General Debate 14 May 2021

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Frank the tank

Anyone else heard the radio “advertisement” on the new school history curriculum.

Goebbels would be proud
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May 14, 2021 8:02am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Do I have to write one too?
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:39am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  Oh you are such a cynic!
  
  You are being invited to participate and you have this colonisier attitude oozing from your post!
  
  Submit a history that you would like to see included in the curriculum. Light blue touch paper and stand at a safe distance as used to be written on all good fireworks.
  
  Make the submission, you will be ignored as the history has already been settled (see what I did there, I could be an autocue reader for TV with dad puns like that) but, you will have been part of the process, you will have been consulted, you will have been patronised, again . . .
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:22am
  - Frank the tank
    
    Ok I’ll suffer you. My Curriculum:
    
    1). Pre-European settlement
    2). Early Settler period up to say (1800)
    3). Colony of Britain up to WW1
    4). NZ during the Wars (to end of WW2)
    5). Nation/statehood (to Britain’s entry into the EEC)
    6). Modern NZ and it’s place within the world with focus on:
    i) 1987 and it’s reforms
    ii) Changing nature of migration from the pacific/asia
    iii) Changing nature of relations between Maori and non-Maori
    
    Sorted?
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:05am
    - Bob
      
      This reads very much like the History curriculum of my 1950’s school days.
      Including a brief coverage of the English/European periods as part of items 2 and 3 would produce well informed young people who might then make sensible political decisions at election time.
      
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      May 14, 2021 11:02am
      - Paulus
        
        No, No, that is called History from which we should learn – but will not be allowed to.
        Sorry for our mokopuna or whoever.
        
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        May 14, 2021 1:49pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      I’d include a section of the study of tyrannies down through the ages. On how they were alike, and how things played out. Then for bonus points, how to spot one were it quietly metastasizing in a modern, so-called democracy.
      
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      May 14, 2021 2:05pm
  - RockyJ
    
    I must confess I have made about 20 submissions on their website against this. Their stupid IT system allows this.
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:14am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      When you have a policy of ignoring ALL submissions, why should it concern them how many you make.
      
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      May 14, 2021 10:34am
      - thirteenstars
        
        Nice.
        
        And true. Submissions and committees and “consultation” with “stake holders” is all about manufacturing consent. After all, you can’t complain about the final policy when you were given full access to the process that arrived at that policy.
        
        Except the final policy was already decided before any process began, including sacrificial clauses and other malleability to make it look like it was done in good faith. But the core of the policy never changes, and the process is designed to make that possible. All that matters is “the process”.
        
        That’s why over the years your vote has meant less and less. Vote yourself silly, won’t make much difference because you aren’t running the show.
        
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        May 14, 2021 12:17pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        quite, thirteenstars. We under the illusion that we’re living in the democracy that our grandparents fought for. We’re not. Western democracies are being dismantled from the inside, and the Covid-19 farce should have laid this bare for all to see. But for must it’s too difficult, too painful. Better just hunker down and wait for next week’s lotto, and the next government handout.
        
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        May 14, 2021 2:11pm
Maxx

Ministers can’t see to stop themselves from fiddling with and adding to projects that are already costed and funded, despite warnings.

My question is why cannot ministers be held to the same fiducial responsibility standards a board of directors are held to? When they direct a company to go ahead with a project risks the company they can be charged. The same as the ministry CEO, like other CEOs should also be standing up to ministers unless of course they agree with the course of action, which again they then have fiduciary responsibilities. And are there whistleblower protections for public sector staff who see this going on?

Is the organisation at risk? No, because ultimately NZ inc will bail them out. But to me this is no different to an organisation requiring emergency additional shareholder funds.

Why are the standards different? There’s a reason why those standards exist, to protect the investors. Well, we’re all investors in the country. We all have a stake in this. What’s good for the goose etc.

https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300307152/ministers-spent-contingency-funds-of-68b-project-after-warnings-from-treasury#comments
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May 14, 2021 8:03am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  State Sector Employees are untouchable/sacred
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:18am
  - cmm
    
    Yup, it’s the same basic principle as don’t piss off the waiter or anyone else that can spit in your food.
    
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    May 14, 2021 8:36am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      That is a dam good description of Govt/Council
      
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      May 14, 2021 8:50am
      - Inandout
        
        SO, yes our local council employees never lost a cent during the plague lockdown.
        
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        May 14, 2021 9:31am
- surfing
  
  The private sector soaks up all the competent people, this shows where the others end up.
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:32am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Hear hear, what that man said
    
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    May 14, 2021 8:51am
  - Maxx
    
    In.my experience yes and no. Loving in Wellington, often as your career takes you into senior positions a lot inevitably end up in government at some point. Certainly I have this to be the case of the people I know. I guess the difference is that for all of those they are shocked at the wastefulness, lack of direction, constant changing priorities, and mostly, no accountability. They all find it frustrating that there is little to no appetite for adopting best practice, and in the case if some ministries, the people are there for ideological reasons and have no sense of compromise to achieve a greater good.
    
    Typically those good people will do good work, get frustrated, and then leave when they finally get hamstrung by the ideologues, the bureaucracy or the ones that are there for a paycheck.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:02am
    - Pheobe
      
      Exactly right, I worked for MSD, but in the end I just got frustrated with it I had to leave for my own sanity.
      
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      May 14, 2021 1:20pm
  - Bob
    
    But the public sector pays more, way more for a lot less work and culpable responsibility.
    
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    May 14, 2021 11:03am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      They do not make a product
      
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      May 14, 2021 3:39pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Add to that. A product is something physical, something made to sell to someone who can’t make that product.
        All the public sector does is make rules about the product and TAX it on the journey from A to B
        
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        May 14, 2021 3:42pm
      - MCos
        
        I used to work for the MOW a long time ago.
        Apart from a bit of time working down south on a hydro power station I also worked for Roading Division, now known as NZTA.
        MOW is gone now, but in it’s day they built a lot of power stations that provide electricity for . . . . well, pretty much everything.
        And the road & rail networks are built and maintained by public servants by way of contractors.
        
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        May 15, 2021 10:49am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Ministers don’t come under the Companies Act!
  
  The spending is more fiddling with Public Monies. The use of such monies is the exclusive right of parliament as a whole. Auditors have been know to be fussy about such matters and have had people using unauthorised funds repay them personally.
  
  Cinders has a belief that she is now Regal Boss and can do as she pleases. She thinks she is the Constitution and forgets that Charles I paid with his head for taking a similar line against Parliament. It is that whole body which is invested with sovereign rights. Only Parliament has the right to tax and the right to vote to spend the tax money.
  
  A govt may have the majority of the seats but that still does not give it the authority. It must present money matters to the whole House to be voted on. These ancient rules are well established and there are rules in Parliament about the introduction of any Bill which involves expenditure. The PM is presenting as if She is Parliament personified.
  
  Without Ardern acknowledging her lesser status we are effectively being run as a defacto republic.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:00am
  - Maxx
    
    Yes, but my point is that they should have the same or similar fiduciary responsibilities, to take or seek advice where requied.
    
    The question becomes, what should happen when they shirk those responsibilities? Worse case now is that they are no longer a minister. But should they be held criminally responsible if they deliberately act irresponsibly, the same as if they were stealing?
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:10am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      They do have a duty of care but they have fixed terms between elections so can be terminated.
      
      We have a constitutional situation where we cannot control MP’s. The PM has limited authority too. MMP has done us a real disservice as we have lost the right to check out many at the ballot box. Facing the people there is very vigorous testing ordeal. I saw candidates drop out or dropped as unsuitable.
      
      We have a partial mechanism of control. All the Cabinet have to swear an Oath of allegiance to HM and she could possibly intervene if they do not meet her standards. But that is remote. MP are only sworn in as members otherwise and there are no accountability provisions.
      
      It would be a brave constitutional barrister to sue a MP for breach of duty of care. We do need standards for that and possibly the Director’s one is OK. At present there is no obvious mechanism of control or punishment for failure to perform to a minimum standard.
      
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      May 14, 2021 9:36am
      - Albert_Ross
        
        Don’t get your reasoning that MMP is the cause of poor Parliamentary performance. Is there any actual evidence, in practice, that list MPs are any less diligent and responsible than constituency MPs once they get into Parliament?
        
        A would-be constituency MP has to appeal to all manner of voters, including the thick, the gullible, the illiterate, the ignorant as well as the well-informed and thoughtful; and once she’s elected, she has to keep on trying to please those same voters. It’s currently more apparent than ever that there’s actually very little correlation, unless it’s negative, between whether a politician does a good job – in terms of taking well informed and well reasoned decisions likely to deliver more benefits than harm – and whether she gains the approval of the voting public.
        
        Imagine if she didn’t need the latter. Imagine if she needed only the approval of a thoughtful, well-informed, economically and environmentally literate and fair-minded body of voters and didn’t have to worry what the rest thought. Do you think an MP with that motivation would be more or less likely to approach her job seriously and conscientiously?
        
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        May 14, 2021 10:05am
      - Steve Todd
        
        MMP has done us a real disservice as we have lost the right to check out many at the ballot box. Facing the people there is very vigorous testing ordeal. I saw candidates drop out or dropped as unsuitable.
        
        I have pointed out to you at least twice before, most recently here: https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/04/wcc_refuses_to_give_the_public_any_say_on_voting_rights.html/comment-page-1#comment-2921645, that you are quite wrong.
        
        Almost all our List MPs have been subject to “the testing ordeal” of facing the people in single-seat FPP elections. In each case, only one candidate — almost always the National or Labour candidate — can, and will, win. That does not mean the losing candidate(s) are not worthy of being MPs.
        
        Many “outstanding” National candidates* were defeated at the last election, some of them unexpectedly (at least, to die-hard National supporters). They were “check(ed) out at the ballot box”, as you put it.
        
        * If you don’t believe they were outstanding, just ask Tony Stuart.
        
        Those candidates, and their Labour equivalents, were not necessarily found wanting by the People. In most cases, they were simply victims of the FPP voting system, and, with regard to the National candidates, the fact that the 2020 election was, shall we say, one out of the box.
        
        You really should stop telling lies about MMP.
        
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        May 14, 2021 10:32am
      - bennerg
        
        I would like to see a situation where all candidates have to stand in an electorate, and the List MP’s are assigned from those failing to get an electorate seat, in the descending order of their votes thus gained.
        
        That would allow deadwood to be eliminated.
        
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        May 14, 2021 10:53am
      - Steve Todd
        
        And furthermore, Kev, I take issue with this statement (from 12 April), and the implication that you were an excellent, though unsuccessful, candidate—
        
        I knocked 5,000 off a previous electorate majority, the hard way.
        
        (See https://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2021/04/wcc_refuses_to_give_the_public_any_say_on_voting_rights.html/comment-page-1#comment-2921702.)
        
        In Onehunga in 1972, Hugh Watt’s majority was 4,835. I concede that some of that majority was due to the swing to Labour / Kirk that year.
        
        At the 1975 election, Watt had resigned, to head off to London, and Frank Rogers was the Labour candidate, up against your good self. His majority, over you, was 1,044.
        
        So, National / you, in fact reduced the Labour majority by 3,791 votes, not 5,000 votes. How did that happen? Well, what we saw in the 1975 Onehunga contest was a new Labour candidate (admittedly, up against a one-off National candidate), retaining the seat in an election where there was a swing back to National / Muldoon (who was at his never-to-be-repeated height of popularity).
        
        To conclude, much as you would like us to believe it, I doubt the reduction in Labour’s majority had much to do with you facing the “testing ordeal”, the “hard way”, and not being found wanting.
        
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        May 14, 2021 11:28am
      - Steve Todd
        
        bennerg: You are describing Hansard Society (1976) / Best Losers MMP. This version of MMP was rejected by the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System (see paras 2.194 to 2.197, particularly para 2.196).
        
        The Commission’s Report can be accessed here: https://elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/what-is-new-zealands-system-of-government/report-of-the-royal-commission-on-the-electoral-system/.
        
        A far better way to eliminate “deadwood” is for parliament to be elected by STV in large constituencies. I have written much about STV on this blogsite over the last seven or so years, and have developed a version that would suit New Zealand well — but I’ll leave it that, for now.
        
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        May 14, 2021 12:05pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        @Albert. To paraphrase Jack Nickelson; When imagining a list MP just think of an electorate MP and take away reason and accountability. For example: MP for Tijuana Mendendez, Me me me Golriz or the excrebly nutty/lazy Marama Davidson – just about all Green MPs really. Then there was Winston ‘Baubles’ Peters and his rag tag bag of troughers.
        
        On the other hand act have been consistently
        diligent
        
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        May 14, 2021 1:42pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Opinion is not lies. I have faced the voters and knocked 5000 off the previous majority.
        MMP nay have brought more “representative government” but it has not brought an executive one. Once, most MP’s had they ability, now many are high paid chair warmers for some ideological society.
        
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        May 14, 2021 3:46pm
      - Steve Todd
        
        Opinion is not lies.
        
        But, as I have pointed out to you, several times now, your opinion is mistaken, yet you persist in repeating it. Therefore, you are knowingly lying. (As I have said previously — going back to 2008 — Steven Joyce is the only List MP I can think of who has never / not faced the People, directly.)
        
        I have faced the voters and knocked 5000 off the previous majority.
        
        But, as I have pointed out to you, above, you are mistaken. You did not do that in Onehunga in November 1975.
        
        Please inform of us of the election in which you “knocked 5000 off the previous majority”, so we can check the veracity of your claim.
        
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        May 14, 2021 4:24pm
- peterwn
  
  Unfortunately the buck stops with sovereignty. Ministers and public servants are indemnified in the same way that company officers and directors are indemnified by D&O insurance paid for by shareholders although unlike the public sector, the available indemnity amount is finite.
  Witness Winston’s lawsuits against two former Ministers and two top public servants. They were completely indemnified by the Crown as they were acting within their normal responsibilities.
  Similar to Mainzeal except that claims and costs (amounts still subject to a High Court decision) may exceed the insurance limit with political enemies hoping that Jenny Shipley would be driven to the wall.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:21am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    More work is needed to hold these people accountable lest the French one has to be adopted.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:37am
- lastmanstanding
  
  There is a huge gulf between the governance of our largest and best performing listed companies and the the Government and Government Departments.
  In the NZX companies Boards put the CEOs and senior management under the spotlight on a regular basis. Projects are costed and signed off. Any variance must be signed off. Boards are subject to scrutiny by shareholders especially large shareholders and financial institutions who hold shares. Organisations like the Shareholders Association meet with Boards and CEOs on a regular basis to question their governance and financial performance and measure Boards against governance best practise.
  None of this happens in Government. There is a general election every 3 years and thats it.
  Frankly there are very few MPs who could hold their own in a large listed company Board.
  The only MPs how has made a success of it are Ruth Richardson and Richard Prebble who is on the Mainfreight Board. This is one of our stellar performers as anyone who follows the NZX knows.
  By contrast Jenny Shipley tried and failed big time.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:45am
  - Chuck Bird
    
    Have you forgot Don Brash?
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:16am
  - peterwn
    
    Which is exactly why the Government wanted to sell down and have listed Mercury, Meridian and Genesis power generation companies. They can get on with the job and avoid the inefficiencies inherent in Government Departments.
    
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    May 14, 2021 11:32am
alloytoo

Some commentary on the impending wall of inflation approaching the States. Very Relevant to Robbonomics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU2rdeH4tZo

*Warning contains some minor cussing*
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May 14, 2021 8:04am
- KevO'Brien
  
  And another:
  https://pjmedia.com/spengler/2021/05/12/inflation-is-the-issue-that-will-topple-the-democrats-n1446407
  
  Very relevant to us in NZ. When the USA sneezes we get a cold.
  
  Already a wage/price spiral seems to have been let loose by our former uni- cafe-assistant book keeper. Prices are escalating in the supermarkets and in trade suppliers. More promises to the unionised need to be restrained.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:07am
dcrane

US joins the so-called Christchurch Call to “work towards stopping violent content from being posted online, and preventing such content from spreading so rapidly”.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/united-states-joins-christchurch-call-to-eliminate-terrorist-extremist-online-content/2QV7WTYABCB5N44BK3JDG4DHXU/

Not for one second do I trust government or billionaire tech titans to manage this in the public interest. We need to fight this.
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May 14, 2021 8:04am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  “I’m from the Government and I am here to help you”
  Shut up and do as I say ,not as I do
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:28am
- KevO'Brien
  
  When Paypal terminates an account handling receipts for choral music who can trust the judgement of anyone?
  Gates & Fauci seem to be the only ones who can command anything.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:13am
Benedict Yu

https://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/climate-news/125026487/times-up-for-the-gas-guzzler-as-country-opts-for-green-transport

What a misleading headline. Surveying people about intentions is quite different from people taking action. This survey shows that 10 percent of people plan to buy an EV in the next 12 months.

There are currently about 20,000 EVs in New Zealand. If these surveyed intentions turn into reality that number will jump by about 400,000 in the next 12 months.

The survey also showed that 68 percent of teenagers plan to adopt ‘more green’ travel modes. Since most of them don’t own cars that will mean walking and cycling to school, sport events, and to social events instead of being driven by parents.

More than half of New Zealand children are driven by their parents to and from school.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/education/116286172/new-census-data-reveals-more-than-half-of-nzs-students-use-private-vehicles-to-commute

There is no data about how that has changed over the last 20 years. At least I couldn’t find it. But there is anecdotal evidence that it is increasing. There is now a noticeable surge in traffic in Christchurch and Wellington around 3 pm. And I’m guessing that Auckland worse. Many of these kids could choose to bike to school now. They won’t. At least not 63 percent of them.
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May 14, 2021 8:05am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I reckon Olivia Wannan writes fairy tales for children as well
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:16am
- rouppe
  
  I walked to work yesterday. Tripped over an uneven path section sticking up and had a tumble.
  
  Inattentive, sure, but if you want to make me walk, frigging clean up the paths!
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:19am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    There is a cycle path, mostly behind a fence, from Petone to Wellington.
    Drove in the rush hour traffic the other day (YUCK), saw 8 cyclists…NOT ONE riding on the cycle path provided…by the taxes from car drivers.
    Maybe we should start ticketing them for being on the road, when a path is provided?
    
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    May 14, 2021 11:00am
    - KiwiRupes
      
      There’s an belief that that path is not fit for purpose to cycle on – I ran it the other day going north, so a bit daunting facing the oncoming traffic at the Petone end, but the balance was clean, free of glass or other debris – and the surface was no worse than the average Wellington road.
      
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      May 14, 2021 11:11am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Ticket them? They will not pay. Cyclists pay for NOTHING, they are freeloaders
      
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      May 14, 2021 3:44pm
- Maxx
  
  Yep. What does adopting more green travel even mean? For one it might mean a decision to walk or bike, for another it could mean buying a more fuel efficient car. Both could be for reasons other than the environment. They could for the health benefits or to save money, yet the answer for this survey is environmental. The other part is at what cost would they be willing to do so? Or what are they willing to give up to do this e.g. vehicle size
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:21am
  - alloytoo
    
    I bought a larger vehicle because it was more efficient to use one rather than two.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:37pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Today’s kids will rarely buy an EV, but they want everyone else to have one. That is what they are taught from a young age
    
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    May 14, 2021 3:48pm
- cmm
  
  “68 percent of teenagers plan ”
  
  I bet less than 1% plan anything of the sort. They might hope, they might dream, but they are not planning.
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:39am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    ‘Plan’ meant in the way Labour does things – a dream
    
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    May 14, 2021 8:54am
    - oldfella
      
      Steve: plan = aspirational, but not too definitive.
      
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      May 14, 2021 10:21am
      - RW Capitalist
        
        I was always taught, that a real plan was developed like this
        Start with what you want
        work backwards to where you are now
        then walk through the plan forwards to the goal, planting sign posts and indicator along the way, to determine whether you are on track.
        eg
        Goal….electric cars
        who sells them ?
        How good are they
        Choose the best one
        How much are they?
        How long will it take to get one?
        How will I pay? (deposit and borrow or cash)
        How much do I have to save to get started?
        How much do I have to earn?
        Will I have to get a second job, or a better job?
        Do I earn enough to live and save for this?
        
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        May 14, 2021 11:08am
      - alloytoo
        
        @RW Capitalist
        
        Since every Electric car added to the grid is a coal burner, I guess a fuel efficient ICE vehicle is the answer.
        
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        May 14, 2021 2:39pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        @RW.
        Goal….electric cars
        who sells them ?
        Electric car salespersons.
        How good are they.
        They are all good, ask the salesperson.
        Choose the best one.
        The salesperson will tell you the best one depending on price and stock on hand.
        How much are they?
        Shitloads, but we do finance.
        How long will it take to get one?
        Depends on how fast you want to pay.
        How will I pay? (deposit and borrow or cash)
        Ask your Bank/Broker.
        How much do I have to save to get started?
        Shitloads.
        How much do I have to earn?
        Shitloads.
        Will I have to get a second job, or a better job?
        Nope, the finance company will look after you.
        Do I earn enough to live and save for this?
        Not in your fucking life mate.
        
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        May 14, 2021 3:56pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    Every kid plans to not but a car because they will get a dream job and dream apartment in the centre of the city next to a cycle way, gym, Uber, park and supermarket. Then they will leave for a bigger, brighter version overseas.
    
    Until they hit 30, have kids and need a station wagon.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:52am
    - RW Capitalist
      
      There will always be a song for that.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0NxhFn0szc
      
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      May 14, 2021 11:11am
- Keith White
  
  Yes, I plan to go an effective diet and exercise program in the next 12 months.
  
  Chances of reaching the objective – I think the odds favor me first above EV’rs although my track record should not inspire confidence 🙂
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:47am
rouppe

Maori complain that they do not receive equitable access to health services, and that is racist.

Maori are promoted up the covid priority list, and now they’re complaining that they are being used as guinea pigs to test the vaccine

Is anyone surprised?
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May 14, 2021 8:09am
- lilman
  
  No not at all surprised, you white bastard.
  
  45 2
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  May 14, 2021 8:16am
- Rich Prick
  
  There’s no pleasing some people. No matter what we do, we’re all racist.
  
  53 1
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  May 14, 2021 8:18am
  - plc
    
    As the Leader of the Maori Party says “You can’t understand because you are not Maori”
    
    39 0
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    May 14, 2021 8:30am
    - Flossie
      
      The “Leader”?? Don’t they do the co-leader thingy?
      
      12 0
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      May 14, 2021 9:34am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Yep,
        Debbie Ngarewa-Packer is a co-leader …and according to the Māori Party website, John Tamihere is the other co-leader.
        
        https://www.maoriparty.org.nz/our_people
        
        I wonder if anyone has told Rawiri Waititi yet.
        
        15 1
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        May 14, 2021 10:42am
      - rouppe
        
        Can’t distinguish between them with those stupid colonialust hats they wear
        
        12 1
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        May 14, 2021 11:02am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Don’t accept such baloney. You’re not racist unless you intend to be. At times there may be very good reason for that when confronted by a fellow dressed up with a painted face and a taiaha in his hand, poking his tongue out and jumping up and down screaming. Peace belongs to those who give it.
    
    The more strident activists get, without (good) reason except being activists, the easier it is to find their behaviour unacceptable. Racism? Survival!
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:22am
    - DeepBlue
      
      You haven’t considered unconscious bias, to void the defence of intent.
      
      6 2
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      May 14, 2021 9:56am
  - lastmanstanding
    
    Playing the Race Card is like Godwins Law. It proves you have lost the debate and dont have a credible alternate response.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:51am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Correct
      
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      May 14, 2021 3:59pm
- info@cruzpro.com
  
  No one can be forced to get vaccinated. Anyone who feels that they are being used as guinea pigs should just refuse.
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:21am
  - DeepBlue
    
    Since Bloomfield is saying even post Vax we will need to be at level 2.5.
    
    This is going to be endless.
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:03am
    - Paulus
      
      What did you expect ? – Jacinda as already made the decisions so she can keep Covid control.
      
      2 0
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      May 14, 2021 1:58pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    People saying it is safe because they have done the research are just plain stupid.
    They are too bloody dumb to realise that they ARE the research
    
    2 2
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    May 14, 2021 4:01pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The best thing is even though much more than 38 million Covid cases found worldwide, they seems to be 1877 flu cases found.
    Covid has cured the flu, thanks for that China
    
    2 1
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    May 14, 2021 4:04pm
- Homas
  
  Just putting the weapons-grade malcontentment to one side for a moment, what I wonder is where is the standard bullying response – you know, clown-tressed science nag Dr. Wiles and her dog-pile brigade with the usual tinfoil hat insinuations that every other instance of Covid vaccine apprehension seems to have attracted. I guess a free-pass is in order when it’s you-know-who wearing the tinfoil hat?
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:21am
- Scott
  
  rouppe – I must confess that I do not agree with the whole concept of a separate health service for Maori people. Here’s why.
  
  Imagine if one day a government said that we are going to establish a separate health service for whites only. Imagine the outrage. Every newspaper editor and TV journalist’s hair would be on fire. That’s racist!!!
  
  So if it is so bad to have a whites only health services, how can it be a good thing to have a Maoris only health service?
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:24am
  - Keith White
    
    “It’s not apartheid when we do it.”
    
    29 1
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    May 14, 2021 8:47am
  - rouppe
    
    I don’t like it either.
    
    Imagine a Maori and non Maori each get cancer. They both go to the public system and the result is that the best treatment is not funded by Pharmac. Imagine that the Maori turns to the separately funded MHA and gets access to the life saving drug while the non Maori is left to die.
    
    Entirely possible because Maori get access to both funds and why would the MHA fund something the public service does anyway.
    
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    May 14, 2021 11:07am
    - alloytoo
      
      One wonders how the courts would view a class action suit for access Maori health services, or failing that tax rebate.
      
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      May 14, 2021 2:42pm
  - Paulus
    
    Agreed, as long a Maori pay for it.
    
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    May 14, 2021 1:59pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Said it elsewhere. Will there be a Caucasian District Health Board? If not, why not?
    I must be racist for asking this.
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:06pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Koha will fix it immediately, you watch
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:30am
- dcrane
  
  Last I heard the govt was moving Maori patients to the top of the list for surgeries, based solely on race not individual medical need. So they are correct to say they are not getting equitable services.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:09am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I am hearing of a Moari District Health Board. Does this mean there will be Caucasian District Health Board as well? Or would that be racist?
    
    29 1
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    May 14, 2021 9:22am
- Paulus Gnome
  
  The key word there is maori.
  
  When maori is the answer, it is the stupidest question of all time.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:26am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  Anyone having it is being used as a guinea pig, you don’t have to have it, sitting on the fence would be a good option at this stage.
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:24am
peterwn

Major electric power users want subsidised power or they will cut back and reduce jobs. This raises the question – should the Government subsidise power by building more generation/ storage and selling the power at a discount?
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May 14, 2021 8:12am
- peterwn
  
  THE government could always use the dividends from its 51% ownership in its three gentailers and 100% ownership in Transpower to subsidise power to major industries, the poor, etc.
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:17am
  - alloytoo
    
    Or more sensibly use it to build a Nuclear power facility and ban commercial wind farms.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:44pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  We don’t need more electricity. It is all part of the way socialism is implemented – make the people suffer so they can be controlled
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:12pm
Simon

Rasmussen

“Is climate change caused primarily by human activity or by long-term planetary trends?’
2000 National Likely Voters-

Human Activity % – LT Planet Trends %
Democrats: 76% – 24%
Unaffiliated: 48% – 52%
Republicans: 36% – 64%
All Voters: 55% – 45%

interesting numbers. Suspect NZ would be around 60% believe climate fraud and 40% would understand basic science / history that climate has always changed regardless of humans.
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May 14, 2021 8:12am
- Doc Holliday
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  The reason you know the climate has always changed is scientists have published their science.
  
  When people refer to global warming/climate change they mean the changes due to humanity —
  ie are on top of natural changes.
  
  No publishing climate scientist in the world does not accept CO2 causing warming.
  
  That more CO2 causes more warming is exactly the reason Earth comes out of ice ages. Changes in insolation related to Milankovitch Cycles are no sufficient.
  
  The science is correct and climate deniers, unless they have a vested interest in fossil fuels, are either just useful idiots or frankly insane.
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:54am
  - tf78
    
    Doc, tell that to the plants.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:31am
  - Simon
    
    From 2000.
    
    However, the warming is so far manifesting itself more in winters which are less cold than in much hotter summers. According to Dr David Viner, a senior research scientist at the climatic research unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia,within a few years winter snowfall will become “a very rare and exciting event”.
    
    “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is,” he said.
    
    By now its fraud.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:37am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      HADCRUT?
      The people whose exciting emails revealed how they were manipulating data to build an upward trend. This they sent out as a teaching idea to other world wide Met people, including our NIWA.
      
      8 1
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      May 14, 2021 11:18am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        NIWA. Are those the people that put the temperature monitors at the ends of airport runways? Very clever that.
        
        2 1
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        May 14, 2021 4:15pm
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    “No publishing climate scientist in the world does not accept CO2 causing warming.”
    
    If one could plot the CO2 concentration along with Ice Age ice sheet thickness and average temperature, one would soon be able to determine any correlation between CO2 concentration and air temperature.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:39am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Thanks Doc, a very easy to understand post. One question.
    “That more CO2 causes more warming is exactly the reason Earth comes out of ice ages”.
    Surely the conclusion therefore must be, that increased CO2 is natural?
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:17am
  - Tall Man
    
    Simple questions for an obviously simple mind …has the earth ever had high co2 levels prior to the arrival of the industrial age?
    
    When we eliminate co2 from the atmosphere, what will your broccoli “eat”?
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:18am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Now you done gone and made them think. They will not reply, other than to say you are racist
      
      2 1
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      May 14, 2021 4:17pm
      - Tall Man
        
        FFS Steve, having a mild affection for the welfare of broccoli is not racist, even though I fucking hate greenies …..
        
        2 0
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        May 14, 2021 5:01pm
  - RockyJ
    
    The opinions of climate scientists is about the only argument alarmists like Doc Holliday ever cite in support of their position. This is because they don’t try to understand the science themselves.
    Here is a fun fact about the opinions of climate scientists: The 97% consensus etc “fact” comes from a survey by John Cook. He found that 97% of scientists who had a definite view on the question of whether human activity was warming the planet believed “yes”. 3% said “no”. What he omitted from his study summary was that 64% of the total group of scientists surveyed said “they didn’t know”. (David Legates).
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:29am
    - Odakyu-sen
      
      It’s the dishonesty of the reporting and the non-sharing of the raw data that raises my levels of skepticism.
      
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      May 14, 2021 10:39am
      - RockyJ
        
        Agree. Like Michael Mann’s now famous hockey stick. He refused to allow peer review of his raw data and consequently lost a defamation case.
        
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        May 14, 2021 11:29am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Read the UN IPCC 3rd report (TAR) where they explicitly claim they can predict any climate as the system is chaotic.
    Climate science is too many computers chasing too few electrons and brain waves.
    
    Weather forecasting is useful.
    
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    May 14, 2021 11:03am
    - UrbanNeocolonialist
      
      ~~can~~ can’t
      
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      May 14, 2021 1:47pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Indeed. I’ve just spotted it too. Thanks.
        
        1 1
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        May 14, 2021 3:52pm
  - alloytoo
    
    “That more CO2 causes more warming is exactly the reason Earth comes out of ice ages. ”
    
    Then why do CO2 level increases trail temperature increases.
    
    Is this some sort of “Green Physics” where Cause follows effect?
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:47pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Let me tell you something. In Alaska there is a glacier named Exit Glacier, down by Seward. Been there twice. As you walk the trail there are markers showing where the glacier was in years past. Goes back to the early 1900s.
    What they do not tell you is that the glacier used to go to the ocean, Resurrection Bay, some 12 miles away from the face now.
    The glacier was exiting tens of thousands of years before the fucking Industrial Revolution!!
    Global Warming is true, so is global cooling. It is climate for fuck’s sake
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:24pm
- dcrane
  
  Question not worded very well, since it refers vaguely to “climate change” in general rather than specifying the very recent changes in global temperature.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:11am
- Tall Man
  
  So to paraphrase, idiots who think other people should support them are more likely to believe in “global warming” … oops, sorry “climate change’…
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:21am
Happychappy

Well you get what you deserve is the old saying and in this case the general public really do as they can’t see anything but the sun ray’s shinning from this incompetence Governments arse.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/300307152/ministers-spent-contingency-funds-of-68b-project-after-warnings-from-treasury
The time is fast arriving for the people to realize this Government’s incompetence is saddling your children and their children with future Generations in debt that could take decades to reduce with Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson in charge.
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May 14, 2021 8:14am
Maggie Pie

EID MUBARAK!

Things that make you go “Awwww…..”

https://twitter.com/momentmemori/status/1392695624093605888
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May 14, 2021 8:14am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I feel quite sick now. Thanks for reminding me what a head case she is
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:25am
- alex Masterley
  
  Its all on at Eden Park.
  Attendees parking where they shouldnt and getting the way of locals.
  quite a cluster whats it.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:05am
  - sooty
    
    Parking is available at helens place!
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:10am
    - Paulus
      
      Which one of the 5 1/5 she has ?
      
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      May 14, 2021 2:02pm
  - Tall Man
    
    helen’s probably “away” at the moment…….
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:12am
Swifty

A nice 12 ptr filmed during this year’s roar – note the missing bey tines; a feature of the Nelson herd.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gykkCyw0mA
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May 14, 2021 8:20am
- Don Beckett
  
  Excellent. Reminds me of my hunting days back in the 1960’s & early ’70’s.
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:10am
Cinematic

Having carefully read Stuffs vaccine propaganda I can confirm I’m none the wiser Pfizer.
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May 14, 2021 8:20am
- Ehlana
  
  Did you think reading Stuff would add to your wisdom?
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:15am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Looks like Trump has an even bigger swamp to drain. Go for it! Expose the RINOs .For too long the elite have protected themselves and shit all over the people.
https://nz.yahoo.com/news/trump-lashes-more-150-senior-180241092.html
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May 14, 2021 8:21am
- Scott
  
  Quite right Steve. The thing most people don’t realise is that the anti-Trump people don’t like Trump because of his personality but mostly because of his agenda. His is a nationalist, America first vision that involves looking after your own people and your own workers.
  
  The anti-Trump people are mostly globalists who want to continue the trend of all manufacturing going to China while they make their profits working for Amazon and Google and Nike. A relatively small number of elite people have become incredibly rich through globalism, think Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
  
  It’s the American worker that has been shafted. And the New Zealand worker to be fair. Here in New Zealand we used to make things, we used to manufacture things. We even used to make trains!
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:28am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Trump is a patriot, unlike the RINOs. He loves America, unlike the RINOs. Watch some of his interviews from 20 – 40 years ago. Even though he was once a Democrat, he was always a patriot
    
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    May 14, 2021 8:44am
  - Batman
    
    I think this is where you’ve moved from fringe to full on coo coo for cocoa pops ?
    
    Good luck to you in the real world sir
    
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    May 14, 2021 8:54am
    - Apropos of the Wet Snow
      
      You’re on the ball today. Only 1 minute in moderation? I think I love you! What’s your Twitter handle, please?
      
      Edit: I take that back. You’ve responded while I’m still languishing in the void. Chop, chop!
      
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      May 14, 2021 8:57am
      - Batman
        
        Haha your comment happened to be top of the queue when I popped in to see if there were any to approve.
        
        You’re welcome I suppose, even if your comments are getting quite…. Original.
        
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        May 14, 2021 8:58am
  - MCos
    
    “Here in New Zealand we used to make things, we used to manufacture things.”
    We certainly did.
    And our own people, who you seem to want to align with, had to pay through the nose to buy the stuff just so a few thousand people had jobs assembling cars, TVs, from parts imported from overseas.
    Nowadays NZ doesn’t have the labour force to build enough houses, pick the fruit, flip burgers, let alone sustain a large manufacturing industry.
    
    6 13
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    May 14, 2021 9:45am
    - Tall Man
      
      Actually we do but we don’t have enough willing to do the work.
      
      As you are familiar with Thailand can you explain why they seem to survive as a nation without much of a welfare system. Do you meet many who are capable of work that are able to choose to not work?
      
      14 1
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      May 14, 2021 10:11am
      - MCos
        
        My wife watches the Thai news every day.
        Tourism has collapsed over there. Not like here where domestic tourists have propped things up to an extent. Apparently the Govt has dished out some money to those effected, but not on the same scale as here and people I know upcountry who never seem to have had a job have cashed in. Otherwise there’s been a lot of suicides.
        My brother in law has family up country. Half of them just seem to lie around all day. He has a house up there and when we all go up there they all materialize at dinner time, eat his food, drink his whiskey. It’s actually great fun, but a lot of them are just bludgers.
        One of them is in and out of prison for drugs.
        My brother in laws sister had a noddle shop. One day she got crook and went off to hospital. A couple of days later she discharged herself and went back to work, but she was still crook & died.
        She’d been looking after her grandson whose mother had been murdered. So he went to his uncle along with a big debt from the noodle shop. The uncle was/is hopeless himself . . . . .
        
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        May 14, 2021 10:53am
      - Tall Man
        
        But, there’s no real welfare which was my point.
        
        From my observations over 20+ years, it seems that outside the professions it is the women who keep Thailand going which is why Falang husbands are so attractive to them 😉
        
        4 1
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        May 14, 2021 12:25pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Welfare is the cause. There are capable people here but they are fucking lazy
      
      17 2
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      May 14, 2021 10:16am
      - artemisia
        
        Not necessarily agreeing with the ‘lazy”. Sure some are but need to take into account that if people are focused on their household mainly they become unresourceful and diminished quite quickly. And start to believe nobody will want to employ them. Which is true enough.
        
        Then they need support to enter the workforce. That is expensive and needs willing employers to step up. Cheaper in $ terms to let them stay on the sofa.
        
        Our small tradie firm has hired a few off the dole, a couple not long out of the big house, and helped them get skills and work habits. A couple went on to apprenticeships. Most were below average and had to be watched all the time, and were unreliable plus drugs/alcohol.
        
        Don’t do that any more. Not worth the time and hassles.
        
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        May 14, 2021 10:54am
      - Keith White
        
        “I’m not fucking lazy but I used to.”
        
        A hippie chick in a flat off Symonds St in the 60s.
        
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        May 14, 2021 11:09am
cmm

Crim bloke:
1) Steals a car.
2) Steals another car in an armed robbery/assault/carjacking.
3) Lies to cops.

But no worries, give him bail!

Then surprise, surprise he commits a murder a hew hours later.

C’mon cops. Have you ever stopped to wonder what your role in society is?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/125123373/murderaccused-granted-police-bail-hours-before-killing-for-allegedly-stealing-car
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May 14, 2021 8:29am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Andrew Coster should be able to answer that. Will the media ask him?
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:47am
  - Keith White
    
    “In a statement police said they “do not have any concerns around any decisions regarding the bail of the defendant on the morning of April 24”.
    
    Phew, that’s alright then. For a minute I thought the Blue Patched Gang might want to learn from that mistake.
    
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    May 14, 2021 11:10am
- MCos
  
  If the guy who’d been strangled had told the police at the time he wouldn’t have got bail.
  
  “3) Lies to cops”
  You just can’t trust anyone these days.
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:00am
Maggie Pie

Was totally NOT aware that you had to still wear a mask in an Uber.

Last night I had to improvise.
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May 14, 2021 8:33am
- Cinematic
  
  That’s because you totally don’t have to.
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:41am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Bused from the Shore to Auckland Hospital 2 weeks ago. Link from Wynyard to K rd bus driver told me to put my mask on. Gave him his pedigree and told him I was quite happy to debate his socialist attitude and hold the bus up .He settled down quite quickly
    
    19 2
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    May 14, 2021 9:03am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Just on a tangent to that, sitting upstairs on a double decker bus you see all sorts of bad driving motorists.
      How the hell did these people even pass a driving test?
      
      10 2
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      May 14, 2021 9:26am
      - Maggie Pie
        
        I remember my partner saying VTNZ had a lot of dodgy Indian driving instructors at one stage.
        
        17 1
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        May 14, 2021 9:36am
      - doggone7
        
        Just on a tangent to that …
        Why not put the mask you’re not putting over your mouth and nose over your eyes once you’re seated.
        
        Then you won’t have to view the driving which upsets you so and gets you going.
        
        Secondly, not having sensory input through the eyes means you can really focus on thoughts and consider what else from some other source you want to complain about. ?
        
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        May 14, 2021 10:12am
      - Pheobe
        
        You are assuming they have a driver’s license.
        
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        May 14, 2021 2:26pm
- cmm
  
  I thought it was only the driver that needed a mask but ultimately if the driver wants you to wear a mask it’s his/her car, his/her rules.
  
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  May 14, 2021 8:42am
- lifesgood
  
  You don’t. I caught an Uber last week, asked the driver, he said no.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:05pm
Rusty

So the Govt is going to look into the motel problem in Rotorua because they are concerned the people being paid by them to live there temporary might not be suitable living standards for them.

Motels were never intended to be temp homes for families living for months on end until proper housing is found for them.

One can feel sorry for motel owners who have no choice to take in these people to make up for losses due to covid but they like the locals have had to endue anti-social and criminal behaviour.

Where were these people living before they moved into the motels?
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May 14, 2021 8:39am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I’m guessing these losers were in State houses and got kicked out for drug manufacturing and trashing the joint
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:05am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Some have had to leave cheap rentals when landlords sold up and got out of the business.
    Unable to afford the new market rentals that have gone sky-high, many folks have ended up homeless.
    
    By placing vulnerable families in temporary housing along with folks with a recent criminal history, severe mental health and addiction problems, and /or gang affiliations, the Government has shown that it doesn’t have a clue how to manage the well-being of the lower classes (underprivileged, down & outs, ferals, folks with complex needs… or whatever epithet is in vogue).
    
    Is it too hard to realise that folks with severe mental illness and addictions need care in managed accommodations – where there are trained caregivers checking on them at least daily?
    
    Is it too hard to realise that you don’t house violent and gang-affiliated folk with vulnerable families?
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:38am
    - Tall Man
      
      Maggy, welfare puts a limit on what part of your disposable income is paid in rent, if you are at the “vulnerable” end of the spectrum.
      
      Many of those who seem to be “homeless” are those that no private landlord would ever elect to offer a property to and others are those who have effectively “shat” in their own nest by not being seen as “regular” rent payers.
      
      This government has also “vilified” investors at the same time as generating massive capital gain potential thereby allowing an investor to buy a house and keep it empty.
      
      It’s simple math really. $900,000 for the house, potential rent @ $700 per week less expenses which is approx $25,000 without interest offset or just avoid any potential tenant issues and “bank” approx $270,000 capital gain over 3 years or $450,000 over 5.
      
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      May 14, 2021 9:59am
      - artemisia
        
        Government has also introduced new rules that significantly increase risk for landlords. Not just making it hard to terminate a tenancy, but also some very big fines (some paid to the tenants) for not meeting a very long list of rules and compliance, many new.
        
        Consequences – some potentially risky tenants had their tenancies terminated before 1 Feb this year (when rules changed) and landlords more often pass on applicants they might once have given a chance to.
        
        February 2021 – social housing waiting list up 456; number of new social houses added – 139. One of these numbers is not like the other.
        
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        May 14, 2021 11:03am
      - septic skeptic
        
        These “quote” marks are “not” “needed”.
        
        1 5
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        May 14, 2021 11:06am
      - Tall Man
        
        I put the quote marks in for either emphasis or where the meaning may not be as it seems.
        
        However, now I “know” it “upsets” you, “expect” more 😉
        
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        May 14, 2021 12:29pm
      - lifesgood
        
        I have very little sympathy for the moteliers. They are creaming it and the govt is stupid enough to let them. Many of these emergency housing motels were getting around $160 per night per unit, now they are getting $440 courtesy of the tax payer per unit. Do the maths, that’s $30,800 a week for a 10 unit motel or $123,200 per month. That’s astronomical and will more than cover any damage although I believe they are allowed to make additional claims to the govt for damages anyway. Bloody outrageous!
        
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        May 14, 2021 1:12pm
- Paulus
  
  We drive south from BOP often and drive only through via the eastern road thereby avoiding almost all Vegas,
  Have heard some horrifying stories from locals but there some fortunes being made by the immigrant entrepreneurs
  
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  May 14, 2021 2:09pm
Yvette

Te Pāti Māori: Speaker’s Ruling Misses The Point
Thursday, 13 May 2021, Press Release: Te Pati Maori

“We are demanding for the racist rhetoric to stop. Yesterday’s ruling still permits racist rhetoric to continue in the House and asserts that we can call a policy or a view racist but not a person. When we know racist policies are written by racist people,” said Mr Waititi.

“Whilst we acknowledge that Parliament is a place for the robust contest of ideas, we draw the line when the leader of the largest opposition party constantly, over multiple weeks, uses commentary like stealth and Māori, apartheid and Māori, separatism and Māori to negatively frame our indigenous rights. This is when a robust debate becomes a racist one because it targets one group of people.

While the Maori Party accuses the Speaker of missing the point, they too seem to have missed a few things, that “stealth” was used in reference to Labour’s actions, and “apartheid” as in what Labour may be creating. But, ironically, “separatism” does actually seem to be a Maori Party aspiration, as Rawiri Waititi suggests, in his second last paragraph –
“We have an unapologetic generation of Maori who recognise that being forced to work within the system no longer suits our plight for mana motuhake. That is what we are here to do; dismantle the system and create our own.
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May 14, 2021 8:58am
- Prince
  
  The Health reform is, quite simply, introducing apartheid into a significant area of Government. If we’re not allowed to mention this, let alone argue against it, we are no longer a democracy.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:24am
  - alloytoo
    
    I wouldn’t mind if the “Apartheid” funding was ring fenced.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:51pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Didn’t Maori trade off a lot of their former rights so they could survive as societal groups? It was never intended that they be weaponised again.
  
  They cannot have their old warrior ways back. They are not a sovereign nation in their own country now. That went with the protection to their lives and lands afforded by the Treaty.
  Stroppy youngsters needs to be assigned to foreign mercenary training and duties.
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:04pm
Maggie Pie

I’ve never really been a…. ‘conspiracy theorist’.
But this is all happening very close to home.
TBH, I’m starting to wonder if Prof. Gray may be on to something 🙁

https://twitter.com/ProfNigelGray/status/1392807200083439616
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May 14, 2021 8:59am
cmm

This is outrageous: spending $300k (and counting) on MyFoodBag for beneficiaries.

MyFoodBag is hugely expensive with average prices between $10 and $15 per plate. Ridiculous.

It would be much better to provide some education into how to make a low cost meal from scratch.

How about a good hearty pumpkin & bean soup/stew + bread. Fantastic meal for less that $2 per person?

These people need to learn budgeting & how to do things for themselves. Hand outs of flash $10+ meals is not going to teach anyone anything except that bludging pays.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/government-spends-300000-on-my-food-bag-for-beneficiaries-and-food-banks/KZGJF4G4FLWSPYAYNNC5CUZHW4/
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May 14, 2021 9:09am
- Prince
  
  Absolute madness. I would love MFB, but my income after tax doesn’t stretch that far. This Govt is quite simply, mad. Where is the leadership, someone to say ‘hold on, this doesn’t make sense. Stop it.’
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:20am
  - artemisia
    
    Well Prince, you might get your way. The Green Party is not keen on food kits for beneficiaries. IIRC this was optional for households. And according to Ms Sepuloni most recipients liked it.
    
    Given that the kits will be balanced meals, lots of veges, simple recipes younger household members could easily help with, no waste, mostly sustainable packaging, delivery to the door – what’s not to like. Especially since the Green Party in the past has talked about food deserts.
    
    Not to worry Green Party, just feel free to smack a trialled idea that recipients liked, could opt out of and was sustainable, healthy and encouraged family meals around the table. Surprised they didn’t want to ban it completely.
    
    In the Herald today (paywalled) –
    
    Green Party spokesman for social development Ricardo Menendez March was critical of the ministry’s scheme, saying it is just “patching around the edges”.”Without a substantive increase to core benefit levels, these sorts of projects mean little to communities that are struggling to get by.” He said the Greens have some concerns around the packaging of My Food Bag, specifically around the advice about dieting and exercising because he said that puts the onus on beneficiaries as though they’re not “leading their best lives”.
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:53am
    - septic skeptic
      
      March is real idiot. Unless his actual point is that if these folks had a change of lifestyle thet might become successful and stop voting for the watermelons, thus doing him out of his job.
      
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      May 14, 2021 11:15am
    - cmm
      
      All those wonderful things could have been achieved without the huge spend up.
      
      Half a crown pumpkin $2
      Half a celery $2
      Half a kg carrots $1
      Onions $1
      Stock powder 50c
      Packet of beans/lentils/soup mix $3
      Tomato paste $1
      Salt/pepper
      
      Chop up veges. Put in pot. Add water. Cook.
      Serve with bread if desired. 6 – 8 solid meals.
      
      Less than $12 (ie. less than one plate of MFB), but will feed many more.
      
      Better yet, people might learn to stand on their own two legs.
      
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      May 14, 2021 11:44am
      - artemisia
        
        Of course it could happen like that, cmm. But in many cases it just won’t. For lots of reasons. A few meal kits could break the old cycle, introduce new ideas, recipes, food types. The government was not talking about forever.
        
        Better than the scattergun approach of current school lunches anyway.
        
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        May 14, 2021 11:57am
      - lifesgood
        
        Bet those My Food Bags get tossed out and it’s off up to the take away shop again.
        
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        May 14, 2021 1:13pm
      - Prince
        
        ‘Not talking about forever ? That’s a joke. Try taking anything away once introduced – no chance.
        
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        May 14, 2021 2:57pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        What ‘wine-match’ would you recommend with that cmm?
        
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        May 14, 2021 3:30pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        They’re not going to change dietary habits with food parcels. More waste at the taxpayers expense. (Are there any left?)
        
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        May 14, 2021 4:08pm
  - Jack5
    
    Shouldn’t things like Government contracts to supply “food kits” be subject to tender?
    
    My Food Bag listed on the New Zealand and Australian stock exchanges recently, and its shares are down to $1.47 this afternoon after a public share offering at $1.85.
    
    Perhaps the Government is getting a good deal on the kits, but a tender is the best way to show whether it is fair market value.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:46pm
- Ruawai
  
  And I bet a lot of the lunch waste is because many of the kids the lunches are ordered for are also truants so not at school to eat the lunches ordered for them.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:28am
- Tall Man
  
  I’d like to draw your attention to a couple of points.
  
  Firstly, the current education system in NZ is struggling to teach the bulk of our kids to read and count so what on earth makes you think they would have any more success in teaching them to cook and plan meals for themselves?
  
  Secondly, was a well known fisherman recently involved in “cooking advice” for MFG?
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:36am
  - cmm
    
    Cooking and meal planning should be taught by wonderful caring parents/grandparents/whatever.
    
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    May 14, 2021 11:46am
    - Tall Man
      
      As should self respect and manners yet …….
      
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      May 14, 2021 12:30pm
- RW Capitalist
  
  On TV last night they were saying that some of the school lunches are not being eaten, but the bigger problem was the fact that there was no food at home.
  Now that is poverty….we didn’thave that under the 9 long years……
  We had, as they explained, “material poverty”.
  Which meant, if your kid didn’t have an IPad…they were poor.
  Is there another adjective to describe not having food to eat.
  In just under 4 years we have a country I don’t recognize….with people heading toward what can only be described as…heading to the 3rd world
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:44am
  - doggone7
    
    2012-2017 we didn’t have a housing crisis either. We had a “Comprehensive Housing Plan.” Remember that?
    The housing crisis has only happened in the past 4 years. What caused it? a) Winston going with Labour in 2017 and b) the voters going with Labour in 2020.
    
    If Winston had gone with Bill in 2017 there’d be no housing crisis just a little older Comprehensive Housing Plan.
    
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    May 14, 2021 1:04pm
- artemisia
  
  I very much doubt that the government was paying those per plate prices. Their main family option is $6 plate and no doubt at all this would have been discounted for quantity.
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:51am
  - DeepBlue
    
    Yes, it was a special menu.
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:09am
- DeepBlue
  
  You missed the best reason…. some people are not able to get to supermarkets.
  
  So this is a meals on wheels type service. It would be interesting to compare.
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:07am
- In Vino Veritas
  
  cmm, when I was a kid, and we were short for food, we got tomatoes and cheese mixed together. Mum called it “dogs breakfast”! And I used to love it!
  
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  May 14, 2021 2:22pm
  - tf78
    
    IVV, we used to have tomatoes, eggs and onions in a casserole thingy called Monks Pie. Yuk from a kids taste buds.
    
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    May 14, 2021 5:10pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Buys votes I reckon
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:34pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Well seeing as I don’t work Fridays, and I am a privileged whitie, I am off to the Hutchwilco Boat Show today to spend quite a bit of my hard earned money.
Suffer you peasants
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May 14, 2021 9:19am
- Tall Man
  
  Just bear in mind that any debt will be repaid at a much higher interest rate than the current and any cash you have accumulated will also be of interest to ardern and may prompt them to come take a closer look at you.
  
  My advice, buy a boat in Queensland and hide it from robbo 😉
  
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  May 14, 2021 9:32am
- septic skeptic
  
  Was out there yesterday trying to decide between WaveRunner and Sea-Doo
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:55am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Seadoo skeptic, they are fab
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:22pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Jetskis are not my thing. Why? I can be out the back of Waiheke, or 3K past the Noises all on my own, nice and peaceful with a hook over the side.
    Then you hear it woom woom woom. The fucking wanker does a circle around me and fucks off. No other boats within 3K – except one wank on a jetski.
    There is a lot of water out there, fuck off and go use it!
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:43pm
Jade Warrior

Earlier this morning I was having breakfast at a local cafe and on the TV screen something called “giggle.co.nz” was being shown.

I’ve heard of “giggle” before (I’m told it’s almost unavoidable in most dentist’s waiting rooms) but I couldn’t believe how inane it all was – stupid, third rate jokes and puns, which I suspect have all been vetted by a committee of “experts” to make sure none of them could possibly offend, punctuated by equally annoying ads.

I tried as hard as I could to ignore it, but like that irritating voice coming from the table opposite which you try to tune out but simply can’t, I kept stealing glances at it as I ate. Needless to say I won’t be going back to that cafe.

Who is responsible for the abomination that is “giggle.co.nz”? If anyone who works there is reading this, you should know that giggling was the last thing on my mind after 30 minutes of your bland TV channel. What is the western world coming to?
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May 14, 2021 9:23am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Local Labtest place has it. Mind numbing rubbish
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:21am
- MCos
  
  I don’t know where you are, but I go to any number of Auckland cafes on a daily basis and none of them have a TV going.
  The medical clinic has a TV. Maybe it’s to distract the kids who might otherwise be running round busting stuff.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:01pm
Swifty

Smarmy, glib, race-hustling Aussie Green MP gets taken down:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZG70NafcGdI
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May 14, 2021 9:31am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Smarmy, glib, race-baiting, lazy and racist.
  
  That was delicious but really, since this person is obviously as thick as two short planks, how the hell did they ever get elected?
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:27am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Greens are super low-information voters.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:03pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Greens vote for the name “GREEN” They don’t give a shit about the person they vote for.
      Could they be brainwashed? Never ///
      
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      May 14, 2021 4:50pm
Happychappy

I know I go on a lot about our Celebrity Prime Minister with one of the subjects I believe she uses to enhance her reputation being Tragedy, well I ask this question would she put her life in danger to protect a woman like the manager of the countdown store in Dunedin did who is in critical condition at Dunedin Hospital.
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May 14, 2021 9:33am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Nope, she would get someone else to do that. Deflection, btw I have a kindy to visit in 4 hours
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:54pm
backster

R.I.P. David McPhail one of our funniest ever comedians.
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May 14, 2021 9:33am
lastmanstanding

Just read yesterdays post about the Teen Vogue thing. As a child of the 50s and 60s I think we were very lucky there was no social media. What we did them stayed then rather than being dragged up later in our lives.
For all the socalled advantages of the electronic age there were many back then.
One I tell the youngster is that before emails we had secretaries who took short hand and typed a draft memo/letter. By God that saved me some issues. My secretaries would raise their eyebrows as I dictated but faithfully recorded and typed ny raving and ranking. They knew that later or the next day when I saw the draft it would edited and toned down.
Now of course there is no filter so pressing Send or worse still Send to All in error creates problems i could avoid.
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May 14, 2021 9:33am
- MCos
  
  I always composed my own emails. In Bangkok that was why I was there, because the Thais in the office couldn’t string a sentence together in English, as a rule.
  Most of our clients were American steel fabricators & a lot of them couldn’t string a sentence together in English either.
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:21am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Hmmm, you don’t understand Amercan? or just Trump type Americans?
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:56pm
plc

4-2……what a wonderful day!
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May 14, 2021 9:40am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Was a good game for a neutral, for sure.
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:19am
- Pharmachick
  
  :-), 3 more to go…
  
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  May 14, 2021 12:05pm
I remember when

What do you have when you are having a ‘Not having a Pay Freeze’ Pay Freeze.
A lot of explanation as to what the Government meant to say, should have said, would say if they were saying it now said.
From what the media are reporting, it sounds as if the Government would really like to pay everyone the same amount.
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May 14, 2021 9:45am
Maggie Pie

Just been having a shower and listening to Jacca taking calls on ZB.

Obviously all closely monitored…..been none of the usual nutters phoning in.
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May 14, 2021 9:55am
I remember when

Maori Wards won’t be set up:
Kapiti Coast District council has voted against the establishment of Maori wards, a decision based on advice from its iwi partners.
At a meeting on Thursday last week, the Council unanimously agreed to a resolution not to establish the wards, at the recommendation of the Atiawa ki Whakarongatai Charitable Trust, Nga Hapu o Otaki (Ngati Raukawa) and Ngati Toa Rangatira.
The Council’s iwi partners wanted to focus on strengthening their existing partnership.
“Our partners are keen to carry on discussions about a Maori ward over the next triennium,” the Mayor said.
“We are focused on strengthening our ability to engage with the Council and operate as a well functioning Treaty partner,” Te Rununga o Toa Rangatira CE.
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May 14, 2021 9:55am
- DeepBlue
  
  Sensible. If it is working well for iwi, then why rush. Sometimes they get more by being outside Council and having an effective veto/protest rather than being absorbed as say just 2 or 3 voices on a Maori Ward.
  
  I am curious about these new Wards. Does it mean the same number of Councillors or just 3 more Maori voices? Does it automatically shift the balance of the vote to the left? What happens to iwi voice if their own iwi isn’t represented on the Council? How will iwi Councillors decide… do they run back to their runanga and get a consensus decision on each issue first?
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:18am
- Paulus
  
  Don’t fret La Hoota, like Tauranga Moana, will soon fix it by sacking the Council and bringing in Dummys who will do what she and Cindy wants.
  
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  May 14, 2021 2:16pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Maori Wards won’t be set up[…]
  
  And thank goodness for that. A single-seat Māori ward is simply not needed.
  
  The Kāpiti Coast District Council is another one where the councillors are elected by STV, but, as with the Tauranga City Council (well, at least in 2019), they are elected both at-large, and from wards. This is a nonsensical FPP construct enabling candidates who are of a “governance” mindbent, i.e., who are “above” the messy business of primarily representing the peasants, to, if elected, concentrate on more cerebral matters.
  
  The KCDC has 10 councillors*. Māori comprise 14.7% of the population. Rather than establish a Māori ward, all the council need do in 2023, is resolve to elect all councillors district-wide — quota for election would be 100 / 11 = 9.09%.
  
  * Five are elected district-wide, two from the Paraparaumu Ward, and one each from the Ōtaki, Paekākāriki-Raumati, and Waikanae wards, thereby effectively diluting the electoral benefits of PR/STV.
  
  Then, in 2025, as I said yesterday (at ‘The US vote’ – 5:28PM), all that needs to happen “is for two or three Māori candidates to stand (for choice), and for Māori electors to rank them 1, 2, 3. Easy!!” Providing Māori electors participate at about the same overall participation rate, i.e., about 45%, they cannot help but elect one candidate.
  
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  May 14, 2021 6:03pm
Captain Mainwaring

Just been listening to Spindy on the HDPA show on ZB.
Doesn’t answer the questions from callers, just waffles.
What a waste of space.
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May 14, 2021 9:57am
- Frank the tank
  
  Why do you bother – you’ll get more purchase out of head butting your front door 100 times.
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:06am
- Maggie Pie
  
  It was ‘Kerry Woodham’ actually Capt’n.
  
  Thought we might have heard Chuck call in 😀
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:11am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Oh sorry. they remind me of each other.
    
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    May 14, 2021 10:18am
- adamsmith1922
  
  You might like this https://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2021/05/14/on-being-economical-with-the-truth-the-difference-between-lying-and-misleading-2/
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:33am
Tall Man

Duncan Garner has an interesting perspective.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/05/duncan-garner-jacinda-ardern-will-fail-to-bring-the-poorest-out-of-poverty.html

He has a point but fails to address the simple issue of a general lack of motivation or desire among many to actually get ahead. As Alwyn Poole stated, most underachievers want to better themselves, but I say unless they can see a clear pathway they won’t try.
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May 14, 2021 10:02am
- artemisia
  
  The clear pathway is rent plus more paid by the taxpayer and the estimated $20billion black/ grey economy.
  
  Perfick.
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:44am
- Keith White
  
  I respectfully take issue with Mr Poole. Most of the “underachievers” I have to deal with daily in the workplace (as consumers of care) want things to be better for themselves – they just don’t want to have to do the work to get there, themselves. There is a minority who are not like that but they are increasingly a minority.
  
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  May 14, 2021 12:28pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Many don’t know how to “get there” or are unable. Add a little badly or unmanaged stress or mental illness and you will have an underachiever, dropout, beneficiary, homeless … Even high potential people fail.
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:15pm
  - Tall Man
    
    I see your point but I think by the time they get to you the ship has sailed and the harbour has silted up.
    
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    May 14, 2021 5:03pm
- tf78
  
  Tall Man, I think people need to be hungry to crave a better life, that’s where we are failing them.
  
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  May 14, 2021 5:13pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Simon Bridges…. the wrong sort of Maori for some folk:

But he believes Jackson holds a grudge against him because he’s not “his kind of Māori’’.

“I’m not a Labour Party Māori or an on-the-marae Māori.’
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/race-based-rhetoric-all-the-rage-at-parliament
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May 14, 2021 10:10am
- MCos
  
  “I’m not a Labour Party Māori”
  No suprises there.
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:25am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Maori are not homogenous. I sure Simon is right.
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:16pm
  - tf78
    
    Kev O, I used to know a wonderful old Maori Elder, she used to say to me “C…… there are Maori’s and there are Maori’s. That much I think is very true.
    
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    May 14, 2021 5:15pm
Loddenthinks

I’ve been giving this Cancel Culture lark a bit of thought, and I reckon I’m starting to get the hang of it. So much so, that I’ve discovered what the next target should be – ANTS!

Yes, that’s right – ants. Why, you ask? Well for start, where do ants live? That’s right, they are colonisers!

Not only that, what do you do when you want to get rid of someone without the confrontation? That’s right – you white ant them! So ants are not only colonisers and white supremacists, they’re also raaaacist. Cancel the lot of them. Especially the ones that try and get in my house in the spring.
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May 14, 2021 10:17am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Better get Jaspinda to form a working group on this
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:23am
  - Jade Warrior
    
    The working group might well report back that sugar should be banned. ?
    
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    May 14, 2021 1:02pm
  - Paulus
    
    Too busy, the Working Group is organising a wedding and who is going to pay for it.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:18pm
citychic

Just listened to our beloved leader on ZB with Kerrie. A masterclass in obfuscation. She avoids answering questions, instead rabbits on so you have forgotten the original question by the time she’s finished. Worst PM (and government) ever.
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May 14, 2021 10:26am
- adamsmith1922
  
  You might like this where I note her squidginess https://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2021/05/14/on-being-economical-with-the-truth-the-difference-between-lying-and-misleading-2/
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:36am
BeaB

Why do Maori put up with being patronised by Radio NZ?
We were told Māori need simple clear messages about getting vaccinated and vaccinators have to go to them rather than expecting Māori to find out where to go. Are we really that dumb and lazy?
Te Reo is a beautiful language being debased by RNZ announcers who jumble it up with English in a token and often confusing way. No other languages are crudely mixed up together like this.
Where is the respect, the dignity, the self-determination?
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May 14, 2021 10:30am
- cmm
  
  There’s a few $M set aside for the Brongos….
  
  The Maori Communication fund will make awards of up to $50k to get the message out to Maori.
  
  https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/populations/maori-health/covid-19-vaccine-and-immunisation-maori-communications-fund
  
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  May 14, 2021 10:46am
- kowtow
  
  They really do treat them like second class citizens ;
  who have to be specially provided for in so many ways and it is almost explicitly stated , cos they can’t/won’t do it for themselves.
  
  Health treatment , vaccinations, dental care , voting arrangements and representation,drivers’ licensing , law breaking, drug taking, smoking, child care, education, school lunches etc etc
  
  Shockingly patronising and actually racist.
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:25am
In Vino Veritas

I wonder how long it will take for people to wake up to the fact that significant inflation rises are going to happen? The US quarterly inflation numbers came out at 2%. And is worse if you take into account the month on month rise over the quarter, then extrapolate for remainder of year. Try +20%!
NZ’s been printing money hand over fist and not expecting inflation? It’s essentially a tax. Inflation tax. The Ardern Tax. Good luck to those that are holding cash. Or even shares, as the RBNZ will put interest rates up to combat inflation, shares will go down, and the debt the government are holding will cost more to service.
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May 14, 2021 10:35am
- Steve Todd
  
  NZ’s been printing money hand over fist and not expecting inflation? It’s essentially a tax. Inflation tax. The Ardern Tax.
  
  The alternative would have been the English / Joyce Tax. Given that 2020 was election year, unlike in Sweden, there is no way Bill English would have opted for “herd immunity”, with the consequent several thousand deaths that would have ensued.
  
  Nor would he have thrown the workers to the wolves. The wage subsidy scheme, or something closely resembling it, would still have been implemented. The same borrowing / money printing would have been done.
  
  Whichever way Winston had jumped in October 2017, New Zealand was still going to be in the financial situation it finds itself in today, and for the foreseeable future.
  
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  May 14, 2021 12:54pm
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Borrowing? Maybe. Printing money? A whole lot less likely. You’ll recall Steve, that Labour and the Greens had been promoting printing of money since the GFC. The Ardern Tax cannot be put solely down to Covid.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:12pm
    - Steve Todd
      
      Well, IVV, I guess we’ll never know.
      
      My point was, regardless of which party ended up leading the government following the 2017 election, New Zealand would still be hugely in debt today, and for the foreseeable future.
      
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      May 14, 2021 4:51pm
      - tf78
        
        Steve, at least with the Nats we would’ve been able claw some export money back by not having everything banned like these idiots have done. Labour spend, print, spend and repeat with no real export income to ever repay it.
        
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        May 14, 2021 5:28pm
      - In Vino Veritas
        
        Steve, I dont have any doubt about that at all. And concur that Ardern was on a hiding to nothing, damned it she did, damned if she didn’t. Not decisions I’d like to make!
        However, printing money was Labour and the Greens. Simple as that. Debt and inflation don’t necessarily go together, but inflation and printing money do.
        
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        May 15, 2021 4:35pm
  - chukar
    
    ST
    Don’t think so, the printing press has also been creating funds that are in the “ May be needed category “ and even a slush fund for Gvt to play with.
    And they are.
    20% of all the money presently in circulation was created this 12 months.
    Compare that to productivity flatlining or worse and then try to deny inflation,oops stagflation!
    
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    May 14, 2021 9:20pm
fernglas

https://lockdownsceptics.org/2021/05/13/27-of-adults-in-the-e-u-unlikely-to-accept-a-covid-vaccine-according-to-a-new-survey/
Has the Government, or anybody, given thought to what happens if these figures are replicated here? If you cut out the under 16s and assume that all 27% of the vaccine hesitant will refuse the jab, we will be at about 50%. Will the borders ever open?
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May 14, 2021 10:38am
- septic skeptic
  
  Should do. Just vaccinate those that want it. The rest can put up with a little flu. A variation on Darwin.
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:26am
- krazykiwi
  
  Norway is recommending that healthy under 40s do not get vaccinated as the risk of the vaccination exceeds the risk of death by Covid-19 for that group. A sane, data-informed position in my view, unlike the rampant, state-driven fear campaigns underway in so many countries.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:10pm
- cmm
  
  We were never going to make the 70% number (which is a pretty arbitrary number anyway).
  
  It was always just a way to encourage people and pretend there’s some sort of strategy behind closing borders and hoping for herd immunity.
  
  Worldwide herd immunity is even harder to achieve – beyond stupid thinking they can.
  
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  May 14, 2021 2:01pm
cmm

Broreaucracy at work:
School lunches for Kaitaia kids turns up late, cold, and – no doubt – taxpayer funded. A spoon of tinned tomato sauce & spaghetti with a few crumbs of cheese in a massive amount of packaging.

“Bell Produce Ltd, which is run by local iwi Te Rarawa, provides 1500 lunches to four schools in the Far North each day, including Kaitaia Primary and Kaitaia College”

1500 clamshell packages a day into the landfill and no doubt a healthy trip to the bank afterwards.

Parents still bitching though: “Our kids went without lunches today”. Yeah, well FEED YOUR KIDS – it isn’t my job!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/free-lunch-in-schools-provider-apologises-for-cold-meals-served-up-two-hours-late/5THDHCVF7XDZ7X6A5GND2U5BYA/
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May 14, 2021 10:41am
Loddenthinks

I see the lovely new social housing that was going to transform the lives of those poor people at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, if only they could have some warm, dry safe accommodation – right?

Wrong. Ferals be ferals – this new complex is going to be a ghetto inside a year or two, you can write it down now.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/125123373/murderaccused-granted-police-bail-hours-before-killing-for-allegedly-stealing-car
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May 14, 2021 10:47am
Jack5

On the way for NZ: haka performed by table tennis teams?

New Zealand’s Mr Multiculturism, Paul Spoonley, in Stuff, relates a decline of rugby to the soaring Asian population of Auckland – and to the decline of children-raising country families in the Far South.

There’s a price for providing diverse, multicultural dining for Auckland’s air-headed elite, and some of it is in types of sport we follow.

But many Indians have physique that could build into front-row power (and they like cricket). The build of NZ’s Chinese also changes over generations, with diet, life style, and intermarriage.

Pessimism about rugby future will always get you into the headlines in the northern corner of New Zealand after the Crusaders yet again come out on top and Auckland’s Blues fail to fire.

I bet Spoonley was one of those who thought the name “Crusaders” was just not .. not … not … well, sufficiently “Woke”.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/opinion/125061179/changing-face-of-nz-poses-big-challenges-for-the-future-of-rugby
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May 14, 2021 10:50am
- greybeard
  
  I imagine that there are many NZ European parents who don’t want their normal-sized kids smashed by large Polynesian kids in their age-grade teams.
  Look at the size of those 1st-Fifteen teams they show on TV: enormous.
  
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  May 14, 2021 12:50pm
  - Badger
    
    Yup, I think rugby is a great game (well, I used to) but I don’t want my boy playing it for the reason you give.
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:00pm
- WaynelSexton
  
  Spoonley could of just shorten his article to, New Zealanders failed to have kids and the magic dirt failed to turn the immigrants into New Zealanders.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:01pm
  - Steve Todd
    
    “[…] could’ve / could have just shortened […].”
    
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    May 14, 2021 3:04pm
Jack5

Driverless car offence!

The California Highway Patrol has arrested Param Sharma, 25, on charges of reckless driving and disobeying a police officer.

Sharma was travelling in the back seat of a Tesla with no driver, reports the New York Times.

A highway patrol officer at the Sac Francisco Bay bridge’s toll plaza spotted the Tesla “with its sole occupant in the back seat,”

While trying to pull the car over, the officer saw the passenger move into the driver’s seat.

MSN reports that after this, Sharma arrived at a Fox TV station in Oakland for an interview, again travelling in the back seat of a Tesla.

Tesla sells a feature called “full self-driving capability”.

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/a-man-arrested-for-riding-in-the-backseat-of-his-driverless-tesla-got-out-of-jail-bought-a-new-one-and-did-it-again/ar-BB1gHw0T
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May 14, 2021 11:08am
- Batman
  
  A feature which is not yet available and you are meant to sit in the front. Sitting in the back voids the insurance presumably, which would be awkward as shit if your car crashes and starts a fire!
  
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  May 14, 2021 12:20pm
Maggie Pie

Imagine what New Zealand would be like, if we woke up one day and found Golriz, Chloe, Ricardo, and Rawiri, making decisions as to how the country is run 🙁

Just saying.
,
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May 14, 2021 11:08am
- kowtow
  
  Good God , it’s already awful under the current mob .
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:18am
- Jack5
  
  Write the political circus into a modern day fairy tale, Maggie! It will sell.
  
  What characters: The taniwha in the ten gallon hat; the Mexican midget; Little Chloe who lost her umlaut; and Gorgeous Golriz, the Aryan Princess. Disney will likely buy film rights.
  
  Kids today aren’t at all scared by the old demons – giants, dragons, witches. They need new myths.
  
  As a woke New Zealand book subsidies will be available to the publisher, and to your esteemed self, a stack of State-arts and university prizes and awards.
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:31am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Probably only slightly worse than waking up to Spindy and Grunter making the same decisions.
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:31am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I’d give Chloe a good listening to, the others – not so much
  
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  May 14, 2021 11:54am
  - Tall Man
    
    Yeah but I think you may be in the wrong spectrum of the rainbow for her …….. plus, if your pseudonym is correct … you think so you’d be waaay above her 😉
    
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    May 14, 2021 1:05pm
    - Loddenthinks
      
      I didn’t mean in a dodgy kind of way. I’ve heard her speak on a couple of topics I’m interested in, and she’s several cuts above the usual blank froth gibber you get from most Greens.
      
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      May 14, 2021 4:05pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Of course you didn’t 😉
        
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        May 14, 2021 5:08pm
- Badger
  
  I am perfectly fine with that.
  
  So long as I’m in another country.
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:02pm
- Keith White
  
  Like a blind officer directing his squaddies to cross a minefield, the whole maneuver would not last long and they’d not outlast the attempt, politically.
  
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  May 14, 2021 5:15pm
Maggie Pie

And I see ‘Number One Shoes’ is still trending….

https://twitter.com/NZStuff/status/1392969044194590720

😛 😛 😛
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May 14, 2021 11:44am
I remember when

Government Freedom Camping Fund:
Because of the covid restrictions the number of Freedom Campers has been drastically reduced.
The Buller District Council is in the process of removing two recycling containers located at Springs Junction and Ngakawau.
They will be placed in storage until the Council knows whether or not future funding will be available.
The transport and management of the two containers costs approximately $18,000 a year.
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May 14, 2021 11:56am
- cmm
  
  Gobsmacking.
  
  Can’t the Freedom Campers drop their recycling off in Westport or Greymouth or Chch when they’re going through? You’re forced to go through Westport from Hector and you’re pretty much forced to travel past one of those from Springs Junction.
  
  Yeah, but only ratepayers’ money!
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:47pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Don’t blame us Freedom Campers cmm, we’re not the ones that told them to put the recycling bins there, or to take them away again. We’re perfectly capable of managing our own recycling and waste, and do so regularly like all responsible FCs do.
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:16pm
    - cmm
      
      I’m not blaming the Freedom Campers. I’m blaming the woke people in councils that decide there should be recycling stations out in the wops no matter what they cost to service.
      
      Undoubtedly they do need rubbish stations and there are a few bad eggs in the Freedom campers that make a mess, but I would be surprised if those bad eggs are going to change their behaviour just for because there’s a recycling bin in Springs Junction.
      
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      May 14, 2021 6:40pm
thirteenstars

Spiked: Why hate speech is free speech

Free speech cannot just apply to those with mainstream opinions. Free speech has to extend even to those we hate. That Holocaust denial is vile, wrong and anti-Semitic goes without saying. But it is only through letting these racists air their nonsense that we are able to demolish their bigoted ideas in public, and guard against anyone else being won over by them.

https://mailchi.mp/ccd7e67c187a/why-hate-speech-is-free-speech
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May 14, 2021 11:59am
- Tall Man
  
  Can’t disagree with that. That’s why it’s important that the lefties continue to post here as it gives us an important “window” into the levels of abject stupidity they have descended into.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:03pm
  - Badger
    
    You should try looking at these posts through outside eyes. You’d be surprised at who seems stupid.
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:07pm
    - Tall Man
      
      Thaks for making my point a tad clearer..
      
      https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QdQVgjpQUIs/hqdefault.jpg
      
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      May 14, 2021 5:07pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    That’s not really fair. Many of those you mention that post here have climbed a long way up to get to that level of abject stupidity.
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:18pm
    - Tall Man
      
      I often been accused of failing to recognise effort. I’ll consider myself castigated 😉
      
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      May 14, 2021 5:04pm
Jack5

Inflation beginning to erupt in supermarket prices and well and truly in the house market, will water down the billions of dollars worth of New Zealanders’ Kiwisaver nest eggs.

Cash is king – except when inflation takes off.

Maybe that’s why Robertson today is suggesting weeding out the number of default providers of Kiwisaver will benefit savers. The default providers are the ones you get if you don’t do a minimum of home work and choose one yourself. In this case, the default-provider list is the record of deck chairs kept by the Titanic bo’s’n.

Inflation is the worst tax, and with the Government printing money we’re in for it.

It’s not just the costs of carrying businesses through the pandemic. It’s the fifty million here, a hundred million there, twenty million there.

Ardern’s team is profligate to the point of compulsive spending disorder.
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May 14, 2021 12:01pm
- surfing
  
  The real puzzle has been the absence of inflation for the last 20 years.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:13pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Have you seen the house prices lately? We haven’t all of a sudden all started adding extra rooms etc to our houses to make them worth more. The increase is 100% inflation.
    It’s remarkable that they lie to us and say we have no inflation when the biggest cost of living has been skyrocketing.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:48pm
    - MCos
      
      As I understand house prices are factored into the inflation index.
      The thing is most people don’t often buy a house and when they do it’s financed by the sale of the previous one.
      
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      May 14, 2021 4:38pm
      - Keith White
        
        “The CPI measures what people spend on goods and services, but doesn’t include house price inflation.”
        
        = that Equab fellow.
        
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        May 14, 2021 5:17pm
  - cmm
    
    There has been, but it has been masked by improvements in efficiency.
    
    Without inflation heaps of things would cost way less than they did 10 years ago.
    
    You will have seen this in electronic products (computers etc) which are way cheaper now than they were 10 years ago, but the same still holds for many manufactured goods and other products like food etc.
    
    The only difference is that the efficiency improvements in the electronics sector have been bigger so they have been faster than inflation. In other manufacturing it has not been as fast so inflation managed to keep up.
    
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    May 14, 2021 2:51pm
Maggie Pie

Still nothing in the MSM about the thousands of mums who drive their children to school every day, and wait outside the Deli while the kids run in with the EFTPOS card to buy lunch.

Just saying.
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May 14, 2021 12:39pm
- mikenmildagain
  
  Breaching their bank’s terms of service for using an EFTPOS card. Which mothers could be so careless?
  
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  May 14, 2021 12:46pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    Pay wave is such a great thing.
    
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    May 14, 2021 3:06pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Please provide evidence that using the card in this way breaches the bank’s terms of service. You’ll need to know the bank and the card, of course, unless you’re talking through a hole in your backside as usual.
    
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    May 14, 2021 4:24pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    You covering for Stupid Boy Mike? He is just resting atm.
    
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    May 14, 2021 5:11pm
- MCos
  
  Big problem in Mangere Bridge said nobody, ever.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:22pm
surfing

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/nurses-strike-tens-of-thousands-to-walk-off-the-job-for-8-hours/E3P3XGNX6EDI6C5CZWPEDVB6YU/

Yup, nurses are furious. They are already paid such a low salary that a nurse cannot dream of owning their own home without help from a male partner.

Two nurses on my partners ward have resigned already and shifting to Australia.

Jacinda would no doubt say good riddance, because they are white privileged workers.

Not sure there are many maori nurses out there that could replace them though.
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May 14, 2021 1:10pm
- surfing
  
  Oh yeah, nurses are also pissed that they are being called racist.
  
  Calling it ‘systemic’ doesn’t fool them at all.
  
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  May 14, 2021 1:30pm
- rockape
  
  Yes I agree. But many are doing what my wife plans to do. Take unpaid leave while keeping her contract in NZ and go and work in Northern territories where she can earn 3 times her wage in NZ. Ok its hard work but she gets accommodation and food free plus her flights and a bonus. She will do one month ever 6.
  
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  May 14, 2021 3:36pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  When my wife was in hospital in the last 10 months of her life she found the Maori/P Is and Filipino nurses the best of the lot.
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:40pm
rangitoto

Conductor to be dealt with for hate speech.

“London North East Railway apologises and promises to deal with conductor who wished passengers a cheery ‘good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls’ after ‘non-binary’ LGBT rail union rep said it didn’t ‘apply to them’ ”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9574901/LNER-slammed-apologising-staff-said-good-afternoon-ladies-gentlemen-boys-girls.html
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May 14, 2021 1:24pm
- surfing
  
  Transgender somehow just took control of the world.
  
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  May 14, 2021 2:59pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  Well there was hardly time to go through the other 72 options – or is it 73?
  
  This madness is an extension of what’s been happening in London for decades. I arrived on my first OE in 1982 to find that the unions had been bitching that the poster advertising the annual Greater London Council Ball, an event that had been going for more than 100 years at that time, was discriminatory as it only showed a man and a woman doing a waltz.
  
  The cause du jour was gay rights, so they had the 1000s of posters pulped and did 1000s of new ones – showing a man and a woman dancing, a woman and a woman dancing, and two gays dancing. I thought at the time that I’d seen peak stupidity, but then Ken Livingstone came along and said “Hold my warm flat beer.”
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:32pm
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Just say” Welcome aboard everyone”.
  
  I have seen vid of v Gay airline stewards doing the boarding announcements and taking the mick out of everyone and the pax laugh like hell. Why cant these people get a SOH and why do management pander to them.
  
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  May 14, 2021 4:38pm
cmm

Someone looking out for the boaties…

It’s unfair for boaties to be subsidising roads and train sets.

Fair enough, but it is unfair for motorists to be subsidising trainsets and electric cars too.

And how about the fuel used by lawnmowers, quad bikes, chainsaws etc etc???

The only fair way to handle road user charges is for all road vehicles to switch to RUC (aka diesel miles) no matter the fuel type.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/act-party-calls-for-government-to-scrap-unfair-road-tax-applied-to-marine-fuel/UJ2OFIQPOE3CEN572JTSPWXQ7A/
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May 14, 2021 2:45pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  My partner has been part of a Westhaven lobby-group calling on this for years.
  He reckons vindictive small-minded bureaucrats use the excuse…. ‘that boat owners would abuse the exemption by filling containers with which to top up their cars and tractors etc’.
  AS IF!!
  
  Every time he pulls the Princess into Orams, it costs the best part of 2 grand!! Plus the marinas are metered by Watercare.
  Imagine what he contributes to the government coffers every year!!
  
  12 4
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  May 14, 2021 3:22pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    And to the pathetic small-dik ‘downticker’…..it’s him that pays your bene!!
    
    LOSER.
    
    12 4
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    May 14, 2021 3:54pm
    - MCos
      
      SNOWFLAKE
      
      2 3
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      May 14, 2021 6:36pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        😀
        
        0 1
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        May 14, 2021 10:52pm
artemisia

Wellington City Council housing in the news again, following on from the prediction if insolvency in 2 years if the taxpayers don’t bail the council out.

Two heavy hitters in the housing space have just resigned. The chief operating officer has only been in the role for a year.

The council’s housing development manager resigned last week.

Wondering if there are lines to be read between. Not necessarily to do with these people, they may just be fed up with a dysfunctional organisation.
13 0
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May 14, 2021 2:47pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Yup, it costs me over $300 to fill my boat. The Tax content goes down the drain
7 5
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May 14, 2021 3:00pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  $400 if you get a new one at the Boat Show!
  
  5 0
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  May 14, 2021 4:36pm
  - Tall Man
    
    Nah, fuel in Oz is heaps cheaper 🙂
    
    0 0
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    May 14, 2021 7:52pm
Pharmachick

A note to all those that think NZ Rugby’s Silverlake idea is “just grand”…

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/57106079

https://www.empireofthekop.com/2021/04/19/photo-liverpool-fans-hang-anti-esl-banners-on-anfield-gates/

LISTEN TO DAVID KIRK….
8 2
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May 14, 2021 3:44pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  What has the ESL got to do with Silver Lake? Zero connection as far as I can see, but you usually do your research so I’m happy to be shown the light.
  
  2 0
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  May 14, 2021 4:42pm
  - Pharmachick
    
    Specifically for Man U: the glazers originally bought a minority stake, I think it was about 6%. They said the $ would help float the club for transfers etc (sound familiar) and Man U were rebuilding. When Glazer family bought in, Man U had no debt. Subsequently less than 10 years later they used a leveraged buyout (aka hostile takeover) to gain control of Man U, saddling the club with 600M pounds + of debt, on highly leveraged loans (some of them north of 19%) Now, given the clubs revenues and net profit, this all may have been a moot point… everything could be copacetic… Except the Glazers have taken north of 1Billion pounds in personal profits, paid down the bards debts, raised ticket and merch prices, and Man U remains north of 500 M pounds in debt.
    
    I lived in the US for nearly 13 years. This is a standard business model for NBA and NFL team owners,,, minority share, majority hostile takeover, rape and pillage $$$
    
    NZ Rugby are fools.
    
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    May 14, 2021 5:55pm
    - Pharmachick
      
      Paid down the *boards personal debts (board all glazrs since takeover)
      
      3 0
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      May 14, 2021 5:59pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Thank you
        
        3 0
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        May 14, 2021 8:08pm
      - Pharmachick
        
        I will add, I’m LFC for life and a relative of one Stevie G, and I’m defending Man U… should tell you all you need to know.
        
        0 0
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        May 15, 2021 10:38am
    - Bluegrass
      
      Damn straight.
      
      And which, if I may be permitted to stray off-piste for a minute, is why after the Gordon Gecko who owned the Houston Oilers morphed them into the Tennessee Titans back in ’86, I started to follow the Green Bay Packers, the only community-owned major pro sports team in the US.
      
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      May 14, 2021 7:24pm
Batman

https://twitter.com/chiproytx/status/1393004758198329345?s=19

Great news, chaps who wanted Cheney out.

Chip Roy of Texas has a handy guide of which shows Elise Stefanik is not actually a MAGA conservative, just a spineless liar who will say the magic words about the election.
3 11
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May 14, 2021 4:05pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ‘We will see what happens’ DJT.
  You do realise that I will be on your case when Trump returns, right Batman?
  
  4 3
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  May 14, 2021 5:33pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING…

From what we’re hearing, it sounds like ‘EAGLE BREWING’ might be in the sh*t for something the owner said on FB (?)
My partner has just shot down to Glengarrys to stock up.
6 3
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May 14, 2021 4:37pm
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Saw that: Pubs no beer = no pissed abusers going home = no moko/wahine hurt.
  Works for me as a good outcome.
  
  3 0
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  May 14, 2021 7:21pm
Maggie Pie

And like MY partner often does…

you can bet ClarkE will be pinching himself 😛
4 1
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May 14, 2021 5:07pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Now that the lefties are on the bus:
Does not matter which side you are.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1fihSpdEx8
3 4
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May 14, 2021 5:47pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Lefties now off the bus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAgJAxkALyc
4 3
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May 14, 2021 6:09pm
Maggie Pie

My partner’s mum was just saying….. ‘There must be something very strange in the water at Dilworth School. A lot of the old teachers are suddenly dying’
5 1
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May 14, 2021 6:37pm
hullkiwi

Thankfully, this woman is retiring.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/05/new-zealand-s-adoption-three-strikes-laws-dreadful-former-judge.html
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May 14, 2021 8:55pm
Cobolt24

Menendez-Marx upset the government will “shift away from low-skilled migrants towards attracting high skilled/paid migrants”.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/green-mp-s-concern-as-ardern-signals-shift-away-from-low-skilled-low-paid-migrants/ar-BB1gIDfu?ocid=msedgntp
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May 14, 2021 9:30pm

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