      - Gravelroad
        
        Yeah, it amazes me as well, Tall Man.
        Super confident Batman always flies in from nowhere the minute the word – wait for it, wait for it – Trump – is mentioned.
        Trump always terribly bad.
        Democrats always fantastic.
        I guess Batman could go on Mastermind with US left wing politics, puffery and manipulations as his specialist subject.
        It must be almost a full time job for him to assemble this encyclopaedic knowledge and you have to admire the absolute certainty that everything he contributes is the indisputable truth.
        Pity he has to be so cocky though about putting down others who may have a different perspective.
        
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        April 21, 2021 12:04pm
      - kowtow
        
        Gravelman
        
        ‘Pity he has to be so cocky though about putting down others who may have a different perspective’
        
        I reckon that comes with his promotion to moderator . He does ad homs , today i’m a tard , when that would clearly not be acceptable in the general run of how this blog now operates under rules of respect etc
        
        And that’s all well and good , except for the exceptionalism …….
        
        i’ll leave it there, as with so many things relating to the internet , privacy , personal safety / security one must be very careful about what one says and about whom , to quote Batman from a previous encounter “wink wink”
        
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        April 21, 2021 12:19pm
    - I remember when
      
      This case is indicative of the problem justice has. Dealing with issues that are greatly politicised and tried through social media.
      Did Chauvin mean to kill George Floyd?
      There is nothing in the videos that suggests this is the case.
      Were the police reckless and careless, definitely.
      Was George Floyd being obstructive?
      Yes, they had trouble getting him out of the first car then he wouldn’t get into the police car.
      Regardless of what the jury decided, three policemen knelt on George Floyd. They were the people dealing with him at the time. It was real and it was live, not sitting watching videos afterwards.
      A ‘Not Guilty’ decision was going to result in considerable damage and cost to property.
      A ‘Not Guilty’ decision was going to be seen as ‘racist’.
      There seems to have been a lot of pressure on the jury that had little to do with whether or not Chauvin was guilty.
      Or what he was guilty of.
      
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      April 21, 2021 11:14am
dave_c_

As reported :

“The authority will have some independent commissioning power, and it will work with Health NZ to decide where health dollars are spent for services for Māori.”

Another ‘KiwiHealth’ monstrosity can be foreseen.

I surmise it will end up with health dollars continuing to be used to ‘increase the number of ambulances at the bottom of the cliff’.
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April 21, 2021 9:25am
- Tall Man
  
  “I surmise it will end up with health dollars continuing to be used to ‘increase the number of ambulances at the bottom of the cliff’.”
  
  Not at all, it will be used to pay the people who will tell them to buy more ambulances but there will be no money left for the actual ambulances …..
  
  Imagine if the funding for all the “working groups” ardern has set up during the last 3 1/2 years had just been given to Pharmac or at worst, the DHBs …..
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:28am
  - greybeard
    
    Not ambulances.
    The preferred vehicle is a black Ford Ranger with tinted windows and a bull-bar.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:13am
    - Nickc2
      
      Financial accountability will be by Maori only auditors and accountants and all monies will reside in a Maori-owned investment bank. What could possibly go wrong?
      
      7 1
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      April 21, 2021 12:02pm
Yvette

“We cannot afford massive disruption in the health sector” – Ardern

Covid 19 coronavirus lockdown: Health Minister David Clark demoted after driving 20km to beach, breaking lockdown rules.
Jacinda Ardern said he would be demoted to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings and stripped of his Associate Finance portfolio.

But – Ardern said: “Under normal conditions I would sack the Minister of Health. What he did was wrong, and there are no excuses.
“But right now, my priority is our collective fight against Covid-19. We cannot afford massive disruption in the health sector or to our [covid] response. For that reason, and that reason alone, Dr Clark will maintain his role.” [1]

So at a point when the Government has announced they will vaccinate – as many as 4.2 million people in the next 36 weeks – 1 million more doses in the next two-and-a-half months, on top of the 150,000 to 200,000 already delivered [leaving] just 26 weeks, from July 1 to December 31, to administer as many as 7.2 million jabs. [2]

They have also announced –
DHBs to be scrapped, new Māori Health Authority to be created in major health system shake up.
New Zealand’s health system is in for a significant shake up. Changes include an end to district health boards in favour for a national organisation, as well as creating a new Māori Health Authority and a new public health agency.

which, Jacinda, does seem a little more disruptive than sacking David Clark.

[1] https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-lockdown-health-minister-david-clark-demoted-after-driving-20km-to-beach-breaking-lockdown-rules/X4AP6J336VNHT7OJYZB6YT6VKQ/
[2] https://www.newsroom.co.nz/the-race-to-vaccinate-new-zealand-in-36-weeks
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April 21, 2021 9:34am
- SB2
  
  Yvette, the last election result suggests your observations are rather trivial
  
  Do try to keep in touch and stay connected to reality.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:25am
  - Yabster
    
    5 stars for the most ironic comment of the day goes to Steffie…
    
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    April 21, 2021 12:17pm
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    What does last year’s election result have to do with the announcement TODAY, and would that detract from any observation about the disruption a separate Maori Health Authority may cause?
    What is trivial here is your input, as in of little value or importance.
    
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    April 21, 2021 2:39pm
  - Bevan
    
    @Mods, surely this post by SB2 constitutes personal abuse. Why is this tolerated?
    
    [That is Queensbury rules compared to what gets thrown at SB2 every day – Mod]
    
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    April 21, 2021 4:54pm
    - The Housekeeper
      
      Bevan, free speech is tricky huh? Don’t lose any sleep, everyone on this forum is more than capable of sticking up for themselves.
      
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      April 21, 2021 5:38pm
Maggie Pie

I know my partner’s TOTALLY convinced the jury found Derek Chauvin guilty on all 3 charges, solely based on the evidence presented to the court.
In no way would they have been swayed or influenced by the BLM Movement’s threats of burning cities, looting, mayhem, rape and murder, nor the directions given by Mad-Max or China-Joe, as to what they expected the outcome to be.
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April 21, 2021 9:36am
- fernglas
  
  See Monique Watson’s comment from the other day. Juries are usually very good at ignoring outside influences, and in this case the verdicts may also have something to do with a strong prosecution case.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:39am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    They only came up with that verdict because they were threatened.
    
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    April 21, 2021 10:23am
  - Ed Snack
    
    What strong case was that ? Deliberate misrepresentations of where the pressure was applied, and a plea to the jury to ignore their own medical examiner’s finding that Floyd had 3 x the lethal dose of Fentanyl in his system. That “strong” case ?
    
    I predicted that the verdicts would be guilty. Imagine being on that jury, your names are known, and if you return not guilty verdicts especially on the murder charge you will be found and you will be dealt to. And what’s more, your assailants would not be charged under this administration – you would deserve it you see. Takes a remarkably strong person, albeit probably a suicidal one as well, to stand up to that sort of pressure.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:37am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Me? Meh……not so much.
  
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  April 21, 2021 9:40am
- kevn
  
  @Maggie… But we know that will all happen anyway.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:39am
- SB2
  
  MP,
  
  “In no way would they have been swayed or influenced by the BLM Movement..”
  
  Correct!
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:27am
andretti

Weak people are driven by fear and will happily go against common sense if it means they feel safer.
Derek Chauvin was always going to be a scapegoat as week people think their lives will be better caving in to fear.
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April 21, 2021 9:41am
- SB2
  
  12 Jury members six white, six black/mied ethnictiy came to the right verdict based on all the evidence and facts presented to them.
  
  Get over it and move on.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:29am
  - doggone7
    
    I guess by the responses to your comment there weren’t 12 Jury members six white, six black/mixed ethnicity, or they didn’t come to the right verdict, or they didn’t base their decision on all the evidence and facts presented to them.
    
    And that people in places like NZ basing their opinion on all the evidence and facts gained through various media, were in a better position to know what the ‘right’ verdict was.
    
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    April 21, 2021 12:28pm
    - Libertarians are right
      
      The jury didn’t go back with a single legal question regarding causation etc which is insane. There were also a huge amount of other factors which were in the case but not included in the MSM.
      
      Basically, I don’t think you know anything about the case other than what you saw from NZ media/CNN. The jury knows much more but decided their safety was more important than Chauvin’s freedom. Remember, protestors vandalised a house that one the the defence witnesses used to live in just for being on the defence team. The jury were not safe.
      
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      April 21, 2021 1:07pm
Maggie Pie

AND HONESTLY! What sort of person would send such a nasty, racist tweet to TV1 presenter Melissa Stokes, simply for speaking the indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand on air?

https://twitter.com/MelissaStokes/status/1384432675289583618
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April 21, 2021 10:08am
- Tall Man
  
  Read through the replies, it makes me wonder why we bother actually working and sharing our income with these people.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:25am
- SB2
  
  MP, they’re among us . That’s for sure.
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:32am
- Jack5
  
  I think the twit-post, which uses the non-word “pss,” means “pass on to Maori TV” not “piss on Maori TV”.
  
  The Media Wokerati’s Twitter posts confirm their personal politics.
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:33pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    It very clearly meant ‘piss off to…’ You shouldn’t let you antipathy to anything Maori colour all of your thinking.
    
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    April 21, 2021 4:34pm
Tony Stuart

Shane Reti isn’t a fan of the health reforms announced by Andrew Little this morning. And as a practising GP, assistant professor at Harvard Medical Scool and three-term member of the Northland District Health Board, he’s better qualified than most to comment (emphasis is mine):

Reckless health restructure removes local voice

Dr Shane Reti April 21, 2021

Replacing all District Health Boards across the country will see our regions and smaller communities lose their voice and their autonomy, National’s Health spokesperson Dr Shane Reti says.

“Our regions know what works for them when it comes to keeping their communities healthy, and that isn’t always having Wellington dictate terms.

“Removing DHBs is similar to when Regional Health Authorities were centralised, it didn’t work then and it won’t work now.

“The Government should be looking to maintain regional identities and exploring the consolidation of some functions across DHBs, like asset management, not getting rid of them entirely.

“We have no idea how much this plan will cost, how long it will take to implement, or how disruptive this process is going to be.

“The Labour Government’s track record of delivery is poor, and it’s yet to prove it can implement large projects, such as this one.

“Health New Zealand will likely end up as just another bureaucracy that governments will have to fund, instead of investing the money where it’s needed most.

“National believes whoever has the greatest needs should receive the appropriate resources. We know Māori have the greatest inequity across health, and therefore greater needs across many health metrics.

“But we do not support a separate Māori Health Authority as it runs the risk of a fragmented two-tier system. On one hand Health Minister Andrew Little claims he’s trying to create a single, harmonious, joined-up health system and on the other he’s creating a two-tiered funding system based on race.

“This radical restructure couldn’t have come at a worse time. New Zealand is undergoing three critical mass vaccination programmes, including our Covid-19 vaccine roll out. What the health sector needs right now is certainty and stability.

“The Government needs to own its track record in health. In the past four years every single National Health Target is worse than when National was in Government. Labour has spent money but hasn’t seen the outcomes.

“This is just another example of this Government’s centralise and control ideology. We’ve seen it with the restructure of polytechnics, we’re seeing it with the three waters restructure, and now the Government has set its sights on restructuring our health sector.

“National’s position is clear, in Government we will retain the community and local voice through a DHB framework, and we will repeal a separate Māori Health Authority and work towards a better single integrated health system.”

https://www.national.org.nz/reckless_health_restructure_removes_local_voice

Reti makes some excellent points, most notably Labour’s track record to date, the timing when the Health system is already under massive pressure, and the establishment of a separate Māori Health Authority. He should be listened to.
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April 21, 2021 10:30am
- BAM
  
  You really are the Greg Presland of Kiwiblog.
  
  “National’s position is clear, in Government we will retain the community and local voice through a DHB framework, and we will repeal a separate Māori Health Authority and work towards a better single integrated health system.”
  
  DHB’s are shit.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:33am
  - Tall Man
    
    “DHBs are shit”.
    
    Can’t argue with that and the system is broken …. However, ardern and her numbnuts have neither the skill not the intention of changing anything.
    
    We’ll get a new name, another work group, a few media announcements and a big bunch of funding misappropriated.
    
    Business as usual.
    
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    April 21, 2021 2:45pm
- Tall Man
  
  He also buys into the “poor brown me” bullshit currently being bandied about …
  
  “National believes whoever has the greatest needs should receive the appropriate resources. We know Māori have the greatest inequity across health, and therefore greater needs across many health metrics”
  
  How about, just for once, we take colour out of the equation and look at the “physical attributes” of those with poor health outcomes. Let’s see if poor white overweight smokers with drug and alcohol abuse issues have great healthy and able bodied lives……
  
  FFS, this is National waffling about “poor maori health outcomes” …… totally removed from the reality of “lifestyle choices” matter.
  
  Too many “old white men” in National … or maybe not enough with their mouths open.
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:40am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    In case you hadn’t noticed, whilst Reti is very much male, he is neither old (he’s 57), nor white.
    
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    April 21, 2021 11:22am
    - Yabster
      
      Tony speaking as a National supporter- they are being very weak on race relations, nothing on freedom of speech, the 2040 vision for separatism etc etc- its pushing me towards ACT- I realise they are a centralist party but they are being very left/meek on to many issues.
      
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      April 21, 2021 11:29am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        Nothing on freedom of speech Yabster? Simon Bridges had a statement out denouncing Little’s proposals within an hour of the news that they had been leaked:
        
        Reports of the Government’s proposed new hate speech laws go a step too far and risk sacrificing the freedoms New Zealanders enjoy, National’s Justice spokesperson Simon Bridges says.
        
        “The reforms are supposedly including protections to every ground listed in Section 21 of the Human Rights Act. That includes political belief.
        
        “The definition of hate speech or incitement would include ‘the incitement of disharmony, based on an intent to stir up, maintain or normalise hatred, through threatening, abusive or insulting communications’.
        
        “If these reforms pass, then insulting communications from a different political party could land you in jail.
        
        “If we lose our liberal democracy we will end up with the type of New Zealand that the March 15 terrorist was trying to create.
        
        “Freedom of speech in a democracy means having to tolerate the expression of diverse views, but there are some things like violent hate speech that are never acceptable.
        
        “We need to be treading carefully when legislating against people’s thoughts. It shouldn’t be the Government’s role to dictate what people can and can’t say.
        
        “Free speech works in both ways, you are entitled to your views and others are entitled to criticise those views.
        
        https://www.national.org.nz/proposed-hate-speech-laws-a-step-too-far
        
        I hope that National and Act work together on opposing this attack on free speech.
        
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        April 21, 2021 11:42am
    - Yabster
      
      Hi Tony
      
      stand corrected- but they don’t get the message out very well- maybe thats due to the MSM agenda.
      
      Well done to Judith re her comments on the Maori Health Board b/s
      
      Collins said that the change would result in “giving people operations based on race not on need,” something she said will not sit well with New Zealanders.
      
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      April 21, 2021 12:21pm
      - Jack5
        
        The State Media Monolith (State TV, State Radio, and the taxpayer-subsidised print media) is solidly backing its paymaster, Labour.
        
        National, and even ACT, need a new way to rip into the Labour-Greens.
        
        Because of NZ’s remoteness, and long shape, radio frequencies must be available. Radio stations are cheap as chips to set up.
        
        A rip-roaring callback station chain would help. It wouldn’t get the State handouts the 21 Maori tribal stations get, but it might soon get advertising backing.
        
        Even at the immediate local level, I believe there are free frequencies for virtually suburban stations.
        
        Time for political entrepreneurship.
        
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        April 21, 2021 12:40pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Woosh Tony.
      
      That was my “point” flying above your head.
      
      Simplified, too many old white men so not appealing to the younger voter and the young Nats are MIA and seem to be relying on the Taxpayers Union.
      
      Not enough old white men “expressing” their non woke opinions and so getting a bit of balance back into the National Party’s policies.
      
      And finally, I never thought Reti was an odd Yugoslav name from up north but I don’t expect an intelligent man to have bought completely into the race based rubbish that maori have poor outcomes because they are brown. White people have been known to have poor outcomes as well after ingesting a surfeit of drugs, sugar and nicotine…..
      
      Simplified enough?
      
      Maybe that’s National’s problem at the moment, they’re missing the point as it’s “too complex”.
      
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      April 21, 2021 2:39pm
Stu2

Pleased not to have to play electoral roulette trying to make the best picks for the hospital board.
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April 21, 2021 10:30am
- Tall Man
  
  Exactly, ardern already knows who the best people for the jobs are ……
  
  As long as they know their place in the taniwha infested world now known as “public service aotearoa” ….
  
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  April 21, 2021 10:34am
Maggie Pie

Looks like Ma’s up and about. She just txt…..

‘who the hell would want to be a cop these days’
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April 21, 2021 10:52am
- Tall Man
  
  Unemployed guitar players?
  
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  April 21, 2021 2:41pm
Rusty

Wonder if Labours goal is to have a National health system like the UK or compulsory medicare like the USA?
On the surface it looks like a good idea from Andrew Little to get rid of the squabbling DHB’s who never seem to act in the best interests of the people but is he replacing it with something better like one health system for Maori and one for everyone else or does he have a grand plan for one national health system run by the govt further down the road?
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April 21, 2021 10:55am
- oldfella
  
  Rusty, we could call the new system ‘CindyCare’.
  Has a nice ring to it. /s
  
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  April 21, 2021 11:39am
  - Bob
    
    Why not call it ‘The Department of Health”…oh yes hat has been tried, and Comrade Helen dismantled it; not sufficient ‘non jobs’ for Labours otherwise unemployable members.
    
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    April 21, 2021 1:35pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      The Department of Health was replaced by the Ministry of Health in the 1990s. But thanks for playing.
      
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      April 21, 2021 7:37pm
- Albert_Ross
  
  The UK and US healthcare systems are not the only two models. There are several European countries with healthcare systems that deliver better outcomes than either.
  
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  April 21, 2021 3:07pm
waripori

The DHB’s were a dumb idea and many are far too small. Having said that they have been in place for decades and are delivering and funding healthcare, however inefficiently. Most patients survive.

It is going to be a major task to centralise control of all that to an entirely new organisation, even if it is staffed by people from DHBs ( presumably Capcoast God help us ) and the MoH ( ditto).

Labour have shown no ability to get the bureaucrats to anything well. This may not just be about cost overruns. This could be life and death.
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April 21, 2021 11:06am
kowtow

Listening to a Maori health advocate just now on Pete Williams ……

‘…….the health system should be there for the people who need it most , Maori and pacific Islanders….’

Just remember that folks the next time there’s a serious car crash , there’s always someone less priveliged than you who needs that ICU bed .
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April 21, 2021 11:21am
oldfella

Communicating the science is fine, as long as it’s acceptable ‘woke’ science. (I think Maori science is in the same category.)
++
Richard Dawkins has been stripped of his ‘Humanist of the Year’ title after comparing transgender people to the American activist Rachel Dolezal – who posed as a black woman for more than ten years.
The American Humanist Association (AHA) revoked its honour from the evolutionary biologist, 80, after he appeared to question whether people could choose their gender.
The move comes 25 years after the evolutionary biologist, whose books include The God Delusion and The Selfish Gene, received the honour for his ‘significant contributions’ as a science communicator.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9492315/Richard-Dawkins-stripped-Humanist-Year-award.html
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April 21, 2021 11:28am
- Ehlana
  
  Dawkins’ response noted that the title did not mean enough for him to have included it in his CV. He apparently thought put putting a proposition and asking for it to be discussed was acceptable from a University professor in a free society.
  
  He is definitely on the outer now. After the Oxford Student Union decided students shouldn’t have to engage with anything to do with “hate speech” (i.e., ableist, classist or misogynist), he asked how they were to study history or theology and suggested those who don’t know what a University is for leave Oxford to make room for those who do.
  
  Could get to like this man…
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:41pm
oldfella

Mahuta doesn’t like the idea – and China will spew – but expansion seems on the cards for Five Eyes. And I think Japan would be an excellent pick-up.
++
Japan is making progress towards joining the Anglophone world’s post-war spying network known as Five Eyes, according to Japan’s ambassador to Australia.
Australia and New Zealand in 1956 joined the US, Britain and Canada to complete the Five Eyes group and that was the last time any new member was admitted.
“Logically, in terms of interests and capability, Japan is the best candidate,” said the head of ANU’s National Security College, Professor Rory Medcalf.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/australia/300282475/japan-should-join-five-eyes-intelligence-network-says-australian-ambassador
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April 21, 2021 11:35am
- kowtow
  
  Ah such satisfaction , the left eating its own.
  
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  April 21, 2021 12:21pm
- cmm
  
  At this rate, Japan could join and it will still stay as 5 eyes.
  
  No doubt NZ withdrawing from 5E would be a big win for #CinD4UN!
  
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  April 21, 2021 1:19pm
  - Nickc2
    
    If we do get the arse from 5-Eyes, it may well end that Trade Deal we were negotiating with the UK before Mahuta and O’Connor stuck their oars in.
    Remember when Lange did his thing and we were removed from ANZUS (figuratively). It took us decades before we were even partly trusted by the US and even now, our acceptance is somewhat dubious.
    See what happens when fuckwits are put in charge? NZ is not in a position whereby it can be self-sufficient in anything but food. IMO, we are in danger of becoming the Cuba of the South Pacific.
    Is this the reason Aust’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister are planning to meet with our Govt in the not too distant future?
    
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    April 21, 2021 1:35pm
    - MCos
      
      Anzus is a non-binding collective security agreement, whereas Five Eyes is a treaty for joint cooperation in signals intelligence.
      If the Five Eyes collectively mouthed off at China who retaliated by suspending trade with NZ, or part thereof, we’d be on our own.
      If someone attacked one of the five countries in some way there is no obligation for the other four to act. It’s not that sort of agreement.
      On the other hand NZ may issue a statement with a number of other countries, as we recently did re the situation in Myanmar.
      Note
      The Five Eyes did nothing when France bombed the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland.
      
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      April 21, 2021 4:51pm
      - mikenmildagain
        
        Our allies could not even bring themselves to condemn the terrorist French government.
        
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        April 21, 2021 7:34pm
      - Nickc2
        
        I am well aware what 5-Eyes is all about. However, you appear to be cherry-picking issues to make your point eg Rainbow Warrior and Myanmar. In saying that, you appear to not be cognizant of what is released to the enemy (the media) and what is withheld by the Govt of the day. Likewise, Govts may choose to make untrue or misleading statements for political and/or security reasons.
        5-eyes is but one tool at the Govt of the day’s disposal.
        
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        April 21, 2021 8:30pm
  - kisekiman
    
    Aussie needs to invade us, now.
    
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    April 21, 2021 3:43pm
    - sooty
      
      Better be quick, before Chyna does!
      
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      April 21, 2021 6:31pm
Cobolt24

Inflation on the up, I don’t trust the CPI measure much https://www.interest.co.nz/business/110047/statistics-new-zealand-says-consumers-price-index-rose-08-march-quarter-giving
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April 21, 2021 12:29pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

https://babylonbee.com/news/young-communist-unsettled-to-find-hammer-sickle-represent-physical-labor?fbclid=IwAR2mAfZgY-hJynyOIsji6wnMfL46wqSblhDuk_nb9EwqgTecACV7nn6_b7Q
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April 21, 2021 12:33pm
- Bob
  
  I imagine that the concept of physical labour could well terrify many of todays young people.
  
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  April 21, 2021 1:32pm
  - Batman
    
    Tell that to the thousands of young people taking up trades.
    
    This kind of talk is as bad as the malignant of old white guys, which gets plenty of grumbles around these parts ?
    
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    April 21, 2021 1:35pm
    - Biscuit
      
      Agreed, Batman…
      
      My nephew is a prime example – and his plans for his future as a builder include much physical labour…
      
      V. admirable…
      
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      April 21, 2021 2:08pm
      - Batman
        
        Yep and my mates include a few tradies who went straight from school to building sites while some of us went drinking at uni.
        
        Guess who purchased houses first? (It wasn’t us soft hand professionals! Haha)
        
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        April 21, 2021 2:10pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Your “humour radar” is definitely broken.
      
      Getting soft?
      
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      April 21, 2021 3:45pm
      - Batman
        
        I think you put a much angrier voice in your head when you read my comments, than I have when typing them!
        
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        April 21, 2021 3:49pm
      - Tall Man
        
        You know Batman, I think you moderators suffer from that same issue when reading my posts 😉
        
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        April 21, 2021 5:42pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I don’t see a lot of young taking up trades. They all want a computer in a cubicle.
      As you say below, I am one who went straight from school into an engineering factory. Yup I have a house, and a bach, 2 cars, 2 boats, and a caravan.
      The young people today have no common sense – and a workshop can be a dangerous place.
      Btw Batman, I just clicked over 48 years with the same company – on boss number 6
      
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      April 21, 2021 5:41pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Young people want to start a Revolution, yet they can’t even start a fucking lawnmower
    
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    April 21, 2021 5:34pm
Tony Stuart

Judith Collins has made a pretty emphatic statement about Labour’s proposed Health reforms:

Judith Collins
@JudithCollinsMP
Really clear: @NZNationalParty will reverse the restructuring of public health announced by Labour today. Replacement of DHBs by a Wellington bureaucracy will not work; AND we remove the Maori Health Authority. Public health provision must be based on individual need, not race.
11:31 AM · Apr 21, 2021
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April 21, 2021 12:48pm
- septic skeptic
  
  And it’s already happening. Vaccination rollout group 2, people living in high risk places:
  
  people living in long-term residential care homes, eg aged residential care and disability residential support services
  people working in long-term residential care homes
  older Māori and Pacific people cared for by their whānau
  the people living with and caring for older Māori and Pacific people.
  
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  April 21, 2021 1:45pm
cmm

Is anyone else getting hassles importing stuff?

The last few things I’ve brought in have generally traveled quickly (Ok, except for an ice storm in USA holding up flights) until they got to Magic Cindy Land. Then they get stuck in customs for a long time. I bet if you phoned up they’d mutter some excuse about covid.

You’d swear that customs were a government organisation!
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April 21, 2021 1:23pm
septic skeptic

Check out group 3 in the vaccine priority list:
people aged 65 or older
disabled people
pregnant people (any trimester)
have a relevant underlying health condition
people living in custodial settings.

I just can’t find words to describe how I feel about that last line.
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April 21, 2021 1:40pm
- Ehlana
  
  When do the actual Prison staff get vaccinated? I would have thought they would be a priority, since while prisoners are, by definition, socially distanced from the community, the prison staff move between the community and the prison daily.
  
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  April 21, 2021 2:47pm
lifesgood

Since National can’t get anything positive reported by the MSM why don’t they put up billboards all over the show listing Labour’s many failures? Would be very effective and given the traffic clogging up our cities there would be plenty of time for exasperated motorists to read them.
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April 21, 2021 2:36pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Yep,
  
  especially alongside petrol stations….
  
  and new housing subdivisions (if you can find them)
  
  https://www.stats.govt.nz/news/prices-for-transport-and-housing-rise-in-march-2021-quarter
  
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  April 21, 2021 3:05pm
- cmm
  
  Naah that really doesn’t work. Just like I think DPF’s “attack ads” actually helped Labour – not hurt them.
  
  The only people those ads appeal to are the people who were never going to vote Labour anyway.
  
  The people who vote Labour will instead see this is a bunch of mean people picking on St Jizz and will gather around to support her.
  
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  April 21, 2021 5:46pm
Swifty

Two very interesting pieces on an Aussie bloke – long story short; had a very bad start in life, went completely off the rails, lived alone in the bush for years and years and then came good.

Worth a look, if of interest.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fnm_xFD3cQ

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/sunday/audio/2018683874/dr-gregory-smith-from-homeless-alcoholic-to-grateful-academic
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April 21, 2021 4:19pm
- cmm
  
  Hmmm, I thought before reading the link…. I betcha a servo pie he’s an academic… and in some bullshit social sciences field.
  
  Just like some of ours – career crims who end up in universities and now tell us how criminals and gangs are just misunderstood.
  
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  April 21, 2021 4:38pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Try reading this:
    https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/books/114109340/how-to-escape-from-prison-kiwi-paul-woods-highly-inspiring-transformation
    
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    April 21, 2021 7:31pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Watch to the end, if you can with encouragement.
You will NEVER see this on play school TV1 news, or hear it on the million dollar RED RADIO.
https://bongino.com/trump-discusses-2024-run-biden-border-crisis-and-more-in-hannity-interview/?
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April 21, 2021 6:52pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Gotta break your addiction to wingnut news, Steve. Next thing you know, you’ll be thinking the Obamas are transsexuals…
  
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  April 21, 2021 7:30pm
Monique Watson

Mahuta made it a bad week for her boss. Made her the laughingstock of the political circles and The Telegraph just said what everybody was thinking.
This report just released sets the atrocities committed by China in this report by the Human Rights Watch:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/2021/4/19/chinas-treatment-of-uighurs-is-crimes-against-humanity-report

So if New Zealand doesn’t condemn China’s actions then we implicitly turn our eyes away from it’s brutalities out of fear. And double standards.
Labour: Lecturing us about climate change for political gain and caring nought about human lives.
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April 21, 2021 7:05pm
- wreck1080
  
  I suppose Mahuta is not one to let a little thing like genocide get in the way of selling a bit more milk and kiwifruit.
  
  Also, we have another labour government putting our national security at risk….
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/opinion-jacinda-arderns-pro-china-stance-undermines-western-allies-and-puts-nzs-five-eyes-membership-at-risk/WPRZPIMH7JTZ5YPFXOPAGAJJPY/
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:50am
Fletch

R.I.P Jim Steinman, dead at 73.
Writer of all the good Meatloaf stuff, as well as –
“Total Eclipse of the Heart”
“Holding Out for a Hero” – Bonnie Tyler
“It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” – Celine Dion
“Making Love (Out of Nothing At All)” – Air Supply
etc

As well as the classic, “Rock and Roll Dreams Come Through”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qqhc9Id-Os
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April 21, 2021 7:36pm

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