General Debate 25 August 2022

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Tony Stuart

Dr Gaurav Sharma during the debate congratulating Speaker Adrian Rurawhe on his appointment yesterday:

Dr GAURAV SHARMA (Hamilton West): Tēnā koe, Mr Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. I just want to join everybody, first of all, in congratulating you as the new Speaker-Elect and, hopefully, the Speaker. When you gave your speech, it was really refreshing to hear about fairness, to hear about bringing value to the House, and changing some of the issues that are present in the House. It almost seems like you should be an independent, rather than aligned with any side.

In the last one and a half years, there have been quite a few changes. I was sitting on that side, and the gentleman sitting next to me was in the Speaker’s Chair, the former member of Parliament for Hamilton West. I just want to acknowledge Mr Trevor Mallard, who is now leaving as the outgoing Speaker of the House.

Some of the people today mentioned integrity and transparency in their speeches. I just want to say that two weeks ago, I contacted the former Speaker, and I went to talk to him about some of the issues I was having and whether I could get legal support in my case. But the Speaker said, “Well, you know, if you raise anything about a Labour colleague—any challenges, it would be the end of your career.” And then the Speaker ended up going to the Labour whip’s office right after that to tell them that I had actually laid a complaint against the party and the whips. I just want to—

Debbie Ngarewa-Packer: Point of order.

Dr GAURAV SHARMA: —I’m just stopping there. I just want to say, Mr Speaker, I hope—

SPEAKER-ELECT: No, no. I stand; you sit. Kia ora. That is not the purpose of this debate. You’re raising issues that this House is not dealing with at this moment. If you have nothing further to add to what you’ve already said—if you indicate to me—have you finished?

The media has given the impression that Dr Sharma made a long speech yesterday to hijack the debate, but every other speaker in the debate made some reference to Trevor Mallard. Sharma’s “hijacking” was restricted to one mere paragraph, before Rurawhe intervened.

However he made his point. If you went to see the Speaker about an issue that was troubling you to the point where you had suicidal ideation, would you expect him to keep that visit confidential? I would have thought so.

Mallard’s first loyalty however was to the Labour Party, and this should be his parliamentary epitaph; Labour comes first, before anything else.
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December 25, 2021 8:12am
- graham
  
  “The media has given the impression that Dr Sharma made a long speech yesterday to hijack the debate …”
  
  Correct. Having watched the Sharma drama unfold on One News (SWMBO insists), I was very aware of the loaded language, the carefully-couched phrases, and the insinuations being used by the reporters.
  
  There is supposed to be a basic tenet that TVNZ is politically neutral. I think anybody watching the news on a regular basis – whether they be left-leaning, right-leaning, whatever – can see that simply isn’t true.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:22am
  - Gravelroad
    
    @Graham-
    Absolutely agree. Very well put. Same applies to any protest meetings with which the Labour Party and their influencers do not approve.
    The young women (in the main) reporters need to wake up and see how they are being manipulated and made to look like useful, foolish tools to the people out here – away from parliament.
    I get it that they admire Jacinda and they want to be “political insiders”, but they need to consider how their credibility is being compromised for the long term.
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:44am
    - Clownworld
      
      What credibility?
      
      They know it’s all a lie and they keep lying to us. They exchanged the truth for a lie. They now have lied so much to themselves to see the truth again would require a miracle to undo their cognitive dissonance.
      
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      August 25, 2022 1:48pm
  - ecco
    
    Can see there is still a year left of media bribe fund allocations. No articles in $$tuffed or the Ferald today about Dr Sharma and the bullying issues. Ardern’s quickly shut that down. Media is still compliant.
    
    Thank goodness zb and others are still highlighting the issue and poor handling by Ardern. I’ve found myself listening more to zb to get my news. Their week on demand replay functionality is great. Good to see Soper is back. He’s on the afternoon 4.45pm slot with Heather. Always worth a listen.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:18am
    - Jim
      
      Agree but IMHO Soper is often too much of a Soft Soaper. For a little equalising sanity it’s better to listen to accurate criticisms of Labour by Mike Hosking.
      
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      August 25, 2022 5:56pm
  - Prince
    
    You’re just lashing out with baseless allegations without foundation.
    On the other hand, our Government today announced they are reducing grocery prices by establishing more wholesalers with kindness……
    
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    August 25, 2022 1:33pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Looks like all Labour can do now is to get the MSM to try and run spin every time Sharma opens his mouth.
  
  Doesn’t look like he is planning to return to the Labour caucus anytime soon.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:24am
  - Tony Stuart
    
    Having been expelled from the Labour Party caucus, I doubt that returning to that toxic environment is even in the darkest recesses of Dr Sharma’s mind right now Maggy.
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:28am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      I think Sharma can now be more effective out of Caucus. Like aa little fox terrier barking at their tyres!
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:45am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Anyone remember ‘Mad Dog Prebble?’
        He did not get that title for nothing.
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:05am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        The way for him to be the most effective is to resign and force a by-election, which Labour would lose – bigly. Sadly for him, he’d be most unlikely to win, but would help to split the left vote.
        
        It would be another nail in the Princess’s coffin, and we’ll probably need a few more.
        
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        August 25, 2022 3:27pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Lets hope he will retain his seat.
      Could he hold the balance of power if he did?
      He might find it refreshing to be an Independent as he is certainly proving he is independent in thought.
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:46am
      - All_on_Red
        
        If he stands again, I would donate to his Campaign.
        Just for the lolz.
        
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        August 25, 2022 8:47am
      - RoboRob
        
        Yeah but what about his actually policies !
        
        It’s all fun and games to watch him stir the pot vs Labour but he was still a lefty back bencher. No idea if he is any good at his job but his beliefs are likely no in tune with most here.
        
        Lets stop it with the whole ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend thing’.
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:58am
      - peterwn
        
        It is doubtful that he could retain the seat. In normal circumstances National would most probably regain the seat. However if Sharma stood as an independent he would drain votes from Labour and probably some from National. I do not think Sharma would stand if he had no chance of getting back in. Sharma has one more weapon up his sleeve – resigning and forcing a byelection. Sharma can readily get a *real* job compared with JLR who could only get a job selling snake oil.
        
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        August 25, 2022 10:33am
  - Swifty
    
    Case in point – today’s Jim Hubbard cartoon.
    
    Comes close to bullying in my view.
    
    Let’s all kick a man when he’s down…
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:30am
    - plc
      
      That cartoon is disgusting.
      
      Hubbard is a (useful, to the Labour Party) tool
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:57am
      - Bridgenag
        
        If you email Garrick Tremain at tremain@arrowtownz.com he will send his daily cartoons. Always outstanding.
        
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        August 25, 2022 7:19pm
    - ClanMcleod
      
      I rarely do the MSM. Where does Hubbard publish his crap? If you can give me a link it will save me having to look at more garbage than I have to. Cheers.
      
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      August 25, 2022 9:03am
      - Benedict Yu
        
        https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/114832273/jim-hubbard-cartoons
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:08am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Thanks BY. About what we’ve come to expect from our mainstream media and the shills and stenographers they employ.
        Here’s a true political cartoonist and one with skill and nuance.
        
        “The Truth”
        
        https://www.bobmoran.co.uk/other-work/know-the-truth-original-artwork
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:37am
      - ClanMcleod
        
        Thanks BY. About what we’ve come to expect from our mainstream media and the shills and stenographers they employ.
        Here’s a true political cartoonist and one with skill and nuance.
        
        “The Truth”
        
        https://www.bobmoran.co.uk/other-work/know-the-truth-original-artwork
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:37am
      - oldfella
        
        Clan: Garrick Tremain shows Jim Hubbard how it’s done.
        https://www.bassettbrashandhide.com/post/cartoon-of-the-day-150
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:54am
      - RoboRob
        
        Just looked at BYs link. Amazing, this ‘renowned’ cartoonist draws very unfunny cartoons quite poorly. They have little humour and make hardly any actual point. Pathetic, not a scratch on the old political cartoonists.
        
        What’s worse is that, his cartoons seem predominantly about the rugby or against the Nats. Only one Labour cartoon and it was about the pressure of competing demands on JA.
        
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        August 25, 2022 10:06am
    - curry4me
      
      I guess that cartoon must be a small contribution to the todays ‘two minutes of hate’ directed at the enemy of the day.
      
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      August 25, 2022 10:36am
    - G152
      
      Commie komedy
      
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      August 25, 2022 11:11am
  - Harry Knuts
    
    It’s a very bitter breakup with no going back. No trust on either side.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:03am
  - Paulus
    
    Would you think he would want to after the way he has been treated them and their media colleagues !
    He should call a Bye election, when he is ready, as that would upset the Labour Party more than anything.
    He has a good and supported career to return to, as his political future no longer exists.
    We need good Surgeons and Doctors more now than at anytime.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:52am
- Piticus
  
  Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
  I am not a Labour Party supporter in any shape or form however I must put on record that I thought Sharma was totally out of order in the stunt he pulled at the election of the new speaker. This was ‘a bridge too far’ and he has lost my respect as a result – pity !
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:37am
  - pdm
    
    piticus – in his situation you have to take every chance you can.
    
    Again he outsmarted the Labour heirachy and slickly put the boot into Mallard by saying he was complicit in the bullying.
    
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    August 25, 2022 11:47am
    - Piticus
      
      Fair comment though the day was all about the new speaker (endorsed by all) and if the Nats do give him some speaking slots going forward he is going to piss a lot of people off if he attempts this sort of thing every time he gets to his feet !
      
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      August 25, 2022 12:20pm
      - Pineapple Lumps
        
        Good line that Labour have pulled about yesterday being all about the new speaker. It was totally not that but an attempt to try and shutdown anymore information from Sharma. Unlike their massive change in abortion laws during lockdown, Friday afternoon document dumps etc, Mahuta nepotism isn’t in breach of the cabinet manual, nothing wrong with Trevs false rape claim and $500k slander fee, Sharma is not going to be so easy to sweep under the carpet.
        
        They don’t want to invoke Waka jumping as they will get shown up at the polls, after big swing in Tauranga. Hard to refude actual election results.
        
        Sharma is still a potentially the victim, despite the massive liebour hit job. Good on him for beating them at their own game yesterday. I hope he keeps it going through every opportunity over the next year that he can. His allegations under privilege will prove to be a death of a thousand cuts. Liebours nothing to see here, move along approach culminated in using Mallards resignation to provide max cover. This was not done to honour the new speaker. And now they have played the card, Cindy has lost her bully boy protector, Mallard is on the back benches, and Sharma has survived round one.
        
        As many would say on here, I’m buying in the popcorn, round two is looking entertaining. And personally if it’s pissing off the greatest liar princess half as much as I think it is, that’s just fantastic news!
        
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        August 25, 2022 10:51pm
- lastmanstanding
  
  Th Labour Party like far too many organisations is comprised of bullies and thugs. At the top the Prime Minister is clearly out of her depth. She was promoted to a position where she had neither the training or experience. As in so many cases bluff and bluster replaced skills and ability.
  Outside politics this is one of the major reasons for the countries low productivity. Governance and Management is so poor it lacks the skills to raise productivity. Instead it relies on fear and loathing. I know because I have witnessed this for over 50 years.
  Until there is a major reset it will not improve in fact it will get worse.
  On the political front unless citizens elect those with the capability capacity and will to lead in an educated manner the country will decline on every measure.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:07am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    The big question is, in an organisation of Union backed bullies, what sort of a person do you have to be to rise to the top?
    
    Helen Clark, John Key and Tony Blair were adherent to the Third Way mantra.
    
    Ardern has drifted back to Old Labour, with all that this entails
    
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    August 25, 2022 10:04am
- oldfella
  
  Karl duFresne has some excellent thoughts on the Sharma fiasco.
  http://karldufresne.blogspot.com/2022/08/a-few-thoughts-on-sharma-affair.html
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:59pm
Warren

Without the Irresponsible Spending from this Government we might not have had inflation at 7.3% but many Cyc’lops and academics point the finger at business and the hugh profits they are apparently making, with Labour mouthpiece Morgan Godfrey pushing the button with who should bear the burden of inflation? Not the workers.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/opinion/129669222/morgan-godfery-who-should-bear-the-burden-of-inflation-not-the-workers
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August 25, 2022 8:04am
- ClanMcleod
  
  The only good news is, the left is destroying itself one own goal after another. If National was to grow a spine and in particular, completely reverse course on their weak as water covid policies which were identical to Labour in most aspects, they could put themselves in a position to govern for a minimum 3 terms. Add to that the 3 waters, the constant woke garbage we have to endure. There are so many weak spots in their policies. But the Nats will have to be brave to be so divergent. I don’t know that they have the stones to do that.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:07am
  - lastmanstanding
    
    Notice the number of strikes we have had in the past few years compared with almost zero under the Key Government. We are starting a wage price inflation spiral. For the young ones whe werent around the 70s/80s I can tell you it wont end well.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:27am
  - slightlyrighty
    
    I think that they do, and will do so. However, as opposition that last thing you want to do is telegraph to the government what they should be doing to win.
    
    Remember, New Governments aren’t voted in, but old governments are voted out.
    
    Labour will have to campaign on their achievements….good luck with that.
    
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    August 25, 2022 10:06am
  - leoj
    
    A growing number of us have finally realised that National are very passive. It’s as if they wait to be in government simply because the public tires of Labour.
    
    Their do-nothing attitude is historical, making promises they quickly forget once back in control of the treasury.
    
    te reo Luxon has taken this approach another step by being non-committal. Keeping the powder dry, so to speak.
    
    I hope that enough of us vote for ACT to send the weak, woke Nats the biggest message: We have had a gutsful of their broken promises. They have taken we conservatives for granted while drifting, aimlessly towards many of Labour’s positions.
    
    Their marching in lockstep with Labour regarding the mandates was the final straw for me. They are a fricking disgrace for agreeing to Labour’s policies re the vaccine. Shame, shame, SHAME.
    
    Never again. We know them now and they need to be taught a huge lesson.
    
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    August 25, 2022 11:07am
    - mawm
      
      I agree with you on National but ACT are also weak on Covid.
      
      The whole false edifice is crumbling, the CDC has admitted to some of their mistakes, Fauci is running for the hills and the data (worldwide) that we are allowed to see is showing that this is probably the greatest medical calamity ever. ACT need to look into the statistical analyses of mortality, the lack of efficacy of ALL the measures put in place by the liberal democracies, the fraudulent Pfizer trials, early treatment, etc, etc. This would give Seymour a massive following just from those who are either vaccine injured (or know of someone vaccine injured) or have lost a job because of mandates, and those who have questioned the management of the “pandemic” from the very beginning.
      
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      August 25, 2022 12:55pm
      - leoj
        
        Agreed. Seymour missed a huge opportunity to differentiate himself from those hiding behind the skirts.
        
        ACT are not perfect but we need them to keep the Nats from screwing the country again.
        
        te reo Luxon is not our saviour. Much too weak and woke. Just look at his chin. He could never play a violin.
        
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        August 25, 2022 1:44pm
      - Clownworld
        
        It is increasingly likely that the next government of NZ will be the same as who we have currently. A government that serves itself not the people of NZ who they are meant to listen to and represent. A government that will take more tax and in-debt future generations with waste and excess spending. A government who will divide NZers by whatever means they can to stop the people looking at the political leaders.
        
        It is time we had a better choice than tribal colors with very little difference in any of these elected charlatans.
        
        It is time we didn’t have to vote for the least damaging party.
        
        Open to suggestions how we get better leaders?
        
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        August 25, 2022 2:04pm
      - mawm
        
        Clown – get rid of list MPs, hold binding referendums, have recall elections. Make the MPs serve their electorates and not the party again! It’s not perfect but my electorate MP represents me in the governance of this country and should present the majority view of his/her constituents in parliament.
        
        We should also have some means to hold them accountable for costly and/or fatal policies. Something like the deaths in South Australia for the bush fires a few years ago that were fuelled by the Green policy of not removing under brush or Ardern’s big spend up in the name of covid.
        
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        August 25, 2022 2:53pm
      - UrbanNeocolonialist
        
        Direct democracy California style is a disaster. Voters always vote for more lollies and against paying for them, and are entirely incapable of passing tough but necessary measures. En-mass they never consider the balancing of spending with revenue collection. California only endures because it is the home of so many colossal tech firms with very high income employees. But even then it is verging on collapse with the terrible social issues direct democracy has fostered
        
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        August 25, 2022 4:41pm
Tricati

Biden looking to partially write off student loan debt. What’s the bet Labour will look to do the same here to save their flagging popularity. Labour has a track record of bribing students to boost their popularity, and to hell with the long-suffering tax-payer.
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2022/08/us-president-joe-biden-cancels-10-000-in-student-loan-debts.html
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August 25, 2022 8:05am
- Swifty
  
  Thanks Tricati.
  
  A blatant electoral bribe by the Democrats and a massive ‘F U’ to the American taxpayer.
  
  It’s both utterly corrupt and immoral.
  
  But, as you say, look for this from the NZ Labour Party in the run up to the next election.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:14am
  - Tricati
    
    If the polls show they are likely to lose the next election they will adopt the ‘scorched earth’ policy as Cullen did and leave National/ACT with no fiscal headroom.
    As National/ACT will have to implement austerity measures, the screaming skulls from the Greens and Labour apologists with say – See National and ACT are uncaring, when in fact they are caring, and doing the best for ALL of NZ.
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:28am
    - Tony Stuart
      
      Like the purchase this week of Kiwibank, do you mean Tricati?
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:30am
    - kowtow
      
      We’re well past scorched earth .
      
      They’ve already sowed with salt .
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:49am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      In which case it will be time for National/ACT to cut that Gordian Knot – and implement solid tax cuts with no more bullshit about “revenue neutral” outcomes. In effect, borrow for tax cuts, and when the Left whinge about fiscal irresponsibility tell them that things have changed.
      
      I’m sick of “right-wing” governments getting hung up in their own underwear about how they have to obey “their” rules by a Left wing that doesn’t give a shit about those rules.
      
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      August 25, 2022 11:04am
- Nickc2
  
  Debt forgiven for one, is debt that must be paid by someone else.
  Robbo Hood knows this so he’s probably plotting where the coin is going to come from when his lot forgive Student Debt in order to buy votes.
  Those who have repaid their Student Loans will be the ones hit again for the debt incurred by the bastards who never had any intention of repaying their debt.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:20am
  - Ian Boag
    
    Hidden due to low comment rating. Click here to see.
    Couple of points. Biden is proposing to forgive something like $10k of debt per debtor. Not a huge proportion of what many US students owe.
    
    Who are these “bastards … never intended” … ? Any step change in the student debt thing creates injustices. When it was brought in – as a “boom” thing – there were cases of siblings doing similar courses a few years apart where the older one had essentially no debt and the younger one ended up with some tens of thousands.
    
    Not to mention my generation and the one behind it who got their uni/polytech education with no tuition fees to speak of and a universal student allowance that went quite a way towards meeting costs. We – of course – deserved it.
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:33am
    - All_on_Red
      
      The old system was done away with because those who didn’t go to University were subsidising those who did.
      Why should a Railway worker or a Cleaner pay for someone else’s University education?
      Biden is now making those same types of people pay for the children of the rich who go to over priced Universities.
      Coincidentally Biden is expanding the IRS by 87,000 and has increased Taxes on those earning less that $400,000.
      Guess that write off has to be paid for huh.
      Random Question: why does the IRS need 5,000,000 rounds of ammunition?
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:54am
      - virtualmark
        
        Red, Biden has raised taxes on those earning *more than* $400,000.
        
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        August 25, 2022 8:59am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        5M rounds so that others don’t have 5M.
        Actually there are over 430M guns and trillions of ammo. Over 13 trillion rounds are purchased every year. No source – just what our Alaskan friends told us. Most gun owners have abut 5 guns. Jayson (friend) has a 45 and 9mm semi hand guns, a 44 five shot revolver, a 5 shot pump action 12G, a 380 rifle, and god knows what else. Those were just the ones he showed to me.
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:25am
      - slightlyrighty
        
        Yeah, why should a Cleaner pay to help train Doctors, and teachers. They certainly don’t need engineers!
        
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        August 25, 2022 10:09am
      - I remember when
        
        ‘Those who didn’t go to University were subsidising those who didn’t.’
        Perhaps they have become the taxpayers who are subsidising those on lower rates.
        Are those who leave school early to get a job subsidising those who continue their education?
        
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        August 25, 2022 10:24am
      - virtualmark
        
        Red, your reference to the IRS buying ammunition piqued my interest. Hadn’t heard of that before. Turns out …
        
        * The IRS purchases guns and ammunition for special agents in its criminal investigation division, a law enforcement branch established in 1919. The typical IRS auditors that Americans would encounter in a routine audit are unarmed.
        * The special agents who are armed investigate crimes ranging from money laundering to cybercrime. There were fewer agents in 2021 than there were in 2017.
        * The division’s spending on ammunition this year is on par with previous years and less than what was spent a decade ago, IRS data shows. Much of the ammunition is used at its training academy in Georgia, where agents complete firearms training and handgun qualifications.
        
        America luvz guns.
        
        Thoughts and prayers. Thoughts: I love guns. Prayers: God I love guns.
        
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        August 25, 2022 1:46pm
    - Sacha
      
      And going further back: you paid your own uni fees. And worked through the uni hols (from November to March) to earn the money for living expenses over the coming academic year.
      It was only after the government started giving tertiary students allowances, that they stopped working for their keep and the educational rot set in, working from the top down, so to speak.
      
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      August 25, 2022 9:14am
    - Cassandra
      
      In those days the proportion going to uni was quite small. These days it’s huge. And why should a Papatoetoe truck driver subsidise uni students in full? He’s already paying 75% of the cost. Uni fees are a modest contribution to the graduate’s future substantial remuneration, much of it in Australia or Europe. Very fair system.
      
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      August 25, 2022 10:09am
  - Paulus
    
    Do you think Cindy or Robbo could care less – they have fully blown the whole thing so why should we all not suffer.
    52% gave her the mandate remember, and it those who will suffer the most I believe.
    
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    August 25, 2022 3:14pm
- tf78
  
  I thought Uni here was ‘fees free’.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:21am
  - Nickc2
    
    Wrong! There was a time when we stopped people at our borders who still had unpaid student debt.
    Now, not so much eh? Draw your own conclusions as to why not.
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:35am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    For first-year study only, up to $12,000.
    Only for eligible NZers.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:20am
    - graham
      
      The student loan is interest-free, with a nominal administration fee of $40 p.a. (I think), as long as you live in NZ.
      
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      August 25, 2022 10:18am
  - MCōs
    
    Only for year one, I believe.
    If you study dentistry at Otago the fees are subsidized $50k p.a. leaving $15k p.a. payable
    That’s big numbers
    And then there’s accommodation plus food and all that beer.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:25am
    - Joely Doe
      
      First hand knowledge of a graduating Otago dentist – has managed to put away $30k into their bank account while at Otago, due to Fees Free and scholarships.
      
      Banked the first allocation of Student Loan (not required but why should they pass up free money) and worked a bit over summers. Mum and dad paid for life at home – food, board etc.
      Will start into the job market next year on 105k in a hospital or 150k in private.
      
      Can’t make up their mind which way to go but will definitely leave NZ for Australia within 2 yrs.
      Can’t see the need to pay for $150 billion and still be called an arsehole for not paying enough tax.
      
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      August 25, 2022 10:06am
      - MCōs
        
        No wonder I see people around here with gaps where teeth should be. Money that could go towards adding dental care to public healthcare is shelled out to educate your mate including student loans they have no intention of paying back.
        
        I knew someone who spent all those years studying to be a dentist and carried on post graduate training to become an orthopedic surgeon.
        However.
        She was traumatized from working on people whose mouths had been smashed up by car accidents with broken teeth in places teeth aren’t meant to be.
        She had a mental breakdown, left the profession and stack supermarket shelves until she got her shit together.
        She returned to dentistry. A huge student loan does that to an honest person.
        
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        August 25, 2022 3:01pm
      - Joely Doe
        
        Oh untangle your pantaloons, the student loan is chicken feed in the grand scheme of $150 billion borrowed/wasted.
        
        The only reason they are hanging around NZ, for 2 years, is to pay back the $70k loan owed, interest free.
        Well $40k really, once the banked $handout$ comes off.
        
        Not a bad effort for 5yrs student life.
        
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        August 25, 2022 5:47pm
- virtualmark
  
  Whether you agree with this step or not, this was a campaign promise Biden made in 2020.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:01am
  - leoj
    
    That doesn’t make it good policy.
    
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    August 25, 2022 11:21am
    - virtualmark
      
      Agreed.
      
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      August 25, 2022 1:43pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    There’s nothing that Biden or the Democrats can do, no matter how illegal or “norm-breaking”, that you would not support.
    
    Here’s Nancy Pelosi on the subject:
    
    People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not. He can postpone. He can delay. But he does not have that power. That has to be an Act of Congress
    
    Still, Obama said on twenty two occasions that he did not have the power to screw the immigration laws – and then went right ahead and did it anyway. His decision is still in place.
    
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    August 25, 2022 12:22pm
    - virtualmark
      
      Tom, I don’t have a support/don’t support on this issue. I really don’t care whether the US forgives student debt or not.
      
      But I do believe politicians should honour their campaign promises. Not that many do. So when it happens I’m prepared to give some credit.
      
      Re the Pelosi comment … I don’t know enough about US law on student debt to know. I see from the articles today that Biden is using a law passed by George W Bush, the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act. If he’s over-reached himself legally then I’m sure that will be taken to the Courts and brought back into line.
      
      But common sense says it’s very unlikely a President’s advisors would allow him to do something he had no legal authority to do.
      
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      August 25, 2022 1:42pm
      - Tom Hunter
        
        But common sense says it’s very unlikely a President’s advisors would allow him to do something he had no legal authority to do.
        
        It’s happened in Presidential history more than you might think. Presidents are constantly testing the boundaries of their constitutional limits and lawyers love arguments.
        
        In this case the argument seems to be that the old Bush law allows such loans to be partially forgiven if there is a “National Emergency” in place, which there is courtesy of the Covid laws.
        
        To say the least, that’s a stretch and I expect the Supreme Court to be involved sooner or later, plus Congress itself, which – as Pelosi’s response above shows – is pretty jealous of its budget authority. As it damned well should be.
        
        And a campaign promise like Biden’s was expected to mean that he and his party would execute it through Congress and signed by him – not as some sort of solo effort. But that’s why I raised the Obama issue as it’s exactly the same situation; “My Party could not get this passed so I’ll do it anyway”.
        
        This is not how this works in the USA and anybody who supports such things will be in no position to complain about future GOP Presidents pulling the same stunts on issue to which Democrats are opposed – although of course they will complain; screaming to the heavens about “law” I’d bet.
        
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        August 25, 2022 2:52pm
  - gravedodger
    
    when were election promises contractually obliging V, this is all about the damage control needed for the mid terms, as is almost every legislative and exec matter now, its bath time?
    
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    August 25, 2022 2:08pm
- ecco
  
  Totally think this is on the cards as they get more desperate. Ardern and Robertson have shown they have no clue about fiscal management or doing long term damage to the nz economy. I was talking to right leaning friends who’s kids have loans (think $70k+) who said they would vote Labour if loans are written off.
  
  Labour probably just figure if they can get over the line one more time and bring in voting for 16 year olds, they would never get removed from power again, bringing in another cohort of easily bribable voters.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:25am
  - Tom Hunter
    
    A couple of years ago I offered to help my eldest pay off the balance of his university loans instead of just chewing it down slowly via the IRD.
    
    He thanked me but said he was confident that the Labour government would wipe his loan sooner or later. Looks like he was right.
    
    BTW, in discussion with an ACT guy a few months ago he assured me that the government would not wipe a multi-billion dollar asset (recall that loans are assets for the lender) and I replied that it was a line item in this government’s spending so why wouldn’t they in order to get the votes.
    
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    August 25, 2022 12:16pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    I can’t help wondering if Biden’s advisors have totally failed to read the room…Student Loan Forgiveness Is Left-Wing Trickle-Down Economics.:
    
    I’m a blue-collar worker, and when I talk to other blue collar workers about student loan forgiveness, it’s one of those subjects where no one disagrees. It gets a resounding, 100 percent “Hell no!” every time it comes up.
    
    This isn’t because we’re anti-college. Most of the folks I work with and talk to have kids in college or have kids that graduated college. But if you ask if college students’ loans should be paid off by taxpayers, the answer is always the same: No way.
    
    Unlike progressives, we don’t see student debt cancelation as an avenue out of poverty. We see it as a tax on those of us who chose not to go to college, who now have to pay for those who already got a big advantage in the labor market by way of their degree.
    
    Biden will get the vote of every person with a degree in Gender Studies who can’t find a job that can pay off the stupid ripoff cost of the university that provided it.
    
    But that’s a lot less than the numbers of working class people.
    
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    August 25, 2022 5:03pm
  - Tom Hunter
    
    Chuckle from Eric Erickson…
    
    “Republicans, Joe Biden has just handed you your general election issue. Like defunding the police, Democrats think making the responsible taxpayers pay the debts of irresponsible woke students is a winner. STFU about Mar-a-Lago and make the general election about this.”
    
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    August 25, 2022 5:23pm
- peterwn
  
  Robbo would then come under serious pressure to refund all the students who did the right thing and paid their loans.
  
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  August 25, 2022 10:37am
103PapPap

If there is no bullying in the Labour Party, as the Prime Minister states, and Sharma ‘bullied his staff’, as she also said, then why doesn’t she realise that an inquiry into bullying in the Government will validate all her statements.
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August 25, 2022 8:12am
- hullkiwi
  
  Simple questions:
  If Sharma was bullying his staff, why has it taken Sharma raising questions about bullying in opinion pieces and further leaks for these matters to come to light?
  
  and
  
  Why has it taken 2 years?
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:40am
  - Ruawai
    
    The claims Sharma bullied his staff came out after Sharma’s bullying claims, almost as if they were claimed to take the heat off Labour.
    
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    August 25, 2022 12:38pm
    - hullkiwi
      
      Exactly.
      
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      August 25, 2022 1:26pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  That would be her usual word soup waffle
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:26am
- whostoblame
  
  Why? We all know the answer to that. An inquiry will not happen in a million years. Look at how she lied about the secret meeting that wasn’t a meeting and then was because of the screenshot that was released. And amazingly sent to Sharma in error. The one and only person in the entire world they did not want to know about the meeting. Not one MSM journo pushed harder and we all know the reason for that also.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:47am
- Nickc2
  
  I believe they already had one which Mallard was somehow involved with. The outcome, I don’t recall.
  You will recall that Cindy went to a so-called independent QC investigation when her office was involved in the infamous Labour Party Youth Camp fiasco. Now, when a lower echelon Back Bencher in her Govt is involved in revealing the inner workings of her Govt, there’s no intention whatsoever to call in an independent QC to investigate before her Kangaroo Court decided to expel him from the Govt.
  There’s no corruption here eh?
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:47am
Maggy Wassilieff

Remember all those warnings about the unvaccinated?

Appears we should have been just as wary of the vaccinated..

Furthermore, individuals who contract COVID-19 after vaccination, and even after a booster dose, still shed virus into the air.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02202-z
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August 25, 2022 8:13am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Maggy there is plenty of evidence that the vaccinated spread covid at a much higher rate than the unvaccinated. This is basic logic. The unvaccinated weren’t permitted to access many places for a long time so had no ability to spread it. Second, the vaccinated were under the impression they were “vaccinated” and therefore protected, which we now know was bullshit, but it meant they acted in a much more carefree manner. THEY were the superspreaders. Also there is evidence indicating that the more vaccinated you are the more prone you are to catching covid, so obviously you are more likely to spread it.
  The whole narrative has been turned on it’s head, it is incomprehensible that the Adern and her bunch of loonies are still actively pushing vaccination and masking. It is irrational madness.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:12am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Best ask Blofeld and the pink terror if this is true. I would love to hear their answers.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:28am
  - mawm
    
    I read a paper that showed that the vaccinated (2 doses if my memory serves me well) have 3x the viral load in the nasopharynx than the unvaccinated. I no longer have the link.
    
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    August 25, 2022 1:05pm
Paulus

There is talk about EVs being made to pay something towards the roads bill.
After all they have received hundreds of millions of taxpayers money in special subsidies when buying their vehicles.
Perhaps a milage tax like diesel vehicles – easy to administer on line too.
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August 25, 2022 8:13am
- MarkF
  
  @Paulus. EVs paying RUC, that was always the case once a trigger percentage was reached. I believe that threshold has been shifted upwards recently (bribery / incentive call it what you may).
  Disclosure I own an EV and I believe I should be paying some sort of RUC but there is no mechanism to do so at the moment.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:34am
  - DeepBlue
    
    Could you just go and buy diesel RUCs against your EV?
    Since you are keen to pay it would be an interesting exercise.
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:44am
  - wisteria
    
    Totally agree. We own an EV which is used as a short run shopping vehicle and a Santa Fe for long distance and towing our caravan. We pay for the RUCs for the Santa Fe and nothing for the EV. Wrong, every one who uses the roads should pay towards their upkeep including cyclists.
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:56am
    - leoj
      
      Especially the cyclists………
      
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      August 25, 2022 11:25am
      - virtualmark
        
        To be fair, if cyclists have to pay RUC commensurate with the damage that they do to the roads, then we’re likely talking a cent or two per cyclist per annum.
        
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        August 25, 2022 2:33pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        VM – plus the minimum admin fee, of course.
        
        Shall we say $1,000 per bike per year?
        
        Plus GST
        
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        August 25, 2022 7:21pm
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      The heavier the vehicle the more costly the roading structure needs to be and the more damage the vehicle inflicts on the road.
      
      Buses, Trucks – 40x impact of a car. So a bike would be an even greater magnitude different to a car.
      
      So User pays, let’s make trucks and buses pay the lion share of RUCs. Reality is we will all end up paying for it in the goods we buy.
      
      The problem again is we live in a world of increasing hostility and division. Activism from UN mandates being driven through local bodies road management has become increasingly anti-car, pro-bike. This is fostering the division and hostility. I personally think that our leaders and global elites are happy if they can fracture society into smaller and smaller more polarised groups. It makes us easier to rule and manipulate.
      
      So we have to be smarter and stop playing into their game. We need to start to get people into councils who aren’t going to be ruled by UN/WEF ambitions. We have to hold the grey people in our public service to serve their public. We aren’t going to do this by arguing whether a cyclist should pay RUC.
      
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      August 25, 2022 11:15pm
- Sacha
  
  We have two rather smart recharging stations in our small agricultural service town. I was talking to the bloke who works in the engineering workshop opposite, and he said that they had never seen a vehicle being charged in the 6 months they had been there.
  I park my big old diesel ute there if there aren’t any spaces outside the supermarket.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:20am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Some bright spark will just cut the wire to the transponder – no more GPS Tracking signal
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:31am
- mandk
  
  Out of interest, are EVs heavier than their ICE equivalents, or is it the other way round?
  
  When damage to the road surface increases in proportion to the fourth power of the axle weight, small differences can make a large difference.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:37am
  - GJM
    
    They do weigh more. A Tesla model 3 is around 4000 pounds, or 1800kg, and more for the long range version or the posh SUV.
    https://electrek.co/2021/08/02/how-much-does-a-tesla-weigh-comparing-each-model/#h-model-3
    
    A Toyota carry sedan is 3300 pounds, or 1500 kg. https://cars.lovetoknow.com/List_of_Car_Weights
    
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    August 25, 2022 12:26pm
    - mandk
      
      Thanks.
      Based on the 4th power rule, the EV will do around twice as much damage to the road surface as the ICE.
      
      No wonder our roads have more and more potholes.
      
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      August 25, 2022 2:01pm
  - royce987
    
    EVs are very heavy
    
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    August 25, 2022 2:40pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Bill Clinton’s Sock Drawer May Just Help Trump…This Is Too Good!
Did you hear that thud? I just dropped the mic.
https://redrightdaily.com/bill-clintons-sock-drawer-may-just-help-trump-this-is-too-good/
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August 25, 2022 8:14am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  What must be remembered is quite a few weeks ago the FBI were at Mar a Lago talking with Donald Trump about Documents stored in a locked cellar room. Trump asked them to go over it, and if there was anything there they thought should be back at the Whitehouse, they should return it. They took nothing.
  FBI waited until Trump was in New York then performed the raid on Mar a Lago. It should be noted that a lot of these FBI people were the same people involved with ‘Russiagate’ – all false.
  It was a hit job designed to discredit Trump, and to get the media onto his back again.
  Dirty Politics.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:21am
  - Albert_Ross
    
    Source?
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:26am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Tomato.
      Is your Google/Ducduckgo machine broken? I am not about to run around for anybody.
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:48am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Re-reading that, I did not mean is in a bad way Albert
        
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        August 25, 2022 9:47am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Actually the Google Cache is full of left wing media nonsense on this. It will take a while to find info about the FBI offered documents 4 to 6 months ago. Prob already removed.
      
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      August 25, 2022 8:55am
  - virtualmark
    
    Steve,
    
    Yes that is what one of Trump’s lawyers said on Fox News.
    
    But it’s also simply not true. And clearly shown to be not true by subsequent document releases, in particular the 10 May letter from the National Archives to Trump … that Trump’s own lawyer published as a spectacular own goal.
    
    My advice … if Trump and his lawyers aren’t saying it under oath then treat it as likely to be false.
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:04am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      William Roper: “So, now you give the Devil the benefit of law!”
      
      Sir Thomas More: “Yes! What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?”
      
      William Roper: “Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!”
      
      Sir Thomas More: “Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down, and you’re just the man to do it, do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? Yes, I’d give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety’s sake!”
      
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      August 25, 2022 12:26pm
      - virtualmark
        
        Relevance?
        
        Simple test: If what Steve Otto says about Trump trying strenuously to return the documents to the National Archives is true … then why didn’t Trump’s lawyers put that in a motion to the Court the day after the M-A-L search?
        
        And if what Steve Otto says in true … then how should we all interpret the 10 May letter from the National Archives?
        
        I’m not getting at Steve here, I do think he’s honestly relaying what he’s heard. But I strongly suspect the people he heard talking were lying, and that they will not repeat those lies in court filings or under oath.
        
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        August 25, 2022 2:37pm
  - ClanMcleod
    
    Steve – the FBI have released details of everything they found in Trump’s safe. Hint, one of them was apparently the kickstand for Biden’s bike. There is talk of them charging Trump with attempted murder………
    
    https://babylonbee.com/news/14-things-the-fbi-found-in-donald-trumps-safe
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:14am
  - James Stephenson
    
    It was a hit job designed to discredit Trump, and to get the media onto his back again.
    Dirty Politics.
    
    Nearly correct. It was a hit job designed to manufacture evidence so that Trump could be convicted of something that would prevent him running for President again.
    
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    August 25, 2022 10:02am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Still don’t know if the FBI planted evidence. Some of the FBI are the same guys pushing the Russia nonsense.
      
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      August 25, 2022 11:42am
    - Tom Hunter
      
      That’s part of the reason why left-wingers — who in past generations were quick to identify the agency with J. Edgar Hoover’s abuses, including spying on a host of non-criminal domestic figures and dissident groups — now love it. The hypocrisy here is as absurd as it is transparent. Tim Weiner, a former New York Times national security correspondent and author of a critical history of the FBI, has been gleeful about the prospect of jailing Trump on a documents charge but also tried to differentiate between Hoover’s wiretapping of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the agency’s treating the former president like an organized crime figure who needs to be taken down by any means necessary.
      
      According to Weiner, Hoover’s actions were “witch hunts,” but agents browsing through Trump’s records is an “espionage investigation.” Of course, the only real difference here is that Hoover spied on people the left liked while Garland’s DOJ’s lawless behavior is directed at the person they hate most.
      
      Fortunately it’s been twenty years at least since I stopped paying any attention to Lefties screaming about “justice”, “law and order”, etc. They just mean that they object to injustices against themselves. When they’ve got the power they’re more than happy to visit injustice upon their enemies.
      
      I wonder what it’s going to take to get them back to some sort of fair-minded balance and circumspection? Mass arrests of FBI agents and/or Garland himself, plus others? Right now they clearly don’t think that can possibly happen to them and theirs.
      
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      August 25, 2022 2:57pm
      - Mike
        
        Is it possible to consider that the FBI was doing the right things in the 1960s and today?
        But that might mean that cult members like Tom would have to regard their current hero as no better than the commies in the 1960s civil rights movement.
        
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        August 25, 2022 5:12pm
- slightlyrighty
  
  Clicked on your link, was immediately asked to donate to Trump. Do you think that website might be a bit biased?
  
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  August 25, 2022 10:12am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The donation is to ‘redrightdaily.com’
    But yes, it is not on CNN so it must be biased//
    
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    August 25, 2022 11:47am
Than

Plans for supposedly “new and radical” transport initiatives in Christchurch – such as congestion charges and road tolls – could be made public despite city council staff wanting to keep them under wraps.

…..

City council staff acknowledge they have no grounds to withhold the controversial document, but have told councillors they want to keep it private for now, as they fear it could be “taken out of context” if released.

(Quotation marks added by me).

Translation – they know it’s going to be unpopular, so they want to sneak it through with as little public visibility as possible. God, democracy is just an obstacle to be worked around to some of these obnoxious busy-bodies.

Proponents of the plan have labeled the criticisms “scaremongering” – a boringly cliched and meaningless response. But OK, if the complaints are just scaremongering, why not release the plan and let everybody see for themselves? When your first instinct is to hide the plan away, sorry but that makes it pretty clear you know people aren’t going to like it.
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August 25, 2022 8:16am
- Tricati
  
  When you see the ‘councilor committee’ that developed this nonsense you can understand why – of the 8, 6 are Peoples Choice (Labour) and 2 Independents.
  Honestly, if people want Christchurch to progress as a city, they need to wake up a dump Peoples Choice councilors at the up coming elections.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:33am
- graham
  
  Agreed. Release the plan, let everybody see what is proposed, and if the plan’s supporters truly believe that the criticisms are unwarranted then they should have no problem in answering them … right?
  
  Same with the supposed concern that it will be “taken out of context”. The answer is simple – provide the context.
  
  It really is quite bizarre to watch the convoluted reasoning that some people will come up with to support their position that these pesky concepts of “transparency” and “democracy” shouldn’t apply to themselves.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:43am
- kowtow
  
  There’s a war on cars .
  
  Our lefties seem to have adopted the tactic from the UK.
  
  Simeon Brown has an article in today’s Ferald on it .I agree with everything he says , except the bit where he says “emissions are the problem”.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:17am
Tony Stuart

A very interesting piece by Karl du Fresne appears in the Australian Spectator today:

What happens when democratic principles collide with cultural values and political self-interest? In New Zealand, that’s starting to look like a quaintly naive question. Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government appears supremely untroubled by accusations of nepotism and conflict of interest swirling around one of its most senior ministers.

Nanaia Mahuta is the Minister of Foreign Affairs and of Local Government. In the former capacity she has been roundly criticised, even by commentators on the left, for keeping such a low profile that she’s mostly out of sight. She is said to dislike international travel – hardly an ideal starting point – and has been unfavourably compared with her Australian counterpart Penny Wong, who made three rapid-fire trips to the Pacific to counter China’s diplomatic incursions while Mahuta remained silent and hunkered down in Wellington. The general consensus is that the demands of the portfolio are beyond New Zealand’s ninth-ranked minister.

But Mahuta’s performance as Foreign Minister is simply a matter of competence. It’s in connection with her other portfolios, past and present, that profoundly disturbing questions have been raised about government integrity.

In dribs and drabs, mostly online in non-mainstream media, evidence has emerged of government contracts and appointments awarded to her husband, William Gannin Ormsby – a man with a criminal record arising from an assault case in which he tried to have his name suppressed – and other members of their extended family. As left-leaning political scientist Bryce Edwards diplomatically put it: ‘There are no actual allegations of any unlawful activity, but just a general suggestion of nepotism.’

The various strands of this tangle of potentially conflicting interests are too complicated to unpick in detail here. Suffice it to say that Mahuta’s husband owns a consulting firm that has won government contracts worth tens of thousands of dollars, including two from government departments in which Mahuta exercised ministerial authority. Another consultancy firm owned by two of Orsmby’s relatives won another contract worth $65,000, again when Mahuta was associate minister of the department concerned.

https://spectator.com.au/2022/08/a-very-talented-family/

What a shame that the New Zealand media, with the exception of Kate McNamara from the Herald, is so blind to the multiplicity of talents of the Mahuta-Ormsby whanau. There’s a treasure trove of stories for them there, if only they’d open their eyes!
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August 25, 2022 8:25am
- Stellaboxer
  
  Tony they have their eyes shut because they don’t want to open them in case they see something.
  
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  August 25, 2022 8:40am
- septic skeptic
  
  Open their eyes – and their wallets, to repay their PIJF funding.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:09am
- Harry Knuts
  
  Makes you wonder how long the Mahuta-Ormsby tribe have been planning and scheming this for. 3waters, He Puapua report and what are the other surprises we are in for. There will be more and rammed in by election 2023 with the full support of Cindy.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:16am
  - JimBobJoe
    
    Since the 1850s or so… When ever the Kingitangi movement started.
    
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    August 25, 2022 1:23pm
- Phronesis
  
  Strange that while focusing on nepotism he failed to mention that Mahuta and her husband are first cousins. Relatively common in many parts of the world and primarily practiced to keep resources within the family. It’s the ultimate in favouring your family over better qualified outsiders.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:22am
  - Paulus
    
    Historically marriage within close family has been known as consanguinity.
    It affected the UK Kings some generations ago, which is why outside marriages from overseas came into fashion.
    One of the biggest Health problems today in the UK is in the Health cost as many immigrant (read Muslim) families co relating with their close family and some strange menal problems arise from there.
    In some areas of the UK it is well out of hand.
    
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    August 25, 2022 3:25pm
Opie

https://i.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/300670348/olympic-champion-tried-and-tried-to-save-dying-partner-after-cardiac-arrest

Hmm.

Why are so many fit people dying from heart problems?

A tragedy of course, all I can ask is that the medical people are running a spreadsheet with date of vax and how many, vs date of heart attack. But they won’t be…
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August 25, 2022 8:26am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Didn’t you read the explanation in the Whoreald a few days ago? “Sudden Adult Death Syndrome” (SADS) is a real thing and has been around forever and is totally and irrefudably (sic) nothing to do with any rushed policy to stick an experimental technology into everyone in the country, including children who are at absolutely zero risk from covid, and anyone saying differently is a right wing, misogynistic, anti semetical, climate change denying bigot and potential domestic terrorist.
  
  Jeez! Pay attention! //
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:24am
  - Opie
    
    Don’t forget I’m also a wascist.
    
    11 2
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    August 25, 2022 9:32am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    No sarc, that is all true.
    
    15 3
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    August 25, 2022 9:37am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Imagine if they kept figures along the lines of “died within 28 days of a vaccination or booster shot” like they did with covid deaths……..
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:25am
  - quarterpack
    
    ClanMcleod….Thought you’d be much happier today now that you have your very own political party to vote for
    
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    August 25, 2022 3:51pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

US. Some fun with Generation Z. Remember, these people are the future of USA. Don’ they have Schools there?
https://dailypoliticalnewswire.com/watch-gen-z-fails-to-answer-embarrassingly-easy-questions-how-many-stars-are-on-the-united-states-flag/
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August 25, 2022 8:34am
Maggie Pie

Good morning to everyone except this economy destroying Labor government of division and hate…. and all the gullible, low IQ retards who support them.

Here’s looking at you Clunt.
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August 25, 2022 8:36am
- Harry Knuts
  
  Clunt will read this a bit later once he’s finished crying under a blankie cause everyone’s is now being mean to Aunty Cindy.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:08am
- Frank the tank
  
  Clint is too busy convincing Our Glorious Leader not to hit the eject button while his mate Neale is push polling to see who is the least, least desirable amongst poor man’s Gordon Brown, Peewee Wood and Mahutacorp.
  
  It’s interesting that so few understand that those 2 clowns are amongst the top 5 most powerful people in New Zimbabwe.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:22am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Too many letters in the surname Maggie – I understand…….
  
  16 3
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  August 25, 2022 9:26am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    No no…..there’s 5 in Smith as well.
    
    13 3
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    August 25, 2022 9:32am
    - ClanMcleod
      
      lol I forgot it was the first name. Duh.
      
      8 3
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      August 25, 2022 9:51am
  - Tricati
    
    Maggie can’t remove the ‘L’ as Marama (Davidson) has already claimed that word.
    
    8 1
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    August 25, 2022 10:32am
Padriv Ustoev

Member of NZDF killed fighting for an illegal regime in Ukraine.
Not a good look. What rank was he? Doesn’t look like a young private. Was he there on “leave” in an unofficial advisory capacity?
Is it legal for NZDF staff to participate in wars that NZ is not involved in? Anyway. Play stupid games win stupid prizes.
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August 25, 2022 8:40am
- mawm
  
  “On unpaid leave”. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!
  
  This is the same tactic that was used by the SADF when its serving members were fighting in Rhodesia – unpaid leave, paid by the Rhodesian military, no loss in pay and rank progression. I’m sure it is happening with all the 5 Eyes countries as they bolster the command and control of the Ukrainian military. All plausible deniability.
  
  Personally I believe we should not be supporting either side in any form what so ever. The longer it goes on, the more lives will be lost – and the outcome will still be the same.
  
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  August 25, 2022 1:20pm
- JimBobJoe
  
  Gee. One who think no Russian soldier not on official deployment has ever died while being an active participant in a war zone.
  
  Park your hypocrisy elsewhere lad.
  
  He took leave… See the story. He may be in breach of his employment contract but he was there in a private capacity…
  
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  August 25, 2022 1:31pm
- MCōs
  
  Get fucked, Ustoev
  
  3 7
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  August 25, 2022 3:10pm
Inandout

We have ram raids most days but will this be the next crime? That poor grandmother whose arm was severed while she was being dragged to her death by criminals is shocking.
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2022/08/24/tucker_carlson_carjacking_is_the_clearest_possible_sign_that_your_civilization_is_falling_apart.html
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August 25, 2022 8:53am
Maggy Wassilieff

When the Nats gain the levers of power again, they should look very carefully at all the contracts /arrangements Labour Ministers have set up.

Who remembers the origins of the Novopay debacle?

Talent2 was originally awarded the multimillion-dollar contract by the Labour Government on the recommendation of Education Minister Trevor Mallard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novopay

At that time Trevor Mallard’s advisor was Chris Hipkins.

But he said there were plenty more people to picket than just National MPs – including former Labour education minister Trevor Mallard and his then adviser Chris Hipkins.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/teachers-protest-novopay-problems/DWRMDCB6LLOJOCV6J77BM73TME/
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August 25, 2022 8:56am
- MCōs
  
  From the Wikipedia article
  “More than half of the 731 trial-users felt they were not ready for the system to go live but the Government went ahead anyway.[15]
  The system was last tested three months before it became operational, and revealed 147 software defects and made 6000 errors.[13] TV3 reported that Education Minister Hekia Parata, Associate Education Minister Craig Foss and the Minister of Finance Bill English were all informed about the ‘bugs’ in the system but ‘signed off on it anyway’.”
  So.
  Despite, or because of, the lengthy delays Novapay was implemented before it was ready causing all sorts of problems.
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:24pm
Maggie Pie

Revolution…..OR….. Evolution?

https://twitter.com/mikeall84403276/status/1562394459677278208

😀 😀 😀
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August 25, 2022 9:04am
- Benedict Yu
  
  That last photo is air brushed. This is the original:
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/9wTVNhyV5oxCGuV_dOnEy8BDRh0=/1200×675/filters:quality(70)/cloudfront-ap-southeast-2.images.arcpublishing.com/nzme/SQPD6YMBBYD3JV2QDKORAE2OTA.jpg
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:23am
  - Maggie Pie
    
    LOL!!
    
    22 4
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    August 25, 2022 9:27am
  - ClanMcleod
    
    BY – wonderful, I love your posts but sometimes thought you maybe lacked a sense of humour, apologies for my wrong assumption……!
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:29am
- ClanMcleod
  
  Fark, Clark looks like Darth Vader revealed…..
  
  19 2
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  August 25, 2022 9:28am
- Nickc2
  
  Little wonder the wedding’s been delayed eh?
  
  17 1
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  August 25, 2022 10:14am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    “Cancelled” is the word Jaspinda used. There is a lot more going on than what the media is telling us.
    Read between the lines of those who she associates with. Mentioning it here would probably get me in KB jail.
    
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    August 25, 2022 12:00pm
Rusty

Liked Mike Hoskins write up in the herald this morning under the heading “Labour has lost the elections already”

But why does it take a radio talkback host to point out Labours consistent failings and wrecking of this country in NZ’s biggest newspaper?

Are all our media on tv and print reluctant to speak their own minds on the fiasco’s of the Labour govt or do they all agree with them?
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August 25, 2022 9:10am
Padriv Ustoev

There can only be two Sith at any one time. The master and the apprentice.
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August 25, 2022 9:11am
Alex

What a good way for the ORC’s (Russians ) to help the Ukranians celebrate their Independence Day by killing and injuring a few more of them at a railway station.
Currently the Ukrainians are being blamed for assassinting Alexander Dugin’s daughter Darya. Her father is known as Putin’s brain.
RIP NZ soldier on leave killed there.
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August 25, 2022 9:13am
Benedict Yu

Excellent pick up by Cactus Kate.

https://asianinvasion2019.blogspot.com/

The new Speaker Adrian Rurawhe is not only a member of the cult of the Ratana church. His great-grandfather was the founder. He voted against the abortion reform Bill.

So Chris Luxon – who was not even an MP when the Abortion liberalisation Bill was introduced – is hounded for his supposed ‘anti abortion’ and religious views. Yet the new Speaker – who is a member of a religious cult and who is on the record as voting against abortion liberalisation, is rewarded by the Labour Party with one of the highest offices in the nation.
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August 25, 2022 9:21am
- Frank the tank
  
  I wonder if like Mahutacorp, he changes his mind when further up the food chain.
  
  Best scene of the day the duck sitting next to the good Doctor. Lol.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:24am
- Ehlana
  
  Altogether now: “It’s different …”
  
  36 0
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  August 25, 2022 9:34am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I said it in my head
    
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    August 25, 2022 9:51am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  I am pleased to see a member of the Ratana Church as the Speaker.
  
  He will have the support of some other Ratana adherents in Labour (Kiri Allan, Rino Tirikatane) and will not be in the grip of the Waikato-Tainui-Kingitanga group that seems to have the upper hand in the Labour Caucus at the moment.
  
  p.s. I’ve known folks of the Ratana faith for all my life.. They are no more cultish than RCs, Quakers or my Buddhist mates.
  
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  August 25, 2022 9:37am
  - Benedict Yu
    
    “p.s. I’ve known folks of the Ratana faith for all my life.. They are no more cultish than RCs, Quakers or my Buddhist mates.”
    
    Thanks for that.
    
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    August 25, 2022 10:10am
  - Cassandra
    
    Elevating a current person to prophet status is cultish. Quakers is not a cult. That Ratana was a good man doesn’t change it but it does make it better.
    
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    August 25, 2022 10:14am
  - curry4me
    
    Don’t forget Mike Moore was a member of the Rstana church. I heard him say so, at a Uni of Canterbury function in the 90s. RIP Mike.
    
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    August 25, 2022 10:48am
  - Ehlana
    
    Which probably makes them about as “cultish” as Christopher Luxon’s denomination. Does anyone actually know what it is?
    
    8 2
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    August 25, 2022 10:50am
    - Maggy Wassilieff
      
      According to folks who give a damn, he describes himself as a non-denominational Christian.
      
      https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/national-party-leader-christopher-luxon-on-why-he-stopped-going-to-church/TFTD7WXSMQYX3X5IWWVFAVQWUI/
      
      14 1
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      August 25, 2022 10:59am
    - Pineapple Lumps
      
      Cult is defined by not believing the biblical prophecies have all been fulfilled by Jesus Christ. So any religion based on Judeo and/or Christian base that assumes a more modern prophet than Christ is a cult. These include:
      Islam – Mohammed
      Mormon – Joseph Smith
      Not that I know anything about it – Ratana
      
      For Christians, regardless of denomination, Christ is the fulfilment of all prophecy. There are many that have clearly been fulfilled, and some that are written but have not yet come to pass.
      
      The ultimate being that Christ has authority over all rulers on earth and in heaven. For a time it will not appear that this is not the case but there will come a time when this authority will be on full display for all to see.
      
      Ultimately this is why Christianity clashes with all non-Christian faiths, including the non-religious religions of liberalism, communism, aethism, materialism. They are all confronted by Jesus being the way, the truth and the life and there is no way to God except by him.
      
      Luxon can be a bible believing Christian without having to belong to a Church denomination. That doesn’t make him a cultist.
      
      Some here dismiss this faith in God as belief in sky fairies. For those that do this I’d like you to try to conduct a thought experiment, in which you start from the basis that there is a being with the power, creativity, intelligence, and depth of love that created the universe, the billions of stars, planets, moons. Our solar system, the earth, the ecosystem, the systems of tides and seasons. They have made all living things, big and microscopic.
      
      Can you conceive from the works that produced how this being when compared to us is infinitely powerful, infinitely creative, infinitely intelligent? If you can truely comprehend this being as a possibility then it is impossible to comprehend it as sky fairies. In reality the sky fairy dismissal says everyone who believes in this being is crazy to me. But that in itself is a faith position – just a different sort of sky fairy really.
      
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      August 26, 2022 12:17am
  - Cactus Kate
    
    I would rule them less cultish than the largest cult of group think at the moment being that of man made “climate change”.
    
    13 2
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    August 25, 2022 12:53pm
- Nickc2
  
  Notice to Jessica, Tova, Mikey Sherman and the MSM in general: Come on you biased bastards, spin the Govt’s way out of this.
  No, thought so, crickets chirping eh?
  
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  August 25, 2022 10:20am
Maggie Pie

And can anyone name a BIGGER scam than Climate Change?
45 4
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August 25, 2022 9:31am
- Jimbob
  
  Ah, no.
  
  12 3
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  August 25, 2022 9:41am
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  Reincarnation
  Life after Death
  Communism
  
  24 8
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  August 25, 2022 9:47am
  - RoboRob
    
    Communism for the win 🙂
    
    15 0
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    August 25, 2022 10:12am
    - mawm
      
      Fiat currency? (I suppose crypto as well)
      Liberal Democracy?
      
      4 0
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      August 25, 2022 3:10pm
  - kowtow
    
    First two the individual gets to chose the belief . So that’s fine by me.
    
    Last one is imposed , usually by violence .
    
    8 1
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    August 25, 2022 1:10pm
- Gravelroad
  
  Dunno, but I can put you in contact with a Nigerian Prince, or two, or three, and you can consult them for some financial advice – won’t cost you much…….
  Also, you may recall the great Year 2000 celebrations where people all over the world sat round at midnight and waited for all the computer systems to collapse – allegedly never to return.
  
  30 2
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  August 25, 2022 9:49am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    The Y2K was dumb. All you had to do was set your computer day and date to Jan 2001. Nothing happened. So many morons got taken for a ride.
    KISS, keep it simple stupid.
    
    20 6
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    August 25, 2022 9:55am
    - RoboRob
      
      No, thats not true.
      
      Y2K was a thing and many software developers worked very hard through old COBOL systems to fix date issues. Setting the date in these to 2001 would make the computer think it was 01 (they only stored the last 2 digits of the date). The impact on the functionality of the software could be minimal or break it entirely.
      
      The reason Y2k was a non event was the years in advance where devs tested the systems and fixed issues in advance. Of course this led to the common myth that there was no issue to be fixed.
      
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      August 25, 2022 10:16am
    - Swifty
      
      Not true Steve.
      
      I was heavily involved in Y2K work for one of NZ’s leading Telcos – in fact I was responsible for all system testing pre and post fixes.
      
      I can personally attest to the fact that it would have been bloody chaos had the upgrade work not been performed – I saw for myself the effects of unfixed telco systems moving past midnight and the errors and failures that then occurred.
      
      It was no con.
      
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      August 25, 2022 10:20am
    - zulumonster
      
      “The Y2K was dumb.”
      Not totally dumb – the organisation I worked for would have had some serious issues if remediation wasn’t done. Had to virtually bring Cobol devs out of retirement to fix some legacy code and some flash harry Java / C+ devs to put some fancy new stuff in … but the folks who did best out of it were the testers.
      Over hyped and a fair amount of scaremongering for sure … but many orgs ended up with updated, more robust and efficient systems than they previously had.
      Disclosure: I made good money out of Y2K
      
      18 1
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      August 25, 2022 10:45am
    - peterwn
      
      Actually any organisation using computer processors for critical functions (eg power companies and aluminium smelters) needed to be aware of the Y2K issue and take reasonable steps to mitigate risks. But it did not warrant the paranoia that Peter Dunne stirred up for his political reasons.
      There is also a potential Y2038 issue which could cause problems with some old embedded systems at that time.
      
      15 2
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      August 25, 2022 10:52am
    - greybeard
      
      And what happened to the year 2000?
      
      7 1
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      August 25, 2022 11:29am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      All of you are far smarter than me when it comes to computers.
      I changed the date to 2001 on our two desktops and 4 laptops and nothing happened. Maybe it was on commercial computers?
      
      8 3
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      August 25, 2022 12:07pm
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Gave you all an uptick – I know nothing of programing, just normal Windows shit
        
        10 3
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        August 25, 2022 12:10pm
    - Local Miller
      
      Actually Y2K was a real problem in some systems. I worked in IT at a bank, and ALL the dates on the mainframe databases were 2 digit years and would have given serious issues for those odd situations where calculations needed to cross the year 2000 boundary.
      We did a lot of work updating databases and code to convert everything to YYYY. Nothing went wrong because we fixed it all before it was too late.
      
      13 0
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      August 25, 2022 12:38pm
- ClanMcleod
  
  Covid.
  “Kind and caring” and “Leading with Empathy” Ardern.
  
  19 2
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  August 25, 2022 9:54am
- Benedict Yu
  
  I don’t need to try very hard:
  
  Homeopathy
  MMR autism
  Creationism
  Chromotherapy
  Astrology
  Electromagnetic hypersensitivity
  
  … I could go on.
  
  There is no doubt that the climate is “changing” and little doubt that carbon emissions are contributing.
  
  What may be termed a ‘scam’ is the proposition that this represents an emergency that warrants the types of policy responses being proposed, which are all going to impose costs that far exceed the benefits.
  
  29 1
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  August 25, 2022 10:17am
  - Nickc2
    
    If there was no such thing as climate change, apart from the obvious:
    
    The UN would be looking for another scam,
    Insurance Companies would be following the UN’s lead,
    Children would not be scared witless of weather events,
    Our Govt would be looking for an alternative source of finance,
    There would be plenty of electrical power,
    There would be no compulsion to buy EV’s and
    The World’s population would be a whole lot happier.
    
    Feel free to add to the list.
    
    13 2
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    August 25, 2022 10:30am
- Frank the tank
  
  Kung Flu jabs – all for a 2-day running nose and cough.
  
  13 3
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  August 25, 2022 10:42am
- Pineapple Lumps
  
  Aetheism
  Materialism
  Animism
  Mysticism
  Polytheism
  Evolutionism
  
  Grant Robertson’s economic theories
  
  Jacindas theories of kindness and leading with empathy
  
  1 0
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  August 26, 2022 12:21am
Frank the tank

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/08/24/jesse-watters-unveils-my-son-hunter-30-second-teaser-trailer-with-director-robert-davi/

Can someone do a similar film on the first man?
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August 25, 2022 9:32am
- Harry Knuts
  
  “Can someone do a similar film on the first man?”
  
  it’ll be out there, it just hasn’t surfaced yet. maybe waiting for the cancellation of the century.
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:47pm
ClanMcleod

El gato malo did a bit of fortune telling not so many months ago, accurately predicting that as the narrative crumbled, many of the smarter covidiots would quickly “change jerseys” and switch point of view.
This is happening rapidly, but there are a few holdouts, in particular Ardern and her mates who as el gato malo points out:

apart from a few holdouts lingering like mad eyed japanese soldiers still standing their posts on some forgotten pacific island in 1950 because they never got the news that the war was over, this is rapidly coming to pass.

In reference to Tony Ouchie Fauci, like Ardern, the cat notes:

i am seriously starting to think that tony is outright psychotic. this seems past the point of “i’m lying tactically for political purpose” and well into “the world’s most appalling cautionary tale on the dangers of cognitive dissonance in narcissistic personality types.”

As usual, worth reading in full.

https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/everyone-is-changing-jerseys-now
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August 25, 2022 10:04am
I remember when

Are the media failing to understand the real point of the Gaurav Sharma ‘bullying’ and expulsion.
The real victim is, of course, open and deep discussion and debate of issues and legislation.
Perhaps the timing is important as the Government introduces the Health and 3 Waters legislation.
Why this obstinancy?
The Government is trying to make Housing, Health and the Treaty their legacy.
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August 25, 2022 10:12am
Justitia

Three Waters: I am one of the many thousands of New Zealanders who took up the opportunity to make a submission on the Water Services Entities Bill to Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee, and who also asked to present their submission orally to the Committee. I did so in good faith and spent many hours researching the subject including by a detailed analysis of the draft bill and other, related legislation. I made a fairly detailed submission drawing on these sources and also relevant aspects of the Waitangi Tribunal’s proceedings. My conclusion and recommendation was that the Bill should not proceed but be withdrawn.

I have just received the following communication by email:

“Finance and Expenditure Committee
Water Services Entities Bill

Tēnā koe,

The Finance and Expenditure Committee has received your written submission on the Water Services Entities Bill. When you made your written submission, you indicated that you wished to make an oral submission.

Please note that the committee has decided not to invite an oral submission from you. Your written submission will be considered by the committee, and will help inform its examination of the bill.

The committee has made decisions on who to invite to make an oral submission, focusing on hearing from:

· Territorial authorities

· Mana whenua

· Rural water entities

· Water sector stakeholders

· Employment representative groups

· Environmental representative groups

· Financial representative groups

· Submitters who have made specific recommendations for improving the bill.”

The Committee has decided not to hear submissions from non Maori who recommend the bill’s withdrawal. This is a flagrantly racist and biased decision that undermines the authority of Parliament. The decision violates the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 on Discrimination.

As for the expression “Mana Whenua”, although it has been scattered elsewhere in legislation like the RMA, it has no clear legal definition. As the Waitangi Tribunal has said, it is not a valid Maori idea but is based on an English legal concept. The Tribunal’s main concern is that the use of the term may imply that,” only one group can speak for all in a given area when in fact there are several distinct communities of interest, or to assume that one group has a priority of interest in all topics for consideration”.

The Committee’s decision reinforces the suspicion that Labour’s 3 Waters project is nothing but a massive scam to confiscate publicly owned assets for the benefit of iwi corporations, and to lock in unwanted and anti-democratic constitutional change that denies equality of suffrage.

It must be opposed at every stage.
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August 25, 2022 10:22am
- kevn
  
  @Justitia… 31 combined councils are getting 10 minutes to present. A few patsy questions from ‘the committee’ and that’s the 10 mins all gone.
  Fraud process by fake pollies.
  
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  August 25, 2022 11:17am
  - info@cruzpro.com
    
    The first 30 of the 31 councils should take just a few seconds each to berate the Committee members for their callous disregard of freedom.
    
    The 31’st council member should then take all the remaining time to present a reasoned argument for rejecting the 3 Waters bill.
    
    Or the other way around. The first council member present the reasoned argument then let the expletives fly.
    
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    August 25, 2022 5:17pm
- septic skeptic
  
  National/ACT should view all this trampling over democracy as a useful precedent. 3-6 years of radical changes. Then maybe we can afford to go back to a properly functioning democracy. We certainly can’t continue to have the right hamstrung by democratic process and critical media scrutiny, followed by a left administration that rides roughshod over democracy while being cheered on by an adoring media. A circuit breaker is needed.
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:05pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  ‘Mana whenua’ makes it racist.
  No Pakeha allowed. 3 Waters must be stopped, extremely hard when you look at who is involved with Labour Govt people and Labour Council people.
  
  If the whole thing was reversed (Pakeha Govt and Council people) you would never hear the end of it!
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:20pm
- Nickc2
  
  This is outrageous Justina. This obviously racist decision needs to be heard by the courts. However, Cindy and the Govt’s Maori Caucus know the Govt is the highest court in the land.
  Surely, there must be some legal minds on KB who would know if a case has to be heard by a Court in NZ before an appeal can be made to the Privy Council.
  The New Zealand Courts Structures Bill was introduced into Parliament in 1996 to end New Zealand appeals to the Privy Council. However, it was withdrawn as a consequence of the 1996 Coalition Agreement between National and New Zealand First.
  Courtesy Google
  IMO, an appeal to the Privy Council would slow up the decision until a less racist regime is in situe.
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:54pm
thirteenstars

Lithium Lies, the inimitable Mark Steyn on how we’re destroying the planet to save the planet:

https://youtu.be/112fvwVvWpY?t=1599

In which he makes the point (as many of us do) that the goal of electric vehicles and the greening of the world is not to simply swap the combustion engine for electrics but to destroy the individual means of transport. Indeed, in a few years it’s going to come as a rude shock to all the luvvies who have embraced the Brave New World that the elites don’t really give a shit about the shortage of minerals to make batteries or the astronomical cost of power to charge them or the low speed limits and sub-standard roading network, since that was the endgame all along.

“Vauxhall Virtue Signaller”, what a giggle.
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August 25, 2022 10:22am
Benedict Yu

Babies and infants 6 months – 5 years became eligible for the COVID vaccine a while back in the USA. Only 3 percent of kids in that age group have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Yes 3 percent.

Now the experts are “alarmed”. It is hard to believe that a full 97 percent of parents are stupid.

https://www.politico.com/news/2022/07/14/young-kids-covid-vaccines-low-demand-00045706
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August 25, 2022 10:34am
- thirteenstars
  
  They aren’t, and I live for that glorious day after parents have been given control over their child’s education funding that only 3% of them are still dumb enough to send their kids to public schools.
  
  Humanity can save itself if only it’s allowed to.
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:36pm
I remember when

Bloomberg:
‘European power prices have surged so much that they’re now equal to more than US$1,000 a barrel of oil.
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August 25, 2022 10:36am
- thirteenstars
  
  I await the day, and that appears to be coming this northern winter, when it costs as much to charge an electric vehicle as it would to fill it with petrol.
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:39pm
Maggie Pie

HOLY OLEO, BATMAN!

https://twitter.com/SciExplorist/status/1561863393685823488

😎
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August 25, 2022 10:36am
- Don Beckett
  
  Have you seen an Australian flying fox – alias fruit bat – up close? They can get quite big – as big as a small dog plus the wings.
  
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  August 25, 2022 12:22pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    No, I haven’t tbh Don.
    Although I do remember when Shane Warne said….
    “Wuhan have won the toss and elected to Bat”
    
    LOL!!
    
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    August 25, 2022 12:45pm
ClanMcleod

If the UK government believes it’s own data, it should tell people not to get vaccinated

Steve Kirsch discussing the UK’s own data. Worth a good read.

https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/if-the-uk-government-believes-its?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
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August 25, 2022 10:45am
- mawm
  
  From that is a link to Dr TimE. In his post “I hope there is nothing to see here” he mentions that for each decade one ages their probability of dying goes up by a factor of 2 or 3. If you have been vaxxed (even 1 dose) your probability of dying has increased by a factor of 2 – 3. So if you have been vaxxed you have “aged” by 1 decade.
  
  He has 2 follow-up posts to that. In follow-up 2 he plots the ratio of vaxxed to unvaxxed for all cause mortality. It doesn’t look good at all.
  https://timellison.substack.com
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:33pm
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKIFIumG19c
Hannah Tamaki Speaks at Anti-government Protest in Wellington.

Hannah Tamaki speaking at the Freedom and Rights Coalition protest in Civic Square, Wellington. On Tuesday the 23rd of August 2022, thousands of kiwis from all over New Zealand gathered together in Wellington to protest against the NZ government and parties in opposition. Convoys of protestors departed from opposite ends of the country meeting in the middle at the capital city Wellington. Unlike the parliament protest that took place in February and March, this one was a one-day event and not an occupation. [2:13]
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August 25, 2022 10:51am
curry4me

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdR-j_XJ7jQ

Christchurch Council Candidates Interview series 1 – Mike Wilson

I caught up with candidate for Burwood Ward Mike Wilson, to hear about the man himself, and what he would like to take on should he gain a seat at the Council table. [6:19]
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August 25, 2022 10:51am
Takere

Well it looks like he’s piss’d so many iwi off with his claims of being “Tangata Whenua” everywhere and not manawhenua or manuhiri anywhere across the motu.

They’re all pushing back and pulling his bs fake confederation apart and claims too.
They’ve set up a website!

Majureys been outed!
Take a look. This is Auckland Councils Panuku chairman who is currently involved in court cases with other iwi where he has claimed interest(s) and also in the Human Rights Council Tribunal for breaches of the ToW for social housing as well as many other matters in other court jurisdictions. A main contributor to Auckland ratepayers and the councils $56m legal costs over the passed 5 years.
“Majureys (Dodgy) Moves!”

https://majureysmoves.wordpress.com/
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August 25, 2022 11:03am
Maggy Wassilieff

A long read … about the poor decisions being made around Energy in the West.

“The Energy of Nations”
Energy blindness is leading to policy blunder.

https://quillette.com/2022/08/24/the-energy-of-nations/?mc_cid=598040100b&mc_eid=4961da7cb1
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August 25, 2022 11:13am
Maggy Wassilieff

Hipkins intends doing away with the community-hub teaching scheme designed to improve learning and started by National.

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/473459/government-considers-cutting-3000-senior-teaching-roles-from-budget

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/422600/call-to-axe-100m-learning-scheme-and-redirect-funding
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August 25, 2022 11:27am
Maggie Pie

Crimes against humanity!

https://twitter.com/ElonNemethM/status/1560878573925404672
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August 25, 2022 11:36am
- mawm
  
  The full clip of Dr Pierre Cory giving evidence is worth listening to.
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:38pm
Jack5

The death of a New Zealander fighting in Ukraine raises questions.

Dominic Bryce Abelen is reported to have been on leave from the NZ Army when he was killed.

I doubt that he would have been paid so wouldn’t have been in breach of the Mercenary Activities (Prohibition) Act 2004, but what does the NZ Army think of soldiers on leave fighting in other forces?

The Stuff report of the soldier’s death includes:

Aaron Wood, spokesperson for veterans’ trust No Duff, said he was connected to a network of about 100 former or current NZDF soldiers in Ukraine, which for the past six months has been at war with invading Russian forces.

Are there more NZ Army soldiers on leave fighting in Ukraine?
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August 25, 2022 11:54am
- Jack5
  
  The Defence Force has clarified that uniformed members taking leave without pay are normally considered to be serving and are subject to various Defence Force orders.
  
  But, Radio NZ reports, they are able to pursue other employment opportunities and travel, with approval required to enter some countries – including Ukraine.
  
  Corporal Abelen’s leave request did not include plans to travel to Ukraine, the Defence Force said.
  
  “It is not known how many NZDF personnel on leave without pay may be in Ukraine. No personnel have been approved by NZDF to enter the country.”
  
  The Minister of Defence, Peeni Henare, has saidof Corporal Abelen: “He was on leave without pay … I’m advised that as they take leave without pay they are asked to instruct on where they travel internationally. Unfortunately in this case I understand that wasn’t advised that they would be going to Ukraine .”
  
  Henare said the Defence Force, on advice from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, would not approve any leave without pay for personnel travelling to Ukraine.
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:30pm
Maggie Pie

LOL!!
A bestie just tweeted my partner this and he’s DARED me to post it on GD.

https://twitter.com/MaryAnneGrace9/status/1562582533459832838

(There we go hun 😀 )
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August 25, 2022 12:10pm
Jack5

Watch out, Adrian Orr!

Commentators in the Telegraph are pointing to the Bank of England policies as part of the blame for the emerging surge of strikes and other industrial action in the UK.

Associate editor Jeremy Warner writes: “It all goes to show what happens when the Bank of England loses control of inflation.”
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August 25, 2022 12:16pm
Jack5

Biden cancels a swathe of American students’ debt at a cost to US taxpayers of $US300 billion (about $NZ485 billion).

The Wall Street Journal reports he will cancel $US10,000 in federal student loan debt for borrowers making under $US125,000 a year or couples making less than $US250,000 a year.

In addition, those who receive federal Pell Grants and make less than $US125,000 a year will be eligible for total forgiveness of $US20,000.

Investopedia describes these grants: “A Pell Grant is a federal subsidy awarded to students for post-secondary education. Pell Grants are awarded on the basis of financial need and, unlike student loans, do not have to be repaid except in rare instances.”

Biden is right that student debt saddles young Americans with vast debt. The same thing happens in NZ.

The real solution is to change job criteria and training, rather than push more and more occupations into formal tertiary-education training.
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August 25, 2022 12:46pm
- kowtow
  
  Perfect timing for a bribe prior to the mid terms which look like they were going to be a disaster for the Dumocrats.
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:26pm
Liberty

“RICARDO MENÉNDEZ MARCH to the Minister for Social Development and Employment: Does she stand by the application of sanctions to people who receive the jobseeker–health condition and disability benefit for “failing to prepare for work”; if so, what is the purpose of these sanctions?”

Would these be the same sanctions labour got all hysterical over? After luxons National party conference speach. It appears the Dole Minister was being very hypocritical
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August 25, 2022 12:55pm
surfing

https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/crime/razor-blade-attack-constitutes-strike-two
A prisoner has been jailed for seven years for slitting the throat of a fellow inmate – and he will serve every day of the sentence…Justice Kit Toogood….
”I cannot help but observe that your case proves that there has been an abject failure of the three strikes regime in acting as a deterrent.

Three strikes was always going to be dead in the water with judges like this. This judge takes one case and takes it as representative of all cases. Also, three strikes is also designed to keep dangerous people away from the public? That is above this judge’s pay grade.

This judge would have made a terrible scientist or mathematician. He isn’t even a very good judge either.

It’s an old case, but Mr. Wheble misbehaved again just today…

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/anthony-wheble-jumps-out-of-high-court-dock-interrupts-hearing/LUA7KN4QJPONJLDOPPVHKSSABQ/
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August 25, 2022 1:09pm
- kowtow
  
  Surely by his logic prison is an abject failure .
  
  That being the case why sentence the guy to more.
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:42pm
Maggie Pie

My partner’s mum was just saying she’s staggered to hear that Singapore has finally decided to legalise gay sex. Just in time for the worldwide outbreak of monkeypox.
Like she said……you can’t make this shit up.
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August 25, 2022 1:35pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Two of the Roast-buster men finally plead guilty to sexual assaults of under-aged school girls.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/men-who-caused-national-scandal-plead-guilty-to-historic-sexual-offending/MEFIXPXKGMCB7RRJNB5Y3IXD24/
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August 25, 2022 1:36pm
alex Masterley

Willie Jackson may be asked some awkward questions about this.
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August 25, 2022 1:58pm
Tauhei Notts

Tenby Powell has told the news media that he will help return the body of the dead New Zealander, shot whilst in the Donbass region of Ukraine. Mr Powell said it would mean travelling through Warsaw, then the Ukraine then back to New Zealand.
I wonder whether the former Tauranga City Council took travel directions from Mr Powell.
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August 25, 2022 2:05pm
- rangitoto
  
  Geography fail aside, I was wondering what the guy was doing there. Was he a Wagner Group mercenary fighting for the orcs?
  
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  August 25, 2022 2:45pm
Maggie Pie

I can only imagine the reaction I would have gotten if I’d turned up first day on the job dressed like a fucking Xmas-Tree. LOL!!

And the new Speaker has the truly disgusting habit of licking his fingers before turning the pages of his notes.
This is something he might like to reflect on 🙁
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August 25, 2022 2:16pm
- MCōs
  
  Drop him a note and point out his betters in Remuera are not amused
  http://www.etiquetaexcellencemanners.com/
  
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  August 25, 2022 4:50pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    You are sooo right Cossie!
    Finishing School never did me any harm.
    Taught me a lot about etiquette and good manners.
    
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    August 25, 2022 5:04pm
I remember when

Wasn’t it great to see Adrian Rurawhe’s tribal affiliates recognising his appointment as Speaker.
All those maskless singers standing above the totally masked Parliamentarians.
Lucky singing doesn’t result in the spread of covid.
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August 25, 2022 2:30pm
- mandk
  
  “Lucky singing doesn’t result in the spread of covid”
  
  It’s remarkable isn’t it?
  
  It’s like how, when you are walking around the mall, you are likely to spread covid. But when you sit down to drink a coffee, you are not.
  
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  August 25, 2022 5:17pm
Libertarians are right

So, two of Whitmer’s attempted kidnappers finally got convicted after no result in their first trial.

The defense strategy was to plead entrapment (obviously) but the Judge, who clearly wanted convictions had a great plan. Firstly, he ruled evidence of the entrapment (hundreds of text messages) inadmissable, then he restricted defense time with the prosecution witnesses to the time spent by the prosecution so the defense couldn’t do their time properly (i.e. grilling the agents on their contact and orders for the CIs etc), then when it came out that a juror had an obvious bias and wanted convictions, he had a meeting with the prosecution and that juror where he decided that the juror would remain.

What has happened to the US justice system?
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August 25, 2022 3:08pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Bryce Edwards on the Sharma exposé.

Sharma paints the Parliamentary Service, the main organisation that runs all of the resources and staff, as rotten and corrupt. He’s not the first to point this out, especially in arguing that politicians are being allowed to misuse taxpayer resources, but it reiterates that this is something politicians continue to be reluctant to reform or allow outside investigation of.

It seems we need to be constantly reminded that the political parties have voted to exempt the Parliamentary Service and Parliament from the Official Information Act. This means that the public, the media and watchdogs continue to have great difficulty being able to scrutinise what goes on behind the walls of power in Wellington.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/political-roundup-labour-party-expels-gaurav-sharma-why-the-saga-is-important/7OEVKA7SV6ERG6UTTNCIBCOKQE/
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August 25, 2022 3:16pm
- greybeard
  
  Bryce Edwards should know better than to end a sentence with a preposition.
  
  “…politicians continue to be reluctant to reform or allow outside investigation of.”
  
  Not acceptable, Bryce !
  
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  August 25, 2022 5:01pm
Paulus

Remember the Parliamentary Office until yesterday were the fiefdom of bully Mallard.
Now the new Speaker a Ratana decendent and Church Memeberbwill look at things differently despite being a Labour Caucus MP.
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August 25, 2022 3:32pm
Maggie Pie

Watched a bit of QT on-and-off to see how the new Speaker performed.

What really caught my attention, was just how much National MP Erica Stanford looks like Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

Just saying.
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August 25, 2022 3:33pm
- skyblue
  
  Both are hotties.
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:39pm
- Jack5
  
  Which of them would you prefer for a daughter-in-law, Maggie?
  
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  August 25, 2022 3:49pm
- mandk
  
  Erica is better looking.
  
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  August 25, 2022 5:13pm
rangitoto

Auck CBD under Cindy’s rule

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/129680219/two-stabbed-outside-auckland-town-hall-during-graduation-ceremony-in-unprovoked-attack
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August 25, 2022 3:54pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Don’t stop your car in Auckland.

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2022/08/auckland-crime-witness-horrified-after-two-men-leap-into-motorist-s-car-beat-driver-in-brazen-daytime-attack.html
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August 25, 2022 4:26pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  The usual suspects Maggs.
  Imagine what it would be like if yet ANOTHER Labor endorsed Mayor lands the plum job again 🙁
  
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  August 25, 2022 4:57pm
- kevn
  
  @Maggy… Our SA friends have an answer to that problem. Sill mounted (along the lower car body under the car doors) flame thrower install. Push a button and the unwanted door knocker gets zapped with flames thrown out under gas pressure.
  Sorted. Drive away briskly.
  
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  August 25, 2022 5:55pm
  - Maggie Pie
    
    Sounds similar to what I’ve got.
    A can of Oven Cleaner in the center-console with a doctored nozzle.
    
    5 1
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    August 25, 2022 6:23pm
    - kevn
      
      @Maggie… Aerosol deodorant squirted over a flicked on cigarette lighter. Yep, more directional.
      ‘go away you bad boy’…
      
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      August 25, 2022 7:06pm
Maggy Wassilieff

Trevor says sorry

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/473503/former-speaker-trevor-mallard-apologises-for-issuing-winston-peters-with-trespass-notice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSHaCzb3yYk
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August 25, 2022 4:33pm
- Maggy Wassilieff
  
  And Trevor leaves the new Speaker to cover for his own irrational, bullying behaviour.
  
  https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/129686713/speaker-adrian-rurawhe-apologies-to-winston-peters-for-parliament-trespass-order
  
  and of course Our Dear PM is nowhere to be seen.
  
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  August 25, 2022 4:37pm
  - Ghost
    
    She’s trying to record videos of her parting, but just can’t get a take that doesn’t include kindergarten kids
    
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    August 25, 2022 5:22pm
All_on_Red

Just for Wayne Mapp
‘California is poised to ban the sale of new gas-powered (petrol) vehicles by 2035.
-the California Air Resources Board will issue the new rules …which would require 100 percent of new cars sold in the state to be free of carbon emissions’
https://www.theverge.com/2022/8/24/23320148/california-gas-car-ban-2035-ev-climate-change

Meanwhile, present day;
‘California… has asked its residents to avoid their air conditioners in the midst of a heat wave to prevent rolling blackouts, again’
https://www.outkick.com/california-energy-flex-alert-tomi-lahren/

This disconnect amongst our so called ‘leaders’ is just crazy.
Then there’s the disposal issue of batteries and wind turbine blades.
They will have to be buried. Maybe a landfill on the North Shore.
‘Bayswater Battery Dump’
Wayne would be ok with that
//
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August 25, 2022 4:34pm
- Mike
  
  Why do you hate the planet?
  
  2 8
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  August 25, 2022 5:17pm
  - Alan Wilkinson
    
    I don’t. Just Wellington.
    
    6 0
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    August 25, 2022 8:09pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Make the Dump in Lower Hutt too.
      They deserve it and no one will notice. Its a shit hole.
      
      4 1
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      August 25, 2022 8:31pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Its full of Incel grumpy old men like you?
    LOL
    
    5 1
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    August 25, 2022 8:28pm
- gravedodger
  
  That will be interesting All on Red, must be gunna use plastic as steel has carbon added to the iron to make the steel. and aluminium needs lottsa electric to turn the bauxite into the metal LoL
  
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  August 25, 2022 5:19pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Yeah, these people and those whose espouse this bs are just ignorant morons
    
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    August 25, 2022 8:30pm
mandk

Reason #417 no to grant Mallard a knighthood: https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2022/08/winston-peters-receives-apology-over-parliament-trespass-notice-after-taking-action-to-high-court.html

Mallard is dishonourable through and through.
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August 25, 2022 5:10pm
fernglas

Rishi Sunak belatedly says “I told you so”. Shame he didn’t at the time.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/08/25/rishi-sunak-mistake-empower-scientists-covid-pandemic/
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August 25, 2022 5:27pm
Prince

Is there no way of removed stupid judges ?
https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/129670937/mother-of-teen-killed-in-crash-heartbroken-after-drivers-charges-wiped
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August 25, 2022 6:34pm
Maggie Pie

And tell me this…

Who else do you know that wears a TIKI the size of a fucking pumpkin?

https://twitter.com/mrs_wiggley/status/1562605533776867328

LOL11
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August 25, 2022 6:46pm
- Ghost
  
  Size of tiki is to compensate for the size of
  
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  August 25, 2022 7:39pm
Ghost

Thank god

‘Obsessed with doom’: Greta Thunberg has ‘gone bust’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHZym4QG7UQ
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August 25, 2022 7:37pm

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