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July 21, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 21 July 2021

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General Debate

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theoldbloke

The discrimination that’s ignored in NZ!!!

700,000 Kiwis are hearing impaired
20,000 use New Zealand’s Sign Language(mostly parents communicating with deaf children.)

Consider.
Gummint announcements are accompanied by an arm waving person communicating with under 20,000 while ignoring the 680,000 !!
With modern technology, any pronouncements can have text automatically generated instantaneously.
The trend to podcasts without text baffles me. At least with video I can better understand what is going on with body language and lip reading. Netflix movies usually give a choice of languages for the subtitles, not just one.. How hard can it be?

Another example from government departments (and some corporates).
Send an email, Social Welfare is a great example. Auto response, we will reply within 10 working days.

Phone and after the usually wait, even if you get the BS, “your call is important to us”, you can expect a response within minutes or hours, not days.

So us hearing impaired are discriminated against.
Cant call it racism
Cant call it sexism
Is is earism?
or a subset of ageism?
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July 21, 2021 8:03am
- peterwn
  
  Organisations seem to hate mass market customers/clients using emails. They seem to prefer them to phone up and wait their turn like the delinquent school kid having to wait outside the headmaster’s study. At least with Social Welfare you can email, unlike energy or telecommunication utilities where there may not even be a email address you can use.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:32am
- I will not surrender
  
  Subtitles would be much better, but that would be too logical.
  
  Next there will be a maori sign language, so you will see two people gesticulating and distracting from whatever the message is.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:50am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    The subtitles should be in some language that very few people speak exclusively, say Maori.
    
    “Next there will be a maori sign language” Given it is such an ugly language when spoken, probably not, to much finger pointing and gestures, if you get my point.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:10am
  - Okahu
    
    Maori sign language you say? Wouldn’t you just interpret a sign in your mind in whatever language you found worked for you? I mean if a bloke says “dog whistle” and the signer signs dog whistle would you need another bloke to translate that sign into a language specific sign for dog whistle? Really?
    
    How about, “‘surrender’ used a dog whistle to ‘talk’ to his ‘dogs’”. How would they sign that? Tricky/dangerous territory in any language!
    Still, if “maori (sic) sign language” exists, I suspect it would be understood. Experience aids comprehension.
    
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    July 21, 2021 12:04pm
    - theoldbloke
      
      You obviously missed the humour content of the previous post!!! Maori Sign language.
      Would have made a great skit for Billy T James.
      
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      July 21, 2021 6:21pm
- redflagged
  
  Having subtitles isn’t woke enough for the literal virtue signaling.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:30am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  “your call is important to us”
  
  Please hold until your call is no longer important to you.
  
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  July 21, 2021 11:06am
  - Kiwi Dave
    
    Not enough upticks for that, Mr B.
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:45pm
- Than
  
  It’s dubious whether Sign Language should be considered a separate language in itself. After all, it uses the same words and same grammar/word order as English. It’s really just a different medium. Just as we have spoken English and written English, we also have signed English.
  
  I suppose if somebody really wanted to, a “Maori sign language” could be created, inventing gestures to correspond with Maori words. It would be an absolute waste of time that served no practical purpose whatsoever… but then that’s already true of spoken and written Maori anyway.
  
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  July 21, 2021 3:14pm
- yossarian
  
  Simple, most of those hearing impaired I would hazard a guess are male, from their noisy and dangerous jobs and who gives a s*&t about men?
  
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  July 21, 2021 5:04pm
artemisia

Heritage New Zealand in the news again today. Sounds like they have been the main cause of delaying Wellington railway station mobility access for a couple of years.

Unlike Snapper terminals this time the ‘look’ is acceptable but the ramp may be too narrow. Obviously they engaged a working group to provide expert mobility advice, hence the delay.

Waiting for an expensive rebrand to Heritage Aotearoa (HA, aka HAHA),

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/125807245/heritage-new-zealand-promises-resolution-to-wheelchair-ramp-delay-by-end-of-the-week
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July 21, 2021 8:04am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  This is the trough that Marian Hobbs’ snout is currently submerged in. They should have been laughed out of town when they declared the Gordon Wilson flats a protected building.
  
  Or we could do what the Japanese do with ‘heritage’ (i.e. old) buildings – tear them down and replace with one that looks the same on the outside but is structurally sound.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:55am
  - artemisia
    
    Kintsugi – the ancient Japanese art of making repaired china desirable. Even though new china is cheap these days.
    
    Likes!
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:35am
    - Odakyu-sen
      
      The philosophy behind kintsugi runs very deeply in Japanese culture.
      
      Ref: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBUTQkaSSTY
      
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      July 21, 2021 10:16am
  - artemisia
    
    Went past the Gordon Wilson flats today. The building is a decaying wreck. Clearly needs a few hundred children to get their crayons out and the Prime Minister will find the funds somehow.
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:46pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  Wellington Railway station is already accessible via multiple places. Just not through main entrance…. Why does the front entrance need to change?
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:25pm
  - Batman
    
    The front is where the taxi stand is, along with vehicle access and mobility parking. So it is fairly stupid to make the front inaccessible to those with mobility issues.
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:20pm
Happychappy

COVID-19 Coronavirus: GP vaccines delay leaving people un protected- Doctor.
A Auckland doctor is expressing his frustration over delays to arm General practice with covid vaccines which left vulnerable people unprotected.
Doctor Nicholas Cooper a GP for 30 years cares for about 1850 patients from his practice which shares his name in Epsom.
Cooper together with his practice manager Sharron Dorst, went through weeks of mahi (work) in March as part of the proposal to recieve the Pfizer vaccine., however neither Cooper nor Dorset had heard anything from the Minister of Health- with there being only a week away from from the General Public Vaccine rollout.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-gp-vaccine-delay-leaving-vulnerable-people-unprotected-doctor/IQ4XQI7BDOPQWWMJIQV2KC35FM/
More Failure from Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister and her team of fuckwits.
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July 21, 2021 8:07am
- pdm
  
  mrspdm an I have our second jabs later today, deferred about 3 weeks due to no vaccine. For both jabs we made appointments at our GP’s but have to go elsewhere for the injection.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:40am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    I had mine on Monday. No side effects whatsoever, and my internet is working faster than ever!
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:03am
    - rangitoto
      
      Can you now hear voices when standing near a 5G tower? 😉
      
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      July 21, 2021 10:56am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        We don’t have any of those in Whanganui yet, but when we do, I look forward to hearing some new voices!
        
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        July 21, 2021 11:58am
      - Batman
        
        Tony once the 5G towers arrive it’ll activate the Bill Gates face tattoo on the point of injection ??
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:21pm
      - WaveyDavey
        
        Whanganui?
        
        You lot’ll probably burn them down because witchcraft
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:39pm
      - tavita
        
        Tony drop the “H” – or get the F out of Wanganui
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:52pm
      - doggone7
        
        Voices telling you to vote for Billy Te Kahika!
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:16pm
  - Biscuit
    
    I get my first one on Friday 30th, pdm, literally within 150 metres of where I live.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:17am
  - tedbear
    
    Why are you taking this bs jab, which btw, you’ll now be required to take top-ups annually?
    
    Have you joined the sheep brigade?
    There’s no covid in NZ and even if there was, and you caught it, there’s a 99% chance you’ll only have a sniffle and be good as gold in a day or two. Not one of the hundreds of +ve people who’ve been forced into MIQ have got really ill let alone gone into any ICU.
    
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    July 21, 2021 12:02pm
    - WaveyDavey
      
      Well apart from the ones who died of course…
      
      FFS
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:40pm
      - tedbear
        
        Oh sorry, did I miss off the 0.00052% of our population that died from/with covid?
        So thanks for reminding me because it’s important to realise that over the same period, over 50,000 New Zealanders died from non-covid events.
        
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        July 21, 2021 5:05pm
      - WaveyDavey
        
        No this is you saying that no-one had ended up in ICU
        
        So let’s see…
        
        1. You make a statement
        2. I show that it’s false
        3. You shift the goalposts
        
        The toddler approach to a discussion
        
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        July 21, 2021 5:23pm
    - Biscuit
      
      tedbear, you say there is ‘no Covid in NZ’.
      
      Until this Government says ‘Look, you Kiwis overseas, you chose to go. You stay gone’ I won’t believe that much.
      
      I also have more faith in innoculations (spelling?) than you do. For the past few years I’ve had the free anti-flu jab and I am happy to tell you that I have had a 100% no-flu (not even a sniffle) record in that time.
      
      I will overlook the ‘sheep’ jibe – other than to tell you that most sheep don’t get to see their teenage years. I’m 70 in March and have every intention of seeing that milestone in and a few more besides.
      
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      July 21, 2021 4:05pm
      - tedbear
        
        Biscuit, even if there is Covid in NZ, it’s prevalence makes it nothing to concern anyone over. Like the flu, it’ll probably be around forever.
        
        Consider the ‘sheep’ jibe however you wish.
        Heart attack, cancer, stroke, road fatality are far more likely to end your life.
        
        I’ve got several years on you and no amount or fear-mongering by this or other governments or Health ‘authorites’ will alter my view that the whole Covid19 is nothing less than a well-orchestrated scam.
        I sincerely hope you make it to 70 and beyond, but one thing is certain – death comes to us all.
        Taking any inoculation either singularly or in multiple doses, will not prevent your demise.
        
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        July 22, 2021 1:09pm
- I remember when
  
  Mahi. Nah he.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:41am
  - oldfella
    
    Yep, the writer dropped in a Maori word, with a translation. Why, unless the doctor had used that word, and it was a direct quote?
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:22am
    - Kiwi Dave
      
      Obviously, the media bribe to normalise Maori is working and, to be fair, my limited passive vocabulary is slowly expanding, but it’s delusional to think people will actually learn to speak the language this way.
      
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      July 21, 2021 2:04pm
- Inandout
  
  Our doctor is flat out with winter flu patients coughing and sputtering. I won’t speculate on how many of them have had the Golden Jab regimen at some stage beforehand because the good doctor just smiled at the question.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:20am
- KevO'Brien
  
  weeks of ~~mahi (work)~~ work in March
  English not pukeration.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:55am
  - Jack5
    
    Yep, jumbling Maori and English, NZ Pidgin style, by reporter Adam Pearse in that NZ Herald story.
    
    If the Herald wants to push Maori, why doesn’t it publish a Maori edition in parallel to the (mainly) English edition? Why doesn’t it put its dollars where its Woke halo is?
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:28am
    - Jack5
      
      While we’re talking about the Herald …
      
      Interest in NZME, the Herald’s owner, continues on the sharemarket. What gives?
      
      This morning buyers were offering 93c, which is up about 27 per cent up on what the shares traded at three weeks ago.
      
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      July 21, 2021 10:44am
      - Mr_Blobby
        
        A Government buyout in the offering????????
        
        In for a bonus for being good little wokesters?
        
        More bailout money coming?
        
        They are going to liquidate the company and return all the capital to the share holders?
        
        No sorry no idea, but I smell TAX payer cash heading their way.
        
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        July 21, 2021 11:17am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Labour can’t afford Stuff falling over before the 2023 election.
        
        Some folks are probably aware that it will be propped up by this Government.
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:56pm
    - Raphael
      
      Maybe they’re trying to replicate what Richard Adams does in Watership Down where he slowly introduces rabbit words and vocabulary until near the end of the book where he has a whole sentence in rabbit (“Silflay hraka, u embleer rah.” Literally, “eat shit, you lord of stench”).
      
      But I actually read Watership Down (many times, one of my favourites). I don’t really read the Herald.
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:32am
      - Pharmachick
        
        As a 5 year old, used to sing the soundtrack signature song… just to make the adults int he room cry. LOL. When I got older and I read it (multiply) I had to wonder why parents thought Watership Down was anything close to a kids book!
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:57pm
      - Raphael
        
        @Pharmachick, because most adults saw the rabbits on the cover and saw there was an animated film and thought, this is perfect for kids.
        
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        July 21, 2021 5:23pm
      - Master Mariner
        
        @Raphael, I guess same for Alice in wonderland too.
        Wahoo.
        
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        July 21, 2021 5:40pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      I’m not satisfied that such jumbling is lawful use of English in NZ. Even worse would be substitution of transliterated English words for the real thing.
      
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      July 21, 2021 12:20pm
    - Batman
      
      Jack you need to stop using all Latin and words from other languages.
      
      No sushi, linguine, schadenfreude, croissant, chilli, banana, homo sapien etc etc.
      
      Strictly English derived words for you please! You gotta stay true to your belief about not mixing languages due to the danger we’ll all end up speaking a mix
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:25pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        None of those words are replacing an otherwise a perfectly acceptable English word.
        
        Try again.
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:29pm
      - WaveyDavey
        
        Batman appears unable to differentiate between say hangi and hikareti – one a perfectly proper Maori noun the other an entirely unnecessary transliteration
        
        See also wheel
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:58pm
      - Batman
        
        It’s no more absurd than what Jack is proposing.
        
        Everything can be given a translation from the original.
        
        ‘Wheel’ is just English for the Greek Kuklos, meaning a circle.
        
        But I digress, I see your point but I’m being absurd to demonstrate how silly this whole “don’t mix languages” thing is.
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:06pm
      - Jack5
        
        What am I proposing, Batty (your 2.06 post)?
        
        Since the Norman conquest a thousand years ago has there been anything like the New Zealand State Media Conglomerate’s drive to change the language of a Western country’s citizens?
        
        English’s most used thousand or two core words for plain, everyday life are still largely Germanic, and English vocabulary has been enlarged by large slabs of new words from fellow Indo-European languages like Latin, French, Greek and even Hindi.
        
        What the Woke are trying to do, though, is replace everyday English words like “work” with Maori “mahi”. This is an attempt to ethnically cleanse English speech, William the Conquerer style.
        
        It won’t alter the glorious English language, the world lingua franca. At most, the media Wokies will create a tiny, remote NZ Pidgin tongue.
        
        (By State Media Conglomerate I mean State television, State radio, and the subsidised newspapers.)
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:33pm
      - WaveyDavey
        
        Nope wheel is Germanic in origin and thence to Old English
        
        Precisely nothing to do with Greek although they share a common lineage but diverged
        
        Again though you miss the point, the word wheel came about because there was no previous existing word for it hence my hangi/hikareti distinction
        
        See also kirihimete, also entirely unnecessary
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:51pm
      - Than
        
        How about just sticking with English as it is spoken by 99.9% of other English speakers around the world. Who would easily understand all the words you listed.
        
        Instead New Zealand English is increasingly turning in a pidgin mishmash, unintelligible to other English speakers.
        
        If that’s the goal, fine. I’ll just ignore the made up language spoken by a mere 5 million people on a couple of islands, and continue speaking the language used by over 300 million people worldwide.
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:29pm
      - KevO'Brien
        
        The requirement is not to add pidgin Maori to working English. Where we have an established word we do not need a Maori partial alternative. Maori has too few root words to lend us anything useful. That is why is I suspect such use may not be included in legitimate English. Maori is effectively obsolete for most people. Do we want to return to 1835?
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:59pm
      - WaveyDavey
        
        @Kev some people seem to want to
        
        They also want to set words in aspic (as long as they’re “indigenous” of course.
        
        In English pronunciation of (especially) place names has always changed and evolved. Londonium to London, Yarvik to York or Wulfereēantūn to Wolverhampton offer well-known examples
        
        But apparently under new woke, anti-colonial guidelines Tow!poh must become Torpor, Tow!ranga become Tor-rawnga and the well-know Auckland must become Tamaki Makaurau (catchy eh?)
        
        Forwards into the past comrades!
        
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        July 21, 2021 4:35pm
    - doggone7
      
      Got me! I saw “put its dollars where its Woke halo is” and thought that woke halo must be Maori for ‘mouth.’
      (Just checked mouth = waha.)
      
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      July 21, 2021 3:22pm
kowtow

From yesterday’s ODT Rural News.

“Farmer-owned co-operatives have come under fire from the farming community for telling staff they were not allowed to represent their company’s brand at last Friday’s Groundswell New Zealand protest.”

Reason:
When contacted, Mr Hewett said the company had a “high degree of sympathy” with what Groundswell was trying to do. He personally, and the company, had made an effort to build good relationships with various ministers and ministries, stretching back to before Covid-19.

“We think we are able to effect better change by dealing with them through channels we’ve earned the right to operate in.”

One wonders what sway this govt has over the people who run a farmer owned co op to make them feel that way ……or maybe its just fear of a govt that is not afraid to bully , punish and villify those it sees as class enemies.

We do know that a certain Minister has shown he can be extremely vindictive towards the rural community if they show any spine ie 2 cents Parker , and Shaw has shown his outright contempt .

Dangerous times for democracy , equality and fairness .

https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/rural-events/backlash-over-protest-advice-staff
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July 21, 2021 8:14am
- john
  
  I cannot put in words what I really think on these matters due to my role and your reasoning. The fear is real.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:50am
- Gravelroad
  
  @kowtow-
  Yep, as I posted in the weekend, I am a member of a rural based NFP voluntary organisation and we were told we were not allowed to go to the protest in that capacity – branded clothing etc.
  I was shocked and disappointed at the attitude – but the leadership too invested in the government and too scared to get offside with the policy makers.
  More worried about the politicians than their grass roots membership.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:06am
- Inandout
  
  kowtow, Farmers are our last bastion of backbone, they represent the type of NZer many of us grew up with; true No8 wire people. The chardonnay pricks wouldn’t have a clue about getting one’s hands dirty.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:26am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    1. Everybody that wants to be a farmer should be on a Government owned Collective farm, with the other social undesirables, like National and ACT supporters.
    
    2. The PM does not think we really need to have farms and farmers. There is plenty of food at the supermarket.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:24am
- Nickc2
  
  Dangerous times for democracy! You betcha!
  
  When was the last time you heard any of our Labour Govt ministers mention the wore Democracy?
  
  I was most surprised this morning to hear our Police minister state the reason she did not support arming police was because of the feelings of Maori and Pacific Island communities. What a fucking disgrace she is! What about the fear and feelings of the rest of us NZers?
  If the people she says she aligns with did not commit weapon-related crimes, there would be no requirement for our police to even carry weapons in their cars.
  I have no sympathy for people who elected these fuckwits.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:32am
  - lastmanstanding
    
    This is my submission on the Hate Speech Laws. In urge all KBers to make a submission.
    
    To: Ministry of Justice
    
    This is a submission on the Government’s so-called ‘hate speech’ laws, and proposal paper titled ‘Proposals against incitement of hatred and discrimination’.
    
    My grandfather fought in the Boer War and the First World War and my father fought in the Second World War. They did so so you and I and other citizens could be free. That included being free to speak our mind on issues to disagree and debate issues knowing we wouldnt be fined or jailed for doing so.
    
    Your Government wants to take that freedom away from me and all other free citizens. Your Hate Speech Laws are predicated on the basis that you the Government will decide what can and cannot be said. You will decide whether what I say leads me to be fined or jailed. The Prime Minister and other Ministers have been woefully unable to articulate what Hate Speech looks like other than to say you know it when you see it.
    
    Well I see it. I see it in the Law that has been drafted. That for me is true Hate Speech. It is the act of a totalitarian Government living in Orwells 1984 and Animal Farm. It is a Government that looks back to Europe in the 1930s and likes what its sees.
    
    It is not my Government.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:56am
    - Nickc2
      
      I’m with you. To do nothing means condoning such laws.
      
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      July 21, 2021 12:08pm
    - Mr_Blobby
      
      The current laws do the job, why the need to change.
      
      So not only can they not explain exactly what hate speech is but why we need new laws in the first place.
      
      But seriously how is any of this more important than growing the economy to the benefit of everybody.
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:45pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    So, the Police Minster prefers rampaging Maori gangs to peaceful Pakeha?
    No wonder the Police Commissioner accepts orders to shut up and do as he is told. Where is that in any legislation? Captains rules?
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:59am
    - Homas
      
      When you think about it, it’s really quite an astonishing achievement for us to be two years down the track since the biggest gun-grab in living memory, but to still have the Police Association expressing unprecedented fear for themselves and the populace over gun crime.
      
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      July 21, 2021 12:37pm
      - Mr_Blobby
        
        1. The gun confiscation was a failure, start to finish. No one is safer because of it or will it stop future terrorist type attacks, if anything it will encourage them.
        
        2. It did not target gangs and criminals, who can smuggle them in easier than they do drugs, or buy of the newly created black market.
        
        3. Contrary to popular opinion being a Police office is not the most dangerous occupation in New Zealand.
        
        4. Police officers I know have stated that if Police were generally armed they would quit the force as they would not feel safe, certainly the general public would be less safe.
        
        Personally I would arm the Police the question is how would you arm them you would also have to allow the general population to arm as well, otherwise you would have a paramilitary Police force and a power imbalance.
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:56pm
  - Bloody Dago
    
    CRT in action this morning, a minister favouring one ethnic group over another for their day to day security. Just bloody appalling, this can only have seriously bad outcomes
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:03am
    - Batman
      
      That’s not what CRT is. If you’re going to use political buzzwords at least learn what they actually mean.
      
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      July 21, 2021 3:53pm
      - alloytoo
        
        Cathode Ray Tube?
        
        bit obsolete nowadays
        
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        July 21, 2021 6:01pm
      - Bloody Dago
        
        So she’s favouring one ethnic group over another for their security? Brown man good all others bad Go consult an academic….oh sorry they are the ones who changed the focus of Marxism from economic to ethnic/colour and create this monster being promoted in our schools right now
        
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        July 21, 2021 6:08pm
  - Bob
    
    the word DEMOCRACY is not in the Labour party lexicon.
    
    17 1
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    July 21, 2021 11:46am
    - Master Mariner
      
      Interesting enough Bob, Its not in the American constitution either?
      Alarm bells should ring who promotes it more than others.
      I just assumed “I knew” instead of trying to Indoctrinate me?
      
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      July 21, 2021 3:49pm
- tf78
  
  Kowtow – just what pray tell do the government think they will have to trade if we don’t have our farmers/growers produce. This government is full of nincompoops and they need to be removed ASAP.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:29am
  - kowtow
    
    Worse than that.
    
    In today’s ODT letters there are 4 letters on the subject ,all attacking the protest .
    
    Just pray tell who does the anti farmer /primary producer lobby think is going to feed , clothe and shelter them when those industries have been destroyed ?
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:58am
    - hullkiwi
      
      Simple knowhow. My clothing comes from Asia, my cars from Asia, my food from anywhere but NZ, the coal for our electricity from Indonesia etc.
      
      But what do we sell, our farms, our companies and IP to Asia….so one day we will have nothing left to sell, but buying from everywhere else…..so, we will be slaves in our country….
      
      What could foreign investors possibly want buying up our farms?
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:12pm
- Sir Cullen's Sidekick
  
  You know why I call them traitors now.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:17pm
- Surely Knott
  
  I actually agree that you shouldn’t use your company brand while protesting. And that applies to people pushing other political events at work eg. critical race theory classes at work , or taking the knee using your sports brand to push your political beliefs and then imposing them through peer pressure on your workmates. And if you do legally protest as an individual on your own time, then that should have no impact on your work or workplace or ability to do business. They are your own personal political beliefs. Fully support the groundswell movement fyi.
  
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  July 21, 2021 1:38pm
- doggone7
  
  And if the ODT had it’s people representing their company’s brand supporting Labour do you think there’d be any comment about “biased media” and the example trotted out eternally as as a reason for mistrust?
  
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  July 21, 2021 3:26pm
Simon

Things are so bad that UK Labo expelling all the Corbyn far left nutters (the anti-Semitic are expelled.) just aligns Labo closer to the Tories.

In NZ the far left anti-Semitic are the greens. So NZ Labo doesnt have that toxic culture within them to the same extent as UK Labo. But it means that National & Labo are closer aligned than is preferable.
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July 21, 2021 8:19am
cmm

The billionaire space dick-measuring contest has been a bit of fun to watch.

So which dick really got to space first?

Branson’s flight a few days back got to an altitude of 86 or so km, Bezos got to 106km. Neither went orbital – just up then down.

The boundary of space is generally considered to be 100km (which Branson didn’t reach, but Bezos did). However, in USA, this got nudged down to around 80km (I supposed 50 miles) largely for political purposes during the 1960s space race to allow some of their flights to count.

Of course there is no firm line there, so it is arbitrary.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/jeff-bezos-blasts-into-space-on-own-rocket-best-day-ever/LUGXZJ3LJOT5425KIXSSBJLN7Q/
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July 21, 2021 8:20am
- Simon
  
  Yep Elon Musk with those space gubermint subsides. But but its a market.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:25am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    While the subsidy stuff is a fair critique of Musk when it comes to EV’s, the space stuff is not.
    
    The ISS may be a government project but it needs to be supplied and the crews rotated, and Musk has done a better job than his private sector competitors in getting those contracts. And a better job than NASA too, given its stupid SLS project.
    
    WRT the private sector, Musk has driven launch costs low enough that the Chinese are trying to copy some of his techniques – whereas a decade ago the Western launch industry was wondering how they could compete with the Chinese. So kudos where it’s due the man.
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:50am
  - Paulus
    
    Pays some wages !
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:22pm
- Cinematic
  
  As a product Branson’s looks far better. I think it’s only $250,000 to get to space but due to covid I’ve not bought me and the fam tickets yet.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:26am
- kowtow
  
  ‘There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.’
  
  Oscar Wilde
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:47am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    Oscar Wilde never had to listen to Richard Branson talking about himself.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:32am
    - Batman
      
      Or faking a bike ride and the referencing the fake ride at the event. Truly cringeworthy stuff from Branson.
      
      Then again he is a music exec ?
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:31pm
  - alloytoo
    
    One wonders if Wilde ever met a vegan?
    
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    July 21, 2021 6:04pm
- John Pakes
  
  Yep, just big boys and their tools, sorry, toys.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:00am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  The definition and delimitation of Outer Space
  https://www.unoosa.org/documents/pdf/copuos/lsc/2017/tech-05.pdf
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:09am
- tf78
  
  I heard Branson wanting private jets to be exempt from fuel tax. Typical, the very ones that can afford jets, don’t want to pay the tax. Bunch of tossers the lot of them.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:33am
- Tom Hunter
  
  Yeah, covered that aspect in a post a few days ago, To rouse the spirit of the Earth, and move the rolling stars, because although he and Branson are well behind Musk, it seems that Bezos has a very different concept of future space exploration than Musk:
  
  The second approach is much more recent, basically dating from the 1970’s and whose most well known advocate was American physicist Gerard K. O’Neill.
  
  He and others made the logical argument that, having spent so much energy escaping the Earth’s gravity well, it was insane to jump down another one. Instead, once in space why not try living there by using the resources of asteroids and the Sun’s energy to build huge, slowly spinning, cylindrical, “spacecraft” some 32km long and 8km wide.
  
  Someone found a long-lost mid-70’s interview with O’Neill discussing the idea. None other than Issac Asimov sits in on it as well.
  
  Then there’s the real 21st century space race, complete with a Mars helicopter.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:38am
- Loddenthinks
  
  How hard would it be to put a sign up? Honestly!
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:40am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Don’t forget the speed limit.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:30am
- MCos
  
  As someone said on Twitter this morning in the good old days billionaire’s vanity projects were building 1000 libraries.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:47am
  - oldfella
    
    Libraries? Waste of money. How many Kiwi kids can even read? /s
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:29am
- Mr_Blobby
  
  My idea of going to space is to get up there and circle the planet a couple of times, before you come back down.
  
  Maybe visit the ISS.
  
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  July 21, 2021 11:32am
Benedict Yu

I was looking at some videos of the Germany floods. They are certainly destructive and many people have died.

Immediately we have had politicians demanding that all countries do more to combat climate change. Without presenting any analysis of costs, benefits etc.

So I did some searching like any journalist could do. Turns out that Germany has experienced serious flooding regularly. And the IPCC itself concluded that there was no evidence that the frequency and severity of flooding was climate related. I have included a link and relevant extract from the report below.

So Germany could reduce emissions further at enormous cost. And achieve.. Well nothing really. Or it could invest in flood mitigation measures. Otherwise it appears such flooding will keep happening.

As I have commented before, I agree that climate change is a problem that should be addressed by reducing emissions most efficiently using markets and new technologies that will emerge over time. But what we have seen in Germany is people hysterically demanding that the world should wipe probably trillions of dollars off future GDP to marginally reduce global temperature. Because of a flood in Germany. Which is insane.

https://www.climatechangepost.com/germany/river-floods/

“Hydrological data series do not indicate clear upward trends in the frequency and magnitude of floods in Europe. The direct anthropogenic causes include land use change, river channel modifications and increased activities in areas vulnerable to floods. Thousands of square kilometres of impermeable surfaces have been created, coastal urbanization has been extensive. The overall impact of these changes probably exceeds the impact of trends in meteorological variables in today’s Europe.”
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July 21, 2021 8:21am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  Benedict
  
  Article in Stuff with the ex Harbour Master in Westport about the flooding,
  
  He told them to keep dredging and after Holcim pulled out they didnt so the harbour silted up and now they are flooded out!!!
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:30am
- Homas
  
  Is it just me, or weren’t we being berated until very recently, by the bearers of the scientific consensus, regarding the folly of conflating “climate” and “weather”?
  
  That one seems to have gone by the wayside.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:33am
- EssenX
  
  I like your thinking, Benedict.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:43am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Thank you. I have decided to restrict my comments to those that are evidence based. I recently attracted criticism for posting comments based on anecdotes. Which on reflection I think was justified.
    
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    July 21, 2021 8:59am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I recently attracted criticism for posting comments based on anecdotes. Which on reflection I think was justified.
      
      I think anecdotes are perfectly acceptable.
      
      One of the reasons I like to read KB is that I am exposed to folks with a wide range of lived experiences. Over time, it is pretty clear as to who is bull-shitting on this blog.
      
      I try to attach links to most of my posts that don’t concern me personally…but for my own anecdotes/observations, folks can choose to believe them or not.
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:19am
      - DeepBlue
        
        I agree with your approach… it just needs to be clear whether the post is opinion/anecdote or research based. Both types create broader thought.
        
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        July 21, 2021 9:42am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        I’m in the same boat.
        
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        July 21, 2021 10:03am
      - Doc Holliday
        
        Yes, it’s clear the klutz on kiwifog believe Clausius and Clapeyron were bigly bullshitters.
        
        Thank goodness the equation that shows a 1K increase in temperature means a 7% increase in water vapour is wrong – just think how much the floods in Germany would have been!
        
        Bad enough that houses that have been standing since the 17th century were washed down the river – good science would have made it worse!
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:39pm
      - doggone7
        
        Of course anecdotes are perfectly acceptable.
        
        They work to0. I mean you can say, “People are saying …” or “I’ve heard it said…” or “People tell me…” then what you follow it with can’t be dismissed as you being stupid or false.
        
        For example, you say, “People are saying that hydroxychloroquine works … well, that’s what I’m told,” and millions you will believe it. And when someone claims you said it works you can say you didn’t.
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:34pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        There’s many more houses, roads and acres of concrete along the Ahr valleys than there was in the 17th Century… meaning less floodplain available to soak up or spread the heavy rainfall that characterises this region.
        
        The Germans had days of warning that heavy rain was on its way.
        
        https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-57867773
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:54pm
      - Doc Holliday
        
        How would a prediction or warning make a difference to the unprecedented rainfall?
        
        You really can’t see a pattern of climate change in across Earth?
        
        I guess that former nuclear chemist Angela Merkel is just a silly old trout. Nah, you’re just a silly old climate denier. (Look in the Oxford dictionary online.)
        
        As for that old fool in Westport saying he’s been ignored despite asking for the river to be dredged … FFS it’s not the river/sea bed that’s the problem, it’s the water level – nowhere for the water to go.
        
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        July 21, 2021 6:59pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @Doc Holliday: that word “unprecedented” – it does not mean what you think it means.
        
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        July 21, 2021 8:45pm
    - Paulus Gnome
      
      Anecdotes are fine, twats not so much.
      
      If one does not like a post, move on, easy peasy.
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:22am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      The criticism was unfair and, quite frankly, batty. Keep posting whatever takes your fancy Benedict, I greatly enjoy your posts which are invariably well-thought-out and well-constructed.
      
      I get that people will disagree, as is their right, but I hope it doesn’t change your approach.
      
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      July 21, 2021 10:44am
      - oldfella
        
        Lodden, ‘batty’? Do you mean as in ‘nutty’, or as in ‘unhinged moderator’? And is there a difference? 🙂
        
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        July 21, 2021 11:34am
- kowtow
  
  ‘They are certainly destructive and many people have died.’
  
  That’s what happens when you build in a water course .
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:48am
  - Paulus Gnome
    
    Yes, the RMA V1 clearly states; ‘don’t build your house on sand’
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:23am
- krazykiwi
  
  As I have commented before, I agree that climate change is a problem
  
  At one time I believed the same thing. That changed in 2009 after I started reviewing off-narrative research. The alarmist position – an impending human apocalypse without decarbonising – simply isn’t supported by empirical evidence. The more you look objectively at this topic, the less it appears to be about climate or wellbeing, and the more obvious it becomes that the agenda is global wealth redistribution.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:58am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Yes there is certainly that wealth distribution agenda.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:00am
    - krazykiwi
      
      Could you elaborate on the ‘climate change problem’ as you see it? Genuine question. I ask because I can find no problem for which centrally planned solutions are needed
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:24am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        Sorry I don’t have time to recap on the evidence for anthropogenic climate change. You will be aware of the vast literature available. You are either persuaded or not.
        
        If you follow my comments you will see that I have been scathing of poor policies to address climate change.
        
        Disclosure. I have provided advice to a number of clients over the last 20 years in relation to compliance with emissions regulations in several countries.
        
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        July 21, 2021 9:40am
      - Okahu
        
        Krazy. You are asking a lot of Benedict there! He is certainly generous with his contributions so it will be interesting to see what response he might make to your genuine question.
        
        What occurred to me reading your comment was that you state you find no (climate change) problem for which centrally planned solutions are needed.
        
        Does that suggest you think that climate change is a problem but any solutions will be up to individuals and communities say, or that there is no climate change and thus no issue that needs to be addressed?
        
        Or perhaps you mean that there is climate change but nothing can or should be done by anybody whether individually or collectively? Genuine question.
        
        Any reply Benedict might make to your polite enquiry would not want to veer into the nature of a response to climate change without first establishing you are convinced there is a matter of any significance to be responded to. And your wording leaves that unclear.
        
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        July 21, 2021 10:18am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Okahu, you are correct. I was not clear in the comment. In my now 12 year interest in this topic (and man, was it a challenge learning to read large, complex scientific papers!) I have yet to find two things I have been looking for:
        1) Conclusive evidence of a process that can isolate anthropogenic emissions from natural emissions
        2) Conclusive evidence that any calamitous fate awaits mankind in the event that we continue with energy usage as we do today
        
        By comparison, I have found
        – An abundance of alarmist narrative supporting, cheery-picked data masquerading as evidence
        – A succession of models showing alarming outcomes that fail to materialise
        – Powerful interest groups clamouring for money that must be stumped up by general taxpayers
        
        In terms of what can be done, my reading is there is no problem to solve that requires modification of our global energy or agricultural management, but there are plenty of laudable local environmental initiatives that could be prioritised. By way of example, having our streets filled with EVs won’t fix flooding in Bangladesh. What is need there is a local solution to stop deforestation in the headwaters of the Brahmaputra and Ganges.
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:13pm
    - Master Mariner
      
      Not only that BY, the Oil Majors are Super excited by this “Green Revolution”.
      The question is why?
      Great comments by the way.
      
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      July 21, 2021 3:55pm
  - RockyJ
    
    Agree krazi. The only problem we have with climate change is the loonies who still believe it is a crisis and humans are the cause.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:20am
  - Nickc2
    
    WELCOME! You have finally arrived.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:45am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    As affirmed by the World Economic Forum (NWO) Leader.
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:04am
- John Pakes
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  What a strange way of looking at it Benedict. What you seem to ne suggesting is that a politician in Germany should wait for a week before saying anything, just like you have, ie wait for a cost/benefit analysis before saying anything to his/her constituents. I can hear the roar from you if Jacinda, when approached for comment about something, replied “hang on while I get an analysis!”
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:06am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    What a strange comment. If only Jacinda said more often “hang on while I get an analysis”.. and that analysis was from competent people and she and her Ministers formulated good policies.
    
    If you think the German Minister did the right thing by shouting about climate change then we will disagree. ?
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:44am
    - Okahu
      
      Interestingly perhaps, the German Greens have gone out of their way not to link the flooding to climate change. They are rightly wary of mistaking climate for weather. But what weather. One of the towns badly impacted had a previous 24 hr rainfall record of 95 mm. They received 154 this time.
      
      The call to see this in terms of climate change has largely come from more centrist and conservative politicians. Perhaps not surprisingly as Angela Merkel’s own party trailed the Greens in a recent poll.
      
      Apparently the simple German public are just bewildered rubes, ripe for the climate hoax/scam eh? Whodathunk?
      
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      July 21, 2021 10:55am
    - John Pakes
      
      Not strange at all As the floods swept through Germany, should her politicians and leaders have said to the public, hang on while we get a proper cost/benefit analysis?
      Of course not, they need to respond, they did not have the luxury of time as you do.
      And I do agree with the German Minister, she was not shouting, she was stating facts. So we will forever disagree.
      
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      July 21, 2021 4:34pm
  - Maxx
    
    Jacinda doesn’t wait for an analysis of the situation. She obfuscates until she has a PR tested position.
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:02am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  More houses flooded!!! More deaths!!!
  – Deforestation [check]
  – Paving and other soil cover to create barriers that rainwater can’t soak into (but runs straight off) [check]
  – Massive house building to enjoy the views near coasts and rivers [check]
  – Aging population with more vulnerable and infirm living alone than ever before [check]
  
  Even if there was no significant climate change, flooding damage and deaths would soar due to these changes in urbanization and demographics.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:33am
  - kowtow
    
    In some of the photos it is clear that the flood followed some underground/under road stormwater pipes ( they’re huge)
    
    Wonders if that was an old watercourse that’s been built up , over and around , got blocked ansd water had to escape over ground thereby creating scouring /destruction that looks so good in Media driven agenda “news” items …..
    
    Increased populations have to live somewhere and big cities and towns were once just villages or a few houses sited at fords, bridges , communications networks ( back in the day by river , not rail and road) and man has intruded too far into what was once places only the poorest or stupidest would build on .
    
    Got nothing to do with utes or airplanes , just common sense .
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:36am
- Tomtoddy
  
  Well researched BY. It is so lazy and immoral to go through and put together a few bad weather events and call it “climate change”. The drought and fires in the western states in the US are being touted as “evidence” without any reference to historical data, causes like lack of control of brush and fire inducing materials, etc.
  
  The rush to be the loudest, the most bizarre, the most extreme, to please the elite and the doomists and to get paid handsomely by the taxpayers beats truth, genuine science and reality.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:37am
  - rangitoto
    
    The spread of introduced Australian Eucalyptus species in the Western US is a probable factor worsening fire risk.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:07am
- Nigel Kearney
  
  Germany can either invest in measures to reduce damage from flooding in the future or they can try to get the entire world to reduce fossil fuel use. The former is more practical and achievable. The same applies to NZ. We should just focus on adapting to life on a warmer planet.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:37am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    First it has to be proved it is warming and that we can affect that.
    There are actually scientists out there who believe from the solar observations we are probably in for an extended cold season like they had when Bruegel painted his landscapes.
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:08am
  - Sacha
    
    They could try building on higher ground. It has always seemed stupid to me that people build on flood plains, or the edges of rivers, or 2 metres above the high tide line.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:14am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Gates and others build by the seaside.
      
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      July 21, 2021 12:22pm
- Bloody Dago
  
  Historically, the Germans have recorded all the floods on the townhall wall at Passau in Bavaria. Is this current flood of any significance?
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:12am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Major flooding events in the Ahr catchment have been documented since 1348
    
    https://www.kreis-ahrweiler.de/kvar/VT/hjb1983/hjb1983.25.htm
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:32pm
- tf78
  
  I think Germany have now given up on their Green Energy dream and getting rid of windmills and solar panels. Oh, but what to do with their spent carcasses.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:36am
  - oldfella
    
    tf78: For those who missed it first time around, this left-wing documentary (Michael Moore) is actually a damning indictment of wind and solar energy, a road NZ is going down with this current Labour Govt.
    The documentary got Moore into a lot of grief with his lefty supporters and says things most of the MSM prefer to ignore.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk11vI-7czE&ab_channel=MichaelMoore
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:42am
- Doc Holliday
  
  https://www.climatechangepost.com/germany/river-floods/
  
  From your link:
  Germany: Vulnerabilities – Future projections
  Among the potential negative impacts of climate change, the increased risk of flooding and the decrease in water supply during summer are of primary importance. These impacts are the result of an observed shift of precipitation from summer to winter, as well as higher evaporation owing to increased temperature. This shift is expected to become more pronounced in the future. Additionally, the probability of extreme rainfall events is increasing particularly in winter and the duration of snow cover is projected to decrease.
  
  And to show their gratitude for your blatant disinformation 60 monkeys upticked you.
  
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  July 21, 2021 2:32pm
  - alloytoo
    
    Alternatively they could have simply released water from dams prior to the event.
    
    https://notrickszone.com/2021/07/20/welt-commentary-germany-flood-catastrophe-made-possible-by-inconceivable-ignorance-unbelievable-scandal/
    
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    July 21, 2021 6:15pm
    - Doc Holliday
      
      notrickszone?
      
      Of course, it’s not there was a month or two rain in a day.
      
      That would be admitting the obvious … adding a lot more CO2 means a lot more water in the atmosphere doing what it always does – condensing out.
      
      Delusion and denial. And invincible ignorance.
      
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      July 21, 2021 7:07pm
  - Loddenthinks
    
    So, out of a non-existent list of “potential negative impacts of climate change” you pluck two – unproven, with no references – and rank them!
    
    What a remarkable act of mental prestidigitation that must’ve been. You then offer the astonishing observation (ironic that you said “observed” as in “this one’s actually true”) that it rains more in winter, when the weather’s not so good. I nearly fell off my chair.
    
    Finally, you threaten us with impending doom from further cataclysmic events in a rather milque-toast way, using words such as expected, probability, and projected.
    
    How’d those projections work out last time?
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:11pm
- alloytoo
  
  There’s really no additional flood mitigation investment required.
  
  If they had simply released some water from their Dams once they had received the weather forecast, the flooding could have been avoided.
  
  Like the many of the forest fires of late, not climate change, incompetence.
  
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  July 21, 2021 6:11pm
  - Doc Holliday
    
    Total nonsense. Says everybody from scientists studying bushfires to firefighters.
    
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    July 21, 2021 7:02pm
Simon

Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
Next election NZ First to get back in with 10% and this time Winston First goes with National to form a gubermint. Simply Labo are that appalling.

National need to start brushing up on von Mises, Rothbard & Friedman but in 30 second sound bites.
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July 21, 2021 8:22am
- Lance
  
  Sorry, Winston and NZF shat in their own nest big time. No coming back from that deep seated betrayal.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:06am
  - Nickc2
    
    I’d much rather he was successful in a ‘come back’ than have these corrupt brain-dead bastards re-elected.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:48am
    - septic skeptic
      
      I’d rather wait until NZ is ready to elect a sensible right wing government than have Winston and Shane screw the scrum, fuck up the country again and then have the media proclaim that capitalism has failed.
      
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      July 21, 2021 2:30pm
      - Nickc2
        
        I don’t see him joining with National and/or ACT. I see him sitting on the crossbenches and not agreeing to give a Labour/Greens Govt guarantee of supply.
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:36pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Why would anyone want that cancer back in parliament? Also, what ever happened to those serious fraud investigations into NZ First?
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:51am
  - Master Mariner
    
    “Also, what ever happened to those serious fraud investigations into NZ First?”
    Just wait a tad UN , Were in the process of making it all Legal.
    Hang in there Bro.
    
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    July 21, 2021 4:03pm
- Prince
  
  Peters will never, ever go with National.
  The Utu runs deep, and he would never admit a mistake.
  Won’t get fooled again.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:53am
  - Bob
    
    Hopefully 53% of the electors won’t ever get fooled again. The countries future, and that of our grandchildren, depends on such an enlightenment at the Polling Booth
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:44am
    - chukar
      
      Bob,
      Won’t be any measurable change until MMP is thrown out,
      The same people in different roles ,paid by the taxpayers whichever party is in power!
      
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      July 21, 2021 2:11pm
  - yossarian
    
    Well all those farmers that voted Jacinda to keep the Greens out need somewhere to go?
    
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    July 21, 2021 5:18pm
Benedict Yu

This seems a bit nuts.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/125808597/unenviable-task-experts-voice-concern-over-ethics-of-caring-for-stranded-baby-orca

Surely it would be better to humanely euthanise the orca.
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July 21, 2021 8:29am
- cmm
  
  They should have done it days ago.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:34am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Giving the animal a name and looking after it will make the attempt to euthanise it very difficult.
    When they do that, as i think they must, then no doubt the carcass will receive the turtle treatment, i.e a full noise burial with koha flying around and the great and good turning up to look serious for the cameras.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:00am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      I thought a dead orca would be dumped at sea and be consumed by sharks to align with what would happen in nature.
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:10am
      - Paulus Gnome
        
        Unlike a leatherback turtle whose natural habitat is on a hill top, apparently . . .
        
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        July 21, 2021 9:25am
    - oldfella
      
      Alex, Cindy will probably send one of her daughter’s toys to be buried with it.
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:47am
      - alex Masterley
        
        That would not surprise me. At all.
        
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        July 21, 2021 4:06pm
- I remember when
  
  Follow these rules when sharing the ocean with orca.
  * Do not swim within 100 metres of a killer whale/orca.
  * Your vessel should not be within 50 metresof a killer whale.
  * There should be no more than three vessels within 300 metres of any marine animal.
  Additional vessels may watch from 300 metres.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:59am
  - Local Miller
    
    LOL, following these rules can be quite difficult. Some months ago I was sailing in the Gulf, towing my RIB when a pod of Orca came up behind me and one of them stated playing “head the ball” with my RIB. This went on for a good 5 -10 minutes. There was no way I could keep 50m from them given I do about 8 knots in a decent breeze.
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:01am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    How does that align with Ngauranga in Wellington where I have watched orca frolicing from the shore, train travellers too?
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:14am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  I am sure there are a team of chest feeders ready to jump to the task.
  I said days ago, maybe the little orca’s mother had decided that her baby couldn’t survive, and leaving it in shallow water was the best for all parties.
  Then the humans decided they know better.
  Get ready for a very large funeral, I just hope a covid outbreak doesn’t limit it.
  Maybe we can have new movement, “Nature change”.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:01am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    It would be nice to hear from a zoologist. But I am just guessing here that baby orcas being deliberately or accidently being left behind is not a rare occurrence. And interfering with such processes is not a good idea.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:13am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      We are starting to hear from another Marine biologist – Professor Karen Stockin – who is not part of Dr Ingrid Visser Orca rescue group.
      
      Stockin told the Herald she was beginning to have concerns for Toa’s welfare given he was such a young animal who had been dependent, or would be normally, on its mother and its pod to learn “critical, vital life skills”.
      
      Given he was so young, there were only two options left for him – euthanasia or putting him into a purpose-built facility of which there was none in New Zealand.
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/baby-orca-toa-euthanasia-discussion-needs-to-begin-expert-says/SSJU5JIA44M6W5WRZ2NQVGJTEQ/
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:26am
      - KevO'Brien
        
        Surely some creature at the zoo could use it for tucker?
        
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        July 21, 2021 10:16am
      - Master Mariner
        
        its a very sad story and I wonder what efforts were made to swim it out too the Pod before they all departed instead of all “Do Gooders” jumping to the rescue.
        Im not a marine biologist but the sag in the dorsal fin tells me volumes watching on telly and is looking highly likely it will die.
        I have a great respect for the natural world and it is still rather sad to see played out on TV,
        
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        July 21, 2021 10:28am
- Nickc2
  
  Exactly! It knows where it can be fed without having to hunt and fend for itself. If let go under any circumstances, it will keep returning.
  For its own good, euthanise it.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:55am
- redflagged
  
  Neve and Clarke will be visiting it shortly no doubt. Can’t send The PM there, might remind her of the Fish and Chip shop smells’ of the late 90’s.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:42am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I don’t understand why the humans don’t get out of the bloody way and release the orca into the sea. What vanity, what arrogance! to think that such intelligent and long-lived species haven’t found ways to communicate, under water, over long distances. The pod will return eventually and the mother will call for the calf.
  
  If that doesn’t happen, the orca calf (not baby, not Toa) will either make it – yay! Unlikely, but yay if it does. Or it doesn’t, and the cycle of life continues. Things eat things. Even cute baby orca with their own insta accounts eat things.
  
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  July 21, 2021 11:19pm
Cassandra

The fires in North America are also attributed to global warming. That decades of poor forest management is the main driver is ignored. Destroying the energy industry in developed countries will have no effect in the lifetimes of most of us on flooding in Germany or fires in California but it will reduce our standard of living. If there’s a problem then we need to come up with a better solution than giving rebates to the already wealthy buyers of electric cars.
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July 21, 2021 8:30am
- Local Miller
  
  The fact that the “worst fires in living memory” are one tenth of what they were pre the industrial revolution is totally ignored.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:46am
  - krazykiwi
    
    ‘Living memory’ for most alarmist lefties only stretches back to their most recent state-funded bank deposit
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:27am
    - Bob
      
      That far back!!
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:49am
- All_on_Red
  
  Here’s a Link to some data from the US Dept of Agriculture Forest Service.
  Figure 16-1 shows acreage burnt since 1916
  Acreage burnt decreased significantly since the highs in the 1930’s.
  Of course, its creeping back up due to poor Forest management and due to poor Transmission Lines at the Power companies which often fail, spark and ignite fires.
  https://web.archive.org/web/20140913135647/http://www.fs.fed.us/research/sustain/criteria-indicators/indicators/indicator-316.php
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:10am
Tony Stuart

Since when has a portfolio such as Police been only for certain sectors of our society? Twice this morning, with Mike Yardley on Newstalk ZB, Minister Poto Williams talked about the “people I represent”, then went on to say they were Maori and Pasifika people. Her rationale was that Maori and Pasifika were uncomfortable with Armed Response Units in their neighbourhoods, therefore ARU’s were not an option for her in dealing with gun violence.

I’m sorry Ms Williams, but as a Minister of the Crown, you represent every New Zealander. To claim to only represent two ethnicities which have a statistically higher incidence of interactions with Police is an affront to, I suspect, most New Zealanders. Of course, this is what happens when a government embarks on the slippery slope that is giving some ethnicities preferential treatment.
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July 21, 2021 8:33am
- cmm
  
  They also have a statistically higher incidence of being victims of crime too. You’d think they’d be a bit more keen on law and order.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:38am
  - Swifty
    
    An inconvenient truth.
    
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    July 21, 2021 8:40am
- Weinerpoop
  
  That was an absolute train wreck of an interview from Williams, who is clearly another incompetent government minister out of their depth in their role. The policemen that I know can’t stand either Coster or her, I fear we are going to see a lot of police walking away from the force in the next 12 months.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:39am
  - GJM
    
    Already happening. A family friend left the police recently after only being there for a few years. It wasn’t worth the anti social hours, druggie and scumbags and a system that works on catch and release, so it was a waste of time. He said they didn’t even bother pulling over or ticketing un registered cars etc, as they won’t pay and there are no consequences.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:03am
  - Greg Ettridge
    
    What a fabulous interview on Peter Williams that had to use a false name as a current serving policeman of three and half decades.
    What a fantastic open interview it was.
    Such a pity it is illegal to know who this guy is?
    A few nights in the back of his car would actually give a few Ministers a basic understanding of how life has gone down for this guy over 35 years.
    Instead we see bans on all uttering a word in public except the chosen few.
    Peter even mentioned John Banks name which he pointed out was now forbidden on his station.
    He cracked a mention because you couldn’t keep him out of riding shifts in the back of police cars.
    The most open government delivering their version of free speech.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:13am
- backster
  
  Tony only one ethnicity gets special treatment and she belongs to it.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:40am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Actually, Poto Williams is of Cook Island Maori descent…
    
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    July 21, 2021 8:45am
- pdm
  
  Inv – the lack of quality of Ministers in this government is underwhelming.
  
  Most would not get jobs as `stop/go’ operators in the real world.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:43am
- Wayne Mapp
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  She represent Christchurch East, so at the very least she represents all of her constituents irrespective of ethnicity.
  
  More importantly, as you indicate she is a Minister of the Crown, so represents everyone in respect of her portfolio.
  
  She does have a point in that policing is to a large extent dependent on the broader goodwill of the community. I doubt whether many suburbs would want the constant presence of heavily armed police.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:45am
  - Weinerpoop
    
    “I doubt whether many suburbs would want the constant presence of heavily armed police.”
    
    I disagree, I would love to see more police cars where I live, we currently have a lot of cars being broken into and stolen. Only people committing crime have to worry about the police
    
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    July 21, 2021 8:52am
    - pdm
      
      ` Only people committing crime have to worry about the police’.
      
      Not sure Poto wants to understand this – Coster probably the same.
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:04am
    - Biscuit
      
      Agreed, Weiner.
      
      A cop pal of mine lives at the far end of my street.
      
      It makes me smile a tad whenever I pop out to the front gate and espy his gleaming white police-branded car standing out like a beacon.
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:24am
    - I Hate Wordpress
      
      > Only people committing crime have to worry about the police
      
      Not true, there are some absolute muppets on the force, and police respond to more than just crime calls.
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:26am
    - Wayne Mapp
      
      Well, you might disagree, but are you representative of your community that the police should be generally armed?
      
      General arming of the police is very big step to take. It should not be a matter decided by the police, it has broader ramifications than that. I would much prefer to see more police, than the general arming of police.
      
      The government would need to be satisfied that the public in general are comfortable with this, as well as those communities where there is likely to be more police than others.
      
      For me, I would say “no” to the general arming of police. I am not sure where National currently stands on this, it would be good to know.
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:23am
      - MCos
        
        I’m pretty sure National would agree with you.
        However.
        A year ago, after the ART trial concluded they weren’t in favour of their continuation. Now they are.
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:00pm
      - I will not surrender
        
        Exactly. It is also a one way option.
        
        There are good coppers and a lot of bad ones. Arming all of them might be something we would come to regret.
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:14pm
      - doggone7
        
        A lot aren’t interested in wider ramifications. Hell, a lot of them have probably never heard the word.
        
        General arming isn’t a big step, it’s a massive step. It’s a concession of defeat.
        
        National stands for whatever gets votes. If there’s enough ruckus about arming they’ll be all for it. The only ramifications they’ll be interested in are voting booth ones.
        
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        July 21, 2021 4:42pm
    - oldfella
      
      I’d love to see more cops walking the beat. Tandem foot patrols in problem suburbs. Solitary officers in safer, residential areas.
      All carrying sidearms after receiving intensive training in how to use them safely. And all within calling distance of patrol cars if things go bad.
      Might cost a bit, but maybe Cindy could postpone that Lycra cycle bridge idea? /s
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:59am
  - alex Masterley
    
    Wayne – point taken on the representation side of things, but many would appreciate higher police visiblity to stop or contain rampant car breakins, verranda thieves, ram raids, and similar which many suburbs in Auckland are experiencing.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:03am
  - kowtow
    
    The only person who gets a ” constant presence of heavily armed police” would be the PM .
    No doubt Ministers can call on extra protection from tine to time , but other than that the police are so poorly resourced by the govt the rest of us peasants have to make do with a “maybe we’ll turn up if it’s important enough”
    
    As to ‘policing is to a large extent dependent on the broader goodwill of the community’ I suspect you’re referring to the Peel principle of policing by consent .
    
    Criminals, by definition are not part of that plan and not really part of what we would , in old fashioned English, call “the law abiding community”.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:03am
    - Paulus
      
      The old fashioned goodwill towards the Police in New Zealand is being rapidly eroded in the last few years principally by what is now called called racial profiling.
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:33pm
  - cmm
    
    Certainly policing is dependent on broader community goodwill.
    
    Don’t you think her repainting this as a racial issue is undermining that required goodwill?
    
    In the them vs us game, people need to see the cops as us and the crims as them. The way she’s playing it, the cops are them – meaning the crims are us.
    
    As I said before, the communities she is talking about are more likely to be victims of crim. What hope is there for them if the politicians are siding with the crims against policing?
    
    If she was to reframe what she says as the cops being there to support the law abiding community and help rid them of the crims, then she would be helping to build those required bridges between the cops and society.
    
    But nope, the racial cow is too politically productive and gives when she milks it. Unfortunately this is the worst possible outcome for the people she is supposedly representing.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:08am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    Wayne I listened to the interview. Her language inferred that she represented Maori in a way that was predominant compared to her other constituents. At the very least it was a poor choice of words
    
    I live in Christchurch. There is a criminal underclass that literally roams the streets stealing things and breaking into cars. I would never buy a property here without a secure garage. I would be delighted to see armed police patrolling my neighborhood. And if I took a poll of my neighbours I am totally confident that I would get a large majority in favour of armed patrols.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:18am
    - MrTips
      
      BY: have to agree. As I wandered through the park to work one morning I caught sight of several marked and unmarked cop cars off to another pad raid. The cars carried a mixture of normal cops and AOS fully kitted out, incl. AARs. As they cruised past people gave them THE THUMBS UP, people of ALL ethnicities, ages and genders.
      
      Our cops have far more public support than Williams/Coster/Ardern realises or wants to admit, and that includes arming them.
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:28pm
  - redflagged
    
    Would you call a holstered handgun heavily armed?
    
    Seems to work in fine in 176 other countries.
    
    I’d say 99% will adapt to it overnight (much like the give way when turning left rule a while back, no drama at all in the end, after all of the drama). The vocal criminals and people that hate Police (1%) never will as there’d finally be meaningful consequences for attacking Police, and that’s exactly what is needed.
    
    But not under this government and The Minister for Criminals.
    
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    July 21, 2021 12:47pm
  - gravedodger
    
    A wrinkly dehydrated turnip resplendent with a red rosette and the Labour logo, impaled on a manuuka stick would carry that seat Mr Mapp and well you know it. All your experience in the Parliament and all.
    
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    July 21, 2021 3:17pm
  - alloytoo
    
    “I doubt whether many suburbs would want the constant presence of heavily armed police.”
    
    Then why is the Howick community objecting to the closure of their police station?
    
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    July 21, 2021 6:19pm
- nathie
  
  TS – Well said (and that interview is worth listening to, as it shows a Police Minister completely out of her depth, and captured by “anti-Police” activists).
  
  I would also say, she represents Maori and Pasifika people as much as I do (being one of them), so if she can espouse a view then so can I.
  
  Which is, she insults (and does not speak for) the majority of law-abiding Maori and Pasifika people, who obey the law and like anyone else, want safe communities.
  
  Yes I know there have been issues with some Police and some Maori/Pasifika, mainly historically and occasionally to this day, however this is in the minority.
  
  Poto Williams is a disgrace and panders to minority interest groups with an anti-Police agenda. She would have to be the most unfit person to assume the role of Police Minister in my lifetime.
  
  If Labour and Ardern want an ethnic Police Minister, how about putting in someone with more conservative views (which represents the majority of the Pasifika community), rather than another left-leaning activist-sympathetic identity-politics wokester?
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:47am
- Positan
  
  If Poto Williams one thing absolutely clear this morning, it was that she is TOTALLY unfit to be holding the office of Minister of Police.
  
  Come to think of it, any one possessed of her racist and abortive perspectives should be disqualified from holding any role whatsoever in our parliament.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:48am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    “she is TOTALLY unfit to be holding the office of Minister of Police.” Absolutely agree.
    To be honest, could you imagine any small to medium sized company employing Poto for any role?
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:59am
    - Nickc2
      
      She can always get a job clearing minefields on her own.
      
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      July 21, 2021 12:22pm
    - Paulus
      
      Isn’t she an ex Public Servant having been with the Ministry of Education – something special unit !
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:36pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Apparently her comments elicited the biggest flood of incensed callers that Newstalk ZB has ever experienced.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:53am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Quite so, many of whom were serving Police officers, absolutely disgusted with a Minister sitting on her hands.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:05am
    - Colville
      
      absolutely disgusted with a Minister shitting on their heads.
      
      There. FIFY.
      
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      July 21, 2021 9:42am
      - Tony Stuart
        
        Yeah, that too 😀
        
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        July 21, 2021 12:01pm
  - Yabster
    
    well imagine if a police minister said- “the people I represent ” europeans….”-the minister would be lyched instantly- and fair enough too – just shows the mentality of Labour.
    
    Thought Yardley did a good job especially inferring Labour had caved to the left groups calling to de fund police- wonder where all that has come from.. (USA).
    
    I bet if you did a poll of diary owners (often owned by a Indians) they would be heavily in favour of more armed police patrols. Trouble is the colour of their skin is not quiet right for Labour to care.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:45am
    - yossarian
      
      A mates a cafe owner here in Hamilton, 3rd break this year last night!
      
      Barton Street (a street in town) is about 100m long, two weeks ago it had nine (9) break ins.
      
      Our business is moving out of town, but no doubt the crime will follow
      
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      July 21, 2021 5:30pm
  - Nickc2
    
    IMO she should be gone by lunchtime!
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:14am
    - Bob
      
      That late ???
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:51am
      - Nickc2
        
        It’s gone Lunchtime Bob and unfortunately, she’s still there. Spit, Spit!!
        
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        July 21, 2021 12:12pm
- I Hate Wordpress
  
  She’s MP for ChCh East, and literally the only brown people here are gang members. She basically just admitted to being a gangster.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:17am
- Swifty
  
  The only people Poto Williams represents are the small cabal of Labour Party office holders who wind up the key sticking out of her back immediately before each interview.
  
  What a disgraceful thing for her to say “the people I represent….”. Has it not occurred to her she is a Minister in government now, not a young activist clamouring to be elected to parliament?
  
  How illuminating of the mindset that must exist within the Labour caucus.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:19am
- redeye
  
  She claimed that arming the police would significantly impact on the relationships they have with ‘her’ community.
  My copper nephew told me that it’s quite common to be greeted on arrival at a domestic disputes with.
  ‘What do you want ya f**ken pig. F**k off pig”.
  And that’s from the person that called them.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:36am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Thick as two planks Poto Williams does not represent her constituency in Christchurch. This is a self acquired ethnicity which gets in the way of sense.
  MMP must go.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:20am
  - herb1
    
    Thick as two planks?
    Clearly you haven’t met her and worked with her like I have.
    If you had you’d realise you need more planks. Lots more
    
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    July 21, 2021 10:58am
    - Bob
      
      tane mahutu wouldn’t provide sufficient lumber for such, if the tree was milled.
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:53am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      I have met her, to her horror. She’s the area MP.
      
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      July 21, 2021 12:25pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Interview here:
  
  https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/poto-williams-police-minister-says-she-is-not-in-favour-of-general-arming-of-police/
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:33am
- Nukuleka
  
  She also needs to be reminded that she represents all the constituents of her Christchurch East electorate.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:41am
- herb1
  
  She’s told us she represents 25.5% of New Zealanders ( 2018 census)
  Not the police that she’s Minister of nor the 74.5% of us who aren’t Maori or Pacifica.
  Having worked with her I’m sure she didn’t think of the significance of her comment
  The fact she didn’t indicates she’s not intellectually up for the job
  
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  July 21, 2021 1:45pm
Maggie Pie

A friend of ours works in a training role at PNH in Wellington.
He was telling my partner last night…. “Everyone can tell when Andy is preparing for a meeting with Poto, the poor bastard starts sweating bullets”.
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July 21, 2021 8:36am
- Weinerpoop
  
  He is not a poor bastard, he is complicit in the police becoming softer on gangs and crime in general.
  
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  July 21, 2021 8:45am
  - Inandout
    
    Wein, he is a very poor example of a policeman. If I were a cop on the lower rungs I would be looking for a rock to hide under.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:43am
    - Paulus
      
      He was specifically selected by Ardern because he would do as he was told by teacher, a selection much surprised by the real Police.
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:39pm
kowtow

Remember it was all panic and scare mongering recently by the Lying Media over India and the Chinese sniffles …….all forgotten .

They’ve moved their focus to Indonesia .

We peasants must be kept in a state of perpetual fear and therefor beholden to the state for our “safety” .

All Praise Dear Leader.
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July 21, 2021 8:53am
- krazykiwi
  
  Ardern has turned into a nasty little piece of work. She’s become intoxicated with power, and the usual counterbalance of public scrutiny by the media doesn’t exist. It’s toxic to liberal democracy.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:15am
  - Bob
    
    She always was a nasty piece of deceptive work!
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:54am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  I am sure that they will be mentioning the populace are ignoring Joko about remaining in lockdown for EID.
  Also that they are churning out 3 million packs of Ivermectin a week.
  7 day rolling average of infections per million
  UK 677, Indonesia 179
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:24am
Happychappy

I can remember a few months ago about how the people were saying that Kris Faafoi was the best Minister at doing his job in The Labour Party Cabinet, well now I reckon he’s a useless as pigs tits on a bull and out of his depth.
Revealed: more than a 1,000 doctor and nurses are waiting in residency queue, GP’sare urging the Government to urgently re – open residency for health care workers to avoid losing them to overseas.
There are more than 1,000 registered doctors and nurses stuck in the frozen Immigration queue- and Newshub have spoken to one doctor who has given up hope and is leaving, Nina Franshama’s first New Zealand holiday was a Kiwi classic traveling in a campervan she saw how beautiful the Country was and knew it would be for her and her children.
She moved from the UK to Northland in December 2019 , loving it so much she encouraged other Foreign Doctors to move to Northland-but love has its limits.
Franshama is stuck in the frozen residency for skilled Migrants- unable to access kiwi saver, healthcare or buy a house so next week, she’s reluctantly moving back to the UK.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/07/more-than-1000-registered-doctors-and-nurses-waiting-in-new-zealand-residency-queue.html
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July 21, 2021 9:01am
- cmm
  
  Yes he’s the best. But that just means he’s better than the rest. It doesn’t mean he’s any good.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:51am
- Bob
  
  ‘Faafoi was the best Minister at doing his job in The Labour Party Cabinet’,….
  
  well the benchmark is extremely low isn’t it.
  
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  July 21, 2021 11:55am
- doggone7
  
  Faafoi should let in all the doctors on the queue. We could then come on here and read the grizzles about all the foreign doctors, not having doctors we can understand and who can understand us and how bad it is we can’t find ‘dinkum kiwi’ doctors.
  
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  July 21, 2021 4:36pm
Maggie Pie

SYDNEY TRENDING…..

Do people actually believe this SHITE?

“Don’t act like a human. Don’t talk to your friends even when wearing a mask. Don’t be friendly. This is not the time.”

https://twitter.com/noreward_norisk/status/1417426275313065985

(The replies are very very telling)
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July 21, 2021 9:01am
- cmm
  
  It’s a big government wet dream.
  
  Government grows and gets its power from destroying personal interactions (which build real society) and replacing them with anonymized interactions through the state.
  
  No more caring for people through good acts or charity – pay tax and the state gives hand outs.
  
  No more teaching your kids anything – hand them over to the education and the teachers fill them up with woke shit.
  
  We are highly visual creatures and seeing faces builds empathy and trust. Covering them up (with masks and hijabs) destroys empathy and trust.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:16am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Our faces are an integral part of our human communication. I content that being forced to cover them is a restriction of free speech.
    
    Disclaimer: I am wearing a mask on a bus today. I have a cough & cold. There is rational, medical justification for wearing one. Other times I refuse to use a bus as I’ll not be forced to pointlessly wear a mask.
    
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    July 21, 2021 9:35am
    - MCos
      
      So you only use the bus when you’re crook?
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:05am
      - cmm
        
        You wouldn’t want KK on the roads when he’s loaded up on cough syrup.
        
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        July 21, 2021 11:16am
      - krazykiwi
        
        I usually ride my bike into the city. If I have a cold (or it is hailing) I’ll usually take the car. Today the car is in for a service. Would you insist that I should have walked today? What would you have done in my position?
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:18pm
      - MCos
        
        So I was right?
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:50pm
    - alloytoo
      
      Sounds like a good reason not to use a bus 🙂
      
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      July 21, 2021 6:25pm
  - Okahu
    
    Speaking of big government wet dreams… how in hell did NSW fall for the reckless, dangerous and costly stupidity of lockdowns?
    
    Haven’t they learned anything from what krazy and his band of epidermologists guys has been saying this last 18 months? Is he not Right!
    
    Didn’t we once take comfort theirs was a right of centre government? Supported by a right of centre federal administration led by a man who talks to God no less?!
    
    How in hell did the bleeding hearts take control of the whole bloody state and send everybody into a state of shit paper hoarding madness? What’s wrong with a bunch of NRL lads inviting a few willing girls over for a team bonding session? How can that be “against the rules”?
    
    Just because people have become professors of stuff what would they know? We’ve got king Krazy and he says – Crisis? What Crisis?
    
    I’ll tell you! The crisis is that Jacinta and hippy and the bloke with the hair have exported their bleeding heart woke commie rubbish to NSW and all we got back was those gun right loving 501s so we can learn to live with the feminist jackboot on our throats. That’s what happened!
    
    It’s all a plan to have us bow down to tyranny and Cindy and the UN and agenda 2o or whatever it was because that along with Cindy having a wedding with a mob bodyguard and that bloody annoying pommy ginga singing his soppy songs and dosing us all with Pfizer’s 5G 1080 spike whatsits and pretending you can hide rapists under the 9th floor beehive carpet if you give 100 million bucks to shut up the hosk and banksie and make us all learn maori in bloody sign language while pretending shielas with balls can lift lead into gold! That’s what happened I tell ya!
    
    Well, and benghazzi! They never even asked what happened there. Who else noticed Bama boy slinking off with his solyndra millions in his back pocket to pull the strings of BLM and make us all take a knee while they steel elections from godfearing gun loving bible thumping tongue talking dye weeping tucky watching flag hugging patriots! That’s where it all began! Lefties! Filthy lying dirty commie lefties I tell ya. All ofem!
    
    Howl i tell ya! They didn’t listen last time! Howl! It gets ya going! Grab whatever you’ve got boys and if your hiding your semi don’t! pull it out for everyone to see! We will not go quietly into the night! Not with our semis in our hands. Come on lads! Who’s with me!
    
    Waddaya say krazy? Shall we unleash the kraken once and for all? Waddaya say!
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:43pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      What do I say?
      
      I say you’re on the sauce a bit early today.
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:54pm
      - Okahu
        
        If only that were true. Regrettably, that effort at parody/mockery was based almost entirely on what can be read here any given day. And unfortunately I don’t think we can blame it all on ‘the juice’. Because a hell of a lot of it gets published before 10am. Mind you…
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:42pm
    - Yabster
      
      What a fing twit-okie wokie- not even a good attempt at sarcasm- you are one of those commie lefties- are you not? Clearly your haven’t had a semi in your hand for a very long time….
      
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      July 21, 2021 2:14pm
      - Okahu
        
        I like you yabbie! You like shorty! You funny!
        
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        July 21, 2021 3:37pm
      - Yabster
        
        “You funny”- poor syntax there okie wokie……
        
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        July 22, 2021 8:11am
    - Nickc2
      
      Do you feel better now? If not, take an asprin and have a lie-down.
      
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      July 21, 2021 2:23pm
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, as you say the replies are very telling. Does that woman have a life?
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:36am
- yossarian
  
  https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSau28tJtWBUHVy9ZE5T8rraniEVYrqkImyPw&usqp=CAU
  
  Since the first lockdown, I’ve always felt like this guy. I decided straight away that the I was not falling into fear, and I broke the lockdown rules as often as I could (100km bike rides on empty roads was bliss), much to my wife’s disgust. But I’d read enough history to know that all authoritarian govts control through fear.
  
  I will not succumb to fear, and I was amazed how I looked around me and saw nearly the entire population roll over, and I thought that this was a tiny inkling on what East Germany must have been like. If I had been born in East Germany instead, I most likely would have either made it across to West Germany or died trying.
  
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  July 21, 2021 6:02pm
- Scooter
  
  That is literally bat-shit crazy
  
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  July 22, 2021 6:10am
RockyJ

Question; what will happen between now and the next election? Answer; nothing.
Spooked by the farmers’ revolt and the city support this government will change course and do what it does best- nothing.
I reckon we will see controversial projects like Three Waters, Health reforms, history curriculum, cycle bridge, Auckland light rail et al slip under an enveloping tide of reports, advisory groups, consultations. They will quietly die.
Good, and even better, the PR damage has been done.
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July 21, 2021 9:05am
- DeepBlue
  
  That would be a fabulous outcome. Councils have been scared by the asset seizure threat, so they might just get their own 3 waters 30 year plans in order now.
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:51am
  - MCos
    
    They don’t have thirty years.
    They had thirty years about fifty years ago.
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:04am
    - Bob
      
      fifty years ago….
      about the beginning of the period when competent people were replace as councillors by failed socialists.
      
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      July 21, 2021 11:57am
- Nickc2
  
  Ah but will they put the He Puapua Report/Plan to bed or better still, death? No, didn’t think so. IMO, it’s the sole purpose for having a Maori Caucus. Besides, what racist calamity could Willie Jackson and Co. dream up without said Report/Plan as a reference?
  
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  July 21, 2021 11:40am
- Paulus
  
  No way she still has over two years to carry on her destruction of our country.
  She also has the first time, under MMP a single and simple majority, to do legally whatever she and her sycophants want.
  53% of you bastards voted for her so suck it up.
  
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  July 21, 2021 1:44pm
I remember when

Financial Times: NZ Casino CEO Fired After A NZ$960,000 Mistake.
Trusted online casino operator MR Casino Inc (NASDAQ:MRC SN) has made a costly mistake after opening their service in NZ that caused the company to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars to players.
This glitch has already cost them close to $NZ 700,000 in cash and the loss will continue until 21st July.
A wording error in their promotional campaign for new customers allows each new customer NZ$200 free credits, instead of needing to deposit NZ$20 for up to NZ$200 free credits.
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July 21, 2021 9:11am
- KevO'Brien
  
  On line casino’s should be illegal. I see then now advertising on TV. Do we want a nation of gambling addicts too? A lot of work was done previously to prevent that.
  
  (You can also tell when the stock market is in that irrational gambling phase when TV advts for gambling clubs appear.
  That also signifies to watch out for property “investment” that could go sour very rapidly in illiquid markets.)
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:28am
  - NoFax
    
    And how would you make them illegal?
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:01pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      They could at least be forbidden advertising on TV.
      
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      July 21, 2021 4:10pm
cmm

… and it’s not just woke cops.

Corrections dropping 40% of disciplinary charges against prisoners. No wonder the numbers of prisoners and offenses keep going up!

There were 21,000 disciplinary charges laid against prisoners with almost 9000 being dropped.

No doubt the number of charges should really be higher. Staff will be reporting less issues because they know the charges will be dropped, so why bother with all that paperwork?

Both of those numbers are disturbing:
* 20,000 is an average of 2 disciplinary offenses per inmate per year.
* Dropping 40% of charges shows who’s winning this game.

When this happens the prison discipline heirarchy is not as clear as it was, so the prisoners will push the boundaries harder. More assaults and threats guaranteed. More staff being pressured into smuggling contraband guaranteed.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/thousands-of-disciplinary-charges-against-inmates-dropped/YPHVSGJETFAG2UDXUX7GOUVUZ4/
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July 21, 2021 9:24am
- kowtow
  
  That will also help them with a “get out of gaol card” when they go for parole ….
  
  …….model inmate , no disciple issues .
  
  More crims on the streets quicker, more victims of crime .
  
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  July 21, 2021 9:39am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Even inmates can smuggle contraband.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:30am
  - cmm
    
    From where?
    How does stuff get into the prisons? Guess who makes up the most foot traffic.
    
    Some of the corrections staff that smuggle stuff do so because they are bad people and can make a bit of extra on the side.
    
    I’ll bet though that many, if not the majority that do so, are threatened into doing it one way or another. Prisoners just have to say their mates will come for a visit and many people would comply with them.
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:20pm
    - KevO'Brien
      
      I am aware of a prisoner on home leave who went there, picked up goods, returned and dropped them over the fence for mates. He then returned from Lower Hutt to finish his term at Rangipo.
      
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      July 21, 2021 4:17pm
lastmanstanding

Re Cindy Labour and the Mighty Mongrel Mob.

You are known by the company you keep.
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July 21, 2021 9:25am
- alex Masterley
  
  I wonder when she will get her honorary patch for services rendered?
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:40pm
Rusty

Everybody believes in climate change there is summer, autumn, winter, and spring –right?

All 4 seasons can go through periods of extreme weather change but will then regulate itself back to normal again.

Nature dictates this not man.
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July 21, 2021 9:46am
- kowtow
  
  Not being a smart arse , but there’s no such thing as extreme weather , there’s only weather.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:22am
  - Bob
    
    There is Kowtow….
    rain, heavy rain and extremely heavy rain (known as a deluge, short and sharp)
    
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    July 21, 2021 11:59am
    - kowtow
      
      Even exceptionally heavy rain ,such as a deluge ,short and sharp or indeed over many hours in a typhoon for example is just normal weather .
      
      It’s the weather , to us humans it can appear to be “extreme ” and have serious consequences such as flooding and landslides , but it’s just doing what is normal and what it has always done.
      
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      July 21, 2021 12:46pm
    - cmm
      
      Extremes are just part of normal.
      
      Refer: Bell curve, aka normal distribution.
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:22pm
MrTips

Dissecting our media

Mark Quinlivan highlights Judith Collins claiming Police Commissioner Coster was bullied by the current govt to drop the ART programme even before the trial ended.

It seems a valid question and Collins points out many of her constiuents want the ART to keep going, and that the majority of NZers want front line police armed at all times.

Quinlivan quotes a contrary poll that claims >80% of Maori and Pacific People DON’T want cops armed and wouldn’t call them if they were.

The poll was conducted by Action Station an activist group who’s website screams “white man bad, sell your ute you evil farmer and check your pronouns”.

Mr Quinlivan will know this but don’t let objectivity ruin a good pro-Govt narrative eh Mark? Welcome to the not trusted list.
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July 21, 2021 9:59am
- Yabster
  
  checked out that Action station site, socialist to the core. Well organised though and apparently 150,000 members.
  
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  July 21, 2021 3:25pm
  - Local Miller
    
    In a previous life I had to do IT support for Green Peace. Interestingly one of their biggest problems regarding membership and support is their very high turnover. In discussions between work they commented that over 80% of their support is once off, people who join, donate, then never show up again.
    Two main thoughts came to mind:
    1) Is this a common theme in Socialist organizations? If so, and I suspect it is, then their 150,000 members is smoke and mirrors. They may have 150,000 people on their books, but active members is probably a fraction of this.
    2) Do people join and donate to get the pests off their backs, then once on the mailing list ignore it? Again, I suspect so given the high dropout rate.
    
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    July 21, 2021 4:56pm
Maggie Pie

BREAKING…

Green list MP Ricardo March to be appointed ‘Assistant Minister of Police’, with special emphasis on Mexican ethnic minorities, currently overstaying their visas while hiding out in New Zealand.

Police Commissioner Andrew Coster welcomed the move, saying…. “This will further enhance the diversity and values of our Service. New recruits to the role will be easily identified with their uniforms consisting of a straw Sombrero and colorful Serape”
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July 21, 2021 10:13am
- kowtow
  
  And it fits in with response times , due to govt parsimony.
  
  hello , police ? I’d like to report a crime , when can you come ?
  
  Manana .
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:25am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  You must be joking
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:32am
  - david
    
    Things have come to a pretty pass when even ludicrous ideas that would normally elicit nothing more than a quick laugh, can be considered as a possible reality under the current gummint.
    
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    July 21, 2021 4:51pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Maggie, don’t give them ideas.
  
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  July 21, 2021 10:49am
  - sooty
    
    We have lots of mexican overstayers, do they!
    
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    July 21, 2021 3:18pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Australian Lawyers unimpressed with NZ Government payouts to companies involved in taking tourists to White Island

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/07/whakaari-white-island-eruption-public-funding-for-companies-charged-after-eruption-shocks-victims-lawyer.html
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July 21, 2021 10:21am
I remember when

Another ‘lost’ NZ Post letter arrives in my letter box hundreds of kms from destination.
Received another same postal street name and number as mine but I still don’t live in Greenhithe.
It’s an Airmail letter from Australia and even has the correct Post Code on it.
Still NZ Post did say they were doing things differently now.
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July 21, 2021 10:27am
I remember when

“$47m Linton army base upgrade part of bringing “sub-standard’ military facilities up to scratch”:
It was Ardern FIRST visit to an army base.
Why bother, just get Andrew to condemn any aggressive behaviour.
They will say they aren’t being aggressive.
Problem solved.
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July 21, 2021 10:53am
kowtow

Had a visit to stuff , yeah I know, but how the hell do they think posting hard luck stories of crash victims with a huge photo of patched MM member as loving family man is going to appeal to their average reader , or am I missing something?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125809527/taking-everything-five-minutes-at-a-time-crash-victims-fiance-destroyed

I find it offensive .
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July 21, 2021 10:58am
- Prince
  
  The message has obviously gone out…’Normalise the Mob, make them appear soft and kind…They are now US…We need to support them in their time of need.’
  And here’s this weeks cheque.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:52pm
  - sooty
    
    And this weeks order!
    
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    July 21, 2021 3:16pm
MrTips

9th Floor, Beehive. Sausage rolls everywhere…..

Jacinda: “so, what’s the polls like this week folks?”
Advisor: “you are still Queen M’Lady….just”
Jacinda: “excellent. Now what’s happening in your areas my minions….”
Faafoi: “keeping out the skilled migrant so our health systems can collapse”
Williams: “my advisory group tell me and Coster to say nothing and remain firm”
Parker: “bloody farmers can get stuffed – unless they die, then I want it all”
Hipkins: “I’ve got a rash….”
Nash: “check my bicep curl….”
Robertson: “can anyone tell me what this thing…inflation….. is?”
Little: “GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR”
Woods: “did you know that nails can actually hold two bits of wood together?”
Davis: “wot?”
Jackson: “♪a white …sports coat♪….is a colonial racist coat indeed”

Jacinda: “excellent. No idea and total chaos. Just the way I want it”.
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July 21, 2021 11:09am
- oldfella
  
  Funny, Mr T. 🙂
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:15pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Brilliant MrTips. Wish I had 100 upticks to give you.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:19pm
- Goatie
  
  Excellent!
  
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  July 21, 2021 5:04pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Who or what is guiding our PM’s approach to the Covid pandemic?

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/07/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-under-fire-for-spending-250-000-on-covid-19-polls.html
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July 21, 2021 11:28am
- MCos
  
  I’d have thought if you were going to lockdown the country, deny entry to foreigners, mandate this, mandate that, you’d better be sure the country is behind you.
  Whosoever was running the show would have done the same thing.
  
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  July 21, 2021 11:59am
  - Libertarians are right
    
    True. It’s one of the things most people didn’t like about John Key.
    The issue is that the polls are probably being used differently.
    They aren’t there to do the popular thing.
    I would put money on the fact that they are deliberately weighted toward a predetermined goal (like keeping restrictions) and the polling is pushed in that direction so it can be used as a justification.
    
    I would also assume that UMR is doing the polling?
    
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    July 21, 2021 12:42pm
    - MCos
      
      They aren’t there to do the popular thing.
      In the case of measures related to controlling the effects of the pandemic it’s a way of gauging the response of the public.
      There’s no point in bringing in measures that are so unpopular few people will comply.
      
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      July 21, 2021 4:25pm
      - Hollyfield
        
        So it’s about doing only as much as can be got away with, not what’s right or based on the science or medical evidence.
        
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        July 21, 2021 8:06pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    “Many times ACT has asked the Government to share the information it uses to make decisions, and the framework for future decisions with the public. We asked them to treat New Zealanders like adults, bringing us into their confidence. We now know that they don’t want to release a framework so they can be guided by focus groups. The Government has been slow to release the advice, including the Skegg Report. Are they focus grouping the findings before it’s released?
    
    “One has to ask, is the real reason we do not have plan to get our way of life back is that the Government is still focus grouping it.
    
    https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA2107/S00155/what-happened-to-following-the-science.htm
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:40pm
    - Nickc2
      
      A lot of group Maggy but not much focus. IMO, the Maori Caucus run the show and the rest are just window dressing.
      
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      July 21, 2021 7:42pm
Maggie Pie

Just made a hot Waffle (maple syrup, cream & lemon juice)…… thinking to myself you’d be a bit of a silly-billy wouldn’t ya, if you started the shift without first getting the gun out of the ‘lock-box’ and putting it in the side pocket of the drivers door?
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July 21, 2021 11:41am
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I think the gun in the lockbox might be a bit big to fit in the door pocket.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:25pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Doubt it would be any bigger than a can of Oven Spray would it?
    
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    July 21, 2021 12:32pm
cmm

Bloke insists he is admitted to the bar in a marae rather than in a court as is traditional. Something to do with his family feeling uncomfortable in the courtroom… And, of course, he gets his way.

He says this feels like a Maori process. That leads me to wonder what a real traditional Maori legal process looked like.

Was “Maori Law” something akin to western law: justice, case law and a threshold for evidence and guilt – but obviously being “Maori Law” is better in every possible way?

Or was it a bit more in line with African tribal law where all that matters is what the guy in charge feels like on the day and punishments are swift and brutal?

I’m going out on a limb here that it was a bit less of the former and a bit more of the latter.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/lifting-the-bar-a-court-process-that-felt-like-a-maori-process/MJIG5PNGWVJF4XBA2GYVQ23QCU/
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July 21, 2021 11:47am
- alex Masterley
  
  CMM,
  I would say the latter.
  Capricious punishment for perceived slights were common.
  The Muskett wars by Ron Crosby is a good start, as are contemporary writings of very early European visitors to NZ.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:38pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Maori still make up a major segment of the criminal population. They are not wrongly charged and many are actively opposed to any Pakeha system which would control their conduct. Might is right still to many.
  I note the invocation of Maori spirit beings into the proceedings too.
  
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  July 21, 2021 4:54pm
cmm

I think bravery medals outside of military context are pretty stupid, but this takes the cake:

Giving the whole of Christchurch a medal for bravery in handling the Mosque shooting is pathetic.

In the last 50 years there have been two of these – both issued to Chch – the other for after the EQ.

This is nonsense. Helping people and acting with compassion is not bravery. Few people showed real bravery (ie. risking their lives) in either event.

It has rather eroded what bravery actually means.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125815592/bravery-award-for-christchurch-city-citizens-after-mosque-attacks
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July 21, 2021 11:59am
- Harriet
  
  I agree – the ‘volunteer fire fighters’ in aussie get a parade and a public thank-you through the capital cities after major fires – but other than those that deserve them they don’t get a ‘bravery’ award.
  
  I’m not sure but they may all be given a medal for that individual event – but it wouldn’t be a bravery medal as such. Cheers cmm.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:19pm
- oldfella
  
  cmm, how would you rate this? Malta, WW2.
  ++
  The George Cross was awarded to the island of Malta to “bear witness to the heroism and devotion of its people” during the great siege they underwent in the early part of World War II. Italy and Germany besieged Malta, then a British colony, from 1940 to 1942.
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Award_of_the_George_Cross_to_Malta
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:26pm
  - cmm
    
    Hmmm, interesting….
    
    Perhaps this was a way to make the Maltese a bit more Brit-friendly after WW2. That was a time when the colonies were getting stroppy and Britain was shedding territory like dandruff.
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:57pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  How about giving the medals to the actual cops who risked their own lives to take the scumbag down?
  Oh, wait. We aren’t allowed to respect Police any more are we?
  
  Christchurch is also for Hate Speech laws. That is cowardice, not bravery.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:36pm
- Suze Wainwright
  
  Maybe it’s being scripted into They Are Us…
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:52pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Bloomin’ nonsense.
  What bravery is involved other than stealing Jacinda’s place in the limelight?
  My son was in Hagley Park on his way back from School at the time of the shootings but no bravery was involved.
  I deprecate gunmen roughing up mosques but I would not encourage any replacements or additions.
  
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  July 21, 2021 4:46pm
Tony Stuart

You can listen to Poto Williams’ train-wreck of an interview with Mike Yardley this morning at this link:

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/poto-williams-public-and-cops-react-as-police-minister-says-she-is-not-in-favour-of-general-arming-of-police/?fbclid=IwAR3le5J1f9rBzhfHHe4QjL1EBzbVxtj1mDCV0iZYlF4EbC88NPVFCPsM64w
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July 21, 2021 12:04pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Anybody else think like me that Mike Yardley is actually a better broadcaster then the incumbent?
  Wouldn’t mind hearing him permanently on Breakfast TBH.
  
  Then maybe they could finally get rid of those 2 leftard wokesters doing noon til 4 and give Hosk that slot?
  
  Just satying.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:19pm
  - Inandout
    
    Maggie, I like Mike’s opinions but have noticed of late he has become too comfortable with his station’s high ratings. The Wednesday slot for Nash and Mitchell greeting one another (hi Nashy, hi Mitchy) is a tad too comfy for my liking. This morning Yardley had Mitchell coming out of his shell and this is what good debate should be like. Mike’s wife of course has the early slot and this is probably handy for both of them, but your afternoon suggestion has merit. Whether Yardley could cope with rising at 3.30am for a 6am show is debatable.
    
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    July 21, 2021 4:11pm
- kevn
  
  @Tony… I couldn’t mange to listen to the whole interview, it made me swear by halfway through.
  But clearly williams certainly has a disconnect.
  ‘Her’ people attract the attention of police because? Duh. FFS.
  
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  July 21, 2021 12:39pm
  - Okahu
    
    If you can’t stomach that interview you definitely won’t want to hear the one about the same time on red radio this morning. Some clown reckoned the whole giving money to the mob story was a fatuous beat up by the usual suspects. Said the plan was a well organised effort at finding a solution to a difficult problem and the last thing you’d want to change the behaviour of a hardened gang member was some polished whitey with a degree. Said how come nobody whined like stuck pigs when John Key had this Lam bloke on his advisory committee? Said he should know because he was involved with some talking head group that knew what’s what. In fact he said he was the most recent National Justice Minister. Said his name was Chester Borrows. Ya couldn’t make it up but they must have. They just must have.
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:39pm
    - Yabster
      
      Okie wokie Chester is one of you a socilaist- as where his parents- his is just an opinion as is yours- doesn’t make giving money to gangs to reduce the harm they have created anymore sensible does it.
      
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      July 21, 2021 3:16pm
      - Okahu
        
        Who did that? Who downticked Yabbie? That’s so unfair. Yabbie is trying really hard. We have to sympathise that poor Yabbie doesn’t realise the Nats lead our recent centre right govt. But Yabbie is definitely trying! And judging by his grasp of syntax and spelling commenting is obviously quite the challenge. In fact with a name like that Yabbie may be a new New Zealander. So stop it. Just stop it. Be kind!
        
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        July 21, 2021 6:16pm
      - Yabster
        
        What a dhead you are okie wokie- clearly I am getting under your socialist skin judging by the share number of times you have mentioned the name you use for my handle. Typing “yabbie may be a new New Zealander” is clouded thinking (not surprising) as that is not my handle or name- bit of a bizzare comment really- is your name Okahu?- what a true keyboard warrior loser you are.
        
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        July 22, 2021 8:09am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Following this morning’s performance by Poto Williams on Newstalk ZB, Judith Collins is calling for Williams to be sacked:
  
  In an interview with Newstalk ZB this morning Minister of Police Poto Williams made it crystal clear that despite being their Minister, the police and their safety are not a priority for her, Leader of the Opposition Judith Collins says.
  
  “The interview was a train wreck from beginning to end and quite frankly it is time the Prime Minister steps in to replace her with someone who is capable of advocating for and caring about police officers.
  
  “I have been Minister of Police and it was an absolute privilege to work with the people who risk their own safety to enforce the law and protect us all in this country. The police force deserves a Minister who does not look at them as if they are all violent racists.
  
  “It is unforgivable that Minister Williams would not even condemn anarchist group People Against Prisons Aotearoa when read a statement that said they were committed to ‘disarming, defunding, and abolishing the bloodstained racist institution of the New Zealand Police’.
  
  “Labour make the mistake of thinking they speak for all Māori and Pasifika people when they say they have listened to the ‘communities’. No ethnic group is a monolith and in my electorate of Papakura I am hearing that my multi-cultural constituents support police and want them to be able to sort out gang members.
  
  “This cannot go on. Labour has to get real about crime and about empowering the police to do their job. This nonsense of making the police the ‘bad guys’ is creating a more tense and hostile environment which inevitably leads to more dangerous altercations.
  
  “It is not good enough to continue with the status quo. It is time for action, Prime Minister.”
  
  https://www.national.org.nz/poto-williams-should-be-sacked-as-police-minister
  
  Now we know that Jacinda Ardern won’t sack Williams; that’s not her style. So Labour will persevere with yet another lame-duck Minister who is, frankly, completely out of her depth.
  
  The text lines on Newstalk ZB went ballistic after the Williams interview this morning, with many of the texts coming from serving Police officers who could not believe what they were hearing. Police need to know that their top brass and their Minister have their backs; instead Poto Williams is more concerned with appeasing the Maori and Pasifika people she claims to represent, and won’t even countenance hurting their feelings by having Armed Response Units deployed to deal quickly with violent crime, especially the rapidly escalating rate of gun crime.
  
  Rather than stripping Williams of the Police portfolio, the PM is likely to hide her away in Witless Protection, although Poto Williams demonstrated today that she is completely out of touch with her portfolio, and not even the Witless Protection Programme is likely to save her!
  
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  July 21, 2021 2:00pm
  - Swifty
    
    Labour MPs yet again unable to do the right thing, make the tough calls, because of their fears of upsetting some of their support base.
    
    This is not leadership. It is craven cowardice. It’s letting NZers suffer for reasons of political expediency.
    
    Still, we shouldn’t be surprised. How many times have we seen this government making decisions not for the benefit of New Zealanders, but rather for the benefit of the NZ Labour Party. Remember, they’ve got jobs to keep!
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:12pm
  - KevO'Brien
    
    Let Poto out of her cage. I heard today from some who had heard her this morning. She’s a talking advertisement bringing all Labour’s faults to mind in her constituency. She’s badly damaging the PM too who is being rubbished now in this Christchurch East electorate.
    
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    July 21, 2021 4:36pm
Odakyu-sen

I have a simple question.
If authorities demand “vaccine passports” for people to be able to enter countries, but you have had a bout of COVID-19 previously and have recovered naturally (you may or may not have even known about it if asymptomatic), do you still need to go and get vaccinated?
After all, what is the practical difference between: a) a person twice vaccinated, and b) a person who has been exposed to the virus and who has natural antibodies?
Are they not the same?
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July 21, 2021 12:23pm
- septic skeptic
  
  I would imagine the issue is verification. But having said that, there will no doubt be a lot of fake passports for sale in certain places.
  My view is that once everyone has had the opportunity to be vaccinated it should be open slather.
  
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  July 21, 2021 1:12pm
- Dougal10
  
  Hasn’t Boris had both the flu and shots, but still went and hid after coming in contact with another type of this flu the other day. It starting to look like the whole thing from the daffy duck show.
  
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  July 21, 2021 1:20pm
  - Okahu
    
    Apparently Cindy’s stay safe bullshit has gone viral and even infected Boris. That must be it Dougal. It must be. Otherwise…
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:56pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  They are not the same because only the official tagging is acceptable to the controllers.
  Do as you are told and like it.
  
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  July 21, 2021 4:30pm
cmm

Oes noes! Aotearovlot is no longer number 1.

Being number one in the sky used to be something you could depend on – even more than the All Blacks, Team NZ and pavlova.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/best-airlines-to-fly-with-in-2021-air-new-zealand-slips-in-industry-awards/6D2C5LK674GQXC4JWJPRSMFIQA/
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July 21, 2021 12:30pm
- WaveyDavey
  
  It was always bizarre to see AirNZ ranked so highly
  
  Thai, Korean, Emirates, Singapore and Etihad, speaking from personal experience, all had much better Business offerings. And AirNZ 787 BC layout is awful for couples travelling together with its ridiculous herringbone layout and lack of privacy
  
  I am hoping to try out Qsuite when travel is back on the agenda. Hopefully it will still exist
  
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  July 21, 2021 2:05pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Yes. IMO, Air NZ needs wider isles or thinner trolly dollies for what it’s worth.
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:28pm
    - WaveyDavey
      
      Generally the male cabin crew are slimmer, fitter and more attractive (if that’s your thing) than the lumps squeezed into the female outfits
      
      Diversity, body-shaming, yadda yadda…
      
      AirNZ got very upset with us some years ago and pulled all advertising with Fairfax after we pointed out the state of their female employees
      
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      July 21, 2021 2:59pm
      - MCos
        
        If you want to oogle at young women watch beach volleyball or something.
        Aircrew are there to sort out unruly passengers, serve food & drinks, maintain order in an emergency . . . . . .
        
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        July 21, 2021 4:41pm
      - WaveyDavey
        
        Fit and healthy rather than a BMI in excess of 35 and a waist of 50cm would seem to be a reasonable requirement for a job where being fit and healthy is a prerequisite
        
        Some of the AirNZ cabin crews’ arses are wider than the aisles and they have to walk like crabs. Some of them can’t even fit into economy seating without spilling over the sides.
        
        I’d imagine on the flying pencils that if they shifted their carcass to one side of the plane the wing would dip
        
        But hey culture and tradition huh?
        
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        July 21, 2021 5:29pm
      - Nickc2
        
        @ WaveyDavey
        Careful mate, we’ll both be canceled.
        
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        July 21, 2021 7:28pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Bit like a bottle of plonk picked up at the supermarket.
  3 or 5 gold stars.
  Airline ratings the same.
  Incidently from my experience by the time they have won one of those “gold medals” they tend to be shite again.
  But hey, What would I know.
  
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  July 21, 2021 4:27pm
- [email protected]
  
  Used to fly Air New Zealand exclusively (a lot). Was a gold card member and racked up a lot of airpoints flying international. Then Air New Zealand overnight devalued my cache of airports not once, but twice to the point where they were almost worthless. Have never flown Air New Zealand again.
  
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  July 21, 2021 7:01pm
Nickc2

We’re in deep dodos now, Cindy declares herself as the only font of truth in NZ (as published in Aust).
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2021/07/jacinda-proclaims-herself-her-government-the-single-source-of-the-truth-.html
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July 21, 2021 1:01pm
- Batman
  
  Errrr this is from May last year? And specifically in relation to covid, not everything.
  
  Recycling old news is all that the lesser right wing blogs have got huh?
  
  Another reason KB is the only quality blog ?
  
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  July 21, 2021 1:10pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    Yeah, I was surprised this one has been doing the rounds again.
    
    Still, it is creepy to hear – now with the benefit of a year of solid lying on record – that Ardern was positioning herself as the “single source of truth”.
    
    I guess saying she would be the “single source of lies” just wouldn’t have cut it … even if it would have been closer to the truth!
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:22pm
    - Batman
      
      I’ll get mightily downticked but it needs to be said that when answering a question about covid conspiracies like 5G and microchips, it was an appropriate answer for any Prime Minister to give.
      
      I would fully have expected Bill or John to say the same in relation to the public health advice behind given by the government, and attempting to reassure the public that the most reliable source of information is not Facebook or Twitter.
      
      The problem for Ardern is that she’s such a slippery customer on most other political matters that partisans will never trust her on anything.
      
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      July 21, 2021 1:39pm
      - Tall Man
        
        Actually Batman, it wasn’t the covid conspiracy ardern was talking about it was all the waffle surrounding it that she used as an election campaign basis.
        
        With all the lies that have come from her and ashley’s mouth regarding MIQ, vaccinations and other covid issues it is creepy that she still believes that the general public are stupid enough to actually believe her.
        
        Your obtuse comments could be considered part of the problem.
        
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        July 21, 2021 1:56pm
      - Batman
        
        Haha so I’ve found the orignal and it is from March not May. It isn’t in relation to electioneering, so you might want to wind that claim back.
        
        It’s also not in relation to conspiracies, so I was wrong there.
        
        It was on relation to speculation that a lockdown was to be announced imminently, which did happen but not for another week or so.
        
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/bay-of-plenty-times/news/coronavirus-jacinda-ardern-dismisses-nationwide-lockdown-speculation-on-social-media/I2FTKPSA36LJIDNLBFIYECXDHM/
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:11pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        You are overly generous on the definition of ‘covid conspiracies’. According to the state-driven narrative, anything other than the state-driven narrative is ‘covid conspiracy’. And that is totalitarianism with trainer-wheels.
        
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        July 21, 2021 2:10pm
      - Libertarians are right
        
        Sorry Batman. Two days after she said “We are the only source of truth” (and it was actually in response to Winston saying that lockdowns were imminent) they announced the Lockdown rules and two days after that announced the lockdown.
        
        She was lying.
        
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        July 21, 2021 4:13pm
      - Tall Man
        
        That WAS my point Batman.
        
        Evrything ardern did during the covid issue was electioneering so labelling herself as the font of all truth was onscene, in my opinion and was used to shut down both the opposition and any dissention.
        
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        July 21, 2021 5:34pm
      - doggone7
        
        I see here that “Evrything ardern did during the covid issue was electioneering.” (sic)
        
        To avoid witless barbs she should have done nothing?
        
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        July 21, 2021 8:30pm
  - kevn
    
    @bat.. A mere reminder from the pulpit of (not) truth where we are being led, as time ticks by.
    
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    July 21, 2021 1:26pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Yes, I’m aware it has been around before but it’s good to remind people how others see us isn’t it?
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:11pm
    - Batman
      
      It’s not at all news to see what the Aussie right are saying, they’re right next door
      
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      July 21, 2021 3:58pm
Swifty

My sister’s homeware store was robbed at knifepoint in central Auckland yesterday. Broad daylight. Emptied the till. She and her staff most upset, understandably.

I dunno guys, crime has just seemed to have exploded this last year or two and I’m not sure what is behind it. Whatever it is we need to get on top of it pronto. I’ll say one thing though, forget all this ‘be kind’ infantile bullshit, there is a slice of our society that thinks the world owes them a living, that whats other peoples is theirs for the taking and appear to have no empathy for anyone outside themselves and their immediate circle.

Still, I guess when you raise a generation or two to think of themselves as nothing but victims then they will have an inflated sense of self-entitlement. They’re just ‘evening up the ledger’, after all.
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July 21, 2021 1:23pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Horrible for her. Hope she’s ok. My daughter was robbed at knifepoint once, not in NZ but nevertheless a terrifying experience.
  
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  July 21, 2021 2:07pm
  - Swifty
    
    Thanks kk, no physical injuries, just very shaken up – and of course greatly valued long-serving staff now having doubts about wishing to continue working there.
    
    And all because someone feels entitled to terrorise others in this way for a few measly bucks.
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:19pm
  - kevn
    
    @kk… I had a guy threaten to kill me once.
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:34pm
- Inandout
  
  Swifty, in many Dem cities in the US so long as the value was under $1,000 they were OK to do it. Of course it will undoubtedly happen here at some point.
  
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  July 21, 2021 2:13pm
  - Swifty
    
    I’ve seen the vids of that online. Just bloody anarchy.
    
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    July 21, 2021 3:02pm
- Gravelroad
  
  @Swifty-
  This is not intended as a smart Alec question, but how much cash would likely be in the till of a homeware store these days?
  I thought cash was a scarce commodity now with the banking commissars insisting we don’t use it?
  Wouldn’t most transactions in such a store be done with cards?
  
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  July 21, 2021 2:14pm
  - kevn
    
    @Gravel… There is always a till cash float for the odd cash transaction, $100-$200.
    
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    July 21, 2021 2:33pm
  - Swifty
    
    Not at all.
    
    I’ve just asked my daughter that very question: she has worked there part-time during school hols etc.
    
    She said the till has a float of a few hundred at the start of the day and is cleared if necessary during the day, but also that the card versus cash ratio my daughter reckons is 80/20 to 90/10 so no huge accumulation of cash during the day.
    
    You’ve got to think it is some junkie or similar desperado, only really wanting and expecting a small haul to get him through the next 24-48.
    
    Years ago I spent some (ahem) time away with a guy doing either 3 or 4 years (I forget now) for ag-robbing some Wellington dairies. Only came away with a couple of hundred each job. No rational person would do that; but of course he wasn’t being rational. Came from a good wealthy family who owned and ran Miramar gas station for decades.
    
    Junkie, couldn’t control himself. Allowed himself to become a monster.
    
    3 2
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    July 21, 2021 2:36pm
  - H. Upmann
    
    I went to two different cafes yesterday and today and both had signs up advising that they no longer accept cash. One was a chain (Mojo) and the other an independent.
    
    My prediction: cash will be nonexistent within three years for any transaction.
    
    3 2
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    July 21, 2021 2:42pm
    - sooty
      
      I would have been back out the door to another!
      You try and use cash at McD’s now. You can in the drivethru, they don’t have an option.
      
      2 0
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      July 21, 2021 2:58pm
    - BananaLlama
      
      Watch the number of abductions increase as they force you to drive to an ATM.
      
      3 0
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      July 21, 2021 3:16pm
- kevn
  
  @Swifty… Sorry she had go through that. Awful.
  The dairy owners have a hockey stick for an emergency.
  Eyeballed the perps with a full description? Just guessing…
  
  3 0
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  July 21, 2021 2:31pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Inside above my front door is a curtain rail with no curtain. It is 20mm stainless steel 800mm long.
    It is there for a reason
    
    3 1
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    July 21, 2021 4:14pm
  - Swifty
    
    Cheers kevin, will likely talk with her tonight to find out more. I do know they’ve plenty of cameras….
    
    1 0
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    July 21, 2021 5:11pm
- rangitoto
  
  Not only central Auckland. I check out out the facebook group for my local outer Auckland suburb and the reports of crime around the area have exploded over the last few years.
  
  3 0
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  July 21, 2021 3:07pm
  - MCos
    
    Not just NZ.
    My wife showed me a cctv video just now of a guy in Bangkok who ordered some street food, got into an argument with the vendor, pulled out a gun and shot him.
    She tells me not to toot the horn at someone who cuts you off because they might take a pot shot at you. The worst are the entitled Mercedes drivers.
    And they’re likely to get away with it!
    
    0 1
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    July 21, 2021 4:51pm
- kowtow
  
  A former cop , who’s now some kind of advisor / experty type was on Peter Williams yesterday morning , to do with arming the cops ……
  
  anyway he says crime up a lot across the west and in particular USA something like 20 % .
  
  Reason ; he said covid , caused alcohol and drug abuse .
  
  Perhaps , but I reckon it’s as simple as govts emptying prisons in response to covid and /or like here they just love crims , hate prisons and are turning them out and onto the public .
  
  additionally courts simply don’t want to punish .
  
  all this has emboldened the criminal classes .
  
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  July 21, 2021 4:02pm
Captain Mainwaring

More Govt. failure.

https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/national/thousands-of-disciplinary-charges-against-inmates-dropped/ar-AAMn0lB?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

Funny how this problem started happening in 2017. Can someone please remind me what else happened in that year.
11 1
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July 21, 2021 1:59pm
Prince

Outright, compulsive, unrepentant liars.
Has there ever been a Govt more deceitful than this ?
The story changes each week. A simple ‘we’re behind where we hoped to be, but we’re doing our best’ would at least show some decency.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/125816576/covid19-group-3-to-book-vaccination-appointment-before-end-of-july
9 0
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July 21, 2021 2:09pm
Prince

Outright, compulsive, unrepentant liars.
Has there ever been a Govt more deceitful than this ?
So now we can book an appointment, but “this didn’t guarantee people would be able to make an appointment right away”.
What the hell does that even mean ? They twist the language into some sort of unrecognisable drivel then congratulate each other on screwing the ‘team of 5 million’.
The story changes each week. A simple ‘we’re behind where we hoped to be, but we’re doing our best’ would at least show some decency.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/125816576/covid19-group-3-to-book-vaccination-appointment-before-end-of-july
7 0
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July 21, 2021 2:12pm
ABS4EVA

Is it Illegal to criticise the Mongrel Mob
and the Labour Party Yet?
18 1
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July 21, 2021 2:13pm
- rangitoto
  
  It will be once the hate speech laws are passed. Three years in the clink for saying the mob are naughty. Criticising Jacinda will be life without parole at least.
  
  8 2
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  July 21, 2021 3:01pm
- burt
  
  Comrade, if the mob trust Labour, why wouldn’t you?
  
  8 1
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  July 21, 2021 3:21pm
  - ABS4EVA
    
    Labour and the Mob can
    
    KISS MY RING
    
    0 0
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    July 22, 2021 12:31am
kevn

@ABS… They just go together in everyones mind now. Besties… Cute.
2 1
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July 21, 2021 2:28pm
Haast

This must have slipped through the Stuff thought censor. Expect a “balanced” commentary this week. https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/300349542/the-unreal-prospect-of-unteaching-racism
7 0
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July 21, 2021 3:05pm
- Libertarians are right
  
  Have you read the whole article? It was from last week.
  
  At the bottom in an edit they not only point out that they would have a counter article but that they would review their processes as they believe the opinion piece may have been against their values and that they are looking at maybe making a ruling so that these kinds of articles will never be printed again.
  
  The counter article was basically “I disagree with this point because I disagree with this point” and was done by an asian woman primary school teacher (not a principal).
  
  5 0
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  July 21, 2021 4:07pm
- Prince
  
  Interesting viewpoint. I wouldn’t have thought it was controversial, but I see at the end there is a chilling editorial note…
  “Editor’s note: In response to this column, we will be publishing a different opinion from an educator on Friday, 16 July. We’re also reviewing Stuff’s process behind publishing this article to determine if it aligns with our company charter and editorial code of practice and ethics.”
  
  Wow. Just wow.
  
  7 0
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  July 21, 2021 4:41pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/125821220/govt-moves-from-paying-motels-to-house-homeless-to-buying-its-own-in-rotorua
Well, if the last 12 months influx of relocated persons haven’t destroyed Rotorua as a tourist destination then this certainly will.
Government-sanctioned economic tragedy.
7 1
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July 21, 2021 3:51pm
- kevn
  
  @grey… The prime location will make this thermally heated motel with a heated pool, choice for occupants. I think it goes right from Fenton St to the street behind, a full block deep. Big site. Long term development because it is a pretty tired place. One of the first motels in Rotorua, third generation owners. Happy to be gone I’m guessing.
  
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  July 21, 2021 5:14pm
  - kevn
    
    The motel has 3 road boundaries.
    
    2 0
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    July 21, 2021 7:30pm
Yabster

Rotovegas – if I was a tourist be the first place to avoid:

The socialists have paid $8 mill to buy a hotel for temp accomadation.

The move has been slammed by Rotorua MP Todd McClay.

“The Government shouldn’t own a motel. Build some houses.”

McClay said the purchase was “changing Rotorua from a tourist town to a homeless town.”

He also said he was hearing reports from both visitors and accommodation providers that “more and more people won’t spend the night here”.
8 0
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July 21, 2021 3:57pm
cha

Monsignor Burrill wanted to bar Joe Biden from receiving communion… then someone tracked the Monsignor’s cellphone usage.

https://www.inquirer.com/news/nation-world/monsignor-jeffrey-burrill-resigns-grindr-20210720.html
4 1
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July 21, 2021 4:02pm
- Tall Man
  
  The left certainly go to any lengths to protect their own don’t they?
  
  Who cares where the priest shoves his willy. Better than chasing altarboys dontcha think?
  
  5 1
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  July 21, 2021 5:37pm
  - cha
    
    And his vow of celibacy means nothing because the left?
    
    /
    
    1 2
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    July 21, 2021 6:26pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  …. came after allegations of his “improper behavior” were brought to the USCCB by the Pillar, a Catholic news site.
  
  So not the MSM but from within the church itself. Further evidence of the growing fight within the Catholic church between the liberal and conservative wings – with many of the Bishops targeted as being the former and allowing the likes of Burrill and others to get away with such shite for years, plus many other things you would think are the opposite of church doctrine.
  
  Despite the fears of Boomer Atheists still shaking their fists at religious conservatives and living in the 1960’s/70’s, the Catholic Church has pretty much sold out to secular liberalism in the last five decades, as evidenced by the number of NZ Catholic schools celebrating Pride Month. It’s also why the Bishop’s Conference is widely expected not to try and ban Biden from Communion.
  
  In any case it would seem that none other than Rome is leaning on them not to do so, part of Francis’s overall effort to appeal to people who hate him and his church. He just cracked down on the few Latin masses still being performed as they were apparently attracting new, youthful conservative Catholics.
  
  BTW I think it was Bishop Joseph Francis Martino of Biden’s hometown of Scranton who opposed giving him communion rather than Burrill. Quite right given that Biden’s the most pro-abortion President in history, but of course he’s the sort of Catholic the NYT loves, as opposed to the frightening Amy Cony Barrett.
  
  1 1
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  July 21, 2021 6:56pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Lets hope our Government has some watertight evidence that China was cyberhacking.

Otherwise we might have a mountain of milk to drink, Roast beef for every dinner, and timber to burn for a century or two.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/447365/china-calls-meeting-with-nz-officials-over-cold-war-mentality
6 2
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July 21, 2021 4:24pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Smoke and mirrors.
  A mere minnow in a sea of sharks.
  
  6 1
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  July 21, 2021 4:39pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  The wonderful Prof. Brady sums it up… courtesy of ‘Emmerson’ 😀
  
  https://twitter.com/Anne_MarieBrady/status/1417578180018270208
  
  4 1
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  July 21, 2021 4:51pm
- [email protected]
  
  I believe that any repercussions would be very selective.
  
  The Chinese made a mistake creating trade barriers with some Australian goods that came back to bite them in the butt.
  
  New Zealand provides some products that the Chinese people trust and would have a problem replacing with like quality. Milk and baby formula comes to mind as examples.
  
  3 0
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  July 21, 2021 6:12pm
Maggie Pie

“QUICK! Here they come…look busy”

Labor pays $8 million for run-down Motel in Rotorua… RE Agents say would be 3 to 4 mill TOPS!

Why are we laughing?
12 1
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July 21, 2021 5:03pm
kevn

@Maggie… Been on the market for fair while I gather. The owners got lucky. Us, the fund providers? Not so lucky.
10 1
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July 21, 2021 5:18pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Always the way Kev….and plenty more where that came from.
  
  5 1
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  July 21, 2021 5:37pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Adult children, get Mum’s keys to the basement.
11 minutes of Trump from 1999?
This is about Cuba, and this about Trump.
https://rumble.com/vk0nk4-flashback-trump-slams-cubas-communist-regime-in-1999.html?
4 1
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July 21, 2021 5:25pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Where are we at now? Phamachick may wish to say if this is fake – thanks A.
https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/good-news-mild-covid-19-induces-lasting-antibody-protection/?
5 1
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July 21, 2021 5:39pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

If Americans can’t work or go to school, why are they being flooded with Migrants, lured here by the Biden administration?
4 1
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July 21, 2021 5:44pm
kevn

@SteveO… The South American migrants are being processed and then flown around the USA on Air Force planes. Soo smart. FFS
3 1
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July 21, 2021 6:02pm
Littletramp

Just heard the NZ Womens soccer team at the Olympics will “take a knee” before the game tonight in support of racial equality.
Not only will the stadium be empty, but the chair in front of my TV will now be empty.
16 2
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July 21, 2021 6:11pm

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