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March 11, 2022 8:00am by Kokila Patel

General Debate 11 March 2022

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General Debate

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Warren

Why Jacinda Ardern our Prime Minister has a problem and will her arrogance and ignorance come back to bite her on the arse.
Labour have not been in this predictiment for any of the four years of being the Government since 2017, so with the help of of the media have been able to dictate the mood of the public , more by good luck than good management.
Labours back benches have had a free pass and have not had there presence in Parliament threatened by the polls but after last night’s poll many of those MP’s are now threatened with losing there seats at the next election because Labour is in trouble so the mood of certainty of being a MP is now at risk.
Unhappy MP’s create a different mood for Jacinda Ardern and whether she has the skills to quell it remains to be seen her skills have not been put to the test in this environment and better leaders than her have come unstuck in similar situations.
https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/03/10/full-results-1news-kantar-public-poll-march-5-8-2022/
I believe that Jacinda Ardern demeanor will change and her nice image will be tarnished and this will bring her downfall.
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March 11, 2022 8:00am
- lastmanstanding
  
  A couple of random observations.
  
  1, Ardern will quit before the next election knowing she will lose. She will replaced by Michael ( what should I do now Dear). He wont have the same impact and Labour will slide into the 20s.
  
  2. Its clear NATO and the West are throwing Ukraine under the Putin bus hoping that will appease him. But will it. What if he says he wants to “liberate” the rest of the old USSR and threatens to press the Nuke button.
  Will NATO and the West call his bluff and how confident are they that he wont trigger MAD.
  
  I heard a specialist in steriods saying that Putin is addicted and one of the side effects is exterme irrationale behaviour.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:38am
  - H. Upmann
    
    Who is Michael; friend of yours?
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:47am
    - Loddenthinks
      
      Woodn’t you like to know?
      
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      March 11, 2022 10:28am
    - pdm
      
      Lastman – I seriously doubt `Grunter’ will allow anyone but himself to replace Ardern and especially not the `ban Penis shaped lollies’ Woods.
      
      Unless of course said `Grunter’ is off to the UN too.
      
      If that is the case rats and sinking ships springs to mind.
      
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      March 11, 2022 10:51am
      - Matt Long
        
        1987, Labour is returned to Government with an increased majority amongst the froth of a financial bubble.
        1989, the fat fool abdicates, replaced by Figjam Palmer who lasts about a year, then hospital pass to Moore who appeared to be one of the less odious members of that government. Slaughtered at the polling booths.
        
        2022, world economy teetering on the brink, high inflation, high petrol prices, hugely leveraged asset bubble, central banks raising interest rates, a crash landing is on the cards.
        
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        March 11, 2022 1:35pm
  - Deane Jessep
    
    We agree on point 1. But re point 2. and your subsequent “irrational Putin” thesis you might want to watch this:
    https://www.facebook.com/watch/?extid=CL-UNK-UNK-UNK-AN_GK0T-GK1C&v=459333699206893
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:39am
    - Master Mariner
      
      There is nothing irrational about Putin, In his mind Ukraine is a pawn in the bigger picture.
      
      Mean while US VP is sent to Eastern Europe, I cant help thinking she has been sent the wrong place.
      Putin knows Energy will cripple the Worlds economies ( Western Worlds) and will lead to Civil unrest.
      The question is, Will it ?
      
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      March 11, 2022 10:56am
      - virtualmark
        
        No, it won’t.
        
        Firstly, oil supply & demand remains broadly in balance. Russian oil will likely end up in China instead of Europe (although logistics of that will be a bitch). That will allow Middle East oil to go to Europe instead of China. Short-term disruption (so a price spike), medium/long-term return to balance.
        
        Secondly, the West still has access to oil from the Middle East, US/Canada, Asia, Africa and can access Iran + Venezuela with some political accommodations.
        
        Thirdly, the current oil price spike will accelerate oil substitution (solar, EVs etc). Conoco’s CEO was out yesterday saying this pricing is *bad* for oil majors because it accelerates demand decline.
        
        Russia will be crippled by sanctions loonnnngggg before the West is crippled by energy prices.
        
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        March 11, 2022 12:33pm
      - Hard Cheese
        
        @virtualmark
        
        Surely China would be asking Russia for a reasonably big discount? It needs to be worth their while to go to the trouble of doing it, plus they are going to be one of the few buyers not turning up their nose at Russian oil.
        
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        March 11, 2022 2:47pm
      - Jack5
        
        Virtualmark at 12.33: …oil supply & demand remains broadly in balance.
        
        If that were true, the oil price wouldn’t have risen so steeply.
        
        and … can access Iran Venezuela with some political accommodations.
        
        Saudi Arabia and the Gulf oil producers oppose any US and Western “accommodation” with Iran, and so does Israel.
        
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        March 11, 2022 4:01pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Yes I’d imagine China’s going to demand a very good discount from the WTI/Brent levels of price. They’re the buyer of last resort.
        
        Another interesting question is whether the Chinese will pay in renminbi or in USD or Euros. I suspect the Russians will want USD or Euros, but I suspect the Chinese will pay them in renminbi and then tell them to convert them … but that’s getting harder as more and more banks join the sanctions on Russia.
        
        (Don’t worry, Deutsche Bank will do it for them …)
        
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        March 11, 2022 5:30pm
  - virtualmark
    
    I don’t see that NATO and the West are throwing Ukraine under the bus.
    
    They’ve been quite clear about their redline … NATO is there to protect NATO’s borders, not Ukraine’s borders.
    
    And they’ve been quite open about arming Ukraine with weapons that are relevant … like ATGMs.
    
    It’s also clear they (a) are cautious about the risk of a nuclear exchange, and (b) have excellent detailed and up-to-the-minute information from sources in Moscow. So I have to assume their caution is based on real information that they assess says there’s a genuine risk of this spiralling out of control.
    
    In that regard I think they are trying hard to avoid a “how did a duke getting shot in Sarajevo end up with four years of trench warfare in France?” situation.
    
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    March 11, 2022 12:40pm
  - Bobba Fret
    
    I think Robbo believes he is next in line.
    
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    March 11, 2022 2:05pm
  - virtualmark
    
    lastmanstanding … re your “Putin is addicted to steriods” comment … https://dearmrputin.substack.com/p/yes-vladimir-putin-parkinsons-disease?r=8fxpv&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
    
    Steroids are one of the treatments for Parkinsons.
    
    Key quote from the piece “Last month, as the invasion was imminent, I spoke to senior sources linked to the UK government and asked them about this. I was told that although these people did not know if Putin had cancer, they could confirm that he has Parkinson’s disease. More importantly, I was told, it is progressing fairly rapidly and Putin is forced to consult his physicians several times a week.”
    
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    March 11, 2022 2:30pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Interested in any Kiwibloggers’ experiences with relatives who’ve had Parkinsons.
      
      What behavioural changes arrive with Parkinsons? Do people with Parkinsons become more erratic? Or paranoid? Or unbalanced?
      
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      March 11, 2022 5:32pm
- 1920x1080p
  
  Queue the panic.
  Legislation they want in place regardless of any opposition will be rammed through parliament. Money will be thrown even more wastefully and recklessly than seen even during the last two years.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:22am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Holy mother of God! Wellington City Council double down on biking stupidity.

Wellington City Councillors vote 13-1 to spend $334m (WCC share only) on 166 km of bike lanes in next five years.

Do these people not see with their own eyes what people choose to do, which is that they drive?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/128014724/wellington-city-council-ticks-off-plan-for-166-km-of-bike-lanes-in-next-five-years
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March 11, 2022 8:00am
- kowtow
  
  ‘spend $334m’
  
  They’re on the ‘wrong side of history’
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:58am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  WCC Councillor Sean Rush – I know you post here from time to time, so hope you see this:
  * Please explain why you thought $334m more should be heaped on ratepayers for a small minority to pursue their hobby in a greater degree of comfort than before.
  * Please explain why you thought that additional bikeways cluttering up the roadway & removing public parking was the absolute best use of ratepayer funds, compared to all the other projects and proposals open to Council.
  * Please explain why you thought Council taking & spending this money is better than leaving it in ratepayers’ pockets.
  
  Thank you. Signed, a WCC ratepayer.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:02am
  - rouppe
    
    Our at the very least spent on critical infrastructure such as water and waste.
    
    Our are you leaving that for the taniwha and None Higher Mahuta to take off your hands
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:17am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Draft response from Sean Rush (please don’t shoot the messenger):
    
    * Stop grizzling about rates – your property values are sky-rocketing you greedy boomer
    * When are you going to realise that cars are so last-century and that unless everyone (except me, obviously) starts biking, the planet is doomed? Doomed, I tell you!
    * Taking money from ratepayers’ pockets and pissing it up against the wall is what Councils do best, and WCC is one of the better ones. I’m surprised you haven’t picked up on that yet.
    
    I do hope that answers your queries, remember WCC is part of the most open, honest and transparent gummints in Outer-rower.
    
    Sincerely, Sean the Sheep.
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:35am
- nathie
  
  Absolute lack of vision from the Left over cycling.
  
  John Key and National (back in 2009/10) had a great idea to develop cycle-trails and tracks around the country. Result, increased cycle tourism and locals getting fit checking out the regions, even cafes popped up in some places to give riders a place to stop at, eat and refresh. Bike trails have become popular.
  
  The Left though wish to “bulldoze” their ideology through by transforming city road lanes and parking bays into cycle lanes … when hardly anyone uses them!
  
  What the Left or WCC (or whomever) needs to do is stop wasting money on their silly bike lane ideas that degrades vehicle traffic movement (and results in increased emissions as traffic is at a near stand still for km’s).
  
  Forget about bike lanes for commuting, instead put that money into improving roads for better car and public transport travel (and bring back parking for local residents and local shopping & commerce).
  
  But here’s the vision thing, also put some of that money into urban cycle trails (and nothing to do with taking over roads), to get more people out exercising in the weekends. Imagine if they had decent, purpose built cycle trails (alongside paths) in the Town Belt? Imagine the views!
  
  What about through the hills and down to the beaches around the Eastern suburbs? Another “town belt” of sorts eg plenty of bush around to accommodate km’s of bike trails.
  
  For the inner city (or maybe along the water front), how about something wild like an overhead bike track system (like overseas overhead train track system) that runs from the bottom of Taranaki St (connecting to the waterfront) all the way to the top of Taranaki St where the Polytech was ? It doesn’t have to be Taranaki St, that’s just an example. It could be along Kent or Cambridge terraces etc. Or down Willis St into the heart of the city for the inner city dwellers and commuters. It doesn’t have to be a complicated, interconnected, overhead network, just a few such examples here and there, and perhaps over the next 50-100 years it can expand if usage and trends support the need!
  
  Hey this might not be the most practical idea but it (or something similar) is much better than taking over roads for a handful of occasional bike users!
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:48am
- krazykiwi
  
  Yup. I’m an avid cyclist and I can say that along with a majority of my cycle buddies we are appalled by this waste and butchery of our roads.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:48am
  - 7kiwi11
    
    I too am a cyclist and never understood the need for so many dedicated cycle lanes and why they are soooo expensive to create.
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:14am
    - mawm
      
      Most get used by delivery trucks and taxis as parking bays anyway.
      
      I think you’d get far better value with some driver and cyclist education.
      
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      March 11, 2022 12:44pm
- glowworm
  
  As a cyclist and WCC ratepayer I’m 100% against this decision. Seems a very unwise decision to me.
  
  Out of interest, what happens if you don’t or can’t pay your rates?….
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:48am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    Depends on your voting history, ethnicity, gender(s) and use of te reo, I’m guessing. If you’re a pale stale male you can expect your house to be sold from under you to pay the outstanding amounts, and the police to forcibly remove you from your (former) home.
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:38am
  - Ehlana
    
    glowworm, those who can’t pay their rates, often older people on fixed incomes, can apply to their Council to have the rates held over and paid from their estate.
    
    Those who don’t want to are in the same boat as anyone else who doesn’t want to pay their bills – their creditors can come after them.
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:27am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  I think Labour’s roving decimal point is in the wrong place.
  $334B is more likely
  
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  March 11, 2022 1:55pm
mikenmildagain

Celebrating today the Day of Restoration of the Independence of Lithuania.
On this day in 1990, Lithuania reasserted its independence, after the 50-year Soviet occupation. I’m guessing that recent events are making Lithuanians more determined than ever to never again be subject to the power of their neigbouring dictatorship.
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March 11, 2022 8:02am
- krazykiwi
  
  I have travelled through Latvia and Lithuania. Every small town has an ‘Occupation Museum’. I stopped going to them. Too traumatic. These people no oppression and oppressors.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:01am
  - krazykiwi
    
    um, they ‘know’ oppression. Just clarifying before DG’s apoplexy kicks in 😉
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:50am
    - mikenmildagain
      
      He’s usually a transgressor of Muphry’s Law, though.
      
      If you write anything criticizing editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:57am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        That Muphry ey? what a guy.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:39am
      - Jack5
        
        Krazykiwi’s …Every small town has an ‘Occupation Museum’
        
        And there are memorials to the Waffen SS.
        
        That’s the problem: caught between Germany and Russia. It goes back at least six or so centuries to when the Teutonic knights were on the rampage in the Baltics, followed by Russian imperialism.
        
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        March 11, 2022 11:02am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Jack5, Our cycle tour guide explained how in the 1940s Lithuania was invaded three times in 5 years, and each time the invaders were welcomed as liberators.
        
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        March 11, 2022 12:15pm
  - JJ56
    
    Try South Korean museums dealing with the Japanese occupation …
    
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    March 11, 2022 6:16pm
Lee C

Rumour is mandates to be rescinded on April 1st.

I’m conflicted.

I want this soo bad – but am wary of the date.

Is it a wind-up?
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March 11, 2022 8:03am
- krazykiwi
  
  I have resolved to react to any cessation of mandates with anger. Anger that a government was ever allowed to get away with creating an underclass to publicly vilify. Anger that New Zealanders were lied to and manipulated. I will not be grateful for the return of civil liberties that were immorally and illegally withheld.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:09am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Looks like Fonterra has taken a step backwards from demanding all staff get vaxxed.
    
    https://www.newsroom.co.nz/fonterra-repeals-vaccine-mandate-in-favour-of-daily-rapid-antigen-tests
    
    If RATS had been available in NZ last year (as they were throughout much of the world), how many fewer NZers would have needed to be vaxxed?
    
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    March 11, 2022 8:15am
    - cmm
      
      Even this is ridiculous. Only unvaxxed employees need to do the daily RAT scanning.
      Vaxxed employees do not have to do the testing.
      
      This is broken in so many ways:
      * First off, being vaxxed does not prevent you from being infected and infecting others. If there is really a difference it is marginal.
      * This is a self-distorting way to gather stats because it biases the testing towards unvaxxed. Therefore, this testing policy will make it more likely that vaxxed people are found to be positive.
      
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      March 11, 2022 8:27am
      - [email protected]
        
        “Therefore, this testing policy will make it more likely that UNvaxxed people are found to be positive”
        
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        March 11, 2022 8:31am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        I don’t follow your logic with the latter point – how would only testing unvaxxed people make it more likely that vaxxed people are found to be positive? And how would you know they’re positive, if you’re not testing them?
        
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        March 11, 2022 8:32am
      - cmm
        
        Sorry Loddenthink. A typo. Thanks for pointing it out.
        
        It makes it far more likely that UNVAXXED people will be found positive.
        
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        March 11, 2022 8:43am
      - Surely Knott
        
        If Fonterra and others are now trying to hide behind the Health and Safety law rather than the mandates then:
        1. Aren’t they required to keep a register of the risk (eg. covid) and record all covid cases vaxxed and unvaxxed.
        2. Then aren’t they required to review if their risk mitigation is working. (it’s not – vaxxed also get covid in large numbers)
        3. The worksafe guide only tells of the risk factors around viral spread. It doesn’t include any risks from taking the novel tech vaccine itself. And it doesn’t show what the efficacy of the vaccine is or what the reduction is.
        4. Worksafe doesn’t advice on people who have had the virus and therefore natural immunity. They only differentiate between vaxxed and unvaxxed .
        4. Fonterra like the Police court case focuses on “workplace continuity.” as opposed to stopping the spread or an outbreak. Is workplace continuity really allow you to force people to take a novel vaccine with possibility of serious side effects for an annual virus.
        We are increasingly seeing government overreach being achieved by coercing and enabling big woke business. – whether it’s businesses enforcing their staffs private social media posts , or now your private medical choices. Last year businesses were encouraged to get flu vaccine teams into the office for the staff. Looking back I don’t think this was the right approach, as it adds an element of peer pressure to a private medical choice. It also violates the privacy of those who don’t want to take it. And it makes the business responsible for the safety of the vaccine. Vaccines and other medical decisions belong at the doctors office. If staff want some time off to get one I think that is a better approach.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:21am
    - Jim
      
      Didn’t our benevolent government ban the import of such things in March 2020?
      
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      March 11, 2022 8:40am
      - Nickc2
        
        Yes they did. RATs would distort the fear factor the Govt had created and were maintaining at all costs.
        
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        March 11, 2022 9:07am
      - Mr_Blobby
        
        Also antibody tests.
        
        Why would you want to ban a test?
        
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        March 11, 2022 1:34pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Same with antibody testing Nick.
        They started and then BANNED them. Did not want us to get natural antibodies and therefore no vaccines (experimental medication)
        
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        March 11, 2022 2:07pm
    - Stellaboxer
      
      Maggy that’s exactly why RATs weren’t available .
      
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      March 11, 2022 8:49am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      If antibody testing hadn’t been declared illegal by dictator Ardern we would have been much better equipped also. She really did think she was Queen Canute. Such arrogance deservedly coming back to bite her in the arse.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:11am
    - Rich Prick
      
      A quick, somewhat related question. Why are unvaccinated people still excluded from society? Surely it’s up to them as to whether the wish to mix with diseased vaccinated people.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:48am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        One of those Epidemiologists – Rod Jackson – told us last night on TV One News that the unvaxxed were 3X more likely to transmit Covid-19.
        
        Mandates still important – epidemiologist
        But epidemiologist Dr Rod Jackson told 1News there has “never a more important time for all of the mandates”.
        
        He said an unvaccinated person is three times more likely to infect someone with Covid-19 than a vaccinated person.
        
        https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/03/10/support-for-mandates-drops-to-60-in-latest-1news-kantar-public-poll/
        
        Has anyone ever seen any evidence for his assertion?
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:18am
      - krazykiwi
        
        Why? Because the grand vision of supra-national bio identity system has stalled, and admitting defeat is, for now, difficult.
        
        But it, and they, will be back.
        
        The people been conditioned, and those not so conditioned have had a warning shot across our bows: We will be expected to comply, and we can not anticipate support from the majority who have long since capitulated.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:20am
      - kowtow
        
        MW
        
        The same Jackson who was literally in high enthusiasms about actively “recruiting” the gangs for the war on virus during the previous outbreak and lockdown , the very people who were the transmission vectors .
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:24am
      - Rich Prick
        
        Muggy, I saw that item. That he repeated that unsubstantiated assertion three times with such enthusiasm confirmed to me it was bullshit. At best, it was his politically saturated wishful thinking. The media is getting good at finding useful idiots like him to prop up their crumbling narrative.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:44am
      - Rich Prick
        
        Sorry, *Maggy*.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:52am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        @Maggy: statistics are like miniskirts – they’re nice to look at but they hide the really important stuff.
        
        It may be true that if you encounter two people, one who has submitted to the jab and one who has not, the unjabbed one may be 3 x more likely than the jabbed one to transmit the virus.
        
        However, given that something like 97% of the New Zealand population has been jabbed, you are 32 x more likely to encounter someone that has been jabbed, and (if my maths is correct) you’re therefore more than 10 x more likely to be infected by a jabbed person.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:53am
      - pdm
        
        Maggy -I for one take no notice of anything said by Jackson, Hendy, Baker or the now totally discredited Wiles.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:59am
      - Maggy Wassilieff
        
        Well I think it is bullshit too…
        
        This paper in “The Lancet” showed that vaxxed folks can transmit the virus just as effectively as the unvaxxed
        
        Nonetheless, fully vaccinated individuals with breakthrough infections have peak viral load similar to unvaccinated cases and can efficiently transmit infection in household settings, including to fully vaccinated contacts.
        
        Community transmission and viral load kinetics of the SARS-CoV-2 delta (B.1.617.2) variant in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals in the UK: a prospective, longitudinal, cohort study
        https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00648-4/fulltext
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:59am
      - Alan Wilkinson
        
        @Maggie, there was a b.s. Auckland Uni model reported a few days ago, but even in the unlikely event of it being accurate goven 97% are supposedly vaccinated you would be 91% likely to have beeen infected by a vaxed individual. Also the 3x factor was only relative to recently boosted vaxers. The rest were barely less infective than unvaxed.
        
        The whole thing is unscientific hogwash.
        
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        March 11, 2022 3:08pm
      - JJ56
        
        … [No one will know or care. mod]
        
        Just to remind that the COVID models are orders of magnitude simpler and therefore reliable than Climate Models.
        
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        March 11, 2022 6:21pm
  - kevn
    
    @kk… Indeed. Mandates are/were so needless. Take the jab if you wanted. Medical exemptions were near impossible to get, no matter how affected you were.
    The global knowledge is clearly showing mandates/lockdowns/mask are so feeble.
    Big companies and govt depts are still firing people. They need to be sued for gross management neglect.
    Why is arden so persistent?
    What a sick joke it has all turned into.
    
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    March 11, 2022 8:33am
    - Jim
      
      Perhaps the fact that Ardern is a WEF (trained) global leader is why she was so persistent on mandating vaccine passes; at the total exclusion of using RAT or antibody testing for natural immunity (do you remember natural immunity? It used to be a thing is medical science before 2020).
      
      In this short (just released) video Russell Brand discloses more intriguing and sometimes sinister facts about the WEF Davos forum on the lead up to 2020:
      https://youtu.be/leFyK7JDDjU
      
      28 2
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      March 11, 2022 8:48am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Oh no, it’s a “conspiracy theory” about Schwab and the WEF and the Global Young Leaders programme.
        Oh wait, you mean it’s 100% factual and evidence based? To quote George in Blackadder Goes Forth. “Well cover me with flour and bake me for 40 minutes!”
        
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        March 11, 2022 9:14am
    - mawm
      
      The mandates are worthless but it is the bio-identity (vaccine passport) kk mentions which we should be targeting. This is nothing but a gateway to a social credit system, [deleted by Mod, conspiracy]
      
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      March 11, 2022 1:46pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I feel so grateful we have someone all-knowing who can decide for us what is and what isn’t a conspiracy theory. Oh and protect us from knowing what the alleged conspiracy theory was. Phew. ?
        
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        March 11, 2022 9:29pm
      - ClanMcleod
        
        What s the conspiracy? I’d like to see it, all the others in the last 2 years have come true.
        
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        March 12, 2022 5:18am
  - R
    
    MSD have started laying off unvaccinated staff because they’re apparently a health risk! This is despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of new Covid cases are fully vaccinated and the overwhelming majority of new hospitalisations are fully vaccinated.
    
    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/covid-19-omicron-outbreak-ministry-of-social-development-begins-to-sack-unvaccinated-staff/SHE3EYPVK7NA5K2UTCJVDEYMLI/
    
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    March 11, 2022 8:47am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      And the DHBs are allowing covid positive staff to go to work! You couldn’t make this shit up.
      
      48 3
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      March 11, 2022 9:15am
      - My
        
        Yeah, and there have been a bunch of DHB staff sacked because they didn’t get vaccinated. They’ll be getting a bit grumpy.
        
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        March 11, 2022 9:21am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Kk And angry and unnerved that so many were happy to play along.
    
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    March 11, 2022 8:47am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Indeed, I had someone at the golf club chat to me yesterday as I was packing my gear to go home, unable to join the others for a beer afterwards. “Oh, you’ll be able to come in for a beet with us soon”.
    To be honest, I don’t really know if I want to. The majority of them happily accepted this utter injustice and discrimination inflicted on my family and I. I’m not sure that I want to be around them for a while. I know for certain if the situation had been reversed I wouldn’t have supported the vax passes. That is what enabled this atrocity in the first place. Compliance.
    
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    March 11, 2022 8:48am
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Yeah, same situation & I feel the same way
      
      36 2
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      March 11, 2022 8:52am
    - Stellaboxer
      
      Clan well said I’m in total agreement with you. I have shed many friends and acquaintances because of their willingness to support this nonsense. One friend suggested that we go out for a meal, when I pointed out that my wife and I weren’t vaccinated her got snakey and acted as if we were the problem.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:00am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Stellaboxer – yes, it’s been very saddening. Of course, Ardern bears ultimate blame, but so many who I thought more of went along without raising an eyebrow. Never uttered a single protesting voice.
        The club secretary apologised to me early on for their decision to only allow vax passed people into the club. I was explaining how I understood the difficult choice when he made the mistake of saying “we had no choice”.
        I very firmly told him to not lie to me and never try repeating that lie in the future. I said, “you had two choices, one of them was very difficult, the other one was very easy, you took the easy one. I understand why. But never look me in the eye and say you had no choice.”
        
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        March 11, 2022 9:20am
      - glowworm
        
        There is no justification for taking away individuals’ freedom in the guise of public safety.
        
        Thomas Jefferson
        
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        March 11, 2022 9:55am
    - Plue
      
      You are not alone Clan. I happen to be vaxed but don’t support any sort of mandate or discrimination. Just because I am doesn’t mean I have been willing to play the vax pass game etc and a lot of people around me assume I am not. I have been taking careful note of the attitudes of these people and I can assure you I won’t forget how you behaved.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:22am
      - Charmaine Hawke
        
        I am in the same position but am happy to say I have shed many compliant friends and have made a whole new set of non-compliant ones.
        One of the benefits of the Wellington protest was expanding the group of friends I have round the country and I now have a good excuse to go places I haven’t been before to see them.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:01am
    - Brian McDonald
      
      Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
      So you didn’t tell your clubmates that you’re unhappy with them, you crept off to KB to moan instead. Try a hug clinic next time.
      Oh that’s right KB has become a “hug clinic” for moaners.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:54am
      - glowworm
        
        Ha! I like getting hugs Brian! There is something endearing about them. An emotional connection or bond that results from them.
        
        I don’t think you can ever have too many hugs. Although, if hug clinics existed, perhaps you could actually get all hugged out…
        
        Anyway Brian, I sense that you might be in need of a great big happy hug! Might stop your moaning ?
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:09am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Brian are you really as dumb as your comments make you out? You need to engage some grey matter before posting.
        Some of my club mates have went out of their way to play golf with me despite my “plague” status. They did this from the beginning, long before they actually knew as we do now that my vax status had no bearing on their health whatsoever.
        In case you missed it, I’m not allowed into the club, so how am I supposed to let the others know how I feel? Which, despite your claim, is not “unhappy”. I’ve said often, it makes me sad.
        
        I didn’t “creep off” anywhere. I’m not allowed across the roped off area around the front garden area or inside the main building. Same rule as for dogs. But they can get a bowl of water brought out to them.
        As for the “hug clinic”. I can happily report that one of our members made the walk over to my vehicle where I was having a beer on my own and gave me a hug. No all people are cowards and sheep following the “rules” like you. Some people recognise right and wrong.
        I hope you enjoy your bile and bitterness. You are a sad and pathetic example of a human being.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:13am
      - Rich Prick
        
        A rather ironic comment for you.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:33am
    - Rich Prick
      
      Likewise. I have resigned from a sports club over the injustice meted our by self righteous vaccinated members to those who decided not to receive a medical treatment. Hilariously, that club is now putting in place procedures to accommodate infected vaccinated members. Cindy the divider and her obedient media gave us this.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:55am
    - kevn
      
      @Caln… Interesting isn’t it, a study in the human condition. I have a friend who is a jab mandate/Pfizer/mask enthusiast fiend and can’t be budged from this stance. Proven stats and data don’t convince him, mainly because he won’t read any of it.
      We have agreed to disagree and try to just keep off the subject. I just hope he with heart issues, just stays healthy.
      
      17 1
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      March 11, 2022 10:40am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Yes, I have a few decent, well meaning friends who have done everything Ardern asked, but who also recognise that the mandates and passes are immoral. Like your friend, they don’t want to talk about it at all, not interested in any of the science data I’ve offered. Like you, I only hope they don’t become some of the victims of this experiment.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:55am
      - mawm
        
        It is a peculiar characteristic of the jabbed not to want to learn about the vaccine and the side effects. It’s as if they have had it and what will be will be. We need to be kind to them as many followed in blind faith in the government and wider medical industry or for the convenience of being able to party and travel and now, if some of the long term side effects and negative efficacy of the vaccine prove to be as damaging as predicted, have an unwell or limited future.
        
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        March 11, 2022 2:01pm
      - Batman
        
        Rather it’s a higher level of digital literacy which allows most to filter out bullshit claims and misleading information taken out of context from studies.
        
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        March 11, 2022 2:58pm
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      ‘Compliance’ is a kind name for Blackmail
      
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      March 11, 2022 2:14pm
- Warren
  
  How can this be right when Social Welfare have spent the last couple of weeks sacking staff that are not vaccinated, but I hope your right for all those that have beaten the odds and have of them still being in employment have risen.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:11am
- Scott
  
  I do know that there was discussion in the newspaper yesterday about how long vaccine mandates were going to be needed? So there is some discussion in government about this issue.
  
  I would think it is long past vaccine mandates to go. Now that over 90% of the population of been vaccinated why punish the rest?
  
  Apparently we don’t contact trace any more. So why not get rid of the vaccine mandate?
  
  42 2
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  March 11, 2022 8:18am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    Scott I don’t think the reason the mandates should go has anything to do with the percentages. They should go because they are immoral, the vaccines efficacy is dubious and their effectiveness in stopping spread or contraction of the virus apparently nonexistent. So they have no justification other than coercion which ,last time I checked, is illegal.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:08am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    And the vax passes. Immediately. Gone.
    
    35 4
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    March 11, 2022 9:29am
  - kevn
    
    @Scott… ‘We don’t trace anymore”.
    But, but, everywhere I go, folk are still on with their phone QR coding in and physically signing in.
    Looking at me negatively.
    LOL
    
    32 1
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    March 11, 2022 9:44am
    - Debsta
      
      And dutifully wearing their masks. Beggars belief!
      
      20 3
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      March 11, 2022 10:11am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        In their cars. By themselves.
        
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        March 11, 2022 11:03am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      No QR for me. I sign in. ‘Donald Duck, Hollywood.’
      Phone? Don’t be silly, ever seen a Duck with a phone? Oh yeah, time? No idea what time – go to sleep when it is dark
      
      9 1
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      March 11, 2022 2:18pm
      - alloytoo
        
        If somebody insisted I put J Ardern Beehive.
        
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        March 11, 2022 11:07pm
    - alloytoo
      
      It is beyond bizarre. Glad I never indulged.
      
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      March 11, 2022 11:06pm
  - glowworm
    
    If the poll results on the mandate are correct, a whooping 60% of kiwis still support them. Simply astonishing.
    
    I find this difficult to believe. I do wonder if poll results are somewhat skewed for MSM followers vs alternative media followers and therefore poll results will likely skew in favour of the MSM narrative?
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:26am
    - Batman
      
      Split the hair all you like, it is not credible to try and deny that a significant majority of the country support such measures.
      
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      March 11, 2022 10:38am
      - glowworm
        
        Nope, there is no denial that this is the case. Just pondering and questioning with an open mind Batty. What if you, and the significant majority have been hoodwinked?
        
        “Most of the greatest evils that man has inflicted upon man have come through people feeling quite certain about something which, in fact, was false.”
        
        – Bertrand Russell
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:53am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Nobody is denying the stats re mandate support Batman, we’re simply displaying astonishment that people still believe they are somehow useful for anything.
        Maybe you can explain it to us? You’re obviously a rabid supporter. What is the point of mandates and vax passes when we now know that your vax status has zero bearing on the catching or spreading of covid? I can’t get the answer anywhere. Hopefully you can supply it.
        
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        March 11, 2022 10:59am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        Nor can you credibly deny that support is plummeting – down from 72% to 60% which is a massive drop.
        
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        March 11, 2022 11:04am
      - Don Beckett
        
        As We’re sure you support the mandates Batman, agreeing with everything that Stalinda does, and speaking through your muzzle…..
        
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        March 11, 2022 11:31am
      - I remember when
        
        Why is 20% not significant when you are a protestor.
        
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        March 11, 2022 2:35pm
      - JimBobJoe
        
        A clear indication that 60% of the country are low information sheep following blindly along behind a socialist snake oil saleswoman aka Ms Ardern.
        
        Vaccines don’t work as vaccines.
        The vaccinated can catch and transmit the virus
        Vaccine mandates are breach of a persons right to informed medical choice
        
        The fact you support such an unethical and authoritarian policy such as vaccine passes and vaccine mandates in work places, says so very much about who you are Battie…
        
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        March 11, 2022 2:53pm
- slightlyrighty
  
  That will be a kick in the guts to the 200 odd MSD workers that got sacked yesterday, in contravention of the SSC edict to hold off on such action…
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:20am
  - kevn
    
    @slightly… They need to get legal action cracking. Get a joint effort going with ALL the others in the same boat.
    cinders and ash, that what their legacy is.
    Like moths chewing at the fabric of NZ.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:46am
    - Jim
      
      Considering the observed societal damage it’s more like goats (than moths) chewing at the fabric of NZ society.
      
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      March 11, 2022 1:16pm
- rouppe
  
  But what did that really mean?
  
  Just a step back from no jab no job? Or getting rid of the stupid mask mandates and vaccine pass for entry?
  
  I’m happy to let individuals and individual businesses make their own determinations, so that I can make my choices about where to go
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:20am
TripeWryter

Karl du Fresne shines some sunlight on Three Waters that Stuffed and co refuse to do …
http://karldufresne.blogspot.com/
48 1
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March 11, 2022 8:08am
- Ehlana
  
  He offers a link to a document that explains how Three Waters will work: https://www.dia.govt.nz/diawebsite.nsf/Files/Three-waters-reform-programme/$file/three-waters-reform-programme-overview-a3-30-june-2021.pdf
  
  I’ve looked. My medication isn’t strong enough for this to make sense.
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:32am
Simon

Nothing says Ardern Labour government like having a true believer zero covid policy then subsequently have a senior Labour minister claim there are 100,000 covid cases per day.
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March 11, 2022 8:08am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  There is that roving decimal point again
  
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  March 11, 2022 2:22pm
Benedict Yu

This is very annoying. These researchers say that the health system “does not do equity” and that Maori and priority groups were failed in the vaccine roll out.

“Priority groups including Māori, Pasifika and older people had “significantly lower” access to Covid-19 vaccines, Waikato University researchers looking at the geographic distribution of vaccination services have found.”

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/128002694/waikato-university-study-confirms-priority-groups-had-worst-access-to-covid-vaccines

There is no link to the study report, but the quotes from the authors provide no evidence to support the assertion that poor access to vaccine services was the cause of lower Maori vaccination rates. Of course Maori in remote areas had “worse access” than people living in central Wellington. But does this explain lower vaccination rates?

Let’s take the Bay of Plenty. The vaccination rate for Maori is 83.9 percent. However the rate for Maori over 65 is 100 percent. For the 50-64 years group it is 98 percent. For the 18-34 years group it is only 78 percent.

https://www.health.govt.nz/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-data-and-statistics/covid-19-vaccine-data

The ‘low’ vaccination rates for Maori in the Bay of Plenty are confined to young adults. Almost all Maori in the region over the age of 50 are fully vaccinated. This is an astonishing success of the New Zealand health system. It has achieved close to universal vaccination for Maori in an area with many remote settlements. I never would have thought that result possible, yet these authors are attacking the vaccine program and calling for a separate Maori health system!
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March 11, 2022 8:08am
- Scott
  
  Benedict, what you need to understand is that this is the Marxist way of thinking about things. The Marxist way of thinking about things is that if there is any discrepancy in outcome then it must be the fault of oppression. In the Maori people’s case it must be the result of racism. If there were less women vaccinated it must be the result of sexism. That’s the Marxist way.
  
  Karl Marx actually thought that all relationships were oppressive. Unfortunately the standard public servant and the standard journalist in this era of the labour government thinks like a Marxist.
  
  From a traditional commonsense point of view I would agree with you. It’s a great thing that we have treated everyone the same and given everyone access to health services, even in remote rural areas. Unfortunately commonsense doesn’t rule the roost at this time.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:29am
- Philview
  
  I was just reading the University of Otago’s School of Physical Education has been slammed in a report as being racist. Racist in the modern framework means not fully submitting to ideological takeover by the Left. Somehow we need to change the toxic culture in this country and root out and dismantle this left wing narrative. Where do we start?
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:32am
  - Stellaboxer
    
    We start by defeating this ridiculous government
    
    30 2
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    March 11, 2022 9:12am
  - rouppe
    
    Yes I saw that 2. There were no descriptions in that story about how that racism was manifested.
    
    It could have been just how someone was feeling.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:23am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    It’s like gender identity, you just have to state it’s so and it is apparently. No matter what the reality is.
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:01am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      A quick look in the undies solves the issue
      
      6 0
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      March 11, 2022 2:25pm
- Jim
  
  Ironically they’re demanding segregation in the name of discrimination!
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:50am
- I remember when
  
  And there would not have been a vaccine or vaccine mandate if the country was populated by 18-34 year-olds.,
  
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  March 11, 2022 2:37pm
Benedict Yu

This looks serious, I thought.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/128019505/serious-and-confronting-allegations-of-systemic-racism-upheld-at-otago-university

The article is like the opening chapter of a mystery novel. There is not a single example cited of this alleged racist behavior. Just a bunch of folk saying they have hurt feelings for mysterious reasons. ?

If the allegations are “serious and confronting” surely the journalist could have asked for the some details?
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March 11, 2022 8:09am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  Maybe they mean the decades old racist selection of places for the medical school – looking at you Wayne Mapp
  
  23 6
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  March 11, 2022 8:14am
  - Ian Boag
    
    That old chestnut. If we did it just on exam results there would be a lot more women and Asians in med school, fewer male pakehas and boo-all Maori/Pasifika. Many of the entrants would already have a good degree. Perhaps that would push them ahead of prospective high school entrants in the queue. Fair enough if you are OK with that.
    
    Be careful of what you wish for ….
    
    Not to mention the correlation between high school exam results and “being a good doctor” has not been documented anywhere that I have seen.
    
    I don’t envy the med school admission people their task.
    
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    December 11, 2021 9:08am
    - Plue
      
      You make a reasonable point about the correlation between exam results and good doctors. I think the required attributes would be a worthy area of study if it has not been looked at before.
      I am willing to bet good money though that your ethnic inheritance is unlikely to be a good correlation.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:29am
      - cjn
        
        A good doctor needs to be able to read a computer screen and needs to be able to advise you to take the vaccine so that you can go to a cafe . With a straight face.
        
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        March 11, 2022 4:46pm
    - kiwikidsnz
      
      “Perhaps that would push them ahead of prospective high school entrants in the queue. Fair enough if you are OK with that.”
      
      Having recently lost my wife of nearly 30 years suddenly due to undiagnosed coronary disease despite repeated doctor assessments, I’m OK with that; you probably would be too if it was your or your family’s life on the line.
      
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      March 11, 2022 11:18am
    - Jack5
      
      Ian Boag’s ….If we did it just on exam results there would be a lot more women and Asians in med school, fewer male pakehas ….
      
      There’s no entry preference to Medical School for White New Zealanders.
      
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      March 11, 2022 4:08pm
- Cassandra
  
  And the allegation comes from the Maori PT department. I smell a rat. I know it’s not April 1st but……………………..
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:39am
- PeeJay
  
  As is always the case, there will be some truth in there somewhere, if you can dig through that word salad.
  
  I’ve no doubt some racist idiots are doing the ‘casual racist’ thing as this happens in a lot of workplaces – dinosaurs be dinosaurs – but there will also be the usual stuff like a rush to virtue signal, complex agendas, personal conflict and, very important in academia, a turf war. Ultimate solution in a year or two will be a custom built facility for the Maori Physical Education & Health school (I know, I know, but separatism eh) along with a hefty budget increase.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:48am
- john1234
  
  You’d need a degree in mātauranga Māori to understand it, BY.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:50am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Stenographers don’t ask questions BY, not in their brief. We’ve learned that while looking on in amazement at the antics of the NZ mainstream media over the last 2 years.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:51am
- Jim
  
  I’ve been waiting for NZ’s version of the 2017 Evergreen State College debacle.
  
  11 1
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  March 11, 2022 8:55am
  - glowworm
    
    Jim, great comment. Those unaware of what happened to Bret and Heather at Evergreen should look it up.
    
    The damage the radial left and woke institutions are now doing does help explain the current COVID situation. Meritocracy is essentially in decline in these places.
    
    Jordan Peterson explains some of this very well.
    
    This, along the changing business models by these same instututions, I think means many, more recent “experts” and PhDs that pop out are…. perhaps less expert than they could, or used to be? As others have rightly expressed here, some of them do indeed appear to be useful idiots.
    
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    March 11, 2022 12:35pm
- kowtow
  
  And “A scathing review has detailed widespread conflict at the University of Otago’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies.”
  
  https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/campus/peace-being-outweighed-conflict
  
  karl du Fresne skewers ’em ,worth a visit to his blog.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:04am
- Stellaboxer
  
  NZ as usual is 5 to 10 years behind the grown up English speaking countries and therefore super charged in trying to prove their ardour. It’s very boring and always makes us look ridiculous in their eyes achieving the exact opposite effect to the one craved.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:16am
- All_on_Red
  
  They were probably told their work wasn’t good enough so they cry racist.
  Check out the photo of the Reporter in the article…
  Why do fat chicks dye their hair bright colours?
  Do they think we will be distracted and wont notice they are fat?
  
  16 3
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  March 11, 2022 9:47am
  - Brian McDonald
    
    You tell us why fat chicks dye their bright colours, you are one aren’t you? I just figured out your name.
    
    2 26
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    March 11, 2022 9:57am
    - All_on_Red
      
      Her hair is dyed bright yellow….
      Not very good at figuring things out eh Brian
      
      11 1
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      March 11, 2022 10:09am
      - All_on_Red
        
        In these sensitive times and in case some fat chicks have been offended by my sarc I would just like to point out that…..Les Mills have deal going at the moment. $100 off
        https://www.lesmills.co.nz/memberships
        You’re welcome
        
        13 2
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        March 11, 2022 11:31am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Yellow is the new pink??
        
        4 0
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        March 11, 2022 2:56pm
- Akitio
  
  “In a written statement to Stuff, Murdoch said he wanted to publicly thank everyone who had contributed to the review, including independent reviewer Dr. Darryn Russell.”
  Perfect example of an oxymoron.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:24am
- Akitio
  
  “In a written statement to Stuff, Murdoch said he wanted to publicly thank everyone who had contributed to the review, including independent reviewer Dr. Darryn Russell.”
  Perfect example of an oxymoron.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:28am
- Kiwi Dave
  
  And at BY’s link we find another link
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/300116670/waikato-uni-racism-claims-incorrect-sparked-by-spending-probe–report?rm=a
  
  which includes this paragraph (my emphasis):
  
  But the report found that while the institution is structurally discriminatory against Māori due to its western university tradition, claims made by the academics about the organisation and its vice chancellor in a protected disclosure were “incorrect, inaccurate, or a matter of perception or opinion”.
  
  Well now, we can’t have Western institutions being Western can we?
  
  Apparently, the problem started when two staff members – ethnicity unstated, so we’ll just have to guess – attempted to spend $300k they weren’t authorised to spend.
  
  For some time I have assumed that unless news reports give clear, specific examples of alleged racism in context ( and occasionally they do) their allegations are probably mistaken.
  
  To roughly paraphrase Thomas Sowell from memory, people who used to favourable discriminatory treatment, think they are being discriminated against when treated equally.
  
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  March 11, 2022 12:20pm
  - Kiwi Dave
    
    … are used to …
    
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    March 11, 2022 12:32pm
Simon

The result is that, on paper, Russia’s rate of diabetes isn’t that bad. Prevalence is 6·2%, which is below the European average of 8·5%, but the number of cases is growing rapidly.
The global average growth rate is 2·7% per year but in Russia it is more than 6%.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(15)60978-3/fulltext

Ukraine war: McDonald’s closes 850 outlets in Russia

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/ukraine-war-mcdonalds-closes-850-outlets-in-russia/N3MGKHTOBGX4BQHFRBHI5E3KZM/

Another win for Russia.
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March 11, 2022 8:10am
Maggy Wassilieff

It is extraordinary that 2 years into this pandemic , Bloomfield announces that there will be a change to how Covid-19 deaths are reported.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/463064/ministry-announces-change-to-reporting-of-covid-19-related-deaths

Naive little me, thought that such matters would follow a standard international procedure… for it is not as if such Guidelines don’t exist.
WHO published them in April 2020.

https://www.who.int/classifications/icd/Guidelines_Cause_of_Death_COVID-19.pdf
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March 11, 2022 8:11am
- Frank the tank
  
  As soon as the number of deaths start climbing they change the way it is reported.
  
  You can only but laugh.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:25am
  - Jim
    
    Earlier the government needed covid deaths to justify the societal and economic destruction. Now we have Omicron and we’re coming out of the pandemic, they want to ‘minimise covid deaths’ so they can claim to be the best country in terms of minimal covid deaths.
    
    Lives saved is always an important metric, but so is measuring the collateral damage in terms of societal and economic destruction.
    
    i.e. Cost vs. Benefit.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:02am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      In plain terms this is called ‘blowing your arse’
      Look at me, look at me.
      
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      March 11, 2022 2:59pm
  - I remember when
    
    It the change from the scare the shit out of everybody approach for vaccination – to the significantly less deaths so its endemic.
    
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    March 11, 2022 2:41pm
- emmess
  
  Roughly, 1 in 1000 people die in an given month
  It will be a self-selecting group of older people who are more likely to get tested or are in hospital anyway.
  So that would bring it down to atleast 1 in 500, or as low as half that.
  So look to the daily “death” rate to increase to something like 0.2% to 0.4%, I’ll go with 0.3%
  The only logical reason for this is to ramp up the fear porn.
  Watch out for that.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:28am
  - Ehlana
    
    If we were to start testing every person who died for everything you can possibly test a dead body for, then recorded the cause of death as everything they were found to have when they died, I’ve no doubt our deaths from many causes would skyrocket.
    
    For example, car crash on motorway, man dies at scene. Man subsequently found to have early signs of skin cancer, an influenza virus and an STD. So lets count him as dying of all of them too, shall we?
    
    I’d ask if we are really that dumb, but I’ve come to the conclusion at least some of us actually are.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:07am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      Exactly. If every person who died was tested for herpes, over half of all deaths would be “with herpes”. Statistics, damned statistics and lies. This government is the reigning champion of this.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:38am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Some of ‘them’ actually are – leftist marxist
      
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      March 11, 2022 3:02pm
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    closer to 1 in 1600
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:38am
- cmm
  
  Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I suppose at least it will be consistently good or consistently bad with other nations, but only if we go back and reevaluate all the raw data using the standardised approach.
  
  Changing the way data is gathered halfway though a data gathering exercise (be that an experiment or monitoring a pandemic) is broken science. It is only viable if they have all the raw data going back 2 years and can reprocess it.
  
  The idea of reporting people deaths within 28 days of a positive test as a CV19 death is absurd, especially in the age of Omicron. Linking a death from other factors to an asymptomatic CV19 infection 28 days previously is fraud – not science.
  
  We’re probably all getting infected, and quickly shrugging off, asymptomatic cold virus infections every week or two. If we had a PCR test for the common cold then pretty much everyone would probably test positive within 28 days of death. Should we then say everyone died of a cold?
  
  Statistics like these are creations of PR teams to support the decisions of the day.
  
  Science left the room a long time ago.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:39am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Changes in statistical methodology during covid indicates that the current narrative is changing, therefore the numbers need to change accordingly. They think people don’t see this. It’s like the worst magician you ever saw in your life, a pair of rabbit ears poking up above their shoulder while they distract you with a top hat. Pathetic.
    
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    March 11, 2022 8:54am
    - cmm
      
      Yup, in the beginning they wanted to keep the numbers low to make Cindy-saves-80000-grannies look good.
      Now they want to make the numbers look high to keep justifying the mandates etc and keep the fear going.
      
      Fear = control.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:10am
      - Jim
        
        But cmm by taking out examples like the infamous ‘gun shot covid death’ will have the opposite effect.
        
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        March 11, 2022 9:23am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Why does this so remind me of Medsafe’s Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring data. Oh yeah -don’t like the outputs being questioned so lets change the reporting. Bit like Stats NZ reports these days as well.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:57am
  - Jim
    
    Yep 70, Stats NZ with their CPI calculation at 5.9%…..I call total manipulated BS. Especially if you simply look around at actual % increases in rents, fuel, energy, food etc.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:05am
    - yobi
      
      Our grocery bill is about $300 per week. We are now budgeting for it to be $400 and we are careful shoppers. We will be careful how we shop and we know that our bill will will be closer to $400 than $300. Thats 33% not 6%.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:57am
  - mawm
    
    70 – and determining vaccine related deaths. There is no reporting on the methodology.
    
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    March 11, 2022 2:23pm
- Nickc2
  
  If it wasn’t Bloomfield, the practice would be declared illegal.
  
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  March 11, 2022 12:40pm
Biscuit

Amusing that on the very day Labour fall behind National in a what-used-to-be-the-Colmar-Brunton-poll what do we hear from our non-interventionist, ‘oh, it’s all overseas-driven, there’s not a lot we can do’ Minister of Finance?

Yep, all of a sudden, Finance Minister Grant Robertson is ‘not ruling out fuel tax changes to ‘help alleviate’ pain at the pump’.

Whatever next, eh?

• Jass ditching her usual Friday trips to kindergartens and actually engaging with the (adult) members of the public she professes to be thinking of
• Jass abandoning her ‘Of course they have my support’ for lapdogs like Trevor ‘The Squirt’ Mallard and Chris ‘Your private details ain’t provided where I’m involved’ Hipkins
• Jass re-discovering her ‘Most Transparent Government Ever’ dictum and announcing that Three Waters won’t be proceeded with without the country being invited to vote on it in a binding referendum
• Jass reminding her pal Cuddles Coster that it is not his job to go about saying ‘We aren’t investigating Clarke Gayford at this time’ but to actually, you know, do some policing
• Jass ditching the trite ‘Nine years of neglect’ when everyone can see that ‘Five years of we-know-best’ has only made things (far) worse
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March 11, 2022 8:12am
- Lee C
  
  Well Biscuit, to me living under this administration feels like being trapped in a relationship with an abusive spouse.
  
  It’s all sweetness and light.
  
  Until the next beating.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:19am
  - pdm
    
    Lee according to our eldest daughter you have to be beaten 7 times before you leave the relationship.
    
    Hope you have a thick skin.
    
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    March 11, 2022 8:37am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      I do hope that is not based on personal experience.
      
      If there’s one thing I hope my daughters have learnt is that they leave any relationship at the first hint of violence.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:29am
      - pdm
        
        No no Maggy – she is a women’s refuge manager.
        
        Indoctrinated to the extent that within our family she now bears the nickname of `mrs womens refuge’.
        
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        March 11, 2022 11:07am
  - Biscuit
    
    Ha, Lee.
    
    No beatings here…
    
    From my Diary:
    
    (Name withheld) is famously shy re her toileting, I should let you know…
    Why, when she first moved in with me, I sat her down and told her the house rules – the amount of deference I expected from my woman, which side of my armchair she should put my coffee and biscuits, the football teams she’d be expected to cheer for, which party she should vote for in General Elections – and then I mentioned, quite generously I thought, that the shutting of the toilet door whilst said toilet was being used wasn’t obligatory.
    
    Her first visit to the room in question?
    Slam (of the door)! Lock (of that door)! O darn, eh?
    
    The Speights’ Southern Man puts it so well when he says ‘It’s a hard job finding the perfect woman’, heh…
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:15am
    - pdm
      
      It is said by those that know these things that THE CAT has a better life than the lady Biscuit cohabits with – probably infrequently based on the above commen.
      
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      March 11, 2022 11:11am
      - Biscuit
        
        :: Adjusts lectern-uplighting on his Podium Of ‘Truth’ ::
        
        :: Affects stern facial arrangement and sets the ‘LOOK I’M BEING SINCERE HERE. AND TRANSPARENT’ crapometer level to FULL ::
        
        ‘I udderly refude the basis behind that assertion, pdm…’
        
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        March 11, 2022 11:57am
- TP4Shore
  
  The rogue Roy Morgan polls huh….and their own internal polling must show the gap as being FAR bigger. The only problem is we are driving towards an economic cliff at full tilt…
  
  I worry about what NZ will look like by the time an election rolls around… this will be a train wreck.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:21am
  - ecco
    
    Agreed I always found the Roy Morgan polls to be left leaning in the past.
    
    And agree it would be very entertaining what is playing out in the polls if it weren’t for the serious vandalism and carnage being done to the NZ economy by Labour. The negative effects of this are going to be felt by NZers for many years, some not even being reversible.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:28am
  - yobi
    
    There is a chance that there will be an election this year. A whole heap of labour mps with their snouts in the trough are going to now lose their jobs next year. There is a good chance Cindy will walk after the next round of polls and then the infighting will start. Ironically it will be labour mps that cause a vote of no confidence in their own government. I’m sure many people will disagree but remember, this bunch of labour politicians we have aren’t very bright.
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:04am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Labour Mps/Politicians will be quite happy with a loss of Govt control – as long as they are still in the trough.
      Fuck me, who else would employ the useless people?
      
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      March 11, 2022 3:14pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, Yobi. Whatever the internal dissension, they will not put at risk 12 months of corn from the best paying job they will ever have.
      
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      March 11, 2022 7:16pm
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Just the two chances of that happening, Biscuit
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:30am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I believe that there’s zero chance that the penultimate suggestion is going to happen.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:35am
- Benedict Yu
  
  “‘not ruling out fuel tax changes to ‘help alleviate’ pain at the pump’.”
  
  Be very afraid of any plan to reduce petrol excise. I would be fine with a reduction if it is matched by scrapping the poor quality ‘transport’ spending. But more likely we could get:
  
  – scrapping or deferring state highway projects; or
  
  – (more likely) making up the shortfall by coming after rich pricks.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:45am
- MCōs
  
  It’s the 1 News Kantar Poll.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:59am
- ecco
  
  The lowering of the petrol tax would be the biggest bang for their buck wouldn’t it, since they didn’t pull off a Cunliffe/Telecom like restructuring of the supermarket duopoly.
  
  Expect them to go for the low hanging fruit that doesn’t need too much brain power – of which I can see their cabinet team seems to be in very short supply of. How they pay for the mess will be someone else’s problem no doubt.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:32am
Simon

The following graph shows the number of food parcels distributed by the Auckland City Mission each year ending June from 2008-09 to 2020-21. In the ten years between 2010-11 and 2020-21, the number of food parcels distributed increased more than five-fold, from 9,239 to 48,679.

https://www.cpag.org.nz/the-latest/current-statistics/food-parcels/

Just over 10,000 parcels in 2016/17 to nearly 50,000 2020/21.

Ardern the food parcel PM.
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March 11, 2022 8:14am
Paulus

Jass has no idea tht she has been superceded and tht this has been developing for some time.
She expects her ladies to see her through everything.
But she is ignorant – had she any sense -which is lacking she should perhaps look at our top sports people like say Valerie Adams and personally decide that it is time to get out – whilst at the top.
She has lost the top !
Now she will be sadly humiliated and will fail, by listening to others, that she is invincible.
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March 11, 2022 8:21am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  The ‘thermonuclear’ meltdown will be censored, but it will soon come out
  
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  March 11, 2022 3:17pm
ecco

I see Ardern has kicked Clark out there pretty quick smart to try and fix up the CCCFA credit crunch mess that her government created that has basically stopped the housing market functioning in some towns. Just shows what you can do when you set your mind to it. No ‘abundance of caution’ here. I thought they weren’t announcing anything on this until April.

I guess with her and Labour’s poll ratings cratering we are going to see a lot of arse-about- face 180 degree turns on all the crappy legislation and in particular big brother type stuff like the CCCFA debacle reversed in a desperate attempt to shore up ratings. Unfortunately it’s probably all too late and Ardern will resort to her student bribes and other tried and true election cash splash that has worked for them in the past.
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March 11, 2022 8:23am
- Swifty
  
  What a debacle.
  
  I see Clark spinning like a top today, saying he doesn’t believe what is abundantly obvious to everyone else.
  
  At times I find the dishonesty just so much worse than the incompetence.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:06am
- Colville
  
  Clark saying that there is no problem as lending Jan ’22 was the same as lending Jan ’21
  
  Yes but houses cost 30% more this year than last year so lending is 30% lower!!
  
  But with Clark is could just be stupidity rather than an intentional lie. Is that better tho?
  
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  March 11, 2022 12:39pm
Rusty

Today in history 11th march 2020 the head of the WHO Tedros officially announced covid-19 to be a pandemic.

Personally I think this man along with Dr Faucci should be in prison for human rights abuses.

Wasn’t it about that time the MSM were labelling people as conspiracy nuts for suggesting govts could introduce mandate vaccine jabs and covid passes because of this pandemic?
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March 11, 2022 8:27am
- ClanMcleod
  
  There were so many “conspiracy theories” over that year, all of them true. Looking forward to revisiting them in a month or so.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:59am
Maggie Pie

‘AT’ advising public transport commuters of more than 2000 cancellations on planned routes today due to staff shortages.

On ya bike! 😀

(My partner reckons we should go for a cruise over at Mt Roskill and ask people standing at Bus Stops if they could give us directions to the city. LOL!! )
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March 11, 2022 8:27am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Good advice, Maggie. If commuters do get on their bikes (or other personal transport of choice) then Phil’s train set is doomed.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:32am
- Benedict Yu
  
  That’s mean Maggie. 🙁 You could cruise along giving the bus stop folk a lift to the city.
  
  12 2
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  March 11, 2022 8:46am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    But I’ve only got room in the back for 2 amputees.
    
    14 6
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    March 11, 2022 9:00am
- Frank the tank
  
  Haha ever seen the scene from lord of war in the African desert.
  
  Your Porsche will be on blocks before you can say light rail down Dominion road……
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:02am
Biscuit

COMMUNITY SERVICE ALERT

A well-known Expert (well, SHE started it!) advises that everyone should expect an influx of Downtickitis in Kiwiblog today as The Beehive instructs its trolls to lash out re yesterday’s poll…
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March 11, 2022 8:29am
- ecco
  
  It’s hilarious when the Labour sycophants log on to KB. So obvious. Almost a badge of honour to be on their list that they down tick. Means you got under a leftie’s skin for the day ?
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:49am
NeverMindTheBollocks

Dunno what it is, but Wellington port is busier than for years. The wharves are full & there’s a large container ship & log carrier anchored out in the harbour, waiting their turn
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March 11, 2022 8:34am
Frank the tank

As I wake up this morning I reflect that the majority of the sheeple have finally got tired of the one trick pony that can’t really perform that trick anymore.

More than happy with my prediction that Glorious Leader will be gone by Christmas. Her ego and narcissism could not handle the coming landslide defeat. I look forward to Grunter vs Angry round 2 for 12-odd months

Where is Sir Cullen this morning and is he hitching his wagon to Ginny 2026?
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March 11, 2022 8:34am
kevn

The pink haired one was busy on TV last night telling NZer’s how to do stuff.
Trying to salvage some cred.
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March 11, 2022 8:37am
Maggy Wassilieff

How’s your open and transparent government working out, Prime Minister?

Over the years when I’ve talked to you about the operation of the OIA, I’m probably more unhappy now about some aspects of the way it’s working than I’ve ever been.

“There’s meant to be increasing availability of information in New Zealand, not decreasing.

…one of my concerns is that a number of agencies use the OIA to fob people off, or as a shield.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018833720/chief-ombudsman-more-unhappy-than-ever-with-aspects-of-oia-process
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March 11, 2022 8:40am
- cas
  
  Lisa Owen on Checkpoint is worth listening to. She doesn’t let Ministers get away with much. Was getting stuck into Carmel Septic last night.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:47am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    I’ve gone hot and cold on Lisa Owens at times, but I’ve definitely rewarmed to her lately. She (and her research team) seems to have her finger on the pulse at the moment.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:16am
    - kowtow
      
      Price of getting to work might be pissing a lot of people orf.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:27am
- mikenmildagain
  
  If anything, things have got worse since the chief ombudsman published this in 2015:
  https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resources/oia-report-not-game-hide-and-seek
  This is just one aspect of a disturbing trend in the public service over the past 35 years – fragmentation of agencies – each reinventing their own methods, more politicization, more control of information, more use of specialists – lawyers and comms people, etc – to complicate processes.
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:58am
  - oldfella
    
    mike, so many govt depts these days have nonsensical Maori names, I’m sure many civil servants have no idea who they’re actually working for. /s
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:11am
- Master Mariner
  
  Yes indeed Maggy, I have requested various OIA ( Thanks Artemsia for heads up) requests mainly from MBIE and Maritime NZ only to be delayed and stalled.
  It is being used to stall information from coming out most definately.
  If you think Grounded Kiwis have a good case the NZ domiciled Seafarers refused entry have a water tight case due to International Laws .
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:25am
- Master Mariner
  
  “I think that what government agencies most need to do are two things, Lisa, to be resourced, to conduct this work properly, not just put it in a corner to do whenever they’ve got time to do it, and secondly, there’s got to be a working knowledge of specialised staff to do this work.”
  
  Herin lies the problem, At the top end of Gov Departments there are No specialised staff that understand the full implications of the laws involved but stacked with political “Ring ins” and add the diversity factor into the equation then all you end up with is word soup.
  Sound familiar?
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:32am
R

Josie Pagani says this about National’s proposed tax cuts: “The largest tax cuts would go to the highest income earners – not just the largest in total, but the largest proportionally.”

Hmmm I could’ve sworn that the biggest tax cut – 7.5% – was for those on $60,0000 and that those on the highest incomes get just over 1%.

If the answer is Josie Pagani, the question must be who is the next biggest liar after Dr Wiles lol

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/128004033/dont-give-tax-cuts-to-those-who-dont-need-them
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March 11, 2022 8:42am
- Nickc2
  
  Josie Pagani is a Labour Party tool, through and through.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:23am
  - Yabster
    
    an another Labour “tool” who clearly failed maths at school- maybe she shld replace Grunter…
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:08am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Nick, you could have shortened the sentence by removing “Labour Party”.
    
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    March 11, 2022 12:56pm
Maggy Wassilieff

How can our Dear PM regain the devotion of team 5 Million?
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March 11, 2022 8:43am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I know. 🙂
  
  In his final speech before he fled in a helicopter, the former dictator of Romania, Nicolae Ceaușescu, promised everyone a pay increase.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcRWiz1PhKU
  
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  March 11, 2022 8:49am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    Oh Lordy,
    That helicopter ride didn’t end well, did it?
    
    Very interesting analysis of Ceausecu’s final speech here (from the 5 min mark)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2339ITCeDY
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:21am
- Biscuit
  
  Maggy, at 37% in the poll, the best Jass can now claim is a team of 1.85 Million!
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:26am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  If she quits now admitting that she and her mob are useless and should never have been allowed to run things as long and as badly as they have than I’ll sing her praises for at least having some honesty and ability to fairly self criticize.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:34am
- Paulus
  
  Only she believed she had the devotion of 5 million people.
  I signed off very early in its concept for one.
  This was thought up by her PR Department and promulgated by the paid media.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:02am
  - Biscuit
    
    Paulus, I believe ‘The Team Of 5 Million’ male cow- droppings was a straight steal from the title of the very good book, ‘A Stadium of 4 Million’, that Martin Snedden put out after his often-brilliant stewardship of the 2011 Rugby World Cup…
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:30am
Cassandra

There’s a claim winding its way through the Star Chamber that the Crown has failed to protect its treaty partner from the harm of alcohol. Short of the failed policy of the past (no, not Rogernomics, prohibition) it’s really not up the Queen to be my mother. Perhaps the Crown should ban Maori from the consumption of alcohol and save itself the task of trying to defend this? Or perhaps Maori might like to exercise themselves their rights under the treaty to be responsible citizens, or is that too much to ask? My understanding of treaties is that they are agreements between parties. Both sides have responsibilities. Or is Waitangi just one-sided?
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March 11, 2022 8:50am
- mikenmildagain
  
  Maori are already subject to provisions such as section 32 (1) of the Maori Community Development Act:
  
  A Maori Warden may at any reasonable time enter any licensed premises in any area where he is authorised to carry out his duties and order any Maori who appears to be intoxicated or partly intoxicated, or who is violent, quarrelsome, or disorderly, whether intoxicated or not, to leave the premises.
  
  Not usually mentioned by Kiwibloggers worried about racism.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:05am
  - Yabster
    
    well those Maori wardens have failed badly then Milky- what a ridiculous provision- not that its being enforced.
    
    Some fail to realised the Treaty, (esp article 3) (which is a contract not a Treaty, as Treaties have to be between countries) that it applies to all NZERS. Therefore any bulshit claim re alcohol harm (an all the other b/s claims) can equally be applied to all Nzers not just the special ones… lets all get our noses in the trough- given people who pay taxes fund all this shit- they should be head of the trough queue… lol
    
    For this agreed arrangement therefore concerning the government of the Queen, the Queen of England will protect all the ordinary people of New Zealand and will give them the same rights and duties of citizenship as the people of England.
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:25am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Hmm, didn’t it turn out that the Maori wardens up north were the Mob? How ironic would that be? The Mob removing intoxicated Maori. Yeah, right.
      
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      March 11, 2022 1:02pm
  - Nickc2
    
    Yea, but where are such people when you need them? In times well past, there was always a bunch of them hanging around Akld’s Britomart when it was a Bus Junction/interchange. Now, when Akld’s Queen St is filled with drunks and people fighting and Maori Wardens are greatly needed, there’s none in sight.
    If these Wardens are struggling for a day job, perhaps they could clear the Maori Beggers out of Akld. That’d be a great help.
    Our Police and Council also have a role in cleaning up Akld.
    PS: I’m in no way suggesting Maori are the only drunks and beggers fucking up Akld.
    PPS: Remember you bastards masquerading as Akld City Councilors, it’s coming up election time for all of you.
    
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    March 11, 2022 1:13pm
  - cmm
    
    I can’t speak for others, but I’m worried about racism and I find it appalling that these racist policies exist allowing a race-based policing structure.
    
    It is absurd in this day and age for one person to have powers over another purely on the basis of race.
    
    This is particularly problematic since most Maori are 3/4 or more non-Maori. Which bit can the Maori warden move on?
    
    If we continue to treat Maori as lesser beings and children that need supervision then when do we expect them to actually “develop” into “real people”?
    
    It has been over 150 years now with differential laws that treat Maori as broken people. How long before they can be treated like everyone else? Another 150 years? 500?
    
    Maori Wardens might have made sense when Maori lived in “Maori villages” and sometimes got drunk in “white town” and needed to be dragged home. but that is not how we live anymore.
    
    These are an anachronism that should be binned along with differential voting and other obsolete laws.
    
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    March 11, 2022 5:18pm
Nickc2

If come the next election, National and Act found themselves in a position to form Govt but only with the help of the Maori Party whose bottom lines are:

Maintain the Maori Health Agency,
Maintain 3 Waters,
Inplement compulsory learning of Te Reo in Schools and
Adhere to the principles of He Puapua.

Should National and ACT agree to these demands or walk away?
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March 11, 2022 8:51am
- greybeard
  
  They should then ask the Greens to be part of the govt.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:14am
  - Nickc2
    
    They’re not that stupid.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:26am
    - greybeard
      
      The alternative would be Labour + Greens
      “with the help of the Maori Party, whose bottom lines are:
      Maintain the Maori Health Agency,
      Maintain 3 Waters,
      Inplement compulsory learning of Te Reo in Schools and
      adhere to the principles of He Puapua.”
      Your choice.
      
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      March 11, 2022 4:31pm
      - Nickc2
        
        That wasn’t the hypothesis greybeard. However, to answer your question, I don’t give a fuck about Labour + the Greens. To me, they were surplus to requirement the day Winston anointed them and still are. Look at the Polls FFS.
        
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        March 11, 2022 4:51pm
- H. Upmann
  
  Walk away of course.
  Luxon though would buy that deal.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:20am
  - Captain Mainwaring
    
    Academic argument.
    If recent poll trends continue the Nats will have 50% by election day.
    
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    March 11, 2022 9:49am
    - Nickc2
      
      51%+ would be a good result!
      
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      March 11, 2022 12:35pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Has anyone seen an analysis in the MSM of the power-broking behind the 4 entities that will take over Three Waters?

The public still has no idea who came up with the idea of four regional “water service entities” – whose territories just happened to be aligned with tribal boundaries – or what the rationale was. That part of the exercise appears to have taken place out of the public view. It emerged fully formed, without public consultation.

https://pointofordernz.wordpress.com/2022/03/10/three-waters-an-unnecessary-programme-that-will-degrade-our-democracy-with-a-dubious-and-unnamed-form-of-governance/#more-14765

I looked at the main Iwi involved in the 4 regions
ABCD… and wondered if deals had been done, or whether major bun-fights were in the offing.
https://www.tasman.govt.nz/assets/LandingPageIntroImages/Govt-proposed-3-water-services-entities-graphic__ResizedImageWzYwMCw3MDZd.jpg
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March 11, 2022 8:56am
- I remember when
  
  Working Group on Representation, Governance and Accountability of New Water Services Entities.
  Key Reflection:
  The discussions have lead to our deeper understanding of the following:
  No.12: The vulnerability of the sector due to skills shortages and capability.
  (It was the last/final understanding.)
  The fact that eleven understandings preceded this understanding, especially after reading them, pretty much sums up the Working Groups emphasis.
  Surely, given this was one of the, if not the, main reasons given to justify the 3 Waters scheme, this taints the process.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:31am
- surfing
  
  What is stopping Mahuta from just forcing three waters into law?
  
  She did that with the councils and maori seats, despite widespread opposition.
  
  What is the actual block? Iwi will be salivating at the billions they will earn from this over the coming decades.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:26am
  - Batman
    
    They haven’t designed legislation yet, or indeed the scheme itself.
    
    So they have to go through the public flaying to get there, and rightly so.
    
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    March 11, 2022 10:39am
    - oldfella
      
      Bats, but they’re already hiring staff to run it so seems likely Labour will try and push it through, come hell or high water (pun intended).
      
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      March 11, 2022 11:20am
    - surfing
      
      Public opposition doesn’t seem to a concern to this government.
      
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      March 11, 2022 11:53am
- NeverMindTheBollocks
  
  Ngai Tahu certainly scooped up Area 4, didn’t they.
  
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  March 11, 2022 7:25pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Jacinda Ardern reckons we don’t have a cost of living crisis…

Doesn’t she talk to her fellow MPs?

Carmel Sepuloni knows that many families are in desperate straits and acknowledges there is a crisis.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/programmes/checkpoint/audio/2018833724/cost-of-living-a-crisis-for-many-families-social-development-minister

How out-of-touch is Our Dear PM?
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March 11, 2022 9:03am
- Jack5
  
  Jacindarella’s team plus Tane at the Reserve Bank are sleeping, isolated in a bubble: in February, American inflation was 7.9 per cent, its highest in 40 years.
  
  We are going into an economic storm.
  
  A problem for National, too. It’s attributing its bounce in the polls to its tax policy, when virtually all who support it already vote National. Time to talk austerity management, Mr Luxon.
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:10am
  - Jack5
    
    The European Central Bank has just lifted its forecast for expected inflation this year to 5.1 per cent. In December, it was forecasting 3.2 per cent.
    
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    March 11, 2022 12:23pm
Maggie Pie

Heard Megan Woods on with the Hosk earlier in the week.
Talking about ‘the-housing-crisis’ & still blaming NATS “for 9 years of neglect”

Looks like SCOMO cops similar shite over in Oz as well…..LOL!!

https://twitter.com/WhosFibbing/status/1501761039045902338
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March 11, 2022 9:11am
- alloytoo
  
  Show us the houses Megan, show us the houses.
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:30pm
I remember when

Russia Sanctions Bill: Newsroom:
“They did not completely ring-fence the debate to Russia and were candid about question of bigger chances down the track.
DSenior Labour MPs, including Grant Robertson and Mahuta, conceded a more comprehensive sanctions regime that could be applied to any country was needed.
Implied this could happen during current term.”
Article suggests concern we will lose our independent foreign policy streak.
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March 11, 2022 9:15am
kowtow

Creepy Joe before the election ;

‘no more subsidies for fossil fuel industry
no more drilling on Fed lands
no more drilling including offshore
no ability for the oil industry to continue drilling.
period .ends.’

Then one of the first things he does in power is cancel, to great fanfare XL pipeline.

Then he declares America’s back .

Today he desperately needs oil and 2 senior Arab countries refuse to return his calls ( Saudi who he pissed off over Khassogi and the UAE )
and he needs his domestic supply pumping too ……as he shouted ‘Period , Ends”

What an idiot.
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March 11, 2022 9:16am
- Master Mariner
  
  Scary thing is they are trying to get Iran to the table,
  
  However the Russians have beat them to the party.
  
  Checkmate.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:41am
  - Jack5
    
    Iran, with its nuclear ambitions, is a problem for Israel, which is why the Israeli Prime Minister has been trying to mediate between Putin and Ukraine.
    
    The Americans must have been hoping to counter Russian oil with renewed oil flows from Iran. A deal with Iran would have upset Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states a well as Israel.
    
    Oil politics are complicated.
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:14am
    - In Vino Veritas
      
      Yep Jack, and Biden has also opened comms with Maduro in Venezuela for oil as well. He is the Jacinda Ardern of American politics. Talks a big game has no idea about literally anything. But he sure has enriched his family during his time troughing.
      
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      March 11, 2022 1:06pm
I remember when

Was Tuesday our Omicron peak infection day.
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March 11, 2022 9:17am
- UrbanNeocolonialist
  
  possibly, going of Australian experience expect hospital cases to keep climbing for a bit though. 850ish yesterday, probably get up to 1000-1100 over next week. ICU cases still remarkably low compared to Australian experience, and deaths are low owing to way govt has redefined them (now that scaring people no longer a priority they want to minimize apparent deaths).
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:31am
  - UrbanNeocolonialist
    
    Same 850ish in hospital today, ICU up a little to 20, but only about 1/3rd of what Australia was at this stage. Deaths (7) about same as australia at this stage. Looks like we are nearing the worst of it.
    https://ourworldindata.org/explorers/coronavirus-data-explorer?zoomToSelection=true&time=2022-01-13..latest&uniformYAxis=0&pickerSort=asc&pickerMetric=location&Metric=Vaccine+doses%2C+cases%2C+ICU+patients%2C+and+deaths&Interval=7-day+rolling+average&Relative+to+Population=true&Color+by+test+positivity=false&country=NZL~AUS
    
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    March 11, 2022 2:38pm
PeeJay

See in the news that the government is to tinker a bit with the Credit Contracts and Consumer Finance Act.

Seems there might, just might have been, some completely unintended consequences to this piece of legislation. Shocking eh? I mean, just wow. I thought everyone agreed it was a brilliant piece of legislation with absolutely no downside!

Apparently Minister Clark said there was ‘little enthusiasm’ for wholesale changes to the law. Interesting statement – out of context it looks like it’s trying to infer this ‘little enthusiasm’ was from the finance institutes but I suspect he meant little enthusiasm from within government!

Then there is the usual ‘not our fault’ and ‘nothing to do with the Act’ comments, which begs the follow up, or should beg the follow up if we had a decent bloody journalist doing the story, that if there are no issues with the Act then why are you doing the changes then!

Wouldn’t surprise me if we hear from Minister Clark in a few months time with more tinkering to the tinkering, obviously completely unintended consequences, who could possibly have know Financial Institutes would follow and uphold the law!
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March 11, 2022 9:19am
ecco

Does anyone get the impression we are transitioning into a glut of RATS now? Getting emails from suppliers about them being on sale now.

As with the vaccines, the government would have paid top dollar for them to get rush orders in. Only to find that we are swimming in them now and they will shortly announce they are kindly ‘donating’ them to needy Pacific Island neighbouring countries. Incompetence at it’s finest.
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March 11, 2022 9:37am
I remember when

More than half of UK drivers concerned about safety of EV batteries after an accident.
Accident Assist service said 52% of 13,500 drivers thought the safe repair and any battery replacement a worry.
Almost two thirds were most concerned about the cost of repairs for an EV.
Forty nine percent thought specialist EV mechanics should complete the repairs.
NextCarGreen advised EVs are less liable to ignite tha petrol driven vehicles.
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March 11, 2022 9:40am
Maggy Wassilieff

What’s happening over at “The Standard”?

They’ve put the call out for folks to start backing Greens and Maori Party candidates in the Local Elections.

(perhaps they’ve realised that Labour has lost the poor, the ferals, the disenfranchised, the unvaxxed, the mandate-coerced for eva).
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March 11, 2022 9:42am
- ex-golfer
  
  You mean do dirty deals in electorates?
  The dirty deals they have decried ever since MMP came to be?
  Who woulda thunk it.
  
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  March 11, 2022 9:56am
- PeeJay
  
  Always a terrifying place to visit.
  
  I don’t mind it in terms of the politics, i think it’s important to consider many viewpoints before forming a firm opinion on an issue, but on the few occasions I venture onto it for a browse, the dictatorial comment policy is ridiculous. Literally can be summarised as ‘I don’t like your question, you are therefore banned – only comments that agree with me are tolerated’. Talk about an echo chamber! For a blog that paints the right as fascist / nazi, it’s a teensy bit hypocritical. Dictator’s gonna dictate I guess, regardless of being left or right!
  
  You might not get wholesale agreement with your views on this blog, but at least you can comment and it’s relatively easy to avoid a ban just for having different views!
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:29am
  - In Vino Veritas
    
    Correct PeeJay. Years ago I used to go there to rebut some of the crap that they spew out, but you put facts and links to back them up and you get banned. I gave up as the only people that go there are so rabid you’d catch something nasty from them if you met them in real life.
    
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    March 11, 2022 1:10pm
Suze Wainwright

Could an msm journalist do a serious research article on exactly what the Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand is, what it actually stands for and what it’s bottom line policies would actually mean for the nation?
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March 11, 2022 9:46am
- Taieri
  
  exactly what the Green Party of Aotearoa/New Zealand is, what it actually stands for
  ——–
  
  Does anyone, including the Green Party members, know?
  Is it actually possible to know?
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:45am
ex-golfer

I see Labour sycophants are now panicking and looking at policies that are expendable.

Interestingly after telling us for 12 months that we’d all die from giardia if 3-Waters wasn’t implemented , it seems to be the first policy on the chopping block.

Presumably after saving 80,000 lives from a certain COVID death, letting everyone die from giardia is OK now.
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March 11, 2022 9:55am
Brian McDonald

I gather the bottom line for the MP to give the Nats the treasury bench will be for Chris to have a moko with the bros.
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March 11, 2022 10:00am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  That would be cultural appropriation.
  
  Or does Chris have a Māori great-great- great-grandma?
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:32am
- Libertarians are right
  
  The thing is that this Maori Party would never go with National. They are lying to increase their power over Labour. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an utter moron. Unfortunately, Labour will give them what they want because Labour are utter morons.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:58am
krazykiwi

Awaken JP, Is Klaus Schwab the Most Dangerous Man in the World?.

Just listen to the words of Schwab’s top advisor Yuval Noah Harari (around 4min mark) in front of thousands of elites at Davos in 2020. He enthuses about elites hacking human DNA to give control that dictators have only dreamed of.

Some will foolishly shout “conspiracy theory!” and put their heads comfortably back into the sand. The rest of us need to wake up to this progression of evil being visited upon us under the guise of a better future.
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March 11, 2022 10:01am
- kevn
  
  @kk… We could start with his DNA access and include a delete option.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:32am
- Yabster
  
  And Ardern neck deep in this shit- the public should now what her bloody agenda is- share this video. To be honest would National be any different? What can the average person do about it? (this is not a political issue – it the elites vs the rest and the rest are losing!) I would be interesting in our left learning posters opinion on the video.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:59am
  - mawm
    
    Yabster – Become ungovernable, do not comply.
    
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    March 11, 2022 2:59pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  I came across that specimen for the first time yesterday. Horrifying human being. His ramblings about his visions of the future are genuinely frightening. He makes Mengele sound rational.
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:17am
  - Don Beckett
    
    I saw it 2 weeks ago – it was part of a 34min. video clip from RemnantTV – from a guy called Michael Matt in Minesota. I was going to put it up here, but thought it might be a bit long.
    
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    March 11, 2022 12:08pm
Maggie Pie

1ZB TALKBACK

Older sounding Indian gentleman tells Kerry Woodham….. “he left the UK 20 years ago and came to New Zealand in search of a better lifestyle”.

Says he is now seriously thinking of moving back to Mumbai.
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March 11, 2022 10:03am
- kevn
  
  @Maggie… He could always get a job doing an Indian GrandPa for the ANZ family TV adverts.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:31am
  - Jack5
    
    The ANZ Bank has its TV advertisements mixed up.
    We’re getting the ones for other countries.
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:17am
    - Ehlana
      
      I like those ads. Especially at the end when the Dad gets a new shirt.
      
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      March 11, 2022 1:35pm
- MCōs
  
  The Indian parents of a friend of mine in Wellington did just that after living in NZ for more than 30yrs
  I don’t know what spurred them to return to their homeland, but living there wasn’t quite the idyllic life they thought and they were back in God’s Own within the year.
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:44am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Do you have any ‘white friends’ Cossie?
    
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    March 11, 2022 2:29pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    The Canadians used to call that the $2000 cure for immigrant Poms. That was 50 years ago so the price must have risen.
    
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    March 11, 2022 3:39pm
    - alloytoo
      
      I’m reminded of the story of a veteran army office assigned to India before retirement.
      
      He found the climate agreed with him, he found he had a bounce in his step he hadn’t had in years and swore that his hair was even less gray.
      
      He enjoyed this mood until he found his manservant polishing his boots with his hairbrush.
      
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      March 11, 2022 11:37pm
I remember when

Important facts often missed from the supermarket debate is the fact much of their product is not food, and certainly not essential food.
They could well be more vulnerable to a ‘healthy ‘ eating campaign than the cost of product.
Read their weekly ‘specials.’
Meat often has a butcher to compete with, fish shops and fruit and vegetables the local green grocer.
Add in the seemingly endless cleaning, toilet, beauty, hardware and other merchandise items where competition is available.
If the large national approach doesn’t work for supermarkets why will 3 Waters be successful?
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March 11, 2022 10:08am
- Rusty
  
  @I remember…talking about the butcher. What’s happened to the Mad Butcher stores — are they still around?
  
  Missed Peter Leitch’s voice on the radio, though I think he’s probably too crook now.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:41am
Brian McDonald

Significant ambush of Russian tanks in the outreaches of Kyiv this morning.
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March 11, 2022 10:16am
- surfing
  
  They do seem to be sitting ducks… Russian positions are regularly pointed out in the media…there was a 40 mile long queue of tanks on the road, just waiting to be exploded.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:28am
  - Cinematic
    
    The Russian ‘advance’ is a shambles.
    
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    March 11, 2022 12:03pm
    - NeverMindTheBollocks
      
      Volume. It’s the Russian way.
      
      Gotta feel sorry for the conscripts & their families. Cannon fodder, the lot of them.
      
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      March 11, 2022 7:31pm
Maggie Pie

This is absolutely heart-breaking 🙁

Tatiana arrived about 10 minutes ago. She shared this tweet of Russian soldiers looting houses and shops at the same time calling home to their loved ones while committing war crimes…..

https://twitter.com/Ukraine/status/1501635351965798402
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March 11, 2022 10:32am
Maggy Wassilieff

As I suspected… The Parliamentary Protest will come to symbolise Ardern’s reign in the years to come.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/128010441/how-do-you-memorialise-a-protest
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March 11, 2022 10:40am
- ds
  
  What protest. It was forgotten the day it finished.
  
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  March 11, 2022 10:57am
  - RightNow
    
    I’m sure many would like to think so, but many will never forget or forgive.
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:57am
    - chukar
      
      MW et al,
      The protest will not be forgotten!
      Already Arden is wanting to communicate with Groundswell to discuss their issues.
      What this is about is solely to divide and conquer NZ protest movements.
      Anti- mandate protesters came to the capital and were first ignored and abused and then given a kicking? There was no meetings for them with any party
      To now seek to meet with other groups is a cynical attempt to bury their awful treatment of the past Parliament protest
      Concern ,anger and disaffection runs much deeper in our society than the “Wellington “ politicians know.
      It is not over , the abuse continues He Puapua., Three waters , NES , etc all destroying the economic/social fabric of NZ.
      
      So the protests will continue.
      
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      March 11, 2022 9:28pm
  - kowtow
    
    Bollox , Labour Pardy mouthpiece NZME , this very day, says Constable Plod has found poo at the site .
    
    I’d warrant had they searched the grounds prior to the freedom protest they’da also found poo , from all the rough sleepers who used to frequent the gardens.
    
    Let’s just keep the villification up.
    
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    March 11, 2022 11:58am
Maggie Pie

One of the gals from tennis raised an interesting question…..

“What happens to the Russian Oligarch’s houses and Superyachts, once they have been seized while under government sanction?”
Fleur seemed to think they get everything back once the war’s over.

But in particular, what about Alexander Abramov’s pile at Helena Bay?
He’s believed to have already moved his boat out of harms way to the Maldives.
But as they say, you cant take the land with you.

https://twitter.com/AP/status/1500897258128261137
11 3
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March 11, 2022 11:11am
- rouppe
  
  He’ll hire a QC to argue that there is no evidence he participated in the invasion, the nz govt won’t be able to produce any, and he’ll get it back.
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:50am
Biscuit

’17 per cent rise in fruit and veg leads food prices higher’

Nope, no crisis, Jass…
18 0
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March 11, 2022 11:35am
- kowtow
  
  Yer but where are the headlines telling the cowering fearful masses that She Who Saves is so out of touch.
  
  Money talks and she’s bought the Media Pardy , and unlike us Proles , she got a bargain , discount for her purchase.
  
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  March 11, 2022 11:57am
Maggie Pie

TRENDING NOW

Cuddles Coster latest initiative comes in for a bit of ‘flack’ on twitter 😀

https://twitter.com/nzpolice/status/1502029847035482133
10 3
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March 11, 2022 11:58am
surfing

https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/128002694/waikato-university-study-confirms-priority-groups-had-worst-access-to-covid-vaccines

Part of the waikato university study should have been an audit of the 240+ million dollars that went into maori vaccinations/covid response. Whose bank accounts did the money end up in?
18 1
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March 11, 2022 12:02pm
- greybeard
  
  This is a great subject for Mike Hosking to investigate.
  Right up his alley. Also Mrs. Hosking, who has impressed me no end this year.
  
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  March 11, 2022 4:28pm
oldfella

Bloody Mahuta! No return to true democracy any time soon for Tauranga residents. Voting? What’s that?
I really do hope Cindy and co are thrown out by the biggest landslide in NZ political history. They deserve it!
https://www.stuff.co.nz/bay-of-plenty/128026543/no-local-elections-but-new-caretakers-to-come-for-troubled-tauranga-city-council
14 0
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March 11, 2022 12:10pm
- Tony Stuart
  
  Remember all those years Labour and the Greens castigated National for putting Commissioners in to replace Environment Canterbury, and called for elections?
  
  It really MUST be true that it’s OK when the Left does it…
  
  15 0
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  March 11, 2022 1:21pm
- MCōs
  
  It’s not as simple as all that.
  I remember reading about the shambles the previous council descended in to.
  So on the one hand the city is currently being run by four seemingly competent non elected commissioners, whereas on the other hand it was run by an elected group who couldn’t get on with each other; to put it mildly.
  It’s a problem up and down the country.
  Who would ever want to be mayor of one of our major cities?
  
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  March 11, 2022 2:16pm
Craig Hallen

My music entertainment days seem numbered at the moment. Most retirement facilities are not allowing any visitors, or at least music entertainment contractors. Double jabbed isn’t enough. I just got told that I need to do RAT test to visit a place this afternoon. That’s fine, I just don’t have any on me at this time and don’t want to foot the bill. At least one other retirement chain have taken the initiative to do it onsite and cover the cost. It’s a shame as it can’t be fun for the elderly folk who are locked away in these facilities, but I have faced the reality that unless things settle down I’ll just have to leave the entertainment behind – I am clearly a risk to other people. Best to just stay clear of anything health related I think. Was feeling riled up about everything so took it out on the music again -in the form of this Elton John classic:
https://youtu.be/igUDWZzRHg8
A great election song maybe?
8 0
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March 11, 2022 12:26pm
cmm

Yesterday I made the somewhat flippant comment that the number of CV19 “cases” in maternity wards shows that masks don’t work as contraceptives.

Would anyone trust a mask as a barrier to stop sperm? I doubt it.

Well consider that the head of a human sperm is over 50,000 times the size of a virus. Yup, just the head bit that does the business – not the wiggly tail.

If you wouldn’t trust a mask to stop sperm then why would you trust it to stop a virus?
9 3
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March 11, 2022 12:46pm
- surfing
  
  This is the stupidest thing I’ve heard for some time.
  
  Please give it a go and let us know the results.
  
  5 5
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  March 11, 2022 1:34pm
- Batman
  
  Ok great, go jizz in a mask and tell us how it leaks through….
  
  Before you do, watch this (it’s water in a mask and safe for work lol) https://youtu.be/E4PCrOE753o
  
  3 12
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  March 11, 2022 3:02pm
Yvette

Jacinda – falling star
From international media –
Bloomberg headline: “New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern Slides to Lowest Poll Rating Since Taking Office”.

La Prensa Latina, a Latin American media outlet – “These are the lowest levels since coming to power in 2017 for both the Labour Party and Ardern, who made history by sweeping the 2020 elections and securing an absolute majority for the first time since the 1996 electoral reform,” the outlet reported.

Daily Mail – “Two reasons why furious New Zealanders are turning against Jacinda Ardern as she suffers a HUGE poll shock with voter support plummeting to the lowest since she took office – and a new challenger for PM emerges,” the headline screamed out. [1]

As I have humbly suggested before: it is not love that makes the world go around, but irony.
And the irony here, of course, is that the same “clickbait without substance” reporting that launched Jacind Ardern – a favourable clickbait young woman figurehead but without substance – to the stardust heights their reporting achieved for her, will now clickbait crash her with the same enthusiasm.

[1] https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/03/poll-results-international-media-reports-shock-at-jacinda-ardern-labour-falling-in-support.html
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March 11, 2022 1:11pm
- kevn
  
  @Yvette… Fallen Star.
  
  7 0
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  March 11, 2022 1:34pm
- cmm
  
  I think we have a whole lot of Cindy support really being people that “feel” they should support her, especially the in-group preference of many women.
  
  As the shift increase then I think it highly likely that those same people will “feel” that it is now OK to stop supporting her. They will have permission to switch sides, or at least stop supporting her.
  
  That 11% support that jumped onto the Cindy Party bandwagon could equally jump off.
  
  When it comes to elections then there is also the enthusiasm for showing up and voting? Can she stir them as well as she could?
  
  15 1
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  March 11, 2022 1:56pm
- graham
  
  Have to laugh at how Newshub have written the story.
  
  A number of outlets used Australian Associated Press copy, but some framed their articles with different headlines.
  
  7News, Yahoo News, and some Australian newspapers went with the standard: “Ardern’s Labour falls behind in NZ polling”.
  
  The typically sensationalist Daily Mail, however, went a step further.
  
  “Two reasons why furious New Zealanders are turning against Jacinda Ardern as she suffers a HUGE poll shock with voter support plummeting to the lowest since she took office – and a new challenger for PM emerges,” the headline screamed out.
  
  The NZ Herald has a similar spin in it’s coverage.
  
  As an aside … the Herald story also has this little snippet:
  
  Rawiri Waititi said he could not work with Act and would conduct a “beauty contest” when the time to form governments arose.
  
  Can you imagine the response if, say, Chris Luxon or David Seymour had used that line, about conducting a “beauty contest” to decide who they would form an alliance with? There would be an uproar, with heated calls for them to resign. But Rawiri Waititi throws out this line, and … nothing.
  
  (Could I suggest that before Mr Waititi uses that line again, he should maybe look in the mirror? If you catch my drift …)
  
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  March 11, 2022 3:46pm
- Warren
  
  Yes Yvette in that clip Jacinda makes out she doesn’t care and thinks the public like her to much to lose her , with this comment supporting her arrogance, ” Im Unconcerned by the polls saying ” my focus rather than being on the polls is on the people.
  So she’s not interested in the reasons, she is only interested in herself.
  
  4 2
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  March 11, 2022 4:28pm
Paulus

I wonder when was the last time our Wonder Queen went shopping in a Supermarket where she would have to pay out of her own money ?
14 2
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March 11, 2022 1:18pm
Maggy Wassilieff

well, well, well

Our Dear PM has back-flipped and now realises she has to get her hands dirty and talk to common folk…

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/128026639/jacinda-ardern-will-meet-groundswell-leaders-after-group-called-racist-antivax
23 1
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March 11, 2022 1:18pm
- H. Upmann
  
  Perhaps our host would like to keep a running tally of Arderns / Governments back-flips. I am sure it will be an ongoing exercise.
  
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  March 11, 2022 2:16pm
- alex Masterley
  
  Turn Turn Turn By the Byrds springs to mind as a theme song for the PM’s actions.
  
  8 0
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  March 11, 2022 3:33pm
- Nickc2
  
  They’re shit scared by the Polls. However, Leopards (in this case Pussys) don’t change their spots. Regardless of what they are now saying, their ultimate drive is turning NZ into their vision of a Socialist Utopia.
  Don’t bargain with the Bastards. You’ll only be giving them oxygen and media attention. They’re on the ropes, deliver the coup de grâce.
  
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  March 11, 2022 3:53pm
kevn

@Maggy… The polls tell her. Do summint.
10 0
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March 11, 2022 1:25pm
- Biscuit
  
  WARNING TO LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT
  
  Backflipping in Wellington may be dangerous to your plane.
  
  Epidemic of dummy-spitting shows no sign of abating, too…
  
  10 0
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  March 11, 2022 1:51pm
krazykiwi

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi to Ukrainian refugees (paraphrased…)

“Sorry life is so shit for you right now. We’ll take you only if you agree to be swabbed every 48 hours or accept the jab. Up to you.”
3 6
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March 11, 2022 2:11pm
Maggie Pie

Partner’s mum called in for lunch earlier.

Among all the other things we chatted about, she wondered if I’d seen the interview on 1Ewes last night with that guy from the Maori Party? (Rawiri something-or-other.)
Had to say I didn’t, no.

Anyway, what concerned her about it….. was why somebody in this day-and-age would want to get around the place looking like a Toi moko.
10 4
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March 11, 2022 2:21pm
Maggie Pie

TRENDING now…..

Who might be languishing in a Whangarei jail cell?

https://twitter.com/NewsroomNZ/status/1502096132939436039
8 5
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March 11, 2022 2:44pm
- Alan Wilkinson
  
  That’s where the worst Government ever should be.
  
  6 1
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  March 11, 2022 4:09pm
TT500

Don’t forget battlers , you heard it from the Single
source of Truth

‘ DON,T TALK TO YOUR NEIGHBOURS ‘.
7 3
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March 11, 2022 3:08pm
cmm

Two cultural organisations having a go at eachother in New Brighton.

What are the odds on it being Rotary vs Lions Club?

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/127791554/police-called-to-seaside-suburb-over-disorder-between-two-groups-of-people
9 3
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March 11, 2022 3:33pm
- greybeard
  
  Knitting Group vs Crocheting Group?
  Bowls vs Croquet?
  Carnivores vs Vegans?
  Labour supporters vs normal New Zealanders?
  
  7 2
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  March 11, 2022 4:20pm
CAKE FACE1

Cindy promised us she was going to be transformative.

Given that she was the President of International Union of Socialist Youth, she obviously wanted to turn us into New Venezuela, a socialist paradise.

How has she done? I have to admit it – Cindy has surpassed all my expectations.

On every metric of socialism, she has been an outstanding success.

Here is an old joke about socialism:

“A man walks into a shop. He asks the clerk, “You don’t have any meat?” The clerk says, “No, here we don’t have any fish. The shop that doesn’t have any meat is across the street.”

Of course, our supermarkets are running short of food. Prices rises and shortages are everywhere. Food and fuel, in particular, and expensive and in short supply. Socialists love queues. Cindy’s socialist paradise is unstoppable!

Personally, I believe that Cindy has been transformative. I wonder if the people who voted for her are now happy?
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March 11, 2022 3:54pm
Alan Wilkinson

The Left are in full panic mode. Emmerson has a Herald cartoon mocking the TVNZ/RNZ merger. Even if it was demanded by his employer, attacking the Left and its bureaucracies just never happens. What gives?? Does the Herald want an inside track with a National Government now?
13 2
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March 11, 2022 4:06pm
Maggie Pie

THE QUESTION NEEDS TO BE ASKED….

Does Jacinda Ardern really suffer from ‘Libido Dominandi’?

https://twitter.com/SpectatorOz/status/1502074135715135488

“Had it not been for Winston Peters joining with Labor and the Greens, her low polling would never have seen her become Prime Minister”
8 4
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March 11, 2022 4:30pm
- Jimmy Brown
  
  ‘Labour’
  
  2 0
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  March 11, 2022 7:59pm
Maggie Pie

My partner’s mum re-tweets….. 🙁

“And do you want the good News? He’s already started breeding”.

https://twitter.com/NZStuff/status/1502128216961478657
3 4
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March 11, 2022 4:53pm
Nickc2

Say what you will, you’ve got to love her.
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/03/pauline-hansons-please-explain-on-the-canberra-swamp.html
4 2
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March 11, 2022 5:01pm
bjools

https://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/300538975/covid19-omicron-absences-force-1-news-tonight-off-air
report one bad poll and…..
or
No pro Jacinda reports available?
6 2
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March 11, 2022 5:39pm
Maggie Pie

Q2 Inflation tipped to top 7.4%

– ANZ Private Banking.

Well I blame the price of those bloody Cauliflowers from Jack Lums.
5 3
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March 11, 2022 6:26pm

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