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April 22, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 22 April 2021

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krazykiwi

Lateral flow tests. These are DIY swabbing tests that are easy to produce, and easy to self administer. The UK government has had millions of children testing, in some cases several time each day.

Given they not administered by an official, it’s possible to experiment with the testing a bit. And an enterprising UK citizen has decided to test the Covid-19 lateral flow kits on different household substances.

Here are the results:

1. Water; Negative
2. Tea from teapot; Negative
3. His saliva; Negative
4. Milk; Borderline (so that’s a Positive for SARS-CoV2 according to NHS guildelines)
5. Lee & Perrins; Void result
6. Pepsi Max; Positive for SARS-CoV2
7. Mango chutney; Positive for SARS-CoV2

Personally, I’d take scripts of Ardern’s ‘speeches from the throne’, soak them in brine and get that tested. Positive for SARS-CoV2 for sue, right?
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April 22, 2021 8:00am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  “It’s a tricky virus”…..
  It likes to hide in unexpected places (rubbish tin lids, lift buttons, frozen meat)
  
  Who doesn’t like mango chutney?
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:04am
  - alloytoo
    
    I prefer Peach my self 🙂
    
    10 years of a golden lab dropping rotting mangos in my lap to throw has put me off the fruit.
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:26am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Tricky, but not particularly lethal. Remember when WHO were scaremongering with its 3.4% infection fatality rate? Formal studies in 2020 put the figure more like 0.27%, and later 0.2%. Research published in March 2021 has this number is lower still with a global infection fatality rate is approximately 0.15%. This paper was received for publication long before the experimental vaccines were being used en masse.
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:35am
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  Crazy bro – With Chicken Little’s health reforms, Covide will be a thing of the past. Glory to Little!
  
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  April 22, 2021 10:53am
Scott

I’m not a big fan of the health reforms. Labour is following its instinct and ideology by making health into one government department run from Wellington. They will dismantle the DHBs which had locally elected representation which labour does not like. Labour wants everything run centrally under government control.

Conservatives like me believe in local government and local bodies that can adapt themselves to local conditions to better serve the local community. This will mean that not everything is under central government control. Labour does not like that. They believe they are the smart people and they should control things.

The other thing that frustrates me is because virtually all of the media think they same way then labour can do all these radical things and get away with it. Everything they do is presented positively by the mainstream media. There is no check on their power.

Lastly if you think this government will implement these policies well then I suspect you’ve got another think coming. How is Kiwibuild going? What about the millions of dollars spent on the passenger service from Hamilton to Auckland?

Scott predicts a monumental cockup.
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April 22, 2021 8:02am
- rockape
  
  I have to disagree, most involved in local Government despite being democratically elected are low quality and generally left wing muppets. We could well do without them.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:06am
  - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
    
    I am with rockape on this. I wish all Local Government entities are scraped as well.
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:55am
    - Paulus
      
      Well they are in Tauranga which now has Commissioners and the first thing they did was to bring in Maori Wards.
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:43pm
      - theoldbloke
        
        To be fair. Under the new Mahuta law they had to make a decision before ?May?.
        So they just rubber stamped the previous idiots decision.
        
        So both tribes. Councillors & Commisioners are woke.
        We just have to get over it and live with the cards as they are currently dealt.
        
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        April 22, 2021 4:04pm
      - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
        
        What is the MP for Tauranga doing about that? I guess nothing because he spends all his time sharpening a knife to stab aunty Judith in the back.
        
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        April 22, 2021 4:06pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Ignoring ideology, this will fail again. I recall the previous failure of the Dept to provide for the diverse NZ areas and needs.
  Pressure arising from that brought about regional Health Authorities and medicos were pleased because they had gained a local voice. That meant they could put pressure on Wellington for their wants. Delighted Board members were pleased to serve.
  I think the increase to 20 was a diversion and background takeback with the Dept regaining power. Twenty boards thought to be unruly and needed supervision.
  Moot anyway as this Govt has broken the rules and has got to go.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:15am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    NZ Health System has been restructured and fiddled with numerous times since the 1980s.
    
    get your head around some of these structures:
    https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/research-papers/document/00PLSocRP09031/new-zealand-health-system-reforms
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:22am
- mikenmildagain
  
  The elected hospital boards were abolished about 1989. In the 90s we got the RHAs, the CHEs and the quasi-commercialization of the health sector (part charges, etc). The RHAs were then abolished around 2000 and the CHEs became DHBs, once again with elected members.
  Elected members might be okay if they had any real control of things. They don’t, as all the money comes from the central government, with little local discretion. The DHBs have nowhere near the authority of a local council.
  NZ is small enough that a centrally controlled health service should be able to operate effectively. The risks mainly come from the scale of change, which can be expected to he hugely disruptive. There are probably also very optimistic forecasts of the money that can be saved from reducing the administrative overheads of all the boards.
  The principle seems fine; the devil, as always, will be in the details.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:21am
- alloytoo
  
  I disagree insofar as a duplication of DHB’s is concerned.
  
  I also agree that Labour implementing anything is like pouring petrol on a fire.
  
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  April 22, 2021 10:28am
- Philview
  
  It grates me that Labour didn’t front up with major policy before the election. In the past an independent media would have given them a blast for such a lack of transparency. The media say these reforms will end the ‘post code lottery’. I will believe that when I see it. Are they going to put a state of the art cancer hospital in every town in New Zealand?
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:19am
- Stellaboxer
  
  In New Zealand everything is local
  
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  April 22, 2021 7:41pm
cmm

Another “expert” talks about the “true cost of industrial food production”

Apparently the three big things are: environmental pollution, health problems and biodiversity.

Ok, let’s go through those…

Environmental pollution. Sure, every human activity creates some pollution. But is it really that bad? Traditional (ie. non-industrial) food production was also polluting. If we were to scale up the food production methods of the 1500s to today (ie. by a factor of about 20x) then what would things look like? In the 1500s the Thames stank of rotting carcasses and such. Twenty times as much stink would be completely intolerable.

Of course there is also the bogey man of Climate Change from dairy cattle etc – which any rational person person rejects as crazy – and is certainly no worse in the industrial age.

And, of course, non-food-related activities are far more polluting. Farmers and food workers are a small % of the population so it is appealing to put the blame on them.

Health: Apparently industrial food production is less healthy. Complete bullshit. Sure, we have obesity issues these days. 200 years ago the default position was starvation and malnutrition. These are far worse. On top of that food hygiene, refrigeration and such hugely increase the quality of food and reduce the chance of dying from food poisoning etc. So is being alive and overfed really a worse health problem than being starved, sick and dead? This is nonsense blaming poor personal choices on the industry.

Loss of biodiversity: Sure, this is probably the biggest. Biodiversity has reduced in many areas due to lands being put to the plough or pasture. On the flip side, human activity has also moved various life forms around intentionally (eg. kumara, wheat and other crops, cattle,…) as well as unintentionally (various pests). So this one is partially true and, on balance I’d say the “expert” is mostly right.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/124812960/the-true-cost-of-food-isnt-reflected-in-its-price-expert-says
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April 22, 2021 8:03am
- RockyJ
  
  Disagree on industrial food. This is loaded with hidden sugar and trans-fats. These are the main cause of our modern obesity epidemic. They work by altering the body’s metabolism. Eaten sparingly they are no problem but for many time-poor people they are all they eat. The golden rule is to only eat food your grandmother would recognise and cut out sugar.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:06am
  - cmm
    
    Hey I certainly agree that there is a lot of muck out there masquerading as food. With the industrial food system, all those ingredients are clearly spelled out and you have a choice to put that muck in your body or not. Nutritious food is widely, and cheaply, available.
    
    Without modern industrial food production 70% of us would not exist and the rest of us would be borderline starving most of the time.
    
    200 years ago farm labourers in UK/Europe would quite literally hibernate for winter. They’d stay in bed most of the time to reduce the amount of food they needed. It was worse for those living in cities who could not grow their own food.
    
    And that was Europe – the third world was way, way, worse.
    
    Now you can complain about obesity, but that is a whole lot better than being starved to death. Obesity is self inflicted.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:59am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I am 69. I do physical work. I eat whatever I wish, after 69 years I have earned that. I will not have busy bodies fucking with my food
      
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      April 22, 2021 5:25pm
cmm

Barry Soper says the Maori Health authority will not achieve its goals.
I think he is wrong, he makes the mistake of misunderstanding their goals.

Sure they won’t achieve their stated goals (improved Maori health etc), but they will achieve their intended goals, mainly to create a broreaucracy that can be plundered.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/barry-soper-its-doubtful-whether-maori-health-authority-will-achieve-its-goals/SIHMBRERG674HSPTRRWI55R6NE/
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April 22, 2021 8:04am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I’ll make a bold prediction. The gap between Maori health outcomes and the rest of the population will WIDEN over the next three, five, ten years.
  
  This is because Maori women will not stop smoking. Worryingly young Maori women are still smoking whereas smoking rates in young women of other ethnicities are negligible.
  
  Also there will be a tsunami of diabetes in the overweight Maori in their 30s as they hit their 40s.
  
  The Health Minister should shout these truths from the rooftops.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:17am
  - CaptainCompromise
    
    It’s a win win. If it the new authority works, it’s because the previous health system was inherently racist. If it doesn’t, it’s because the racism is still too strong and more must be done.
    
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    April 22, 2021 8:55am
    - alloytoo
      
      I look at it differently.
      
      It’s a win if it works, better health comes should always be lauded.
      
      It’s a win if it fails, (sad for the victims) the rest of us can point to how idiotic it was. (perhaps I’m being optimistic here)
      
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      April 22, 2021 10:39am
      - cmm
        
        You’re being optimistic.
        
        When they fail they never think it is because their ideologies are broken – just that they didn’t apply them completely.
        
        If Maori veto of health care fails, then they’ll say it was because that was not enough. Maori should be given full control of all healthcare matters in NZ – for everyone.
        
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        April 22, 2021 4:41pm
  - RockyJ
    
    A problem is that the Health spend will be diverted away from the sectors of society who take more personal responsibility and into Maori health. Wait for the headlines (in Kiwiblog or Bfd, not in MSM) about some pakeha dad who died by missing out on a procedure freely available to Maori.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:10am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Tsunami of diabetes is absolutely right. My view, one based on health economics* is that significant lifestyle-inflicted illnesses will need to be carved out of the public system. If you want health care for Type II then it will come from a private insurer. This type of step change is inevitable, but it will take a brave, honest government to implement it.
    
    * health spending as a proportion of GDP has been growing as faster than GDP for ~35 years
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:12am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Nothing a 10% health tax on rich pricks cannot fix….
      
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      April 22, 2021 10:58am
    - theoldbloke
      
      Dont forget that innovation and invention continue apace. Your avalanche of Diabetes may not occur.
      
      There are already products under development that will eliminate diabetes!!!
      
      Think about the motivation to develop something to address a HUGE problem in the modern world(Diabetes).
      A gazillion dollars to someone who solves that problem….
      
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      April 22, 2021 4:11pm
  - hmmokrightitis
    
    Listening to the voices on RNZ this morning telling us how wonderful this is for Maori.
    
    Really?
    
    And then we got the wonder of how it will be staffed. With, apparently, people who are (taking a short cut here) Maori. And the inference was ONLY Maori.
    
    Does that mean that mainstream health for the rest of us then precludes Maori? That Maori cant work in white folks health inc?
    
    No apartheid systems to see here, move along folks.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:42am
    - cmm
      
      Even in racist South Africa doctors/nurses of all races worked in “black” hospitals.
      
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      April 22, 2021 10:02am
      - 0A
        
        Indeed.
        
        Mate of mine did has national service (medic) delivering black babies in Ga-Rankuwa Hospital.
        
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        April 22, 2021 10:56am
      - SB2
        
        cmm, you mean in black and white segregated hospitals?
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:05am
      - Ehlana
        
        It will be good news if the Maori Health Authority (MHA – how come it doesn’t have a Maori name yet?) focuses on prevention and primary health care. But real achievement in that area is going to be a hard slog in the boring stuff – family planning to reduce overcrowding, parenting & relationship skills to reduce domestic violence, budgeting & cooking skills to reduce obesity & malnutrition, fitness to improve physical & mental wellbeing, education & training for employment (also good for mental health & poverty reduction). It will need partnership with social welfare agencies, educational and training services and local government (to provide the parks, footpaths and cycleways that encourage outdoor exercise). All nowhere near as glamorous as travelling to conferences called hui.
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:16am
      - oldfella
        
        And under Apartheid, black male doctors NEVER touched a white woman.
        I got that from a ‘cape coloured’ surgeon who finished up in NZ.
        
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        April 22, 2021 12:06pm
      - cmm
        
        oldfella: A black doctor – possibly not.
        
        There were very few black doctors back then and a huge need for doctors speaking Zulu/Xhosa/whatever. Even fluent Zulu/Xhosa speaking whites seldom ended up in white hospitals. It would be a complete waste to put one in a hospital where they could not use that fluency.
        
        I was treated by both Indian and Cape Coloured docs/nurses/radiologists in SA in the 1980s/90s.
        
        While most hospitals were racially segregated some were not. On the one occasion I went to Groote Schuur (main Cape Town hospital), I was in the same clinic along with coloured people.
        
        And for the slow of learning I have never been pro-apartheid as much as stephie loves to smear me.
        
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        April 22, 2021 4:50pm
    - oldfella
      
      I think we should just call the new health system ApartHealth.
      
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      April 22, 2021 12:02pm
    - Paulus
      
      Assume it will be a requirement for Maori Doctors, Specialists and Nurses, to conduct everything in Te Reo ?
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:53pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Benedict surely you must know by now that the reason wahine smoke so much is due to:
    a) colonialism
    b) racism
    c) systemic oppression by white people with privilege
    d) the patriarchy
    e) 9 years of neglect
    f) all of the above
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:56pm
- zulumonster
  
  Yes – a lot of talk about the health reforms announced yesterday … I find the talk of stalling life expectancy interesting …
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/124910729/tackle-smoking-obesity-alcohol-to-keep-new-zealands-life-expectancy-rising
  “Tackling smoking and obesity would make a difference in the next five to 10 years, and would be much less costly than the health care and surgeries needed to care for people who became sick if the problems weren’t dealt with.”
  On this blog in July 2019 our host noted that Maori life expectancy was rising at almost twice the rate of non-Maori from 2000 – it is probably fair to say that Maori (and Pacific Islanders) have the greatest opportunity to improve in this area so this gap should continue to close. But we never see these stats in the MSM – and nor am I convinced a separate Maori Health Authority will maintain the rate of progress.
  Also interesting to note that a separate Maori Health Authority was proposed by the Waitangi Tribunal in 2019 – and Dr Bloomfield was not a fan … I wonder if his view has changed?
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/113881330/waitangi-tribunal-recommends-new-independent-maori-health-authority
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:37am
  - Tall Man
    
    Eliminate smoking and eliminate the “tax” dollars from sales so less money in the kitty.
    
    Extend the life expectancy as the smokers become non smokers and extend the period of superannaution means more expense from the kitty…….
    
    Less means more …. tax for the rest of us 🙁
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:07am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Tall Man – According to Cindy, rich pricks should pay more to restore social justice. So get ready to cough up more tax bro!
      
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      April 22, 2021 11:00am
      - Tall Man
        
        What about “rich pricks” who smoke ……..
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:10am
  - tf78
    
    zulumonster, could Maori’s increase in life expectancy be due to their mostly European blood.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:52am
  - Nickc2
    
    Let me state from the outset, I’m dead set against a Maori Health Agency (MHA), the reason being, what’s the next Maori Agency going to be?
    
    As for Bloomfield (St Ash), Is he going to have a duplicate person (albeit Maori) standing alongside him at the Podium of Truth dictating how Maori are to act given any health crises. If so, no doubt each will have their own Signers while St Ash speaks English and the other speaks Te Reo. Probably more importantly, will the dictates of each be from the same hymn sheet?
    
    Maori Road Blocks and Non-Maori Road Blocks anyone?
    
    Next cab off the rank a MAORI POLICE AGENCY?
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:55am
    - Sir Cullen's Sidekick
      
      Why not Nickc2 bro? I would like simultaneous Maori translation of what St Ash is saying so that I can enrich my Maori skills which can get me good jobs in USA and UK.
      
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      April 22, 2021 11:01am
      - Nickc2
        
        Your skill improvement can only serve to enhance your acceptability into the BLM Movements in the US and UK. //
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:21am
    - oldfella
      
      Will all MHA forms and documents be written in Te Reo so only REAL Maori can read them?
      If you can’t read this, bro, you’re not Maori enough for our Maori health service.
      
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      April 22, 2021 12:09pm
- hullkiwi
  
  Even Sir Mark Solomon, would not commit to agreeing that the new Maori Health Authority will achieve its stated goals.
  
  Having worked on assignments for the UK NHS, I am happy to bet that within 10 years we will see wash, rinse, recycle, repeat and yet more health reforms because the health system is not delivering.
  
  Nobody is asking the basic question, which is:
  
  What are the health outcomes we want are seeking delivered? Work that out and you might get a health system delivery model.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:38am
  - CaptainCompromise
    
    Your last paragraph is spot on. “Health” is a vague concept that hasn’t been quantified. By its very nature you can spend any amount of money on health and there will still be people who get sick and die. Budget a million dollars a person and people will still get sick and die, albeit at lesser rates. Add into that the law of diminishing returns, and without some clearly stated goals it can very quickly turn into a fiscal black hole while people are still complaining and disappointed.
    
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    April 22, 2021 8:58am
  - theoldbloke
    
    Sort of makes me think that its like spending a long time deciding on the color & engine size of a car before deciding
    a) Where you want to go
    b) How often do you want to go
    c) How many people will travel
    d) How much money have you got to spend.
    
    Seems political Health proposals address color of car(how will it look) & engine size (how big will the admin be)
    
    All else is forgotten.
    
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    April 22, 2021 4:17pm
- Tomtoddy
  
  This is the back door method the elites have of improving Maori well being – create a huge, authority employing the maximum number, using taxpayer’s money to pay them ridiculous amounts.
  
  Create meaningless Maori terms that no one challenges, hold countless numbers of hui, retain half of them as consultants and part of the Maori underperformance is fixed.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:38am
- softail 1450
  
  cmm, The success of the scheme will be easily tested, simply get the data from the sales of BMWs MERCs, AUDIs, PORCHES, ETC in Wellington over the years, my guess is sales will go through the roof 2 months after this separatist scheme kicks off.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:50am
  - Tall Man
    
    Sat behind a group of Iwi wives discussing their latest trip to New York and comparing their handbags……
    
    It’s what the public don’t see that should concern them.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:04am
    - Okahu
      
      Was that when you relaxed for 6 weeks in the Seychelles after your trek across Siberia?
      
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      April 22, 2021 10:21am
      - Tall Man
        
        Are you a policeman …. 😉
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:11am
- redeye
  
  I am constantly seeing the argument that the current health system doesn’t work for Maori.
  Wondering if anyone can be more specific?
  We do have the same biology so I can’t see how one racial group could have different health needs.
  Serious question.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:07am
  - Apropos of the Wet Snow
    
    [deleted by Mod for mass generalising and denigration of an entire ethnic group]
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:52am
    - Apropos of the Wet Snow
      
      [pious arguments with Mods never get far – Mod]
      
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      April 22, 2021 10:10am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    there are obviously big differences in phenotypes and average physiologies produced by polynesian vs european genotypes. From outwardly obvious stuff, to rates of maturation and susceptibility to various diseases and health issues as well as a tonne of things that we are now required to pretend have no differences by various woke forces of anti-science who insist that evolution doesn’t apply to certain features of the human animal (unlike everything else on planet earth).
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:55am
  - oldfella
    
    If you can’t get the outcomes (operations, etc) you want from the regular (the rest of us) heath system, can you claim Maori ancestry and make a plea to the other side?
    And what about a mixed race family? Could we end up with ‘health doors’ marked ‘Maori’ and ‘Non-Maori’?
    I suspect the law of unintended consequences is going to loom large, very quickly, and kick us all in the arse.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:19pm
  - doggone7
    
    Is it that in most western societies those who are at the wrong end of health statistics are groups in the lowest social-economic levels?
    
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    April 22, 2021 2:37pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Most poor people in NZ are poor because they lack personal discipline and make bad choices about how they live – because there is tremendous opportunity for anyone in NZ who works hard. Being poor doesn’t mean you have to eat excessively, use drugs excessively, fail to keep your house dry or avoid exercise or do other dumb stuff that shortens your life expectancy. You can’t save people who sabotage themselves.
      
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      April 22, 2021 3:54pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        poor people in NZ … are poor … lack personal discipline … bad choices … tremendous opportunity for anyone in NZ who works hard.
        
        Hooray … someone has sorted out the problem. Basically the poor are always with us and it is their own stupid fault. We should just let them sink.
        
        Work hard and you can (supposedly) buy a house. For every case of a scrimper and saver who managed I could quote you two scrimpers/savers who don’t have a hope in hell of ever getting there.
        
        Then you can work a bit harder and buy a second one. You can back off a bit then as the wonder of the market sorts out the rest of your life. If you chose your (boomer) parents right it’s even better.
        
        Summary – yeah right.
        
        I didn’t even ask how many poor people you know …..
        
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        April 22, 2021 5:39pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  It’s activist driven so the goals of division are likely.
  Maori health is being pushed as a Treaty issue, Pakeha failure and Tribal opportunity.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:21am
  - oldfella
    
    Kev, I heard a spokeswoman for the Salaried Medical Professionals (I think) talking on the TV news last night about this new deal being part of our responsibility under the Treaty. That old ‘partnership’ lie.
    And BTW, did anyone else notice that in the interview she did with Simon on TV1, he would ask the question and she would immediately look down, obviously checking her answers. Which means she’d been given the questions in advance.
    So not so much a genuine interview, but a pre-scripted puff piece.
    Shame on you TVNZ.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:26pm
    - Batman
      
      Honestly, you sound paranoid.
      
      If the treaty isn’t a partnership, what is it then? It’s not a master servant relationship by any means.
      
      As for your theory about Simon Dallow, he will be reading his next question you dork. It’s a standard behavioral practice to draw the audience attention to the person speaking.
      
      Honestly, some people are losing the plot over this stuff.
      
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      April 22, 2021 12:57pm
      - RockyJ
        
        Batman, it was an agreement between partners but not a partnership agreement. The agreement made was for the application of a government for all equally.
        
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        April 22, 2021 2:11pm
      - zulumonster
        
        The Treaty of Waitangi was certainly not a partnership agreement – although Maori are now disputing that. The iwi signatories were ceding sovereignty to the Crown in exchange for equal rights as British citizens and to retain their land and property rights. A partnership implies altogether different responsibilities.
        And oldfella was talking about the guest referring to notes, not Simon Dallow … you dork.
        
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        April 22, 2021 2:57pm
      - oldfella
        
        Bats, to quote zulumonster’s summation, ‘The iwi signatories [to the treaty] were ceding sovereignty to the Crown in exchange for equal rights as British citizens and to retain their land and property rights. A partnership implies altogether different responsibilities.” Yes?
        He also points out on my behalf (thanks, ZM) that it was the female guest looking down to check her notes, not Simon. His questions would already be on the autocue for him to read.
        Now, as to you being a dork, Batman, to paraphrase the UK House of Cards, ‘Many might think that – I couldn’t possibly comment.”
        
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        April 22, 2021 4:32pm
      - theoldbloke
        
        Treatys are not partnerships in the equal parties inference commonly used by the woke.
        
        Yes they are party to the treaty as they signed it.
        
        Perspective.
        Think of many international treaties.
        Treaty of Versailles- end of WW1
        An agreement to resolve the end of the war.
        Nobody(in their right mind) would say that was a partnership agreement.
        
        Similarly with the TOW.
        Maori wanted the protection of the Poms (remember the French were lining up to colonise NZ at the time)
        The POMs were happy to offer protection in exchange for more control over the colony !
        
        They are better seen as a contract between parties laying out responsibilities.
        
        The fact that both sides, but predominately the Poms subsequently broke those contracted agreements is another debate.
        
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        April 22, 2021 4:34pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        The Treaty was never a partnership nor could it be. The tribes only ceded what they would. They had to deal with eat or be eaten and they were reducing fast.
        Now they want to get back some of what little they had but they are 180 years late.
        
        The peace of the 20th C. is being disturbed by radicals capitalising on being able to pressure Labour but the law is being flagrantly flouted by both sides, Maori and Govt. Ihumatao is a disgrace showing the Govt as law breakers and not subject to Parliament on expenditure–that belief got Charles I beheaded. And the Westminster Parliament has recognised the sovereignty of Parliament since then. A Govt may tax but only Parliament can approve the spending. Those laws form part of the fabric of NZ.
        
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        April 22, 2021 7:07pm
- oldfella
  
  cmm: Soper suggests in that article that the new Maori Health Authority will have VETO power over the rest of us. What??? I’d have th0ught that was political suicide for any government. Did I miss something in yesterday’s announcement?
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:59am
  - graham
    
    Yup. From the cabinet paper (https://dpmc.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2021-04/cabinet-minute-cab-21-sub-0092-health-and-disability-system-review.pdf), page 15:
    
    52 Similarly, turning to national service planning, in relation to hauora Māori it will also be critical that there is clear and meaningful Māori leadership and involvement. My expectation is that the Māori Health Authority should have a co-lead role in relation to national planning and in designing the key operating mechanisms that the system will use.This would require the Māori Health Authority to jointly agree national plans and operational frameworks(e.g. the commissioning framework), with clear approval rights including an ability to exercise a veto in sign-off.Having such an approval mandate would ensure the Māori Health Authority is engaged early and constructively, and that critical operations are aligned with a clear hauora Māori vision, embed Māori priorities and mātauranga Māori systems, and enable mechanisms that give life to local Māori leadership in the health system.
    
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    April 22, 2021 1:09pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Sounds like a veto to me.
      This matter must be put to the Country before proceeding further.
      
      Maori are also ill-defined so we may be coming close to an inter-tribal war situation. There is no Maori Nation but groups with disparate loyalties with some who long to take their ancient lands back. The warrior spirit is strong in Polynesia and letting the genie out of the bottle may be more than we can control.
      
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      April 22, 2021 7:12pm
  - Paulus
    
    No – I understand that the MHA will have final decisions as every one will pass through them first.
    
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    April 22, 2021 1:58pm
  - zulumonster
    
    Just another step in the journey to Vision2040 …
    
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    April 22, 2021 2:58pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Just wait for it to turn to custard, and then the goalposts get moved (targets)
  
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  April 22, 2021 5:26pm
Maggie Pie

“New Zealand’s Tiresomely Woke Prime Minister”
– best description ever! 😀

https://twitter.com/AlexanderDowner/status/1384627862133739521
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April 22, 2021 8:08am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I see that some New Zealand reader took a swipe in the comments about the deportation of new Zealand criminals.
  
  Golden reply.
  
  “If it’s such an anti-social society we just did them a favour. You can keep your undesirables, feel free to send back any Aussies you don’t like before China begins annexing the North Island.”
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:12am
- bennerg
  
  And just under that this classic
  
  https://twitter.com/DJcalligraphy/status/1384631785376522242
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:25am
  - graham
    
    Brilliant!
    
    25 2
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    April 22, 2021 8:53am
  - SB2
    
    I always have thought that ideas like equality before the law, equality of opportunity, race/ ethnicity rested uneasily with anti woke folk.
    
    In a nutshell Trump supporters,
    
    https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-attacking-cancel-culture-and-woke-people-is-becoming-the-gops-new-political-strategy/
    
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    April 22, 2021 11:19am
    - TWEEDSE
      
      Your wrong SB2.
      
      5 0
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      April 22, 2021 1:28pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        tautological
        
        2 0
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        April 22, 2021 3:55pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      You live in your own nutshell so have little perspective of others.
      
      2 0
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      April 22, 2021 7:13pm
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    A cat for our times. Brilliant.
    Pussikins should be the next leader of the National Party.
    
    5 0
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    April 22, 2021 12:18pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Articles in the UK Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail hammering NZ’s stance on 5 eyes.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:36am
- Tony Stuart
  
  A bit more from that Telegraph story, which should concern all of us who value New Zealand’s security alliance with our Five Eyes partners:
  
  It transpires that, rather than supporting efforts by other alliance members to hold Beijing to account over human rights abuses, New Zealand has been reluctant to sign joint Five Eyes statements criticising China.
  
  Explaining the decision, the country’s foreign minister, Nanaia Mahuta, says her country is “uncomfortable” with expanding the alliance’s role, and that New Zealand should instead pursue its own bilateral relationship with Beijing. At the heart of it is a desire to forge closer trade ties with China, which presently accounts for 29 per cent of New Zealand exports.
  
  Wellington’s willingness to ally itself more closely with Beijing has also resulted in accusations that New Zealand is not fulfilling its obligations to protect smaller nations in the Pacific, which have been the target of Beijing’s expansionist designs in the region. However, by pursuing such a patently pro-Beijing outlook, Ms Ardern not only risks undermining Western attempts to present a united front against China. New Zealand’s reluctance to cooperate with other Five Eyes members raises serious questions about its continued membership of the alliance.
  
  This is not the first time that the country’s relations with the alliance have been strained. In 2003, serious consideration was given in both London and Washington to ending New Zealand’s Five Eyes membership after Helen Clark, the country’s then Labour prime minister (and Ms Ardern’s political mentor), ordered her country’s intelligence services to scale down their cooperation with Five Eyes because of her opposition to the Iraq war.
  
  Ms Ardern’s ill-judged preference for fostering closer ties with Beijing will inevitably reignite the debate in Western intelligence circles as to whether New Zealand, which has long been regarded as the weakest link in the alliance, should retain its membership.
  
  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/04/21/jacinda-ardern-now-wests-woke-weak-link/?li_source=LI&li_medium=liftigniter-rhr&onwardjourney=web-4335-morestories-second_variation
  
  If New Zealand is suspended or sidelined in any way from Five Eyes, the blame rests fairly and squarely with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:42am
  - Tall Man
    
    “If New Zealand is suspended or sidelined in any way from Five Eyes, the blame rests fairly and squarely with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.”
    
    With 50+ % support from voters I think the “blame” is spread a little wider.
    
    Has there been an outpouring of criticism in the media or even social media?
    
    People say the media has been “bought”, I say that with welfare, more than half of NZ has been bought.
    
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    April 22, 2021 8:51am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Four Eyes and a Squint 😀
    
    40 2
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    April 22, 2021 8:57am
    - Tall Man
      
      Bint …….
      
      19 2
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      April 22, 2021 9:02am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Squit?
      
      7 2
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      April 22, 2021 9:24am
    - oldfella
      
      Maggie: Squint? Are you referring to Japan, which is tipped to be the next to join that particular team? 😉
      And serious question. If we got booted out of Five Eyes, would Cindy even care?
      
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      April 22, 2021 12:31pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Squint as in we don’t want to look, just peek
        
        3 1
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        April 22, 2021 5:32pm
    - Paulus
      
      We will be replace by Japan !
      
      7 0
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      April 22, 2021 1:59pm
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    I thought Nicky Hager was writing aotearoa’s foreign policy
    
    16 5
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    April 22, 2021 9:08am
    - calendar girl
      
      Our country’s name is New Zealand.
      
      33 1
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      April 22, 2021 9:47am
      - tf78
        
        calendar girl -quite right, as stated in the Treaty of Waitangi too.
        
        11 2
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        April 22, 2021 10:29am
      - Batman
        
        It’s a dangerous game to rely on the treaty for this and not think other areas will come back at you… A very double edged sword!
        
        7 4
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        April 22, 2021 10:45am
      - Inandout
        
        cg, well not according to Mobil in their latest radio promotion pitched to Aotearoa.
        
        6 2
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        April 22, 2021 11:03am
  - adamsmith1922
    
    My latest comment here https://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2021/04/22/jacinda-ardern-new-zealands-tiresomely-woke-prime-minister/
    
    18 7
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    April 22, 2021 9:45am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/link_whoring
      
      9 17
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      April 22, 2021 10:51am
    - Paulus
      
      Ardern will be blackballed should she ever try and get a job with UN.
      She is now being seen internationally as out of our/her depth.
      SLG
      
      9 1
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      April 22, 2021 2:01pm
Happychappy

Dramatic Health changes are ‘bold’ and leave National in tricky spot says 1 News
Political Reporter.
Maliki Sherman forgets it is easy to make statements of what you are going to do with Health but a lot harder to carry them out.
Labour is good at announcing what they want to do but their track record of implementing any policy in the last three and a half years has been pitiful and lacking the motivation to succeed, it has been all talk with no delivery .
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/one-news/new-zealand/dramatic-health-changes-bold-and-leave-national-in-tricky-spot-says-1-news-political-reporter
When the going gets tough labour loses its credibility as has happened in Housng, Tourism Immigration, Education and many other changes with promises they have made.
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April 22, 2021 8:10am
- amospicton
  
  Exactly Happy – what are the odds that this mob who’ve spectacularly failed to deliver on much simpler promises turn what, on paper, is one of their better moves, into a complete disaster. This would be hard to implement in normal times but trying to plan it during the vaccination program will be well beyond them. In fact, it could end up being the issue that destroys them.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:45am
  - zulumonster
    
    I suspect it may go along the lines of the “new” Dunedin Hospital – promised to be started in their first term … still waiting!
    
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    April 22, 2021 3:06pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  There was supposed to be light rail to Mt Roskill by this year, promised by Jacinda Ardern as one of her first pledges in the 2017 election campaign. However there’s not even a route decided yet, let alone land acquired, and we are years away from a shovel going in the ground.
  
  If Labour can’t manage relatively straightforward projects such as light rail, building houses, providing PPE to frontline healthcare workers and rolling out measles, flu and COVID vaccines, how can we have any confidence in their ability to restructure the entire health system?
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:46am
  - H. Upmann
    
    ….and thank goodness for that (LR) failure.
    
    10 1
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    April 22, 2021 9:56am
  - calendar girl
    
    Tony’s comment:
    
    “There was supposed to be light rail to Mt Roskill by this year, promised by Jacinda Ardern as one of her first pledges in the 2017 election campaign.”
    
    Will the PM apologise for misleading the Electorate on this matter? Of course she won’t. Her words, promises and actions are generally “Look at me!” events – too often left behind unfulfilled or uncompleted in the flotsam and jetsam of her Prime Ministerial tenure.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:58am
- rockape
  
  When you make grand announcements against advice and without consultation with those in the field and you dont even cost them . you are asking to fail.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:15am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Bold if accomplished: disaster otherwise.
  Mixed motives by Maori activists, PM, Minister and Depts means an expensive waste of public monies again in the pursuit of controls.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:28am
  - rockape
    
    The charge of the Light Brigade was bold, Wise? Not so much.
    
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    April 22, 2021 7:52pm
- Isobar
  
  I think Collins had made (yet another) fatal mistake with their position of not only opting for the status quo, but actually promising to restore it.
  
  Most people – not in politics circles hate the DHB model. A lot of the voters who crossed the floor to Labour from National last time will hate the DHB model. This will do nothing to restore support. Especially now they will be weary voting again for National if they do bring it back.
  
  I was quite surprised to see National coming out in support for retaining a bloated model that fails everyone and is widely disliked in the community.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:41am
- Nickc2
  
  I can’t help but get the impression that TVNZ1 has been hijacked by Maori albeit with the connivance of the current Govt. Maliki Sherman is yet another added to their list of woke reporters/presenters/talking heads. Don’t forget, Chris Faafoi is in the process of amalgamating TVNZ and Radio NZ (RNZ). Will that become the MAORI BROADCASTING AGENCY?
  
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  April 22, 2021 10:36am
- Paulus
  
  Looks as though Labour are going to be remembered as The Gunner Government.
  Gunner do this and Gunner do that.
  
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  April 22, 2021 2:02pm
Yvette

“Māori are more likely to be overweight, depressed, homeless, incarcerated and uneducated …
What’s even worse is the state of Māori health. Māori adults are 1.5 times more likely to have anxiety or depressive disorders. Māori adults are also 1.6 times more likely to have missed out on seeing their GP because they couldn’t afford it, in the last 12 months. Māori adults are 1.7 times more likely to be obese.”

This was said by a Māori politician prior to the 2017 Election for the simple motive of disparaging the relationship then between the Maori Party and National – “There’s no mana for Māori who support a waka that’s shackled to the National Party” – so said for simple political gain, but it is one of the best examples of the mantra that exists in summing up the lead Māori seem to have in all the lowest social statistics that there are.

If they were physically colonised once, this mantra repeated ad infinitum, as it has been over decades, colonises some Māori a second time – mentally, with that then confirming their position in reality.

But once the much heralded “hate speech laws” eventuate, it is likely this Maori mantra – widely denigrating a minority – will be outlawed.

Meanwhile the Labour Government, in establishing a controlling Māori Health Authority, are set to entrench this Māori mantra into the health system.

Just saying – while one still can
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April 22, 2021 8:13am
- softail 1450
  
  Yvette, Take away “overweight” from your comment and you’d have the state of most Maori pre European arrival ,that is a fact ,Maori Men averaged 38 years life span before the filthy white man arrived.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:57am
  - Yvette
    
    softail 1450 – As I pointed out, “overweight” was the comment of a Maori politician, not mine.
    
    In pre-European times, Māori were tall and muscular, even by today’s standards. Their average life expectancy of around 28–30 years seems low. But when European explorer James Cook arrived in New Zealand, the populations of both France and Spain had a life expectancy below 30 years – https://teara.govt.nz/en/te-hauora-maori-i-mua-history-of-maori-health/page-1 other sources say 26 years for Maori men.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:16am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      A slow small or weak Maori male would likely quickly end up dead in the incessant tribal conflicts, or pushed aside by bigger tougher specimens when it came to fighting over scant resources in lean times. In pre historic cultures where there is strong competition between neighbouring tribes there is up to 2-3% average annual mortality from conflict (though obviously it goes up and down a lot, due to outright massacres). Maori obviously have it so much worse since whitey came.
      
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      April 22, 2021 10:46am
      - Inandout
        
        UN, I was told by a Maori workmate from up North that when tribes successfully invaded other tribes the best of the vanquished tribe were selected to be taken back to the village for breeding purposes. This helped keep a healthy tribe for future wars. He also said after the Moa was wiped out and ‘other food sources’ were chosen, the average Maori’s health declined markedly.
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:09am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Have a look at other Pacific nations–over weight is cultural and may have been an aid to survival.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:32am
  - Paulus
    
    And was said the other day “Windsor Castle was built 400 years before the Maori arrived in New Zealand”.
    
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    April 22, 2021 2:04pm
    - softail 1450
      
      Paulus, I had a couple of beers at a pub in Aberfeldy in Scotland ,the ceiling was so low you had to stoop to go for a piss and on the wall was a sign, “we’ve been serving quality beers for 180 years before Christopher Columbus’s 1st voyage, now that’s longevity for you.
      
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      April 22, 2021 6:03pm
kowtow

Oz revokes Vics Belt and Road Initiative .
Our FM deals Allies a blow talking gibberish about dungeons and dragons.

Our Media Party do no analysis of that speech and who , why ,where and how it was delivered .( other than ‘oh look what a Brit has said” )

Major stuff going on and what are we talking about ?

Fentanyl Floyd’s been a great distraction.

Anything but what really matters .
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April 22, 2021 8:14am
Maggy Wassilieff

Take warning about using she/her pronouns when your cat is around
(about half-way down the tweets)
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April 22, 2021 8:21am
artemisia

A libertarian (can’t recall who) said –

Free Minds. Free Markets.

National? ACT?
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April 22, 2021 8:22am
Paulus

Can anybody tell me why the Taxpayer via RNZ is paying Nicky Hagar to spy on a legally approve company performing its job.
This is actually being done on behalf of Greenpeace so why does the Taxpayer have to pay ?.
Bet RNZ will not comment citing something.
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April 22, 2021 8:23am
- Clyde
  
  This sudden burst of activity by Moaning Report is bizarre to say the least. Big national stories going on including the axing of the DHBs and first up is basically an opinion piece by Hagar on the activities of a private detective. Of course any questioning of the assumptions, vague references etc didn’t happen at all, so what is the motive?
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:52am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Are you disputing the facts set out in the story?
    
    4 25
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    April 22, 2021 9:28am
- mikenmildagain
  
  You don’t think RNZ should be able to use reporters of its choice?
  
  4 28
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  April 22, 2021 9:25am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Some may be of dubious quality and memorable for their use of material obtained by digital intervention then marketed for profit–a sign of ethical integrity?
    
    17 5
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    April 22, 2021 9:44am
    - SB2
      
      Can you ever imagine a NewsMaxx, Gatway Pundit etc RNZ to satisfy the whims and fancies of NZ’s lunatic fringe far right?
      
      3 20
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      April 22, 2021 11:24am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        We are more discerning than current whims and fancies that fall from the fireplace.
        
        4 2
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        April 22, 2021 12:36pm
  - Clyde
    
    What “facts”? What I’m questioning here is the decision by RNZ to lead their flagship “news” programme on 3 successive mornings with a piece that was filled with innuendo, short of facts, was more about opinion than reporting on something that was either important or topical. There is an agenda going on here but I’m pleased that the rosy glasses are still working for you.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:34pm
Frank the tank

So daughter competed in a U12 water polo tournament on the weekend. Got badly fouled (fingernail scratch from hip to knee with bleeding). Offending kid gets kicked out of the game – first thing his parents say is that the ref and tournament is racist because their son was brown. I kid you not.

Only in (little) Aotearoa………
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April 22, 2021 8:23am
- Swifty
  
  Toenail?
  
  5 1
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  April 22, 2021 8:46am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Toe rag.
    
    11 0
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    April 22, 2021 9:28am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Fingernail
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:01am
- NoCash
  
  Did the ref not check the fingernails before the game started, like most school netball games?
  
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  April 22, 2021 10:02am
  - Frank the tank
    
    No it was probably racist, transphobic & sexist to do so (sic)
    
    6 1
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    April 22, 2021 11:36am
- Parnell Gun Club
  
  I didn’t think water polo was a mixed sport. It’s not here in Auckland. I mean what could possibly go wrong?
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:48am
  - Joe Banana
    
    I used to play water polo but my horses kept drowning!
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:42pm
Maggy Wassilieff

NZ…. last off the starter blocks.

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/nz-releases-belated-criticism-of-who-covid-report

https://www.mfat.govt.nz/en/media-and-resources/new-zealand-statement-on-who-convened-global-study-of-origins-of-covid-19/
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April 22, 2021 8:26am
cmm

Has the world gone completely insane?

People would love to have a 35,000 seat stadium rather than a 30,000 seat stadium.

Sure, everyone wants, but only because someone else is taking care of the bill.

The new stadium will have 25,000 seats with the ability to expand to 30,000 with temporary seats.

So how much does a 25,000 seat stadium cost?

Well it is budgeted at $473M, so call that $600M when done because it’s just someone else’s money so they always blow the budget. That’s $25,000 PER SEAT!

FFS: For 25k you can get a new 4-seater car!

C’mon, seriously, what happened to a concrete stand with a cushion? Are modern arses so soft?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/124907017/christchurchnz-would-love-ability-for-new-stadium-to-seat-35000
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April 22, 2021 8:30am
- MCos
  
  “C’mon, seriously, what happened to a concrete stand with a cushion?”
  Depends whether you want to paying customers to front up to see the games.
  On the positive side it could be used as a collective tractor factory during the week.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:52am
- CaptainCompromise
  
  It’s in an ass of a position too. Like they couldn’t have picked a less practical location.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:02am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    The stadium is only going in that site because it is a huge gap where half the CBD used to be before it was demolished. So someone said hey lets put the stadium in that big gap. It would make more sense to build housing in that gap and put the stadium on the outskirts of the city. Of course putting a stadium in the middle of the city means you won’t be able to drive your car there, which is a big plus for Christchurch City Council.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:38am
    - Jack5
      
      Good point Benedict.
      
      Next stands at the stadium for 30,000 pushbikes, and eight-lane cycle ways leading to it.
      
      Meanwhile last drops of financial blood are being squeezed out of Christchurch ratepayers.
      
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      April 22, 2021 11:05am
    - cmm
      
      ” Of course putting a stadium in the middle of the city means you won’t be able to drive your car ”
      
      A killer for spectators.
      
      Given that you already see the games better on big screen TVs, the desire to attend games in person is dropping off.
      
      If you want the crowd effect then go to a sports bar.
      
      So how can we make it even less appealing? I know: zero parking.
      
      Now people have to come to the arena two hours before to find parking, walk 2 km or, shudder, public transport.
      
      The age of the stadium is pretty much dead – along with the CBD. Sure, there will be occasions when these venues are filled but those are a small minority.
      
      Spending $600M+ on a stadium which is only used to capacity 3 times a year just doesn’t make sense – unless some other prick is paying.
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:41pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  They has an earthquake down there, so apparently it’s our duty as taxpayers to buy them a proper stadium.
  Your proper response should be “what else can we buy you?”
  //
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:31am
  - Jack5
    
    Tax money flowing out of Wellington?
    
    Ya wouldn’t believe it.
    
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    April 22, 2021 11:06am
- Inandout
  
  The hugely expensive events centre hasn’t yet been finished. Seems Chch ratepayers are exceedingly wealthy.
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:01pm
I remember when

‘It will represent Maori from all iwi, Henare.’
So is that the same iwi who so harmoniously divided up the Maori fishing rights.
Some units will only have Te Reo proficient staff employed.
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April 22, 2021 8:32am
Ehlana

The news you will hear today: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/ohio-police-officer-fatally-shoots-teenage-girl-swinging-knife/IQPSPLWSTKLVPWBYRD5PZTRYXI/
A 15 or 16 year old black girl was shot and killed by police as she charged at two females with a knife. The immediate response from some: chants of “say her name” and “she was only a kid”.

The news you will not hear today:
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/04/19/us/chicago-shooting-7-year-old/index.html
A 7 year old black girl was shot and killed by an unknown person as she sat in a car in a McDonald’s drive-thru with her Dad, who was also injured. Nobody is chanting.
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April 22, 2021 8:34am
- Tall Man
  
  As I demonstrated yesterday when Monique claimed Floyd had “turned his life around”, sadly deleted by ……
  
  People who DON’T put themselves aggressively in front of armed police DON’T get shot.
  
  I guess that’s rocket science for many.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:40am
  - Ehlana
    
    Yes, I notice the 13 year old shot and killed may have tossed a gun only 1 second before he was shot. If that turns out to be true, I’m sorry, but 1 second is probably not enough time for the average police officer to register the change of circumstances and change their actions accordingly.
    If there is a problem with the employees (police officers) it is reasonable to look to the employers (taxpayers and their representatives). How good is the selection, training, leadership, ongoing professional development and support? Are the protestors willing to pay more taxes to improve the quality of policing?
    On the prevention is better than cure theory, what is being done to reduce the levels of crime in the community so that fewer police are needed and these employees are less likely to be exposed to shooting situations? In the case of the 15/16 year old and the 13 year old, where were their families and communities in the years leading up to their deaths?
    Better policing is a better ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Better parenting/communities is a better fence at the top.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:24am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Not may have, did. “li’l homicide” (pretty easy to guess how he got that nom de guerre) had gun in hand as stopped at end of a fence, threw gun out of sight of the cop behind fence as he turned around to face the cop. Cop didn’t realise he had tossed gun while his hand was unsighted and thought he was turning to shoot at him so shot first.
      
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      April 22, 2021 10:35am
      - Batman
        
        If only there was some authority or body that could implement a way of controlling the out of control spread and use of firearms, by type, lethality, and background risk of the buyer.
        
        Maybe the police wouldn’t then need to shoot first and kill a kid, even if he was a little shit.
        
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        April 22, 2021 10:41am
      - alloytoo
        
        Batman said: “If only there was some authority or body that could implement a way of controlling the out of control spread and use of firearms, by type, lethality, and background risk of the buyer.”
        
        Criminals don’t typically buy guns through registered dealers subject to regulatory authority.
        
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        April 22, 2021 10:54am
      - Batman
        
        If you tighten up the system overall and make a big push on seizing unlicensed and illegal weapons, you’d make a sizeable dent in the problem.
        
        Facile arguments like ‘crims don’t buy guns from legal sources’ is just a talking point the NRA likes to use to justify the ongoing free for all.
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:03am
      - lifesgood
        
        Batman, it hasn’t worked here. Law abiding citizens handed in their guns, criminals didn’t. We now have more gun crime than ever. Jacinda really is utterly useless. She never thinks things through.
        
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        April 22, 2021 12:27pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Ever seen a “zip gun” Batman.
        
        Thought not.
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Improvised_firearm
        
        https://thehomegunsmith.com/pdf/ZipGun.pdf
        
        Made them as kids, a piece of car aerial, a spring, and eye bolt, a couple of nails and a block of wood.
        
        .22 calibre as accurate for about 6 feet ish or more with a longer barrel.
        
        Bombs from diesel and fertiliser, buses/trucks/cars turned into weapons plus sharpened toothbrush handles.
        
        From the FBI
        
        https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/fbi-more-people-killed-with-knives-hammers-clubs-and-even-feet-than-rifles-in-2018/
        
        Still, that doesn’t fit the anti firearm narrative does it.
        
        By the way, since silly cindy altered the Firearms laws in NZ have there been more or less gang shootings? Asking for a friend.
        
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        April 22, 2021 1:05pm
      - Batman
        
        Obviously improvised firearms should be captured by that. I bet you they’re far less lethal in the hands of a disaffected white kid than an AR-15.
        
        So your argument is basically that there are other ways to die so therefore all gun violence is okay and unable to be prevented.
        
        What a contribution to the world you’re making /s
        
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        April 22, 2021 1:08pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Glad you realise that my enlightened opinion is making a “contribution”.
        
        At least allow me the opportunity to make that contribution more frequently ……. if you follow my drift.
        
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        April 22, 2021 2:16pm
- kowtow
  
  Lots of black people recently beheaded in Mozambique .
  
  I’d warrant the chanters and rioters couldn’t find it on a map and couldn’t care less .
  
  BLM is a far left ethno racist movement that is not interested in black lives . It is insurrectionist , but the media party won’t call it what it is.
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:43am
  - CaptainCompromise
    
    But we live in a society where if we disagree with *some* of their ideology, and you are white, you are a racist.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:03am
  - I remember when
    
    That is before “Hate Speech’ laws will make mentioning the Mozambique situation even more hazardous and difficult to navigate.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:12am
  - Tall Man
    
    Clearly a conflict …. The rights of those wishing to retain their heads conflicting with those who demand the right to remove them…..
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:27am
  - mikenmildagain
    
    Nice use of the term ‘insurrectionist’…
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:32am
  - Nickc2
    
    ….and the people at the head of the BLM movement get very rich from it. How does that happen?
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:52am
    - Inandout
      
      Nick, you gotta realise if you scratch the average Marxist you discover a capitalist beneath. Even in Mao’s heavily communist China small scale private enterprise was tolerated, and I believe North Korea also allows ‘little capitalists’. It is human nature to want the freedom to better oneself. The outcries of course come from very comfortably off children of very comfortably off parents.
      
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      April 22, 2021 12:10pm
      - Nickc2
        
        If you are suggesting Communist rulers/dictators create dynasties in their own image, I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps that’s the stimuli for Cindy’s upcoming wedding.
        
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        April 22, 2021 7:08pm
Maggie Pie

HOW CAN U WIN?

A police officer saves the life of a black teenage girl from an overweight knife-wielding crazy….. and the BLM are outraged.
Now they’re trying to make HIM into a murderer as well!!

https://twitter.com/DailyMail/status/1384962108341854211
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April 22, 2021 8:39am
- kowtow
  
  When you see the footage of what Cops are faced with you have to ask ,why are politicians and the media attacking the cops and not the daily mayhem they get called to .
  
  It’s not as if they’re stalking neighbourhoods looking for people to murder ( but that’s the media /left narrative)
  
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  April 22, 2021 8:46am
  - Tall Man
    
    Excellent comment.
    
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    April 22, 2021 8:55am
- Fuzzysnuggleduck
  
  Wow, that went so fast, yet the cop saw the knife, and the stabbing and dropped her quickly.
  Amazing these people keep fighting when there a cop right there, even the black guy aiming a kick at the head of a black woman on the ground while the other black on black stabbing going on.
  Only when slowed down can you even absorb the sequence.
  Cops need to get a break sometimes…..sometimes they have to shoot. And race doesn’t have to come into it.
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:34pm
Justitia

Madame Mumbo Jumbo’s mystical musings clearly fooled nobody:https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nz-china-relations-jacinda-ardern-faces-bitter-attack-by-uk-writer-over-five-eyes-commitment/EFY37DRTFBSJQOVC5K6JFTMBE4/

Now that we are officially a satellite of the People’s Republic the way will no doubt be open for even closer cooperation. For example the Chinese authorities have developed an app that allows people to report “mistaken opinions”. Just what the doctor ordered I would have thought for Jacinda’s current project to shut down free speech. Better get MFAT onto that.
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April 22, 2021 8:44am
- kowtow
  
  Don McKinnon introduced Nania Mahuta ‘s speech at a function hosted by the new Zealand China Council.
  
  Wheels within wheels .
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:02am
  - Inandout
    
    kowtow, is old Don still sucking on the taxpayer tit? I remember him standing behind an unsteady Rob Muldoon who was announcing a snap election.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:13pm
    - lifesgood
      
      Don McKinnon’s remarks were bloody stupid. What is wrong with the man?
      
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      April 22, 2021 12:30pm
    - kowtow
      
      Don’t know , but here’s the council line up.
      
      https://nzchinacouncil.org.nz/language/zh/the-council/
      
      2 1
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      April 22, 2021 1:44pm
      - softail 1450
        
        KowTow, How are they getting away with no Maori and no Pacifica members, bloody racists.?
        
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        April 22, 2021 6:15pm
I remember when

Andrew Little ‘You don’t need 20 chief IT managers, you don’t need 20 chief HR managers.
All frontline staff will retain their jobs:
So there you are 38 well paid jobs removed. Except that with all the DHB’s on board you will probably need perhaps a deputy chief IT manager and perhaps a North Island and a South Island IT co-ordinator .
What sort of staffing will each of the hospitals need.
They will still need IT and HR staff so perhaps it is not quite that simple.
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April 22, 2021 8:46am
- Happychappy
  
  Well they haven’t got enough Doctors and Nurses so that’s one of the first problems, money is secondary to the problems that will be needed to make Andrew Little’s plan work.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:17am
  - rockape
    
    One thing for sure most of the doctors and nurses I know wont be signing up to a Maori health Authority.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:00pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  IT was an issue in the early Board stages too.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:49am
- hmmokrightitis
  
  And my thought on hearing that – do those roles now have a case for constructive dismissal?
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:52am
- trout
  
  That is what they told us about the Super City and look what happened; staff costs increased exponentially!
  
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  April 22, 2021 10:27am
  - Paulus
    
    Auckland Super City projection was 4,500 staff now over 10,000 and growing.
    
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    April 22, 2021 2:10pm
- Nickc2
  
  The way Labour plans and implements, we are likely to have more people involved in the Health Agencies than hospital patients.
  
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  April 22, 2021 10:58am
  - Inandout
    
    Nick, most managers are above the ‘must join the PSA’ level, so Andrew won’t be too concerned about them.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:16pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  As I mentioned yesterday, integration of Patient Information Systems will be just one of the challenges of restructuring DHB’s. There will be a number of different systems in use at different DHB’s, and each DHB will have customised its own system to best meet its needs. Quite how a compromise for a one-size-fits-all system will be achieved is beyond me.
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:03am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    These matters have been argued previously. Is there a centralised database for the NHI numbers and info?
    The properties of that were being argued in 1975!
    
    3 1
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    April 22, 2021 12:40pm
- Positan
  
  Andrew Little, noted for the vastness of his grasp of matters on which he hasn’t the faintest understanding – and a complete lack of any sort of practical business experience – can somehow instinctively divine and determine Health Boards’ specific needs for IT staff.
  
  Sadly, Little is nothing but a noise – he’s patently lacking in ascertainable substance. Grossly overpaid in his pretence of being a Minister, yes – but was he ever even worthy enough to peddle union interests?
  
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  April 22, 2021 2:16pm
Lance

Good grief.
Every person who has ever had a bad medical experience is how hailing the miracle Labour have wrought with their ‘reforms’.
More smoke and mirrors to buy them another 6-12 months of obfuscation.
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April 22, 2021 8:48am
Tomtoddy

Mahuta’s Foreign Affairs speech was the most far reaching and consequential of any made since we joined the Allies in WWll.

It would be interesting to know if it was passed by the whole Cabinet. I am sure most would have not understood the ramifications. We are now on our own. Quietly Australia, USA, UK, Canada will pull back from sharing information on all issues. They will consider Mahuta’s comments as a very deep knife in the back. They will not say much publicly but they will be hugely offended.

We are “going it alone”. Cozying up to China wont help us anymore than China helps us now. For China it will be one more step in controlling the Pacific and forcing the USA back inside its land border. Beijing must be laughing – “How to win a war without firing a gun.”

An incredibly naive but dangerous speech. Where is the reaction??
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April 22, 2021 9:03am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Not a great speech, but hardly a departure from the bipartisan cuddling vis-à-vis China that we have seen for at least 20 years.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:34am
  - hmmokrightitis
    
    Bollocks.
    
    That alignment has been solely about trade. We have been a solid 5 Eyes partner – until that speech.
    
    Hence why China praised it so much. We are now on our way out, and the Pacific is looking even more exposed.
    
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    April 22, 2021 9:54am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Rubbish. National and Labour have gone out of their way for years to praise the CCP, ignore security and human rights issues, hoover up dodgy donations, and give parliamentary seats to apologists for the Beijing dictatorship.
      Don’t fool yourself that there is any daylight between the two parties on this.
      
      12 13
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      April 22, 2021 10:49am
      - virtualmark
        
        Completely agree with Mike on this. *Both* major political parties have been compromised by China for at least the last decade. Neither has been prepared to prioritise New Zealand’s security or sovereignty. Both have sold down our traditional security alliances.
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:49am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Do you want to offend our largest trading partner too? NZ is ~~was~~ a sovereign state.
        The Aussies didn’t accord China respect despite the enormous investment China has in its mineral deposits and forgot “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
        
        We have a small quandary being a bit USA friendly but with a warmongering should-be pensioner in charge there, we need to be careful.
        Maori here are also just waiting opportunities for power.
        
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        April 22, 2021 12:49pm
      - softail 1450
        
        MMA Absolutely agree, tweedle dum and tweedle dee are running the place with different times at the wheel.
        
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        April 22, 2021 6:22pm
    - Paulus
      
      See the UK telegraphs article on it yesterday – Cindy your possible UN place is dead.
      But you can still be our Wonderwoman !
      
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      April 22, 2021 2:12pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Mahuta stands for Waikato. If Ardern is an accomplice in that then NZ could be being set up for inter-tribal wars again.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:51am
I remember when

Ms Ardern:
Should it be ‘Miss’ Ardern – she seems to fail to reach a lot of her targets.
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April 22, 2021 9:05am
- Tall Man
  
  She only had one target, get into power.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:28am
  - Inandout
    
    TM, I don’t honestly think she wanted to be a PM, she was ‘coerced’ methinks. No private company would hire her based on her ‘work experience’; she has none.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:20pm
    - Tall Man
      
      You believe what you want to believe but a narcissist will always accept the honour, even if totally undeserved.
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:08pm
Maggie Pie

And it seems that no matter what this silly bitch says, people applaud!

Do the left run courses on being this stupid?

https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1384545521914818561
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April 22, 2021 9:06am
- Maggie Pie
  
  Just been scrolling thru all the comments…..this one is my fave 😛
  
  https://twitter.com/BillRobinette/status/1384601290781638656/photo/1
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:41am
- I remember when
  
  As one of the comments I read on Wattsup said –
  ‘The biggest impact from global warming is the effect it is having on scientists brains.
  
  17 3
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  April 22, 2021 9:42am
Wayne Mapp

The references about Five Eyes was not in the speech, which of itself was relatively unexceptional. No doubt having been carefully gone through by the head of DPMC.

The Five Eyes comments were in the Q &A session afterwards. I see the PM is rolling them back a bit ahead of the visit by the Australian Foreign Minister.
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April 22, 2021 9:15am
- Tall Man
  
  Comments were as weighty as 2 tonne block, ardern’s “rollback” is as weighty as a feather.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:30am
- MCos
  
  One of the effects of our closed borders has been the nil personal contact between the people from the various countries who would normally discuss these matters.
  I don’t know because I’ve never been involved in such high level interactions, but I’m guessing there’s nothing like getting everyone together to smooth things over.
  BTW
  Oz sending all those gang members over here wasn’t a great help.
  
  4 5
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  April 22, 2021 9:47am
  - Tall Man
    
    “NZ citizen gang members”.
    
    Fixed it.
    
    Now answer me this, do Samoa or Tonga get a say in how many ex crims we export back to them?
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/criminal-immigrants-raise-deportations-from-nz-to-five-year-high/IVISFQNBLDG5QYF2TOG4M7TCMA/
    
    ardern’s government being kind ……
    
    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2019/03/01/466652/is-nzs-deportation-stance-hypocritical
    
    Oh that’s right, it’s ok if ardern does it…….
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:22am
    - Batman
      
      Oh come on, they’re only able to be deported back here after being raised to be Aussie crims because the Howard Government pulled a dick move and cut off citizenship paths on the fairly racist basis that Kiwis were going over there to sponge off welfare and an unsubstantiated fear that NZ was at risk of being used as a backdoor for people of the wrong colour.
      
      Unfortunately that sort of politics plays well with our crude cousins across the ditch, and evidently a group of people here too.
      
      3 24
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      April 22, 2021 10:30am
      - Tall Man
        
        Again, what a load of tosh.
        
        How many are deported and how many are active gang members?
        
        Simple solution, don’t commit crime and a penny to pinch of shit tarrant will be deported at the end of his sentence just as we generally deport all ex cons at the end of their sentence if it complies with previous immigration rulings.
        
        It’s just the numbers game that’s the problem. We have 600,000 kiwis living in Oz out of a population of 5,000,000. That’s over 10% for the simpletons.
        
        Much as we have almost 200,000 Samoans living here or almost 50% of their total population.
        
        Sending 30 ex con Samoans home is equivalent to Australia sending 750 ex con Kiwis home per year.
        
        And again Batman, you insult our “cousins” with gay abandon yet most are just like you and I. How do you like being linked to ardern’s stupidity?
        
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        April 22, 2021 10:54am
      - Batman
        
        They’re still Aussie raised and taught. It doesn’t matter what their passport says when they’ve been there since childhood.
        
        The Aussie government kept these people on the edge of society by now allowing full access to the social contract, taxation without representation and security, then deports them back to a country they have usually never visited when they don’t like the outcome of their policy.
        
        Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realise that KB is now a safe space in which the time honoured tradition of bashing Australia is now cancelled by snowflakes, apparently on the basis that they are partially the same colour as us? Fuck that noise.
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:01am
      - Tall Man
        
        The bulk of the deportess were not “raised” in Australia, merely a few cherry picked by the media which seem to have you duped into the “poor crim” crap.
        
        I have family and friends living in Oz and they have never experienced the “depredations” you describe. I often wonder why not then I remember, they’re not fucking criminals.
        
        As for “bashing” Australians … You’re not “bashing” Australians with humour, you’re just insulting a group of people because of the actions of their government.
        
        I saw no response from you for the actions of the ardern government who almost doubled the deportations in 2018.
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:18am
      - Batman
        
        They’re not poor crims. They’re Aussie crims who should be kept there.
        
        In any population you’ll have a group who will end up criminals. I know people in Aussie as well and they’re not crims. The difference is that through a opportunistic policy we are getting dumped with their problem.
        
        Unlike Australia, we actually offer pathways to citizenship and Perm Res. So deportation of individuals is somewhat more justifiable.
        
        Your resorting to accusing me of being duped and attacking me rather than the topic is enough evidence for me.
        
        Were perfectly entitled to bash Aussie for their shitty political culture. If you enjoy it, move there.
        
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        April 22, 2021 11:37am
      - Tall Man
        
        So saying you are being “duped” is attacking you … Now who’s being the snowflake?
        
        I have a number of rellies there who were born in NZ but have become Australian citizens so obviously there is a “pathway”.
        
        Is it an easy one, no, nor should it be as NZ has become a bit of an international joke with our eazy peazy citizenship route which many, many, use as a pathway to Australia.
        
        As for suggesting I move to Australia, what a childish response. Defending their right to make decisions about their own country doesn’t mean I don’t feel the same way about NZ although with the fuckwittery emanating from multiple sources I am beginning to wonder.
        
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        April 22, 2021 1:15pm
      - Jack5
        
        Batman, the deportees are New Zealand citizens and not Australian citizens. They faced the same barriers to gaining citizenship (good behaviour, and expense) as every other migrant to Australia.
        
        Your:
        
        “…the Howard Government pulled a dick move and cut off citizenship paths on the fairly racist basis …
        
        What citizenship paths were cut off on a racist basis? You see racism everywhere, but add to it by branding Australians as “crude”.
        
        As for backdoor entry to Australia: migrants of all shades of skin colour use the backdoor from New Zealand to get into Australia. If Australia were as racist as you paint it, why are they desperate to live there?
        
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        April 22, 2021 1:52pm
      - softail 1450
        
        Batman ,You nearly always mention the Color thing in a negative way to white people or their Countries , are you a racist ?
        
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        April 22, 2021 6:28pm
  - kowtow
    
    ‘there’s nothing like getting everyone together to smooth things over.’
    Worked out very well after Munich…….
    
    5 2
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    April 22, 2021 10:54am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Thank goodness Wayne posts here. A rare sane voice and always informed.
  
  5 22
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  April 22, 2021 10:33am
  - Manu-Rau
    
    You’re just trying to curry favour with Wayne, in the hope he’ll give you a discount to defend you next time.
    
    15 5
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    April 22, 2021 11:06am
- Frank Hematuria
  
  “relatively unexceptional”? I don’t recall any previous speech by a Minister of Foreign Affairs, supposedly representing New Zealand as a credible player in world affairs, talk such utter twaddle about “taniwha and dragons”. There is nothing “unexceptional” about that. If the head of DPMC was doing his job he would have found a way to pull the Minister back into line, and if the CEO of MFAT allowed any of his staff to draft and submit such a load of nonsense to the Minister’s office his judgment deserves to be seriously questioned.
  
  24 2
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  April 22, 2021 10:38am
  - Tall Man
    
    You obviously never had a conversation with “what’s in for wynston” after a few bevvies …….
    
    5 3
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    April 22, 2021 10:56am
  - Nickc2
    
    Well stated Frank!
    
    4 1
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    April 22, 2021 11:15am
I remember when

Is the George Lloyd decision is going to make policing in the US easier.
Or will it mean that police interaction with members of the black community becomes a confrontation more often.
Has BLM emboldened, especially youth, with the result there will be more stupid behaviour, more conflict, room for serious consequences.
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April 22, 2021 9:24am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Chauvin’s actions were condemned by his superiors, colleagues and many, many police officers across the US. Even in a country where excessive police force is a routine occurrence, his conduct was seen as exceptionally unreasonable.
  
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  April 22, 2021 9:36am
  - Andrei
    
    With the News Media and political elites jumping in to utter their pious condemnations what is a poor police officer or other minor functionary who has to continue function in this wicked world going to do?
    
    Speak their mind or go along to get along?
    
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    April 22, 2021 10:20am
- alloytoo
  
  I suspect the verdict will accelerate the exodus of decent folks from the police force.
  
  14 1
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  April 22, 2021 10:59am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Yep will reduce the availability of police – through increasing wage costs and increased reluctance of police to go to serve in areas with large black populations, leading to a further worsening of the live of people living in those places as criminal predation increases.
    
    Left as always achieving the opposite of what they declare they are trying to do due to short-sightedness
    
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    April 22, 2021 3:10pm
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      Note As a result of all this action against US police Baltimore police numbers are collapsing. Down to about 60% of what they need. Goes without saying it’s a Democratic city that continues to slide further and further into the shitter due to the actions of Democratic politicians and has lost 1/3rd of it’s population in last 40 years.
      
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      April 22, 2021 4:06pm
mikenmildagain

Happy Earth Day!
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April 22, 2021 9:36am
Littletramp

Just wondering how exactly I identify myself as a “maori” to get the preferential treatment when I present sick at a hospital?
My grandmother was 100% maori blood, I am over 60 yrs old but I have never thought of myself as a maori, I am a New Zealander.
Who is a “maori”, who is not and how are they going to distinguish or identify the privileged ones?
Will we carry an i/d card or be microchipped?
Once again plenty of impractical rhetoric, designed to divide this country coming from these idiots.
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April 22, 2021 9:51am
- rockape
  
  Yellow star worked before!
  
  18 2
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  April 22, 2021 10:03am
- Sofia
  
  Littletramp: Just wondering how exactly I identify myself as a “maori”
  
  You just say things like “nga mihi” and “nau mai ki ngā hākinakina o te wā” in answer to all their questions.
  
  14 1
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  April 22, 2021 10:24am
- Brian McDonald
  
  Learn your whakapapa bro and I’ll sign you up. I’ve already heard from Kev O’Brien whose relly married Te Moananui and Tall Man is busy learning Te Reo.
  
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  April 22, 2021 10:31am
  - rangitoto
    
    I’m learning Homeric Greek which is a lot more useful.
    
    4 2
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    April 22, 2021 1:23pm
- Ruawai
  
  Our blue eyed blonde children all have Maori blood does this mean they can be seen ahead of non Maori at A &E?
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:30pm
  - Jack5
    
    If they want to be medical doctors, Ruawai, they’ll have a much, much better change of getting into Medical School.
    
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    April 22, 2021 1:56pm
Fletch

Totally bonkers. Nancy Pelosi looks into the sky and thanks George Floyd for his “sacrificing your life for justice”.

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6249586500001

Gimme a break.
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April 22, 2021 10:04am
- kowtow
  
  Today’s ODT cartoon depicts Fentanyl Floyd looking down from the sky with the word “justice”
  Almost saint like /angelic ; give me a break.
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:13pm
KevO'Brien

Not to be overlooked:

https://www.nzcpr.com/the-darkening-clouds-of-totalitarianism/#more-34805
https://www.nzcpr.com/declaration-of-equality-2021/
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April 22, 2021 10:09am
UrbanNeocolonialist

“When religion and politics travel in the same cart, the riders believe nothing can stand in their way. Their movements become headlong – faster and faster and faster. They put aside all thoughts of obstacles and forget the precipice does not show itself to the man in a blind rush until it’s too late.” Frank Herbert, Dune.

I think this aptly describes the religion of ‘woke’ with all it’s destructive faith based beliefs. It is leading our society off a cliff.
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April 22, 2021 10:27am
Yvette

• Are covid vaccination agencies organised enough yet to inform the public in what way they will be advised to get a vaccination? By NZ Post with appointment confirmation by phone for around ten thousand a day? If they expect – in just 26 weeks, from July 1 to December 31, to administer as many as 7.2 million jabs – isn’t that 39,560 a day?
• From what register of any information will they prioritise those by age or underlying conditions who should theoretically receive vaccinations before others?
• How will second doses within the optimal time, be arranged to not conflict with those receiving their first dose?
• As covid agencies are apparently separate to your GP who administers flu injections, when can you get the flu injection so as not to miss the covid vaccination, since two weeks are required between the two?

In other words: When is any useful information to be delivered to the millions of mushrooms sitting in the dark?

And why has Andrew Little – “DHBs to be scrapped, new Māori Health Authority to be created in major health system shake up” – announced such a major distraction as he places possibly history’s biggest demand on New Zealand’s health service: covid vaccination of as many as 4.2 million people in the next 36 weeks.?
And did he ask Jacinda about it, considering back in the first lockdown she proclaimed, “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.”
(Yes, I know I said something similar yesterday – and it still is unexplained, and no journalist has had the guts to ask Ardern about it)
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April 22, 2021 10:36am
- Ehlana
  
  Yvette, I’m not sure if it makes you feel better, but judging by performance to date our current government will fail to deliver on both the vaccine rollout and the health re-organisation.
  
  They are certainly not able to discern that the people most likely to know who is most vulnerable in the community are the GPs. A smarter government would have them administering the vaccines. After all, if they can contact people and schedule flu shots, they can bring the same people back twice more for their vaccine shots.
  
  I don’t know how many GPs we have, but 800 vaccinators must go a fair way to giving them one each.
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:30pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  I believe my Doctor expects to give me the jab as she does the annual flu one.
  That presupposes that the medicos are hoping to be involved.
  
  2 2
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  April 22, 2021 12:52pm
  - Yvette
    
    Apparently (as mentioned above) The Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine can’t be given at the same time as the flu vaccine.
    You need to have at least 2 weeks between the the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and the flu vaccine.
    Having a gap between 2 different vaccinations makes it easier to work out which vaccine may be responsible for any side effects.
    You need 2 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. These are given at least 21 days apart. This means you will need to either have your flu vaccination 2 weeks before your first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine or 2 weeks after your second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
    https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/medicines/c/covid-19-vaccine-and-flu-vaccine/
    
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    April 22, 2021 2:21pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      I’m not going near Pfizer–I mentioned Gates to my Doc and got an agreeable look.
      
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      April 22, 2021 7:17pm
      - Mike
        
        Doctors get quite good at humoring loonies.
        
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        April 22, 2021 7:24pm
krazykiwi

Why does my tax money go to the UN? It is a club of despots and dictators.

GENEVA, April 21, 2021 — UN Watch broke the story today that the UN has just elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, the “principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.” Click here for video.

UN Watch is calling on the U.S. and EU member states to condemn the decision.
“Electing the Islamic Republic of Iran to protect women’s rights is like making an arsonist into the town fire chief,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “It’s absurd — and morally reprehensible.”

“This is a black day for women’s rights, and for all human rights,” said Neuer.
Iran’s persecution of women is gross and systematic, both in law and in practice. The UN’s own secretary-general has reported on Iran’s “persistent discrimination against women and girls.”

Iran’s fundamentalist mullahs force women to cover their hair, with many arrested and attacked daily under the misogynistic hijab law. They require a woman to receive permission from her father to get married. The legal age for a girl to marry in Iran is 13—with even younger girls allowed to marry with paternal and judicial consent.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime imprisons courageous women’s rights activists, such as Nasrin Sotudeh, Mojgan Keshavarz, Yasaman Aryani, and Monireh Arabshahi, for the crime of peacefully demanding their human dignity.

Why, then, did the UN just name one of the world’s worst oppressors of women as a world judge of gender equality and the empowerment of women?

“Today the UN sent a message that women’s rights can be sold out for backroom political deals,” said Neuer, “and it let down millions of female victims in Iran and worldwide who look to the world body for protection.”
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April 22, 2021 10:42am
- Cinematic
  
  This is madness. Pure and simple.
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:08am
  - greybeard
    
    But Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern thinks that the U.N is just wonderful.
    Maybe a resourceful NZ journalist will ask Jacinda Ardern what she has to say about this appointment.
    
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    April 22, 2021 11:41am
    - Cinematic
      
      Yep, hopefully said reporter can also put together a story on a pig that just flew by.
      
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      April 22, 2021 12:27pm
- cha
  
  The legal age for a girl to marry in Iran is 13—with even younger girls allowed to marry with paternal and judicial consent.
  
  Meanwhile, ‘Murica…
  /
  
  Children as young as 12 were granted marriage licenses in Alaska, Louisiana and South Carolina.
  
  Thirteen-year-olds were given the green light to marry in Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Washington.
  
  http://apps.frontline.org/child-marriage-by-the-numbers/#
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:54pm
  - mikenmildagain
    
    I seem to recall that a few years ago New Hampshire legislators knocked back a proposal to raise the marriage age on the grounds that rape victims should be able to marry their rapists.
    
    3 1
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    April 22, 2021 3:03pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  The women’s rights matters are not just Iran. This affects the whole of the Muslim world.
  We have it here in NZ! Their dress code is obvious.
  
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  April 22, 2021 12:59pm
Maggie Pie

What is it with these guys? 🙁

My partner was shocked to hear that yet another well known ex rugby player had been convicted of violence against a woman.

https://twitter.com/DanielB08852885/status/1384957751961477122
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April 22, 2021 11:01am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  There’s just a great tolerance in NZ for young violent men who deliver the bash to babies, children, women, and vulnerable men.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/124890747/man-who-fatally-headbutted-victim-over-parking-space-to-serve-less-than-half-his-sentence-in-prison
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:12am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Sooo disgusting to see they’re letting that scum out early.
    
    Would never have happened in the remmers NW carpark.
    
    11 2
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    April 22, 2021 11:20am
    - MCos
      
      No, it’s all behind closed doors.
      
      3 0
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      April 22, 2021 2:03pm
  - kowtow
    
    He’d also stomped on someone else’s neck and is associated with the Mongrel Mob .
    
    Wouldn’t it be nice if our crusading Media Pardy that spent so much time and energy on Derek Chauvin could do the same on law and oreder issues here , in our own country …….
    
    15 4
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    April 22, 2021 12:11pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Look and see these are almost invariably our Maori people. Other Polynesians can be vigorous but seem to have been trained to care more for the youngest. The women’s groups are active in education too and they can pressure ranking males.
    
    That doesn’t prevent discipline among older children, say, 10, who may “get the bash” or fighting among older males.
    
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    April 22, 2021 1:10pm
  - Jack5
    
    The scumbag asks prison guards to lock him up when he’s angry.
    
    “Tanirau Whaanga, who had three supporters present at the hearing, outlined the mental health treatment he had received, and how he asked prison guards to lock him in his cell when he felt himself getting angry.”
    
    Will he ask supermarket security guards for restraint when he feels like bashing a pensioner over a parking spot? What would they do? Sellotape him to a shopping cart?
    
    7 1
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    April 22, 2021 2:03pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Does Our Finance Minister know something?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/124915006/deposits-of-up-to-100000-guaranteed-under-new-scheme
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April 22, 2021 11:08am
- Tall Man
  
  “and will fully protect 93 per cent of depositors”
  
  That’s the scary thing, only 7% have more ……
  
  And typical labour …
  
  “Robertson didn’t detail how the scheme will be funded”
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:23am
  - SB2
    
    Tall Man , so you’re happy that Joe and Jane Depositer go belly up regardless?
    
    1 25
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    April 22, 2021 11:40am
    - Swifty
      
      1. It is of no business of the state where or how citizens keep their money.
      
      2. It is not the business of the state to force New Zealand families to reimburse savers who have made injudicious savings or investment decisions.
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:21pm
      - Paulus
        
        Robertson is just trying to buy votes as that what 90% of everything is about – yes – and Maori Health reform – which could actually backfire quite quickly as there are not enough Maori medical people around despite special Maori Medical School entry (as hear that some Maori Doctors will not join as too restrictive for their futiures medically).
        Will Pacific Islanders be considered Maori for the sake of getting more Money ?
        Or will they stay with the peons.
        
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        April 22, 2021 2:23pm
  - rangitoto
    
    Who would keep that sort of money (>100K) in a bank account with the current pathetic interest rates.
    
    5 0
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    April 22, 2021 12:02pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Someone who can’t afford to lose it it maybe ……
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:07pm
      - rangitoto
        
        Well you are losing it given interest rate vs inflation.
        
        5 0
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        April 22, 2021 3:30pm
    - Paulus
      
      I and friends do as we do not trust other financial arrangers – we have ben screwed before, some years ago so will suck up the security.
      
      4 0
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      April 22, 2021 2:25pm
  - MCos
    
    I don’t know about NZ, but I’ve read that in the US most people have less than $1000 in the bank.
    The other day I was notified that some money I have on term deposit was rolling over at an interest rate of 0.80%.
    Zero point eight per fucking percent!
    
    The scheme will be funded by the banks, I heard on the news. How they did it was up to them, apparently,
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:58pm
    - oldfella
      
      Which would make it prudent to split any spare change into $100k chunks and deposit with several different banks, rather than have it all with a single institution.
      That way, you couldn’t lose it all if one went under.
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:15pm
      - [email protected]
        
        I hope you are right but I am not sure.
        
        The announcement didn’t say that each account was protected, rather that the accounts of each saver was protected up to $100,000. To me that indicates having your savings accross several different banks will not help you.
        
        Perhaps invest excess money into properties or send it to the USA where each individual account is protected by the FDIC.
        
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        April 22, 2021 6:21pm
    - cha
      
      The scheme will be funded by the banks
      
      Likely borrowers. The risk lies on their side of the ledger.
      
      6 0
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      April 22, 2021 1:20pm
      - Paulus
        
        The Banks will pass on the insurance costs to their customers.
        
        3 0
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        April 22, 2021 2:27pm
    - Paulus
      
      I got offered 1% yesterday, so see, and I am not a special ???????
      
      3 0
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      April 22, 2021 2:26pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    It doesn’t need funding with access to the Reserve Bank. They will oblige the Govt on request. Your grandchildren will pay for it.
    
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    April 22, 2021 1:13pm
- Ian Boag
  
  There are similar guarantees in Oz (AUD1M), UK (UKP85k), USA (USD150k). I stopped looking but there may well be more countries.
  
  9 1
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  April 22, 2021 11:30am
  - Tall Man
    
    My point was overlooked by most, it’s the fact that only 7% will be “safer” …..
    
    2 1
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    April 22, 2021 2:20pm
- SB2
  
  MW, you appear to have failed ( or bothered ) to read the complete article,
  
  From your link,
  
  “.Taken together, the recommendations will considerably strengthen New Zealand’s financial system safety net and contribute to a robust framework of protections for depositors. It also brings our protections into line with those in place overseas,” he said
  
  Many developed countries have bank deposit insurance schemes to ensure people don’t lose their savings if a bank or financial institution collapses ..”
  
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  April 22, 2021 11:38am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    FFS man!! …….are you some sort of masochist or something?
    
    14 1
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    April 22, 2021 12:42pm
  - Fuzzysnuggleduck
    
    How do you know what MW did or did not read or what she might conclude from the article, when she asked a particular question {implying, Why Now, Mr Robertson?; when this is about protection from financial collapse} and posted a link?
    Your snip from the article doesn’t have any relevance to that actual question either, if you intended it by way of response.
    Pointless.
    Also, I expect you meant to say …”{MW had} failed (or {not} bothered ) to read…”.
    Fail.
    SB2 – daily proving the saying, ”Tis better to keep one’s mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt”.
    
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    April 22, 2021 12:58pm
    - Swifty
      
      “Your snip from the article doesn’t have any relevance to that actual question either, if you intended it by way of response….”
      
      He has displayed moronic tendencies ever since he started here – and he just doesn’t see it nor make any attempt to correct it.
      
      He has frequently been labelled “Kiwiblog’s dumbest commentator” – I’ll leave it for others to judge the appropriateness of that sobriquet.
      
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      April 22, 2021 1:26pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    More foot wriggling by this soon to be ejected unlawfully spending Gobblement.
    
    8 2
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    April 22, 2021 1:15pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    you appear to have failed
    
    Appearances can be deceptive, SB2.
    
    Go and stalk somewhere else.
    
    15 2
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    April 22, 2021 1:57pm
- Inandout
  
  Gosh being in politics sure ages you, Robbo looks rooted.
  
  10 2
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  April 22, 2021 12:26pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    Rooted by whom???
    
    5 1
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    April 22, 2021 4:30pm
rangitoto

Sign up for your anti-wrinkle treatment.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-9497337/Pfizer-finds-80-fake-doses-COVID-19-vaccine-Mexico-Poland.html
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April 22, 2021 11:25am
Benedict Yu

Now New Zealand is being condemned in an Editorial in one of the world’s great newspapers.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/new-zealands-response-to-china-abuse-is-spineless-s579rh3qk

Just think about election night 2020. All the diplomats and foreign affairs folk celebrating that they no longer have to deal with Winston. Then….. BOOM.
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April 22, 2021 11:32am
- Tall Man
  
  My understanding, although I hate to admit it, was that he was well received and provided enjoyable company … albeit at someonelse’s cost.
  
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  April 22, 2021 2:23pm
Maggie Pie

See where the SMH is reporting….

‘PM Scott Morrison will be meeting with NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern within the next 2 weeks in Wellingtong.’

LOL!!
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April 22, 2021 11:50am
- greybeard
  
  But our weather is much better than Auckrand’s.
  
  10 0
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  April 22, 2021 11:52am
  - Swifty
    
    Hahahaha!
    
    6 0
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    April 22, 2021 1:28pm
- Fletch
  
  That’s the name the Chinese will give it when they take over…
  
  8 2
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  April 22, 2021 12:10pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  An unforced cuowu ?
  
  4 1
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  April 22, 2021 12:48pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    哈哈哈!
    
    3 1
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    April 22, 2021 2:00pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Is that an error?
      
      2 1
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      April 22, 2021 2:59pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Heck no.
        Try it in Te Reo
        
        Hahaha!
        
        5 0
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        April 22, 2021 5:47pm
graham

Reading through the cabinet paper on the health reforms is quite enlightening. It looks like the Maori Health Authority will have immense power over ALL aspects of the health service – not just as it affects Maori, but those parts that affect you and me.

Andrew Little’s expectations include:

– the Maori Health Authority should have a co-lead role in relation to national planning
– they will jointly agree national plans and operational frameworks, and have the ability to exercise a veto in sign-off
– the Maori Health Authority should set, with Health NZ, the priority outcomes, commissioning frameworks and service plans for services at a national and regional level, to ensure they deliver better for Maori
– the Maori Health Authority should be a co-commissioner of other health services (i.e. those designed for other populations) if they have a significant impact on Maori health
– that while Health NZ will lead on operational matters relating to general health service commissioning, this responsibility should clearly entail delivery of improved health outcomes and equity for Maori, and the Maori Health Authority would influence and agree these intended outcomes

The Maori Health Authority will also co-chair the Health NZ board, and will therefore have approval rights regarding the appointment of regional chief executives and commissioning boards.

ACT are describing this as a push for co-governance, and while I don’t believe we’re in danger of adopting the more radical recommendations of He Puapua, it’s hard to disagree with Brooke van Velden’s description of this particular proposal.
20 1
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April 22, 2021 12:25pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  A change of that magnitude and the other Maori Take Over provision demand a referendum.
  Better still Labour should exit gracefully for their illegal avoidance of Parliamentary authority over expenditure of tax monies and pass the administration over to National.
  
  6 3
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  April 22, 2021 1:19pm
Maggie Pie

Barry Soaper tells those two sickly morons on ZB the reported 5-Eyes rift between Australia & New Zealand has been somewhat ‘over-blown’ by international media.

Maybe ol Baz missed what ‘Andrew Bolt’ had to say….

https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6249459429001
18 1
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April 22, 2021 12:38pm
- greybeard
  
  Just heard HDPA backing up Soper, on NewstalkZB.
  She has been quite normal, rational and sensible for about 3 weeks but suddenly today reverts to pro-Labour, anti-US, anti-Australia rubbish.
  Pressure from somewhere ?
  
  9 0
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  April 22, 2021 4:40pm
  - [email protected]
    
    Pressure from somewhere, if true, will eventually come to light. Hopefully sooner rather than later.
    
    Once the media stop getting bribed or coerced they will turn on those despots.
    
    1 0
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    April 22, 2021 6:13pm
MCos

A less than flattering summation of President Trump’s attempts to sort out the problems on the Korean Peninsula.
https://twitter.com/robert_e_kelly/status/1384962719468638209?s=21
3 13
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April 22, 2021 12:46pm
- Tall Man
  
  Don’t care. Why do you as a matter of interest?
  
  4 2
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  April 22, 2021 2:25pm
  - MCos
    
    It’s interesting; and at the time it gripped the imagination of a good proportion of the world.
    President Trump had pencilled himself in for the Nobel Peace Prize. Then as time went by not a lot came of it, except for his receipt of a beautiful letter from a bloke whose name he can’t even remember now.
    https://youtu.be/OyIp-MRJfl8
    
    3 4
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    April 22, 2021 3:05pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      “We fell in love’
      Imagine how the RWNJs would have reacted if that had been said by Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama about some third world despot.
      
      3 5
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      April 22, 2021 4:11pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Some of the deluded morons here still think Trump was successful.
  
  3 8
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  April 22, 2021 3:16pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    You aint seen nuttin yet.
    It was Pres Trump who had the security intelligence monitor the election voting traffic under Hammer & Score. That started days before the election so all those thousands of records showing both the addresses of the computers involved with time and date stamps and the amounts of the votes transferred. They are now coming out into public display.
    There will be recriminations.
    
    3 3
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    April 22, 2021 7:26pm
    - cha
      
      Hammer & Score
      
      *snort* delusional ninny clutches at straws *snort*
      /
      
      0 1
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      April 22, 2021 7:52pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      Oh, I’ve seen plenty of ‘nuttin’ right here on this blog.
      
      0 1
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      April 23, 2021 6:33am
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/news/124917246/us-puts-new-zealand-into-higher-travel-risk-group
Maybe it could also have something to do with our recent crappy Foreign Policy statements ?
8 1
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April 22, 2021 1:02pm
Maggie Pie

I haven’t been able to verify…….but one of the girls at Tennis was just telling us that the Auckland airport plane cleaner who contracted Covid, was infected by a Tanzanian passenger that arrived here April 10.

IF correct, why would someone from Africa be allowed to come in?
7 3
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April 22, 2021 1:37pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Paper reports that it was a traveller from Ethiopia.
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-details-on-any-new-virus-cases-probe-continues-into-infected-cleaner-case/V5ORJQ7UWEL2Z6WKXSF2TOZHQ4/
  
  It’s only India on our Banned list.
  
  12 3
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  April 22, 2021 2:03pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Thanks Mags!
    
    I txt Fleur to let her know that.
    She just replied – ‘same place’
    
    6 3
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    April 22, 2021 2:22pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Like the “innermost workings” of a woman’s mind …… dark and scary 😉
      
      6 2
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      April 22, 2021 2:26pm
waripori

The demise of the DHB’s has attracted support from most clinicians who think DHB management structures cost a lot and reduce provision of the kind of patient care they would like to provide. They probably have a point. Just not sure the proposed structure ( leaving the Maori authority aside ) will help all that much. Each DHB manages a hospital or two. They are big institutions that will still need administration( accounts payable, payroll , procurement , IT etc etc ).

Then there will be 4 regional offices.

Then there will be the head office.

Should be some savings in CEO salaries but if their total rem at present is $10 million that is a bit of a rounding error overall. There is still a funder provider split but that will need to continue in some form otherwise the high profile bit ( hospitals ) will gobble all the money and the increase in share of cash supposed to be going to Primary care will be a pipe dream.

Should be hundreds of millions freed up from the MoH when they just become a policy shop. Good luck with that.

Something had to happen in Health but it must have been simpler to combine DHBs so there were about 6 left. That would have largely fixed the postcode lottery if there had been some attention paid to the funding formulas at the same time.

The issue of DHB deficits has been raised. The proposal will certainly fix those because no one will be keeping score any longer. Any fiscal responsibility there was ( not much ) will disappear.
8 0
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April 22, 2021 1:56pm
- Tall Man
  
  Walk around any hospital. Count frontline staff and the back room staff. You may be amazed and no amount of “tinkering” or smashing will remedy that.
  
  6 0
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  April 22, 2021 2:28pm
  - rockape
    
    At least 50% of staff at my local hospital are non clinical.
    
    7 0
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    April 22, 2021 4:45pm
Swifty

Dr David Starkey is back:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrDOkYGd5d8
5 0
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April 22, 2021 2:06pm
- SB2
  
  Swifty, really ? I can understand though his appeal to the redneck fraternity,
  
  “David Starkey: Historian apologises for ‘clumsy’ slavery comments”
  
  https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-53308061
  
  0 19
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  April 22, 2021 3:15pm
  - Swifty
    
    Redneck, you say? What a bilious oaf you can be.
    
    From very humble beginnings, he has been one of the most eminent and popular British historians over the last forty years, particularly, but not limited to, the Tudor period and has received many honours and acclaim as a result.
    
    You may join the baying mob and write off his lifetime of scholarship and achievement over a few injudicious comments, but I will not.
    
    You know, I think your underlying problem is that you’re just so pig ignorant and use this site to bolster your low sense of self-esteem by attempting to appear virtuous over matters you clearly know nothing about.
    
    Frankly, I bet you had to look up his name before commenting here.
    
    Either way, almost everyone here doesn’t give two hoots what you write on any matter, and in fact will generally always default to the opposite of any position you take as you’ve been wrong on things so often.
    
    This today proves my case once again.
    
    And you can take your clearly racist smears and stick them where the sun don’t shine.
    
    15 0
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    April 22, 2021 4:11pm
    - mikenmildagain
      
      I recall reading something very amusing he wrote about researching the Groom of the Stool – Henry VIII’s bottom-wiper.
      
      7 1
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      April 22, 2021 5:02pm
      - Swifty
        
        Heh – an important and powerful role, entrusted to only closest associates.
        
        “In the early years of Henry VIII’s reign, the title was awarded to court companions of the king who spent time with him in the privy chamber. These were generally the sons of noblemen or important members of the gentry. In time they came to act as virtual personal secretaries to the king, carrying out a variety of administrative tasks within his private rooms. The position was an especially prized one, as it allowed unobstructed access to the king.[12]:42 David Starkey writes: “The Groom of the Stool had (to our eyes) the most menial tasks; his standing, though, was the highest … Clearly then, the royal body service must have been seen as entirely honourable, without a trace of the demeaning or the humiliating.”[13] Further, “the mere word of the Gentleman of the Privy Chamber was sufficient evidence in itself of the king’s will”, and the Groom of the Stool bore “the indefinable charisma of the monarchy”.[14]”
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groom_of_the_Stool
        
        8 0
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        April 22, 2021 5:22pm
      - Mike
        
        Good work if you can get it…
        
        0 0
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        April 22, 2021 6:23pm
MrTips

Seroprevalence of COVID-19 in NZ ~3x higher than official count according to this .

Total COVID-19 S protein Ab+ve count in 9,806 blood donors = 18. 4 came from overseas so discounted as local infection.

That means 14/9802 = 0.14% prevalence.

This projects a total of 7,141 actual cases as opposed to some 2,400 PCR +ve cases.

IFR therefore 0.3% due to lockdown efforts.

Alternative view is 4,700 COVID cases wandered around with no effect on health system, didn’t spiral out of control. Why?
7 1
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April 22, 2021 2:27pm
- SB2
  
  Mr Tips , did you read this disclaimer?
  
  “This article is a preprint and has not been certified by peer review [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice.”
  
  0 14
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  April 22, 2021 3:17pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    That’s why they’ve put it out in a pre-print form..so they can get some rapid feedback from knowledgeable folk.
    
    Print publication is SLOW and peer /pal review run by Journal editors is SloW and often useless.
    
    Read the paper yourself and make up your own mind as to whether their conclusions are supported by their evidence.
    
    4 2
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    April 22, 2021 9:26pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  not that far out of whack – at least 30% of cases are asymptomatic and during the (not even remotely) “hard and early” phase of 2020 there would have been a lot who unknowingly had it.
  
  6 0
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  April 22, 2021 3:18pm
- kowtow
  
  From the stuff article ;
  
  ‘ Dr Amanda Kvalsvig, a senior research fellow at the University of Otago, said it is likely the overall percentage of missed cases is higher than the eight found in the Auckland University study.’
  
  Wow, that many cases running ’round undetected and the health system didn’t implode ?
  
  Pup for sale !
  
  5 2
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  April 22, 2021 4:47pm
Benedict Yu

https://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/124914878/parking-on-footpaths-banned-in-wellington-after-council-decision

This is utterly stupid. Many narrow Wellington streets will become dangerous if cars cannot park with the passenger side wheels on the footpath.

Parked cars will be side swiped or worse there will be head on crashes.
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April 22, 2021 3:46pm
- Ehlana
  
  Probably not Benedict. There are a lot of streets around me where cars parked on the road have effectively reduced the transit space to one lane one way. Cars still get through – we just get good at looking ahead for other traffic and using available space (like where driveways meet the road) as passing bays.
  
  Footpaths are not built to take the weight of motor vehicles. They are built to provide passage for pedestrians. Vehicles parked on footpaths, even partially, are a particular problem for people in wheelchairs or pushing children who cannot easily manoeuvre across grass verges (if those even exist).
  
  The proper solution is a combination of improving other transport options (walking, cycling, public transport) to reduce the number of vehicles that need to park and providing off-street parking for those that still need to be there.
  
  3 1
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  April 22, 2021 5:23pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    I feel a laugh coming on–Wellington has no room left for cars.
    It can only continue to get worse until they put a strengthened light rail through the city which can take the cars too.
    
    3 2
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    April 22, 2021 7:34pm
- MCos
  
  Footpaths are for pedestrians, wheelchairs, mobility scooters. If a car can’t be parked right where the driver fancies it can go down the street somewhere where it can. The driver can then use the footpath to walk to their destination.
  I know older parts of Wellington date back to a time when people didn’t have a garage because cars were rare or nonexistent. People should consider parking when choosing where to live.
  One guy I did have sympathy for came home at the end of the day to find a bus stop had been painted around his car in the interim at the top of The Terrace and there was a ticket on the windscreen.
  A guy I knew who was an architect over the road witnessed the whole wretched saga.
  
  3 1
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  April 22, 2021 5:58pm
cmm

But he’s such a nice boy…. Just a bit hot headed when he killed a person for parking where he wanted to park.

And now he’s been paroled after just a bit over a year (having been banged up for 3 years and 3 months).

“It just broke me when I found out what actually happened … I have to live with this for the rest of my life.”

Oh, so YOU’re the victim now eh? Dickhead.
How about the other people? The family of the guy you killed? Your partner? Your child who must now grow up in the knowledge that dad is a vicious bastard liable to put in the bash?

“Tanirau Whaanga claimed to have stopped drinking, a trigger for his anger, and vowed to stop associating with friends in the Mongrel Mob – a condition of his early release”

Blame the booze, blame the mates… Are you sure it wasn’t colonialism? Maybe John Key?
No dude – there is one guy to blame here and you see him in the mirror.

BTW: If booze is the problem, were you driving pissed with your partner and 1 year old kid in the car? If so I hope CYFS (whatever the hell they’re called now) took the kid away.

It seems to me that cutting him off from his cultural group will alienate him from his friends and is cruel and unusual punishment. Give it another 10 years of wokism and we’ll be paying him compensation for how badly he was treated.

Fuck it parole board, you have ONE job. Keep society safe from people like this. But you’re all falling over eachother with your woke bullshit.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/124890747/man-who-fatally-headbutted-victim-over-parking-space-to-serve-less-than-half-his-sentence-in-prison
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April 22, 2021 4:33pm
Maggie Pie

GREAT NEWS!

ZB reporting…. Wellington Bus has imposed a ‘lock-out’ on their striking drivers. How long before they get back to work will be anyone’s guess!
My partner’s hoping Auckland will go out in sympathy. You would not believe how much better the traffic flows here when those stinking big smoke blowing covid spreaders are off the city streets.
Instead of 15 minutes to get to the viaduct, he can do it under 8.
11 3
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April 22, 2021 4:51pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  NZ Bus want drivers to accept a higher base wage, but with lower penal rates and one week less annual leave. Now they want to deprive Wellingtonians of bus services until the drivers agree to make the company more profitable.
  
  6 5
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  April 22, 2021 5:06pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    You’d be in full agreement with my partner then mike?
    
    8 2
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    April 22, 2021 5:25pm
Maggie Pie

We just listened to HDPA’s interview with Andrew Bolt.
My partner thort she came across as a little pussy in Andrews hands.

Just saying.
9 1
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April 22, 2021 5:27pm
- tf78
  
  Maggie, we listen to Andrew Bolt or Cory Bernardi every night because they talk absolute sense and expose how naïve we have become here in New Zealand. War is fairly imminent in the China Sea and are being treated like mushrooms. WHY?!
  
  1 0
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  April 22, 2021 6:24pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Job interview. KB children, go to the basement.
It is Chopper Reid.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4rSZP0nNCc
3 4
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April 22, 2021 6:57pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  My partner’s got a signed copy of his book.
  
  4 1
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  April 22, 2021 7:22pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    It is Mark Reid, comedian .Not the real chopper
    
    1 1
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    April 23, 2021 7:56am
Anthony Coates

I would submit this article on Stuff today is one of the most ridiculous opinion pieces ever published in the NZ media. Words fail me. Any thoughts? https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/destinations/nz/wellington/124906278/moving-to-wellington-has-helped-me-grow-as-a-gay-man
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April 22, 2021 8:54pm
- kowtow
  
  Thoughts ?
  
  I’m very happy he’s happy , but I don’t see how it’s newsworthy.
  
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  April 23, 2021 9:34am

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