General Debate 09 February 2023

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Mike

Happy Saint Apollonia’s Day!
She was reputedly martyred in Alexandria during the Decian persecution of the third century. Her torture included having all of her teeth violently pulled out or shattered. Consequently, she is the patron saint of dentists.
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February 9, 2023 8:01am
- cmm
  
  Mike, do you use multiple accounts to uptick yourself and downtick people multiple times?
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:26am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    I assume that question is rhetorical
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:44am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Amazing what you can do with VPNs
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:15am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      You can also have several different operating systems on the same machine operating simultaneously via virtual machine apps. The generic NPC (aka normie/sheeple) probably just uses a PC, a phone and an iPad though.
      
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      February 9, 2023 3:57pm
  - Don Beckett
    
    I upticked him – he got it right, but only failed to mention that she was burnt to death by a hostile crowd who had joined the persecution of Christians in the 3rd. century.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:58am
    - Colville
      
      Patron saint of dentists being burnt alive….
      
      A foreshadowing of what most people want to do to their dentist when they find out what that 20 minutes in the chair cost them…
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:55am
      - Don Beckett
        
        😆
        
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        February 9, 2023 2:51pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    I asked to display usernames against down-votes to see if there is a pattern but was told by many just don’t worry about it. “She’ll be right” strikes again.
    
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    February 9, 2023 3:59pm
    - Mike
      
      Used to be the case here, in good/bad old days, I think.
      
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      February 9, 2023 5:27pm
  - Mike
    
    No.
    
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    February 9, 2023 4:03pm
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Bicycle.
      
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      February 9, 2023 5:02pm
Ruahine

Te Reo. Mawhia Taake. Co-governance.

Te Tari Taake. Inland Revenue.

Te Iwi Taake. Clip the Ticket.
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February 9, 2023 8:08am
- G152
  
  The word taake is evident.
  Is there a giive?
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:19am
  - Tauhei Notts
    
    Yes there is.
    Te Tari Giivi is the Ministry of Social Development.
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:50am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      You know, I was dumb enough to check that! You never know what these crafty bastards are up to.
      
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      February 9, 2023 10:45am
- Pavel
  
  I’ve always thought of the ird as “Te Tare Taake Away”.
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:37am
  - Colville
    
    Is that IRD…
    
    “Its our job to be fair” ??
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:09am
- Yabster
  
  its all Taake Taake and no givie givie…
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:57am
  - hullkiwi
    
    Rather….gimeee, gimeeee
    
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    February 9, 2023 2:34pm
- Loddenthinks
  
  Taake Taake Taake – Inland Revenue.
  
  Fixed it.
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:44am
kiwikidsnz

I recently received advice from Genesis Energy on the removal of Low User Tariffs coupled with a 5X increase in daily charges over the next 5 years.

My typical annual usage is less than 4000kW/hrs so for me that means a Year 1 oncost of $126pa (incl GST) against a kW/hr consumption saving of $17pa. Over 5 years the daily charge oncost will increase to $633pa vs a consumption charge of ~$1200pa & the fixed daily charge proportion of my energy bill will increase from 10% to 50%.

While I’m sure moving as much as possible to a fixed cost pricing structure at a higher overall price point is excellent business for Genesis it doesn’t work at all for me, nor any low users (see graph in MBIE link below). It seems to me that the high salaried jobsworths at MBIE have been completely rolled by the Govt majority owned power companies & the “Independent” Electricity Price Review group in this & their stated logic while high on virtue signalling doesn’t seem to make basic commonsense. Poor people (& I’ve been one before) need to be able to exercise economic discretion as much as possible so having the opportunity to reduce variable costs when necessary is very important (yes even get another jersey on).

Electricity price change information | Genesis NZ (genesisenergy.co.nz)

Phasing-out low fixed charge tariff regulations | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (mbie.govt.nz)

I have started looking at alternatives & was pointed me to Nau Mai Ra Nau Mai Rā | Info (naumaira.nz) which has zero daily charges & their daily rate is the same as my Genesis Low User Tariff. I know they’re a startup who really struggled to survive a year ago however I’m seriously considering changing & I’d be interested if anyone has any comments +/- on this company or other alternatives.
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February 9, 2023 8:08am
- kiwikidsnz
  
  https://www.genesisenergy.co.nz/help/faqs/electricity-price-change-information?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20230124_res_elec_price_change&utm_term=&utm_content=faq
  
  https://www.mbie.govt.nz/building-and-energy/energy-and-natural-resources/energy-consultations-and-reviews/electricity-price/phasing-out-low-fixed-charge-tariff-regulations/
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:29am
- Maggie Pie
  
  We’ve been with Genesis for a long time as well.
  If we were going to look at alternatives, it won’t be the one you were pointed to. For the very same reason we stopped ordering from Dominos. They changed the name of all their kiwi favorit pizzas to Maori.
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:48am
  - The Boss
    
    I can recommend Powershop. Very easy to use, no surprises. All power is pre-purchased and you choose when to buy and what to buy.
    
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    February 9, 2023 1:39pm
- Jimbob
  
  Why use Genesis, the most expensive of all the providers. They sent me an account for $4,000 for 6 months electricity.
  I had the meter checked and everything, said it must be a mistake, they just laughed at me over the phone.
  I had to pay it. Think about that. Went Meridian, $129 per month.
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:51am
  - Loddenthinks
    
    You can complain to Utilities Disputes – info here: https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/others-who-can-help/complaints-a-z/utilities-disputes
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:46am
- RoboRob
  
  Wasn’t the low user charge removed at the request of the minister. If I recall Labour considered it ‘unfair’.
  
  We too were on he low user rate, part of my environmental efforts (actually just trying to save money, its capitalism in action).
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:00am
  - artemisia
    
    Believe you are right RoboRob. Maybe a different government will reverse it. Or even another Hipkins flip flop. Climate change and all that, LOL.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:12am
  - Master Mariner
    
    Yep it gave the people who paid there bills on time a discount,
    Apparently disadvantaged the People who never paid on time and hence Discriminatory.
    At least my understanding.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:55am
    - Nickc2
      
      That’s true. I was with Energy-on-Line (now Frank * Energy) and they advised that ‘Prompt-Payment’ discounts were to be discontinued by Govt Decree.
      When the current Govt is out of office, I want my ‘Prompt-Payment’ discount returned, single-use Plastic Bag rights restored, and freedom to decline mandated COVID-19 injections of all descriptions.
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:23am
    - Ghost
      
      I’d love to know how many of those people who were discriminated against for not paying their power actually pay it on time now. I’d guess none.
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:29am
      - Nickc2
        
        You’re onto it Ghost. Unpaid Power Bills disconnection procedures applicable in NZ.
        https://www.nzherald.co.nz/manawatu-guardian/news/know-your-rights-before-your-power-is-disconnected/H2TWS2ZTN2ERFF22STBSU7UTLI/#:~:text=Usually%2C%20if%20you%20have%20not,contact%20you%20about%20the%20issue.
        
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        February 9, 2023 11:52am
Ehlana

Happy Chocolate Day

If you’re in the US, it’s also National Pizza Day

And perhaps not coincidentally, National Toothache Day.
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February 9, 2023 8:09am
Tony Stuart

As of 1 April 2023, if you are working 40 hours a week for the minimum wage, your annual income will be $47,237. If you’re in a job on an annual salary in the region of $50k, the minimum wage is fast catching up to you.

But wait; there’s more. If you work 41 hours per week on the minimum wage, you nudge into the 30% tax bracket, albeit on a very small portion of your income. That’s simply absurd.

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10160411850390210&set=a.80202730209

If ever there was an argument for indexing tax brackets to the rate of inflation, this is it.
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February 9, 2023 8:09am
- pdm
  
  Ah Inv you have not thought it through.
  
  Labour want two things:
  1. Working New Zealanders paying more tax.
  2. More beneficiaries.
  
  They are working hard (or more likely by accident) to achieve both.
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:16am
  - Gravelroad
    
    I always thought Labour was incompetent under the leadership of Ms Ardern.
    Now they are cynically incompetent under the brazen flip flops of Mr Hipkins.
    
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    February 9, 2023 8:24am
    - pdm
      
      Gravel – they probably think increasing their incompetence levels is a good thing.
      
      Succeeding at something at last!!!
      
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      February 9, 2023 8:30am
    - MiddleclassTrash
      
      Think of it as a diversity of competence goal achieved.
      I’m pretty sure that’s how they see it.
      
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      February 9, 2023 9:02am
    - Matt Long
      
      These flip flops are a great thing, if Hipkins was to reverse every single thing Labour has done in the last five years he would be New Zealand’s greatest ever Labour Prime Minister.
      
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      February 9, 2023 10:17am
    - Paulus
      
      No ! Hipkins is a lovely little boy who is following in his former lying and obfuscating Mistresses footsteps, but he really has no idea where he is going – so any road is taking him there in hope !
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:01am
    - Jim
      
      Gravel, yep they have the same Finance Minister who (regardless of the PM) is continuing to slowly strangle the economy, big government spending, systematically squeezing the NZ business sector, whilst receiving the highest tax take ever.
      
      Despite Robbo’s hubris, an amateur economist’s 2023 assessment suggests that 10-15% of smaller business will fail, mortgage interest floating rate will hit 10%+, leading to 5% of over leveraged new homeowners will have homes repossessed, CPI will be ‘reported’ (lol) to be holding around 7% but reality is more like 12%+, OCR will hit 6%, whilst unemployment rate will hit 10%.
      
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      February 9, 2023 7:27pm
      - NeverMindTheBollocks
        
        Don’t see it, myself
        
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        February 9, 2023 8:18pm
  - slightlyrighty
    
    I’ve always thought that if, according to stereotypes, National want policies that appeal to the well off, and Labour promote policies that appeal to those less well off, then it’s in National’s interest to create more well off people, and Labour are better served by making more people dependent in the state.
    
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    February 9, 2023 8:33am
    - Stellaboxer
      
      Slightly Labour have vested interest in keeping the poor poor and Māori in grievance and poor. If they did anything to really change things it would elevate these people out of poverty and into prosperity hence destroying their own voter base. I’ve been saying it for years.
      
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      February 9, 2023 9:32am
      - Loddenthinks
        
        So did Bill English, and implemented it with his social investment initiative, which was making good progress.
        
        But then we got a PM and Minister for Child Poverdy who said she would cure it all and promptly made it worse. #BeKind
        
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        February 9, 2023 9:48am
      - Matt Long
        
        She knew how to cure everything by Feelz, seen all the child poverty and homeless stories leading the new lately?
        Exactly. The best social investment a useless government can make is in paying off the MSM.
        
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        February 9, 2023 10:20am
      - Paulus
        
        Why does it now appear that there are many rather well off Maori now out of the 16% Maori population.
        The balance continue in poverty we are told, and that the well off ones complain, on their behalf, getting the gravy whilst the poor get the blame.
        
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        February 9, 2023 11:05am
      - Steve Otto(North Shore)
        
        Welfare dependent is what Labour wants. All for power, and no intention of getting their voters out of dependency.
        
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        February 9, 2023 11:13am
      - Ian Boag
        
        @lodden
        
        Bill English, and implemented it with his social investment initiative, which was making good progress
        
        FWIW I thought that this was a work in progress and the rubber had not hit the road when National left office.
        
        Stripped of the fancy words, it was basically targetted welfare assistance. As PaulL pointed out in a lengthy series of posts recently, targetted welfare creates problems with abatement and lowered incentives to go back to work.
        
        Not that this is a reason to bin the idea ….
        
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        February 9, 2023 3:48pm
    - Ian Boag
      
      it’s in National’s interest to create more well off people
      
      Fair enough. Just out of curiosity is there any evidence how well that worked last time they ran the show. Other than than for people who owned real estate.
      
      I don’t know where I would look for this sort of info (whatever it is). I am not trying to take the piss or score points ….
      
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      February 9, 2023 3:24pm
    - Jim
      
      Including the prisoner block vote (easy on MoJ)
      
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      February 11, 2023 5:21am
- slightlyrighty
  
  In Australia, the minimum wage is $21.38, and after tax, would be a take home pay of AUD $742.20 for a 40 hour week after Tax and Superannuation.
  
  In NZ, the minimum wage will be $22.70, resulting in a Take home pay of 756.65, unless you’re contributing to Kiwisaver, which will drop your pay to NZD $730.00.
  
  At current exchange rates, with the current tax rates in NZ, a worker in NZ would need to be on $26 an hour to gain parity with an Australian Minimum Wage Employee.
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:30am
  - Yabster
    
    thats like comparing the minimum wage of Samoa to Fiji though??
    
    NZ has the hidhest minimum wage to % of the median income in the OECD – just pumping up the minimum wage does nothing for the overall economy- and it creates relativity issues as pointed out by Tony.
    Invest in training, technology, use our natural resources better- get productivity up- lift everyone up is the answer.
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:02am
  - Wayne Mapp
    
    Slightyrighty,
    I am not entirely sure of the point you are making here. For me it shows that the NZ minimum wage is a much higher percentage of average wages than in Australia. Given that Australian GDP per capita is about 30% than that of NZ.
    
    DPF has commented on this point a number of times. That among the OECD nations, NZ has one of the highest minimum wages as a percentage of the median or average wage. Tends to hold back growth.
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:12am
    - cmm
      
      Whatever result you want can be had by using a different measurement and claiming that it is “good” or “bad”.
      
      What is really, really bad is a high minimum wage compared to the lowest level of skilled work.
      
      What’s to motivate a person to get on the skill ladder when there’s little incentive?
      
      For example take a young person setting off on a career as an electrician. If they do pre-trade studies they are getting no pay, then they get into being an apprentice and they get a bit more than minimum wage, then, eventually they get qualified and earn more.
      An unskilled person playing lolly-pop man on a road work site on min wage (or maybe a bit more) will out-earn them for the first 10 years of their career.
      
      It’s the same further up the chain too. Look at a person going to university and becoming a programmer vs a person becoming a truck driver. The truck driver will earn more in their first 15 to 20 years than the programmer will.
      
      What the minimum wage does is compress pay scales, thus reducing incentives. We are all driven by incentives. Nett result: performance and productivity are reduced.
      
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      February 9, 2023 9:23am
      - Nickc2
        
        I agree. Nurses are making that very argument as we speak and I wish them well. Maybe then, we’ll be able to retain some of our Nurses in-country and recruit more Nurses off-shore.
        
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        February 9, 2023 9:30am
      - I remember when
        
        ‘What the minimum wage does is compress wage scales’
        It also limits the ability of employers to reward high performing staff.
        Reduces wriggle room.
        
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        February 9, 2023 9:38am
      - Blackbob
        
        My son qualified as a software engineer with a BSc. Within 2 years of starting work, after his 3 year degree, he was earning $120k.
        
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        February 9, 2023 9:41am
      - Master Mariner
        
        Yep, Really as simple as Maslow’s Hierarchical Needs.
        “1. Physiological needs – these are biological requirements for human survival, e.g. air, food, drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, sleep.
        
        If these needs are not satisfied the human body cannot function optimally. Maslow considered physiological needs the most important as all the other needs become secondary until these needs are met.
        
        2. Safety needs – once an individual’s physiological needs are satisfied, the needs for security and safety become salient. People want to experience order, predictability and control in their lives. These needs can be fulfilled by the family and society (e.g. police, schools, business and medical care).
        For example, emotional security, financial security (e.g. employment, social welfare), law and order, freedom from fear, social stability, property, health and wellbeing (e.g. safety against accidents and injury).”
        
        Unquote.
        Ask yourself , How has Labour achieved the very basic first 2 ( out of 5 ) in the above context ?
        1.Physiological needs
        2. Safety needs
        
        Thoughts.
        
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        February 9, 2023 11:06am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      Overall cost of living in NZ is much higher. “Generous” minimum wage gets eaten up very quickly.
      
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      February 9, 2023 4:03pm
    - Bullion
      
      If increasing min wage “tends to hold back growth” then no one can argue that min wage will increase inflation, in fact you could argue the opposite.
      
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      February 10, 2023 12:47pm
  - edhunter
    
    Also the employer has to contribute 10.5% to the employees super. Not sure if that is taken into account in the minimum wage, but on the factory floor the only hourly rate that counts is the one you see in cold hard cash in your bank account.
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:27am
    - Ehlana
      
      10.5%? Is that in Australia? The NZ employer contribution to KiwiSaver is only 3%.
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:24am
      - edhunter
        
        Australia-the employee can also ‘salary sacrifice’ more if they so desire.
        
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        February 9, 2023 11:39am
      - Nickc2
        
        Aust Compulsory Superannuation.
        From July 1, 2021, the Superannuation Contribution was legislated to rise in half-percent increments from 9.5 % each year until it reaches 12% of wages in 2025.
        On reaching retirement age (65) you can cash in your Superannuation or start drawing it down in increments. If receiving it in increments, the Aust Govt will mandate the drawdown rate. They don’t want family wealth passed down the Family Line (inheritance wealth), they want you to spend all your money before you croak (of course, this is/was an Aust Labor Govt mandate but in my time there, there was much talk by successive Coalition Govts to reset or rescind the draw-down requirement but they couldn’t get it through their Upper-House (Senate).
        
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        February 9, 2023 11:44am
  - surfing
    
    The NZ minimum wage is 75% of the median wage.
    
    The Aussie minimum wage is 60% of the median wage.
    
    Makes NZ minimum wage look pretty high.
    
    Interestingly, Aussie incomes are significantly higher than ours. This will worsen as Jacindas educational legacy ruins the nation further.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:36am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      surfing: “Interestingly, Aussie incomes are significantly higher than ours. ”
      
      Generally yes. Also once you know the ropes, the cost of living is significantly lower (if you can manage not to spend like an idiot).
      
      However, Aus Labor (sic) and associated idiot parties are currently working hard to destroy all that.
      
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      February 9, 2023 4:29pm
  - Handyman
    
    Labour said they had increased the minimum wage by 7%.
    It is more correct to say Labour have increased the minimum wage to partially compensate for the inflation caused by Labour.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:49am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Nice. The Govt forces a minimum wage pushing many into the 30% tax range. There fore the Govt gets a tax hike. While it may be small, all the small takes add up.
  There are many on the minimum wage doing shitloads of overtime to get ahead. Overtime I mean say 20 hours over the 40. I did it when I was young.
  Indian givers, give with one hand and take with the other. How guilty do you feel Grant Robertson?
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:48am
- RoboRob
  
  Thinking about this over night and I actually think the minimum wage increase was all politics. It aceives two major things for Labour.
  
  1) They can claim that they are fighting for the little guy and have taken steps to help kiwis with the battle on inflation.
  
  2) More importantly for them, this is a missave smoke screen for their policy U turns. The debate on the minimum wage has sucked the air out of questions about policy flip flops and 3 waters avoiding the axe.
  
  Very clever politics but harmful to New Zealanders. My 17 yr old son on the minimum wage is very happy but him and his friends didn’t need the extra money. Most of the people on the minimum wage aren’t supporting a family and in my sons case not even supporting himself (95% of his income goes into savings)..
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:05am
Yvette

Prime Minister’s Waitangi powhiri speec
Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern. February 5, 2018
… So when we return, in one year, in three years [and it is just three years from then], I ask you to ask of us what we have done. Ask us how we have given dignity back to your whanau, ask us what we have done to improve poverty for tamariki, ask us what we have done to give rangatahi opportunities and jobs, ask us, hold us to account. Because one day I want to be able to tell my child that I earned the right to stand here and only you can tell me when I have done that
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/prime-ministers-waitangi-powhiri-speech.

“Ask us how we have given dignity back to your whanau”

Yay, Jacinda – you are the bomb.
You gave us unbridled Mana o te Wai Statements. They will be like Mana from Heaven“!
Those statements can be issued by Pipa Mahuta, Chair of the Maori Advisory Council to Taumata Arowai (the first of three pou, pillars, of the Government’s Three Waters Reform programme), and that has been established in law and actually in being for well over a year now, so Chippie might leave it in any “3 Waters” rehash because no one really knows much about them – Trojan Horse meet Sleeping Dogs.

So come stand here tūrangawaewae at Waitangi any time you want, Jacindarohanui! Even although you didn’t last weekend – really missed you at breakfast time.
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February 9, 2023 8:11am
Cassandra

Labour has handed National a stick to beat it with in postponing its unpopular policies. None of them are abandoned for all time, just delayed until after the election. They can’t even do this right. The biggie, 3/5/7 Waters aka Mafia Tahi, will be fine-tuned. If Tuku Morgan remains in charge of Entities A and B you can bet your bottom dollar (may as well, Labour will take it off you anyway) that this is different colour lipstick, same pig.
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February 9, 2023 8:13am
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Media merger and bio fuel are dropped permanently, I heard them say this is the bigger stuff yo be axed or delayed, so clearly the 29 billion dollar light rail will survive, utterly ridiculous
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:47am
  - Matt Long
    
    If you look at the poll that gave Hopkins the Prime Minister role, light rail was actually one of the most popular of their policies. So expect them to keep it on the radar and give their mates millions in consultant’s fee, but don’t expect it to be built.
    When light rail loses popularity maybe they’ll announce the purchase of the Springfield monorail.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:31am
    - G the giant from Dunedin
      
      We have seen polls on light rail before, even Aucklanders are opposed to it.
      
      So, you are happy for $29 billion to be spent on this project, that won’t even go to the airport, you still have to get off in Mangere and catch the bus, pathetic.
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:42am
      - ISeeRed
        
        Having lived in Bangkok many years, I loved their elevated airport rail link and connecting Skytrain network. Fantastic views but not advisable in an seismic zone like New Zealand. Shame, really.
        
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        February 9, 2023 7:08pm
      - marcw
        
        They were unloved by the people who lived next to or under them too.
        
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        February 9, 2023 7:20pm
Frank the tank

The next wave of RainCult is coming with the tropical cyclone.

I note how we are excellent with raising the fear levels but not so go with planning for the clean up.

I guess we had to manufacture some more scareporn given the Kraken variant of CovidCult was a fizzer.

Sadly 25% will be glued to their devices waiting for the next set of instructions.
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February 9, 2023 8:18am
- Frank the tank
  
  And while on the subject of RainCult.
  
  In regards to Swimsafe – If you believe they are actually testing the beaches for water quality – think again.
  
  It’s worked out via a computer algorithm. They have tested 1 beach over the last 2 weeks. LOL.
  
  Take their warnings with a grain of salt.
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:30am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Remote control by an algorithm while sitting in an office chair doing nothing.
    
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    February 9, 2023 8:54am
    - alex Masterley
      
      Steve. You forgot that they will be eating morning tea, elevenses, lunch and afternoon tea to fill in the day.
      
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      February 9, 2023 7:50pm
  - Keith White
    
    May have to take their warnings with Imodium.
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:11pm
- G the giant from Dunedin
  
  Heard the guy on tv reading the news, he pointed to a wind blowing down from north saying if it stays it will push the cyclone east, but media saying it will be a direct hit
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:50am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Scaremongering. Keeps the ratings up.
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:16pm
- surfing
  
  Just don’t remove your tinfoil hat, you’ll be just fine.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:39am
- Master Mariner
  
  Unfortunately so,
  However you can not fight nature.
  Let Darwin’s natural selection process begin.//
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:13am
Maggie Pie

A bestie retweets….

The good news is Labor wont be doing a lot of unpopular shit before the election.

The even better news is we can stop them doing unpopular shit after the election as well.

LOL!!
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February 9, 2023 8:29am
Pavel

Another stuff article that belittles anyone who they disagree with. The author has a lot of confidence in himself. No doubt he hasn’t been watching the congressional hearings in the USA but then NZ is always 2 years behind the rest of the world. Listening to these people is like listening to anti Trump supporters. TDS? I’ve got a new one; VDS, vaccine derangement syndrome, the same symptoms as TDS but bought on by a moral superiority by those who have taken the jab. Same rhetoric, different story.
https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/131169079/christopher-luxon-hijacked-by-antivaxxers-conspiracists-at-packed-public-meeting
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February 9, 2023 8:30am
- Theflip
  
  Perhaps Fauci admitting the mRNA jabs were a failed experiment and likely would not receive approval might finally pierce the shield of sanctimony of the “all jabs are good jabs” clowns.
  
  https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/dr-anthony-fauci-now-admits-the-mrna?utm_medium=ios
  
  Someone send to the indoctrinated Sean Plunket for his theory on you need to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:02am
  - krazykiwi
    
    Plunket stupidly nailed his colours to the wrong mast on so-called ‘vaccines’. I wonder if he’ll apologise? I’ve not visited The Platform since his attacks on those who chose to reject the experimental genetic injections.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:01am
    - cmm
      
      You’re joking right?
      
      These people have no ability of critical thought or introspection.
      
      What to do when you’re wrong: Double down.
      What to do when you’re still wrong: Triple down
      …
      Then, eventually blame the “scientists” for misleading you.
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:02am
  - Master Mariner
    
    “Someone send to the indoctrinated Sean Plunket for his theory on you need to break a few eggs to make an omelet.”
    Bugger Plunket,
    Where is MOH and Blomfield, Where is ex-PM.?
    Actually , The most important is “where are the Media” ?
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:21am
    - Keith White
      
      The MOH will not answer any inquiries on Teh Vaccine – refers you to MedSafe’s “findings”.
      
      MedSafe will not reply. Refers inquiries from patients to “your GP” and if you are not a patient, refers you to MOH.
      
      NZ Medical Council refers you to both MOH and MedSafe.
      
      Asking the NZ Medical Council (who register doctors, and can sanction and discipline them and deregister them…) to comment on the actions of politician-doctors results in this gem: “this (to be asked to comment) is not appropriate.”
      
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      February 9, 2023 12:16pm
  - virtualmark
    
    Having now read the paper that Alex Berenson points to … it’s clear that he’s (yet another) 1 1=3 person.
    
    The paper reads as a measured assessment of how and why it’s difficult to vaccinate against upper respiratory tract infections. There are highly effective vaccines against diseases like polio and measles. But influenza viruses and coronaviruses aren’t polio or measles … they have some unique characteristics that make vaccines very difficult. That just is what it is.
    
    Just a month or so ago immunologists were happy that the latest H3N1 (a swine flu) vaccine is 40% effective at stopping infections. That’s state of the art for H3N1. And I’m sure that low level of protection lasts less than a year.
    
    Too many people are demanding a unicorn when the current state of the art is the Shetland pony.
    
    If you really want to get freaked out at something go look at what might happen if H5N1 successfully jumps to humans.
    
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    February 9, 2023 5:03pm
- I remember when
  
  This is one of the reasons we need a full government enquiry into the covid epidemic.
  There is a real danger that the antivaxer brigade will be used as a counter to the personal choice vaccination decision argument.
  We must learn for the covid experience and ensure that all government decisions must be freely and openly debated.
  For some reason academia have developed a just the bit of science we agree with approach on many fronts.
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:02am
  - Pavel
    
    Until the msm cut the bias and start reporting neutrally an enquiry will be very hard to hold. The above article is not a neutral report of the days events. Instead we get the opinion of some journalist whose extreme bias is on full display. He mocks/bullies most of the people there on their personal apperance and dismisses them as lunatics. His attitude will never acknowledge these people’s concerns and will only lead to more division. With the amount of evidence piling up these people he belittled, and everyone else, should have their concerns taken very seriously. Has he ever considered that he might be wrong? He needs to be a bit more neutral because he runs a very high risk of being labeled a lunatic himself. It’s time for the NZ MSM to grow up a little bit, get rid of these lunatic journalists and install some people who will give us the mature, intellectual debate we so badly need to have.
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:55am
    - Paulus
      
      Why is it that many of our so called media Political Editors are women, obviously employed as the best people for the jobs (and of Irish extraction perhaps).
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:11am
    - NZer In Exile
      
      I wonder if there is a psychometric test for left wing lunacy?
      
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      February 9, 2023 4:34pm
  - cmm
    
    “This is one of the reasons we need a full government enquiry into the covid epidemic.”
    
    Any terms of reference will pull its wings off and make it into a poi-waving smokescreen.
    
    Waste of time.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:03am
- Loddenthinks
  
  I avoid $1uffed like, well, the plague but went there to scan that post. Bright red banner headline: BREAKING – Cyclone Gabrielle to bring ‘significant severe weather’ to almost anywhere in the North Island.
  
  Way to stoke that climate fear fire. No doubt this will be followed by:
  
  a) breathless statements that this really truly proves that climate change is real, and it’s her now, and we’re all doomed, and
  b) advice on how to stop your ~~children~~ tamariki from freaking out about the incontrovertible fact that we’re all doomed. Doomed I tell you!
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:20am
  - Jack5
    
    Will State TV, State radio, and subsidised newspapers and radio soon be calling the cyclone a huripara, a loan word from “hurricane”?
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:44am
  - Ian Boag
    
    BREAKING – Cyclone Gabrielle to bring ‘significant severe weather’ to almost anywhere in the North Island.
    
    Does that not qualify as news … ?
    
    As for the “climate change” stuff, it’s good of you to warn us that it is an issue ….. what the current mess does is to emphasize that there is little if anything we can do to prevent heavy rain episodes like this, so we have to look at the very non-trivial task of adaptation ….
    
    Just out of curiosity, what sort of evidence would you need to be convinced that the climate is changing?
    
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    February 9, 2023 3:08pm
    - All_on_Red
      
      Here’s some data for you
      Accumulated Cyclone Energy from 1980 to 2022 (note 30 years is needed for a trend)
      This is from National Oceanic Atmospheric Association.
      The data shows no increase in energy
      Then theres Total Count of Global Disasters 2000 t0 2022- slight decline
      Then there’s the total count of the number of strong to violent Tornadoes- which shows a decreasing trend – from NOAA Storm Prediction Centre
      https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2023/01/extreme-weather-events-declining.php
      
      Do you believe that science?
      Lol
      Bonus- are you aware the weather we are experiencing is influenced by the Tongan Eruption last year?
      https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/how-a-tongan-volcanic-eruption-almost-guarantees-a-flooded-summer-for-australias-east-coast/news-story/3b1be3a36b5681ce70d7327392ed0129
      
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      February 9, 2023 4:12pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        I believe in the scientific process. Not so much narrative pushing activists who somehow got a science qual or got into big name orgs (eg NASA) through grifting off fashionable/disingenuous political narratives.
        
        If you look at the hundred year trend (also a mere blip in the climate timeline) for global fires, floods, droughts, cyclones etc etc there’s also a big fat nothing burger to see! There’s also a nothing burger to be had on “accelerated” sea level rise. Most of this stuff in the shorter term is ocean heat sloshing around in blobs over decades and centuries. It’s therefore possible we “could” see a century (for example) of rising floods, droughts, fires etc etc. Yet when looking at all the other falsifications of the alarmist hypothesis (take the missing troposphere hot-spot for starters) that also would mean nothing!!
        
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        February 9, 2023 4:46pm
      - Ian Boag
        
        @Exile
        
        I get it. If we had a century of bad stuff, that would not be evidence that anything fundamental has changed …..
        
        Okay.
        
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        February 9, 2023 6:27pm
      - All_on_Red
        
        Ian
        30 years is the accepted period for data to be called a Trend but NZers point remains.
        Our lifetime is just a speck to the Planet.
        We are not even close to understanding the complexities of our Ocean currents. Some of which change over long periods of time.
        Did you read that Link?
        Just out of curiosity, what evidence would you need to be convinced that the climate isn’t changing that much?
        lol
        
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        February 9, 2023 6:34pm
      - NZer In Exile
        
        Ian Boag. No evidence anything we experience today is exceptionally “bad stuff” relative to what we know has transpired in the past (going by historical writings, proxy records such as ice cores, lake sediments, iceberg drop stones, tree line records etc etc. The climate phenomena of the last 200 or so years is just N O T “unprecedented”(contrary to the unsupported claims of the alarmist faithful).
        
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        February 9, 2023 8:10pm
      - Doc Holliday
        
        Storms are powered by heat in the ocean.
        
        Global warming is heating the oceans.
        
        Of course storms are worse, whatever data you find to suit your ideology.
        
        And stratospheric cooling has nothing to do with the ‘extra’ amount of water dumped as rain over Auckland when the storm came. Nothing.
        
        (By the way NOAA is —Administration not Association.)
        
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        February 10, 2023 12:53am
- coge
  
  I suspect there’s going to be a high number of these sort of meetings throughout NZ in 2023. Jacinda packed it in, with good reason. Doubt we’ll be seeing her ‘on the stump’ this year. The dehumanization, segregation and persecution levelled at the population last year, simply doesn’t belong in NZ. These things have nothing to do with being anti vax, or being ‘overweight and middle aged’. It’s a question of our most basic human rights. Chris Luxon appeared quite unwell after yesterdays foray. He going to have to get used to this, if he continues to fail to address the judgements he made last year.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:40am
Bridgenag

Josh Stirling: Dissecting Excess Death Data and How Insurance Industry’s Trillions Could Be Deployed to Help the Vaccine-Injured
American Thought Leaders, Epoch TV

https://open.substack.com/pub/metatron/p/josh-stirling-dissecting-excess-death?r=1aj1bv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
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February 9, 2023 8:37am
- CPB
  
  Thanks for posting this. Pretty sobering
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:48am
- krazykiwi
  
  The key here is Pfizer and their payrolled regulatory agencies have a very active interest in no one getting to the bottom of the excess deaths catastrophe, but the life insurance industry has a compelling reason to go there.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:04am
I remember when

You can’t have too many wind turbines.
Well not if you want to be able to produce enough electricity.
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February 9, 2023 8:41am
- cmm
  
  Actually, you can.
  
  One of the bigger problems with mind turbines only shows up later (and gets worse) as they get older: maintenance.
  
  They are a bugger to work on and all that maintenance has to be done for a relatively small amount of power.
  
  For example, a typical wind turbine generates approx 5MW in perfect winds (about a quarter of that on average – ie. just over 1MW).
  
  A typical coal or nuke generator generates 600-1000MW.
  
  Servicing a coal generator takes about the same effort as servicing around 2 wind turbines. They are relatively easy to service because they are built in halls with gantries etc. Turbines can be stripped in safety, in any weather. The poor guy trying to service a wind turbine in an off-shore wind farm has to wait for good weather and has a whole lot of safety problems.
  
  Thus, when looked at from the perspective of power output per unit of maintenance effort, the coal and nuke stations end up being hundreds of times better.
  
  When machinery gets older, power utilities become constrained by the maintainability of the equipment. So far we’ve only seen the very thin end of the wedge with wind turbines.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:12am
- Paulus
  
  I see in Scotland that they are now attaching a diesel motor to help the turbines go round, sometimes.
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:12am
  - cmm
    
    Wind turbines are not like the old water pumping windmills. They need power to turn them into the wind. They can either pinch that off the grid, have batteries or have diesel engines. They also need to be spun occasionally in cold weather to prevent ice build up. Again, that needs power.
    
    Indeed, there are some interesting “tuning” algorithms to point the turbines in the best direction to achieve the best outputs. Due to the way the wind turbines interact with eachother in a wind farm by stealing eachother’s wind etc) the tuning to get the best out of a whole farm is not necessarily the best for a individual turbines.
    
    Silly example: let’s say there are turbine A and B. If you maximise the power taken by A, then B might get 70% output max. But if you run A at only 90% then B might now get 81%. That more output achieved by degrading A.
    
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    February 9, 2023 2:40pm
Maggie Pie

My partner’s mum is over the moon! 😀

She just txt to say that the increase in Super after April will mean another bottle of her fave French Chablis every month.
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February 9, 2023 8:58am
- cmm
  
  How does she feel about inflation over the last few years meaning that she’s had to put five bottle back on the shelf?
  
  Now she’s only four bottles a month down.
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:13am
Tomtoddy

If you believe the MSM is not influenced by the taxpayers’ funding I have a bridge for you…….

MSM Headlines today: “Very smart policy changes give Hipkins momentum”. Really?? Smart??
“PM axes Ardern’s projects. Takes wind out of Nat’s sails” What?? Why not rip Labour apart for populist backtracking? Nah. Crap on the Nats instead.
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February 9, 2023 9:14am
- Nickc2
  
  The MSM are still on the Govt’s payroll.
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:17am
- Jack5
  
  It’s interesting that Stuff has revived a vintage reporter for its election-year coverage.
  
  It has harnessed Martin van Beynen, a former lawyer and long a court reporter who provided sterling coverage in the Bain and Peter Ellis cases.
  
  Van Beynen covered Luxon’s meeting at Rangiora, and highlighted the anti-vaxxers.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:58am
Biscuit

Not seen any data on actual increases in April, Maggie. Have you? Or the partner’s mum?

Those pesky overseas inflation rates plus, of course, the war in Ukraine must mean that even our brillz Labour Government’s economy management will see them needing to fork out close to 10% more than at present?

I told the partner that, if she is lucky, our controlled-by-me budget might allow us to buy half a dozen of them NICE pineapple marshmellow Easter Eggs.

[I’d tell you I can KILL for pineapple marshmellow Easter Eggs but my lawyers caution me that typing that in a public forum might prejudice any Pineapple Marshmellow Easter Egg Killer trial(s) I might face…]

‘Five for me, one for you’, my suggested split-up, saw me getting one of THOSE looks.
‘Four for me, two for you’, my counter offer, was rejected JUST as quickly.
Looks like ‘Three each’ might be as good as it gets for me, o darn…
Sniff, eh?
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February 9, 2023 9:24am
Maggie Pie

Time to bring in the pool-umbrellas 🙁

“We don’t say this lightly, but this is looking like one of the most serious storms for New Zealand so far this century.
The northern half of the North Island is especially exposed”

– WeatherWatch NZ (9 Feb.)
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February 9, 2023 9:24am
- Biscuit
  
  Just checked, Maggie.
  
  Down here in ‘The Riviera of the South’, the chance of rainfall goes up from 7% this a.m, to, yikes, 9% as from 2 p.m..
  
  Woe is us!
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:32am
- barnacle bill
  
  It is those bloody Trampolines that cause so much damage to other peoples properties that is the real problem.
  
  They should be banned.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:02am
  - Keith White
    
    Should we also not re-mention the danger of runaway pool umbrellas? Maggie’s neighbours approve this message 🙂
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:49am
- Frank the tank
  
  Good.
  
  Whenever they take the scareporn too far it usually results in a fizzer.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:57am
  - MCōs
    
    Which way would you have it?
    An unexpectedly intense downpour or one that wasn’t as bad as expected?
    Or no NIWA at all?
    Those buggers get it in the neck whatever happens, not the fools who advise it’s ok to build lavish houses at the to of a slip prone cliff.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:54am
    - Inandout
      
      MC, so a bit like Mayor Brown’s situation, buggered either way eh?
      
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      February 9, 2023 12:03pm
      - MCōs
        
        Nothing like Mayor Brown.
        NIWA is in the weather forecasting business (amoung other things)
        Brown must deal with the here and now.
        In that respect he failed to keep the city informed of what was happening, until late at night. He admitted as much himself.
        Not that he was the only one. Most councilors were conspicuously silent and local MPs were a mixed bunch.
        
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        February 9, 2023 12:44pm
    - Frank the tank
      
      Dear Cosy,
      
      I would like some proper reporting as such:
      
      1). Stop using hyperbole when describing events/phenomena
      2). Report on the facts not ‘reckons’ of left wing academics/public servants
      3). Stop using it as a soap box for ClimateChange and associated political activism
      
      In other words objective, rational fact-based reporting
      
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      February 9, 2023 1:03pm
      - Frank the tank
        
        And further stop using pictures of cyclones/systems 3 days out from the event….
        
        7 1
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        February 9, 2023 1:03pm
103PapPap

Has anyone thought deeply about the Labour Party and who, why and how they decided that Jacinda Adern and Grant Robertson were electoral toast, and that something had to be done in order to carry on with their secret socialist and Maori agenda?
How does a political party, whose elected parliamentarians show so much management incompetence, manage to achieve a complete senior management replacement with nary a comment from our ‘free press’.
This was the ultimate boardroom coup. Jacinda announcing her own demise (though through slightly pursed lips); Grant with his usual smug smirk replaced with the look of a schoolboy caught with his hand in the lolly jar. Gone are jazz hands and tilty head forever.
And this was all done without a single published rumour – not on this site anyway – that is really keeping things under control.
So many questions with the big one being ‘why aren’t our press asking these questions’, instead of blaming right-wing misogynists.
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February 9, 2023 9:29am
- Nickc2
  
  Misogynist, a word once made famous by Julia Gillard, a one-time Aust PM. However, in practice, it didn’t prevent her from having a string of men through her bedroom eh?
  Misogynist defined: a person who dislikes, despises, or is strongly prejudiced against women’
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:45am
  - MCōs
    
    “it didn’t prevent her from having a string of men through her bedroom”
    Is that right, Mr Nick?
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:47pm
  - NZer In Exile
    
    “Misogynist, a word once made famous by Julia Gillard.”
    
    I believe she was dog whistling to dumb misandrist women who would lap it all up without scrutiny.
    
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    February 9, 2023 4:51pm
I remember when

I was watching the ferry, drifting aimlessly, without power, on TV a couple of nights ago.
It made me wonder, if an EV battery caught fire while the vessel was operating in high swell, what would the odds be when it came to being rescued.
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February 9, 2023 9:29am
- Ghost
  
  https://www.autocar.co.nz/interislander-prepared-for-ev-fire-in-case-a-felicity-ace-incident-hits-here/
  
  7 1
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  February 9, 2023 9:34am
  - cmm
    
    “Ferry Masters can reject any EV they believe is unsafe to carry.”
    
    HTF would a Ferry Master be able to tell?
    
    I’d default to the position that the EV is unsafe unless they can show it has been tested and certified as safe by an authorised EV engineer in the last two days and has absolutely no signs of damage (eg. dents etc).
    
    I suspect though that such a safety-first policy would be career limiting.
    
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    February 9, 2023 9:57am
    - Steve Otto(North Shore)
      
      Compulsory Testing EVs. Just like testing for a Covid. virus. Positive and you are out, not going anywhere.
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:44am
cmm

It is both sad and funny to see many companies woke-choking themselves. I see this in a few of my larger tech customers.

For example one is a world leader in satellite signal processing with over 11,000 employees worldwide. A very key part to their technology is the design of the electronics that actually crunches the signals and produces the useful results for further processing.
So how many people do they have working on that? Less than 10 scattered over 5 different offices.
Try to get more people? Nope – gotta control head count.

Yet over the last 5 years their HR staff numbers have boomed. There must be at least 100 of them. These people are no longer really doing core HR function. Most run around doing woke posters and organising social media and “fun” activities for employees that eat into productivity. They cost a bundle. There doesn’t seem to be any head count control. They all find more useless crap to fill up their time (and take up other people’s time too).

If it was only one company, well let them crater. Nope, it is quite common.
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February 9, 2023 9:40am
Jack5

The difference between court sentencing in NZ and in the UK …

In Britain, a serial rapist policeman is given 36 life sentences, with 30 years before he can apply for parole. By then he will be 78.

And the case is being reviewed by the Attorney-General as an “unduly lenient sentence”.
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February 9, 2023 9:42am
- cmm
  
  He should have been a taxi driver from Bradford.
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:53am
- Jack5
  
  And what has our save-the-criminal system done to law and order in NZ?
  
  Not a zillion years ago, we tsk-tsked when returning holidaymakers told us how in Orlando or Los Angeles you had to drive with all car doors locked.
  
  Now, in Whangarei, a motorist is stopped, dragged from his car and beaten. His message: drive with your car doors locked.
  
  https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/whangarei-man-dragged-from-car-beaten-and-robbed-on-way-home-from-work/GQZQYZJGXFBCJKYQXLTA45R6HY/
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:08am
  - Keith White
    
    I thought the person attacked sounded like a very polite and patient man, refraining from commentary about the lack of police ‘service’.
    
    If he had shot the people who attacked him the police would have turned up there with the AOS promptly, and equally promptly arrested him and sent him off to be jailed for five years.
    
    Since he clearly identified the make and plate of the vehicle how can the police not already have apprehended the offenders – or at least located the address of the vehicle is registered to, and published the description of the legal owner? And why have they not published descriptions of the attackers? (yeah, I think we know why…).
    
    And why (other than that the alternative is imprisonment via the IRD), do we keep paying taxes to overfund New Zealand’s biggest and least efficient Blue Patched Gang… Coster crows about the incredible success of finding some floating drugs in the ocean. But has nothing to say about daily and nightly failures of policing where it matters more to individual taxpayers funding his bloated salary and perks.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:38am
- kowtow
  
  That’s if he makes it to 78 , being a cop in pokie and all that.
  
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  February 9, 2023 1:02pm
Yvette

Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson cites ‘no trust’ in defence of public media entity
“We need a trusted public broadcaster because national identity is incredibly important and no longer do people trust New Zealand television or New Zealand radio.”
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/475707/broadcasting-minister-willie-jackson-cites-no-trust-in-defence-of-public-media-entity

What happened to that then? – especially in Election year?
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February 9, 2023 9:48am
- Ghost
  
  Well mr willie, people do not trust New Zealand televisions, radio, or media because they have been corrupted by you politicians, and they have also taken funding from google on how they present the Covid story. Stuff refuse to print anything that doesn’t fit into their agenda. If you want people to trust the media then the politicians need to butt out of the media. The media have to fire their biased staff and somehow find a way to become neutral. In short you and the media created this monster.
  
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  February 9, 2023 9:51am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    I hope he reads that. I hope all of Labour read it.
    Can only give you one uptick Ghost.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:51am
  - Nickc2
    
    Forward it to:
    willie.jackson@parliament.govt.nz;
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:36pm
- David Lenny
  
  …because national identity is incredibly important…
  
  Don’t stop there , WJ. Since you’re in charge, you could:
  
  1) Comprehensively describe our national identity;
  2) List your criteria for including elements in the national identity;
  3) Distinguish between essential and non-essential elements of the identity;
  4) List your criteria for distinguishing between essential and non-essential elements;
  5) Discuss to what extent this described national identity is prescriptive for media and individuals.
  
  Without this information, I don’t trust NZ tv or radio or, especially, you.
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:15am
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    May as well ask Willie to define a Woman.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:52am
    - kowtow
      
      These days a willie no longer defines a man ……
      
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      February 9, 2023 1:01pm
  - Nickc2
    
    As a footnote to that, decree that the place for Maori Speak is the Maori TV Channel.
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:46pm
- NZer In Exile
  
  It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.
  
  Joseph Goebbels
  
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  February 9, 2023 4:54pm
I remember when

The Bureau of Land Management in an environmental assessment dated December, 2022, estimated that the complex energy facilities within an 89 miles radius of the town of Medicine Bow, Wyoming, including some 2,000 sq.m. of wind plants, operating, permitted and planned would lead to a mortality of some 28% of the local area population of bald eagles.
This greatly exceeds an estimated growth of eagle populations across Wyoming in general.
The local area population is possibly, according to research by a Laramie-based wildlife biologist, a North American continental population and the wind plants are right in the flyway.

I wonder if they have considered cameras on all wind turbines to monitor results!
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February 9, 2023 9:49am
- H. Upmann
  
  Cameras would provide the true numbers of all birds slaughtered by these killing machines and that is probably not what wind farm promoters want.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:36am
  - Keith White
    
    They’ve outsourced surveillance to Chinese ‘weather’ balloons.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:04am
- fernglas
  
  I don’t understand how these birds are dumb enough to fly into the blades of these turbines. Is this just natural selection at work?
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:36am
  - Keith White
    
    Birds in flight are as monocular as kids on smartphones. They look down, not ahead; they look for things to score (prey, for birds) and they are interested in things that look like them (other birds, for birds).
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:06am
    - Inandout
      
      KW, birds (if they survive the blades) learn very quickly where danger lies. Our tomato patch was invaded by a blackbird, despite the netting. One morning we heard a commotion and found our Foxie had trapped the blackbird in the netting, killing it. Other birds must have been watching as the tomatoes have remained untouched since.
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:13am
      - Colville
        
        Ha.
        
        Shoot one Magpie in a group and you wont get near them again.
        
        However Myna birds are dumb as rocks….
        
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        February 9, 2023 12:01pm
cmm

1News: ” Hipkins ditches several Ardern-era policies”

Calling policies “Adern-era” shows that Labour is really pushing hard to peg everything negative on Cindy as well as say that she (and these crap policies) are all in the past.

Nope, nothing to do with the new “refreshed, refocused, re-energised,..” Labour.

Poor Cindy. Three months ago she was a darling. Now she’s discarded under a pile of dusty old policies in the waste paper basket like an broken Barbie doll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LxTfB4rUPE
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February 9, 2023 9:51am
- 70andstilllearning
  
  Dump “Ardern-era policies” into a google search – multiple MSM hits nationally & internationally within last 24 hours. PM’s PR department press release/directive no doubt. Wonder what happened to the fourth estate’s originality.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:12am
  - kowtow
    
    I’m not worried about their originality , it’s their integrity that’s missing.
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:55pm
- Keith White
  
  I like the formulation ‘Ardern-error’ policies…
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:07am
- Inandout
  
  cmm, it happens with a new leader.
  ‘After the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev was one of several party leaders who jockeyed for the Soviet leadership. In February 1956 Khrushchev, by now established as leader, delivered a speech titled “On the Cult of Personality and its consequences” to the Communist Party Congress’.
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:08am
  - Paulus
    
    Was it not the drunken Kruschev that allowed Putin to serrupticiously take over ?
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:20am
    - Nickc2
      
      I think that was Mikhail Gorbachev (Gorby).
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:58am
    - Media hater
      
      Khrushchev died in 1971 so it seems unlikely he had a hand in Putin’s takeover.
      
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      February 9, 2023 12:00pm
    - Widogast Corwin
      
      It was Boris Yeltsin
      
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      February 9, 2023 3:09pm
  - cmm
    
    Pravda’s editor would have been quaking in his boots that a purge wasn’t going to see him having a 6am appointment with Mr Tokarev. He’s have been happy to run anything from the new Comrade Secretary’s office to show he supports the new leader.
    
    Not much difference in NewRowerLand except here we’re a bit more subtle and there are less bodies in the street.
    
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    February 9, 2023 2:48pm
Bruce C

This relentless increase of minimum wage is tiresome. A quick glance up any provincial Main Street gives insight into the harm it is doing. Consider minimum for a minute. Least experienced, least qualified, least reliable, least productive. When we coerce unearned pay rises for low contributing employees, those who deserve one often miss out. Consumer prices necessarily increase and service standards drop. Half of all phone calls to business already go unanswered. Hospitality is frequently running restricted hours. Small businesses are closing their doors and the incentive to have a go is being eroded rapidly.

Perversely, the school student with a part time job now has the most disposable income in many households. Was this the intention / goal?

$22.70 is the new $10.00.
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February 9, 2023 9:54am
- NothingLeft
  
  The increase is less than inflation, and the take home pay increase for those on minimum wage is substantially less than inflation. Labour’s inflationary mismanagement of NZ economy is robbing their supposed constituents of disposable income (not that they are intelligent enough to realize it)
  
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  February 9, 2023 2:05pm
  - cmm
    
    Everyone’s increases are less than inflation over the last year or so.
    
    The minimum wage drives all wages up. If a person was earning $5 more than min wage, they’d now expect to still earn at least $5 more than min wage otherwise they get resentful.
    
    Therefore, all wages will be driven up.
    
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    February 9, 2023 2:51pm
Gravelroad

“North Canterbury has more than its fair share of the lunatic fringe-diehard anti-vaxxers, incorrigible conspiracy theorists and wacky obsessives.”
So asserts reporter , Martin van Beynon on $tuff today.
Since when did people employed to report the news become experts on alleged population groupings?
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February 9, 2023 10:00am
- Ghost
  
  One of those people was a nurse who asked “ Are you aware of this FDA document that lists 1200 adverse events of these injections”.
  
  Perhaps the journalists should be asking about that instead of labelling medical professionals.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:05am
  - Gravelroad
    
    That’s one area in which the Labour government, aided by the likes of the judgemental Mr Van Beynon, has achieved a significant level of success – the breaking down of society by deliberately pushing hate and division.
    A society divided is a society under control.
    
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    February 9, 2023 10:38am
Maggie Pie

Actually I really miss posting shit about Cindy and ClarkE every day 😎
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February 9, 2023 10:01am
- Inandout
  
  Maggie, I suspect those two will now be rolling in it.
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:04am
- Frank the tank
  
  I don’t – it is always enjoyable when a narssacist fades into nothing. 2-3 months in they both will hate being out of the spotlight.
  
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  February 9, 2023 1:06pm
NoCash

Oh my goodness… I just learned that 48 yo Leonardo DiCaprio is dating a 19 yo model.

@Maggie Pie, what do the girls at the tennis club think about LD on this?
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February 9, 2023 10:13am
- Maggie Pie
  
  It’s all BS actually NC.
  
  He WAS dating a 19yo a few years back but he was only 40 then.
  Just because the papz caught him sitting next to a teenager at a nightclub…. suddenly he’s a pedo 😛
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:43am
  - the deity formerly known as nigel6888
    
    He normally ditches them as soon as they turn 25. Mr DiCaprio is gaining a certain reputation for cradle snatching….
    
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    February 9, 2023 1:20pm
    - Ghost
      
      Apparently some in the media have an issue with it, it’s legal, consensual.
      
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      February 9, 2023 1:34pm
  - mawm
    
    Have you ever noticed that when a 40 yo man scores with a 19 yo all the woman bring out the pedo slur but if a 40 yo woman dates a 19 yo man it “go girl!”?
    
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    February 9, 2023 2:30pm
- MCōs
  
  It’s all about the do re me.
  Saw a lot of that in Thailand. Woman provides the sex and the bloke props her up financially.
  Problems can arise if the chap decides to terminate the relationship. Stabbing, beatings from the real husband.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:59am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

All electric exploration vehicle in Antarctica upgraded because of climate change.
This is the shit that the crazies spread. Obviously it is charged by a diesel generator.
https://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/antarctica-s-only-electric-exploration-vehicle-was-upgraded-because-of-climate-change/ar-AA17eWGk
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February 9, 2023 10:21am
Surely Knott

Published paper written by 3 scientists one of whom is Fauci. Jan 2022. A few highlights…

Re Flu Vax
“After more than 60 years of experience with influenza vaccines, very little improvement in vaccine prevention of infection has been noted”.

“although current influenza vaccines reduce the risk of severe disease hopsitalization and death to some degree, their effectiveness is decidely suboptimal, ranging from 14% to 60% …Furthermore the duration of vaccine elicited immunity is measured only in months.”

“..the rates of effectiveness of our best approved influeza vaccines would be inadequate for licensure for most other vaccine preventable diseases”.

And it’s not just because they mutate that these vaccines don’t work well or last,
” Thus although genetic and antigenic variability of viruses like influenza and sars-cov-2 make vaccine design more challenging, these factors by themselves cannot fully explain the lack of elicitation of long-term protective immunity against other respiratory mucosal viruses like RSV like the more phenotypically stable RSV.”

“Taking all these factors into account, it is not surprising that none of the predominantly mucosal respiratory viruses have ever been effectively controlled by vaccines.”

Yet we still have Paula Penfold, stuff and the Herald writing aggressive articles labelling people anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists. When Fauci says the disease isn’t effectively controlled by vaccine. It’s not effective.

The same type of hateful anti vax labelling was used by media and politicians, Ardern, Wood, Bishop, Seymour etc. It is disgusting and evil and worse they were wrong.

Flu, RSV and Covid vaccines don’t provide lasting immunity and are not effective.

And by calling people antivaxxers and conspiracy theorists and writing fire and brimstone hateful articles about anyone questioning these vaccines , they have undermined trust in the medical system, vaccines in general including effective ones like the mmr, and trust in the media and in the government.

People have died from taking this garbage product. And the people who supported it still think they have the moral upper hand.
https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/pdf/S1931-3128(22)00572-8.pdf
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February 9, 2023 10:30am
- mawm
  
  The cynic in me says that paper was written to pave the way for mRNA vaccines for flu. Unfortunately for them the efficacy of and damage done by the mRNA vaccines for Covid19 has been exposed and will hopefully stop them going this way with vaccination against flu and many other diseases.
  
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  February 9, 2023 2:39pm
  - Ghost
    
    https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/news-releases/2022/november/penn-develops-mrna-flu-vaccine
    
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    February 9, 2023 2:41pm
- virtualmark
  
  As I commented a little above this … if you read the paper (https://www.cell.com/cell-host-microbe/fulltext/S1931-3128(22)00572-8#%20) it’s a sensible measured assessment of why upper respiratory vaccines are so difficult to develop and produce.
  
  It makes pragmatic observations about why influenza viruses and coronaviruses attack the body differently to other diseases, how that affects our immune response, and why that makes vaccines difficult.
  
  Given these challenges it’s quite likely we will *never* have a vaccine against influenza or coronavirus that is 100% effective against *infection*.
  
  The mRNA Covid vaccines are actually the most effective vaccines we’ve developed against an upper respiratory tract infection. So effective that it’s all but certain mRNA vaccines will completely displace the traditional grown-in-an-egg vaccines within a few years.
  
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  February 9, 2023 5:28pm
fernglas

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/300802597/north-koreas-kim-jong-un-gives-clearest-sign-daughter-is-heir-apparent
Even despots are becoming woke.
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February 9, 2023 10:34am
- Inandout
  
  fern, I read his sister was in line for the job. The daughter looks like a junk food person.
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:02am
Jack5

The Churchill legend continues …

Ukrainian President Zelensky tells of inspiration from sitting in Churchill’s chair on an earlier visit to London.

In Volgograd, formerly Stalingrad, Russia’s President Putin cites the famous battle, and doubtless visits the Stalingrad museum, where a prized exhibit is the jewel-studded Sword of Stalingrad presented by Churchill to Stalin.

No doubt this will piss off Mike/Mikenmild/Milky, who likes to bring up the Dardanelles campaign when anyone mentions Churchill.
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February 9, 2023 10:38am
- David Garrett
  
  Jack5: As you probably know, the Dardanelles campaign was a fuck up for several reasons, none of them down to WSC.
  
  1. The Navy landed troops in the wrong place, and left them there once they realised they had blundered;
  
  2. Having landed them in the wrong place the generals dithered about and wasted time while the Turks speedily moved large numbers of troops in what had been a lightly garrisoned peninsula.
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:06am
  - Jack5
    
    Good points, DG.
    
    Churchill also showed his mettle when after the Dardanelles campaign failed, he went on to the front line in the trenches of France commanding a battalion of the Royal Scots Fusiliers.
    
    On a more general point. We highlight the Turks repulsing the British (including Anzacs and Indians) and French in the Dardanelles, but seldom regard the over-all defeat of Turkey.
    
    The New Zealand mounted brigade, as part of the Anzac mounted division, was in that fighting, from the Sinai, through Palestine, and into Syria. Poster Mike/Mikemild/Milky also denigrates that by raising the massacre at an Arab village after a thief murdered a New Zealander. The allied troops’ reprisals led to a reprimand from the Allied commander, Allenby.
    
    I don’t know whether it’s just legend, but it used to be said that Allenby had shortly earlier ridden into Jerusalem with New Zealand mounted troops selected as his bodyguard.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:22am
    - fightingtemeraire
      
      Allenby Walked into Jerusalem. He did not ride as he thought it wrong as Jesus went in on a Donkey and he did not want to also look like the Conquering Hero.
      
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      February 9, 2023 1:50pm
      - Jack5
        
        Fightingtemeraire, you are correct. Allenby walked in and you can see a video of that in the link below.
        
        The Australians and New Zealand mounted division provided one of the four honour guards, and at 5:19 or abouts you can see them at the bottom of the picture in their Aussie slouch hats (the New Zealand troopers wore these, too).
        
        https://www.jerusalemstory.com/en/video/general-allenbys-entry-jerusalem-1917
        
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        February 9, 2023 2:05pm
    - cjn
      
      I understood that Allenby walked into Jerusalem as a mark of respect to an earlier man who rode on a donkey. The Levant is the final resting place of a great number of Empire and Commonwealth soldiers, all cemeteries being under the care of Muslim families.
      
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      February 9, 2023 7:39pm
  - Inandout
    
    DG, speaking of dithering generals, Stephen Fry is not too far from the truth.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcIV5tU_Zik
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:19pm
  - fightingtemeraire
    
    The Turks knew they were coming as they had steamed up the Dardanelles blasting everything, they could several weeks before.
    
    Problem was they lost battleships as they steamed into a mine field.
    
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    February 9, 2023 1:52pm
Ghost

Wow, happy for the Auckland floods because it keeps your school out of the papers

A leaked email has revealed a Dunedin principal said a silver lining to the deadly Auckland floods was keeping a story about her school off the front page.

A pre-dawn blessing was held at Trinity Catholic College on January 28, to mark a new era for the school after changing its name from Kavanagh College.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/auckland-flood-news-had-silver-lining-for-otago-school-principal/K7E3BQI2BJBVTJZGLZAETPIIU4/
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February 9, 2023 10:41am
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Stop Co-Governance. Julian Batchelor.

“The only racist in New Zealand are the so-called “Maori-elite”, a misnomer of the highest degree. And it is time the rest of New Zealanders stood up and said that to them, the government, and the prostitute media.” cont…..

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/blog/2023-set-to-be-year-of-heavy-psychological-warfare-part-2/

https://www.stopcogovernance.kiwi/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Paul-Spoonley-183-years-after-the-Treaty-of-Waitangi-lets-stop-talking-about-racism-and-start-add.pdf

The Hosk:
https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/opinion/mikes-minute-co-governance-is-not-the-way-forward-for-new-zealand/
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February 9, 2023 10:41am
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  Co-Governance just makes sure Racism breeds.
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:42am
Ghost

It seems we are not sending any rescuers to Turkey

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/turkey-syria-earthquake-who-and-what-countries-are-helping-massive-aid-effort/CTIOL7LOMVH7VJEQ7PAG5W7OPE/
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February 9, 2023 10:52am
- Inandout
  
  Ghost, and why should we, considering the distance?
  
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  February 9, 2023 10:58am
  - Ghost
    
    New Zealanders and officials go remember Anzac Day at Gallipoli, yet for a country that holds such importance to New Zealand we give them $1.5 million. Australia has offered to send 84 soldiers to help, we’ve offered bugger all.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:05am
    - Ipanema69
      
      The Aussies have a C17 that they can load up with the 84 troops and their kit and send more or less immediately (and get them there in around 24hours). We dont have the same capability to rapidly deploy.
      
      If you spend money on the military you can get the capability but I guess Grant would rather invest in mongrel mob lead drug rehab courses.
      
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      February 9, 2023 12:23pm
      - Ghost
        
        I’m sure the aussies would be more than happy to give our people a lift
        
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        February 9, 2023 12:28pm
      - NoCash
        
        Many countries including China use commercial airliners to send aid and rescue workers over to Turkey, so I don’t think it’s a valid reason to not offer help due to not having a C17 or two.
        
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        February 9, 2023 1:56pm
  - rockape
    
    Didn’t the uk send teams to Christchurch and you don’t get much further than that!
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:21pm
    - Ghost
      
      In response to a request for assistance from the New Zealand Government, we sent a self sufficient search and rescue team of 63 experts drawn from the British emergency fire and rescue services, including trained paramedics. The UK team are now fully absorbed into the Christchurch search and rescue effort.
      
      In addition, our offer of support in the process of Disaster Victim Identification has been gratefully accepted by the New Zealand authorities. A 10 man team, specially tailored to support the local authorities, has arrived in Christchurch and will provide essential support and expertise in helping to identify any potential British victims and bolster the New Zealand authorities in their wider identification process
      
      https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-government-response-to-the-new-zealand-earthquake
      
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      February 9, 2023 12:26pm
- David Garrett
  
  Ghost: According to CGTN – one of only two free to air channels in Tonga – the country has been renamed Turkiye Do MSM down in New Zealand use that new spelling?
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:01am
  - Ghost
    
    Radio NZ do but not stuff, herald, one news or newshub
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:21am
  - Maggy Wassilieff
    
    RNZ did a couple of days ago.
    
    https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/483795/government-to-donate-1-point-5m-to-help-turkiye-and-syria-with-disaster-response
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:28am
  - Jack5
    
    But the Turks want an umlaut over the “u” as in “Türkiye”.
    
    Okay if we also use “Roma” for “Rome”; for Moscow “Muskva” (a phonetic translation from the Cyrillic); “Warszawa” for Warsaw; “Praha” for Prague; “Alqahira” (phonetic from Arabic script) for Cairo.
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:51am
    - Observer of Life
      
      Munchen (Munich)
      
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      February 9, 2023 11:15pm
- Ehlana
  
  No, I understand we are not sending rescue teams as they have many arriving from closer places. According to the AM show this morning, Turkey didn’t request that. But we will be sending support people to assist with the mammoth task of moving on after the initial rescue phase.
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:04pm
Maggie Pie

RANDOM IMPERTINENT QUESTION….

Was there any reference to ‘AOTEAROA’ in either the English or Maori texts of the ToW?

Asking for our neighbor.
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February 9, 2023 11:31am
- Ghost
  
  Nope, it’s a new invention
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:36am
  - David Garrett
    
    Ghost: To be more accurate, it was a late 19th century invention
    
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    February 9, 2023 11:44am
- H. Upmann
  
  Nu Tirani is the term used in the ToW.
  
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  February 9, 2023 11:38am
Jack5

Here they go again …

The subsidised news media are drumming up support for the Maori-dominated Geographic Board out to rename Northland’s historic Russell. Partly its to divert public attention and anger from inflation and other Ardernist fuck-ups. But mostly its ethno-nationalism.

FFS, let it be Russell when using the English language, and Kororeka when using Maori language, or just freedom to use which you want. Kororeka for Maori and non-Maori Wokies, and Russell for others.

Place names naturally evolve. Does anyone know who first made “London” an official name? It was dominant then official.

As part of the Stalin-scale plan to replace the main language of this country with an NZ Pidgin, there is an official drive by the geographic board of appointees (including one from mountaineering clubs) to force change on us.

Think of St Petersburg to Petrograd to Leningrad and back to St Petersburg.

Leftists love buggerising round with place names.

NZ has an obvious solution: dual names, with English names when using English and Maori names when using Maori language.
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February 9, 2023 11:37am
- Don Beckett
  
  It’s ‘Kororareka’ – not Kororeka.
  London was named by the Romans around 50 AD when they took over the British Isles. They called it Londinium.
  
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  February 9, 2023 12:02pm
  - Yabster
    
    blue penguin soup anybody? ffs- some woke prick said Russell history doesn’t count- ie the last 180 years are not history?
    
    The Geographical board coming to a town near you…
    
    Doing this by submission is bs (as we know the activists/iwi will put in submission- and anyone putting in a negative one will be ignored)- the residents should get to vote.
    
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    February 9, 2023 12:42pm
  - Jack5
    
    Re Don Beckett at 12.02.
    
    Thanks for pointing that out Don B.
    
    Kororareka sounds like an old Tiger Moth warming up at a farm air strip.
    
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    February 9, 2023 2:13pm
- Maggie Pie
  
  I see where Dame Jenny Shipley also came out in favor of the name change.
  
  Mind you she also teared-up at Waitangi when referring to the late Titewhai Harawira as…. ‘a treasure’
  
  My partner’s mum wondered what planet she was on these days.
  
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  February 9, 2023 1:22pm
- Tauhei Notts
  
  Why did Kororareka become Russell?
  Because in the 19th century it was the hell hole of the Pacific. Many of the dregs of European and American society descended upon that settlement. They were whalers and sealers and other run-aways.
  One of the reasons that Maori wanted a Treaty was so that they would be protected from that scum of the earth. The scum that had brought copious quantities of rum that had a deleterious effect on the natives. The randy bastards who, for three or five muskets, would deflower the Maori maidens put on offer.
  
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  February 9, 2023 4:46pm
Maggie Pie

Headline in this mornings Herald…

‘ANZ TRUCKOMETER shows traffic flows easing as economy cools’

– Liam Dan.

Well one of the girls from tennis has called BS on that!
She was just telling me it took her more than 50 minutes to get from St Heliers to the Club yesterday! Missed her game of Doubles.
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February 9, 2023 12:11pm
Colville

Comedy gold..!!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=5718014914963590
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February 9, 2023 12:14pm
- Swifty
  
  Hahahahaha!
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:22pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Sadly this is how much people have been dumbed down.
Wonder how it would work in NZ?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYhTFz_SGw0
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February 9, 2023 12:38pm
- Don Beckett
  
  Yip, I’d take the Hershey bar every time. 🙂
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:07pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Even if it was lead, scrap value is more
    
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    February 9, 2023 5:45pm
graham

If I started talking about a vast surveillance program, orchestrated by Government-controlled bodies, which uses satellites to spy all over the world …

… and these satellites could be used to launch weapons …

… and that when some people think they’ve seen a UFO, it’s really one of these spy satellites …

… and the Government that I reckon is behind it all says don’t be daft, the satellites are purely innocent and used for “research purposes” … WELL THEY WOULD SAY THAT WOULDN’T THEY!!!

If I started talking about such things, I’d be laughed at and the media would shake their heads at my conspiracy theories™.

But replace the word “satellites” with “balloons”, and instead of me it’s now the US Government saying all this … suddenly it’s perfectly feasible.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/07/china-spy-balloon-intelligence/

Because Governments never lie and they never indulge in conspiracy theories™ …
.
.
.
.
.
To be clear, I’m not saying that the US Government has suddenly lost their collective marbles; they’re probably right. What I am saying is, wouldn’t it be nice if the media could start weaning themselves off their addiction to accusing people of conspiracy theories™ and jeering at them, just because they can’t bring themselves to look outside of their own insulated little bubbles.

Wouldn’t it be nice if the media could actually start doing true investigative journalism again.
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February 9, 2023 12:44pm
- rockape
  
  They may even have some pride in their profession when they stop taking their masters dollar !
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:23pm
Steve Otto(North Shore)

Bob Jones.
” fined $1000, he asked the judge if paying $2000 would allow him to do it again.”
https://www.nzonscreen.com/title/eyewitness-news-bob-jones-punches-reporter-rod-vaughan-1985
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February 9, 2023 1:23pm
- Bobba Fret
  
  Those were the days. Bob would probably be done for hate speech nowadays.
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:31pm
Paulus

Do I hear that there are some things before the election of new importance.
Student Loans – disadvantage girls as they owe more than boys.
There are many more of them getting loans at Uni and other secondary education areas.
What are the Government doing to not to disdvantage girls now ?
Ardern would have known the answer.
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February 9, 2023 2:07pm
Jimmy Brown

Is it just me or is KB getting harder and harder to read with all the bloody ads screaming at ya face.
Pain in the ass.
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February 9, 2023 2:15pm
- greybeard
  
  I use “uBlock Origin” on my laptop: it handles just about everything. The only drawback is that it also removes saved logins/passwords, but for me that only means email login and KB login.
  It is free.
  https://ublockorigin.com/
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:27pm
  - Ghost
    
    It shouldn’t do, I use ublock origin on the computer. It shouldn’t have anything to do with your passwords.
    
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    February 9, 2023 3:34pm
    - greybeard
      
      Which OS are you using?
      Mine is Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
      
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      February 9, 2023 3:39pm
      - Ghost
        
        Windows 10 and kde neon
        
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        February 9, 2023 3:54pm
- Steve Otto(North Shore)
  
  What ads? They now block over text.
  Install Adbock Plus. Blocking 13 now.
  
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  February 9, 2023 5:50pm
Maggie Pie

PINK has announced she’s touring here again in 2024!

Just heard her being interviewed on ZB expressing her love & admiration for Jacinda. She tweeted the same sentiments when Cindy resigned as well….

https://twitter.com/Pink/status/1615962261734191105

OMG – check out some of the replies 😀 😀 😀
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February 9, 2023 2:32pm
- NoCash
  
  Pink, Stephen Colbert, and Cindy should get a room to show their love for each other.
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:22pm
  - Steve Otto(North Shore)
    
    Add the Pink Terror from Auckland.
    My head hurts now.
    
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    February 9, 2023 5:59pm
- Surely Knott
  
  Pink “partnered” with Pfoszer to advertise the covid vaccines.
  
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  February 9, 2023 3:47pm
- kevn
  
  @Maggie… Pink prob has some admin person doing her twitter stuff.
  
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  February 9, 2023 5:12pm
Chris Nisbet

Honestly, the way our weather is presented to us nowadays (warmer than normal!, drier than normal!, wetter than normal!, predictions of catastrophes that _might_ happen, I really don’t know if I should take these latest pleas to “prepare for the worst!” seriously.
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February 9, 2023 3:24pm
Surely Knott

Terfs are modern atheists.
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February 9, 2023 3:33pm
Prince

In the ‘this must be satire’ category (except NZ does not do satire any more, the Govt is so incompetent that satire would be too cruel), this is part of Hipkins’ statement yesterday…
“I said the Government is doing too much too fast, and that we need to focus on the cost of living. Today we deliver on that commitment.”
Yes indeed, the Govt is delivering on its commitment to stop doing a lot of stuff that was essential yesterday, not so much today.
No detail on savings, or what will happen to the overpaid bureaucrats (eg Tracy Martin) that are now twiddling their thumbs in expensive office space even more than last week.
As for the cost of living, by their own admission the minimum wage increase fuels inflation, while ignoring wages for 90% of the working population.
Thanks, but I’m not sure I can take much more of your ‘focus’. Can we have an early election please.
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February 9, 2023 3:55pm
Ghost

Nord Stream Sabotage Was CIA, US Navy Covert Op: Seymour Hersh Bombshell Prompts White House Response

Famed journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh, who for decades was a star reporter writing for The New York Times and New Yorker, on Wednesday published a new bombshell as his first Substack post, prompting a quick White House response

After conducting his own investigation into who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines via a series of underwater blasts on Sept. 26, Hersh has concluded the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nord-stream-sabotage-was-cia-us-navy-covert-op-seymour-hersh-bombshell-prompts-white
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February 9, 2023 4:24pm
- Mike
  
  According to one ‘source’ apparently.
  
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  February 9, 2023 5:31pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    C’mon Ghost, you know Mikey needs at least three anonymous sources with knowledge of the situation.
    FFS, that’s the New York Times standard.
    One is not good enough.
    Lol
    
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    February 9, 2023 6:23pm
    - Mike
      
      Tell me why you want to believe this story.
      
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      February 9, 2023 6:45pm
      - graham
        
        Tell us why you don’t…
        
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        February 9, 2023 9:46pm
      - Ghost
        
        Mike is your poster child govt employee, he only believes the podium of truth
        
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        February 9, 2023 9:53pm
Ghost

Two interesting posts, I never realised but YouTube banned the project Veritas video of the Pfizer idiot

https://twitter.com/Project_Veritas/status/1623426992430321670

Second James has been put on paid leave

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/james-okeefe-project-veritas-paid-leave.html?utm_campaign=nym&utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1
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February 9, 2023 4:39pm
- Mike
  
  Did you not realize he is, quite literally, fake news?
  
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  February 9, 2023 5:30pm
  - All_on_Red
    
    Amazing how all the people they talk to say nothing- according to you.
    
    *sits back and waits for some Bs about ‘editing’*
    
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    February 9, 2023 6:25pm
    - Mike
      
      His stings are of the same quality as Sacha Baron Cohen’s, but taken seriously by the rubes.
      
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      February 9, 2023 6:44pm
    - Ghost
      
      Mike doesn’t believe people caught on hidden camera are telling the truth because it isn’t coming from the podium of truth, seriously this is the kind of person that works in a govt department, scary. And yet project veritas have won a number of court cases. So much coming out on many fronts and he puts his head on the sand, rocks back and forward and pretends it’s all made up
      
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      February 9, 2023 10:28pm
Maggie Pie

Tory in name only…

HDPA just had a Wellington City Councilor on (Ray someone-or-other).

He was telling Heather about the 70% RATES INCREASE residents can expect over the next five years!
When she asked him what spending cuts HE would like if he was Mayor….Ray pointed to the $220 mill budgeted for ‘Cycle Lanes’ as a start!!

No wonder Wellingtonians are sooo envious of our Wayne, eh 😀
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February 9, 2023 4:41pm
- All_on_Red
  
  70%!
  That’s fantastic.
  
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  February 9, 2023 6:26pm
jon

Talbot/Mills poll out today, NO bounce for Labour. Trailing Nats by 3%. This poll from Labour’s pollster company too.
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February 9, 2023 4:56pm
NZer In Exile

Wrong Again: 50 Years of Failed Eco-pocalyptic Predictions.

Competitive Enterprise Institute.

https://cei.org/blog/wrong-again-50-years-of-failed-eco-pocalyptic-predictions/
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February 9, 2023 5:33pm
PeeJay

Saw the reports on how the upper North Island looks to be in the gun for that cyclone. Sent a text to a mate up in Auckland who has also has a bach in the Coromandel joking he better make sure his boat is fuelled up.

Response was funny as hell. “Nothing to worry about PJ, the cyclone is on track to hit this place called ‘R T Rower’ and hit this city called ‘Tama-key-makoro’ – bloody glad I doen’t live there”.

Got to love the jafa sense of humour!
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February 9, 2023 5:53pm
Maggie Pie

Can u imagine what it must be like waking up somewhere like The Hutt every day.
Looking around and taking in your surroundings 🙁

Honestly, it would probably turn most people into drug addicts, or downtickers.
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February 9, 2023 6:20pm
- All_on_Red
  
  I went to the Wairapapa Airshow a few years ago and drove through it.
  Dreary looking with a whiff of being a dump. Looked like a sad place to live.
  
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  February 9, 2023 6:28pm
  - Mike
    
    Wings over Wairarapa back on this year. Do they not have airshows near your abode?
    
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    February 9, 2023 6:51pm
greybeard

Jim Hubbard, so-called cartoonist, posting one of his final anti-National pieces of shit before he and all of his olk become irrelevant.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/opinion/114832273/jim-hubbard-cartoons
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February 9, 2023 7:07pm
- Tom Hunter
  
  As much as I understand the asshole cartoonist I have to say that it’s a perfect representation of Luxon.
  
  But sure, the cartoonist only put it in to boost the prospects of his shit Labour Party.
  
  But still….
  
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  February 9, 2023 7:38pm
Albie

Greybeard, you don’t think the sentiment expressed in the cartoon is somewhat warranted? I have never been so disillusioned with the National party and it’s leader.
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February 9, 2023 7:33pm
- PeeJay
  
  I think Luxon is trying to do what Key did. Key was a master of reflecting questions and views back – think the actual term is mirroring – without committing one way or the other. Key had a knack of not nailing his views firmly to the mast and leaving a bit of wiggle room when confronted by difficult interviewers – just like all experienced politicians really. I think Luxon tries to do the same but it doesn’t quite come off. I’ve seen Luxon in a few interviews now where he starts off on one track, is confronted by pretty hostile questions, then Luxon backtracks a bit in a reaction – it’s almost like he want’s to be liked and reacts to the mood rather than stick to his view. Where Key could just about pull it off without looking like he was flip-flopping, I think Luxon tends to look a bit uncertain, hence the weathervane cartoon. Just my views though!
  
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  February 9, 2023 8:24pm