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January 20, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 20 January 2022

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General Debate

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Benedict Yu

So this academic has decided that we need a separate Maori water safety strategy.

“Her research looks at how Māori oral narratives such as pūrākau (creation stories), mōteatea (chants), karakia (incantations), whakataukī (proverbs) and pepeha (tribal aphorisms) can be used to understand water safety from a Māori perspective.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/127537186/mori-perspectives-could-be-the-key-to-curbing-high-drowning-rates-expert-says

Couldn’t we tell Maori parents to not let their kids swim in rivers unless they are strong swimmers? Or to swim between the flags at the beach? How about we find which Australian state has the lowest drowning rates and use their plan?

But no we are going to tell “creation stories”.

Is the plan to divide New Zealand and have a “Maori strategy” for every aspect of public policy?
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January 20, 2022 8:00am
- pdm
  
  BY – it all sounds like `heifer dust’ to me.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:05am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    I can swim but I am not a strong swimmer. I would not swim in a river.
    
    It is all about knowing your limitations and if you have kids get them swimming lessons and supervise them if they are under 12 or not strong swimmers.
    
    Surely preventing drownings is about a small number of clear, easy to remember messages. Telling creation stories is not going to help.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:11am
    - cmm
      
      C’mon BY. We all know that Maori are not weak little foreigners. They have a strong spirit. They have a natural affinity with water, nature, sky and sea.
      
      Limitations are only imposed on Maori by colonialists. Therefore the colonialists must pay to fix the problem the Maori way.
      
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      January 20, 2022 8:16am
    - pdm
      
      BY I cannot swim at all. But in the mid 60’s as a 17 and 18 year old at this time of the year my mates and I would regularly go to a local swimming hole in the river, put our beer in the water to help keep it cool and have a swim or in my case a splash. No one got close to getting in trouble because we took care where we went and what we did.
      
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      January 20, 2022 8:35am
      - amospicton
        
        I doubt there’s much of a correlation at all between drownings and swimming ability. Most of those who can’t swim actively avoid situations where they’re vulnerable. It’s mainly men and mainly Maori/Pacifika men – draw your own conclusions.
        
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        January 20, 2022 8:41am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        I think one problem is that parents are worried about the wrong risks. They are terrified of their 5 year olds getting COVID but take them out in small boats without life jackets or don’t supervise them at the river.
        
        Not long after I arrived in New Zealand I was employed to analyse data from a survey on the risks that parents perceived about their children. Many Maori parents had it totally wrong. They were worried about their kids being “abducted” (seriously) but the same parents would take them out in unsafe boats. And reverse down the driveway without checking if their kid was in the way.
        
        It is not just maori – people are not great at assessing the frequency and severity of risks. Governments can help – or right now not – by terrifying parents into vaccinating 5 year olds for COVID. Instead the Government could spend that money targeting the 15 percent of Maori parents who don’t get their kids fully vaccinated for measles. It would do a lot more good.
        
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        January 20, 2022 8:50am
    - artemisia
      
      Creation stories might help. Problem is there would need to be several large, expensive longitudinal pilots and reports to find out one way or another.
      
      Job done.
      
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      January 20, 2022 8:41am
    - kevn
      
      @BY… Lots of swimming tuition cancelled over the last 18 months… covid.
      
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      January 20, 2022 8:42am
      - Mr_Blobby
        
        More people drowned than died with covid.
        
        What has the podium of truth got to say about that.
        
        More people commited suicide because of covid than died with covid.
        
        More people died from the top 10 causes of death than died WITH covid.
        
        Maybe we should ban people from going anywhere near water.
        
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        January 20, 2022 10:44am
      - Ehlana
        
        Not only lots of swimming tuition and practice not happening, but the same for driving – which may have affected our crash rate this year. Add to which the effect of lockdown on the mental state of all who went through it and perhaps these results were somewhat predictable?
        
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        January 20, 2022 11:57am
      - dai
        
        “Having never learned to swim has saved my life on many occasions”. Charlie Douglas.
        
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        January 20, 2022 3:25pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I too can swim but not a strong swimmer. As a boatie I would not drown if I went overboard. Thing that kills people is fear and panic.
      At 7 years old I was swimming down the Waikato river some 11 miles.
      Every kid should be taught to swim
      
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      January 20, 2022 12:35pm
- Cinematic
  
  Stopped reading Stuff a couple of months ago. It’s so full of nonsense like this it’s a waste of time.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:08am
  - kowtow
    
    I try my best to avoid it.
    
    Every click is a benefit to them .
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:31am
  - Mickey
    
    Friends don’t let friends read stuff!
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:09am
  - Mr_Blobby
    
    Same and stopped watching TV as well, life feels much more relaxed and enjoyable now I don’t have to put up with wall to wall fear porn.
    
    People are walking around like scared little rabbits very sad to observe.
    
    Some sort of mass psychosis beware of the walking dead least they infect you.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:50am
- Scott
  
  Good point Benedict. At the bottom of the article you cite we find this encouraging gem from the stuff editors –
  “Stuff is committed to representing te ao Māori in our reporting and being a trusted partner for tangata whenua. Our company kaupapa has Te Tiriti o Waitangi at its core.”
  
  So in answer to your question – is the plan to divide NZ and have a Maori strategy for every aspect of public policy?
  Why” yes”. As far as stuff is concerned the answer is emphatically yes.
  
  If the National party wins the treasury benches next election they should emulate the Conservatives in Britain who are eliminating the licence fee that funds the BBC. The BBC is now a leftist organisation that is dedicated to the overthrow of the conservative government.
  In the same way National should not prop up stuff. Why should the NZ taxpayer have to fund this divisive nonsense?
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:09am
  - chukar
    
    Not likely, Scott,
    See on stuff today that Luxon is a fan of Te Reo , introduced it to Air NZ and is trying to improve his understanding of this new language.
    So here we go again, Labour and National singing the same song!
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:47am
    - artemisia
      
      I don’t see a problem with this. It heads off at the pass the angry and strident that will find its way to the headlines for sure. Better for a new leader not to attract identity politics at this point in the electoral cycle.
      
      Could be smart.
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:16am
    - Tricati
      
      I was disappointed when I read the article on Luxon improving his understanding of Te Reo. This is just the same virtue signalling crap we have had from Ardern’s government for the last 4 years and its not what National supporters are looking for.
      National need to drop the nonsense and start acting for the majority of New Zealanders, and not the 16%, as the majority have had enough of this crap.
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:35am
      - Nickc2
        
        Perhaps Stuff is stirring shit. Anything to assist Dear Leader! She’s paying them using our (taxpayer) money. In any developed country, that would be a criminal act.
        
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        January 20, 2022 12:12pm
    - Ra Henare
      
      From the famous Warrior/General Sun Tzu.
      The art of War.
      No thy enemy.
      
      I support Luxon getting to grips with the Maori language and customs. Will be able to laugh off ridiculous Maorisms as ridiculous.
      
      Puts the Mahuta Mob on the back foot, I would say.
      
      Pretending it doesnt exist is a fools errand.
      
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      January 20, 2022 4:53pm
- dubya
  
  I wonder if she actually believes this, or just wants $600k in funding from a government entity we hadn’t heard of until we subscribed to the Taxpayers Union newsletter?
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:12am
- cmm
  
  Is there really a “Maori perspective”? Isn’t this just an invention to make more division and more troughs?
  
  They all see how quickly Cindy handed over $120M for a Maori Covid strategy. They realise that there are thousands of other little troughs that can be made to turn bad behaviour into a source of money.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:12am
  - Phronesis
    
    Not “a” perspective as in singular. Every maori has their own perspective, and they are all more important than yours, because.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:23am
- Nickc2
  
  Who’s going to invent, catalog and teach this crap?
  News Flash
  A cauldron of Maori Witches at Waikato University has been given a Govt Grant to implement Maori Swimming programs using traditional and handed down Maori Science and Technology techniques with the aim of having separate Maori representation at all local and international swimming competitions.
  Problem solved, no more Maori drownings.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:17am
  - david
    
    I’d be quite happy to see Maori witches placed in a cauldron – see, no more witches.
    However I hope the word you were seeking is “coven”
    cheers
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:48am
    - Nickc2
      
      Well, yes and no. They were just coming to the boil whilst I was typing that and I was going to let them simmer for a while, then add salt to flavour, a few Paua and a Kinna or two. No veggies though.
      
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      January 20, 2022 11:37am
      - david
        
        Part of me was being pedantic, the other was driven by a fester to encourage the proper use of my mother tongue.
        Youse do get it dontcha ?
        
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        January 20, 2022 12:22pm
      - david
        
        Not “fester” ……….. should have been “desire”
        
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        January 20, 2022 2:29pm
  - Paulus
    
    Isn’t it sad that the division between Maori and the rest of New Zealand has never been greater since 1840 and it is getting worse by the day.
    Not going to be a green and pleasant in the future.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:09am
  - gravedodger
    
    @ Nick2 is there a fit in there that supports the theory I was imbued with as a small child and scared witless of any water beyond the enamel bath that Maori children were taught to swim by being tossed into water and those who began to swim survived?
    
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    January 20, 2022 11:10am
    - Countrygirl
      
      I remember going to Whakarewarewa and seeing multitudes of little brown skinned kids diving for money thrown into the river by tourists. The early days of troughing perhaps, or alternatively a good way of them learning to swim.
      
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      January 20, 2022 1:11pm
      - Ra Henare
        
        Capitalism at work. Love it
        Reward for effort!! 🙂
        Bi product. Not of them drowned.
        
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        January 20, 2022 4:58pm
- Tomtoddy
  
  These interventions and research efforts really do help Maori. They help tremendously. The impact is significant.
  
  But only for the one Maori who does the research and writes such gibberish. They get pay rises, more research grants, elected to more committees and commissions, feted by the luvvies, written about in glowing terms in the bought and paid for media. Yep, really helping Maori, but just one.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:19am
- David Garrett
  
  BY: I think your last sentence is probably right…it’s certainly the way we are heading as a country.
  
  The worse example has to be the “incentives” for Maori to get vaccinated. Apparently they are so stupid and childlike that we have to drive into their neighbourhoods bearing burgers and KFC in order to “incentivise” them to get vaccinated.
  
  As my half Tongan son wryly observed “Just what Horis and Islanders don’t need – more KFC”
  
  (And and Yes, he refers to “horis” and “niggers” all the time. Apparently that’s OK if you are brown yourself).
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:23am
  - David Garrett
    
    As I pressed “Send” I wondered how long it will take for some pious mod to change my comment to remove “the N word.” You Mods should visit South Auckland more.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:24am
    - Chuck Bird
      
      It is acceptable for one gang to refer to other gang members as niggers and that is unlikely to change if we have hate speech legislation.
      
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      January 20, 2022 8:43am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      Or they could listen to some rap “music”
      
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4LsQ_kdLh0
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:16am
  - cmm
    
    While there might be childish incentives like KFC vouchers etc, but the real money goes to the people who are paid to orchestrate these strategies.
    
    Early on, there was $35M spent on developing a strategy to engage Maori. Not actually do the job, just to develop a strategy.
    
    That strategy was, likely: “Just hand out some KFC vouchers. $35M please”.
    
    All up there has been over $120M spend on encouraging Maori to get vaccinated.
    
    That is where the corruption-level money is going. Into a few fat-cat pockets – while the actual Maori on the ground get to share, maybe, $5M of KFC vouchers.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:42am
    - David Garrett
      
      cmm: I think you are right. A few weeks ago, outside the Helensville library, there was a group consisting of two cops and about five Maori women, all obese. They had a blanket on the ground with “kai” spread around on it. I asked them if they were having a picnic; they laughed and said they were there to vaccinate “Maoris” – the plural word used by one of said obese women. I have noticed that older Maori who aren’t woke often use “Maoris” to describe themselves.
      
      I said I’d get another jab for a litre of coke and a burger. They awkwardly said I didn’t qualify.
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:03am
      - cmm
        
        Perhaps you’ve identified the real problem here… Not enough cops!
        
        WTF do they need cops there?
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:30am
      - David George
        
        No need to worry about using the pluralising or possessive “s” when using Maori words in an English text David. It’s quite acceptable and inoffensive to talk about the tuis in the garden or Kaitaia’s water supply, more so when you consider the blatant appropriation and corruption of English in many pretend Maori words.
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:47am
      - Batman
        
        Or rather, it’s intellectually lazy and quite petty.
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:52am
  - pdm
    
    DG – we have a very good Maori friend of over 40 years whose first christian name is – Hori.
    
    He has a very English second name by which he has known – with 6 kings of England sharing that name.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:42am
    - Captain Mainwaring
      
      His second name will be George, which I understand is the English translation of ‘Hori’.
      
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      January 20, 2022 8:57am
      - Flossie
        
        I always thought John was the English version.
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:12am
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        Hori – George, Hone – John, Henare – Henry, Hemi- James, Wiremu – William, Tipene- Stephen etc, etc
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:59am
      - David Garrett
        
        Flossie: No; Hone is the Maori for John…as in Hone the Racist Harawira
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:59am
    - David Garrett
      
      pdm: My late half brother had a Maori friend whose name was New Amsterdam Reedy…I kid you not. Apparently his father either got killed or earned a medal (can’t remember which) at some place in the Pacific called New Amsterdam.
      
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      January 20, 2022 8:58am
      - fightingtemeraire
        
        If it is the same bloke he was a MP who used the name Amster Reedy. The New Amsterdam was a Dutch Troop ship that took the Maori Battalion overseas.
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:14am
      - pdm
        
        DG – met a guy in the late 80’s whos christian name was Wireless.
        
        He was a Cook Islander I think and born in the early 1930’s.
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:25am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        at some place in the Pacific
        New Amsterdam (Island) is in the Indian Ocean
        
        New Amsterdam was the original Dutch settlement that led to New York
        
        Talking of names for war babies:
        You must remember Alamein Kopu
        
        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamein_Kopu
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:26am
      - Charmaine Hawke
        
        DG I had a client once called Middlemore after the hospital he was born in. He was a Cook Islander
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:39am
      - David Garrett
        
        fighting: Yes, the man in question did go by “Amster”…I didn’t now he’d been an MP.
        
        Talking on interesting PI names, “Okosene” (oxygen) and “Telefoni” are quite common in Samoa. The Tongans don’t seem to do it.
        
        After some years of dealing with him, I found out that my friend and client Lupeti was in fact Rupert…Tongans who didn’t like him used Rupert to piss him off.
        
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        January 20, 2022 10:03am
      - Leofric
        
        Shades of Alamein Kopu.
        
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        January 20, 2022 2:56pm
  - amospicton
    
    You’ve touched on one of the main things that annoys me re identity politics DG – it’s utterly condescending and patronising. And yet, kind????
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:43am
- Taieri
  
  So this academic has decided that we need a separate Maori water safety strategy.
  ————
  
  Just another oxygen thief…
  
  Parents, Maori or otherwise, are usually provided with a functioning brain. It’s up to them to decide whether they use it.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:38am
  - Paulus
    
    Why bother, under the Mahuta Three Waters legislation all New Zealand water that lands from the sky, and therefore all water safety, will be her responsiblity – for a price.
    
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    January 20, 2022 11:07am
  - Leofric
    
    It beats me why anybody listens to academics.
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:57pm
- Mickey
  
  They forgot to add ‘throw some bones’
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:59am
- Mickey
  
  So basically what she is saying is MAORI ARE FAILING MAORI!!!
  
  Shame on them, do they have no love for their people?
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:10am
- DeepBlue
  
  I don’t think anyone commenting has read this article properly before jumping to conclusions.
  
  The tikanga is simply the framework for how Maori wish to learn across education, and personally I believe anything that makes learning stick is important.
  
  It mentions the big problem is drowning when looking for food, particularly diving, not the river swimming all the commentors have given valid but personal examples about.
  
  It also talks about engaging the whole family to educate, which is exactly what we here and Surf Life Saving were promoting a few weeks back.
  
  We must be careful to not jump to conclusions and cast a racist shadow, noting this work is acdemic research and if this find ways to reduce drowning, great. It sure beats some marketing guy coming up with a factless ad campaign to stay between the flags.
  
  Down tick if you want, but please do so only after consideration.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:13am
  - bronny1
    
    Maybe a water strategy could apply to everyone. It could have limbs to for PEOPLE swimming in rivers amd PEOPLE collecting shellfish. These are not white only or Maori only activities.
    
    Just utter BS.
    
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    January 20, 2022 1:27pm
  - Ehlana
    
    The trouble is DeepBlue, that some people have cried Wolf! too often. Others have now become cynical.
    
    I agree, I think the research probably has at heart the rather sensible notion of identifying the nature of the problem (particular ethnic group, specific behaviours and situations) and then suggesting ways to solve it. If it works, we’ve got another tool in the toolkit for public education; if it doesn’t, we know to try a different direction. I’m sure the Surf Life Savers, Police, Coastguard, St John’s and early morning dog walkers won’t mind dealing with fewer drownings.
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:03pm
    - david
      
      Indeed Ehlana but profiling is a dirty word don’t you know.
      
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      January 20, 2022 4:31pm
    - DeepBlue
      
      Spot on. It seems we have been worn down by the crying of Wolf and now we just yell at each other through social media and blogs.
      
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      January 20, 2022 4:53pm
- JJ56
  
  Brilliant Press Release out today from ACT:
  
  “Labour is putting the Treaty at the centre of everything, but is the Treaty at the heart of Labour? The Labour Party constitution is 113 pages, but it mentions treaty only three times. It says that the Treaty should be honoured, but it doesn’t say how. Even the ACT Party constitution acknowledges the Treaty,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.
  
  “The Labour Party says ‘All political authority comes from the people by democratic means including universal suffrage…’ It sounds like the Labour Party believes in one person, one vote. Where is the commitment to the voice of the Treaty Partner. Where is the place for partnership and co-governance in the Labour Party?”
  
  And gets better from there 🙂
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:22am
- Paulus
  
  Is it possible that the latest child drowning in the Hutt Valley is related to this philosophy ?
  Very Sad.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:04am
- curry4me
  
  Benedict Yu: I guess National will come up with an Anglo-Saxon, Viking, or Celtic water safety strategy in 5,4,3,2,1. /sarc
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:18am
  - Countrygirl
    
    Maybe “survival of the fittest”?
    
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    January 20, 2022 1:15pm
  - bronny1
    
    Nah only the Maori matter.
    
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    January 20, 2022 1:28pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  “Is the plan to divide New Zealand and have a “Maori strategy” for every aspect of public policy?”
  
  A rhetorical question, surely! The evidence is all around you, and has even been written down in a handy reference manual – though it’s denied and covered up everywhere – He Puapua.
  
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  January 20, 2022 12:40pm
  - Southtop2
    
    The biggest question is who does the strategy apply to?
    It could be called a First immigrant Strategy?
    
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    January 20, 2022 12:58pm
- Leofric
  
  Another load of absolute fucking waffle. Paid for by you and me.
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:10pm
peterwn

See:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/127526611/big-businesses-blast-electricity-authority-over-market-dysfunction

“NZ Steel, Fonterra and Winstone Pulp have criticised the Electricity Authority for failing to properly address the shortcomings of the electricity market in a review it published in October.”

To cut a long story short, major electricity users want the Government to subsidise electricity. Trying to re-arrange electricity markets in an attempt to provide cheaper electricity would be no more effective than re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. I suspect the major electricity users know this but do not want to directly ask the Government for subsidised electricity as a refusal often offends.

These major users do not really want to make any significant long term procurement plans foe electricity but simply expect there to be a plentiful supply of cheap electricity ‘on tap’. They want the electricity generators and/or Government to take the investment risk while at the same time wanting to screw the electricity generating company shareholders. These generating companies will then stop investing in new electricity generation leaving the Government to carry the investment can.

More particularly if the Government splits retail from generation, investment in new generation would stop very quickly. The only way for investment to re-start is for generators and retailers to enter into long term contracts (unless this is outlawed too) for electricity so generators and their shareholders would get a reasonable return on their investment. Otherwise shareholders will sell up and put their money into other shares and investments (eg residential property).

If the boot were on the other foot and Fonterra was forced in one way or another to provide cheap milk, butter and cheese to the domestic market, then Fonterra and its farmer shareholders would soon be squealing like stuck pigs. They cannot have it both ways.
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January 20, 2022 8:00am
- cmm
  
  It takes many years for generation to be built and once built, those generators last 50 or so years. The current climate of shutting down everything and massive hand outs to prop up the “green energy” sector make it very difficult to invest in real generation (ie. the kind that actually makes reliable, low cost electricity).
  
  This is not something that can be left until it is needed. It takes 5 to 10 years to prime the pump.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:22am
- dannz
  
  There’s an argument to be made that the generators can make more money by NOT adding generation capacity, forcing everyone to fight over what’s left. That sounds like a broken market to me.
  
  The basic problem is that excess generation capacity doesn’t pay it’s way, but is needed to avoid blackouts on the occasional load spike.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:23am
  - Nigel Kearney
    
    It’s not a broken market if the reason is government regulations that make new generation so expensive it is not worth doing.
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:58am
    - artemisia
      
      Quite so, not broken at all if markets respond to their environments. In particular, owners respond to their profits, or lack of. Because they can, or must.
      
      Workers however, have fewer options.
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:49am
- Tomtoddy
  
  Suggesting major users like Fonterra are wanting subsidised electricity is a bit of a stretch. There is no real evidence of that.
  
  They simply want the failings in the wholesale market dealt with to remove some of the wild fluctuations and to have a more certainty and clearer signals in the pricing.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:32am
  - cmm
    
    I think the thing they’re really bleating about is the massive volatility in spot pricing (ie. the wholesale pricing).
    
    The spot price can change every half hour based on supply vs demand and is changed to try to curb demand to keep within generation capability.
    
    The idea of spot pricing has some merit: make it more expensive and people will switch off load and defer it to when the spot price is reduced.
    
    But, for many industrial processes, this is not effective. You can’t turn off/on a powdered milk system on a half hourly basis.
    
    Same too for many industrial users – it is unreasonable to turn off power and have the staff standing around doing nothing.
    
    The real problem here is that the “green” energy is far less predictable. Wind can stop blowing in 10 minutes. It doesn’t take much cloud to massively reduce PV output – in minutes. Emissions budgets mean that coal generation etc is kept off as much as possible.
    
    On top of this there have also been other factors too – like the push for heat pumps. These tend to also create volatile loads as hundreds of thousands of households all turn them on when it gets cold.
    
    And then it’s going to get worse as more EVs appear and people want to charge them NOW, not wait a couple of days until electricity is cheap again.
    
    All these factors leads to reduction in generation reliability and an increase in volatility. The tool that is used to try flatten this out is the spot price and so the increased volatility has led to more volatility in the spot price.
    
    While the average spot price might not be very high, the spot price can also be extremely high at times. This means there will be periods where factories are getting close to free electricity but other periods where the factory is losing money badly – they aren’t even making their electricity costs – let alone paying wages or making any profit.
    
    This can only be corrected in a few ways:
    1) Capping the spot price.
    2) Limiting unreliable “green” energy to reduce volatility in energy supply and building enough reliable generation (hydro + coal and, dare I say, nukes). Generation needs to be sized for maximum demand, not average demand.
    3) Use other energy sources in industry (for example many/most large heat users like Fonterra burn coal or gas in their factories – much to the ire of Extinction Rebellion and other greenies).
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:27am
    - peterwn
      
      Capping the spot price achieves nothing. The whole idea of a spot price is to dampen demand to match available generation. Once the cap is reached demand may outstrip available supply requiring load shedding.
      Major customers and second tier retailers are attracted to buying at spot prices as they are low most of the time. But they do not seem to have a ‘plan B’ to deal with high spot prices. A capped spot price merely passes the ‘plan B’ buck onto someone else.
      Agreed that wind and solar are erratic. This is recognised and the providers accept that a ‘buffer’ is required. For small installations, diesel or petrol generation can provide the required ‘backup’. For major wind and solar generation, the existing hydro stations provide the necessary ‘buffering’ and as far as I know, there is still sufficient spare buffering capability. This is why the generators consider the Lake Onslow pumped generation to be a waste of money at this stage.
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:03am
      - cmm
        
        I agree that capping a spot price limits the effectiveness of a spot price, but consider the impact of excessive spot prices.
        
        Last year the spot prices varies from $1/MWh (0.1 cents per kWh) to $1400/MWh ($1.40 per kWh).
        
        How the hell do you run a business when the price of one of your major inputs fluctuates by a factor of 140,000%?
        
        Adding “buffers” and “backups” like diesel generators is a very expensive thing to do (and maintain). It is ridiculous to have to do this when our main generation should be able to cope.
        
        It is no wonder at all that Fonterra et al go to carbon burning for their heat.
        
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        January 20, 2022 2:55pm
    - bronny1
      
      Or how about a well functioning secondary market as a 4 th option? These companies don’t have to sit on spot prices, they can sign up to have someone else take the volatility risk for them.
      Some companies do well on spot, I recall Norsk Skog Tasman used to have one process they designed to shut off when spot went high. Similarly Orion used pricing incentives to get hotels to go dual fuel so that in the hundred or so peak hours per year they would cut electricity use way back. They deferred transmission upgrades for well over a decade using pricing signals saving chch residents plenty.
      Just bc it doesn’t work for every company or every individual doesn’t mean it’s wrong.
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:19am
      - cmm
        
        Yes, there is hedging on the spot market, but, like insurance, that adds an overhead.
        
        Dual fuel can certainly be used for things like hotels & hospitals which do a lot of water heating etc, but it doesn’t work for many industries.
        
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        January 20, 2022 2:57pm
    - bronny1
      
      Also green energy volatility isn’t that bad when you have a hydro system like we do. Wind is effectively stored in dams (unless they are full), and even at 20% wind (wind making up 20% of capacity) the ability to manage this in both market and power system terms is pretty negligible.
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:21am
      - cmm
        
        That only works if you’re operating within the generation capacity of the hydro system.
        
        What it means is that every time a new solar farm or wind turbine is built it does not add more to the generation capacity. It just allows the dams to be kept from running out a bit longer.
        
        When we had the power crunch last year, everything was going flat out… and the wind and PV were providing almost nothing.
        
        That is what really makes wind and PV expensive – they only generate a fraction of their nameplate capacity and they need another (reliable) power station built to make electricity when they don’t. Thus, instead of building one generator, you need to build two.
        
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        January 20, 2022 3:02pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Exactly, we can’t improve productivity (which this country badly needs) if we can’t guarantee a means of achieving it.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:16am
  - peterwn
    
    The only way the alleged ‘failings’ of the market can be dealt with is heavy investment that will significantly raise electricity prices. The only reason there are ‘wild fluctuations’ is major users overly rely on purchasing at spot prices because they are low most of the time. These users are not prepared to enter into supply contracts which would ensure price stability as well as giving the generators confidence to invest.
    
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    January 20, 2022 11:16am
- westernScientest
  
  Fonterra are (unless it has been changed recently) forced to provide cheap raw milk to competitors as part of the agreement when fonterra was given permission to be formed under the DIRA.
  
  These companies have also seen massive tax hikes though the increase in carbon price recently, which is a direct result of government intervention in their businesses. Fonterra being highly pressured to convert their boilers to electric because muh green, drives their electricity usage up and costs up.
  
  Im sure they wouldn’t say no to subsidisation, but I think you are not sufficiently taking into account how hard these businesses have been hit by this governments policies. With the possible exception of fonterra, they will leave NZ if the situation does not get better for them.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:12am
  - Nickc2
    
    Aust is going to nuclear power generation shortly, no matter which camp wins the next Federal Election. They have grown up as we have moved backward earnestly seeking a return to the ‘dark ages’ (pun intended).
    Industries in NZ who are having trouble with the current Govt’s interference in the workplace and associated doctrine and regulation that accompanies it would be foolish IMO not to consider a move across the Tasman in the immediate future.
    Aust has also opened its borders and is actively encouraging Students and Backpackers to come, work and hopefully enjoy the country enough to stay and become citizens.
    What have we done? Shut our effin borders even to our own citizens. How stupid are we?
    No, don’t answer that, it may be embarrassing to the current Govt.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:28am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Nothing will get done in NZ as far as future power demand rises. We need nuclear.
      Meanwhile Labour and the Greens are standing on the edge of the flat earth frothing at the mouth
      
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      January 20, 2022 1:00pm
      - bronny1
        
        Nuclear isn’t economic for NZ. We can’t have a single station of the size that is economic for nuclear setting the system risk. Single largest station is currently what, 350 MW?
        
        And we have large earthquakes.
        
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        January 20, 2022 1:33pm
      - Nickc2
        
        Push the bastards off Steve!
        
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        January 20, 2022 1:45pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Bronny, last earthquake in Auckland was a few years ago, 3.2 or something. I did not even feel it.
        But large earthquakes is more fear porn.
        California has nuclear ……
        
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        January 20, 2022 2:04pm
      - Nickc2
        
        bronny1@ 1:33PM
        There such things as Small Modular Reactors (SMRs):
        SMRs are defined as nuclear reactors generally 300 MWe equivalent or less, designed with modular technology using module factory fabrication, pursuing economies of series production and short construction times.
        https://www.energy.gov/ne/advanced-small-modular-reactors-smrs
        All we need is Political Will and Fortitude to overcome Political Doctrination induced fear of things Nuclear and build the damned things.
        
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        January 20, 2022 2:37pm
      - oc35
        
        Finally …… the answer!!
        
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        January 20, 2022 7:35pm
Scott

In what one can only hope is a precursor of things to come in NZ, we see that Boris Johnson is lifting plan B covid restrictions. No compulsory face masks, no vaccine mandates and no work from home guidance! So people in England will go to work, no mask and not have to show papers to get into the Cafe for lunch.
What a concept! Freedom is breaking out!

Can anyone please tell Ashley and Jacinda? If England can do it why not here?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10417701/Boris-Johnson-set-declare-Plan-B-curbs-axed-week.html?adobe_mc=TS%3D1642607365%7CMCAID%3D2FC1D3360515B662-60000B4642008BF5
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January 20, 2022 8:01am
- David Garrett
  
  Scott: From what I hear on the news Boris might not last long enough to implement plan B.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:26am
  - pdm
    
    DG – do you David Davis is taking a run at Boris or is he the front man for somone else?
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:45am
    - David Garrett
      
      pdm: I have no idea; I don’t follow British politics very closely. I actually like Boris…Rodney Hide thinks he’s a fuckwit. I gather many people share that view.
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:06am
      - pdm
        
        We were in London for 21 months when Boris was Mayor – he was erratic at best then and did notlook Prime Minister material.
        
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        January 20, 2022 9:27am
      - Nickc2
        
        He took Britain out of the EU, that can’t be a bad thing. Nobody else in a position of power had the balls to do it.
        
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        January 20, 2022 11:58am
- Inandout
  
  Scott, nothing mentioned on ZB news ahead of Jacinda’s podium speech. Just plenty of covid ads. It must be difficult for Labour to attempt to sidestep world news as smart TVs sweep our land.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:26am
- G152
  
  And parties. Boris likes parties.
  But partying is hard work.
  Ashley and Cindy will save us
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:30am
- kowtow
  
  If ever there was an example of the opportunist pollie doing things to save his bacon , this is it.
  
  He’s only doing it to rekindle support for his crashing ratings.
  
  Got nothing to do with “science”. Well it never did ,did it.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:34am
- Bobba Fret
  
  I may have to re-new my British passport (I was born in England but lived most of my life in NZ). I would like to live in a country where people are free.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:44am
  - Jim
    
    Same idea here (never thought I’d feel this way), state sponsored discrimination (racial, cultural, regional, medical etc) in NZ is just depressing.
    
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    January 20, 2022 7:47pm
- MCōs
  
  “Freedom is breaking out!”
  
  The scene down at the Mangere Bridge shops, which mainly comprises a string of cafes, a medium sized supermarket etc looks exactly the same as it always has apart from most of the people wearing masks.
  No raised voiced, nobody complaining how much better things are in the UK under Boris.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:09am
- artemisia
  
  It will be interesting to see what happens in the UK if compulsory mandates are gone but voluntary mandates remain in place.
  
  Plenty of premises here in NZ have voluntary restrictions. Will they decide to continue with them if we follow the UK, including when the passes expire? If so, they will look seriously foolish.
  
  Not to worry I’m sure Jacinda has a plan and we will hear all about it any day now.
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:43am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Maybe because Boris is not a socialist, or is he??
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:01pm
Yvette

Something that puzzles me a little –
■ An Auckland MIQ worker who tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday has the highly transmissible Omicron variant. All the case’s seven household contacts identified have already been contacted, isolated and tested, and returned a negative result, the ministry said.

– “returned a negative result” So that is all OK then? Thank God!

■ The chart-topping international DJ returned three negative tests before testing positive on December 27
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January 20, 2022 8:02am
- Tony Stuart
  
  At least one of the MIQ worker’s family contacts has since tested positive, and others are symptomatic, as is a close contact. Expect more positive results today, but hopefully not enough for the PM to light up the red traffic light before Wellington Anniversary weekend.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:14am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Fingers crossed it’s into the community. Lets get it over with this summer.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:29am
    - Mickey
      
      I will even pay for a used toothbrush from someone who has had omicron to get it over and done with.
      
      PLEASE, auction the toothbrushes on trademe!
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:14am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Absolutely. Now is the time to do it. Yet our Govt is doing nothing.
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:42am
  - Tricati
    
    No way TS is Ardern going to change the traffic lights until after ‘The Wedding’ – then all bets are off as the fear strategy is reignited.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:29am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      After the ‘wedding’ the traffic lights will be abandoned and Auckland will be slammed into Level 5 (coz level 4 was not enforced enough)
      Control no matter what
      
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      January 20, 2022 1:05pm
  - Sacha
    
    Sounds like everyone is going to get the ‘family’ cold.
    That’s the way it’s been forever. Wise families will have been shoring up their immune systems over the past year – and not relying on a quasi vaccine.
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:03am
    - Batman
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      Since when did the ‘family’ cold give people erectile dysfunction or lung scarring? Or cause the childrens’ hair to fall out?
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:50am
      - Fuzzysnuggleduck
        
        What have your own issues got to do with the topic? 😉
        
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        January 20, 2022 10:06am
  - Flossie
    
    What puzzles me is if this so Highly Transmissable how come it takes several tests to detect it. My understanding of infectious diseases is obviously severely limited.
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:43am
    - Ehlana
      
      Flossie, I think that many illnesses have a time lag between when you catch it, when you’re infectious with it and when you start feeling sick.
      
      From the point of view of an airborne illness that wants to survive and multiply, it’s best to make a new host infectious before they start feeling sick. That way they’re more likely to help you spread.
      
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      January 20, 2022 11:34am
- Clownworld
  
  Not all tests are reliable or valid. In fact all tests have an error rate of being a false positive result or a false negative result.
  
  Someone out there in kiwiblogland will know the relative reliability of the different PCR/ Antigen/ Antibody tests.
  
  Don’t trust the media fully. Don’t trust the test results 100% either .
  
  All a circus!
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:51am
- GJM
  
  Given the inaccuracies of the PCR test at 40 cycles, as used in NZ, was it ever a real positive anyway?
  The PCR test no longer being used in the US as it is inaccurate, as pointed out a year or more ago.
  
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  January 20, 2022 12:39pm
fernglas

In Catalonia, Spain, they have established, based on the assumption that 40% of people dying with Covid do not have Covid as a cause of death, that the death rate from Covid for the unvaccinated between 60-69 years old is 9 per 100,000. The usual death rate for all ages in Spain is 9 per 1000. In other words, your chances of dying from natural causes in Spain are 100 times greater than dying unvaccinated from Covid. For the vaccinated, the chances of death are one fifth of those of the unvaccinated. Say 2.5 per 100,000. So what are you New Zealanders so afraid of?
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January 20, 2022 8:03am
- kowtow
  
  Facts don’t matter.
  
  Only fear.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:35am
- mandk
  
  Good question.
  
  Many NZers are fearful of the prospect of catching a dreadful disease and seeing their loved ones die horribly without medical support.
  
  Of course, they are unnecessarily fearful, but that is exactly how Ardern wants them to be. This is because she knows that COVID is the only thing protecting her from exposure of her failings. COVID management apart, Ardern and her cronies have been completely and utterly useless.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:48am
  - David Garrett
    
    Whaddya mean “COVID management apart”?? They’ve been totally useless at that too. At the beginning masks were declared to be of no use because the pore size was 200 times bigger than the virus particles. Then, without any explanation, it was “masks save lives”. So far as I’m aware the virus particles haven’t got any bigger.
    
    And look at the shambles that is MIQ: facilities half empty, and NZers overseas can’t get home because there is supposedly no room.
    
    And first there were four clear levels of lockdown…then it was 2.1 and 3.5, and nobody knew what the fuck was going on. So they abandoned that and introduced traffic lights, resulting in different treatment depending on what bar or restaurant you go into.
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:11am
    - cmm
      
      DG: You must surely admit that they’ve handled the spinning and the politicking of CV19 extremely well, and that’s what really matters (to many).
      
      You keep on forgetting that we live in a post-fact, post-logical society. We live in an age of feelz and spun image.
      
      Cindy does those extremely well.
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:37am
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        They don’t actually have any great talent for ‘messaging’ or spin. It’s just that they are operating with a co-opted, supine, and extremely partisan NZ media who are acting as part of their propaganda corps. Media have pushed saturation coverage of Labour’s lines for the last 2 years (paid and unpaid). Various covid regulatory demands with menaces have also served to crush dissenters with threatened economic destruction (loss of jobs etc).
        
        There is just no avenue for essential questioning or challenging of their failings in the public eye and both official and unofficial opposition are being denied a wider audience by quisling media outlets. That central pillar of democracy has been destroyed by Labour.
        
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        January 20, 2022 11:46am
    - Fuzzysnuggleduck
      
      DG, and Nek Minnit the newly minted traffic light system ‘was not fit for purpose’.
      We might learn more at 1.15pm today, when Condy speak from the Labour retreat.
      Seems like more tinkering is being mooted at this moment – politicians knee jerking again, based on the usual media mouth pieces consulted telling us that Oh My God is coming, and it’s gonna be bad!
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:11am
    - oldfella
      
      DG, I spotted this on the horrid last night, but it had vanished from the front page by morning:
      Covid 19: Secret Government report reveals fears of swamped ICUs; Omicron eluding face masks
      The Government is bracing itself for an Omicron outbreak that will swamp the country’s health system and elude the precautionary measures which have prevented coronavirus transmission so far, according to a document leaked to Māori Television.
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/kahu/covid-19-secret-government-report-reveals-fears-of-swamped-icus-omicron-eluding-face-masks/H5HGFCVXA3ZIQABCVV7DWHQ4C4/
      The stats on the readiness of our ICU units are horrifying, so why isn’t this ‘secret report’ front and centre with all our fearless MSM media while the PM is asked for a ‘please explain’?
      Oh, gosh, silly me, I think I just answered by own question. /s
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:22am
    - Paulus
      
      What puzzles me is that we have so many people with NZ approved Residence passports or Citizenship arriving in New Zealand straight into MIQ with the virus or a version.
      Aren’t these people supposed to be test approved by the airlnes before taking off from Dubai and/or Singapore, as they are intermediary stopovers only ?
      Where can I find an anlysis their original departures and why then they are straight into isolation when they get here .
      
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      January 20, 2022 11:23am
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I saw a young healthy bloke riding a bicycle along a busy 2 lanes each way road with no helmet on, but he was wearing a mask!
    So a head injury from getting knocked off your bike is a risk he was willing to take, but hell no, he aint going to risk catching covid out in the fresh air!
    
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    January 20, 2022 12:07pm
    - Nickc2
      
      They walk among us!
      
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      January 20, 2022 1:07pm
    - Ehlana
      
      Maybe he was hoping the mask would keep some of the pollution from the motor engines running around him out of his lungs?
      
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      January 20, 2022 2:38pm
- emmess
  
  Closer to 90% than 40%
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNVmj-FLf-s&t=185s
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:50am
- Mickey
  
  NZers are afraid of their shadows!!!
  
  Many here still believe in the taniwha!!
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:21am
  - Batman
    
    And silly sky fairies. See: religion.
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:53am
    - Mickey
      
      Far more people globally believe in those ‘fairies’ because there is a book that is centuries old that supports their beliefs.
      
      If only maori could write back then hey!
      
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      January 20, 2022 10:45am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I set out to see if your figures are right, and they’re bang on, but the description is wrong. The usual death rate for all causes in Spain for the same age group is 9 per 1,000.
  
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  January 20, 2022 12:52pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  India at one stage was getting 27 thousand deaths per day. What the media did not say is before Covid the number was 25 to 29 thousand per day. Pop 1.4B
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:09pm
Ruahine

Benedict.
Let us all just follow the money.
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January 20, 2022 8:03am
artemisia

Follow the (prospect of) money. Never fails.
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January 20, 2022 8:10am
Yvette

Minor point perhaps, but –
Does any one in New Zealand not know now that speed limits on some roads – “The sh-[truck passes]-t ones” – will change, but as this doesn’t matter until while driving you actually come across a changed road sign. Until then it means nothing.

So can First Canoe stop spending so much of our already stressed taxpayer funds on so profusely scheduling their “changing speed signs” ad, which features the two obnoxious children, who actually ironically reflect in their attitude what we feel about the whole campaign – who fucking cares, until we actually see a Sign?

One wonders if this stupid campaign has yet reached the pointless record set by the degrading and untrue “3 Waters” cartoon ads?
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January 20, 2022 8:11am
- Yabster
  
  worst ad on TV
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:15am
  - curry4me
    
    Yabster: What is this ‘TV’ to which the writer refers?
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:33am
    - Rich Prick
      
      Here you go.
      
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=412e9HHorLc
      
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      January 20, 2022 11:28am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Childish and pathetic. The children in Govt have dumbed us down to their level
        
        8 1
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        January 20, 2022 1:13pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Second worst. The worst one by a country mile is ‘Electric Kiwi’.
    
    14 1
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    January 20, 2022 10:38am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      The Electric Kiwi ad is genius. The fact you’re talking about it, and know who it’s for, proves that it works. The entire effect is intentional, to make you aware of it and talk about it.
      
      2 1
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      January 20, 2022 2:04pm
      - Captain Mainwaring
        
        Mrs. Mainwaring makes me hit the mute button every time it comes on. And I agree with her.
        
        3 0
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        January 20, 2022 6:33pm
  - lifesgood
    
    Absolute shocker! Who in their right mind would make anything this appalling
    
    8 1
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    January 20, 2022 12:43pm
  - Spring Bank Westie
    
    Agree, it takes over the mantle from the previous NZTA ad about driving on country roads, which only proved that our police force are incapable of walking, talking and wearing at hat at the same time…..
    
    8 0
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    January 20, 2022 2:04pm
- Rich Prick
  
  When I was younger I respected politicians (I may not have agreed with them) for being “older and wiser”. I has occurred to me that being now “older and wiser”, we are governed by children.
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:24am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Only way Jaspinda can get us to take notice. Communications degree you know
    
    5 2
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    January 20, 2022 1:15pm
    - Jim
      
      Patronising the target audience is a qualification?
      
      1 0
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      January 20, 2022 7:53pm
Maggie Pie

Anyone else heard that Auckland Airport has been told to prepare for lockdown?

Asking for a friend.
49 3
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January 20, 2022 8:19am
- Nickc2
  
  Cindy’s 9:00AM speech from New Plymouth has been deferred to 1:00PM from the Podium of Truth. Air Force one has been scrambled to get her and her Entourage to WGTN for the announcement.
  
  28 1
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  January 20, 2022 8:25am
  - DeepBlue
    
    An Omicron positive case had lunch at Half Moon Bay on Tuesday.
    
    16 0
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    January 20, 2022 9:23am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I reckon the Government has known for a few days that Omicron is well through the community.
    
    I’m off to stock-up on goodies.
    
    35 0
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    January 20, 2022 9:33am
    - Nickc2
      
      Yea, they were tossing a coin while they were on holiday to see if they should return to work. However, every time they tossed a coin, it never came down.
      
      Rumour has it that someone nicked it in mid-air.
      
      When questioned, it is rumoured Robbo said it must have been someone from Treasury and Willie Jackson refused to answer and told the reporter to eff off. //
      
      20 2
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      January 20, 2022 9:44am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      I said as much to my sweetheart a week or so ago. Even told her to write down in her diary the day I predicted they’d announce the “outbreak”. Tuesday 25th, still going with that.
      
      6 0
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      January 20, 2022 2:06pm
- cmm
  
  I would expect that, told or not, any reasonably sensible organisation is always planning for a lockdown.
  
  For example, one of my customers are always running contingency planning exercises where they “what if” if there’s a sudden lockdown. eg, telling staff to take computers home over week ends etc.
  
  26 0
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  January 20, 2022 8:26am
- alex Masterley
  
  There is a rush on laptops at the moment as people plan for working from home according to my computer guy this morning. Looks like people are contingency planning of sorts.
  
  29 0
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  January 20, 2022 8:54am
  - lifesgood
    
    Seems a bit strange. Did they not work from home during the endless lockdowns we’ve already had?
    
    16 0
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    January 20, 2022 9:52am
    - alex Masterley
      
      That was my thought as well. Possibly upgrading to more powerful devices that can last the distance.
      
      10 0
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      January 20, 2022 10:40am
    - BananaLlama
      
      Home Schooling.
      
      6 0
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      January 20, 2022 1:13pm
Yvette

• Residents near Mt Eden prison accuse Brian Tamaki supporters of blocking streets, revving motorbikes, defecating in bushes

• Tamaki responds after being remanded in custody: ‘A sad day for the freedom of all NZers’
– especially if they live near Mt Eden

For once, Brian is right.
But not yet as often as a clock that is buggered.
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January 20, 2022 8:22am
- Loddenthinks
  
  Did the clock bend over to pick up the soap?
  
  5 1
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  January 20, 2022 2:07pm
Scooter

There seems to be no problem with 501’s coming into NZ but ordinary citizens? How long will this bullshit go on?
39 1
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January 20, 2022 8:22am
Maggy Wassilieff

Go to MIQ and catch coronovirus….

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/127526828/covid19-give-miq-guests-n95-masks-to-keep-omicron-out-expert-urges
28 0
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January 20, 2022 8:23am
- cmm
  
  “Guests” Hah!
  
  Face coverings have always just been theatre.
  
  21 0
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  January 20, 2022 9:01am
Pavel

Who’s getting sick of stuff like this? I feel like we’re entering a soviet style mentality where by if you disagree with the government they will destroy you. There is no longer free choice or opinion, its do as I say or else. Canceling people isn’t cool and creates division and contempt. It was a system used alot by the Nazis and we all know how that worked out for them.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/127483880/underground-network-of-antivax-doctors-and-nurses-continues-to-issue-dodgy-covid-vaccine-exemption-letters
44 2
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January 20, 2022 8:27am
- The Housekeeper
  
  Lying and cheating reporters calls others out for lying and cheating?
  
  23 0
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  January 20, 2022 9:33am
  - oldfella
    
    TH; wait till we see lying and cheating journalists calling out Cindy for lying the cheating.
    Yeah, nah, never gonna happen.
    
    15 0
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    January 20, 2022 10:26am
In Vino Veritas

In my local rag yesterday, reproduced from Todd Niall at Stuff.

Naill says ” Instead of ever more services, the challenge for Auckland Transport has been to try and scale back frequency in face of lower demand of the public transport network (because of CoVid).
Behind that, lies money. Fares contribute 40% of the cost of running public transport…..”

And there it is. Public transport in Auckland doesn’t pay for itself (quelle surprise!). So taxpayers via Transport Agency and Auckland ratepayers pay. Because you are a homeowner in Auckland, you get to pay for other people to ride on buses. Because no one would use buses if the fares covered the expenditure.
Oh, and just to give everyone their daily dose of climate change and Maori love, Auckland Transport have targets and key priorities to “improve the resilience and sustainability of the transport system” and “Support the Councils contribution to Maori outcomes”.
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January 20, 2022 8:28am
Maggy Wassilieff

Are vaccine mandates any use?

Exclusive: Leaked document says data on jabs’ effectiveness against Omicron weakens case for compulsory vaccination

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/18/health-department-warning-over-vaccine-mandate-for-nhs-england-staff
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January 20, 2022 8:30am
- mandk
  
  The question could be: Are vaccines any use?
  
  23 4
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  January 20, 2022 8:33am
- KevO'Brien
  
  The URL says it all:
  https://joannenova.com.au/2022/01/finally-the-numbers-omicron-is-one-tenth-as-severe-as-delta-good-news/
  
  27 2
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  January 20, 2022 8:45am
- Loddenthinks
  
  When the Grauniad is coming out against lefty control mechanisms, you know the jig is up.
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:08pm
Maggie Pie

And I’ll tell you something else I’ve only just discovered 🙁

Prince Andrew has deleted his social media accounts!
FB, Insta, Twitter. GONE.

They were all up yesterday. Just saying.
23 4
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January 20, 2022 8:30am
- Tomtoddy
  
  Poor old Andy. Tried in the court of public opinion by a jury of media dogs and found guilty. Banished for life to the dungeons of the plebs.
  
  Guilty?? Probably but isnt he deserving of a proper trial? I dont care much for him but I do care about justice.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:40am
  - David Garrett
    
    Tom T: Well said.
    
    26 0
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    January 20, 2022 9:14am
  - MCōs
    
    Same with Trump, Trump jnr (2), Clinton (2), Fauci, the Pope, GWB, Putin, Xi, Ardern, Ghandi, Mother Theresa
    
    Everyday there’s cast iron evidence on rumble.com that every Democrat is guilty of something and why wait for a trial? I suppose there’s other sites that say the same about politicians on the right.
    
    2 19
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    January 20, 2022 9:27am
  - Paulus
    
    Prince Andrew has been tried already throughout the world media and somebody like him could never get a fair trial in the USA anyway.
    The Judges are political appointments too, and it is only Money, and who has the most that wins.
    This trial has the amount awarded by the Jury as”guided” by the judge who is “guided” by what he wants and the prosecuting Lawyers who take 40% of the award. Judge Kaplan is a well known judge for awards.
    Min US$10,000,000 I would expect.
    
    6 1
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    January 20, 2022 1:28pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Some hookers have received bigger payouts.
      
      5 1
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      January 20, 2022 1:35pm
- redeye
  
  Wondering what happened to Epstein’s videos? Can I recommend this summary from Anne Coulter.
  https://www.takimag.com/article/the-great-epstein-cover-up-part-1/
  https://www.takimag.com/article/the-great-epstein-cover-up-part-2/
  
  Immediately after Epstein’s arrest at Teterboro Airport in July 2019, the FBI executed a search warrant on his New York mansion. Following a daylong search, agents discovered a hidden safe in the closet of a fifth-floor dressing room, used a saw to break into it, and found an enormous collection of photos of naked girls, and CDs of the girls apparently having sex with influential men.
  Then, the agents left — abandoning the photos and CDs, with Epstein’s employees free to wander about the place. As Kelly Maguire, FBI special agent in charge of the search, explained during Maxwell’s trial, they only had a warrant to search the house, but not to remove evidence — evidence at the heart of the entire sex trafficking scheme.
  
  23 2
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  January 20, 2022 8:49am
  - kowtow
    
    Wot’s the point of a warrant to search if “evidence” is not seized?
    
    15 1
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    January 20, 2022 9:28am
    - Batman
      
      Sounds very much like that tall tale from takimag is lacking is bit of common sense, kowtow.
      
      1 6
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      January 20, 2022 12:55pm
- Vory v zakone
  
  He’s hiding out somewhere.
  So what’s the only thing that goes in and out when the door bell rings at his hideaway?
  
  His a$$hole ?
  
  13 1
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  January 20, 2022 8:56am
  - Mickey
    
    I spat my pudding!
    
    10 1
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    January 20, 2022 9:29am
    - oldfella
      
      Pudding for breakfast? Are you in a resthome, Mickey. 😉
      
      8 0
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      January 20, 2022 10:28am
      - Mickey
        
        My ‘pudding’ was fried onions with liver and kidneys in a rich creamy garlic sauce on toast!
        
        7 2
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        January 20, 2022 12:29pm
      - artemisia
        
        Number 2 breakfast – chia pudding.
        
        Number 1 – leftover trifle of course.
        
        7 0
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        January 20, 2022 12:30pm
westernScientest

So what do people recon, is it out for good this time?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300499119/covid19-auckland-airport-worker-household-contact-of-miq-worker-have-omicron-variant
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January 20, 2022 8:34am
Andrew Worth

I noticed TV3 presenter Oriini Kaipara has been showing us how to correctly pronounce the word “Tonga”, apparently it pronounced with a long rolling “u” instead of an “o” or short “u”, judging from the pronounciation being used by Tongans that appeared on the program the Tongans themselves haven’t caught on to this correct te reo version.
38 2
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January 20, 2022 8:38am
- pdm
  
  AW. Having visted Vavau and Nuku’alofa and the Lau Group of Fiji and lived in Suva for 3 years I have only ever heard it pronounced as Tonga – no u anywhere close.
  
  I also had a number of Tongan clients over the early 2000’s and they too used the same pronunciation.
  
  Seems like bastardisation of the Tongan language to me.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:52am
- emmess
  
  Yeah TV3, I am sure that is their main concern, right now.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:54am
- cmm
  
  I wonder when someone is going to tell the cops that the correct spelling/pronunciation of policeman is “policeman” and not “pirihimana”?
  
  29 1
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  January 20, 2022 8:55am
  - David Garrett
    
    cmm: Clearly you are unaware of the early Maori policing arrangements. Ngati Pirihimana arrested miscreants and put them before Te Kooti (the institution, not the mass murderer).
    
    Thereafter a form of restorative justice occurred culminating in the accused and his victim singing the Maori version of Kumbaya and thereafter all getting along famously.
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:29am
    - cmm
      
      DG: Thank you for the history lessons you keep on giving me. I appreciate them greatly.
      
      While I was unaware of Ngati Pirihimana, I am aware of the little known Rangi Dremel that invented the great Maori intellectual property of bone carving.
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:45am
- David Garrett
  
  Andrew: it’s actually pronounced as if the the T has a D after it…almost Donga but not quite.
  
  Similarly the Tongan P is a mixture of P and B: James Cook thought the main Island of Tongatapu was called “Tongatabu”
  
  In his chapter on Tonga in “The Happy Isles of Oceania” Paul Theroux noted a conversation with a cab driver regarding whether Tongans ate dogs. He wrote the reply as “Tocks but not gets”. That is pretty much right for Tongans who don’t speak English well.
  
  (And in case some smart arse doesn’t know, I lived there for four years and had a Tongan wife).
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:20am
  - David Garrett
    
    Oh, and I haven’t detected any form of “U” sound in the word Tonga either.
    
    19 0
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    January 20, 2022 9:30am
    - Andrew Worth
      
      Her pronounciation was like “duunga”.
      
      16 0
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      January 20, 2022 9:38am
      - David Garrett
        
        Andrew W: Well, she is quite wrong. I have never heard a Tongan pronounce it like that.
        
        There does seem to be considerable differences in how Maori pronounce the name of their race. Back when I were a wee lad our teacher Mr Mohi – a Maori war vet – pronounced it MOH-ree – no “a” sound at all. More recently, for some at least, it has become MAAAH-ree, which was how Meteria Turei used to pronounce it.
        
        Out here in the rural sector, most of the locals – or at least those without tertiary education – refer to themselves as “Us Maoris”, using the English pronunciation.
        
        14 0
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        January 20, 2022 10:51am
- kowtow
  
  A blond bird on prime was calling it Dong nga.
  
  Very heavily accented . Almost a parody .
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:30am
- kowtow
  
  Her English diction is very poor too .
  
  Don’t know how she was ever selected for the job.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:34am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    There was a day Kowtow, when you couldn’t get a job on TV unless you could speak English correctly. Now, you can say whadeva ya like, and nuthink bad or anythink is gunna happen. However, if you mispronounce Maori, heaven help you.
    There is of course, the small matter of having a PM who doesn’t know the letter “T” exists.
    
    20 1
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    January 20, 2022 11:00am
- mandk
  
  I think you need to use stupid pronunciation to have marae-cred nowadays, just like some middle class Brits like to speak mockney to have street-cred.
  
  Hearing people talk about ‘Rutarua’ is cringe worthy.
  
  17 0
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  January 20, 2022 9:36am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Talking of Myles Davis…..
    
    14 2
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    January 20, 2022 9:54am
    - mandk
      
      I have often wondered about his background and whether his accent is faux.
      
      The name, Miles, makes me a bit suspicious. It’s a bit of a toff name.
      
      12 2
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      January 20, 2022 10:14am
      - lifesgood
        
        Brother called Jeremy, sister called Amanda…all toff names and my goodness the life history he claims. I don’t believe any of it and he must have had a thousand jobs if he is to be believed.
        
        10 1
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        January 20, 2022 12:48pm
      - Maggie Pie
        
        Ma was saying there’s quite a few what she calls ‘Ten Pound Poms’ in the Retirement Village. Reckons he makes them all cringe with the crap he carries on with.
        
        8 1
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        January 20, 2022 2:08pm
      - Graeme Hall
        
        Listened to Miles off & on for years going back to the Mystery & the Mouth sports show when he was a Maggie Thatcher supporter. Miles seems to have lived an eventful life & as far as I can discern his stories are consistent. These days however, he suffers from near-terminal TDS, left-wing tendencies, & has swallowed the Govt line on Covid. Used to boast of his intelligence (got a scholarship to a top English school) but when debated on FB (on Trump) he became emotional & could not maintain a sensible argument.
        
        Still for all his faults he is more entertaining than Marcus Lush.
        
        4 0
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        January 20, 2022 3:48pm
  - Observer of Life
    
    Well, to be fair, Ruturua is “Ruuted”
    
    11 1
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    January 20, 2022 10:00am
  - oldfella
    
    mandk: maybe there’s just a lot more ‘rutting’ in Rutarua these days, hence the new pronunciation. Not a lot else to do there these days.
    
    10 1
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    January 20, 2022 10:34am
lifesgood

Good lord. I made the mistake of listening to Newstalk ZB news this morning. If you weren’t depressed before listening you would be now. It was full of breathless covid porn, moronic young people too scared to have kids due to climate change, actually a good thing if those idiots don’t breed, and some teenage so called expert stating how the govts lack of action on climate change is causing mental problems in young people. FFS ZB surely you can do better than this. How about telling the truth? The latest covid strain is mild and we should just get back to normal life right now.
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January 20, 2022 8:39am
- Hard Cheese
  
  Tedros says the latest strain isn’t mild, you should listen to him
  
  /s
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:23am
- kowtow
  
  It’s almost as if the propaganda agencies of govts worldwide aka the msm want to keep whole populations anxious and in fear , of something , anything …….
  
  I saw a story that Indonesia is moving its capital cos Jakarta is sinking due to “climate change” .Yes it’s sinking , but not climate change . These are flat out lies.
  
  14 1
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  January 20, 2022 9:55am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Yep. Jakarta below sea level.
    Capital will Balikpapen in Kalinmatan with a new name.
    
    6 0
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    January 20, 2022 1:00pm
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Yep, Jakarta is sinking. Mainly because 10 times as many people live there compared with 50 years ago and they keep sucking the groundwater out.
    Nothing to do with ‘climate change’.
    
    6 0
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    January 20, 2022 8:19pm
    - Nickc2
      
      Jakarta was built over an old swamp.
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:30pm
- MCōs
  
  “How about telling the truth? The latest covid strain is mild”
  
  Everyone’s an expert.
  
  3 14
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  January 20, 2022 10:20am
- Fletch
  
  I haven’t listened in a long while. It tends to make me depressed and angry at the stupidity of it all.
  
  10 1
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  January 20, 2022 10:40am
- Paulus
  
  Newstalk ZB
  Can’t wait forMike to return in the morning – terrible replacements.
  
  16 0
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  January 20, 2022 1:04pm
NoCash

About the CCCFA mess, I can think of three possibilities…

The govt and officials were so incompetent that they failed to see the unintended consequences coming despite being warned by the banking industry during consultation.

The “unintended consequences” are actually intended, the law is govt’s covert way to deflate the housing bubble.

The banks are deliberately being over conservative in assessing loan applications to force the govt to make changes to the law.
16 1
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January 20, 2022 8:39am
- kowtow
  
  It would be lovely to see a “news” report on who in this regime is responsible for this abomination.
  
  13 2
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  January 20, 2022 9:36am
- cmm
  
  You will own nothing and you will be happy.
  
  11 1
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  January 20, 2022 11:22am
- Nickc2
  
  IMO, home loans are no longer a profitable enterprise for Banks (thanks to Govt intervention), unless they intend to make profits through mortgage foreclosures and onselling.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:38pm
Sean OConnor

I see Christopher Luxon is furiously battling to hold the government to account on COVID, He Puapua, 3 Waters, burgeoning debt, Kainga Ora, housing and crime….by learning Te Reo. And you fools told me he’d be woke and wet. I, for one, cannot think of a single topic I wanted him to opine on more. National’s back, baby!
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January 20, 2022 8:40am
- kowtow
  
  I see the story says he’s learning Maori to better connect with ordinary people in En Zed. Wot ordinary people in En Zed parle maori .
  
  That being the case surely his time would be better spent learning Mandarin or Hindi.
  
  Likewise what the hell had maori language to do with running an airline .
  
  28 1
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  January 20, 2022 9:40am
  - KevO'Brien
    
    It might helpful for Luxon to look at Te Reo and see how useless it is in practice. It has a place on a Marae but elsewhere is quite limited. Most of it is transliterated English.
    
    12 1
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    January 20, 2022 11:32am
  - Sean OConnor
    
    I’m fine with him learning te reo. I’m not fine with that being the first thing I’ve heard from him while the country is burning, and I’m not fine with how it’s establishing a pattern of kowtowing to lefty sensibilities. It’s his third strike, the other two being bragging about his Rainbow Tick, and then backstabbing his pro-life friends and supporting abolishing their (our) right to peacefully protest. He’s a trojan horse for the woke agenda.
    
    12 1
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    January 20, 2022 1:13pm
    - Observer of Life
      
      Sean: Me thinks “I told you so” people.
      
      0 0
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      January 20, 2022 10:19pm
    - Clownworld
      
      Luxon puppet for globalists and the setup reset upstarts.
      
      0 0
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      January 20, 2022 11:22pm
- Flossie
  
  Yes I am disappointed to read of his priority. I expected/hoped for better.
  
  18 3
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  January 20, 2022 9:49am
  - curry4me
    
    Flossie: It doesn’t surprise me at all.
    
    7 2
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    January 20, 2022 10:40am
  - plc
    
    Chris from Marketing?
    
    4 0
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    January 20, 2022 3:28pm
    - curry4me
      
      plc: Priceless. I’ll use that line in future.
      
      2 1
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      January 20, 2022 8:43pm
- coge
  
  Both Luxon and Seymour are seen by many Ardern’s little Quislings. Luxon in particular has to go. He is utterly unfit to lead the opposition.
  
  9 10
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  January 20, 2022 11:02am
  - lifesgood
    
    Oh here we go, a Jacinda fan boy
    
    8 6
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    January 20, 2022 12:50pm
- Ra Henare
  
  The Art of War
  Know your enemy
  
  I would NOT dis Luxon for learning more about his opponent.
  
  It seems many on KB have limited intellectual resources when reading what the media pumps out. Maybe their knee is the source of their intellect….It jerks randomly when stimulated.
  
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  January 20, 2022 5:11pm
  - coge
    
    Spare us! Luxon doesn’t stand like the mountain, nor does he march like the forest. He doesn’t move like the wind or strike like thunder. None of those qualities are there! And I certainly am not a Jacinda fan boy, just profoundly disappointed in the entire NZ political class stitch up.
    
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    January 20, 2022 7:04pm
Mickey

LATEST DATA FROM CDC AND BERKELEY!!!

Data comparing 69000 infected people with Delta or Omicron. https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.01.11.22269045v1.full.pdf

Table S4 pg.18 (per 1000 patients hospitalised)

Unvaccinated Delta 17.8/1000 | Omicron 3.1/1000
1 dose Delta 9.4/1000 | Omicron 2.8/1000
2 doses Delta 7.0/1000 | Omicron 3.4/1000
3 doses Delta 11/4/1000 | Omicron 4.8/1000

CONCLUSION: Unvaccinated are less hospitalised with Omicron than 2 doses and 3 doses.
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January 20, 2022 8:54am
- DeepBlue
  
  Very interesting re the 1 dose figures. With more research, maybe they will find 1 shot was best for those it was going to work for. 2 and 3 just compounded immunity issues.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:29am
- RichardX
  
  Did you miss the actual conclusion of the study?
  
  High rates of infection in the community have overwhelmed health-care systems and could translate to high absolute numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, even with lower severity of the Omicron variant as compared to non-Omicron variants. Thus, implementation of concurrent prevention strategies including vaccination, masking, and appropriate infection mitigation strategies remains important to curb transmission, decrease morbidity and mortality, and reduce burden on health systems nationwide.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:36am
  - Mickey
    
    Nope, how many vaccinations though?
    
    Those are also just weasel words, DATA tells the real story!
    
    The world has been fed way too much bullshit as science, about time data is used to determine science not politicians!
    https://www.michaelcrichton.com/why-politicized-science-is-dangerous/
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:52am
    - Batman
      
      Yes you found data you like and want it to be true and not grey at all.
      
      This is called confirmation bias, Mickey.
      
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      January 20, 2022 1:00pm
      - Sean OConnor
        
        What type of bias is sticking to the theory despite data that falsifies it?
        
        10 3
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        January 20, 2022 1:17pm
      - bronny1
        
        Even if the vaxxed population is sicker etc etc, the stats still look pretty bad.
        
        Most people I know have had the vax and there is only one that might be considered vulnerable, having had cancer last year. So there are Plenty of healthy young people in those “skewed” figures too.
        
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        January 20, 2022 1:44pm
      - Mickey
        
        Batman, no, I found data, I found data that shows the truth and real world experience and not some MSM fear porn driven by political science.
        
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        January 20, 2022 5:12pm
      - Batman
        
        Mickey, talking points and buzzwords is not an argument. You’ve taken a study and cling tightly to one part that you like. No acceptance of nuance or grey areas in what you’re claiming, as has been pointed out.
        
        Sean: looking critically at the data is not sticking to a theory. Projection is the bigger issue here with people.
        
        Bronny: worldwide the unvaxxed are self-selecting for ICU care and coffin fittings. Quibbling about one study doesn’t change the overall picture.
        
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        January 20, 2022 5:52pm
      - Clownworld
        
        Bias comes in many forms. What’s your bias?
        
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        January 20, 2022 11:32pm
      - Mickey
        
        @Batman, you mean talking points and buzzwords like you used (self-selecting for ICU care and coffin fittings)?
        
        Clearly you have read/seen/heard something somewhere that makes you spew the ‘buzzwords’ above. Perhaps from Rachel Maddow?
        
        There is no argument from me, argue with the data from the CDC if you like.
        
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        January 21, 2022 7:59am
  - Sean OConnor
    
    Even if true, that argument doesn’t apply to NZ. We can look at omicron in isolation.
    
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    January 20, 2022 1:15pm
- westernScientest
  
  yeah, there are not many 70+ obese diabetics on deaths door that haven’t had at least 2 shots.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:36am
- westernScientest
  
  Note:
  The paper above is not about vaccination, it is a very small part of the table referenced. The paper is a comparison study between omi and delta, and is worth a read.
  
  Here is the results section of the abstract:
  
  Results: Our analyses included 52,297 cases with SGTF (Omicron) and 16,982 cases with non-SGTF (Delta [B.1.617.2]) infections, respectively. Hospital admissions occurred among 235 (0.5%) and 222 (1.3%) of cases with Omicron and Delta variant infections, respectively. Among cases first tested in outpatient settings, the adjusted hazard ratios for any subsequent hospital admission and symptomatic hospital admission associated with Omicron variant infection were 0.48 (0.36-0.64) and 0.47 (0.35-0.62), respectively. Rates of ICU admission and mortality after an outpatient positive test were 0.26 (0.10-0.73) and 0.09 (0.01-0.75) fold as high among cases with Omicron variant infection as compared to cases with Delta variant infection. Zero cases with Omicron variant infection received mechanical ventilation, as compared to 11
  cases with Delta variant infections throughout the period of follow-up (two-sided p<0.001). Median duration of hospital
  stay was 3.4 (2.8-4.1) days shorter for hospitalized cases with Omicron variant infections as compared to hospo hospitalized
  patients with Delta variant infections, reflecting a 69.6% (64.0-74.5%) reduction in hospital length of stay.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:55am
- cmm
  
  Mickey, that’s a statistically unsound conclusion.
  
  I am no vaccine shill, but you really cannot compare numbers in this way because people getting vaccinated are self selecting.
  
  In other words, people who are more vulnerable to be hospitalised (older, comorbidities etc) are more likely to have been vaccinated and more likely to be boosted too.
  
  Being highly vaccinated has become a statistical marker for being a sick and vulnerable person.
  
  Since the vaccine is incredibly less effective against Omicron, those people are now more likely to get hospitalised.
  
  Yes, the vaccine is incredibly ineffective against Omicron, but it would be a push to say that it has negative efficacy unless one was to compensate for the self selection bias.
  
  BTW: Same basic patterns from Baragwanath hospital in South Africa (biggest hospital outside China), so this isn’t a once-off.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:56am
  - Mickey
    
    Actually, I believe there is a table that breaks down the ages and maybe comorbidities. SeeTable S3
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:56am
    - westernScientest
      
      It does, and it shows what cmm points out. The vax is pretty ineffective against omi. Reference to unvax hazard ratios being between 0.66 and 0.88 for all cases records for symptomatic hospitalisation. i.e. it works a tiny bit to a little bit depending on the particular configurations of vax. Note though that for outpatient only testing, 0.27 to 0.38, which is substantially begetter although still pretty poor.
      
      Hazard ratios work by a reference (unvaxed) at 1, a number lower than 1 means less likely to be a symptomatic hospital admission, a number above 1 is more likely to be a symptomatic hospital admission than the reference.
      
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      January 20, 2022 11:45am
- Andrew Worth
  
  Claims of studies supposedly showing unvaccinated to have lower hospitalization rates always fail to point out that the unvaccinated are on average much younger and healthier than those that, having worked out that covid is a serious risk to their health, have gotten themselves vaccinated.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:15am
  - westernScientest
    
    The study cited in no way claims that.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:16am
  - kowtow
    
    So why should fit , young persons who won’t be affected by this lab created lurg be forced to lose their livelihoods if they decline the injections.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:23am
    - westernScientest
      
      They shouldnt be regardless
      
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      January 20, 2022 11:46am
    - bronny1
      
      Exactly!!!
      
      They can’t have the argument both ways – and yet they do.
      
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      January 20, 2022 1:47pm
  - Mickey
    
    And wiser!
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:58am
  - cmm
    
    Somewhat correct, but it still shows that the whole thrust of “if you don’t get vaccinated you will die” stuff is a damn lie, as is Cindy’s statement that you should get vaccinated to protect yourself from the unvaccinated.
    
    Vaccination should be there for those that want it (and recommended to those that really need it), not foisted on everyone whether they need it or not.
    
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    January 20, 2022 11:00am
    - Mickey
      
      Correct, it should be a personal choice and one should not be punished for it because they do not have a piece of paper that allows them entry into shops or workplaces.
      
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      January 20, 2022 12:34pm
    - MCōs
      
      I don’t spend all day poring over everything everybody says, but I don’t recall anyone of consequence saying “if you don’t get vaccinated you will die”, that’s laughable, and I’m sure the official line has been that you should get vaccinated to protect yourself.
      Also the official line seems to be that three does are needed to better weather the effects of the omicron strain.
      
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      January 20, 2022 9:22pm
- westernScientest
  
  If you are interested in vaccination and its effects on omicron and delta look at the adjusted hazard ratios on table S3 pg 17.
  
  Personally I think one of the most interesting things is the inversion of the hazard ratio between male and female. Female as reference at 1, male at 1.49 for delta and 0.68 for omi.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:15am
Nukuleka

Andrew, I noticed this on RNZ yesterday. In all my years in Tonga and from all my kiwi Tongan friends I never heard anyone pronounce it in such an absurd te reo way. It was the T that got me. Sounded like ‘dunger’. Bloody ridiculous.
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January 20, 2022 8:55am
- kowtow
  
  It’s not only ridiculous .
  
  It is paternalist , racist and ignorant .
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:21am
- cmm
  
  It probably doesn’t occur to these silly rule makers that telling people how to pronounce their own name is the height of colonialism.
  
  Here we’re having non-Tongans telling everyone, including Tongans, that the real way to say Tonga is Dungu or some such.
  
  What next? Send a mission to France and tell them to pronounce Paris as “Paris” and not “Pah-ree” (or whatever the Frogs say)?
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:05am
Maggie Pie

To be honest, I do scan the QR Code of every shop I walk past and like to wash my hands every half-hour …..but seriously, this might be going a bit TOO far 🙁

https://twitter.com/NZNeep/status/1483554527924359170
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January 20, 2022 8:58am
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Maggie Pie, if you need to wash your hands every half hour then I suggest that you seek expert medical advice. Chances are that you might have a urinary tract problem, rather than a Kung Flu aversion.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:39am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Yep….. if you’ve got a UTI urine trouble.
    
    😛
    
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    January 20, 2022 9:47am
  - David Garrett
    
    Tauhei: If she needs to wash her hands every half hour – doesn’t have a UTI – she probably should consult a shrink who specializes in phobias.
    
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    January 20, 2022 12:26pm
    - Maggie Pie
      
      Thanks for the mansplain of a post that was tongue-in-cheek.
      
      SHEEESH!
      
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      January 20, 2022 1:12pm
  - GJM
    
    Or she is Lady Macbeth.. she had a hand washing issue as well.
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:52pm
- MCōs
  
  Bit dated
  https://youtu.be/TjvvK-Rj0WI
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:49am
- Hollyfield
  
  Further down that twitter feed Trevor Mallard is encouraging everyone to stockpile resources.
  
  Trevor Mallard
  @SpeakerTrevor
  ·
  2h
  Omicron is coming and when it arrives it will spread quickly. If you can afford it it will pay to stock up a bit. There will be thousands of close contacts a day. If I’m not one of them I will be happy to do grocery and medicine runs for Wainuiomata people.
  
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  January 20, 2022 7:37pm
BeaB

You’ve got to love the dear old Poms. If you have sausage rolls you have a party!
8 1
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January 20, 2022 9:00am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeO46kPnRaM

Spying for China!

In our political rush to be ‘inclusive’ and ‘diverse’ surely this was inevitable – a Chinese agent inside parliament.
[9:20. I wonder if there are some here?]
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January 20, 2022 9:23am
- Maggie Pie
  
  The CCP have been eating our lunch for years…..
  
  17 2
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  January 20, 2022 10:01am
  - curry4me
    
    Maggie Pie: Yes indeed. Then they come back for dessert.
    
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    January 20, 2022 10:42am
- fightingtemeraire
  
  We had a Nat and Labour PRC MPs who are no longer there.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:51am
  - curry4me
    
    fightingtemeraire: Yes, we can be grateful for that.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:48pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRB7W6bJsrY

Boris Scraps All Health Restrictions.

I’m sure JA will do the same in 5,4,3,2,1, …… /sarc
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January 20, 2022 9:24am
- lifesgood
  
  He’s a conservative. No way would she follow a conservative. It’s the commies or nothing for JA.
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:59am
- coge
  
  This is huge news for us here in NZ, and in many other places. The media are strangely quiet about it, as they are so heavily invested in Ardern’s 24/7 fear mongering.
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:05am
Rusty

Aussie sky news had a item on some (moronic) people in that country wanting their pets vaccinated for covid.

These people were dead serious.

We have strange behaviour from some in NZ with the covid hysteria but compared to Aust we are quite tame.

Another item in Aust showed a man exercising in a public park with his wife and for no reason attacked another man in the park because he thought he wasn’t social distancing which the video showed was untrue.
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January 20, 2022 9:30am
- Clownworld
  
  Throwing out the world’s no1 tennis player for the possibility his presence disturbs the vaccinate or be a leper in society nartative
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:40pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

Stalinda’s New Zealand 🙁

Where even government departments are now blocking people…..

https://twitter.com/MaryAnneGrace9/status/1483867726737453057
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January 20, 2022 9:44am
- emmess
  
  Fine, they are welcome to block me from all of their BS propaganda
  
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  January 20, 2022 9:59am
Biscuit

I am setting up a Givealittle crowdfund account that I’m sure all Kiwibloggers will RUSH to contribute to.

The funds raised – minus a small ten thou deduction to cover my organisational costs – will be used to help poor Tova O’Brien learn how to read and understand the provisions of any contracts she chooses to sign.
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January 20, 2022 10:00am
- MCōs
  
  Before I sent you my life savings, what is the clause in dispute?
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:15am
  - Biscuit
    
    MCōs, if aforesaid Tova had had a clue or two in her noggin she would’ve sought legal opinion about whichever restraint of trade clause it is that she is now whining about.
    
    That would have some tangible benefits:
    
    1. She wouldn’t be coming across now as a sook
    2. You could keep your life savings
    3. I wouldn’t now be decrying her abilities…
    
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    January 20, 2022 11:57am
    - MCōs
      
      Yeah, but what’s the actual clause say?
      
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      January 20, 2022 2:28pm
    - kevn
      
      @Biscuit…. Bob Jones (blog) had some thoughts on this matter as well. Smiling.
      
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      January 20, 2022 2:36pm
- peterwn
  
  Restraint clauses in employment contracts are somewhat more complicated than ordinary ‘black and white’ contract law. They are not always enforceable and there is a heap of case law as to what is acceptable or not. A prospective employee in a similar situation to Tova needs to get proper employment law advice before signing an employment contract and a prospective employer must leave the offer ‘open’ for a reasonable period to enable the prospective employee to obtain advice. Sometimes restraint clauses are so over the top that employees can accept them knowing that they cannot be enforced. Perhaps prospective employees get the impression that all restraint clauses are unenforceable only to find that this is not the case. Even a coffee barista wanting to change employer was successfully hit with restraint of trade. This must have caused a stir since a coffee stand owner advertised for a ‘barrister’ presumably to deal with such disputes.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:18am
  - David Garrett
    
    Peterwn: Quite right…one point though: it is not quite right to say restraints of trade are “not always enforceable” rather that they are prima facie unenforceable and will only be enforced if they are the minimum necessary both as to duration and area to protect an employer’s proprietory interest in the employee. And that will depend to a considerable extent on what O’Brien knows about TV 3 that could benefit a competitor.
    
    All we know about this one is that it is for three months; since O’Brien is a journalist working in national media, I presume it covers all of New Zealand. If that is the case, I would think three months is pretty reasonable.
    
    As an employment lawyer myself I will watch this case and its outcome with much interest.
    
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    January 20, 2022 12:21pm
  - BeaB
    
    Isn’t this the same Carol Hirschfeld who told lies to Radio NZ? She and Tova will be a couple to watch!!
    
    Journalist Carol Hirschfeld has been named the executive producer of Tova O’Brien’s new breakfast radio show, Tova.
    
    The show is set to launch early this year on MediaWorks’ new talk station, Today FM.
    
    Hirschfeld (Ngāti Porou), who since mid-2018 has been Stuff’s head of video/audio and content partnerships, said she was “thrilled to have the chance” to work with O’Brien.
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:37pm
- westernScientest
  
  giver her a hand up not a hand out, some one offer her a job as a bartender.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:21am
  - kowtow
    
    See cactus kate on how Toxic would be a terrible bartender.
    
    10 1
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    January 20, 2022 12:56pm
- oldfella
  
  Biscuit, I think it should also cover a barmaid course as apparently that will be her only job option outside ‘journalism’. Sounds about right.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:40am
- Littletramp
  
  Tova should know only a prime minister’s boyfriend can switch at will as a content provider, between the competing networks.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:44am
- curry4me
  
  Biscuit: I’m sure it’ll be 100% over subscribed by lunch time. Put the URL on the Stranded too. Lefties are so good at supporting charitable causes. /sarc
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:49am
- David Garrett
  
  Biscuit: Very droll Sir, very droll.
  
  She’s such a know-all shrew you’d think she’d understand what a restraint of trade meant.
  
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  January 20, 2022 10:55am
  - alex Masterley
    
    I appreciate the irony of Peter Keily acting for Discovery in this proceeding, given his association with the National Party.
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:24pm
- Nickc2
  
  It couldn’t happen to a more worthy person.
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:51am
lifesgood

I’m suspecting that a lot of people with omicron simply won’t report it and just carry on as normal. Why would you report a relatively mild flu and risk being locked up for a week? I bet there are far more cases out there than anyone knows.
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January 20, 2022 10:03am
- mandk
  
  I think you are probably correct.
  
  A few people might get quite sick with omicron, and a few deaths will be attributed to it (with, rather than from), but most people who aren’t slackers or wimps will just carry on because they want to get back to normality.
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:50am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  And a substantial proportion of Omicron cases won’t even know they have it. Only strict Wuhan style lockdowns can work to stop transmission (no thanks).
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:02pm
Libertarians are right

Stuff has an article about a Christchurch Destiny’s Church guy (Tait) who is vaccinated (apparently) despite apparently saying that he isn’t.

He also got banned from the eatery for his religious beliefs.

The guy sounds like a right scumbag but that is irrelevant.

My issue is that the business owner went on Facebook and told everyone Tait’s personal health information. Stuff then interviewed the business owner and wrote an article without any evidence other than the business owner’s word.

Stuff even kept the business owner and his business out of the article to protect his privacy even though they were defecating all over Tait’s.

Apparently Stuff’s “journalists” don’t know what ethics are.
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January 20, 2022 10:58am
- MCōs
  
  I read that article.
  Tait went to the cafe and produced a vaccine certificate after telling his congregation he’d never be vaccinated.
  Either he’s a liar or he’s a liar.
  The proprietor of the cafe refused to serve him because they considered the behaviour of Destiny Church immediately after the mosque attacks repugnant.
  That’s their prerogative I’d have thought. You you please yourselves who the ‘their’ is.
  I’d have thought if Stuff published the name of the cafe the peace loving, freedom mob from Destiny would be down there giving them shit in their usual Christian manner.
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:59am
  - Sean OConnor
    
    Since when was refusing to serve people on the basis of the church they attend legal in NZ? Do you support discrimination on religious grounds in general, or just for religions you dislike?
    
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    January 20, 2022 1:19pm
    - MCōs
      
      Just because they call themselves a Christian church doesn’t make them a Christian https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/127536880/destiny-church-pastor-derek-tait-has-a-vaccine-pass-despite-his-vows?cid=app-iPad
      
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      January 20, 2022 2:39pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Why don’t you answer Seans question?
        
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        January 20, 2022 3:51pm
      - MCōs
        
        The cafe refused to serve the so called Christian pastor because of their previous behaviour, not me.
        Not questions I’m faced with.
        
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        January 20, 2022 6:54pm
  - Libertarians are right
    
    Huh???
    My point was that a business providing personal health information of their customers is highly unethical, as is Stuff printing it.
    
    As for the business info, the Destiny’s Church people will know who it was. The protection was against those of us who would never frequent a business that would divulge our personal information over Facebook.
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:30pm
- kowtow
  
  I’ve been rather perplexed at how the media pardy and the medico unions have been so willing to publicise and pillory anyone involved in medicine who have been in the least bit dubious over this lab created , western funded , research balls up .
  
  In all my years following the media and the medico unions have been very reluctant to out medicos who’ve touched up , abused , killed through neglect or incompetence their patients etc
  
  Covid is different you see.
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:04pm
Fletch

Liz Gunn responds to the media attack on her.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=966546360967489

The main point she made was that it is a reporters job to report the news. If there is a rumour circulating that children have collapsed (which there was) then the job of a reporter is to go investigate and find out what happened. To interview people and find out what they know, what they heard. Interview ambulance staff. Go to the hospital and find out. See if it is true or not.

She doesn’t so much care about the attack on her but, “what will happen to our children when some of them get injured? Tell the truth. […] [She is] saying to a journalist, stop scurrying from the scene and go and do your god-damn job, and have some integrity and find some spine. That is what I was saying yesterday.”
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January 20, 2022 11:14am
- Batman
  
  The universal result of asking the people involved about this is “it didn’t happen.”
  
  But Liz and her deluded followers are now so committed that they now turn to attacking the messengers.
  
  Duly noted that you’re a Liz Stan, Fletch.
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:05pm
  - bronny1
    
    At least one did as they called one ambulance for him.
    A second did as his dad posted to a group I’m in last night about it. That will come out in due course.
    
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    January 20, 2022 1:53pm
  - Fletch
    
    ps, it is not about whether it happened or not. There were rumours going around that something had happened. It is the job of the media to find out whether it is true or not. Not to shrug and say, “well if it did happen then the MOH will make a statement.” That’s not reporting and it isn’t journalism. They were quick enough to send reporters undercover to Destiny Church to try and make up a story. But when it comes to the health of our children in this country, suddenly they don’t want to know about it?
    
    They really are a disgrace. Bought and paid for by the government. And as for Liz Gunn, she is the only person reporting on the vaccine injured – telling their stories, unpaid and on her own time. Again, the media don’t want to know about it because it goes against the government narrative that the vaccines are safe when we know damn well that they aren’t. If reporters aren’t reporting then it’s up to people like Liz Gunn and Chantelle Baker to do the job.
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:03pm
Maggie Pie

“JUST BEAT IT”

Had to share this with the group. Already had over 2 million views!

‘Michael Jackson Impersonator’ in Vegas takes down p*ssed tourist for pulling his hair. Honestly, the look on the drunks face when he realises he’s picked on the wrong guy…..PRICELESS 😀

https://twitter.com/DeeganMarcus/status/1482420877207629824
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January 20, 2022 11:16am
- Fletch
  
  A-Hee-hee ?
  
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  January 20, 2022 11:23am
oldfella

A stuffed story on the Labour caucus meeting yesterday. I think Brian Tamaki would be impressed…
At times the meeting bore a resemblance to a church meeting with caucus members nodding and mmming in agreement with the Prime Minister who ended the remarks by imploring the caucus members to humble themselves before the public.
“Labour has demonstrated our ability to manage challenges and change, and we will continue to demonstrate our ability to manage challenges and change when it comes to climate, housing, poverty and everything that we continue to face as a nation,” she said.
Covid-19: Jacinda Ardern urges Labour caucus to stay humble ahead of Omicron update | Stuff.co.nz
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January 20, 2022 11:16am
- KevO'Brien
  
  Will Jacinda practice the humility she preaches?
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:22pm
- nathie
  
  Is the bolded segment meant to be highlighting when Cindy lies?
  
  I mean what other explanation fits, when she says “we will continue to demonstrate our ability to manage ….”!
  
  Let’s pull her words apart:
  
  “We will continue to demonstrate …” – [um, nope, you guys don’t “continue” to “demonstrate” anything (unless they mean continue to demonstrate … MP’s and PM frequently going into witless protection, thus avoiding media questions)]!
  
  “… our ability…” – [“ability” …. lmao you guys have no abilities, just slogans and talk]!
  
  ” … to manage …” [lmfao this time …. I mean “manage”? Bwahahaha, you mean F-Up, surely]!
  
  ” … climate … ” – [How are the coal imports going]!
  
  ” … housing…” – [Um house prices have risen 40% in the last 12-24 months]!
  
  ” … poverty …” – [Um poverty is increasing, including new generations of young people taking on debt to buy million dollar houses and to pay off Labour hundreds of billions of new dept]!
  
  Stop it Cindy, just stop it!
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:45pm
Truman lodge

Jacinda says omicron is a different foe and long lockdowns are unlikely.

So that means long lockdown especially for Auckland. Initially it will be a sharp short 7 day lockdown but after a week with thousands of cases it will be a few months. Regardless if hospitalisations remain low. Unbelievable if this happens. It will spell the end of hospitality and many businesses that just hung on. And we will accept it and take it and obey it.. While Baker, Hendy, Soiuxie get full pay and TV time slots. Baker gets his Moore Wilson delivered to his door while pinky and Hendy get farro delivered weekly. However if you get your booster that will end lockdowns Rod Jackson will say. But oh that’s right the omicron booster won’t be available till March. Luckily omicron doesn’t spread through the loose Auckland border blockade so thanks Auckland for doing the mahe and keeping the rest of Aoteroa safe yay. But omicron escapes MIQ but doesn’t escape the bombay blockade.
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January 20, 2022 11:18am
- bronny1
  
  I will be living my life unrestrained. If I get fined out riding my bike or surfing, so be it.
  Time to make a stand people.
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:54pm
westernScientest

ANZ upped their OCR forcast again:

https://www.interest.co.nz/banking/114025/anz-economists-says-reserve-bank-likely-have-push-interest-rates-much-more
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January 20, 2022 11:21am
- cmm
  
  Ouch. Mortgages going up then.
  + Petrol prices
  + food prices
  
  But don’t worry, hugz are still free!
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:13pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I believe rents are forecasted to increase significantly this year too.
    
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    January 20, 2022 1:37pm
    - cmm
      
      Of course they will. Mortgages have to be paid, as to ever increasing rates etc, therefore rents go up.
      
      If prices go up 4.5% you need to earn an extra 6.5% to compensate because of tax.
      
      Anyone getting less than a 6.5% raise is earning less than they did last year.
      
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      January 20, 2022 5:05pm
  - MCōs
    
    Back in the ‘80s 6% inflation and the current mortgage rates would have been luxury.
    Not that I’m suggesting the current situation is anything flash, but these things fluctuate over the years no matter who the government is.
    If Russia invades Ukraine watch oil prices take off.
    
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    January 20, 2022 6:08pm
Bobba Fret

The UK strain of Covid is far worse.
The South African strain of Covid is worse again.
The Indian (Delta) strain is even more bad ass.
The Lambda strain is worse than Delta.
The Omicron strain worse than both of them.
The xxxxx strain (coming soon to a country near you) is worse again.
I think I’m starting to see a trend.
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January 20, 2022 12:21pm
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  It’s interesting to look at the South African death data; the omicron wave deaths seem to only be peaking now almost a month after the cases did. Still not big numbers, looks like perhaps equivalent of 50 per million deaths for their largely unvaccinated population, so maybe a couple of hundred mostly elderly deaths for NZ (ie a statistically unnoticeable 1% of our annual deaths in NZ).
  https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2020-03-01..latest&uniformYAxis=0&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Cases+and+deaths&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=USA~GBR~ZAF
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:45pm
  - mandk
    
    You need to ask what qualifies as an omicron death in South Africa.
    
    I know that in the UK, for example, any death is a Covid death if it happens within 28 days of a covid diagnosis.
    
    If the same convention applies in South Africa, then deaths would tend to peak about a month after the peak in diagnoses.
    
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    January 20, 2022 7:35pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Vaccines are spreading new variations.
  Control of the bastard peasants
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:57pm
- OTGO
  
  Jacinda told us that if we didn’t go hard and early with the lockdowns that thousands of us could die. It was all about flattening the curve.
  Then vaccines came out and it was get the jab and you won’t get Covid.
  Then the 2nd jab arrived and it was you’ll still get Covid but you won’t need to go to hospital.
  Now the boosters are here and its well you’ll still get Covid and you’ll still go to hospital but you won’t die.
  Never ending fear. When will it stop?
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:17pm
Maggie Pie

Just shot into the Pharmacy to get a couple of pkts of ‘Panadol Mini-Caps’.

Chemist informed me I could only buy ONE at a time.
Muttered behind my mask…. WTF?

Fished the S21 out of my handbag and threatened to get ClarkE on speakerphone. He folded like a deck-chair!

Left with two boxes. LOL
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January 20, 2022 1:04pm
Batman

“In Rebuke to Trump, Supreme Court Won’t Block Release of Jan. 6 Files” https://nyti.ms/3qJczDC

The Bronzer Leader and his adult kids are really having a bad week!

Couldn’t happen to more deserving people ?
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January 20, 2022 1:07pm
- Fletch
  
  What files? There are no “files”. It’s a beat-up.
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:32pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Trump and the GOP also had a major win in Wisconsin about the Laws broken during the Election regarding Ballot Harvesting and Drop Boxes.
    
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    January 20, 2022 3:45pm
    - Batman
      
      Did they? Care to link me AoR? Interested.
      
      Edit: not being sarcastic. I would be interested to read what you did so I know where you’re coming from.
      
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      December 20, 2021 4:37pm
  - Batman
    
    Haha Fletch you’re getting good at questioning the basis of reality.
    
    If someone told you that the sun had been ruled as real, you’d claim it doesn’t really exist and is merely a series of small explosions.
    
    The “files” are everything from emails, to visitor logs, call logs, internal memos, draft papers or exec orders, text messages, letters etc.
    
    I understand everything from a certain period of time is being requested, so there most certainly is material to be handed over, unless the Trump admin literally stopped functioning and nobody did any work from Nov 3 to Jan 20.
    
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    January 20, 2022 4:41pm
  - RichardX
    
    Sure Fletch…there is a huge difference between “files” and “documents”
    //
    
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    January 20, 2022 4:45pm
cmm

Yesterday Maggie’s Partner was saying there were rumours of Cindy wanting to step dwon.

My immediate thought was that if that’s true then there must be some bad news coming and I wondered what the inflation rate was like.

Today this comes out: Worst food price rises in a decade. Add that to all the other worsts like petrol prices and looking Omicron.

I wonder whether Cindy just doesn’t want to have this all on her plate.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/annual-food-prices-leap-45-highest-rise-in-a-decade/HF3BPNSWEBNJ5RBEJQNC4QKDTI/
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January 20, 2022 1:09pm
- Prince
  
  Stuff has waived it away as largely due to tomato blight !
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:05pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Jaspinda is reading the rules right now from the podium of truth.
Do as I say you bastard peasants
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January 20, 2022 1:18pm
- Truman lodge
  
  Steve
  
  That’s right!! You will call her mother.. And she is our guide and leader. I am hoping people report critisism of her and face consequences..
  
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  January 20, 2022 1:37pm
- Fletch
  
  So she is saying that if there is an Omicron outbreak that we will go into Red but that there won’t be lockdowns. I fail to see that there is much of a difference in terms of damage to the country.
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:18pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Word soup, but she can explain the difference. Got a spare 90 minutes?
    
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    January 20, 2022 2:36pm
    - Batman
      
      Save yourself the tortured word waffle and compare Red to the level 3&4 we all know.
      
      https://covid19.govt.nz/traffic-lights/life-at-red/
      
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      January 20, 2022 4:46pm
greybeard

It NZ is to provide prompt and useful assistance to South Pacific island nations in the case of natural disasters or whatever then maybe they should swap their Hercules aircraft for some sort of large flying boats.
They at least could be used immediately, and not after a week as has happened in Tonga.
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January 20, 2022 1:47pm
Fletch

ps, I thought Wendy Petrie had left TVNZ? This was long before Covid. There were big goodbyes etc. Now she is on the news every day?
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January 20, 2022 1:57pm
- Prince
  
  Seems their newsreader depth is wafer-thin. Along with their news content.
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:04pm
Maggie Pie

Just watched the Update on OneEwes…..

If they want us to take Omicron seriously, why does the ‘Minister-for-Covid-Response’ appear alongside the the Prime Minister wearing a ‘Doctor Who’ mask?
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January 20, 2022 2:00pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Signal of where she is going if the UN gives her the DCM
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:06pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Given Dr Who went broke after the lefties made it woke, then wearing that mask is a good metaphor for the wreckers this Govt is.
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:41pm
- Hollyfield
  
  Actually the TARDIS would solve all our transport and housing problems.
  No need for more roads, just press a button and you’re at work.
  How many homes could you fit on a section if they were all the size of a TARDIS – and inside each one was a mansion.
  I reckon “Minister Hipkins” is on to something.
  (Before this Government, did any Government refer to ministers in this way? It sounds very pretentious.)
  
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  January 20, 2022 7:45pm
waripori

This Government never fails to confuse me. Jacinda says the country will move to Red as soon as Omicron is in the community. Aussie got to hundreds of thousands of cases a day as a result of one case . We have three separate leaks of Omicron through the border including the Palmy one and household contacts already testing positive. I was expecting a move to Red today as she must have known we already have the thing.

Instead she moves Northland from Red to Orange despite Northland still not having met its arbitrary jab target. How does that make sense?

We shifted the whole country into lockdown because of one case of Delta. We have maybe 5 cases of a much more infectious critter and we go the other way. Not advocating tighter restrictions. Would just like to be able to predict what the Govt will do. I am organising a couple of events in Feb and March. OK at Orange, no good at Red. I was getting ready to cancel but not sure now.

Incidentally if the Palmy case tested negative 5 times in MIQ including at day 9 and Omicron has a very short incubation period people must be getting infected in MIQ. The only solution is to leave people in there forever.
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January 20, 2022 2:01pm
- [email protected]
  
  If the people in charge are mixing new “customers” with customers in MIQ who have been there for a while then that is really, really dumb.
  
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  January 20, 2022 4:47pm
Yvette

Today the Ministry of Health is reporting one new possible Omicron case in Palmerston North. MidCentral District Health Board announced the case this morning.
This case was in a MIQ facility in Christchurch and tested negative on day nine, before being released on January 16 (Sunday) after returning a negative test result on five occasions throughout their stay.
… The case, who has had two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, is now isolating at home with their family.

1 – this person is covid positive, after returning a negative test result on five occasions.
The chart-topping international DJ returned three negative tests before testing positive.
Only two cases of delayed detection, but in MIQ have there been more,
So is it a factor of Omicron?

2 – a case with suspected Omicron s now isolating at home with their family, so why are New Zealand citizens in Australia waiting for MIQ spaces?
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January 20, 2022 2:05pm
- KevO'Brien
  
  How can they test for omicron? Are there reference samples available? If so, who is the supplier?
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:27pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Clearly caught the virus in the MIQ facility.
  
  It’s time for folks to self-isolate/quarantine at home in a CLEAN, virus-free facility.
  
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  January 20, 2022 4:33pm
Truman lodge

She said no more lockdowns..

I’m not buying it. It will depend if we get boosted at a rate acceptable to our leaders. Even though the booster won’t do jack!!!
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January 20, 2022 2:14pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ‘SHE’ is a compulsive liar, we know this
  
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  January 20, 2022 2:37pm
- Batman
  
  Truman, that’s flat out wrong on the booster
  
  https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02717-3/fulltext
  
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  January 20, 2022 4:52pm
  - Truman lodge
    
    Batman
    
    I take what our leaders and scientists say with a huge grain of salt. They backfliped on masks.. That’s all you need to know really..
    
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    January 20, 2022 5:01pm
    - Batman
      
      That’s because things changed.
      
      Remember how we all thought it was surfaces and touch that transmitted it?
      
      Then the science evolved and we discovered it was mostly airborne, and Omicron is very airborne… In fact just as much as Measles, hanging around for something like 15-30 minutes afterwards.
      
      A pinch of salt is useful but demanding 100% accuracy and full knowledge from day one of a brand new virus is a hopelessly high bar.
      
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      January 20, 2022 5:13pm
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Remember how we all thought it was surfaces and touch that transmitted it?
        
        Na..
        I never thought that.
        
        I always knew it was BULLSHIT.
        
        Basic knowledge of viruses (especially respiratory viruses) and infection loads should have convinced anyone that the likelihood of fomite transmission was always going to be in the realms of improbability..
        
        The Government was fudging because they’d shoved folks into dodgy facilities where folks were exposed to contaminated air flows.
        
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        January 20, 2022 6:16pm
    - David Garrett
      
      Truman: Yes indeed. At the beginning of this nonsense, I read some “expert” saying that masks were a complete waste of time – something about the pore size in the mask material being 200 times larger than the virus IIRC.
      
      Then, a few months later, without any explanation regarding what had changed (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t the size of the virus particles), suddenly it was “Masks save lives!”
      
      They are literally making it up as they go along.
      
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      January 20, 2022 6:18pm
      - Fletch
        
        They have flipped the script again now, with the CDC saying that masks are pretty much useless unless they are N95 jobs. Especially the homemade versions.
        
        https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/health-experts-say-cloth-masks-are-e2-80-98not-effective-e2-80-99-against-omicron-covid-variant-suggest-n95-for-best-protection/ar-AASy592
        
        If you wear an N95 mask properly though, you’re like to have ugly painful marks on your face, especially if you need to wear one all day.
        
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        January 20, 2022 7:57pm
      - RdM
        
        Some pictures at these links.
        https://www.startpage.com/do/dsearch?query=electron%20microscope%20mask
        
        Mind you, since Startpage merely uses Google results without tracking, I might switch to another.
        
        But Duckduckgo & Bing give more or less the same results on that query. Nice pics.
        
        I’d like to be able to print a pic on a mask.
        
        Masking it up, not just making it up? ;=})
        
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        January 20, 2022 8:07pm
      - RdM
        
        [Fixed – mod.]
        
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        January 20, 2022 8:15pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Seriously Wellngton?
https://www.taxpayers.org.nz/wellington_roundabout?
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January 20, 2022 2:15pm
- mandk
  
  WCC: Wasting Ratepayers’ Money Since Forever.
  
  The Council could have saved the money it spent on the artwork by talking to any of the bus drivers who have to negotiate that roundabout. They would have told the Council that it is impossible to do a right hand turn on a roundabout that has such a small radius without mounting the centre of the circle.
  
  Never mind. It’s only other people’s money.
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:08pm
- lifesgood
  
  It’s fun to have a jolly good laugh at Wellington. They keep voted for absolute woke idiots as mayor. They get what they deserve. And they have the nerve to mock Auckland! Sheesh.
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:50pm
kevn

Want a dose of Omicrom? Just spend a few days in an MIQ.
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January 20, 2022 2:18pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

This is so wrong. Coming to NZ soon – or is it already here?
https://www.lawenforcementtoday.com/trooper-and-dispatcher-wife-give-heartbreaking-sign-off-before-being-fired/?
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January 20, 2022 2:38pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

The United Spot is satire – ok lefties?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfNiTVYgopw
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January 20, 2022 2:51pm
Maggie Pie

I was down shopping at Newmarket earlier.
Standing at the lights opposite The Mall when suddenly, this idiot comes up to me and asks if I knew where the nearest Mental Hospital was?

Bloody asylum seekers!
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January 20, 2022 2:58pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Biden don’t like press conferences.
https://rumble.com/vswrhr-biden-shows-why-he-never-holds-press-conferences-in-30-seconds.html?
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January 20, 2022 3:16pm
jon

Outrage in UK over the Downing St parties during lockdown BUT where is the outrage of the seemingly inability of the government to stop the illegal migrant crossings of the English Channel. This should be of huge concern to the Brits and has potentially dire ramifications if allowed to continue. Can anyone imagine this happening under Margaret Thatcher’s watch?
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January 20, 2022 3:25pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING

Father of 5 Kim Dotcom sends a message to JK, Chris Finlayson & Crown Law… 🙁

https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1483917081204883456
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January 20, 2022 3:29pm
Chuck Bird

I have had a mild reaction to my vaccinations back in July. For that reason, I thought I would try to get AstraZeneca for my booster. I rang Min of Health to book a booster using AstraZeneca. They booked me in at a place close by. I wasted nearly an hour there before I was told I would need to see my doctor and get a prescription for AstraZeneca at my expense.

This government claims they what to get as many people as possible as soon as possible. If that was true I would have had the booster with a vaccine approved by this government and used around the world.

This government is happy to bribe a certain group of people with KFC and even cash to get vaccinated yet throw obstacles in peoples way to get a booster.

Some might remember in the case of Sue McIntyre Bloomfield told her she could use AstraZeneca. I am not sure who would be paying.

Has anyone got any suggestions?
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January 20, 2022 3:30pm
- All_on_Red
  
  Tell them you are Maori and if they question it, scream racist at them.
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:38pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Ring up again and make another appointment, but put on a voice like Penne Henare 😀
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:50pm
- Rich Prick
  
  Get Clarke Gayford onto it. I hear he can make things happen.
  
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  January 20, 2022 3:56pm
- [email protected]
  
  Remind them that the AstraZeneca vaccines are expiring in April and they have only used about 5% of their stock.
  
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  January 20, 2022 4:39pm
- MCōs
  
  Get a Pfizer.
  Better the devil you know then the one you don’t.
  
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  January 20, 2022 7:06pm
- Fletch
  
  AZ is no safer. In fact, the AZ jabs will come with a new warning on their information sheet about transverse myelitis.
  
  The European Union’s drug regulator has indicated that a change to the product information for COVID-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson has been recommended to include a warning of a rare spinal cord condition called transverse myelitis.
  
  TM is a rare condition that involves inflammation of one or both sides of the spinal cord. Symptoms can include weakness in the limbs, and tingling, numbness, pain or loss of pain sensation, or issues with bladder and bowel function.
  
  The Pharmacovigilance and Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), the European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) committee that assesses the safety of human medicines, recommended the change on Jan. 14 after concluding that a causal link between the two vaccines and TM is “at least a reasonable possibility.”
  
  It recommends changing the product information for the COVID-19 shots—AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen–to include a warning of “very rare cases of transverse myelitis (TM) reported following vaccination.” TM will also be added as an adverse reaction with an unknown frequency to the vaccine profile.
  
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  January 20, 2022 8:21pm
CAKE FACE1

One case of “Deadly Delta” led to a 104 day lockdown.

Now, apparently, five million cases of Omicron will not lead to a lockdown?

What changed so dramatically?

You could say that Omicron is milder than “Deadly Delta”, but it is much more infectious. If it infects everyone, a lower death rate could still translate to higher deaths.

You could say that now we are highly vaccinated – but the vaccine is ineffective against Omicron, in any case.

What we have is a tacit admission that the lockdowns were a failure. The costs were higher than the benefits. Indeed, the benefits are hard to discern. The costs will be being paid for over generations by citizens, in terms of higher taxes for decades.

Cindy should apologise for the previous lockdowns, and admit they were a mistake.

She won’t, because she is a bad person, full of foolish pride.
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January 20, 2022 3:50pm
greybeard

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/300499973/carol-hirschfeld-to-be-executive-producer-of-mediaworks-new-tova-obrien-radio-show
Dear God…………….
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January 20, 2022 3:59pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  AND…..Mark Dye!!
  
  What color?
  
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  January 20, 2022 4:08pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  Also, remember Carol Hirschfeld’s ‘coffee meeting’ with CLare Curran – which Curran denied.
  
  With Hirschfeld initially claiming… ‘it was coincidental’.
  
  Pants on Fire 😀 😀 😀
  
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  January 20, 2022 4:46pm
mandk

Great interview by Nigel Farage on GBNews:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U90eDxJV_9k

[death claim deleted by Mod. It is medically incorrect.]

Eminent interviewee reveals that the average age of people dying with/from COVID is actually greater than the average life expectancy.

Interviewee also opines that the UK will come to regret its COVID response because of missed cancer diagnoses/treatments etc.
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January 20, 2022 4:16pm
- mandk
  
  Mod – What’s with the “hold for moderation” thing?
  
  Do you do this for all comments, or just some? And, if the latter, what prompts a hold?
  
  [It’s a flag for other moderators in the back-end that the comment will have advice sought on it from others and DPF. You shouldn’t see it unless it was accidentally approved. You now should be able to see why it was held as we have moderated it – Mod]
  
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  January 20, 2022 5:20pm
- mandk
  
  Mod – it …. etc
  
  Mods don’t debate. Take your ideas to another blog …
  
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  January 20, 2022 6:35pm
  - mandk
    
    Just to be clear, that comment was not edited by me.
    
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    January 20, 2022 8:15pm

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