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September 13, 2021 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 13 September 2021

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General Debate

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CJames

Remember how Minister Shaw said it was so essential for him to go to the Glasgow Climate Conference costing megabucks and using up MIQ spots for him and his entourage – all those hangers on, no doubt with a few token “special people”. And how it couldn’t be done on Zoom, despite him criticising National wanting Parliament to actually have real meetings. Well, word is COP26 is already a failure. To quote one report:
“The Daily Telegraph is reporting that leaked documents reveal that China is sticking to the Paris Agreement and is refusing to commit to more drastic cuts in CO2 emissions. This is, of course, not news for interested observers since China’s communist leaders have made their opposition quite clear and for some time, as we have repeatedly reported on this website in recent months. And China, of course, is not alone in its opposition to Joe Biden and Boris Johnson’s Net Zero agenda.
In fact, it has been evident for years that huge and growing energy demands by China, India and other emerging nations and the Net Zero agenda by the US, the UK and the EU are incompatible and insurmountable. For much of this year we have been warning of the growing risk of another Copenhagen-type COP fiasco.
Boris Johnson, of course, is being blamed for the likely debacle, paying the price for surrounding himself with green ideologues who are unwilling to listen to any second opinion or political realists who have been warning about a likely COP26 flop.
Following the habitual play book of UN climate summits, it is almost certain that on the last day of COP26, after days of walkouts and deadlocks, the delegates will finally agree a communiqué and celebrate the ‘breakthrough’ in the dying minutes of the conference. The only real question now is whether this agreement will be drafted by British and US officials or by Chinese delegates and their BRICS allies — thus repeating their Copenhagen coup.
Recent reports in the British media suggested that Boris Johnson may be considering to abandon his 1.5C goal in order to avoid a COP-flop in Glasgow in November. However, if the price for a COP26 compromise is the abandonment of the 1.5C goal, the West’s 2050 Net Zero agenda itself would become futile and self-destructive in face of China’s unrestrained expansion of cheap energy and its rise to global dominance.”

What is the bet that this report is right and there is another toothless “agreement” that will commit the Western world to economic suicide and be ignored by China? Even Australia has broken ranks and isn’t interested in reducing coal use. Any “agreement” definitely won’t reduce worldwide CO2 emissions. None of the previous ones did. And the world will yet again have only 10 years to act- the mantra since 1980. The changes NZ will make will hit the middle income taxpayers hard, causing a real drop in their standard of living.
The one good point to come out of his going on the jolly is the Greens co-leader left here will be doing the news media statements. That should prove to NZ that Ms Davidson is as personable and electable as Kamala Harris.
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September 13, 2021 8:00am
- PeeJay
  
  While middle income tax payers will be affected, the hardest impact of climate change policies if enacted will be the lower income folks. You know…..those that Labour claim to represent. It might cause a drop in middle income folks standard of living but they will not go into the red – for those at the lower end of the economy, if you are already struggling to make ends meet, extra costs on transport and food are the last thing you need. While Labour will try and solve this by taxing and borrowing more, the tax will be unpopular and threaten their recently won support, and borrowing will become increasingly difficult.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:10am
  - CJames
    
    PeeJay. Labour doesn’t care about the lower income folks. They are mainly beneficiaries and easily scared by Labour saying National will cut benefits. And many don’t vote, anyway. It is the middle ground – those households on $80-120k with a mortgage or kids at school where elections are won or lost.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:01am
    - Bob
      
      on $80-120k with a mortgage or kids ….
      these are the households who voted for the Communist. They have chosen their bed, now learn to sleep in it.
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:46am
- krazykiwi
  
  The cartoon on the front of this paper sums up the annual climate conference farce.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:10am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    That’s gold, kk – and the scary thing is it was produced in 2015, or pre-GT. How dare you!
    
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    September 13, 2021 4:17pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Yes, it’s rather good. One that went into the archive as soon as I read it. I like the way the 7 step process has repeated year after year. They could establish the COP’s standing agenda based on these 7 steps.
      
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      September 13, 2021 4:48pm
- westernScientest
  
  Its ok, I am sure jimmy will commit to single handedly cause a 4 degree reduction by 2030, just to show how progressive that little country at the bottom of the world is.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:18am
  - Suze Wainwright
    
    Sometimes I wonder if the comms strategy is all about making the good citizens of aotearoa *think* they are progressive (educated, intellectual, morally superior, etc. to the rest of the planet).
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:15am
    - WaveyDavey
      
      You wonder?
      
      Have you met any kiwis? That’s exactly what they think and are like
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:44am
    - Ruahine
      
      Suze.
      
      Such a lot of long words and some are difficult to spell.
      Smug will suffice quite well.
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:57am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Nothing we do will change anything.
    
    Even if we went zero carbon the increases in the rest of the world would drown it like a tsunami.
    
    But hey we will all be equally poor and happy by decree.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:35am
  - oldfella
    
    WS, if Jimmy can also tell the world in Te Reo he’ll be a star, bro.
    
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    September 13, 2021 11:18am
- Simon
  
  James Shaw off to get instructions on how the gubermint will run NZ.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:24am
  - kowtow
    
    run or ruin.
    
    Either will do.
    
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    September 13, 2021 12:53pm
    - igm
      
      They have already “ruined” New Zealand.
      
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      September 13, 2021 1:46pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  The real question is when the penny on this is going to drop with National, and to a lessor extent, ACT.
  
  The CW is that dealing with AGW is what young people are all about, the usual “Youf”, “Wave-Of-The-Future”, “Right-Side-Of-History” palaver that the Left has been banging on about since the late 1960’s.
  
  But what if a future National-ACT government bluntly announced that it was going to reduce energy costs on New Zealanders dramatically by eliminating a lot of AGW regulations guff and, say, cutting petrol tax by 10%. Make the argument about letting people keep more money in their pockets and let Labour-Green argue why they need to make us poorer to save the planet.
  
  Sooner or later people are going to wake up to what China, India and Africa are doing on the energy front and when they do they’re going to start asking what they’re sacrificing so much for here.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:41am
  - Nickc2
    
    Exactly, shout it from the rooftops!
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:18am
    - Nickc2
      
      Wake up you Anthropogenic Global Warming ( AGW) alarmists, your heads are not only buried in the sand, they’re also up Al Gore’s arse.
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:48am
  - Bob
    
    The sheeple have been comatose for a very long time in some cases; too much welfare available!
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:48am
    - The Housekeeper
      
      No jab no job, mana from heaven for the indolent.
      
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      September 13, 2021 11:11am
      - Steve Todd
        
        Next National/ACT government: No jab, no dole?
        
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        September 13, 2021 7:36pm
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    Tom,
    You know perfectly well that National is not going to turn its back on policies that deal with climate change. And neither for that matter will ACT, at least not in a way they would expect to see them enacted.
    I noted yesterday when David had a guest post on climate change policy that a number of commenters immediately said that there was no such thing as man made climate change, that increased CO2 levels were irrelevant. I saw that krazykiwi was one such commenter. No surprise there.
    The view that there is no climate change and there should be no climate change policies would appeal to no more than 10% of the population. The great majority of voters accept the science (which I know is contested here, but that is not the point I am making). Rather it is that if National went down the path of contesting climate change would drive down their electoral appeal dramatically. It would hardly be much point even contesting the election. Their opponents would win in a canter.
    I appreciate you will say you are appalled you ever voted for me. So be it. There are other parties you can vote for.
    
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    September 13, 2021 2:02pm
    - Tom Hunter
      
      It would hardly be much point even contesting the election. Their opponents would win in a canter.
      
      Good!
      
      I’m wealthy enough to be insulated from this insanity. If petrol goes to $10 per litre I’ll wear it. If taxes are increased to try and protect the middle and low-income classes that will be counter-productive to GHG emission reduction. If there are electricity blackouts because we went insane for wind power (like California and Texas) I’ll buy a diesel generator, and so on and so forth.
      
      But I’d wager those middle and low income folk won’t wear such things for long, so as far as I’m concerned from a personal, political and ideological viewpoint, the faster we crash into the this wall of insanity the better.
      
      I certainly am not tempted by the idea of a National-led slow-motion pain-fest.
      
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      September 13, 2021 2:17pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Wayne, why do you just make stuff up? What I said was this
      
      The entire premise here is that increased Co2 is net detrimental to human a vibrant future for humanity. There is no conclusive evidence of this. None, unless one cherry-picks alarmist papers.
      
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      September 13, 2021 2:19pm
      - Wayne Mapp
        
        Well, I interpret that as rejecting the overwhelming scientific evidence that the man made increased level of CO2 is creating adverse climate change.
        How else am I supposed to interpret it?
        
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        September 13, 2021 6:06pm
      - JJ56
        
        Accidentally hit Report on Wayne’s comment. Ignore.
        
        However the overwhelming scientific evidence isn’t that the man made increased level of CO2 is creating adverse climate change.
        
        It might be if you think the Guardian is a scientific journal but the debate is much richer and more subtle than that. Judith Curry did an invited talk to the American Chemical Society (no doubt a few hard scientists in that lot) (https://judithcurry.com/2021/09/03/15-minutes/) in which she included this useful summary of the state of play:
        
        “97% of climate scientists agree:
        • Surface temperatures have increased since 1880
        • Humans are adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
        • Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases have a warming effect on the planet
        
        “Disagreement amongst scientist
        
        How much of the warming has been caused by humans
        • How much the planet will warm in the 21st century
        • Whether warming is‘dangerous’
        • How we should respond to the warming, to improve human well being.”
        
        On that basis everything you assert is in the realm of disagreement.
        
        You would do well to read more widely on the subject, you’d find that in the latest IPCC report they are confirming that the high scenarios that have been widely used to create the emergency, are in fact unlikely, and even refer to them as “implausible”. Hopefully a reset is on its way.
        
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        September 13, 2021 6:25pm
      - krazykiwi
        
        How else am I supposed to interpret it?
        
        I suppose, and I say this genuinely, it depends on where you access what you describe as ‘overwhelming scientific evidence’. If that is via mainstream news sources then you are were I was up until mid-2009.
        
        At that point, and having having until that time been a fervent global warming believer, I started to explore beyond the headlines whereupon I discovered a picture that barely resembled what I had come to understand.
        
        I won’t elaborate further. Unless you would like me to.
        
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        September 13, 2021 8:24pm
- Frank the tank
  
  Boris has bigger problems with his right factions within the Torries. It appears they are in the ascendancy following the back down of the vaccine passport. It would appear Javid is in the thick of it. I am mightily impressed by his actions over the past 6 months.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:57am
- Greg Ettridge
  
  Interesting Scotland is introducing jab passports, so the New Zealand government has excluded politicians from jabbing, but Scotland will tell you who has. James might have to zoom.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:07am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Good question.
    
    How many of our politicians are fully vaccinated?
    
    How many people in Parliament are vaccinated?
    
    How many of our medical professionals are vaccinated?
    
    How many of our police are vaccinated?
    
    How is the most transparent government ever doing.
    
    The answer is we don’t collect that information.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:41am
- ClanMcleod
  
  As with almost everything this government do, pure virtue signaling. Whether you were a supporter or not, the old Greens actually used to have principles and believed in what they stood for. Rod Donald and Jeanette Fitzsimons were legitimate. These faux liberal chardonnay socialists are embarrassing.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:31am
  - Bob
    
    The GREEN’s have always been of a communist agenda, just expressed in different terminology.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:50am
  - RW Capitalist
    
    I might take issue with Jeanette since
    She had shares in a wind turbine company, while advocating for wind farms.
    
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    September 13, 2021 12:14pm
    - Paulus
      
      Didn’t the company in which Janette had shares go bust too ?
      
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      September 13, 2021 2:09pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Yep.
        Windflow Technology…
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118429968/founder-of-failed-windflow-technology-still-sees-opportunity-for-wind-power
        
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        September 13, 2021 7:57pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      You can spin (heh) that both ways. She’s boosting an industry in which she has shares (albeit just one company); or, she has skin in the game by putting her money where her mouth is. Personally, I’d give her (reputation) a pass on this one.
      
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      September 13, 2021 8:01pm
- thirteenstars
  
  Yep, the world has been diverging into two very different blocs for quite some time, one that will go forward economically and dominate the future, and the other which will collapse under the weight of a corrupt ideology becoming nothing more than an (intermittingly) wind-powered shithole.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:08am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Welcome to the socialist south Pacific shit hole, aotearoan.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:43am
    - Ian Boag
      
      You should let go of this “we are all going commo” and “the government just wants to control us” stuff. We all heard you the 99th time …
      
      Sometimes you get a half dozen upticks. Not a lot of “ra ra” posts to follow though.
      
      I think your message has been broadcast pretty thoroughly, but from the lukewarm level of endorsement I would say KB doesn’t look like terribly fertile ground for your (repetitive) message ….
      
      But do keep up the good work 🙂
      
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      September 13, 2021 1:55pm
      - thirteenstars
        
        I don’t think I’ve read a more pointless, pretentious and downright pissy comment on this blog, which is saying something.
        
        Congratulations, you’ve singlehandedly managed to lower the bar without contributing an iota of sense.
        
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        September 13, 2021 3:06pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @thirteen
        you’ve singlehandedly managed to lower the bar without contributing an iota of sense.
        
        OK. I’m sorry – I said something unflattering about another poster. I generally try not to do that. Not the sort of thing we ever see on KB, home of the “elevated bar” and the “iota of sense” ….
        
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        September 13, 2021 3:54pm
      - kloyd0306
        
        You would make greater impact by not posting.
        
        You might try that in future.
        
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        September 13, 2021 7:47pm
Critical Thinker

Please ask yourself

Why are governments requiring vaccination for ALL with an experimental vax, when many have already been infected, recovered, developed natural immunity?

Stop. Think. Why the censorship? Why the mandates? Why the constant propaganda push? Why the push for vaccinating the young, especially when they’re likely more at risk from the vaccine than covid?

Why the push for fascistic vaccine passports? When that would inevitably tear our social fabric asunder, as it already is in the idiotic nations currently attempting it. Especially when we know that those with natural immunity are 20x more immune than the vaxed. While also the vaxed are very likely to spread covid as much as the unvaxed. We are all going to catch the covid flu sooner rather than later, if we haven’t yet already and most likely without knowing.

Why do we see an enormous synchronized push by media and government to label Ivermectin as an unsafe horse medicine when both assertions are clearly false? And why do so many gleefully buy into that media theme? Particularly when “rogue” physicians and nations who practice this early treatment have had outstanding results?

Why have we not had the option to have covid antibody tests? Why has the NZ government not expanded its ICU capacity? Why is it still aiming for the impossible task of zero covid? Why are the lockdowns so arbitrary and nonsensical? Why mandated mask wearing when the masks don’t help stop the spread of viruses?

Stop. Think. Why does our mainstream media not ask these obvious questions? Why have nearly all our mainstream media become the propaganda arm of the government??
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September 13, 2021 8:00am
- Critical Thinker
  
  It seems that many people are now far more afraid of what other people think of them than the virus itself, and have stopped thinking critically about the absolutely batshit insane dystopia we now find ourselves in.
  
  The coronavirus spreads via aerosol. Primarily in poorly ventilated indoor settings, where a symptomatic person is in close proximity with others for an extended period of time. We’ve known this for ages. This is why lockdowns, mask mandates, and stay at home orders are extra stupid, if not downright criminal.
  
  The vast majority of transmission happens indoors – at home, in hospitals, nursing homes, etc. Ventilation and sunlight are key. Thus telling people to stay home (beyond being an infringement on liberty) has made the whole situation much WORSE, and also weakens immune systems immensely.
  
  Apart from being elderly, the 5 other key factors of almost all of those that succumb to covid are:
  
  1) Obesity.
  2) Chronic Anxiety.
  3) Vitamin D deficiency.
  4) Depression.
  5) Close confinement with other people.
  
  Now ask yourself, has the government made a big effort to address these blatantly obvious issues? And allocated a great deal of its emergency resources to them? Or have they actually gone out of their way to make these 5 issues much MUCH worse?
  
  Stop. Think. Why would they go to such great lengths to make the situation worse? ?
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:27am
  - amospicton
    
    Could not agree more CT – our govt has the same issue about being concerned with appearances. Otherwise they should have been telling people to lose weight, stop smoking, and, with respect to anxiety, stop worrying! But no, we’ve had non stop fear porn, thus worsening anxiety.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:01am
    - krazykiwi
      
      I believe the deliberately stoking of fear to increase compliance with the chosen interventions is borderline criminal negligence. We need a Nuremburg 2.0 to establish the truth.
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:28am
  - Ehlana
    
    Hi CT, where did you get your list of key factors from?
    The NZ Ministry of Health talks about underlying health conditions, especially if not well-controlled, (heart, lung, liver, kidney diseases, hypertension and diabetes), as well as ethnicity, obesity and smoking. But nothing about anxiety, Vitamin D or depression. Where did you find reference to those?
    
    I would think anxiety is being both generated and inflamed by current reporting, Vitamin D deficiency is best addressed by going outside and depression will be exacerbated by lockdown and its attendant threats to employment security and business survival.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:42am
    - Littletramp
      
      Hi Ehlana, I know you have just quoted in your post what is said on the NZ MOH site, but did you ask yourself how ethnicity could be a factor?
      Do you really believe that a person who is the same height, weight, age, health profile, profession, diet, habits etc is going to be affected differently depending on whether they are of European, Maori, Chinese, Pacific Island, Australian, South American etc heritage?
      That is the very definition of racist commentary, and the govt is constantly promoting it in large dollops.
      Ethnicity surely has nothing to do with it – it is all about personal responsibility of each individual.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:05am
    - Critical Thinker
      
      – Those with vitamin D deficiency are 5 times at higher risk from COVID-19
      https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33418230/
      
      – People with mood disorders such as depression at higher risk from COVID, study finds
      https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2021-08-14/mood-disorders-and-covid-risk/100371372
      
      – CDC study finds about 78% of people hospitalized for Covid were overweight or obese
      https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/08/covid-cdc-study-finds-roughly-78percent-of-people-hospitalized-were-overweight-or-obese.html
      
      – 94.9% of hospitalised patients had at least 1 underlying medical condition. Essential hypertension (50.4%), disorders of lipid metabolism (49.4%), and obesity (33.0%) were the most common. The strongest risk factors for death were obesity, anxiety and fear-related disorders.
      https://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2021/21_0123.htm
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:12am
  - JohnRidd
    
    You should add zinc deficiency to that list.
    
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yISH-sCvHXU
    
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    September 13, 2021 1:59pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  Megabuck bribery.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:56am
- Spoff
  
  One theory has it that big pharma knows the risk of long term side effects involved and does not want a large unvaccinated population to serve as a control group. Thus if, in say five or ten years time, there is an uptick in cancers, reproductive problems, heart disease etc (as predicted by the inventor of the mRNA procedure Dr Robert Malone), the responsible agent will not be easily identified. It can be attributed to “the environment”.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:32am
peterwn

So some journo said on NewstalkZB that it was ‘not necessary’ to have called out Siouxsie Wiles on her alleged breach of lockdown rules. To add:
It was ‘not necessary’ to have picked on Simon Bridges for his official travel last year (incidentally it seems that all MP’s are now free of travel restrictions).
It was ‘not necessary’ to criticise Judith Collins for insisting that Parliament meets.
It is ‘not necessary’ that James Shaw and hangers on attends that climate conference in UK and in doing so denies valuable MIQ slots badly needed for returning Kiwis (as well as contributing to alleged global warming). He could have attended via ZOOM or similar.
It was ‘not necessary’ to give media $50M payola. The media would have survived without it.
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September 13, 2021 8:01am
- Flossie
  
  There’d be a whole lot of stuff not needing to happen if it were only what was necessary that was acted upon.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:40am
- ClanMcleod
  
  The figure for the media is actually around $300 million. That’s when you factor in the advertising spend along with the bribes, sorry, handouts, sorry bailouts, sorry, totally unconditional financial assistance in difficult times………
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:44am
- Bob
  
  media would have survived without….
  would there be any great loss, if the present media were to fold. Out of the ashes, Phoenix like- may grow an honest factually accurate media. We would all then be better off!
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:53am
  - oldfella
    
    Bob, at least stuffed are still doing honest journalism. Why, they even say so themselves…
    
    Like you, we want the best for Aotearoa and everyone who lives in it. We’re Kiwis who believe in democracy and equality, and we know that those things depend on a free and non-partisan press.
    
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    September 13, 2021 11:24am
krazykiwi

The Eighth Annual Global Exporter Awards

The eighth annual global exporter awards were held in Beijing last week. Once again exporters from all over the world vied for the coveted awards to cement their place in the history of globalization. This year’s theme was “Big, Bold and Brave”, one that was well represented in this year winners.

This year’s Export Innovation award went to China for their new SARS-Cov-2 product. The judges were impressed with China’s demand-side creation, coupled with a truly innovative peer-to-peer distribution strategy and the novel word-of-mouth supply-side augmentation. They were further impressed with the speed with which SARS-CoV-2 was able to penetrate new markets.

The New Market award went to China for their Authoritarianism product. Not content with exporting Authoritarianism to traditional markets in former Soviet states, eastern Europe and Africa, the product management team sought out and succeeded in penetrating one-time liberal democratic holdouts like USA, UK, Germany and even into ideologically challenging countries like Australian and New Zealand.

The Export Success award went to China for their Lockdown product. The judges were impressed with China’s leverage of Western public sector, payrolled scientists, and big tech. They noted that end-user training videos of people falling over in the streets and welding apartment complex doors closed help inspire a whole new breed of aspirational authoritarians with practical uses of the Lockdown product

The Export Collaboration award went to China for their Disinformation product. The judges were impressed with vertical integration achieved across the World Health Organisation, The Centre for Disease Control, the pharmaceutical industry, together with purchasers of their SARS-CoV-2, Authoritarianism and Lockdown products. They noted that this strategically innovative vertical integration was the reason Disinformation moved quickly from one market to the next with little of the usual competitive resistance.

Next year’s awards, and indeed every round of awards for the foreseeable future will be held in Beijing, China.

==ENDS==
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September 13, 2021 8:02am
- Simon
  
  China declared covid over in March 2020. They just got on with it.
  
  China the unlawful country could host globalist gain of function research by western elite. Like that turd Fauci.
  
  Western cretins like Ardern closed the country down and forcing an unsafe & useless ro raxx down everyones throats. The midwit Ardern would do very well in the CCP.
  
  Labo / National both purchased by the CCP. The security services had to step in attempt to reverse this.
  
  China is asshole. Enabled by the utter incompetents running the West.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:32am
I remember when

So here we are.
Another day in ‘No-Man’s-Land’ in the ‘Battle against Covid.’
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September 13, 2021 8:05am
JibberJabber

Tremain will probably get in the shit for this one…
https://twitter.com/RodgerT9/status/1437138376847593472

The woke, as usual, will deliberately miss the point.
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September 13, 2021 8:06am
- Opie
  
  The likeness is incredible…
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:33am
- JJ56
  
  I just see a message that says: ” The following media includes potentially sensitive content.” ….
  
  [Click on ‘View’ to display. Mod.]
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:47pm
  - JJ56
    
    Mod, it was a joke.
    
    [Sorry, I assumed it was you stephie. Mod.]
    
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    September 13, 2021 7:50pm
Matt Long

In Breaking News the CDC advises that people should not take dihydrogen monoxide as as a treatment for Covid 19. “Dihydrogen monoxide is a feed additive for calves, thousand of people around the world die from exposure to dihydrogen monoxide every year,” CDC sources say while mocking conspiracy theorists for drinking stock food. /S
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September 13, 2021 8:09am
- G152
  
  And has worse reactions if its ever watered down >>>>>>
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:22am
- dannz
  
  Further,
  – Dihydrogen monoxide is a common factor in vehicle accidents
  – Being submerged in Dihydrogen monoxide for more than a few minutes is usually fatal
  
  Makes you think, I’m not telling you what to do, just make sure you do your research.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:38am
- Ehlana
  
  In fairness to the CDC Matt, different formulations of the same active ingredient are intended to treat different conditions and will have different side effects, efficacy, etc. Your cat’s food may be tuna, but that doesn’t mean you should put it on your sandwich.
  
  And there’s a vast difference between consuming pure dihydrogen monoxide before driving versus consuming the same active ingredient when formulated with certain disaccharides, terpene hydrocarbons and saccharomyces cerevisiae.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:25am
Critical Thinker

The Great Reset

Our World leaders have seemingly signed us all up to the plan, with its catchphrase, “Build Back Better” with digital ID being the key primer. Unveiled in May 2020 by the World Economic Forum’s James Bond villain Klaus Schwab, the “”Great Reset”” is an ambitious plan to create a “more equal, cashless, integrated, digital and sustainable global society. A new social contract.”

The WEF has acknowledged that issuing citizens with digital ID passports, or certificates of vaccination, could prove “controversial.” But that hasn’t stopped world governments implementing their ideas. With Australia, Canada, France and other newly tyrannical countries banning the “unvaccinated” from most public life. Such moves have been criticised by civil liberties advocates, but those pushing this don’t care right now.

Your vaccine record is just one facet of your digital ID that the architects of the ”Great Reset” want access to. A world where the “unvaccinated” will be excluded from all vital services including digital. The IMF has already gone one step further proposing new AI algorithms to be used to scan a person’s social media posts to determine their credit scores.

“You WILL own nothing. And you WILL be happy.”

Proponents of the “Great Reset” talk about building a more equal, equitable economy after Covid. But if the current trends are anything to go by, that economy looks more like Neo-Feudalism, with a tiny group of billionaires on top and the rest of us serfs at the bottom. Lockdowns have been disastrous for small business owners and that’s exactly the plan, and vaccine passports are set to finish them off. The world’s billionaires, however, are doing spectacularly well right now.

All a coincidence? No. All by design and with lockdowns continuing into 2022/3, there is little indication that this march towards the “Great Reset” dystopia will be reversed any time soon…
https://dailyexpose.co.uk/2021/05/18/build-back-better-a-timeline-of-the-great-reset-agenda/
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September 13, 2021 8:10am
- kowtow
  
  If they want a cashless society they better bring back cheques , how many of our banks are still down and what’s the Media pardy got to say ?
  
  Not much , they get too much advertising revenue from them.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:55am
Yvette

In New Zealand, reputed 18 year old, teenage girl / young woman dies after Pfizer covid vaccination –
comments yesterday mentioned in part “tragic and not reported in NZ media as far as I can tell”, “I cannot understand why you would jab a child with this crap” and “Any media covering this would have their compliance funding withdrawn”, however –

Covid 19 Delta outbreak: Teenager’s death not related to Pfizer jab, Prime Minister says.
… Asked about a specific rumour being spread online that a teenager’s recent death had been linked to the Pfizer vaccine, Ardern said she had been advised there was no such link.
… She advised people to be wary of believing information that came from people who were trying to undermine vaccination efforts.
… Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield added that if there was “any possibility” of such a link, a health professional would have reported it. No such report had been made.

… An unfounded rumour about the student’s death appears to have first popped up on Saturday night and was given a big boost when lawyer and NZ Outdoors Party co-leader Sue Grey, a well-known anti-vaccine activist, posted about it to her followers. [1]
The post attracted over 1400 comments before it was taken down late this morning but has also been cited overseas.
Fact Aotearoa,[2] a group that says it fights conspiracy theories, told the Herald today it has filed complaints against Grey with the New Zealand Law Society as a result of the “cruel and perfidious social media posts”.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-delta-outbreak-teenagers-death-not-related-to-pfizer-jab-prime-minister-says/7CFYHIGX2YYE3ACK3R32HTN424/

So, not only do you have to make a personal decision on whether to be vaccinated or not, you may also need to consider if all Prime Minister Ardern’s or Dr Ashley Bloomfield’s utterances have been “a respectable and acceptable parallel process” (Thank you Winston Peters, for the words, which I trust are completely neutral)

Optional, of course, reference –
[1] (And Counterspinmedia – “Counterspin Media is a facts and evidence based platform. We will cover stories and events that many mainstream media outlets will not … We do not believe in censorship or pushing narratives that reinforce false and misleading information” https://counterspinmedia.com > More About Us)
[2] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Rn-KHzItW10yXkX9GevRpB6DZ4K6nFglIlR8BYBQa1I/edit?fbclid=IwAR1ZU-aBdu7yP76OBmvGqsd6O6nQJsVN4smUUz6jTkmuBn0S3tP5YYH0fI4
( FACT (Fight Against Conspiracy Theories) is an informal group of New Zealand academics, which would seem to be Fact Aotearoa – their email address begins: factaotearoa@
Siouxsie Wiles (microbiologist, University of Auckland), Des Gorman (professor, University of Auckland), Linda-Jean Kenix (professor, University of Canterbury), Ekant Veer (professor, University of Canterbury), and Christian Schott (associate professor, Victoria University) are the first five of it appears 109 medical individuals (excepting: Society for Science Based Healthcare, Humanist Society of New Zealand, New Zealand Association of Rationalists and Humanists, and NZ Skeptics) signing an open letter to “Plan B” saying “Anti-misinformation campaigners call on Covid Plan B members to end their support of Voices for Freedom and to condemn groups promoting conspiracy theories” – and how many know all these factions are out there?)
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September 13, 2021 8:13am
- daisy51
  
  This teenager’s death was reported in a South African newspaper, see https://www.latestnewssouthafrica.com/2021/09/11/isabella-alexander-nz-death-13-year-old-student-from-ponsonby-auckland-dies-shortly-after-receiving-experimental-jab/
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:29pm
greybeard

Anyone seen “Stuff” this morning?
Full-blown idiocy.
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September 13, 2021 8:17am
- krazykiwi
  
  Stuff has all the allure of something one might find on the side of their shoe.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:21am
- westernScientest
  
  I dont know, I thought for once they were showing something that resembled balance, two articles next to each other, one claiming NZ will more down in lock down levels, the other claiming we wont….
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:23am
  - Ruawai
    
    I am so over this Government enforced lockdown. No social interaction, businesses going to hit the wall, my daughter can’t attend her school just across the border even though it is open and she has been isolating for 3 weeks at home on a farm with less risk than coming out of MIQ. All because the Govt didn’t get onto vaccinating earlier and now they want elimination again. Why they can’t the Govt be a bit more proactive and open some parts of Auckland eg North of the Harbour bridge and South of Papakura and West Auckland.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:28am
- Stellaboxer
  
  I try to avoid it actually. Do the quiz occasionally.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:25am
- WaveyDavey
  
  What in particular?
  
  It’s so hard to tell
  
  Ah. As you were: It’s MLW time
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:26am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  gb – I find $tuff to be a very reliable source for disinformation reference links.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:39am
- MCos
  
  You’ll need to be more specific.
  Their articles look standard enough. What are you hoping for?
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:41am
  - MCos
    
    Do you prefer the NZ Herald
    
    “Expert says Auckland to stay in level 4 and blames rule breakers for longer lockdown”
    
    “Wānaka escape for Auckland couple condemned”
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:55am
    - Ruawai
      
      I would say the Wanaka couple are very low risk and terrible state we are in with people dobbing people in to the state.
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:44am
      - MCos
        
        You mean like Cameron Slater dobbing in Dr Wiles?
        
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        September 13, 2021 10:04am
      - Ed Snack
        
        If you can’t see the difference between an effective state official blatantly breaking rules that would see anyone else publicly shamed and prosecuted and an “ordinary” NZ’er evading a foolish set of restrictions, then we have an opening for you in the new government organisation being setup, Kiwistazi.
        
        Please check online for enlistment details complete with a sample form to snitch on your neighbours without being identified.
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:04am
      - JibberJabber
        
        Dunno if I’d call pointing out Hypocrisy as “dobbing in” but hey MCos, you be you.
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:26am
      - The Housekeeper
        
        MCos, I am unaware of the Wanaka couple pontificating about the necessity of not speaking to your neighbours and wearing a mask outside at all times. If they have, they are big, fat hypocrites too.
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:36am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Turns out this entitled douche-bag is “the son of a high-ranking public official”
        
        Could it really be that there’s one rule for the elite, and several thousand others for we great unwashed?
        
        https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/09/covid-19-man-who-allegedly-crossed-auckland-border-flew-to-wanaka-is-the-son-of-a-high-ranking-public-official.html
        
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        September 13, 2021 4:19pm
      - miltonF
        
        Any bets on who the “high ranking official” parent is? I dibs Green Party MP.
        
        [While name suppression status is unclear, please no naming here until the situation is clear. Mod.]
        
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        September 13, 2021 5:09pm
  - krazykiwi
    
    I’d like to see more
    – balance
    – independence
    – critical thought
    – holding the government to account
    – honesty about racial divisiveness
    – actual investigative reporting
    – willingness promote open debate
    
    I could go on … but you get the drift.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:01am
    - MCos
      
      Your second point viz independence.
      They can print what they like.
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:44am
      - marcw
        
        Um no. They have a $105 million financial restraint.
        
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        September 13, 2021 12:13pm
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Did you wake up today with your eyes closed MCos? You seem a bit grumpy for some reason.
        
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        September 13, 2021 4:20pm
- oldgolfer
  
  Again?
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:06pm
Simon

900 reported cases of the ro. Must be at least 1,000 cases. 1 death with someone who had the ro at time of death. That person was 91.

(And the ro went through the very fat of sth Auckland.)

Is that it?
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September 13, 2021 8:18am
- Cinematic
  
  I’ve been musing over this too. Would be hard to find an unhealthier population centre than south Auckland.
  
  Yet just one death and as I’ve said earlier a very very low cost death from a public health perspective.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:56am
  - cmm
    
    A 91yo with significant preexisting conditions. Chances are she’d not have seen the end of the year anyway.
    
    Funny how the 18yo girl that died after a jab was definitely nothing to do with the vaccine, but a 91 yo popping her clogs was definitely CV19.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:31am
    - doggone7
      
      Funny how the people dealing with it say what they say from personally dealing with the situations and those who know nothing but what they’ve read in the media put up contrary narratives and expect their story to be accepted as the true oil.
      
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      September 13, 2021 11:37am
    - Paulus
      
      MY US cousin died recently in Arizona statistically from Virus.
      He was 89 and suffered for years in a home, with Parkinsons.
      
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      September 13, 2021 2:16pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Yeah, but either way the Delta is not exactly swatting them like flies
      
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      September 13, 2021 8:07pm
- RockyJ
  
  Simon, the real risk, I mean the political risk, is that the sick pile up outside our hospital ICU units. These are already full. Angry Andrew Little has been spending his extra health budget on setting up his apartheid health system when he has had 18 months to invest in increasing our ICU capacity. This is nearly half the capacity of Australia on a per head of population basis. It is the real scandal of our government’s slack response to Covid.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:17am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Correct Rocky. Our number of ICU beds per capita is the second-fewest in the OECD.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:26am
    - MCos
      
      That’s the situation we’re in for whatever reason and the upshot is without maximum vaccinations it’s going to bite us in the bum if the bug gets away on us right now.
      Even if we had twice as many ICU beds they’d fill up in no time if things got out of hand.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:38am
      - RockyJ
        
        If we had twice as many ICU units we would have caught up to Australia per head of pop. Germany has proportionally about 10 times what we have
        
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        September 13, 2021 1:04pm
      - MCos
        
        https://www.dw.com/en/covid-icu-bed-shortage-in-germany-is-imminent-doctors-warn/a-57150437
        
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        September 13, 2021 3:10pm
  - Flossie
    
    A friend was due for a long awaited operation the day after Level 4 was called. His condition is not life threatening, but his quality of life is not great due to the level of his pain. He’s assured he’ll be right up there once it’s possible but small comfort for him just now.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:45am
    - cmm
      
      Tell him it’s the thought that matters.
      
      These delays are having a terrible impact on slowing down treatment – some of which are leading to significant shortening of life (eg. some cancer patients that got missed).
      
      I had my cardiologist checks delayed by 4 months. During this time I was kept on nasty (and expensive) precautionary meds that I really did not need. In my case the delays didn’t cause any damage, but for many they did.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:35am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Too busy spending $500m (count it, troopers!) on rejigging the health sector corporate structures. I mean, mashing together the DHBs & PHOs is possibly a good idea, but in the middle of a global pandemic?
    
    Andrew Little, you are a moron; or an idealogue; or both.
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:10pm
- Ruawai
  
  Agreed the negative impacts of the lockdown are far worse than covid.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:46am
artemisia

Over the weekend a Herald opinion piece by Bruce Cotterill ‘Local media need to find their teeth again’.

He is not exactly a lightweight. Actually nothing close to a lightweight. Item is paywalled but this sentence is a summary.

“The glee with which the media reported misbehaviours at a law firm or shenanigans at a sporting organisation needs to be applied to our elected officials.”
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September 13, 2021 8:22am
- kowtow
  
  Problem is they apply it to the Opposition , not the govt .
  
  As predicted today’s Herald cartoon attacks Collins , again. While stuffed have a go at national , but for a change the target is Reti .
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:51am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Here’s the guts of Cotterill’s piece:
  
  And there is no doubt in my mind that this Government, as it lurches from clumsy mistakes to avoidable crises, is currently getting an easy ride from the majority of the media operators.
  
  The organisation that publishes this newspaper is the closest we have to an exception.
  
  Through the efforts of a number of radio broadcasters on Newstalk ZB and some of the print journalists and columnists in the New Zealand Herald and its affiliate publications, there is a semblance of a balance at least.
  
  There are some right-wing opinions and of course there are some Government supporters in the mix too, and that’s okay. It’s about balance. However beyond that, I sense that the NZ media are letting us down. In particular the two television news channels are serving up sympathetic reportage, rather than proactive investigation, on a daily basis.
  
  A free and independent press is a critically important foundation to any democracy.
  
  Without it, governments can go unchecked and the rule of law will suffer. One only has to see the events in Hong Kong over the last two years to see the impact on a society where the influence of the press has been extinguished.
  
  Sadly, our media does not appear to be as independent and free as we should prefer.
  
  We seem to show a lot of photos of the Prime Minister smiling and the opposition leader frowning. As noted, our television news broadcasts are the worst offenders. We have developed a trend of sending the latest crop of bright young things, some fresh out of journalism school, out to report on what they see and hear.
  
  But reporting what you see and hear is not journalism. Journalism involves questioning what you see and hear. Is it true? Is it right? Who did it? Who said it? Why do you think that? Where is the supporting information and evidence?
  
  That’s what we’re missing.
  
  When a prime minister — or any government minister for that matter — says something, the reporter’s job is not solely to report on what has been said. First you need to check the facts. If the facts are right, report it. If the facts are not right, ask why and find the truth. We need both sides of the story.
  
  Have you noticed that our politicians have a couple of favourite answers to questions?
  
  They’re either “exploring their options” or “looking into it”. A decent journalist would ask what those options might be or what they might be looking at. But we don’t. We let them move on to the next question. Off the hook, again.
  
  Last year, the Prime Minister gave up her regular Monday morning slot on Newstalk ZB, one of the few media commitments where she was regularly and rightly grilled on matters relating to the Government’s performance.
  
  She replaced that with a series of light-hearted romps around the music radio stations where she discusses everything but the performance of the Government and answers questions about what she had for breakfast and what she did on the weekend.
  
  I recently spoke to a senior journalist based in Wellington. He is someone whose opinions and writing I respect. I asked why the questions from the press gallery didn’t seek to dig deeper into what are often flippant answers from our government ministers. He simply said the following; “If you are too tough, you don’t get invited back”.
  
  What he meant was that those who are being selected to ask questions of ministers are those who ask the soft questions. If you want to ask tough questions, you don’t get invited to do so.
  
  Some call this censorship of the press. I call it a denial of access. If the media is threatened with a lack of access, or in other words, if access is used as a negotiating tool or a bargaining chip, then we have a challenge to our democracy that is greater than anything we have had to previously consider.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/bruce-cotterill-local-media-need-to-find-their-teeth-again/RB2EERPJ7KEFIULKOWPYQJYPTE/
  
  A few will disagree vehemently with Cotterill’s opinion, but I believe most will agree with his assessment of the current media situation. We need a media willing to ask the tough questions of the Government, not just of the Opposition.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:20am
  - RalphT
    
    Well I don’t disagree with Cotterill’s opinion. I would go further and call the media corrupt, for refusing to ask the hard questions for fear of being denied their few minutes in the spotlight (journalistic baubles as Winston would no doubt have said).
    
    Ps. And that’s not counting the $105 million corruption.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:55am
    - Paulus
      
      But the so called media do not care if they are called and are corrupt.
      It is what is expected of them to try and sell papers.
      
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      September 13, 2021 2:19pm
  - Muttonbird
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    I thought it was total rubbish.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:43am
    - oldfella
      
      So, Mutton, you refude that? Okay.
      
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      September 13, 2021 12:31pm
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      Of course you would.
      You seem to have occupied a niche which was vacated by Stephieboy; collector of downticks.
      Your posts might be better grammatically, but are uniformly of no positive contribution, and normally seem of mischievous intent.
      
      Still not sure what happened to SB2.
      He was an idiot, but he was OUR idiot.
      
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      September 13, 2021 12:40pm
    - Yabster
      
      Muttonbird thinks its rubbish- couldn’t be a better endorsement for the opinion….
      
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      September 13, 2021 1:18pm
  - JJ56
    
    When I was boy if reporters were denied access they doubled down on their other sources. The problem seems to be this isn’t supported from their editors these days.
    
    There is a cultural shift where acceptable form is preferred over substance. Key had the right moves for a key demographic, and so does Ardern.
    
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    September 13, 2021 7:10pm
exkiwi

So in the US where I currently reside, estimates of actual numbers of SC2 infections compared to diagnosed infections over the course of the pandemic have varied, but the CDC states that from February 2020–May 2021 they estimate that about 1 in 4 cases were being detected. With Delta, however, some commentators have suggested that the detection rate is lower given milder symptoms in younger populations etc., with Scott Gottlieb stating this summer that the US is only picking up 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 infections.

I imagine NZ’s current rate of detection is higher than 1 in 4, but I don’t see much public discussion of this issue in the NZ media. Covid rates are presented as if nearly all cases are being diagnosed. Does anyone have any information about this? What is the actual rate of infection compared to diagnosed? Is there any serology testing to track infections at the population level, and compensate?

I also wonder, given the use of mandatory MIQ stays for the infected, how many people are not getting tested right now who have mild symptoms, but are just riding it out at home and keeping it quiet. Isn’t there an incentive not to get tested, even with the prospects of fines or whatever they do to the non-compliant?

Maybe some Kiwibloggers have some information about this that they could share.
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September 13, 2021 8:22am
- Cinematic
  
  I would say a healthy majority would choose to ride it out.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:58am
  - Ehlana
    
    Having to go into a quarantine facility is hardly an incentive to get a test if you think you might be positive.
    At home you have a familiar and comfortable environment. Most people probably have their own outdoor space (garden) and many will have pets (therapy for the whole family). Contactless grocery delivery is feasible and if your symptoms are mild (like most colds and flus), what is the gain from quarantine?
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:15am
- MCos
  
  There was the same discussion when we were in Level 4 last year. There was plenty of conjecture on social media that there must be a lot of undetected cases out there.
  Eventually the numbers dwindled away and stayed at zero.
  The advantage is that every contact is tracked down and infected people are taken out of circulation. If either of those falter the system struggles.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:12am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  There is no general Covid-serology testing being undertaken in NZ to ascertain status of public infection rate in NZ.
  There needs to be a very specific reason for an individual to have a serology test in NZ.
  
  COVID-19 serology is currently available in diagnostic laboratories in New Zealand as a test that requires microbiologist approval.
  
  https://www.nzma.org.nz/journal-articles/covid-19-serology-use-and-interpretation-in-new-zealand-open-access
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:26am
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    The sewage testing tells you where COVID is active. Basically none in most of New Zealand, and for that matter in North Shore and West Auckland.
    
    So I don’t think there will be hardly any undetected COVID.
    
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    September 13, 2021 2:08pm
Stellaboxer

The next time we have an Act National government the very first thing they should do in my opinion is defund RNZ sell or dispose of TVNZ and close down NZ on air. Next day repeal any speech laws , defund university courses outside STEM and enshrine the Bill of Rights into stone.
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September 13, 2021 8:23am
- MCos
  
  I note you wait until after you cancel RNZ before repealing speech laws.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:15am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Yes why pay your enemies
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:12pm
- curry4me
  
  Stellaboxer: All of that is possible except the last one, as it’s need a 2/3 maority of parliament. They could staff the HRC withpeople who support negative rights though. And drop the Race Relations Conciliator position. It’s anything but. I’d add, closing Waikato, and Massey. Then make Ak Poly tech revert back to that from a uni.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:21am
- jon
  
  Ah revenge would be so sweet!
  
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  September 13, 2021 12:45pm
G152

I see the orange haired one can break her regimes laws with impunity but a couple with permission to travel from Soviet Auckland to the freedom of New Zealand (and do) are going to be pilloried ….
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September 13, 2021 8:24am
- Ehlana
  
  I thought she was pink haired, though I haven’t seen her lately to be sure.
  
  Isn’t the orange haired one the former US president?
  If pink hair becomes orange, will orange hair become pink?
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:16am
  - kowtow
    
    In our new normal upside down world it could well be . evidence being Dr Blofeld saying swimming is not swimming.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:27am
- Loddenthinks
  
  The couple did not have permission to travel to the place they travelled, for the purpose they travelled. They are entitled douche bags, which given the man is the son of a high-ranking public official, is of no surprise to anyone.
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:40pm
  - JibberJabber
    
    “Permission”
    
    Ok, Commissar Loddy, your mentor Lavrentiy Beria would prescribe for them a bullet to the back of the neck after a short stay in Lubyanka, do you concur?
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:46pm
ecco

I see Ardern is hiding behind her ‘experts’ again ie Hendy, Wiles and Baker, to signal in her NZ media outlets, that she’s going to keep Auckland in a stranglehold for yet a longer period.

Pretty predictable behaviour. She’ll never get to the zero cases she’s putting out there, nor the even 70% vaccination rate she’ll say she’s aiming for, when push comes to shove. Getting utterly sick of this behaviour, would be laughable except for the economic and psychological destruction she’s wreeking on the biggest driver of the NZ economy, ie Auckland.

I’m guessing it’s a small number of her voters that are transgressing, however increasingly more sane constituents couldn’t give a damn about her draconian rules any more.
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September 13, 2021 8:34am
- MCos
  
  It was Scott Morrison who set the 70% vaccine rate, note Jacinda Ardern.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:20am
- Ruawai
  
  More and more people I talk to say they are feeling in a dark space with this lockdown and no end in sight, very hard on young people especially.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:53am
  - kowtow
    
    The young should be the ones out and about , living, working, studying ; the science shows this thing is nothing to them .
    
    It’s the old and vulnerable who should be quarantined , if they’re so inclined .
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:29am
    - Suze Wainwright
      
      That’s why the comms around Deadly Delta has to be so expertly constructed and disseminated…
      
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      September 13, 2021 11:11am
  - Charmaine Hawke
    
    I know of one person who committed suicide on day 1 and all my Auckland friends are saying this one is so much harder to cope with.
    How long before we say enough I wonder?
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:31am
    - MCos
      
      In Thailand where there is no support from the government to speak of, numerous people involved with the tourism industry have killed themselves because the borders have been closed.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:56am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    I agree although it’s noteworthy that my son and his friends have completely rejected Labour and have embraced ACT I kid you not . They call it Jacinda remorse.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:16pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  “The worse, the better”
  
  – Some early 20th century Soviet communist. 🙂
  
  I guess I’m very insulated from all this so can shrug my shoulders at Adern’s ongoing Zero-Covid insanity in Auckland. But to be fair I’ve tried to explain to people the costs (there are always costs when there are benefits), but since most apparently don’t care I say let ‘er rip.
  
  Admittedly this leaves a bigger mess for National to clean up but that’s as much as they want to do anyway. Get the debt down a bit, shrink the government payroll (but not the number of institutions), and some other fiddling.
  
  It paves the way for more of this from Labour-Greens after the 2032 0r 2035 election.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:57am
- Paulus
  
  Remember Wiles is under the PM office for protection less it spoil her expected high list seat.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:21pm
pdm

I have been indisposed for about a week and came home yesterday. While scrolling through my regular blog reading to catch up I see Cactus Cate has her Asian Invasion site down – is this permanent?
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September 13, 2021 8:34am
- JibberJabber
  
  Looks like it.
  On reflection, I think she has probably shut it down herself.
  Over the last few weeks she seemed to be getting increasingly agitated and I think she’s just thought “f#*k it” and has had enough.
  I’m sure she would have let people know if she had been shut down by the powers that be.?
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:14am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Let’s hope so!
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:11pm
JibberJabber

Yeah, what Sam says…

https://twitter.com/GgleyI/status/1436924118352351232/photo/1

You wanna see my Vaxx Passport or my money?
Cos’ ya can’t see both.
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September 13, 2021 8:38am
- Benedict Yu
  
  They won’t care. Restaurants will market themselves as only accepting vaccinated diners. And the vaccinated diners who make up 80 percent of the population will only go to those restaurants. As for gyms, bars and airplanes forget it.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:59am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Benedict, are you happy to get jabbed every six months in order to sustain a ‘vaccinated’ status? Are you happy for the state to centrally administer and publish this status?
    
    For me the answers are No, and No.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:05am
    - Benedict Yu
      
      The first won’t happen. We will all get COVID and we will have natural immunity. We might need a third booster.
      
      But for the next two to five years you will need to be vaccinated to do just about anything except go for a walk. I want to go to restaurants and use airplanes. It is as simple as that.
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:14am
      - Cinematic
        
        Where is the international support for these passports you often refer to? I see some efforts that are falling apart.
        
        Who’s checking my passport when I wander into my local for an ale? Answer, no one is BY.
        
        Enforcement is possible in limited instances eg international travel. But it breaks down completely in other situations, take appearing at a District Court for example, vaccine or no vaccine you’ll be required to be there.
        
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        September 13, 2021 9:28am
      - All_on_Red
        
        The UK have just announced they won’t be introducing Vaccine Passports.
        Here’s the Minister
        https://order-order.com/2021/09/12/javid-confirms-vaccine-passports-are-being-scrapped/
        
        He’s also said, ‘no more lockdowns’
        
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        September 13, 2021 9:44am
      - cmm
        
        For 2 to 5 years? Naah.
        
        Most likely the checking will just fade away. It’s just too much effort.
        
        The only way that is happening is if the restaurants are subject to Stazi-like raids of police demanding papers (like they do to check for underage drinking etc).
        
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        September 13, 2021 9:46am
      - Ruawai
        
        We may end up having covid parties a bit like in the 1970’s when parents would invite kids over to get their kids to catch chicken pox when young so they are immune when older and the disease is more serious.
        
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        September 13, 2021 9:55am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        OK. If we take international travel, you won’t be able to travel to most countries without being vaccinated, so for me and most people that means I have to be vaccinated.
        
        As for your local pub, it is unlikely to be regulated by the government (but that is uncertain). However, I am predicting that many venues will market themselves as for only being for vaccinated patrons. Personally, I would only visit such venues. So it will make business sense to prohibit unvaccinated people from entering.
        
        I don’t know how this will pan out and neither do you. But if you are unvaccinated you will simply not face a business as usual life.
        
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        September 13, 2021 9:56am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        “The only way that is happening is if the restaurants are subject to Stazi-like raids of police demanding papers”
        
        I agree which is why the restaurants will do the enforcing. It will be in their interests. Why would they allow unvaccinated people to enter if they lose vaccinated customers by doing so?
        
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        September 13, 2021 9:59am
      - Taieri
        
        Why would they allow unvaccinated people to enter if they lose vaccinated customers by doing so?
        ———————
        
        Why lose any customers? I’m fully vaccinated but would not go to a place that discriminates on the basis of a vaccination status. One has principles for a reason.
        
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        September 13, 2021 10:50am
      - NoFax
        
        Benedict – Like yourself, the only reason I got the vaccine was because I want to travel overseas and at this stage most countries will require vaccinations for the next few years. However, this is not based on logic.
        
        If our country is vaccinated (70%+) we know regardless that we will all get Covid. Therefore, what does it matter if a person who gave you Covid is vaccinated or not? I am vaccinated but I could have Covid and pass it on How is that any different than if I was unvaccinated. Same with a restaurant that will only allow in vaccinated patrons. What does it matter if I get Covid from that restaurant or that supermarket? Once everyone is vaccinated then it makes no difference where and from whom we get Covid as we will all get Covid.
        
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        September 13, 2021 10:58am
      - Ed Snack
        
        Might need a third ? That’s extremely optimistic of you Benedict. The talk is of 4-6 monthly boosters, as an ongoing program.
        
        Unless we develop actual vaccines instead of therapeutic injections.
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:11am
      - Inandout
        
        BY, in your endeavour to be served by ‘clean’ waiters you care not if they have hidden communicable diseases? And the fellow diners of course must be up to your standards, and then there are the kitchens. My God if you only knew what went on back there you would stick with fast food outlets.
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:13am
      - krazykiwi
        
        The first won’t happen.
        
        Of course, I hope you are right. I’m sure the Israeli people who accepted the social contract of a double-jab in return for the Green Pass were a little disappointed when their government reneged and told them they’d need to be jabbed indefinitely if they ever plan on going to a supermarket.
        
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        September 13, 2021 2:23pm
    - WaveyDavey
      
      Happy? No
      
      Will I accept it in order to have a life? Yes
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:47am
  - JibberJabber
    
    Just shows you how freedom is wasted on the free, how quickly you give up your rights for the illusion of safety.
    It’s all been one massive exercise in compliance as evidenced by the UK canning the passport scam.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:09am
    - kowtow
      
      Are we even really a “free” people when our rights can be so easily negated ?
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:33am
      - krazykiwi
        
        No, we are not. There needs to be a substantially higher bar to protect sacrosanct civil liberties from abuse at the hands of a basic majority.
        
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        September 13, 2021 6:20pm
    - krazykiwi
      
      Don’t let anyone tell you this welcome move was a result of their vaccination rate.
      
      It wasn’t.
      
      The UK people have been slowly but surely ignoring the restrictions en masse, a type of societal passive aggressiveness writ large. In short, Boris is losing the people and he knows this means his political skin is on the line. Not surprising really, as he romped in on the most conservative/liberal ticket, and then morphed into the most authoritarian PM in living memory.
      
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      September 13, 2021 6:18pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Yeah, the Brits have form with that sort of thing. Whether it’s chopping the King’s head off, celebrating Dunkirk or voting for & seeing through Brexit, they march to the best of their own drum.
        
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        September 13, 2021 8:21pm
  - Critical Thinker
    
    That’s not how it’s playing out in the idiotic countries that are attempting this domestic vaccine passport lunacy. As most vaccinated people are not fascists.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HkahNAewmk
    
    They will not be happy with having an authoritarian segregated society over a virus with such an incredibly high survival rate. And most people still value freedom and basic human rights. Especially for their family members and peers, as a significant number of them will either not go along with this digital ID system, refuse the vaccines or refuse perpetual booster shots.
    
    And the whole domestic vaccine passport is absurd on its face, when we know that the vaccinated will be spreading the virus to everyone anyway ?
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:23am
  - 70andstilllearning
    
    And as long as the need of a passport for service is left to businesses to decide (non-mandated), as the PM is currently suggesting, there will be a market opportunity for non-passport holders to be catered for. Personally I don’t think it will remain voluntary, anymore than I think dissenting local bodies will be permitted to remain outside of the 3 waters regime if what Mahuta wouldn’t say on Q+A yesterday is anything to go by.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:35am
  - westernScientest
    
    It is much more likely the government will force it on them, they same as they did with contact tracing. Until it was mandatory, other than in L4, how many places had anyone checking you had signed in, and turning people who refused away?
    
    I cant see anything other than a niche business case, people will largely fall into two camps, the ones that wont care, and the ones that wont go out anyway. Unless of course there is a concerted paid media campaign to make people hate the unvacced, but it would be easier just to make them mandatory, hence why I think that govt will make them mandatory, rather than give businesses the choice.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:39am
ecco

Is anyone else having issues with Kiwiblog website today? I can only access it on the chrome browser not safari. On safari when I hover over anything on kiwiblog it is unresponsive like it is locked. I’ve tried reloading the page. I am able to access all the other webpages I use regularly on safari browser.
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September 13, 2021 8:39am
- dcrane
  
  I normally use Firefox but just opened it in Safari and it seems to behave normally.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:51am
  - Nickc2
    
    Down the bottom of a page notifying you of a posting, you will see a link to SUBSCRIPTIONS. Select that and clear all subscribed to postings. It worked for me.
    
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    September 13, 2021 12:21pm
I remember when

NS Energy: 30 March 2021: Germany – 62.85GW:
Germany Europe’s leading wind power user – with 55 GW on shore and 7.7 GW offshore.
Wind power supplied 27% of Germany’s electricity in 2020, with 103 terawatt hours (TWh) onshore and 27 TWh offshore.
Policymakers plan to have 71 GW onshore by 2030 and 20 GW installed offshore.
In 2020 Germany added 1.67 GW of new wind capacity.
Offshore installations slowed considerably compared to 2019.
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September 13, 2021 8:51am
- cmm
  
  The think about wind is that it is not dispatchable (ie. available on demand).
  
  Nobody can control when the wind blows. The power station manager can’t say: “Ok, let’s spin up turbine X”.
  
  When they say how much they are installing, that’s the NAMEPLATE capacity – ie this is how much it can generate under perfect conditions (right amount of wind).
  
  Depending on location, wind’s average output is typically 10-20% of nameplate capacity. Thus, the 1.6GW is really only worth about 400MW – less than a single coal or nuke generator.
  
  Worse yet, it needs some dispatchable generation for backing (ie. something to turn on when the wind isn’t blowing).
  
  Germany gets most of its dispatchable generation by importing from the rest of Europe.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:42am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    When they say how much they are installing, that’s the NAMEPLATE capacity – ie this is how much it can generate under perfect conditions (right amount of wind).
    
    Incredible that most people don’t know this but that’s due to four things:
    
    – most people don’t even have a basic STEM education.
    
    – most people don’t read about this stuff themselves.
    
    – The MSM either don’t know or don’t care because “New 100Mw wind farm” sounds awesome.
    
    – No politicians point this out, which they would have to do continually to force mention in the media.
    
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    September 13, 2021 11:02am
  - virtualmark
    
    One problem we have in NZ is lots of people look to overseas electricity markets as a model, but don’t understand that many of those markets have inter-connectors to other countries/markets that we don’t, and can’t, have.
    
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    September 13, 2021 1:01pm
Benedict Yu

I was reading in the media this morning about how the government wants a million Maori speakers by 2040.

I’m sceptical. I looked at how many New Zealanders speak Maori competently. That is can hold a conversation. Not just a few words that can be thrown in to pidgin English

So here are the numbers from the censuses.

2001… 4 percent

2006 …. 4 percent

2013….. 3.7 percent

2018….. 4 percent

I see a trend.

Learning a second language requires a high level of motivation. Really really high. If you are a New Zealander who learns Spanish or Chinese or Japanese the benefits are considerable. Business opportunities and cultural and travel opportunities.

If you learn Maori you can impress your woke white friends or participate in Maori hui. That explains why the numbers are stuck at 4 percent.

I am motivated to learn Japanese but I struggle to find the time and energy. The chances of me being motivated enough to learn Maori are exactly zero. And looking at the census data I am not alone.
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September 13, 2021 8:56am
- Odakyu-sen
  
  Of the 4% who can speak Maori competently, what percentage would be able to call up and describe a fault with their electric kettle, and then order the correct spare part? (In Te Reo, to Te Reo-speaking sales staff.)
  
  I am not concerned with the percentage who can give a speech in Te Reo at a Maori wedding.
  
  I am interested in the use of Te Reo to solve basic, everyday, practical problems.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:07am
  - westernScientest
    
    does Te Reo even have the necessary linguistic capacity to do that?
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:41am
    - Odakyu-sen
      
      Give the academics in Wellington enough time, and it will have (in theory).
      
      Look that the petrol pumps at your local Mobil gas station. They all have Te Reo labels on the different fuels, just so that you’ll know. I wonder who coined all these new words?
      Ref: https://www.exxonmobil.com.au/Community-engagement/Local-outreach/New-Zealand-community-news/2020/Mobil-New-Zealand-team-celebrates-Te-Wiki-o-Te-Reo-Maori
      
      Let’s get Woke and go broke!
      What’s not to like!
      
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      September 13, 2021 9:57am
      - Tom Hunter
        
        Give the academics in Wellington enough time, and it will have (in theory).
        
        Haha. The French have thrown huge resources at this over the last few decades and still have not been able to stop barbarian invaders like “Le Weekend”.
        
        Fuck ’em, given all the French words incorporated into English following the 1066 invasion. 🙂
        
        WRT Maori one of the reasons I stopped studying at high school was that I didn’t want to learn any languages aside from BASIC, FORTRAN, C, etc. 🙂
        
        But the second reason was that I was not keen on the bloody pidgin English employed. So “Nuclear Bomb” was “Nuki Bomba” (I think?). I complained about that to our teacher Mr Mangu (yes, really), telling him that it should be some new word that translated into “The Light Of A Thousand Suns” or some such. I expected bloody poetry! He just laughed and told me that if and when I became a Maori scholar I could get my butt in gear and do the job.
        
        Sorry, Mr Mangu!
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:11am
    - cmm
      
      Non-written languages tend to lack precision. There are typically fewer words that mean a whole lot of things and the definition of the words is very fuzzy. When you want to have a very precise, detailed discussion it becomes difficult.
      
      Take for example “waka”. That’s supposed to be a canoe, but it can also be a boat or other transport device.
      
      What do words like “mana” really mean?
      
      If a language lacks precision, the ideas and thinking in that language tend to lack precision too.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:09am
      - Odakyu-sen
        
        That’s right. Words are merely symbols for concepts.
        
        That’s why its easy for a Japanese machinist working at DMG Mori Seiki to communicate with his American counterpart because apart from the words, their underlying mental processes (in the field of engineering) are the same.
        
        The words are a minor issue. The real problem is the underlying worldview and fundamental concepts that the parties use.
        
        Are we beginning to see the problems Te Reo is facing in this world?
        
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        September 13, 2021 10:17am
    - Nickc2
      
      Te Reo is the new Maori language. This means that when there is no Maori word for an English word, one is invented.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:12am
      - Gravelroad
        
        @Nickc2:
        Ever heard of Miraka Kirimi – Hua O Aotearoa?
        Inmate here says he is never going to buy it again!
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:04am
      - Nickc2
        
        Gravelroad @ 11:04AM
        
        UHT MILK. Miraka (Milk). As for Aotearoa, Nu Tirani was the original name (or whatever) for the land Maori occupied, hence it is used in the TOW.
        There is no mention of Aotearoa (a subsequently allocated word) in the TOW as you no doubt know.
        
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        September 13, 2021 11:55am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Invented – yes. There is an entire team at the Māori Language Commission dedicate to this task. I know one of them!
        
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        September 13, 2021 2:31pm
      - Cobolt24
        
        Aotearoa was first used as the name of the country in a fictional story of Kupe by William Pember Reeves in 1890 I think it was. Even $1uff acknowledged this recently.
        Te Reo has been around for quite a while but itself is an amalgamation of many different dialects from different tribes. As it was not written it had the tendency to change quickly.
        
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        September 13, 2021 4:40pm
    - Gravelroad
      
      @ western-
      I recall going to a Billy T. James dinner and show once where he talked about the Maori people’s (alleged) fondness for Ahi Creamy – which, as most of us now know is a white colonist import deliberately let loose on vulnerable people to negatively impact their health.
      However, according to Mr James at the time, this Ahi Creamy was helluva popular with his people.
      As we sat eating our ice cream desserts we all wondered what this Ahi Creamy was, but didn’t like to appear ignorant by having to ask……..
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:24am
      - Gravelroad
        
        Replying to Nickc2 above:
        A very popular NZ chocolate company has re-branded one of its best selling bars (Creamy Milk) as
        miraka Kirimi.
        I didn’t realise our indigenous/first people had access to various chocolate flavours back in the day.
        Not to mention milk from all those terrible, environment wrecking cows ?
        
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        September 13, 2021 2:25pm
      - Nickc2
        
        Gravelroad @ 2:25PM
        Yes, they just make it up as they go.
        
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        September 13, 2021 2:43pm
- RockyJ
  
  Yeah but Benedict that is not a goal, it’s an aspiration. Remember one hundred thousand houses, one billion trees, zero road deaths?
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:12am
- cmm
  
  It really comes down to what they mean by “speaking Maori”. Perhaps they really mean being able to count to 10 and a few other “the cat sat on the mat” stuff.
  
  Like Benedict, I can speak many languages. To really speak a different language you really need to flip over into thinking in that language.
  
  Words are symbols and we use symbols in our thinking. Without symbols we have difficulty constructing ideas. Different languages have different words and can thus convey different ideas.
  
  There really is little point learning Maori unless you want to communicate with people who cannot speak English (none) or if you want to “think Maori”.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:13am
  - Nickc2
    
    Those identifying as Maori speaking to like Maori in Te Reo doesn’t phase me one bit. What really gives me the shits is people talking to each other (usually in a mixed-gender/race crowd) in English and dropping in the odd Te Reo word and/or phrase.
    To me, it’s just Virtue Signalling and look at me, look at me (FIGJAM) stuff. Radio and TV Talking Heads take note.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:35am
    - RichardF
      
      Its popular to sign off emails with ‘ngā mihi’ at my work. It translates to ‘acknowledgements’ but you’d never write that, would you? I use it as a useful guide to identify and avoid woke colleagues. So I guess it is quite helpful!?
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:45am
      - Nickc2
        
        Doesn’t “yea, kin-oth bro” mean the same thing?
        
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        September 13, 2021 12:48pm
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        Same here, and encouraged to used pronouns in signatures, to show support for rainbow colleagues.
        Nope and nope.
        Don’t care if someone is gay or not. Just care what sort of person they are. And I consider more than their racial/group identity for that.
        I am not for or against anyone by default according to their race or sexual preferences ….(Political Islamists, Jacinda-maniacs and kiddie fiddlers aside; those folk I cannot abide).
        
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        September 13, 2021 12:59pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Nouns are easy. Verbs are much harder.
      
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      September 13, 2021 8:26pm
  - Yvette
    
    1 – There is also the factor of pronunciation, where Maori vowels (in particular) are similar to those of Japanese, and both are very different to English sounding of the same vowels, so some who have spent 70+ years speaking English require a considerable mind shift to speak Maori.
    Attempts to achieve this shift, or change of unconscious habit, can result in relatives saying “Oh, harken unto her, what are you doing? Woke, ever?” and failure can lead to criticism for mangling te reo pronunciation. So many give it away “as you can’t win in either case”, this being a factor rarely addressed, and is apart from any other consideration in learning the language or not.
    
    2 – Interspersing Maori amongst usual English media (written and television) – Kererū Māori – may familiarise some people with a few words – mahi, mihi, motu, korero – but gives no grammar or syntax to join anything together to make sentences or sense.
    
    3 – And the Benedict Yu observed trend does raise the question of effectiveness of funding the language, estimated at anywhere between $200 million to $600 million a year, with know one seeming to know exactly how much or what this amount is ever used for.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:50am
    - Flossie
      
      I recall a few years ago Dr Peter Sharples on TV saying quite emphatically that it is of absolute importance that we all correctly pronounce Maori words. I know of a lot of people who backed completely away from attempting the language as they didn’t want to be shamed for getting it wrong (me included). I do wish there was someone out there who could explain to people that incorrect pronunciation and use of grammar in English is equally as offensive but I still hear lots of “yous” etc.
      And I have to add, what is this word “gotten”? Simon Dallow used it in the news broadcast over the weekend.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:44am
      - cmm
        
        If you are actually speaking Maori : full Maori sentences with correct Maori grammar etc then yes, you should try to get the pronunciation right.
        
        It is entirely different when you borrow Maori words into the English language. When that happens, then the linguistic norm (linguistic rule, if you will) is that the borrow words are mangled/modified to fit in with the borrowing language.
        
        That is why we have “beef” instead of the original French “bœuf”.
        
        If Maori are precious about the use of Maori words, then how about they learn to say “policeman” properly instead of “pirihimana”, and all the hundreds of other Maori manglings of English words.
        
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        September 13, 2021 3:10pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        In my experience, Maori appreciate the attempt to speak te reo. I haven’t found those I’ve garbled a few words to to be too precious.
        
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        September 13, 2021 8:28pm
    - Ed Snack
      
      On where the money goes, they know very well where it goes, and are very happy with that.
      
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      September 13, 2021 11:15am
- dcrane
  
  What a waste of national effort.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:52am
- Bob
  
  can’t be right there Bendict, I heard from the other font of correct knowledge, RNZ, this morning that people are coming in droves to learn Maori.
  So much so that the available facilities are stretched; sounds like camouflage for ‘we want more taxpayer handout to our Marae.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:04am
- alex Masterley
  
  At High School I learnt German to the extent that the University of Otago confirmed I was fluent in the language. That was 42 years ago.
  I can only remember small bits now as i have rarely had the need to speak in German to anyone, and when I have, that person quickly switched to English when they realised my limited ability.
  I dont see the point in learning Maori as I dont need to, I dont use the language in the course of my day and so anything I pick up will atrophy quickly.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:17am
  - Jack5
    
    Alex, dip into the learn-German on Youtube, and you will likely find some of it coming back.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:45am
  - cmm
    
    If you were really fluent it should come back quickly.
    
    My wife and I grew up in South Africa, so both of us were fluent in Afrikaans. I spent more time amongst Afrikaners and was thus a bit more fluent than she was.
    
    We have now lived in NZ for 29 years during which my wife has spoken, and listened to, zero Afrikaans.
    
    A few days ago one of our kids found an Afrikaans recipe online. As I read the recipe out, she translated it into English in real time.
    
    Stuff like that stays in your brain for a long time…
    
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    September 13, 2021 3:16pm
    - alex Masterley
      
      You are right CMM.
      If i did a couple of weeks full emersion there wouldnt be a problem. But unless i travel to Germany and spend 14 days locked in their version of MIQ with eine shone junge madchen aus ein bierhalle that wont happen.
      
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      September 13, 2021 3:36pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  A million Maori speakers?
  The language is not fit for present use. It’s fixed at about 1840-warts and all.
  It does have a formal use on a marae in matters of genealogy but is hopeless elsewhere except among small groups of few native speakers.
  
  Te Reo doesn’t mix with English either. Its grammar is vastly different although it sneakily at times switches to a pidgin form and borrows English structures. Pronouns would be enormously confusing–it has a vastly wider range, about 20. Just add the present over enthusiastic pronoun creators and watch the mess.
  
  Some of us actually hope to educate children not bamboozle them for no reward.
  Other Pacific countries with mix populations largely solved the problem by having English as their common language. Image teaching art history in Maori or accounting?
  
  Elevating Te Reo will not be helpful to anyone.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:41am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  Learning a second language requires a high level of motivation.
  
  And that’s the problem in a nutshell for any minority language. If there is no especial utility for or feeling of identity with the language, few opportunities to use it where the ease and pay off for the learner is greater than using one’s mother tongue, then few learners will persevere to the point of competence, no matter how much schools and government departments promote it.
  
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  September 13, 2021 12:11pm
  - WaveyDavey
    
    Which is why when the public won’t “do the right thing” it ends up in enforcement
    
    Before long, fluent pidgin will be a requirement for public service appointments
    
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    September 13, 2021 1:21pm
- Paulus
  
  Rogue Census figures remember.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:24pm
- In Vino Veritas
  
  Benedict, and laughably, I think you will find that only around 1% of Maori can speak Maori absolutely fluently. So there must be a good few whitey’s that have taken up the cudgel. From my point of view, if Maori can’t be bothered learning their own language to save it, why the hell should anyone else have to?
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:47pm
Yvette

Besides the extra power generation an increase in electric vehicles may need, there are other problems before that –

Treasury wanted three-year extension on emissions standard
“We recommend that you support the later date of 2028 as the vehicle industry has indicated that this is the earliest possible date they could meet the target due to international supply constraints around low emissions vehicles. …Treasury officials wrote in a draft briefing in January, released as part of a batch of documents about transport emissions under the Official Information Act.

In one missive … a Treasury official said electric vehicle subsidies like the feebate scheme were “a costly way to reduce emissions”.
And Newsroom reported in August that Treasury had argued the feebate scheme should be pushed back to a future Budget instead of being funded in Budget 2021.

The programme is meant to be fiscally neutral, with revenue obtained from fees on high-emitting vehicles being recycled into rebates on electric vehicles and fuel efficient cars.
“We are unable to determine whether the feebate will be fiscally neutral, as key parts of the policy have not been developed. Given the policy is intended to operate as a disincentive to the purchase of high emissions vehicles, and that price parity is expected to be achieved over the decade, we are not confident that the fee revenue will be sufficient to cover the costs in full,” officials wrote in the same April advice.

The Government… said it was asking Waka Kotahi and the Ministry of Transport and Treasury to review how transport infrastructure should be funded as fuel tax revenue decreases with increasing electrification.
https://www.newsroom.co.nz/treasury-wanted-three-year-extension-on-emissions-standard

Perhaps these are further issues the new “implementation unit'” (set up by Deputy PM Grant Robertson to make sure Government policies actually happen) could look at, when it itself actually delivers anything.
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September 13, 2021 9:01am
Critical Thinker

Do you have Covid? Then ask your vet, I mean your doctor about Pfizer’s new drug, Pfizermectin.

The Babylon Bee: Pfizer Releases Brand New Drug ‘Pfizermectin’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Gva3EKB_o
?
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September 13, 2021 9:07am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I put that on FB. Fact checkers covered it and said ‘false’
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:10am
- virtualmark
  
  Hey don’t knock Ivermectin. To date no horses have tested positive for Covid-19. And they don’t even wear masks!
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:04pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Exactly!
    
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    September 13, 2021 1:43pm
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    Ask Mr Ed!
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:30pm
I remember when

Is the unlikely becoming increasingly likely.
Dr Bloomfield announced the total cases in this outbreak as 922.
Will Shaun Hendy finally actually predict something.
Just like Robert the Bruce’s spider.
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September 13, 2021 9:13am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Irw – remember it was his second go. His first prediction was around 200 cases. 🙂
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:45am
  - 3-coil
    
    Shaun Hendy’s initial prediction (on tv) for this outbreak was “about a hundred or so…”
    Useless a teats on a bull.
    
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    September 13, 2021 2:02pm
Tauhei Notts

If I saw a NZ Herald cartoonist in flames I would offer him a can of petrol to douse the flames.
Such a generous gentlemanly gesture would be widely applauded.
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September 13, 2021 9:18am
- curry4me
  
  Tauhei Notts: Same for me if I saw any of Stalinda’s cabinet, or advosors on fire.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:32am
cmm

“Experts” say AKL will stay at level 4 and rulebreakers: It’s YOUR fault!

For once they are not asking Wiles’ opinion.

Hear that Siouxie – it’s YOUR fault.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-experts-say-mystery-cases-will-affect-cabinets-alert-levels-decision/SMJFFOFAOCV2CGDCHGR7CB5ASM/
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September 13, 2021 9:19am
- Southtop2
  
  Hmmm rule breakers.
  If the South Island (without a case of Covid for over a year) remains in a partial lockdown, should the hospitality and events industry in seek compensation from the couple that flew to Wanaka for the weekend?
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:28am
  - westernScientest
    
    No, because its not the couple, or the virus that caused the loss of revenue.
    
    It is cabinet. Cindy and co. Sure businesses should be able to seek compensation from the ministers in cabinet. A board of directors are personally liable, so should members of cabinet.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:51am
    - KevO'Brien
      
      Unfortunately they’re not.
      We lack a mechanism to arrest and deal with those who fraudulently held themselves out as being capable of performing the duties of members of the Executive.
      
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      September 13, 2021 10:48am
  - Ruawai
    
    The govt should allow people to get a test then travel around the country with a negative test to help boost the economy.
    
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    September 13, 2021 9:59am
  - kowtow
    
    By the same token could the whole country seek compo from the gubmint for the latest leak out of MIQ ?
    
    The conveniently untraceable leak , again.
    
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    September 13, 2021 10:40am
- dcrane
  
  They probably planned this spin as part of their media strategy ages ago. It was clear from about Day 3 that Auckland was going to be in Level 4 until well into September at minimum, yet they’ve put on a performance every week to ten days pretending a decision to do otherwise was possible.
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:54am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  “For once they are not asking Wiles’ opinion”
  
  Lol. They might not need to do that any longer cmm.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126354327/covid19-donations-fly-in-for-dr-siouxsie-wiles-research-after-judith-collins-calls-her-a-hypocrite
  
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  September 13, 2021 9:54am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That herald item shows Baker in a colour co-ordinated shirt. Message there?
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:45am
- NoFax
  
  I was very angry when I heard that nonsense but let’s say it is true. We are at fault because we aren’t following the rules – why aren’t we?
  
  First, we didn’t commit any crime so to be treated as a criminal is grating. Second, and more importantly, these rules are anti-human. We humans need social interaction including touch and this is being denied to a lot of people especially to people who live alone. Third, we need hope. This lockdown has hit me much harder than the other ones because it feels like nothing has changed in 18 months and it feels like we will just continue like this forever.
  
  I know there are lot of people suffering far worse than myself and my prayers are for these people. I suspect many of these people are the people the PM thinks she represents.
  
  Therefore, we need to change the solution to human nature and not change human nature to the solution. Lockdowns were an experiment from the CCP who care nothing for human life or rights. It is obvious that these lockdowns don’t work and hurt far more than they help.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:24am
  - cmm
    
    On top of that, most of the rules are pretty arbitrary and lack scientific backing.
    
    Most are of the variety: “Oh well, they **might** help. No harm in trying.”
    
    Except, of course, there is harm.
    
    I’m going to start carrying around a battery with a blinking LED. Everyone should do this. You never know, it might help!
    
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    September 13, 2021 3:21pm
- MrTips
  
  Rod wrote an opinion last year claiming he thought Sweden was going to have 60,000+ deaths before they got anywhere near acquired herd immunity.
  
  They’ve had 15,000 deaths. Over nearly two years.
  And coming up to no restrictions.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:34pm
Maggie Pie

Kerry Woodham on ZB rarking up the plebs with a call….
“to imprison the Auckland couple who used their essential-worker status to fly from Hamilton to their holiday home in Wanaka for a dirty weekend”.

Like my partner said, “She’d be better to just STFU!”
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September 13, 2021 9:28am
- Muttonbird
  
  Wouldn’t home detention be sweet irony? 🙂
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:45am
- rangitoto
  
  Woodham, another wanna be tyrant.
  
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  September 13, 2021 12:58pm
- Master Mariner
  
  Interesting who the “chosen” ones are.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126361208/highranking-officials-son-charged-after-flying-to-wnaka-during-lockdown
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:33pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Depending on the father’s/mother’s political allegiances, there is a good chance there will be a couple more lumps under Cindy’s office carpet.
    A couple more under carpet mates for Materia Turei perhaps.
    
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    September 13, 2021 4:36pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      I’ve heard variously via the MSM that the man in question is the son of a senior public servant and the son of someone in the legal industry. Given that he’s reported as being 35, that would suggest the parent is more likely to be a judge than a politician.
      
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      September 13, 2021 8:34pm
dcrane

[Letter emailed today]

Dear RNZ –

I am tired of the expanding presence on your channels of language that most people in the country do not understand. It is your job to report and to provide entertaining concert music, not to push a cultural agenda. I just listened to the weather broadcast full of names hardly anyone has ever used for our major cities. Please stop.

Public broadcasting should have some outlets for Te Reo as a special subject. Outside of that context, every minute spent speaking in a language that a large majority of the country does not speak is a minute spent not conveying information. This dilutes the value of your network as well as irritates many people who have been your loyal listeners.

The method used by RNZ doesn’t even teach the language. I have been listening to the various RNZ news figures begin over and over with Te Reo soliloquies for years but this experience hasn’t taught me a word of what they mean. If there are words in Te Reo that convey useful concepts in English, which we can benefit from, by all means teach and use them through careful repetition. But don’t use Te Reo in a way that excludes all of your many English listeners. This will damage public support since many sense that a political agenda is being pushed.

Sincerely,

[me]
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September 13, 2021 9:33am
- Yabster
  
  Yep it will ramp up big time this week “Maori Language week” Yawn… at my work we are getting a maori quizz- first question “why should we acknowledge maori as first peoples of aotear- blah blah -answer they weren’t…. second answer who cares
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:01am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    And with the TV weather forecasts still locked in Maori language week mode since last year, what enhancements are in store for us tonight?
    Deletion of English subtitles?
    
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    September 13, 2021 11:50am
  - Paulus
    
    Thought recently every week is Maori Language Week !
    
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    September 13, 2021 2:26pm
rangitoto

Nice to see McLaren on the top two steps of the podium after eleven years.
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September 13, 2021 9:39am
BAM

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/judith-collins-criticism-for-siouxsie-wiles-comments-are-politically-motivated/

Why is she not talking about our lack of ICU capability?
There is so much political gold there.
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September 13, 2021 10:04am
- surfing
  
  Certainly not voting National so long as Collins and Slater are doing business together.
  
  Why is Collins just going on about this unimportant Wiles woman all the time? Collins should be hitting labour on housing/mental health and He Puapua.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:49am
  - lifesgood
    
    Surfing, you were never going to vote National, be honest.
    
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    September 13, 2021 2:22pm
- dcrane
  
  Unless I’ve missed it, half the problem is that Judith Collins/National wasn’t talking about this a year ago, and continuously since. Since well before the *first* August lockdown, this opposition has failed to set themselves up politically by aggressively attacking this government’s lack of preparation on many fronts.
  
  Yes, I know that many media outlets have been borderline deplatforming serious opposition. But I don’t think that’s the main reason.
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:10pm
Yvette

Just because there are a few COVID-19 cases yet to be linked to New Zealand’s current outbreak doesn’t definitively mean Auckland can’t shift down alert levels, Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson says.

But experts have warned of the danger of easing the COVID-19 lockdown in Auckland too soon – with mystery cases throwing a spanner in the works.

As of Sunday, 34 of the outbreak’s 922 cases had yet to be epidemiologically linked to the existing cluster.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2021/09/covid-19-mystery-cases-don-t-necessarily-mean-auckland-can-t-move-down-alert-levels-grant-robertson.html

Is the entire present outbreak not triggered by one “mystery” case, ‘Case A’, a Devonport man who was tested on August 16, and his infection could not be physically linked to a returnee from Sydney and arrived in New Zealand on August 7?

How much sway does Robertson have with the seven other Ministers of Health and associates – Ardern, Bloomfield, Hipkins, Little, Peeni Henare Associate Minister of Health (Māori Health), Dr Ayesha Verrall Associate Minister of Health, and Aupito William Sio Associate Minister of Health (Pacific Peoples) ?
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September 13, 2021 10:12am
- Tony Stuart
  
  Robertson has plenty of sway Yvette, because at the end of the day, he’s the one holding the purse-strings. If in doubt, just follow the money…
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:22am
  - jon
    
    Trusted Steven Joyce in the Finance role but not Robertson. The former had a better gene pool for the job.
    
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    September 13, 2021 1:06pm
  - kowtow
    
    Yer , but the whole of cabinet knows that without Magic Princess Power the whole lotta them are unelectable, she’s all they’ve got .
    
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    September 13, 2021 4:14pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Well I’m in Auckland and hoping for Level 3 from tomorrow…..probably being over optimistic though.
  Hope you are right and Grant convinces them they need to release the stranglehold just a little bit.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:28am
  - Cinematic
    
    How with a bunch of unlinked cases and L4 having been implemented with just one case is a change even vaguely possible?
    
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    September 13, 2021 11:34am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  The key question is whether unlinked/ mystery cases are diminishing over time? That’s just about the only useful info as it indicates how long we can expect lockdown to continue. It should be imparted on a daily basis (but isn’t).
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:31am
  - Yvette
    
    UrbanNeocolonialist – It should be imparted on a daily basis (but isn’t)
    
    They are released daily, but a little hard to find …
    https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-news-and-media-updates
    like yesterday’s –
    Media release
    12 September 2021
    Cases
    …
    • Cases epidemiologically linked: 12 of today’s cases
    • Cases to be epidemiologically linked: Eight of today’s cases
    
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    September 13, 2021 12:14pm
  - cmm
    
    There is a good reason why these are “unlinked”.
    
    There are a bunch of people who think they might be sick/infectious but don’t want to risk being tested then sent off to MIQ for a fortnight.
    
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    September 13, 2021 3:24pm
- surfing
  
  The difference is that the first case had been circulating and spreading at level 1 for an unknown period.
  
  At least, now they have an idea of the number of clusters, and while there are a few mystery infections, they can be confident that level 4 would restrict uncontained spread. Level 3 is not too different from level 4 either.
  
  But, my feeling is Auckland will stay at 4 for a few more days.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:46am
  - waripori
    
    Level 3 is not much different for businesses but it will be quite different for movement of people around Auckland. People pretty much have to stay home in level 4 in cases a policeman asks where they are going. In level 3 you can just say you are going to get a takeaway coffee somewhere. There is a lot more movement and more people working as the essential service rule does not apply.
    
    If there are cases in the community they will spread under level 3. It looks as though there must be some out there. What are the chances of the only infectious cases in South Auckland all turning up at Middlemore? Most likely people with mild symptoms reluctant to go into quarantine if they think they will get better by themselves ( which they probably will ).
    
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    September 13, 2021 1:08pm
WaveyDavey

Maori gene-editing… Oh my aching sides

“Tame Malcolm:

However, gene editing and gene drives feature within Māori narratives. Has everyone seen the movie Moana, when Māui changed his shape. One time he was wearing a cloak and changed himself, and that cloak got incorporated into the kereru that we know today. Originally it was white. It had its DNA changed by Māui. So gene editing does feature in our narratives. What I’m wary of is people running off and weaponising that.”

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/smart_talk/audio/2018811334/a-panel-of-experts-at-the-2021-nz-international-science-festival-on-gene-editing-matauranga-maori-and-pest-control
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September 13, 2021 10:18am
- cmm
  
  This beating down and reframing of science is dangerous.
  
  This is a natural progression of the Maori-isation of the universities that has been aided by the “progressive” policies to get more Maori into universities to look woke, rather than because they should be there (ie. on merit).
  
  Calling a story about colour changes “gene editing” is like calling baking a batch of scones chemical engineering.
  
  Ignoring for a moment that this is just mythology and never happened, science does not mean being able to do something.
  
  Science means being able to take some natural (or manmade) process, understand how/why it works, then put it on a scientific footing.
  
  People have been baking risen bread and using yeasts for brewing for thousands of years. We would not call that microbiology because they did not understand the actual concepts of yeast cells and how they worked.
  
  They knew bubbles were coming out. They knew it needed sugars and starches to work. They knew you could take a bit of old dough and transfer the yeast with that. They knew cold made yeast dormant and heat killed it. But they didn’t know why and they didn’t have the chemistry to understand that the bubbles were CO2 and how starches and sugars were being consumed and changed. Their knowledge was not science.
  
  I wonder whether he considers the story about Jack and the Beanstalk to be pakeha genetic engineering?
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:55am
  - alloytoo
    
    I think it’s then fair to view Norse (or any other mythology) in a similar vein.
    
    And I thought Almighty Johnsons was fiction.
    
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    September 13, 2021 12:17pm
    - sooty
      
      Shape shifters!
      
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      September 13, 2021 1:03pm
- dcrane
  
  And at the bottom of that piece Phil Lester is listed as “Te Herenga Waka (Victoria University of Wellington)”
  
  We’re dealing with a cult here.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:11am
- surfing
  
  These experts are a joke. They learn their science from Moana???
  
  And why are they not bawling about cultural appropriation?
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:51am
- Taieri
  
  One time he was wearing a cloak and changed himself, and that cloak got incorporated into the kereru that we know today. Originally it was white. It had its DNA changed by Māui. So gene editing does feature in our narratives.
  ——————
  
  Sounds a bit like transubstantiation. But not even the Pope calls transubstantiation gene editing.
  Can’t help but feel sorry for the future of this country…
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:33pm
  - Prince
    
    We are certainly heading back to the stone age.
    Gas exploration ? Nah, use coal instead.
    Nuclear energy ? Nah, coal again.
    Science-based decisions ? Nah, myths from the special ones.
    Global aspirations ? Nah, hermit kingdom.
    Aspirational education ? Nah, fake certificates for all.
    
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    September 13, 2021 2:12pm
Tony Stuart

The may have had a crap season on the field, but kudos to the Warriors players for this gesture:

NZ Warriors players have withdrawn their requests for spots in managed isolation in the hope of seeing their support staff able to return to New Zealand.

For the past two seasons, the Warriors have been based in Australia, with trans-Tasman travel unable to be guaranteed.

As a result, the majority of the club have been living out of a suitcase, many being away from family members in order to ensure that the NRL can be played in its entirety.

But with the Warriors’ season now over, the club are stuck in Australia, unable to return home due to a lack of space in MIQ.

The club last week confirmed that they’ll be based in Australia for a third season next year, and will operate out of Redcliffe, albeit with the hope of playing six games at their Mt Smart Stadium home ground.

However, with the club’s pre-season for 2022 to begin in November, the Warriors’ players have withdrawn their bids for an MIQ space, in order to see nine of their support staff able to return to New Zealand to be with their families.

“Our staff have been checking every single day for any MIQ spots that open up,” forward Tohu Harris tells RNZ.

“That’s a daily thing, three or four times per day they’re checking that. There’s been nothing, it’s been a struggle.

“[It’s] a bit of a sticky situation. The players wanted to do our part to get their story out there. They’ve been working so hard for us, every single day for the past two seasons now. They’ve been doing it without their support systems.

“We’re lucky as players. I’ll train, come home and my wife and son are here – I’ve got my support system here. Our staff have been doing it day after day without theirs.

“The players really wanted to show the appreciation for our staff by sharing their story and getting them out there.”

Harris also says that the Warriors have personally written to Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, in the hope of alerting officials to the plight of the Warriors’ staff currently stuck in limbo.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/2021/09/nrl-2021-nz-warriors-players-withdraw-miq-requests-to-help-staff-members-get-home.html

The club has made a pragmatuc decision to base itself at Redcliffe for 2022, and it’s great to see that senior players like Tohu Harris, badly missed in the latter rounds of the season, have put their support staff ahead of themselves. The staff do the hard yards behind the scenes, without earning the big bucks many of the players are on.

So kudos to the team for not being prima donnas, and giving their staff the opportunity to reconnect with the families in New Zealand.
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September 13, 2021 10:31am
- cmm
  
  “Harris also says that the Warriors have personally written to Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, in the hope of alerting officials to the plight of the Warriors’ staff currently stuck in limbo.”
  
  They all chose to do this. Any “plight” is self inflicted. I really can’t feel sorry for them.
  
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  September 13, 2021 10:40am
  - NeverMindTheBollocks
    
    That’s a bit harsh, CMM. The Warriors have been doing it tough.
    
    If you really want to point the finger, James Shaw & his 16-strong posse or the estimated 400 NZ attendees at the Dubai Expo are much more culpable.
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:42pm
- doggone7
  
  The Warriors should have predicted at the outset they would not make the top 8 playoffs and booked MIQ accordingly.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:42am
Rusty

I’m a Warriors fan but they like the All Blacks and other NZ sports team are not essential workers in my view.

Many ordinary NZers cant get MIQ places to return to NZ and in some cases to see sick or dying family members.

Even in Aust thousands of Queenslanders have been turned away trying to return to their state but NRL and other sports teams get special treatment allowing their families to join them from other states in Aust.

Seems money talks via NRL games being live on tv and the advertizing dollar behind it.
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September 13, 2021 10:58am
- Tony Stuart
  
  How about the 50-60 overseas mountainbikers coming here for the Crankworx Festival in Rotorua?
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:52am
  - sooty
    
    Or the 600 that are going to Dubai for some government expo!
    
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    September 13, 2021 1:01pm
- krazykiwi
  
  ~~Many~~Close to 100% of ordinary NZers can’t get MIQ places. Fixed it for ya!
  
  Thanks to the great work of Grounded Kiwis some of most desperate cases have been granted MIQ slots.
  
  But for the rest it is immoral, and a contravention of several international treaties which NZ has ratified, to prevent our citizens from returning to their own country. Covid-19 is a globally endemic disease. We will NOT keep it out of the country by keeping the border closed to all but the state-favoured people. We should open the border and manage this thing calmly and rationally.
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:49pm
I remember when

According to DOCs estimate there are only 54 Maui dolphin remaining.
The release of this news from their survey was leaked to RNZ.
This is reportedly a reduction of 14% over the last ten years.
It was accompanied by the February story of the body of a female (decaying) being washed up on Muriwai beach.
Interestingly in October 2012 Greenpeace bemoaned the fact that only 55 adults remained, no mention of juveniles.
In April 2012 a stuff article on a dead Hector/Maui dolphin stated “of which only 54 are believed to be left.”
The question “exactly how many Maui dolphin are there” is unlikely to be asked in any quiz.
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September 13, 2021 11:01am
- Master Mariner
  
  “The question “exactly how many Maui dolphin are there”
  1000’s if not 10’s of thousands. No difference between Hector and Maui Dolphing unless you can Check by DNA testing.
  See a problem?
  Ask the Fisherman and not some Quasi sponsered micky mouse group passing as “Science”.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:41pm
I remember when

Just a question, “If it was alright for the Wanaka couple to travel through the check point, why did it matter where they went.
The danger was the same irrespective of where they travelled.
Their offence was that they ‘broke the rules, (yet to be determined a court) not that they were a ‘covid risk.’
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September 13, 2021 11:10am
- surfing
  
  Essential workers provide goods and services so people can survive lockdown, in return for the known risk of spreading covid.
  
  Falsely claiming essential worker status to go on holiday incurs all of the risk without performing the duties used to justify that risk.
  
  I feel your argument is why have lockdown at all.
  
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  September 13, 2021 12:08pm
Local Miller

I got a notice on Facebook this weekend that the Liebour Party had extended the WOF expiration date on all WOF Certificates expiring after 21 July, making them valid to the 30th Nov.
What was interesting is under the Liebour Party heading it says “We’re extending expiring licences, Wofs…..” Surly this is false advertising or something? It’s not the Liebour Party doing this, it’s the government at best, probably actually NZTA.
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September 13, 2021 11:24am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Taking credit for something they did not do. Typical normal behaviour for them
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:39am
- Wired-one
  
  They are politicizing this pandemic. I saw an advertisement recently about the vaccine rollout which had a shiny Labour logo underneath. It’s all bullshit, but let’s face it, it’s all they’ve got.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:44am
- Ruahine
  
  I would like to know where my insurance Company stands on that. Perhaps there will be an announcement regarding continuing coverage.
  
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  September 13, 2021 11:50am
  - surfing
    
    Insurance companies are notorious for using technicalities and vagaries of wording to wiggle out of claims. Best to get them to send you something in writing if legal status is expiring.
    
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    September 13, 2021 12:11pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  I can understand that for cars licensed in the greater Auckland area, but Warrants of Fitness are being attended to outside of Auckland on a daily basis.
  There is more to New Zealand than just Jafaville.
  
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  September 13, 2021 12:13pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  That would surely involve the loss of public monies as those fees cover admin costs. Does this have Parliaments approval?
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:23pm
I remember when

How to ask for $2,500,000 of funding:
It costs us about $250 to test each fungus, and we have over 10,000 fungi to test.
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September 13, 2021 11:30am
- greybeard
  
  The timing of this article is dodgy: Wiles has been around for 18 months but only after her CV breach the other day
  ( and subsequent criticism ) does this fungus business get mentioned.
  Some sort of damage control I suspect..
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:38pm
  - JJ56
    
    Calls for a quick OIA request to UA asking for the amount donated to her research since the date of the adverse publicity.
    
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    September 13, 2021 7:37pm
Cinematic

Maggie, that was a slaughter.
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September 13, 2021 11:31am
ecco

Robertson declaring today he will ‘outline a path out of the lockdown for Auckland’.

Prepare for more obfuscation, ifs, buts and maybes, and no distinct timelines on anything, more announcements of more announcements, always between 4pm -6pm. Never in the morning. Most Aucklanders have had an absolute gutsful.
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September 13, 2021 11:31am
curry4me

Tauhei Notts: Same for me if I saw any of Stalinda’s cabinet, or advosors on fire.
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September 13, 2021 11:38am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2H3lyquyHEE

Latinos Lead The Pack In Groups Wanting Gov. Newsom Gone.

On Tuesday’s No Spin News Bill welcomed Ruben Navarrette, the most widely read Latino columnist in America. They examined the upcoming recall election in California and the very real possibility that disenchanted Hispanics will help oust ultra-liberal Governor Gavin Newsom. [3:57]
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September 13, 2021 11:38am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbs2uV3bNJc

Japan rushes to save Vietnam from China’s belligerence after Kamala’s disastrous tour.

The Japan-Vietnam military cooperation deal signed during Japanese Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi’s first trip overseas enables Japan to transfer its defence equipment, technology and ships to Vietnam. The Southeast Asian nation has become only the 11th country in the world to sign a defence equipment and technology transfer deal with Japan. [6:05]
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September 13, 2021 11:39am
- Jack5
  
  And to the north, Japan plans to place missiles close to Taiwan to deter an attack by China.
  
  https://youtu.be/80VwZKAGo4w
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:42pm
  - curry4me
    
    Jack5: Yes, well done Japan.
    
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    September 13, 2021 6:06pm
Maggie Pie

BREAKING….

After a ‘white substance’ was discovered on the 8th floor of the Beehive, a red-faced Jacinda Ardern admits to buying Johnsons Baby Powder by mail order.

https://twitter.com/nzherald/status/1437197727503425546
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September 13, 2021 12:32pm
- Nickc2
  
  Who’s bum’s that for? His, hers, other?
  On second thought, maybe she bought it for Trev (Mallard that is)?
  
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  September 13, 2021 12:50pm
- alloytoo
  
  Is that what we’re calling it now….
  
  “I tried sniffing coke once, the bubbles make it difficult.”
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:13pm
- JibberJabber
  
  LoL, as one of the comments on another post sez…with this govt the Memes just write themselves…?
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:25pm
JibberJabber

“Lockdowns,” the mass quarantine of both sick and healthy people, have never before been used for disease mitigation in the modern Western world. Previously, the strategy had been systematically ruled out by the pandemic plans of the World Health Organization (WHO) and by health experts of every developed nation. So how did we get here?

https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/masked-ball-cowardice

All the measures outlined in New Zealand’s official COVID-19 Elimination Strategy document—“physical distancing” “widespread testing” “surveillance”—were adopted from China based on the reported success of the CCP’s Wuhan lockdown. The New Zealand Department of Health deleted this document from their website one day after it received widespread attention on Twitter, after having been posted there for over a year.
One after another, world leaders tipped over like dominoes, their national bureaucracies falling in line to cease all social and economic activity for the first time in history

For Xi Jinping, lockdown was never about a virus. It was about sending a message: that stripped of all disguise, the illusion of virtue, competence, and commitment to human rights among the Western political class is nothing more than conformity with easily subvertible norms and institutions passed down by prior generations. As lockdown policies grind on into their 18th month, it’s increasingly difficult to disagree with him.
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September 13, 2021 12:39pm
Observer of Life

Apologies if this has already been posted. But a friend pointed this out to me earlier. A TV1 Breakfast interview at 6.15am this morning (guess that’s why it was allowed to go ahead, very few people watching at that hour?). Wake up Cindy, elimination is futile!
https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/breakfast/clips/new-zealand-must-learn-to-live-with-covid-19-us-expert
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September 13, 2021 12:55pm
- Ehlana
  
  We’ve eliminated two viruses in human history, apparently. And one of those didn’t affect humans.
  So no, Covid-19 is not going to be eliminated.
  We will, as Johns Hopkins University infectious diseases expert Amesh Adalja says in this interview, have to learn to risk calculate and to live with it.
  I love his idea of people being able to rapidly test themselves at home. Does anyone know if that testing is available in New Zealand at all?
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:39pm
  - Observer of Life
    
    Ehlana: Saliva testing is available from one accredited company (can’t recall the name .. something like Rako) but the government isn’t buying from them. They’re waiting for another company APHG (?) to have its test accredited. Yeh I know.. you’d think/hope I’m joking, but sadly that’s a true story.
    
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    September 14, 2021 12:57am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Observer of Life,
  Many thanks for bringing this post to our attention.
  To summarise Amesh Adalja’s erudite message;
  1. Get the vaccine.
  2. Get a testing procedure for Covid that is simple to administer.
  3. Open the place up.
  4. Accept that Covid-19 will be with us in 20 years time, hopefully in a minor manner.
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:39pm
  - Observer of Life
    
    Tau: Cheers for summarising. I didn’t have time.
    
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    September 14, 2021 12:58am
- ecco
  
  Thanks for this link. At last a bit of infectious disease perspective outside of the three NZ stooges – Hendy, Wiles and Baker.
  
  The expert from Canada can’t fathom why we aren’t using all the tools in the tool box available to deal with this pandemic ie home testing, and then let people get on with their lives if testing negative. Obviously thinks Ardern’s approach is a pipe dream and the definition of insanity to pursue elimination and then not organise enough vaccines. He said the world has moved on – but not Ardern. We all know that in NZ.
  
  Just seems Ardern and co haven’t adjusted strategy from 18 months ago. We might as well all be living in communist China. I surmise it’s a deliberate ploy to keep control over large parts of the population. Must be. Couldn’t be anything else. Defies logic to continue to bloody mindedly pursue elimination, in this day and age, a year on, as the expert in that clip is insinuating.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:49pm
WaveyDavey

Permanent name suppression anyone?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/126361208/highranking-officials-son-charged-after-flying-to-wnaka-during-lockdown
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September 13, 2021 1:19pm
- dcrane
  
  Lots of detail there. 35-year-old male with a 26-year-old female partner, connected to high-ranking official and a holiday home in Wanaka. Hoping for someone to connect the dots.
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:36pm
- Ruawai
  
  Wonder who???
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:15pm
- sooty
  
  Pimping Karen down south is a close neighbor of the holiday home as they saw the police visiting a couple of times. Father a labour party card carrying dudge maybe?
  Who else would be so self entitled a son of?
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:22pm
  - Aquataur
    
    Not the judge who oversaw the Labour camp kiddie fiddler !!
    
    I hope not
    
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    September 13, 2021 3:46pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Name and shame them.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:54pm
  - dcrane
    
    Yep, name suppression generally shouldn’t be allowed for the privileged and powerful.
    
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    September 13, 2021 6:28pm
- Aquataur
  
  So why aren’t the media naming them now?
  No suppression orders yet in place
  
  Or are they sucking up to their masters yet again?
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:21pm
westernScientest

33 new cases, I suspect that seals the fate if there was any doubt about alert level changes today.

The last three days have been a departure from the logistic curve which it was looking like we were settling into before Friday. Wonder if this a bit of an aberration or a new breakout. Maybe a section of society has realised what happens when you test positive, and are no longer so eager to line up for some exercise in an underground parking lot.

https://github.com/westernsci/NZ-covid-outbreak-curve-fitting/blob/main/covidCurveFitting.ipynb
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September 13, 2021 1:22pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  Could this be the consequence of the various hospital pickups last week?
  
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  September 13, 2021 1:43pm
- Ruawai
  
  32 of the 33 are linked to existing cases and the one who isn’t linked has 7 household contacts with covid so one of them will be linked to someone, so my money is on level 3 today or level 4 for 2 more days then level 3 otherwise it is economic suicide for Grant Robertson.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:14pm
- Stu2
  
  Aha – I see you have got a close fit with a third order polynomial too, just doesn’t project at all well!
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:20pm
- Stu2
  
  “Maybe a section of society has realised what happens when you test positive, and are no longer so eager to line up for some exercise in an underground parking lot”
  
  I’ve been wondering about being in a supermarket at much the same time as an infectious person. You might not quite coincide in time, you probably wouldn’t ever be in the same aisle or within a few metres. But you might wind up as a contact facing restrictions via the scanning app???
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:24pm
- PeeJay
  
  I can’t help but wonder how many are out there ‘with just a cold’ but have been spooked by the stories coming out of MIQ about overcrowding, crap food and conditions etc.
  
  Regardless, I suspect they’ll still beat it this time, just, but the ticker tape parade should be paused because it will get through again, and next time, I doubt it’ll be stopped. Maybe then, and only then, they’ll finally acknowledge what the rest of the world has come to realise and that is we’re going to have to learn to live with it.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:57pm
  - dcrane
    
    Seriously, by now how many young people might say to themselves “I’m probably gonna be fine in a few days, last thing I want is imprisonment at Jet Park or whatever for 10 days”.
    
    For that matter, how long before the youth start deliberately spreading it around to force an end to lockdowns (unwisely)?
    
    This is the sort of consideration that should have been taken into account when gauging whether to put ourselves in the place of relying on Level 4 again.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:00pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Get MIQ out of big cities. International flights should land at Ohakea, and passengers should be kept in dedicated facilities nearby staffed by people who live on site (pay them more!!) until they are proven clear. Poorly executed MIQ has cost NZ 10’s of billions so far, and given there is no way the govt will open up for another year due to lack of ICU capacity they need to fix it properly to prevent further repeats immediately.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:03pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Convenient to Wanganui & Mid Central (PN) DHBs too.
      
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      September 13, 2021 8:47pm
herb1

I’ve long wondered why Arderns expression while reading her usual prepared script, goes from Happy to sad, Angry to mad , shocked , clam , sniffing the roses and every other facial expression known to man.
It became clear last week when I saw a cartoon , If I recall on Brash and Hyde.
It showed a roomful of journalism students ,each with a human butt on the desk, clearly learning how to sniff them.
Clearly when the PMs behind the rostrum , the usual parliamentary reporters are jostling for a ring seat, behind her ,and obviously getting a bit close
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September 13, 2021 1:43pm
Maggie Pie

Mangere and Birkdale…..who would have believed they’d ever be considered as ‘locations of interest’?

Just saying.
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September 13, 2021 1:47pm
- MCos
  
  You’re just pissed off because there’s nothing interesting in Remuera except College Rifles Rugby Club where JK & my son used to play. (At different times).
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:52pm
- JibberJabber
  
  ↑LoL Maggie, you’ve struck a nerve…↑
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:53pm
waripori

Of todays cases, all are epidemiologically linked except one who presented at Middlemore on Saturday and who came from a household with 7 other cases, all of whom are in today’s 33 new cases.

There must be heaps of cases out there, mostly people who don’t fancy not getting their pizza on time.
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September 13, 2021 2:04pm
Cobolt24

Well done Labour.
https://www.oneroof.co.nz/news/nzs-average-house-price-hits-1m-40139
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September 13, 2021 2:14pm
Captain Mainwaring

Given that South Auckland seems to be the centre of the big cluster, what are the chances of someone getting tested or vaccinated if they are an overstayer?
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September 13, 2021 2:15pm
- waripori
  
  You might get vaccinated but I reckon you wont get tested unless you get quite ill. At that stage everyone else in the home will have it and some of them probably work in supermarkets.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:23pm
- kowtow
  
  Another reason one can’t allow problems to just chug along; shadow economy , shadow taxes ( not paid) shadow exploitation , shadow world and now in a global pandemic the very real possibility of people staying undercover in the shadows and holding the whole shit show back.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:33pm
- MCos
  
  Tell me, Captain Mainwaring, if you were running the show would you forward the details of those who did their civic duty and were tested on to the Ministry of Immigration?
  There’s already been an issue with some testing/vaccination stations requesting passports.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:37pm
  - WaveyDavey
    
    There’s been ONE incident where the potential jabee was asked if they had a passport to facilitate the issuing of an NHI number
    
    Hardly the person asking’s fault that the PIer involved had a meltdown was it?
    
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    September 13, 2021 3:55pm
- Ehlana
  
  From what I gather they are not checking immigration status for vaccination.
  But I think you have a point about testing. It would be hard for people to buy that going into managed isolation couldn’t end in being sent home.
  
  We should have had an amnesty at the beginning. As in, if you leave NZ in the next 28 days, you won’t get prosecuted for overstaying.
  
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  September 13, 2021 2:55pm
  - MCos
    
    Better still let them stay.
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:25pm
Nickc2

If as reported in the Herald, Mt Eden, Massey, Māngere, Favona, Papatoetoe, Ōtara and Manurewa are the Covid-19 areas of concern, surelly, these areas can be ring-fenced by the Police and the rest of Auckland permitted to go about their normal lives?
I’m picking the reason they (Govt) don’t do this is that these areas are also prime Labour Vote areas.
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September 13, 2021 2:21pm
- Aquataur
  
  And note that the [ Mod : calm down with the abuse]
  
  Seems like they are very concentrated. Only 8 suburbs of more than 100 in Auckland. And all except 1 in South Auckland
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:48pm
  - dcrane
    
    Could be due to the multiplication from that early huge church group. Allowing very large groups to meet before we had the population vaccinated was a huge failure by the government.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:03pm
- kowtow
  
  Rumour is a lot of the “gang ” communidy involved , so I very much doubt they’d go hard against ’em , they haven’t in the past ……..
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:50pm
- Stu2
  
  And how many essential workers live there, who work outside those areas?
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:20pm
ecco

Goff doing some of Ardern’s talking. “Yes we have no choice but to keep lockdown, blah blah blah”. He’s going to ask Ardern for some more money for the poor Auckland businesses that are sinking by the day. Don’t hold out much hope there. Goff’s never really been very effective at the best of times. I guess talk is cheap for all these Labour types.

Can’t for the life of me understand how they all got to be running the country. It’s a business person’s worse nightmare at the moment.
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September 13, 2021 2:26pm
- Ruahine
  
  He will sell off Aucklands Water infrastructure. This we will pay for with our taxwes.
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:43pm
Tom Hunter

Thirty three new cases eh?

Chuckle. Let’s say hello to our old friend Professor Johan Giesecke of Sweden. World famous and leading epidemiologist and all that from April 2020

Getting out of the lockdowns will be the big challenge since the question is around which restrictions can be lifted, followed by watching for upticks in cases and deaths at each stage, with increases met by what? Reinstating the restriction?

Maybe I should put that in bold? And CAPS.

But that would be rude.
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September 13, 2021 2:27pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Gutfeld – Trump. From Pt 2 I think. What Trump says is true, dealing with the enemy within.
Amusing.
https://bongino.com/trump-says-this-was-the-toughest-part-of-his-presidency/?
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September 13, 2021 2:37pm
- dcrane
  
  So many people still look at me like I’m speaking Swahili when I say that the GOP establishment was working to give Trump the shove from early in his administration.
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:25pm
Bobba Fret

Ill be going in to the office later this week regardless of what level we are on. Only difference will be can I pick up a bought coffee to take or do I need to take milk in.
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September 13, 2021 2:57pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Sounds like I need to take milk with me to the office!
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:11pm
Jack5

In a post yesterday, Maggy Wassilieff wrote about the renown Powell’s book store in Portland, Oregon, and said that, in second-hand books, Powell’s wasn’t a patch on Smith’s in Wellington of the 1980s, for 2nd hand stuff.

Powells was a great overseas resource for New Zealanders in the days before Amazon and e-books . In those times the United States Postal Service offered cheap postage for books, including those going outside the country.

Prices for Powell’s secondhand titles were reasonable in New Zealand, including for near-new hardbacks. Hardbacks seemed to come on to America’s second-hand market quickly, perhaps because of quick selling by the swarm of potential reviewers who received complimentary copies.

Thousands of American titles weren’t available new in New Zealand book stores. Under a copyright agreement, where books were published in both Britain and the United States, New Zealand had to take only the British versions. Because of the small market here, many, perhaps most, American publishers didn’t seek to distribute their titles that weren’t dual published in Britain.

New Zealand readers were thus shut out from new copies of a swathe of good American titles, but usually could buy a secondhand copy fairly quickly from Powell’s. My understanding was that the British-America deal on titles didn’t, and couldn’t, apply to secondhand books.

I bought many books from Powell’s, until Amazon, and then the Book Depository, came along.

The old British-American deal that carved up the world book market for English-language titles doesn’t seem to apply to e-books and Amazon.

I must check out Powell’s again, because GST, now being applied by online retailers like Amazon and Aliexpress, exempts used goods.
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September 13, 2021 2:58pm
- Fletch
  
  It was just as difficult to get CD’s from overseas. You’d have to do a special order and it was expensive, before Borders bookstore took up residence in Auckland. They had a HUGE selection of otherwise hard-to-find books and CDs.
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:40pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    I remember landing in London late 80’s and buying a full cassette tape ( 🙂 🙂 🙂 ) of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and …. man it was expensive. If it had not been the case that I saw no choice and really wanted it I would have passed.
    
    Worth it though. Two decades later I’d placed it on the computer, hooked up an FM broadcast unit to that, and the played it across the radios of each of my kids as a “bedtime story” that was perfect for lying in bed in the dark. 🙂
    
    Mind you, the first time my eldest heard the first few minutes of episode 1 he came out of his bedroom and asked me what the hell this was? 🙂
    
    “Wisdom”, I responded.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:25pm
WaveyDavey

Here’s a riddle for you

What do a judge’s son and his barrister girlfriend have in common?
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September 13, 2021 2:58pm
- herb1
  
  A Bach in Wanaka
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:39pm
- Aquataur
  
  They don’t believe the law applies to them ?
  
  but to be fair, they left Auckland as approved by MBIE, then travelled to Wanaka. Exactly what law have they broken?
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:44pm
- JibberJabber
  
  Matching overalls?
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:56pm
- kevn
  
  @Wavey… The joy of jafa clear Wanaka?
  
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  September 13, 2021 3:57pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Wanaka?
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:10pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  Isn’t 26 a bit young for a barrister, or is she a barista?
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:16pm
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I wouldn’t think that 26 is too young:
    Enter Uni at 17-18 years…
    4 -5 Years for LL.B.
    Few Months for the Prof Legal Studies Certificate…
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:08pm
- MrTips
  
  Name suppression
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:57pm
krazykiwi

Overheard in the UK

I’m only 17, eat well and go to the gym, I don’t need a jab.’

‘But it’s for your health.’

‘Then why are you offering me free Big Macs if I get one?’
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September 13, 2021 3:07pm
- Ehlana
  
  Very good question. Perhaps they should offer an alternative – like a month’s gym fees?
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:27pm
Fletch

Did anyone see the news story about the criticism and worry that there weren’t enough sign language interpreters to interpret Maori? Really?? Who the heck is there that is deaf and doesn’t understand English? More woke rubbish…
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September 13, 2021 3:22pm
- Ehlana
  
  I suspect the problem is that the person doing the signing has to understand what is being said before they can translate it into sign language. There are probably way more English to NZ Sign translators than Maori to NZ Sign translators.
  
  Thought: if you receive communication in NZ Sign, is it really “English” you’re using? You might read and write in English, but if you were raising a deaf child in a Maori speaking household, would the signs be the same?
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:33pm
  - Odakyu-sen
    
    My sister-in-law in Japan is a sign translator for the local government.
    Aparently signing in Japanese is not the same as signing in English or other languages, so the deaf of the world cannot readily converse with one another.
    
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    September 13, 2021 4:43pm
  - DeepBlue
    
    Watching Jacinda today, it was clear that a Maori sign interpreter was needed for her extensive Te Reo speech due to it being Te Reo Week. I can just imagine the call going out this morning for said experience and the one and only option lives in Lockdown in Auckland so Moana from accounts jumped in and said, ‘hey my Nana is deaf, I can do this for two minutes’.
    
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    September 13, 2021 6:45pm
Fletch

Uh oh. Looks like things are afoot in the California election –

Here’s one that won’t be covered by Democrat-loving mainstream media. Republican gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder and actress Rose McGowan are holding a press conference Sunday to reveal a bombshell about California Governor Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer.

According to McGowan, Jennifer Siebel Newsom contacted her on behalf of convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein to broken a deal in which McGowan would take a bribe for her silence. McGowan was one of Weinstein’s many sexual assault victims.

Sunday @ 1pm, Rose McGowan and I holding a press conference. Rose will detail how Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer, attempted to bribe and silence her from speaking out about Harvey Weinstein’s sexual abuses.

ATTN:@nytimes @washingtonpost @latimes @CNN@sacbee_news

Rose McGowan, an alleged Weinstein assault victim, says Newsom’s wife called her in 2017 to broker a deal for Boies to make the story go away. McGowan and I hold a press conference at 1pm PT.

Photo from @MailOnline pic.twitter.com/1owOfroGlC

— Larry Elder (@larryelder) September 12, 2021
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September 13, 2021 3:37pm
- krazykiwi
  
  I can’t read the word gubernatorial without wishing I’d been the one to dream it up.
  
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  September 13, 2021 4:56pm
  - JibberJabber
    
    Goober, pertaining to Governor or is that a peanut??
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:55pm
- Steve Todd
  
  Only half the story again, eh, Fletch?
  
  Here are two extracts from a Business Insider Australia report of the press conference (see https://www.businessinsider.com.au/rose-mcgowan-larry-elder-gavin-newsom-wife-silence-harvey-weinstein-2021-9).
  
  “In a statement provided to Insider, a spokesperson for Jennifer Siebel Newsom said McGowan’s claim was a ‘complete fabrication’.”
  
  and—
  
  “Elder’s ex-wife has accused him of domestic violence and said he pressured her into ‘unwanted sexual activity’. She filed a police report against him late last month after he publicly denied her claim that he had once brandished a gun at her.
  
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  September 13, 2021 7:17pm
kowtow

If it was Paddy’s day would she dress up as a leprechaun.
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September 13, 2021 4:09pm
- DeepBlue
  
  The faint Maori symbols on the scarf were a dead give away. Spouse said why is she dressed like that? I didn’t say don’t you know it is Te Wiki o Reo.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:48pm
  - kowtow
    
    I missed patterns , thort she’d got dressed up for a Hindu festival that’s on today…..
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:36pm
Stellaboxer

Just watched the pm lying from the podium of bs dressed up as Justin Trudeau on his visit to India. How long do we have to endure this ridiculous woman? It’s like watch with mother.
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September 13, 2021 4:15pm
- dave_c_
  
  “Ridiculous” indeed – I have other words I could use, but they would not make it past the moderator.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:03pm
- doggone7
  
  Be fair though, you must appreciate that the mindless discombobulation induced by Ardern in some viewers provides entertainment and amusement to others.
  
  Such a struggle to work out what to attack. The hair, the hands , the stance, the inflection, the use of Maori? A veritable smorgasbord of goodies.
  
  I’m sure watching fills time as well as feeding the minds. Me? I’ve just read online what the decisions are from a headline “Live: Auckland lockdown extended, level 3 ‘in-principle’ in 8 days; rest of NZ stays at level 2.”
  
  Did I need to watch or listen and incidentally find that information and be distracted from the real business, potting the PM?
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:30pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  I thought it was her Hare Krishna outfit!
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:54pm
ecco

Wow the woman is fearless. Has locked Auckland down for another 7 days, at least. Really is pursuing her pipe dream of elimination, really doesn’t care about anything but making it to united nations with her elimination theory. I guess they won’t be asking her how far into debt she put NZ in her pursuit of zero covid. She’s just still looking after the headline banner. I feel really sorry for all the business people in Auckland, not to mention all the citizens here who have been following this hairbrained circus. I think I’ll go for a walk. I don’t think I’ll wear a mask. I’ll be like Siouxsie.
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September 13, 2021 4:29pm
- Captain Mainwaring
  
  I suspect that civil unrest is not far away.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:04pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    And have you seen the number of terrified old gits (I’m in level 2) driving around alone in their cars with masks on?
    Me, as soon as I’m out the door of the supermarket the uncomfortable bloody thing comes off.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:06pm
    - Stellaboxer
      
      We had 120 kmph winds In Greytown the other day and the morons were walking around the streets in masks. I went home and wasn’t far off weeping.
      
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      September 13, 2021 5:27pm
      - septic skeptic
        
        Maybe they were worried such strong winds might be blowing the virus across from Sydney.
        
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        September 13, 2021 7:00pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        At last, no one’s laughing at the Welly wind!
        
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        September 13, 2021 8:55pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Elimination is impossible. Get vaccinated. Then get infected. Then get on with your life. It is as simple as that. Unless a second generation of vaccines provide actual infection immunity. And TBH that seems far from certain.
  
  So yes Jacinda. Everyone in New Zealand will be infected with COVID. The whole team of 5 million.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:14pm
  - ecco
    
    I’m with you on that strategy Benedict. Ardern turning into the laughing stock of leaders around the world.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:48pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  So is the wage subsidy going to be extended to cover the fith week at level 4 and the sixth week at level 3?
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:29pm
- DeepBlue
  
  I think it will take some really popular restaurant /retail/business – probably all three – to announce they are closing down this week, to get in the media and shock the complacency.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:53pm
Wired-one

Absolutely no justification for the rest of NZ to be in anything above level 1. It’s fucking ridiculous. If no cases in over 300 days means restrictions, what’s the bloody point!
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September 13, 2021 4:39pm
- Boutique Avo Orchard
  
  Agree Wired-One. Suspect the only reason is so Ardern can try to defuse some of the Auckland hatred rapidly building up. If Lockdowns were so great, Ardern would have remained in Auckland with “her” people for the duration of this one instead of scuttling off to Wellington before locking poor old Auckland down. It is afterall entirely possible for her to be PM from a locked down Auckland and make use of technology to do it.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:15pm
  - ecco
    
    I doubt Ardern has gone for a walk down the local Main Street and seen the devastation being caused. There’s no way a lot of these small businesses can survive this. Anyone with stock is in dire straits. Not to mention the plight of hotels and eateries.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:54pm
    - DeepBlue
      
      Everyone without stock is also in dire straights, as it’ll take weeks to restock. Case in point Bunnings has nil veggie pots to sell in Spring.
      
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      September 13, 2021 6:55pm
  - tf78
    
    BAO – she could be the ‘super-spreader’ that they haven’t been able to find.
    
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    September 13, 2021 6:40pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  I am meeting a business colleague tomorrow. We need to meet in a cafe because his employer has banned visitors because of the “COVID risk”. In Christchurch. So we are meeting in a public cafe instead of the conference room in his office building. Yes that makes total sense 🙁
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:16pm
- Marcus Vinicius
  
  I’m with you Wired-one.
  
  I listened to most of the Ardern\Bloomfield presser at 4pm today and in my view the PM isn’t the least bit interested in the economic impact of this lockdown stuff. I also think people like Bloomfield now has far too much influence on public policy decisions. And he isn’t being held to account properly
  
  I must add I’m not one of these anti vaxxer conspiracy nutters. I’ve been fully vaccinated and am from Chch.
  
  This government is going to get away with this nonsense in part because the Nats and its ineffective Leader cannot get a hit on Ardern’s mobs covid policies. Collins needs to go.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:27pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    NZ media are now just another branch of Labour’s comms team. They will only ever mention Judith in a negative way, and will avoid saying anything critical of Labour/Greens under all but the most egregious circumstances. No National or Act leader or MP is ever going to get anything other than snark, invective and editorial denigration from them, so it really doesn’t matter who you choose to front the parties – and repeatedly changing leaders to run up against exactly the same issue is pointless – just providing fuel for the claims of disarray. At least Judith is verbally capable.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:34pm
    - tf78
      
      UN – totally agree, I emailed the Nats after their loss and said remember “The media are not your friends” – that is so true. Google Tova O’brien and watch (if YouTube hasn’t removed it). It was about the document dump on 10 September which included the PM’s office telling Labour MP’s not to answer any questions and not to respond about their Covid plans. I’m sorry I can’t put the link up but I’m sure one of your friends will have seen it already.
      
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      September 13, 2021 6:38pm
      - kevn
        
        @tf78… The tova mp’s told to clam up story?
        That has been disappeared.
        
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        September 13, 2021 7:06pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Has someone muddled up things?
        
        There was a Newshub story in May 2020, about a Friday Dump of Labour party material, and the PM’s instructions that no MPs were to discuss Covid matters.
        
        https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/05/leak-jacinda-ardern-gags-ministers-on-discussing-covid-19-response.html
        
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        September 13, 2021 7:12pm
    - DeepBlue
      
      Collins is verbally capable, but runs the risk of verbal diarrhea. Which makes it hard to look like a PM in waiting.
      
      Collins needs at least four good weeks where she doesn’t rely on idioms or start an ad hominem debate. It might be an MSM soundbite, but it isn’t a great mantra compared with “be kind”.
      
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      September 13, 2021 7:00pm
      - tf78
        
        DB – the truth is often not kind.
        
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        September 13, 2021 8:34pm
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I see no signs that Judith is aware of the data about the vaccines. So she cannot formulate a strategy for New Zealand going forward.
    
    It is like these folk are in North Korea with no internet access 🙁
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:34pm
    - tf78
      
      BY – National need to promote the tried and tested ‘treatments’ which will be our ticket out of here. That is the only logical solution. My old Japanese boss used to say “We find solution” and that is it.
      
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      September 13, 2021 6:01pm
    - MrTips
      
      That’s because she’s got Bishop running on COVID. The guy is a dick. He’s got no biology training and he looks like a COVID patient that’s been dragged backwards through a bush.
      
      Give him the arse card and put Shane on it – he’s a respected doctor for goodness sake.
      
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      September 13, 2021 7:03pm
      - tf78
        
        I emailed Judith tonight and suggested just that. Hopefully they look seriously at the options.
        
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        September 13, 2021 8:36pm
  - ecco
    
    Even Peters would have been better than what we’ve got. At least he would have put a hand brake on this nutter.
    
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    September 13, 2021 5:56pm
  - kevn
    
    @Marcus… Judith needs to put the MSM on the payroll but give them more than arden.
    
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    September 13, 2021 7:08pm
    - sooty
      
      Or cut them off at the knees and let them wither!
      
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      September 13, 2021 8:56pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Yeah; her problem is that politically she can’t leave Akld at L4 while moving the rest of the country at L1. So, she’s talking about Akld going to L3 next week; never mind today’s 33 cases.
  
  Product of non rigorous thinking.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:58pm
Wired-one

Notice how Bloomfield and Ardern wouldn’t answer Bernard Hickeys question regarding at what vaccinated percentage would we no longer need lockdowns. Even at 90% vaccination he pointed to a study that suggested 500 deaths per year. Ardern and Bloomfield would not commit to no lockdowns at that stage. This isn’t going to stop even with high vaccination levels.
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September 13, 2021 5:05pm
- Stu2
  
  They weren’t any better on the economics of level 2.
  
  Sure an outbreak could be bad in an area that dropped to level 1, but so is having 70% of NZ in level 2.
  
  And what happens in a week? Is level 1 then much different to going there now?
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:35pm
- Benedict Yu
  
  Of course there will be 500 deaths per year from COVID at 90 percent vaccination levels. We have about 33,000 deaths per year.
  
  These people are mental.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:36pm
- Critical Thinker
  
  “Even at 90% vaccination he pointed to a study that suggested 500 deaths per year.”
  
  Well since we all now know that covid has miraculously cured the flu worldwide, we won’t be experiencing flu deaths at least, so there’s that silver-lining ?
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/flu-killing-500-kiwis-each-year-otago-university-study-says/ODMURV7DVL6RAVW3A7HZLCIL5M/
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:17pm
  - Critical Thinker
    
    Global circulation of influenza viruses
    https://apps.who.int/flumart/Default?ReportNo=10
    
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    September 13, 2021 7:46pm
- dcrane
  
  IMPEACH! Oh, wrong country.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:33pm
- septic skeptic
  
  He was also running the line that any level of vaccination was not good enough “if there were pockets of vulnerable people” at lower rates. Of course we all know to which special people he is referring. This really pisses me off. Surely everybody in this country has heard the message to get vaccinated. Once those that want it have it – then open up. Stop treating those that don’t want the vax like babies.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:44pm
dcrane

If South Island stays in Level 2, I don’t see Auckland coming out of Level 4 until a week after the last unexpected community case (not already isolating). So this “in principle in 8 days” stuff is just another frog boiling tactic. We’ll be lucky to get out of 4 in September. The government has its whole game bet on elimination.

I hope I’m wrong somehow.
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September 13, 2021 5:05pm
- tf78
  
  dcrane, the genie is well and truly out of the bottle. We must now live with it and let life carry on, like we have for the last hundred years since the Spanish Flu.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:35pm
  - JerJer
    
    Agree.
    
    I think we are now the last country on earth trying for elimination. It is a hopeless goal, because it is coming out way anyway. Everyone will get it, get used to it, vaccinated or not. Be scared of the boogie man as much as you like, but it is coming. Euro countries and UK have taken the hit, they know now what do to, and they are out the other side. We are now two years behind, and still locking down half the country with no cases. Waffling about masks and pontificating about nothing useful. We will see on the TV other countries celebrating their success very soon (Denmark, Sweden, UK already), while, we wonder what to do next. The hit will come soon, and we cried wolf very early. The worst is coming for us. We are now isolated. cowering in fear, and only have a useless leader to leader (One that likes to speak in a language that no one understands).
    
    We are useless, our forebears would be embarrassed, with how pathetic we have become.
    
    Your leaders are the same ones that brought you KiwiBuild and Light Rail (except they failed completely, and will again).
    
    Good luck to all.
    
    Very sad.
    
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    September 13, 2021 6:02pm
    - dcrane
      
      Don’t forget Kiwijab!
      
      6 0
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      September 13, 2021 6:32pm
- dcrane
  
  More on frog-boiling: This NZ Herald article casually states that a “short, sharp three-day lockdown” was originally intended. Well, if that’s true, why was the wage subsidy reintroduced from the get-go? Obviously they knew we had way more than 1 case that first night, and the knew we were in for another long stay at Level 4.
  
  “Short, sharp three-day lockdown” = “two weeks to stop the spread”
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/covid-19-delta-outbreak-another-week-in-level-4-devastating-news-retail-nz/CFFMWNI45NXJSMWFI6LTD2ZHXM/
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:57pm
Stu2

Yesterday we got to 51.5% of the doses possible if every 12+ year old was double vaccinated
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September 13, 2021 5:26pm
UrbanNeocolonialist

A list of who 7 of the 9 US NIH members who recommended against allowing Ivermectin to treat covid19 are financially in bed with. quelle suprise:

Adimora: Merck, Gilead, Viiv
Bedimo: Merck, Gilead
Gandhi: Merck, Gilead, Janssen
Glidden: Merck, Gilead
Gulick: Merck, Pfizer, Gilead, GSK, BMS
Naggie: Gilead, AbbVie, Vir Bio, NIH ivermectin study grant
Pavia: Merck, GSK, Genentech, Seqirus

https://trialsitenews.com/grotesque-conflicts-of-interest-on-nih-ivermectin-non-recommendation/
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September 13, 2021 5:28pm
fernglas

Gosh, your press is spineless. I saw this article on the Herald website a few hours ago. that it was there at all is extraordinary. But since the PM decided she wants everyone vaccinated, it has just disappeared.
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-coronavirus-delta-outbreak-auckland-cant-afford-to-wait-in-level-4-for-high-vaccination-rates-immunologist/SJQOOKWORWDJ6R7LJ34R26XXPA/
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September 13, 2021 5:29pm
- septic skeptic
  
  It’s amazing how fast MSM articles disappear if they don’t fit the Labour narrative. Almost as if said MSM were dependent on Labour funding.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:34pm
Stellaboxer

Where are all the dead people from this tricky highly contagious Black Death????
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September 13, 2021 5:34pm
Maggy Wassilieff

This Government is walking a fine line now and has one week to get some spin organised as to how it is going to lead NZ out of lockdown land.

Even if Auckland drops to Level 3 next week, it must be obvious to everyone now that Covid’s next breach of the border is just a matter of time.
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September 13, 2021 5:46pm
- Marcus Vinicius
  
  Well said,
  
  Ardern and Bloomfield were spinning like a couple of tops at the presser before.
  
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  September 13, 2021 5:52pm
- krazykiwi
  
  For the better part of a billion years, viruses have been ignoring government policy. They’re really quite accomplished at it.
  
  So no matter what the hubris-filled Ardern and half-truth Bloomfield strong-arm us into accepting, we can be sure SARS-CoV-2 is intent on making New Zealand its home, just as millions of respiratory virus variants have done prior.
  
  Our leaders set their policy to project a reality they’d like to benefit from, rather than one that reflects epidemiological certainty.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:01pm
  - sooty
    
    How many lockdowns to christmas?
    
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    September 13, 2021 8:48pm
ecco

Where are all Auckland electorate MPs? I haven’t heard a peep from them going in to bat for their constituents on this absolute dismantling of the Auckland economy. Isn’t Swarbrick the mp for Auckland central? Where is she?
Michael Barnett’s doing more to plead the case for Auckland businesses than any of those elected troughers.
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September 13, 2021 6:03pm
- greybeard
  
  So true.
  Send this message to Mike Hosking to digest tomorrow.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:21pm
ecco

One other thing – wtf does ‘Auckland will -in principle- be going into level three next week’ mean?
Doesn’t mean anything. Of course not. Ardern putting a bob each way and will do what she wants. The ultimate BS woman.
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September 13, 2021 6:14pm
- dcrane
  
  Means about as much as “short, sharp three-day lockdown” did on Day 1.
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:29pm
- septic skeptic
  
  Maybe. Or maybe it means they are running out of other peoples money and can’t afford endless weeks of wage subsidy while they get to zero new cases for a week or more .
  
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  September 13, 2021 6:31pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  She knows she can’t keep Aucklanders in lockdown any longer.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:53pm
Maggie Pie

1EWES….Maori Language Week

“Auckland Hospital warns Covid patients against having sex with visiting Whanau”

😛
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September 13, 2021 6:24pm
Prince

All the TV One News adulation for ‘Jacinda’ can’t hide one, simple, statistic.
33% fully vaccinated.
Fail.
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September 13, 2021 6:48pm
Maggie Pie

And in ‘Sports News’, Andrew Saville reports…

“Quade Cooper admits to being radicalized by SBW”

🙁
7 3
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September 13, 2021 6:55pm
Fletch

I still don’t know how the media and politicians are pushing this idea that once we get a certain percentage of the population vaccinated that everything will be alright and we’ll be able to go back to normal. Surely they must know that being vaccinated does not stop someone catching the virus or transmitting it. But it seems to be being treated as the magic solution.
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September 13, 2021 7:06pm
- tf78
  
  Fletch, you know very well that it’s called shifting the goal posts.
  
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  September 13, 2021 8:39pm
Herodotus

Todays 4:00pm why 33:30 is it that our PM can make a decision in keeping the SI in level 2.5 when she hasn’t sighted any modelling or risk regarding the level of risk ? No I haven’t seen modelling . So NO analytical data was the decision to keep the SI level 2.5 ?????
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/451400/watch-prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-says-auckland-to-stay-in-lockdown-for-another-week
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September 13, 2021 9:12pm
Inthe09

First time poster here – a few observations

I live in Auckland near a gang pad, business has never been better. If you think there isn’t a way in and out of Auckland you’re dreaming, their getting their supply from somewhere and not everything they sell is made in Auckland.

The ‘hazard’ tape on the kids playground down the street has been ripped off (twice) – and plenty of parents are happy to now just let the kids play while they stand and chat.

I have one painful neighbour who would give Jack Tame a run for his money in the ‘we love Jacinda’ stakes – her comment on the weekend ‘Bloody Jacinda should try doing a month at home with kids trying to kill each other’. Oh and her 18 year old who proudly told me he was ‘waiting like the States where they paid people’ before he gets an injection.

Meanwhile in a parallel universe another week in home detention is somehow going to make all the difference.
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September 13, 2021 9:15pm
- krazykiwi
  
  Welcome to DPF’s opinion cauldron, Inthe09
  
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  September 14, 2021 7:03am

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